FicWad

The whole search party watched as Espio reached down to observe the footprints they had been following. They had gone back to Tails' place to regroup, and thankfully Tails was able to determine that they were indeed Sonic and Amy's footprints. Shadow had flashed a small UV flashlight, which no one had any idea where it came from, that hooked up wirelessly to Tails' laptop. That way, Tails could see the picture of the foot print and determine who's it was.

Finally the group repacked supplies and set out together where Espio had found the footprints. Though they were hard to follow, and seemed to be eroding away, they had managed to follow them. It was a little surprising to the group when Rouge had said she had recognized a log a little while back, but it held no relevance to finding the footprints so it quickly left the minds of the search crew.

"How old are these footprints?" Asked Vector, kneeling down to look over Espios shoulder.

"Nearly a week..." Espio answered, flashing the flashlight on the unmistakable soap sneaker footprint.

"That's when they disappeared" concluded Knuckles, who was doing the same as Vector.

Shadow stood in the background, his eyes closed, as he tried to shut out the annoying sounds of Charmy as he buzzed around in little circles. Rouge found interest in a blood-covered leaf. She looked foreword and found more, and realized they were caused by something rushing past. She followed the blood stained leaves, only to come upon a clearing with a dead baby Silano. She flashed the flashlight on its body and nearly dropped the flashlight in shock. It's gut had been torn open and it's insides were hanging out, while it's neck looked broken in two or three places. Rouge suddenly felt her insides squirm and she hurried back to the group, trying to block out the image she had just seen.

Finally Espio stood up and took the lead again. The group followed Espio by flashing their flashlights on him, but sometimes their flashlights would wonder to interesting objects, or the threat of an unknown shriek in the night. Finally Shadow turned to his digital watch and nearly gasped. It was one in the morning!

Shadow closed his eyes and shook his head. But his watch said the same time. No wonder why he felt so tired... He needed rest and so he looked foreword toward Espio and directed his idea to the chameleon. "We should set up camp; it's late..."

Espio turned to him, and the rest of the group. They too were feeling tired, but they wanted to keep going. Espio realized that without rest the group would soon become dazed and delirious, and reluctantly agreed. "He is right..." Espio concluded, taking his backpack off and dropping it to the ground.

Reluctantly, the rest of the party followed his example. They scrambled around setting up two tents, one for Espio, Vector, and Charmy, and another for Rouge, Shadow, and Knuckles. After that was finished Vector attempted to start a fire. It took a about half an hour, but finally he managed to get a small fire going that did not burn well on the wet ground of the earth. Finally, they pulled out their cans of food and placed them on a pan over the fire, where Rouge cooked their food over it.

It would be a while before their food was cooked, and Knuckles knew a great way to pass the time. "So..." Knuckles started, looking to each of the faces in the group. "Anyone know any good ghost stories?"

The group remained silent, looking at each other. Finally they turned back to Knuckles with big smiles, and got comfortable. Charmy was unsure of all this however, and spoke up. "Ghost stories are scary... can we hear something else?"

"All right then... Let's see... Ah! There is a legend on Angel Island..." Knuckles suggested.

"Yeah! Lets hear that one!" Charmy shouted, jumping up and down in excitement. The rest of the group smiled at the echidna.

Knuckles cleared his throat. "They say there are six elements of the world, Earth, Wind, Fire, Water, Dark, and Light. Legend has it that there is a guardian for each one element, some one with ultimate power who can control the element they own with precise accuracy. Of course, the chosen ones lead a life where their only duty is to protect something of great importance..."

"Who are the chosen ones?" Charmy interuppted, sitting next to Knuckles with an anxious look. The rest of the party looked amused, thinking Knuckles had made it up.

"Who ever owns ultimate power or protects something important" Knuckles answered, smiling at the excited bumblebee.

"Like Shadow?"

The group suddenly turned to the black hedgehog. Shadow looked from each of the team's faces before raising an eyebrow. "What do you want me to do about it" was plastered all over his face.

As Knuckles thought about it, he could only think of four people who were guardians and protected something important, that could really be considered owning ultimate power. Shadow guarded the secrets of Space Colony Ark, Sonic guarded the people from Eggman, Chaos guarded all the little chao of the planet, and he himself guarded the master emerald. But he didn't believe in that phony legend, and immediately knew that thinking this was only caused by the ever increasing bees excitement.

"Who are the guardians Knuckles?" Charmy asked, a bit impatiently this time.

"Well... uh... I don't know, and no one is really supposed to know. It's like a super hero's identity; you got to keep it on the down low."

"Oh... Okay! I get it!" Charmy said excitedly, as he headed back to his spot beside Espio. Though Charmy forgot the whole thing easily, since Vector told the story of the boogey man and freaked him out. Knuckles on the other hand could not shake off the feeling that he should pay closer attention to the legend. Something about it seemed strange and kept bothering him, and even when the group headed off to bed, Knuckles thought about it some more before actually closing his eyes and getting some sleep.

The rest did not last long however, for soon the sun was up. Espio went around waking the rest of the crew. Of course Knuckles could sleep through a heard of elephants, and in order to wake him, Espio had to actually put him on his feet and slap his face a couple times.

The team then packed up their stuff and set out again, though no one was really in the mood. Sleep was an invitation for every blink of the eye, even to the ultimate life form, who really didn't need too much sleep to be healthy. But Rouge was the worst.

Though the search party had gotten up a few hours ago, Rouge was still very unhappy about it. Her hair was matted, and her make up was fading, and deep circles were under her eyes. She dragged her feet and her eyes were half lidded. Knuckles had asked her if she was feeling all right, and Rouge had replied that she was not a morning person. In fact, when Shadow had said good morning to her and flinched at the way she looked, a heavy boot had established that fact to Shadows head.

Finally, around midday, the party came upon a clearing with a lagoon and a waterfall. Charmy rushed foreword, and jumped into the clear water, everyone else sat by the warm rocks to rest and take in the sun. Espio, a little curious, walked around in little circles, until finally turning toward the rest of the group.

"The footprints end here" he said.

"Well? What are we supposed to do now?" Rouge asked from her perch on a large rock, a bit annoyed. Knuckles was sitting beside the bat, and Shadow was leaning his back against the rock they were sitting on, watching Charmy as he flew about, skimming the water as he flew above it. Vector seemed less interested in that, and was walking around the side of the lagoon, looking for traces of footprints.

Espio looked back at the bat. "I don't know..."

Shadow decided to speak in. "We could wait here... Or we could go searching in the jungle..."

Espio thought a moment. "We should keep going..."

"And I'll stay here and catch up on my beauty sleep..." Rouge finished, giving Espio a toothy grin. It was obvious she liked that idea.

"Don't think so, it's better now if we all stay together... lets go" Espio said, walking off into the jungle. Shadow followed the purple chameleon, along with Charmy and Vector, who had noticed the chameleon leave. Knuckles and Rouge, on the other hand, reluctantly grabbed their bags and hopped down from their perch, before following them into the dense foliage of the jungle.

Once again, the walk took its deadly toll on the still awakening search party. They walked for about an hour, before giving up.

"Maybe we should just head back and wait at the waterfall?" Suggested Knuckles, as he gladly took the seat on a wooden log.

"Maybe... but what good would that do?" Suggested Espio.

Rouge shifted the sleeping Charmy in her arms, before reluctantly agreeing with the purple ninja. "They could be injured and can't get to the waterfall..." She concluded.

Shadow, on the other hand, enjoyed the smell of a sparkly blue flower, before picking it. "You know, there's not many blue flowers like this back on earth" Shadow said, not really paying attention to anything else. The search party stared at him strangely for a moment, and Vector took a step away from the hedgehog, before the rest of the team turned back to each other.

Suddenly Knuckles felt a sharp burn on his rump and jumped up from the log, slapping himself. "Yah! What the-?" Knuckles wondered he turned to the log and found that there were millions upon millions of small, scorpion-like, red insects. Knuckles' eyes went wide before he freaked out.

"Whoa! Knuckles hang on!" Shouted Espio.

Knuckles flailed his arms around and slapped himself wherever he felt the sharp burn of an insect bite. "Get 'em off me! Get 'em off me!"

Shadow, in the mean time, picked some of the blue flowers and placed them in his pack back, before watching the echidna with a sweat drop. The rest of the party just stood there with an amused look on their faces. Knuckles walked around slowly, flaying his arms around like a fish out of water, fighting the insects that were infesting his fur. Everyone couldn't help but laugh at the echidna as he struggled to get the biting insects off of him.

Suddenly Knuckles stepped on one end of a long thin branch, and like a shovel, it snapped up and hit Knuckles square in the face. This sent waves of laughter through Knuckles' companions as Knuckles fell to the ground backwards looking surprised. His vision blurred, and he blinked to restore it as a wave of dizziness hit him. Then another bug bit him, and Knuckles slapped his arm, trying to kill whatever was causing him so much discomfort.

"Maybe you should head back Knuckles, before you get hurt!" Vector said, through laughter.

"Ha ha ha, very funny, let's just keep going shall we?" Knuckles asked, charging his way through Espio and Rouge, as the whole group continued laughing at him.

"Be careful, I don't want to end up like you" Rouge said, clutching her stomach with one hand, careful to avoid dropping Charmy.

Knuckles just kept walking, he knew his friends were only joking, but what had happened had taken a blow to his pride, and they were only making it worse. "I just want to keep looking, unlike Mr. Floral over here" Knuckles said, directing his comment to Shadow. Shadow stopped sniffing a red flower to glare at Knuckles, while Espio and Vector laughed some more.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Growled Shadow.

"That you are either really strange or really gay" Answered Espio before Knuckles could open his mouth.

"I am not gay or strange! I can not help it if a near death experience makes me want to stop and smell the flowers. I appreciate the world and it's beauty, unfortunately you guys never stop to take a closer look!" Shadow said, his fist clenched. Suddenly his mind connected, and he realized why he was here and why he was helping the search party. Sonic was the only other person he had ever met who appreciated the world's beauty, and that was what had intrigued Shadow. Now, finding Sonic was less a duty, and more an obligation.

"Yeah, yeah, Shadow, we know... You're not gay..." Vector paused a minute before shouting, "You're bi!" Vector then continued laughing up a storm. Espio, feeling as though the moment were over, did not find the situation funny anymore, while Knuckles fumed at the crocodile, obviously sick of the patronizing of himself and his buddy Shadow. He and Knuckles had gotten pretty close over the last two days, and he figured the hedgehog was more a friend to him then when he first saw him on Ark. Knuckles opened his mouth to speak his mind to the green crocodile, but Rouge beat him to it.

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Rouge shouted, making Vector squeak before shutting his mouth. Rouge handed over the sleeping bee to Shadow before turning on the reptile once more. "It was funny then, but it's not funny any more! You guys should know more then any of us that were in a strange place, with dangers all around us! Any one of us could get seriously hurt one of these days! This is not some happy trek in the woods, and this is certainly not a game! So shut up, and keep moving!" The image of the dead Silano entered her mind again and she shuddered. "Who knows what dangers could nab us if we wait to long?"

Finally, with that said, she turned toward Knuckles and cat walked over to him, before wrapping her arm in his. Knuckles looked surprised and his cheeks turned a bright pink, but he allowed Rouge to lay her head on his shoulder as they walked. Espio and Vector looked at each other with knowing smiles, and Shadow seemed at a loss for words. Love had always confused the hedgehog, since it made people do strange and sometimes stupid things. Shadow wondered if he would ever understand it as he followed the two lovebirds. Espio and Vector followed after Shadow, and the group walked in silence for a while.

"Sorry" Vector grumbled after a while.

"I forgive you" Knuckles and Shadow said in unison.

"Just let's not do that anymore" Rouge said. "I don't want my poor Knuxie to get made fun of by the mean bullies anymore" Rouge said to Knuckles as though she were talking to a cute little animal. She was patting his dreadlocks with her free arm, and this caused Knuckles' face to grow a dark crimson. Both Vector and Espio snickered while Knuckles sighed in contentment.

"Is there something you guys aren't telling us?" Asked Espio.

Rouge looked over her shoulder at the chameleon. "Of course!"

Shadow's excitement grew as Vector said, "well, fill us in!"

"Me and Knuckles are officially an item!" Rouge said, flashing the people behind her a big toothy grin.

"Congratulations!" Shadow said cheerfully. He was happy his pal Knuckles could finally reveal his feelings for the woman.

"Ditto!" Said Espio and Vector at the same time.

"Hey... while were revealing secrets, why don't you tell them the big news about Vanilla" Charmy said the name in a sing song voice. Shadow jumped, he hadn't noticed the bee awaken. Everyone else seemed surprised as well, and Shadow realized he wasn't the only one who hadn't noticed.

Charmy took flight and flew over to Vector. "Come on, tell 'em! Tell 'em!"

"Yes..." Knuckles said, quiet amused. "Tell us..."

"Well..." Vector began, swallowing the fear as he began to sweat nervously. "Me and Vanilla have been seeing each other for some time now... and well..."

"Their getting married" Espio blurted.

Suddenly a wave of excitement flew through the group. Rouge let out a small scream and shouted "that's so cute!" while Knuckles smiled at Vector and gave him a high five. Shadow, who could really care less, paid attention more to the raindrop that landed on his noise then to the commotion going on.

"Uh... Guy's?" Shadow said, flinching as he heard thunder in the distance.

The group turned to him. "What is it Shadow?" Rouge asked.

"Maybe we should set up camp... I think there's a storm coming."



Boy was it ever a storm. Thunder clashed above the trees and made the ground shake, and lightening illuminated the whole jungle as it cut through the sky. The search party had put up one tent, and staked it extra tough, which was a good thing, since the wind was so strong, that if they hadn't of staked it, it would of picked them up and carried them away. All of them had huddled in the tent; Rouge and Knuckles falling asleep entwined with each other. Shadow had tried calming down the frightened Charmy, but to no avail, and ended up allowing Charmy to sleep in his sleeping bag with him. Espio and Vector didn't really care, and had fallen asleep right away.

Rouge however did not get much sleep. She lay awake, thinking about her best friend Amy. Finally she couldn't stand it any longer and she carefully pulled herself from Knuckles' embrace. Knuckles muttered something incoherent in his sleep as Rouge carefully pulled his arms off of her, thankfully she did not wake him. Finally Rouge unzipped the tent and stepped outside.

It was a crisp night. It smelt like fresh earth because of the recent storm. Crickets were chirping, which Rouge found odd since she didn't think crickets were in this strange dimension. She looked up, and saw the dark sky with many little stars in between the canopy trees, but there was no moon in sight. She walked away from the tent while looking up, until she spotted a clearing in the trees above her. In the middle of the clearing, was a big bright full moon smiling it's light down upon the earth below.

Suddenly her ears twitched. And she noticed the jungle had gone quiet again. She looked behind, but noticed the tent was no where in sight. She heard a growl and immediately a shiver ran down her spine and her blood turned cold. She didn't know what it was but it sounded menacing. She turned slowly, and her eyes immediately locked with foggy amber ones.

She let out a tiny scream as she suddenly jumped away from the large wolf. What she saw was the razor sharp teeth and killer amber eyes. What she did not see was the bloody thorn hanging out the Canininins chest. Saliva poured out of the wolfs mouth like a river as it took an obviously painful step toward her. Rouge, alarmed, but now also curious, remained where she was.

The wolf lifted its paw again, but suddenly collapsed to its side with a yelp, panting heavily. Rouge felt immediate sympathy, and approached the Canininin slowly. The wolf made no moves to attack her as she sat down beside the large animal. "Don't worry, I'm going to help you."



There was an alarmed shout that made the rest of the tent's inhabitant's shoot out of their sleeping bags. It was Espio who had shouted, and they could still hear him, as Shadow scrambled foreword and unzipped the tent.

"ARE YOU NUTS!?"

"He was hurt!"

"IT'S A KILLER!"

"I couldn't just leave him there!"

Shadow jumped out of the tent. "What the hell is go-YAH!" Shadow stopped short, and the rest of the party did the same as they came out of the tent.

Rouge was sitting beside a huge dark wolf, feeding it scraps of food. It had a bandage around its chest and its fur had been stained a deep rust color from the blood as it traveled from what ever wound it had acquired. The wolf had it's tail wagging and it was panting. It could almost be described as a large black dog, if it hadn't of had the wolf like appearance and the killer amber eyes, that Shadow knew he didn't like as soon as his eyes locked with the wolf's.

"His names Obsidian... and if anyone's got a problem with that, they're going to have to answer to me" Rouge threatened shaking her fist.

Knuckles walked over and allowed Obsidian to sniff his hand. After the large wolf licked it, and Knuckles smiled. "Why, he's just an overgrown puppy" Knuckles concluded as he petted the wolfs head. Obsidians tail wagged wildly, and by the way he panted, it looked like he had a large smile on his face.

Espio slapped his face in defeat. "Well if he turns around and kills us all in our sleep don't say I didn't warn you!"

He headed for the tent and Shadow and Vector helped him put it away. The surprise of the large wolf over, Rouge demanded everyone at least pet him. Once Obsidian registered all of the members of the search party as friend, they grabbed their bags and headed off, Obsidian following close beside his new master.