Team Dark trudged through the high trees of the Lost Jungle, Shadow cutting down impeding leaves with a machete at the front of the pack. Rouge followed behind him, wearing a pink safari hat with a black water bottle strapped across her chest. She stepped over sticks and insects, disgusted with the small 6-legged creatures she'd never seen before. Omega walked behind her, stomping and creating a booming noise with every step he took. He wore a hat as well, but it wasn't because he was forced to do so. It was because he wanted to.
The sudden shift and bustle of bushes nearby caused them to stop in their tracks. Shadow glared at the bushes with unforgiving red eyes. Suddenly, a pair of big red eyes popped out from the bushes and finally, a black frog body. The frog gave a "ribbit" before storm clouds suddenly hovered overhead.
"Oh no." Rouge gasped, staring up at the dark sky.
Before either of her comrades could comment, rain began to pour from overhead, drenching the 3 to their socks. The frog hopped away, leaving the team to walk in the rain for the next half mile or so.
The Team stepped out from beyond the jungle and stared at the temple ahead. Team Dark walked over to the tall rock temple that was covered in vines and moss.
"This has gotta be it!" Rouge smiled, shaking the remaining water off her wings.
"Well, Omega?" Shadow asked the robot behind the two.
"Sensors indicate that this is the correct location. The treasure is at the heart of the temple." the killing machine answered as he dried off in the hot sun.
"Alright, boys. Let's move." the white bat grinned, walking ahead and stepping into the temple first.
Shadow followed behind her, leaving Omega outside. The robot was checking his surroundings cautiously as he had heard something in the distance. It was a threat and that was all he could pick out about the creature.
"Omega."
The robot looked down into the eyes of a machete-wielding, ebony and auburn hedgehog.
"Is something the matter?"
"It's… nothing..." Omega replied. "We must be going."
The duo began their stride into the temple, hurrying to catch up with their winged friend. Not even 20 steps into the ruins, they found a pink safari hat laying on the ground. Shadow picked it up, scanning the halls worriedly.
"Rouge?!" he yelled into the distance.
"Up here." A soft, terrified voice replied from above. Their bat friend hung from the ceiling, wrapped in green vines. "The place is booby trapped. Watch your feet."
Shadow looked down below him to find another vine stretched across the floor. He moved his foot away from it then threw his machete up at Rouge, cutting the vines with ease. The bat broke free and caught the sharp blade with one hand, floating down the ground.
"Rouge, wait!" the hedgehog yelled out to her.
The bat landed on the ground before acknowledging her friend's shout.
"What?"
Silence ensued before Omega spoke up.
"Sensors indicate that a trap has been activated."
"A trap?" Rouge wondered out before looking down at her feet where she stood on the vine she'd warned Shadow about earlier. "I'm sorry."
"Whatever." Shadow growled as a trap door creaked and opened beneath the team.
The three fell into the pits of who-knows-where, Rouge screaming for her life. An unamused Shadow crossed his arms over his chest, annoyed with the fact that he was even apart of this. Looking down, the hedgehog's eyes bore witness to the sight of a spike pit below them. He reacted quickly and grabbed hold of a hanging vine. Rouge clasped a hand around his ankle and Omega grabbed onto Rouge's feet with little to no panic.
"What now?" Omega questioned, silently scanning for escape routes to the upper floor.
Shadow looked up above them and opened his mouth to speak, but the trap door closed and his idea was annihilated.
"I've got it!" the spy suddenly exclaimed.
"Does it involve falling?" her hedgehog friend smirked.
"No." Rouge huffed out. "Remember our earlier years as a team? The flight formation."
The spy released Shadow's ankle, taking flight and tugging Omega beneath her. She held out her gloved hands to a hanging Shadow who seemed less than amazed by her idea. Nonetheless, the hedgehog grabbed hold of her wrist and Rouge pulled him over as he released the vine. The Ultimate Life form adjusted himself beneath his nocturnal counter part and above his robotic other.
"Everybody comfy?" Rouge asked her comrades.
"We're fine. Just fly already. You got us into this mess, now get us out." Shadow growled up at her.
"Alright, alright. Don't rush me." the woman replied, hating when Shadow began to get irritated.
"The floor appears to be rising." Omega pointed out, realizing that the spikes were closing in on them. "Ascend!"
The spy flapped her wings as hard as she could, pulling herself and her teammates up towards the closed trap door they fell from earlier. She would've been moving faster, if it weren't for the ankle weights she had latched onto her.
"You guys have gotten heavy!" Rouge grunted out. "What have you two been eating?!"
"Human food is inadequite, yet car fluids are quite the delicacy." the robot replied, kicking his tiny, robotic legs.
"Remind me never to sneak gasoline from Shadow's bike for you again." the bat whispered.
"What?" Shadow growled out.
"I'll tell you later!" Rouge lied as she reached the trap door and began to push on it. She gave it a few punches and shoves, but it refused to open. "It won't budge!"
Team Dark glanced down below them as the floor began to rise faster and catch up to them. The spikes shined with a threatening gleam. An idea popped into Shadow's head.
"Thunder shoot me!" the black hedgehog commanded and Rouge didn't take any second thoughts before sparking the thunder in her heels and spinning Shadow into a ball.
She gave the strongest kick she'd ever given in a while, boosting the spinning ball of ebony and red into the trap door above. The rolling ball of thunder crashed through the trap door, breaking it into several pieces and knocking it off of it's hinges. Omega started up the rockets on his back and grabbed Rouge bridal style, flying them up to the surface. He placed her down gently.
"Thanks for the lift, big boy." the flirty bat grinned, tapping his chest lovingly.
"No problem."
Shadow began to walk ahead, leaving his friends to catch up with him. They did so, as Rouge switched their safari hats. Omega commented on how the green made his batty friend look more adventurous. The bat complimented her robotic other by saying that the pink brought out his red. Underneath all of that strong, steel armor, the killing machine blushed a little.
As the team walked along they began to realize that the traps had all either been activated or disabled.
"Someone's been here." the hedgehog concluded.
"No kidding. But who?" Rouge wondered, tapping her chin.
Just then, a blue streak, a yellow curve and a red swirl dashed by and turned down another hallway. It didn't take much for them to realize who the colors belonged to.
"That blue hedgehog!" Shadow yelled out.
"And was that Knuckie? What are they doing here?!" the spy gasped out.
Omega thought to himself for a bit, Rouge's pink hat sitting on his yellow head. He scanned the area, realizing that the threat he'd detected earlier was indeed in the vicinity. The scan finished and he received an untouched path in his results.
"I'll teach that darn echidna to get in my way and try to steal my treasure!" Rouge grumbled.
"That blue hedgehog's got some explaining to do." the edgy life form agreed as the duo took off after Team Sonic.
The bucket of bolts extended his claws and grabbed them both around their torsos, being careful not to crush them in his grasps. He retracted his claws with his prizes in hand, leaving confused questions flowing through the air.
"Omega! Release us!" the ebony hedgehog demanded, squirming in the robot's grip.
"Yeah! Way to treat a lady!" the white bat whined.
The red killing machine jumped down a pit without answering their questions, forcing Rouge to shrink in his hand and for Shadow to plant a steel grasp on the claw around his chest. Omega fell down towards the spikes below, making Rouge scream out in terror. The robot took flight just before they faced their death, dashing through a moldy brick wall. Before them was a dimly lit hallway with torches illuminating the walls. Omega adjusted his rockets into full blast, flying through the hall as spikes jetted out of the walls, vines threatened to hang them by their necks and flames spurted from stone frog statues.
"Hey, hey, hey! Slow down!" Rouge screamed, her eyes wide with terror.
"Omega!" Shadow yelled through clenched teeth. "This had BETTER be good!"
Their robotic friend ignored their squeals, dipping and dodging through traps with ease. He neared the end of the hallway which was a solid wall.
"We're gonna hit it!" the black and red hedgehog barked out, slightly afraid of becoming hedgehog paste.
Omega, without slowing down, curved up into a tunnel, flying straight up.
"Stop! Stop! Stop!" the bat squealed.
Team Dark burst out of a trap door on the floor and into the air of a huge, shining room. In the center of this beautiful room was a shining red shard, awaiting it's pick up. Team Dark landed on their feet, realizing where they were.
"A shortcut! Good job, Omega!" the spy cooed, her eyes locked on the temple treasure.
She strutted over to the jewel, placing a hand on top of it and officially claiming it. Before she could pick it up, several other hands clamped onto the red shard. Some of those hands belonged to a purple chameleon, a pink hedgehog, a blue hedgehog, a cream colored rabbit, a yellow bee and a red echidna to name a few. The bat sighed, her ears drooping.
"Things are about to get ugly." Shadow pointed out from behind her.