STH © SEGA

Sarah belongs to me, BlackPetals23. Alicia belongs to aliciathewolf45.

Enjoy!

Chapter Seventeen:

Run Like Hell

"Tails!"

The fox was in a tree with Sonic. Shadow quickly followed his example and both he and Knuckles hurried their hides up a flimsy tree. Knuckles whined as it wobbled but didn't dare look down as the bear sniffed the air.

"Sh," Tails answered with his late reply.

"No prob," Sonic whimpered.

The bear seemed to huff and trudge along after snorting from a scent it caught. Nothing it wanted to deal with apparently.

After minutes of silence and just birds chirping in the moist air, Sonic's feet hit the ground along with his friends'. Tails scoped the area. "I think it's safe. We must've passed his territory."

Knuckles nodded while panting. Shadow leaned against the tree he came down and rested.

A growl from behind the trees was heard and the four heads twisted in that direction. Shadow stepped closer to his friends. "And walked right into another's."

A black bear appeared from the bushes and sniffed the air. It wasn't any normal black bear that would be small. This beast was older and bigger. Probably wiser, too.

"What do we do?" Sonic whispered.

The bear stood on its hind legs and let out a bellowing roar.

"RUN!" Knuckles pushed him and Tails to the ground, booking it up the hill and back into the grizzly's territory with Shadow right behind him.

Tails and Sonic went downhill, the black bear running after them. Sonic jumped over a root of the tree. "Tails! Where'd they go!?"

"Uphill!" Tails answered before disappearing in the bushes.

"TAILS!" Sonic's scream echoed through the mountains.

He stopped and circled around before hitting a tree. He held his head and breathed heavily. "Tails?"

The bear wasn't there. Tails wasn't there. Sonic was alone.

Sonic took the first step nervously and stopped. His ears pricked at the sound he heard. He walked forward until he hit a clearing. There in the middle was Silver with a helicopter and other Mobians Sonic didn't know.

The blue blur smiled and tackled Silver in less than a second. Silver chuckled and hugged him back, manly of course. "Sonic!"

"Silver! We thought you were a dead man!"

"Really?"

Sonic and Silver stared at each other before Sonic chuckled. "That doesn't matter right now."

"What matters is to get you guys back with your other friends," the female Mobian said.

"Oh, Sonic. This is Zoe."

Zoe nodded. "Scourge's friend. Or at least one of them. The criminals were captured and being asked questions. You have to come with us."

"But Tails, Shadow and Knuckles. They're still in there," he motioned to the trees. "A wild beast after them!"

"A bear," Silver nodded. "Yeah. We scared a black one while landing."

"Come on, guys!" Zoe said while she climbed aboard.

Sonic and Silver got in. They squished all together with Mike and Sam while Luke flew the machine. Zoe fit up front again with him.

"We need to rescue the others!" Zoe said to her brother.

"Pronto! There's two bears," Sonic said.

Silver froze. "Two?"

"Don't worry," Sonic waved him off. "They ran like hell."

Knuckles was stomping on the ground, crushing any twigs that got in his way as he ran for it. Suddenly, he halted to a stop, letting Shadow crash into him.

"What the hell?" Shadow asked.

Knuckles shushed him and pointed in front of them. The grizzly bear was walking away back to its den, oblivious of the two Mobians behind it.

Shadow veered off to the right in the direction they came from in the very beginning, a.k.a. the smart move.

"Let's go."

"Where though? We're lost."

Shadow shrugged and trudged down the hill, the bear disappeared among the trees. "I don't know. We just walk. Maybe we should've turned around a long time ago."

Knuckles nodded and followed after him. "I think we should've done that in the first place."

They walked in between two hills with trees covering them, getting further and further away from the bear. Shadow kicked a rock and sighed. "So…you and Rouge?"

"Yup."

"And she's not pregnant?"

"Why do you guys just assume that?" Knuckles stopped to put his hands on his hips.

Shadow shrugged. "I don't know, I guess it's because it's you and her…together."

Knuckles walked on after him. "What does that prove?"

"Nothing much, but it was our first thought with you two being so secretive."

"We weren't secretive," Knuckles said.

Shadow glanced over his shoulder. "Really? Hiding the fact that you two are engaged and we get to go to the East Mobius beaches?"

"Hey, how come you haven't just Chaos Controlled us back to the cabin?" Knuckles changed the subject.

Shadow looked away. "On the worst day of my life I happened to forget the emerald."

"You still use an emerald?" Knuckles inquired. "By now I would think you could just Chaos Control wherever whenever."

"It's not that simple. The emerald is just something I use, Knuckles. It's like a hairbrush that Sonia forgot—she simply uses it for the same task."

"So….?"

Shadow grumbled, "Nevermind. Let's just keep going this way."

"You know what this reminds me of?"

"What?"

"The night you left me to deal with those damn jumping spiders."

Tails was wandering around, having crossed a tiny little creek and going left. He thought Sonic would follow him but the retard went off, going straight.

The fox had done a slight loop, heading back after Shadow and Knuckles though he was pretty far from them now. He kicked twigs or rocks on the trail he created while swishing his tails.

What are the girls doing? Manic and Scourge? The Chaotix? Shadow and Knuckles? Even Sonic?

Tails' thoughts were interrupted by a sound. It wasn't anything he was used to. His ears pricked to the left and he gazed over his shoulder. His eyes rose. "Oh, shi-"

He caught himself off by running before the stampede of deer could take him. He was quite as fast though as they gained ground.

"HELP!" Tails screamed at the top of his lungs.

He flew to the far left over a giant rock while the deer ran together in a small, narrow path. Tails watched them go and put his hands on his hips, looking around.

The fox took one more step before groaning at the new noise.

What now?

He turned to look through the trees, his ears drooped. "Does every predator live here or something?"

The cougar swished its tail and let out a hiss before jumping from rock to rock to follow Tails who ran for it. To Tails this was just another scary moment, to the cougar this was some more prey.

I think I choose the bear!

The cougar leapt off into the small, narrow canyon-like path to follow the nearest deer. Tails slowed to a stop. "Nevermind."

Instead of going after the running deer though, the cougar vanished up the hill. Tails glanced around, trying to see through the trees. Nothing was happening. No noise or anything.

At least that was what Tails thought.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

~~~.~~~

Flying every now and then, Tails hurried after the stampeding deer and smiled. Shadow and Knuckles were in a tree while the deer passed by.

Knuckles stared at him with a grin. "Tails! Where's Sonic?"

Shadow and Knuckles got down onto the ground. Shadow nodded. "You caught up with us, where's Sonic?"

Tails shrugged. "I don't know," he replied to both.

"That's just great," Knuckles groaned. "Another soldier lost in the mountains."

"He's hardly a soldier, just a hero," Tails said.

"That idiot," Shadow whispered to himself.

Bold.

The word Vector would use to describe himself. He was bold because of plenty of things. He thought of himself as the leader of The Chaotix. He called himself bold after walking Vanilla home. He was bold now actually.

The black cows drank in the little pond past the creek crossing and past a fence. Someone's farm land was part of Brick Creek. After the team hit the creek crossing, they decided to go further down to where a fence cut across the creek and a trail for trucks was by it about twenty feet away.

They opened the gate on the road and followed it to a porter potty and then to a small pond where cows were crowded.

Manic was petting some with Charmy while Espio decided to play navigator and leader while Vector sat down on the bank of the pond and watch the cows on the other side.

"Think we should go back?"

Vector glanced at Manic. "Why? The guys are probably still lost."

"And we suck at finding them," Manic noted. "Sonia will kill me if we don't find them."

"Relax," Espio stated. "By now the girls would've called the police and a search party would be looking for them."

"And if we don't get back soon, they'll be calling a second search party for us," Charmy started back down the trail.

"Why?" Manic shrugged. "No one there really cares for us. We don't have girlfriends."

"Espio does, she's probably frantic without him," Vector teased.

Espio shoved Vector hard enough to hit the water. Vector got out with a glare to the chameleon. "I was only kidding."

"I'm tired of your kidding, Vector," Espio warned him.

"Espio has a date with her when we get back," Charmy said.

"Charmy!" Espio hissed.

Manic smirked. "Really? Who's the chick?"

"Espio and Alicia sittin' in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First come love, then come marriage-"

Like Vector, Espio pushed Charmy in the water without thinking. Manic's eyes widened at the sputtering bee who wailed, "WATER!"

"Oops…"