Chapter 11

Mach Speed

"Do you guys want coffee?" Angela asked the group. Cassy looked at Angela with a serious face and replied "Yes." Angela giggled at this, which made Cassy smile. David nodded and said "Sure." Angela then looked at D.Y.L.A.N. and C.O.U.R.T. they both slowly shook their heads no. "Didn't Courtney get you drinking coffee Dylan? That's odd that you don't want any, it's not like you guys." Angela questioned. The clones shrugged, "I guess we just aren't in the mood." D.Y.L.A.N. said. Angela walked into the kitchen, scooped in coffee grounds, added water, and then turned the coffee pot on. She motioned David to come in with her. "Something's going on, Dylan's acting weird, and Courtney is too." David nodded, "I know, they've been acting weird since they got back." Angela bit her lip and peeked in the garage, "Where are Sonic and Tails?" Angela asked. David shrugged, "I haven't seen, or heard from them in a while, since they left." Angela looked around the kitchen, "Is there some way you can get a hold of them? Like a phone or something?" David shrugged again, "I don't know, and if there was, I'd have to figure out how to use it. I guarantee it's not just a regular phone." Angela nodded. "I can tell Cassy even thinks something's up, just by the way she is looking at them." Angela said as she peeked in the garage again and looked at Cassy. "Alright, I'll try and find some sort of communicator, and you just keep your eye out." David planned. Angela nodded, "Okay."

I took off from Forest Hills as fast as I could, running through trees and other towns, following the Egg-Carrier's location, given to me by my gear. I noticed when I was getting close; the Egg-Carrier seemed to be in no hurry. "Don't worry, Courtney, I'll be right there." I said to myself as I ran. I knew I'd have to deal with the clones again, but I didn't care, I was only worried about what was happening to my best friend. I didn't stop, until I bursted out of a forest and launched off of a ramp into wide plains. I stopped when I landed. I looked up and saw the Egg-Carrier not to far ahead.

"Courtney's on that battleship! I've gotta move!" I said as I took off with the Egg-Carrier in sight. Eggman was going to wish he never messed with me. I ran so fast the wind pushed my arms far back behind me. I really felt like I was in a Sonic game now, but it was serious this time. I blasted down the plains, in pursuit of the Egg Carrier. I wove through trees, jumped over logs, and zipped past animals. I could see mountains in the distance. "Come on! I gotta go faster!" I said as I sped up. I was almost caught up to the Egg-Carrier. I also was almost to the mountains. I ran up a cliff diagonally, If I can get enough speed off this, I can catch the Egg Carrier I thought. I blasted up to the tip of a mountain, where I saw what was going to get me to the ship. "A spring!" I said with joy as I saw the circular red spring. I hit it and flew towards the ship. I pulled the emerald out of my pocket when I got close to it, "One shot, Chaos Control!" I screamed in midair.

A bright light flashed from the emerald, and the next thing I knew, I was on the Sky Deck of the Egg-Carrier. "Okay. Time to find Court-Court." I said as I took off towards a tower. I stumbled, something felt wrong. I quickly looked at my stats, I was low on energy. That run drained it out of me. I had to walk, slowing my progress, but I had no other choice. I approached a tower, and looked up at it, "Okay, this one obviously isn't it." It had to of been the control tower, Eggman was probably in there. I didn't feel like dealing with him, and I was in no condition to. I clicked into the Friend Finder on my gear, Court's purple dot began to flash, I was closer to her than I thought. I looked around me, the deck was pretty empty. But on the other side was a door, which had to be it.

I quickly walked over to the door and pushed it open; it led straight down into a darker room. I looked at my wrist, Courtney was definitely down there. I slowly walked down the inclined corridor. I began to feel a bit nervous, what if this didn't lead me to Courtney? What if her gear was taken off and this was a trap? I had to stay strong, I looked at my stats again, and my energy was already going back up pretty quickly. At the end of the corridor was a large room with multiple prison cells lined up against the walls. I looked in each cell as I passed them, most of them were empty, but I did pass one with two eggs in it though. When I came up to the very last cell on the right side of the room, I peered in; I could see a figure curled up in the corner. "Courtney?" I asked. The figure quickly shifted and faced me. "Dylan?" I heard Court's voice. "Courtney!" I said as she ran up to the bars. "Hold on, I'll get you out of here." I said to her, "Please hurry." She replied. Down the center of the room were giant buttons, each one had its own cell it opened and closed.

I walked up to the one nearest Court's cell, and press the button. The bars retracted to the ceiling and she ran out and gave me a long hug. "I… I didn't think you made it." She told me as she hugged me. I chuckled, "You really think some free fall was going to keep me down?" she giggled at that. "Okay, what we need to do now is get off this ship." I said as I began walking back towards the corridor. We passed the cells with the eggs again, "Hold on, I have to do something." I said as I walked back to the cell with the eggs and opened it. Court looked at me, "What are you doing?" she asked, I smiled, "It's not fair for these little guys to live their life in a cell, right?" She smiled and gave me a reassuring nod. I walked in and picked up the bright red and orange egg. Court picked up the purple and black one. "Okay, now lets get out of here!" I said as we walked out of the cell and proceeded down the long corridor back up to the deck.

Once we were out the door, we walked towards the edge of the ship. "Where do we go now?" Court asked. I looked over the edge; it was a long way down. "Uh, I'm working on it." I said back to her. I bit my lip and turned to Court, "Maybe he has escape pods or something?" I suggested, but before we even had time to contemplate the idea, there was a giant boom behind us. We both turned around slowly, "Ohohoho! I see you've survived! Lucky you! Too bad you aren't going to survive this, boy!" Eggman said to me. "Both of you prepare to meet your doom!" Eggman was in a giant mech, "You won't beat me in my Egg-Breaker!" Eggman bellowed out. Me and Court looked at each other, "Eggman, what is your problem!" I screamed out in rage. Eggman raised his eyebrows at me. I took a step towards him and pointed my finger at him "Why can't you just leave us alone? Why! I am getting sick and tired of seeing you, and I'm getting sick and tired of you doing this! Just LEAVE US ALONE!" I screamed at him. Eggman scratched the back of his head, "Well now, you see…"

"You try, and you try, and you try, but you'll never win!" I continued, cutting him off, "You're a loser, a failure, Sonic always beats you! No matter what!" I took another step forward as I screamed out in rage at him. "You… You don't have to be so rude about it." Eggman said. I slid my hand into my pocket, "You don't know when to give up! You're always going to lose, there's a hint! Give up already!" I quickly pulled the emerald out of my pocket and jumped back beside Courtney and held out my arm. She grabbed my arm and we jumped back off of the Egg Carrier, "Bye-bye!" I said as I winked at him and we were pulled backwards by the ship's airstream. "No! I've been tricked!" He screamed and banged his hands on his control panel as we left his grasp. Me and Court fell towards Earth, we pulled ourselves close together, "Get ready!" I screamed as I held out the emerald. "Now!" She grabbed the Emerald and we both screamed out "Chaos Control!" a bright light then flashed from the jewel.

The next thing I knew I was sitting on the forest floor, again. I didn't get knocked out this time, but Chaos Control worked. Court was sitting next to me, "Good plan, and you did plan that, right?" I nodded and smiled. "I really didn't know what else to do, so I just exploded. Then the idea came to me, good thing you played along." I stood up, and helped Court up. I then picked up the red and orange swirled egg that I rescued from the ship. Courtney picked up hers, "I wonder what is in these." She said with a smile, "I dunno, but I think we should hang on to them." She nodded in agreement, "Plus, it really bugs me not knowing, and would bug me forever if I never found out." I added on. "Should we get to Tails' Workshop now?" Courtney asked, I nodded, and checked my map, I saw the Tornado, still in the same spot it was, and the Mystic Ruins, which we were closest to. I decided we should head to the Mystic Ruins, Sonic and Tails would meet up with us at Tails' Workshop. We began to walk, but I had to ask Court something, "What happed after I got knocked off that ship?" I asked her.

"Well, after you fell, I was outnumbered by the clones, that's when Eggman shot a beam at me that paralyzed me." She began, "But then, after I was paralyzed, our clones began to attack the Tornado. Tails couldn't do anything, the clones began to ram into the side of the plane, and eventually knocked it off the ship." I gasped, "What!" I didn't think I missed that much. "Hold on, but they didn't destroy it, Tails got it flying as they fell, but they were damaged." I took a breath of relief. "So, Sonic and Tails are probably stopping and making repairs, I wonder where the clones are then." Court shrugged, "I didn't see what happened afterwards, I kinda blacked out." Court said, sounding a little ashamed. "Eh, don't worry about it. We'll find out sooner or later." I said with a shrug. We walked on, towards the Mystic Ruins. I looked at my stats again, "Hey did you know you could do this?" I asked Court as I held up my wrist. She cocked her head to the side and looked, "No I didn't, that's pretty neat!" She said as she checked hers. "All good?" I asked her. She gave a big nod and smiled, "Yep!" We continued walking, having little conversations here and there.

We were forced to stop talking when both of our communicators began to beep, we were getting a call. We both then held up our wrists to our faces and clicked the 'Accept' button. Tails' face appeared on screen. "Dylan? Court? Can you read me?" Tails' asked us. "Hey Tails!" I said to him happily, "Hiya Tails'!" Court said with a happy tone also. "Glad to hear both of you are okay, David called me, but he didn't exactly know how to use the communicator, I could barely hear him and he didn't stay on for long. He asked me why you two were acting strange." I dropped my wrist to my side and looked at Courtney. "We aren't with David." I said in astonishment. "Tails, I think we have to go." I said to the fox, "Umm, okay." I stared forward, "Please get back to your workshop as fast as possible." I told him before I hung up. Court also hung up.

Court looked at me, "Are you alright?" she asked. I started trembling, "Dylan? Dylan are you okay? Answer me please." She took my egg and set both mine and hers on the ground next to us. I slowly shook my head, "We… we have to go." Court's eyes suddenly got big, "Oh no." I nodded, "We aren't with David, Angela, and Cassy…" her jawed dropped, "Our clones are." She finished my sentence. We both then quickly grabbed the eggs and dashed towards the Mystic Ruins before it was too late.