Last Time on Inverting Mistakes . . . We left off when our fellow furries Tails and Knuckles were scouting around for the Chaos Emeralds and ran into Vector along the way. They were eventually trapped in the jungle because of a metal wall. The "lovers" Amy and Sonic were still in Flowery Fields looking for Cream. Espio and Charmy patiently waited for Vector to get the heck home already.
Memories Renewed, Realizations Adorned
"People are ignorant of things they ought to know, and know things of which they ought to be ignorant." ~Les Misérables
The sun was beginning to set. The pretty warm colors all danced together into the horizon making Amy depressed. She sighed as she glanced at Sonic. Why can't he at least hold me in his arms once as we watch the sun set? She thought as she let out another exaggerated sigh.
"You ok?" The azure hedgehog asked in concern.
Amy wanted to beat the daylights outta him for not being able to read her mind. "I'm fine." Her companion shrugged and kept searching.
Amy and Sonic were about to call it quits when the pink hedgehog spotted something. "Sonic!" The hedgehog ran to her. She pointed across a lake. There was a dock. The fog and the fading light prevented them from seeing the other side of the crystal lake, but that wasn't any of their concern. Amy wasn't pointing at the scenery, she was pointing on a piece of fabric stuck by a loose nail.
"What is it?" Sonic asked his pink companion as he struggled to get the fabric out from beneath the nail's clutches.
"It's part of Cream's dress." Amy said slowly. An idea sprang into her mind. "We can take it to Tails! He can track her!" Sonic looked at her and gave her a smile that made her heart melt.
"You're a genius, Ames." He gave me a nickname! She couldn't help but annoyingly squeal on the inside. I'm such a girl. She blushed to herself and giggled internally. In the meantime, Sonic slowly stepped away from a creepy-looking Amy.
"Let's go!" She called as she dragged her one-day-to-be-lover into the horizon. Sonic couldn't help but smile. If running makes her happy. . .he shook his thoughts from his head. She's pretty cute sometimes, I'll give her that. He let her drag him to Tail's workshop, he couldn't help but enjoy every second of her giggling, even if at times she did drive him insane.
The sun had already begun to go down. Knuckles was about to blow from frustration, Tails was about to break out in hysteria, and Vector just couldn't shut his mouth about his favorite rappers. It's as if he stalks them, I swear. Just when all home and sanity seemed lost, there was a door. Yes, a door.
Tails raced to it and immediately examined the touch screen. "Mhmm. . . It says to slide your pass key through slot in order to enter. . ." Knuckles shoved his two-tailed friend to the side.
"Pass key my ass. We're breaking in." Knuckle's fist was just inches away from hitting the screen when Tails yelled out to stop.
"Do you want to get caught by whoever is here, Knuckles?" The echidna had yet to notice how much his fox friend had matured over the course of their adventures. It made him feel condescended in a way. "I can hack into the network and get us inside without anyone knowing, I can even shut off the cameras; we will need for them to be shut off." Knuckles steps to the side and crosses his arms. A few minutes later, Tails smiles at his success.
"We ready to go in then?" Vector called out. The fox boy nodded as he clicked a red button on a small device he held.
The threesome went on into the industrial fortress. The walls were made up of silver metal panels nailed to the side, and huge military lamps lighted the way for the group. The lamps were bigger than a sofa. There was an awful smell corrupting the place. It smelled of dead corpses and hazardous medical liquids. As the group progressed into the strange place, the metal panels changed color depending on the corridor one takes.
"So. . .the copper or gold hallway?" Vector asked his companions as he faced left and right simultaneously. Tails was too concentrated on his device to pay any heed to his question.
"We better shut up unless we want anyone finding us in here." The red hothead hissed to the crocodile. Tails shushed his companions.
"Okay," The fox whispered to his friends. "The copper one leads us to the computer rooms and/or data base rooms and the gold hallway leads to experiments." Vector had an urge into racing to the computer room. He couldn't figure out why.
"Experiments?" Knuckles took the device from Tails. Tails shrugged and took his device back.
"First off, you were holding it backwards. And yes, I can't tell exactly what is meant by that but all I know is that we best stay away from the gold corridor." Tails whispered.
"So," Vector finally began whispering. "We find the computer room?" Tails nodded. Vector couldn't contain his excitement, but he still failed to figure out why.
"Let's go." Knuckles called as the group headed into the copper colored hallway.
As they went on, Tails suddenly put out his arm. "Wait, stop. Someone's coming." He looked up at Knuckles for backup. The hotheaded echidna looked back and nodded, stating their mutual agreement. Knuckles would knock them out and Tails would find a way to make the victim unnoticed by anyone else who comes about. The fool-proof plan would be more efficient if their blue teammate was there to assist them.
They hid in the shadows. The sound of static noises approaching could only mean the passerby had to be a type of mechanical being or something. Vector was shaking in uncontrollable anxiety. Turns out, it wasn't a robot. It was a cat. She held a clip board and talked through a headset.
"Yes, this is Nicole." A loud voice shouted from the other end of the headset. "No, I am not an imposter." More shouting. "Commander, there is no one here. . ." Her eyes looked at the odd group. "Commander—" Knuckles covered her mouth and shot her a death glare. The auburn cat shook with fear. She clutched her eyes in panic. Tails slowly took of her headset.
"Yup, nothing here, Commander." Tails did his best Nicole impression, which made Vector and Knuckles want to burst out in laughter. Knuckles threw Nicole into Vector's arms. She squirmed, but Vector made it pretty clear that she wasn't escaping. Knuckles punched open a metal panel and threw Nicole inside.
"Knuckles—" Tails shook his head in fright when Knuckles tempted to trap the cat in there. "You can't be that cruel. We don't even know these people's afflictions."
"Do these metal walls look cute to you?" Knuckles growled.
"Knuckles," Vector joined the argument. "Just knock her out and leave a small opening in the panel for her to get out." Knuckles and Tails looked at each other surprised. Did Vector just come up with a plan? A working plan?
"That's still cruel but," Tails whispered as he looked at Knuckles. "Not a bad idea." Tails looked at his small radar device. "Better hurry though. A group of people are going to pass by here in a few minutes." Vector took out a cloth and stuck it into the girl's face. Her eyes flickered and her limbs gave out into Knuckles' arms. He nodded at his companions and placed her inside the panel and shoved it back into place.
The team walked on through the hallway in silence, that is, until Knuckles broke it. "So," He whispered to Vector. "Why do you carry around chloroform?"
"I've been reading detective novels lately." Vector called proudly. "A good detective must be a handy person. So now, I carry around everything, you name it."
"I don't think I want to. . ." Vector shrugged.
"Suit yourself."
The odd group came across a door. The metal door was a charcoal color. It was double their size and could only be opened with another code. "Tails, do your thing." Knuckles called out to his friend. Tails went to work with pride for being recognized. In a few seconds, they were in.
"Tails where did you learn all this?" Vector asked curiously. He took out a pad and pencil.
"Eh, the internet?" The fox giggled. "Let's just say this fox had too much time on his hands. Still does." Vector wrote furiously and put the pad away afterwards.
Knuckles put his arm around the fox. "I need to introduce you to some friends of mine." Tails slid Knuckles' arm off his shoulder.
"Yeah, um, no thanks." The fox chuckled slowly.
The group went inside only to find a room full of computers. Well, duh. It's a data base room. The green screens lighted the dark and the room was also humidly freezing. Tails hit the switch and the room lit up. The genius fox boy did his thing and hacked into the biggest computer there—the mother board.
"Don't touch anything." Tails hissed at his companions. Of course, there was a shatter in the background. "What did you guys—?" Tails face-palmed himself. Vector and Knuckles were scrambling to pick up the glass pieces of assorted test tubes. They were flinching in pain when the glass cut them. "Guys. . ." Tails called. "Come here. Look at this." There was a picture of a familiar rabbit on the screen.
"That's. . .that's Cream!" Knuckles almost shouted. Several creepy screenshots of Cream in different places flickered on the screen.
"They've been spying on her!" Vector said loudly.
"But why?" Tails called as his eyes scanned the letters on the screen. "She was kidnapped. . ." His breathing became heavy. "She was kidnapped just yesterday!" He fingers danced across the keyboard and clashed the keys furiously. She's currently in a prison in a forest, but will be moved soon. There's still hope. He connected his strange radar device into the computer. The fox boy pointed toward the entrance. "Keep guard. Someone's coming." The other two shook themselves from their trance and barricaded the door. Tails yanked out his odd multitasking device. He went with his comrades.
"What now?" Tails asked. He, sadly, was never good with the whole make-an-escape-plan-at-short-notice thing. For this he looked to Sonic, but seeing how he's not here, he turns to Knuckles.
"The vent!" The red echidna yelled, on cue. Tails flew up and unscrewed the vent. People on the other side of the door struggled to get in, and in a few moments, began firing lasers. Vector and Knuckles did their best to deflect them with any mirror they could find while their fox boy unscrewed their way to freedom.
"Got it!" He yelled at his companions. Knuckles flew in the vent, tuck and roll style. Vector struggled but eventually made it. Tails screwed the vent back on quickly and joined his friends. As the three companions slid through the vents, they could hear the barricade they made come crashing down in heaps of explosions.
"Faster!" Vector hissed. Tails began sweating with anxiety, so much he couldn't even crawl with his trembling limbs.
After a few more pounding minutes of crawling, he crashed into Vector. "What?" Tails asked.
Vector turned around. "Knuckles fell. Like down. . .on a slide." Tails twitched his eyes.
"Then go!" The poor fox couldn't control his stress so he pushed the poor crocodile down. The fox slid down and was tempted to yell from the joyride. The fox then landed on a cold tile floor. "How did—?" Knuckles shushed him. They were still inside the fortress.
It didn't help that it was pitch dark in there. "I don't know where we are." Knuckles shook his head as he whispered to the fox. Tails took out his multitasking device and checked out where they were. "Mhmm. . .It appears we're on the other side. The medical side of this fortress." Besides being in a pitch black room, it didn't help that the creepiest noises surrounded them.
"Guys," Vector called nervously. "I think we are where the experiments—" Tails' device began beeping furiously. Knuckles and Vector looked at Tails frantically.
"There's a chaos emerald here!" Tails told Knuckles.
"Where?" Growled the echidna. The lights switched on, blinding them for a while. Vector shrugged as he slowly dropped his hand from the switch.
"I don't like the dark . . ." Vector mumbled out an explanation. That was the least of their concerns when they looked up and saw the experiments.
"Wh-What? What is this?" Knuckles asked, putting several feet in between him and the test tube life forms.
"Oh my," Tails looked around. Inside the tubes were deformed creatures. Fishes with human legs. Weird sucking beings that sucked the glass endlessly. There were one-eyed turtles with one flipper. Anything else you can imagine was there as well. "This is horrible." The device beeped louder and louder.
"We should really be getting that emerald." Knuckles growled. "Instead of looking at," Knuckles pointed to the poor turtle. "These freaks."
"Let's go." Vector encouraged. This place gave him the creeps, along with an odd feeling to throw up. They headed toward the exit.
Tails looked back before switching off the lights. The poor beings looked at Tails with sadness. "Sorry guys." Tails switched off the lights and shut the door.
He met up with the rest of his gang and they went whichever way would make the device beep louder and louder. They made it a room that contained the chaos emerald floating in an oversized test tube. There were a few scientists in there securing wires onto the test tube. The three of them stood in the hallway eavesdropping on their conversation.
"Glad we finally have our day off tomorrow." Scientist number uno said.
"You've said it." This was a female voice. Really high pitched and annoying.
"I'm not so sure." A raspy voice called. He seriously needs some cough drops.
"Why's that?" The first guy called.
"With all the Shadow the Hedgehog business, people say he's after everyone." The course voice said.
"Like, everyone involved with the reopening of the ARK?" The female called. "That hedgehog is cray cray!" Seriously, she should lay off the coffee.
"I bet he just can't handle the thought of another one like him is going to be created." The first scientist called cockily. Knuckles looked at Tails. Vector stared blankly at the floor. Sure, Shadow is a mess, but it also felt wrong to be overhearing this bs about him.
"Wait, what?" The female scientist asked.
"Didn't you hear? They plan on generating another immortal being. It's a rumor. There's also another rumor that there's something in space that needs to be either destroyed or retrieved." The raspy voice called.
The other male scientist sighed. "I hate it when they never tell us the truth. We survive off rumors."
That's it, Knuckles thought, I want my emerald back now. The scientists began shrieking when they saw the famous echidna. Vector had to knock them all out with chloroform. In the meantime, Knuckles finally got to smash the living daylights out of the test tube. The green emerald beamed furiously, calling out to its guardian. Alarms blared and the room was soon drowned in a bloody red light.
"Come on!" Tails yelled. He hit a couple of more switches and soon, the Tornado could be heard just beyond the wall, along with a clatter of footsteps headed this way. "Knuckles, break us out!" Vector punched the switch to insure the doors can remain locked to buy them more time. Eventually, Knuckles managed to break them out. They piled into the Tornado and Tails flew them out. After reaching a safe distance, Tails looked over at Vector. "Where do we drop you off?"
"My office." Vector groaned. "This was some day." He looked up at the starry night and sighed.
"You said it." Knuckles called, polishing his emerald.
The team eventually dropped Vector off and flew to Tails' workshop, safely into the beaming stars.
Espio entered the office. He had bloodshot eyes and really wanted to meditate his stress out, but couldn't. Not now.
"Espio!" Charmy buzzed over to him. "It's three in the morning! Where did you go?"
"GUN." The chameleon sat on the sofa. "Where's Vector?
The bee shrugged. "I don't know." He cleared his throat. "I talked to everyone except Knuckles and Tails! Cream has been kidnapped! And, and, and Shadow crashed that party we couldn't go to because Vector—!" Charmy did not pause between any words making Espio freak.
"Slow down." The anthropologic chameleon grabbed the bee's skull.
The bee took a deep breath. "Shadow is now one of the country's most wanted. He tried to kill the President."
The chameleon fondled his chin in thought. "Well, I did find this." He lifted a heart shaped USB. "I was trying to get in GUN for information and came across this when looking for their 'thief'." The duo went to their computer and plugged it in. Slowly all this information, blueprints, modifications of the ARK were shown.
"What's that?" Charmy smudged his finger against the screen. Espio smacked his hand away.
Espio looked at the strange beastly anthropologic animal on the screen. "I don't know what that is, Charmy." Espio clattered his fingers against the keyboard. "What did Rouge say about all this?"
"She told me to get lost basically." Mhmm. . .how peculiar, thought the chameleon. Just then, someone tore through the door. Espio, however, wasn't taken by surprise. He already was in position to begin shooting ninja stars.
"Vector?" The ninja put his blades down. The crocodile panted.
"You won't believe where I went." The anthropologic crocodile smiled maliciously. The group quickly interchanged information and resumed examining the USB's contents.
"Shall we set out to Cream's prison then, Vector?" Espio asked his boss. He responded with a nod.
"It's late and I'm tired!" Charmy buzzed over to the sofa and crashed.
"I think we should join him." Espio got up and yawned before going into the next room. "Good night, Vector."
"Night."
Ah! :D Sorry for the wait, chaps! I hoped you like! I love writing these chappies 8DDD Also, next chapter will be up tomorrow :DD Whoo!
Shout outs to Storm337, MaxWaylandGrey, Lucy Labrador, WinterMuffin, Mimi In La La Land, and my beta, MsKittyKitty555!
Review if you know what's good for you ;)