Chapter III:

-''The Void Conspiracy''-

-Fort Ozark, Caribbean Islands-

-14 November 1999-

-0808 Hours-

Alex landed the helicopter on the beach and climbed out. The rest of the Terminator army climbed out as well. They were standing before a massive plot of land, tamped, and surrounded by bulldozers and cranes. "What's this?" Crash asked.

"Fort Ozark," Alex replied, "It's secretly been in construction for about two months."

"What's the purpose?"

"Our first fortress."

"It's unfinished..."

The General began to glow orange and then closed his eyes. Suddenly, an orange light shot from his open eyes and hands, and the fortress appeared. It looked like a building's disintegration into ash played backwards. It materialized out of nowhere. After five minutes, the glow fizzled out and the fort stood, finished.

"What did you do?" Simba asked, shocked.

"Finished the fort."

"How?"

"The mind of a Terminator is strong."

They entered the fort, empty...

"There's nothing here."

"Not yet, but tomorrow, we'll start recruiting non-mutant soldiers."

"But General, will this work?"

"I'm not a General anymore."

"Yes you are..."

"My name is Commander Alex Vaughn, leader of the Terminator Military."

"We're declaring independence, Commander?"

"Yes. Rest easy, tomorrow, we expand."

Commander Vaughn and his troops sat at a table in the local cantina, waiting for recruits, on occasion, someone would come by and sign up. But as the day waned, troop count was still small. The Commander, working closely with the American government, had broadcasted an advertisement and the growing Terminators cheered when the USA had recruited over four thousand soldiers for the army.

They arrived the next morning, and immediately began training. However, as the mutants of the Terminator army, Alpha Company, finished training, Commander Vaughn set to work on finding more troops. Then Jazz appeared...

Rain poured one rainy day, and a young, green rabbit with a red headband requested a meeting with the Commander. He entered the Commandant's Mansion, the Commander was in the library of the mansion, sitting in a black leather chair, petting his two cats. Jazz Jackrabbit entered the beautiful room. Stained, cherry wood floors, Victorian wallpaper, a marble fireplace, and the leather and carved wood furniture were the highlights. Jazz sat beside the Commander, who then ran the interview and passed the rabbit an application.

He quickly filled it out, and the rabbit left. Alex's mind was already made up, the rabbit held a certain air to him that the Commander quickly grew fond of. One last cursory glance, and the Commander made a call.

Private Jazz Jackrabbit met the Commander while Alex was preparing for a mission out to some place known as "Zone A". It was an alliance building mission, as well an escort and defend mission. The Terminators would grow use to escort missions, as they grew in popularity and size.

"Welcome aboard, Private. We were just on our way," Commander Vaughn stated, cleaning his weapon.

"Where do you want me?" Jazz replied.

"Hop on," Crash stated, "And welcome to the team, Newbie."

"Hey Newbie, hand me the gun oil," Crash commanded.

Jazz did, "Why am I the Newbie again?"

"You're new, easy answer."

"Oh...well...um."

Crash began cleaning his rifle. An awkward silence clung to the air. The Commander was toying with his telekinesis, lifting various objects. He was talking to Crash via their telepathy, and having yet to fully control his powers, Jazz couldn't figure out how to tap into the combined thought "bank" of the team, and thus only picked out bits and pieces of the conversations. He couldn't yet actively participate in the telepathic conversations...and they knew it.

He felt left out, and from the tidbits of conversation he picked up, they were talking about him.

Suddenly, there came a rapping on the metal wall, "Five miles till the airstrip!"

The tanks came to an abrupt stop, and the Terminators dismounted. "C'mon Jazz!" Crash said, slapping the jackrabbit on the back, "Our ride's here."

The tanks drove onto the back of the plane, and the Terminators boarded.

"Next stop, Emerald Coast!" the pilot called.

The island came into view. It was extremely foggy, and the Emerald Coast was far from green. Ice and snow clung thickly to the island. From the cockpit of the gunship, Crash asked through the radio, "What exactly are we doing here?"

"Alliance building mission," Simba replied.

"This will be interesting," Jazz stated with a shake of the head.

"Nah! It'll be a breeze, hope you dressed warmly," the Commander stated with a laugh.

"Damn," Nala replied, "I'm not meant for icy climates."

"Meh, you'll get used to it," Alex replied, "Eventually."

"Thanks for the reassurance."

"Ayup."

The gunship landed on an ice floe, and the Terminators hopped out.

"Good Lord it's cold out here!" Jazz exclaimed.

"Nah! Stop being a baby," the Commander teased, "It's cool...but not bad."

"It's snowing!"

"Point is?"

It was cold, windless, and snow rained lazily down on the darkening land. "So you are the Terminators I've heard about?" Came a powerful, rather sarcastic voice from behind.

The team turned to face a blue hedgehog, laying in the crook of a glacier, relaxing.

"Really? Sonic, I expected older people," said a voice, much younger.

"Well, Tails, if they're good, they're good I guess."

"I don't know, don't trust them," came a third voice.

"Lay off of them, Knuckles," Sonic said, and the red echidna just grunted.

The four appeared, standing across from the Terminators.

Sonic asked, "So, what's your names?"

The Commander ran the usual introductions, Sonic countered by introducing his group.

"So you are the Terminators?" A yellow fox, Tails, asked.

"Aye," Jazz replied, "We are."

"Cool," Sonic replied, "Listen, we're gonna need your help."

"Why?"

"A creature named Void is raising terror throughout the world. It destroyed the master emerald, and now the island's in chaos. We need help to stop the terror."

"How?"

Sonic led them up the hill and pointed to a nearby creature, "See that monster looking thing?"

"Yes."

"That is holding one of the pieces of the emerald."

"What do we do?"

"Destroy the monsters, take the emeralds, and restore the emerald."

"Okay," the Commander said, "Jazz, do the honors?"

"Will do," the jackrabbit replied.

He pulled out his rifle, and screwed on a scope and silencer. He then loaded the sniper, took aim, and fired. In a spray of green, the creature collapsed, and Simba rushed forward, pulling the necklace with the emerald from the corpse's neck. The cub rushed back to his team. "THAT was easy," he replied.

"Incoming!" Alex cried as they were surrounded by creatures.

Jazz stood, put away his rifle, revealed a pistol, and fired. The Commander engaged in hand-to-hand combat fighting the beast, then he withdrew the beast's sword, and lopped its head off with it. More arrived, and the Terminators attacked. The battle was short, but with a pocketful of crystals, there was still more to collect

Suddenly, there came a growl, and a massive bird swooped down, picking up the group in a massive talon, and throwing them on its back.

Dazed...blindingly bright sun light...The Commander started from his unconsciousness, feeling around. He felt wood, and looking down from his current position, he appeared to be on a bird-shaped ship. The way the boards were laid on the deck, he was amazed that the deck looked similar to a pirate ship.

Where am I? he thought, What is this place?

"Commander!"

Alex turned to see Jazz running up to him.

"What is this? What's going on?"

"I don't know Jazz."

"Where are we?"

"I wish I knew."

Suddenly, several large birds appeared above them, dropping more of those creatures onto the back of the bird.

"You guys ready?" Sonic asked, appearing next to them.

"Of course," the Commander replied.

"Then let's go," Sonic began to spin dash towards the creatures, the Commander meanwhile revealed his MP40s and opened fire. Shooting them down. Suddenly, the others appeared as well on the lower decks. Crash called up to Alex, "They have those emerald pieces!"

"Collect them!" Knuckles commanded, narrowly avoiding a creature's punch.

Ejecting the used clips, the Commander re-holstered his machinenpistoles and unsheathed his swords. He did a front flip off the upper deck and came down, slicing one of the monsters into thirds. He ran around, slashing the monsters and retrieving the fallen crystals.

Ten of those birds appeared again, this time dropping bombs on the Fire Bird, whom screeched at the explosions and began to go down.

"Nuts!" Jazz exclaimed, "They've hit us! We're going down!"

"Brace yourselves!" The Commander ordered.

The Fire Bird lost altitude, then took a nose-dive and plummeted. It crashed into the ground, the force of impact sending the Terminators on board flying every which way. The downed bird slid across the ground by momentum...then stilled.

The Commander stumbled off the downed bird, disoriented. His whole body tingled as he healed. The others stumbled drunkenly to his side. Crash pressed two fingers to the bird's jugular veins...no pulse. "It's dead," the bandicoot stated, panting.

"What happened?" Simba asked, dizzy, and struggling to maintain balance.

"We crashed," Jazz replied, trying to stand.

"Where are we now?" Nala asked.

Sonic said, "Nature Zone."

They were in a clearing in the middle of a forest. A massive waterfall ended in a river that ran down the center of the clearing, dividing it in half. A wooden bridge connected the two halves of the clearing together...even worse, the place was crawling with those creatures, relaxing. Without a word, Jazz assembled his sniper began firing at isolated targets. They went down...and nobody seemed to notice the corpses.

"This is too easy," Jazz stated, firing again.

"Sometimes people get lucky and karma's on our side," Tails said, "Others...well...we're in trouble."

"So...Commander..." Sonic began.

"Ayup?" He replied, reloading his MP40s.

"What exactly does it take to join your army?"

"An interview and an application. But I'll cut the interview for you are your buddies, I can't be bothered right now to deal with it."

"Show me the paper, I'll sign up."

"We will, too," Knuckles said, the remainder of their party around him.

"Awesome," the Commander replied, "Mind if I put your names in for Alpha Company? That's our elite

unit. I.E, us."

"Go ahead," Sonic replied.

"Cool."

They shook hands.

"We got company!" Jazz called, hurrying to withdraw his Colt .45.

They engaged the approaching creatures, dispatching them with relative ease, and retrieving dropped

emeralds. Suddenly, one of the creatures stepped forward and said, "Void been expecting you."

The Terminators lowered their weapons, still keeping them cocked and ready to fire.

"Void has?"

"Yes."

"Oh really? And uh...how do we meet this 'Void'?"

Those monsters surrounded them, disarming them, and tying their limbs together.

"Come with us," the creature replied.

Night fell upon the world. The streamlined, steam, mag-train sped along the magnetized rails. Apparently, the creatures didn't know that passengers were supposed to go inside the train...instead, everyone was tied on the roof of the caboose.

"I understand the need for protection...but was binds really necessary?" The Commander asked.

"Yes," the obvious leader of the group answered.

"Explanation please?"

"No."

"Why not?"

No reply.

Alex sighed.

The train sped on into the night.

Alex began to cut the ropes binding with a blade hidden in his boot. When he was free, he set the others loose, picked up the weapons tossed in a pile, and silently dispatched the sleeping enemies. He whispered to his team, "Alright, we need to take this train. If we can get to the engine, we might be able to stop this.

"Aren't they taking us to Void?" Tails asked, retrieving the emeralds.

"Perhaps, but more than likely, its a trap."

"How can you be so sure?"

"I can't, gut feeling. C'mon! Let's go!"

They sped to the front of the train, jumping from car to car, surprised at the alarming absence of enemies. When they finally arrived at the head, they saw the bomb...

"I knew it!" The Commander exclaimed.

"What are we gonna do?" Sonic asked

"I don't know."

"We don't even know where Void is..."

"I don't know! If you have a plan, please care to share, else we will be blown to pieces."

The bag of gems the Commander held then began to glow, and he felt lightweight, as if he weighed nothing, he then began to float.

"What?" Knuckles asked, "What's going on?"

The others were floating as well and then...in the blink of an eye, they shot up off the train, into a cylindrical blue vortex tunnel. They sped along, watching as the Earth grew farther and farther way, giving out far into space...

"What's that?" Tails asked, pointing to a strange, ball-shaped light.

"I...I don't know," the Commander replied truthfully, watching as they were forced through the tunnel, and into the vortex.

The Terminators shot out of the vortex, landing harshly on the ground. They were in a huge, ball-shaped arena made out of air it seemed. They could walk on the walls and floor, as if gravity didn't matter, but their footprints, fingerprints, and all contact made permanent impressions on the strange, completely transparent walls. Plasma the Commander thought. Everywhere they looked, they saw space. Nearby, they saw a spiral galaxy rotating slowly.

"What the-" Sonic began, "Where are we?"

"I don't know," the Commander replied truthfully.

"Welcome!" Came a powerful voice.

They looked up to see a woman, in long white clothes, with long, pink hair floating, and blood-red eyes glaring at them, hovering. "Void?" Tails asked.

"Aye, it is me. I've been waiting."

"So," I've heard the Commander replied, "Why are we here?"

"To die!"

She opened her palms and shot a bolt of lightning at them. They dodged and the Commander ordered, "Destroy her!"

The Terminators opened fire while Sonic and Knuckles used a spinning dash at her. Jazz grabbed a sword and charged at her, slashing. She dodged and countered with a bolt of electricity. Jazz was sent flying backwards, and Crash immediately was to his side. While she was concentrating on the crowd, the Commander broke away, blade in hand. He knelt on the ceiling, one hand resting on the surface of the ball, and propelled himself into the air, right above her. He came down, jamming his sword into Void's neck.

She let out an inhuman screech and exploded in a ball of light.

Void gone, the ball began to fade, and they were losing footing as anti-gravity kept them off the surface. Then, in a brilliant flash of white light, they were blinded. When their vision cleared, they were once more on the Emerald Coast. "What the-" Crash began, "What just happened?"

"Look!" Tails cried in joy.

The snow and ice began to melt, revealing the emerald grasses and frozen palm trees. Within minutes, the Emerald Coast was restored to its former beauty. "We did it," the Commander said in awe.

"So, can we join?" Sonic asked.

"Follow me," Alex replied. They boarded the waiting gunship, "Welcome to the team," he said, shaking his new soldiers' hands. The helicopter took to the skies and flew away, leaving the Emerald Coast behind.

Jazz stepped outside onto the balcony connecting to his room on the third floor of the Commander's Mansion in Fort Ozark. "Psst!"

Jazz looked around, and spied a shadowed figure hiding near a tree.

"Yes you! Rabbit! Down here!"

Jazz looked around, spying ivy growing up the wall to his right. He climbed down the ivy, landing on the grass, and approached the cloaked figure. "Who are you?" He asked suspiciously.

The cloaked man replied, "It does not matter Rabbit, I have a proposition for you."

"Oh really?"

"If you accept, I will give you 500 grand cash now, another 500 come success."

"I'm listening..."

"I need you to do a little...digging...for me."

"Explain?"

The man whispered his mission to Jazz, handing him the envelope. Jazz checked it. 500 K, all in 100 dollar bills.

"Will you accept?"

"Yes," Jazz said, "I will."