The Trade

Footsteps pounded on the metal floor as Sonic ran down the corridors, only caring about reaching the room where the data would be stored as he rushed by patrolling soldiers, barely giving them time to see the blue blur before they were spun around as Rouge flew by quickly, half a minute later followed by a pursuing black blur.

"He's gaining on us." Rouge stated as she looked back, the black hedgehog increasing his speed even with all the turns that the duo had made to lose him. Sonic glared back, annoyed emerald eyes looking into determined red eyes. He turned left, smirking as he saw his destination at the end of the hallway.

"Rouge grab my hand!" he shouted as he extended his right arm up to the flying bat as the distance between them in the door was closing drastically. Rouge grabbed the hand, feeling herself tugged as she stopped flapping her wings.

"What are you doing?!" Rouge asked as she noticed the hedgehog had no intention on slowing down, "We got to slow down or we'll run into..." Eyes widened as she felt her whole body began to vibrate along with the hedgehog before passing through the door. Once they were fully through, Sonic slowed to a halt as the vibration stopped, "the door?" White ears perked up as she heard Shadow skidding to a halt behind the door, but it wouldn't last long since Shadow could easily send a chaos spear, blasting it off its hinges.

"Hack into the system and get the information," the blue hedgehog pushed her forward toward the computer as he turned to the door, a chaos spear charged in his hand as he waited for his counterpart to make an entrance, "I'll deal with the pest." She nodded as she walked up to computer, which was already turned on in logged in, and searched through the database.

Man, I never had the time to notice G.U.N. had this many top secret information. Rouge thought as she scrolled down the long list before coming down on one that was most likely what they were after, Mutation Space Center and Christmas Island, quite a long name, I bet it has a lot of juicy stuff inside. She tried to view the data, but was stopped as a password box opened on the screen. Of course this would have a password. She thought in irritation before glancing back.

"Sonic, do you know the password to this?" The hedgehog lifted his head slightly in thought, eyes still strained on the door before replying.

"Try Roden." She typed in the word, and the password accepted appeared on the screen before disappearing, allowing the bat to see large amount of data and files on the screen. She pulled out a disc and loaded it into the computer. She glanced back once more, slightly wondering why Shadow hasn't blasted the door open. She smirked as she noticed Sonic wasn't paying attention to her and pulled a flash-drive out of her glove and inserted it into the computer before downloading the disc onto both devices. She turned around sharply as she noticed the door blast open, falling onto the floor while Shadow stood in the entrance, a chaos spear in both hands.

~ Earlier With Shadow ~

Shadow skidded to a halt in front of the door, growling in frustration as his two targets has simply just phased right through it. He charged up a chaos spear in his right hand, knowing the door wouldn't be able to stand up to the attack. The spear quickly dissipated as Amy voice was clearly heard through the ear piece that allowed him to keep in touch with both the pink menace and Tails, who was resting in his plane as he awaited their return.

"What?" He said, a growl slightly heard in his voice as ears twitched in irritation.

"It would've been nice if you told me where the Chaos Emerald was before you rushed off like that. That's so typical Sonic right there." Amy said as shadow sighed, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"It should be in the vault."

"Alright, one question though. Where is the vault?"

"I don't know, ask Tails."

"Alright then, bye." The communicator on his side went dead as Shadow charged a chaos spear in one hand.

"Great, now I ended up buying them time talking to that hedgehog." Shadow muttered as he threw the chaos spear at the door. The hinges broke as the door fell to the ground as the black hedgehog charged a chaos spear and both hands. Shadow jumped to the side as the chaos spear in the blue hedgehog's hand was sent flying toward him. He quickly retaliated, throwing both spears toward his target, which was easily avoided, but were close to hitting the computer.

"Ugh, Sonic, keep him from the computer for a few more seconds." Rouge shouted as she looked worriedly at the screen, which showed that the download was three-fourths down. Sonic spin-dashed at Shadow, who simply crossed his arms, holding back the spinning ball as he struggled to keep from moving backwards, "Done!" the black hedgehog looked at the bat as she yanked out the flash-drive from the computer and placing it in her glove before ejecting the disc and placing it in a clear plastic case. The blue hedgehog pushed himself back landing a few feet away from his opponent.

"Go get the chaos emerald, I'll deal with him." he glanced back as Rouge unfurled her wigs before flying down out of the room, heading for the base's vault, "So ready for round 2."

"Yeah, but you have to catch me first." Shadow replied, smirking before skating out of the room. Sonic stared off in the direction before closing his eyes and shook his head in slight disappointment.

"Humph, you can run all you want, but you'll never be faster than me." The blue hedgehog rushed after him in pursuit, not noticing the computer screen flash red as the base's self destruct sequence has started.

~ The Vault ~

"Finally, I made it." Amy said, breathing heavily as she bent over, resting her hands on her knees as she stood in front of a glass window. She peered inside, gasping in excitement as she spotted the white chaos emerald, shining brightly in a small glass container of its own. Amy backed a foot away from the window, allowing the Piko-Piko hammer to pop into existence in her hand. Lifting it high over her head, she swung the hammer against the glass, shattering it into pieces. She looked up, slightly surprised as the red lights flashed on and the loud wailing of sirens echoed through the hallways.

"Thanks sweetie, you shouldn't have." Amy looked back noticing Rouge walking up to her. She growled slightly, her hammer raised so as to swing at the bat if she dared made an attempt at the emerald, "Calm down, is that anyway to treat a friend.?"

"You're working with Eggman, why should I even trust you?" Amy said, holding her hammer in a more threatening position. The bat chuckled at the response before pulling out the flash-drive.

"All that you need to know about what Egghead is after is right here, but in trade, I'm going to have to take that chaos emerald." Rouge said as she waved the small device in her hand.

"And how will I know that you won't trick me?" The hammer disappeared just as Amy stumbled to catch the tossed flash-drive.

"The only reason I'm working with Eggman is because he put some sort of tracking device on me, so no matter where I go, he'll no where I am." Rouge smiled before flying into the room. She gave a swift kick to the glass and quickly grabbed the chaos emerald. She flew out and landed right next to the pink hedgehog, giving a smirk, "We should be going before..." the base shook slightly, causing the two females to stumble, barely holding their footing as an announcement echoed through the base.

"Self Destruct Initiated, 20 Seconds Til Self Destruct."

"Well, at least they didn't have the base start locking down like last time." Rouge said as she noticed all the hallways were opened to allow everyone inside to escape before the place detonates. She flapped her wings in flew down the halls, the pink hedgehog followed behind her quickly so as to not get lost.