"Keep alert!" warned Sonic, pulling Amy aside as another tree crashed down inches away. "This is no walk in the park, Amy. There could be death traps anywhere! The Knucklehead's gone mental."
"Fio took away his trust, didn't he?" asked Amy sadly. "He was always so trusting . . . "
"That's the nice way of putting it," murmured Sonic, ducking as an arrow whistled overhead. "Seriously though, focus on—woahhh. Lookit that!"
Amy gulped, her eyes wide. Before them was a ravine, fairly wide but not at all deep. You could've called it a gully, almost. The main issue with it, however, was that it was full of fire.
"Can't go around it, either," muttered Sonic, glancing back and forth cautiously. On either side of them, the ground was uneven and soft-looking, as if it had been recently disturbed. In truth, the soil had been undermined and loosened so that it was ready to slide away at any moment, dumping any careless souls straight into the fiery pit.
"We should find a safer way," said Amy, but her words seemed to go unheeded.
"Stay here, Amy," said Sonic, backing up slightly. "I'll jump across this thing and try to find a way to disable it for ya."
"Wh-what? Wait, Sonic! No, NO!" wailed Amy, lunging to stop him—but Sonic was already taking a running start and leaping straight over the crackling flames. He landed safely on the opposite edge—which promptly caved in underneath him. Amy screamed and covered her eyes as Sonic scrabbled frantically, trying to claw his way up through a shifting waterfall of soft soil.
"Hey, Amy!"
Amy peeked through her fingers, heart pounding. Across the ravine she saw Sonic, gamely clambering his way up the slanting remains of the landslide, away from the flames. Digging his fingers into the earth, he turned to holler over his shoulder.
"I'll go ahead and see if I can't find a safer way!" he shouted. "Just wait here, okay?"
"Sonic, you—you—!" Amy stamped her foot in exasperation. "I'll visit your grave!"
"I'll reach out and pull you in!" Sonic called back cheekily, disappearing into the woods.
Meanwhile, Shadow and Rouge were clipping swiftly through the jungle, dodging expertly between crashing trees that toppled over at their approach.
"He cut down half of his own forest," observed Rouge grimly.
"And he must have been up all night doing it," agreed Shadow, reaching up to pluck an arrow out of a treetrunk where it had lodged. "So many death traps must have taken hours to put up."
Rouge jumped back as the ground gave way beneath her, revealing a narrow pit bedded with sharp wooden spikes.
"He's not kidding around," she muttered. "If someone who couldn't fly stepped on that . . . "
"Probably wouldn't be lethal, though," said Shadow darkly. "Much worse."
Rouge grimaced.
"I've had it with this slogging around on the ground. The arrows don't come immediately, they'll miss me if I fly fast enough."
Before Shadow could advise against it, she had rocketed off. Rolling his eyes, Shadow picked up his pace slightly to catch up with her. It didn't take long.
"Must you choose this time to reconnect with your ancestral resting habits?" he asked wearily of the bat, who was tangled, upside-down, in a thick vine net stretched between two trees. Rouge muttered some choice words and thrashed slightly. Sighing, Shadow reached up to start untangling her, only to get pushed back irately.
"I've got it," growled Rouge, snappish with embarrassment.
"All right, you can catch up." Shadow turned to keep going.
"Hey! Hold up, would you?"
"We need to find the echidna quickly. You said you didn't want help, so—dammit!"
Rouge jumped reflexively (not that it would have done much good), but the danger wasn't coming at her. What had looked like normal leaf-strewn jungle floor suddenly gave way under Shadow's feet, revealing a stretch of steaming black sludge.
"A tar pit!" said Rouge, eyes wide. "Don't move, Shads, they suck you down!"
Rouge was skilled at squirming out of bonds, but the net was fiendishly woven to tighten with movement, and it was giving her quite a bit of trouble. Shadow, paying no attention, was struggling to pull his feet free. Every time he tugged one foot upwards, it merely pushed his other foot downwards, and the hot ooze soon rose above the tops of his shoes and stung at his ankles. With a hiss of pain, he tossed his head furiously and threw himself forwards, trying to get out with one powerful yank.
He would have ended badly if he'd fallen forwards into the tar, but luckily he was carrying enough momentum to start a spindash. Just as Rouge managed to twist free of the net and drop nimbly to the ground, there was a strained howl of quills tangling with thick black sludge, a sucking sound, and suddenly Shadow was crashing to a halt against a nearby tree.
"Shads? You all right?" called Rouge, skirting the edge of the tar pit. Shadow tested the back of his head gingerly with his fingers. Finding the bone was still in one piece, he eyed Rouge warningly.
"You saw nothing, you heard nothing."
"Well then, neither did you," replied Rouge smugly. Shadow rolled his eyes, but nodded and got to work scraping the tar off his shoes. The fur was a bit singed just above the tops, but nothing too serious.
"Sorry I couldn't get to you faster," said Rouge. "Why didn't you just step out of your shoes, you silly?"
"Wasn't about to leave them behind," grunted Shadow.
"Didn't want to? Or couldn't?" prodded Rouge. Shadow rolled his eyes again.
"Doesn't matter either way. I just hope there aren't more of these around."
"Yeah," Rouge groaned. "Knowing Omega, he won't know better than to go wading around in them."
Omega and Espio were not very familiar with each other. The chameleon had some memory of receiving quite a nasty knock on the head from the robot at one point, but that had been a while ago, before they were all properly introduced. The robot did make quite an efficient partner, though. While Espio slipped quietly through the forest, treading lightly, Omega tromped grimly forward, unmoved by all mayhem.
He wasn't jungle-outfitted; in fact he barely fit between the bushes and branches sometimes. Still, he made up for that with his sheer indestructibility. Espio wasn't counting, but he was pretty sure six trees had already fallen atop the robot, none of them affecting him in the slightest. The arrows bounced right off him too.
Suddenly there was a snap of metal, and a steel trap closed over Omega's foot. The robot stopped, peeved, as Espio drew in his breath sharply.
"If there are more of those, they could be extremely dangerous to the others," he murmured. "That looks like it could break an ankle."
"Databases indicate these devices are illegal under local ordinances," growled Omega, as Espio bent to pull the trap from his foot. "I shall chastise this echidna with fire."
"He is not himself, remember. You cannot hold him responsible for what he does under the control of Fiolet's venom," said Espio quietly.
"Then I shall chastise this Fiolet with fire," amended Omega. "I have no reason to fear him, but he shall learn to fear me." His voice dropped a few octaves at the end of that sentence, and he ground the trap to pieces beneath his foot for emphasis.
Espio glanced over at the robot, sizing him up thoughtfully. Working with Vector as his boss, he was used to hearing a lot of bold but empty threats—but Omega's warnings felt different. He did not seem like the type to bandy words about idly.
They proceeded a bit farther, breaking through the underbrush. Suddenly Espio raised a hand, silently calling a halt.
"Quicksand," he murmured, nodding. Before them was a sparkling lake, fed by a charming little waterfall. A broad expanse of clean, smooth sand surrounded the lake, stretching quite a bit in every direction. Normally it would have been a splendid beach, but now something was wrong. Part of the waterfall had been rerouted with a primitive wooden sluice, dribbling water down the rockface and into the sand, and the excess of moisture had turned the entire beach into a sloppy liquid. Espio tossed a rock onto the seemingly solid surface, and it sank underneath without a trace.
"We should avoid that area," said Omega.
"But look," murmured Espio. "Look."
Omega looked where the chameleon was pointing and gritted unhappily.
"It is not worth it . . . "
The blue Chaos Emerald was glinting alluringly, set on a little platform by the edge of the lake. The sparkle of the gem was undiminished, showing that Knuckles had not disabled that one.
"Obviously a trap," said Espio, folding his arms. "The intention was probably for someone to run immediately to the Chaos Emerald and sink into the quicksand."
"That is why it is not worth it," said Omega. "We can return to retrieve it later."
"But we could use a working Chaos Emerald to find Knuckles. Shadow would have an immediate advantage that way," argued Espio. "Stay here. I believe I can reach it."
Omega watched uneasily as the chameleon paced back a few steps, judging the terrain he would have to cover. Leaves tore from beneath his feet as he suddenly dashed forward, skimming directly over the surface of the quicksand and leaving a spreading wake behind him. His feet came down so quickly and lightly that they didn't even have a chance to sink in.
"I have it!" he called, snatching the Chaos Emerald from its platform. However, a sudden barrage of arrows forced him to throw himself down, and as he grabbed for the platform to stay afloat, the Chaos Emerald slipped from his grasp. A soft gurgle, and the glowing gem disappeared into an eddy of sandy water.
Espio was a stoic fellow, but at that point he just barely held back an oath.
"Do not let go of that platform," Omega called from the bank. "You will drown. Remain where you are, and I will come to retrieve you."
"No, I'm fine," said Espio firmly, searching the trees above for a vine or low-hanging branch. "Don't come wading in here, it may be deep."
Finding a vine looped from a tree branch overhead, he tossed a shuriken to slice one end free. Grabbing the now-dangling vine, he pulled himself expertly up to safety, hand over hand.
"The loss of the Chaos Emerald is an unaccountable failure, though," he said, grimacing as he turned to his partner. ". . . Omega?"
The only sign of the robot was an erratically frothing patch of quicksand.
There were times when nothing would do but the old standbys.
"It's no use!" panted Silver, catching yet another toppling tree with his psychokinesis. "There's always more and more of them!"
"Don't overexert yourself. We may need your psychokinesis later," advised Blaze, torching an arrow that came whizzing out of nowhere. Suddenly she stopped and held out one hand, pointing silently at a thin thread stretched between two trees.
"A tripwire," Silver murmured. Nodding, Blaze backed away and flicked a tongue of flame at the thread, burning it in half. An enormous rock suddenly crashed down from a sling in the trees overhead, slamming down where the tripwire victim would have been. Silver winced.
"Keep your eyes on the ground," said Blaze, stepping around the boulder cautiously. "It seems most of the traps are set at ground level."
Five seconds later, there was a sudden sharp "chk!" as a delicately placed branch fell over.
"Blaze!" yelped Silver, lunging forward as an enormous stack of logs came avalanching down. Before his psychokinesis could catch, something yanked on his ankle and he found himself being flipped violently upside-down. Luckily, it was a non-lethal snare trap—but his heart nearly stopped as he realized that his psychokinesis must have missed entirely.
It took only seconds for Silver to wriggle out of the trap and drop back to the ground, dreading what he would find. There were logs scattered all over the forest floor, slanting over each other and against trees like some massive, deadly pick-up-sticks. There was no sign of Blaze.
Terrified, he plowed into the mess of lumber, and without even thinking hoisted it all into the air at once. Normally such a load would be beyond his capacities, but in his current mental state all kinds of things became possible.
"Blaze? Blaze, where are you? Blaze!"
There was still no sign of her at all.
Before Silver could lapse into full-scale panic, there was a soft call from overhead.
"I'm here. Silver, calm down."
Silver looked up and dropped all the logs in relief. They crashed to the ground dangerously, but he barely paid them any mind; Blaze was perched safely on a tree branch, high overhead. Her spectacular jumping skills had evidently served her well, and the only reason she hadn't jumped back down yet was because a stray arrow had pinned one of her dress tails to the treetrunk. Ever fastidious, she chose to carefully work it loose rather than tear her dress.
"I thought it had got you," breathed Silver, as Blaze finally jumped down next to him.
"It was a careless mistake on my part," replied Blaze, unruffled. "I should have been more alert."
"I should have caught the logs before they fell," said Silver quietly, looking away. "I'm sorry."
"Don't blame yourself." Blaze placed a hand on his arm in her usual quiet, formal way. "It would be inconsiderate of me to simply demand your protection."
Silver murmured something vague and looked after Blaze surreptitiously as she moved onwards. She meant it all in the nicest way possible, of course—she meant it to comfort him. But somehow, it only made him feel worse about his failure to come through. Dating—sweet Mobius, did he actually use the word "dating"? For him and a princess?—well then, knowing Blaze, he was caught in an uncomfortable situation.
She didn't need him at all, really. She was entirely self-reliant. Of course, he admired her strength and confidence, and was glad she could keep herself so safe, but somehow it pained him to feel like he was useless to her. It felt a bit selfish, but all the same, he wished he could be the one doing the saving, just once or twice. To feel that he was contributing equally to their relationship, or somesuch fancy-schmancy relationship-advice terminology.
"Silver?" called Blaze from up ahead. Silver's ears pricked sharply—her tone was closer to a whisper than a shout, as if she was trying to catch his attention but evade someone else's. What was up?
Stealthily he crept forward to join her in hiding behind a bush. Parting the broad, wet leaves, he peeked cautiously out at the subject that had caught her interest.
Sonic and Amy were tearing towards the Master Emerald's shrine full-tilt, pursued by a boulder.
"If we get out of this, I'm going to want a fedora!" deadpanned Sonic, pulling Amy along by the wrist as quickly as was safe. "And a long coiled whip."
"And your name in orange and yellow adventurous letters?" panted Amy, doing her best to keep up.
"Ah, that'd be pretty cool, but a guy can't ask for too much," Sonic grinned back. Amy laughed breathlessly; normally she'd have been scared out of her wits, but she found she didn't feel frightened when Sonic was right there with her.
Eventually Sonic realized he and Amy were heading straight for the side of the Master Emerald's giant pyramidal shrine. The boulder was still behind them; they were, painfully literally, between a rock and a hard place.
"Let's go!" Sonic sang, swinging Amy out to the side lightly and using the momentum to boomerang them both out of the boulder's path. Unfortunately, Shadow and Rouge happened to be in their path.
"Oof!" Followed by a deafening uproar as the boulder thundered past and slammed into the side of the pyramid, kicking up a welter of rubble and dust. Rouge eventually sorted herself out of the tangle of Mobians and sat up, looking sour.
"Yeah. So then I said, 'Let's do a sneak attack!' And then Shadow said, 'We will approach quietly from behind.' And then you said, 'Cowabunga! Let's crash a massive rock into the shrine and make a lotta noise! YEAH!'"
Sonic laughed heartily, partly at the dialog and partly at the sarcastic pantomime of it that Rouge was performing.
"I don't say 'cowabunga'," he grinned, getting to his feet. "And don't complain to me, take it out on the boulder."
"That may not be possible," said Shadow quietly. The others looked where he was pointing and blinked.
"Where did the boulder go?" asked Amy, puzzled.
Shadow's only reply was to pick up a sizeable stone and hurl it at the wall of the shrine. Amy gave a startled cry and latched onto Sonic's arm—the top of the pyramid had suddenly lit up with a searing white-green light. Long lightning-like streamers of energy danced down the shrine's sides like some weird electrical water, eerily silent, and converged on the rock Shadow had thrown. A matter of five seconds, and it was reduced to a puff of smoke. The tendrils of energy wriggled back and disappeared.
The Mobians stood in silence for a moment.
"And we were about to go over there," said Rouge flatly.
"Apparently, the Master Emerald has some sort of "self-defense" setting," remarked Shadow. "It seems the echidna has become so paranoid that he feels anyone or anything approaching the shrine must be destroyed without question."
"Well, thaaaat's cheerful," said Rouge. "Now what do we do?"
"We have to warn the others!" said Amy, wide-eyed. "What if they come from the other side and touch the pyramid?"
"What if they already did," said Shadow darkly. Amy made a little dismayed sound and shivered, glancing fearfully over her shoulder at the silent shrine.
"We should circle around the shrine and keep an eye out for the others," said Sonic. "And maybe we should yell. If Knux is standing guard up there now, maybe he'll hear us and come down."
Barely had they assumed four roving positions around the fringes of the pyramid before Rouge met one of the other teams.
"Hey, over here! You gu—what happened to you guys?"
Espio and Omega were somewhat the worse for wear. Both were coated in a thin layer of sand, and Omega had trails of grit running down from his air intake grilles, as if sandy water had been dribbling from them. As a matter of fact, it had.
"You . . . guys have been building sandcastles?" said Rouge, regarding them disbelievingly.
"There was quicksand," said Espio calmly.
"You fell in?"
"In his case, walked in," said Espio, waving at Omega. "And without the courtesy to tell me that he was waterproof. I was prepared to come tell you that I had eternally sunk your robot."
"Of course I am waterproof," grumbled Omega. "And I repeat, I do not need to see or breathe. Walking along the bottom of the quicksand pool was quite comfortable, and my intention all along. It was you who complicated the situation by moving away."
"You . . . I . . . " Rouge sank her forehead onto the heel of her palm. "Well, that's great. I'm glad you were comfortable."
"It was also advantageous," continued Omega. "We retrieved this."
His joints, filled with sand, made a dangerous screeching noise as he dropped something into Rouge's hand.
"More sand?" she said, surveying it quizzically.
Espio sighed and reached over to brush away most of what Rouge was holding. As the sand slipped away, a glint of blue shone through. Rouge perked up immediately.
"Ohhh, now that's a much better proposition! Is this one working, then?"
Espio was about to reply, but he was interrupted by a call from nearby.
"Hey, you guys!" Sonic's voice came floating over from the distance. "The last team is here! And look what they've got!"
"Don't touch the pyramid," Rouge said hastily over her shoulder, already whisking over to see what the fuss was about. Espio and Omega followed after her, a little bewildered.
Silver and Blaze were trotting swiftly through the jungle towards the shrine, Blaze leading with an arc of flame to ward off any incoming arrows. Meanwhile, Silver's psychokinesis was on full-strength—and hauling along an extremely sullen and uncooperative echidna.