Emerald Trouble Ch 7

Tails once again covered the Tornado with the tarp and followed the trail of cracked twigs and overturned stones left behind by his friend.  The darkness of night frightened him a bit, but he was determined to catch up to the others.  While he solved complex calculus problems and divided matrices in his head to lift his spirits, he jogged amongst the gargantuan palm trees that dotted the coastline of Angel Island.  During the day the island had an almost jubilant air to it- the sun would shine brightly, warming his muzzle to the tips of his fur.   But now the once-familiar place was unforgiving, and it seemed as if everything yearned to militate against him.  Suddenly he heard an odd humming sound growing steadily behind him, sort of like the sound that the refrigerator would make when Sonic would sit partially inside it with the door open during the summer's most unbearable days.  The fox stopped and literally went off the beaten path until he reached a tree and snuck behind it. Once there, he sunk down and hugged his knees, trying to keep quiet.  Keeping underneath the extra shadows created by the massive emerald green leaves, he poked his head around the trunk to see what was behind him.  It turned out to be his worst nightmare:  walking through the dense tangle of trees and deviously tossing the red Chaos Emerald up and down in his hand, was Scourge.

Tails' heart fell and he felt a splash of heat come over him as he remembered that he had used the red emerald as a source of power for the Tornado.  Maybe taking it with him and Sonic after they got out of the biplane wouldn't have been a bad idea.  The look on his face was reminiscent of the expression he had when Eggman had used his mind tricks to get Tails to admit that the emerald that they had brought onboard the ARK was fake.  Fuming, he continued to watch the green hedgehog.  It was tough to keep his eyes on Scourge with the limited light, but the glow of the emerald seemed to suffice. Its effervescent aura shone on Scourge's leather jacket, making it appear to be an almost blood-red hue.  The hedgehog stopped walking and looked all around him.

"This looks like the perfect place.  It almost seemed as if this emerald actually wanted the little, ahem, improvement," he said with a sneer. "The others tried to resist, but this one changed in no time at all."  He set the gem down on a cluster of stones and suddenly froze.  He looked up, directly at the palm where Tails was hiding.  The fox held his breath and closed his eyes in a desperate attempt to remain quiet.  "Snooping as usual, I see." Scourge remarked, imitating The Doctor perfectly.  He darted around the trunk to face Tails. The fox yelped vociferously, right before the hedgehog silenced him with a single blow to the head.