WOOT WOOT No.4!

Disclaimer: I only own Kate, the rest belongs to Sonic Team @SEGA

Anyway, enjoy :)

*Green Hill Zone. Around noon*

The Tornado touched down on a flat strip of the checkered yellow path. When it stopped, Sally and Sonic hopped off the wings and waited as Tails clambered out of the cockpit.

Standing on the wing, Tails reached back down and retrieved two monitors. He held on to one himself, and he chucked the other down to Sally, who caught it, looking surprised. The young fox also threw down an earpiece to Sonic, who hooked it around his ear and activated it.

Sally frowned at the readings on the monitor.

"Okay, so we already have a crowd at the site," she then scowled "all of them but one are artificial apparently,"

Sonic caught on pretty quickly, and rolled his eyes.

"So we're not the only ones who noticed," he muttered.

Sally clicked her tongue in thought as she fiddled around with the small dishes at the top of the monitor.

"Unfortunately," she sighed, beckoning Sonic over "now, these satellite dishes aren't very strong, so you'll have to get up close to whatever is causing the signals,"

The cobalt hedgehog grumbled slightly as Sally handed him the monitor she had, before looking off in the direction he was going

"Why can't Nicole handle this?" he said bitterly. He turned back to look at Talks, who shrugged.

"She tried. It messed with her systems," he replied simply.

Not knowing this, Sonic raised his brow. There was very little that could interfere with Nicole's systems. It must be strong, he thought to himself. No wonder Eggman was so interested in it.

Nodding, he turned around again.

"So I just hafta stay there until you get what you need?"

"Yep. You should be able to move fast enough to avoid any detection," Sally told him, making Sonic smirk.

"Well, obviously," he chuckled, stretching his legs "I'll see you in a minute,"

With that, he sped off in the direction of the signal, leaving a trail of dust behind him.

*soon*

Sonic grinded to a halt as the energy readings suddenly spiked. He ducked behind a large rock as he heard machinery whirring away close by. He knew this place, as he had visited it many times. A huge waterfall awaited him around the corner. Although this time, he couldn't hear the crashing of the water as it tumbled off the cliff.

"Alright Sal', I'm here. You getting anything?" he whispered, not sure how many robots were at the waterfall.

He heard a sigh down the earpiece.

"I have nothing, Sonic. You're going to have to get closer," Sally replied.

Scowling, Sonic obliged, and slowly edged round the rock. Luckily, no Egg Pawns met him, so he continued, following the unusually still river upwards. He stopped as he reached the bend which led to the waterfall, and once again used a pile of boulders to stay hidden.

There was still no noise from the waterfall, just the sound of drills against…rock? Glass? Curious about the noise, Sonic carefully poked his head round the rock to get a good luck at the waterfall.

Upon seeing it, his mouth fell open, and he stared at the marvel, completely astounded.

"Oh…okay then…"

Before him, dominating the entire cliff face and glittering in the sunlight, was a spectacular wall of crystal. Where water would usually be cascading down was now a block of shimmering colours which had taken the wavy form of the water, looking as if the liquid had frozen in a split second.

At the base of this wonder, Sonic saw numerous mechs hacking at the crystalline waterfall, tearing away huge chunks and throwing them on the ground as they dug further and further into it. Observing their progress from the sidelines, Eggman was sat back in his Egg Mobile, running his hand through his mustache thoughtfully.

Moving back behind the rock for cover, Sonic checked the monitor to see if it was still working before speaking to Sally.

"Is this close enough, Sal'?" he asked, keeping his voice as low as possible.

"Perfect," she then gasped "criminy, that's big. What does it look like?"

Sonic checked round the rock again to see if any robots had moved closer to where he was hiding before responding.

"The whole waterfall is some weird crystal now. The energy signal is probably coming from behind it. That's where the Egghead is trying to get to, anyway,"

Enthralled by the image of the now crystal waterfall, he stared at it for a minute or two. The more he looked at it, the more familiar it seemed to him, but he couldn't place it.

"Sally, I've seen this crystal before," he began, standing up to get a better look "it looks like-GAH!"

Before he got a chance to finish, something had flown into him from the left, knocking him out from his hiding spot in the rocks, and making the monitor fly out of his hands and land it the river with a loud splash.

Sonic himself hit the ground with a thump, and the drilling almost immediately stopped as all focus landed on Sonic.

"Well well!" Eggman cackled "snooping as usual I see, Sonic!"

Sonic rolled his eyes as he got to his feet, dusting himself off. His assailant landed before him, and the blue hedgehog sighed at the sight of his former friend.

He broke eye contact with the mech as he looked around for whereabouts the monitor had landed, and he heard a voice down his ear piece.

"Sonic!" it was Tails "what happened? We lost connection!"

Meanwhile, Eggman had ordered his minions to close in on Sonic, who ignored them and retrieved the wrecked monitor from the water. He shook it off, but the thing was completely destroyed.

"Kate happened, Tails. An extraction would be nice, pal,"

At that moment, an Egg Pawn had sneaked up behind Sonic and had attempted to whack him with its pickaxe. Noticing this, Sonic leapt up and came crashing down on the robot's head. Then, using the crushed hunk of metal as a platform, he shot round the group of Egg Pawns as a blue blur, destroying every single one of them in a matter of seconds.

Landing smoothly on the riverbank, he smirked cockily at Eggman.

"Heh, nice try Eg-oof!"

Once again, he was knocked aside as the white and cyan mech caught him unawares. He dodged as the robot swung at him again and swung his leg round under it, tripping it up.

Metal Kate recovered quickly as thrusters propelled it upwards. Hovering someway above Sonic, Kate's claw hand switched to an arm cannon, and fired a bright beam of light at the blue hedgehog. This was new. Evidently Eggman had been upgrading Kate for…what? The fourth time, now? Sonic had no idea what else Eggman could add to the robot, but he had managed to do it yet again.

The red hot beam of energy scorched the ground as it followed Sonic around, not able to keep up with his pace. The beam stopped, and Metal Kate lowered to the ground, it's cold blue eyes watching him carefully.

As always, it's stare dug deep into to Sonic and made him shiver. He kept this subtle, however, as he nodded in mock approval of the robot's new attack.

"Not bad," he commented "what other cute tricks can it do?"

Eggman leant back smugly, clearly glad that Sonic had asked that question.

"Let's just say I tried to make her as…realistic…as possible,"

As he finished that sentence, the claw hands of the metal wolf sparked and crackled with electricity. Without warning, a sizzling bolt shot out towards Sonic, who dodged it with almost zero effort, a broad smirk on his face.

"Just a tiny flaw there, Doc," he began, as if talking to a child "Kate and I have been fighting your Egg Punks a load of times. I already know all of her moves,"

Another bolt was hurled his way, and he slid underneath it towards the robot. He straightened up before landing a kick squarely in the robot's chest, making it stumble back. Sonic leapt back, stretching his legs and grinning proudly.

"Like that, for example,"

Sonic's cocky attitude made Eggman's face twitch, but he quickly got over it.

"And there is just a tiny flaw in your logic, you ignorant rat! She spent three years in my base! So I know "moves" of hers that you never did!"

Sonic's face fell as he realised.

"Oh, yeah, that…"

He looked forward again, only to find that Metal Kate had disappeared. In its place, was a pile of upturned dirt and a deep hole in the dirt. Frowning, he looked down at the ground beneath him, and his eyes widened in alarm.

"Now that's just cheating,"

He scrambled aside as the dirt began to crack and crumble, but he didn't make it as Metal Kate reappeared underneath him, grabbing him before propelling them both up a short distance. Sonic didn't even have time to question it before he was sent crashing back down to the ground, hitting the hard packed dirt with a loud smack and getting the wind knocked out of him.

Gasping for breath, he stumbled to his feet, staring at his once close friend bitterly as it advanced on him yet again.

"C'mon, Kate. Gimme a break," he panted "why are you letting him do this to y-oomph!"

Whilst he was recovering, the metal wolf had taken a strong grip on the hedgehog's wrist and had swung him round towards the crystal waterfall. The grip on his wrist released, and he went flying towards the crystal.

He hit it shoulder-first, and managed to cushion his head. But the rest of his body slammed into the crystal with a huge amount of force, causing a large crack to shoot up the crystal fall and a piercing pain to work its way around his body.

Sonic fell to the ground, completely numb from the impact. He scowled as Kate stomped towards him yet again.

"Are you serious?" he snapped, trying his best to stand up again. When this failed, he desperately whispered into the earpiece again "Tails, anytime now,"

"Don't worry, Sonic we're really close. Just hang on,"

Sonic sighed, slightly annoyed at Tails' words. Hang on. Sure. It wasn't like he was fighting a deranged robot demigod. Not at all.

Metal Kate brought its fist down, attempting to squish Sonic where he lay. Grunting, Sonic rolled over to the side and kicked it in the leg, making it stumble. Smirking, he finished his thought out loud.

"Then again, not really showing your demigod side at the moment, are you?" he hissed as his legs protested against him standing up "right now you're more like a puppy having a temper tantrum,"

Of course the robot didn't listen as it straightened back up, readying itself for another attack.

Then, however, the most bizarre thing happened.

It stopped. The mech had stopped right in front of Sonic. It's eyes still bore into him, but this time Sonic thought he could see curiosity in their icy depths. It's head was cocked to one side as if it recognised something he said.

Sonic glanced quickly at Eggman to make sure he wasn't up to anything. When seeing the same astounded look on the scientist's face, Sonic shifted a little towards the metal wolf.

"Why…why have you…" he trailed off, before he raised his brow hopefully "…Kate?"

Once again, the robot's head twitched in recognition, and Sonic felt a spark of hope.

Although, it was short lived, as the sound of plane engines seemed to jerk the robot back into reality, and Sonic grimaced in mock apology and shrugged.

"Y'know, I'd love to carry this on, but that's my ride,"

Ducking under the swinging fist of Metal Kate, Sonic limped off in the direction of the plane engines as fast as he could, back round the bend that led towards the crystal cliff.

He watched as the biplane flew as close to the ground as it could, tipped slightly to the left to make it easier for Sonic to jump on. Shifting his grip on the wing, he looked back down.

His eyes never left the robot wolf as the plane rapidly gained height and sharply turned away from the cliff face, and he wondered whether there was away to get his friend back.

Well there ye go.

Sorry if the title is kind of..."meh". I had no idea what to call this story. More than likely I'll change it after I've finished.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed!

R and R!

~W.O.T~