Jade heard a familiar laugh shortly after the explosion. It was hard to hear it but it was still unmistakable. It was Eggman's laugh.
He said something but she couldn't make out what he was saying. "Big Brother, I can't hear!" Jade had to yell to hear herself.
"It's only temporary." She finally heard Eggman yell. "It's because of the explosion, her eardrum must have ruptured. Anybody else would be completely deaf but that Emerald will have it fixed soon enough." He bent down and picked up the blue Chaos Emerald. There was nothing they could do about it now.
"We have to find Tails." Zavok told her, as if she hadn't already thought about it.
He uncurled from his protective hold. Jade didn't want to leave Zavok but she did, trusting that he would be right behind her at some point. He never ran from fights, she knew this fact all too well.
Tails said he's on the west right? Jade ran hard and as fast as she could. Finally she had to stop to catch her breath. Zavok wasn't right behind her like she had hoped.
"Jade, you're okay!" Tails ran up to her. He was just as much out of breath as she was. "I heard an explosion and got worried. Did you find the Chaos Emerald?"
"Yeah, but Eggman grabbed it from us. We need to go get Big Brother!"
"We need to get out of here too." Tails didn't go in the direction of Zavok.
"But, Tails, Big Brother-"
"Just follow me!" Tails grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the plane. "I need you to get in quickly. Get to the top of the plane!" He held up a hand, something Zik used to do to tell her to stay quiet until he was finished. "I know it's unsafe but I need you to pull Zavok up."
When he put his hand down Jade was finally aloud to talk. "I was going to ask how do you expect me to pull Zavok up? I'm strong but he isn't exactly featherweight."
"Leave that part up to me." His eyes held so much warmth and certainty it made Jade feel a little bit better. While she climbed the wings of the plane Tails did everything he needed to do to get the plane started.
She didn't expect the wings to feel so unsteady. To feel safer Jade kept close to the flat board and crawled her way to the edge of the wing. Below them was nothing but sea and sand and Zavok and Eggman and his robots. Zavok was surrounded but it looked as if he destroyed a big chunk of them.
"I'm going to loop back around, Jade, and we'll get as close to the ground as I can get. We don't have a million chances at this, think you can get it in one try?"
Jade nodded. "Got it, Tails!"
When they looped around she didn't expect the side she was leaning over to tilt toward the ground. She felt like she was going to slip and fall. She couldn't get herself to let go of the plane's wing.
"Jump, Zavok!" She yelled, although she didn't need to, he was already jumping and before she knew it the plane jerked from his body hitting the wing. He held on tightly while Tails steered away from Eggman.
"I'm glad you aren't hurt." Jade finally admitted when she thought they were far enough away from Eggman. She crawled to him but held on tightly to the wing.
Zavok opened his mouth and started telling her something, but whatever it was it was lost in explosions that jerked the plane. Her hands slipped from its hold and she flew forward over and under the plane.
Zavok didn't expect the jerk, and obviously neither did his sister. He watched her get ejected from her spot, her face formed into surprise. He tried to grab her and he was just centimeters away from her fingers but she still, once again, slipped away.
Tails circled back around but they couldn't see anything in the endless sea. They would just have to hope she was okay until they landed. He was so worried. Jade should have been home, with her family, but instead she was lost out at sea. Lost in a world unknown to both of them.
When the plane was low enough to the ground Zavok jumped out and ran to the ocean. Sonic approached them with the three that found Jade not too long ago.
"What happened?" Sonic asked Tails. "We saw the explosions."
"Eggman attacked us and we lost Jade…we also lost the Chaos Emerald."
How could they think of the Chaos Emerald at a time like this? Zavok's mind was on only one thing; to find Jade.
"Where did you lose her at?" Espio asked.
"Not too far out in the water."
"Alright. I'll go search." Vector jumped in the water. He didn't return until sundown and Jade wasn't with him.
The alligator wouldn't look at Zavok when he said, "She just isn't there. It's like she disappeared."
Sonic couldn't imagine what Zavok was thinking or feeling. His look continued to get darker that each hour passed.
"If Eggman has her they'll be looking for the other Chaos Emeralds." Tails tried to cheer him up, even a little. "And we know she can sense Chaos Emeralds too so he'll probably take her everywhere."
This piece of news didn't seem to cheer him up one bit. In fact it did the opposite. The aura he gave off seemed to get darker and darker until it could no longer get darker.
Finally Tails said solemnly, "But there isn't anything we can do in the dark. We'll have to leave at sunrise when I can see. The detective team, however, can go ahead of us."
"Do we even know which Chaos Emerald they'll go after next?" Sonic folded his arms.
"No." Tails took out his tablet and showed everyone the map with five more blinking dots. "You three," he pointed at the map, "should go east over here. It may be more hidden than this one was so be on the look out. We'll go north and meet up west. Hopefully one of us will see Jade."
'Hopefully' didn't make Zavok any happier. Somewhere in the back of Sonic's mind he knew Zavok would get no sleep tonight or any other night until he had Jade safely back home.