The soft morning glow shone through the open curtains of the airship's bedroom, gently bathing Jet's face with its warmth. It took a few seconds for him to wake from his slumber, and he tumbled off the top bunk bed because he forgot where he was for a moment. The pain was enough to fully awaken him though, and the first thing he did after he picked himself up was to look at the bottom bunk.
Sonic wasn't there anymore, nor were shoes his shoes by the desk. Either Jet had overslept, or Sonic had gotten up extra early to coordinate the next part of the trip together with Tails. According to his phone he retrieved from inside his jacket pocket, it was 10 AM already – so both possibilities could be correct at once.
Jet gently caressed his warming cheeks as he was reminded of the events of the previous night. The two speedsters proceeded with their game session for another hour or so after their little talk about fans. They then headed out to their respective beds (they fought over who'd take the top bunk, of course) and stayed awake for a few more moments while chatting about nothing in particular. Jet didn't remember it being particularly interesting, but thinking about it in hindsight made him feel warm. He liked spending time with Sonic, that much he could admit.
And he wouldn't be able to spend time with Sonic if he stayed inside his room all day! Like the weather report predicted, it wasn't hot enough for a jacket that day, so he only put on his shoes and gloves as well as strapping his goggles to his forehead. He'd need at least two cups of coffee to make sure he's awake enough not to embarrass himself in front of Sonic. Off to the kitchen!
Or not. His plans came to a halt as bumped into someone while he was stepping out of the room. At first he thought it was the blue blur himself, since he felt flexible quills gently poke his beak and quickly closed his eyes. But as he reopened them, it was pretty obvious he had the wrong hedgehog in mind. Sonic wasn't pink. Or the same height as him (unfortunately). Jet tried to scan his memories for someone that matched with those traits until the person in question turned to face him with a small gasp.
"Oh, excuse me! Are you hurt? I didn't get out of the way fast enough, I was distracted."
…Amy? The name felt right in his mind. How convenient was it that she just so happened to show up on his ship the day after they bring her up in conversation? If Jet didn't know any better, he'd guess Sonic had been setting this up all along. He would have to take a look at the blue hedgehog's schedule in greater detail, he knew where they were going but not who they were bringing along.
"…'s fine."
It had been ages since he'd last seen Amy, way back to the whole ark of the cosmos situation. It was a good thing she hadn't changed much in appearance – same red dress and all that – otherwise it'd have been too much for Jet's morning brain to deal with. Though it wasn't like he knew much about Amy. All he knew was that she used to be obsessed with Sonic…and now she's not. So, it wasn't like he knew anything about Amy anymore.
The pink hedgehog's polite smile was starting to get replaced by a confused expression, probably because of his slower than usual response times and lack of snark. He raised a hand to scratch the back of his head as he thought about how to continue and eventually end the conversation. His stomach was telling him to hurry up, but his brain was telling him to be polite and make a good first…third impression.
"Ever been to Marble Zone before?"
"Nope, it's my first time! Is it as interesting as Sonic is making it out to be?"
"I dunno, never been there either. If anything, Sonic's going to be the only interesting thing there…" Jet only realized what he'd said once it had already come out of his mouth.
"You know what they say, you have to make your own fun when it comes to stuff like that!" Amy let out a chuckle, covering her mouth with her hands. There was a brief flash of intimidation in her expression. Did she… think he was trying to make fun of her?
"Mhm. Hey, you…" Jet hesitated, trailing off as he realized how dumb of an idea asking her for advice on how to befriend Sonic was. "…Know if Wave is still around."
"Huh? Oh yeah, she's sitting by the… I guess that's a living room? The one under the control platform." Amy tilted her head slightly. "She almost didn't recognize me, can you believe that?"
"You're lucky she even looked at you, she's been glued to her phone the whole trip. Chatting with Rouge and all that."
"Rouge told me they were dating now yeah! I'm happy for them, they seem like they complement each other pretty well. Don't you think so too?"
"She's pretty much the only one capable of making Wave shut up, that's already pretty damn impressive. They look happy when they're with each other, I'm glad for that. I don't know and don't want to know about the details of their private lives." Jet shrugged.
"That's for the best, half of Rouge's private life is classified information anyways." Amy snickered, breaking eye contact to look around. "Have you seen Cream? I've looked all around the ship but I haven't found her anywhere…"
"Oh, she's probably practicing with her extreme gear. You just go down there," Jet pointed at the hatch by the end of the hall, "and be careful so she doesn't run you over. She's getting better at picking up speed."
"Cream has extreme gear now too? Did you have a hand in this?" Amy shot him a harmless yet teasing look. He raised his hands defensively in response.
"I just helped her get better at it, I didn't make her buy the gear or anything. If I did then I'd have made her get a Babylon Standard one. Wave wouldn't let me hear the end of it otherwise."
"Okay okay, just making sure. Cream never told me she was interested in that sort of stuff, it's kind of surprising! Then again, she's come with us on adventures out of her own will and against her mother's wishes in the past, so it shouldn't be that surprising…"
Jet shrugged again, ready to go grab some breakfast. Amy noticed him slowly trailing off and gently grabbed him by his wrist. "Gently" maybe wasn't the best word to describe it, but his bones were still intact.
"Hey! So, um… I don't want to be nosy, but what's the deal between you and Sonic anyways? You're like, all buddy-buddy with each other now? When did that happen?"
"What, you jealous?" Jet couldn't resist letting that one out, a slight smirk on his face.
"What? No! That's not it!" Amy pouted, a faint blush spreading across her muzzle. "I just… you know, curious. You two used to barely talk and even hate each other at one point. It's probably because I haven't seen you in so long, but this just feels… unfamiliar to me."
Jet figured she was being genuine, so he decided to open up to her a tiny bit. "I dunno either, to be honest. But I like it. Just… don't tell Sonic I said that to you or he'll never shut up about it."
Amy's smile extended into a sort of mischievous grin as she released his wrist. "Oh! Don't worry about it, your secret is safe with me. I didn't realize it was like that at all, I'm really surprised right now. But don't let me keep you from your lover any further!"
It took him a couple of seconds to realize what she was implying, and she was already at the end of the hall when he started shouting about how all of this was just a misunderstanding and "not like that at all!". She simply giggled in response and climbed down the ladder to the makeshift gear practice room, keeping eye contact with him until she closed the hatch above her.
If it wasn't for her (questionable) promise, he'd have put something heavy over the hatch so she and his secret would never be able to leave. Not without her breaking through the walls of the airship, at least. Which was a possibility, unfortunately. Jet knew pretty well the absurd amount of physical strength she was able to put out – strong enough to knock out Storm in fact! But that was besides the point. The point was… he needed to grab his coffee already before something else could make him panic.
Luckily for him, there was still plenty left in the kitchen. He chugged the first cup as fast as he could, and decided to actually savor the second and drink it while he walked towards the so-called living room. It was a large open space right next to the control platform, with four comfy looking couches positioned in an X formation. He could see Wave on her phone as he approached, and decided to sit on the couch opposite to hers. He was in the middle of sipping his coffee when she spoke up, surprising him.
"We're set to arrive in like five minutes, you should get ready."
"I'm ready, I just have to get my board. Are you ready?"
"I've never been more ready in my life." She joked, finally putting her phone down to face Jet. "What was all that shouting in the hall about, by the way?"
Jet closed his beak and looked away when he noticed Wave was raising her eyebrow at him. "Weh."
"Just spit it out, I don't want you being a dick to people for no reason. I'll be out of the crew for a couple of days starting tomorrow so I can only do so much damage control, you know."
"Fine, geez! You're so annoying! It's just that," Jet lowered his voice, "she…she's onto me."
"Huh?"
"You know, about the… the thing? The situation. The issue." Jet gestured vaguely towards his surroundings. It took a couple of seconds for Wave to finally catch on to what the heck he was talking about.
"Oh, that was it? I mean, I don't blame her. You make it too easy." Wave scoffed at him, picking her phone back up. "Amy is trustworthy, she won't tell anyone about your crush."
"IT'S NOT A— wait, how do you know she's trustworthy? You don't talk to Amy." He raised an eyebrow.
"Cream told me, duh. What, now you don't trust me?"
"That's not it! I…I'm sorry." That made Wave's eyes widen.
"Chaos, this is worse than I thought. You know you're going to have to talk to Sonic himself about it sooner or later, right?"
"Absolutely not, have a terrible day." Jet huffed and got up right in time for Sonic's voice to ring across the intercom speakers – the ones nobody had told him about, of course.
"Attention, this your captain speaking—"
"I'm the captain!" Jet shouted loud enough for Sonic to hear him from whenever he was broadcasting the message from.
"Fine, this is your co-captain speaking. We have arrived at our destination – Marble Zone – and will be landing shortly. Once we do, grab your things and head for the exit. Copy. Or was it over? Tails, what do they say when they finish giving out announcements on airpl—"
The broadcast as cut short – possibly by Tails himself. Jet sat back down in preparation for the landing, which was fairly uneventful compared to what used to happen when he was the one piloting. The airship shook and rumbled for a short while before making contact with the grass, and the exit ramp was lowered shortly after.
Both Jet and Wave popped out of their seats and headed for the exit. Amy and Cream came out of the hatched, with the former giving him a teasing glare before walking out. Tails and Sonic walked out of what he assumed was the engine room and went straight outside. They were the last to exit as Jet had to make a quick trip to his room to retrieve his extreme gear. Wave used her remote to close the ramp behind them once they stepped foot outside.
This place was… something else, Jet thought. They were standing on top of a large grassy field that waved softly with the wind. Marble structures were present pretty much anywhere he looked, ornate and beautiful yet strong enough to resist the elements for ages. Lakes of lava also adorned the landscape and made the air hot yet not unbearable. Mechanical, repetitive sounds could be heard coming from the pathways etched into the hills leading to unknown underground wonders.
Everyone else also seemed pretty amazed with how beautiful the place looked – even Wave had stopped to admire the scenery! The only one that didn't seem all that impressed was Sonic himself. Instead he had some sort of nostalgic look on his face, matched with a small smile. Jet could swear he had seen the hedgehog wipe a tear for a brief moment, but teasing him about it wouldn't be nice. And he was supposed to be nice now!
"Whew, this brings me back. Way less badniks than I remember though, but it's for the best." Sonic then turned to face everyone, bringing his hands together with a small clap. "Alright! What's the plan?"
Everyone looked at Sonic with mixed expressions of confusion and surprise. It was a whole five seconds before Jet spoke up to voice what everyone else was thinking. "We thought you'd be the one making a plan. Since you're organizing everything else."
"What? Pfft, that's ridiculous. But uh… I can do that now, I guess! Tails, Wave? Do any of you have like… a radar or something that shows which of these caves lead to the treasure?"
Both geniuses shook their heads in disagreement. Sonic's eyebrows furrowed and he raised a hand to stroke his chin in thought. "Alright, then… How about we just go for it? We form teams and the one that finds the treasure first washes the dishes for today."
Everyone replied in agreement, and so Sonic continued. "Right, we could have… two teams with three people! Jet and Wave should be in different teams, since they're the ones that know how this usually goes. Any takers yet?"
"I want to be in the same team as Jet!" Amy suddenly chimed in, surprising pretty much everyone. She stepped besides the hawk and grabbed his arm.
Jet had previously wanted Sonic on his team but now the situation was the complete opposite. Even if Amy did intend to keep her promise, he still had a bad feeling about the situation. He stepped out of Amy's grip and stood behind Cream. "We're a team, then! Speed, power and… uh, can you fly somehow?"
"I can fly using my ears, yeah!" Cream nodded and smiled.
"What, really? That's weird, but whatever. We're officially the most balanced team there is! Have fun trying to make your two nerds get past the first jump over lava." He pointed right at Sonic. "Whenever you losers are ready!"
"We're always ready, Flicky. But there's one last thing." Sonic walked up to Jet and handed him what looked like a small walkie-talkie. How old-school. "So we can let each other know when we found something interesting."
"Works for me." Jet nodded and put the object away somewhere. "Now are you ready, hedgehog?"
"Everything's settled now, yeah! Wanna do the countdown buddy?" Sonic looked down at Tails, who shrugged in return.
"Can't we just… go?"
"Sure, that works. Go!"
Sonic's team immediately turned the opposite way and started running towards nowhere in particular. Tails soared up in the sky, probably scouting for the least dangerous looking entrance out of the hundreds there were. Sonic had to practically drag Wave along since she didn't bring her board to the trip.
And Jet soon got on his. Cream was already wearing her gear skates and just had to turn them on. She was also watching what Sonic was doing and decided to go one step further. Without warning, she swooped Amy up and start carrying her – an action that was met by a yelp of surprise from said hedgehog.
Jet sped ahead of them, avoiding the lava and finding a path that required no jumping – he didn't know if Cream had gotten used to that yet and didn't want to be held responsible if she got hurt. That closed a lot of the options they previously had for possible entrances, but there were still a handful to choose from. Jet stopped in front of an ornate gate that was carved into one of the many hills. He whistled as loud as he could to see how far the noise traveled. He then got off his board and motioned for Cream to turn off her gear before getting in.
Sonic mentioned he had been there before, but Jet couldn't remember him talking about any sort of treasure or interesting find. And he mentioned going in pretty deep too, just what was going on? The answer made itself clear as soon as they stepped inside. While the aboveground structures were mostly intact, a lot of the tunnel walls had either collapsed or gotten blocked by stray rocks and bricks – turning a once linear set of pathways into an artificially complicated maze.
The other issue was the lack of lighting in the deeper parts of the zone. If someone who had come unprepared was to guide themselves using only the light coming from the surface and the pools of lava, they'd stop going lower at a certain point. Jet had come prepared, however! He ditched his old goggles and put on a head lamp that instantly brightened the path ahead of them.
His companions stepped back so they wouldn't get blinded, and soon the three of them were venturing in. The lamp could only do so much though – they had to be extra careful about the spike traps and weighted pressure plates that littered the place for no reason in particular. On top of that, Jet had to stop and check all directions whenever they reached an intersection, analyzing the texture and carvings on the marble to try and identify what was the original path.
"So, Jet…" Cream had already put Amy back on her own feet, since they shouldn't be going fast in a place like that anyways, "tell me more about you and Sonic."
"Not the time." Jet groaned, analyzing the walls with his gloved hands. Not the most efficient way of doing it, but he didn't want to risk hurting them on any sharp edges.
"What are you talking about, now is the perfect time! It's just the three of us in here, and you don't even usually talk to me anyways so you don't have to worry about my opinion too much."
"The fact that I don't talk to you just makes me more uncomfortable telling you anyth— ow!" Jet had stubbed his toe in the corner of another metallic pushing block.
He angrily shoved it on the pressure plate with his uninjured foot. Instead of the spike trap in front of them raising, a chunk of the wall to their right lowered into the ground. Hot air and bright orange light emanated from the passage, the source of those being an extensive lava lake. There was a small platform they could step onto at the other side of the wall. It detached from the ground as soon as all three of them stood over it, floating deeper into the ruins.
Five minutes had passed and there still hadn't been any noticeable change in scenery, so Jet decided to sit down against the warm marble. Amy and Cream copied him soon enough, with the former scooting ever so slightly closer to him.
"I'll drop the subject for now, then." Amy let out a small frustrated sigh. "What have you been doing nowadays anyways? Still going on heists and getting fooled by Eggman?"
"I'm a professional extreme gear racer now, thank you." He crossed his arms over his chest. He was uncertain about that, but it wasn't like he was going to tell her he got ditched recently. "What about you? Still chasing Sonic despite him being clearly uncomfortable?"
Amy faltered, losing her words for a moment. "I'm doing sports too, actually! I've been trying to get into the big MMA leagues. I've been getting pretty good at it! Though I haven't gotten a contract offer yet… so I work at an ice cream parlor part-time."
Jet blinked, then looked away. For a moment he forgot that literally everyone else was up to more interesting things than him. Amy noticed Jet's brief flash of genuine discomfort and turned to talk to Cream. "What about you? Jet told me you've been getting into extreme gear lately."
"Oh yes, I have! Jet taught me some tricks just yesterday, he's really good at it." Cream smiled and nodded.
"That's pretty cool! I knew all the adventuring would rub off on you in one way or another. Is Vanilla okay with this?"
"Mom still worries about me of course, but not as much as before. Vector has been giving me self-defense classes to make me feel safer. I just hope I don't have to use any of that anytime soon…"
"I'm sure you won't. You're already looking way taller and stronger than you used to, nobody's gonna want to mess with you when they see how fierce you are!"
"I'm fierce?" Both Cream and Amy let out a small chuckle. "I suppose so. It's not like I was completely defenseless before, I already knew how to spindash and fly away from trouble. This is more so for mom's sake, you know?"
"I get you, yeah. It's still good to exercise in one way or another – and you get to see Charmy! You've been talking to each other lately, right?"
"For a while, actually. Mom and Vector go on dates pretty often nowadays, so me and Charmy get left together with Espio. He's pretty fun to be around!"
"I bet you wish you could go on dates with Charmy instead, huh?"
"W-what are you talking about?"
"Heeey, I saw you blushing! You like him!"
"It was just the lava, cut that out!"
Both of them started giggling and playfully jabbing at each other, which snapped Jet out of his thoughts. He suddenly got up and pushed past the girls to stand at the opposite end of the platform.
"This is taking too long, we're gonna lose to Sonic if this thing doesn't go faster."
Before Amy could tease him about not being able to row the platform with his ego alone, Jet took out his trusty bashosen – a pair of fans made out of what looked like palm tree leaves at first glance. He held them above his head before bringing them down forcefully. Gusts of wind erupted from the fans and made the platform gain a small burst of speed. The lava agitated and splashed past, but luckily none of the drops hit them.
He was about to do it again but Amy advised him against it. They were keeping the speed and going way faster than before – and it would be dangerous to have the platform shake and possibly flip over in a place like that. He begrudgingly agreed, sitting down once again.
"That's much better at least. It's not like I know where we're going anyways, for all I know we could just be going back to the surface." He sighed, putting the fans away.
"You're never going to beat Sonic with that attitude." Amy rolled her eyes. "You really didn't change a bit, did you?"
"We'll be lucky if we ever get to see Sonic again. Who knows how big this lake is, we could be here for days!"
"Aww, you want to see Sonic so bad? So you two really have something special going on!" Amy brought her hands together.
"Oh? Mister Jet has a crush on Sonic?" Cream stared at him curious, her tone much more genuine and not teasing at all like Amy's.
"…"
Nobody had told Jet being a nice person was so hard! He wanted to yell at Amy so badly, but he'd probably be labeled as the bad guy if he did so. That's how things usually went for him anyways. Maybe he should just give her what she wants once in for all. If Amy decided to do anything with the information other than keeping it hidden in her memory, he at least knew where the nearest pool of lava was.
"…I might have. I don't know yet."
That made Amy go silent, as if she was expecting Jet to yell at her instead. Instead of continuing to poke and prod him about it, she gently moved her gloved hand over his.
"Hey, you can take your time with it, alright? You don't need to rush to figure yourself out, it'll all come to you when the time is right."
Where did that come from? Now it was Jet's turn to be surprised, but not too much. Of course Amy out of all people would say something like that. He wanted to yank his hand away from hers and yell "just kidding!" as loud as he could, but she had such sincerity in her voice that he couldn't go for it. He just sat there, contemplating how that one meeting with Storm had managed to put him in such a peculiar situation.
"Why are you talking like that?"
Amy immediately pulled her hand away and broke the vibe they had going on. "I'm just trying to be nice, geez! You look like the type that desperately needs advice, you know."
"Maybe I am! Maybe I do!" Jet raised his hands in frustration. "How am I going to know when the time is right? That doesn't make any sense at all!"
"How am I supposed to know? The feelings are yours, I have no way of knowing what goes inside your head!"
Jet started to retort, but closed his beak and growled instead. She was right.
"At least tell me what I'm supposed to do if it does end up being a crush. I've never had one of those before."
Amy looked away with a melancholic smile on her face. "I'm afraid I'm not the right person to ask that."
Jet raised an eyebrow at first, then remembered his conversation with Sonic the previous night. He still acted like he had no clue what that was about though – he was pretty sure that was supposed to stay in private. "Whatever."
"But!" Amy turned to face him once again, her expression shifting into a grin. "I know who can."
"Really?" Jet's eyes perked up and he scolded himself internally for sounding that excited. "Who?"
"Well, I'm not sure I'm supposed to be telling you this, but… Sonic and Shadow used to date for a while. Maybe you could ask him about it. He's the only person that truly knows how it feels to date Sonic, he's perfect for the job. Getting him to actually tell you those things is going to be the most difficult part, but maybe if I talk to Rouge…"
"I have no clue who Shadow is. Like, really. Everyone's been talking about Shadow like I'm supposed to know who that is and I'm starting to go crazy."
"Don't worry about that too much, you'll know him when you see him. Besides," Amy got up and dusted her clothes, "I know you know who Rouge is, so you can ask her about it if you're really that lost."
Jet nodded and turned to look at where they were heading. He could see it now – a way bigger platform in the middle of the lake, solid and unmoving. A pedestal stood right in the middle, and an object Jet couldn't identify just yet laid atop it. Him and Cream soon got up and patiently waited for their makeshift boat to arrive. Jet made sure to inspect the perimeter thoroughly before swiping the object, as the middle of a lake of lava was possibly one of the worst places to accidentally trigger a trap.
It looked like… a gourd? A very fancy one too, encrusted with bright red rubies horizontally across the middle. It was still shiny and room temperature (room temperature of a room with no lava in it, at least) despite how many thousands of years it must have remained in its pedestal. As soon as Jet's gloved hand touched it, the rubies seemed to flicker like LED lights. Only one of them retained its red coloring, while the rest faded into a dull gray.
"I knew it! I knew they were still out there, I knew it!" Jet started prancing around like he had won the lottery. Cream was confused but went along with his excitement, clapping her hands and congratulating him. Amy waited for him to finish his second lap before clearing her throat.
"I don't mean to be a buzzkill, but you two should have a look at that." Amy pointed towards the lava. The platform they had arrived with was getting away! Cream offered to fly them back onto it, but Jet held her back.
"Watch this!" Jet walked near the edge with the gourd in hands, putting the entrance against the lava. He whispered something to the object and both girls watched in surprise as the lava started to slowly drain away into the gourd.
"Legendary treasure two of five found!"