Disclaimer: I do not own Ed, Edd, 'n' Eddy, Sonic Underground, but I do own Shelby, Topaz, Nova, and the crew.
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The day had finally come they would be arriving at Castaway Kay soon. Sonic was getting a little more stir crazy now that they were closing in on land but he still couldn't stay still and everyone was keeping their eyes and ears peeled for anything…suspicious. Shadow's attacker was still at large and Garin wanted him or her caught at once!
"Is he going to alright?" Sonia asked Shelby as they watched him give out the orders.
"Ah, this is nothing, you should see him when he's REALLY stressed out!" Shelby said in reply.
"I'm sure that I'd rather not." Sonia said, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Those kids with you have been pretty quiet, you know, Double D and his friends." Shelby said.
"Well, they ARE from another world, after all." Sonia said.
"Ah, a dimensional rift, seen those before." Shelby said, leaning against a wall.
"You know about those?" The princess asked.
"Yeah, I've seen them plenty of times before, nothing new to me, really." Shelby said.
"How many times have you encountered them?"
"I've lost count. So how's, 'Sarrow' doing?"
"I've searched everywhere but I can't find anyone who knows about it." Sonia admitted.
"PFFT! I don't see the big deal about crushes, you love one guy you've loved them all."
"What do you mean?" Sonia asked in an almost shock like state.
"I just don't see the big deal, I've been a loner for the most part of my life and I never really needed to like a boy. They're nothing but trouble sometimes."
"But what about Shadow?" Sonia asked.
"What about him?"
"I've seen you two together, you seem pretty close to him." She shrugged.
"He just needs someone to be on guard for if the attacker strikes again." Shelby explained.
There was a moment of silence between the two.
"You've been hurt before, in the past, haven't you?" Sonia asked.
"Sort of." Shelby said her arms crossed tightly on her chest.
"What do you mean?"
"It wasn't me but a friend of mine, Icy, her boy hurt her REALLY badly, and it hit ALL of us pretty hard."
"'All of us'?" Sonia questioned.
"Me and all of my friends." Shelby explained. "Things were never the same after that."
"What happened?"
"They were on a date, she had started dating him about a month after her father's death, she arrived at my house, badly beaten up, I got her to the hospital, she later told me that it washer boy who did that to her, he had also left his "mark", a scar in the shape of a heart of her forehead, after a month, she got out of the hospital, he attacked all of us, in my own home…with a gun."
Sonia looked at her in surprise! It was no wonder that she didn't want a boyfriend, something that horrible would leave a mental scar on all of those around her friend, she was probably scared to have a boyfriend, scared that history was to repeat itself.
As the two girls discussed the matter, Eddy couldn't help but wonder one thing: How to win Sonia's heart?
Below deck…
Shadow was looking out a window, wondering if he had made the right choice, by coming on this trip. Maybe and maybe not but whatever it was, there was something that had made him go along.
"Maria, I'm lost, what should I do?" He whispered to the sun.
Shadow just shook his head, why was he bothering? She couldn't answerback. She was dead! She couldn't answer him. Or could she? Just as he turned around, the door slowly creaked open.
"Maria?" Shadow asked.
But in almost a second, Shadow found himself grabbed by the throat, the pressure suddenly growing! It was the attacker! Shadow kicked wildly, trying to escape.
That's when Shadow noticed the string near the base of the door, if he could grab it, he might be able to get help but first he needed to get away from the attacker. Putting everything he had into it, Shadow managed to sink his sharp teeth into the attackers finger. He could hear a cry of surprise and he was released! Shadow wasted no time he made a dive for the string and when he felt it in his hand, and pulled as hard as he could.
On deck…
CLANK! CLANG! BANG!
"What is that?" Sonia asked.
"SHADOW!" Shelby cried, realizing it was her security system!
She pushed past Sonia and raced as fast as she could down to the medical room, but not, before grabbing a piece of wood!
She slammed the medical door opened and saw someone raising Shadow off of the floor, pressing hard against his throat!
"LET HIM GO!" Shelby shouted and hit the attacker with the wood, only to have it shatter on contact. "Oh man."
The attacker looked at her and was about to charge when she managed to side step him and stick her foot out, causing him to trip.
"LET HIM GO!" Shelby yelled and lunged.
She dug her fingernails and teeth into the skin as best she could, causing the attacker to drop Shadow. She wasn't done there though. She grabbed a needle and used it to cut the attacker's arm. He cried out in pain.
"SHADOW! COME ON!" Shelby cried and raced for the door, the black hedgehog right behind her.
Once they were safe and sound in the hall, Shelby slammed the door shut, and tied it down with a rope.
"That should hold him." She told Shadow. "Lets' go find Garin, he's gonna fill when he hears this." Shadow nodded and quietly followed her up to the deck.
One minute later…
"He's trapped in there?" Garin asked.
"Yeah, we tied it down." Shelby said, undoing her knot.
"Be ready to jump him if he tries anything." Garin told his crew and they all nodded once in agreement.
"Get ready!" Shelby said and pulled the rope.
The door sprang open and the crew kicked the door open. What they saw hocked them: the whole entire medical room was in shambles, and tied to a broom that had been nailed into the wall, blindfolded, bound, and gagged, was a certain blue goat.
"ROLF!" The Peach Creek kids cried.
"Are you alright dude?" Nazz asked as she took the blindfold off.
Rolf let a muffled sounded something like 'Rolf is unharmed'.
"Dude, what happened?" Kevin asked as he pulled the old sweat sock out of Rolf's mouth.
"Rolf was blinded by darkness and pushed through sharp spines and tied up." He simply said.
"The attacker must have broken out!" Nova said.
"But why did he tie up Rolf?" Double D said struggling to undo the not that bind him.
"Rolf saw dark one crash through the window and Rolf tried to stop him." He explained.
"So he attacked Rolf, tied him up, and left him here after he tried to stop him?" Tune asked.
"Looks that way, little dude." Manic said.
"Question is where is he now?" Sonic asked.
"Good question." Topaz said.
"What do we do?" Ed asked.
"First of all you could help me undo this knot, I've never seen one like this before." Double D said still struggling to undo the knot.
"Allow me, Double D!" Johnny said. "I've got a "Know-Know-How" badge in the Urban Rangers!"
Johnny walked up to them and looked at the knot.
"A Double Hick, Clover Hitch, very clever." He said. "But I have a better way of undoing it!"
Johnny then started pecking at the knot, starting to make it weaken until he finally freed Rolf.
"Now the son of a Shepard shall take revenge on he who did this to Rolf!" He proclaimed and stormed out of the room.
"Looks like we've got nothing, let's see if we can find anything else whereon the ship." Garin said and he and the crew left the room, ready to start looking on the whole ship…again.
"I can't believe this, we haven't even had any lunch yet and already something goes screwy." Sonia said as she shuffled through some of the papers that were scattered across the floor.
"Well, we won't find anything just standing around, I'll check out the cargo hold, you guys look else where." Manic said and walked out of the room.
"I'll check out the higher places he could have gotten." Tails said and took off flying.
"Tails? WAIT UP!" Topaz called after him.
"I'll check around the deck." Sonic said and took off.
"I'll check out the quarters." Sonia said and left the room as well.
"We'll check around and see if there's anything we missed." Double D said as he and the Peach Creek kids left the room.
Soon, it was just Shadow and Shelby, who was staring at something strange.
"Something wrong?" Shadow asked.
"It's…it's nothing." Shelby said. "C'mon, lets' go."
Shadow just nodded and followed her out the door. The only act of movement was the single window in the room, completely unbroken…
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If you had been paying attention, you would have found out that Rolf had said that the attacker "crashed" through the window but it was unscratched! Makes you wonder what's really going on, doesn't it? So, anyone have an idea who the attacker may be? R&R please and you'll find out even sooner.