Darn, I sure as hell need this. Sonic thought as he turned on the warm water in the lavender colored shower, Its been a while since I last had a nice warm shower.

As the soothing water poured down on the muscular blue hedgehog, he whistled a little tune he would often sing or whistle whenever he got in the shower.

After showering for five minutes, the blue hedgehog turned off the water and stepped out, feeling better after getting rid of all that nasty stuff on himself.

Smelling the leftover shower mist, Sonic picked up the soft and fuzzy blue towel, smelling its cleanliness before drying himself.

The brave defender of justice looked at himself in the mirror and grinned at his reflection, flexing his muscles before putting on his new pants, shirt, vest and his good old trademark gloves, socks and shoes.

As the speedster turned out the light and left the bathroom, he bumped into Tails and Sarah, whose shower was already done as well.

Sarah was wearing a long, blue dress and orange gloves, brown sandals and a green hair band tying her hair back in a ponytail, smiling sweetly.

Tails had put on a new grey t-shirt and yellow shorts along with his trademark gloves and red-white shoes. "We sure did need one, huh?" Sonic said, fist bumping Tails.

"You bet." Tails replied.

"Ok, you guys." Lara was standing close by, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, she'd washed up and was wearing a fresh green shirt, black pants and slippers, "Time to get down to business."

Sonic chuckled, "You mean planning out the treasure hunts and studying the parchments, right?"

Lara nodded sharply, "Those two aren't just ancient parchments, the first is a scroll and the other is a map, we'll share our finds with you downstairs."

"How generous of you, Ms. Croft." Sonic said, tipping an imaginary hat.

Lara giggled, dismissing the hedgehog's gesture, "Oh please, Mr. Sonic. Feel free to just address me as Lara."

Tails chuckled, "Don't worry about Sonic, Lara. He has his own thing going on especially when he's around people, he's charming, handsome and irresistible to many women. You don't know how many hearts and gals he's earned over the last few years."

Sarah cut in, "We can't list off all of the girls he's earned over, but if you're interested, Sonic's a really great storyteller..."

Lara interrupted, "There's no need, we can discuss that later. Right now, we should talk business in the living room, Oskar and Tom are already there."

—

"Way past cool lounge." Sonic remarked upon taking in the sight of Lara's living room.

The room was nicely put together and had everything from a widescreen TV to a comfy sofa, potted plants, clean walls and a sweet painting sat on the blue-colored wall above the brown sofa, the painting depicted a flock of birds flying over a mountain. Lara did a fine job explaining the history of the mansion.

"Its good to see someone take a liking to the mansion." Tom noted, holding the rolled up Ratakyan parchment while Oskar held the canister containing the other parchment. "Well, er," Tails said, "Shall we get down to business without something bad happening?"

SMASH! No sooner than Tails said it, a rock broke through the window and hit him on the head. "OOF! The two-tailed fox rubbed his head, falling flat on his behind as the rock fell.

"Oh no..." Sonic and Sarah exclaimed, dropping to their knees and getting close to the two-tailed fox, who was clutching his head, "Tails, you ok? Say something!" Sonic's buddy groaned, "I'll be ok, I think I see a note attached to that rock or something'."

Tails was right, despite the pain causing his eyesight to blur, he could make out a white piece of paper taped to the rock lying on the ground with letters written in cursive.

"You have really questionably good eyesight for a guy who just got conked on the bloody head." Tom remarked, fetching an ice bag and giving it to Tails.

"Thanks," The two tailed fox groaned, putting the ice bag on his head on the spot where the rock hit him, "I dunno who would do this and why, but juvenile delinquents are not cool, not to mention grown-up delinquents."

Lara picked up the rock and let out a gasp, eyes widening with terror, "Goodness me, it is a letter." As she looked at it closer and saw who wrote it, she became more shocked, "No! It can't be, how did...? THEY'RE THE ONES RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BOMBING OF MY PLANE AND SHE'S AT IT AGAIN?!"

Sonic was surprised, "Who? Who is it you're talking about? Heck, who are we even talking about?" Ordering Oskar and Tom to temporarily safeguard the two items they'd retrieved from the temple in the ancient ruins, Lara peeled the letter off the rock and threw the rock away in a trash can.

The nineteen year old archeologist gave the letter to Sonic and almost immediately, the blue hedgehog started reading the letter, which was written entirely in pink, the one who wrote the letter obviously had to be a girl...

—

Dear Lara Croft,

I am delighted to inform you that I too am aware that the Ratakyan Tribe did exist thousands of years ago and their ancient treasures are out there.

By the time you receive this letter, I am already on the hunt.

You are now not the only one about to go after the ancient relic hidden away by the Ratakyans. If you still have the map and the scroll, good for you, but in the end, I will get my hands on their fortune and I will become more famous than you are.

A not so fair warning for you, there are many others on the treasure hunt and they will do whatever it takes to achieve their goal.

Remember the Tennessee Tarmacks? They're the ones who bombed your plane and wiped out your pathetic old excuse for a World War II pilot.

Be warned, Lara. If you value your dignity, STAY OUT OF MY WAY!

Sweet and tender kisses,

Montana Jane.

—

Sonic's jaw dropped soon as he finished reading, "Montana Jane? Do I even know her, who the heck is she?" Lara rolled her eyes, "Montana Jane is a rival of mine, she's one o' my American counterparts and a bloody pain in the ass.

"I can't go after one ancient artifact without her showing up to ruin my day and try to snatch my prize away, I just wish we became friends, but its difficult given she claims to be 'The most gorgeous woman on earth'."

"Y'know." Sarah crossed her arms in annoyance, "It would be nice to know Montana Jane's REAL name? I think is Montana Jane thing is just a nickname."

Lara looked at the red-haired, brown colored fox, "She has a real name, Alice Kestington!"

Sonic gasped, "No way!"

Lara looked at the blue hedgehog curiously, "You know her?"

"Er, sort of. I had a relationship with a gal named Alice Kestington once"

"What did she look like?"

"She was blonde with pretty blue eyes, nice tanned Caucasian skin and a southern accent. Heck, she looked good. That face and those smooth arms, her long legs, strong hips and thighs and that voluptuous, shapely figure."

Lara looked at Sonic in widespread shock, she didn't get mad, she raised her eyebrows and put her hand on her mouth, obviously not expecting to learn that this this handsomely funny, yet brave blue hedgehog, actually hung out with Alice Kestington aka Montana Jane.

"Lara, are you ok?" Oskar asked, he and Tom had just returned with the scroll and encased map.

Tom cleared his gullet, "Miss Croft? Please speak, are you shocked? You can't be silent, you have to talk, y'know. Long periods of silence can really scare the heck out of people talking to you."

A few minutes passed with everyone being silent, the only sounds being the clock ticking and birds chirping outside. The silence broke when Lara finally spoke up, "Sorry, just surprised, its probably nothin'."

Sonic raced off to the kitchen and returned seconds later with a cup of tea, "Would you care for some tea, Lara?." Lara looked at the twenty-one year old and asked, "How and when did you learn to make a tea so fast, Sonic?"

The blue hedgehog gave the tea to her, "You guys had started making it a while ago."

"I nearly forgot about that," Lara took a sip of the nice brown liquid that tasted nice, "Tom set the tea kettle ages ago and apparently none of us heard the kettle whistling. You have keen ears, Sonic!"

Sonic almost blushed, "Well, you know me, Lara. Hooba dooba!"

Lara giggled, "I love that catchphrase."

Tails spoke up after being very quiet for a while, given the fact he was tending to his own head injury with the ice pack after being bonked on the head, "Guys, aren't we forgetting about the whole treasure hunt deal?"

Sarah looked at Sonic, who looked at Lara and then at Oskar and at Tom, realizing what they were originally going to discuss. Because of how things had played out, everybody had almost forgotten about the lost treasures of Ratakya.

"Blimey!" Oskar exclaimed, "We nearly forgot. Er, I suppose we could try discussing it a bit later, after we've all recovered from what just happened, maybe after a nice lunch." Sonic, Tails and Sarah nodded, "Works for me."

Tom chuckled, "Then again, we could discuss it all right now instead of waiting until lunchtime or dinner time, eh?" He pulled out the rolled up parchment from his pocket and the other paper that had been encased in a glass-plastic and metal casing earlier.

"Lets do it to it." Sonic said.

—

A short time passed, once everything had calmed down, the group had more tea before finally discussing the two Ratakyan parchments.

"The first rolled up parchment is a scroll written in English." Oskar explained, "The second is a map."

Sonic coughed, "Why don't you read to us? Least they knew English."

Lara glanced at the blue hedgehog, "We're getting there."

She looked at Oskar and Tom, "Why don't I read the scroll and we can study the map together?" Oskar smiled, "Guess it wouldn't hurt, eh Tom?"

Tom nodded in agreement, Oskar unrolled the parchment and gave it to Lara, who held it firmly. Breathing slowly and aheming, she began to read it;

You who seek to use our legacy for your own gains, be it for good intentions or shadowy evil purposes, we will allow you to use it. But first, seek out the Keys of Senga and follow our map. With guidance from the Yujunaka and help from our map, you might face many challenges. We cannot give away all the details, but we can give you the necessary info you need to succeed in your journey, the keys are hidden somewhere, just like the Yujunaka Statue itself.

One key is hidden somewhere within a vast ocean, another is hidden in a shrine, another is located somewhere in a vast desert in a shrine just as the statue is located and one more is hidden in plain sight. The key hidden in plain sight might not be easy to find at first until you figure it out on your own.

Good luck great adventurers, you may seek out the keys in any order you want, either way, we still wish you good luck.

Signed, the Great Tribal Chief of the Ratakya.

"So most of the quest involves going underwater, huh?" Sonic said with a nervous stammer, "But, because we can find the keys in any order, how about we seek out the ones on land first and then go down to the bottom of the ocean to get that last one? That makes things a lot easier for us."

Including me, he thought, I still can't swim and I don't wanna be near water, nuh uh! Tails, who was finishing his own cup of tea and had recovered from his head trauma, wasn't surprised by that.

"Uh, I agree," he nodded, "Why not go after the land-based ones? Also, why hide a key underwater for centuries?"

"That's a good question, Tails." Sarah commented and kissed him on the cheek. "Yeah," Sonic agreed, "In fact, I think its stupid. Why not hide ALL of the keys on land, do they wanna challenge somebody? I say we go after the land-based keys and ask a couple folks to go after the underwater key for us?"

Lara raised her eyebrows in confusion.

"Hey!" The blue hedgehog said, looking annoyed, "Why are you staring at me like that? I was just spitballing suggestions that could help us."

Sarah raised an eyebrow and furrowed another, "Yeeeaaaaaaah, lets which key we'll go after first, starting with the land-based ones for the sake of a certain somebody's sanity as he doesn't like underwater scavenger hunts."

"The map." Lara rolled her eyes, wanting to keep things moving, "We need to see where the keys are located before we figure out where to go. Mapping out your path, figuring out strategies and charting courses are very important, otherwise, you'll find yourself wandering about with no idea where to go."

Unrolling the map, Oskar gave it to Lara and the group gathered around her to look at it, eyes wide with interest at what they were seeing.

Funny enough, the map didn't really look much like a map, it was mostly a key chart, detailing where the keys were located. On the top left, the water blue key was said to be in an underwater cave.

On the right, the Sunny Day Blue Key was in an Egyptian pyramid. The Green Key of Senga, located to the right beneath the blue key, in a Chinese Rainforest. Last but not least, the big Golden Satuyama Key's location was... ambiguous.

"Really?" Sonic said in a snarky voice, "Well, that's not helpful. However, I can tell you this, I did see a big golden key the last time I visited England. I was visiting the museum and met the curator who gave me a tour and a big golden key caught my eye, guy said an ancient tribe made it and that he had it for years."

Lara's eyes widened, "A big, ancient key in our country, owned by a curator?"

The speedster nodded and pulled out a photograph from hammer space he hadn't looked at in a long time, the photo of an exhibit with a huge yellow key. Lara put on some glasses to look at the photo, focused on the key and gasped.

"My goodness!" Lara exclaimed and grasped the blue hedgehog's arms, "The key in the picture and the chart are the same. Sonic, you just helped us."

"Looks like we're off to a great start." Tails chuckled, high-fiving Sarah.

Lara chimed in, "Sonic, do you remember the name of the museum and its curator?"

"Duh," Sonic rolled his eyes, attitude showing, "Of course, guy's name was Don Wilkson, has a wooden leg, and the museum is called the British Cultural Museum."

Tails and Sarah giggled, "Man with a wooden leg."

Sonic glared at them, "You have issues with a guy having a wooden leg?" The two foxes shook their heads and shared a passionate kiss on the lips, hugging and smiling with a warm and tender embrace. "Its probably nuthin' right now."

Oskar chuckled, "After all, its not every day you meet a man who has a wooden leg even though his name isn't Smith."

"What brought up wooden leg joke?" Lara asked.

Sonic shrugged, "Dunno, Lara. Its probably nothin'!"

"Lets move on, got a treasure hunt to do, keys to find, a statue to get."

"Great idea, Sonic." Tails nodded, "Treasure first, worry about jokes later."

Tom and Oskar chuckled, Sarah pecked Tails on the cheek and Sonic looked at Lara, "So, uh, when do we go to the museum to get that key, huh?"

Lara thought of that for a second and then said, "Tonight, before the museum closes, we'll go down to visit Wilkson and peacefully steal that key."