Chapter 5 - The search begins

The next morning, Knuckles was the first to wake up. The sun could just be seen above the trees and the birds were beginning to sing, as they splashed in the stream. Knuckles looked at Sonic, he was in an uneasy sleep but he looked a lot better than he did last night. Knuckles stayed quiet and went to check on the Master Emerald.

When Knuckles returned Aeronniell was already awake.

"Good morning," Aeronniell smiled, rubbing her eyes.
"Morning," Knuckles said, rather half-heartedly.
"Something wrong?" She asked, trying to revive the fire by prodding it with a stick and putting a few twigs and branches onto the glowing embers.
"Yes, I mean no... I'm just confused about ..stuff," He admitted.

"Stuff like?"

"Whether I should help Sonic find Tails, or guard the Emerald. I swore to protect the Master Emerald with my life, but Tails could be in serious trouble and I really want to help find him," he sighed, grabbing stone from beside him and throwing it as far as he could into the distance.

"It's a blessing and a burden, huh... Maybe I can help. Can you remember when I made that force field out of water to protect the Island?" She asked. Knuckles nodded.
"Yeah, and I'm very grateful for that," Knuckles said.
"You're welcome, but what I'm trying to say is I could do that to the Emeralds to protect them from Karn and Dr Eggman. Then you could help look for Tails," Aeronniell explained. Knuckles thought in silence for quite a while. But Aeronniell was patient.
"Alright then, Thanks," He beamed. Aeronniell could tell how much stress and pressure had been lifted from his mind.

"So, would the force field be there all the time?" Knuckles asked curiously. She nodded.
"Day and night, it even lasts when I'm asleep or even if I end up unconscious," Aeronniell smiled.
Knuckles was impressed, and he couldn't be grateful enough.

It was about then that Sonic began to wake up, Both Knuckles and Aeronniell noticed almost instantly.
"Where.. Where am I? "Sonic muttered to himself as he tried to sit up. "Ow! What happened to my arm?".
Knuckles walked towards him and offered him a hand. Reluctantly Sonic accepted it and managed to sit himself up.
"You're on Angel Island and you hurt your arm when you were fighting Eggman and Karn," Aeronniell explained.

"I'm sorry.. Have we met?" Sonic asked.
"Sonic, this is Aeronniell," Knuckles explained.
"But you can call me Aero, If you find that easier," Aeronniell commented. Sonic nodded.
"Aeronniell saved your life and healed your arm while you were unconscious," Knuckles added.
"Thanks!" Sonic exclaimed.

Aeronniell just smiled "Don't mention it ... How is your arm anyway?" she asked.
"Painful.. It's like a tearing burn, or the worst stitch ever," he said wincing as he tried to move it around. Aeronniell offered him the leather bottle which contained the juice of the health berries.
"For the pain," she explained. Sonic took the bottle and took a little mouthful. The juice was very sweet, almost sickly but it dulled the pain almost instantly. When he tried to give Aeronniell the bottle back she refused.
"You need it more than I do," Aeronniell said. Sonic smiled...

It was mid-morning and the three were well rested and fed. Everyone had exchanged stories and we're ready to hit the road.
"What do you think we should do now?" Knuckles asked.
"We should take the Tornado down to Station Square and start looking for Tails?" said Sonic.
"Right, but we don't even know where to look, how are we supposed to find Tails? " Knuckles said.
"Karn will be keeping him in his hideout. They usually aren't hard to find, so some of the locals might have seen something suspicious. Then we just have to follow their trail," Aeronniell said.

"Wait.. Doesn't the Tornado only seat one?" Knuckles asked. Sonic shook his head.
"Not anymore," Sonic grinned. "That's what Tails was doing to his plane, So I could drive, whilst Aero gets in the back.. And you can hang on for dear life" he continued cheerfully.
"What would we do without your generosity?" Knuckles said sarcastically

About an hour later, Sonic and the others arrived at Station Square.
"Next time, I'm walking," Knuckles muttered, he looked green and couldn't walk in a straight line. Aeronniell and Sonic just laughed.
"Sorry about that Knuckles.. But it wasn't bad for one-handed driving, " Sonic said, as he calmed down from laughing

"So there Wasn't an Emerald in the Tornado, so maybe Tails took it out of the plane when he was working on it," Knuckles thought outloud a little while later.

Sonic led Aeronniell to Tails's Workshop and they went inside. Aeronniell looked around in horror.
"You will pay for this Karn! This time you went too far," Aeronniell growled, clenching her fists.
"Aero, you ok?" Sonic asked. She nodded as she forced herself to calm down.
"I'm fine Sonic, I'm just annoyed. This is pretty low, even for a traitor like Karn," she said.
"Let's just find the Chaos Emerald and start looking for Shadow," Knuckles said calmly. Aeronniell nodded and began to look at the footprints that were left in the dust.

"Two other men were here, " Aeronniell muttered, crouching down to look at the tracks. "They turned sharply. They were looking over there," she continued, pointing towards the clearing where the Tornado had been.
"Aeronniell, what are you talking about?" Sonic asked, but Aeronniell wasn't listening.

"The men started to walk towards the clearing," she said, getting louder and more confident with each assumption. Aeronniell walked towards the clearing in the workshop. "The dust is a mess. They must have spotted your friend and came to get him but it looks like he put up a pretty good fight for someone his size and age," Aeronniell said.

"Aeronniell... What about the blood? Can you tell anything from it?" Sonic said, the worry and fear was obvious in his voice. Aeronniell looked at the blood for quite a while before speaking again.
"Well.. Judging on the footprints, It looks like your friend fell and landed on the glass. The amount of blood shows that he either wasn't here long after he was hurt, Or that it is just a little flesh wound,"

Sonic sighed with relief, this was a pretty good sign.

"I found the Emerald!" Knuckles exclaimed as he appeared from behind the forge holding up a yellow gemstone, that was the size of a large apple. Knuckles face was dirty from the soot and ash, which made Sonic smirk.

"Well it's about time," A voice suddenly came from behind...