Chapter 5

Alex slowly opened her eyes. The bright light caused her eyes to water a bit and her vision was still somewhat blurry. Finally her sight had cleared enough that she could see her surroundings. She tried to sit up but her arms and feet had been cuffed to the table that she was laying on. She lifted her head and looked around. Test tubes and syringes stood on a table next to her.

"This looks nothing like Tails' lab, that's for sure", she said to herself.

"Ah! I see you are awake. Did you sleep well?"

Alex turned her head to catch a view of the speaker. His shadow grew as he stepped out of the darkness. He was a tall, slender man with jet black hair. He wore a long white lab coat with a name tag that Alex couldn't see well enough to read.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Dr. Argon. I am an expert in the field of Chaos Energy, and you my dear are the missing link to my latest project."

Alex smirked. "You sure you have the right person? I can't manipulate Chaos Energy. You're probably looking for Sonic, Knuckles, or Shadow."

The Doctor raised his eyebrow. "I see. Well I guess we'll just have to run some tests on you to see if you actually are the one I'm looking for."

...back at New Mobotropolis

"Thanks for letting me stay here at the headquarters, Sally." Nate was carrying a duffle bag containing all the things he would need during his stay.

"Oh, it's fine. I mean it's not like you've never been here before. Plus I think Sonic will like the male company since Tails' is also locked up in his lab."

Nate had decided to stay at the Freedom Fighters Headquarters while the search for Alex continued. He was lonely in the apartment, and grew angry whenever he walked passed Alex's room.

"Hey man!", Sonic zoomed into Nate's bedroom and stretched out on the bed. "Did you get settled in yet?"

"Yeah", Nate said annoyed, "And I was kind of planning on taking a nap."

"A nap?!", Sonic jumped off the bed, "But I thought you came here to get your mind off of Alex, not to sleep."

"I don't think I'll be able to stop worrying about her." Nate sat down on the bed.

Sonic sighed. "Hey, have a little faith. When have we ever lost? Never! And we don't plan to ever lose. Believe me when I say that we will find her."

Nate nodded. "Thanks bro."

"No problem." Sonic winked and gave him a thumbs up.

"Hey guys!", Tails ran into the room "I think I found something!"

The three of them ran to Tails' lab and planted themselves in front of the large computer monitor.

"It's a faint signal, but I'm picking up a small sense of Chaos Energy on the outskirts of town."

"Chaos Energy? But what would that have to do with Alex?"

"I'm not exactly sure yet, but this Chaos Energy is different than the others." Tails tried to zoom in on the image.

"Different?", Sonic turned to look at Tails, "I thought we all shared the same Chaos Energy."

"We do, but…" Tails got up and walked over to a safe. He unlocked it with a code and pulled out a cyan colored Chaos Emerald. "The Chaos Energy I'm picking up is tainted. It's not pure like the one you and Knuckles manipulate."

"So what does that mean? Does that mean Shadow is involved? Or is someone using the Chaos Energy for the wrong reasons?"

"This is not Shadow's energy", Tails said as he walked over to a machine and place the emerald inside. He typed something into the small screen and the machine started up. Tails stood back and all three of them watched as the emerald began to fade in color. A black aura began to surround it as the color of the emerald turned black. "It's just as I thought."

"What?", Sonic and Nate quickly walked over to look at the screen with Tails.

"Whoever is using that Chaos Energy has tainted it and artificially produced more of it. This many sound odd but I believe that whoever is creating this dark energy has a connection in Alex's disappearance."

"What makes you think that?" Nate grew more concerned now that the issue of dark Chaos Energy was now a factor in the mystery.

"At the time I discovered this energy, you came to us and reported that Alex had been kidnapped. It's just too much of a coincidence."

"Ok", Sonic nodded, "We'll check this place out then."

"I'll use this energy to track its location." Tails began to type codes into his computer.

"See", Sonic turned to Nate, "I told you we would win."

"But we haven't won yet."

"Don't worry, we most definitely will."