Section 3: Consequences
The following five years were eventful and world changing times, and yet life in Station Square through that time still managed to move at a crawl. The ravages of time did not seem to have an affect on Sonic and the others who looked exactly the same as they did five years ago. As for Matt and Chris, they had simply grown taller and had continued on with their lives still closely associated with what the others were doing. Bit Matt and Chris had kept the same style hair and clothing as they did while at school. Sonic and the others were still saving the world from Dr. Eggman, most recently thwarting his plan to melt the polar ice caps. The chaos emeralds were thus passed from one party to the next and so nobody knew where any of them were. Sonic and Amy were now dating after a health scare concerning Amy. Sonic had finally confessed his feelings and after her recovery were happily together. Knuckles remained on guard at the master emerald on Angel Island, but he now had Cream and Cheese for company. Rouge travelled the world in search of mythical and legendary treasures, while Shadow was now a full member of the sonic team.
The big news however was between Tikal and Matt. The two now shared an apartment in downtown Station Square and were also a couple. Tikal always believed that they were destined to meet. Their feelings were declared to each other when Matt won a competition for a holiday in the tropics. He decided to take Tikal with him on the holiday. It was on the balcony of the hotel they were staying in that they shared their first kiss. Tikal was now taking care of a number of stray chao over at the master emerald who had found their way into this dimension. Matt on the other hand was now the director and commander of his own mercenary company.
Fuelled by the designs he had made when he was young, he had created numerous revolutionary machines and weapons which were tried and tested and then tested again. The army dubbed Fury. Co had found itself being contracted by the government as the new and superior replacement for G.U.N. Fury. Co now had a vast spaceship fleet and ground army, space stations and had even taken over area 99 as its base of operations. The only parts of the complex revealed to the public were the hangers and storage areas, barracks for the troops, command centre and medical centre, and the research centre. They were also the only owners of a memory erasure machine, link laser technology and intergalactic hyper drive engines capable of reaching the edge of the solar system in seconds. Finally in final testing stages were a reanimation machine and the original dimension jump machine.
After a recent heat wave non stop rain had plummeted upon the country in what could only be described as biblical proportions. Despite this Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, Rouge, Matt, Tikal, Tails and Chris had to brave the storm for an urgent meeting with the president. His office was a pristine as it always looked on the television. It almost seemed like the pure white walls were generating there own light to fill the office.
The president was sat in his plush leather chair, hands clasped together and eyes closed. With a deep breath he pressed an intercom button on his desk. "You can send them in now" The team entered the room all looking as though they had just crawled out of the ocean "OK Mr, what's all this about" said a frustrated shadow who was rubbing his cold numb hands together in a vain attempt to regain some feeling "I thank you all the coming" said the president as he stood from his seat and adjusted his expensive navy blue formal suit to eliminate any creases even though his large build assisted with this process since his suit was very tight fitting "Yeah, our pleasure" said Matt sarcastically as he filled a plant pot with water he had collected in his soaking wet cap. "Now then, I'm sure you're all familiar with our good friend Dr. Eggman" The look he received from everybody's identical expressions easily showed how they all felt about him.
Tails raised his hand "Sir I'm sure you know how much we would love to add another victory to our record against him, but we don't even know where he is at the moment" "Its a good thing then that we do" the president quickly followed "And we know what he is doing there. Thanks to Rouge who gathered the information we now know that Eggman is based right upon the Pacific Atlantic tectonic plate boundary" "That's a very specific place" said Tikal whose expression dropped "And I think I can see where this is going" The president nodded, he knew what she was thinking, but Chris beat him to the explanation "When two tectonic plates rub together in a certain way it can cause a destructive reaction. This reaction can cause massive earthquakes, and I'd say he plans on using this to send a wave of destruction across the continent" "That is exactly correct Chris" Acknowledged the president.
"So when do we leave?" said Sonic who was now turning to the door to leave but was stopped by Rouge who was still by far the most glamorous of them all. She still dressed in the same make-up and the same black and pink skin tight jumpsuit "You're not going anywhere" "Really and why is that?" he replied "Because you're little paper plane would be shot down before you even caught sight of the island" Upon hearing this Tails angrily shouted "That is not true, we can get through anything he throws at us" The president smiled "I like your enthusiasm Tails but I'm afraid Rouge is right, Eggman has really stepped up" He turned to look at Matt "We need something a bit more substantial" Matt was puzzled but quickly realized what he was saying "Me! No, no, no. We haven't even been called into combat yet, let alone been asked to fight Eggman" "Well there is no better time to test your company then is it" Matt sighed and accepted his duties "I'm sorry Sonic but I can't take you, Eggman watches you too closely" Sonic didn't like what he said but knew it was true "Make sure you take a picture of the look on his face then" he smiled. Matt continued "Ok, But I would like to take Shadow, Knuckles and Tikal with me" He looked at them with a smile "Shadow, your chaos control will prove useful, and Knuckles and Tikal with your permission I will need you to bring the master emerald to the 'Rapture'. Ill need you to command the master emerald when we get there" The trio nodded and smiled back showing they were ready and willing to do their part. "We leave tomorrow, and sir, get a cell ready for Eggman"