I'm back to it! Team Sonic and their friends have now learned that the Regency is behind the virus, and now, they're on a quest to find the antidote, and Kari Prower, before the Regency does. But now that the group is on their way to the "Mysterious Island", will they find the answers they came for? Will they find Kari Prower? What about the Regency? What will they do now that Team Sonic and friends know about their plot? You're about to find out…

Chapter 6.

Survival.

It had been a long four day long journey before Team Sonic and their friends reached the island, on the way there, they had encountered a wild tempest and had about lost The WaveWalker, due to excessive amount of damage it had taken during the storm, Amy, Tails, Sticks, and Fara had all gotten seasick and had about lost it when they finally got to a seaport village. The villagers were more than pleased to help Esmer repair his ship, it took them two days before they could finally move on to the "Mysterious Island". Once they arrived, they had to split up into two groups, one group had to stay with the ship while the other group made sure that it was safe to go further into the island, once they gave the all clear, the second group rejoined the first pair and set up camp for the night. Esmer had cleverly hidden his ship from plain sight. Tails had decided not to eat that night, due to him recovering from his seasickness. The next morning, the group picthed up camp and left to find the bio lab that was responsible for the creation of the "NIA-1" virus. Currently, they were in the middle of a dense forest, and from what it felt like, they were headed nowhere. Tails had told them that the laboratory was on the other side of the island, and if they wanhted to reach it, they had to be careful and steady. Careful and steady. From what Red had told them, this was Regency territory and that they most likely had security systems set up all over the island, and that they were possibly watching their every move. Sticks didn't like the fact that the Regency had security systems around the place, but she tried her best to not talk conspiracy theories and get all paranoid. The other four members of Team Sonic were concerned that the Regency could have their own army come out any moment and attack them. But what was most concerning was that Murdoc could have followed them here, and if that was the case, this was not good news, especially for Tails. Now, they talked to each other, in an attempt to keep calm, so far, it was working.

Amy walked up to Fara. "You ought to give me the recipe for that parmesan chicken potpie that you made."

"Oh yeah?" Fara said. "You're a good cook yourself?"

"Pretty much so." Tails chimed in. "She's the best!"

Amy smiled at her young friend as he basically answered for her.

"I just can't wait to get back home, so that I can get back to lifting weights." Knuckles said.

Chad chuckled softly. "Knux, you do that like almost everyday."

Sonic, on the other hand, was concerned about Hedgehog Village, he hoped that Eggman hadn't broke his promise not to attack the village while they were gone. Amy, reading his mind, told him that she was sure that the mad scientist himself wouldn't break the promise he made to them. Sticks, on the other hand, didn't even speak, instead, she was paying attention for any signs of being attacked by the Regency's minions. This concerned both Tails and Fara, watching the badger rumble through the bushes and put mud on her face was quite the thrill for the two foxes.

"Sticks, relax." Tails said. "The Regency wouldn't be stupid enough, as if to send their minions after us. There's no need to be afraid, just chillax, sheesh."

Sticks looked at him, like as if he was the stupid one. "You never know. They could've set booby traps up to get us, or worse...have the evil overlords on the hunt after us to turn us into aliens, just like my shadow." The badger then looked down at her shadow, afterwards, she shrieked, getting everyone's attention.

"Stop following me!" Sticks yelled, rumbling through the bushes afterwards.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, something red came flying through the air, almost hitting Esmer in the face. The group then made a circle of defense and got into their fighting positions. Sonic, Tails, and Amy immediately recognized the red object, it was a laser.

"Told ya we would be attacked!" Sticks said.

More laser beams flew through the air, one almost struck Red in the back, but having cat-like reflexes, he easily dogded it, the beam hitting the ground. Pulling out his own laser gun, Red started firing back into the bushes, suddenly, one of his laser beams hit something, or someone. One of the people who were behind the bushes fell forward out of the bush, face first, seeing that it was a black-colored tiger, with the insignia of the Regency on his armbrand, the rest immediately got into defensive mode. Afterwards, the other ambushers revealed themselves, partially, Sonic performed a spin-dash on one of the attackers, but the person, seeing the blue blur, swiftly and quickly dodged him, causing the hedgehog to uncurl himself. Soon more firing erupted, now it was the group that was dodging the laser beams, soon coming out of the bushes, their attackers approched them. They knew what that meant, it was time for a fight. Back to back, the group tried their best to push back their offenders, one came up close to Knuckles, the echidna was forced to punch the person back. Tails used his inventions mostly, Amy kept hammering her foes back using her Piko Piko Hammer, Sonic and Sticks kept their enemies away from them with a series of spin-dashes and stick whacking. The badger, upon seeing a Regency agent pulling out a knife and about swiped it at Fara, used her boomerang, hitting the attacker on impact, the weapon flew back to it's owhhner. The rest used their laser guns, including Chad, on their offenders, but to no avail. The number of minions became few, afterwards, the remaining offenders, seeing their fellow comrades down, they retreated into the bushes. After that fiasco was over, Sticks looked at Tails with a concerned look on her face.

"I'm worried Tails." Sticks said.

"We've gotta get to that laboratory." Sonic said. "We can't have any more encounters with the Regency's minions like that again."

Tails looked at his friends. "Guys, don't worry, we should be fine, just as long as there's no one else hiding in the bushes and followi-"

Tails was shot in the torso twice by two different laser beams. He felt weak, swaying back and forth-soon turning around and collapsing to the ground.

"Tails!" Everyone called out.

They all ran to him, worried as they tried to protect him from more attacks. Suddenly, Esmer, Red, and Tauren saw a red-colored figure run past them and retreat into the trees.

'Murdoc!' Esmer thought. Immediately, the mongoose, Cody, and Tauren gave chase after the bounty hunter.

While Esmer, Cody, and Tauren went after who they thought was Murdoc, everyone else was concerned about Tails, after seeing the kit get shot down, they all ran up to him and surrounded him. Fara didn't even cry or anything, rather she inspected Tails' torso for any burn marks, the kit's eyes were closed, his hands were in front of his chest; the way a dog would have it's paws when begging. He had a blank look on his face and his body looked limp and lifeless, which deeply concerned the others, especially Sonic, Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks.

Fara gently shook him to wake up.

"Come on, Tails. Talk to me," she spoke softly.

She took notice of Tails' injuries, the kit's chest was singed in two different spots; it got them worried about his survival.

"Miles," Fara tried again, using his real name, "this isn't funny. Wake up."

After a long minute of suspense, Tails finally showed signs of consciousness. He groaned, getting everyone else's attention.

"Tails, you're okay buddy?" Sonic asked, concern on his face.

"Ahh...did we make it?" Tails whispered, softly.

"Yeah...we made it." Fara said.

Tails placed a hand on his chest and felt were he had gotten shot at. The wounds weren't even that bad; in fact, they weren't even wounds at all.

"Wait a minute…" Tails said, opening his eyes, "I'm not even wounded."

The kit then got off the ground, Fara looked closer at his chest, soon realizing that Tails had been shot down with stun bolts. The others sighed with relief.

"Well... this is good news," Fara said, "but we've gotta watch ourselves in the future, alright?"

She then hugged Tails tightly, finally breaking down and crying right in front of everyone else. The kit returned the hug and kept telling her that he was fine. Afterwards, she finally stopped crying, but she told him that when he had been shot down, he had her scared. After that freak-out moment, Esmer, Cody, and Tauren came back from trying to get Murdoc, but they hadn't caught him. They were surprised to see Tails back up on his feet. Amy and Sticks explained to them what had happened with him.

"Well, it's good to know that you're not wounded." Esmer told Tails, earning a giggle from the young fox.

After all that, they moved on. After a few hours, the sun was setting and Jerek decided to set up camp for the night. The place they picked was a bluff overlooking a mostly cleared up forest. Fara, Amy and Sticks thought it looked beautiful. Sonic and Tails said that they would gathers kindling for a campfire. While doing so, Sonic used the opportunity to talk to Tails about something that was on his mind, and had been ever since Tails had been nearly wounded earlier.

"You're feeling fine?" Sonic asked.

Tails wondered why his best friend, and big brother, would be still worried about him now.

"Yeah... I'm feeling okay," he said. "No need for you to freak out, like you all did earlier."

"Hey," Sonic said, "we were just concerned about you, well, at least, you turned out to be okay."

"Still, no need to be all freaked out about me," Tails said. "It was just a couple stun bolts. No more, no less."

"Tails...I thought you might of been hurt, or worse than that…" Sonic looked at Tails, like the kit was the one person that he couldn't live without. "... killed."

"Killed?"Tails said sarcastically. "Nah, it would take more than a couple lasers to finish me."

Sonic snickered at the way Tails said that last part. The kit smiled upon hearing the hedgehog be amused. The two continued gathering kindling for the campfire until Fara told them that they had gotten enough. Soon, Cody cooked up some chicken and rice that they packed up for the journey. Tails sat a little far away from the fire to keep himself cool, before having dinner, he pitched up his tent for the night, but afterwards, he went for a walk down the bluff, and what he seen next amazed him, a little pond sat right underneath the bluff, and from where he was standing at, he could see the others from there. He was struck in awe of the beauty of the location where they had decided to stay at tonight, he laughed a little when he saw two rabbits hop out of a bush and into the trees. Suddenly, Tails felt a hand touch his shoulder, the fox cub yelled in shock, only to turn around and see that the person was none other than Sonic.

"Dang it Sonic!" Tails exclaimed. "You got me thinking you were Murdoc for a moment. Sheesh."

"Sorry," Sonic apologized.

Tails gasped for air as he was recovering from being scared and startled.

"Come on Tails, I didn't scare you that bad." Sonic said.

Tails looked at his friend with a frustrated look on his face. "Yeah you did most certainly scare me."

Sonic apologized again, Tails looked at him.

"Ah, this is just sad." Tails said with a look of guilt.

"What's sad?" Sonic asked.

"Me being scared all the time when someone places their hand on me." Tails replied. "I mean that this has been happening ever since last year when... when...we went to visit my family."

"I'm sorry Tails. I wish that there was a way to help you." Sonic said, knowing what Tails meant by that.

"Is dinner ready?" Tails asked, wanting to change the subject.

"That's what I came to tell you, yeah it's ready." Sonic said.

"How did you know I was down here?" Tails asked.

"I watched you." Sonic said.

"Well, I'll just come back down here after dinner." Tails said.

"Maybe take a bath and-"

"Sonic, get down!" Tails said excitingly.

"What do you, 'get dow-' "

Tails grabbed Sonic by the arm and yanked him to the ground.

"Tails, what's the meaning of all this?" Sonic asked.

Tails growled at him a little. "Just shut up and stay down."

Then Sonic saw why, the kit was shaking wildly again.

"What?" Sonic asked.

Tails looked at him kind of startled. "Mur... Murdoc...I just seen him walk past."

"Tails, you're imagining things, it's one thing if you-"

Tails punched Sonic in the arm.

"Tails! What the heck!?" Sonic said.

"Just shut the heck up for once, will ya!?" Tails growled.

Sonic then saw a red-colored wolf walk by them, thankfully, he didn't notice the two of them.

"Tails, that's Tauren." Sonic said.

Tails punched him in the arm again. "Not funny... I'm being dead serious about this, can it!"

"Relax, you're just seeing-"

Tails grabbed Sonic and put him into a headlock and put a hand on the hedgehog's mouth. "Keep your damn mouth shut!"

Sonic struggled, but the fox's grip only got tighter. Sonic then saw it...the scar running down the wolf's left cheek.

"I know you're around here somewhere…" Sonic heard the wolf say. "You can run from me...but you can't hide!" Sonic and Tails then heard the bounty hunter laugh like a madman.

Suddenly, Sonic broke out of Tails' headlock, and picking up the kit, the hedgehog ran back up the slope at sonic speed. Soon, both of them were thankful to be back at the campsite. Amy ran up to them.

"What the heck, you two act like you both just seen a ghost or something." Amy said.

"Murdoc's...after...us…" Tails panted.

Amy about slapped the young fox in the face until Sonic grabbed her hand.

"It's true...even I saw him." Sonic said.

"Not funny, Sonic and Tails." Knuckles said, walking towards them.

"No... not... joking... I'm... being...dead... serious…" Tails panted.

"They saw who?" Someone asked. They turned around and found out that it was Fara who spoke.

Tails looked up at his cousin. "Murdoc... he's...here... and... Sonic... and...I... seen...hi-"

"Whoa, whoa, Tails, take it easy, you're okay." Fara said. Sonic was finally able to catch his breath, but Tails was still panting. Amy and Knuckles soon realized that Sonic and Tails were not joking. The echidna and Amy saw Murdoc down below in the trees, lurking around, but they soon realized that was a mistake. The bounty hunter looked up at them, then he smiled a evil grin. Soon, everyone heard a yell from down the cliff…

"Aha! Found you at long last...you two-tailed freak! Prepare to die!"

Soon, the bounty hunter ran up the slope and once he got to them, Tails looked at him, the fox cub was nothing more than afraid, he was terrified! Everyone soon rallied in their defense positions, but then something unexpected happened, Tails was no longer terrified, nor was he afraid for that matter. Tails looked Murdoc dead in the eye.

"You think that I'm afraid of you? You're wrong! You're messing with the wrong family!" Tails shouted at the top of his lungs.

Murdoc growled, then he leaped on top of Tails and placed a hand on the kit's neck. Tails could feel himself being deprived of air and knew that he would be choking for oxygen in the next few seconds.

"Tails!" Everyone yelled as they saw him be thrown to the ground with Murdoc on top of him.

"Got you now! Die! Die! Die!" Murdoc shouted, tighting his grip on Tails' neck.

Tails squeezed his eyes shut and prepared himself for the worst, but then he tought of something…

"Oh... yeah…?" Tails choked.

Murdoc only smiled, knowing that the rest couldn't really do anything about it, but then, his smile turned into a look of pain.

"Then... what about my Enerbeam!" Tails shouted as he saw Murdoc fly off of him. The kit had put his Enerbeam on stun mode, and that was the reason why the bounty hunter had flown off the fox's body. But the bounty hunter wasn't finished yet...he tried lunging at Tails again, but the kit was swift and dodged him by several inches. But then he felt a sharp pain shoot up his leg, Murdoc had pulled out a knife and slit the fox cub's leg open, making it bleed profusely. Tails yelled in pain as he felt the blade cut into his leg, Murdoc laughed, but then he was suddenly violently shoved away from Tails by a blue blur, Sonic had spin-dashed the bounty hunter. Murdoc realizing that Sonic had intervened, pulled out a laser gun and fired it, the laser hitting the blue hedgehog in the arm.

"Sonic!" Tails shouted.

The hedgehog wasn't too worried about his wound as he was for Tails' safety. Murdoc suddenly wrapped a whip around Sonic and Tails' necks. Both of them felt deprived of oxygen, the two of them choking for air. Murdoc smiled.

"Sonic! Tails!" Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks yelled.

Just when Murdoc thought he had them, and for everyone else, all hope seemed lost, a yellow-colored laser beam struck the bounty hunter in the back, howling in pain, Murdoc loosened his grip on the whip that was around Sonic and Tails' throats. Finally being able to breathe, Sonic and Tails fell to their knees gasping for air. Amy, Knuckles and Sticks joined them on their knees.

Suddenly, a snow-colored fox stepped out of the shadows and once having approached Murdoc, placed a laser gun to the bounty hunter's head. She wrapped her arm around Murdoc's head and held it in a headlock. Upon seeing the snow-white colored fox coming to their rescue, Fara and Cody gasped. Soon, the bounty hunter passed out, allowing the white fox to let go of him. Sonic and Tails looked up at their rescuer, whereas everyone else was in shock, except for Fara and Cody. The two twin black-colored fox siblings knew immediately who she was...she was none other than Kari Prower.

"Mother!" Both Fara and Cody yelled.

How's this for a ending to Chapter 6? Let me know by leaving me a comment in the review box. So sorry that this took so long, I was just kinda busy with life, so till then, God bless you.

JalcoFox.