A/N: So we know it's been a while. Sorry.

Pen: Where's Sword?

Aw, do you miss her?

Pen: Don't be foolish.

She's still on vacation. Anyway-

Pen: Hold on! She gets a vacation and I don't!

Well, you haven't earned it. Anyway, I own none of the characters besides Gauge. All others are owned by Sega. Here is-

Chapter 9-Where's Nega?

"Sir! We have the emeralds!" a small robot informed the large man who sat in a chair on board a large carrier in the helm, surveying the battle below. The chair slowly spun around to reveal a bald head and gray mustache accompanied by eyes of pure hate and malice.

"Good," he replied, his sinister voice oozing out. "And the last two?"

"Sensors indicate they are at a building known as the G.U.N. headquarters."

The man folded his hands together in thought for a few moments. "Tell the forces on Angel Island to head there immediately. And set a course for us as well."

"What about our troops on the ground?" the robot asked.

The man leaned forward in his chair slightly. "Leave them. They're of no further use"

The droid saluted. "Yes, Dr. Nega!" it responded, quickly running off to it's duties. Nega sat back in his chair and saw his opponent's flagship off in the distance. He smiled as it, and the island below, slowly disappeared from his view.


"Woah!" Rouge shouted, nearly falling over. Shadow caught her in his arms and pulled her to her feet.

"We must be moving. We don't have much time," Shadow yelled over the sound of the alarms. He finally pulled out one of his pistols and shot it out, but several others still reverberated in the hallways.

"Right," Rouge nodded. She looked at where they were. There were paths leading to their front, right, and left and nothing differentiated them. All were gunmetal grey with flashing red lights. "I'll take the right," she thumbed the path.

Shadow nodded. "I'll go forward. Try to find the helm. I'm sure Nega will be there."

Rouge pulled out her gun and checked the ammo. Nearly empty. So she tossed it aside and opted for her sidearm pistol as well. "Gotcha." And with that, she took off down the hallway.


As Knuckles snapped a gun over his knee, he looked up to see what was left of the attackers fleeing. They moved in a calm, collected way as one would expect robots to do instead of falling over one another to escape the path of the destruction their fallen comrades had been in. The echidna boasted proudly at the top of his lungs, catching the attention of his friends. "Is that all you got?"

The rest of the group looked up to notice the robots either flying off or being carried off into the sky. "Strange," Tails murmured.

Sonic stepped onto the chest of one robot and kicked it's sputtering head. "Yeah. They gave up too easily."

Knuckles shrugged as he walked to the shrine and picked up the red emerald that he had hidden from view. "As long as they didn't get this or the Master Emerald, I don't care."

Sonic walked over to the echidna and held out his hand. "Knuckles, give it to me. I have a feeling we'll need it."

He nodded and handed it over to the hedgehog. "I figured as much. How many of the others have you found?"

"Including this one?" Gauge asked. "One." Knuckles slapped his forehead as Gauge shrugged. "So where now?"

Tails pulled out his tracker and tuned it. "We need to find the others. Knuckles, how about you come with us?"

The guardian held up his hand and shook his hand. "No, I need to be here in case they return." They offered to stay with him, but Knuckles waved them saying they would be needed elsewhere. Despite his external bruises, cuts, and gashes, he still had that fighting spirit in his eyes that he was known for. So, after leaving him with a first aid kit and making sure his communicator still worked, the group left the echidna to his shrine, which he quickly took sentry upon, on the lookout for any sign of activity in the forest surrounding it.

The group walked back to the Tornado, Tails and Gauge at the front, examining the tracker and trying to pinpoint the exact position of the other emeralds. This left Sonic and Amy to trail behind, each in their own silent thoughts and exchanging nervous glances with one another. Or more that Sonic was the one looking slightly nervous while Amy giggled at it.

She swung her arms back and forth, almost tempting Sonic to reach out and grab ahold of one. And he nearly did, slowly inching his hand toward one of her's until Tails turned around and told them they needed to hurry. Sonic quickly pulled his arm away, losing his nerve. He cursed whatever invisible force had been silently working against him all this time as he picked up his pace.


"We're here," Kelvin announced to Silver and Blaze. They all looked out for the helicopter they sat in. From the window, they could see the dozens of other helicopters and several ships, enough to make a fleet, heading for the island, where Eggman's fleet of aircraft was still stationed.

"Where's Nega?" Silver asked as the helicopters began to descend. He grabbed hold of a railing on the inside to steady himself.

Kelvin put down a pair of binoculars he had been looking through and shook his head. "I don't know. Last report said he was here. Maybe we'll find out more once we're on the ground."

Nearly twenty minutes later, all the ground forces had been deployed from the ships. The helicopters were currently forced to stay grounded as well since Eggman's defenses had shot down two when they tried to recon the area. Seeing as this was the lieutenant's first big assignment on his own, he was nerve wracked somewhat, but kept everything under control with some help from Blaze.

"You! Set up a perimeter around the helicopters with mines planted every fifteen feet," Blaze ordered one group of soldiers, showing off her queen experience, before turning to another. "You! Recon the mountains and report every ten minutes!"

Both groups looked at Kelvin. "You heard the lady! Let's move! Get your asses in gear!" he yelled, clapping his hand to emphasize their urgency. The soldiers quickly ran off as Kelvin let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks for that," he said to Blaze.

The princess nodded. "My pleasure. We should try to find your missing troops before attacking Eggman's carrier."

Kelvin nodded, but before he could reply, his radio buzzed with a call. "This is Lieutenant Kelvin," he answered.

"Sir. I believe we found the missing troops," the called said. "You may want to see it for yourself."


Shadow gritted his teeth, wondering if he should instead try to find the power room rather than the helm so he could shut off the alarms. He would have shot each and every one out, but common sense told him that he would need every bullet he could get. Especially for someone as dangerous as Nega.

So far, the security had been surprisingly light. Some gun turrets in the corners and a few mindless drones, but nothing to put up a real fight. And that had the hedgehog on edge. Before he would reach an intersection or door, he would pause and take a quick look around just to make sure he wasn't walking into an ambush.

"What the hell is going on?" he muttered. "There should be more than this." He continued down the twisting and turning hallways, following the overhanging signs that conveniently pointed in the directions of certain rooms.

Eventually Shadow found the door to the helm. Above the door, a security camera swiveled back and forth. As Shadow watched it, it suddenly stopped moving and focused on him. An unseen intercom from the darkness that the alarms didn't light up turned on. "Hm, you look like Sonic, but you lack the pesky blue color. Pity. I was hoping for a chance to kill him," a voice said.

"You must be Nega." Shadow's grip on his gun tightened.

The voice gave a short chuckle. "Yes, I am he. But may I have the pleasure of knowing who you are so that I can chisel it on your tombstone?"

"Shadow," he replied.

"Ah yes. My bumbling doppelganger mentioned you. Said you were just as good as Sonic." Shadow could practically see the devious smile that was surely adorning the man's face. "Let's see if that is true."

A loud thud at the end of the hallways was heard. Shadow turned to see his way was cut off. Then he heard a soft humming, like thousands of angry bees swarming to him. In a quick flash, Shadow saw and felt several blades rip and tear at him. He managed to dodge a few before it stopped.

Shadow widely turned around, gun trained on whatever target he could find. That was when he saw several robots standing in front of the door to the helm. Yet they were different from any previous versions Shadow had encountered. They were very thin, obviously making them near impossible to hit. And instead of a gun or explosive weapon attached to their arms, there were blades long enough to be considered scythes.

"Meet my newest creation," Nega chuckled. "The Nega Reaper. Deadly accurate and fast, as you've apparently seen." Shadow felt the sting of the slices on his arms that were steadily bleeding. "The forces back on the island should already be dealing with a larger group of them. Yet there is still enough here that you have no chance of winning. Goodbye, Shadow the hedgehog." And with that, Shadow was left alone with the robots.

They stood almost like a praying mantis, clacking their blades together in anticipation for Shadow's first attack. Shadow could see that bullets were of no use so he dropped his gun and pulled out his chaos emerald instead.

"Chaos Spear!" he shouted as he threw three deadly beams of yellow energy at three separate droids. Each one hit it's mark in the droid's flat head before exploding, leaving only five left.

They rushed the hedgehog, who held his emerald tightly and summoned more power from it. "Chaos...control!"


"What the hell happened here?" Kelvin wondered aloud. Blaze and Silver stood at his sides, also surveying the gruesome scene they had come upon while dozens of soldiers stayed in the back, some puking and adding more disgusting smells to the scene.

They had found the missing soldiers. Or what was left of them anyway. Bodies were torn and strewn across the ground with various organs spilling out. The blood-soaked grass carried a rich smell of death that seemed to fit well with the faces of horror on the few bodies whose heads were still attached.

A coreman that had been kneeling over one body stood up and shook his head. He pulled off his latex gloves as he faced Kelvin. "Sir, from what I can tell, every person here was cut with near surgical precision. Almost as if they were wielding some sort of blade."

Kelvin rubbed his temple. "A blade? Like a sword? And you're saying that could take on a whole battalion with guns?"

The coreman sighed. "I know. But that's the only thing that makes sense."

Kelvin turned around and began pacing back and forth. Blaze glanced over at Silver, who returned it. They could think of only one person that was this sadistic.

But before either of them could voice their thoughts, the coreman suddenly gasped in pain. Everyone turned to see the man lifted into the air, with a curved blade sticking upwards in his chest. His eyes pleaded for someone to help, but nobody could move. The blade effectively cut him in two and threw him off to the side to reveal an odd robot, standing almost like a praying mantis and shaking the blood off it's arms, or more precisely scythes, since that is what it's arms ended in.

"Nega," Blaze muttered, seeing his symbol on the robots chest. She took a fighting stance as several more came out from hiding spots behind or in trees and bushes. Glancing back at Kelvin, she told him that Silver and her would take them on. "Go for Eggman's ship. We need those emeralds."

Kelvin swivled around, looking for some escape, but all exits were blocked off. Seeing this, Silver took control of one robot's arms, spread them out, and caused it to spin into some of it's fellow droids nearby, slicing them apart. Then he forced the droid to hold it's scythes to it's own neck and cut it's head off.

Silver nodded to Kelvin, who signaled his men to follow before more came. "Move it! Hurry!" And with that, Silver and Blaze were left alone to face the twenty-something number of robots.

"Ready?" Blaze asked Silver. She quickly calculated some idea of a plan while keeping on eye on the approaching robots.

Silver nodded and backed into her so they stood back to back. "Yeah."

A/N: Don't worry. We'll write more very soon. We just thought we should at least get one more chapter out.

Pen: I still demand my vacation. I've earned it.

Oh yeah? Well how about this. Let the reviewers decide. If you'd like Pen to have a vacation as well, then if you leave a review when you give us your comments, praise, or critiques, then also tell us.

Pen: This will not go over well.