BZZZT. The sound pierced the silent Death egg.
BZZZT. The sound once more shot through the ears all that were gathered
BZZZT. "The pain! Am I Dying?" a robotic voice called to the silence.
Amy fell to her knees, "Emerl! Please! Don't go!" Her face was streaked with tears. "We need you! Now more than ever!" These words flickered in the Gizoid's mind.
His body flashed and stopped the self-termination sequence. "Mom? Cream? Sonic?" Emerl was clearly disorientated as he looked around to see Amy on her knees, eyes drowning in tears and Sonic looking slightly scared.
"Sonic," he whispered in his ear, "This is why I call Amy 'Mom'," he then proceded to tell Sonic about Amy's decision causing Sonic's eyes to shrink and his mouth stating to gape.
Seeing this Rouge said only, "I think he now knows." which was followed by a few suppressed sniggers from Shadow.
These turned into a few chuckles but Shadow couldn't help himself. He was bent double laughing so hard he nearly forgot to breathe.
He stood up with a slight smile with only, "Ahem." escaping from his mouth.
Later Emerl was sitting at Emerald Beach looking aprehensive as an upturned mountain slowly floated into veiw. Very slowly. He called Amy over to look at it but when she saw it she froze in fear.
"Do you know what that sight means, Emerl?"
"No mom. I don't but I do remember something Tails said about severe energy fluctuations in that direction."
Amy called the others over and announced that They were coming.
"Who're They?" Cream asked with a confused look on her face.
"The Shades. They're returning!" Amy said clearly full of fear as she was shivering from it. Then she ran towards her home in fright followed by Cream and Cheese.
"Well! That's a bit of a bother!" Rouge sighed with a tired look on her face.
Shadow just said, "I wonder if they're a match for me or Emerl?" his usual tone finally returning since his outburst on the Death Egg.
"Are you forgetting someone?" a voice called out from seemingly nowhere. "Oh sorry I forgot. You can't see be like this. Well then black hedgehog if you're so sure of your power then why don't you challenge the Shades? I'm sure they'd love to beat you to a pulp!" The voice disappeared laughing.
Over on that 'upturned mountain' a young trikin stood surveying the training of the Shades-in-training. Another trikin walked up to the young one and said, "We have detected the earlier power fluctuation. It's presense prevents our magic getting any nearer than we could earlier."
"That's a problem." the younger one said staring in the direction of Emerald Town as it very slowly rose from the horizon. "We have to destroy the robot with the anthropomorphic animals before it learns too much about us or starts using our own skills against us. The second one would be a larger problem though..." The younger trikin walked off the the Head Shade's office.
Fifty years in command of these and I still have to explain every damn thing to them! He thought as he walked through the labyrithine mansion eventually arriving at his office. Walking in he saw the only light coming from the rippling map which showed the actions of each Shade and who was idle. There is no anthropomorphic animals that can hurt me even remotely. I made sure of that when in got rid of that annoying pink rat. His thoughts were as usual based on what would happen later as he looked at the filing cabinet of over twenty thousand completed contracts and some that weren't paid for but they'll be paid soon.
"Rhee! Come here!" he shouted.
Mere seconds later a large trikin wlked in closing the door behind him, "You called Master Shadow?" the head Dragon Shade said.
The Shadow only said, "Send three Dragonlord Shades to the town we are appoaching and scout out who is a possible threat. If the Pink Rat is there they're to attack her. Am I understood?"
Rhee looked worried, "Of course, Master Shadow." He turned on his heels and walked back to his own office hearing the sounds of The Shadow gathering his weapons and staff. He moved to three of the female Dragon Shades and told them their orders. They quickly set off to complete their orders while Rhee went to his quarters and promptly fell asleep.
Three days later
"Hello mom!" Emerl called as Amy woke up to see Emerl cooking breakfast.
"Morning Emerl," Amy yawned back rubbing her eyes, "Seen Sonic yet today?"
"Yep I asked the question and he agreed," Amy opened her mouth to speak but Emerl said, "I didn't have to do anything but ask the question once, mom."
Then someone was knocking on the door. Amy sleepily went to answer it but as soon as she saw Sonic her eyes widened, and she beckoned him in.
"Amy, I have no idea why but I decided to get something for you. Here." he said as he gave her a diamond studded ring.
Amy trying not to blush mumbled something along the lines of, "Thank you." and then Amy threw her arms around Sonic and hugged him tightly with a giant smile on her face.
Emerl knew Sonic was coming which was why he cooked enough for two. Amy only let Sonic go when Emerl called out, "Breakfast's done!"
As soon as he laid the two breakfast plates on the table Amy and Sonic were there. If he could Emerl would've grinned. He said, "I need to talk to Chaos Gamma for a bit, if you don't mind?" Amy nodded a yes while she and Sonic satred on their breakfast.
Emerl had gone to the Gimmee Shelter which was now Chaos Gamma's home and sat down in the depot. He knew Chaos Gamma would be right on time as he could hear him slowly building a small shelter around certain areas to stop Emerl from seeing what Chaos Gamma was hiding there.
Sure enough, smack bang on 10:00, Chaos Gamma walked into the depot and sat down next to Emerl.
A scream caused both of them to stand up in alarm exchange a worried look and then they both followed the next few screams straight to Amy's house. Sonic was lying on the floor unconscious and there was a serious wound on his right arm. Chaos Gamma stayed with Sonic to keep him alive if need be while Emerl charged upstairs to see three female Shades cornering Amy.
"Leave her alone!" Emerl shouted charging and stopping only to smash the one right next to Amy in the back of the head, stab in the lower back and grab them. He threw them through the window then said, "Are you Ok, mom?" he asked still seeing Amy shivering in fright. "I'm fine. You came just in time Emerl!" She said only to a have a severe reaisation, "Sonic! How is he?"
Emerl looked down slightly, "He's unconscious with a deep wound on his right arm. He'll recover though Chaos Gamma in protecting him right now.
"Phew." Amy was relived but went down to phone Knuckles, "Knuckles? It's Amy, I know you're probably busy but could you help Sonic. He's got a deep wound on his right arm and is unconcious. Oh thank you, Knuckles!" She put the phone down then looked at the wind Emerl broke, pointed at it then before she could speak Emerl said, "I'll fix it."
Knuckles arrived not long later holding some Holy Summit herbs known to help heal any type of wounds and then placed them on Sonic's wound and bandaged it up to keep the herbs there. "That should do it. Make sure it doesn't come off until next week." Knuckles advised once he had finished then just before he left he said, "Let me know if anything more happens."
