Into The Darkness

The sparely positioned snake-lights on each side of the blank walls gave just enough light for them to be able to make out a next slightly brighter lit part when it just seemed the tunnel would be completely swallowed up by darkness. The large searchlight on Eggman's floating mobile didn't help them in any way Sonic found; the bald scientist had focused it on his three captives walking in front of his vehicle. That way, Eggman could see them and all of their actions just great, but the bright light on the spot they walked on blinded the trio and made it hard to see any details of the tunnel's makeup.

Walking between his friends Sonic contemplated if it was a good idea to just grab the two of them and run for it; the hedgehog was sure they'd be a great deal away before Eggman even realized they were taking flight. On the other hand, the matter of traps still stood, and Sonic had to realistically admit he could hardly see a thing. What he knew about the ruins' layout wasn't exactly promising as some other tunnels he'd been in had a strange tendency to end over a groundless pit, a deep pond of water, a set of spikes, or on the simplest terms, the wall of a ninety-degrees angle. Sonic wasn't a stranger to running into stuff, in fact, it happened fairly often; but with his body being able to withstand the pressure of a supersonic run came a high tolerance also for crashing into concrete walls. He didn't want to take bets on his two friends, though, and he couldn't effort losing one of them… again.

Sonic's musings were interrupted when Knuckles spoke up. "How do we know we're going the right way?"

"Aren't we?! You tell us! You haven't been telling me any nonsense, have you?!" Robotnik leaned down from his vehicle. "You wouldn't lie to me, Knuckles, would you?"

Knuckles grumbled, but remained silent otherwise. The silence accompanied the group for another minute, then Sonic found his legs making contact with something on his shin just above his ankle and his feet were pulled away under him, causing him to trip over and land on his hands and knees.

"Hey! What the –?" Quickly turning over, the attempt untangling his limbs ended little gracefully with the blue hedgehog falling onto his tail. Sitting there, he dumbfoundedly looked around, realizing Knuckles and Tails had encountered the same problem he had. Shielding his eyes from the sharp light stinging them, Sonic glared up at Eggman. "What did you do that for?"

"I didn't do anything, silly hedgehog!", the human complained, obviously not bothering to reposition his searchlight and help out the three on the floor. "Now get up!"

Knuckles had already done that and now knelt next to what had caused the three of them to trip up. "There's a rope spanned between the walls…"

"A rope?", Sonic echoed, crawling back to his feet.

"I wonder what it – Whaaa!" Tails interrupted his speech tumbling out of the way of a stone almost the size of his head falling from the ceiling.

"What?!" Steadying his stand against the ground having started to shake yet again, Sonic gawked at another piece of dislodged ceiling crashing down next to him, then he had to actually dodge more of them.

"What is happening!? What did you idiots do!?", Robotnik shouted at the three Mobians while his Egg-O-Matic bounced him around in his seat trying to avoid the stones raining down on them.

"Looks like one of the traps we spoke of," Knuckles noticed, struggling to keep upright by flailing both arms. "The rope we pulled by tripping over it must have activated it!"

"Argh! Stop it!" Angry about this disturbance of his plans and trying to save himself, Robotnik lifted his laser gun to aim at the falling rocks instead of Sonic and his friends. He hit a few, but the energy beams missing the stones seemed to do more damage to the crumbling ceiling than it did any good. Staring up with eyes wide open, Sonic watched a large piece becoming loose and falling towards them.

"Sonic!", Tails shouted.

"NOOOOOOOO!", Robotnik screamed.

The fragmented piece of ceiling was a mere meter above his head when survival instinct finally kicked in. Without thinking, Sonic caught hold of Tails' arm and Knuckles' wrist and bolted forwards, no longer minding the vague danger a run into unknown darkness presented. The image of being crushed alive seemed far more vivid to him at the moment.

Tails screamed when Sonic yanked on his arm, but the hedgehog couldn't care. Red-sneakered feet pounding the ground, Sonic fastened his hold and pushed his legs for more speed until the rush of air about his ears drowned out the noise of the collapsing tunnel and Robotnik's shouting.

Sonic had little time or mental capacity to consider what might be going on behind him. He knew now full well why he hadn't favored the idea of a high-speed run through these dark tunnels. He hardly saw the ground beneath his feet, yet it moved past too fast for the conscious mind to follow. Turns became apparent in the last possible moment, and sheer reflex saved Sonic several times from making intimate contact with raw stone.

Above of it all, his heart was rapidly boosting adrenaline through his body, making him feel almost strangely hyper. His muscles however had not forgotten the hours of constant strain in Eggman's washing machine treadmill thing and were asking for a mere casual, relaxing jog to regenerate, and now protested painfully against the renewed demands of full power.

Biting his lip, Sonic lowered his head into the wind, not allowing his pace to waver.

Amy silently groaned to herself and flipped through the channels of her TV without proper motivation. There was nothing on worth watching. And, even worse, there was nothing on about Eggman or his robots. It was as if the scientist had disappeared off the planet's face.

That in itself wasn't that unusual. Quite often he vanished without a trace for months, normally after another defeat by Sonic. But in the end, he always turned up again, popped out of some secret hideout with a new plan to take over the world. Just, so far Amy had never waited for that to happen.

Her gaze slowly wandered over to her phone, but she shook her head to herself. If she called again, one of the Chaotix would surely come over to lock her into some cupboard or something just to keep her to stop getting on their nerves.

Pulled away from the tempting phone, Amy's green eyes roamed her apartment. After she had returned home, she'd taken off most of the pictures on her wall. She'd hardly even remembered what the wallpaper looked like. Now you could see it again, a kind of soft rose tone. She'd kept a few pictures of Sonic, those she liked best, and a few group pictures. Next to them, she'd hung up a photo of Cream and Cheese, and she'd bought herself a large poster that showed a sunset at Emerald Coast. The orange sky on it didn't quite fit too well with her pink wall, but the picture looked nice. Amy loved the beach.

Actually, she liked the new look of her house. She even liked her new life. Kind of. She just didn't know what to do with her time if she didn't spend it chasing after the fastest thing on two legs.

For the late afternoon, Vanilla had invited her for tea. That would give her something to do, but it didn't help that it was only midday. What would she to with five more hours?

The pink hedgehog sighed and switched off the TV, then headed for the phone anyway. Last time she had called, Charmy had told her something about a new case they had taken. Searching someone's lost chao. Amy shrugged. Maybe she could help out.

And after that, maybe she'd take the train out to the Mystic Ruins and pay a visit to Sonic and Tails. If they were even home. But after what happened to Knuckles just a few weeks ago, they'd probably be in need of cheering up. Maybe she could help with that, too.

Holding on to Sonic's left arm with both hands, Knuckles looked back over his shoulder as they rushed on. As far as his sight went in here, he couldn't see anything collapsing anymore. Turning back around, Knuckles noticed distractedly how they shot through a kind of portal, and Sonic finally slowed down.

More or less casually Knuckles regained his feet. "Boy, you nearly gave me a heart attack."

Sonic chuckled, stretching. "Sorry. I didn't really have the time to consult you about my plans…"

Knuckles shrugged. "I know. Thanks."

Sonic had already turned to Tails who was massaging his left shoulder. "I'm sorry, bro."

"Nah, it's nothing. I should have expected it kinda," Tails smiled. "I'm just glad we made it."

"We did." Sonic looked around. "Alright… and I guess we lost Eggman."

"Was about time. I dare say I couldn't stand his company," Knuckles commented.

"Now all we gotta do is find this treasure before Eggman does." Tails' double namesakes span lazily, but his ears were perked.

"I think we just follow this tunnel here. There can't be much more to come, can there?" Sonic pointed forwards.

"I don't know. Old ruins like this tend to be full of traps." Doubtfully Knuckles followed the hedgehog anyway when he started walking.

"Don't you think they should be done with them by now?" Sonic shrugged his shoulders, his palms pointing upwards. "I mean, this entire mystery puzzle business. Why don't they just say: Go there to find the treasure and don't kill yourself and others with it?"

"I'm not sure if Eggman's right and it is a weapon anyway." Knuckles frowned.

"You're not sure? Well, Eggman is." Tails looked puzzled.

"Yes. He showed me the piece of stone that got him on this treasure hunt in the first place. He translated it himself, but as we already know, his computers might be great at a lot of stuff; but they aren't exactly experts on old echidnean idioms." Knuckles gave a small chuckle. "I haven't told him, but what he claims to be a powerful treasure is a precious treasure instead."

Sonic blinked and started laughing. "You mean, it's possible whatever we find is just a bunch of gold and jewelry?"

Knuckles shook his head. "Unlike many other people, the old civilization didn't consider gold or normal gems very valuable. Unless an object held some sort of power, like the Chaos Emeralds, simply taking it the way it was didn't make it valuable. Only if something was crafted from these materials, something useful or just artwork, the materials gained value through the work put into them. Also things made from less valuable materials could get very expensive that way; sculptures made of wood or stone for example, pieces of clothing. Knowledge, too."

"Sounds kinda sensible." Tails smiled. "So, do you think it'll be more a collection of artwork or something?"

Knuckles shrugged. "I have no idea. In the end, the value of a good always depends on the point of view of the person classifying this value. Something that was considered precious decades ago now might look ridiculous to us."

"Hm." Sonic's pointed ears twitched. "Well, there's just one way to find out, huh?"

Tails grinned. "Yeah! Find the treasure!"

"Guys? I think we just got a step closer," Sonic noticed, pointing forwards and sounding a tad bit exited.

Knuckles stopped, staring at the thing in front of them in surprise. "That's –"

Apparently, Tails had recognized it too. Sitting at the tunnel's end – dead end, even – "A Mystic Melody shrine!"

"I didn't think I'd see these things again," Sonic said, walking around the shrine. They all knew these relics; if you played a certain tune next to them, some magic whatsoever would open hidden doors, let objects appear or disappear and other weird things. Sonic had always wondered what the shrines exactly were and how they even did… what they did.

"Now I know!" Tails bounced up and down next to the hedgehog.

"What do you know, Tails?" Irritatedly Knuckles watched the little fox hop around.

"That's the 'whistles of magic'! You remember?" Tails still pointed at the shrine almost accusingly, but he'd stopped hopping.

The others exchanged a glance. "You mean…"

"YES!"

"That's – not so great then," Sonic immediately corrected himself. "Unless one of you still has a flute, we're stuck here without a way on."

"Oh. You're right." Tails slumped his namesakes so they dragged limply on the floor, clearly showing off his disappointment.

"Umm… maybe we don't need a flute…" Knuckles frowned thoughtfully, looking down on the shrine.

Sonic blinked. "Aw, come on. Don't tell me you can whistle that tune…" Knuckles didn't deny, and the hedgehog's face took a look of outright surprise. "You… can whistle that? Really?"

"Don't look at me like that!" Knuckles folded his arms, almost feeling insulted. Intimidated at best...

"How did you learn it?", Tails asked curiously.

Knuckles shrugged, somewhat uncomfortable with the situation. He didn't really think he wanted to tell the others he just had a good memory for sounds. Being always alone for years teaches you a fine hearing for sounds around you; and Knuckles had learned early to mimic various birds for example. He found it rather easy to memorize a melody, especially a not very complicated one. "I just remembered it quite good, that's all," he said, a little sharper than intended as he felt like having to defend himself.

Sonic grinned. "Take it easy. It's cool, really. I can't whistle very well. I do anyway." The grin broadened. "But now that I think about it, if I had a guitar here I could play it, too."

A little smile crept on Knuckles' face. Sometimes he still wondered how that hyperactive freak had learned playing an instrument. Probably a natural anyway.

"Now can you try it?", Tails pleaded, his tails twirling excitedly once more.

Knuckles shrugged, looked at the shrine, at his friends, and back at the shrine. "Could you.. I dunno…? Look away? It feels… awkward doing this with people looking…"

Sonic laughed. "You're still somewhat of a weirdo, Knux. But okay." Crossing his arms, he turned his back on the echidna, his two ears however turned around as far as they could in curiosity.

"Sonic."

"What?", the hedgehog looked back at him, green eyes twinkling innocence, and Knuckles realized the action had most likely been an unconscious one.

"Forget it." Watching both Sonic and Tails turn away again, the echidna was stuck looking at their backs now, finding the whole thing didn't get less weird much. Sighing, he focused his attention on the shrine, for a moment closing his eyes to remember every note correctly, and whistled.