The Saga of Erika Black Phoenix

by OrichalcosGS

The crew of the Erika race to expose the company, Phoenix Grace for creating the Serenity Virus which destroyed all 500 souls on the Erika.

Black Phoenix

Chapter 1

Ivan Grace walked into the lab inside his headquarters, he was a Racoon, tall and thin with black and white stripes around his body and on his tail. He had the most solemn look on his face.

The room he was stood in was a laboratory in the deepest reaches of the Phoenix Grace skyscraper in Radical City, the tallest skyscraper in Radical City, it towered over all the buildings, standing at a mighty fifty-stories high but with great architecture, it had majestic paintings that hung from the wall, this showed Phoenix Grace's power as these were some of the rarest paintings found on Mobius.

The lab itself was a large, white, sterile room with computers and three tall tubes, used for cloning. The tubes were filled with bio-liquid, cloning was illegal, it was banned in the Mobian fourth charter but Phoenix Grace's power was so much that they could "bend" the rules.

"Is it ready yet?" stated Ivan Grace to a scientist, the scientist was a human that wore a long white coat and she was old, as her skin had began to wrinkle around her mouth and eyes.

"Almost, sir" she said to the waiting Ivan.

Ivan wanted this to be ready to exterminate the survivors of the Erika, it had been a week since the Erika incident. He had hoped to exterminate the entire crew and the rescue team, he hoped Tirana would take care of it but she didn't and the scout vessels that destroyed the vessel had picked up, another, smaller vessel going into Hyperthrust, they had scanned them and found that aboard the ship was, Admiral Lin O'Connor, General Dan the Fox, Adam the Fox, Officer Jill Valentine, Dr Chaos the Echidna, Officer Leon Kennedy and Commander Stef the Echidna.

This was to troublesome, he had to stop them making their experiences public, this presented a serious security risk, it was only a matter of time, till they collect enough evidence. He needed Phoenix Grace to survive and he would go every length to silence them.

"Beginning the procedure" said the scientist, two people started to appear in the tube, he had met both of these people before. It was Slash the Tiger and Flex the Wildcat, he had done it.

"Engineering brain-patterns" said the female scientist; she was bent over a computer. "Adding advanced physiological features"

The tubes then cracked open and the newly, reborn Flex and Slash fell to the floor, they began to breath on there own and got up. Ivan smiled at them.

"Welcome" he said with a sarcastic grin. "You have been away for a long time, you are operatives of Phoenix Grace, and we need you to destroy the remaining members of Team Fox and S.T.A.R.S E.Y.E.S."

Slash stepped forward, he remembered everything but it was like he had an instinctive nature to kill the team. Flex walked forward, she smiled, an evil smile that frightened even her.

"Where are they." She said, coldly "We'll take care of it."

Ivan had triumphant gleam in his eyes, this was his finest hour, a brilliant success in genetic re-sequencing, he had control, they were his experiment, he couldn't wait to see the amazing ability he had given them come to life.

"Good" he said, beaming at them. "We need to find out where they are and complete this mission. For Phoenix Grace!"

Slash smiled, his smile was pure evil. "For Phoenix Grace" he repeated slowly.

Chapter 2

The wind blew through the trees of Serenity Island, it blew freely until it hit a large metallic object, resting in a clearing in the trees. The sun was high in the sky, it was very nearly midday. The sea pounded the cliffs that overlooked clear Blue Ocean. This was a paradise. A person was sat down on the cliff top, the wind blew through his hair, behind was the only intact structure on Serenity Island, the legacy of his people. The Emerald Chamber, it was circular and sat on the highest hill overlooking the ruins of what had been the beautiful marble village of Millennia.

The chamber itself had beautiful carvings on the walls and the doors were wooden and had emblems of Echidnas either side of the doors. This was the place were all the marriages, ceremonies, births and funerals took place, it was once the centre of the Serenity Island Echidna's culture but now it was derelict, ever since the Echidna was destroyed by Stef's father. Green grass was new poking through the dead marble ruins. Stef knew that all his friends were safe and that he always liked to believe that there was something after death but he had died twice, once when he was shot by Dr Zakeri and the other when he destroyed the third Death Egg and the strange thing was he could remember anything about death, it was just a case of everything going black and then waking up in the Erika's Medlab. He was sat on the hill, a lone survivor of his people, well almost, his mother lived in Central City.

"Why do you look so sad?" asked a familiar voice, he turned behind him and saw, a has suspected, an Echidna, she was dressed in a long blue robe, she was so beautiful but she was also transparent, this was Marianna spirit of the Emerald of love, she had tried to protect Stef over the years but she also liked causing trouble.

"I just lost two of my friends" said Stef, he looked deep into Marianna's eyes, she smiled. Trying to reassuring him? He couldn't tell.

"Flex and Slash?" she said, Stef turned and nodded, she could see him trying to fight the tears.

"It's all my fault" said Stef, he picked up a rock and hurled it down the hill and cliff and into the Ocean. "I should have stayed dead"

"Well there's no point thinking like that, they brought you back, so just deal with it." Said Marianna, was that supposed to comfort him?

Marianna then kissed Stef on the cheek and disappeared into thin air.

A noise began to fill the Island, a plane was seem cutting across the sea, its four wings outstretched, a sleek and beautiful plane, a daze ling white, beautiful, it rolled in the air and shot over Stef's head, the wind cut through his hair.

The plane, began to land, in the trees not far from where Stef was sat, he rushed back down through the trees and bushes, the forest of Serenity was thick and full of vegetation, this was where his tribe collected all their medicines for, there were also some very poisonous creatures in the deep forests.

He finally came to the clearing where the plane was, it was a small plane, on the ground. Lin was already there, she greeted the people who climbed out the plane. Stef knew the plane. The Tornado X.

Three people jumped out the cockpit, one was a small fox, he had two tails, like Lin and was yellow, the next one was a distinctive blue hedgehog, the fastest hedgehog in the galaxy and finally was a person the same species as Stef but he was older and redder, in fact, now they were all older then him as the cloning process had not effected him in age, he was still 16 years old where as Lin and the others had aged.

"Tails" said Lin, greeting Tails with a hug, Tails embraced her too, he thought he'd never see her again.

Chaos then came walking through the trees, she was struggling with all the thorns and brambles that she had attached to her. She looked at someone for help, Stef came and pulled the brambles of her. Knuckles stared at both of them, first of all he hadn't seen Stef and he thought, well actually he knew that Stef was dead. This wasn't possible.

"How..?" he started but Stef cut across him.

"Don't ask" said Stef, he was tired of explaining the entire story to everyone who thought he was dead.

"I thought you were dead" said Sonic, he smiled at Stef and winked.

Stef just shrugged his shoulders and said; "Yeah I get that a lot."

Jill then came through the bushes and rolled out in front of Sonic, she pulled out her pistol and took aim.

"It's alright, Jill" said Lin, putting he hand out in front of the gun. "Their our friends. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles this is Officer Jill Valentine and Dr Chaos the Echidna. Their friends."

Chaos shook hands with each of them, Jill just nodded and lowered her weapon. Adam then entered followed by Dan.

"So you got the message?" said Adam. "Sorry we had to encrypt it."

Tails stood forward, he was now older, no longer a little kid, young and naïve, he could take command.

"Yes" he said, his voice was slightly lower, "We got it and we heard about what happened, I'm sorry about Slash and Flex."

Stef bowed his head, it was still fresh in everyone's minds, it made Lin sick, she couldn't believe what grotesque experiments Phoenix Grace were performing onboard the Erika.

They had just escaped themselves before Phoenix Grace had destroyed all the evidence of the experiments, but they knew that wasn't the end. They would probably have copies of the Serenity Virus and would eventually use it to bribe the government, it was a powerful weapon. They had to stop it from going any further. Put an end to it. It's evil!

"Right" said Chaos, "I take it, that these guys have come with the supplies we need to repair the drop-ship, we had rather a rough landing because the landing struts were damaged when the Erika exploded."

Tails lifted his hand to his head in a sort of a salute, he smiled and proceeded to the Tornado and pull out a series of supplies for the drop-ship.

"Let's get fixing!" said Tails.

Chapter 3

"How could you lose them!" bellowed a voice at Ivan Grace, Ivan stepped back.

He was in a large room with large windows that over looked Radical City, the streets were far below, this was inside the tallest floor of the Phoenix Grace building.

The room itself was red, it had red carpet and red wallpaper, the windows were massive and heavy scarlet curtains hung from the gold railings. The room was bear apart for a grand mahogany desk with a small laptop on it. There was also a grand-looking leather chair, it was brown and had marks on it from where Ivan had sat in it, it was pretty old, an antique.

Ivan was the only person in the room, he was speaking into a laptop computer on the desk, there was another person on the other on the screen. He was completely in darkness, hiding his face and body, the only thing that Ivan could see was a beam of red light shining out from where the person's eyes should have been.

"I'm sorry, sir. Pl….please forgive me" said Ivan, he was stuttering in fear, he was afraid of this person.

"I want Team Fox DEAD!" shouted the voice again, it was a low charming voice, whoever it was, they sounded very charming.

"I've located where the drop-ship from the Erika set down, the satellite picked it up. An Island in the South Mobian Sea, an island called Serenity. But as you know Team Fox is skilled and now that Jill Valentine has gone rouge, we are gonna need help!" said Ivan

The mysterious figure sat back in his chair, he was calculating his next move, Phoenix Grace was effectively his. Ivan was his puppet. Fool. He would have never inherited Phoenix Grace if it was not for him. Ivan was just a bumbling idiot, useless, unable to follow the simplest of instructions.

"We have our weapons?" he said at last.

"Yes" said Ivan "We are training them but I don't think they'll both be able to kill all the members so I suggest that we involve the UMSS."

The mysterious figure, crossed his legs.

"I don't want to involve Challenger and that pathetic excuse for an army and security services."

Ivan raised his hands to say something; he had an idea but was reluctant to discuss it. He decided to mention it.

"Sir" he began, being exceptionally careful not to offend his master. "What if we told the UMSS that they were contaminated by a virus and being mentally unbalanced and may try to attack the military and Phoenix Grace in their confusion."

The mysterious person liked this idea, he moved forward his head wobbled, he had long white hair.

"Good, Grace!" he said, in the most evil way. "You will tell the military that and asked for help in removing them to your care were you can "treat" them and this company will be saved. But listen to me, you can kill the rest but I want Admiral Lin O'Connor, alive and brought to me. Do you understand?"

Ivan nodded, he had to obey otherwise this guy could unmask the secret about his illegitimate claim to Phoenix Grace. If that was released he would be finished and so would Phoenix Grace.

Challenger sat down in his office, it was a small alcove, boxed in from the other workers who were all sat round desks, either typing or filling in reports or filing. He closed the door to the office. The laptop was beeping on his messy desk.

Cups with coffee stains on them were littered all over the desk amongst the numerous paper and a telephone. A file lay open on the desk, it showed the schematics of Erika, it had been destroyed by Team Fox and rouge S.T.A.R.S E.Y.E.S agents. This was outrageous, imagine Phoenix Grace ships reaching the rocky, miserable planet that was KV-924 and finding just debris from Erika and an ion trail from the drop-ship that carried the Team that destroyed so many promising careers. It made Challenger so angry. It was such a waste of life.

He walked over to beeping laptop and pressed the enter key. A young racoon's face appeared on the screen. Ivan Grace's.

"Hello Ben" he said, smiling. "We have located the drop-ship, it has landed on an island in the South Mobian Sea. I would send any agents to deal with them but these guys destroyed an entire ship of over a hundred people on it, alone. They are extremely dangerous, we do have two agents that are willing to enter the island and take them out but we would like full military back up, that means ground troops, fighters and submarines. They were infected by an Alien virus that has made them suffer from Paranoia. We can treat them."

Challenger frowned at this bizarre request, ever since they had learned about how Team Fox had destroyed the Erika, Ivan had become extremely agitated. He kept asking for the military to check the debris of the Erika's computer core. This must have been to make sure that no files were downloaded. He said that the information contained their latest designs for an advanced shield system and that Team Fox had moved into the ship to steal it and the special force had also been helping them. Another development was also discovered when the body of former S.T.A.R.S E.Y.E.S, Chris Redfield was discovered. Phoenix Grace had concluded that Jill Valentine had allied herself with Team Fox and shot Chris but Phoenix Grace did not let the military see the body claiming that it needed to go through decontamination.

"OK" replied Challenger. "We will send in two submarines and five fighters on a capital vessel, we will also send in ground troops. You will send your agents in before that but if you don't kill them, this will become a military operation.

Ivan smiled and turned of the screen, in his heart, he had won. Team Fox would fall!

Chapter 4

The drop-ship was quite, the bridge was small and had an open corridor that led out to the living quarters, this was only a one deck ship. Tails, Sonic, Knuckles, Dan, Adam and Chaos had all gone to search the island and collect much needed food stores and other parts for the Erika, that the Tornado had brought, like a new engine core, that Jill was now happily sat under the drop-ship that had been named by the group as the "Erika's Spirit".

Stef sat in the open corridor at one of the computer consoles, he was trying to get the power system up and running but his knowledge of the new UMSS, glossy control consoles. He tried to tap the buttons but still couldn't get the hang of it.

There was only a small light on the bridge and through this, Stef could hear someone crying, it was coming from the first cabin. Lin's Cabin.

He opened the door and Lin was crying on the bed, she looked so sad, it hurt Stef to see her like that.

"Hey" whispered Stef, closing the door and going and sitting on the bed. The room was fairly small, there was only a small bed and a wardrobe in it. Not exactly five star accommodation.

"What's wrong?" said Stef, he then thought to himself what a stupid question. The smashed window shone the moonlight through the hole in the wall with the shattered glass. The trees fully blocked the sky and the faint sound of drilling could be heard from Jill underneath the Erika's Spirit.

Lin turn to face him, tears streamed down her face.

"I miss Slash" she said slowly. Stef tried to look reassuring and smile without making it look stupid. This was a dismal failure.

Stef held her, he embraced her, she was clearly deeply distraught about what had happened. He felt a warm feeling in his stomach, her stroked her hair. Lin looked at him.

"I'm sorry" said Stef, "Slash was a brave person, I'll miss him too."

Lin looked in Stef's eyes, she didn't mean to, it was just that their eyes were locked. She couldn't look away, she was almost memorised by them. Stef looked deep into her brown eyes, he saw that, under all that military training, here was a wonderful being. He moved closer to her.

"I'll always be here for you. I'll do it for Slash". He got up and pulled Lin up off the bed. "Now come on let's go to the bridge, I need your help."

Lin was calmer now, she had to let it all out, she wasn't invincible.

Stef and Lin got to the door, Stef couldn't hold it anymore, he pulled Lin to him and kissed her slightly on the lips.

Lin looked surprised but not resistant. She pulled him closer and kissed him this time it was more passionately. Stef was delighted, he had wanted her for years, he had given up hope but now there was some.

Stef pushed Lin down on the bed and kissed her, she didn't resist him. Lin grabbed him, she ran her figures down his back.

In the distance a bird flew away, into the darkness, it the night. It was white. A dove.

"Hey!" shouted Jill with delight as she burst through the door of Lin's cabin. "I've repaired the primary…."

She stopped and stood in shock, to Stef and Lin kissing. Stef noticed her and pulled away from Lin. Jill chuckled making Stef go red in the face.

"Um…..eh….Jill…. we were just…" Jill cut across him.

"I can see very well what you were doing" she laughed. "Hey, it's OK. Stef, I won't tell anyone. I didn't see it."

Stef smiled at her, Jill was a very good friend, she was very clever and energetic for a human.

"I want to show you something" said Jill, she opened the door and walked out with Stef and Lin following feeling very embarrassed.

She walked down the corridor in the bridge. She had just reached the console until…

Bang!

A person behind them had shot Jill in the shoulder, Jill collapsed in pain. Stef turned round and fell back in horror, before him was someone who had died on the Erika, by Tirana and here she was with a gun. Flex.

Flex had changed, she was no longer a military uniform, she wore a black leather cat suit showing her slim physique. Her brown hair was now down over her head, it fell as far as her shoulders. She was holding a handgun and a look of mild sexy aggression was on her face.

"Don't move!" she shouted at the Stef as he went to see to Jill's shoulder, she was suffering. She had blood pouring out of the bullet hole in her arm. "So you are the betrayers, you are fools that destroy my Erika, you are sickening."

Lin stared at Flex, confused. Why had she shot Jill? Weren't they friends? Why was she still alive?"

Stef went inside Lin's mind, his voice appeared in her mind.

"Flex believes she is working for Phoenix Grace, she come here to execute us, the military have been told that we are mental and they are sending forces here. She's a clone. I can read her mind."

Lin nodded. Flex pushed them down into the corner of the bridge with Jill. Stef looked at Jill's wound, it wasn't that serious, it was probably to get their attention. Why didn't she just say hello?

"My boss is anxious to see you all executed, except Lin"

She raised her gun.

Leon rushed into the room, he had returned. He had a machine gun, he made several shots at Flex. Flex moved extremely fast, unnaturally fast, it was almost like she could stop time. Somehow. Phoenix Grace had given her some enhancements, the perfect assassin, unstoppable.

Flex jump in the air and while spinning, she fired a shot straight into Leon's torso, he fell to the floor and quivered in pain.

"No" shouted Jill, he was her friend for many years, young and reckless but loveable.

Chapter 5

Adam, Chaos and Knuckles wondered through the thick forest of Serenity. The trees were all grouped closely making the air close. Adam sat down on a log.

"We haven't found any food stores, lets just go back, I'm aching" said Adam, he glanced at the ground, it was a muddy brown colour, it was a metaphor for his future. Uncertain.

Chaos nodded her head, Knuckles turned just a knife flew through the air and imbedded in the tree beside him. Chaos and Adam leaped up.

A character was standing before them, he was wearing a dark cloak, the moonlight shone on the cloak making it glisten.

"Hello" he said, the was a familiarity in his voice. He pulled a long metal sword from his cape. "I'm afraid you must die"

The man ran at Knuckles, Chaos tripped him up. He went flying and smashed into a tree.

"Oh, I'm sorry" said Chaos, hands on hip and sarcastically. "I really should watch where I put my feet."

Knuckles and Adam laughed, a bullet pierced the tree beside them. The team shot off in three different directions, behind three different trees. Adam and Chaos pulled out their handguns and Chaos chucked on to Knuckles.

"Damn!" said Knuckles. "Why do I have to use this, when I have stone fists."

Chaos sighed, Knuckles was so egotistical.

Chaos looked around the tree, there was no longer one man but a whole group of people all with military uniforms. She poked her head out and the men in military uniforms shot at her, she quickly crouched behind the tree. What the hell? They were military! Why were they shooting at her.

"Dr Chaos, Adam the Fox and Knuckles the Echidna." Said a familiar voice, Challenger! "Come out with your hands up!"

Chaos paused for a second, she was confused then it hit here, Phoenix Grace had probably told them this load of crap to get them on their side just because they needed to silence them.

They couldn't win.

The military had them surrounded and the mysterious man was among them. They were closing in.

"Drop the guns" said Challenger. He was looking like he had put some weight on since she had last seen him. He wore a military uniform with various medals on it, he held a rifle that was a tad bit too big for him. Chaos knew she couldn't win, she put her gun on the floor and ushered Adam and Knuckles to do the same. Adam and Knuckles did the same cautiously.

"Where are the others?" said the mysterious person, a tail poke out of his cloak, it was orange and black. Adam saw it in shock! No! It wasn't possible. Slash!?

"Slash?" he said and the man turned surprised.

"Surprised?" he said, lowing his cape and smiling sadistically at the three of them. "I thought it would take you a long time to work out who it was. Your not that clever are you?"

Adam and Chaos were in shock and Knuckles had a face like he could have killed him. Some men pushed them down on the floor and tied them up, but these men were different, they had Phoenix Grace logos on there are arms. They might have known.

"Why?" said Adam, his eyes were a confused mess, he fiddled with the grass.

"Because I can!" said Slash.

Chapter 6

Flex tapped buttons on the drop-ship, she had her gun in her hands, they couldn't rush her.

Stef fiddled with something behind him, he fiddled behind Jill. Jill looked behind her to see what he was doing.

"No no no!" whispered Stef, "Look ahead, don't let her now what I'm doing, I'm causing an overload in her console, that should stun her."

Stef did this with one hand and with the other, he held Lin's hand, they had become what Stef had wanted for several years.

"Damn" said Flex, as she tapped vigorously at the control panel. She smiled at the screen. It was a dark smile.

"Looks like the military have your friends" said Flex, Stef's heart sank but he continued working.

He configured the wiring behind his back. He was almost finished. One more and…….

Yes!

The console where Flex was working exploded in her face, knocking her back. Lin rushed forward and chucked Flex to the ground, she struggled with gun in her hand. Jill smacked Flex in the face and she fell unconscious on the floor.

"LEON!" said Jill, running to his side, there was a large bullet wound in his chest. "No, please!"

Leon looked up at Jill, his eyes were large, he knew he was going to die unless he had medical attention. Only Chaos could do that.

Stef rushed to the control console at the front of the small bridge.

"We have to rescue the others. I'm picking up there bio-signatures, I see them on sensors. Adam, Chaos, Knuckles and…."

His voice quivered as he turned to face Lin, he looked shock.

"What!?" said Lin.

"Slash!" said Stef under his breath. "I reading his bio-signature, it's not possible, the sensors must be malfunctioning."

Lin looked as shocked as Stef but they needed to go, Leon's life depended on it.

"How many military and Phoenix Grace men and vessels?" she asked, trying to ignore what Stef had just said.

Stef turned to the sensor readout of the drop-ship. Why the hell were the military involved in this? What lies had Ivan Grace told them? One thing was true, they were now fugitives. On the run.

"About 40 men all surrounding the others, Tails is in the Tornado with Sonic. They've already left, Damn! We told them to go and find a new capacitor for the engine, they'll be miles away from here. There are also five fighters circling, Altitude Class, heavily armed and……Oh Great! A capital ship."

Lin walked back to the engineering console, she pulled the lever, starting up the engines. Stef and Jill turned in surprise to hear the engines powering up. Lin pushed pass Stef and sat down at the pilot console.

"LIN!" said Jill, she ran to get Lin but Stef stood in here way, to block her, Stef knew his duty. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING! THE ENGINES AREN'T READY TO FLY, LET ALONE COMBAT!" She tired again to push pass Stef, Stef would not allow it.

"Right" said Lin, back to Jill. "Jill, this might be a suicide mission but Phoenix Grace are gonna kill us anyway unless we try to escape. No personally I would rather go out fighting."

Stef smiled at Lin, Jill had a very sombre look on her face but then it broke into a big smile, she admired Lin, her courage, her logic, her wisdom.

"Stef take the upper gun turret and keep those fighters off our backs long enough to rescue our people, this ship is not very sleek and crap at turning so we are gonna take a lot of hits. Can you do that?" commanded Lin

Stef saluted Lin and ran off to a ladder down the corridor, he then ascended up, from view.

"Jill, I want you to use the main gun turrets to create a perimeter around our friends so they can climb aboard and lock Flex in a room somewhere, where she can't escape."

"What about that capital ship, it will be hard trying to get away from that". Lin just smiled and said;

"I'll take care of that"

So Jill took Flex and shoved her in the broom cupboard And then sat at the console next to Lin and powered up the guns, the bridge suddenly came to life and the drop-ship lifted of the ground. There was a large cloud of dust from the ground, the landing struts retracted and the engines roared to life.

Ready for action?

Chapter 7

A female human sat on the bridge of the capital ship, it was large bridge, consoles all flashing and glowing with people working at them, all wearing military insignia.

The Bridge was a large room, but there was not much on it, the consoles all lined the walls except for the front wall that was dominated by the main viewing window. It was very large, a single station sat at the front, the pilot station.

There was a person at the front of the room, manning the pilot station, he had long ears and a large moustache. A rabbit.

"Captain Verity" he said and the captain turned to see him from, the rotating bridge chair in the centre of the room, the only chair in the centre of the room. The pilot realised the Captain was looking at him. "The drop-ship is lifting off."

"What?" said the Captain, they weren't supposed to move the drop-ship until the area was secure, she got the feeling that something had gone wrong. "Red alert!" the room turned a dark shade of red and the lights dimmed. "Take the Angel into attack mode and launch the fighters."

The pilot skilfully grabbed the control sticks.

The capital ship wings unfolded out of the top panels of the vessel to give the ship massive seven hundred metres long wings either side with guns mounted every metre or so, a true war-designed vessel.

There were two long hanger bay doors on the main body of the ship, they opened and five fighters shot out and down towards the drop-ship, the Erika's spirit.

The fighters were plane like but they had a long X shaped wings with red machine gun cannons the other side. They swooped down on the drop-ship.

Gun blasts went off as they engage the drop-ship, the turret on the back of it with Stef in it was moving back and forth trying to get a good aim on the fighters, he hit them several times but no damage was inflicted on them. These things had shields!

Adam sat on down as the military surround him, Chaos and Knuckles. How were they going to get off this one.

"It's alright" said Chaos, she had a glimmer of hope in her face. "The others will come for us."

Slash turned to face them, his face lacked expression. Did he have any feelings for them?

"No, they won't" said Slash, he smiled at them. "Another friend of yours, risen from the dead has taken them prisoner. They are probably been transported to the execution chamber right now."

"Uh" said a familiar female voice, Adam and Chaos looked up and saw…..Yes!

The Erika's spirit. She was coming to save them.

"Sorry to ruin the party but we've gotta go."

The drop-ship then swooped down over the clearing in the forest, the guns piercing the armour of the nearby Phoenix Grace guards but not the military. They were being misled.

The explosions of the fighters fighting the drop-ship and Stef returning fire, the drop-ship lowered into the clearing. The military and Phoenix Grace soldiers moved back and shot at the Erika's Spirit.

Chaos saw her opportunity, she grabbed a gun of a guard, shot him in the stomach and grabbed Slash. She grabbed him and all the Phoenix Grace personnel stopped shooting, they couldn't risk killing him because Ivan had paid a lot of money to have him cloned. Chaos whacked Slash over the back of the head. Knuckles smacked four guards into each other and Adam grabbed a machine gun and shot back.

The ramp came down from the Erika's spirit and Chaos with the unconscious Slash, climbed aboard then Knuckles and then Adam.

"Punch it" shouted Adam as he rushed onto the bridge and Lin pulled the ship up and out of the trees and into the sky.

Challenger looked up at the sky, they had escaped the pride of the military, this was going to look bad when he told this to Ivan Grace.

"Authorisation 5-2 Omega" he said solemnly as he spoke into the radio. "Angel you are clear to use all force to destroy the drop-ship." He didn't want to do this. But he had to for the security of the state.

Chapter 8

The drop-ship pulled up from Serenity Island, here came the hardest part, trying to get pass that massive capital vessel. The drop-ship still had the fighters on their tail, Stef had managed to destroy two of them but they were heavily shielded, a prototype, maybe for a new wave of more powerful military vessels. No one on the drop-ship had ever seen a capital ship no where as near as large a wingspan as the Angel and now they had to fight it.

The Erika's Spirit moved towards the Angel, it was blocking their escape and was so heavily armed but it wasn't finished. Their were still holes in the superstructure, still bulk heads missing.

On the bridge, Chaos tended to Leon, he was very badly hurt, she placed him on a bed in one of the quarters while Jill put Slash in another room and sealed the door.

"What are we gonna do now, I need ideas people!" said Lin, she looked at the shields dial, it was down to 13, they had to think fast. Adam ran his figures over the sensors, looking for weaknesses.

"There is a way" he said at last. He then looked down at the controls with doubt, it wasn't going to be easy.

"Well!" said Jill.

Adam tried to phrase the words so it didn't sound so crazy.

"We have to go through on of the holes in the superstructure and disable the one of the three major power relays that would disable the vessel and make it lose all major power; it would make it effectively a floating piece of junk."

Jill looked like she had swallowed a lemon. "What the hell are you talking about" she screeched at Adam. "How do we disable that."

Adam then looked at Lin with a stern look.

"We have Ion Cannons, we need to fly through the vessel."

Lin nodded and before anyone could say anything she pressed a button and the ship speeded up towards the Angel.

The drop-ship did a spin and dodged the numerous machine guns and rocket launchers that littered the surface of the Angel. She proceeded to a large hole in the middle of the ship, a few pieces of armour were missing. The Erika's spirit was going a full speed and it moved towards the colossal Angel, it punched through the shields in a blue flash, the shields were only there to protect from weapons not other ships.

Captain Varity ran to her pilot, she had an annoyed expression on her face, in the military she was famous for always getting her pray. She had received numerous medals and commendations for her outstanding command skills.

She also knew her pray, she knew Admiral O'Connor, she was aware of what a skilled pilot she was. She wanted to complete this mission, go home, pick up her kids from school in Diamond City on the far western Mobian boarder, between states.

"Captain!" shouted her operations officer, he was young fox, he had one tail and was blue.

Varity turned to see what the problem with him was.

"Yes?" she said, almost with malice, she didn't mean to say it like that but trying to destroy this drop-ship was proving harder than she first thought.

"The drop-ship is inside the Angel!" said the young fox and the expression on Varity's face changed to one of sever annoyance and surprise. Nobody could navigate the superstructure.

The Erika's Spirit force forward, through the long metal network of tubes, it was getting harder to navigate the metallic corridor-like tunnels. The fighters had followed them into the superstructure, Stef was making a good job of shooting them.

"How long to the power relay?" she said, prompting Adam.

"About ten meters" he said back.

At last they came to it, a massive rotating cylinder with turbines around it. On the bridge, there was time to gaze at the marvel of it until………….

"Fire!" shouted Chaos and Jill fired a blue pulse into the power relay, the turbines stopped moving and the power relay sparked. The lights around it began to flicker. The Angel was losing power. The Erika's Spirit went back through the tunnels and shot out of the side, the Angel began to fall…What!?

"That wasn't supposed to happen!" said Adam, he ran his figures over the console. "The Angel has lost all primary power, they won't be able to fly, there gonna land in the sea."

The whole bridge cheered and everyone hugged each other, at least the Angel was nothing to worry about anymore…

They spoke to soon.

As the Erika's Spirit shot off into the sky, one of the more powerful missile racks on the falling Angel were activated, they fire a large missile at the Erika's Spirit.

"Shit!" shouted Stef, returning from the gunners station, he looked slightly tired. "We have a missile on our tail"

"We have to get of the ship" said Jill, she walked over to the landing controls and opened the hatch, the ground was now white, snow! Ice Cap!

Lin put the ship on auto-pilot and rushed to chuck Flex and Slash, still unconscious out onto the ground, she jumped took a gun and some ammo and jumped out to plane. Stef followed, then Chaos, she was saddened, Leon had died, his injuries ruptured the aorta and he had bled to death. Adam then leaped out the plane and then Jill.

The ground of Ice Cap was cold, the snow was deep, it was a horrible, cold desolate place but extremely beautiful. The team looked up as the missile hit the Erika's Spirit causing a massive experiment.

"How far are we to the nearest city?" said Jill, she tired to bury her sadness for Leon. It was growing colder as night was drawing in. Adam took out his portable signaller, he tired to send a radio signal to Tails in the Tornado but he got something else.

"There is a party in Radical City tomorrow night as company leader and entrepreneur, Ivan Grace will be unmasking his new pharmaceutical product, "Serenity", the product is an agent that is injected into the bloodstream and causing the body to undergo a procedure that allows people to look younger. This product will only be able to people in Radical City and the party for high class members will be at the main sky-scraper and promises to be a momentous event!"

Stef and Lin stared at each other. What the hell is Ivan doing? Why is he introducing the Serenity virus to the people in Radical City? No! They had to stop him.

Adam was frantically retuning the radio, while Jill tied up and guarded the waking Flex and Slash, muttering "those bastards" loudly.

"Come in Tornado" said Adam into the radio, he hoped, hoped that they would come, come and save them. The night was cold but how could the Tornado carry all of them.

"This is Tails, come in Adam" said a young voice coming from the radio. "We have your position locked in, what are you doing in Ice Cap? There is a suitable place to land a hundred yards down the mountain, we'll pick you up from there."

Lin picked up the radio from Adam's hands.

"Tails" she said "Its Lin be careful, avoid the military vessels over Serenity Island, that place will probably be swarming with military, we just escaped from there. I think Ivan is trying to capture us, we must be a more serious threat to the company."

Lin gave the radio back to Adam and took a bit of the drop-ship, it was a large piece of metal, shaped like half a cylinder but it was long enough to put four people in it. Jill helped Lin put Flex and Slash, she knew what she was going to do. It was getting colder, unnaturally cold, even for here.

Lin sat in front and pushed herself down the mountain. Jill sat behind Flex and Slash, her gun poised. Lin tried to not show any emotion to Slash, whatever Phoenix Grace had done to his body was wrong. The others all grabbed pieces of drop-ship debris and skidded down the snow filled mountain, Stef stood up and slid of a ramp in the rock face, he let go of the surf-board like debris, and he held out his arms and glided. Something an echidna could do well.

Amongst other things!

Chapter 9

Stef reached the landing field first; it was just a flat piece of snowy land and very quiet. Too quiet!

Suddenly a figure ran out of snow, they had just appeared. It was a woman, she was an Echidna with long blue hair. Marianna.

"Hello Darling" she said to Stef, she smiled almost evilly at him. "How are you?"

Stef kept his hand on his sword, Marianna could be trouble. How come she was in a physical form?

"How…?" Stef but Marianna said.

"Hello everyone!".

Then rest of the team had arrived at the landing field, Lin stared at Marianna with contempt, she had problems with here before.

"Hello Marianna" she said Lin.

"Do you know each other? I'm Chaos the Echidna, nice to meet you." Said Chaos, politely, she went to shake Marianna's hand but her hand went straight through Marianna's. She fell back in shock as the icy winds blew across the plains. "You're a ghost!?"

Marianna nodded; "I prefer the term spirit" she said, nicely. "It's a pleasure to meet you but sometimes formalities have to take a back seat, I have to do this."

Marianna moved her hands, she seemed to be conjuring something. The team felt themselves move, the land spun faster and faster until it was just swirling white. A beam then shot down from the sky, blue, it dragged the Team with it. Into the abyss.

The team stood on a platform, suspended in the air, it was levitating, all that surrounded them was blue. There were Emeralds surrounding them, seven multi-coloured emeralds. Stef knew exactly where he was this was the "true" Chaos realm. Marianna was the spirit of love, something had changed, seven swords now stood in front of the pedestals and there was a pedestal in the centre but the sword was removed, there was writing on the front of it.

"Seven Spirits Encased by Time

Release the power that is mine

I am the seeker of the Emeralds

To find the Seven Emeralds and their spirits

I, my destiny, bound"

Marianna stood by a blue Emerald, the Emerald of love, her Emerald, each emerald had a spirit and an element, there were seven, Love, Wisdom, Courage, Power, Determination, Honesty, Modesty, Selflessness. Lin tried to read all of them, not until Marianna lifted her arms, a blue beam flashed down on them. All turned black.

Chaos woke up with a start, something lay next to her. It was a sword, along the blade was written;

"Courage – The Power to keep fighting"

Chaos the Echidna – Spirit of the Emerald of Courage"

The blade had a purple hint to it. Why the hell was her name on the blade? She picked it up, it was a perfect grasp for her hands, she spun it standing up. The others began to get up, Adam and Lin also had swords. Lin had Wisdom and Adam had Determination, their swords were different, Adam's was longer and broader, much harder to swing but powerful where as Lin's had a beautiful gold handle.

"What the fu…." Started Jill, she had just got up from being face first in the snow.

A familiar sight cut across the sky, a plane, a welcome sight. The Tornado, it landed, Tails dropped out.

"I left Sonic and Dan at home, we gonna need all the room we can get. The team put Flex and Slash in the cargo hold with Jill, Stef and Knuckles. Lin and Adam then climbed into the other two cockpit spaces and the Tornado lifted off the ground and shot north.

Chapter 10

"Why did we get these swords?" asked Adam as he walked into the garden of Tails house, the garden lacked care, weeds were beginning to show. The older Tails obviously care for gardens.

Lin turned round and looked into Adam's eyes, she then looked down.

"Maybe" she said, lovingly, putting her arms out so that she could hug Adam, she remembered when he was just a child, excited by Team Fox and all their adventures, he was proud. "Its our fate, Maybe, our destiny. I have always thought that you were special and because you, like me, are spirits. We have been given a purpose. I am thankful for it."

Lin spoke a lot of wisdom, she lived up to her title.

A beam cut through Flex and Slash as they lay on two different, hospital like beds.

Tails sat at the end of the bed, the room was small, a small lab in which Tails had all the tools he needed to restructure Flex and Slash's minds to what they once were and remove the damage Phoenix Grace had done to them. Dan entered the room, he was carrying a tray with two lemonades on it, Tails turned and looked at him.

"Thanks" he said taking the lemonade. Chaos also grabbed lemonade, she was the leader of the delicate operation, a trained doctor, she knew everything there was to know about cuts and bruises but what about neural damage?

"It looks as though Phoenix Grace had implanted some new implant into their scalps that's what's causing them to believe their agents for Phoenix Grace."

She grabbed a stun-gun next to the table and pointed it at Flex, Dan nearly dropped the tray.

"What the hell are you doing?" he said, looking at her.

"Trust me" she said, "We can't remove the device without causing neural damage but we can disable it with an Electro-magnetic Pulse."

She fired and a blue pulse shot into Flex's head, she moved slightly and slowly sat up.

"Chaos!" she grabbed her and held her tight. "Thank you! I'm sorry, I wasn't myself!"

Chaos smiled, she knew that the death of Leon was her fault, she was being controlled by Phoenix Grace. That was it!

Phoenix Grace had taken it's last victim! Its was over.

Chapter 11

"The way I see it" said Flex, she had recovered fully from her ideal and everyone was pleased to have her back. "Dr Chaos had cosmetic techniques that she could use to obtain a disguise, change the eye colour that sort of thing and then we can go to that party in Central City and mingle with the guests while Adam hacks into their computer mainframe and deactivates the security. Then we will head upstairs and plant C4 explosives."

Jill sit up in her chair, she had a glass of wine in her hand.

"Sounds like a plan" said Jill, she smiled at Flex. "But there is going to be loads of guards"

Flex smiled, she had an idea, she put her hands on her hips.

"It guards guarding the elevator are male, and we're females…Get the drift" she winked at Jill and suddenly it became all too clear.

"How are we getting to Radical City?" asked Adam, he sipped a glass of lemonade, too young to drink. "An who's going?"

"Tails has let us borrow the Tornado, he'll be piloting into the party and as for leaving the missile racks on the Phoenix Grace building will probably be active so we will have to find another way off the building. It's gonna be one hell of an explosion!"

"As for teams" said Lin, standing up, her long new sword hung from her belt. "We're gonna go into the party and mingle with the guests. Me, Stef, Chaos, Jill and Adam will go into the building. Tails, you and Dan take the tornado and circle the city. Dan you will have to give us up to date mapping information, I bet it's easy to get lost in there. Flex is going to stay here with Slash and help him recover."

Lin said the last line with slight adversity, she had thought that he was and to have him suddenly come back cloned was even worse. However maybe they could be just friends.

The Team slowly rise and Jill, Lin, Flex and Chaos all walked into one of the bedrooms and locked the doors. Stef sighed. Woman and their clothes.

Stef had been sat down with Tails, Dan and Adam for about an hour, he was cleaning his hand gun and the blade of his sword. Adam pulled his sword out of the beautifully decorated holster and looked deep into the metal work.

"Determination" he said under his breath. "What is going on?"

"You looked confused" said Stef to him, it made him jump, Stef had been watching him fiddle with his sword with some interest.

"Ste….." but Stef cut his speech off.

"I know you don't understand but don't worry, it's your destiny. You are Adam, spirit of Determination. Don't be worried, when the time comes you will prove your worth."

Adam sat back still examined the blade, actually he liked the blade, it was light and easy to spin.

"Fancy a melee out on the garden?" asked Stef.

Adam nodded, maybe Stef could teach him so useful tricks, he was skilful with a blade.

Adam and Stef walked out through the patio doors and onto the grass, Stef bowed and so did Adam.

Adam made the first move, he launched at Stef, spinning round his blade. Stef blocked this with one hand on his blade, Stef then countered his attack with a low swipe with one of his legs. Adam rolled underneath he, he circled Adam and came in for another attack. Adam did a back flip and while in the air shouted "Adam's Determination!"

The ground began to rise of the ground and it cracked, the ground was moving about, Adam was floating in the air. So his power allowed him to control the ground. Predictable.

Stef shot a glance at Adam; he swung his sword and shouted. "Illumina" and a purple beam of light shot out from his sword. It hit Adam in the chest making him fall to the ground. The beam was familiar to Stef, Lin had used it to fight the robotized Sonic in the early days of Team Fox.

"Enough!" shouted Stef, he looked at Adam with admiration. He approved, Adam was a good opponent, he would make a fine one of the chosen seven.

They returned to the living room, Tails looked at them, slightly annoyed because Adam had wrecked the turf on the garden.

"Are they still up there?" Adam said with exasperation. From the top of the stairs they heard Lin's voice.

"Right all done!" she shouted down the stairs. "Were coming down!"

Flex walked down first, she had a look on her face of excitement, she looked like a child sniggering.

Chaos began to walk down the stairs, she moved into the living room, Stef's jaw nearly hit the floor.

Chaos had gone from the geeky scientist look to sultry seductress, she wore a green, leaf green with a gold belt, it also had gold laced around the collar. It was a cropped dress showing some of her cleavage. On he arms were long gloves like Queens or Princesses would wear, they went all the way up he arm but not all the way up to her shoulders, she looked like a regular Princess. She looked amazing; Stef and Adam could hardly believe it was the same person. Not that Chaos wasn't already beautiful but now she looked heavenly.

Jill was the next to walk down, she had a slightly less majestic costume on, it was a pink crop top and a black mini-skirt, she had put make-up on her face and pushed her breasts up, she looked good.

The last person to walk down was Lin. Stef felt his stomach tighten. Lin came down holding a fan in front of her face, she was wearing a deep blue dress, it was long and draped down to her blue high-hill shoes, she had no sleeves. She removed the fan, her hair had been combed back and washed, it sparkled in the sunlight, she had changed her eye colour and hair colour. Her hair was red and she now had green eyes. Chaos had changed her eyes to a darker shade of blue.

"Girls" said Stef, speechless, "You look………..amazing"

Chaos blushed, she tried to hide it, she always did this and she hated herself for it.

"Right" said Tails, getting up. "Stef, you and Adam go and put your tuxedo's on and I'll get the tornado out."

Chapter 12

"HOW COULD YOU!" said the mysterious figure, he slammed his fist over the computer screen. At least Ivan was safe behind the computer. "YOU FOOL, YOU CAN'T DO THE SIMPLEST OF THINGS!" boomed the voice.

Ivan looked disturbed, he was suddenly scared. He crouched down on the floor.

"I'm so sorry master. I also have some more bad news, Marianna got to them, she awakened three more spirits Lin O'Connor, Adam the Fox and Chaos the Echidna. We have lost the chance to obtain Wisdom, Courage and Determination."

Them mysterious figure sat back unconcerned. "I'm going to be coming to you tonight. I have a plane ready. At least we still have the power side of the spirits. How is Project Cecelia going?"

Ivan sat back relieved; he was concerned that his master would try to kill him.

"Fine, the Triad of power will be completed on schedule."

"Good" said the person, still shrouded in darkness. "We are going to stick to the plan, spread the Serenity Virus among the city dwellers her and escape, launch a missile into the city and claim that it was a new infectious disease that broke out among the people of Radical City and then when the Military thank us, ask for complete rights to Serenity Island, they won't see that as a problem, then we can unify the three Darkness Emerald shards and create the Black Emerald. The Black Phoenix will rise and we will be granted divine powers."

He then laughed manically and Ivan did as well.

The Tornado swept over the land towards Radical City, Stef and Adam were in tuxedos and Stef had an eye and hair colour change, as had Adam. Stef also had a camera around his neck; he was pretending to be a photographer.

Radical City was all lit up as it was night, the city gleamed in it's own brilliance, it was a radiant shine, coming from the massive glass skyscraper in centre of the city, Phoenix Grace headquarters. The plane landed in an alleyway just before the main Phoenix Grace building.

Team fox jumped out of the plane and one the street of Radical City, they waved Tails and Dan goodbye. Just before they had left to come to Radical City, Dan had given them all little radios that they inserted into their ears and weren't visible, they could communicate with him and each other, they had also got guns hidden somewhere about them.

They crossed the busy street and walked towards the building, they entered, there was a massive mix of Mobian's and Humans in here all in posh dress, the entrance hall was huge and there was hundreds of people in here. They music blared out over the hall, some kind of dance music, there were also laser lights that shot out over the crowd and bounced of mirrors placed on the wall.

Lin and Chaos saw the elevator guards, they separated from the group, to go and meet them. They were two fat humans, in blue suits, almost like the police wore. They weren't Lin or Chaos's particular preferences but this was a mission so…

Chaos and Lin walked up to them wiggling there Tails and as they walked along. They approached the guards, the guards looked as if Christmas had come early.

"Hello" said Lin, stroking the one on the left's head. "Can we go somewhere more private."

Chaos was giving the other guard the same treatment. So the guards to Chaos and Lin into a separate room. Lin did a sort of erotic dance but grabbed hold of the hold above here for hanging coat hangers on and put her thighs on his neck and with little effort.

Snap!

The guard fell to the floor, she had broken his neck.

Chaos whacked the other guy in his manhood and as he crouch down on the floor smack him over the head with a ashtray she found on the table, blood poured out of man's head.

"That's for staring at my tits" said Chaos and she smiled at Lin. "Chaos to Stef, Phase one complete. We're heading to the lift."

Stef replied with just a roger, Lin and Chaos put both the men in the lockers on the far wall, they would be long gone before anyone came in her. Now that was using beauty as a weapon.

Chapter 13

Lin and Chaos head out into the entrance hall towards the elevator but before they could reach it, Ivan Grace appeared on a palladium behind them, they could not go now, there was a least five guns protecting him with machine guns. They had to wait until he went.

Ivan smiled and put out his hand to silence the crowd.

"Today is a great day for all of Mobius, not just Phoenix Grace, we have created the great Serenity. It's a virus the actively regenerates cells making you live and long younger. Imagine a world were you could turn back time and live double the life span. Well that future is here! Now! Affordable! With this!"

Ivan pulled out a long cylinder of purple liquid, he smiled widely as he produced it.

"Now take this miracle liquid."

The people began to take the cylinders of liquid and drunk it all down. This was a test.

"No" muttered Chaos under her breath, she had seen the effects of this virus, these people were now staring death in the face. This was horrific. Phoenix Grace had just crossed the line, Chaos began to walk forward, she was going to stop him however she felt someone tug on the back of her dress, it was Lin.

"No!" she whispered, "Don't blow our cover."

Chaos struggled but Lin held firm to her, eventually she gave up. Stef, Adam and Jill came towards them. They walked into the automatic lift.

The elevator flew up the building; the floors were going by fast. Lin stood there she was worried. How could Ivan be so heartless and why would he do this? He was a monster, pure evil. She would get the bastard!

Suddenly Lin, Chaos, Adam and Stef all collapsed on the floor, they looked up despite Jill's confused face.

"You think you have me!" said a familiar voice, Ivan. "You don't know the half of it. I happen to be a spirit of the Emerald just like you are but not of the pathetic light Emeralds but of the Black Emerald, the darkest emerald."

He suddenly broke of the psychic connection with the team and they all stood back up. Lin continued loading her gun.

"Black Emerald?" said Chaos, Jill looked even more confused, Stef just smiled at her.

"I remember the story" said Adam, he was trying to remember a memory long ago. "My mother used to tell me that there was eight Emeralds originally, seven were light and one was dark. This was favourite bedtime story of mine. Anyway the dark aspired to take over the entire of the land but the light Emeralds broke it into three people. Maybe Ivan has found one of three shards."

Stef looked confused, of course, he should have remembered the story of the Emerald of Darkness.

The elevator stopped, Chaos popped out and hit a guard right in the head with only one shot from her gun, she was an excellent markswoman. The team moved stealthy along the corridor. It was white and these top floors looked like labs.

"Right" said Dan, over the radio. "You will have to go through the labs."

Adam picked the lock on the door, he shoved it aside.

Inside, the room was large there was computer terminal in the corner of the room where they had entered, Adam walked straight over to it and began to tap away, other computers and medical equipment lined the walls, all showing diagnostics of something. But along the back wall were five large stasis tubes filled with water, they were upright and had things in them. Stef looked at them closely, they were people immersed in water, they had been mutated beyond belief, one of the them was frightening. It was a man, he was about seven feet tall, he had long claws that protruded from his hands. This was powerful looking creature. On the container it read "Commander type-3 X"

"Done it" shouted Adam and he turned to leave on the door on the other side with the rest of the team. "The security is offline; we should be able to access Ivan's office.

They were just about to leave, when the glass of the tube with Commander in it, the water drained from the tube.

Smash.

Commander jumped through the tube and turned and looked at the Team, he roared, his skin was pure red, he was the remnant of a human. Chaos looked into the creatures eyes, it stopped for a second. He knew this creature.

"Goddard?" she whispered, "THOSE BASTARDS! WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOU!"

Chaos rolled out the way of the Commander's claws, he wasn't Dr Goddard anymore but how did they get his body of the Erika, she watched it blow up? Anyway that didn't matter, Stef shot at him, Commander made another slash for Lin, she pushed him back. He was strong.

Suddenly a rocket blasted into the Commander making him explode, Lin turned around, it was Jill, she was holding a rocket launcher.

"Let's go!" she said throwing the rocket launcher away.

Chapter 14

The team rushed into the room that was Ivan's office, it was largest room of the building and the tallest, and the massive windows overlooked the gleaming lights of Radical City. Ivan grace was stood on the other side of this large room behind his desk looking out the window, his back was to them. There was beautiful chandelier that hung from the ceiling.

"So you've come" said Ivan, he laughed. "I'm impressed, for spirits of the Emerald's, you aren't that bad."

Ivan turned, he was wearing black robes, that draped of his arms. He looked evil.

"We're gonna make you pay!" said Chaos, "For the Erika's destruction, for the crew, for Leon and for Dr Goddard."

"Doctor Goddard, was just little experiment on the side, we wanted to see how the Serenity Virus could affect a human body on a large scale so we gave him the necessary shots and perfected him, he is Commander. A perfect creature." Ivan looked but through the window, was he waiting for someone?

"It's a pity that Marianna got to you first but it doesn't really matter. All stations load missile racks." Commanded Ivan

On the top of the building, two rotating missile racks appeared out of two concealed holes.

"Oh you have to meet my boss" said Ivan, he stared into the shadows where there was somebody there with a red laser eye shining out at them. He walked out from the shadows with a woman, Lin and Stef gasped in horror, he was dead? It wasn't possible? How could it be?

Standing in front of them was a blast from the past, the last time they had seen him was a science complex in which he tried to perform an experiment on Lin, he had put her in a tube and was going to use her life energy to change space and time, maybe he knew that she was a spirit of the Emerald, before she did. But Lin had made this guy fall hundreds of feet into a reactor shaft.

He also wore a black cloak, his hair was the same as Chaos's distinctly white, he had a scar through one of his eyes, the other one was a machine, a laser coming out of an implant over his eye. The machine gun on his arm had changed to, no it looked like a more powerful plasma cannon. Implant's covered his body.

Dr Zakeri the Echidna, one of the only left survivors of Angel Island to return to the island, except for Knuckles.

The woman stood beside them, Adam recognised, it had been five years ago in the Emerald chamber and she had killed Lin. How? He had watched Slash dig his claws into her.

Cecelia Grace, Ivan's mother. She was a racoon like Ivan, she wore a black dress. What was the obsession with black? Cecelia gave an evil smile at Lin, it was payback time.

"So" said Ivan, his voice had turned to megalomania. "Do you like the team, the triad of Evil? And now we will do something, the dark forces have been waiting thousands of years to do."

Ivan rummaged through his cloak and brought out something that made the swords of Chaos, Adam, Stef and Lin all glow with a black light.

"This is a piece of the Darkness Emerald" said Ivan smiling. "My master, my mother and I have collected all three pieces. BE HOLD THE FUSION OF THE TRIAD OF EVIL!"

Ivan jumped and landed right next to Zakeri and Cecelia who both had three pieces of the Emerald. The room suddenly began to glow red.

"Warning, Warning, Missile attack confirmed! Ten minutes to explosion."

Outside, the team could here a low moan, the people who had willing taken the Serenity Virus were mutating.

But they want the only thing.

Cecelia, Zakeri and Ivan all moved their pieces of the onyx black emerald together and there was massive beam of black light that shot out the Emerald.

The three people seemed to merge, and arms shot out of Ivan's side, Zakeri grew longer legs and grafted onto Ivan, Cecelia fused on the head. The monster was massive, ten feet tall. How could they kill that?

Jill made a shot for the monster, the bullet bounced of the monster.

"This is Serenity" said the monster, it's voice was like Ivan, Cecelia and Zakeri were all saying things in unison. "We had cloned Cecelia Grace to complete this creature, we are the chosen three, to lead the darkness. We need permission to get onto Serenity Island because the military had taken it over, so we could destroy the chamber of the Emeralds and all the spirits but we can make a start by killing you!"

The monster moved forward, Stef dodged out the way, for something so big, it was fast.

"Bullets won't work, Jill" he said, as Jill frantically pumped bullets into the creature. He lifted his sword but the monster used one of it's colossal hands and smacked the sword out of Stef's hand. No!

Lin stabbed the creature in the back of the leg. No effect! She thought that this swords had forces to overcome darkness.

"Foolish girl!" said Serenity, picking up Lin and Adam. Chaos tried to stab the feet of the monster but it wasn't working. "The Seeker has to have his sword and none of you are the Seeker."

Serenity laughed as it squeezed Lin and Adam with his hands. Lin and Adam screamed in pain. Was this the end of the road?

Chapter 15

"Oi! You fat fucker!" shouted Stef, at the creature.

Serenity looked at Stef and squealed in distress, how could it had over looked that. Jill rolled under the creature dodging it, she looked at Stef, he was holding a purple, glowing swords.

Stef smiled and swung the sword and shouted.

"EARTH DIVIDE!"

A beam shot out of the sword and hit the creature, it split back in just Zakeri, Cecelia and Ivan. They landed on the ground, Lin and Adam were released as well. Stef began to glow.

Quick as a flash, Adam and Lin picked up their swords and thrusted them into Cecelia and Zakeri. They laid on the floor and died.

Ivan had disappeared through the glass double doors at the end of room and had ascended the staircase. The team ran after him, he was a good few feet above them, he fired shots down from his gun hoping they would back up. They wanted retribution for the death of so many people. The fall of Phoenix Grace would be today.

Ivan leapt out onto the landing platform and a waiting helicopter, there was another one parked nearby but they would never catch up with him.

Chaos had an idea. She ran to the missile rack had just been activated and swung it round. She then looked onto the helicopter and said;

"For Flex and Goddard"

She turned pulled the trigger and fired at Ivan, his helicopter exploded and with that explosion brought some reassurance. Phoenix Grace was finished, the evidence was all on the computer disk that Chaos had got from the Erika.

Adam leapt into the helicopter and started it up, the rotas came to life and the team climbed aboard. They flew off the platform of the Phoenix Grace building and looked down, Zombies lined the streets but this was the last of the Serenity Virus. At last it was over. Lin held Stef and they kissed in the back of the helicopter. It looked like the Tornado had to leave.

A missile cut across the sky and hit the city, it exploded in a giant mushroom cloud, the shockwave hit the helicopter and Adam lost control and so the helicopter went further and further down in the forest that surround Radical City. Into the darkness?

Authors Notes

This concludes the Phoenix Grace saga. I intend to right one more story, Final Rights, that rounds of the entire of Team Fox. Then I will focus on getting the Official Team Fox website on the internet with additional notes and explanations on all the aspects of the characters, locations and technology of the Team Fox world. I am next going to right Negative Zero that acts as a prelude to New Beginnings exploring each of the characters lives before they joined Team Fox or the group and Final Rights. I might also do a spin-off book called Thunderchild which is after the events of Black Phoenix. I have enjoyed writing these books and I have tried to keep the true essence of Sonic in the books but add addition things which are for the much older reader. I hope you have enjoyed reading this series.

I started this series in July 2003 and I didn't really know what I was doing, I was just making it up as I went along, the inspiration behind it all was my dear friend Lin, who encouraged me to write this and would read them and give me feedback on how to improve.

I believe that I have grown attached to these characters in the same way I have grown attached to the real people. I also want to say that Leah or should I say, Dr Chaos and Captain Flex has also been a major motivational factor for me. I also keep coming up with new ideas and hopefully everyone who has read the stories liked them. I wanted to create a book about Sonic and his friends but would be for an older audience. That's why when I started New Beginnings, Sonic was a major part in it but by the time I had got to the end of Black Phoenix, he was barely in it. So I have created, my own original team with my own input and everybody else has contributed to the making of these series of novels.

I feel a connection between the characters in these books, I see them now as not just dispensable characters but as a family. I think Team Fox has grown to become a family and that the family has widened over the years. The original members were.

Stef the Echidna

Lin the Fox

Dan the Fox

Then in New Sunrise, we gained

Slash the Tiger

Flex the Wildcat

Then in Blade's Edge, the start of the Phoenix Grace sage, we gained

Adam the Fox

And finally in Out of Nothing, we gained

Chaos the Echidna.

So Team Fox had grown from three members to seven over the years they had been together. Unfortunately I am unable to determine what has become of Slash at the moment as he was killed in Out of nothing but cloned in Black Phoenix