AN: First, I would like to apologize for not updating this story in such a long time. Since the last update, my life has only gotten busier and I did not have the time to work on this story. However, since it was Thanksgiving break, I managed to finish this chapter that I've been working on for a couple years. I don't know when my next update will be, I guess it'll be when I'll have another break.

I would like to dedicate this chapter to all my fans. Without you guys, this chapter wouldn't have been posted or this story wouldn't have been continued. Thank you. :)

Chapter 14 Venice

On a giant flying fortress far above the sky, an evil doctor and three troublesome teenagers were planning on where to hit next on the reality-based Earth. The ship was floating far above Venice, the city which the three boys have retrieved another H.I. They now have three.

"Eh, I just say we screw off today and head where we need to go tomorrow. You did say one of your bots of yours nailed Sonic in the chest, and that Shadow was severely burned by that guy in glasses…" Anthony decided while lying far back in a rolling chair, now placing his feet on a table that displayed a hologram of the world.

"Yes, it's about time I got that stupid blue hedgehog to the condition he is now, he won't be running for some time. Even though Shadow was the most injured of the three, he isn't like others; he can recuperate faster than normal. So don't be surprised if we see him soon." The Doctor replied as he started to play with a few long hairs of his mustache as he paced around the cockpit. When he saw two of Anthony's feet on the map, he pushed them off.

"I'll be more than ready if I see that black hedgehog." Anthony smirked as his griped hands started to glow a bright yellow for a second, unnoticed of his actions. "Wait…did you say that three gotten injured?" He looked at the mad scientist confused. Eggman looked right at the boy through his circular shades, completely sure.

"Why yes. Did I forget to mention that Courtney was out, too? I guess the same Eggbot who've hit Sonic might have gotten her too. She was out cold when I last saw her."

Anthony's mood seemed to dawn down a little. Adrian and Otto, who were close by, grew curious of that strange action.

"Hmmm…if she would've gotten hurt as much as Sonic, then we really won't have that much to deal with. The boy with the fire, Dylan, scares me though. If you do something that triggers his anger he'll go out in an all-flaming rage. Maybe we can use that to our advantage somehow, any suggestions?" Dr. Eggman asked the teens, wondering if they can spark a creative idea.

"Maybe we should hold that towards the end, Doctor, think of the buildings that need to be demolished so you can build our empire." The dark Adrian said while raising a mischievous smile.

"Perhaps you're right on that one…" The Doctor sighed in disappointment, not having the patience to wait. "Well I'm off to the next room to finish my latest creation. You boys can do as you wish, go anyplace in your world if you like, just don't make any damages inside or outside my Egg Carrier, got it?"

"Yes sir." The teenage boys said in unison. Eggman stopped and gave a serious stare to the trio, and then he walked through threshold of the exit.

"Thought he would never leave…" Anthony huffed in annoyance.

"Have you given any thoughts of when we're ditching the old man?" Adrian mumbled softly to his leader. Anthony gotten up from the chair and started looking at the controls at the front of the cockpit, curiously.

"Soon when he gets his robot finished and when we have all the gems in our possession." He answered without even thinking it, and then walked back to the hologram sphere of Earth, and started spinning it around randomly like it was an ordinary globe.

"I figured as much." Adrian yawned and stretched, wanting something to do other than sitting and talking the whole time. "Say, do you want to go back to Venice? After I retrieved the iridescent from there, the people were setting up decorations for some sort of carnival."

"Carnival?" Otto's eyes bugged out in excitement. "I wanna go! I wanna go!" he instantly got out of his seat, jumping, pleading his boss to go. Paying little attention to his two teammates, Anthony kept his eyes glued to the globe. He used his right hand to stop in the Europe area and then tapped his index finger on Italy. The globe vanished as Italy was zoomed in and was the only thing visible. After a moment of loading, lists of city names sprinkled all over the boot-shaped country. He quickly tapped Venice. The country disappeared as pictures, information, facts, and other options on Venice flooded the hologram screen. Anthony looked until he found an option that you can overlook the city in present day.

Good thing that Eggman launched a few surveillance satellites. That way, we can look into cities without the need to travel. Anthony thought as he waited till the screen was done waiting for five minutes, the black screen faded to a bright view of the entire city of Venice. Using his fingers to zoom into the city, he saw many people walking around with unique costumes and putting up colorful decorations everywhere in sight, especially in the center of the city. Adrian was right, there is a carnival going on. He kept looking into more areas in the city, until Anthony recognized a face, two faces to be exact.

They were the only ordinary ones out of the bunch of colorful crowds. There was a boy with brown curly hair and glasses, and a girl with long light brown hair. It was none other than Dylan and Courtney.

Courtney…? I thought she was injured?

They were both running into the city with smiling laughter. A disapproving frown was set on Anthony's face but quickly got lit up with a smirk. In instant, he closed everything out of the hologram till it was a floating globe again.

"Alright boys!" Anthony said as he walked right over to the front controls of the ship, switched out of autopilot and lowered the aircraft down. "Let's have some fun."

Out of that bright iridescent light revealed another well-known city in our world. It was famous for gondola rides, waterways, and beautiful architectures.

It was the floating city of Venice, Italy.

"I can't believe I'm actually here…" Dylan said in awe, taking in the view in front of him. Venice was the only place that he really wanted to visit in our world. It was also one of the places that I wanted to go to as well. Aside that we're really pumped to be here, I couldn't help but think that picking this place was the wrong choice. Of course Venice is popular and all, but not as compared to Rome, Paris, and London…

Would we find a H.I. here?

A soft grip to my left wrist interrupted my thoughts as I looked ahead and saw Dylan grinning at me. With his smiles being contagious as they were, a smile formed on my face as well. Our excitement let us take off without warning, carelessly leaving my worries right where we once stood. The both of us kept running until we stepped onto one of the city's sidewalks. We took a moment to breathe and look around. There were many buildings that held much history to them as well as their beauty. Now walking, we took notice that each person that passed by us were all dressed up in big multi-colored costumes and masks. Dylan and I both exchanged glances, wondering what the occasion was.

"That's strange. Halloween is months away from now. Why are they dressing up?" I questioned my best friend.

"I don't know." Dylan said confused, while a couple passed us in bright neon-green clothing. "I looked up one time that Italy has carnivals or celebrations during the beginning of seasons. Since it's close to spring, I wouldn't be shocked if there's one going on now!"

A medium-sized poster that covered half of a building came to our view as we both stopped to observe it. On the poster it read, "Partecipa al Carnevale di Venezia Masquerade Ball in mezzo alla citta questasera! Da sei a mezzanotte." On the bottom right corner was an illustration of two fancy looking masks.

The only thing that I got out of that group of Italian words was 'Masquerade Ball'. So that's why people were dressing up and wearing masks. It was a masquerade! Dylan kept reading the text on the poster over and over again, trying to figure out what the other Italian words meant. He told me one time that part of his family is Italian; maybe he knew some of the language?

"Participate…Carnival…Venice Masquerade Ball…in city…" Dylan whispered the translated words and he looked back at me. "That's all I can figure out. At least we know there's a carnival going on!"

"Of all times when we have something important to do…" I sighed, seeing that we won't be joining in on the city's festivities. "With all the colors, glitter, and lights, it'll be difficult finding the H.I."

"Well let's look now before it gets dark, with the sunlight out it will be much easier to search. If we find it, we can join in all the fun later!" Dylan smiled in confidence and took a hold to my wrist again as we begun searching for the little sparkling gem. We ran to the most populated places in the city first, like: The La Fenice, Piazza San Marco, and the St. Mark's Campanile. Once we didn't find anything there, we walked and searched all the bridges in the city, twice, and then here we are resting ourselves in a gondola on the Grand Canal. The only accomplishments we got in those places were a ton of pictures for our photo albums and unforgettable memories with my best friend, but no sight of a powerful jewel anywhere.

I rested my head on the back of the small boat, looking up at the sky result of the tangerine-colored sunset complete with puffy clouds. I smiled at first; enjoying the view, but then frowned of the sudden thought that we achieved nothing today.

"Want to go back to Apotos after the ride?" I heard Dylan ask me. My eyes shot open as I looked right at my friend who seemed to have lost all the happiness of being here. He was all excited just a few minutes ago before we set foot into the gondola.

I sat back up. "Why? You do know that we're in Venice right? Coming here was your dream!"

His gaze focused out from me and into the front view where the gondolier was rowing the boat. "I know, but I felt like I made the wrong choice. I chose the place that we would have the most fun at, not where the H.I. was going to be. I'm so bummed because here we are doing nothing at all, while Eggman and those accomplices of his are probably getting more further ahead. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" Dylan continuously punched himself in the head. Before he can do more harm to himself, I quickly grabbed his fist and gently placed it onto his lap.

"Don't blame this on yourself; I wanted to go to Venice too. We both did. Sure, we didn't get what we were searching for, but instead we got an awesome time! I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day with my best friend." I smiled at him while he looked back at me with a blank face that quickly turned happy with a smile. He reached out to pull me into a hug.

"I couldn't have asked for a more perfect day too, Court-Court." Dylan said during the embrace. A moment later, we let go.

Throughout the boat ride, we both discussed and decided that we enjoy the rest of our day in Venice, since it was almost nightfall and that the festival was going to start soon. That part of me returned and kept nagging that it was wrong choice to make, but even if we decided to have more free time, we were still going to keep a lookout on finding the hidden gem; it might even be with some decoration for the masquerade, which reminds me…

We weren't even prepared for the festival! We don't have masks or anything! I wonder if Italians would take U.S. currency. I have a bad feeling they won't.

"Ti sia andando al carnevale?" The gondolier asked us while still rowing away. The only thing I got out of that sentence was 'carnival'.

"Do you speak English?" Dylan asked out of curiosity. The gondolier turned our way for a second, nodding his head with a smile. "Yes, I do." He said with a heavy Italian accent. "I asked: are you both going to the carnival?"

"Yeah, we are!" Dylan said with his returned excited attitude.

"Surely you both are not going looking like that. Are you?"

"Uh…" My best friend and I said in unison. The gondolier laughed as he was returning to the dock where we came in at. He gently set his gondola along-side and secured the boat with rope, tying each end on two wooden pillars.

"Come with me." The gondolier helped us out of the gondola as we both followed him almost halfway through the city, which wasn't a burden. The fading pastel sunset just made Venice more beautiful with its decorative night lights. I was grinning throughout the entire walk.

The gondolier stopped at a small house that was connected to two other houses on the sides, just like with the rest of the homes in Venice. It was rare to find a house here just by itself.

He pulled out his keys in his pocket to open the door and welcomed us inside. Just like from the outside, the inside looked just as old. By old, I didn't mean it in a bad way; it was a fancy kind of old. If I were able to live here, I would love it!

The gondolier gestured us to come upstairs with him, to his bedroom, and made a sharp turn to go inside his walk-in closet, which was by an enormous window that viewed the center of the city. As I can tell from the majority of lights and the faint chatter of crowds, it looks like the masquerade has begun.

"Alright! Here we go!" The gondolier pulled out a big cardboard box that looked like it was filled with nothing but costumes and masks, telling by the overflowed top. He placed it on his bed and told us to look through which things we would like to borrow.

"You're too kind. Are you sure you want us to borrow some of your outfits?" I asked him, feeling uncertain.

"Yes, I am sure. I can tell you two are very nice people, and I would want to make your trip here in Venice, unforgettable." He answered generously, and then left the room to give us some time.

Dylan and I looked inside the big box and discovered very many types of masks and several big and elegant costumes. The majority of the masks in there are full-face masks but I much preferred the kind that covered the top half of your face. I think that Dylan was aiming for the same thing too.

"Oooh! Court-Court! I think I found the perfect one for you!" Dylan announced jittery as he gave me a mask. It was the kind that covered top half of the face, like I wanted, and the entire mask was coated in shiny silver paint, but it had uniquely painted violet swirls and amethyst gemstones of different sizes glued in different places. This was a keeper.

While Dylan was still looking for his, I came across one that he's probably been looking for. Again, it was a top half mask. This one, however, was coated in red, but it had pretty cool gold and black designs on the edges of the mask. Looking closer at the designs, I can see that there were little painted flames. Yep, this is his mask.

As for the outfits, well, like I described earlier, they were really big. I eventually found a dress close enough to match with my mask, although the skirt was a little poofy. It was a silk lilac colored dress that had black lace that cascaded down from underneath the bodice to the ends of the humongous skirt. I had a feeling I'll be bumming into everyone dancing in this thing. Then again, almost all the women that passed us today wore bigger dresses.

Dylan had taken out every men costume out of the box, and didn't look like he would want to wear any of them, because of the size and puffiness. I pointed out one that was mostly black, but it had really poofy red and gold sleeves. It was the only outfit there that would match with his mask.

"I'll look ridiculous..." He mumbled self-consciously.

"And you think I won't by wearing that puffy dress." I said.

"You'll look great." He told me with a soft smile.

I shook my head. "Doubt it."

After persuading him a couple times, he agreed on wearing the costume. When he got done dressing himself in the bathroom, he didn't look ridiculous at all. He had this 'dark and mysterious' look to him when he wore it. He was so happy of the result; he couldn't stop making poses in the nearby mirror.

I went into the bathroom next and tried on my dress and mask. I felt like I was going to trip several times because of the skirt, but luckily without help, I eventually got into it. Once I got my mask in place, I looked into the mirror as one word popped into mind:

Ugly.

What was it? How come I didn't look good? I don't have the right figure?

Questions kept pouring in my mind as I kept looking at myself, not liking the result one bit. I turned to the door and decided right on the spot that I was going to find a different dress. If nothing else works, then I guess I'll just wear my normal clothes. My T-shirt was purple anyway.

Walking back to the bedroom, I felt Dylan's stare as I headed for the box and started to dig out for masks and dresses again. Dylan walked over and stood beside me.

"What are you doing?"

"Finding something different, I look horrible."

"No, you don't."

I made a small laugh as I continue to look for dresses, until I felt hands on my shoulders and was turned Dylan's direction. He took his right hand off for a brief second to take off his mask, so I will get a better look at his 'are you kidding?' expression. Despite how upset I was, I had to laugh a little at that.

He led me to the mirror where he was posing at, and I got a half view of myself again. I turned away, not wanting to see my reflection again until I changed.

"Please, look at yourself." My best friend told me. I still refused.

"Courtney…"

"Okay." I looked at myself in the mirror again, finding no point in this. Next to me in my reflection, I saw Dylan smiling, but it was a different smile from all the other smiles he's done. I think I saw this smile once when we were back in Sonic's world on our first adventure.

"You're beautiful." He said.

I froze as I blankly stared into the mirror. No one (other than my family) has called me beautiful before, and to hear it from my best friend made all the insecure thoughts disappear.

Why was that?

After that short moment of stiffness, a smile spread across my face.

"Thank you, Dylan."

After thanking the gondolier, Angelo, for letting us borrow the masks and costumes, we were now on our way to the Carnival of Venice.

It wasn't that far of a walk, since the gondolier's house was close enough to the center of all the action. Dylan grabbed my wrist again as we started to laugh and ran to the colorful mob of dancing people. There was a classical live orchestra, lots of decorated lights and fireworks, and plenty of Italian cuisine. There was so much to take in! It felt as if I was going through a colorful dream.

As it turns out, more people bumped into me than I bumping into them. Their costumes were so big and decorated; it made me wonder why they would choose to take the risk at dancing. Luckily I did not make anyone trip or step on their clothing.

"Hey Court, I'm going to step out to get some air. I'll be right back." Dylan told me while taking off his mask.

"Alright, when you come back, I'll be by the food courts." I told him as he nodded, and walked off.

I picked up my big violet dress as I headed my way towards that direction, until someone had stopped me. Looking up, I saw that it was man wearing a classic black tux, along with a decorative fox mask that only covered his eyes. He reached out his hand to grab mine, kissing my knuckles.

"May I have this dance?" He asked in a seductive tone.

"Uh," I managed to say as I glanced back, seeing if Dylan was in reachable distance. Unfortunately, he wasn't. I looked back at the stranger with a timid smile.

"Oh, my apologizes. Do you have a date?" He asked. There was something about him, his voice sounded very familiar to me.

"Oh! No no…I'm with a friend." I glanced back again, only this time he directed my gaze back at him.

"No need to be shy, my dear. It's just one dance." He lightly chuckled, his hand on my cheek.

I didn't know what came over me, but I let him lead me down to the middle of the dance floor. As the tempo of the music started to quicken, he held both of my hands, twirling me around to the music.

When he twirled me back to him, he pulled me until my back met his chest. Both of his hands glided from my hips to my neck, touching my necklace chain that had the H.I. Quickly with reflect, I shoved him away.

"What's wrong, my dear?" He asked as he got closer to me, grabbing my arm as he pulled me back to the same position. This time, his arms were more secure around me.

"Never danced with a man before?" He whispered into my ear, lightly kissing it.

I squirmed and elbowed him in the chest, making him release me. I turned around and swiped the mask that was hiding his identity, which revealed the face of Anthony.

"I knew there was something about your voice…" I said with a look of disgust, throwing his mask to the side.

"It's nice to see you too…" He softly chuckled, a smirk forming on his lips.

"I believe you have something of mine, and that you and your buddies owe an apology to my team."

"Why would we apologize?" He chuckled again as he approached closer to me. "Besides, you're the one who has something."

As his hand reached out to grab my necklace, he was pushed away as I summoned my force field. Because of this action, everyone around us stopped dancing to stare at us. When everyone's eyes were on me, people started to clap and cheer.

I looked at the crowd confused, thinking why are they not scared or concerned. Then it hit me, they probably thought it was part of my costume. Looking ahead, I saw Anthony getting back up.

"Shut up!" He pulled out my ring, shooting out a gleam of light. It hit one of the strings of lights from above, making electric sparks cascade on to us and the crowd. Everyone grew silent.

"Thank you." Anthony said in an irritated tone, walking close to my barrier again.

"You can't shield yourself forever, you know…" He glared at me, and then he swiftly turned to his right. "ADRIAN! NOW!" he yelled.

Except the two of us, all the people in the crowd started to collapse, trembling in fear as they hit the ground. It was like a repeat of what happened in the Broadway Theatre.

"No, no…Don't do this to them! They're innocent!" I told Anthony. He chuckled again.

"And it will all stop if you hand yourself over." His smirk grew as I saw Adrian and his other friend coming up behind him, both wearing casual clothes.

"What?! So it's me you want now?"

"Well, yes. It's not just the iridescent that I desire. According to Eggman, he wants both you and your friend to be captured and brought up to him. But hey, if you're willing to be my girl…I may convince Eggman not to kill you. What do ya say?"

I glared daggers at him. "Keep dreaming…"

He glanced back. "Adrian?"

Adrian's hands glowed more in darker color as the people around us started to scream and fidget. I couldn't bear to see more as I gazed down and made my violet barrier disperse. I felt Anthony touch and tightly grip my wrist.

"Good girl…" He kissed my cheek. I continued to glare him down.

"Adrian, keep up the good work. And Otto, find the other one, just make sure you don't scorch yourself, okay?" Anthony told his friends as he dragged me along. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I tugged at my arm.

"Liar! Let go!" I screamed and tried to fight my way out. However, it was no use. He just grabbed my other hand and constrained both my arms behind my back, making a tighter grip.

As we passed more frightened people, I prayed that Dylan will save them and defeat both Adrian and Otto. I know in my heart that he has what it takes to beat them; he will show no mercy that's for sure.

I also prayed that both Sonic and Shadow will recover quickly. As much I hate to admit this, I would need some help getting away from Anthony and Eggman. My abilities and force field alone wouldn't get me far. I just hope they'll find out in time.