Chapter five: "Risqué Business"
Knuckles exited the small meeting hall where all the trainees and Chaotix had congregated
for the meal, to find the gentle fox-squirrel sitting under one of the huge tree-like mushrooms
that were indigenous to the Floating Island. He watched her silently for a moment, smiling. It
was till hard to believe she had come all the way from Knothole just to be with him...
As if feeling his presence, she turned and looked at him. She smiled too, and stood up
to greet him with a hug.
He laughed softly. "Did you miss me?" He asked.
"I always miss you." She replied.
His smile widened. He closed his eyes and drew in her scent with a deep breath. Not only
was she beautiful, a great cook, a dead-eye shot, and a rather cunning and energetic companion
(although some would disagree with him on the 'cunning' part), but she smelled good too. Like
the clean earth, and fresh rain on rose blossoms...
He reluctantly broke from the embrace. There were more important things to discuss now.
"Shelia," He asked, "Why did you never mention your father being a keeper?"
She frowned slightly, then looked down. "The truth is," She said softly, "Is that I really
don't remember my father very well. I just always thought of my mother being keeper of both the
stones. I was five when he died, and my memory loss..."
"It's all right," He reassured, "It's just that I wondered if you knew where the original
location of the other gem was."
"I don't know." She sighed, "I just know that the ruby, the one that my mother kept, was
stored in the desert cave. When my father died, mother took over his duty and kept both of the
stones together there. I'm sorry..."
"Hey, don't worry about it." He said, putting a hand to her cheek. "We'll figure it out
eventually. Me and Archimedes have come up with a plan to find the others."
She lit up again. "Really?" She said, "So you intend to fulfil the prophesy?"
"I guess so." He said, scratching his head. "But enough about work... Um, about this
morning..."
She giggled softly. "Oh, that's okay."
"Archimedes can be a pain sometimes." Knuckles said.
"Don't worry about it." She said, "But I guess I won't be spending the night at your
place any longer..."
"Guess not."
There was an awkward silence.
"Um... Shelia, you know, uh... When Archimedes accused us of... um, y'know... and you
said that you slept at my place every once in a while, but you would never... But he cut you
off?"
She thought a moment. "Yes, I remember."
"Um... Well, did you mean that you would never... uh... well, y'know... with me?" He
asked, shakily.
It took a second for his question to form a meaning in her mind. After it had
registered, she looked considerably flustered.
"I mean... uh... Never? I mean, eh, I dunno, I didn't mean... er..." He stuttered,
thinking that she had been totally appalled by his questioning.
"Um, well..." She began, unsure of how to approach the subject. "I didn't mean never
ever... Just not after the short amount of time we've known each other..."
"Oh." He said, feeling a slight leap in his spirits. "So you mean, um, in a while, you
might...?"
She looked down at the grass uncomfortably. "Well, I don't know..."
"Oh." He said, feeling slightly let down.
"I'm sorry..." She began.
"No, no!" Knuckles said, "Don't apologize! I mean, uh, I would never want to pressure
you into doing something you didn't want to do..."
She smiled weakly. "...Thank you."
"Yeah..." He mumbled, "Uh, well, I need to talk to the Chaotix now about the plan. You
can come too, if you want."
"All right." She said, happy to get away from the touchy subject.
* * * * *
"Here's the info you asked for, Sally." Rotor said, handing the princess a computer
print-out. "That's the calculations and coordinates you asked for."
"Great, Rotor." She said excitedly.
"What do y'all need with those, Sally-girl?" Bunnie asked, leaning over the ground
squirrel's shoulder and examining the paper.
"Knuckles asked me for them." She answered, "These will lead us to the last four
elemental crystals. We can--"
"Hey, now." Sonic interrupted, "What's all this 'us' and 'we' junk? This is the
echidna's problem, not ours."
Sally frowned at him. "Sonic, if we can find these crystals, they could give us
unlimited power. We could use them to fight against Robotnik. You remember how Shelia used the
ruby to destroy Mecha Sonic."
"Yeah, but I still don't think this is a good idea." He said shaking his head, "We
shouldn't get involved."
"We all ready are." She insisted, "This could give us the badly needed advantage we need
in this war, and I'm not going to let it pass me by."
He sighed. "Fine, fine. At least I'll finally get some excitement..."
"Good." She said, and went back to looking over the coordinates. She gasped suddenly.
"What?" Sonic asked.
"Look!" She said pointing to the paper. "One of the original locations isn't that far
from here! We could get there in less than two days. I have to call Knuckles!" She grabbed
Nicole from her boot and established a link to the Floating Island.
"Hello?" Espio answered.
"Hello, this is Princess Sally, calling for the Guardian, please." She said.
"Oh, of course your highness!" The lavender chameleon said, "I'll go get him."
"Thanks."
Espio disappeared from the screen and returned seconds later with Knuckles in tow. At
first the echidna looked rather agitated, but his face softened at Sally's image.
"You have the calculations?" He asked, eagerly.
"Yes!" She said happily, "And we can get to the nearest location in no time!"
"Really?" He asked, rather surprised. "That's great! ...You're going there?"
"Of course we are." She said, "These crystals could very well decide the winner of this
war for us."
His expression hardened. "I don't know about that... I don't know everything about the
power of these things yet, much less how to control it. You shouldn't--"
"Don't be silly, Knux." Sally practically commanded, "We're all ready in this up to
our elbows, might as well hold or breath and dive right in."
"...If you say so Princess." He said.
"So we're agreed?" She asked.
"Yeah, Sally, but your in over your head now..."
"I can hold my breath for a long time, Knuckles." She said, smiling slightly.
"You're a persuasive speaker Sally." He said, cracking a smile himself.
"We're off, then." She said, winking. She closed Nicole, and turned to the others.
"Let's get packing!" She said.
"ROAD TRIP!" Clawz yelled happily.
"Oh, boy..." Sonic grumbled.
* * * * *
So, the next morning, the Freedom Fighters set out across the Great Unknown, past the
stinking city of Robotropolis, and towards the location of the mystery gem. The weather was
dry in the wasteland, and the scenery was even drier. Just flatness and nothingness for the
eye to see.
Tails had been able to persuade the princess to allow him to bring the Tornado, the now
repaired and reconstructed bi-plane. Even minus Sonic and Tails who flew together in the plane,
the hovercraft was rather cramped. Antoine drove, with Rotor in the passenger seat, and Sally,
Bunnie, and Clawz in the backseat.
Having gotten up rather early that morning, everyone began to nod off around noon. Sally
yawned as she looked over the map again. The wildcat, who had fallen asleep, was beginning to
slump over. Bunnie pushed on his side for a moment to keep him from falling on top of her,
then gave up and leaned against him and put her head on his shoulder. She began to fall asleep
herself.
Antoine looked into the rear view mirror at them and frowned. What was that half-witted
wildcat doing snuggling with his lady?
Rotor gazed out the side window absentmindedly. He turned to the front for a moment, then
went back to the side window. He thought a minute, then turned his head sharply back to the
front. "LOOK OUT!" He shouted.
Colliding, the two vehicles were sent spinning and rolling, giving the riders a rude
wake up call. Finally, they landed on their side in the dust.
Coughing, Bunnie opened the door, and staggered out. "What is the hoo-ha happened?" He
asked, pulling Sally out.
"It felt like we crashed into something..." She said, then surveyed the situation.
Beside their hover-craft, lay a bight yellow vehicle, upside down.
Clawz crawled out of the back seat of the freedom fighter's craft, carrying Antoine.
"Weel you be putting me down?!" Antoine demanded.
"Gladly." Clawz said, and dropped him onto the ground.
Sally helped Rotor out of the side. "Are you all right?" She asked.
"Just a little bruised." He said, rubbing his arm.
"What about the driver of the other craft?" Sally asked.
The other vehicle shook as the operator kicked the door open and got out and began to
dust himself off. "Why don't cha watch where you're--" He began, then looked up at them and
stopped in shock.
There was a long silence, as they just stared at each other in surprise.
"...Nack?" Clawz asked, breathlessly.
The weasel gulped. "Eh, well, nice runnin' inta ya..." He began, turning as if to run.
Before he could though, the bi-plane landed in front of them. Sonic and Tails jumped out
and ran to the group. "We saw the crash, are you guys all--" Sonic started, but choked when he
saw the infamous bounty hunter with his friends.
There was another moment of awkward silence.
Finally, Clawz boldly broke it. "What are you doing here Nack?" He asked, expressionless.
The purple weasel shifted uncomfortably. "Eh... I was headin' t'Robo-town..."
"--To tell Robotnik the location of Knothole?" Sally accused.
For some odd reason, Nack seemed incredibly insulted by that. "No, I wasn't. Just a
reg'lar shipment of parts. Dat's all."
All the Freedom Fighters looked skeptical, except fot Clawz, who was still a bit
confused by his "big brother"'s appearance. He actually looked rather happy to see him.
"I knew you wouldn't rat us out." He said, practically proud of him.
Sonic walked over to the wildcat and quickly took his arm and lead him away from the
scene and behind the wreckage.
"Hey, what are ya doin', Spikes?" Clawz asked, "I wanna talk to him--"
"Clawz, think about this!" Sonic said taking the tall cat by the shoulders, "This is
Nack Weasel we're talking about, bad-guy extrodinaire!"
Clawz frowned. "But he's my bro--"
"No he isn't!" Sonic scolded, "He is the enemy! He took advantage of you, and tried
to kill you! He LITERALLY stabbed you in the back!"
Clawz flinched. "Yeah, well..." He mumbled, "He didn't mean it..."
"Didn't mean it?!" Sonic yelled.
"You don't know him like I do, Spikes," He tried to explain, "Deep down inside, he's
a good guy like us... I know it..."
"He tried to kill you!" Sonic argued.
"Yeah, and it ain't the first time."
"...What?"
"Me and him, we've tried to kill each other, like a million times! But ya see Spikes,
we never actually finish it. Y'know... He stabbed me, so I wouldn't die. On the side in the
shoulder, you remember. If he really wanted to get rid o'me, he woulda hit right in the spine.
And he knows how, too. He could never really kill me. There's been plenty of times I've busted
him up bad too. You know that kink in his tail?" Clawz explained, "I did that to him, when I
was twelve."
Sonic gaped at him blankly.
Clawz grabbed his arm, "Now come on," He said, "We can't leave him out there with all
'dem. They might really kill 'im."
So, despite Sally's objections, Clawz persuaded the group to bring Nack along. They could
"keep a better eye on him", he said. Reluctantly, they allowed Nack to come. Besides, with his
hovercraft allowed more traveling room. Despite the accident, they were able to reach the
outskirts of the area by nightfall. She suggested they spend the night there, then venture
inside in the morning.
"Hey, guys," Sally suggested, "Why don't you gather some firewood and do a bit of
scouting?"
"What are you going to do?" Sonic asked.
"Me and Bunnie will stay here and set up camp. Okay?" She said.
"Sure thing, L.P.," Clawz said, taking off his sunglasses and putting them on his
belt. "C'mon guys."
Sonic, Tails, and Antoine followed him out into the swamp. Rotor was busy making more
repairs on the hovercrafts. Nack lingered around the females for a moment before Clawz came
back and dragged the weasel with him.
"What d'ya do that for?" Nack asked, rather irritated.
"If your with us, yer gonna help out," Clawz said. "And not ogle the women... Too much."
He added, with his usual smirk.
Sonic and Antoine frowned at them. It was the weirdest thing, how Clawz and Nack seemed
to relate to each other now, like old pals, as if nothing had ever happened between them.
Not at all bitter or angry, but like true brothers. Sonic wondered what their childhood was
like.
"C'mon guys, Aunt Sally wants us to get some firewood." Tails reminded them.
"Be lookings over here," Antoine pointed, "These branches are lookings the dry-iest."
Nack snickered. "Oui oui," He said, mockingly.
They all moved forward through the brush, until they pulled aside a curtain of vines and
leaves, revealing a large clearing containing several small waterfalls and about half a dozen
circular springs. All in which females, of practically every species, were bathing casually
together. And none of them were wearing any clothes, either.
All five of their jaws dropped. Sonic covered Tails' eyes. For a few seconds, they just
sat there and gaped, unnoticed. Until that is, Clawz was unable to resist a whistle.
All heads turned to them, and a ear-splitting shriek erupted from the girls. It wasn't
two seconds before guards had the five of them surrounded.
* * * * * *