We're still in the cave y'all. Nothing else
Silver, Shard, Tangle and Larry had already crossed the previous trap they faced which was the hallway full of holes and arrows it was a decent and cliché trap but it was almost effective, it didn't matter because they had already passed it but now our heroes were facing yet another trap but this one was more defensive and more fancy… but it was still cliché no doubt.
Swinging huge spiky balls over a bottomless pit between a ridiculously large gap.
"Whatever happened to a good ol' fashioned pit of spikes?" asked Silver
"The balls have spikes" said Shard with sass.
"Yeah," added Larry "But the ones in the pit didn't move How is anyone supposed to past that?!"
"They're not…" explained the hedgehog "Unless they have skills like Naugus. But my powers can hold them all in place so we can-"
"Hold that thought. Superior technology comin' through" Shard began to charge up his booster.
"Hold that thought! A fun solution's coming through!" Tangle interrupted them grabbing, with her tail, the pole the spikes were hanging from and cheerfully swinging around them with a lot of tricks around the –apparently- not-so dangerous balls even looking at the group with smugness until she finally reached the other side waving at her teammates proudly.
"Show off" Shard said mostly to himself and shooting down the pendulums in a single shot once they aligned carrying Larry while crossing the gap.
"Just making your job easier… Ace".
"Blowing things up and alerting our target doesn't work… Jack".
"Meh. We blew that angle of the mission a hallway ago".
"Guys seriously, look at this!" Tangle tried to cut them out starting to get slightly frustrated…
Four people on the same team, on the same room and neither of them managed to spot that the person they were looking for was getting right behind them all. Regardless, they all proceeded to the next room which also marked the end of this underground passage given that it was a round-shaped room with the only way back was from where they just came in. The space itself resembled more a set of ruins than a cave which also helped making Tangle feel at ease with the place.
The place had as well two statues one of each side of the walls. These statues resembled a Mobian avian, and a mammoth both of them hooded with a Buddha-like pose in between pillars with some large symbols written vertically on them. After checking the surroundings the group entered –despite Tangle getting ahead of them-.
"That looks like writing. Can you make out what it says?" Larry asked to Shard.
"Seems like a dead language running a cross-reference," Shard explained upon inspection "Okay, I think it says: This is the crypt of Ixis Vale, one of Ixis Mogul's Four Elite".
"Ixis… Mogul?" Silver asked with a voice of sorrow while looking at the mammoth statue "Are you sure?"
"Pretty sure, yeah, why?"
"No reason" the hedgehog lowered his head with both Shard and Tangle noticing it with the latter being next to him.
"Sure, no reason" Shard repeated with a bit of mockery.
Tangle just watched him with a bit of sketchiness or suspicion but decided to leave like that, she could figure by the hedgehog's face that it was probably a touchy subject, she had already experienced that so it was better to leave it here.
"If this is a crypt, where are the remains?" asked Larry "This is just a room".
"It says Vale's remains are supposed to be right here" Shard pointed at the statue's hand which had a 'holding-an-object' position.
"Which means St. John's already been here!" exclaimed Silver "He must be hiding! I knew he would hear us coming".
"He's not hiding…" Shard said scanning the ground spotting footprints "He's already gone! I got fresh tracks! I've got him!" he instantly stormed out of the room with his rockets.
"Jack, wait!" Larry tried to stop him but with no results "He fast, but not that fast!"
"Then we need a shortcut," said Silver back-tracking the way in his mind "He must have slipped right past us, so if we came here, and then the passage leads like so… that puts him about there!" he focused his telekinesis on a specific area of the cave which put off both Larry and Tangle.
"What are you doing?" the lynx asked.
What it was the roof of where they were was simultaneously the ground of the 'arrows' hallway they previously went through, the exact place where St. John was currently in. With his telekinesis, Silver grabbed a chunk of the earth, perfectly catching him along with it just before Shard could reach him first.
"Show off" he said.
"You're gonna say that every time you get surpassed? You're just jealous. Can you see if he's caught in that mess?" the hedgehog replied holding the piece of dirt.
"Not immediately but I saw him fall, he should be immobile right?"
"Maybe not, unless I'm concentrating on him he may be just floating in there, it's hard to-".
Unexpectedly, the magical skunk used just enough magic along with his own skills to get free of Silver's hold jumping back to the upper platform to resume his escape but this time without the stealth.
"I see him!" Shard called out beginning to chase him. However, the second Geoffrey saw him; his reflexes shot a short-range small missile right next to the robot with a crossbow he had on his hand.
The explosion was fast and effective taking Shard completely by surprise causing debris and rubble to finish him off being covered by them, gaining extra time to St. John to keep going. Silver instantly lifted all the rocks off Shard with Larry helping the busted robot out of it.
"Are you okay?" the lynx asked.
"Have I mentioned how much I hate being buried alive?"
"Can't you go after him?!" Silver commanded Tangle who had pretty much frozen in place after the explosion went off.
"Yeah! R-Right!" she snapped out of the trance trying with her tail holding on to the 'second floor' Silver to get Geoffrey himself but both of their reactions were way too slow as the skunk dropped more of the same attack he just pulled off, creating a larger-scale explosion, blocking the only way in or out and fully burying our heroes.
Geoffrey St. John had escaped and four skilled fighters had failed a simple stop-this-guy mission.
Yet they were not defeated though, Silver managed to lift the rubble that was caused, creating what it could be called their own little air bubble very restricted but it was enough.
"Urgh, you got that Ace?" asked Shard.
"Y-Yeah, I've got it for now" the hedgehog replied struggling a bit.
"Good. 'Cause I dunno if I mentioned if I mentioned but I really hate being buried alive… Once is enough".
"What about you?" Larry asked "You really got smashed up".
"Auto-Repair is kicking in. Just can't push my power core right now… And don't jinx anything right now okay? Just- sit here and think non-jinxy thoughts".
"Okay" the lynx nodded with arms behind his back.
"If I start digging a tunnel out, is that going to destabilize things too much too much to handle Silv- um, Tangle?" Shard asked once he noticed the lemur acting a little odd.
She had taken off both the visor and the facemask throwing them to a side with her heart beat starting to fasten and her breathing beginning to get heavier and slower but still loud trying to hide her reaction but it was pointless because it wasn't something you could easily hide. Once Shard noticed, she tried to get away from the group which was physically impossible given the space they were in making the panic attack much worse. Tangle ultimately cornered herself –in a corner-less area- involuntarily sitting down with her mouth covered now rapidly breathing trying not to pass out in front of three people that relied on her.
"Just go!" Silver commanded Shard instructing him to, yes, drill a way out, he could handle that.
"Right!" Shard agreed immediately beginning to create a tunnel.
"A-At least we got the tracker on the airboard," said Larry primarily to himself and low-key wishing he could help Tangle "I hope the other team is doing better…"
Spoiler alert: They weren't.
Hey everyone! This very short chapter has officially ended! Just clarifying, as much as I would like to check in on the other team, this story will be and still is primarily about Tangle something the other team lacks on. I will give some insight to what they've done, of course, but if you want the full thing you can look up the comic… I have nothing to add to what's already ther.
And omg, poor Tangle, I hope it was a decent description of that since I haven't experienced a phobia mysellf, if you feel like I made a mistake, please say so!
See you soon!