Sonic Runaways

Amy's eyes opened, and they were met with a frosty air breezing against them. She sat up, and saw a small ice pack slip off her head. She looked over to a sleeping bag next to her, and saw Tails with a considerably larger icepack. There were bandages around his entire forehead. He was still breathing, though. Still snoring.

It was cold.

Amy heard talking from outside. She couldn't quite make out the words being spoken over a harsh wind. She curiously peeked out of the tent door. "Yeesh… sorry about that," Sonic apologized, examining the tent from outside for Ata. It was snowing. Amy saw an ocean and a bunch of surrounding ice caps.

"It's okay. That EMP-like blast is the only reason we're still alive. If it didn't knock 'Mecha Sonic' out, he probably would have killed us all," Ata sighed. Sonic could tell she was still less-than-pleased with the side effects. "But now, my tent can't go anywhere with its main power source ruptured. We're very lucky to have even made it off the Flying Battery with the emergency generator. But even that's out of juice now."

"Well, with Robotnik... out of the picture, we don't have much of anything to go off of in terms of getting the Master Emerald," Sonic stated, looking to the ground miserably.

"Yep. Hate to say it, but we're as good as lost," Ata replied. "And the Master Emerald could have probably powered the tent. Great."

"I have an idea!" Amy exclaimed. Everybody looked over to her.

"You do?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah. It's not exact, but it might help us out," Amy stated. She summoned forth a stack of cards. "I can read my tarot cards to see where we need to go."

"You can use them like that?" Sonic asked, walking into the tent and sitting down by Amy. Ata followed.

"Yeah! They help me out a lot. Years ago, they even told me to go to Little Planet to find you," Amy sighed. "It's the best thing that ever happened to me." Sonic blushed, but tried to hide it with his cloak.

"And then you got turned into a statue," Sonic replied. "Are you sure doing what these things tell you to do is a good idea?"

"It worked out. Because now you're blushing at me. Okay… where would the Master Emerald be?" Amy shuffled her cards, smiling.

"Hey. I'm not blushing... My face is just freezing," Sonic lied, pressing his cloak up against his face more.

"I can warm you up," Amy replied, a glint in her eye. She proceeded to form a Flame Shield around Sonic. This protected Sonic from the cold, and Amy discarded the card the shield came from. She then resumed her tarot card reading. She fanned the cards already in her hands, and then placed one face-down on the tent floor. Sonic stared down at the card, which had an illustration of some kind of emperor on it.

"How can you read this? There's no words," Sonic asked. Amy's expression grew concerned, as she looked down to the emperor cards.

"Tarot cards are all about the imagery. They have pre-set meanings, but a truly experienced reader can come to their own interpretations," Ata whispered. She focused on the very recent past, and saw the illustration on the card. She then snapped back to the present. "Of course, I'm no good at them."

"I think it means we should follow Warlord Pachacamac," Amy gasped.

"But we have no idea where he is either," Sonic stated. He then heard the sounds of a jet from outside. He immediately jumped and ran out the door, following the noise.

Outside, Sonic saw none other than Warlord Pachacamac in his pod. There were echidnas in smaller pods everywhere. The echidnas were all high above Sonic in the sky, and appeared to be using large, powerful heatwaves on the huge ice caps below them. Sonic watched as the snow and ice melted, leaving only water. It turned from cold to sweltering. Ata and Amy poked their heads out of the tent. Amy attempted to gasp loudly, but Sonic put his hand over her mouth. It was a hasty decision, but it paid off. Amy was near silent.

"They're melting the ice?" Sonic asked.

"What?!" Ata hissed back. "We need to keep them away from my tent!"

"Roger that…" Sonic replied. He ran out of the tent, and up to the summit of a nearby mountain.

"What? It's the traitor!" Pachacamac shouted, following the blue blur with his eyes. Sonic waited atop the mountain ahead of Pachacamac. The other Knuckles Clan members watched in shock as Pachacamac drove his pod forward until he was right in front of Sonic. "How did you survive all that?!"

"Never mind that. You're melting these ice caps, you moron!" Sonic shouted. "The whole island will flood if you melt all this." Sonic wobbled in place as the mountain he was standing on sunk considerably. Pachacamac lowered his pod to float just above Sonic. "You see?! You're going to destroy your own island and people!"

"Silence! I do not need you preaching to me, bush-swine," Pachacamac shouted. "My people and I no longer have a need for this island. This is our first step towards conquering other lands. We are breaking free of our chains to the past, and letting the tides take it away like a drawing in the sand. We are moving onto greater endeavors. You've interfered enough, and now I will let the tides take you and your pack of misfits away as well!" Sonic, having heard enough, Homing Attacked into the pod. He tried to steer clear of the now burning heatwave as the pod spun and flipped around in attempts to burn him. He had little ground to land on. It was all being melted.

Finally, after quite a few hits from Sonic, the pod Pachacamac was in started to explode. It fell to the ground, leaving a small crater in the ice. Sonic Shooting Star Kicked down on top of Pachacamac's stomach, making Pachacamac wheeze. "No! Stop right there!" Pachacamac shouted as Sonic grabbed his tie and smashed the echidna's head into the outer rim of the pod. He tried to think of a way to get out of this predicament. "You could kill me right here, and end this all… or you could save your friends." Sonic looked to the tent, as it split from the rest of the ice cap and drifted off into the sea. "What'll it be now---?" Sonic growled, and with a burst of electricity, blasted Pachacamac out of the sputtering, barely functioning pod. Sonic then hijacked the pod and flew it to the tent.

"C'mon!" Sonic shouted to the others. Tails groggily woke up as Amy and Ata climbed aboard. "Tails, this is the last ticket out of here."

"Okay! Okay, I'm coming," Tails sighed tiredly. He hopped into the pod. "What's going on?"

"No time to explain," Sonic replied.

"You sure you can fly this thing?" Ata asked.

"No, no not really," Sonic replied, flying the pod over the ice caps as they melted and broke apart.

"The thief has stolen my pod?!" Pachacamac shouted, as another echidna flew his pod over to his position to assist. Pachacamac shoved the other echidna out of the small pod, hopped in, and flew after Sonic and the others. "Men! Forget the ice caps! Kill the traitors!"

"They're chasing us!" Amy cried, looking behind them and seeing Pachacamac along with all the other echidnas coming in quick.

"C'mon, can't this thing go faster?" Sonic asked, the pod dipping a little and puffing out black smoke. Pachacamac, waving the smoke out of his face, saw an opportunity and rammed his pod into the one Sonic was flying. He bumped into it again, and again, until… it fell out of the air!

The pod landed on a steep downward slope, and everyone's cries of fear were drowned out over the wind whistling louder as they picked up speed. The thing had been reduced to a bobsled now. They all had to pull with their combined strength into steering around cracks in the ice cap and walls in their way, all with limited vision because of the snow and mist blocking their view. Eventually, their blind luck ran out. They crashed right into a wall, which left a crack in the pod. This sent them onto their side, spinning out of control onto a series of slopes. The pod continued to spin. Everyone held on tight, but Sonic wasn't lucky enough to get ahold of something. He went flying out of the pod.

"Sonic!" Tails cried, reaching out for him. Before Sonic touched the ground, he shot an energy beam out to the pod. He turned the pod back upright, and proceeded to touch the ground, kicking up snow and allowing himself to be pulled along by the pod. Everybody had to turn extra hard without Sonic aboard to help pull the pod in the direction they wanted. It was hard, and they had to pull until their arms began to hurt. However, just by the skin of their teeth, they made it to a plateau in one piece. The pod screeched to a halt, and snow gathered up in front of it. Sonic dismissed the energy beam, and skidded to a slow stop on the ice. Everybody looked behind them as the ice caps in the distance settled.

"I lived! But… what about Ata's tent?" Amy asked, shaking.

"Eh, I can always make a new one," Ata sighed. "Shame about all the artifacts in there, though." Ata smiled. "Hey, at least someone in the future can find them at the bottom of the sea. Or wherever they end up. Archaeology never dies, it just starts again."

Sonic, Tails and Amy all gazed into the blue sky, and saw an entire squad of echidnas growing closer. Ata kept her eyes solemnly locked onto the water. "You think they see us?" Sonic asked. The echidnas, including Pachacamac, all flew far above them. They were in the clear.

"I don't think so," Tails replied. He looked to the water with Ata, and took a breath. The water level hadn't rose. "Good thing we distracted them before they started doing any real damage. How would flooding everything have fit into this 'plan' Pachacamac has, anyways?" Sonic looked off into the distance, as Pachacamac flew off into a nearby canyon that rounded back around to Angel Island. He felt electricity spark within him.