Alarms. Topaz tried to call Headquarters, but no avail. An agent sitting next to Topaz looked at the commander with worry written on his face. "I don't know where all this interference is coming from, sir, unless there's someone out there jamming our signals!"
"You spot something?" The commander asked.
Topaz looked at her signal computer, her own face consumed with worry. "We're picking up a large object heading straight for us, sir!" She announced.
"What is it, a ship?" He grumbled.
"I don't think so." A captain said, looking through his binoculars at the coming object. He frowned. There seemed to be two eerie glowing turquoise spots in the water.
"Sound the alarm!" The commander said. And at command, the alarms blared. Topaz tried to contact Headquarters again. "Headquarters, this is the Sea Hawk calling! Over!"
Nothing.
To Topaz's surprise, one of the turquoise spots started to grow.
"We've encountered an unknown vessel and we're under attack!" Topaz gasped. Seeing a bright light, she looked up.
...
"Sea Hawk, what's going on, over?" A commander over at Headquarters asked Topaz with concern.
"Call Mr. Brown over here, and hurry!" Topaz yelled, her voice showing panic.
"What in the blazes is happening?!" The commander asked, sounding confused. To his surprise, the commander could hear panicked yelling on the other side. Topaz's panicked yelling of mayday was heard over in the radio, and then silence.
Startled, the Commander tried calling the ship in distress. "Sea Hawk?! Do you read me?!" He yelped into the mike. "Sea Hawk, come in! Sea Hawk!
Nothing responded back.
Sea Hawk was lost.
...
"Naval authorities report that the research vessel, Sea Hawk, is missing at sea. Rescue teams are combing the area from its last known position. So far, there are no signs of the vessel. These pictures were taken two days ago when it left on its mission."
Penny sat next to Sonic, and Chris sat next to their grandpa on the couch, watching the latest news about Sea Hawk disappearing from view.
On the coffee table, Tails, Blaze, and Cream were playing a game of Jenga. Penny's eyes watched the news with worry eyes as the news reporter continued. "Details of that mission are being kept secret, but sources tell SSTV that everything seemed to be going well until early this morning when the crew radioed to report heavy fog."
"See?" Sonic asked from Penny's right, crossing his arms and frowning at the screen. "That's why I can't stand water!"
Cream turned to him. "You like it if it's in a glass!" She pointed out. "That's a start!"
Blaze and Penny chuckled at Sonic's expression. Sonic shrugged.
"Maybe the ship had hit something after it went into the fog!" Chris suggested. Chuck frowned. "A ship like that has instruments that let it navigate through fog safely. There may be something else going on here."
"Like what?" Penny asked, worry in her voice.
"What do you mean, Grandpa?" Chris asked, his voice showing curiosity. Chuck looked at his grandchildren. "What if the sea hawk's disappearance wasn't an accident. Other vessels have encountered strange phenomenon around that area." Chuck rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps we should take the yacht and have a look."
Penny nodded.
"Does that mean you're going out on the ocean?" Cream asked.
Chuck nodded. "Yes." He said. That's possible."
Penny's eyes widened a little when she saw Cream's eyes full of tears. "You're thinking about Emerl. And how he's down there." Penny said softly, giving the bunny a warm hug.
"Hey, Cream!" Sonic shot the girl a thumbs up. "Penny and I'll go outside and pick you a whole bunch of flowers! Wanna join us?"
"Sure, we can give it to my mom and Ella!" Cream said, finally smiling softly through her tears.
"Chao chao!" Cheese said happily.
...
At the President's office, the President showed Rouge and some other agents the recording of the incident that happened a few hours ago. The President sighed. "Our rescue team searched the entire area, but haven't found a single sign of the Sea Hawk or its crew." His face looked worried. "How could a ship that size disappear without a trace?"
"But what if someone made the ship disappear?" Rouge suggested from her couch. "If a thief was planning to steal a ship, he'd make sure not to leave any evidence behind that could clue in the cops. Maybe we have a robbery on her hands!"
One of the President's agents looked at her with serious eyes. "I hope you're wrong, Rouge." He said. "That ship was packed with top secret communications equipment that could easily tap into data from all of our military satellites."
The President folded his hands and leaned forward to the little group. "What's your point?" He asked with worry.
"Mr. President, if some maniac were to capture that ship, he'd have access to all the data in our defense network and he could easily bring the entire country to its knees!"
"Hmm." Rouge said, looking thoughtful. "I smell a rotten egg."
"Eggman." The President said. He turned around in his chair. "I hate to say it, but you may be right, Rouge." He said. He turned to them. "This is just the kind of insane plot he'd come up with."
...
Eggman hummed to himself as he typed furiously on his computer. "Computers make evil so easy!" He said, cackling at his own joke. Decoe turned to him. "You have been hunched over that keyboard for hours, doctor! It is bad for your posture!"
"At least try to sit up straight when you type!" Bocoe suggested. "Otherwise you may hurt yourself!"
"I already have a big pain in the neck." Eggman grumbled. "You!" He pulled up a screen which had Knuckles' picture on it.
"Knuckles has discovers world's oldest map. Renowned archeologist Dr. Cadbury studying the ancient document at Puerto Palace." Eggman smirked. "Let's drop by!"
...
That night...
Dr. Cadbury smiled to himself as he walked into the building and towards the study room where he was studying the map Knuckles had discovered. He opened up a file case and pulled out the map. He smiled. "This map proves my theory." He said. "I can announce that the world's oldest mystery has finally been solved."
Hearing something moving behind him, Dr. Cadbury turned around to see two robots dressed up as life like mummies. Decoe and Bocoe, to be exact. But Dr. Cadbury didn't know it.
"Silence!" Bocoe said in a spooky voice.
"Grave robber!" Decoe added. "Give us our map!"
Dr. Cadbury could only watch in terror as the mummified robots took the map out of his hands.
Soon, Decoe and Bocoe, still dressed as mummies, ran out of the palace. "Mission accomplished!" Bocoe said just as the alarm started blaring.
"We did the money load this time!" Decoe added. "Now we must go back to the base!"
And with that, they zoomed out of their bandages, with the map in their hands.
"Good work." Eggman congratulated his robots as he took the map from them. "You deserve raises! If I start paying you." Eggman turned around in his chair with the map in his hands, and started laughing at his own little joke. "Now let's check this out." Eggman said, opening the scanner and dropping the map in. Once the lid closed, Eggman started typing. A larger image of the map appeared on the screen, an continent that neither of the robots recognized.
"It's the world as it looked ages ago!" Eggman explained. "And the computer can take us even further back to the past." With a few types of the buttons, the map on the computer transformed into continents.
"Wow, that is cool!" Decoe said, his eyes wide.
"Can you visit chat rooms?" Bocoe asked.
"Can it, you clods!" Eggman growled. "Now where could it be...?"
A beep suddenly appeared on the top left side of the map, and Eggman smirked. "Ah ha! There! Now I have exactly the information I've been looking for!" Eggman turned to his robots. "The geographic location of Peracia!"
"What is Peracia?" Decoe asked Bocoe, his eyes wide.
"I don't know," Bocoe responded. "But it sounds contagious!"
Eggman smirked as he continued typing. "My dream of building an Eggman Empire is alive and well! Thanks to the map, the people of this planet will finally be forced to acknowledge that I rule." At that, Eggman burst out laughing.
...
A black car drove up to the front steps of the Thorndyke Mansion. Ella opened up the door and smiled at Knuckles. "Ah, hello, Knuckles!"
Knuckles smiled back. "Very nice to see you, Ella."
Ella looked in confusion at the man beside Knuckles. "Have we met before?" She asked nervously.
"No, Madam," The stranger said. "But I am delighted to make your acquaintance now."
"Dr. Cadbury?"
Ella, Knuckles. and Dr. Cadbury turned around to see Mr. Tanaka. Dr. Cadbury smiled at the butler. "Tanaka. You were in my archeology class years ago!"
Mr. Tanaka smiled. "Your perfect memory has not failed you! That class changed my entire life, doctor!" And with that, Mr. Tanaka buried his face in his arm and sobbed.
"You mean that's what inspired you to become a butler?" Dr. Cadbury asked with a smile.
"Yes." Mr. Tanaka said. "You taught that household servants played a vital rule throughout history!" And at that, Mr. Tanaka took the large garden shovel he was holding and started swinging it up and down.
Dr. Cadbury smiled. "You always were unique."
...
"I was at the palace doing some research when those two thugs attacked me and ran away with the map." Dr. Cadbury said, explaining the robbery that had happened to him the night before.
Penny, Chris, Chuck, Knuckles, Sonic, Silver, Blaze, Mr. Tanaka, and Dr. Cadbury were having a meeting in Chuck's room about the map and what they could do about it. Sonic sat in between Chris and Penny, and Blaze and Silver stood near the computer as they watched with interest.
"It's not a total loss, though." Knuckles said. "At least we have a digital copy."
Penny watched on Sonic's left on their position on the bed as the map appeared on the screen.
"Neat!" Silver said. Blaze nodded.
Chuck frowned curiously. "Interesting." He muttered, looking at Dr. Cadbury. "Why were you studying it?"
"Are you familiar with the legend of Murasia?" Dr. Cadbury asked.
"Not that I know of," Penny said, now sounding curious.
"Is it a place?" Sonic asked.
Dr. Cadbury looked at them with a serious face. "Murasia is a continent that sank into the sea. It was the home of a spectacular civilization that flourished and died long ago. According to the legends, Murasia possessed a highly advanced culture, and accomplished spectacular feats of engineering. However, despite all of its amazing achievements, the Magnificent Asian civilization was wiped out in an instant."
Penny's eyes widened a little when she realized he was talking about a volcano. Volcanos were her biggest fear. She quietly clutched Shadow's bracelet to calm herself. Sonic looked at her curiously.
Knuckles looked serious as well. "If the legends are partly true, then the ruins of that civilization could hold priceless secrets!"
Chuck looked thoughtful. "First the Sea Hawk is lost, and then this map is stolen. I have a feeling there's some kind of connection but I'm not sure what it could be."
"Sea Hawk was searching for Murasia," Dr. Cadbury explained. He pointed at the map. "It was using this map as a guide. You see, this map reveals the continents of our world, as they were in a distant past." The doctor started typing on the computer. "Here. I'll show you. Now, we adjust the data, our world appeared higher to the volcanic eruption that destroyed Murasia."
A red dot suddenly appeared on the top left side of the page. "You see there?" Dr. Cadbury asked. "One piece is missing, just like in a jigsaw puzzle. It's the final clue we need to find the lost continent."
Mr. Tanaka studied the darkest blue spot in the middle of the map, and snapped his fingers in realization. "I see it now! That is where Murasia was located!"
"Exactly." Dr. Cadbury said with a nod. "Further analyses reveals that a piece of the continent survived the disaster, a tiny island that exists to this day, and that's exactly where the Sea Hawk disappeared."
...
A band played as the Thorndykes, Sonic, Blaze, Knuckles, Tails, and Dr. Cadbury boarded the ship to sail to the missing piece of Murasia. Cream and her mother held banners to the ship.
"Good bye, now!" Cream called out to them.
"Chao chao!" Cheese chaoed excitedly.
"Have a safe voyage!" Vanilla said.
"Later!" Tails called from the ship.
Soon, the ribbons were released and the yacht was on its way. They'd sail the trail that the map showed, and soon they were closing in on their destination.
Penny, Blaze, Sonic, Silver, Chris, Knuckles, Chuck, the yacht captain, and Dr. Cadbury were in the computer room, standing over a map of Murasia.
"Getting there won't be easy..." Chuck muttered.
Dr. Cadbury pointed to a section of a map. "That island is really just the top of a huge volcano. There's a whole chain of volcanoes underwater here, making this one of the most unstable regions in the whole world."
That made Penny feel uneasy, and she gripped Chris's hand, who squeezed it reassuringly. Only Chris knew of Penny's fear of volcanoes.
"This whole story seems wacky to me," Sonic said. Knuckles frowned. "The doctor knows what he's talking about." He smirked at Sonic. "You're just getting nervous because you're surrounded by H2O."
"Water doesn't scare me anymore," The hedgehog said, slightly glaring at Knuckles. He looked down. "I just don't like getting wet!"
...
Soon, they made it to a huge volcano. Penny gulped silently as she saw smoke coming up from the top of the volcano.
"Well, there it is, guys." Amy announced as she looked at the volcano in front of them. Blaze and Silver nodded.
Sonic looked eager to get out. "Let's get to shore now so we could get off this tug!"
Knuckles looked at him. "You're not in charge here, Sonic."
Seeing something in the water, everyone looked on the other side of the ship. "Look there!" Dr. Cadbury gasped, pointing to the water, which soon turned out to be a giant wave. Penny and the others yelped as it smashed into them, and the thirteen year old grabbed on to Sonic. Hearing something crash behind them, Tails turned around, his eyes wide. "Ah! The X Tornado!"
Penny's eyes widened as Eggman's ship appeared, looking twice as menacing as before.
"That's Eggman's ship!" Blaze said, her tail swishing furiously.
Hearing laughter, Penny and the others looked up to see Bokkun flying towards them with his messenger TV. "Dr. Eggman has an important message for you!" He announced in his high pitched robotic voice.
"Surrender to me now! My new egg battle ship has enough firepower to take on the Navy Air Force and Sonic and Silver too!"
Sonic and Silver glared at Eggman. "You stole that map from Dr. Cadbury!" Sonic growled accusingly.
Eggman smirked. "You think so? Now why would I do a thing like that?"
Amy smirked. "Just because you're so despicable."
Eggman growled. "That map lead me here to the world's hot spot!"
Chuck frowned. "I don't follow you."
"I do." Dr. Cadbury said. "A hot spot is supposedly the weakest part of the planet's crust. If a volcano inside the hot spot erupts, all the other volcanoes in the world erupt too, but no respectable geologist believes such a bizarre theory."
"Excuse me, Doctor I know Everything!" Eggman said, doing an anime wiggle. "But whether you realize it or not but you're floating above a hot spot now!"
"Now I see what you're getting at." Dr. Cadbury said. "The legends are vague, but it's possible that the Murasians somehow caused the deadly eruptions."
"Didn't any Murasians survive?" Chuck asked.
Dr. Cadbury looked at him. "It's likely that the Mauritians were all wiped out. There's no trace of them in the archeological record after the volcano erupted.
"I don't have time to listen to you academic airheads discuss a bunch of scholarly mumble jumbo, thank you!" Eggman growled. "The Murasians cracked open that hot spot once and sank a continent! Now I'm going to blast it open and cause a world wide catastrophe! And on the ruins that remain I'll build the Eggman Empire!"
"Oh, yeah?!" Sonic yelled, and the blue hedgehog dashed towards Eggman's ship.
"Please." Eggman grumbled, and he let up one of his shields, and the hedgehog smacked against it and fell into the water.
"SONIC!" Penny yelped, and to everyone's surprise, the girl dove into the water, and used all of her strength to swim towards Sonic. When he came near, Penny grabbed him. The two smiled at each other.
"I'll save you!" Mr. Tanaka yelled, throwing them a lifesaver. However, the lifesaver smacked Penny hard in the head, and Penny fell unconscious in Sonic's arms. Sonic glared up at Tanaka as he tried to keep both of them afloat. "Thanks, Tanaka!" He yelled in annoyance. He suddenly yelped as Eggman started shooting his cannons at them.
Sonic lost his grip on the life saver, but luckily Penny quickly gained her bearings and grabbed the life saver. "Don't worry, Sonic, I gotcha!" She gasped, but the two yelped as the water swept them further away from the ship.
...
"They're in danger, can't you fix this thing faster?!" Amy yelped from the top of the X Tornado as Chuck and Tails worked as fast as they could.
"I'm trying, Amy!" Tails said. "We need a little more time!"
They yelped when another bomb hit the water, making the ship rock.
...
"It's hard to swim, Sonic!" Penny gasped, her voice showing panic. "The waves are rough!"
"We have to try!" Sonic yelled back.
...
"Sir, we spotted something on the sonar!" The captain yelled at Chuck through the phone. Chuck furiously picked it up. "Can't this wait?! I'm a little busy right now!"
"But, sir, there's another ship coming this way! It's surfacing now!"
...
Penny watched from the water as an battle ship twice the size of the yacht appeared from the water, and yelped as the sound of missiles soared over her head. To her delight, they destroyed Eggman's missile launchers with ease.
...
"We caught them by surprise." An agent inside the ship said. "Dr. Eggman has his defenses down! Now we can blast them out of the water!"
Eggman was pretty furious at this. "Those blasted copycats salvaged my own ship from the ocean floor and now they're using it to attack me!"
"They certainty are clever." Bocoe said.
"It just goes to show the importance of recycling!" Decoe said, looking over at Bocoe.
"Surrender your ship!" The captain of the government ship ordered. "Prepare to fire on my order!"
"Aye aye!"
"I went in on the action, too." Rouge pointed out. The captain looked at her. "You're only boarded on this ship as an observer, Rouge." He turned his attention back to the battle. "Lock on target!"
"If you wanna play chicken, I will be happy to clip your wings!" Eggman announced from the ship, and placed up his shields. To everyone's surprise, Eggman's ship rose from the ocean.
"Let's go get them, guys!" The commander in the government's ship called. "Fire!"
And they fired.
When Penny and Sonic got back to the ship, Ella draped a towel over Penny's shoulders, and the girl smiled thankfully at Ella. Mr. Tanaka looked twice as happy to see that Sonic and Penny were all right, an he cried anime tears. "I'm so happy to see you!" Mr. Tanaka wailed.
"Don't cry, we go enough water!" Sonic said.
...
In Eggman's ship, Decoe and Bocoe were beginning to panic about the government ship firing missiles at them. But Eggman wasn't going to fail.
In response to Dr. Eggman's refusal to surrender, the government ship smashed through the ship's wings. The commander smirked. "Dr. Eggman should've surrendered when he had the chance." He said.
...
Soon, Penny and Chris sat in the newly fixed X Tornado. Tails shouted his first command. "TRANSFORM, X TORNADO!" He yelled. And at command, the X Tornado transformed into battle mode.
"We're trapped!" Decoe cried. Eggman growled. "There's still one way out!"
And with that, Dr. Eggman showed a hologram video of Topaz, the Commander, and everyone else. They were alive! Penny's eyes widened with shock.
...
"It's Topaz!" Rouge gasped with surprise. "She's still alive!"
Eggman's laughing came over a loud speaker. "Stay away! If you destroy my ship, your comrades will come with me!" Eggman laughed.
Knuckles growled in anger. "Let them go, Eggman!"
"Not a chance!" Eggman sneered. "I'm holding them hostage! Just to make sure I get what I came here for!"
At that moment, the government ship fired at Eggman, and Topaz grabbed the commander's arms to try to pry him away from the controls.
"Hostages or not, my job is to stop Eggman!" The commander told her. "If you try to stop us, we'll treat you like an enemy!"
At that remark, Topaz raised her hands in defeat.
"Either way, we're doing our job!" The agent told her. He turned back to the missiles and fired.
"They're STILL attacking me!" Eggman said in a panic. "What should I do now?!"
"We could still start filling out claim forms for your insurance company." Bocoe suggested.
...
"Those hostages need our help!" Chris muttered.
"Topaz... will she be alright?" Penny whimpered from the back. They had only got to meet a little bit, but Penny took a great liking of Topaz.
Tails looked back at the siblings, smiling at them reassuringly. "No sweat, guys! Ready for action, Sonic?" Tails called to the blue hedgehog.
The X Tornado started shooting at the government ship.
"Who's side are they on?!" The commander of the ship cried. Rouge took that moment to knock an agent aside and break the gun. She looked up. "All I need is ten minutes tops." She said.
"Okay." The Commander said, looking back at Eggman's ship. "But when your time runs out, I start shooting."
Rouge ran.
...
"It appears they are holding their fire!" Decoe said.
"Now's our chance!" Eggman said. "Head for the island! Quickly!"
However, little did they know that Rouge was on her way to stop Eggman. Penny was surprised to see the bat zoom right past them.
"Rouge!" Penny yelped in surprise.
Knuckles frowned. "Not her again."
"She's headed for Eggman's ship!" Sonic said. "We have to distract them somehow!"
"GO FOR IT, TAILS!" Knuckles yelled, and at that order, Tails shot at the ship. That allowed Rouge to sneak in without being seen.
...
Eggman grumbled in annoyance at his now destroyed technology. "Why didn't I just become a dentist?!" He growled in annoyance.
To their surprise, more machinery was destroyed by Tails's firing. Furious, Eggman decided to take his plan into action. "It's time to use our heavy artillery!" He announced.
Both robots looked stunned. "You mean..."
"I'll finish them with one blast!" Eggman grumbled, typing furiously on the keyboard.
"But you have to make the volcanoes erupt!" Decoe yelled, trying to get his boss out of the idea. "Are you forgetting that you want to rule the world?!"
At that, Eggman furiously flung his robots away. "I just changed my mind!" He yelled. "I want revenge!"
"He is dependable." Bocoe said, sweat dropping.
"Yes." Decoe agreed sarcastically. "No matter what, Dr. Eggman never fails to let you down."
...
Penny's eyes widened with fear when she saw a type of laser appear on Eggman's ship, and then the sky around her turned an eerie red.
"What's that?!" Sonic yelled.
"Fire the energy ray!" Eggman yelled, and a yellow ball of electricity soon appeared in the laser gun. At that, Sonic, Silver, and Knuckles dashed towards the object. They tried to get into the laser, but were quickly taken down by the shock and the three of them fell to the ground.
"Surrender now or we will fire in ten seconds!" Decoe announced.
"WE DON'T HAVE ANY TIME!" Knuckles yelled at Sonic and Silver.
"We can't give up!" Silver called. "Maybe if we attack it together!"
"It's worth a try!" Knuckles said as Sonic nodded. And at that, Sonic and Knuckles joined hands and started spinning in the air, and Silver launched them with his Psychokinesis powers, and Sonic and Knuckles smashed into the laser.
Eggman and his minions screamed in panic, and soon the red glow was gone. Knuckles, Sonic, and Silver fell to the ocean, but luckily the X Tornado rescued them.
...
In Eggman's ship, Eggman and his minions were running around in a panic. Then they realized something. "We still have our hostages!"
"Not anymore!" Topaz's voice suddenly appeared from behind them, and the clicks of guns were heard.
"Face it, doctor, there's no way out this time!" Rouge smirked, threatening him with her own gun.
Eggman scanned his brain quickly. He needed an excuse to escape!
He had an idea, and gasped. "Where'd my Chaos Emerald go?!"
At that, Rouge looked around. When she looked back at Eggman, he was gone.
"Oh, Rouge..." Topaz muttered, shaking her head.
"Sorry..." Rouge said apologetically.
...
On the yacht...
"Maybe this trip was a big mistake." Dr. Cadbury said as he looked down. "Maybe we never should have come."
Ella, Mr. Tanaka, Amy, and Blaze, who were with them, took that note to leave. Chuck stayed with Dr. Cadbury and glanced into the water. "If Eggman finds the ruins of Murasia, it could be dangerous."
Dr. Cadbury nodded. "Yes. I'm beginning to think Dr. Eggman was right, and that this place really is a hot spot."
