GENESIS

Act III

Johnny closed his eyes and waited for The MegaTrooper known as Brutus to pull the trigger.

All of a sudden there was a flash of light and a giant gold ring appeared in the sky, Johnny and the robot both stared up at it in confusion, the air in it's centre began to ripple and a blue ball came shooting out of it, shrieking like a banshee.

"What THE?" Roared Brutus in confusion as the blue ball of spikes came crashing down on him, knocking him off his hover platform and on to the ground, causing the stone beneath him to crack. Johnny lay there for a moment, his mind trying to process what had just happened. One minute he'd been about to meet the creator himself then next a portal had opened in the sky and out of it fell...

"Sonic!" The Rabbit called, "You're alive!"

"Must be," The Hedgehog said as he climbed off the unmoving robot, "Otherwise that wouldn't hurt so much."

Johnny chuckled as Sonic held out his hand and produced a deep blue gem that shimmered briefly despite the cloudy weather and lack of sunlight. The rabbit looked at it then at the hedgehog.

"What happened? What's that gem? How did you fall out of the sky?" He asked in a rush as his mouth finally caught up with his brain.

"The answer to all three," Stated Sonic, "is D's Kingdom if I know."

A cold metallic hand reached sharply for Sonic, who moved out of the way just in time. Commander Brutus snarled at the two and put his hands on the floor to push himself off the ground only to feel it crack more beneath him, the two rebels giving each other amused glances as they stepped away from him.

"I'd be careful how you move, buckethead." Said Johnny, "That ground looks awfully unstable and who knows what you might land on down there."

"You little..."

"I know what he might land on," Sonic interrupted, "He could fall on to a spike trap or into a lava flow. Nasty."

"Well be seeing you chump," The Rabbit added with a mock salute and the two turned to leave.

In a wordless roar the droid stood hastily hoping to lunge at them before the ground gave way, but ultimately gravity won and the droid tumbled down into a stream of molten rock. To Sonic's surprise the droid sounded like it was in pain as it hit the surface, sinking down as the flames consumed it. It stretched it's arm upwards, roaring at them with rage and agony.

"Huh, lava flow." Stated Johnny, The Hedgehog besides him nodded.

"Yup," He agreed, "I totally jumped that by the way."

The two walked in silence for a moment heading towards the Zone's edge, before they'd got separated Johnny knew he'd been short tempered and rude, not daring to let the Hedgehog in but when the ground had given way beneath Sonic's feet, Johnny's first reaction had been one of fear. The thought that another may have died under his watch... it wasn't something he wanted to think about even now. Did he still belong with the freedom fighters? Had Ray's loss effected him so much that he was going to cut everyone off to save the pain of losing them? Sonic nudge his companion gently, causing him to snap out of his dreary train of thought.

"Hey," The Hedgehog said softly, "Don't sweat it. I understand."

"Huh?" The Rabbit asked,

"You were thinking about earlier right? I think I understand." Sonic continued, "You're blaming yourself over what happened to your friend Ray but what happened wasn't your fault. If anything it was mine. If I'd been faster then he'd still be here."

"Or you'd be dead along side him..." Johnny replied, "No, you tried. It's not your fault, blame that weasel who slugged him with a plasma blast."

"Good advice, you should take it."

There was a moment silence, before Johnny smiled softly and nodded. Neither of them could see the hand rising from the lava and dragging out the glowing burning form of the MegaTrooper, Brutus. They had assumed the last of him, but Brutus was made of Infintanium, nothing could destroy him. But he could destroy them, the robot silently vowed to do just that, the next time they met.

Antoine hated being left out of the loop. It didn't happen very often, at least not to his knowledge. Bunnie and Porker would tell him everything, well mainly Porker. He didn't believe in secrets between friends but lately Bunnie hadn't said two words to him, which was understandable considering and Porker was even more jittery than usual. No Antoine didn't like it, it wasn't like The Princess not to tell him what was going on either. Ever since that Blue Hedgehog had arrived things hadn't been the same, too many secrets. It was making the Coyote paranoid, he'd start jumping at shadows before long, not that he didn't do that already as he wandered from his hut to go down to the training room to practice his fencing, he saw that Johnny and the hedgehog had just returned from a mission and that his rival for Bunnie's affections seemed to be caring something. Antoine walked over as casually as he could but the hedgehog spotted him and alerted Johnny who quickly hid whatever he was carrying inside his jeans pocket. The two waved at him and carried on towards the main chamber without even stopping to properly say hello. Well Antoine could only take so much and he damned well was going to take it from Lightfoot and his new sidekick. Marching after them, he suddenly found himself walking straight into a wall of Walrus, which knocked him on to his backside. Rotor.

"Watch we're you're going!" The Coyote proclaimed indignantly

"Whoa easy there little fella," Rotor said putting Antoine back on his feet, "I'm as eager to know what's going on with Johnny and the others as much as you, but for Frane's sake. They're under orders from the Princess. They'll tell us when she's good and ready and not before."

"But-but-but!" Antoine protested feebly,

"No buts. Don't make me knock you back on yours."

Sonic and Johnny for their part continued towards their destination, the royal chamber were the Princess, Porker and Bunnie were waiting for them. The duo reported their separation, Johnny's encounter with the Teknik fleet and the mysterious ring that Sonic had dived into, as well as the apparent MegaTooper that called itself Brutus. The pair revealed the gem stone.

"When I jumped through the ring," Sonic began, "I ended up in this surreal dimension. It was constantly shifting and rotating, There didn't seem to be any walls, but no matter which way I looked there were psychedelic colours and bizarre patterns. Floating in this weird place was this stone, I grabbed it. There was a flash and I suddenly found myself landing on top of a bucket of bolts."

"I thought you landed on the robot," Porker stated, his eyes widened, "Oh right, sorry."

Sally stood from her throne and walked towards the Hedgehog, holding her hand out, the Hedgehog handed over the gem and the Princess held it delicately between her fingers, holding it up to the light. It shimmered briefly one way and then the other, the squirrel squinted slightly as if trying to get a sharper focus on something within the jewel. Inside the stone seemed to be a constantly moving stream of energy. Sally began feeling lightheaded, as if she was drawn inside them gem, it seemed to be calling to her, there was power in this stone. So much power... but the power was incomplete and she realised she had to find the rest of that power. It wasn't calling to her but to itself. It needed to be complete... she needed it to be complete...

"Your Highness?" It was like falling into cold water, she'd been jolted awake and was looking around somewhat bewildered. The others were staring at her, concern on their faces, she stared back a moment confused then looked at the gem. What had happened? She couldn't remember, like waking from a dream the experience had already faded.

"Sally, hon," Bunnie asked cautiously, "You okay, sugar?"

The Princess nodded absently before walking over to Bunnie and placing the stone in her hand, making the Rabbit clasp her fingers over it.

"Lock this in a chest and take it to the vault." The Princess said sternly, "That gem is what The Emperor is after. I'm sure of it. There's something special about it... something... dangerous. We can't let him get his hands on it. Porker we need to know more about Project Chaos and that giant ring that took Sonic to that... special zone. Make it your top priority, the rest of you are on standby until further notice."

The four freedom fighters bowed their heads, placing there hands over their chests as they did. The three young men turned to leave, but Bunnie stayed behind.

"Your highness," The Rabbit said cautiously, "I've been thinkin', this... situation we're in. The one that cost us Ray and... and my legs. If the traitor were here in Knothole, why hasn't he or she ratted out our location? Why not just call for a bunch of 'Niks and have them burn the place to the ground?"

The Princess had returned to her throne and rubbed her eyes wearily, the thought hadn't even occurred to her until now. It would be easier to do just as Bunnie said, snitch the location of Knothole and send an army to destroy it but maybe for the traitor that wasn't enough, it'd be over to quick. Maybe they wanted to spread fear and paranoia, let the resistance destroy itself from the inside out but who would hate them enough to do that, besides the Emperor himself? If it were for rings then there'd earn much more money for big intel such as the location Knothole then smaller jobs like the set up that had taken place. Someone had a vendetta, whoever the traitor was... it was personal to them, and that thought made Sally's heartache even more.

"Sorry, Princess," Said Bunnie, "Maybe I'm over thinkin' things, just not being able to do much, guess I've got a lot of time to spare."

Sally smiled at the Rabbit and moved to kneel down in front of her, taking her friends hands in her own.

"Much as I hate to say it," Sally said gently, "You have a point. There's more to the traitor than we first realised, that makes them more dangerous but it also means they're more likely to slip up. We'll get them yet, now you need to take that gem to the vault."

Bunnie nodded and wheeled herself out of the chamber, nearly knocking over a female fox as she did. The near collison caused Bunnie to drop the stone.

"Yikes!" Cried the Fox,

"Sorry Fiona," Apologised The Rabbit as she tried to reach for the stone,

"No problem Bunnie, I'd be off in a daydream too if my boyfriend had given me a jewel like that."

The Fox had picked up the blue gem and was staring at it fondly, she then smiled and handed it back to Bunnie, "Wouldn't be surprised if Johnny proposed to you soon."

Bunnie grinned as she tucked the gem down her top, not wanting Fiona to realise just what the stone really was, not that she knew herself. Bunnie didn't think Fiona Fox was the traitor, not really but still she had to be more careful, she was under direct orders from the Princess.

"I doubt that sugar, can you picture Johnny and me settling down and raising a family?"

"Well you know the old saying about rabbits..." Teased the Fox lightly,

"That's racist!" Laughed Bunnie good naturedly, "You're lucky I'm in a hurry or I'd beat your ass."

"Any excuse to get your hands on my ass, eh?" Said Fiona seductively.

The two glared at each other before bursting out laughing, they shared a hug and then said their goodbyes, Fiona heading into the throne room and Bunnie heading towards the vault.

"You wanted to see me, Your Highness?"

Brutus was not a happy man, he knew technically he was not a man at all but that didn't matter. His brainwaves were modelled on his human master's with some slight alterations, to prevent Brutus from ever wanting to overthrow his Emperor. That blasted Rabbit and accursed Hedgehog had not only escaped him, they'd retrieved his objective, they'd also managed to HURT him. They. Had managed. To hurt. Him. Granted it had taken all of the Rabbit's little toys and a dip in a lava pool to do so but still, he'd never felt pain before. It was all his robotic mind could think about, he knew it was illogical but by The Master's hand he had to find and crush those rebels! That granted had always been his mission, but now it was personal and the insider... whoever they were, was obviously only going to relay small amounts of intel or feed the traitors with the fake information he provided. They'd tried to trace the signal but had found it had been bounced of off every waypoint from here to the Metropolis Zone. Still he knew were the rebels were going to strike next. If they knew about The Chaos Emeralds, they'd be hunting down the portal rings too. All Brutus had to do was lay in wait at the Spring Yard Zone and the Hedgehog and Rabbit would be his and if they sent someone else... well that was fine too. Brutus was after all charged with enforcing The Master's will and even though it had been many, many years since the order was given he's objective remained the same. "Enslave those who break the law and destroy all who resist." Brutus felt himself calm and his robotic eyes seemed to spark with anticipation. Still he needed a back up plan, just in case.

"GRIMER!" He yelled, "SNIVELY!"

Two malformed figures entered the room, one was tall and thing, with oily green skin and wide bug eyes, the creature drummed it's fingers eagerly. The second was short and bald with pale flesh and legs that waddled due to lack of length, his eyes skitted about nervously.

"Yes, Lord Brutus?" The pair said as one,

"I have something special I need you to work on and you may use our guest. The one we recently acquired who doesn't feel like talking."

"Yes, Lord Brutus!" Proclaimed Snively and Grimer as one.

Brutus couldn't help but laugh as he explained his plan. His revenge would be sweet.

Porker scurried along the hallways, clutching papers that were haphazardly piled against his chest. His face pale and tense, he practically tripped over Antoine, who was sulking about outside Bunnie's hutch as if he'd just found out about his own impending demise and was trying to figure out how to break the news to her.

"S-Sorry, Antoine!" Called The Pig as he carried on,

"Wait, Porker!" Cried Antoine, "Is it true about Johnny and Bunnie?"

But Porker didn't stop he didn't have time to indulge the Coyote's paranoia, not when he'd finally decoded enough of Project Chaos to know what it was really about, Sally had been right they couldn't let The Emperor get his hands on any more of those Gem Stones, he already had three according to the file and that meant there were only three left to find. Porker rushed with all his worth to tell the Princess, not realising that when he had the near miss with Antoine, he'd dropped one of his reports.

The coyote however had notice and picked up the paper, eager to exam what had Porker Lewis in such a rush. Finally he wouldn't be left out of the loop, he could find out at least partially what the other Freedom Fighters had refused to tell him from Porker's mistake and be able to prove his usefulness. All he had to do was take a quick peek and...

Suddenly the paper wasn't in his hands any more, instead it was in the hands of Rotor, who just looked at him and sighed with disappointment. He then turned around and rushed down the hall after Porker.

"Hey, Lewis!" The Walrus cried as he jogged after the pig, "You dropped one!"

Blast! Thought Antoine, I was so close too!

Still there'd be other chances, he'd make sure of it.

Alarms blasted from all sides as four figures burst out of one of the Emperor's facilities, a hoard of stolen goods within their hands. Confiscated gold and jewels that would fetch a hefty price on the black market. Intel that could be ransomed back to the Emperor's forces if you were smart enough or sold to the rebels if you were really desperate for the money. Yep, it had been a stroke of good fortunate for the Babylon Rogues to run into that Weasel.

The three birds, jumped onto their boards and started them up while the weasel revved up his customised Ex-Gear Bike, The Marvellous Queen.

"This is quite a score, Weasel." Jet admitted, a hint of admiration in his voice, "How'd you know about this?"

"Oh, I guess you could say, I have a knack for finding out about these things." The weasel replied as he raised his hat, a rather expensive looking stetson. He then pretended to shoot the three birds with his finger.

"That's not all I've got a knack for," He continued, a vicious tone in his voice, "I'm also quite good with Ex-Gear mechanics. That's why your boards won't work and I've alerted the Emperor's forces. They're on there way now."

"You leave without us!" Yelled The Swallow, a female named Wave, "You leave without us and you don't get any treasure!"

"That stuff? I've got something way more valuable on this. Ta!" The Weasel gloated as he held up a portable data-drive, then started up his bike and sped away, his laughter echoing.

Fang was feeling pleased with himself, he'd paid a lot of money for the information that lead him to the score on the data-drive, granted he'd immediately shot the guy and taken his money back but still money had exchanged hands and Fang hated parting with money but if the rumours circling the criminal underworld about something the Emperor was after named 'Project Chaos' were true, he could handle a slight black mark on his criminal reputation. Besides, he reasoned, it wouldn't hurt him that bad. No one even liked that bloody cat to begin with. The plan was simple, find whatever it was Project Chaos was before the resistance or the emperor could and sell it back to the highest bidder, then he'd retire to an island somewhere and be laughing for the rest of his life. The others may have a head start but Fang wasn't just the best hired gun, he was also the best treasure hunter.

The race was on and Fang intended to win it.

To Be Continued.