((Welcome back to Sonic '06 Bloopers! It's been quite a while since I've posted anything for this story, but finally, FINALLY I have finished In the Dark. Without further hesitation, I shall begin the chapter!))
Chapter 2
The quest for the four lost Chaos Emeralds began. Sonic and his crew split up to search the premises, each taking different areas of the headquarters to look in. The first one to find an Emerald was Knuckles, but it didn't come easily.
Knuckles wandered along a hallway, thinking aloud to himself. "If I were a Chaos Emerald, where would I hide…?" It wasn't even a minute later when he saw a faint glowing coming from one of the branching hallways. Crouched in front of the glowing potted plant was a small robot, a jet pack strapped to his back.
"Hey!" Knuckles cried, jogging off towards the bot.
The robot looked up and smirked. He flew into the air via jetpack, the red Chaos Emerald in hand. "Looking for this?" he asked.
Knuckles stopped below it. "Bokkun," he began, speaking cautiously. "Can I please have that Emerald?"
"Why?" Bokkun asked, examining his find. "It's so pretty…"
"You have no use for that gem," Knuckles pointed out, still speaking slowly.
"Really? I think I recall Dr. Eggman saying something about needing a gem like this…"
Knuckles gave up on being cautious. "Don't you dare—"
"Too late!" Bokkun chortled as he flew off down the hall with the Chaos Emerald.
"Bokkun!" Knuckles shouted as he ran after him. "Hand it over this instant!"
"Gotta catch me first!" the robot cried, his voice fading as he got further and further away.
Knuckles growled and clenched his mittened fists. Knowing SEGA Headquarters well, he took a different hallway, knowing he could cut Bokkun off at the pass. After several twists, turns, and a detour, he skidded to a stop in the hallway Bokkun was barreling down. The two hit head-on and fell to the floor in a two-person pile-up, the Emerald knocked out of Bokkun's grasp and sliding away.
"Gerroff me, you big lug!" Bokkun cried from underneath Knuckles.
"Suit yourself!" the echidna replied. He got off of Bokkun and ran for the Emerald, trampling the bot in the process. Bokkun pulled his head out of a hole in the floor just in time to see Knuckles holding the Emerald up triumphantly.
"Oh no you don't!" he cried. From out of his backpack, Bokkun produced a small, yellow TV. Knuckles's eyes widened as Bokkun threw it. The TV exploded feet away from Knuckles, knocking him to the ground and the Emerald falling out of his grip. Bokkun laughed, proclaiming that he got a bulls-eye, and flew after the fallen jewel. He retrieved it as Knuckles got to his feet, scorched and bruised from the rough fall.
"Now you're gonna pay," the echidna growled through clenched teeth, and lunged at him.
"Whoa!" Bokkun, aided by his jetpack, ran up the wall just as Knuckles's spiked fist ran head-on into the wall, creating a caved-in hole through to the next room, stunning Tails, who was searching next door. Knuckles, however, paid no heed to the fox, and jumped on a table as Bokkun flew close to the wall with the Emerald. Knuckles then jumped onto a pedestal, knocking a bust of Yuji Naka to the floor and leaped off to try and tackle the flying robot. Bokkun's jetpack wasn't fast enough to carry him away, and both crashed to the floor. Knuckles grabbed a decorative urn and slammed it down over the robot's head, trapping him inside with just his feet sticking out. He set the urn upright, Bokkun's feet waving wildly as he protested, his voice echoing inside the pottery. Triumphant, Knuckles scooped up the Emerald and walked off.
"Later, loser," Knuckles smirked, abandoning the poor bot and leaving the hallway a wild mess.
Now, let's take a look at Sonic, who succeeded in finding the second Emerald. He was racing around at the speed of sound (or a little less, since he was only running half-speed) around the grounds when he spotted a yellow glow on the roof. He skidded to a stop, kicking up dirt as he dug in his heels, and stared up at it. The azure hedgehog smirked, bent his knees, and with a tremendous leap, jumped onto the roof. He scooped the yellow Emerald out of the drain pipe and rubbed his nose proudly.
"Way too easy," he proclaimed.
The third Emerald was found by Amy. She had been assigned the vents, since she was so small.
"The things I have to do for this team," she murmured miserably. She had crawled around half the vents in the building before she spotted a white glow in a high shaft that led to and out of the roof. The Emerald was wedged sideways in the narrow pipe, glowing softly. Amy swore silently in her head, positioned herself under the shaft, and reached up it. It was a tight squeeze, and she took it slow. Soon, her fingers wrapped around the Emerald, the gem warm in her fingers, and she tried to pull it out. However, it was in vain. The Emerald – and her hand – didn't move. She sucked in her breath through her teeth and held it for a moment before letting it out. She tried to release the Emerald and withdrawing her hand so she could come up with another plan of getting it, but the pipe held her hand and the Emerald in a vise-like grip. Instead, since she couldn't do much else, she kept trying to pull it out. She was pretty strong for her size; she could swing a giant hammer with enough force to knock a guy out, even kill him if she tried. She put that strength into the effort of pulling her arm free. The vent creaked ominously; it wouldn't hold her much longer. She grabbed her forearm with her free hand and pulled. With a final, mighty tug and creak of the pipe, she freed her arm and the Emerald, but the force from it came down on her and the vent, and it gave way. She was dumped into a large room filled with cubicles, sheets of metal from the vent around her. The Japanese workers stood and looked over the walls of their workspaces to see what had caused the noise, surprise and confusion on their faces.
Amy blushed but grinned sheepishly, embarrassed sweat drops forming on her brow. "Sorry!" she apologized, got to her feet, and stumbled out of the room, the Chaos Emerald in hand.
Shadow was able to find the final Emerald. After an argument between him and Sonic, he had gotten to search Dr. Eggman's part of the base (thanks to a wrestling match which had Sonic slapping the ground and crying, "Mercy!" with his other arm twisted behind his back and Shadow's knees digging into his spine). Shadow crept around in the shadows of the room that was almost as large as SEGA HQ itself. A large airship was being built almost as long as the room itself, and Eggman was visible working on one of the engines outside of the craft. Shadow figured it was for the game. He raced closer and hid behind a stack of metal. Yes, he could see it now. Glowing faintly in the uncovered cockpit was the final Emerald.
Shadow took off to the other side of the ship so he could be more discreet. He leaped up onto different parts of the ship until he got to the cockpit. He reached in and laid his hand on the green Emerald…
Red lights started flashing and alarms started going off. Eggman looked up so suddenly he bumped his head on the hood of the engine. Grumbling and rubbing the spot on his head he had hit, he walked over to the side of the cockpit Shadow was on. Not wanting to be seen, Shadow dove inside the cockpit and hid in a spare room, concealing the Emerald by putting it in the space between his back spikes, where he absorbed it. (Therefor, he does NOT pull it out of his…you know.) He could hear Eggman climbing a ladder to the cockpit, still grumbling.
"…pesky rodents. When I get my hands on them…"
Shadow heard heavy footsteps on the metal floor; Eggman was a heavy man. He heard him checking the cockpit, saying things he couldn't hear. Eventually, though, it seemed that Eggman had left. Shadow stepped out of the room…
…and ran right into Eggman's fat stomach. Shadow stumbled backwards, rubbing his head, and Eggman gave a little cry of surprise.
"You?!" they said at the same time. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here for the Emerald!" Shadow snapped.
"This is my ship!" Eggman cried, both responding to their own questions.
Shadow broke the pattern. "However, I see that the Emerald is no longer here, so I apologize for bothering you. Chaos Control!" Shadow disappeared before Eggman looked behind him and realized what he had meant, and shouted words of resentment at the air.
Soon, the entire crew met up in the meeting room, and an argument broke out of people talking to no one in particular.
"Do you know what I had to go through to get this? I got my whole arm stuck in a pipe!"
"The next time I see Bokkun, that urn is being smashed over that hollow head of his…"
"I hate running from fights, especially with the doctor…"
"You're all a bunch of wimps! All I had to do was a bit of simple platforming…"
"WOULD ALL OF YOU PLEASE SHUT UP?"
Everyone stared at Tails in amazement that such a little fox could have such a loud voice. He blushed, not used to the attention.
"I mean…don't we have more important things to do rather than worry about who did what to get the Chaos Emeralds?" he continued sheepishly.
"Tails is right," Sonic stepped in. "We have to head to the Sol Dimension and 200 years in the future to get those other guys, and to do that, we need everyone's cooperation."
Shadow spoke, realizing something. "You realize that we only needed two Emeralds to make a portal, right?"
Sonic facepalmed as everyone else groaned or shouted in protest.
"Oh well," Tails said, looking at the script. "We need them all for the ending anyways and…" He didn't complete his sentence. As he scanned through the script, his eyes widened in shock and horror and he slowly put down the papers. The others exchanged looks of confusion, but didn't bother to look through the script.
"Let's just get to it," Shadow said, sounding bored. He and Sonic each pulled out a Chaos Emerald, Shadow's green and Sonic's yellow.
"Wait!" Amy cried. "Aren't we not allowed to use the Chaos Emeralds because Sonic –?"
Sonic hushed her before she could continue.
"I think they'll make an exception since it's our responsibility to get Blaze and Silver," Tails pointed out.
Amy shrugged in agreement. "Touché. Continue."
Sonic and Shadow held up their Emeralds next to each other and, in unison, shouted the command.
"Chaos Control!"
The Emeralds flashed and a swirling pale blue, pink, and white portal opened in midair. The crew exchanged glances before hopping inside one-by-one.
~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd
