"I told you to run!" grumbled Sonic, swinging his feet to an angry rhythm. "You could've at least gotten yourselves out of here!"
"And leave you to get jailed?" said Tails wearily. "Right."
"Besides, technically, we did kinda damage the mine's property," said Knuckles. "We sort of deserve to be here."
He rapidly subsided under the dirty looks Sonic and Tails gave him.
"They were freaking robots, with the freaking Eggman symbol, and they freaking attacked us!" Sonic retorted. "Of course we were going to trash them! They started it. Besides, we didn't even know they belonged to the mine, and they probably don't. Not if they have the Eggman symbol on them."
"Either way," sighed Tails, "we're just stuck here till the police come."
"I can hardly wait," said Sonic drily, flopping back onto the only wooden bench in the room. They were being kept under lock and key in one of the buildings until they could be properly arrested and questioned. It was going to be a while; the police had to come all the way from a nearby town, and get security clearance to get through the volcano's entrance tunnel.
"Do you think they'll buy it if we say the robots started it?" asked Knuckles glumly.
"Maybe. But I hate to think what kinduva field day the Egghead's gonna have with this," sighed Sonic. "I bet he'd love a chance to make us look like criminals and get us all thrown in the slammer."
Knuckles gave a muffled growl.
Suddenly from down the hallway came a sound of quick footsteps. The three Mobians perked up—that sounded like much too fast and light a stride to belong to a human, especially an adult one. Stranger still, the footsteps stopped right in front of the door to the room where they were being kept.
Sonic jumped to his feet warily as the lock suddenly started to rattle. Sure enough, someone was opening the door! Tensely they waited, until the lock clicked open and the door swung ever so slightly ajar. A pair of blue eyes peered cautiously around it, then the door was flung open the rest of the way and Maria came skidding in.
"Maria! What are you doing here?!" cried Knuckles.
"Shhh! Shh!" she warned, putting a finger to her lips. "I'm here with Uncle Julian, and I'm breaking you out! Hurry, run!"
"No way!" Sonic hissed back. "We couldn't do that, you'd get in trouble! If we really wanted to get away that badly, we could have Knuckles punch down the wall, but we're definitely not getting you mixed up in this!"
"But right now you're innocent!" retorted Maria, with surprising nerve. "I know how Uncle Julian's robots can be. I'm sure it wasn't your fault that you had to fight them. But if you break the wall, then you'll be guilty of property damage for real!"
"We still won't get you in trouble," said Sonic stubbornly.
"You won't, you won't," urged Maria, desperately trying to tug Tails towards the doorway. "Uncle Julian wouldn't hurt me. Besides, here—" she shoved a strange metal device into Tails' hand "—throw this lockpick on the floor outside the door, and by the time Uncle Julian and the others get here, I'll be long gone. They'll just think you picked your way out!"
"Just how much time have you been spending with Rouge?" asked Sonic uneasily, as Tails hastily made a few scratches around the lock to heighten the lockpicking illusion.
"Go, hurry!" was Maria's only reply. "Before someone comes!"
Resigned, the Mobians waved their goodbyes and shot off down the hallway, heading for the front door. Maria waved after them and hurried off in the other direction.
Bursting out the front door of the building, the Mobians took off in earnest. Without even thinking, they pelted towards the thick stand of woods looming nearby—the nature preserve. They didn't hear any shouts behind themselves, which they took to be a good thing. Plunging into the thick, cool greenery of the forest, they dodged and weaved among trees and bushes until they felt they were reasonably out of danger. Tails and Knuckles sank down on a fallen tree, panting, while Sonic skittered back and forth restlessly.
"We've gotta keep moving," he said, tugging his ears. "They're going to start looking for us soon."
"We're running from the law," said Knuckles heavily. "Like common criminals."
"Oh, come on, we acted in self-defense! And do you think Eggman'd let us get away with that excuse? Heck no!" Sonic smacked his fist into his palm. "And after Maria went out on a limb for us like that, we can't just throw it away. We've got to get out of here."
"How?" asked Tails despondently. "We can't exactly take the bus out, and you heard what they said about flying. Motion-sensing machine guns! I can't dodge very fast while I'm carrying someone."
Sonic sighed, scruffing up his quills. Rain pattered on the thick leafy canopy overhead, and an occasional fat droplet plopped down from a leaftip somewhere.
"D'you think that guy was serious about those machine gun thingies?" he said at length.
"Yeah, dead serious," said a sudden fourth voice. Sonic and the others all jumped and whirled around, just in time to see Rouge slipping lightly from a nearby tree. A dark form dropped down after her—Shadow.
"What are you guys doing here?!" spluttered Knuckles.
"Ah, licking our wounds, as of now," said Rouge, extending one wing. Two neat punctures glinted side-by-side in the membrane, each ringed by a small circlet of congealing blood. Meanwhile, Shadow was subconsciously keeping his weight off one leg, and a rapidly-healing but obviously recent gash showed on his arm, etched in a perfectly straight groove.
"Are you guys okay?" asked Tails, his eyes wide.
"What, this? S'nothin'," said Rouge flippantly. "We managed to fly in, but they didn't seem to like it very much. We're not too keen on flying back out, and I couldn't make it on this wing anyway. You guys got any other ideas?"
"No." Knuckles tilted his head. "Is that wing going to heal?"
"It'd better," shrugged Rouge. Tails blinked up at her and Shadow in something like awe. Hanging out with Sonic and Knuckles a lot, he was used to a cavalier attitude towards injuries, but this was really something else.
"So, what's in here that's so awesome that you risked life and limb for it?" asked Sonic. "Are you here to take down Eggman too? 'Cos we could really use a hand with that—"
"Spare your breath," interrupted Shadow coolly. "What the doctor does is no concern of ours."
"Hey dude, he could be threatening the safety of Mobius—"
"He's mining." Shadow's reply was unruffled enough to be utterly scathing. "That is beside the point."
"Oh, well, excuuuuse me," growled Sonic. For a second there was tense silence.
"Is that?—" Tails jumped suddenly, pointing at a small device in Rouge's hand. "That's a Chaos Emerald tracker! Is there one in the volcano?"
Shadow and Rouge exchanged disgruntled looks.
"Yeah, yeah, we kind of came here looking for it," said Rouge, obviously resentful at having to share this information. "There's supposed to be one in this jungle somewhere."
"Awesome! We'll help you guys!" said Sonic at once.
"I was afraid you'd say that," muttered Rouge.
Still, she and Shadow didn't raise any major objections as Team Sonic tagged along beside them. The rain continued to patter overhead as they picked their way through the dense woods, Shadow limping slightly. Rouge kept a careful watch on the Chaos Emerald tracker, and Tails had eyes only for the plant life surrounding them. Occasionally he would make a little sound of delight and dart away to examine a particular fern or flowering vine.
"They really do have amazing plant varieties here," he announced blissfully. The others smiled patiently, or rolled their eyes rather less patiently.
At last Rouge paused, squinted at the tracker again, and twitched her ears resignedly.
"That's as close as this thing is going to get us," she announced. "It isn't the most accurate, but the Emerald should be at least thirty yards from this spot. Guess we'd better get to work."
It took them only five minutes of searching; soon Knuckles called "I've got it!" and swung down from a tree with the cyan Chaos Emerald.
"Sweet!" whooped Sonic. "Now Shads can just Chaos Control us all out of here."
"No," retorted Shadow, folding his arms.
"Oh for Pete's sake, don't be an—"
"When I say no, I mean I cannot," interrupted Shadow. "If it were possible to Chaos Control in and out of here, do you think Rouge and I would have bothered risking machine gun fire?"
"You can't Chaos Control?!" said Sonic, surprised. Shadow shrugged, took the Chaos Emerald from Knuckles, and shouted "Chaos Control!" For a second his body shimmered with bars of blue-green light, like a failing TV picture; then the shimmers abruptly stopped and he was standing there fully solid again.
"Not into or out of the volcano, anyway," he said coolly, in reply to the others' disbelieving looks. "It's probably part of the security measures; I understand the military has recently developed a shielding device that prevents Chaos Control from travelling through it. They may have encased the volcano in an invisible dome of that sort."
"Or it could just be ordonium deposits in the area," added Rouge. "It would explain why our tracker and Omega both glitched up outside the volcano."
"Omega? Is he okay?" asked Tails solicitously.
"He's fine now, but we had to send him home," sighed Rouge. "He doesn't deal with ordonium very well; as soon as he got close the volcano he started to solemnly swear he was Napoleon."
"Which isn't that different from his usual mindset," remarked Shadow sardonically. "But he's usually more taciturn about it."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So then, how do we get out of here?" asked Knuckles.
Rouge shrugged. Meanwhile, Sonic knitted his brows in thought, then suddenly grinned.
"Well . . . we could take the bus."
"You're not serious!" protested Tails. "They'll catch us again!"
"No, no, I have an idea," said Sonic. "Come on, Riley said the buses only come every two hours, there should be one coming through just about now. Follow me!"
Reaching the edge of the woods, they paused and peered out towards the bus lot. Sure enough, another rumbling bus was parked behind the demolished one, disgorging its robotic crew. Once the robot miners had left, the bus laboriously started up, backed away, and turned around, grumbling its motor all the while. Apparently the driver was preparing to head back the way he'd come. First, however, he blew the horn and idled the motor again, evidently waiting for any outbound passengers. A couple of robots were already stumping over from the direction of the mines; probably they had been sent out to fetch supplies or get repaired.
"Hurry, now's our only chance!" whispered Sonic, as the two new robots entered the bus. The five Mobians broke from the cover of the woods and scurried to the side of the bus, keeping their heads as low as possible. Once they were right beside the quivering bulk of the vehicle, the windows were high enough above their heads that they wouldn't be seen from inside.
Shadow and Knuckles kept watch for any more approaching passengers as Sonic crept along the side of the bus. Soon he reached what he was looking for—the external luggage compartment. Tucking his tongue into the corner of his mouth, he pried his fingers between the door of the compartment and the side of the bus, fiddling with the lock. At last, with a faint pop, it gave way and allowed Sonic to carefully swing the panel open.
"Empty," he called softly to the others, a gleeful note lacing his voice. "Climb on in!"
"You've gotta be kidding me!" hissed Rouge.
"Go on, get in!" Sonic hissed back, waving. "It's the only way to get out of here unnoticed!"
Tails, looking resigned, was already clambering into the dark recess where long-distance travelers usually stored their suitcases. Rouge looked mutinous, but at last growled something and slipped in after him. Knuckles was just about to follow when Shadow barked softly, "Someone's coming!"
Sonic slammed the luggage compartment shut frantically. He, Shadow, and Knuckles scrambled around to the other side of the bus and pressed back against it, holding their breaths. Had they been seen? The clank of robotic footsteps came nearer and nearer, then paused. Then—horrors!—it started to walk around the front of the bus, towards the side where the Mobians were hiding.
Knuckles shot the others a wide-eyed look that said "They've seen us!", but they still entertained desperate hopes. Silently they whisked around the back of the bus, back to the side they had started on. The footsteps paused again on the opposite side, as if their owner was sure he had seen something there. Then the robot also started to return to the original side of the bus, again walking around the front. Shadow mouthed a curse.
This time, the three Mobians didn't go all the way around the bus, but stopped squarely behind it, ready to dive to one side or the other if need be. The game of ring-around-the-rosies was wearing pretty thin already.
Mercifully, however, they heard the automatic doors of the bus whoosh open, and the robot clambered aboard. Knuckles blew a sigh of relief, while Sonic swiped sweat from his forehead and fought back a grin.
Just as they were edging back around towards the luggage compartment, a new disaster struck: the bus gave a roar and began to slowly pull away from them. For a second the three Mobians glanced at each other blankly; then they took off after the retreating vehicle.
Keeping pace with the bus was easy, especially since it was just starting. Shadow threw his weight onto his uninjured leg and sprang lightly up onto the roof. Sonic jumped after him, then reached back to haul up Knuckles, who had just barely made the jump and was clinging to the roof's rear edge.
"Okay?" Sonic asked breathlessly, glancing from Knuckles to Shadow.
"I wonder if the tunnel has enough clearance to let us through," remarked Shadow blandly. Sonic winced.
"Wish you hadn't brought that up."
Knuckles dug in his knuckle-spikes grimly and flattened himself against the rain-slick rooftop. Sonic and Shadow did likewise, to escape detection, hopefully clear the tunnel ceiling, and avoid being thrown off the bus entirely. The lurching and swaying was even worse up here.
"Who gave this guy his license?" muttered Shadow, as the bus slowed down violently and sent them all sliding towards the front.
"Eggman, probably," retorted Sonic.
It wasn't a pleasant ride. They did fit under the tunnel ceiling, luckily, but the wind caused by the bus's movement stung their eyes and faces unpleasantly, and the air was thick with dust and exhaust fumes. They were all relieved when they reached the other end of the tunnel and emerged into the cool rainfall again. They also managed to escape the notice of the guy guarding the gap in the fence, and of the passing police cars. Sonic and Knuckles exchanged sardonic looks.
The bus didn't stop anywhere in the little village, which was fine by the Mobians. Riley or someone else might have seen them. They rode for a mile or two more, then the bus stopped at a town to let the robots off.
Sonic, Knuckles, and Shadow knew they didn't have long to act. Completely disregarding whether the passengers might see them or not, they leaped off the roof of the bus and headed for the luggage compartment. Before Sonic could even make a move to open it though, it exploded open of its own accord. Rouge and Tails tumbled out, looking somewhat carsick but otherwise intact.
"Let's go!" warned Knuckles before any protests could start, and they all took off for dear life.
At last they slowed to a halt, all the way on the other side of town.
"Well," panted Rouge. "That was interesting."
"Pretty cool though, huh?" grinned Sonic.
Shadow rolled his eyes and turned to leave.
"Hey!" called Knuckles sharply. "What about our Chaos Emerald?"
"Your Chaos Emerald?" Shadow glanced back. "You wouldn't even have known to look for it if we weren't there. We were the ones who originally came looking for it."
"And got injured trying," added Rouge, folding her arms.
"Yeah, they're right," said Sonic ruefully, putting a restraining hand on Knuckles' shoulder. "It was their hunt, we just got tangled up in it. It's only fair they get to keep it."
"Huh!" Knuckles shook his dreadlocks angrily. "Fine."
"See you guys!" called Tails, waving at the retreating members of Team Dark. Shadow just kept walking, but Rouge turned briefly and waved back.
"You know," she remarked, catching up to Shadow again. "I suppose we could have let them keep that one. Especially since we do already have one of our own."
"As if they need to know that," said Shadow, pulling out the green Chaos Emerald to match the cyan one. "It's not like you to suggest that."
"Eh, it was just a thought," shrugged Rouge. She eyed the two glowing gems covetously. "Truth be told, I've kind of got my sights set on all seven."