Chapter 3

Old Genesis, Old Foe

Knuckles and Tails walked through the forest together, Knuckles grumbling about not having seen the M.E in over 24 hours and Tails leading the way saying "Sonic must be around here somewhere" every five minutes.

"Why do we have to find him anyway? Surely the guy can take care of himself!" Said Knuckles impatiently.

"We need to find Sonic so we can decide what to do about Chaos." Tails explained making his way through a thick clump of fallen logs.

"Why? It's not any threat at the moment is it? As long as it doesn't attempt to try and take over my guarding duty then it can stay were it likes!"

"Yeah but it's also the fact that Eggman is currently keeping it hidden in his base that's the problem" Said Tails turning round to face Knuckles. "God help us if he starts giving it emeralds again."

"I thought that he was dead anyway" said knuckles thinking out loud.

"Knuckles, surely even you must have realised that it's impossible to kill a being that bound to chaos" " As long as the chaos emeralds exist then so does it." Explained Tails.

"What happens if it goes for my emerald while I'm not there!" Knuckles suddenly panicked.

"Knuckles you know full well that we left Omega guarding it and I think he's fully capable" Said tails patting Knuckles on the back.

He seemed to calm down slightly but still had a sceptical look on his face. "Na I don't trust that robot" said Knuckles suspiciously. "Remember he was built by Eggman."

"I think that you would have noticed that he has completely reformed and hates everything about Eggman" explained Tails.

"A robots a robot" said Knuckles with a deepened tone. "They're all metal and wiring at the end of the day."

Tails sighed knowing that it was hopeless to try and convince his companion otherwise and continued to make his way through the forest.

Sonic and Amy broke from their embrace and Sonic immediately turned around cleared his throat. "You know that was just a friendly hug… It didn't mean anything too… you know" He struggled to find the words as he said them. But Amy just smiled.

"Yeah, I know" she said nodding.

"Well good" Said Sonic exhaling slowly. "C'mon. We'd better go find Tails and Knuckles" He said beckoning her after her.

Amy couldn't believe her luck. How was this happening all of a sudden? What had changed after all these years of chasing? Suddenly Sonic was just excepting her as a proper friend. Possibly even as a lover like she had always hoped.

"We could make this a lot quicker if I could run full pace" said Sonic judging the distance to the forest. "It would mean however that I would need… To carry you" The words were torn from him.

Amy gave a yelp of excitement mixed with a jump for joy and jumped straight into Sonic's arms. As she did this a series of unpleasant memories flooded back to him but he dispelled them quickly. "Hold on" He said and they disappeared in a flash.

Amy was forced to bury here head into Sonic's chest by the rushing wind. She smiled secretly. Sonic could see the forest rapidly approaching on the horizon. Suddenly a shadow passed over head and Sonic was blown of his feat by a powerful laser blast. A massive floating mech passed over Sonic and Amy who were still recovering from the blast. Robotnik's egg mobile floated over the massive mech were he could get a good view of what was going on. "Ho ho! Isn't this a sweet couple!" "Pity I have to finish the relationship for you!" The mech went into battle mode opening flaps exposing missile pods on its legs. It's head, that resembled that of an enlarged version of the E-Series robots, lowered slightly into its body and a loud siren echoed from within its depths and its eyes glowed a deeper shade of red. Sonic looked up and realised in surprise that Eggman was reusing one of his old mega mechs. The Egg Genesis stared down at him all of its spot lights angled on his position. Well, If he had beaten this thing before then he would do it again in half the time. Robotnik had left the laser's core exposed just as he did the last time Sonic had faced it. He never seemed to learn from his mistakes. Sonic made to do an expertly executed homing attack on the core and finish it off quickly. When he came into contact with it however he felt a large electric shock jolt his body that sent him crashing into the ground where he struggled to get back up before falling on his front unconscious.

"Mwa ha ha ha!" Eggman's laugh sounded through the speakers.

"You'll pay for that Eggman" Shouted Amy taking out her hammer and charging at the robot.

"Huh!" Exclaimed Eggman As she begun using missile pods sticking out of the legs as a kind of climbing wall. Eggman hastily began transferring the electric shielding to the legs but not quite in time. She smashed the leg joint with full force and it came clear away smashing into the ground seconds later. Eggman stared at his monitor screen in despair, seeing the Genesis's power levels fluctuate and begin to fall. Its eyes began to flicker as it fell plummeting sideways until a huge crash could heard from miles around. Tails and Knuckles, still trudging through the forest, Startled by the sound, looked at each other then quickened the pace, emerging out of the trees just in time to see a mushroom cloud appear on the horizon. "What the hell…?" They mouthed at the same time. A small pink dot with a blue dot on top of it was emerging from within the explosion and heading there way. They ran towards the spectacle squinting their eyes to see who had survived out of something like that. The dots grew larger and unless they weren't mistaken it was Amy with Sonic slung over her back. She was stumbling, her fur singed. Sonic was still unconscious and his dead weight was not helping her to move any faster. She spotted unmistakable figures of Tails and Knuckles running to her aid as she collapsed. They leant over her and Sonic checking that they weren't too badly wounded.

"What happened?" said Tails his hands on his head.

"Long story" breathed Amy as she to fell into darkness.