tails blackheart - I will say that there's a bad guy behind the bad guys behind the bad guy, something like that. (Even I'm confused by all this ^^' )

rayzorbudgie - Oh noes! Quick! Use this anti-blindness cream!

Confusion and blindness aside, onto the chapter.


Pyramidal Betrayal

The great stone pyramid stood proudly surrounded by the ruins of its enclosure, witnesses of the ancient age of the echidnas. Dwarfed by its vastness, Amy, Tails; Rouge, Knuckles, Mighty and Espio congregated at its base, standing before the stairs that ascended the mighty pyramid. Amy looked around almost impatiently, there was no sign of even animals being here, let alone Sonic and his captors,

"Well?" she asked, exhaling loudly. Rouge sighed,

"They'll be inside, obviously." the bat spun round, not giving Amy a second glance, and began climbing the flight of stairs. They all followed in silence, their minds churning with the information they had learnt in the past hours. Was there a traitor among them? It was an unthinkable idea, all present had been through thick and thin with each other. There was absolutely no way any of them could possible betray the rest, but the seeds of doubt had been sown.

A few minutes later they stood, staring at the stone entrance to the once grand temple. It was a hole, leading down into darkness. Mighty peered down it warily,

"Is this even safe?" Knuckles rolled his eyes

"Of course, I've used it before. Now let's find blue, and my Emerald." and with that, he jumped through the opening. They heard him descending into the depths of the monument. For a moment no one moved, and then Rouge pushed past and cautiously climbed down, followed by Espio and then Mighty and Amy, with Tails bringing up the rear. It was a slide, pure and simple, a long smooth toboggan that went on for a minute or two, before landing them all onto a cold stone floor. Rouge heaved herself up

"Where are we?" They had landed in a small stone chamber, an archway beckoned towards a huge cavern beyond. Tails rubbed his head where he had landed on it,

"Inside the pyramid I'd guess." Amy jumped to her feet,

"Come on! Let's go." they moved on to the next chamber, which led to a long stone corridor, once past the relief adorned tunnel they arrived in another corridor, this time with large stone windows set in the right wall that revealed the mountainous terrain beyond,

"Where are we?" Espio asked, looking at the unfamiliar landscape. Before anyone could answer, a panel opened in the wall to their left, and a huge boulder rolled towards them. Surprised, they all dived out of the way. The boulder rolled harmlessly past them. The group all picked themselves up, but were all knocked down once more as the boulder impacted with one of the windows, sending chunks of stone flying, and creating an opening through which it fell down to the ground. Mighty, put off balance by the crash and having dived too far out of the boulder's way, teetered on the edge of the new hole in the wall. Unable to balance himself, he fell out from the hole, his hand just managing to grab the edge of the wall,

"Someone, help!" he cried, fear obvious in his voice. Knuckles rushed over, grabbing the armadillo's arm and trying to pull him back up,

"Jeez Mighty, how much do you weigh?" Mighty looked indignant for a moment, despite hanging over a fall of several hundred feet,

"It's my armour plates." he muttered. Espio moved over, also taking Mighty's arm with his one good arm and pulling. Together, they pulled the armadillo back up onto the corridor. Mighty breathed hard for a moment,

"Thanks guys." he panted. Amy, pulled him up,

"No time to waste. Let's go!"

The alternation between chambers and corridors continued on for an hour more or so, the ruins didn't seem to have an end, it was difficult to believe that any race could have built such a huge monument that appeared to stretch for miles. Finally they arrived at a huge chamber, heavily decorated with mosaics of echidnas and their temple itself, and flooded with water. A gigantic stone snake swam its way around the place. The exit was at the other side of the room, but how to get there? Rouge stared at the snake suspiciously,

"So, is it alive?" Tails shook his head,

"I don't think so, I remember Sonic told me about a similar chamber, with a stone snake swimming around." the sombre reminder of the friend in peril emboldened them, and Amy wasted no time in jumping onto the snake as it swam past them. If it was alive, it didn't seem to mind their presence. Taking a leap, Espio vaulted onto the snake with her, closely followed by Rouge, who only just managed to grab the snake's tail. A minute or so later, they approached the exit platform. A quick series of acrobatics, and they all stood there, waiting for the other. A few minutes later, and they all stood before the impressive gemstone-studded door that led to the next room.

"How do we get it open?" queried Tails. Knuckles gave the door a push, it swung silently, giving it a very odd appearance, the heavy looking stone door swinging like a simple wooden one. It was pitch black beyond, Amy peered through,

"It's very dark." she said, stating the rather obvious. As if by enchantment, torched blazed, revealing a massive chamber, adorned with more mosaics than they knew numbers. They cautiously strode in, and there they saw them, at the far side of the chamber. Yanric Kintol, five sleek-looking robots, each painted a different colour; green, red, blue, yellow and purple, the Master Emerald, and beside it, hooked to some strange contraption, Sonic. Amy gave something mid-way between a shriek and a cry,

"Sonic!" she sprinted towards him but Yanric held up a hand,

"Stop!" he cried, Amy stopped, "Don't get closer! My employers here," he gestured towards the robots, "won't allow you to get too close." Amy glared at them defiantly,

"If you think a few robots will keep me from helping Sonic, then you're wrong!" she continued running towards them. The green robot gave a low hiss, there was a green flash, and Amy was being held by the neck by the robot. Knuckles ran forward, but the robot, quick as lightning, threw Amy at the echidna, and both fell to the floor. The robot gave another hiss, and proceeded to speak, in a hissing, clunking voice, much like a badly-oiled machine,

"Do not interfere with the proceedings. Or you will be terminated." Satisfied with this, he turned round to Yanric,

"Time grows short. prepare the Chaos Computer. Set all into motion." Yanric nodded, flicking a switch on the machine. There was a loud hum that reverberated throughout the entire chamber, Tail, Rouge, Mighty and Espio moved towards Amy and Knuckles,

"We need to stop them using that Chaos Computer, and find a way to free Sonic!" whispered Tails, Knuckles, disentangling himself from Amy, exhaled angrily,

"And how do you suggest we do that!? Did you see just how fast that robot moved? I don't even think Blue's that fast." Yanric, having prepared the Chaos Computer, turned round to the group, and much like a host at a dinner party, called for silence,

"Before we start, I think a certain someone needs to come forward. Time for betrayal I think!" There was a deep laugh from behind the heroes,

"You never cease to surprise me, Yanric. I thought we had agreed I was going to come forward after the Chaos Computer had been used?" The group spun round. There stood Mighty, a gun, having been procured from seemingly nowhere, levelled straight a Tail's head,

"Betrayal's only half the fun," he snarled, looking more like some feral demon than an armadillo, his eyes hard like diamonds, his hands not quivering, "I prefer the killing part."


Cliffhanger! RUN! But before you do, please R&R!