Capture, 'Lostness' and Colors

"It's not fair. He didn't even listen to us!" Amy's hands fisted around the bars of the cage hung up on one of the pirate ship's masts, swinging slightly with each of the prisoners' moves.

Three meters below, the planks of the deck were empty of people now, apart from the sole guy that lazily sat against a few wooden boxes, one of his hands holding a bottle out of which he every now and then took a gulp or two. The rest of the Sky Pirates had left… as if too party or sleep somewhere over the night neither of the Freedom Fighters could tell. In fact, still caught in the dimly lit cave it was getting hard to define what time of the day it might be… or how much time had passed since they had been quite unceremoniously dumped into this cage.

Porker was silent. Just like it wasn't fair of Captain Plunder not listening to them, it would have been unfair of him reminding Amy this whole thing had been her bright idea.

"They think we're good for hostage," the pig finally noticed quietly. "They want to get Sonic to give them the Chaos Emeralds for our freedom. Or... our lives…" He swallowed dryly.

Amy turned around and slowly sat down at his side. "Sonic won't let us down."

Porker shook his head. "Don't you understand? Knuckles got the Emeralds, not Sonic. He won't just pass them over to those guys. And neither Sonic nor Knuckles can give them away, even if they wanted. They need them for Sonic's training… and they need them for when Robotnik opens his portal. Sonic and Knuckles keeping the Emerald right now is our only hope."

"But…" Amy wrapped her arms around her knees and rested her chin on them. "They can't leave us here…"

Porker frowned, not knowing what to say, and just watched her long eyelashes flutter. Once. Twice. Then she turned to him again, a new glitter of confidence in her eyes.

"Tails knows where we are."

Porker shook his head again. "Yes, he knows. But first, he's off to find the last of the Flock… and when he comes back he first needs to find we're missing. And then… he still needs to find us… here." He gestured around.

Amy blinked again. "He'll find us. He just has to!"

Porker slowly nodded. "Then let's just keep our fingers crossed that he does fast."

"Mmm," Amy mumbled, wrapping her arms tighter around herself again and rubbing over her upper arms.

"Cold?", Porker asked.

A smile of almost shame flashed on Amy's face. "Maybe the dress wasn't the best idea really…"

Porker smiled back. "It's okay I guess…" He slipped out of his leather jacket. "Here, you can have this."

Amy tilted her head. "Won't you be too cold with just that short-sleeved shirt?"

The pig shrugged. "We can take turns if you want to."

The pink hedgehog smiled. "Okay."

Sitting in the shade of a tree, the early afternoon breeze blowing through his dreadlocked spines, Knuckles closely regarded his companion. Sonic sat across of him, cross-legged on the grass, eyes closed and his bare fingers closed around the green Chaos Emerald again. Knuckles had decided to start another attempt with the hedgehog today, since yesterday's running experiment had given his student some idea what he was supposed to be looking for.

Now they sat, Sonic trying to feel into the Emerald, getting used to its vibes, and Knuckles guiding him as good as he could, giving hints and advices, telling him what to look out for, where to focus his attention. The guardian had no specific expectations yet, he didn't want Sonic to do anything with the Emerald's power. While it had worked with the blue one, each Emerald was different, and Knuckles didn't want to rush things. They were just at the stage of sharpening and training Sonic's sense for the energy; nothing more, nothing less. What they were building at the moment would be the basis for everything they could work on later, so Knuckles considered these lessons very important. He wasn't sure if Sonic understood, but he could tell the hedgehog was doing his best.

This particular fact had made Knuckles pretty satisfied with his in the beginning so reluctant guest. The past hours had started quite promising; they'd made tiny steps of progress, but all of them in the direction Knuckles was aiming for. The last twenty minutes however seemed more of a step backwards than anything else…

Sonic groaned, blue eyelids opening and revealing a pair of eyes almost matching the color of the gemstone in his hands. "I'm sorry, Knux, but whatever you want me to do, it doesn't work…"

Swallowing the comment about this new nickname Sonic seemed to have dubbed him with, Knuckles looked at him. "Well, you were on the right way not long ago."

"Yeah, yeah…" Sonic put the Chaos Emerald down on the grass between them, lifting his hands to massage his temples. "For you that's easy saying so."

Watching him sharply, Knuckles suddenly noticed how tired the hedgehog looked. "Headache?"

"Yeah, a little." Sonic's index and middle fingers still ran slow circles over his temples.

"I should have known…," Knuckles mumbled under his breath. "You know," he continued aloud, "I can at least partly say I can look inside this Emerald there, but I haven't found a way yet how the Master allows me looking inside of you."

"Huh?" Sonic looked puzzled.

Knuckles sighed. "You'll have to tell me if you're tired. By the time I'm able to see it it's already rather late. I know this kind of thing needs a lot of concentration; the fact it's all new to you just makes it worse. You can always say you need a break, but you'll have to say something, you know…"

A slightly embarrassed smile darted over Sonic's face. "I know it sounds idiotic, but I didn't really notice I was tired until now."

"It doesn't sound idiotic." Knuckles shook his head. He knew exactly what Sonic was experiencing. Nothing about it was new to him. "Come on," he said, picking up the Emerald. "We'll call it a day for now and I'll get us some food. How does that sound?"

Sonic grinned. "Like the best thing you said all day."

Strong winds blowing into his face, Tails circled another time over the Chemical Plant Zone. Lone giant trees stuck their heads out of the jungle of technology, long pipes growing out of almost every piece of ground available, only interrupted by the one or other strange building.

Tails had never liked Chemical Plant. The place was a mess even from above, once you were down there it became even worse. Honestly he couldn't imagine anyone liked it at all here. Besides Robotnik… or Megamack… But no normal being at least.

He had never questioned if Sab and her team liked it here. Most likely, even through all the disgusting, stinky stuff it hosted, they felt it was their home…

Pricking a small place more or less free of obstacles, Tails pushed the Tornado's nose down and forced the biplane between the pipes and to a rough landing on a far too bouncy ground.

Climbing out of his cockpit, the little fox took a look all around, hoping to gain some orientation, before spinning his tails and lifting off to search for some trace of people's presence.

The sun was starting to set, throwing long shadows across the pipes below him. Tails dropped down to the ground and leaned on his knees. He was exhausted. Like he'd said, the whole zone was a mess… The fox hated to admit it, but he was lost. A few hours ago he had at least still known which way he'd left the Tornado… now he wasn't sure even about that any longer. He might have reached the other side of the zone by now… or just ran in circles and his biplane was five minutes walktime from here, hiding behind a block or two and not saying a thing.

Tails sighed. The worst thing about being lost was you could do nothing about it. If you just started running into one direction, you'd just get even more lost than you were already… plus, he had already reached a grade of 'lostness' he didn't even now which way to choose for a panic run.

And somehow he was way too tired for running, or flying for that matter. His tails hurt from all the spinning and his stomach was growling so loud he thought it would soon grow strong enough to cause an echo from the things around.

Groggily the two-tailed fox slumped against one of the pipes sticking out of the ground, his namesakes thudding once, twice onto the slightly reeking subsoil before falling limp beside him. Tails let his head drop against the metal and another sigh rose from his throat, the sound fading into yet another angry sound from his empty stomach.

"Oh, I hate this place…", Tails mumbled. "I should have gone to the Sky Pirates instead…" If Sonic was here he'd have searched the damn zone in no-time… or if I'd at least found the Tornado back… I could call someone on the radio, he thought; cerulean eyes blinking slowly in a vain attempt at fighting off tiredness.

Tails realized only that he'd fallen asleep when something touched his shoulder and he reflexively jumped backwards. Or tried to do it, finding there was a solid piece of hard material blocking the way. Giving a light, startled shriek of shock the fox scrambled backwards, just to find there was something more to restrain him.

"Hey, calm down…", someone said lightly, holding his shoulders.

"You scared him, you jerk!", a female voice added, a reproachful tone carried along.

Confused and still not sure if he was more sleepy or panicky at the moment, Tails' eyes finally flew open. It was dark all around aside of a tiny sparkle of light coming from a torch in the hand of one of the two Mobians crouched beside him. They were sheep, and Tails wouldn't believe his eyes.

"Hey, look! He's got two tails! He's the Zone Runner!", the male sheep called out now, startling Tails just further.

The female smiled. "Don't worry… Tails, right? … We're friends. You remember us, don't you?"

"But… you were killed!"

"No," the woman smiled softly, "three of us escaped. After fleeing in panic from the explosion, we came back and searched for others of the Flock, finally finding Sab and Sol. We built a few new huts hoping to live together in peace now."

"Sometimes badniks come and interrupt our peaceful life, but we still know how to deal with them." The young man clasped his right fist in his left palm and grinned.

"Don't think we're ghosts now, Tails," his companion added giggling briefly.

Tails nodded. "I guess I thought you guys were a nightmare or something…" He giggled as well now, abashed to have acted like a little child.

"Oh, I understand that," the young woman smiled again, "He's not overly careful at waking up people…" She earned an elbow from her companion at that.

The male sheep turned back to Tails. "It's not a good place to sleep outside for a little guy like you, even if you are a great hero and a Zone Runner."

"I'm not a Zone Runner. I'm just a Freedom Fighter, like you guys are," Tails corrected. Sab had created that kind of title for him, saying he was a hero travelling all of Mobius' zones to fight the enemy. Tails couldn't deny he'd liked the attention and the feeling of being called a hero, although a part of him full well knew he'd beat the Flock's archenemy mostly through sheer luck. It seemed none of the Flock had truly noticed that. Not even after the time that had passed since their last meeting, when Tails had though Sab and Sol were the only ones left of the group of sheep.

"We almost fell over you," the woman snapped him out of his reverie. "You know, there are not only friendly creatures around here."

"I got lost," Tails admitted. "I came here to find you guys and your place to stay at. I wanted to talk to Sab. We need help. But… I got lost here, flew around all day long and then was just tired…" A growl from his belly interrupted him. "Oh... and-"

The two sheep chuckled. "And hungry, I see," the male nodded. "Come on, we'll bring you to our village. Is your business very urgent or can it wait until tomorrow morning?"

Tails stood up. "It can wait. You don't have to wake anyone. How comes you two are still up?"

The sheep exchanged a glance and smiled. "We were just taking a moonlight walk…"

Looking up at the black sky, Tails frowned. "Moonlight?"

A night of sleep had taken care of things, and Knuckles had gotten them back to work. Once again the echidna sat in the grass, keeping a firm eye on the hedgehog as he held a Chaos Emerald out at him.

"Red," Sonic blurted out as soon as the gemstone touched his hand.

Satisfied, Knuckles smiled at his student. The hedgehog sat facing him, but nevertheless couldn't see his smile. What partly was the reason Knuckles allowed himself this sign of satisfaction.

Sonic's current disability was caused by the cloth the echidna had wrapped over his eyes for the newest training sort invented.

"You sure?", the guardian asked again.

Sonic nodded. "You don't fool me, Knux."

"Knuckles," the echidna corrected slightly annoyed and wondered for a second if Sonic knew he wouldn't do anything to him due to being morally not allowed to hurt a helpless person – a category blindfolded hedgehogs definitively belonged to... But at the moment Knuckles' content about Sonic's progress was bigger than the annoyance caused by his not stopping trait of calling him self-created nicknames instead of his actual name.

"Now tell me I got another point alright and gimme the next one," Sonic demanded with a bright grin on his face.

Without comment Knuckles took the Chaos Emerald out of Sonic's hand again and reached for the others resting on the grass around him. Briefly his hand hovered over the set of shiny gemstones, then he chose for the grey one.

Another smirk flashed on Sonic's face as he was handed the stone. "Grey."

Knuckles nodded, then remembered that Sonic couldn't see him. "Correct," he allowed. "You've gotten better than I thought."

The smirk turned into a trademark Sonic grin. "You have given me harder tasks than this."

"No. It might feel ridiculous to you, but it's very important to know the Emeralds well enough to tell which one it is without looking. The differences between them are tiny. Your task is harder than you think."

Sonic's grinning face was crossed by a tint of cockiness. "I am just better than you think."

The guardian nodded, just to himself this time. Sonic didn't need to be told that; it would get to his head. "I guess you've passed another lesson," the echidna said instead.

Sonic pulled the blindfold off his eyes, blinked for a moment at the brightness of daylight, then looked at Knuckles. "You know that I won, don't you?"

Knuckles groaned. He'd almost hoped Sonic would forget it, but of course his hope was in vain. The blue hedgehog had gotten Knuckles to bet with him. If Sonic got not more than three guesses wrong out of the near hundreds they'd made in the past hours, Knuckles had to race him…

Sonic had missed just two.

The hedgehog hopped to his feet, playfully tossing the cloth at Knuckles. "Come on, you lost."

Knuckles nodded, resigning. "Alright. Wait here, I'll just get the Chaos Emeralds back to Hidden Palace. Fine?"

Sonic grinned again, tapping a foot on the grass. "I'm waaaiiiting, Knux…"

"Knuckles," the guardian grumbled and shook his head as he gathered up the small crystals, but when he turned to leave Sonic he couldn't keep a smile off his face.

Speedy's note: I made up a new word again... Lostness. Isn't it kinda cool? Now we finally have a word the the condition of 'being lost'. The world needed that... Or probably not :P
Anyway, back to the story again. Does anyone else even remember the Flock? They appeared in Tails' miniseries. I always found them funny; with their guns and weapons they made a nice contrast to Sonic's Freedom Fighters. Hooray for almost forgotten characters! ;)