Chapter 2: Deserted Grounds
It was a silent night for the sleepy campers. Peace and tranquility roamed through the night, leaving no signs of sadness or plight. A lonely entity lit the dark blue sky as it moved along the heavens, glancing down at the world it was guarding. However, this gloomy keeper could not stand at its post forever, as fiendish clouds invaded the sky like locusts, separating the terra above with Earth below.
Rain trickled down from the firmament, preventing the peaceful lands from seeing the horrid battle above, but even that technique couldn't make every soul oblivious.
The scene could not last forever, though. The mighty star, the sun, with its power unmatched throughout the solar system, removed all signs of night as it rose, illuminating the part of the world the furries were in. Yet it was powerless against the dim clouds hanging high over the land.
The sixth hour of the day had come when Shadow felt like it was time to get up. He walked out of the tent, in which he had put so much energy the previous day, and yawned, as if letting the world know that he was ready to meet whatever fate had to throw at him. Shadow looked around the camp and thought that everyone was still asleep at first. He smiled, thinking about the opportunities he had at that moment.
He moved on the dewy green grass silently, in order not to disturb anyone resting.
He was disappointed when he walked past Sonic's tent. Shadow's rival wasn't there, but he was sitting on a rotten log behind it. The hedgehog looked strange. It seemed that something troubled him. Sonic's evil counterpart approached him, ready to give a morning mocking routine, but refrained from doing so. He could see that his rival was in depression already.
"What's the matter, faker?"
"I had a rough night! Okay?" retorted the hedgehog before Shadow could say anything else.
It was a sign that Sonic was in a condition fitting for making fun of him. Shadow grinned.
"The poor little faker had problems sleeping?" he asked in a mocking tone.
"Shut up…"
"You can tell me all about the Boogie-man in your tent. I'm sure it'll be a fun story," Shadow said as he sat down on the wooden log near him.
Sonic didn't say a word but simply snarled.
"You muted or something?" Shadow asked.
"Go away," Sonic said without emotion, not looking in Shadow's way.
"Hallelujah, he spoke!"
Suddenly, Shadow received a punch in the jaw from Sonic. The impact made him slide off the tree trunk and skid on the wet grass a few feet. He didn't expect such an explosive and hostile reaction.
"Why, you!" Shadow snapped, snorting as he got up.
Then, he lunged at the uncooperative hedgehog without warning and a fight started between the two. It would have had a painful turnout if it weren't for Knuckles' appearance. The strong echidna separated the infuriated fighters to bring some order.
"Stop it, you two!" he shouted and pushed both of them to the ground into opposite directions. Seeing that the fight was over, he decided to get to the roots of the problem. But he was wrong and, as soon as the two got up, they restarted trying to beat each other to a pulp.
Knuckles rolled his eyes and tried to get his peaceful point through, the hard way. The two were caught in the echidna's powerful palms and raised above the ground.
Everybody breathed hard.
"What was the matter this time?" Knuckles asked, breaking the tension that hovered in the air because of them.
"He's a faker! Let me put him out!" the blue hero's rival scoffed.
"Sonic?"
"I told him I couldn't get any sleep at night, but he kept on asking for it!" Sonic yelled angrily.
"Whatever…now let got of me," said Shadow indifferently.
"If you insist," Knuckles said with a grin and dropped both.
The hedgehogs were still glaring daggers at each other until Shadow got up and retreated from the scene, cleaning his fur out of grass stains with disgust.
"You two just can't get along," the echidna said with a chuckle in the end.
The azure hero ignored his companion and simply went to see if Tails was awake.
Meanwhile, Rouge was talking with Tails about an immediate return to the hotel. Sonic caught them at the point of no return, as the relentless, conniving bat convinced his vulpine friend of her righteousness.
The fox sighed, "Okay…I'm with you."
"Glad you could see it my way," Rouge smiled as she went out of Sonic's sight, not saying a word to him.
"Morning," the hedgehog greeted his friend.
"Good morning, Sonic," Tails replied with a usual welcoming smile on his face.
"What were you two talking about?" Tails was asked with a hint of suspicion, knowing the absent member of the previous conversation.
"That we should go back to the hotel. We have no food left," told the kitsune after a moment of thinking.
"Dang…it reminds me that I haven't had breakfast yet," Sonic said, rubbing his empty, growling tummy. "But are you sure that there's none?"
"Well…Knuckles sleepwalked at night and ate everything we had left from yesterday," the fox explained with a sigh.
The clever hero grinned, "Not everything. Amy teased me with cake, trying to get a kiss yesterday. I bet that she saved it!"
It was when the rodent dashed to the tent of his detestably pink lover and got inside, forgetting about the girl's deadly grip and extreme affection towards him. Luckily, she wasn't in the tent, letting Sonic take a careful look around and find the confectionery treat. And there it was, hidden behind the female's travel bag. He smiled as his palm got placed on a pink ribbon and his fingers gently pulled one of the tie's discarded ends. The small cardboard box was now defenseless against the famished mammal. Sonic placed his gloved hands on the white border, separating him and the goodness inside, and removed the cover revealing a layer cake colored in many shades of blue. Azure icing covering the surface of the sweet object, topped with a circle of light blue creamy substance, formed into little towers, was before him. The tiny towers surrounded a garish "I love you, Sonic", sprinkled with a large amount of multicolored sugar bits.
The hedgehog's pupils widened, making his mouth water in anticipation of the cake's heavenly taste. Without any delay, the sugary treat was brought near the anxious hero's digestion system. He could smell the tempting morsel and get a small preview of what he was about to experience, as it got closer. Without taking a single blink, he made the whole cake disappear...into thin air? It could have been taken as magic, but it would be pretty obvious to a well-informed spectator. It was a matter of Sonic's ability to do things at a difficultly apprehendable rate. Extreme speed, a life long companion, helped Sonic ease holding the heavy meal and transport it into his body for digestion. Signs of pleasure and satisfaction invaded his face sending a bright, warm and fiendishly innocent smile, which was soon broken by a loud outbreak of gasses collected thanks to his sweet moment.
Tails heard the disturbing sound coming from inside the tent and decided to come and check whether Sonic was doing well deep in the confines of Amy's lair. Maybe even try to save him on account that the odds of getting kissed inside margined on infinity. And depending on the length of time on the 0x axis... Tails laughed at how dubious it looked. Kisses are integers!
Sonic's fateful friend peeked through the open entrance and saw nobody but the blue hero, lying there on her soft sleeping bag.
"Sonic?" he uttered silently, surprised by the scene.
"Yeah?" Tails' life long buddy answered with eyes closed and hands behind his head.
"Where's Amy?" the youngster asked after looking around again.
"Beats me," said the hedgehog and got up. "I was lucky this time," he added.
"Where do you think she might have went to?" inquired the fox while he looked around, "Oh, never mind," said Tails after finding the right information source in the tent: a discarded roll of toilet paper was on the ground near the female's travel bag.
Shadow was disappointed to see Sonic happy for once, having a moment free of his ever-pursuing fan. However, that devious rival was not going to see a happy ending for Sonic. A high-pitched scream coming from the forest ended the torment of waiting. Knuckles was about to comment, but his mouth stayed shut since a demonic growl has made an immediate succession. Then, low frequency surges shook the ground beneath their feet, weakening periodically, as if the source was moving away. The power witnessed has given Sonic's face an indescribable expression. Fear, delight and anger; each left a mark on his face. The smell of upcoming action excited him, but the fact of it being solely related to his adoring fan discouraged him. The hero was not alone this time, but his support team did not make a friendly atmosphere.
"Only Amy screams like that," the clever fox concluded.
"I'm going to save her…from whatever scared her this time," Sonic told his teammates taking a heroic pose, which clashed with his voice. The hero was dependant on his team's opinion.
"Unless it's an ant," Knuckles sighed falsely. "How romantic."
A grin appeared on the fiendish monotreme's face. It made Sonic confused. He could not make decisions in such a situation easily.
"Anyone going to join me?" he asked, hoping for some loyal support, making that confident trademark smirk.
"You bet!" Tails exclaimed. The young fox was in a mood for an adventure with his 'big brother' like always.
"I'll go too," Rouge said, watching Knuckles' surprise grow.
"In that case count me in," the echidna responded to Rouge's offensive. She couldn't win this battle of thought.
"Okay! Let's go!" Sonic exclaimed happily, ready to rush into the forest.
Strangely enough, the other present hedgehog had not given a response on this topic and was rather amused to see the others leave him without a notice. Social status lacked importance in his mind. It was but a matter of Sonic's overgrown ego that he could tolerate as long as he had the upper hand, which was always on the flawless side.
Tails' good nature couldn't let him depart with Sonic when it meant leaving somebody alone in their everlasting misery, but the recent fight between the two hedgehogs convinced him that separation would be a good idea. So every flawed being entered the greenery compound. The wet foliage was unpleasant for touch, as it made their fur damp and cold, but evading all of it was impossible since the forest was not adapted for search parties. At least that was what they thought.
Droplets of water slid down the emerald leaves peacefully in their path until Knuckles' brute force moved trees whole, causing massive damage to the surrounding creations of autotrophy.
"Your talents are endless, aren't they?" Rouge asked with a smirk complementing her tone.
"Wanna change places?" Knuckles replied as the amount of work made his breath heavy, and words mangled.
The bat got scared of an uncomfortable situation that a decision like that could have created, "No, no! You keep doing your thing and I'll be doing mine," she said, assuring herself that the evil in him will be asleep.
Yet her hopes were never meant to be.
"Which is?" he asked, glaring at her.
"Oh, look! An open area!" exclaimed the bat and thanked her ever-present intuition and detection abilities.
A lot of grass appeared before them in the middle of flora's citadel. The scene would have made a surprise trail through their faces if it wasn't for the details. Trees, broken into pieces like toothpicks, lay on the ground as witnesses of a futile conflict with no winner present to take the blame. Life was mocked in the most brutal way imaginable. The group spread out to cover the area and they soon noticed large inch-deep holes everywhere. But it was merely a single clue. A sharp scent, which was causing a stinging, continuously magnifying sensation in their lungs, was present in the area. Plants turned into ashes and black marks on the ground left them without a reasonable answer.
Sonic felt just as awkward as everyone else in the situation. However, he was the first one to feel the shock a single piece of jewelry could give. The rodent saw a golden ring pushed into the soil in one of the concaves. It had her shine... He picked up the ring unable to breathe a word. No explanations were needed. Everyone understood that the damsel in distress needed a brave soul to guard her all the time. The flaws in such a security service were also obvious.
Then, Sonic returned from the world of his imagination with a happy curve on his face. His heroic services were in need once again.
"Hey, guys! Check this out!" Knuckles exclaimed and started moving a large amount of leaves and broken branches away from something that appeared to be a cave. Although it made a bitter impression on the rescue party, the fact that this cavern was not made by Mother Nature changed it soon. A sign saying: "Todschick Zirkus" was embedded into rock.
"Super Circus… Weird is more like it," thought the fox aloud.
Knuckles continued cleaning up the premises and found an old-looking wooden construction, no bigger than an automobile, crushed by a fallen tree. Upon closer inspection, fuse boxes and power sockets were found.
"It says: 'Warning! High voltage!' Hmm... Turn on the power switch, Knuckles," Tails ordered.
Knuckles looked at him oddly, "I'd rather let you do it. I'm not technology-friendly."
"I'll say," Sonic said with a snicker
Knuckles gave him the cold glare treatment, "Be quiet."
The echidna had just had enough time to forget his last series of accidents in Sonic's kitchen. Everything from the refrigerator door disaster to the evil microwave explosion has been remembered that very second. Knuckles couldn't help but wish something happened to his bluish friend before he could do his worst.
Soon, "Do you know what good ol' Knucklehead did to my kitchen?" shattered that hope.
No… the unfortunate echidna thought, but it was too late to stop his companion's mouth at work. Rouge let out a mocking chuckle, increasing his urge to kill small blue mammals.
He was dearly grateful to Tails, who fashionably ignored everything that was going on at that moment and turned the power switch on, making colorful lights slice the unsuspecting darkness inside the grotto. Carnival music echoed from the inside. Barrel organs, harmonicas, accordions and trumpets filled the air with melodic vibrations.
"There," Tails smiled and put his hands on his hips, happy to have conquered yet another piece of equipment.
"What are you guys waiting for?" asked Sonic, as impatience was rumbling in his brain, and without waiting for anyone, entered the odd cave. Everyone else's curiosity acted as a perfect excuse for an entrance without a ticket as well. A rusty ticket booth was passed without a notice, since there was no one to upkeep the order inside.
A tube-like staircase with a mosaic of bright light bulbs in the form of a smiling clown's face left everyone with a more pleasant impression than the desolate field.
The passage led them to an enormous open area with numerous bright-colored tents, stalls, carnival rides, and a striped big top towering above everything inside the cave.
High poles with speakers mounted on them, each adding its own portion of sound to the cacophony made by an old record hidden somewhere in the premises. The constant change of speed the record was played at reduced the first impression of that place to nothing. Extremely perky surroundings and the wide smiles of two-dimensional painted figures have lost their appeal to the group. The happiness industry has gone too far by one horrid mistake, letting the customers feel awkwardness instead of pleasure.
"The crawling niceness…" Knuckles murmured.
Tails looked at the structures and gulped.
"This is kind of creepy…" the fox said,
"I've found hot dogs!" Sonic broke the atmosphere with his usual cluelessness.
The hedgehog held a vacuum packet of sausages in his hand, and to everyone's disgust, he ate its contents with sheer delight.
Tails sweat-dropped, trying not to sound sickened, "Sonic… Do you imagine how old those were?"
"No," the reply arrived from a full mouth.
"You'll get food poisoning from those," Tails tried to reason further.
"Nah. Never have and never will," his companion answered with a smile, ready to shove another five sausages into his mouth. Luckily for the others, he was stopped in time and the already open cartridge fell down on the unsanitary floor, losing its temptation even in the eyes of Sonic.
"What did you do that for? I was eating those!" he complained.
"For your own good, that's for sure," the fox explained with a sigh.
"Okay, now where could have Amy gone to?" Rouge asked, curious to explore the cave.
"Is this hers?" Knuckles asked, picking up a dirty, but stylish glove. The reaction he got affirmed his assumption.
"Where did you find it?" asked Sonic.
"There," the echidna pointed at a nearby trail.
The strange marks on the ground they saw earlier outside have started there too. The periodically repeating dished spots looked as if they were some strange footprints. A few lines accompanying them gave them the idea of something being dragged on the ground. It all made a little more sense in Tails' mind then, but he decided to keep his thoughts to himself.
The gang simply followed the clear path, ignoring the flashing surroundings and small roller coasters ready to offer a moment of enjoyment for the customers. However, it wasn't meant to be that way. Soon the trail went through a badly damaged kiddy train ride. The entrance was smashed off the ground into a nearby cotton candy stall. The train itself was torn apart like a bad drawing, while half of the iron locomotive was lying on the ground. The clown painting with the circus' label on top was still attached to it, though, resembling the everlasting impression of happiness in man-made objects.
Support beams that held the ride's wooden roof intact were tossed off the train tracks, as if something too big to fit under the seven feet high space made its way through. Wreckage and the mostly untouched fair grounds made a clear contrast to the inspection team. It wasn't a hooligan's affair. Rage could not have made such consequences either. "Who?", "why?" and "how?" wrestled for domination in their heads.
The train tracks made a long oval, with half, including the beginning, on one side of the cave, and the second half - invisible, dug behind the solid rock in the form of a tunnel.
It wasn't a matter of time when the blue hedgehog raced into the tunnel, giving a hint for others to follow. Knuckles didn't obey at first, though.
"Be right back," he told the others and walked to each pole with fitted speakers. A few crashes were heard and the awful music stopped. Soon, the echidna was back and ready for teamwork.
"Here you guys are!" he exclaimed before he noticed a hole in the tunnel wall like the rest.
It appeared that the circus grounds did not end with the tunnel, thanks to a manifestation of brute force. Yellow tape with black letters painted on it was hanging from the hole's edges in a diagonal cross. It was torn in the middle, but nobody could deny the evident. Three letters with dots after each seemed so innocent and harmless if it weren't for the information they brought.
G.U.N.