Chapter 5: Tidal Tempest
"So, Chaos Emeralds or your life," Metal Sonic says as he points at Shadow. The occasional lighting shines off of the robot's figure.
"I guess we have to fight, then," Shadow says. He pulls out his Chaos Emerald while Metal Sonic charges towards him. He activates it to use Chaos Control. Metal Sonic's movements slows down in Shadow's eyes. The punch that the robot throws at him seems pretty slow. The hedgehog dodges this by moving his head to right. He hits the robot with his knee in the face. Metal Sonic stumbles back and begins to slide since the grass is wet from the rain. He floats as his rockets switches on to propel himself into the air to avoid sliding. Shadow does the same thing with his shoes. The robot thrust his right arm back, and then brings it forward at an incredible speed with his palm open to shoot a laser at Shadow. He sticks the Chaos Emerald in front of the beam and that cancels it out. Since Shadow was distracted, the robot took the chance to jump into the air and attack with a kick. He doesn't have enough time to use Chaos Control, and the sword is too far away or so he thought. The sword flies into the air and lands in his right hand. He blocks Metal Sonic with the sword. The robot jumps back.
"I see, so that girl over there is helping you," he says.
"She doesn't have anything to do with our fight," Shadow yells.
"She interfered," Metal Sonic says. "Because of that, once I'm done with you I'll finish her off as well!" He charges towards Shadow yet again. Shadow uses his Chaos Spear attack in order to halt him, but the robot still proceeds. He jumps in order to avoid Metal Sonic's attack. Shadow decides to give the sword a try. He crashes down on his foe with the sword in both hands. He hits him on the head and jumps back. The skull of Metal Sonic cracked, but that's it. The robot laughs and charges towards him again as fast as possible. He knocks the sword of Shadow's hand and lands to the left of him with it lodged in the ground. He dives for his sword and that's what the robot wanted. He flies to Shadow's spot before he could get back up from grabbing the sword. Shadow is kicked pretty hard in the face and flies into that only tree in front of Tails' house. The robot slowly walks towards him. Shadow can see the orange eyes coming towards him. He scrambles for his Chaos Emerald with his left arm, but he notices that it's in deep pain. He can barely move it, but he fights the pain. With sword in his right hand and the Chaos Emerald in his left and Metal Sonic right in front of him, he figures it time. Shadow yells out Chaos Control and disappears in a blue flash. He reappears in the air in front of the robot with his sword in his right hand across his body. He swings it through the robot's chest as hard and fast as possible splitting its case in two, but not the whole thing. He lets out a Chaos Blast once the swing is done. Metal Sonic is sent over Tails' house through the sky while flying away at an alarming rate. Shadow watches as the robot flies away until he's out of sight. He puts away his Chaos Emerald and stumbles back to the porch in order to take his seat. Our mystery person watched the whole thing, so she immediately wrapped up Shadow's left arm in bandages.
"That was pretty tough," she says as she takes the seat next to Shadow. "Do you encounter him often?"
"No. Normally when he would come around and ask for a fight I would Chaos Control away so I don't waste my time," Shadow explains. "But he seems different for some reason, kind of stronger."
"Why did you fight him if you normally would avoid him," she asks.
"Because he came here in order to raid the place for a Chaos Emerald and if he saw you then you would have been dead," Shadow replies. "I protected you, and like I said I wanted to help out the other since they seem like the only people I can trust so I protected Tails' house."
"You know, I've been worrying about you trying to help your friends. That means you plan to kill off my plan," she says.
Shadow thinks for a bit. "I thought about and decided against it since I kind of know where you're coming from," he says. "I would go through anything in order to revive a person who was close to me as well. That's why I won't interfere with your plan. I'm actually helping you right now, aren't I?"
"I see," she says. "Well then, I think I should do something for you. I'll reveal my name to you."
"Finally," Shadow says sarcastically. "Although I really don't need it, but do it if you wish."
"My name is Galaxina," she says.
"Ah," Shadow says. "Still though, fucking finally. Took too damn long. Five freaken chapters."
Now then, back to space. Everyone else is actually sleeping in their rooms except for Knuckles who is channel surfing, Sonic who is sleeping in his chair, and Tails who is keeping eyes on the radar since Cream is sleeping. He is also piloting the ship for the hell of it. It's in order to keep him awake although he is having trouble keeping his eyes open. The alarm fully wakes him up though. Sonic falls out of his chair once he hears the alarm. Amy and Cream runs into the room.
"What's going on down there," Knuckles asks through his microphone.
"We are approaching Chaos Ring number two," Tails says enthusiastically. "It's on the planet straight ahead."
"That planet is completely blue," Amy says. "No land on it."
"Aw, I'm getting tired of water," Sonic complains. "Do I have to go in this one?"
"Don't worry about it," Tails says. "I can now try out my latest invention." He pulls out a metal case and opens it to reveal five little black balls. "These balls are gum. Chew it and you can breathe underwater for a year. It also takes care of water pressure."
"That's pretty nifty," Cream says.
"Still doesn't hide the fact that Sonic can't swim and he's afraid of water," Knuckles says through his microphone. He takes a hearty laugh.
"Knuckles is right," Amy says. "Sonic still can't swim."
"Hmm, I can swim us both as long as he streamlines himself so it will make it easier for us to swim," Tails says.
"I get it. All I have to do is keep my arms to my sides, right," Sonic asks. "Thanks."
"No problem," Tails says. "Now then. I'll deploy the water landing gear."
Tails lands the jet on top of the watery planet. That's all there is to this planet, water as far as the eye can see. Only underwater is where the action happens. The sunlight is reflecting off of the water and it's pretty windy out. Everyone is standing on the left wing of the ship. Tails pulls out the Chaos Ring radar. He passes around the case of gum that he showed off earlier. Knuckles didn't accept since he's wearing his air necklace. He's the first one to jump into the water. He swims for a bit to show off in front of Sonic in order to make him mad which he does. Tails dives in next and forcibly takes Sonic with him. Amy and Cream are the last two. They crowd around Tails in order to take a look at the radar. It points below them in the northern direction. Tails leads the way since he's the one with the radar. He dives underwater pulling Sonic in with him and the rest follows. For a planet full of water, it's kind of shallow for what Tails was expecting. It's only around twenty feet to the bottom. It's also devoid of aquatic life. Tails continually leads everyone while pulling Sonic with him. After a few minutes, they come across a cave.
"We have to go in it," Tails says.
"We can talk underwater," Sonic asks surprisingly.
"Apparently so," Knuckles says.
"What do you think is in it," Amy asks.
"I don't know," Tails says. "Follow me."
He swims into the cave with everyone else behind him. The cave takes them down at an angle. Tails follows it until he's able to see a light at the end of it. He swims for the light. Once out of the cave, everyone begins to look around at this underwater palace. The buildings are crafted with kind of a purple color scheme and it's clear to see that they are made out of marble. There are streets which are made out of stone and lights dot the streets. There is a sign on Tails' left, but he can't read it since it's in some kind of language. Knuckles looks to right and see a switch on the wall of the cave. He hits it and the water begins to drain.
"Alright, good going Knuckles," Sonic says.
"This seems to be an underwater palace," Tails says. "The ring is in here somewhere. The radar says it's straight ahead."
"Yes," Sonic says. "Let's go then." He takes off running and Tails does as well. Knuckles takes off after them. Amy and Cream decides to stay at the entrance so Tails can find it later. Sonic is running through the main street with legs kicked in so that they look a wheel as he runs. Tails' tails got the fan effect going while Knuckles is running along on the side of them. They are approaching a tower quickly since they are running so fast. The pole to their right is taller than the tower so Sonic decides to use that. He hops to the pole and grabs it with his right hand. Because of the speed he was running at, the force swings him around the pole while carrying him upward with Tails right behind. Knuckles decides to climb the building instead. Sonic releases from the pole once he reaches the top of the building. There's another building blocking the way and it's as twice as high as the first. It's too high for Tails to fly up it.
"What do we do now," Sonic asks.
"Eh, I can climb it," Knuckles says. "You guys are on your own."
"I got it," Tails says. "Use the power of the ring to keep yourself planted."
Sonic stays put. Tails flies up the side of the building. He can only make it about halfway until the star band reaches it's limit. He orders to Sonic to release. The hedgehog does and he rockets through the air because of the star band's pull. He flies past Tails and eventually ends up carrying him as he rises through the air and lands on top of the building with Tails on the side of him. Knuckles just finishes with his climbing.
"Not fair," Knuckles pants.
"You said we were on our own," Sonic says mockingly.
"Uhh," Tails says. "The next building is too high for us to get over even if we try anything."
Knuckles looks to his left and sees another switch. He hits it. Everyone looks over on the cliff to the right. They watch as the water level rises and the ground splits open to form a waterway. They jump into this. A fan covers the hole in the ground and propels them through the waterway. They come across a pipe which they grab. Tails looks below to see spikes on the left at another pole on the right. He instructs Knuckles to fall on the right. Tails and Knuckles grab the second pole while Sonic is just floating around. They have to fall through the left this time. The fan then propels them up through the waterway and it exits on the other side of the tall building that blocked them once before.
"That was oddly familiar," Sonic says.
"Same thing I was thinking," Knuckles says.
"The ring is closer," Tails says. "It's not too far now."
They run to the edge of the cliff they are standing on. There is a water slide on the right. Sonic runs down it and carries Tails with him. Knuckles decides to run down it too. The slides empties out on top of a pool of water which Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles run across since the slide gave them unbelievable speed which could only be matched by blast processing. Sonic slows to a stop once he reaches the other side of the pool. He notices a floating, spinning cylinder. Sonic and Tails jump on this in order to carry themselves up the wall. Knuckles climbs the other wall instead. They come across another water slide which they proceed to run down. It empties in front of a loop which they proceed to run through. Sonic slows to a stop once they come across the blue Chaos Ring which is at the end of the loop.
"Yes, we did it," Sonic says. "Grab it."
Tails grabs the Chaos Ring. This one is blue. It glows and causes the Rings of Fate to glow a blue color. The glowing subsides and the ring shrinks. Tails puts it away. He uses his watch to get the location of Amy and Cream and points Sonic in that direction. Sonic uses Chaos Control to go back where Amy and Cream are supposed to be standing at the entrance. They aren't here, but their watches are left on the ground.
"Uh oh," Knuckles says. "Their watches are here, but they aren't. This is not good."
"I wonder what happened," Sonic thinks. "This place seemed empty when we got here. Something else is probably around. See anything over there, Tails?"
"Yeah," Tails screams. He is staring at the wall next to the cave's entrance. There is another switch here. He presses it and that part of the wall caves in to reveal another cave. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles stare at this cave which seems to be carved with gold. They cautiously enter with Sonic leading the way. The path lets them out in a dark room with no lights. Tails pulls out a flashlight that he carried with him. The room seems pretty empty, or so he thinks. That all changes once Knuckles hits the switch on the right. The lights turn on and the water level rises filling up about half of the room with the cave behind them now closed by a golden door. The ceiling in the cave parts way and something drops down in on a platform. Our heroes are shocked at what they see.
Cliffhangers, w00t. Main antagonist's name is revealed. Amy and Cream are trapped. Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles are trapped in a room with no way out.
Next Chapter: Tidal Tempest II