Author's Note: Sorry it took so long to get this up. Mid terms slowed things down A LOT! Hate 'em. However, I did manage to get this chapter together, and I'm already working on the next one. Enjoy!

Moving on…

The sun had just begun to rise over the mountains and shed its light into the Great Forest. The townspeople were beginning to rise and begin their morning routines. However, in one hut, one figure had not yet arisen. Tossing and turning, sweat poured from his forehead as horrible memories haunted his dreams. "No…no…NO!" Knuckles yelled as he shot up out of bed. He panted heavily as he wiped the sweat off of his forehead. Another night of torture. He turned his head when a knocking came at the door and said, "Come in," as he got out of bed. An elderly female squirrel came in and said, "Hello. It's Rosie. Just here to get the sheets." "Uhh...they're here," he mumbled in reply. "Are you okay? You sound awful, dear." "I'm fine." Deciding to change the subject, she said, "You'd better get down there and eat before it's all gone." "Okay. Thank you," he said as he tipped his hat, strapped on his belt and walked out. Rosie glanced at the sheets and placed her hand down on them. They were damp with sweat. Every morning they were like this. 'Perhaps I should bring this to Sally's attention. It may be important in some way.'

"Bring 'em on!" Sonic shouted as the next round of pancakes came in. As soon as the plates were dropped before them, Sonic, Mighty, Vector and Morph began eating. "My money's on Mighty!" "Mine's on Sonic!" "Morph has this all wrapped up!" They all finished and grabbed their stomachs, groaning in pain. Vetor laid his head down, defeated. "C'mon, Mighty! One more plate!" Espio yelled. Mighty grabbed his fork, and slowly ate the food in front of him. Sonic took a bite and dropped his head onto the syrupy pancakes. "He's out!" "C'mon, Morph!" Morph glanced at the plate stretched his mouth widely and swallowed it all in one bite. Mighty stared with widened eyes, before dropping his head. "YEAH!" Morph yelled, before falling over.

"Boys can be so stupid," Bunnie said. "Yeah, "Julie-Su replied. "Only we can have sophisticated conversations," Sally commented. "So what's going on with you?" Julie-Su asked Sally. "Oh, I'm just fine. Everything's normal. I'm just a little nervous about our next mission. It won't be easy." "When ah they eva?" Bunnie commented with a chuckle. "Too true. What about you, Julie-Su? Are you enjoying living here?" Sally asked. "Well, it's better than what I'm used to. It's like I'm in a four-star hotel now. We used to sleep on concrete beds and have to eat semi-warm food in the mornings. Food wasn't even real," she said. "Like the cafeteria food back home," DJ said to Swiper. "Yeah. How did they expect us to eat that garbage?" "'Sigh'…Boys," Sally groaned.

The three females turned to the door a few feet away from them as Knuckles walked in. He looked terrible. "Knuckles, are you okay?" Sally asked. "I'm…I'm fine. Just a rough night," he said as he went to discover there was no food left. Sally was aggravated by this and stood up. "Come on, guys! You had your stupid contest and now there's no food for Knuckles!" They all looked very shameful and lowered their heads. "Don't let it bother you. I'm fine," Knuckles said as he walked outside. Bunnie peered out the window to see him pick an apple from a nearby tree and begin to eat it. "He's the one I don't get. All the other guys are either morons, thick-headed, or slightly psychotic. Him…he's kinda…" "Creepy," Bunnie said. "I think he's a big jerk," Julie-Su commented. Sally looked over at her and said, "I know he's been rough on you, but maybe he just needs to know you." "Oh yeah. Like I'd wanna know a guy like him. He makes my skin crawl," she replied before taking a sip of her juice.

"Okay. It's time for our second major mission. This time, we need to take control of a frigate and" "Wait! We're trying to take control of a what?" Sonic asked. "A frigate," Sally repeated, a little annoyed at his lack of knowledge. "And…that is…?" Sally's shoulders drooped as she said, "A ship. A big ship." "Watch your language in front of Tails!" DJ shouted. Sally shot a death-glare at him and he slowly slunk back. (Input the implied word in place of ship and have a good laugh) "Robotnik is dealing new tech with Dimitri. Weapons that could bring the resistance to its knees. We need to stop that vessel from reaching the harbor." "So why not have someone blast it from a distance? Like me? With fire," Grim suggested. "No. No fire." "Why?" he complained. "Because we don't want a huge explosion that would attract unwanted guests." "Oh, so this is a Solid Snake: sneaky mission rather than Master Chief: bang mission?" Swiper asked. Sally stared at him and finally said. Yes, whatever." "Cool. Maybe we'll get to sneak around in a box!" Swiper said to Morph, who gave him a thumbs-up.

"Alright. Get to the jet and let's go," Sally ordered. "Uhhh…about that…" Rotor muttered. "What?" Tails stood up and said, "Well….we were working on it, trying to fix the bugs and all, and…" "You broke it," Sally sighed. "Not broke as in gone, broke as in 'out of order' broke," DJ said. "Our three ace mechanics. Brilliant. The harbor is fifty miles away. I'm not letting Sonic and Freezie do this alone. What do we do?" F.C. stood up and said, "Well…err…I am a mage. I do know how to 'teleport'." "What makes you a mage?" Espio asked. "Yeah," Ray insisted. "Well, check it out," he said as he showed off his goatee. "I got this hair for floatation, and this one for" "That's disgusting. I didn't think magic worked that way," Julie-Su said with a disgusted face. "Oh yeah. It's all in the beard." "Notice how his is so small," Vipes pointed out. "Shut up!" F.C. spat.

They gathered outside in a circle as F.C. began to chant. "Just relax." There was a bright light around them, and in a flash they were gone. The harbor was foggy that night. You couldn't see anything. The Legionnaires patrolled the docks as best they could, not noticing the Freedom Force appearing in the rugged hills above them. "It worked! Say, is it just me or is it real breezy?" Cap asked. "Yeah. What's…? AHHH!" Grim whispered, trying not to give away their position. The Ravagers looked down to see that their pants were missing. Nothing but boxers. "Grim…are those the boxers DJ got you last Christmas? The ones you swore you'd never wear?" Morph asked. "Uhhh…I can explain," Grim began. "Well, at least we still have our boxers." "Heh. At least I decided to wear boxers!" DJ said. "More information than is needed," Sally said, disgusted.

"Where are our pants?" Cap asked F.C.. "Well…if I'm correct…they're floating in the space-time continuum." "Isn't that bad?" "…Yes." "So you're saying that all of time and space…all the cosmos….can be destroyed…by our pants?" "Well…maybe…" "Oh great. We won't be killed by Robotnik OR Dimitri. We'll be killed by our own pants!" Grim growled. Suddenly, there was a horn. They looked out to see the ship out in the water. It was heavily armed with cannons on the deck and sides. "Any idea how to get onboard?" Ray asked Sally, who shook her head as she pulled out her binoculars. "There are only a few swat bots…If we could get someone onto the deck, we could…" She glanced down the side of the hill to see Knuckles wading into the water. "What are you doing?" she whispered. "Taking a swim," he replied as he got into the cold water. Sally watched as he swam over, crept onto the deck, and slashed the swat bots. "How do WE get onto the ship?" Vector asked. "Yeah. I don't feel like taking a swim," Sonic said. Morph got down by the water, and they watched in awe as he slowly changed shape, and took the form of a small boat. "I can take four at a time, so hurry up!" he said as four of them got on. "I'll put the motor on low," he whispered. "What motor?" Sally asked. "You can say it's…uhhh…gas powered." They looked behind the boat and saw bubbles forming on the surface of the water. "This is gonna kill SOOO many fish," Mighty said.

Eventually, at the cost of the lives of many fish, the Freedom Force boarded the Robotnik frigate. "Where to?" Espio asked. "Zee layout seiz zat zee weapons are down zee stairs," Antoine said. Quickly and quietly, they snuck down to a lower level of the ship. The ship creaked as they crept through the crate-filled room, until Nicole, Sally's A.I. handheld computer, started beeping. "This is the room," Sally said. Cap looked at the boxes and decided to open one. "Let's see what…uhhh guys?" he said as they came over to see the crate was empty. "Empty?" Tails said. "They all are. I'm not picking up anything on my scanners," DJ replied. "Then…this was a trap!" Sonic shouted. Suddenly, a thunderous laugh boomed through the ship. A screen flickered, and the face of Robotnik appeared on it. "Ha! You fools! Did you believe I would let such classified information slip out so easily? Do you? Well, now you will pay for your insolence and die!" The ship rumbled, and they could hear the rushing of water below them. "RUN!" someone shouted. They all hurried back up the stairs as water came rushing behind them. As they rushed down the hallways, gun turrets popped out of the walls and began to fire at them. "Split up!" Sally shouted as they began to run down different hallways. Sally was running when she slipped in the wet hallway. She groaned as looked up to see a blast door coming down on top of her. She closed her eyes, only to be pulled away by someone. She opened her eyes to see Knuckles. "Sorry. That was cutting it close," he said. "But we're trapped on this side of the door! What'll we do?" "I don't know. C'mon!" he shouted.

The others managed to meet at an intersection, and looked frantically for their two comrades. "Where are they?" Sonic shouted, "Nothing is gonna stop me from finding her!" "What about a wall of water!" Freezie shouted. "F.C.! Voo-doo time!" Mighty shouted. "It's not voo-doo! It's…" "Never mind! Just make with the hocus pocus!" DJ shouted. F.C.'s hands began to glow as he outstretched his arms and shouted, "ALMETHRAP!" The water continued to come, so he shouted, "ALMEDRAP!" The water was about forty feet away, and he tried, "ALME-CRAPPP!" as the water hit them and launched them out the door, skidding them across the water and back to shore. "What…the hell…was that!" Julie-Su shouted at F.C.. "That…was me messing up another spell." "What about Sal and Red!" Tails shouted as the ship began to rapidly sink.

"It's over," Sally sighed. She never felt so weak in her life. She was going to die a horrible death by drowning. "Don't say that! We'll make it out! Just…" "It's over. The resistance is going to fail. We'll slowly be picked off until no one is left. It was all a waste of time!" Knuckles grabbed her and shook her. "Snap out of it, Sal! I swear to God, I am going to get us out! I can't afford to die here! Neither can you!" She stared at him with watery eyes as he began to feel the wall. "I can punch us out here. Take this," he said as he took a small device out of his belt. "It's an air necklace. It breaks down the water, removing the hydrogen atoms and leaving plain oxygen." "What about you?" she asked. "I can hold my breath longer. When I say now, jump out and swim as fast as you can, and don't look back!" She got ready as he drew up his fist and shouted "NOW" as he threw a punch that ripped a hole in the hull of the sip and caused water to rush in. They both jumped out and began to swim as fast as they could towards the surface. 'Almost there…' Knuckles thought to himself as his lungs tightened. As the ship hit the bottom, a large fragment ricocheted up and struck Knuckles in the head, knocking him out cold. Sally didn't see as he slowly floated downward into the darkness. However, his hat slowly floated upward towards the surface.

Morph had reformed into a larger vessel than before, fitting them all, and drove them over the ship's last position. "Where ah they!" Bunnie shouted. Suddenly, Sally broke the surface and began gasping. Bunnie stretched out her mechanical arm and quickly pulled her onboard of Morph. "Sally! You're okay! Hey….where's Knuckles?" Mighty asked. "Oh my God! He was right behind me! It's all my fault! I knew he couldn't hold his breath that long!" she sobbed as she started crying. Julie-Su looked overboard and saw a familiar hat bob up out of the water. 'Something must have happened!' she thought to herself as she kicked off her boots and jumped into the water.

It wasn't too long until she reached him. He almost made it to the surface. She put her arm around him and began to pull him up, and noticed his head was slightly bleeding. She broke surface and pulled his head above the water. Bunnie pulled them in as she had with Sally, and they laid his limp body on the deck. "Oh my God! He's not breathing!" Rotor shouted. "Give me room!" Julie-Su shouted as she began to apply mouth to mouth resuscitation. "This is no time to live out your perverted fantasies!" Vector shouted. "Idiot! She's giving him air!" Espio shouted as he slapped the back of Vector's head. Julie-Su continued to press down on his chest and breathe into his mouth until his body finally twitched and he began couching up the water that had filled his lungs. He started gasping for air as he slowly sat up and opened his eyes, glancing at Julie-Su who was kneeling beside him. "Y-You…" "Yeah, me. Funny thing, huh?" He slowly got to his feet, looked over the side of the ship, and jumped off. "What the hell are you doing!" Sonic shouted, only to see the echidna climbing aboard again with his wet hat. "You and that damned hat!" Sally said as she threw her arms around him, crying, causing him to stumble a bit. Cap smiled and looked to the front of the boat. "Mr. Morph, full speed home." "Aye, aye, captain!" Morph replied as he turned in the direction of home.

As they sat, DJ stood up and said, "How about a sea song?" Mighty shrugged his shoulders and said, "Why not?" "Juuuuuuuuuust sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a faithful trip," DJ began, causing the other guys to join in clapping and singing, "That started on this tropic port aboard this tiny ship!" As the others were singing, Knuckles glanced over at Julie-Su and took a deep breath. He stood up and walked over to her and said, "Hey." "Oh. Hey." They were rather silent for a minute or two, until he finally said, "I…I want to thank you….for saving me. I'm grateful." "A 'thank you' from you? I'm honored." "You should be. This doesn't change anything. I'm still keeping my eye on you," he said. "Just watch where those eyes are peeking," she replied. To her great surprise, his face turned a bright red. She chuckled and said, "You're blushing. That's kinda cute." He turned even redder and quickly left. When he did, she couldn't help but smile to herself and think, 'Maybe getting to know him wouldn't be so bad.'