Not to far off, good old Lara and her associate Oskar had found themselves a motorbike and had hitched a ride on it, driving through the countryside and looking for any signs pointing them in the direction of the Ratakyan Ruins.

Whenever they passed by a settlement, Lara would wave at a few civilians. Amazingly, so many people here had heard of her exploits. So many were calling out, even as she passed, saying things like, "HI LARA!" or "WHAT'S UP?"

Silly fans, Lara thought, Always asking for autographs. Wait until the day I find the perfect man, somebody who will be so charming, silly and handsome. It may be a while, but our feelings will bloom until we become the happiest couple in the world.

"Think we'll just plow through the rainforest to the ruins if we can find them, eh?" Oskar suggested after a while, Lara thought of that, driving a motorbike through a jungle and risk running over any wildlife to get there, eh?

"Ok." Lara winked at Oskar, "Hold on to yer tail end and stuff, this is gonna be one bumpy ride, m'boy." Oskar gripped Lara's bag and her shoulder tightly, but not to hard in fear of hurting her. "All set, Osk?"

Lara asked, Oskar nodded, "Good, because here… we... GO!"

Setting the speed throttle to 25 Mach, the bike rocketed forward and, as Lara steered, they zoomed into the cluster of trees and bushes, running over a few crops and ticking off a farmer in the process.

"OYE" He shouted.

—│—

Unlike the ruins of the Ratakyan village and the exterior, the interior of the temple did not look pretty. Everything had decayed and become dusty over the years, most of the pillars had crumbled and rubble lay everywhere, the wall was decorated with torn up flags and spider webs were strewn everywhere.

If there was a major issue the Ratakyans had, it was heating issues, pest control and keeping things clean.

Sarah was shivering, arms crossed, Tails was cringing and Sonic was shocked. "Man, these ruins are pretty damn lame!" The blue hero playboy commented, "Somebody should've been here years ago to keep things in order."

Sarah cut in, "Exploration time or do we turn back?"

"Turn back?" Tails laughed, "If we just leave, we're basically letting rogue treasure hunters have their score and there is a chance somebody might use the treasure for his own gains. So, yes to exploration, the treasure is here."

"Where?" Sonic and Sarah asked.

Tails and both Sarah and the hedgehog's eyes widened. At the far end of the chamber, stood a tall stone dais, bathed in a ray of sunlight pouring in from a huge hole in the ceiling. Atop it lay a rolled up scroll and a piece of parchment bundled together by bundles of rubber and yarn, tied perfectly like shoe laces.

"Ooooooooohhhhhhhh, HOOBA DOOBA DOO!" Sonic exclaimed, punching the air happily, "This is too easy. Race ya to it, guys." He was about to dash towards the dais when Tails and Sarah held him back.

"Hold on, Sonic!" Tails said, "Lets not charge in, we don't know how many traps the ancients set up. Lets walk without anything crazy happening, ok?"

"Ok." Sonic replied, feeling a bit bummed.

"Don't worry, Mr. Sonic." Sarah hugged him, "We understand you like to be fast, not to mention that 'gotta go fast' drive you got all the time. Heck, you're not a fan of being slow. But you may never know what traps the ancients may have installed."

"You're right, Sarah." The twenty one year old hedgehog chuckled, fist bumping his buddy Tails and pounding Sarah on the back, "You may never know if we might suddenly set off any boogie traps, so we'll approach the treasure over there, slowly, together as one!

"No running unless we're in a messed up situation." Sonic nodded. "Then lets go, Tails and Sarah said in unison, fist-bumping again, "Very slowly, lets do it to it." Together, the three of them walked slowly across the room.

Sonic didn't hold arms or hands with Tails and Sarah, neither of them shivered due to the cold as they had decided to put up with the below freezing temperature as that was the risk they would take here as long our intrepid trio did not freeze like solid ice.

The blue speedster had ventured into freezing cold territory before on his many adventures but not without being equipped with cold-resistant equipment.

Sonic could still remember the times he hung out with his friends on cold wintery days, getting warm by the fireplace or a steam heater whenever the temperature was near freezing at 10 degrees.

That has been a year prior to dreaming about his ultimate dream girl, Sonic couldn't help himself now as he had these feelings that seeking out ancient, long lost treasure would lead him to the lovely girl with the British accent who knew how to kick butt.

As he and his companions got closer towards the scrolls, stepping cautiously over any rubble and broken up pillars, not to mention anything slippery, a chill went up his spine as Sonic's hedgehog senses tingled, warning him of danger.

Danger lurking in the shadows as shapes began to move, creatures sneaking about and watching the intruders in their domain. The danger levels slowly intensifying didn't matter, Sonic, Tails and Sarah stood in front of the scrolls.

Looking at the one scroll on the top, it was clear that it was a rolled up map left behind by the Ratakyans and the one beneath the parchment in the small container was, apparently, a parchment, a letter left behind by the ancients to give to those in the future as a message from the past.

"Well," Tails smooched his dream girl and fist bumped Sonic, "This was too easy, so why don't we grab these scrolls and get the heck out of here, huh?" Sonic did his trademark thumbs up, "Allow me to snatch these two artifacts."

Taking a step closer, the blue hedgehog raised a gloved hand over the bundled-together relics, wiggling his fingers and then, in one swift motion, he snatched up the parchment and the map in one hand.

Tails and Sarah punched the air, laughing excitedly at a successful treasure nabbing, while Sonic had gone on treasure hunts before, this was way different. "Now lets get outta here." The hedgehog said, shoving the scrolls in his pocket.

Backing away from the dais and retracing their steps, walking over the bits of rubble, making sure not to step on anything by accident, the intrepid explorers did not get very far when loud crumbling, scuttling, slithering and hissing sounds made them stop in their tracks.

Sarah started to shake in fear as Sonic and Tails got into fighting stances, fist closed and legs apart.

The unknown dangerous creatures emerged, surrounding the adventurers, monsters from the depths of the darkest abyss; Large and gigantic furry spiders with gleaming red eyes along with huge, hideous serpentine snakes with dark red scaly skin, red eyes and horns.

The monsters hissed as they faced down their next meals Sonic looked at Tails and Sarah and back at the monsters encircling them, he was not going to let these dark spawn of the underworld stop them from leaving.

"You guys have picked the wrong folks to mess with." Sonic shouted, "Well guess what, you're going down and, if we go down, we're taking as many of you with us. So come and get some!" Sarah gulped, "Uh, yes. Leave us alone."

Tails, remembering that he was capable of using other weapons besides a wrench and martial arts, whipped out a big golden spray gun and set it to LETHAL MIST mode, knowing well these creatures were not going to like it.

At this point, it was too late to avoid anything, the whole area exploded into fighting and chaos as the creatures attacked…