Chapter 7: Beneath the Waters


"Are you guys all buckled in?" Tails asked, a hint of fear in his voice.

Cream, Blaze, and Rouge all nodded in reply, slightly nervous. Then again, who wouldn't be unnerved? The risk of the Tornado 3 shattering beneath the water, coupled with a slim chance of getting to the surface in time, would have resulted in hesitation of anyone, even the steel-nerved Shadow. Rouge let a short sigh escape her lips as she leaned sideways, resting her head against Knuckles' Extreme Gear.

She watched through the cockpit's window as Knuckles, with the Air Necklace secured to his mouth, gave a thumbs-up, signaling to Tails that he was ready to go. Rouge and Blaze simultaneously grabbed onto the edges of their seats as they felt the Tornado 3 rumble, slowly rolling towards the water. Cream took a deep breath to calm herself. There was a splash as they broke through the surface of the water, and another shortly afterwards as Knuckles followed them down. The water was murky and very difficult to see through, even with the aid of the Tornado 3's powerful headlights. The only light within the cockpit itself was the dim glow from the dashboard.

"It's dark," Blaze murmured.

Tails nodded his agreement, mentally noting the chill that had crept into the cockpit. They sank further and further beneath the surface, the low hum of the machine keeping the air from being completely silent. The spell was shattered by a warning beep, indicating the increase in pressure. Nobody needed to be told that-- the pressure was affecting everybody. Rouge's ears in particular were killing her. Tails flicked a few switches on the dashboard, biting his lower lip. All that the passengers could do was sit as the beep steadily became more frequent.

"What's going to happen, Tails?" Cream asked, covering her ears.

"Well, as long as we get to the base soon, we'll be fine," Tails replied.


Normally, Amy would have been overjoyed to see Sonic, but the thought of seeing him now made her want to smash something. Having avoided seeing her former hero for a few years had calmed her down. Now that they were cell-mates within in the same prison, her feelings of anger were renewed.

'I still can't believe he'd choose Blaze over me! I've known him longer! How could he do something like that? Did he ever think of my feelings, even once?' Amy thought angrily, before letting out a cold laugh. 'Probably not. That jerk is so caught up now in doing things for Blaze to even notice me. Stupid cat.'

Ever since Blaze had first been transported into their world, Amy had known that there was something about the cat that she didn't like. She had always given Sonic this look. The hedgehog sighed angrily, spitefully wishing that Blaze would die.

'So now, she is with my Sonic, going on dates and having fun. Hell, Sonic never took me on a date, not even once!' Amy paused at that thought. Now that she looked back on it, Sonic had zoomed off almost every time she set foot near him, long before Blaze had arrived...

Amy hugged her knees closer to her chest and pressed her forehead against them, trying to sort out her unorganized thoughts. She'd locked herself in the bathroom after Shadow had attempted to reason with her. Granted, that had been rude of her, but Amy simply hadn't felt like talking with anyone at the moment. Then, as though a higher power had read her mind and was trying to object, she heard a loud knock on the door beside her.

"Amy?" It was Shadow.

Amy gave a loud, annoyed sigh. "What?"

She could hear Shadow give his standard 'hmph', followed by a soft thump. "I was justing coming to say that there is food outside your door if you want it."

After that, the pink hedgehog could only hear silence. Slowly, she stood up and turned the handle carefully. Amy peeked out to see Shadow and Sonic, each holding a plate of food, lying on different beds. However, Shadow had considerably less on his plate than Sonic. Amy looked down to see a plate outside her door, which was full with a meal that was grey and lacked any particular shape, but looked at least somewhat edible. She opened the door fully, bent over, and picked up the dish. Then she straightened up, walked over to the bed that Shadow was on and sat down beside him, avoiding any eye contact with Sonic.

"Where's all your food, Shadow?" Amy asked out of curiosity, pointing to his plate.

"I ate it," Shadow replied simply.

"That's not what I saw," Sonic said mischievously.

"I wasn't asking you, Sonic," Amy growled.

Sonic ignored her reply and pressed on. "Well, Shadow put some of his food on your plate, since there wasn't very much."

Shadow gave another grunt. "There wasn't a lot on your dish, and I wasn't that hungry anyway."

Amy felt Shadow's gaze on her and quickly looked down, a blush on her face. After a few seconds of thought, she began spooning some of her food onto his plate.

"Here," she mumbled, ignoring the grumbling of her stomach. "You should have more than that. Y-You were hurt, and you need to recover... so you need the food more than I do."

"Thanks," Shadow said. He gave Amy a peculiar look, one which the pink hedgehog couldn't quite decipher. She smiled sheepishly and brought the first bite of her meal to her lips. She was rather surprised to find that the grey meal had a decent taste-- it reminded her of beef.

'Why am I acting so strangely around him?' Amy thought as she ate. 'I've never been like that with Shadow before!'

The feeling she had wasn't something she knew-- it was as though she felt nervous, and yet happy at the same time. Her spiteful thoughts of Sonic and Blaze began to disappear. Amy glanced over at the blue hedgehog, who was already asleep, the plate still in his hand. She looked back down at her dress and bit her bottom lip, wishing that Shadow would say something, even if to merely break the silence. It was incredibly awkward.

Eventually, the two hedgehogs finished eating. Amy stole a glance from her wristwatch-- midnight, and still neither Shadow nor she had said a word. It was over her head if Shadow was uncomfortable with the silence, but she knew for a fact that she would most likely explode if nobody said anything. Amy yawned, gently placed her plate on the floor, and laid down on the bed.

"Do you mind if I go to sleep?" she asked, glancing up at Shadow.

"Hmph," was all he said.

'I guess I should have expected that,' Amy thought, closing her eyes.


"Where is Mister Knuckles?" Cream asked, her hands wringing the large green towel she was holding for said echidna.

Blaze, Cream, and Rouge were sitting just outside of Eggman's base, having managed to make it alive. It had taken him a bit of time, but Tails had eventually fixed the pressure in the Tornado 3, and had gone back to fetch Jet and Storm. Knuckles was a fair distance behind them, so all the three could do was sit there, waiting for him and Tails. The base, which looked like a large warehouse with the infamous orange Eggman logo on its roof, was within a large dome, which in turn was nestled against the side of an underwater island. They had managed to get in through an water-filled opening in the dome, right against the side of the island. Eggman had obviously taken the time to carefully plan the structure, effectively turning the dome into an air pocket.

Cream continued twisting the towel as she waited by the water. Rouge walked up to take a closer look at the building, Blaze silently following her.

"So, what's up with you and Sonic, hmm? You two sure seem on close terms," Rouge said, giving the cat a teasing smirk.

"I'm his girlfriend. Why, is that a problem to you?" Blaze replied, her amber eyes flashing heatedly.

Rouge laughed. "No, not at all! I just can't see Sonic having a girlfriend, that's all. Besides, even if he did have one, everyone thought that he would end up with Amy."

The first sparks of anger that had been in Blaze's eyes faded out quickly. She gazed at the wall of the warehouse and muttered, "I do admit, Amy was pretty upset."

Rouge looked at the lavender cat, intrigued by her words. She was about to inquire further when Cream released a shriek of fear. Rouge and Blaze hurried over to find Knuckles' head sticking out of the water, and the small rabbit breathing heavily.

"What's wrong?" Blaze demanded.

"It's nothing, Blaze. Mister Knuckles just scared me when his head popped out of the water," Cream explained, smiling lightly.

"Hello? C-Could someone get me out of here? It's fr-freezing," Knuckles said, his teeth chattering.

Rouge nodded, bending down and holding out her hands to help him. He placed his large hands on top of her petite ones, and she yanked hard. Knuckles was a lot lighter than Rouge had expected, and thus she ended up overexerting her strength. He nearly flew out of the water from the force of her pull, making her fall back as well. There was an awkward silence as Rouge opened her eyes to see a wide-eyed, blushing Knuckles on top of her. She felt drips of ice-cold seawater drop onto her face from his soaked dreadlocks. For the second time in her life, the two of them were speechless. Rouge's face turned red as she recalled a similar incident that had happened back at the ARK. Without further ado, she shoved Knuckles off her, wiping the water droplets off her face. She stood up and crossed her arms, a blush still present on her surprised face.

"Do you want a towel... Mr. Knuckles?" Cream asked quietly, breaking the silence at last.

Knuckles got to his feet quickly, walked over to the rabbit, and quickly snatched the large towel from her. He rubbed it through his drenched dreadlocks briefly before throwing it around his shoulders, still shivering. Rouge glanced over at Knuckles when he came to stand next to her.

"S-S-Sorry," he muttered through chattering teeth.

"You should be sorry," she growled, smacking him upside the head.

"Hey! What was that for?" Knuckles yelled.

"That was for putting me in an uncomfortable position, thank you!" Rouge snapped, facing him.

Before their fight could graduate into something bloody, the Tornado 3 finally made landfall. The cockpit's hatch popped open, and Jet hopped out, two Extreme Gears under each arm. With a grunt, he tossed the Red Rock and the Yellow Tail at Rouge and Knuckles. The bat caught her board with ease, while Knuckles got hit in the face.

"Come on! Are we going or not?" the hawk snapped at them.

"Sure," Rouge said, shrugging.

Accepting that as an answer from the majority, Jet hopped on the Type-J and sped off. Storm followed suit with the Type-S, not very far behind.

"Okay, guys. Let's go," Tails said, locking the Tornado 3 with a portable device. Then he, Cream and Blaze set off running to catch up with the two Babylonians, with Knuckles and Rouge tailing them on their Extreme Gear.


Wave could see the seven forms rapidly approaching through the hangar's exit tunnel. It didn't take a genius to figure out that their intended destination was the inside of the base, which she was standing guard in front of.

'Hmmm. Well, it's about time they got here,' she thought with a smirk.

Jet and Storm zipped through the hangar on their boards, as did Knuckles and Rouge. Tails, Blaze and Cream, however, had a bit of difficulty running through, as they tried to not slip on the wet metal. Wave stepped forward from her spot, causing the ones on Extreme Gear to come to a halt and hop off their boards. Everyone formed a semi-circle around her, each with a fighting stance. Wave, however, was not intimidated in the least.

"What do you jerks want?" she asked coolly.

"To get inside! Now move it, lady, or I'll move you myself!" Storm yelled, stepping forward and cracking his knuckles threateningly.

"And why would I do that?" Wave asked, staring directly into the grey brute's beady white eyes. "I've received orders from the boss not to let you in."

"Yeah, well... well... uh..." Storm muttered, unable to think of a comeback to that. The others glared in annoyance.

"Hahaha! Your comebacks suck." Wave's laughter was only fueled by Storm's flinch at the biting remark.

"Oh, let's just get this over with!" Knuckles yelled without warning.

The echidna tossed the Red Rock aside, shoved Storm out of his way and ran forward, launching a punch. It was a fairly powerful attack, but Wave was able to catch it using both her hands. His arm quivered as he strained his muscles to their fullest, trying to complete the attack, to no avail. The swallow might not have been able to throw him back, but she certainly had enough strength to keep his punch from going any further.

"Not bad... for a red mutt," she said, smirking. This statement set off something within Knuckles, and he snarled in rage. Even in his anger, however, he noticed that it took both of her hands to block one of his fists. This had left the echidna's other hand free for attacking. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, he wound up another punch in preparation.

"I'm not a freakin' mutt!" he shouted, unleashing his second punch. With both hands holding back his other fist, which was still pushing to get through, Wave was unable to block this attack. Knuckles' fist connected squarely with his target, forcing the air from her lungs. She staggered backwards, eventually falling onto the ground, seemingly crippled by the blow. Knuckles bit back a hiss of pain-- her stomach had been partially shielded by her metal suit, and that had given him negative feedback in the form of a stinging fist. He shook it off quickly and advanced, smiling triumphantly down at her. "Had enough?"

"Nope!" Wave replied. She reached back into her pouches, unsheathed a throwing knife, and jumped back up to her feet. "I'm just starting."

Without any further warning, she lunged. Her stabs were rapid, but were not thrown around wildly-- she was aiming at his chest. Knuckles had no time to dodge, instead opting to grab both of her wrists, his purple eyes wide with surprise.

'Hmm. He wasn't expecting that,' she thought, a smirking forming on her beak. Wave twisted her left wrist, just managing to break free from his grasp, and swiftly cut into his left arm. Knuckles instantly relinquished his hold and issued a yell of pain, as the others gasped. His hand flew to his arm, the glove quickly gaining a red stain as the blood was absorbed into it.

"Now! Does anyone else dare to come forward?" Wave shouted, ignoring Knuckles as he tried to stop the blood from pouring out of his arm.

"I do."