This would have been up much earlier today, except I started playing Ice Cap Zone to check on something and got a little carried away :P

Ippiki Ookami no Kage: Yep, this story's going to be a long one alright, though the Sonic 3 half's very nearly over ;) And thanks, glad you liked it!

Miles Prower Fam: Of course I'm going to carry on the fanfic ;) And as requested, here is more :P


"Sonic?"

The voice was tinny, distorted and seemed to be coming from a long way away. It sounded vaguely familiar…

Sonic took a groggy swipe in the voice's direction. "Five mo' min'tes…"

Someone was shaking him now, hard. "C'mon Sonic, please wake up!"

The hedgehog forced his eyes open and managed to lift his head just enough to look around him.

He was surrounded by whiteness. That wasn't right. His bedroom wasn't supposed to be white; it was green.

Come to think of it, he didn't remember his bedroom being this cold, either!

A small hand hooked itself under Sonic's bad arm and pulled hard. The pain was enough to wake the hedgehog up fully and remind him of a) where he was and b) how he'd come to be there in the first place.

Shaking off a light coating of snow that had fallen to cover him, Sonic staggered to his feet, mentally promising himself that no matter what Robotnik was planning, he was never, ever going to follow him into another snow-filled Zone.

Satisfied that Sonic was up and awake, Tails released him and scampered off to a mound of snow. The little fox had clearly been at it for some time; the snow around was marred by several scrape marks where he'd gathered it in handfuls.

Sonic tilted his head on one side as he watched the little fox building busily.

"Whatcha doing, squirt?"

Tails held up both hands in a TV screen as he scrutinised his creation, little tongue sticking out in concentration.

"Making a snow hedgehog!"

"A snow hedgehog, huh?"

"Yup, 'cause I had loadsa snow hedgehogs around my cave to guard it!" Tails frowned at the snow hedgehog. "D'you have a real big rock I c'n have for the nose?"

"A rock?" Sonic turned and started to dig obligingly, pawing through the snow and eventually locating a small pebble. "How's this?"

Tails studied it, then shook his head. "Nuh uh! It's not pointy like yours, Sonic."

The hedgehog planted both hands on his hips and fixed the little fox with a mock-stern look. "My nose is not pointy!"

Tails giggled. "Is too!"

"Is not!"

"Is too times a million!"

"Is not times infinity," Sonic countered, grinning.

Tails opened his mouth, then frowned. "What's idfility, Sonic?"

"Never mind." Sonic glanced at the snowy panorama surrounding them on all sides and shivered. He'd known about snow in a purely academic sense – it was cold, white, fluffy and you could throw it at people – but this place was his first real encounter with it on a daily basis.

Giving up on pointy rocks for the minute, Tails flew up and broke off an icicle instead, ramming it into the top part of the mound (even by snowman standards, it couldn't realistically be called a head). Standing back, he admired this masterpiece for a few seconds, then trotted over to Sonic's side.

"Are we gonna go back inside the ice now, Sonic?"

Sonic didn't answer. He didn't much like the idea of going back inside the glacier. For one thing, they'd only just escaped it and for another, it was getting dark. Fumbling your way through an ice maze was bad enough, but to do it blind...

The worst of it was that he could see another way for them to go in the form of a ledge above their heads. He just had no idea how to get there. It was too far for Tails to fly him up and too high for Sonic to jump. The only alternative, as far as the hedgehog could see, was a steep slope downwards that culminated in a sheer drop at the far end. Sonic was sure the drop was survivable (especially with Tails' help) but he didn't relish the thought. Plus there were some nasty looking rocks just underneath the higher ledge; if they crashed into those...Sonic shivered.

"Sonic?"

Glad of the distraction, Sonic glanced at Tails with a grin. "What's up, lil bro?"

Tails fixed him with the curious expression the hedgehog had already learned to dread. "What's the worst thing you ever did?"

Sonic blinked, looking away as memories of Kintobor and rotten eggs danced across his mind.

"What makes you ask that?" he said carefully.

"Jus' curious. 'Cause...if you're not a superhero like you say you're not, you must've done naughty stuff an' I wanna know what!"

A gleam appeared in Sonic's eyes. "Well...I did break a window when I was seven."

Tails' eyes grew huge. "You did? How'd you break a window? Why'd you break it?"

"Yes, I did; I threw myself through it; and because I'd been grounded for a few days and was getting serious cabin fever."

"What's cabin fever?"

"Means I was bored outta my brains." Sonic glanced up at the ledge again. It was worth an ask..."Tails, do you think you could fly me up there?"

"Oh sure!" Tails swooped down and grabbed Sonic under the arms, then hauled him into the air.

"This isn't working," Sonic stated, after the third attempt.

"Sure it is! I jus' gotta spin my tails...real...fast..." Tails was gasping for breath now and despite his best efforts, had to lower Sonic gently to the ground. The hedgehog didn't exactly mind this – it was a nice change from the last two times when Tails had dropped him like a stone – but it still left them with the problem of how to proceed.

It took the rest of the morning for Sonic to figure out a solution, and then it was only the sight of Tails sledding down the slope on both namesakes that gave it to him. It was reckless, it was suicidal, it was...come to think of it, it was pretty much like everything else he'd done on this hell of an island so far.

"Tails!"

The little fox spun around mid-sled at the sound of Sonic's voice, tumbled head over heels and wound up in a snowdrift with just one foot sticking out. Undeterred, he scrambled out the snow and flew back up to join Sonic.

"Hi Sonic!"

Sonic grinned down at him. "Hey there, lil bro. Think you can do me a favour?"

Tails' chest inflated rapidly. "Sure!"

"You know your ramp?" Sonic nodded towards the ramp in question. Tails had built it from snow which he'd packed solidly around several rocks at the bottom of the slope. It had originally been there to stop the little fox from flying off the edge, but Tails had rapidly discovered that sledding up and down it and flying off it into the air was much more fun, and had increased the size accordingly.

"Yup?"

"Mind if you let me have a go?"

Tails' face lit up. "Nuh uh! You go, Sonic!"

Sonic stared down at the ramp and swallowed hard.

I must be out of my mind.

There were a hundred and one things that could go wrong. If the angle was too shallow, he would effectively blast himself into a rock wall at high speeds. Too steep and he'd end up slingshotting himself back the way he'd come, to roll down and do it over and over and over...actually, that sounded kinda fun, now that he thought about it.

The hedgehog swallowed again.

Here goes nothing...

Tucking himself into a ball, he started to roll down the slope, picking up speed until he felt himself hit the ramp and soar into the air. There was a brief period of weightlessness followed by the now too familiar sensation of ending up head first in a snowdrift as he landed on the high ledge.

It was better than he'd expected. He was standing on the edge of the mountain, on the very ledge he'd seen from further down, only up here he could see that it stretched out into the distance, serving as a kind of track over the mountain. With a bit of luck, they might be able to follow it right the way out.

Glass columns mounted by huge geometric shapes framed the path at regular intervals. Inside, Sonic could see what looked like magenta pistons on a shaft. Nothing was moving and no amount of pushing, prodding or kicking on his part helped. Whatever these columns had been designed to do, they clearly weren't doing it anymore.

Frowning slightly, Sonic drew back.

First those gardens, then that underwater city, then the casino, and now this. It was like a ghost island, full of technology that nobody knew how to use. Whatever civilisation had built this, it wasn't like anything Sonic had encountered on Mobius before. Something inside told the hedgehog that the engineers were long gone.

Sonic kept moving, Tails scampering around him, kicking up snow crystals for the fun of it and occasionally throwing snowballs at Sonic whenever he thought the hedgehog wasn't looking. They continued on in silence (excluding Tails' triumphant yelps along the lines of "HA! Gotcha again, Sonic!") until the path they were following culminated in a bridge that glittered in the sun.

A bridge made of ice blocks? Curious, Sonic reached down and touched it, then frowned. It was cold, sure, but not that cold. Crystal? Well, that was better, since he could run across as fast as he liked without melting it.

Sonic stepped onto the bridge. It gave a little under his weight, but held firm.

"Cool!" Unfazed by the thought that it could collapse under him and dump him (and Sonic) down a thousand foot drop, Tails hurtled across so fast he knocked Sonic off balance.

Grabbing onto the bridge, the hedgehog clung tightly for a few seconds before managing to haul himself back onto it and stand upright while an oblivious Tails raced on.

Sonic spotted the glint of metal just in time and broke into a run.

"Tails, freeze!"

Tails, who was still too far ahead to hear Sonic clearly, stopped and glanced back at the hedgehog perplexedly, just as a cloud of gas blew out of the metal not six inches in front of him.

"WHAT?"

When Sonic didn't answer immediately, Tails turned and scampered on ahead. The gas had cleared again and the little fox was none the wiser about his narrow escape.

Sonic let out his breath with a whoosh, watching as it condensed in front of him. That was close. Too close.

Bending down, he picked up a rock and approached the nozzle warily, then waited for the gas to blast out again and tossed the rock into it. There was a lot of hissing, and when the air cleared the rock rolled down to Sonic's foot, encased in some four inches' worth of ice.

The hedgehog stared at it for what felt like a long time. Freezing...that wasn't like Robotnik. The doctor had always preferred the personal touch (or at least the robotic one) when it came to killing. Was this really Robotnik's work, or was it some form of defence mechanism by the same sick minds who had thought up that damn wall back in the water city?

"Sonic!"

The sound of Tails' voice jerked Sonic out of his thoughts and he sped towards the little fox, grateful for the distraction.

"What's up, squirt?"

But he could already see what was up. The path had reached a dead end, and this time it was too level for Sonic to fling himself up using another ramp.

"What we gonna do, Sonic?" Tails asked. He was shivering now; it was getting on for late afternoon and the temperature was dropping rapidly.

There was only one thing they could do, Sonic thought bitterly, and he didn't think he was going to like it.

Positioning Tails against the far cliff with instructions not to move no matter what he saw, Sonic hunted about until he thought he'd found the shortest way down and started to burrow into it.

His mind had barely registered the fact that he was through when his body, which was a little faster to react to danger, swung him sideways out of the tunnel just as ice gas erupted in the spot where he'd been hanging seconds before.

There was a brief period of weightlessness, and then Sonic hit the ground hard enough to knock the air from his lungs.

Could've been worse, a little voice inside whispered. You could've landed in that.

'That' was a vast lake of water, too dark to see the bottom, which stretched out in front of them. Sonic would have bet every last Mobium he had that if he hadn't had to dodge the gas, he'd have landed in that water and been on the way to the bottom by now.

Forcing himself to his feet, Sonic studied the water suspiciously, as though convinced it was about to leap up and attack him. Small islets were dotted across the surface, islets that Sonic thought could probably act as stepping stones if you could jump.

And if you don't slip on the ice and fall in, right Sonic?

The hedgehog shivered. A lake as deep as that…even if there was a way to get back to the surface from the bottom, he thought he'd probably be dead long before he reached it.

"Wow!" Before Sonic had a chance to react, Tails, who had flown down the shaft Sonic had just created, twined both namesakes together in midair and cannonballed into the water.

"Tails!" Sonic hurtled forward, stopping on the very edge. He wasn't afraid of Tails' drowning – the little fox was a good swimmer – but even without going into water, he knew about the chill factor in these temperatures. Even Tails' fur wouldn't be enough to protect him from hypothermia in that water; he had to try and get him out.

Taking a long, deep breath, trying to convince himself that this was right, that he wasn't crazy, Sonic braced himself for the cold and leaned over to dip one hand gingerly into the water.

It was hot.

Sonic had never heard of hot springs, otherwise he might have been a little less wary. As it was, he yanked his hand out and scrambled back, staring at it. Was this another trap? Had Robotnik or that other guy rigged it to boil as soon as he got in? It hadn't boiled Tails, but maybe Tails wasn't the target.

Speaking of which, where the hell was Tails anyway? The little fox could hold his breath for a long time, but this long?

Tails had been facing the other side of the lake when he landed, Sonic reasoned. Maybe he'd just kept swimming that way.

He turned his back, walking away in preparation for a good long run up. If he could get to the other side via the islets, then maybe—

"Hey Sonic! Lookit what I got!"

Sonic spun around. "Huh? Wha—"

Something hard and ridged hit him full in the snout, knocking him onto his backside in the snow.

Dazed, the hedgehog reached out and fumbled around until he located the object.

"A Chaos Emerald? How—"

Tails dived down again, tackling the hedgehog around the chest and sending him sprawling again.

"I got it, Sonic! There was one a those big giant ring thingies an' I got it!"

"A ring?" Sonic sat up again, more carefully this time. "Where?"

Tails wriggled delightedly. "Underwater! 'Cause I dived in an' swimmed all the way to the other side of the lake an' there was a cave there an' a giant ring so I swimmed through an' got the Em'rald!" Beaming, he sat back on his haunches, both namesakes wagging eagerly.

"You did, huh?" Sonic studied the Emerald in question; the red one. Grinning broadly, he reached down to ruffle Tails' head fur. "Nice job, lil bro! That just leaves one more."

"Yeah!" Tails bounced onto his feet again, seizing Sonic and hauling him upright. "An' we're gonna get it, right?"

"You betcha, buddy." Sonic glanced at the lake and quailed inwardly. Of course, there were drawbacks to everything...

Taking a deep breath, he raced to the edge of the water and leapt, landing squarely on one of the islets. It started to sink under his weight and he bounded forward instinctively, jumping to the next and from there to the next.

It seemed far too long to Sonic before he landed on solid ground again. Next to him, Tails – who had chosen to swim across – clambered out of the water and shook himself dry with an expression that Sonic rather sourly described to himself as malicious glee. Before the little fox had a chance to start his usual why don't you learn to swim line of questioning, Sonic had set off for the edge.

When he got there, he found it wasn't what he'd expected. Instead of the steep slope or rocks or even those swinging platforms, there was what looked like a squat purple cylinder suspended by green rings on either side. Sonic considered for a few seconds, then shrugged. It didn't seem dangerous, and so he jumped onto it.

The platform dipped down alarmingly, then just as suddenly started to ascend, reaching its apex with enough force to fling Sonic ten feet into the air.

Sonic laughed aloud. This was fun; like being on a giant trampoline.

Bending his knees, he leapt onto another of the purple platforms, slipping slightly as he landed. This one fired him out the top of the glacier to land on a snow-covered plateau that was so high up Sonic's lungs were starting to protest.

Looking around, he saw something that made his heart leap and he turned.

"TAILS!"

The little fox, who had done his best to follow Sonic's progress up and down and only succeeded in making himself dizzy, landed next to him, panting.

"Sonic?" Tails' voice was tiny. "Sonic...I can't breathe."

Sonic dropped to one knee in front of the little fox. "It'll pass, squirt. We'll be out of here soon, I promise. Look over there."

He pointed and Tails followed his finger obediently, then the little fox's eyes grew huge.

"I can see the sea, Sonic!"

"Me too, lil bro. You know what that means?"

"We can go swimming?"

"Nice try, buddy. It means we're almost out of the mountains. And see those things around the sea, with those lights?" When Tails nodded, Sonic added, "I bet that's a city."

Tails' face lit up. "Does that mean we can eat?"

"When we get down there, sure."

Tails wasn't the only one who was ravenously hungry either, Sonic thought. They hadn't eaten since the berries, and that had been some time ago. He and Tails had been eating snow to stop themselves becoming dehydrated, but it didn't do much to ease the savage hunger pangs. And even if these people didn't take Mobiums, Sonic would get Tails food if he had to spend the rest of the month washing dishes to pay for it.

It was starting to snow again, this time with flakes the size of grapes. There was no wind up here, and Sonic felt oddly isolated, cut off from the rest of the world. It seemed to him that he'd spent his entire life here, with past events no more than a vague dream.

Craning his head back, he looked up at the sky. The sight of snow as seen from underneath was strangely hypnotic…

"Good evening, Sonic."

That, on the other hand, wasn't. Sonic snapped out of his trance and spun, coming face to face with Robotnik's Egg-O-Matic.

"Didn't think you'd come all the way up here, doc," Sonic remarked, shivering now. "Then again, I guess someone with your amount of protective blubber ought to be right at home here."

Unnervingly, Robotnik smiled. "That's hardly the way to speak to someone who saved your life, Sonic."

Sonic blinked. "Say what?"

The doctor chuckled. He supposed he should just hurry up and finish Sonic, but he'd lost the advantage of surprise, and this fight would play out how it would play out, regardless of whether he attacked now or ten minutes later.

"Well, how many mountains have you come across where there's a snowboard just sitting there waiting to be used, hmm?"

Sonic stared at him, realisation dawning. "That was you?"

"Oh yes. I had to do some very fast calculations to work out exactly where you were going to land, but I see they paid off."

"You're lying!" Tails glared at Robotnik, although recent events ensured he kept a respectful distance from the doctor's machine. "You wouldn't do anything to save Sonic, ol' Robotnik, not never!"

Robotnik smiled. "Well, I can't say I blame you for holding that opinion, cub. But if you don't believe I have the hedgehog's best interests at heart for the present, then you should at least believe that I want the pleasure of killing him myself. And speaking of such things, Sonic, allow me to introduce you to my Egglaciator."

As Sonic watched, the bottom part of the machine shunted downwards, forming a spiked platform at the base. Since the hedgehog found it very hard to believe that Robotnik would have put such a thing in just, as Tails would say, to make it easier to whump him, Sonic kept a wary distance.

Besides the platform, he couldn't see anything else different about the Egglaciator except for a gold coloured tank and various gold pipes on the outside.

Even as he watched, Tails raced forward, small fists raised, and even Sonic was barely fast enough to knock the little fox out the way as freezing gas spurted out of a nozzle above the platform.

Shivering violently, Sonic stared up at the doctor.

"So you did rig those gas nozzles."

Robotnik grinned evilly. "Oh no, Sonic; those have been around for centuries. But I won't deny that they served as the inspiration for this little device."

"Yeah?" Thrusting Tails to one side, Sonic bounded to his feet. "Let's see how cocky you are without this!"

Leaping into the air, he curled over and spun forward, slicing through the platform before Robotnik had a chance to register the fact that Sonic had even moved, much less defend himself.

Worryingly, the doctor grinned broadly. "More so than you might think, Sonic."

Adjusting the Egglaciator's controls, he brought it down so fast that at first the hedgehog thought Robotnik must be having difficulties, until he saw Tails pinned to the ground by the gas nozzle.

"No!" Sonic's heart stood still. He couldn't be...surely Robotnik wouldn't...

But he would, a voice inside said. You knew he would when he shot Tails down outside his Wing Fortress six months ago. There's no second chances with this guy; you know that.

Like Sonic, Tails – who had been preparing himself to follow his hero and attack the machine – hadn't realised what was happening until it was too late. The gas nozzle ground into his chest, not quite breaking the skin but hard enough to ensure he couldn't wriggle free.

"Get away from him!" Sonic lunged forward, but came up short as a small puff of ice gas jetted out from the underside, dispersing before it could reach Tails.

Robotnik chuckled. "Not so brave now, are you? Move so much as a muscle, Sonic, and he's dead. Even if you do attack before I can freeze this little freak, the machine will most likely fall and crush him."

"Let him go." Sonic was pale, sweating. "It's me you want, Robotnik, not Tails."

The doctor smirked. "You're in luck, Sonic. You caught me in a very generous mood, so I'll offer you a deal. Give me the Chaos Emeralds, and maybe I'll let you and your little pet fox live."

Sonic stared at the doctor. "What Chaos Emeralds? What are you talking about? That guy, that red guy we met when we arrived; he took the Emeralds for himself. You'd do better asking him."

Robotnik chuckled again. "Oh, come now, Sonic. Let's not play games. We both know that you'd stop at nothing to get those Emeralds, one of the very few things we have in common, and if that's not enough I saw you get the purple Emerald with my own eyes."

"Ha!" Defiant even in the face of certain death, Tails glowered at Robotnik, or at least the underside of his vehicle. "That's where you're wrong, ol' Robotnik, 'cause the purple Em'rald's the on'y one Sonic doesn't have yet!"

I really am going to have to buy a gag for that fox, Sonic thought grimly. Fixing Robotnik with his best appealing look, he said, "Okay. Okay, fine. Can't blame a guy for trying, right? But the Emeralds are in my quills. If you want them, you're gonna have to let me move enough to get 'em for you."

Robotnik sneered. "How stupid do you think I am, Sonic? You think I would trust you not to destroy my Egglaciator?"

"You got Tails, don't you? We'll do this your way, doc, but if you hurt Tails you'll never get those Emeralds."

The doctor smiled broadly. "Very well, Sonic. But if I see either of your feet so much as twitch, you'll be down a sidekick and I'll be up one ice sculpture."

Sonic reached behind him. There was no doubt in his mind what he was going to do; the Chaos Emeralds weren't worth losing Tails over, and Robotnik wouldn't get all of them. Sonic wasn't naïve enough to believe that the doctor would hold up his end of the bargain, but if he could just put the Emerald somewhere so that Robotnik would have to move, he might be able to save Tails.

Instead of an Emerald, however, Sonic's questing fingers found the diamond that Tails had taken from the orbinaut, and the hedgehog felt two and two crash together in his mind with sudden clarity.

"You want it?" Careful not to dislodge any of the real Emeralds, Sonic pulled out the diamond, keeping it behind his back. "Here."

Bringing it around, he angled it into the sun, mirroring the rays straight into Robotnik's eyes. The doctor jerked away reflexively and in that short space of time, Sonic had hurtled forward and spun through the Egglaciator to the other side. Whirling, he seized Tails and bolted with him out of harm's way.

Robotnik felt a sudden draft on his leg as almost half his ship fell away to land hissing and sparking in the snow. Acting on impulse, still blinking furiously to try and clear his vision, he threw the machine into reverse, dodging Sonic's second attack by pure luck and swerving wildly out over the mountains.

Abandoning Robotnik, Sonic hurtled back to where Tails was curled up and whimpering softly. Kneeling down next to him, the hedgehog put a gentle hand on the little fox's shoulder.

"Are you okay, squirt?"

Tails stared up at him with huge eyes, then abruptly launched himself forward and buried his face in Sonic's chest, body shaking.

"Okay, buddy. Okay." Sonic hugged the little fox close, rocking him, and waited until Tails was calmer before saying, "C'mon. Let's see if we can find a Prison Egg, huh? There's gotta be one around here somewhere."

Tails hiccupped twice, then nodded and scrambled to his feet, although he refused to let go of Sonic's hand.

In spite of Sonic's words it took a few minutes for them to find the Prison Egg in question; Robotnik had stashed it at the base of the mountain and Tails had to fly Sonic down in stages.

Destroying the Prison released another horde of feral penguins and seals, although as far as Sonic was concerned this was no great surprise. By now he was firmly convinced that no sentient Mobian could possibly make their home in this frozen wasteland.

"We gonna follow ol' Robotnik, Sonic?" Tails said, in a more subdued tone than normal. It was one thing to take on Robotnik and be a hero when you didn't get hurt; it was quite another when you'd been literally inches from death.

"Yeah, you betcha." It was almost the truth, too, Sonic allowed; it was a good bet that Robotnik would want to get back to his base as soon as possible, and it was an equally good bet that the base in question wasn't around here.

Well, there was no way he was going back into that ice maze inside the glaciers again, Sonic thought determinedly.It could take them days to find the way out.

Glancing down at Tails, Sonic winked.

"Follow me, lil bro."

Taking a long run, he curled over and spindashed into the side of the mountain, ploughing through the rock, always going in the same direction. He didn't know how long it took – except that it was long enough for him to start getting tired – but Sonic continued tunnelling until finally he and Tails burst out of the tunnel into brilliant sunshine.

Okay, next Zone is one of my all time favourite Sonic Zones; Launch Base :P Hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you read, please review! Happy Christmas everyone!