Chapter 4
Casino Night
STATION SQUARE
"Froggy! Froggy, where are you?" Big the Cat yelled. A man beside him looked a little uncomfortable next to this… cat.
Big finally caught a glimpse of his best friend, Froggy, and chased him all the way to the City Hall area. That was when Froggy crawled under a car.
"Froggy, I'm not as small as you! Get back here!" Big said. Big's last resort was to carry the car up and take Froggy, then. But when he did that, he noticed that there was only a sewer hole that Froggy must have gone in.
"Froggy, wait for me!" Big called after his friend, and jumped into the sewer hole. There was only a high ledge and a stack of boxes. Big jumped on one box and then onto a ledge that led him to an elevator.
"Froggy, are you in there?" Big asked. But his friend was waiting or should I say… swimming in the pool of Twinkle Park.
Big took out his trusty fishing rod and fished for Froggy. He caught some pretty cool fish, too, but his only interest was catching his pet frog.
"Is that you, Froggy?" he asked as he reeled in a fish. "No. Are you Froggy?" he asked as he reeled in a gigantic fish that he could have sold for a lot of $$MONEY$$! But no, he threw it back in. He fished for quite a while until he found his best friend, Froggy.
"Froggy, I'll never lose you again." But Froggy started squirming out of Big's hands. "Aww, Froggy, stop trying to run away!" Finally, Froggy got loose and ran in the streets of Station Square. Behind him, though, a blue stone appeared next to the sewer behind Twinkle Park.
"Ooh, this is a pretty stone. Maybe if I give it to Froggy, he will stop running away and we will just stay and sleep at our house!" Big screamed in delight. "Maybe there are even better things in this wet place!" He looked inside and saw some old fish bait. "This could help. Froggy wasn't biting the old stuff." Big said and ran towards the train station where he saw his best friend hopping.
MYSTIC RUINS – WINDY VALLEY
"Sonic, this is scary!" Tails yelled.
"It's all right, Tails, we'll find a way out of here!" Sonic said. There were platforms ahead of them, but they were too far away for Tails to fly to.
"Don't be afraid. The leaves act as a bridge. Just don't stop running." A voice said.
"Who said that? Tails, did you say that?"
"No, I didn't hear anything."
"Maybe it's worth a shot…" Sonic backed up and charged at some floating leaves. The voice was right! The leaves carried him all the way to the next platform as long he kept running.
"Tails! Just run through the leaves! Don't stop running!" Sonic screamed to his best friend.
Tails gulped and charged through the leaves which carried him to the platform.
"Oh, that wasn't so hard," Tails said in relief. But that was interrupted as something pulled Sonic away. Sonic screamed as Tails flew over to try and grab him, but there was a force. A very strong force. A tornado.
Since Sonic and Tails are pretty fast, they were able to withstand the power of the tornado and run while in it. Sonic kept jumped on springs that he saw on the ground and Tails just started flying up. The only thing they could do was get out from the top of the tornado. When they did, they landed on some new ground with a blue Chaos Emerald lying in front of them.
"Yes!" Sonic yelled.
"All right!" Tails screamed.
STATION SQUARE
Sonic and Tails made their way back to the City Hall area of Station Square, trying to figure out where the next emerald is. Sonic saw an open sewer hole with a car parked right next to it.
"Hey, Tails!" Sonic said. "The Chaos Emerald might be in here!"
"But Sonic, I'm hungry!' Tails answered back. "I wanna go to the burger shop and eat! I haven't eaten in like ten hours!"
"Whatever. Just go and eat your precious burgers. I'm gonna check out this sewer hole."
"Okay, Sonic."
So Sonic jumped into the sewer hole and Tails ran to the burger shop. When Sonic got there, there were only a few boxes blocking the way to one exit and a balcony where he saw a green light and some sort of object floating in the middle of it. He jumped onto the balcony and into the light, when he felt a sudden surge through his body.
"These are the light-speed shoes. Use a spin dash to charge it up and let go when at a trail of rings to perform the light-speed dash. Then you will travel through the rings at light speed." A voice said.
"What is with these voices!" Sonic said. "Okay, so I need a trail of rings…"
MEANWHILE…
"Sonic! Sonic! Where are you!" Tails started screaming out loud. He started to worry that he had gotten lost in the sewer. So he walked to where he thought the hole was, but it wasn't there. It had disappeared into thin air. Then he noticed that it didn't disappear, it just was being blocked by a car now.
"Shoot! Sonic must be trapped in there!" Tails said while trying to think of a solution. "Wait, there's another sewer behind Twinkle Park! There must be an entrance to that other sewer that Sonic is in.
So Tails ran towards Twinkle Park and into the sewers behind it. He waded in the water only to find out that a group of metal bars blocked his way.
"Man, now I'm never gonna get to Sonic." But Tails felt some light from overhead. It was a whole other building. He flew through the open hole and found himself in a place with a desk and apparently, an open jail cell. Inside it was a glowing green light and some metal in the middle. He walked into it and he felt a surge through himself.
"Look! You have found your Jet Anklet." A voice said. "It helps increase the speed of your flight."
"What was that? Am I hearing things?" Tails said.
STATION SQUARE – STORE
Sonic had made it out of the sewer and he had mastered the Light Speed Dash. He charged up his Spin Dash like the voice said and soon a light blue shade of light was all over his body. He pressed a button and a trail of rings came out. He let go of his charged Light Speed Dash and he dashed up through the rings at the speed of light. He went up to a platform that leaded to a door to the store that Sonic is in now.
"Hey, you're not allowed through that back door!" the store owner called out to him. Sonic shrugged and stepped out of the store, seeing a bright yellow-orange figure flying fast towards him.
"Hey Sonic!" Tails yelled. "I found my Jet Anklet!"
"Those are great, but look at my shoes! They're Light Speed Shoes!" Sonic said.
Tails started laughing. "Ha ha ha! Did you just make that up now?" Sonic gave him the evil eye. "So… anyway… oh yeah, I've found the location of another Chaos Emerald."
"Really! Where is it?" Sonic asked.
"Well, it's in the casino. The first one to 500 rings wins it."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Sonic sped ahead of Tails and ran through the hotel and ran up the stairs. He saw two switches. He touched one, and a trail of rings popped out leading to a door. He stepped on the other switch and the door opened. He saw the light-speed dash through the rings and through the door where he saw a bracelet. He picked it up and put it on. Then he heard a voice.
"This is the Crystal Ring. It reduces the time needed to charge the light-speed dash." A voice said.
"It's that voice again! Who are you?
He shrugged hit a button on the floor and jumped down onto the casino floor. Tails was waiting for him.
"Sonic, where have you been?" Tails asked.
"Getting this." Sonic said showing Tails the Crystal Ring.
They started running to the casino where the doors were locked. They looked around for something to open it with when they saw a gigantic switch on the high sign that said, "CASINO".
"Sonic! I'll fly up and touch the button!" Tails said. But Sonic saw a familiar button on the floor. The one that made the trail of rings appear.
"Wait, Tails! I'll care of it." Sonic charged up the light-speed dash and pressed the button which made rings appear, leading up to the button. He used the light-speed dash and hit the button, opening the door. Tails looked on in surprise. They both ran into the casino together.
A few seconds later, Knuckles came out of the hotel seeing the open casino doors.
"The Master Emerald shards! They're in there!" he yelled. He ran in and never saw Sonic and Tails.