Chapter Text
"You do know that this is reversible, right?" The mage questioned, a worried look crossing her brow. The Captain didn't reply for a long moment. "If this gets reversed, then--" she tried to continue, but fell short.
"It won't get reversed." The Captain snapped, turning his head slightly to glance back at her with his good eye. "We'll make sure of it. Proper precautions have been made already." The crimson eye looked ahead again. "Your... sacrifice won't be in vain. I promise you that."
The mage worried not about her own sacrifice-- she was more worried about the Captain. More worried about whether or not this spell would truly work. If it did, then the world would be safe. The pirates would be gone, as well as the other creatures that the pirates had seemed to bring closer to the surface. As for the Captain... he'd go into a deep slumber, a comatose-like state. Everything could finally look up again.
And the Captain would be a hero, not that he cared for that glory.
"Okay." The mage relented. "Then it's time to do this."
O 0 l 0 O
There was a dark abyss surrounding the Captain. How long had he been suspended in this nothingness? For days, months, years? There was a part of him that hoped this newfound awareness of his surroundings didn't mean he was awakening. He had gone to so many lengths to cover his tracks, gone to so many lengths to ensure that the mage's sacrificial spell wouldn't go to waste.
If it had, then the peace the world knew would be shattered. Steady breaths, for the first time in years, slowly caused the white tuft of fur to slowly rise and fall. To the Captain's dismay, he was too aware of the outside world. A part of him knew that meant the spell was wearing off. It shouldn't have been possible.
Yet... it was happening, wasn't it?
O 0 l 0 O
"You imbeciles!" An angry voice called out, and a hand slammed onto a table. Eggman had half a mind to shoot both his crew mates in the face at that very moment. He took a deep, very aggravated breath. "Let me see if I'm understanding you correctly, mates."
By the tone of his voice, and the venom dripping off the word mates, the two crew mates knew they were in trouble. "So, you had the maps. The basic perfect way to find and awaken some quote-unquote Legendary Captain." Eggman paused for effect. "...and then, you lost them? So how are we supposed to claim the riches that the captain had now?!" He exclaimed, his anger capitalized with the way he hit the table again, harshly.
One of the crew mates that was standing in front of the captain's desk gulped nervously. She turned to look at her fellow crew mate, who gave a shaky look in turn. He shook his head carefully, just out of Eggman's sight.
"We- we can't be faulted, captain. We didn't lose them. They were stolen from us." The crew mate spoke up. It wasn't the full truth, so it couldn't really be considered a lie. The maps had been stolen, at least in some sense.
"Is that so?" Eggman replied after a long silence. He narrowed his eyes at the two crew mates, leaning forward slightly. "Well, then, out with it. Who stole my property?"
"A small group of sailors. We didn't get a good look at them, but we did catch a hint of their destination." It seemed that Eggman believed their half-truth, at least for now. The group hadn't stolen the maps. They'd traded the maps for what was considered more important at the time. "But it's likely they've already left there. But if they have the maps, then maybe we could intercept them."
Eggman scoffed, lifting his hands from the table and marching around it. "If they're following those maps, no matter their starting point, we can find them among the captain's last route. They'll find nothing of value there, but I'll get them for daring to steal from a pirate like me."
The crew mates hurriedly muttered "Aye, captain!" as they hurried to follow Eggman out of the captain's quarters.
O 0 l 0 O
"Aye, there's somethin' in the water!" Tails called from his perch in the crow's nest, leaning over the railing to shout below and to anyone on the deck. There was only one person on the deck at that moment, who looked up in acknowledgement. "Looks to be cargo of some type!"
Sonic moved quickly across the deck and into the direction Tails was pointing, peering over the bow of the ship and into the water. As the two-tailed fox had called, there were crates floating on the blue abyss of water. There were no signs of wreckage from what Sonic could see, no broken boards floating on the surface, nothing but the few crates that were fast approaching the ship.
"Cargo in the water!" Sonic called out, getting the attention of Knuckles and Manic, who came up the stairs from the lower decks. "Doesn't look like it's from a wreck."
"Be careful nonetheless," Knuckles ordered, making his way over to take a look. "Sometimes you cannot see the wreckage, but it's still there, just below the waves." He stopped beside Sonic, surveying the scene of the crates. "If anything... it's more suspicious if there's not a wreck by those crates."
"Really? Why's that?" Manic asked, stopping right behind Knuckles. He poked his head around Knuckles' form to try and get a better look.
"Because of how far they are from one another. It looks almost deliberate." Knuckles furrowed his brow. "Merchants don't have a route out this way, and even if they did, they wouldn't lose their cargo like this. Other sailors also wouldn't risk it. Cargo is too important, and isn't even kept in a place where it could easily fall off a ship like that."
Knuckles had made a good point, even if Sonic wasn't going to go as far as to tell him that. Tails had also managed to make it down onto the deck and over to the group, gently pushing his own way through Sonic and Knuckles to join the conversation. "Exactly what I'm thinking. It looks like the world's most obvious pirate bait. We should change course slightly and go around it. Who knows who dropped it there."
Knuckles nodded, turning and walking off to the wheel in order to change the course. "There's something else that's bothering me about this." Tails continued, thoughtfully stroking his chin. Sonic and Manic both looked at him, and he continued. "There's nothing out here. It's notoriously 'cursed', according to old legend. Sailors and merchants alike take the old legends incredibly seriously. We're only out here to follow the legendary captain's old pathing."
Sonic and Manic made eye contact. They both gave a brief nod, turning their attention back to the endless expanse. "You're right. Could someone else be out here?" Sonic muttered, searching the horizon for signs of life. Nobody else knew about the maps, right?
Tails looked thoughtfully into the distance for a long while, tapping his chin with his forefinger. "No matter which way you spin it, there shouldn't be anyone else out here. Unless they're desperate to sink their own ship..." he trailed off, then hit the middle of his palm with his fist. "That's it!"
"Huh?" Sonic and Manic both turned their gazes back to Tails, having found nothing of interest in their search for anything suspicious.
"We didn't have the maps first. We got them through a trade right before we arrived in your land. It was really lucky timing, really, considering we had already been requested to show by Sir Charles. I didn't pay much attention to them before, but I'm almost certain that those guys we got the maps from were pirates."
"So, was it a trap the whole time, you think?" Manic asked first, glancing at Sonic briefly before focusing fully back on Tails. "That's probably not good. This won't be smooth sailing if we have to be constantly watching out for those guys and their traps."
Tails frowned in response, pondering for a long moment. "If that's the case, then this is quite the way to go about it... they could've easily gotten us before we picked up new crew members. I don't think it was planned out at all... things seem just slightly too strange around here." He shook his head. "I'm not too sure. For now, we should be extra diligent with our watches. Make sure we can't be caught off guard."
Sonic and Manic both nodded, turning to face one another again with knowing looks. If merchants and sailors didn't come out this way, and yet there was such an obvious trap... pirates haven't historically been that problematic ever since the Legend of the Captain, but that could always change. Especially when they were poking their noses into the Captain's disappearance, and even the books warn heavily against that. It isn't stated why, but one could guess.
"If it is those pirates you guys ran into before, then could you possibly remember their ship and what it looked like? Surely it wasn't small, right?" Sonic asked, turning to Tails once again. Sonic had read a lot about pirates his whole life. They always travelled in fairly big ships. "If it's as big as historical pirate ships were, then there's no way they could sneak up on us."
"I wouldn't jinx it either way, Sonic. Pirates might not be as dangerous as they once were, but they're still really dangerous. We need to approach this situation with the utmost caution." Tails stated with finality. "I'm gonna head back up to the crow's nest. I need to keep an eye out for any ships around."
Sonic closed his mouth and nodded, watching Tails walk back to the mast before he turned to Manic. "We should scout ahead, too. See if we can find anything useful."
"How do you propose that?" Manic questioned, then his eyes widened. "Wait... do you think we should run on the water? Could we build up enough speed for that?"
Sonic grinned, leaning over and stretching out his legs. "There's only one way to find out. Besides, if anyone could do it, it would be us."
Manic laughed shortly, joining Sonic in stretching out his own legs. "If you say so. You're so confident about it that I believe we could. Let's do it."
Once they both were satisfied with their stretches, they walked to the back of the deck, close to the captain quarters' door. The least they could do to make sure this worked properly and built up a good amount of speed was to run across the deck and jump off the bow. It sounded reasonable enough. Both of them crouched down slightly, then took off in a sprint, heading straight for the water.
O 0 l 0 O
"Where are they?" Eggman demanded, retreating from his quarters. "How long have we been waiting now? Did you not set the trap correctly?"
One of the crew mates turned to look at him, bowing at his arrival. "My apologies, captain. It appears as though they might've seen through your brilliantly thought out trap." What they really wanted to mention was that only an actual pirate crew might be stupid enough to fall for that trap. Not these guys.
"Impossible! Are they not pirates who stole me maps? Why would they not want cargo that's floating adrift, with no other ships in sight?" Eggman narrowed his eyes, eyeing the other crewmate suspiciously. "Unless they are not pirates at all?"
The other crewmate could feel sweat beading on his brow. Getting caught now wasn't a choice. "Well, maybe--"
His excuses were cut off by a blur of green and blue zipping past the ship. Eggman forgot his previous anger at the crewmate, for the moment, and rushed over to the side of the ship where the blurs had just passed by. "What was that?"
Eggman turned to look at the rest of his crew, then marched over to the mate who was holding a spyglass. "Hand that over." He snapped, snatching the spyglass and waltzing back over to the side. He extended the spyglass and peered out across the water with it, hunting for the source of those blurs.
After a long moment, the blurs passed again, and Eggman caught a glimpse of them. In some semblance of shock, he lowered the spyglass, adjusting his hat. "Get those blurs for me!" He barked at the crew, tossing the spyglass back towards the crewmate who had held it before, who scrambled to grab it again. "Any means necessary."
"Aye!" came the cacophonous roar from the crew, and they all scrambled to obey. Eggman hmph'ed, turning and walking back to the captain's quarters. Once inside, he sat down at the desk, and pulled out some parchment. There was something about those creatures. He had never seen anything that moved so fast that it could run across the top of water.
He would be using this information to his benefit. It had sparked an idea, one that he just had to put on paper and flesh out as soon as he could. He worked on his parchment, and soon, a knock sounded at his door.
"Come in."
A crewmate opened the door slowly, poking their head into the quarters. "Did you get the blurs?" Eggman demanded, without casting a single glance upwards.
"Aye. We caught them, but--"
"Good." Eggman set down the quill he had been writing and drawing with. He stood, finally lifting his eyes from the parchment of plans. "Bring them to me."
The crewmate looked like they wanted to say more, but opted against it, closing their mouth and opening the door wider. Another crewmate walked through the doorway, dragging along the blue and green creatures who had been running across the water.
"Ye may leave." Eggman waved the crewmates away. The crewmate dropped the blurs onto the floor, then left the room, followed by the other crewmate who had been holding the door open. The door swung shut behind them, slamming shut.
The blurs were fidgeting, struggling against the ropes they had been bound with. Eggman casually strolled over, leaning down to get a better look at them. They were hedgehogs, wearing generically sailor attire. They weren't the ones he had initially been looking for, but they would likely have answers.
Eggman plucked the dirty rags from their mouths, chuckling dryly. "Sorry about them. I didn't ask them to give you such hospitaity." He feigned concern, only to be met with a glare from both of the hedgehogs. "But, as it were, ye were near my ship. Why?"
"As if we have to answer that, egghead." The blue hedgehog immediately snapped, turning his head away. "Hospitality is the wrong word for what your people did to us. Usually hospitality doesn't involve kidnapping people."
Eggman narrowed his eyes, his eyebrows furrowing. "Fine, then let's drop the friendliness." He marched around the blue hedgehog, getting back into his line of sight. The hedgehog immediately went to look away again. "Let's try this again. What were you doing, zipping around like that near me ship?"
The hedgehog muttered something under his breath, but otherwise made no motion to answer Eggman's questions. He scoffed in the back of his throat, circling them to step in front of the green hedgehog. "Answer me, you little rats, or I'll hang ye out to dry."
The green hedgehog looked down, doing the same as the blue hedgehog did. Neither replied to Eggman's inquiries, so he straightened back up, approaching his desk. "We do this the hard way, then." He decided, tapping his fingers on the wood. "Fine by me. MATES!"
The call was answered by the door opening, two crewmates stepping inside. "Show these hedgehogs to the brig. Make sure they get real comfortable."
The crewmates wasted no time in grabbing each one of the hedgehogs, dragging them out of the quarters. Once the door slammed shut once more, Eggman slammed his palm onto the table. He hadn't liked those hedgehogs one bit; especially not the blue one, who had shot off a smart remark before refusing to speak again. The green hedgehog might talk, if he separated the two.
"Sir," a voice called from outside the door, "those two hedgehogs had weapons, which we confiscated. What would you like me to do with them?"
"Bring them in here," Eggman replied, turning to glance back as the crewmate entered. The crewmate set the weapons aside, gave a salute, then turned and walked back out the door. Eggman walked over to the weapons, picking them up and inspecting them. "Hm. Interesting."