Chapter Six

Waveside Tumble

"Sonic! It's Sonic—" Mina began to cry out but Nack slapped his hand over her mouth and pushed her back into the sidecar. She fumbled up to yell at him, only to have her massive green scarf securely tied around the back of her head by Bark. Only annoyed muffled yells could make it through the thick fabric. Nack ignored her, collapsing into the driver's seat of the Marvelous Queen to stare sullenly forward.

This was a big problem. They hadn't exactly made themselves secretive when they had kidnapped Mina—more the exact opposite. DOZENS had seen them, including the band and manager. No doubt they had already reported that it was the Hooligans who had taken Mina away from her tour schedule. And while the average everyman would not really know what that meant, there was no doubt that Sonic and his little techie plush doll would. They couldn't just get by on Mina's awful muumuu and massive sunglasses to hide themselves.

But this was the only entrance to the docks. Nack leaned forward as casually as he could while Bark tried to keep Mina in the sidecar—she was putting up a surprisingly strong fight. Not enough to combat the bear though…Nack shook his head. That was not the issue right now. The issue was that the simplest way out of Spagonia and off this continent was through the blue blur. Nack knew his luck with Sonic, though, that being entirely not in his favor.

He rested his head against the handlebars with a groan.

"Bean, when we get to a stopping point, remind me that I need to call Thaddeus. Or Bark. Or Stella. I don't care which of you idiots has to remind me. Just make sure I make the damn call." Nack groused as he revved the Marvelous Queen to life. "We're going to have to go around through Empire City and take the land route through Efrika to Station Square. I'm not letting the wannabe hero and his little pet stop me from gettin' this paycheck."

"Mmhfp?!" Was all Mina could manage through the thick layers of scarf. The weasel almost had to chuckle at the pathetic sight—they had given her Bark's scarf as part of the disguise and the tiny mongoose was practically drowning in it. She had already managed to get the ties behind her head undone but she couldn't seem to swim out of the mess of fabric. It seemed to cover her entire upper body, which he supposed the girl should be thankful for, considering the sheer atrocity of a dress they had jammed her into.

Nack pushed his way back into the traffic heading away from the dock forcefully, ignoring the multiple honks as he cut in front of the other drivers. Stella giggled as Bean waved at them as they passed. Bark rolled his eyes watching the two absently. His moment of distraction was their immediate downfall; with a rough pull, Mina yanked the scarf away her mouth and screamed out.

"SOOOOOOONNNIIIICCCCCC! HELPPPPP!"

Nack felt his entire world slow down as his blood froze solid. With wide eyes and shaking hands he looked over his shoulder to see the little mutant tagalong pointing urgently at them as the blue hedgehog nodded. Almost if by instinct, the weasel revved the Marvelous Queen and pulled to the side to cut across the traffic and onto the sidewalk. People yelled indignantly as they fell to the ground. Out of some miracle they avoided hitting any pedestians as the bike swerved through them carelessly likely because they were quick to get out of the way. It didn't matter to him what happened. They were in the way of his beeline to the docks.

"Nack, what are you doing?!" Stella cried out. "You're heading RIGHT TOWARDS THEM!"

"Shut up, kid, you don't know how this bastard works. I'll deal with this." Nack snapped as he shifted gears to speed right past the blur coming at him. Sonic screeched to a halt with wide eyes as the bike sped past Tails, who immediately took flight after them as they bounced along the wooden dock. He was very quickly joined by the hero hedgehog. Nack took a quick glance at the dark blue water that the support beams under them plunged into. It seemed fairly deep, at least, deep enough to be a hazard for those less talented in the art of swimming.

"Nuh-Nuh-Naaaack, t-t-t-they're C-C-CATCHING U-U-UP! RUH-R-REALLY CUH-CUH-CUH….Q-QUICKLY!" Stella screamed, her voice distorted by the bumping surface of the dock. She was panicking and throwing random objects at their pursuers—Nack would've laughed under normal circumstances to see Sonic hit in the arm with a can of corn. Bean was employing the same tactic with much more explosive results. Sonic seemed to dodge every bomb but at the very least they seemed to cut a little bit of his focus off, enough to slow him down every time for a few seconds.

Nack grit his teeth. He needed to wait until exactly the right moment…

"Auuughhh!"

"Huh?!" He snapped to attention as the ear-splitting scream rang through the air—Stella was gone from Bean's side. The bird was look at him with a sheepish expression. Behind them, with her hands desperately grabbing towards them as she fell away from the bike, was the young fox girl. "Bean, I swear to…what the hell did you do, ya goddamn idiot?!"

"Bite me, Tooth, the bumping knocked her out!"

"Aw, fer god's sake! GodDAMMIT!" Nack swore. Behind him, the girl's face was about to come in contact with the dock; she closed her eyes tightly and waited for impact. Instead she was greeted with wind fluttering through her fur. Ice blue eyes snapping open, Stella turned to look upwards at the foot that was firmly held by the hedgehog's sidekick. They were flying after the Hooligans with Sonic at their side…the arctic fox puffed up her cheeks.

"What do you think you're doing?!" She shouted.

"Don't worry, we'll get you to safety, miss! It must've been hard to be kidnapped by them! But there's no need to panic, you'll be safe now." Tails laughed cheerfully, not catching the fuming annoyance in the other fox's tone. "Pretty bold of them to try and kidnap two people at once…it's a lot more than I'd usually expect from them!"

"You said it, bud! They're really shooting for the STARS nowadays, huh?" Sonic quipped; the yellow fox laughed and Stella groaned as she was dragged along. "I almost feel bad wrecking their plans, they just tried so hard! Oh well. Guess that's just in the job description!"

"Put me down!" Stella screamed, flailing her free foot back and forth wildly. Her tail was whipping back and forth to weakly slap both of them—it wasn't very effective. Tails and Sonic gave her an incredulous look. "I said put me DOWN!"

With a swift shot, Stella rammed her foot right into Tails' stomach. The yellow fox yelped loudly and leaned off his course, dangling the girl right above the deep blue ocean aside the dock as he coughed loudly. Stella's ice blue eyes widened as she looked down as the cold expanse below her—the fall alone would be enough to at least knock her out. And that was being generous. Reaching her hand out, she kicked her foot free of his grip then caught Tails' leg to desperately wrap her arms around the spindly limb. A flying enemy was better than death, she had to figure.

"What's wrong with you?!" Tails' gasped out with one hand on his pained stomach; Stella glared up at him from his stomach. The rage that he had previously missed was now on full display.

"You make a lot of assumptions, you know!" She snapped, pointing one finger up his face. The yellow fox balked, falling backwards to shake his leg slightly. Stella's eyes widened slightly and her fingers dug deeper into Tails' leg to keep herself from falling. With a shake of the head, though, she managed to steady herself a bit. "You can't just assume I want to be 'rescued' by you dorks! I'm here for Nack, Bean, and Bark and I ain't been KIDNAPPED at all!"

"Wha…but they…"

Before Tails could reply, the sound of an engine roared underneath them—looking down, the airbike had parked right below the water. Nack stood on the driver's seat with his hands reached out. Stella grinned, stuck her tongue out at the yellow fox with a salute, and then released her iron grip on his leg to fall down below. She landed unceremoniously on top of Bark's chest to bounce off onto Mina; Nack looked over at them blankly then rubbed his temples in annoyance as he flopped back down into the driver's seat. With a loud roar the Marvelous Queen sped off across the ocean alongside Spagonia.

Tails jolted, recovering from the shock to look back to the docks where Sonic was waving to him. He flew back to the hedgehog with a lurching feeling in his stomach—even as he grabbed his friend's hands to haul him into the air, he knew that the Hooligans were already gone with Mina Mongoose in tow. The pair hung in the air staring across the now calm sea, surveying the area for any sign of where they went. The sea rippled only with natural waves now. The only thing on the horizon was the setting sun casting a long shadow across the dock and people gathered to murmur.

They were already gone.

All thanks to some kid and a massive span of intimidating water.

Tails' ears drooped; Sonic squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Don't worry, man. We'll catch up to them. A buncha crooks like that can't outwit the biggest genius and the fastest blur for long."

The flying fox nodded with an uneasy smile. He still couldn't help but feel a drop in his stomach. His mind was flying with all the questions that had been eating at him from the start; now that they had finally encountered the Hooligans, he was only left with even more. Something just felt very off from the get go—Nack and his boys were usually known for cons, theft, and generally petty crimes. A shooting now and then if the paycheck was enough. But kidnapping had never been high on their lists, never minding the wholly bizarre choice of targets.

And now it was even MORE confusing.

Who was that kid? And more importantly, why does she want to hang out with a bunch of criminals?

Tails knew he didn't need to voice his concern to his best friend; he could see that underneath all that enthusiasm, there were small traces of concern flashing through Sonic's eyes. The blue blur didn't get what was going on either….but the enthusiasm that hid his concern was not fake. He WAS going to find out what was going on here, and they WERE going to get Mina back.

"Well, we aren't getting anything done just hanging around here!" Sonic chimed up cheerfully. "Let's get 'em, ya brainiac!"

Tails smiled weakly and coasted the hedgehog back to shore. Well, it wasn't hard to figure out where they had gone, at least…there was only one place they COULD reasonably go. If they were at the docks then they were trying to get to Soumerca, and if they couldn't go by sea, then the only solution was going by land across the river separating Yurashia from Efrika.

It just happened to be a pretty long river that just barely broke the landmasses apart, that was all…

Tails sighed.

Poor Mina…I hope she's okay.