For the first time, we'll be having a POV other than Tails or Eggman! Enjoy!
The feeling of the chaos energy running through my simple, mechanical body still lingered. Following one of the lines on the map, I sped through a heavily wooded area. Sooner than I had expected, the line that I was following ended at a point, which slot into ten other lines. The map was a mess of lines, but the location of the center was still obvious. I reached that point fifteen seconds after it appeared on the screen. I looked up to find a piece of the Master Emerald, rather than a chaos emerald. Dang… I guess I'll bring it back to Tails…
I took up the shard and put it into my backpack. I noticed that it could fit one more fragment. I could go for one more before dropping them off to him.
I looked down at my map, chose another line, and followed it at the speed of sound.
x-x-x
I kept my eyes glued to the screen. I was pushing the Eggmobile to its limit - five hundred meters per second - but my first line took nearly an hour to travel! Almost one thousand eight hundred kilometers… I guess I should've expected more… It's a pretty big world!
Once there, I searched the area. Almost instantly, I spotted a spec of green that was slightly lighter than the surrounding grass. I approached it, and confirmed that it was a chaos emerald. How did I see that? This fox has good eyes!
Despite the distance, it seemed that luck was on my side. Another thing that was on my side was my pure intelligence and observation. On the map, I noticed that the chaos emerald's point had two fewer lines coming from it than my point did. The lines coming from my point that are missing from the chaos emerald's… must lead to the other two emeralds! I'm a genius!
After a quick inspection, I determined which two lines led to the other two emeralds and let out my typical evil laugh. It didn't sound right in Tails's voice. I shrugged and followed one of the two determined lines.
x-x-x
To say that the search was boring would be an understatement. I had autopilot set on a straight path. We were traveling at a thousand meters per second - almost Mach three - for an hour, only stopping for gas twice! I had traveled three thousand kilometers and was still going! There only reason the engine wasn't overheating was because I wasn't using the energy from the chaos emeralds - I had determined that a damaged chaos transmission was the cause of the overheat before.
I took occasional glances at the map. I noticed that two pairs of lines were gradually merging together. Eventually, the pairs met and became one. I was certain of the meaning of this. Sonic and Eggman have already found something. I called Sonic in my communicator.
"Tails? Is something wrong?" Sonic's voice came through with the loud noise of the wind.
"No, I just saw that you found what you were looking for. Was it a chaos emerald?"
"Nope. A piece. What about you?"
"I've been following this line for three megameters, and I'm still not there."
"Wow… are you near the coast yet?" I checked the GPS. On pilot's mode, a straight line was drawn to represent my direct path, and every five minutes were labeled on it. The coastline was just under the five minute mark.
"Yeah, I am. I'm five minutes away. I'm gonna stop in Station Square to fix something. It's right on my path." Knuckles groaned behind me. "Hey, I have a workshop in Station Square. I'll be fixing the chaos transmission so we don't have to stop for gas anymore."
"Fine," Knuckles ended.
"What if it's not on the mainland? What's the next land it could be on?"
"West Side Island…"
"Oh… Well, where on West Side does your line go through?" I zoomed in on the GPS.
"Metropolis, Hill Top, and… the city…"
"Oh… Uh…"
"I don't want to go there…"
"I know…" I started at the map, hoping that I wouldn't have to go into the city. "Hey, it's been five years. Maybe they've changed."
"I doubt it." People change, but not very often. We sat for a minute before Knuckles broke the silence.
"Hey, Tails, don't miss your stop!" I looked to the ground. Station Square was approaching fast.
"Right!" I engaged the braking system and quickly decelerated below the sound barrier. I landed on the runway of my local workshop and drove it into the garage area. We exited the plane. Knuckles began to look around.
"How many workshops do you have?"
"Five."
"Huh…" I extracted the entire engine from the plane and isolated the chaos transmission, which didn't take long. Knuckles got back in the plane and waited impatiently while I diagnosed the issue. That didn't take long either; the problem was immediately obvious. A worn out energy cable was being fed more energy than it could handle and was releasing it as heat. I immediately got to replacing it. It was a quick job. Too quick. I really didn't want to go back to that island. I reassembled the engine and placed it back into the Tornado 3.
"All done!" Knuckles looked down from inside the plane.
"Already?" I nodded and climbed into the passenger seat. I drove the plane out of the garage, locked up the workshop, and took off.
x
Less than thirty minutes after we left Station Square, West Side Island came in sight. I looked down at the map. Sure enough, the line ended on the island and split into several other lines. I zoomed in on the map. Dear, Chaos, why? Of course it's in the city! I marked the exact location on my communicator's GPS, landed on the beach, and got out.
"So this is West Side?"
"Yeah. I want to get in and out of here as fast as we can, okay?"
"Why? It seems like a nice place." I shook my head.
"No. Not at all. If you're different in any way, they'll try to harass you about it in any way they can." Knuckles frowned. "And you're a red echidna, so be careful."
"Do the parents really let their kids-"
"It's not just kids - it's everyone!" I locked up the plane. "So let's get out of here as fast as we can, okay?"
"Wow… Yeah… Let's go, then…" We left the beach and entered the forest that lined the coast. Directly in the other side was the place that I'd wished never to visit again. The city I spent the first few years of my life in.
"Sonic! You're back!" I heard the call from the other side of the street. And so it begins. I nodded and kept walking. There were several others who called out to me, but one weasel walked up to me.
"Hey, Sonic! Where's that fox?" I stopped, trying not to glare.
"You mean Tails?"
"Yeah. Miles. Does he still follow you around?" I nearly growled at the question.
"Not really. He's doing just fine on his own."
"Oh, really?" His voice was dripping with incredulity. He typed something into a beige communicator on his wrist. Oh, sweet irony.
"Yeah. In fact, you're wearing his name around your wrist right now." The weasel looked back down at his communicator again and gave me a confused glare. It felt so good to put a West Sider in his place! "Prower Technologies. Tell that to all your friends, too."
He glared again and walked away with nothing else to say.
"Dang, Tails," Knuckles chuckled.
"Sorry… Let's hurry…" We followed the point on the GPS. On our way, I noticed that most people wore a communicator on their wrist. I mused at the thought. All those people who mistreated me… Now they're all buying from me!
The GPS eventually led us to the city hall. We entered without hesitation. The secretary, an elderly squirrel, looked up from the papers she was working on.
"Ah… Sonic! What brings you to this city hall?" She set the papers to the side and put on a friendly facade, just like everyone else.
"We're looking for something, and it's in this building," I stated bluntly.
"Oh… Alright, what are you looking for?" Just then, a set of doors to the right were pushed open. Several people exited the room, followed by four men carrying a large, green shard on a protected pedestal.
"That," Knuckles answered, pointing. "We need it."
This got the attention of one of the people, a small buffalo in a tight fitting suit. He broke from the group to meet us. He held out his hand, which also sported a communicator. "Sonic the Hedgehog! I am Bauph L. Oughe, mayor of West Side City!"
I shook his hand with concealed contempt. "I hear that you want this shard of the Master Emerald! Transferring it into your care should be no problem - it would take a few days, by law… Unless you want to steal it now - I'm sure we could turn a blind eye to that…"
Knuckles eagerly agreed, but I shook my head. "I would assume so. You seem to turn a lot of blind eyes. Just keep it safe - Eggman's after it."
He paused, not knowing what to say. Knuckles, though, had something to say. "Sonic, we need it! Just take his offer!"
I shook my head again. "We'll wait a few days for it once it's all over."
"Sonic! It's! The! Master! Emerald!" He stepped towards the mayor. "I'll do it! Where is it now?"
"Ah, good! It's being brought to the vaults for security. They should be down Main Street, taking the second ri-"
"Knuckles, if you steal it, I swear I'll leave you here!" He looked at me with disbelief.
"Don't worry, Knuckles. I've got a jet that you can borrow to fly home!" Something was off. I felt that the mayor was being oddly desperate. I had a few theories.
"Why do you want us to steal it so badly? Publicity? Some action in this quiet city?" The mayor was silent. I really didn't care about his motives, though. I turned to Knuckles. "Come on. It's safe. We need to hurry on to get the next one."
He didn't budge for a moment. I shook his shoulder. "Knuckles! We need to go! We'll come back to get it!"
He mumbled something and finally turned around. "Fine. Let's get going, then."
Kind of a long chapter, here! I hope you enjoyed it!
Reviews are appreciated!