Chapter 32

The four groups set off on their separate ways the next morning. Sonic headed north via the high-speed tunnels that, though crumbling, were still serviceable. Shadow had to trek across the desert. Amy, by comparison, had much more benign terrain to travel through, and some of the roads to Metal City were still intact. Silver had no choice but to fly to the North Pole, as Boreala was cut off from the main landmass.

Before they left, Sonic and Amy met in secret, behind a pile of crates. As soon as they knew that nobody was around, they started kissing.

"I'm gonna miss you," Sonic said in between kisses.

"Likewise," Amy managed while trying to take a breath.

"When can we see each other again?"

"I don't know,"

"I'll keep in touch every day,"

"Please, do…"

After about half an hour, they returned.

"Is it any surprise who's late?" Shadow said cynically.

"Fuck off, Shads," Sonic said, fixing his collar. He looked around at some of the costume changes. Manic had ditched his long leather coat for a white vest. Tikal had borrowed some of Amy's pants. Shadow was still open-chested, to accommodate the chain. Nack had a shorter leather jacket, but still had the fedora. Jet was still wearing the My Chemical Romance t-shirt. Amy was wearing some heavier clothes to her normal attire. Blade was still as leather-draped as ever.

"So… meet back here in a week?" Silver asked casually.

"Depends how long it takes. Could be longer." Knuckles answered.

"Won't if I've got anything to do with it." Rouge mumbled, inspecting her hand. Tails looked at the sun. He checked his watch. 9:47.

"We'd better get going if we want to make tracks before nightfall."

"So… bye everybody?" Manic said. Sonic poked him. "Hey, don't poke me… stop that… if you're gonna be doing that for the whole trip I'll…"

Sonic took a hovercar to the tunnel entrance, going through the northern part of the base and through part of the forest. Manic looked out while Sonic drove.

"Where the hell is everybody?"

"We don't know. This place should be bustling."

"They could have gone into the catacombs,"

"Catacombs?" Sonic nearly took his eyes off the road.

"I didn't know there were catacombs underneath the city," Manic added, turning around in his seat.

"The Kitsune built them when they built the city originally. The base is built on top of the centre of their capital, Seyanoda. The catacombs were used for any number of reasons, secret gatherings, moving around, or as bunkers in times of emergency. They pretty much went into disuse about a thousand years ago, but you can still see the evidence all over the place. Every so often, bricks will have markings on them, indicating that there's a passage behind them. People could have gone into hiding."

"Surely not everybody…"

"Well, some of them, perhaps."

"What happened to the rest?" Tikal inquired, sounding concerned.

"No idea." Sonic said bluntly, concentrating on the road again.

Sonic had become somewhat frustrated when learning to drive, because he was upset about not being able to run as fast as he used to. When he turned 19, he found that when he tried to run too fast, his weight overcame him and his legs buckled. He was still able to run fairly fast (70 MPH – still faster than most living things), but as he grew, it became easier to use vehicles. By the time he was 25, he could only top 35 MPH. Shadow, Amy and Manic had become subject to the same kind of thing, although to a lesser extent as they couldn't run as fast to start with.

"I suppose it's kinda like Sally Acorn's disappearance a few years ago, isn't it?" Knuckles added.

"Possible. Anyone ever find out what happened to her?" Manic mused.

"Nope." Sonic said, again, bluntly.

As they neared a cliff face, a sign read: "Now leaving Seanote City – drive safe". Sonic smiled. Driving safe is the least of my worries right now, he thought.

"Is this the tunnel?" Tikal asked innocently.

"No. We have to go through the forest. It'll probably take another half an hour." Manic looked at the speedometer. Tikal sank back into her seat. She turned and leant against Knuckles.

"Try to keep up," Jet and Wave teased Shadow with their airboards.

"When I catch you…"

"If, Shady, if…" Wave teased.

"Ooh… now you're asking for it…" He knelt down and started fiddling with his boots. With a smile he pushed himself up and started running again. He leapt into the air over a crevasse and hit the boots. Before he was about to fall, two streams of air shot out of the boots and propelled Shadow to the far side. Jet and Wave looked back with awe as Shadow rapidly caught up to them and started swinging his chain. Jet gulped and pressed forward. After racing for a good twenty minutes, Shadow slowed down.

"Uh… where's Nack?" He called out. Jet looked puzzled, but kept going. Jet and Wave continued next to an outcrop of rocks. Shadow saw a dust cloud in the distance. He watched as it moved closer to the outcrop. It moved onto it, and by now he could see that at the centre of it there was something shiny. The cloud sailed off the outcrop just in front of Jet and Wave. It continued round and stopped in front of them. The two of them stopped dead. Shadow approached casually. In front of them was Nack, with dark sunglasses, on a motorbike. "There's Nack." Shadow said, passing by and accelerating away. Jet and Wave jumped back onto their boards and followed him. Nack revved the engine and took off after them. 'How does that hat stay on his head?' Shadow thought.

The continent at the North Pole of Mobius, similar to Earth's Antarctica, only on the north side of the planet.