Two Brothers
Prologue: A Little Late?
Gerald hit his alarm clock. It stopped ringing. Gerald got up, and headed for the fridge to get breakfast. Gerald was an Echidna, dark red in colour, and he was about 3'6" tall. Today was the first day of the new SmackBall season. Gerald was looking forward to it. He never missed the first pitch of a SmackBall game, especially the first of the season. The game was due to begin at 2:00 pm. It was currently 12:27 in the afternoon, and Gerald wasn't worried about missing the game. He took out a couple of Sodas and some Peanuts, ready for the game. He was going to see the game with his friend, who was a Kitsune who claimed to be related to the famous Miles Prower. Of course, Gerald didn't believe this. He sat down, opened a Soda, and turned on the T.V. It was the news. Gerald was too bored to change it, so he just watched. The news reporter was saying something about the escape of a prisoner he couldn't hear the name of. The reporter was stuttering and sounded nervous. All Gerald got was "Ive" as a name.
"In other news…" said the reporter. Gerald was too tired to listen, but too excited to fall asleep.
"…SmackBall…" Gerald sat up, wide eyed. It was amazing that someone could get from the foetal position on a couch to sitting upright so quickly.
"Due to a prediction of rain in the later afternoon, that first SmackBall game of the season has been…" Gerald's heart sank. "… put forward to 1 pm. Make sure you don't miss the game!" Gerald turned off the T.V. and looked at his watch. It was 12:47. Gerald was going to be late for the first time ever. He grabbed his SmackBall cap and ran out the door.
1 Chapter 1: The Lone Echidna
Knuckles sat at his usual post next to the Shrine of the Master Emerald. He was sleeping, but he was having disturbing thoughts about the past few days. The Master Emerald had been showing strange pictures and giving sounds. They got clearer every day, but because of the power it needed to keep the Island afloat after the numerous crashes into the sea, they were still not getting enough power. Knuckles had recognised one picture as being a large grey rock, against a black background, and the other picture as a ball of fire, possibly the Sun, or another star. The sounds it was making were slightly stuttering, but were crackles like lots of paper being scrunched at the same time. Knuckles did not know what any of this meant, but the only time the Master Emerald used its energy to show things like this was when something was very important. Knuckles was not pleased about it at all. He hated it when the Master Emerald showed things. Every time it had they had been about bad things. The Egg Carrier, Robotnik, they were all bad, and they had all been shown at one point or another. Knuckles drifted off into a heavier sleep, not knowing what the Emerald would show tomorrow.
Chapter 2: Pain Induced Dreams
"What do you mean 'No Ticket'? SCRAM!"
Gerald had left his ticket at home in the rush. But Gerald had a few skills to avoid this unpleasantness. He'd had pointed knuckles since as far back as he could remember. He found out he could use these to climb walls. Gerald ran round the back of the stadium, and took 2 minutes to climb up the wall. It was 12:58, and the first pitch was always on the exact start time. He reached the top of the wall and looked for his would-be seat. He dropped down into the back row and made his way over to it, stepping on numerous people to reach it. He sat down next to his Kitsune friend, who said: "Where have you been? I thought you wouldn't make it!"
Gerald replied, "I got caught up. A problem with the ticket apparently." His friend nodded. They were sitting in the 3rd row from the front, and they could see the action clearly.
"PLAY BALL!" yelled the commentator, from the general location of a hidden speaker.
The game of SmackBall was a simple one. Much like Baseball, a pitcher threw a ball at a batter. The batter had to hit the ball as far as possible, then, a selection of either teams' Fetchers had to run towards it, pick it up, and get it to either the back left, or back right corner of the field to score a point. Home Runs (where the ball landed in the team's corner) would win 2 points, but if it landed on anywhere except the corner of the side, it was a foul and lost a point. Hitting it into the other player's Home Run area would gain them 3 points, and lose you 2. Nothing could be simpler than that, except perhaps football, which requires hardly any logic to understand.
Gerald's local team were doing well, beating the Knothole team by 6 points so far. Suddenly, Gerald's dreams came true. His team had made a way out foul. The ball was heading straight towards the crowd, in the direction of Gerald. Everyone in the area stood up to catch it, but Gerald was the first up, but, instead of catching it, it hit him in the face, knocking him out cold.
While unconscious, Gerald had a dream. He dreamed of fire, and suffering, and of death. He dreamed of green, glistening light, and of voices. Voices telling him to wake up, that he was needed. Then, he woke up, sweating from the intensity of the dream.
Chapter 3: The Chambers Of The Pyramid
Dr. Ivo Robotnik was glad to be away from the hassle of the police. After escaping from jail on charges of attempted World Domination, he had headed to his hidden base in the desert. He hadn't been there since the whole incident with the ARK. He had noticed for a few days a tiny dot in the sky, too small for the naked eye, but he had powerful equipment. He had made it out to be an asteroid, and his calculations said it would hit Mobius sometime within the next 3 to 5 days. He had planned an expedition to reach it and destroy it, but the government had found the Chaos Emeralds, which were necessary for his current plan. He needed to come up with a new one, or one to get the Chaos Emeralds, but the only way he could locate the Chaos Emeralds would be with his energy scanner, which was lost on the ARK. There was only one alternative. The Master Emerald could reveal the locations of the Chaos Emeralds. But, the only person who knew the location of the Master Emerald was Knuckles. And the only person to know the location of him was Sonic, but where to find him? Luckily, the essential life data of Sonic from the scanner used to make Hyper Metal Sonic had been retained. Ivo could easily find Sonic now, by transferring the data to a satellite, which would track down Sonic.
After a couple of hours, he had located Sonic as being in Emerald Coast, and he set off to find him.
Chapter 4: A Rude Awakening
Sonic lay on his lounger, remembering time of when he ran through this Zone with nothing more in mind than to free animals. But now, all he had on his mind was to relax. Sonic was currently asleep, and Miles was out on the surf on his jet powered body board, which had lasted surprisingly long, considering Miles' steering skills. Sonic was dreaming. He was dreaming of Super Sonic, and suddenly, there was a thud, and the dream blacked out. Sonic woke to find himself face to face with Robotnik.
"Sonic," he said, "This is highly unusual. But I need your help."
"No way, Eggman!" replied Sonic, rather angry at being woken for no reason. "What do you need my help for anyway? Hey… Where's Tails?"
"Fox Boy is safe, he's underwater, knocked down by a wave, and he hasn't seen me. The whole World is in danger, Sonic. And only you can save it."
"Yea, right. Just like I needed to save us from 'Metal Robotnik'." Sonic prodded Robotnik's nose, out of boredom. Robotnik handed Sonic his portable telescope.
"Sonic, it's hard to see in daylight, but that light grey dot is an asteroid, and it WILL hit Mobius if I don't stop it! I need to find the Chaos Eme…" Robotnik didn't finish. Sonic was running to the observatory on the bridge. When Robotnik caught up, Sonic was looking worried.
"How can we stop it then?" he said.
"I need to know the locations of the Chaos Emeralds, but for that I need the Master Emerald, and for that Knuckles, and for that… you."
"We'll need to find Tails first. He has the Tornado, and he's the only one who can get us to the Floating Island." With that, Sonic sped off, and ran to the coastline.
"Tails!" he yelled as the orange blob in the water. "Tails! We need the Tornado! To reach the Floating Island! It's urgent!" Miles flew towards the coast with his body board in his hand. Then he saw Robotnik.
"Eggman!" he said in surprise. Sonic stopped him.
"Tails, don't argue, take me and Eggman to the Master Emerald shrine."
After a long train journey to the Mystic Ruins where Miles' hangar was located, they took off and headed for the Floating Island.
Chapter 5: The Location Of The Chaos Emeralds
"What the…?" Knuckles was surprised to see Sonic and Miles coming towards the Island in the Tornado, and even more surprised when they landed about 17 feet away from him. But this was nothing compared to the surprise he had when he saw Robotnik climbing out of the Tornado.
"Eggman!" Knuckles stood closer to the Master Emerald. "What are you doing with Sonic and Tails?" Knuckles put up his fists.
"Relax Knuckles, Eggman's here with us. We need a little info from you, to save the world. Nothing important, really." Replied Sonic. Knuckles did not move, and more importantly, did not put down his fists.
"What's he got you into this time, Sonic?" Knuckles asked. "And what sort of information do you need?"
"An asteroid is going to hit Mobius! We need the Chaos Emeralds to stop it, and we can find their location from you." Said Robotnik, before Sonic could say anything to further angry Knuckles.
"I'm a guardian of the Master Emerald, not the…"
"We know. That's why you're important. The Emeralds act as magnets, do they not Tails?" Tails nodded at Robotnik "Now, we can use an Emerald to find other Emeralds. The Master Emerald should be no different. We just need to find out where the government is keeping the Emeralds, and then we leave you in peace. A five minute test is all we need."
"Sonic, if anything goes wrong, it's your head on the block…" said Knuckles, submissively. A few minutes later, Robotnik sat up and produced a rectangular gadget that had been attached to the Master Emerald.
"They're being held by G.U.N. in The White House. Well, six of them are. The other is… in the Mystic Caves back on Mobius… We should go for that one first, it'll be the hardest to find." Said Robotnik, rather pleased with the results of him technology.
Chapter 6: Gerald's Calling
Gerald lay awake in bed that night, ignoring his throbbing forehead, and concentrating more on the dreams he'd had whilst he was unconscious. He knew not what they meant, but he was going to find out, somehow.
He remembered little of what had happened during the dream, but not many would, it was rather painful, and that would cause memory loss in anyone. All Gerald could remember was seeing a mental map of The Floating Island upon which he lived. On this map in his mind he saw various places he knew, and a few he didn't. One of these he didn't looked like an ancient ruin, but this ruin was flashing. It has been flashing many colours, but most of all green. He had remembered the location of this ruin like structure; it had been on the southeast section of the island, next to the fiery areas of the Lava Reef zone, where Gerald had once been as a young child. All this intrigued Gerald. He did not know at the moment, but tomorrow he would have another dream, and this dream would tell him to plan a trip to this area. But he didn't know this yet, so he slowly fell asleep, unconscious for the second time today.
Chapter 7: The Grey Chaos Emerald
Sonic led the way through the Mystic Caves, crashing through any of the remaining badniks from when Robotnik was in control of this land. But it was when Robotnik started singing "Memories" that Sonic had a lengthy discussion about the disgust he felt about Robotnik at the moment.
"The signal from the Emerald is growing stronger. We must be going the right way, Sonic." Said Miles having taken the scanner from Robotnik.
"Ok, Tails! Which way now?" replied Sonic enthusiastically. But before Miles could answer, a voice spoke out from the darkness.
"Stop!" The voice sounded surprisingly familiar. Robotnik recognised it immediately.
"Rouge?" Robotnik looked into the darkness. "What are you doing here?" Rouge stepped out into what would be described as light if there had been more of it.
"I'm a bat. This is a cave. Put the two together." She said, in a voice that connoted pity for the man with a supposed IQ of 300.
Robotnik muttered something under his breath, and then spoke out loud.
"We have reason to believe a Chaos Emerald is located in this cave. Being a treasure hunter, we wondered if you would know anything about it? Hmm?" Rouge paced up and down.
"I might. If I did know and did tell you, what's in it for me?" Rouge said, hinting that she may exchange jewels for the Emerald, that was, if she had it.
"The future of the planet. We need the Emeralds to stop an asteroid on a collision course with Mobius. That's what." Said Sonic, calm as usual. This had been the first time he had spoken to Rouge in a long time, but, Miles, Robotnik, and especially Knuckles had been keeping in touch with her.
"Well, I'm afraid I don't have it. Anymore. It was taken by one of the badniks in this Zone. It must have been your programming that told it to take any Emeralds it saw, am I right, Doctor?" replied Rouge.
"Quite right, Rouge. Well, there can't be too many badniks left in this Zone… Right Sonic?" Everyone looked at Sonic. It looked like it was going to be up to him to find the Emerald… But what happens is not always what it would seem… While Sonic was getting ready to get through the Zone and destroy all Robotnik's robots, a gloved fist with pointed knuckles came up through the ground.
"Knuckles! Just the guy we wanted to see!" Cried Sonic, glad at the thought that he wouldn't have to search for the Emerald alone.
Chapter 8: Echidnopolis
Gerald had reached the ruins he had seen in his dreams. They were just as he had remembered them from his dream, down to every last detail, although he had never been here. It had been a long journey, as there were no roads and no trains going to this part of the island. But when he reached the centre of the ruins, he found a nasty surprise.
He had found some sort of shrine, and the green light from his dreams was shining bright from the top of it. At he base of the shrine sat a red creature. He looked just like Gerald, except slightly lighter, and a white chest stripe instead of black. Before Gerald could go to take a closer look, the Gerald look-alike was charging at Gerald yelling: "No more disguises Dr. Zachary!"
Confused and impressed by the speed at which the Echidna was approaching him, Gerald instinctively burrowed underground. The other Echidna had not followed. Questions were racing through Gerald's mind: Who was that? Who was Dr. Zachary? And why did he seem so angry with Gerald? He surfaced minutes later, looking for air, and found himself in a cave, surrounded by two heroes of Mobius, the villain, and a complete stranger to Gerald's mind.
"Knuckles! Just the guy we wanted to see!" yelled the blue hero, known as Sonic. "We need your help again, buddy. We found the Chaos Emeralds, but we… Tails!" Sonic stopped abruptly. The Kitsune, known as Miles 'Tails' Prower was pulling at his arm with a little too much force to be comfortable.
"That's not Knuckles, Sonic." Said Miles, pointing at Gerald's chest stripe. "Knuckles has a white stripe."
"So who's this?" said the bat, obviously very interested in the newcomer. Gerald spoke.
"I'm an Echidna from a little known town of the other side of the island. I saw another echidna not far from here, near a green light. Is that Knuckles?"
"Yes…" said Sonic, sounding disappointed. "Well, guess it's up to me to find the Chaos Emerald still…"
Chapter 9: Mystic Cave Ins
"Hey Sonic! Wait up!"
Miles was calling after him, just when he was about to start searching.
"Gerald here says he can feel some strange energy, much in the same way that Knuckles did when you used the Chaos Control aboard the ARK. I thought it might be some sort of link between Echidnas and the Emeralds! I've hooked Eggman's scanner up to Gerald, but he can't go very far, or the signal's lost, but this means we should get a clearer idea of where the Emerald is!"
"Alright Tails! Where is it?" was Sonic's eager reply.
"About half a mile due North East of here. It's got a swarm of Badniks arming it though, but the scanner may be wrong…" But Sonic didn't hear the last bit; he had already left in search of the Emerald.
During his travels, he had acquired quite a good sense of distance, and he had no trouble in finding the area, which Miles had described. Well, that is if you don't call getting caught in a spike pit once or twice an inconvenience, but he got to the end in one piece, nevertheless. But he had been wrong about one thing. There were no Badniks in the area at all, but he also could not see the Emerald. Then, something caught his eye. A tint of grey, shining from behind an old mass of vines. The Chaos Emerald.
"It's all too easy for me!" said Sonic, smugly to himself as he walked towards the clump of vines and pulled them apart, delved his hand into them, and pulled out something, which was quite different from the Emerald. To Sonic's knowledge of the Emeralds, which expanded quite far, the Emerald didn't have body segments, spines, large teeth, and indeed did not try to gnaw your arm off. He had pulled out a Catterkiller. Sonic quickly pulled away and went into a Spin-Dash, quickly destroying the robot, but the noise seemed to awake it's dormant brothers. It didn't even seem weird to Sonic that Caterkillers didn't lurk in the Mystic Caves, and it was not apparent to him that this one had fallen through the thin ceiling, which led to the Marble Zone above. But the noise of the Badniks local to the Mystic Caves was not the only noise Sonic heard. It seemed the rumbling caused by the ancient programming starting up again had caused tiny tremors within the ground, which led up the wall, and onto the thin ceiling, which was already weak from the Catterkiller's hole. There was going to be a cave in, and Sonic was too deep to get out, even if he ran now and left the Emerald. He had to find a way; everyone was depending on him. He cast his mind back to times when he may have heard of something like this… His mind blanked, but then, when all hope seemed lost, he thought of Shadow. Shadow had been good in tight spots, and even better at Emerald stealing, but Sonic had little time to think, as he had to keep fighting off Badniks. Suddenly, the thought of Shadow brought an idea into his mind. He reached out for the Chaos Emerald, but as he did so, a sharp stalactite from the ceiling drove its way into Sonic's arm. He writhed in pain, still reaching for the Emerald. After many minutes, he reached it, and pulled it towards him, with what little strength he had left, he had the time to call 'Chaos Control!' before passing out.
Chapter 10: One Worried Echidna
Knuckles, having chased away the intruder, sat down beside his Emerald once again. I thought Dr. Zachary was dead, or had at least given up years ago he thought, and then it struck him that Dr. Zachary was indeed dead, as Knuckles had witnessed his death himself.
Still, another Echidna was bad news as far as Knuckles was concerned, he had seen many of his kind, in ancient Echidnopolis, but that was before he was even born. Any Echidnas seen in the present day had always been trouble.
He slowly walked over to the hole where the intruder had dug down, but a loud sound, rather like static on the radio, began behind him, and a blinding green light flashed in front of his eyes. In the temporary blindness, he assumed something had happened to the Master Emerald, and he began to run back towards it, without having adjusted to the dusk-like lighting around him, and due to this, he ran head first into something large, round, and heavy, as Knuckles found out when it fell on top of him.
"Agh!" yelled Doctor Robotnik as he pulled himself up from the ground. Knuckles now recognised what had happened, Sonic had used the Chaos Control, a move that Shadow, a hedgehog deceased, had taught him, through carelessness. But the real thing that caught Kuckles's eye was the dark red Echidna.
"Hey you!" he yelled in a mix of anger and confusion. The other echidna squealed a rather girlish "Eep" and hid behind Sonic.
"Hey Knux, he's with us, don't worry!" Sonic said, hoping to cool Knuckles down.
"What was that?" said the dark red Echidna.
"Later, Gerald. Knux! What's up? We found the Emerald, and we found something that may interest you too…" said Sonic, as he stepped to the side, and Knuckles realised what he meant.
"Rouge! What are you doing here?" Knuckles half yelled, half asked, but the Bat merely sighed and looked at the shrine of the Master Emerald longingly. She had not changed; she still loved her gems more than anything.
Chapter 11: The Next Stage
Sonic sat up.
"Well, that's the hardest part done, and they say that the Grey Emerald is the most elusive. It seems it really doesn't want to be found… Hmm… Where was it next Tails?"
Miles replied, eager to be of help to his hero, Sonic.
"G.U.N… They'd better let us do this, or this is going to be a big problem… Tails! Remember when you traced Eggman's call in the President's Limo last year?" Miles nodded. "Did you get his number too?" He nodded again. "Right, have you got your communicator?" Miles said nothing, nor did he nod his head, nor shake it. "Oh… Tails! Can you even remember his number?"
"Of course, would I forget the number of such an important person?" replied he. Miles had a good head for numbers. It had never really been tested, but Miles machines could match the power of the Doctor's so it was assumed Miles IQ was at least around 300 too.
"Don't worry Sonic…" said Robotnik, with the first hint of sympathy he'd ever heard in his voice, and for Miles was even more unusual, the only person he hated more than Sonic was Miles, because of his ability to formulate plans, beat security, and create a robot good enough to defeat legions of the Doctor's own. "I have my own phone with me…" he continued, as he rummaged around in the inside pocket of his overlarge, even for him, red tailcoat. "What's the number Fox boy?" said the Doctor, back to his usual state of loathing for the Kitsune. He gave the number to the Doctor, and the phone started to ring; a secretary answered it.
"Hello, Presidential Estate." Said the monotone secretary.
"We need to speak to the president, quickly." Said Miles, as they thought the most wanted man in history could have caused a state of emergency if he called the President for the second time in two years, this time demanding the Chaos Emeralds.
"I'm sorry, he's preoccupied right now." Said the secretary, obviously lying to stop anyone talking to the President. The secretary heard a few faint muffled noises, and then heard the voice of the most famous person on the planet Mobius.
"Hey! For a secretary, you're a bad liar, put us through now!" said Sonic, in a tone not normally used by him. "Don't worry, just pass a message, we'll be at the White House in a couple of hours, we need the Chaos Emeralds! The planet is in danger, and we have one of seven, and we have reason to believe G.U.N. is storing the other six. No, don't answer, just tell him to get to the White House, right now!"
Sonic hung up, and then noticed everyone staring at him.
"What?"
Chapter 12: Missionary Miles
"Right," Miles began "Sonic and I will take the Tornado, Eggman can take his Eggcraft, and Rouge I hear is a pretty good driver, take Route 106."
"Hey, what about me?" Knuckles voice rang out in the silence of the noon sun. "I can come too, the Emerald can always protect itself. It has powers you don't know of." Knuckles added when everyone was looking at him with puzzled expressions.
"I hate to say it, but could you hitch a ride with Eggman? I don't think Rouge's Kart has enough room for t…" Miles didn't finish.
"He can ride with me!" piped Rouge, loudly. The crew nodded, and they set out to their various vehicles; Rouge was keeping her Kart in a cave not far from the Mystic Ruins entrance.
Sonic, Miles and Robotnik had no problems, as they were flying, but the had to keep circling to slow down to allow for Rouge and Knuckles to get through traffic jams. When they reached the town, Sonic found few fond memories; this town was where he was hunted as a wanted Hedgehog, and then arrested, twice. He had narrowly escaped.
Once all safely inside, their transport safely hidden in one of the Human garages, they made their way to the White House, located at the heart of the city. A few funny looks from passing Humans did not deter the band from carefully hastily making their way towards the building, but some wet cement, and some busy roads did for a while, and even more noticeably, the Doctor was finding it hard to keep in his rather tight fitting disguise, he was still a wanted man. They reached the edge of the huge estate in which the President lived. Unusually, security seemed very slack today; there was no gate guard, the gates themselves were wide open, and the front door was wide open. Also, the Limo was nowhere to be found, and the group concluded the President might not be there yet, so they requested for Miles to stay at the gate to keep a lookout, while the remaining members made their way into the building, but no sooner had they reached the front door, and got into the foyer, security doors closed on every side, even over the top, to form a compact metal box, with tiny cracks to allow air in. Sonic had been expecting something like this, and used his walkie-talkie to contact Miles, and tell him to get the Tornado, and put it into attack mode; he was going to have to storm the White House, an offence that could cause life imprisonment, but, as they all knew, life imprisonment for the Sonic crew could be from one week to about four hours.
Miles set off towards the garage where the Tornado lay, and surprisingly, no one was eying it suspiciously, which was good. Miles had been known for his inventions, so apart from a few autograph seekers, he didn't draw too much attention, even in the huge walker moving slowly along the street, but, unfortunately, attention was drawn when Miles entered the gates to the White House, and Miles had a hard time fighting off a reporter for a local newspaper.
Once near the front door, he got some orders from Sonic: "Around the back, blast through the wall if necessary, and make your way towards the President's office on the top floor, and find the release for this cage, but do not under any circumstances hurt anyone. Got that?"
Miles brought the machine round to the back, and unsurprisingly, there was no back door entrance. He feared what would happen to him if he was caught, but he charged up the Cyclone to low power, and blasted a hole in the wall. The people inside, businessmen, secretaries and others were scared out of their wits and were diving under tables and between bookcases, but Miles ignored them, and headed towards the stairs, leading up to the top floor. In the walker, which was not good at uphill climbs, it would have taken hours, so he jumped out, and started to run up the many flights of stairs.
When he reached the top, he met another apparent lack of security, and all that could be seen inside the President's office, which Miles was currently standing in the doorway of, was the President.
"I believe I received a call from you and Sonic, is that correct, Mr. Prower?" said the President, eying Miles as if he were some sort of criminal, which he supposed he now was.
"Yes, Sir. My friends are stuck downstairs in one of your security mechanisms, I think." Replied Miles.
"Proceed." Said the President, nodding towards a discrete button hidden on a bust of the founder of the town, Clark Lightfoot, the first ever animal founder, and a distant relative of Johnny Lightfoot, a deceased rabbit who used to be a Freedom Fighter years ago, before he was killed, by what Sonic believed was his fault.
Miles walked over, tipped back the head, and pushed the button. He heard shouts of excitement from downstairs, and suddenly, Sonic was standing beside him.
Chapter 13: The Other Emeralds
"So…" began Sonic. "We need the Chaos Emeralds, you've got 'em."
"I see no reason to give you the Emeralds, but if there was a good reason, my mind my be differed. Continue." Replied the President. Sonic gave the story about the asteroid, and why he needed the Emeralds. The President gave in.
"I trust you shall return these unharmed to me, Sonic. Hero or no hero, it will be your head on the block. Good day, gentlemen."
Sonic had thought it best not to say anything about Robotnik, nor about Rouge, who had previously worked for the government. And he hadn't mentioned anything about Gerald either. Where was Gerald anyway? Maybe he hitched a ride with Robotnik in the place of Knuckles, but Sonic didn't have time to think of that now, he and Miles were holding three Chaos Emeralds each, and getting out without drawing attention had been hard, luckily though, it seemed the excitement had died down, and no one noticed Sonic and Miles walking out with the most powerful devices on Mobius. There was only one thing stronger, but they had only ever appeared once, and were not worth thinking about. But Sonic and Miles were in for a huge surprise when they reached the front door.
Chapter 14: The Truth behind Eggman
Robotnik was rather pleased with himself. Not only had he managed to corner the pesky Sonic and crew, but also he had himself a lovely set of Emeralds to toy with. As soon as Sonic and Miles had come out of the door, they had met Robotnik in his Mecha Walker, pointing his gun at the two.
"Hand over the Emeralds, or I'll take them from you…" growled Robotnik. Sonic's mouth hung open in disgust.
"What? This was all some hoax to get your hands on the Emeralds? No way!" replied Sonic, and with that, he leaped into the air, and kicked the gun out of Robotnik's hand, when Gerald caught it, and shot Sonic. A blue beam of light shot from the end of the gun, before anyone could see what happened.
"Kugh!" yelled Sonic, as he laid on the floor, the Emeralds the least of his worries. Gerald reached out, picked up the Emeralds, handed them to Robotnik, and pointed the gun at Miles, who was leaning over Sonic, shaking him. The gun hot again, and in the fright Miles dropped the Emeralds, although he had not been hit. Gerald picked these up and handed them to Robotnik once again.
"Goodbye, Sonic, my most admirable adversary. And to you, Fox Boy." Said Robotnik, as he stormed off in his Walker, heading towards his hidden base back in the Pyramids, Gerald at his side.
It had been all too easy to trick Sonic into thinking the asteroid was going to hit Mobius. Not long after, while Sonic was in the Mystic Caves, Robotnik had detected that the Asteroid was in fact not on a collision course at all, but the fact that Sonic was helping him gather the Emeralds made him stick with it. He had devised a new plan or the Emeralds now… And to start, he'd need some trace of Shadow from the ARK.
Once inside his pyramid base, he set the teleporter back to "ARK", and set off, with Gerald still shadowing him.
Chapter 15: Gerald and Robotnik
Gerald couldn't see how he had been so foolish as to believe Sonic and his gang were the good guys. No, Robotnik had taught him of their plans to bring pain and suffering to the world. That was why he had to do something. He had been let in on the secret that the Asteroid was going to miss Mobius, and had been told that the plan all along was to help get the Chaos Emeralds, to stop Sonic from becoming powerful. Now that Robotnik had them, he could rule in a peaceful and friendly manner, Gerald at his side. But for that to come true, they needed one other member of the team. A hedgehog Robotnik called Shadow. He was the reason they were in the ARK; Robotnik had to find some DNA, i.e. a hair, or a flake of skin of the hedgehog to clone him. He had told Gerald that Shadow had gone soft, and went over to the dark side. Sonic's side. So they needed to extract the gene of all past memories, so that they could mould his brain into a new, more powerful Shadow. But first they needed a strand of DNA. At least Sonic was out of the way, having been shot with that gun, he couldn't ruin his plans now.
Chapter 16: Two of every animal aboard he ARK, or at least two Echidnas…
Knuckles was not pleased.
"That two faced brat is gonna get it! No one kills any member of the team and lives to tell it! Huh?"
A sudden movement made Knuckles look away.
"Ugh…"
"Sonic's alive? Alright Sonic!" yelled Miles excitedly. Sonic tried a few times to stand up, and eventually had to rely on Knuckles and Miles to hold him up. Miles tried to get some sense out of Sonic, but all he managed to hear was: 'Eggman… Eggman's…'
"He headed back off towards the pyramid base. Tails, remember the way?" said Knuckles, as he was next in line for command when Sonic was out for the count. Miles nodded.
Soon after a drive, fly, and many journalist escapes, they reached the pyramids. Sonic was coming round, but the biggest thing they heard out of him was still 'Eggman's got the…"
Miles once again used the Cyclone to blast a hole in a wall, this time of the pyramid, as stealth was not the main interest anymore, but they were not greeted by Robotnik, nor a security system, not even a robot. The group, all except Sonic, came to the conclusion that he must have used the teleporter in the heart of the pyramid, which after many Cyclone attacks, was not hard to find. It was set to ARK, and so they headed off, the entire crew, of the most powerful influences on Mobius, all on one vessel. One hedgehog, one fox, one bat, one human, and two echidnas.
Chapter 17: Shadow's Return
"Aha!"
Robotnik had found something.
"Look, Gerald! A flake of skin from Shadow!" Robotnik said as he held out a tiny piece of dust-like skin to Gerald. Robotnik took it to the space station's ancient lab, and began examining the DNA sample he had been able to gather from the skin.
"Hmm… Ha! Yes…" said Robotnik triumphantly as he showed Gerald the computer screen, which displayed Shadow's genes, with one tiny molecule missing. He told Gerald that the molecule was that of all past memories, and that this meant Shadow would not be as weak as to move over to the other side, as he had once before.
"I can mould Shadow's brain, until I have a perfect ally with which to destroy Sonic's Freedom Fighters, so that we are left with no further obstacles in our path towards ruling the world! In our peaceful manner, of course." Gerald was told. Robotnik pressed another few buttons on the ancient keypad. "We shall return in an hour. Shadow's clone shall be ready by then." The Doctor grinned from ear to ear as his plans for world domination came true.
Chapter 18: Shut Up Faker!
"Agh… I'll get that Eggman!" said Sonic, rather angry at being fooled. He seemed to be more gullible than Knuckles recently. "We have to find him! He can't hide here, can he? Hmm… What the…? Kuugh!" A blast of white light invaded the group's eyes. Shadow walked up to Sonic and smiled.
"Hello." He said, in his raspy, dry voice.
"Shadow? But you…" Sonic trailed off. He'd rather not relive the memory of Shadow's death. Just as quickly as Shadow had appeared, Robotnik appeared behind him. Gerald, as always, was close behind. Shadow looked up at the rather rounded Doctor and smiled.
"Is this them, Doctor?" he asked Robotnik.
"Indeed Shadow. Proceed." Replied the Doctor, also smiling, surprisingly like Shadow.
"Shadow, what ar… AGH!" said Sonic, as Shadow home attacked in on Sonic and the crew. "Shadow!" yelled Sonic, but he thought he had better piece the story together before he accused him.
Shadow dead… New Shadow under Robotnik's ruling… Robotnik after Emeralds for some reason… Clone.
"That's not Shadow!" screamed Sonic.
"I'm as much Shadow as you are blue, blue hedgehog."
"Shut up faker!" cried Sonic as he leapt at the Shadow clone.
"Chaos Control!" Shadow flashed once, then disappeared.
"But he didn't have an Emerald… And why are you guys just standing there? Help out!" yelled Sonic to the stationary crew, who seemed to have just woken up, having been yelled at.
"Very observant, spikeball." Said the Doctor. "The energy used to create the clone came from the Chaos Emeralds, so all that energy is now stored, and he does not need to be in contact to harness enough Chaos energy."
"So the Chaos energy means he'll be more powerful too… Tails! Head back for the Tornado! I'll stall things back here."
"But Sonic…" protested Tails.
"NOW!" screamed Sonic, and Miles ran off back the way they came.
Chapter 18: Hedgehog Vacuum
Miles headed off back to the teleporter room as fast as his short fox legs would carry him, constantly hoping that Sonic was okay. When he reached it, he set the booster up to move back faster, and headed back down the narrow pathways back to the action.
"Wah!" screamed Miles as he almost ran straight into one of the old Military robots he had woken up with his noise. He shot it swiftly and continued running back towards the Sonic and Shadow fight.
In a few minutes he returned to the area of a fight and saw Sonic having Shadow cornered. Sonic flashed Miles a look and nodded his head slightly. Miles looked over to the area Sonic had nodded at, and noticed a dynamite pack over one of the vacuum ports. Miles shook his head at Sonic, but Sonic shot an angry look at him, and Miles knew he had no choice.
Sonic slowly backed away from the cornered Shadow, confusing him for a while. Shadow came out of the corner and leapt at Sonic, who darted this way and that, avoiding Shadow. Lastly, he stood right in front of the dynamite pack and waited for Shadow to lunge. He nodded at Miles. Shadow threw himself at Sonic, but Sonic didn't move, even after Miles fired the Volkan Cannon at the dynamite pack.
"Sonic!" he yelled as both Sonic and Shadow were sucked out into the vacuum and out into the remains of the rails and mini platforms of the space outside the ARK.
Prologue: A Little Late?
Gerald hit his alarm clock. It stopped ringing. Gerald got up, and headed for the fridge to get breakfast. Gerald was an Echidna, dark red in colour, and he was about 3'6" tall. Today was the first day of the new SmackBall season. Gerald was looking forward to it. He never missed the first pitch of a SmackBall game, especially the first of the season. The game was due to begin at 2:00 pm. It was currently 12:27 in the afternoon, and Gerald wasn't worried about missing the game. He took out a couple of Sodas and some Peanuts, ready for the game. He was going to see the game with his friend, who was a Kitsune who claimed to be related to the famous Miles Prower. Of course, Gerald didn't believe this. He sat down, opened a Soda, and turned on the T.V. It was the news. Gerald was too bored to change it, so he just watched. The news reporter was saying something about the escape of a prisoner he couldn't hear the name of. The reporter was stuttering and sounded nervous. All Gerald got was "Ive" as a name.
"In other news…" said the reporter. Gerald was too tired to listen, but too excited to fall asleep.
"…SmackBall…" Gerald sat up, wide eyed. It was amazing that someone could get from the foetal position on a couch to sitting upright so quickly.
"Due to a prediction of rain in the later afternoon, that first SmackBall game of the season has been…" Gerald's heart sank. "… put forward to 1 pm. Make sure you don't miss the game!" Gerald turned off the T.V. and looked at his watch. It was 12:47. Gerald was going to be late for the first time ever. He grabbed his SmackBall cap and ran out the door.
1 Chapter 1: The Lone Echidna
Knuckles sat at his usual post next to the Shrine of the Master Emerald. He was sleeping, but he was having disturbing thoughts about the past few days. The Master Emerald had been showing strange pictures and giving sounds. They got clearer every day, but because of the power it needed to keep the Island afloat after the numerous crashes into the sea, they were still not getting enough power. Knuckles had recognised one picture as being a large grey rock, against a black background, and the other picture as a ball of fire, possibly the Sun, or another star. The sounds it was making were slightly stuttering, but were crackles like lots of paper being scrunched at the same time. Knuckles did not know what any of this meant, but the only time the Master Emerald used its energy to show things like this was when something was very important. Knuckles was not pleased about it at all. He hated it when the Master Emerald showed things. Every time it had they had been about bad things. The Egg Carrier, Robotnik, they were all bad, and they had all been shown at one point or another. Knuckles drifted off into a heavier sleep, not knowing what the Emerald would show tomorrow.
Chapter 2: Pain Induced Dreams
"What do you mean 'No Ticket'? SCRAM!"
Gerald had left his ticket at home in the rush. But Gerald had a few skills to avoid this unpleasantness. He'd had pointed knuckles since as far back as he could remember. He found out he could use these to climb walls. Gerald ran round the back of the stadium, and took 2 minutes to climb up the wall. It was 12:58, and the first pitch was always on the exact start time. He reached the top of the wall and looked for his would-be seat. He dropped down into the back row and made his way over to it, stepping on numerous people to reach it. He sat down next to his Kitsune friend, who said: "Where have you been? I thought you wouldn't make it!"
Gerald replied, "I got caught up. A problem with the ticket apparently." His friend nodded. They were sitting in the 3rd row from the front, and they could see the action clearly.
"PLAY BALL!" yelled the commentator, from the general location of a hidden speaker.
The game of SmackBall was a simple one. Much like Baseball, a pitcher threw a ball at a batter. The batter had to hit the ball as far as possible, then, a selection of either teams' Fetchers had to run towards it, pick it up, and get it to either the back left, or back right corner of the field to score a point. Home Runs (where the ball landed in the team's corner) would win 2 points, but if it landed on anywhere except the corner of the side, it was a foul and lost a point. Hitting it into the other player's Home Run area would gain them 3 points, and lose you 2. Nothing could be simpler than that, except perhaps football, which requires hardly any logic to understand.
Gerald's local team were doing well, beating the Knothole team by 6 points so far. Suddenly, Gerald's dreams came true. His team had made a way out foul. The ball was heading straight towards the crowd, in the direction of Gerald. Everyone in the area stood up to catch it, but Gerald was the first up, but, instead of catching it, it hit him in the face, knocking him out cold.
While unconscious, Gerald had a dream. He dreamed of fire, and suffering, and of death. He dreamed of green, glistening light, and of voices. Voices telling him to wake up, that he was needed. Then, he woke up, sweating from the intensity of the dream.
Chapter 3: The Chambers Of The Pyramid
Dr. Ivo Robotnik was glad to be away from the hassle of the police. After escaping from jail on charges of attempted World Domination, he had headed to his hidden base in the desert. He hadn't been there since the whole incident with the ARK. He had noticed for a few days a tiny dot in the sky, too small for the naked eye, but he had powerful equipment. He had made it out to be an asteroid, and his calculations said it would hit Mobius sometime within the next 3 to 5 days. He had planned an expedition to reach it and destroy it, but the government had found the Chaos Emeralds, which were necessary for his current plan. He needed to come up with a new one, or one to get the Chaos Emeralds, but the only way he could locate the Chaos Emeralds would be with his energy scanner, which was lost on the ARK. There was only one alternative. The Master Emerald could reveal the locations of the Chaos Emeralds. But, the only person who knew the location of the Master Emerald was Knuckles. And the only person to know the location of him was Sonic, but where to find him? Luckily, the essential life data of Sonic from the scanner used to make Hyper Metal Sonic had been retained. Ivo could easily find Sonic now, by transferring the data to a satellite, which would track down Sonic.
After a couple of hours, he had located Sonic as being in Emerald Coast, and he set off to find him.
Chapter 4: A Rude Awakening
Sonic lay on his lounger, remembering time of when he ran through this Zone with nothing more in mind than to free animals. But now, all he had on his mind was to relax. Sonic was currently asleep, and Miles was out on the surf on his jet powered body board, which had lasted surprisingly long, considering Miles' steering skills. Sonic was dreaming. He was dreaming of Super Sonic, and suddenly, there was a thud, and the dream blacked out. Sonic woke to find himself face to face with Robotnik.
"Sonic," he said, "This is highly unusual. But I need your help."
"No way, Eggman!" replied Sonic, rather angry at being woken for no reason. "What do you need my help for anyway? Hey… Where's Tails?"
"Fox Boy is safe, he's underwater, knocked down by a wave, and he hasn't seen me. The whole World is in danger, Sonic. And only you can save it."
"Yea, right. Just like I needed to save us from 'Metal Robotnik'." Sonic prodded Robotnik's nose, out of boredom. Robotnik handed Sonic his portable telescope.
"Sonic, it's hard to see in daylight, but that light grey dot is an asteroid, and it WILL hit Mobius if I don't stop it! I need to find the Chaos Eme…" Robotnik didn't finish. Sonic was running to the observatory on the bridge. When Robotnik caught up, Sonic was looking worried.
"How can we stop it then?" he said.
"I need to know the locations of the Chaos Emeralds, but for that I need the Master Emerald, and for that Knuckles, and for that… you."
"We'll need to find Tails first. He has the Tornado, and he's the only one who can get us to the Floating Island." With that, Sonic sped off, and ran to the coastline.
"Tails!" he yelled as the orange blob in the water. "Tails! We need the Tornado! To reach the Floating Island! It's urgent!" Miles flew towards the coast with his body board in his hand. Then he saw Robotnik.
"Eggman!" he said in surprise. Sonic stopped him.
"Tails, don't argue, take me and Eggman to the Master Emerald shrine."
After a long train journey to the Mystic Ruins where Miles' hangar was located, they took off and headed for the Floating Island.
Chapter 5: The Location Of The Chaos Emeralds
"What the…?" Knuckles was surprised to see Sonic and Miles coming towards the Island in the Tornado, and even more surprised when they landed about 17 feet away from him. But this was nothing compared to the surprise he had when he saw Robotnik climbing out of the Tornado.
"Eggman!" Knuckles stood closer to the Master Emerald. "What are you doing with Sonic and Tails?" Knuckles put up his fists.
"Relax Knuckles, Eggman's here with us. We need a little info from you, to save the world. Nothing important, really." Replied Sonic. Knuckles did not move, and more importantly, did not put down his fists.
"What's he got you into this time, Sonic?" Knuckles asked. "And what sort of information do you need?"
"An asteroid is going to hit Mobius! We need the Chaos Emeralds to stop it, and we can find their location from you." Said Robotnik, before Sonic could say anything to further angry Knuckles.
"I'm a guardian of the Master Emerald, not the…"
"We know. That's why you're important. The Emeralds act as magnets, do they not Tails?" Tails nodded at Robotnik "Now, we can use an Emerald to find other Emeralds. The Master Emerald should be no different. We just need to find out where the government is keeping the Emeralds, and then we leave you in peace. A five minute test is all we need."
"Sonic, if anything goes wrong, it's your head on the block…" said Knuckles, submissively. A few minutes later, Robotnik sat up and produced a rectangular gadget that had been attached to the Master Emerald.
"They're being held by G.U.N. in The White House. Well, six of them are. The other is… in the Mystic Caves back on Mobius… We should go for that one first, it'll be the hardest to find." Said Robotnik, rather pleased with the results of him technology.
Chapter 6: Gerald's Calling
Gerald lay awake in bed that night, ignoring his throbbing forehead, and concentrating more on the dreams he'd had whilst he was unconscious. He knew not what they meant, but he was going to find out, somehow.
He remembered little of what had happened during the dream, but not many would, it was rather painful, and that would cause memory loss in anyone. All Gerald could remember was seeing a mental map of The Floating Island upon which he lived. On this map in his mind he saw various places he knew, and a few he didn't. One of these he didn't looked like an ancient ruin, but this ruin was flashing. It has been flashing many colours, but most of all green. He had remembered the location of this ruin like structure; it had been on the southeast section of the island, next to the fiery areas of the Lava Reef zone, where Gerald had once been as a young child. All this intrigued Gerald. He did not know at the moment, but tomorrow he would have another dream, and this dream would tell him to plan a trip to this area. But he didn't know this yet, so he slowly fell asleep, unconscious for the second time today.
Chapter 7: The Grey Chaos Emerald
Sonic led the way through the Mystic Caves, crashing through any of the remaining badniks from when Robotnik was in control of this land. But it was when Robotnik started singing "Memories" that Sonic had a lengthy discussion about the disgust he felt about Robotnik at the moment.
"The signal from the Emerald is growing stronger. We must be going the right way, Sonic." Said Miles having taken the scanner from Robotnik.
"Ok, Tails! Which way now?" replied Sonic enthusiastically. But before Miles could answer, a voice spoke out from the darkness.
"Stop!" The voice sounded surprisingly familiar. Robotnik recognised it immediately.
"Rouge?" Robotnik looked into the darkness. "What are you doing here?" Rouge stepped out into what would be described as light if there had been more of it.
"I'm a bat. This is a cave. Put the two together." She said, in a voice that connoted pity for the man with a supposed IQ of 300.
Robotnik muttered something under his breath, and then spoke out loud.
"We have reason to believe a Chaos Emerald is located in this cave. Being a treasure hunter, we wondered if you would know anything about it? Hmm?" Rouge paced up and down.
"I might. If I did know and did tell you, what's in it for me?" Rouge said, hinting that she may exchange jewels for the Emerald, that was, if she had it.
"The future of the planet. We need the Emeralds to stop an asteroid on a collision course with Mobius. That's what." Said Sonic, calm as usual. This had been the first time he had spoken to Rouge in a long time, but, Miles, Robotnik, and especially Knuckles had been keeping in touch with her.
"Well, I'm afraid I don't have it. Anymore. It was taken by one of the badniks in this Zone. It must have been your programming that told it to take any Emeralds it saw, am I right, Doctor?" replied Rouge.
"Quite right, Rouge. Well, there can't be too many badniks left in this Zone… Right Sonic?" Everyone looked at Sonic. It looked like it was going to be up to him to find the Emerald… But what happens is not always what it would seem… While Sonic was getting ready to get through the Zone and destroy all Robotnik's robots, a gloved fist with pointed knuckles came up through the ground.
"Knuckles! Just the guy we wanted to see!" Cried Sonic, glad at the thought that he wouldn't have to search for the Emerald alone.
Chapter 8: Echidnopolis
Gerald had reached the ruins he had seen in his dreams. They were just as he had remembered them from his dream, down to every last detail, although he had never been here. It had been a long journey, as there were no roads and no trains going to this part of the island. But when he reached the centre of the ruins, he found a nasty surprise.
He had found some sort of shrine, and the green light from his dreams was shining bright from the top of it. At he base of the shrine sat a red creature. He looked just like Gerald, except slightly lighter, and a white chest stripe instead of black. Before Gerald could go to take a closer look, the Gerald look-alike was charging at Gerald yelling: "No more disguises Dr. Zachary!"
Confused and impressed by the speed at which the Echidna was approaching him, Gerald instinctively burrowed underground. The other Echidna had not followed. Questions were racing through Gerald's mind: Who was that? Who was Dr. Zachary? And why did he seem so angry with Gerald? He surfaced minutes later, looking for air, and found himself in a cave, surrounded by two heroes of Mobius, the villain, and a complete stranger to Gerald's mind.
"Knuckles! Just the guy we wanted to see!" yelled the blue hero, known as Sonic. "We need your help again, buddy. We found the Chaos Emeralds, but we… Tails!" Sonic stopped abruptly. The Kitsune, known as Miles 'Tails' Prower was pulling at his arm with a little too much force to be comfortable.
"That's not Knuckles, Sonic." Said Miles, pointing at Gerald's chest stripe. "Knuckles has a white stripe."
"So who's this?" said the bat, obviously very interested in the newcomer. Gerald spoke.
"I'm an Echidna from a little known town of the other side of the island. I saw another echidna not far from here, near a green light. Is that Knuckles?"
"Yes…" said Sonic, sounding disappointed. "Well, guess it's up to me to find the Chaos Emerald still…"
Chapter 9: Mystic Cave Ins
"Hey Sonic! Wait up!"
Miles was calling after him, just when he was about to start searching.
"Gerald here says he can feel some strange energy, much in the same way that Knuckles did when you used the Chaos Control aboard the ARK. I thought it might be some sort of link between Echidnas and the Emeralds! I've hooked Eggman's scanner up to Gerald, but he can't go very far, or the signal's lost, but this means we should get a clearer idea of where the Emerald is!"
"Alright Tails! Where is it?" was Sonic's eager reply.
"About half a mile due North East of here. It's got a swarm of Badniks arming it though, but the scanner may be wrong…" But Sonic didn't hear the last bit; he had already left in search of the Emerald.
During his travels, he had acquired quite a good sense of distance, and he had no trouble in finding the area, which Miles had described. Well, that is if you don't call getting caught in a spike pit once or twice an inconvenience, but he got to the end in one piece, nevertheless. But he had been wrong about one thing. There were no Badniks in the area at all, but he also could not see the Emerald. Then, something caught his eye. A tint of grey, shining from behind an old mass of vines. The Chaos Emerald.
"It's all too easy for me!" said Sonic, smugly to himself as he walked towards the clump of vines and pulled them apart, delved his hand into them, and pulled out something, which was quite different from the Emerald. To Sonic's knowledge of the Emeralds, which expanded quite far, the Emerald didn't have body segments, spines, large teeth, and indeed did not try to gnaw your arm off. He had pulled out a Catterkiller. Sonic quickly pulled away and went into a Spin-Dash, quickly destroying the robot, but the noise seemed to awake it's dormant brothers. It didn't even seem weird to Sonic that Caterkillers didn't lurk in the Mystic Caves, and it was not apparent to him that this one had fallen through the thin ceiling, which led to the Marble Zone above. But the noise of the Badniks local to the Mystic Caves was not the only noise Sonic heard. It seemed the rumbling caused by the ancient programming starting up again had caused tiny tremors within the ground, which led up the wall, and onto the thin ceiling, which was already weak from the Catterkiller's hole. There was going to be a cave in, and Sonic was too deep to get out, even if he ran now and left the Emerald. He had to find a way; everyone was depending on him. He cast his mind back to times when he may have heard of something like this… His mind blanked, but then, when all hope seemed lost, he thought of Shadow. Shadow had been good in tight spots, and even better at Emerald stealing, but Sonic had little time to think, as he had to keep fighting off Badniks. Suddenly, the thought of Shadow brought an idea into his mind. He reached out for the Chaos Emerald, but as he did so, a sharp stalactite from the ceiling drove its way into Sonic's arm. He writhed in pain, still reaching for the Emerald. After many minutes, he reached it, and pulled it towards him, with what little strength he had left, he had the time to call 'Chaos Control!' before passing out.
Chapter 10: One Worried Echidna
Knuckles, having chased away the intruder, sat down beside his Emerald once again. I thought Dr. Zachary was dead, or had at least given up years ago he thought, and then it struck him that Dr. Zachary was indeed dead, as Knuckles had witnessed his death himself.
Still, another Echidna was bad news as far as Knuckles was concerned, he had seen many of his kind, in ancient Echidnopolis, but that was before he was even born. Any Echidnas seen in the present day had always been trouble.
He slowly walked over to the hole where the intruder had dug down, but a loud sound, rather like static on the radio, began behind him, and a blinding green light flashed in front of his eyes. In the temporary blindness, he assumed something had happened to the Master Emerald, and he began to run back towards it, without having adjusted to the dusk-like lighting around him, and due to this, he ran head first into something large, round, and heavy, as Knuckles found out when it fell on top of him.
"Agh!" yelled Doctor Robotnik as he pulled himself up from the ground. Knuckles now recognised what had happened, Sonic had used the Chaos Control, a move that Shadow, a hedgehog deceased, had taught him, through carelessness. But the real thing that caught Kuckles's eye was the dark red Echidna.
"Hey you!" he yelled in a mix of anger and confusion. The other echidna squealed a rather girlish "Eep" and hid behind Sonic.
"Hey Knux, he's with us, don't worry!" Sonic said, hoping to cool Knuckles down.
"What was that?" said the dark red Echidna.
"Later, Gerald. Knux! What's up? We found the Emerald, and we found something that may interest you too…" said Sonic, as he stepped to the side, and Knuckles realised what he meant.
"Rouge! What are you doing here?" Knuckles half yelled, half asked, but the Bat merely sighed and looked at the shrine of the Master Emerald longingly. She had not changed; she still loved her gems more than anything.
Chapter 11: The Next Stage
Sonic sat up.
"Well, that's the hardest part done, and they say that the Grey Emerald is the most elusive. It seems it really doesn't want to be found… Hmm… Where was it next Tails?"
Miles replied, eager to be of help to his hero, Sonic.
"G.U.N… They'd better let us do this, or this is going to be a big problem… Tails! Remember when you traced Eggman's call in the President's Limo last year?" Miles nodded. "Did you get his number too?" He nodded again. "Right, have you got your communicator?" Miles said nothing, nor did he nod his head, nor shake it. "Oh… Tails! Can you even remember his number?"
"Of course, would I forget the number of such an important person?" replied he. Miles had a good head for numbers. It had never really been tested, but Miles machines could match the power of the Doctor's so it was assumed Miles IQ was at least around 300 too.
"Don't worry Sonic…" said Robotnik, with the first hint of sympathy he'd ever heard in his voice, and for Miles was even more unusual, the only person he hated more than Sonic was Miles, because of his ability to formulate plans, beat security, and create a robot good enough to defeat legions of the Doctor's own. "I have my own phone with me…" he continued, as he rummaged around in the inside pocket of his overlarge, even for him, red tailcoat. "What's the number Fox boy?" said the Doctor, back to his usual state of loathing for the Kitsune. He gave the number to the Doctor, and the phone started to ring; a secretary answered it.
"Hello, Presidential Estate." Said the monotone secretary.
"We need to speak to the president, quickly." Said Miles, as they thought the most wanted man in history could have caused a state of emergency if he called the President for the second time in two years, this time demanding the Chaos Emeralds.
"I'm sorry, he's preoccupied right now." Said the secretary, obviously lying to stop anyone talking to the President. The secretary heard a few faint muffled noises, and then heard the voice of the most famous person on the planet Mobius.
"Hey! For a secretary, you're a bad liar, put us through now!" said Sonic, in a tone not normally used by him. "Don't worry, just pass a message, we'll be at the White House in a couple of hours, we need the Chaos Emeralds! The planet is in danger, and we have one of seven, and we have reason to believe G.U.N. is storing the other six. No, don't answer, just tell him to get to the White House, right now!"
Sonic hung up, and then noticed everyone staring at him.
"What?"
Chapter 12: Missionary Miles
"Right," Miles began "Sonic and I will take the Tornado, Eggman can take his Eggcraft, and Rouge I hear is a pretty good driver, take Route 106."
"Hey, what about me?" Knuckles voice rang out in the silence of the noon sun. "I can come too, the Emerald can always protect itself. It has powers you don't know of." Knuckles added when everyone was looking at him with puzzled expressions.
"I hate to say it, but could you hitch a ride with Eggman? I don't think Rouge's Kart has enough room for t…" Miles didn't finish.
"He can ride with me!" piped Rouge, loudly. The crew nodded, and they set out to their various vehicles; Rouge was keeping her Kart in a cave not far from the Mystic Ruins entrance.
Sonic, Miles and Robotnik had no problems, as they were flying, but the had to keep circling to slow down to allow for Rouge and Knuckles to get through traffic jams. When they reached the town, Sonic found few fond memories; this town was where he was hunted as a wanted Hedgehog, and then arrested, twice. He had narrowly escaped.
Once all safely inside, their transport safely hidden in one of the Human garages, they made their way to the White House, located at the heart of the city. A few funny looks from passing Humans did not deter the band from carefully hastily making their way towards the building, but some wet cement, and some busy roads did for a while, and even more noticeably, the Doctor was finding it hard to keep in his rather tight fitting disguise, he was still a wanted man. They reached the edge of the huge estate in which the President lived. Unusually, security seemed very slack today; there was no gate guard, the gates themselves were wide open, and the front door was wide open. Also, the Limo was nowhere to be found, and the group concluded the President might not be there yet, so they requested for Miles to stay at the gate to keep a lookout, while the remaining members made their way into the building, but no sooner had they reached the front door, and got into the foyer, security doors closed on every side, even over the top, to form a compact metal box, with tiny cracks to allow air in. Sonic had been expecting something like this, and used his walkie-talkie to contact Miles, and tell him to get the Tornado, and put it into attack mode; he was going to have to storm the White House, an offence that could cause life imprisonment, but, as they all knew, life imprisonment for the Sonic crew could be from one week to about four hours.
Miles set off towards the garage where the Tornado lay, and surprisingly, no one was eying it suspiciously, which was good. Miles had been known for his inventions, so apart from a few autograph seekers, he didn't draw too much attention, even in the huge walker moving slowly along the street, but, unfortunately, attention was drawn when Miles entered the gates to the White House, and Miles had a hard time fighting off a reporter for a local newspaper.
Once near the front door, he got some orders from Sonic: "Around the back, blast through the wall if necessary, and make your way towards the President's office on the top floor, and find the release for this cage, but do not under any circumstances hurt anyone. Got that?"
Miles brought the machine round to the back, and unsurprisingly, there was no back door entrance. He feared what would happen to him if he was caught, but he charged up the Cyclone to low power, and blasted a hole in the wall. The people inside, businessmen, secretaries and others were scared out of their wits and were diving under tables and between bookcases, but Miles ignored them, and headed towards the stairs, leading up to the top floor. In the walker, which was not good at uphill climbs, it would have taken hours, so he jumped out, and started to run up the many flights of stairs.
When he reached the top, he met another apparent lack of security, and all that could be seen inside the President's office, which Miles was currently standing in the doorway of, was the President.
"I believe I received a call from you and Sonic, is that correct, Mr. Prower?" said the President, eying Miles as if he were some sort of criminal, which he supposed he now was.
"Yes, Sir. My friends are stuck downstairs in one of your security mechanisms, I think." Replied Miles.
"Proceed." Said the President, nodding towards a discrete button hidden on a bust of the founder of the town, Clark Lightfoot, the first ever animal founder, and a distant relative of Johnny Lightfoot, a deceased rabbit who used to be a Freedom Fighter years ago, before he was killed, by what Sonic believed was his fault.
Miles walked over, tipped back the head, and pushed the button. He heard shouts of excitement from downstairs, and suddenly, Sonic was standing beside him.
Chapter 13: The Other Emeralds
"So…" began Sonic. "We need the Chaos Emeralds, you've got 'em."
"I see no reason to give you the Emeralds, but if there was a good reason, my mind my be differed. Continue." Replied the President. Sonic gave the story about the asteroid, and why he needed the Emeralds. The President gave in.
"I trust you shall return these unharmed to me, Sonic. Hero or no hero, it will be your head on the block. Good day, gentlemen."
Sonic had thought it best not to say anything about Robotnik, nor about Rouge, who had previously worked for the government. And he hadn't mentioned anything about Gerald either. Where was Gerald anyway? Maybe he hitched a ride with Robotnik in the place of Knuckles, but Sonic didn't have time to think of that now, he and Miles were holding three Chaos Emeralds each, and getting out without drawing attention had been hard, luckily though, it seemed the excitement had died down, and no one noticed Sonic and Miles walking out with the most powerful devices on Mobius. There was only one thing stronger, but they had only ever appeared once, and were not worth thinking about. But Sonic and Miles were in for a huge surprise when they reached the front door.
Chapter 14: The Truth behind Eggman
Robotnik was rather pleased with himself. Not only had he managed to corner the pesky Sonic and crew, but also he had himself a lovely set of Emeralds to toy with. As soon as Sonic and Miles had come out of the door, they had met Robotnik in his Mecha Walker, pointing his gun at the two.
"Hand over the Emeralds, or I'll take them from you…" growled Robotnik. Sonic's mouth hung open in disgust.
"What? This was all some hoax to get your hands on the Emeralds? No way!" replied Sonic, and with that, he leaped into the air, and kicked the gun out of Robotnik's hand, when Gerald caught it, and shot Sonic. A blue beam of light shot from the end of the gun, before anyone could see what happened.
"Kugh!" yelled Sonic, as he laid on the floor, the Emeralds the least of his worries. Gerald reached out, picked up the Emeralds, handed them to Robotnik, and pointed the gun at Miles, who was leaning over Sonic, shaking him. The gun hot again, and in the fright Miles dropped the Emeralds, although he had not been hit. Gerald picked these up and handed them to Robotnik once again.
"Goodbye, Sonic, my most admirable adversary. And to you, Fox Boy." Said Robotnik, as he stormed off in his Walker, heading towards his hidden base back in the Pyramids, Gerald at his side.
It had been all too easy to trick Sonic into thinking the asteroid was going to hit Mobius. Not long after, while Sonic was in the Mystic Caves, Robotnik had detected that the Asteroid was in fact not on a collision course at all, but the fact that Sonic was helping him gather the Emeralds made him stick with it. He had devised a new plan or the Emeralds now… And to start, he'd need some trace of Shadow from the ARK.
Once inside his pyramid base, he set the teleporter back to "ARK", and set off, with Gerald still shadowing him.
Chapter 15: Gerald and Robotnik
Gerald couldn't see how he had been so foolish as to believe Sonic and his gang were the good guys. No, Robotnik had taught him of their plans to bring pain and suffering to the world. That was why he had to do something. He had been let in on the secret that the Asteroid was going to miss Mobius, and had been told that the plan all along was to help get the Chaos Emeralds, to stop Sonic from becoming powerful. Now that Robotnik had them, he could rule in a peaceful and friendly manner, Gerald at his side. But for that to come true, they needed one other member of the team. A hedgehog Robotnik called Shadow. He was the reason they were in the ARK; Robotnik had to find some DNA, i.e. a hair, or a flake of skin of the hedgehog to clone him. He had told Gerald that Shadow had gone soft, and went over to the dark side. Sonic's side. So they needed to extract the gene of all past memories, so that they could mould his brain into a new, more powerful Shadow. But first they needed a strand of DNA. At least Sonic was out of the way, having been shot with that gun, he couldn't ruin his plans now.
Chapter 16: Two of every animal aboard he ARK, or at least two Echidnas…
Knuckles was not pleased.
"That two faced brat is gonna get it! No one kills any member of the team and lives to tell it! Huh?"
A sudden movement made Knuckles look away.
"Ugh…"
"Sonic's alive? Alright Sonic!" yelled Miles excitedly. Sonic tried a few times to stand up, and eventually had to rely on Knuckles and Miles to hold him up. Miles tried to get some sense out of Sonic, but all he managed to hear was: 'Eggman… Eggman's…'
"He headed back off towards the pyramid base. Tails, remember the way?" said Knuckles, as he was next in line for command when Sonic was out for the count. Miles nodded.
Soon after a drive, fly, and many journalist escapes, they reached the pyramids. Sonic was coming round, but the biggest thing they heard out of him was still 'Eggman's got the…"
Miles once again used the Cyclone to blast a hole in a wall, this time of the pyramid, as stealth was not the main interest anymore, but they were not greeted by Robotnik, nor a security system, not even a robot. The group, all except Sonic, came to the conclusion that he must have used the teleporter in the heart of the pyramid, which after many Cyclone attacks, was not hard to find. It was set to ARK, and so they headed off, the entire crew, of the most powerful influences on Mobius, all on one vessel. One hedgehog, one fox, one bat, one human, and two echidnas.
Chapter 17: Shadow's Return
"Aha!"
Robotnik had found something.
"Look, Gerald! A flake of skin from Shadow!" Robotnik said as he held out a tiny piece of dust-like skin to Gerald. Robotnik took it to the space station's ancient lab, and began examining the DNA sample he had been able to gather from the skin.
"Hmm… Ha! Yes…" said Robotnik triumphantly as he showed Gerald the computer screen, which displayed Shadow's genes, with one tiny molecule missing. He told Gerald that the molecule was that of all past memories, and that this meant Shadow would not be as weak as to move over to the other side, as he had once before.
"I can mould Shadow's brain, until I have a perfect ally with which to destroy Sonic's Freedom Fighters, so that we are left with no further obstacles in our path towards ruling the world! In our peaceful manner, of course." Gerald was told. Robotnik pressed another few buttons on the ancient keypad. "We shall return in an hour. Shadow's clone shall be ready by then." The Doctor grinned from ear to ear as his plans for world domination came true.
Chapter 18: Shut Up Faker!
"Agh… I'll get that Eggman!" said Sonic, rather angry at being fooled. He seemed to be more gullible than Knuckles recently. "We have to find him! He can't hide here, can he? Hmm… What the…? Kuugh!" A blast of white light invaded the group's eyes. Shadow walked up to Sonic and smiled.
"Hello." He said, in his raspy, dry voice.
"Shadow? But you…" Sonic trailed off. He'd rather not relive the memory of Shadow's death. Just as quickly as Shadow had appeared, Robotnik appeared behind him. Gerald, as always, was close behind. Shadow looked up at the rather rounded Doctor and smiled.
"Is this them, Doctor?" he asked Robotnik.
"Indeed Shadow. Proceed." Replied the Doctor, also smiling, surprisingly like Shadow.
"Shadow, what ar… AGH!" said Sonic, as Shadow home attacked in on Sonic and the crew. "Shadow!" yelled Sonic, but he thought he had better piece the story together before he accused him.
Shadow dead… New Shadow under Robotnik's ruling… Robotnik after Emeralds for some reason… Clone.
"That's not Shadow!" screamed Sonic.
"I'm as much Shadow as you are blue, blue hedgehog."
"Shut up faker!" cried Sonic as he leapt at the Shadow clone.
"Chaos Control!" Shadow flashed once, then disappeared.
"But he didn't have an Emerald… And why are you guys just standing there? Help out!" yelled Sonic to the stationary crew, who seemed to have just woken up, having been yelled at.
"Very observant, spikeball." Said the Doctor. "The energy used to create the clone came from the Chaos Emeralds, so all that energy is now stored, and he does not need to be in contact to harness enough Chaos energy."
"So the Chaos energy means he'll be more powerful too… Tails! Head back for the Tornado! I'll stall things back here."
"But Sonic…" protested Tails.
"NOW!" screamed Sonic, and Miles ran off back the way they came.
Chapter 18: Hedgehog Vacuum
Miles headed off back to the teleporter room as fast as his short fox legs would carry him, constantly hoping that Sonic was okay. When he reached it, he set the booster up to move back faster, and headed back down the narrow pathways back to the action.
"Wah!" screamed Miles as he almost ran straight into one of the old Military robots he had woken up with his noise. He shot it swiftly and continued running back towards the Sonic and Shadow fight.
In a few minutes he returned to the area of a fight and saw Sonic having Shadow cornered. Sonic flashed Miles a look and nodded his head slightly. Miles looked over to the area Sonic had nodded at, and noticed a dynamite pack over one of the vacuum ports. Miles shook his head at Sonic, but Sonic shot an angry look at him, and Miles knew he had no choice.
Sonic slowly backed away from the cornered Shadow, confusing him for a while. Shadow came out of the corner and leapt at Sonic, who darted this way and that, avoiding Shadow. Lastly, he stood right in front of the dynamite pack and waited for Shadow to lunge. He nodded at Miles. Shadow threw himself at Sonic, but Sonic didn't move, even after Miles fired the Volkan Cannon at the dynamite pack.
"Sonic!" he yelled as both Sonic and Shadow were sucked out into the vacuum and out into the remains of the rails and mini platforms of the space outside the ARK.