A/N: Here's the next chapter sorry I know I'm being slow, but as they say Rome wasn't built in a day, lol. I hope you guys like it. R&R PLZ!

Chapter 9

"How are you holding up Rouge?" Amy asked as she looked up at Rouge. The two were flying, and Amy was hanging in Rouge's grip.

"Just fine. I don't feel any strain at all when in the air." She smiled.

The team had decided to take a good portion of the trip in the air. Not only was it safer and faster, but almost all of the members of South Sector could fly. The only one's incapable of flight were Amy, Fiona, and Cosmic. "How far out are we now?" Wave was looking back at Ray.

The flying squirrel was looking at a small handled device. "We crossed East Sectors border two hours ago. We must be getting close by now."

"Jet," Wave looked at her green hawk. "The sun is almost set, we should find somewhere to stay for the night, it's not safe to travel in unknown territory at night."

He nodded in agreement. "We'll take shelter in those trees down there." The land of the East wasn't by any means the same as the South, but there were some similarities. There were trees, but most of them were that of swamp lands and the ground was covered in dead leaves. It was a rather horrid environment, but it also rather thriving.

The eight of them sat in a circle around a very small fire. "We'll take turns sleeping. But there must be one person awake at all times to make sure the fire doesn't grow to large. We don't want any surprises."

"I'll take first watch." Rouge offered. "It's easier for me to stay awake at night." The others nodded in agreement as they curled up and prepared to lay down and rest.

Many hours pas, before Amy felt a hand on her shoulder. "Hum?" She looked up sleepy eyed to see Rouge looking down at her.

"It's your turn to take watch." Rouge helped her sit up. "I gave you an extra hour."

"Thanks, but you're the one who did all the work today, you deserve the extra hour." She smiled graciously at her friend.

"It can't be helped, I'm nocturnal." Rouge yawned and laid back. "But a little cat nap would be nice."

Amy watched the fire closely. She let her mind run deep in thought so that she could stay awake. She kept wondering how on earth were they going to get all the sectors together in time? She had many questions, but she dare not ask them for fear of causing the others to give up on her plan. She was poking the fire to decrease its size when suddenly she heard the sound of something moving in the brush nearby. She jumped up and squinted to see what was out there. Suddenly she realized she could see the figure of someone standing there. "Hello?" The shadow quickly began to dart away. "Wait!" Without thinking she got up and ran after it. "Where did they go?" She looked around quickly as she entered the swampy grounds. "Hello?" She asked again.

"What are you doing here?" A voice answered.

"Are you a part of East Sector?" She asked looking around for the source of the voice.

"Maybe, depends are you single?"

"What?" She questioned suddenly seeming caught off guard.

"You don't answer questions well." Suddenly the owner of the voice came towards her.

Amy began to get angry. She was on a ligament mission and this person was just toying with her. "Who the hell are you!"

"What way is that for a girl to talk." Suddenly the owner of the voice was coming right at her.

Amy pulled out her hammer and was about to smack it down on the attacker when suddenly a fist flew out in their path and, without being able to stop, Amy's pursuer ran smack into the fist and fell backwards. Amy looked down at the swirly eye hedgehog now on the ground. He was lime green and had a pair of red shades perched on his brow and he was in a black leather jacket. She looked up at the one who had held out his fist. It was a black hedgehog with red stripes in his quills. He was wearing a pair of baggy blue jeans . Amy couldn't help thinking in the back of her mind that he was handsome.

The black hedgehog retracted his fist. "What have I told you about medaling with outsiders Scourge."

"Ah come on Shadow, I was just having a little fun." He stood up rubbing the back of his head with a smug grin on his face. "Don't tell me you wanted a piece of the action."

"As if." Shadow turned to Amy. "She's nothing to get excited about."

Amy's image of him suddenly shattered in spite of anger. "Well I could say the same about you, ya big jerk!"

He folded his arms. "What the hell is someone like you doing in the East?"

She wore an angry expression as she snapped back her reply. "I'm looking for East Sector."

"Why?" Shadow asked still looking at her with the same disinterested look on his face.

"We need your help." She said taking a step toward him her hammer still tight in her grip.

Shadow took one step back, as if she had a disease and he didn't want to catch it. "What makes you think we are East Sector?"

"I can tell." She said looking directly into his eyes, with her own angry ones. "You're the leader."

Shadow's eyes became skeptical slits. "Who are you?"

"I'm-"

"She's with us." Shadow turned quickly and saw the other members of the group standing there.

Suddenly Shadow and the one he called Scourge disappeared. "Hey wait!" Amy yelled.

"Amy, who were they?" Wave asked.

"Were they East Sector members?" Storm asked.

"Yes, I'm sure of it!" Amy said in frustration. "If only I'd had just a little more time." She laced up her boots tighter. "I'm going to go look for them."

"What, you can't go alone." Ray said in a concerned tone.

"I have too." She said as her hammer rested on her shoulder. "They showed themselves to me, because I was just one, they'll never appear again if we are in a huge group."

"But Amy what if they turn out to have ill intentions?" Cosmic questioned.

"The green one was a pervert, and the black and red one, he was defiantly an arrogant punk, I'm not scared of either of them at all." she held up her hammer with a grin. "I can handle them, besides this could be our only chance to let them know what's happening."

Jet sighed. "Alright, but if you're not back by sunrise, we will come looking for you, and we won't be on friendly terms." He said crossing his arms. He was already suspicious of East Sector as it was.

Amy's determination drove her into the swampy forest rather quickly. She didn't want to waste any time. The last thing they need was for South Sector to be headed down the war path simply because she ran out of time. No, she was determined to keep that from happening. How could they expect to defeat the robots if they couldn't even keep the peace between themselves. Amy was perched in a tree taking a breather. She listened carefully for any heavy signs of movement.

She waited for about ten minutes. She was about to start moving again when she heard a twig snap. "Gottcha." She whispered as she saw the shadowed figure of someone running beneath her. She quickly began to hop the branches overhead to follow them. When she was sure she could keep pace with them, she yelled out. "Hey you, wait a second." She said. They were obviously caught off guard as they turned quickly over their shoulder to see who was following them, and then they picked up speed. "Hey wait a minute!" Amy ran faster as well. "Hey I just-" She gasped when she realized the person was suddenly lifting off the ground, but they had no wings to speak of.

Amy rubbed her eyes as she looked up. The levitating figure came to the light. It was an imp, he had clothes made of dark blue, purple and green, and he wore no armor at all. His eyes looked as if they reflected the sky of South Sector, they were large deep blue with glitters of sparkling white within them. "Looks like we have an intruder after all." He spoke. "I thought you'd get scared and run away, but you seem to be a trespasser, no matter how minuscule."

"I'm not a threat." Amy tried to argue. She went to move forward, but suddenly her whole body was frozen. She couldn't move a muscle. "W-What is this?"

"Don't worry, it's just me." The imp smiled as he moved his finger and caused her to come to his side. "I have telekinesis you see, and it's quite useful in completely immobilizing my enemy."

"Let me go!" Amy demanded as she tried desperately to move.

"No, I'm sorry I can't do that now. Looks like I'll have to take you back to base and let Shadow, decide what to do with you."

~~ Central Sector ~~

"What's taking so long." Sonic hit the ground.

"Clam down Sonic." Tails tried to sooth his friend. "You know as well as I do that these mission can take some time."

Knuckles nodded in agreement. "Especially since Amy's never gone before. You gotta give them time."

"I want to go to South Sector." Sonic looked up.

"No." Tails and Knuckles said in unison.

"You're supposed to be letting Amy stretch her wings." Knuckles folded his arms. "If you go crashing in there now, you're going to ruin any progress you've made."

"Progress?" He blinked.

"Yeah," Tails nodded. "Amy is just starting to feel like you trust her a little, if you go now, then she'll think you never trusted her at all."

"Which, honestly, wouldn't be too far from the truth." Knuckles mumbled.

"I trust her!" Sonic protested looking upward with an irritated face. "It's just, well."

"You're worried about her, we know." Tails smiled with a reassuring hand on Sonic's shoulder.

Knuckles was looking up at the sky. He'd never said it out loud, but he worried about Rouge. He wondered how she was doing. If she was still traveling, or had she made it to South Sector? Was she fighting in a battle now? Did she need his help? And most of all he wondered if she was thinking about him as much as he was thinking of her.

~~Base of East Sector~~

The Imp had taken Amy to a grove of trees that were larger than any she'd ever seen, and there were thousands of smaller trees growing around them, as if to help support their massive size. The larger trees were so high up you could barely see the tops. She had assumed that the imp would simply fly to the top, but instead he went through the intricate collections of trunks at the bottom until he came to one of the smaller ones that was crooked to the side. He pulled down on its branch and suddenly a doorway opened up the trunk of one of the large trees. It was an elevator.

Amy was now inside what looked to be one of the most advanced bases she'd ever seen. There was lots of metal everywhere and it didn't look anywhere near has primitive as the base s in Central and South Sector. "Hey Void, what'cha got there?" Amy was suddenly brought back to attention when she heard the voice. Standing in front of them was a black cat. She was very curvy and she had two big hoops in each ear. She had on an Arabian long sleeved top that exposed her shoulders and her midriff. On her lower she wore a metal belt around her waist that held up what look like an long purple female loincloth, she too wore no armor.

"Yo Ebony." Void answered. "She's a pretty feisty prisoner this one."

"What'd you bring her here for?" A second voice sounded. This time it was a yellow male mongoose. He had short black hair and he wore a pair of small purple glasses just on his noise. He was dress all in black with jeans and a shirt with the sleeves ripped off, and over top that was an undone white shirt. His right ear had three studs in it and he also had no armor to speak of.

"I thought she was interesting." Void answered. "When I showed myself to her, she didn't run or scream. She even yelled at me."

"Oh come on Ash," Ebony knocked the mongoose's shoulder. "He's gonna have to take her to Shadow for sentencing so what's it really matter."

Ash folded his arms. "Yeah, she probably would of died in the swamps anyway."

"Hey, you!" She growled. "I'll have you know I was doing just fine!"

The three of them looked up at her surprised that she had such gal to enter their conversation. Ash was the first one to retort. "That's why you got caught right?"

Amy growled. "Well excuse me, but I've never fought anyone with these kinds of powers. I'd like to know how well you'd fare if you're entire body was immobilized."

Ash snorted. "You sure are a loud mouth for someone who is a prisoner."

Ebony crossed her arms. "She's definitely got some spunk."

Void nodded. "It's weird how's she not afraid of us." He tilted his head to the side. "Why aren't you afraid of us?"

"Why should I be?" Amy said in a slightly demanding tone. "None of you are scary." She looked up in a snooty fashion. "My overprotective leader is scarier than you guys."

Each was about to make a retort, but a familiar voice came from behind them. "What are you three doing in the hall, I didn't authorize a party." Shadow was approaching them. He came up between Ebony and Ash. His eyes widened just a bit when they landed on Amy. "What are you doing here?" His eyes became normal again, with just a hint of annoyance.

"Shadow you know her?" Ebony blinked.

"Yeah," Shadow folded his arms looking up at her. "She's a pest, I found Scourge playing around with." He narrowed his eyes. "I told her to get lost."

"Well she didn't listen." Void said looking up at Amy. "I found her not too far out from the base." He looked back at Shadow. "Hey she didn't even act scared when she saw me."

Shadow's eyes moved from Amy to Void then back again. "Let her down Void."

He blinked. "Are you sure?"

"She's just one girl, what's she gonna do against all of us? If she knows what's good for her she'll be a good little girl and do as she's told." He saw Amy's ragging scowl. "If she wants to live that is."

"Well whatta ya say sweetie?" Ebony looked up at her.

"Oh I'll behave, " She suddenly dawned a smile. "I'll be good of course."

Void lowered her down and as soon as her feet touched the floor Amy reared back her leg and kicked Shadow right in the shin. "Ow!" He stumbled and put one hand against the wall to steady himself. He was more caught off guard than anything, the pain he felt was a minor annoyance compaired to the blow to his pride. Ebony laughed and the other two males sighed. "Why you little..." He glared at Amy.

"You got what you deserved." She had her arms folded. "Now, I'm ready to behave you jerk."

"I'll take it from here." Shadow stood back up.

"You sure?" Ebony smirked. "She's pretty dangerous, might be too much for you to handle Shadow."

"Don't patronize me." Amy said with her fists at her sides.

"Sweetie," She smiled. "I'm patronizing him." She was pointing at Shadow.

"I said I got it." Shadow said narrowing his eyes a bit.

"Alright, alright." Ebony waved one hand. "No need to get all high and mighty. Come on guys." She and the other two disappeared down the hall.