FicWad

Rouge could not get over the feeling of being compressed as she breathed hard. She and Knuckles were on their hands and knees, both trying to recover from the strange sensation of chaos control.

"You'll get used to it" Shadow informed helping Knuckles to stand up, before holding his hand out to Rouge. Rouge took it and he pulled her to her feet.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

"So" Knuckles said, grabbing the two creature's attention. "What is this place."

"An alternate dimension" Shadow informed, sweat dropping. "What else do you think it is?"

Knuckles muttered something under his breath before reporting, "I'm going this way." And without waiting for any objection's he headed off to the right.

Shadow gave Rouge a nod before also heading into the jungle.

Rouge beat her wings and began to take flight. Only, as soon as she had left the ground she realized she wasn't going to get anywhere with that mean of travel. Reluctantly she landed on the ground, fighting her way through the dense brush.

Rouge almost missed the fallen tree that had begun to rot, that seemingly popped out of no where into her path. She carefully stepped over the log, muttering darkly at the jungle.

"Stupid trees... To thick to fl-"

Unfortunately, if she had been more focused, she would of been able to avoid the root that had popped out of the ground, the sand washed away from around it because of the many years of extensive rainfall. It looked like the arch of a bridge, and was the color black with tiny white spots. Rouge felt the sensation of falling and her reflexes were to put her hands out in front, though it was a futile attempt to stop her fall. She fell face first into the mud, the wind knocked out of her as there was a gurgle-like sounding thud, and mud splashed every where from the pressure of the impact.

Rouge sighed in frustration as she lay in the mud. Realizing her outfit was now all muddy, she let out a low growl as she stood up.

"Stupid root!" She shouted, pulling her foot back. She sent it forward, yet failed to kick the root for the slippery mud caused her to lose her balance, and she fell again.

"AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!" She shouted into the sky with balled fists, before crossing her arms and fuming.

"Rouge?" cackled her communication link.

"WHAT!?" Rouge shouted, taking her frustration out on the poor soul that had contacted her.

There was a squeak on the other end before the sound of Knuckles voice came in. "Hey, are you two all right?"

"Yes" Shadow had said, while Rouge had only nodded. Suddenly remembering that they could not see her, she also answered with a yes.

"Good... now try to concentrate on our main objective" he exasperated, before there was a beep, signaling he had turned off his communication link.

Rouge growled as she stood up and once again began her tred through the jungle. Rouge glared darkly, angry at the mud, and didn't notice the spider web until she walked into it. She let out a scream and began thrashing around like a fish out of water, trying to get it off of her. Suddenly she felt something land on her shoulder and looked to see a large and hairy spider.

She screamed bloody murder, and began thrashing about even more. She had no idea where she was running too, but she was too unfocused to notice anyway. Once again, she failed to see the rock, since she had been running backward, and tripped. This time her whole back landed in the mud.

Finally relaxing when the spider was off of her, Rouge stood up and felt the anger boiling from inside her, like a small flame traveling across a wire, it's ultimate destination the dynamite. Suddenly without warning, it hit the dynamite and exploded.

"WHAT THE HELL! WHY HAS IT GOT TO ME! WHAT DO YOU POSSIBLY HAVE AGAINST ME YOU STUPID JUNGLE!!!! I BELONG BACK AT TAILS' WITH A CUP OF HOT STEAMING COFFEE! NOT OUT HERE, FIGHTING MY WAY THROUGH PLANTS, BEING ATTACKED BY BUGS, AND COVERED IN SHI-"

A low growl sounded, and Rouge stopped immediately, her heart pounding in her head as her fear rose. A twig snapped behind her, and Rouge snapped around, as the fear began twisting her inside's, making her queasy. Her ears twitched as they strained to hear, and that's when she noticed the jungle was deafly quiet, a sign that something was indeed wrong.

After some moment's the bird's started singing again and Rouge let out her breath, though she hadn't realized she had been holding it. Whatever it was had passed, and it was now safe to continue.

It had been our Canininin. Bored of waiting, and starving for nourishment, the large wolf had left its post. If Rouge had not fallen into the mud, the dark creature would of sniffed her scent, for this hunter of the jungle relied on his nose for food. And since the Canininin hunt's by night, his eyesight was not up to par, and he had literally walked right past the bat.

Now, if only Rouge had known how lucky she was she had fallen in the mud, and what direction she had been blindly running. Ironically, as soon as the Canininin crossed her path, Rouge had been swept off course, and was now heading away from the waterfall, and ultimately, farther away from rescuing her friends.




Amy wet her sock again in the small palm shaped, cup-like, rock, and let it soak up the cool refreshing water. Sonic had been burning up for the past hour and a half, and Amy hoped his sickness would burn out soon. Until then she was forced to stay by his side unless it was extremely important. Earlier Amy had walked out of the cave with the Foxglove shaped leave, she had used before with the storage rock, and filled it with the black heart shaped berries from the bushes that were not to far from the cave itself. She had been afraid to leave Sonic in the cave alone, but knew that if he were to get better he would need nourishment. Therefore, she had left the cave and quickly retrieved the berries before running back so fast, she could give Sonic himself a run for his money. She had placed the full leave by the small fire and had sat by Sonic for the remainder of the hour.

She placed her hand on his forehead and felt the searing heat. Instantly her heart went out to him. A fear crept up from her soul. What if he was seriously sick? How would she be able to help him? But "what ifs" wouldn't get her anywhere. She knew her friends were looking for them, she could feel it, but that did not stop her from shutting her eyes and silently praying that her friends would find them soon.

She placed the wet sock on his forehead absent-mindedly. If only she had taken that herbology class! Then maybe she could find a type of plant here that could help Sonic through this mess! Amy reached out and began stroking his cheek lovingly, ignoring the searing heat that shot up her fingers. 'If only I hadn't tripped and Sonic hadn't of gotten hurt, then we wouldn't even be in this mess' she corrected herself with a sigh.

'Wait! Didn't you read a medical book at Tails' place once?' Amy thought to herself. 'What did it say about unknown sicknesses?'

Amy thought back a moment. She remembered that the best thing to do was enforce rest, provide lot's of fluids and healthy foods, and keep the person clean. Amy knew the first two were simple task's, but keeping him clean? Maybe she could find something useful down by the waterfall.

After realizing this, she realized just how dirty she herself was. Not only was there sweat, but there was dirt and grim too, her fur looked almost gray it was so dirty. 'Hopefully it'll be something I can bring back up here.'

Afraid of leaving him again, but knew she had to, Amy placed both of the "cups" near the leaf mound on the floor. One full of berries the other full of water, in case he awoke and she was not back yet, before heading out of the cave and toward the waterfall.

She looked around, noticing the different plants and wildlife. She walked around the waterfall and even began climbing the rock's that lead to it. After a good hour of searching, and another of climbing, Amy had begun to lose hope. She stopped climbing halfway up the waterfall, clinging to the slippery rocks, looking down at the fall below. Suddenly her vision blurred and she began to get dizzy. Amy looked up again, groping with her hand's as her body became weak. Suddenly her hand touched something slimy and she pulled it back, repulsed. It was a big mound of hard, green, moss-like stuff that resembled a slug.

Amy, being curious, took hold of it and pulled, surprised that it just stuck there. Amy stubbornly took a tighter hold of the moss-like stuff, and pulled hard, careful to avoid losing her footing. She tried this tactic for a couple more minutes, only resulting in total exertion of her energy. Finally, she gave one final pull, and without warning it came off with a loud pop. It came out so suddenly, Amy was forced to grab on to the rocks to keep from slipping. Finally she began her slow climb down.

Once she reached the bottom, she headed away from the waterfall. It still pounded in her ears when she sat on a rock, opposite of where the waterfall was from around the pool. She turned the green thing about, observing it from all angles, but as soon as she did she regretted so. It sunk its teeth into her thumb, and Amy let out a squeal as she tried to pry it off her thumb. This only resulted in it tearing more flesh, and Amy stopped trying to take it off.

After some long moments of fear, Amy let out a sigh of relief as the creature fell from her thumb and landed with a splat on the ground. Suddenly enraged by the thing, Amy stood up, and stomped on the slug, expecting it to be hard and to crack. However, after it had sucked her blood it had become soft, and as her foot crashed upon it, the slug performed it survival mechanism, and released all the blood through it's pores. The sudden pressure of her foot caused the bubbly red stuff to spurt in all different directions.

Amy let out a shriek as it splashed all over her legs and ran for the water. Forgetting she had her shoes on she ran into the water, and began rubbing franticly, only to realize this caused more suds. Amy stopped scrubbing when she was surrounded by the soapy like bubbles, and that's when she wondered. She came back out of the water and looked at her legs, only to find that they were squeaky-clean.

'I found soap!?' Amy thought in surprise. Then she looked back at the slug, expecting it to be flat, only to find that it was perfectly fine, and was heading back into the pool. Except it was now a lighter green and looked dryer then before. Amy was repulsed, but she walked over and picked up the slug again. Wondering, and careful to avoid its mouth, she held it under the water, only to find that it soaked it up like a sponge.

'Great... a big slimy green slug, just happens to be what I'm searching for' Amy thought in disgust. But she knew she could not afford to waste anymore time. Instead, she headed back up to the cave, the slug in hand.

When she reached the cave she quickly dumped the berries in the cup-like rock back into the Foxglove-like leave. She then let the slug bite her again. It was painful, but it was worth it. Finally, when it had finished, she squeezed the slug, filling the cup-like rock with the foaming red liquid, before tossing the slug over her shoulder. After she placed the two cup-like rock's, one full of "soap" the other water, next to the leaf mound and sat beside Sonic again.

Amy lowered herself so that her mouth was only inches away from his ear. "Sonikku? Wake up Sonikku..." she whispered.

Sonic let out a painful groan as his eyes opened a sliver. Amy backed away immediately as Sonic pushed himself into a sitting position with a lot of effort. Finally his tired eyes met hers.

"Hey" he said weakly, smiling warmly at her. His whole composer seemed to brighten when he saw her.

"How are you feeling?" Amy asked, concern showing on all her features.

Sonic wanted to lie to her, tell her that he was fine, but, the deeper he looked into her eyes, the harder his heart began pumping. He found himself slowly getting lost in her eyes as his palms became sweaty. He had never felt this before, and his first impulse was to run away. But he couldn't run away, therefore he was forced to deal with these strange emotion's that were scaring the hell out of him.

"Sonic?"

Her voice snapped him back to the present. He found that every time he opened his mouth to lie, his tongue felt like it glued itself to the top of his mouth. Finally he lowered his gaze and flattened his ears in embarrassment as he answered her.

"I feel really sick..."

Amy had seen that the hedgehog had been thinking thing's over, but as soon as the word's left his mouth her eye's widened in surprise. Sonic was the stubborn one, and she had expected him to say something like, "I feel better then I must look," in his usual carefree tone. The idea of Sonic telling the truth when it came to how he was feeling sounded farfetched, but Amy now knew it was not impossible.

Amy quickly regained her composer. "Well that's expected" she said calmly. "I mean, you've been sleeping like a baby all day!"

Sonic smiled sheepishly and looked back up at her. Suddenly he spotted the bowls and couldn't help but give them a curious glance while tilting his head to the side. Amy matched his gaze, and saw that he was looking at the bowls.

"I found something for you to wash yourself with" Amy said, holding the bowl up to the hedgehog.

Sonic's curiosity toward the bowl quickly turned into disgust. "What in the world is that?"

"Soap" Amy answered.

Sonic voice raised a pitch as he nearly shouted "Soap!?"

That's when Sonic suddenly understood what she wanted him to do. "No way am I putting that crap in my fur!" Sonic turned away from Amy with his arm's crossed. "You better find a different costumer!"

Even for some one as sickly as Sonic, he could still be stubborn. Amy was surprised he was sitting up right and talking normally to her, but obviously when Sonic says he's one tough cookie you best believe it.

Fear rose into Amy's stomach as her thoughts swung in a different direction. She had noticed Sonic's fever had been increasing slowly, yet surly. She knew that this tough cookie could start to crumble in a matter of hours. By then, he would need her help, but for now, he seemed perfectly capable to do small tasks that didn't seem to take that much energy.

"It will help you get better!" Amy said.

"No!"

"Sonic!"

"NO!"

"That's it! I'm putting my foot down! You're washing yourself with that soap and that's final!"

"I am not putting that crap in my fur! It's disgusting!"

Amy gave Sonic a pleading look. "Please Sonikku..." Her soft voice made Sonic turn toward her. "You have to... no... I want you to get better."

Sonic gave Amy a look of surprise. "You want me to?"

"Yes..." Amy said. She wanted to add, "because I love you" but held her tongue. 'Sonic doesn't think about you that way, remember?' She kept reminding herself.

Sonic noticed her distressed look as she lowered her gaze to the floor. "Amy..."

Amy looked up at Sonic, and Sonic saw the pleading look in her eyes. 'Why does she have to be so damn cute?' Sonic had no idea where that thought came from, but he quickly dismissed it. 'We're just friends' he reminded himself. 'Nothing more.'

"All right already!! I'll put that crap in my fur! But this better be worth it!"

Amy let out a squeal and hugged him gently. "Thank you Sonikku!"

"Okay, okay, but don't say I never did anything for yah!" Sonic said with a smile, returning Amy's hug.

This surprised Amy to no end, but she reluctantly let go. "All right, just tell me if you need anything" she said as she headed away from him.

She headed outside and looked around, making sure she was still visible as well as making sure Sonic still had some privacy. She watched a red bird fly through the trees, it's long tail flowing, wondering how it could fly through a jungle so thick. There we're also blue birds with very long beaks, and yellow birds with very long necks. They we're all singing and flying about, enjoying each other's company.

Suddenly she saw a Sinano, the deer-like creature from the last chapter, as it made it's way to the waterfall. It stopped and looked behind her, as though waiting for something. A little baby suddenly popped out from behind the mother, and Amy couldn't help but let out a coo as the baby ran about playfully, yet never straying to far from it's mother.

"Ames?"

Amy turned toward the echo of her name, before remembering what she had told Sonic before. She headed into the cave, only to find a suddy Sonic, sitting near the fire with a glare.

"How do I get this stuff offa me?"

Amy smiled before heading over to the second Foxglove shaped leaf, she had kept after filling the storage rock. She filled that with water, before heading back over to Sonic and pouring it over him. A couple cupful's, and Sonic was squeaky clean. He walked back over to the leaf mound, with effort, before laying down and curling up in a near ball.

Suddenly he began shivering. Amy, noticing this as she heard Sonic's teeth chatter, walked over and sat beside the hedgehog, and began rubbing his back, careful to avoid the still healing wounds, while still trying to create friction that would heat him up, even though she noticed his temperature had raised another notch.

Sonic uncurled and relaxed under her touch. "Ames... Why don't you act like this back at home?"

Amy stopped rubbing for a second, and Sonic took this as an advantage to turn around and face her. She saw his expectant look, and lowered her gaze.

"I always thought you liked it... all the other fan girls would do it, and you'd be all over them... I was just trying to get your attention."

"Amy, Amy, Amy..." Sonic said while shaking his head. "You don't need to get my attention!"

Amy looked at him in surprise. 'Did he really say that? Is there another meaning behind it? Is their still hope we can be?' Amy wondered.

Sonic smiled at her. "You look tired Ames... you should rest..."

Amy would have said no, but she suddenly noticed how tired she really was. Finally she decided on laying down on the leaf mound, smiling at Sonic as he watched her. "You're right Sonikku, we both need it."

Sonic just nodded, his eyes closed. Amy's smile turned into a frown as she noticed the half-asleep hedgehog was still shivering.

Sonic suddenly felt her arms around him, and opened his eyes in shock. He let out a squeak in surprise, as he noticed Amy had hugged him, pulling herself close and resting her forehead against his chest.

"Amy!? What are you doing!?" Sonic asked, his voiced raised in fear.

"Keeping you warm" Amy answered quietly. Her eyes were closed, and she seemed exhausted as well.

Sonic forced himself to calm down. He noticed she was already in a soft slumber, and he knew she needed it. Unsure, Sonic wrapped his arms around her, bringing her closer to him. Finally he let himself lower his guard and slowly began to drift off, the warmth of the embrace slowly reducing his shivers. Finally, he had fallen into the blessings of sleep.






Tails sat on the couch, praying that they would find them today. He had a bad feeling like something bad had happened to them, but hoped it was just his imagination. Yet this didn't stop the tears from flowing down his face.

"Mew...?" Maria said, sensing Tails was in a state of sorrow. She made her way over and lightly hopped into his lap, curling up and purring as Tails pet her head.

"How do you know when someone needs comfort Maria?" Tails asked, a small smile spreading across his lips.

The small Calidium gave Tails a look of understanding.

"You are a lot smarter then you're leading on, huh?" Tails said. Maria purred an answer, before hopping off his lap again.

Suddenly there was a knock at Tails' door. Tails was really in no mood for company, but sat up anyway and headed for his front door. As soon as he swung the door open his eyes widened in surprise.

"Cream!? What are you doing here?"

"Hi Tails!" Cream said cheerfully. "My mom was going to visit Vector, so she dropped me off here first. I hope you don't mind?"

"Oh, not at all!" Tails said, smiling for the first time in two day's.

Cheese let out a cheerful "Chao!" as he flew in a circle around Tails' head. Finally Cheese rested on Tails' head. "Chao! Chao!"

Cream smiled as she entered the room. "So... Where is every body?"

Tails' posture seemed to droop as he headed into the kitchen. "You better sit down Cream."

Cream did as she was told. She watched him as he took out three bowls and spoons. "Do you like Strawberry?" Tails asked as he looked into the freezer.

"That's one of my favorites!" Cream said cheerfully.

Tails filled the three bowls and then passed them out, before sitting down and handing out the spoons. There was a couple of seconds of silence before Cream got curious again.

"How did the party go?"

Tails dropped his spoon and swallowed hard. "It didn't go to well..."

"What happened?"

Tails told Cream the story of how they had tried to get the chaos emerald, and how Eggman had tried to stop them, and how he, Shadow, Rouge, and Knuckles we're trying to find Sonic and Amy, who had mysteriously disappeared. When he had finished, Cream was staring at him in shock.

"You mean... They're gone?" Cream asked.

"Yes..."

"Mr. Sonic? and Amy? Gone? Forever?"

"I don't know..." Tails whispered, swallowing a lump in his throat.

Suddenly a wail caught him off guard. When he looked up, Cream was crying into her arms, and Tails jumped to his feet. He quickly wrapped his arms around her, and she faced him, crying into his shoulder. Tails rubbed her back comfortingly, while shushing her. Cheese sensed her owner's distress and quickly hugged her as well. Maria, who seemingly came out of nowhere, jumped up on the table, and rubbed her back against Cream's arm.

Cream's sob's eventually turned into sniffs, and Tails felt safe enough to let her go.

"You okay now?" Tails asked, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah..." she said while rubbing her puffy eyes.

Suddenly her eyes fell on Maria. "Who's this?"

Tails smiled. "Shadow's new pet. Her names Maria."

Maria mewed acknowledgement, before turning toward Cheese and sniffing the chao. In a matter of second's, the two aquamarine creatures were playing tag in the living room. Tail and Cream smiled before heading into the living room after them.

"They're instant friends!" Cream said cheerfully.

Tails smiled too. Suddenly his eye's caught the VCR clock. "Soon our friend's will be here too."

Cream turned to Tails. "You mean, they went out to find them?"

Tails nodded his head.

"What if we never find them Tails? What happens if Eggman-?"

"We'll find them Cream, and Eggman is a dooshbag! We can beat him no sweat!"

Cream smiled at Tails. "You're right!"

Tails headed back into the kitchen and started to clean the dishes. "Maybe, when your mom gets back, you can ask her if you can sleep over?"

Cream smiled. "That's a great idea!"

Tails smiled. "Of course it's great, I thought of it."

Cream laughed as Tails headed back into the living room and sat down beside her on the couch.

"So... Want to watch a movie while we wait for them to return?"

"Yeah! What do you two think?" Cream asked, turning toward the two baby blue creatures. Maria jumped up and mewed an answer as she sat beside Tails and Cheese sat in Cream's lap with a, "Chao!"

Both Tails and Cream smiled and giggled at each other before settling down and starting the G-rated movie .