-Chapter XV- What Now?
-Emerald Hills
-25 First Seed
-11:30 A.M.
-Nicholas
"They're...what?" I asked Sonic as he tried desperately to explain the situation.
"Chaos. Emeralds." he said bluntly and somewhat irritably. "Eggman has them and used their power to capture my friends."
"We've done this sort of thing on our own before..." Knuckles said.
"So how's this any different?" Saria asked.
"This time," Sonic explained, "he actually succeeded."
"In getting the Chaos Emeralds or beating you?" I asked.
"Well..." Sonic trailed off.
"Both." Knuckles told us.
"But that's why we desperately need your help." Tails pleaded.
"So he's got...a fortress, the Chaos Emeralds, practically all the creatures of this land, and any hope of you three defeating him on your own?" Saria asked, counting the disadvantages we had.
"Pretty much."
"Lovely." I said. "Where exactly is this fortress of his, then?"
"We...don't know..." Sonic said.
I turned to him. "You don't know?" He shamefully shook his head. I rubbed the tension from my eyes as I tried to figure out any way we weren't possible screwed. "Son of a..." I said beneath my breath.
"Yeah, I didn't think so."
I looked up, then at him, "what?"
"I didn't think you'd be able to help us."
"What? Of course we can, we just need to figure something out." I told him.
"Well, when you do, let me know." he said, now walking away from us.
"What the hell? Hey where do you think you're going?!" I called after him.
"To clear my mind, let me know if ya think of anything!"
"Sonic!" I called again.
"Let him go." Knuckles said.
"Why?"
"He's just stressed, he's never had to rely on anyone other than us before. It's nothing personal, Nick." Tails explained.
"It seems like he's just being a prick to me." Saria commented.
"It's just good ol' Sonic. He'll be back...eventually." Knuckles told her.
"Great..." I said.
Rayman walked up to me, "Nick, can we talk for a second?" He pulled me aside, away from the others. Stealth started to follow, but Rayman commanded him to stop. When Stealth did not understand him, I rolled my eyes and waved him away, which he reluctantly followed.
"What's wrong?"
"Are you sure we can help these guys? I mean, we've got three additional people, with one that doesn't even seem to care, nothing to follow up on...it seems like a lost cause."
"Rayman, we can't just leave them like this."
He sighed, "I really hope you know what you're doing."
"You and I both." I said as we went back to where Tails, Knuckles, Saria, and Stealth awaited for us, "all right," I told them all, "first things first, we've got to find this mysterious missing fortress that's been abducting your friends."
"So, we're going on a hunt for a massive building?" Saria asked.
"For the most part, yes. If that's what it is, anyway."
"I don't know, there's been a few times that Eggman's fortress has been in the sky." Tails said uneasily.
"Have you searched the sky?" Saria asked.
The yellow fox nodded, "yeah, but nothing turned up. I mean, we've practically searched everything here." He lowered his head in shame.
I rubbed my temples with my index fingers. "Okay...where has everyone been taken? Do you have some sort of recording of that?" Tails looked up, eyes wide open, and nodded. "Good, that's one thing that's gone right so far then."
"Come here, I've got a map right over here!" Tails said excitedly. Saria and I exchanged glances before following him through a grouping of trees. Saria went in first, followed by me with Stealth on my shoulder, and Rayman behind me and Knuckles at the end. As I pushed the bushes and fern leaves aside, I could only imagine what sort of encampment these beings could possibly have. "Here it is!" I heard him say.
As I pushed away the final bunch of leaves I found myself astonished at what I saw. It was a large clearing, much like the first one we had come across, but this one had a sort of flying machine in it. "What is that?"
"This?" he asked as he pointed to it, "it's my biplane! Built it myself a few years back, a little after I met Sonic and repaired his."
"Sonic has a biplane?" Saria asked.
"Well, technically his was just an airplane. This one is my own that I built after his was destroyed."
"You seem quite young." I commented. "How old are you?"
"Soon to be nine." I looked in surprise at Saria, as she did me. "Here's the map, Nick." He handed me a somewhat withered piece of paper that displayed the layout of Emerald Hills. "Hey Nick, Sonic really does mean well, you know that, don't you?"
I examined that paper really quick, then looked at Tails, his eyes full of hope and innocence. "I do, he's just a bit haughty is all."
Knuckles chuckled, "at times, that's a good way to put it."
"But he always puts his friends before him." Tails said.
Saria took the map from my hands, scanning it for herself. I took one side of it and she held the other as we looked it over. The land seemed bountiful with different land formations: hills, small forests, and lakes were strewn all about. There were red X's where I assumed the abductions took place. "How have you three avoided him? Have you come across his forces, or whatever it is that he's been using?"
"His robots, but only Knuckles has seen them."
"It was only a few, but nothing I couldn't handle."
"Ha!" Rayman exclaimed. "Robots just happen to be my specialty!"
Knuckles was confused by this sudden outburst of Rayman, who had been unusually quiet so far since we've met them due to no one other than me understanding him. "...what?"
"Well, at least I know for a fact that I'm not alone." Saria said. "Only Nick can understand what he's saying, so I wouldn't worry about it."
"Anyway..." I spoke up, "is there anything particular about this...Egg...Man that we should know about to possibly find him?"
"No, not really anything that I can think of at the moment that could help find him." said Tails.
"He typically captures animals," Knuckles proposed. "They're usually what power each individual robot."
"He still does that?" asked Tails, "I didn't think he's done that in forever."
"Well, just to make sure, perhaps we can check some areas to see if they happen to lack any sort of animal activity, yeah?" Saria offered.
I nodded, "yeah, just in case."