Beautiful Curse

Chapter 23

        "You fools let her inside!" Dr. Eggman cries out to the red and yellow robots, his arms flailing in frustration. "I thought I programmed you to identify familiar faces! Don't tell me you can't remember seeing this girl." The two robots stare at him for a moment, then shrug and shake their heads. "Haugh! Well, get her! She's not leaving with that Chaos Emerald!"

        The robots come at me with arms spread wide to pen me in, but I won't be caught so easily. Three-foot-tall robots? I can jump higher than that. Bending my knees a little, I move the shining white gem into one hand and sprint toward my aggressors, springing at the last moment and flying over their heads. Landing on the other side, and unfortunately, straight on top of a mushed blueberry danish, I slip and roll forward in a somersault and somehow manage to regain balance.

        Dr. Eggman is in front of me dressed in his Elvis costume, a poisonous glare able to be seen through the classy shades covering his eyes. "Gotcha!" he snarls, leaning down to grab at my (length) hair. With a squeak I swing my head to the side, feeling as the gloved fingers just brush past a few locks, too slow to actually get a hold on them. "Orbot! Cubot! Block the doorway! We can't let this little rascal escape with my prize!"

        They are too slow. Even in my dress and doll shoes, I am able to outrun the robots and incredibly tall human, clomping my feet down the wooden flooring of the hallway to make it to the stairs, where I then race with all my might up to the front deck. Behind me I can hear the mad scientist blabbering angrily to his hench-robots, sounding as if he's practically frothing at the mouth.

        When I burst through the door, about a hundred passengers look my way with expressions of bewilderment and alarm, three anthros gathered around a pool table included. Panting as adrenaline pumps throughout my body, I run as quickly as possible without tripping to them, holding out the emerald in my hand and yelling, "I got it, now let's get out of here!"

        Shadow's eyes widen and he stumbles back a bit as I push the emerald into his hands. But he doesn't spit out a threat, nor does he call me a rude name; my panicked words alone are enough for him to get the gist of what is happening. He hastily looks around himself, making sure that Sonic and Tails are nearby, raising the glowing white Chaos Emerald to the sky. The black hedgehog furrows his eyebrows, eyelids folding over the crimson irises in concentration. I think he's about to perform a Chaos Control, whatever that is. It must have something to do with teleportation.

        "Chaos—"

        "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

        The powerful command is stopped midway as each gaze trains on the man, who, although breathing heavily, has a long and thin malicious smirk on his face. Dr. Eggman takes out a controller from behind his back, the one I had seen in his cabin. He waves it around with an evil chuckle, "You wouldn't want to leave these poor people in danger, would you?" He presses a big red button in the center of the device, and at the same moment the loud, constant hum of the cruise ship's engine suddenly goes silent.

        "Oh no," Tails gasps, blue eyes frozen onto the controller. "We should have—we shouldn't have held back! If we checked his room and found the controller... Oh no, now people are going to get hurt!"

        Dr. Eggman grins at him, putting the device to his mouth. "Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," he speaks into it, the voice being heard over the ship's intercom and being directed toward everyone on board. "It seems the captain has lost control of the ship. Lost it to me, that is. Now, there's no need to panic. Not unless a certain few rodents act as the heroes they are and return what was stolen from me; an item so precious that even I hold a spot for it in my heart. And if they don't, well...let's say this ship will be heading for some rough waters! Ho ho!"