Chapter 4: "Where Are You Going?"
Sally awoke from her dream. She knew what she had to do now. Slipping out of bed, she pulled on her shoes, gloves, and jean-cutoff jacket. She opened her door quietly and stalked silently down the hall, taking small steps. If Sonic could disappear without a word to anyone, so could she. She stopped outside Tails's door, took a steadying breath and opened it as softly as she could. She glanced at the fox's curled sleeping form then entered and tiptoed over to his desk.
A ring of keys lay on top of a stack of blueprints. She lifted them straight off and tensed at the jangle they made. Tails flinched, mumbled something inaudibly, and rolled over. Letting out her breath, she turned on her heel and left the kid alone. She continued down the hall, passing many doors and turn offs, heading straight for the hangar. The reinforced concrete walls should reduce the sound of her taking off to a muffled buzz.
She almost made it. Only feet from the building, a small voice called out behind her: "Where are you going?"
Sally spun around to find the youngest person living at the compound standing behind her, holding her Chao doll by one small arm. "Nowhere, Creamie," she lied, "Now what are you doing up?"
The little rabbit rubbed one sleepy eye. "I'm thirsty," she said.
Sally glanced back at the hangar, then the keys in her hand, and finally to the girl. The Tornado wasn't going anywhere. Sighing, she took the rabbit's small hand in her own. "C'mon, Cream, let's go get you a drink."
Once Sally got Cream a glass of water and sent her back to bed after checking that the rabbit didn't anything else, Sally retraced her steps a little more quickly before another interruption kept her from leaving. She unlocked the building, climbed into the plane that Tails had personally rebuilt and modified from scratch, and put the key in the ignition. Although she hadn't flown much, Tails had made it a point to teach everyone a few basic piloting skills in case he ever needed a copilot.
She started up the craft, checked the dials, and put it into forward motion. The noise of the spinning blades seemed unbelievably loud and suddenly Sally wasn't sure about the integrity of the reinforced compound walls' ability to muffle the noise. Fearing Tails, or worse, Sonic, would be alerted and come to intercept her, she gunned the engine and attempted to take off a bit earlier than was considered safe. The plane wobbled a bit as it tried to stay aloft, but it stabilized and Sally was flying off into the night.
Once she was well out of earshot of the compound, Sally relaxed a bit and rechecked the dials. Once she ascertained her bearings, she made corrective measures and altered her course. A little while later, she realized in her haste that she had forgotten to buckle. That could've been very bad if the plane had crashed when she took off. She snapped the restraints and adjusted the straps to accommodate her somewhat bustier chest (compared to Tails'). After that, she relaxed even more and tried to concentrate on the flight itself.
Her destination was clear. Angel Island. Although she hadn't been there in awhile, she had a rough idea of where it should be, and really, how many floating islands were there just levitating in the middle of the sky? She'd know it when she saw it.
She flew all through the night and watched the sun rise from the East. She was amazed at exactly how far Angel Island seemed to be. Glancing at the fuel gauge, she wondered if she would need to stop for fuel, but she had no idea where she might find somewhere to land and refuel. Fortunately, she still had over half left.
She was soon flying over blue open sea, and was under half-fueled. But it was too late to stop or turn back. By now, Tails would have woken up to find his keys missing and wake Sonic when he found the plane missing too. It wouldn't take a genius (meaning even Sonic) to figure out that Sally's and the plane's disappearances weren't a coincidence. Furthermore, Cream had seen Sally sneaking over to the hangar. A pit opened in her stomach when she got a case of consciousness about lying to the little girl, but she pushed the thought away. Sonic needed to be taught a lesson and she knew how to get back at him.
* * *
Knuckles opened his eyes as a butterfly landed on the tip of his nose. He twitched it, hoping to shoo off the insect, but it didn't move. Screwing up his face as the butterfly's pollen covered wings tickled his nasal cavities, he sneezed and the startled creature fluttered off. "Eh, about time," he muttered, wiping his nose. Despite his tone, he was actually in a good mood. And why shouldn't he? The day was brilliant, he had slept rather well, and the most beautiful woman in the world to him was sleeping beside him.
Turning his head, he stared at Julie-Su and a rare smile crept across his face. She was so beautiful in her sleep, he thought. He gently stroked her cheek and pushed a stray hair away from her eyes. He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
She stirred and opened her eyes to see her boyfriend leaning over her. "Morning, love," he said.
Smiling at his rather goofy use of endearment, she smiled back and replied, "Morning to yourself. Should I be worried about you staring at me in my sleep?"
He shook his head, dreadlocks whipping slightly. "Nah, I'm just being your watchful Guardian."
"And I need your protecting?" she asked teasingly.
"Er, well, um…" he stuttered, losing his cool a bit while trying to tread lightly.
Julie laughed a bit and put a gentle finger on his lips, "I was just kidding, ya goof. I love that you feel protective of me. I mean, what girl wouldn't?"
Knuckles smiled again and lowered Julie's hand with his own. "Ok. I'll go find us some breakfast." He stood up and jogged down the shrine's steps.
"Be back soon," she called after him, "I'm hungry!" Knuckles gave a thumbs up to show his acknowledgement as he continued.
* * *
Sally was shocked at how quickly the island appeared in the sky. It started as an unidentifiable speck in the horizon that quickly swelled in to a hulking landmass hovering in the sky. She was thankful that she had finally reached it as she was currently running of mere fumes and she feared that at any moment the plane would just drop out of the sky. However, a nagging doubt began to eat at her. What if Knuckles wasn't happy to see her? What if running off into the night wasn't such a good idea? Worst of all, what if Sonic didn't care?
Sally tried to push such doubts down, yet they continued to buzz in the back of her mind. She pulled up and surveyed the island's terrain, looking for a decent place to land. Her mind went back to when she was a young girl and remembered the pilot consistently landed in a large clearing near the shrine of the Master Emerald. Of course, in the duration of 10 years, the clearing could've become swallowed by the vegetation that otherwise dominated the island. She had to land nevertheless, so she made a beeline for it.
* * *
Knuckles was up a tree and had pulled off two pineapples when a familiar buzz rose in the background. "The hell?" he asked aloud. Climbing further up, he poked his head out of the foliage and scanned the sky. "Where is it coming from?" he asked himself. He turned his head the other direction and instinctively ducked when he saw the Tornado flying just above the tree line. "What the?!"
He climbed down a bit and then leapt to the jungle floor. 'What's Tails doing here?' He wondered, 'especially without prior announcement?' It must be an emergency. Knuckles sprinted through the rain forest, deftly dodging trees and ferns. By the time he arrived, the craft had already landed and Julie was standing nearby looking utterly baffled. Knuckles still held the pineapples as he stepped up next to Julie.
"Any idea what's going on?" Julie asked Knuckles. He simply shook his head. What was going on was beyond him, all he could do was to wait for the pilot to open the cockpit. When the dome of opaque glass opened and a figure exited, Knuckles' jaw dropped open in utter disbelief.
"Sally? What are you doing here?" he asked with shock clearly evident in his voice.
"I came to see you, Knucklehead," she answered as she climbed down the plane.
"Did you fly here all by yourself?"
"Yep."
"Really? It's amazing that Tails let you fly his precious plane by yourself," Knuckles observed.
"Eh-he, yes, it is," she agreed with a nervous chuckle. She hopped the rest of the way down and turned to get greet her friend. "So here I am, ya happy to see me?" she asked.
"Of course," Knuckles replied, "I'm always happy to see you, princess."
"I told you to stop calling me that," Sally scolded in a jesting manner. She decided to go ahead and give him a warm hug. Knuckles returned the embrace. "It's been too long," she whispered into his ear.
"Yeah, it has," he agreed.
"What am I? Chopped liver?" Julie broke in, with an unsure smile playing across her face. Knuckles and Sally broke apart and looked over at the other echidna.
"I'm sorry, Julie," Sally apologized, "It's good to see you too." She put her arms around the cybernetic echidna who also returned the hug.
"So what brings you to our neck of the woods?" Knuckles asked after an appropriate pause.
"Sonic's being a dick, so I decided to take a little vay-cay," Sally explained. "I hope that's alright."
"Of course, you're always welcome here, right Knuckles?" Julie instantly replied.
"Right," he confirmed.
"We were just about to eat breakfast, care to join us?" Julie continued.
"Sure, I am rather hungry after my flight."
"Great. Let's go."
"Two girls and one guy… Anything could happen," Knuckles mused aloud.
"No. It couldn't," the girls retorted together. Knuckles chuckled slightly as the girls giggled.
Author's Note: Ah, those memories... It's interesting to be reuploading this fic over a year later. I haven't come far since originally posting this, but it still feels like such a long time ago. *Le sigh* Anyways, an associate of mine, Mischevous Whisper, seems to be teasing me and/or my viewers, so I'll go ahead and explain (even though 90% of you didn't notice or care). I am working on what I would consider a massive undertaking in a fantasy/adventure fanfic for Sonic the Hedgehog. I expect the first few chapters will be up within the next couple of months (about Nov or Dec), and let me say, this has got me excited. It is a collab initiated by Sir Mischevous Whisper, and is designed to be a reboot of sorts. His version will be in Spanish and be more humorous and upbeat in tone, whereas my take on the world is intended to be more dark heroic fantasy. I may provide more details later on, but I will let the title be leaked: "Age of Mobius".
Corny as all hell? Probably, but I give no f***s.