Chapter 7 Little Meetings
All six of us stared blankly at the big island floating still out into the sea in the distance, which was faintly covered by clouds and fog. Angel Island. But as we stared, we still have a problem to solve. And the problem was how to get across that wide space of water, and onto the floating piece of land. Sonic walked to the edge of the cliff with fright showing in his peridot eyes, as he saw the ocean violently repeating to crash onto the long rocky cliff. He quickly took a few steps back.
"Heh heh…" The blue hedgehog laughed nervously for the time being till a smirk rose from his lips and quickly looked at Shadow, who was in the back of the group in his usual position of his: crossed arms with a frown upon his face.
In about a second, he was next to him. "Hey Shads! Mind taking us up there while using Chaos Control?" asked Sonic as he now wrapped an arm around Shadow, being cool. The black hedgehog growled fiercely and pulled away from his friendly touch.
"No." was Shadow's answer as he looked at Sonic angry with his ruby eyes. I then turned to the black hedgehog, which I thought that he was going to use that technique to get to the island. I stared blankly at my favorite character.
"Shadow? Then how—"
"Meaning Sonic, the rest of you are coming with me." Shadow told me and the others before I had the chance to finish. Sonic now looked at the black hedgehog shocked and offended. "What? Why are you—"
"Must I remind you of all the little jokes that you've been snickering to me past this adventure?" Shadow questioned the quick hedgehog. There was silence for a moment.
Sonic closed his eyes shut, shook his head twice, and opened his eyes again with pure innocence. "C'mon Shadow! I was just—" He tried to defend, but the black hedgehog seemed to ignore and interrupt once more.
"Well here's a joke from me." Shadow said backing up from him, to me and the rest of my friends. For the first time in awhile, Shadow had a playful smirk on his face. The other times I saw was when he was about to teleport me to Eggman and time when he appeared a couple days ago.
"Let's see how you can get the island while going through your weakness?" Shadow spoke while I saw him revealing the green Chaos Emerald from behind, not wanting Sonic to see what he's up to. "Chaos Control!"
In a bright green flash, we were gone. All except for Sonic, who just stared blankly in the spot where we once stood. He started to chuckle.
"Very funny Shadow!" He yelled to the far island while walking towards the edge of the cliff a second time. The sounds of waves startled him again.
"Very funny…"
As the bright flash vanished, we were now located into another green-covered jungle close to the edge of another cliff. I was about to ask Shadow if we really went anywhere, till I walked close to the cliff and saw that we were a several feet high in the air, and that the land didn't met with the ocean at all.
"Whoa!" yelled Dylan who then walked next to me, responding to how high and how far we were from where we came. Far into the distance, we saw a small speck of blue standing on the same cliff that we were just standing on. Seeing the little hedgehog jump and crying words that I didn't seem to hear out. I turned to Shadow with a worried stare.
"I don't think that Sonic is going to make it here by himself…" I told him softly. As of his reply, he turned his head away and made a grunt.
"Serves him right from all the things he said." He spoke with anger written all over his tone.
I looked towards the faraway cliff again, and then made a little peek at Shadow. "Even so, you must forgive…Remember what Maria promised?"
To that response, he blinked countless for the time being, unloosing his anger, and then looked over to me in wonder. It was the same exact expression when I first told him about her promise. When his eyes had filled enough with my image, he took out his green Chaos Emerald and disappeared from sight. I smiled.
Till he came back with the blue blur, all of us began to journey into the jungle. Passing by many green trees and plants, it was hard trying to pass though and easy to get lost in here. But since many of us are traveling together, it makes it a piece of cake.
I blew a sigh of relief when I finally stepped on the first blades of grass onto the wide grassy plain, which was cluttered with broken stone and ruins.
As we walked more closely to the center, more ruins showed. As we finally got there, we saw a huge Mayan-like altar, atop with a huge luminous green emerald, and a red echidna resting beside it. We can tell because we heard his loud snores from the bottom of the shrine.
Dylan and I tried our best to hide our giggles, while Sonic quickly told us to be quiet while he was planning to do something hilarious. Shadow rolled his eyes.
But during the blue hedgehog's first steps onto the shrine, Chelsea—who didn't pay attention a couple seconds ago—then bursted: "Omigosh! It's Knuckles!"
In about a minute or so, the red echidna jumped from his resting place on the altar, and jumped in front of Sonic on the first few steps. They were face-to-face.
The blue hedgehog quickly made a smile and waved to his longtime friend/rival. "Hello Knucks! Long time no see!"
Knuckles made a short growl, but afterwards he stared at him with a questionable look. "What do you want Sonic?" He asked in a low tone.
"My friends and I need your help." Sonic then told him calmly. At the word 'friends', Knuckles turned his attention to the rest of us down below. He didn't care much for Shadow, but his violet eyes widened at Dylan, Chelsea, Trevor and I.
He jumped from the remaining stairs to me and Dylan, giving me a jolt. But I was grinning happily by seeing his appearance again. Me and Dylan both were.
"You guys are back? But how?" He asked us. And his eyes never seemed to lose its surprise.
"Eggman is up to no good again." Dylan started to explain. "And by 'no good', it means that he's still trying to rule both our worlds."
I nodded in agree. "Yeah, and that's how we're back. And we need your help by telling us on how to locate gems."
Knuckles then blinked at us confusingly. "Gems? Why do you guys need help with that? The only gems around here are the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds. Surely Tails has technology to help you on that…if they're lost that is."
Shadow continuously grunted again, and walked towards Knuckles. "That's not what they mean." He said as he started explaining the whole jewel crisis back in my world. Knuckles' eyes widened again and then turned to us with a friendly smile.
"Sure! I can help you on that!" He told us gladly. "I'll be happy to share my treasure hunting secrets to anyone, as long nobody uses it for evil purposes. Somebody like—"
"Me." A recognizable female voice finished. As all of us looked up ahead to the source of the voice, it turned out to be no other than Rouge the Bat, who was sitting on top of the Master Emerald with one of her legs crossed. Once finally Knuckles glanced at her, his face and attitude was nothing but temper.
"Hey you! Get off of there!" He pointed his right glove at her, and started to dash up the shrine stairs. Till he got up onto the altar, all what he did was try to jump onto the Master Emerald to get her off. But since the emerald was too big, and that it was hard trying to grab onto the edges, he didn't accomplish. Even after the early jumps he did earlier, I would've figured that he could've got up there.
"Get off you thief!" The red echidna again yelled angrily at her. But the white bat just shook her head at him in disappointment. "Is that any way to treat a lady?"
Knuckles gripped his fists, and did nothing but give her a glare. "No! And you're no lady!" He answered loudly that everyone could hear.
And in a blink of an eye, I saw the tip of Rouge's boot ram on the side of Knuckle's head. She landed by the side of him gracefully after he took a harsh fall.
"You really need to learn manners…" She placed her left arm on her hip and looked at the injured Knuckles; wincing while touching her hit on his now sore head.
"Look who's talking…" He grumbled quietly.
As me, Dylan, Sonic, and the rest of us rushed onto the altar; Rouge greeted us with a little smug on her face. "Well will you look at that…you and your friend are back, along with other newcomers." She spoke to me and Dylan first before she led her attention to the blue and black hedgehogs.
"And hello Sonic…nice to see you again. Same to you, teammate." The white bat winked at the dark hero. Shadow gave her a smile that lasted about a second.
"So why are you guys hanging around Knucklehead?" She gave the echidna a soft push after he got up from the stone floor. He continued to rub his bump.
"They were asking for advice…" He lowered his eyes at her. Rouge looked at him and laughed. "Ha! What can they possibly learn from you?"
"Something that I'm quite more experienced at then you!" Knuckles smirked.
"What's that?"
"Treasure hunting."
And after saying those two words, it all ended downhill from there. Before the fight had gotten too violent, Sonic got in and spread them apart and tried to calm them down. Shockingly it worked.
"Alright…" Rouge started while brushing herself off. "Before the echidna begins with his so-called 'advice', let me tell you something before I leave. I keep forgetting that I have a mission to do." She sighed miserably after.
"About time." Knuckles had crossed his arms and looked away at Rouge, still a little tempered. She made a soft giggle at him.
"You can only find special gems located in the most populated places, like cities. But be warned though, some may be guarded." She pointed her right index finger up while giving the last tip before she finished.
"Are you sure?" I asked her. She nodded truthfully, then went to grab something behind her and showed proof. In her hand were many different kinds of gems and jewelry.
"I got these in Station Square, Soleanna, and other cities." She explained to us while we kept our eyes glued to the pretty and shiny treasures. Not for long, she put them away.
"Thanks for sharing that with us." Trevor said to the bat.
"No problem!"
Knuckles grunted whenever Rouge started to walk to him next, his back turned away from her. Sonic walked by closely; in case something was bound to happen again.
"Well, see you around Knucklehead…hopefully you'll learn some manners before I return."
Knuckles shifted swiftly to the bat with his face written in anger once more. "Stop saying that! It should be you who need manners! Who just comes here and just—"
Before Knuckles could finish his sentence, Rouge just went ahead and kissed him on the head where she'd hit him. Afterwards, he stood there stunned with his face flushed with red, not moving a single muscle. Rouge made a small giggle and took it to the skies, waved us goodbye, and flew away. Even after that, Knuckles still didn't move. Sonic began to laugh hard.
"That's totally the highlight of my day! No doubt! Haha! Knuckles your face is priceless!"
While Knuckles was busy chasing Sonic around the shrine, angry again, someone poked my left shoulder constantly. I turned around to see Dylan very excited, prompted to do something.
"Hey! Let's go exploring in the forest!" He said with a contagious smile on his face, now pointing to the forest we've been through earlier. When I looked around to check everyone; I saw that Knuckles and Sonic was still chasing each other, and that Chelsea and Trevor were enjoying the show. Only Shadow seemed to care less. They wouldn't mind if we disappeared for a few minutes, or hours? But just in case, I told Shadow what we'll be doing.
At that moment we both ran into the forest as excited as we were hours before, when we've entered this wondrous world again. In there, we looked at many colorful plants, flowers, and even some waterfalls included. But when the sun started to set, it was when that the both of us gotten lost.
"Court Court!" I heard Dylan yell my nickname as we tried to find ourselves in the thick green woods for a few minutes. I tripped over a few twigs and vines while trying to locate his voice.
"Court Court! Are we lost?" He spoke again, this time in a funny tone. I laughed.
"No! Just keep talking!" I said as loud as I ever heard myself in awhile. Dylan laughed this time.
"Okay Court Court!"
As I slowly continued to follow the source of the voice, step by step, suddenly I felt someone or something grab a hold to my left shoe on the forest floor. I stood there frozen for a few seconds, thinking that a huge spider or a big bug grabbed onto it. When I finally had the courage to look down, it turned out to be the exact opposite.
It was a black Chao, a cute and little creature that many can be found in Sonic's world. It looked at me with a frightened look on its face. What was it doing here?
"Aww." I cooed as I bent down and picked it up as it loosed its grip from my shoe. Then I held it in my arms then started to cradle it, like a baby. "No need to be scared." I said to the Chao vey soft and gentle. "Were you lost too?"
In reply, the Chao slowly nodded with eyes shut. But when it looked at me, its face quickly perked with happiness and then started to hug me. It gave me out a surprise, but it made me smile. But after playing with it a while longer, I realized that Dylan had stopped yelling. I covered the Chao's ears on both sides of the head (if that's where they were), and cried out to Dylan. He replied quickly back, this time excited again.
"Court Court! You gotta come over here quick!" was all he said. I lowered my eyes, and then cried out to him that he still needed to talk in order to find him. He did so.
I un-covered the Chao's ears and then started to dash towards the voice the second time, but this time I found him. But when I looked at my best friend, he was in the same position as I was, shockingly. He was holding a Chao too, but this one was red.
I laughed at the sight. "Really?"
He nodded fast with a grin. "Yeah!" And then he looked at me. "Oh! You have one too!" He outbursted.
I laughed again. "Where did you find yours?" I asked curiously, wondering if we found our Chaos the exact same way too.
"Well," Dylan started. "I saw a red blobby thing on the ground while I was trying to find you. When I when up to get a closer look, it turned out to be a Chao! And oh gosh! I can't believe I found one! I've been wanting to have one during our last adventure!" He ended his explanation cheerfully. "Where did you find yours?"
I turned my attention to my Chao for a second, seeing it was still in its happy mood. It was. Then I explained. "It happened to hug my shoe whenever I walking." I made a little smile. Dylan chuckled.
"That's a funny way to find one." His laughter disintegrated and became wondrous. "I wonder why there were here. There isn't any Chao Gardens around in Angel Island, is there?"
"Not that I know of." I answered short.
"Oh neow!" Dylan made another outburst, making everything funny again. "But that's okay, who needs Chao Gardens while I can carry this little guy throughout the journey?"
The vision of robots and danger popped in my head. "But what if they get hurt?"
"Nah, they'll be fine—Oh gosh! We need to name our Chaos!" He quickly switched one subject to another. It left me bringing laughter again and another smile. But before we could name our Chaos though, it was getting darker with every minute passing while we conversed. So, we headed back towards the middle of the island again, careful not to lose each other. But as we traveled through, we never stopped talking, and yet never stop looking at the adorable Chaos we found.
As for the names of our Chaos, Dylan decided to name his Muffins. It was the first name that popped into his mind, and it was funny how his Chao agreed with it completely. It was waving his arms while happily chanting: "Chao Chao!" Dylan never stopped laughing at that. As for mine, I decided to name it Sakura. It was a Japanese word meaning 'cherry blossom', my favorite flower. It seemed to agree with it too, I saw it making a cute little smile.
Few minutes later, we've gotten back to the shine with Sonic and the rest waiting for us. But when we returned however, it was already night, and the black sky was lit up with millions of stars. A sign that it was the time to rest. So after we all lay on the fields of grass and got comfortable, sleep completely took place.