Chapter 5: Looking For Clues

Sonic landed on the platform. All the nearest cannons and Egg Pawns aimed at him and fired. Sonic dashed, speeding up to create the speed barrier. He destroyed the legions of robots in his path. Then he stopped to take care of the cannons. "Okay" He said." Your clear to go." Sonic continued down the platform. The plane landed near the spot where Sonic had landed. They got out one by one. Vector opened a latch door. "Here we go." He said. The Chaotix went in first, then Knuckles followed, and finally Sonia and Manic were the last. Sonic blasted his way through another legion of Egg Pawns before entering a room. When he entered, the walls lit up and close all around him. Three Egg Hammers fell from above and surrounded him. Sonic just simply smiled and dodged the falling and swinging hammers. He saw the chance to jump into the air and create the speed barrier to home in on the robots, destroying them all. He landed on his feet dizzy. "Oh, man. Better work on that homing technique. Ah, bingo." He found a set of stairs and climbed up them.

Inside the tunnels of the Doomsday Junior, it was too dark to see so the team turned on some flashlights. There was a map coded on the wall. Vector inspected it. "Okay, so it looks like the computer room is only six rooms away. The big square here with all the little ones inside it would imply that the room might be more suited for computers with info files than actual command. It might even be private information."

"Do you think it could know where mother is?" Asked Sonia. "Maybe," Replied Vector. "Why don't we take a look. Find the computer room." They turned to the next hall and found a room with computers. "Found it!" Shouted Charmy. "Ssh! Quiet." Vector shushed him. "What are you trying to do, get us caught?"

"Sorry. Just sayin'." Espio walked in. "I'll hack in with the usb, you two cover us. Knuckles?" He noticed Knuckles was looking down a dark corridor. "I can feel the emerald's presence. I'll go on ahead, see if my instinct's right. Then i'll try to see if I can find another way around." He went on ahead. The Chaotix entered the room with Sonia and Manic standing by. Espio pulled up a chair.

"All right. Time to go to work." He inserted the usb. He hacked past the security codes. "I'm in."

"What exactly are we looking for?" Asked Charmy impatiently. Espio turned his head. "Anything that our clients need to know. All body heat readings on. There's us here and the others outside. Knuckles and Sonic are on the Doomsday. Wait a minute. There's two people in the prisoner department."

"Two?" Asked Vector. Espio shrugged, "Not entirely sure myself. I'll look more into it."

A small box appeared on the top right side of the screen. "Hey," Pointed out Charmy. "What's that?" A large bold message popped up on screen that said VOICE KEY INCORRECT. "Uh, Charmy, what did you do?" Asked Vector. " I don't know..." An alarm went off throughout the ship. The door behind them began to close automatically. Espio and Charmy made it out. "C'mon, let's go." Said Sonia "Uh oh." Said Charmy. "Vector's still in there." Then Vector punched the door down. " Oh, bee of little faith."

Knuckles was far from the noise. He found a hatch door. Down below was the Doomsday. He jumped through and dived down onto the platform below. He punched his way into the ship. He found the Master Emerald. "Master Emerald!" He punched the glass. He looked back. "Wonder if Sonic's okay."

Sonic was a little more than uncomfortable at a sight he saw. In the room in front of him was filled with a purple liquid. And high up above were the manufactured robots. "It's okay... I'm fine. I can deal with this. It's just a chemical plant zone." He tried reassuring himself.

As soon as Sonic saw a platform he took off straight for it. It disappeared behind him as he got to the other side. He jumped up from one elevator to the next until he came up to the top of another platform. However, this one shifted every three seconds. He dashed across it, the platform moving behind him. He jumped up and across moving elevators. He triggered a sensor that set the whole room on red alert. The chemical below him began moving up towards him. He had nowhere else to go... but up towards the robots. He jumped up and grabbed a leg. He tried climbing up. Suddenly all the Egg Pawn robots awoke and attacked him on sight. Sonic had to jump off while climbing up. So he jumped from railing to railing while avoiding the robos' swipes. At last he found a door where he could escape. We went through it and closed the door in time. He fainted on the floor.

The two ships were on high alert. Sleet and Dingo entered Robotnik's personal quarters on the Doomsday. "Dr. Robotnik sir," Said Sleet. "It's the hedgehog and his friends... they're here."

"Then what are you doing in here?" Asked Robotnik, his voice raising. "Can't you figure it out that I trusted you two to eliminate them?" Sleet spoke up. "Well, sir, I'm sure the ships and the robots are more than capable of withstanding the pests. And don't forget sir we don't work for you, you know."

"Yeah, we work alone." Robotnik started getting frustrated. He flipped a table in his rage. He took a breather and rested his face in his palm. "You want your pay, don't you?"

"Well" Sleet said. "If you don't mind."

"Very well." He unveiled a crude machine that could wrap itself around a person. "Like it, huh? But that's not the reward. All I have to do is step inside and then see for yourselves." He went inside the machine. Sleet and Dingo saw the machine do something to him. "Hey... what just happened?" Dingo started getting scared. "You're not Robotnik! Who are you?" Demanded Sleet. A bright red light grew in the room. "The ultimate Overlord." A laser went off, turning Sleet and Dingo into crisp. The figure walked by their corpses. It typed into a computer. "Locate the intruders." Most of the video monitors were off. "Then it seems they know where I'm going to meet them. What of the prisoners? The prison cell monitor showed two lifeforms. "Good, I'm glad. Now let's meet Sonic and his friends."

Sonic snuck his way through the halls of the ship. He occasionally spotted robots every now and then. He turned around and saw Clove.

I guess a round two was inevitable." She said cracking her knuckles.

she charged with a flying kick. Sonic dodged and kicked her in the head, sending her flying. She got back up and swung punches at him, but he blocked the punches and hit her, sending her to the ground. Sonic picked her up and pinned her against the wall. He noticed she was crying.

"My sister... she needs help. Please, help me." Sonic looked at her longer and set her down. Clove fell to her knees.

He noticed the room was Robotnik's quarters. steam came out. A tall figure emerged from the room wearing a deep blue cape. As the steam dissolved Sonic could see... it was Metal Sonic.