Chapter 7: Mind-Control

In another large chamber with a glowing orb at the very top, Amelia and Chuck got up to it and found several robots lurking around.

"This must be what's causing the generator to not work," Chuck guessed. "An infestation of Lyric's robots!"

"Looks like it," Amelia remarked. "Though they seem to be guarding that orb, which has something inside."

"Maybe if we release that thing, it'll make the generator work again."

"Guess we'll find out."

The two quickly set to work on beating up the robots, which looked similar to MAIA but were brand-new along with some snake-shaped ones.

"Ugh," Chuck moaned, stomping on one of the snake-shaped robots. "I hate snakes."

"Even though you lived on a floating tropical island for most of your life?" Amelia said snidely.

"Just because I did doesn't mean I had to like every single creature that lived there."

"Okay, whatever." Amelia waved her hand dismissively and shot an Ener-Beam at a handle below a beam of energy encompassed by two metal objects. "Just help me pull these plugs down so the energy from that orb flows into the generator."

"Gotcha," Chuck nodded and went over to another one.

Taking turns, the two pulled the four plugs down causing the orb to dissipate and the object inside it to float downward.

"Looks like the Crystal we found earlier," Chuck observed. "Only yellow."

"And shaped like a star," Amelia added and pulled out her scroll-shaped object. "I'm going to send a picture of this to Cliff using my AVA."

There was a brief flash of light, and the AVA's holographic screen contained an image of the crystal. Then after Amelia sent it to Cliff, she waited a few minutes before a text message appeared on the AVA.

"According to Cliff, this one's known as the Sun Crystal," Amelia said reading the text. "It supposedly contained enough power to generate the whole Research Facility without running out of energy."

"Until Lyric's robots decided to unplug the entire system," Chuck stated.

"But now that it's running again, Sonny and Miles should have no problem using that time machine," Amelia realized. "Let's see them off before they go."

"Sounds like a good idea," Chuck agreed and followed Amelia downward.

###

In the chamber below, Sonny and Miles heard the generator rumbling above them. Meanwhile, MAIA plugged herself into a nearby device.

"Setting coordinates and activating time portal now," MAIA announced. "Will send you through once my calculations are complete."

"Not…so…fast."

Sonny and Miles looked to see a guy about Sonny's age with spiky black hair that had red highlights wearing a black vest with white fur underneath, black shorts, red-and-black wristbands accessorized by gold rings that also wrapped around his ankles which were protected by red pads over his red black and white shoes.

"Shawn!" Sonny exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"And what's that thing on your head?" Miles asked, pointing to a silver headset Shawn wore that had three glowing gems on it.

"It kind of does look like a tiara." Sonny laughed. "Are you going through a princess phase or something?"

"Silence!" Shawn ordered. "You…will…not…pass…through…that…portal."

"And why's that?" Sonny said sarcastically.

"Because…I…will…defeat…you!"

Then Shawn vanished and reappeared behind Sonny where he kicked him in the head. Sonny went flying but he quickly recovered by spinning into a ball and hitting Shawn in the chest. He fell backwards, allowing Miles to fire at the headset with his wrist laser. Unfortunately, Shawn blocked the laser blasts with his wristbands and vanished again.

"This is getting kind of old, Shawn!" Sonny whined. "I know your warping ability has a limited range, unless you have a Chaos Emerald on hand."

He spotted Shawn slinking in the shadows nearby and dashed toward him. Immediately, Shawn vanished and appeared next to Miles where he picked him up by the neck.

"What…is…Chaos…Emerald?" Shawn demanded.

"Put my friend down!" Sonny insisted. "This isn't like you, Shawn, and how can you not know what Chaos Emeralds are?"

Before Shawn could respond, an echoing scream caused him to look up before something fell on top of him. It was Stilla, and she used her boomerang to hit Shawn's headset which caused the gems to stop glowing. As a result, Shawn let go of Miles and passed out.

"Stilla," Miles muttered as he held his throat. "You were supposed to stay in the village."

"Yeah, but this adventure you guys are having seemed way too good to miss out on," Stilla claimed as she got off of Shawn and helped Miles up. "And I just saved your life. Doesn't that count for something?"

Miles looked embarrassed. "Well, sort of, but—

A groaning noise caught Stilla by surprise as Shawn started to wake up. "Ah! I didn't knock the bad man out hard enough!"

She prepared to attack him again, but Miles held her back.

"Hold on, Stilla," Miles urged. "This guy normally doesn't attack us."

"With some exceptions," Sonny reminded Miles.

"What happened?" Shawn muttered as he got to his feet.

"You attacked me and Miles," Sonny explained. "And briefly forgot what a Chaos Emerald is."

Confused, Shawn touched the headset and removed it. "What's this?"

"I'm not sure," Miles said as he took the headset from Shawn's hands. "But if I had to guess…it looks to be some kind of mind-control device, based on how you behaved."

"I remember receiving orders from G. U. N. to shadow Eggman, after he crashed through the atmosphere in his Egg Mobile," Shawn described. "Then I got here yesterday, found Eggman near some temple, was heading back to the village when this weird man showed up and talked to me. He called himself Lyric, and asked if I could help him look for the 'Chaos Crystals'. Naturally, I refused but after that…my mind's drawing a blank."

"He must've put this thing on you when you weren't looking," Sonny figured, grabbing the device from Miles and twirling it around his finger.

"And probably manipulated you into shutting the generator off to get this Chaos Crystal and bring it to Lyric," Amelia concluded. She had grabbed onto Chuck earlier and the two of them had descended down through the hole after Stilla had leaped in, having reached the bottom just now. She pulled the Sun Crystal out from the bandages around her waist and gave it to Sonny.

"That would make sense," Sonny nodded, examining the Sun Crystal while still twirling the headset in his other hand.

"Calculations complete," MAIA said, causing everyone to look at her. "Portal is open and ready to receive passengers."

"We need to go, Sonny," Miles stated while grabbing Sonny's arm. "Or we'll never get that map for the Chaos Crystals."

"Oh, right," Sonny remembered and gave the Sun Crystal back to Amelia. "Wish me luck!"

Amelia was about to say something when Sonny tossed the headset away and ran straight into the glowing circle at the center of the circular device while Miles followed him.

To be continued…