QAN: Hey guys, just a quick one here. Thankfully, I have one exam left so.. I'll be able to have more time for writing. I do apologise if this chapter looks a little rushed as I've been studying 24/7. :( Anyways, 41 should be up soon, so I'll keep you all updated. :)

Feel free to leave a review and hope y'all enjoy!

Chapter 40: Underground Dawn

(Two hours later...)

E-S

Well, we did try to find the Herd and so far, we didn't have any good news. Unfortunately, we got ambushed by Walter twice whilst searching for our pre-historic friends. Both times Megan attempted to get answers on where her mother was, but he just wouldn't tell her! Elise, Tails, Shadow and I also tried to force him to give in ... and guess what? He wouldn't tell us either. Despite not succeeding the first time, I knew that we would get the answers we were looking for soon. I wasn't going to let anything stop us, and I promised Megan I'd help her.

The five of us were now back in the basement, continuing on with our search. It was heavily quiet down there, that you could almost hear a pin drop! The walls were a murky brown and the stairs were a dirty copper metal, similar to the long path outside which wove its' way around the building. Occasionally, a group of toadstools would pop out of the floor, stopping us in our tracks. Although good news, we only had to take a few of them out before progressing further.

Like I said before, I love adventuring and you never know what surprises will show up.

Meanwhile, I couldn't help but let Knux and Ames drift into my thoughts. Since Megan and I met up with my little bro and Shads back in the forest, I wondered about how they were doing without us around. We all knew I was still out for the count after getting attacked but ... Megan, Elise and I didn't know how Tails and Shadow ended up in the freaky worlds. Wether they discovered like a.. secret portal or something, I'm not sure.

But hey, at least we know they're alright!

"Ah.., screw it." Megan muttered after a while, snapping me back to reality. "I'm gonna call the Herd and see where they are."

Upon hearing her words, both Elise and Shadow nodded to show they thought that was a good idea, whilst Tails and I threw huge grins in her direction. The young girl then brought her wrist decently close to her face and spoke into her communicator radio, grinning back at us as she did so. "Manny, Diego, Ellie? This is Megan, can anyone hear me?"

We all braced ourselves to hear a reply back. I wasn't the only one beginning to think that something bad had happened to our friends, as Tails was exchanging worried glances with me. Letting my brotherly instincts come in, I ruffled his hair and gave a cheery smile to tell him that everything was going to be fine. My little bro chuckled slightly as he returned my gaze with a huge smile of his own.

"Yes I hear you, Megan. You okay?"

I tell ya, it really put a smile on my face to see our young friend filled with relief and happiness. Diego also seemed relieved upon finding out that we were doing just fine. Just faintly, we could hear Shira, Peaches and Louis talking in the background as the male smilodon spoke, indicating that they too had been worried about us. Megan did small jumps of excitement to show how she felt and I couldn't resist chuckling.

"Yeah, everything's fine." The young girl repiled, eventually calming down. "Where abouts are you guys?"

"We're in the basement right now. We, er, we tried to get answers on your parents' whereabouts, but.. we didn't get anything. I'm sorry.."

"..that's okay," Megan reassured Diego, trying to take her mind off what happened two hours ago with Walter. "We tried to do the same thing and it didn't go very well unfortunatley..." The brunette kid's eyes then brightened as she allowed more words to spill. "Hey, we're in the basement too, so.. do you guys want to meet up?"

"Yeah sure. Meet us in the centre and we'll go from there."

"On our way, Diego. Glad to hear you guys are okay." Our young friend repiled, walking ahead and gesturing for us to follow. I gotta say, I actually found it hard to believe that Megan came so far and hasn't given up hope yet! Sure, Elise and I weren't there for the majority of her journey but still...

She's literally one of the bravest kids I ever met.

As the five of us made our way to the centre of the basement, an uneasy feeling began to overwhelm me. It ... almost reminded me that something was going to prevent us from leaving the water prison, most likely victim 18. Judging from what Elise told us, this one apparently used to be a guard here. I didn't know how my friend managed to get that information, so.. I decided to guess that someone from the afterlife filled her in. I was ready to protect my friends at all costs. The only thing our ghost attacker had to do was come out and reveal himself.

From the looks of it, he probably wants to scare us. Bring it on!

"Hey Megan," Tails said after a while, breaking the silence. "Who do you think will be the next ghost, after this one?"

"I.., um.., I think it's ..." The young girl tried to reply, but couldn't seem to find the right words. "Y'know what, let's just say it's someone who I sometimes ran into. We ... we didn't get along very well, probably because he wasn't a fan of those our age and younger." Megan gave a small sigh afterwards, indicating that she didn't want to remember the person she was telling us about. I understood completely, as she told me about a friend of hers' not too long ago, Eileen.. I think it was. Poor girl... Been through a really rough ride.

Being the friendly hedgehog I always was, I racked my brains for something I could do to see Megan brighten up and be in a positive mood. Both Tails and Elise were trying to think too as they began whispering to each other about it, deciding what would be the best thing to make the young girl smile. Eventually, an idea made its' way into my head and I couldn't help but grin.

I mean, it sounded good. Let's just hope we get a positive result.

Unfortunatley before I could do it, a series of loud and excited voices filled the hallway. Knowing full well who they belonged to, we all instantly began to speed up with me overtaking Megan, Tails, Elise and Shadow.

"Ugh ... They said they'd meet us here, where are they?!"

"Crash, stop complaining! Sonic's probably running around the prison, doing what he does best."

Hey, I'm running straight for you guys!

Almost as if they heard my thoughts, Manny, Diego, Peaches and everyone else all turned to see us sprinting up to them. I quickly flashed the possums my trademark grin whilst Megan waved excitedly towards the teenage mammoth, the latter literally glomping her once we all met up.

"Thank goodness you're okay, Megs!" Peaches cried happily, prompting our human friend to giggle as she retuned the embrace. "I was worried sick about you!"

"Hey.., it's alright." The brunette kid reassured her, eventually pulling away. "It will take a lot more than a random dude to stop me. Besides"- Megan threw a grin in mine and Tails' directions, not forgetting Elise and Shadow. -"I got these cool guys backing me up."

"Well like I promised," I stepped in, winking and giving her a thumbs-up. "We'll help you out until the end."

And I never break them.

Suddenly, our pleasant meeting was interrupted by a familar sound coming from my medallion. We all knew what it meant and I tell ya, it was not a good thing. A flash of chalk white whizzed past us, not giving us enough time to get a proper look. Things got even more uneasy when the heavy silence was replaced by a low sing-song voice.

"Prepaaare for the Rituaaal of the Holy Assumption …"

We couldn't really make out what it was saying at first but after listening harder, we were able to hear some of the passages clearly. I immediately grabbed Tails and Megan, bringing them both behind me protectively as we prepared ourselves for the fight. Eventually, the owner of the singing voice revealed himself and it was none other than the next ghost on our list, Andrew DeSalvo.

"Guys, get ready!" Manny shouted fearfully, stepping in front of us.

"That's my middle name, dude!" I repiled, keeping an eye on our assaliant as I kept my little bro and friend close.

Let's do this!