Hello everybody. How's everybody doing? Thank the lord and all the patience I had wearing thin that this site finally saw it fit to fix the problem. I've been having this chapter at the ready for the past two weeks, probably right on the day when this whole stupid crap started acting up. Sorry for making you all wait because of the site forcing me to make you all wait and drive me crazy at the same freaking time.

Anyway, hope that you all end up enjoying this chapter. This one was a bit hard for me to write the second half on. I'll let you guys be the judge, which is what I always do for all of my chapters, to see how well I wrote it out.

Don't forget to leave a review after you're done reading this chapter before you move on to something else. They are very well appreciated, and I do read them and take into account any advice you might have.

Chapter 3: Sailing Aboard the Ship of New Beginnings

"Move it or lose it people!" Sonic shouted loudly as he tried to make his way through the terribly crowded harbor as quickly as he could. Being that he had less than five minutes to make it to the third class boarding section of the ship; he was desperate to try anything short of purposefully shoving people painfully down to the ground in order to get there. "If you're not getting on the Titanic, then please hurry up and get out of my way. I'm running late to board the ship, and I'm not about to miss it for the life of me!"

"Hey, wait for me Sonic!" Knuckles called out about a foot or so away from the blue hedgehog's position. Unlike his buddy, he was having a bit of a harder time maneuvering through the crowd because people were too busy wondering what the commotion the other was making to pay any attention to the red echidna. "You know I can't run as fast as you can, especially in a crowd as thick as this. At least have the decency to drag me by the arm with you before you decide to leave me eating your dust!"

"Sorry, but we don't got a lot of time to be waiting around for you," the one in front called back behind him without turning his head as he continued to force his way through whatever opening he could find, causing his exclamation to almost fall upon deaf ears amidst the increasing crowd as the departure time grew nearer. "You'll just have to try and put some more effort in it. I'll try to stall they guy at the docking station when I get there, so you better make good with that extra time and catch up!"

"You...!" the red furred guy started to say before he felt a face full of person collide full on with him, sending him stumbling backwards a bit before regaining his balance. Without wasting any time seeing who it was he ran into and barely registering the fact that he had somehow managed to dodge a punch from said unknown man, he continued to bob and weave through the crowd while desperately trying to keep his eyes on the shocking cobalt fur that was a known trademark of his buddy. "Damn it, you better not leave me behind or you'll live to regret it when I get my hands on you!"

Not even bothering to answer his angry friend's barely audible rant, Sonic pushed through gap after painfully small gap of people. More than once he almost lost grip of his bag and tightly held onto the strap as if it were a lifeline. In a sense, that was what it was since it housed the two blessed tickets that he was extremely lucky enough to win in the poker game just a minute or so ago. He momentarily thought back to how Sleet and Dingo had reacted and wondered what they were doing now but quickly let it leave his mind as he concentrated solely on trying to beat the tight timeframe the clock had them working with.

With every step he took closer to the designated boarding station, he more he felt like the crowd was getting thicker. The effort it took for him to shove on through seemed to increase with every passing second as the adrenaline continued to pump faster and fiercer through his veins, giving him a slight headache from the sudden rush. He ignored it and continued to press on as if his life were on the line and that there were a couple of gunmen hot on his tail wanting to catch him and shoot him dead. In actuality, the only person chasing him was none other than his best buddy from just about the time he was able to walk and talk up until now.

In two minutes worth of time that felt more like two hours, Sonic finally made it to the designated docking stations on the harbor. The crowd was a lot thinner than it was in the assumed spectator area, but it was still crowded enough that he still had to do some minor pushing and shoving in order to progress further. Through the now wider gaps in between people, he managed to see a section named, "First Class Boarding Station". The docking plank that was connecting the deck to a door on the side of the ship was now being pulled in, thus signifying that they were just about done accepting people onto the grand vessel.

"Aw come on!" the cobalt hedgehog exclaimed as he used this as an excuse to obtain another sudden burst of adrenaline and forced his legs to work harder. He soon felt himself running at a pace he did not think was possible for him to do until now. "That third class docking plank had better not be pulling out now. I hope I still have time. They haven't stated pulling out the second class plank yet."

With that in mind leading to the hope that they have yet to also start pulling away the third class plank, he continued to weave through the crowd that got progressively thinner the further away he ran from the spectator area. Chancing a glance over his shoulder, he saw Knuckles barely passing by the first class plank that had just finished retracting and trying to desperately catch up without falling anymore behind than he was now. By the time the echidna had reached the area around the second class plank, it had started to retract away from its designated door. Turning his gaze back to the path ahead of him, he noticed the third and final boarding plank, the third class boarding section, in front of him. There was a man dressed in a full black suit that had the insignia of members of the ship crew getting some kind of mechanical machine ready to pull away from the ship.

"Hey, hold that boarding plank!" he yelled at the top of his lungs in an attempt at gaining the shipman's attention above the immense noises of the harbor and prevent him from pulling in the plank. Thankfully, it had exuded the desired effects, and the man stopped what he was doing and looked up to see who it was calling for him to wait a few moments. "You got two more people coming aboard!"

"What?" he said in a questioning tone just as the cobalt hedgehog ran up and stopped right in front of him. He then asked in a voice that was somewhat filled with uncertainty after seeing somebody suddenly appear in right front of his line of vision, "Uh, is everything alright sir? Is there something that I can help you with?"

"Yeah..., you can...help me with something," Sonic panted out as he leaned forward on his knees and tried to catch his breath after the rush of adrenaline in combination with the constant speed walking and shoving. "I'm here to...to board this big ship here. Do you think you can...let both me and...and my buddy on? We were...running a bit late and...just arrived here a...a few minutes ago."

"Do you have the boarding tickets on you?" the man asked, raising an eyebrow when he heard of another person wanting to board yet only seeing one customer in front of him. "You can't board if you don't have them on you."

"Yeah, I got those...two valuable babies on me," the hedgehog replied as he quickly dove his hand into the bag that was left open when he rushed out of the pub and fished out the two boarding tickets. He then thrust them in front of the man who took it and began to quickly examine them to make sure they were the real thing... He even put them up against the light of the sun as if trying to see something that could only be seen through bright light shining through the simple sheet.

"Hmm, everything seems to be in order," he said as he put the paper back to eye level and examined it over once more. "By the way, where's this buddy of yours that you claim wants to board with you? I don't see him anywhere."

"That's because...I was a few paces...behind this deserter!" the angry and slightly wheezing voice of Knuckles was heard saying as he appeared right beside Sonic and was just as breathless as him when he first arrived. He then added as best as he could considering that he had just finished an adrenaline-induced run, "Now you got...two people in front of you...that want to board. Are you happy now?"

"Wow, you two really know how to cut it down to the last minute, do you? Now that you both are here, may I assume that you both passed through the baggage and health inspection checkpoints before coming here?"

"Of course we did," Sonic answered as his breathing finally regained some sense of normalcy, knowing full well in the back of his head that they both did not go through either of those designated checkpoints. This was their one chance at making a new life away from home, and he was not about to flub it up for them by saying they never passed through either of those checks. "I don't think that we'd be standing right here talking to you about this if we ran right through it."

"That and we would've...had a hoard of harbor workers...on our tails trying to make us...go back for the test or...just plain arrest us," the red echidna added as if trying to emphasize the fact that they were at this particular spot legally while regaining his breath a lot quicker than his buddy.

For a couple of short moments that felt like an eternity to the two guys, the ship worker examined their faces as if trying to look for any signs of a lie beyond the tired expression on their faces. After raising his eyebrow once and cocking his head slightly to the side as if he were thinking deeply, he let a sigh escape his lips and folded the two tickets two times in half before putting them into the pocket.

"Alright, you two can go on through," he said with a slight sniff as if he were trying to smell something in the air while moving aside a bit to allow them access through the plank. "Hurry up and get your butts in the ship because I need to get this thing out of here and they're about to close the doors."

"Yes!" the cobalt hedgehog exclaimed excitedly as he immediately began running up the plank towards the door that was about to be closed by another shipman inside. "Thanks a lot!" he shouted back at the other on the dock just as the other man barely moved out of the way in time to avoid getting run over.

"Hey, don't you dare leave me behind again Sonic!" Knuckles shouted out as he began to follow suit. Just as he passed by the second crewman who had to step aside once again, he apologized for both his buddy and himself, "Sorry about us almost running you over man. Thanks for keeping the door open."

"Crazy third class urchins," the man responded bitterly under his breath so that the quickly retreating guys would not hear him. "If they make me work the filthy third class boarding shift again, I swear I'll quit this job and make a new life on Mobius myself. It's not as if the pay's all that great to be giving this up anyway."

Now that they were officially inside the Titanic and running down one of its freshly painted corridors, Sonic began to move at a slower place yet still kept up a semi jog. This allowed the echidna to finally catch up to him, but he was still forced to follow right behind because of the corridor being narrow enough to barely allow two adult-sized people to be walking side by side much less running. That and there were some people moving around trying to move to wherever it is that they wanted to go to, and that made it practically impossible to be side by side.

"Can you actually believe that we're actually on this thing Knuckles?" Sonic asked as he continued to run through the hallway with no particular destination in mind. This earned him strange looks from those around him. "I never thought that I'd be going back home on something so new and beautiful. Just look at how great this place looks. You could probably live here the rest of your life if you wanted to."

"Yeah, but I suggest that you don't go around forgetting about your fear of water," the echidna stated in a matter-of-fact tone as he tried to deflate his buddy's overly energetic behavior before he injured himself or someone around him. Unfortunately, it did not seem to do any good. "I never thought I'd see the day when you would actually decide to willingly go out to sea without knowing a single thing about swimming."

"Well, I'm sure I told you at some point during our friendship that I came from Mobius," the cobalt hedgehog responded as they reached a set of stairs the led upwards and followed it. "Yeah, I don't remember a single thing about it since I was brought here by my uncle Chuck when I was only a few months old, but I always wanted to see what it's like there. This is basically a childhood wish of mine come true, and I'm not about to let some stupid fear of water get in the way of seeing the place where I was born. Besides, I'm sure you'll agree with me that anywhere is better than this dump of a place where the poor get little to no help from the government so that they can get back to their feet."

"Oh, that's definitely something that nobody in their right mind could disagree with you on," the other stated with a small subconscious nod of his head in silent agreement as they reached the end of the fancy blood red carpeted stairs. He then saw a sign bolted down next to him and quickly saw that it read "A Deck, First Class Corridor" on it before they continued on up another small set of stairs. "Anyway, just where is it that you're planning on going right now? I highly doubt that you're right now going on a self-help sightseeing tour and milking in everything you're seeing."

"Actually, I was planning to do that a bit later once we're a good distance away from Robotropolis. I'm thinking about going above deck to see this thing when makes its way out of the harbor right now. This is my first time that I remember being on a ship, and I want it to be as memorable as possible."

"Heh, the only way a trip on a ship as big as this can be memorable is when it starts sinking and all of us are still on it trying to fight for a position on any lifeboats we can get our hands on. Now that would definitely be a killer memory to be filed away in our minds if we survive such a thing happening."

"Hey, don't go jinxing us now. Less being all pessimistic and more thinking about happy thoughts and fun times, alright?"

"Whatever you say," Knuckles responded with a roll of his eyes that was meant to show his annoyance, but the smirk on his lips said otherwise. At this time, they had finished climbing the second set of stairs and reached what they could only assumed to be A Deck, which would also mean that they were now in the First Class section. They were now jogging towards a set of doors that were next to windows that showed a view of the outside, showing them that said door would take them outside and out on the deck.

When Sonic reached the door, he grabbed the doorknob and gave it a small twist before pulling it open. He was greeted with the subtle salty scent of the sea breeze blasting against his face as he breathed it in and walked outside with the echidna right behind him doing the same thing. A moment later, they both notice that they were facing the direction of the harbor itself, looking at the many buildings lining it and the people who had come to see the ship off and say goodbye to their loved ones.

"Man, this is definitely a sight worth seeing," Sonic said loudly over the sounds of cheering people as he began to look for a space to lean against the railing that was crowded full of people of all social classes. "Doesn't all this excitement make you all excited? It's certainly doing that for me right now."

"This kind of excitement doesn't really quite beat that losing feeling I got in the poker game and then figuring out that we actually won," the other responded with a hint of humor in his words as they found a free rail space a few steps ahead of them and leaned against it. "I swear that that'll be something I won't be forgetting anytime soon."

"Hey, that was just a pretty stupid lucky break on my part. I never thought that I'd be able to win such an intense game with an equally intense hand like that. And to think that I was actually trying to pull a bluff on Sleet when he raised us like crazy."

"You were the crazy one to have been playing along with his raise with only a bunch of useless junk in your hand. I still don't understand why you had to go and give me a heart attack by pulling a move as crazy and risky as that."

"Well, I did tell you to have a little faith in me when I made the first call, didn't I? You could have saved yourself all that heartache if you had only listened to me. Besides, I thought that the last hand was going to be a pretty lucky one for me that time around, and I decided to go along with my gut. I didn't think that we'd be able to get that big of a payoff there with one of the biggest hands I've ever had."

"Big payoff and hand or not, please don't ever do that again if and when I ever decide to play tag team poker with you. I don't want to die stressing over a card game that happens to have all of my money in it, you know?"

"Oh, now you're just plain exaggerating there. I know you're not the kind of guy to just go dying on me over something like that. You're too tough to be taken out by anything short of a bullet or a knife being stabbed into your back."

"Thanks for your vote of confidence on my survival skills," Knuckles responded sarcastically as he rolled his eyes at the comment. "It's nice to know that you think I can't sense when it is that someone has a gun trained on me or that I don't know how to disarm someone with something small like a knife."

"But still, when have you ever heard of a couple of seventeen-year-olds like us winning as big a pot as we did in just one damn exciting poker game?" Sonic questioned, either ignoring the sarcastic remark or not catching it amongst all the excitement that was electrifying the air. He then placed a friendly arm over the echidna's shoulder while keeping his eyes glued on the crowd in front of him. "I wouldn't be surprised if we were the first two to have ever pulled off such a crazy stunt and lived to tell the tale."

Suddenly, a loud horn sounded throughout the harbor, effectively drowning out any and all noise that was being made by the crowd. It only lasted for a couple of seconds before it died out and allowed the sound of the excited crowd to dominate once more. Then, the sound of a man yelling over the noise was barely caught over the constant shouting of goodbyes and other loving words being thrown back and forth.

"Every crew member has now safely boarded the ship!" the man, a member of the crew as was indicated by what he had said, was heard yelling out from somewhere that sounded like a far distance away. "We shall now be leaving the harbor in just a few moments!"

A couple of seconds later, Sonic felt a slight rumbling underneath his feet. His view of the docks suddenly started moving a bit towards the left like a backdrop being pulled away by a couple of stagehands.

"Hey Knuckles, we're starting to move out of here!" he exclaimed excitedly as he practically started to jump up and down on his feet like a child excited over a simple piece of candy. "Can you believe it? We're actually starting our sea journey to Mobius! This is definitely one of the best moments of my life."

"Calm down Sonic," Knuckles responded with a chuckle as he was clearly also feeling excited, except it was a lot more toned down than his buddy. "You're going to end up making yourself go overboard before we're even out to sea. You do that now and the ship isn't going to be stopping just to bring you back on, provided that you survive the drowning experience first. And don't even think that I'll jump in to save you if that does happen."

"And here I thought that you were my best friend and all that, willing to save me in a sacrificial fashion when I'm forced to be in a life and death situation," the cobalt hedgehog said in an overdramatically dejected tone as they slowly moved further away from the harbor with the people on both the port and ship shouting and waving goodbyes to each other. "Whatever happened to the promise we made so long ago about watching each other's backs and making sure nothing crazy happens to either of us?"

"It isn't going to be enforced this time around buddy," the flaming red echidna simply stated with a small amused shake of his head before taking a deep breath of the salty air and letting it out slowly. "I'm not about to jump off of a ship I had just got on two minutes ago just to get wet and to haul your butt back to dry land. It doesn't make sense, and I don't like doing things that don't make sense."

"Jeez, talk about hiding a cold heart behind a nice tough guy exterior," the other said with a scowl before paying more attention further out to the harbor for no apparent reason. It was then that he noticed that there was some kind of unnatural activity coming from a building that looked a lot like the pub they had rushed out of earlier.

"What in the world is going on back there at the pub?" Knuckles asked, apparently seeing the same thing the other saw. "It looks like the Robotropolis guards are storming the place for some reason. I thank our lucky stars that we weren't there before they came. That'd definitely have been a lot of trouble we didn't need."

"I'll say. The last thing we needed there was to be caught by them and taken to their jail cell for illegal underage gambling. Hey, wait a minute," Sonic added with a mumble under his breath as he suddenly leaned forward a bit as if wanting to get a better look at something. "Are those guys dragging out who I think it is they're dragging out?"

"What are you talking about?" the echidna asked with a raised eyebrow as he also leaned forward and stared harder at the entrance to the pub. "Wait, isn't that Sleet and Dingo they're pulling out with them? Why in the heck are they being arrested?"

"Might I take a guess at saying that somebody reported a disturbance that we most likely caused after winning all their money? They probably started fighting after we left and ended up getting themselves arrested for that. Oh well, it's not like it's our problem now."

"As if I even wanted it to be my problem to in the first place."

As the seconds passed by and turned into minutes, the Titanic began to move further away from the port. Pretty soon, the sounds of the shouts from the people faded until they were no longer able to be heard, and the crowd along the railing had soon dispersed and turned the area into an almost barren place. Within ten minutes, Robotropolis Harbor had almost completely disappeared beyond the horizon with only the smoke from buildings as indicators that the city was still there.

"Wow, this definitely is the fastest ship that's ever sailed the seas," the cobalt hedgehog exclaimed softly in awe as he continued to look at the horizon line as if trying to keep his sights on the place he had called home for as long as he could. "Out of all the times Uncle Chuck took me down to the harbor to watch the cargo ships move out, it always took almost half an hour before we couldn't see them over the horizon."

Instead of receiving an answer from his buddy, all he heard was relative silence masked by the subtle sounds of people taking a walk on the deck and talking with each other. When he turned his head towards the right, he noticed that Knuckles was no longer there. Rather, he was now lounging away on a white fold-out chair in a center of a wide area full of chairs around tables with umbrellas underneath them and looking like he was trying to take a sunbath with his bag tied securely around one of the legs. Sonic quickly walked over to him and took a seat on another adjacent to him.

"And why did you just leave me there without any warning whatsoever?" he chastised playfully while putting his bag down as the echidna opened one lazy eye and looked at him. I could've been pushed over the railing by some crazy guy and you wouldn't have been there to help me."

"You worry too much, you know that Sonic?" the other responded lazily as he closed his eye and continued to relax under the bright light of the sun. "Why don't you just sit back and relax like I am right now? It'll do wonders for your nerves."

"Oh, very funny Knuckles," Sonic laughed sarcastically before taking him up on the advice and leaning back onto his chair. He then added with a contented sigh, "Let's stop with all this wise talk and just enjoy this miraculous yet well-earned victory."

And that was exactly what they did for the rest of the day. It was not until the sun had set over the horizon did they moved from their spot and went back inside the ship.

"You know, I just remembered something," the cobalt hedgehog said thoughtfully as they started to go down the stairs to the third class deck. "I have no idea which one of these rooms here we're supposed to be staying at."

"That's because you practically rushed up the plank at the first chance you had," the echidna stated as he simply pulled out a piece of paper from his bag and showed the side with writing to the other. On it were words that said, "C Deck, Room 218". "The guy on the harbor gave me this right after you were gone."

"Boy, I'd really be lost without you, wouldn't I?" the other said with a sigh at his own stupidity as they climbed down one more set of stairs that they knew would take them to their designated floor.

With only a chuckle as an answer, the two continued on down until they reached their destination. Once there, they walked around until they found the door that held the room they would be calling home for the next month-and-a-half or so of their sea baring trip.

Yeah, the ending seemed a bit rushed and kind of smashed together and random than I would've liked it to be. Sorry if that's how it seemed to all of you, but I couldn't find any other way to move on with the story without it feeling overly dragged on. Then again, both of them are very excited to be on board the ship, and people in real life tend to rush through things and mesh them together when they're like that.

Anyway, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. And for those of you who are familiar with my writing style and wondering where all the dangerous actions scenes are, this story is but an experiment. I'm trying out my hand at action that concentrates on drama concerning friendship and stuff. Whatever action there is on this is going to be at the end, and I'm sure you all know what will happen at the end, provided you all know the original story of the Titanic.

Don't forget to leave a review on how I did. Until the next update everybody!