Chapter 43
"Well…"
"Come on! We want answers!" Manic nudged Nailei, impatient to know what was happening, preferably before Sonic returned with the car.
"…"
"You've known about this whole prophecy thing for a while now, haven't you?"
"Yeah."
"Care to share some of that knowledge?"
"Well…"
"Not really?"
"Kinda."
"Ugh…" Manic sank is head into his hands as the car descended from above.
"Shall we move along?" Sonic called cockily from the driver's seat of the car. The party boarded the car in the same way they were on it when they left. Without further ado, they proceeded into the tunnels.
"Yeeesh, what a dump!" Sonic commented on the hideous state that the tunnels were in. And rightly so; parts of the ceiling were crumbling in, letting soil into the cavern below, and some parts had caved in completely. In other places, the floor had fallen away to the chasm below of varying depth. One false move could send them plummeting downward. The original track was still intact in some places, but was for the most part bent and broken, with some sections missing entirely. Most of the lights were now smashed pieces of glass, but enough of them remained to illuminate the way. As they sped along the tunnels, a couple of rocks would occasionally tumble from the ceiling, occasionally bouncing of the bonnet of the speeding vehicle. Tikal found this experience rather frightening, and decided to hide under the arm of a watchful Knuckles. Nailei was more indifferent about the collapsing tunnels, whereas Jakavi was more concerned with trying to hold on to the moving car. Sonic kept his eyes on the path ahead, concentrating on not crashing. Manic was playing with the radio trying to find a decent station. Giving up on that, he tried to catch a nap, which proved impossible under the current circumstances. Failing that, he decided upon making snide comments on the condition of the tunnels.
"Talk about deadbeat owners,"
"Ever considered the possibility that said owners could be long dead?"
"Well their crumbling legacy is still here," Manic then noticed Knuckles staring off into space. "What's got you off in your own little world?"
"These tunnels nearly destroyed Angel Island," He replied bluntly.
"WHAA?!" Manic gawped in disbelief.
"The easy access brought floods of tourists from the city. And you know the type – trampling on everything, picking every damn flower they see, taking a little piece of the ruins to bring home with them…agh… just aswell Eggman attacked when he did, any later and there would be nothing left on the island…"
"Yikes… guess it has that kinda effect."
"Ech. It was doomed one way or another. The Master Emerald was stolen and the island fell into the sea. The ruins are probably all but gone now…" Tikal clung onto Knuckles. He put a comforting arm around her. "It'll be okay…"
The crumbling tunnels soon gave way to open tropical woodland, the short stretch of road leading to the coast. The sun shone brightly upon the sandy track, and the sea glittered in the distance. Jakavi relaxed a little as Sonic slowed down.
"Nice day," Manic smiled as he flipped out a pair of sunglasses. Sonic brought the vehicle to a stop on the beach.
"We'd better refuel here, it would be a bit more awkward out on the water,"
"Good plan. Now I need to pee." Manic leapt out the side of the car and walked off behind a few trees.
He unzipped his flys and breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the gentle trickling. Above that, though, he could hear something else. Something like a thumping and screaming sound… he zipped his flys back up and tried to determine the direction. It seemed to be coming from underground… somehow. He tracked the sound until he could hear it at its loudest, and then dug. The dry sand ran like liquid, which made digging rather difficult. He enlisted the help of a nearby flat stone to scoop more than could flow back in. After a frantic ten minutes of digging, he uncovered a flat, grey panel of plastic. He located its edges; it was sealed down. He took the stone and began banging the edge of it sharply on the panel. After four attempts it broke a clean hole. The sound rang clearly now:
"HELP!" A female voice called.
"Hello?" He called down. "Who's there?"
"Doesn't matter, just get me outta here!" She called back irately.
"I'll be back in a second," He dashed back to the car to get some help. Knuckles and Tikal appeared to be busy with each other, and Nailei and Jakavi were off to one side maintaining their handmade weaponry. Sonic, however, was sitting idly at the car. "Hey, Sonic, I've found someone stuck down a hole!"
"Someone you say?"
"Yeah. Come look!" He ran back to where he found the unknown person. Sonic followed wearily. "Okay, I've brought help!" He called down the dark hole.
"Yeah, that's great, can you get me out now?"
"Um… okay… how do you plan on us doing that?"
"Manic, you're an idiot…" Sonic went back to the car, took a length of rope from the boot and returned. He smashed the rest of the panel in, tied the rope around a nearby tree and lowered the other end of rope down the hole. He stood back to let the trapped person climb free. As she straightened herself up and shook herself off, all three gasped in shock.
"Sonic… Manic…"
"…Sally," Sonic managed to utter.
"We… thought you'd disappeared," Manic gawped.
"Well I did, kinda, I mean you're not going to see me down a hole out here, are you?"
"…how are you alive!?"
"Well… long story really."
"Can you shorten it a bit? We kinda need to get going…"
"What's the rush?"
"Well…" Sonic thought for a second. "I'll probably take too long explaining so I'll let Manic blurt it out in an incomprehensible string of words."
"SonicandalltheguyscamealongandfoundmeinNaugusestowerandthenwewentupstairstofindnaugusandkillhimbuthewasntthereandwehadtolegitbacktothebaseandtherewerethesepeoplefromthefutureandthenTailsdidsomefunkyangelshitandhefixedthemasteremeraldbutthenhebrokeitagainandsentitofftothefarendsoftheworldsowehadtogotoAngelIslandandwefoundtheseKitsunealongthewayandwebroughttwoofthemwithusandnowe'rehereandcanwekeeptheKitsunesSoniccanwecanwecanwe?!"
"I… think… I got some of that…" She said as she tilted her head.
"I don't even know what I said there!" Manic grinned.
"Anyway," Sonic said. "How did you get there?"
"Well… you remember when I disappeared? It was right after that big meeting of Freedom Fighter bigwigs,"
"Oh yeah… had to sit through the whole thing…"
"I was on my way home afterwards, when me and my bodyguards were ambushed. They were good guards, but taking the bullet for me didn't really help much. So here I am, late at night in deserted streets with a bunch of robots – Eggman's robots, not the crappy Naugus ones – with nothing to defend myself with. I ran, but they backed me into a corner, and then I was screwed. They captured me with some… bubble… robot… thing… and carried me off to… here… which is, where by the way?"
"At the exit of the tunnels between the base and Angel Island,"
"Nobody come this way anymore?"
"I think we're the first to pass this tunnel for a good three years now,"
"So… wait a sec… how long was I down in there?"
"Umm… you disappeared about three and a half years ago…" Manic said, casually. Sally took a few steps back in disbelief.
"Three… years…"
"What's wrong? Missing three years worth of birthday presents?" Manic quipped.
"I'm just… a bit… shocked…"
"So how did you survive down there?" Sonic asked. Sally took a moment to steady herself before answering.
"Well… it was automated, mostly. Machine gave me food and water, room had a bed, toilet, shower, sink, you know, the basics. But then the food and water stopped a few days ago, so I'm kinda hungry. Had to drink shower water… ech. Horrible stuff."
"Heh. That reminds me… didn't Tails say we needed a few weeks to find the pieces of the emerald?"
"Oh yeah. That was earlier today and we're nearly there."
"Woo, grand quest."