Chapter Eleven: Top secret information gathering

"K, we're in the clear, boss," Espio said over his communicator. He was sitting perfectly still on the roof of a G.U.N base, watching guards as they went up and down the hallways. Then, as they passed by, he contacted the other two people of his group and told them to move on. Charmy, or Ryan, as he called himself, was the main computer person and had to get to supercomputer held within the base and gather the top secret info that they had.

Vector and Charmy came out of hiding and went into the next room. Espio silently watched them, and then he said, "Alright, figure out the door code into the next room from there. The supercomputer should be inside."

He looked around for any nearby guards briefly, and then dropped. He was still camouflaged, so anyone who had heard him still wouldn't see anything, but he felt that it would be better to be safe than not. He followed them into that room and silently shut and locked the door. Charmy began working on hacking the keypad, and Vector asked, "What is this all about, anyways? Did Shadow tell you anything, Espio?"

Espio replied, "Apparently, he wants some top secret info that's stored in the archives here. I have no clue what he's going to use it for, but if he uses the way I think he is going to, bad things are going to happen in the near future."

Vector asked, "Are you speculating that Shadow is going to use the info to try and destroy G.U.N?"

Espio nodded, and Vector said, "That would be bad...because then the whole world would be thrown into chaos. G.U.N has kept the peace around here for how long? Seventy-five years?"

Charmy replied, "Somewhere around there. However, not everyone is going to be mad that G.U.N was destroyed. Rather, most are going to be glad later that Shadow destroyed G.U.N. They're a group of power hungry bureaucrats that are practically pushing for world domination and practically everyone hates them."

Espio said, "It surprises me that they're still around."

Vector said, "If I remember correctly, they're only still around because the governments don't have enough power to deal with them."

Espio commented, "That's pretty sad."

Charmy said, "I'm almost done. Just give me a few more seconds and we'll be inside."

Vector commented, "You're as fast as ever, Charmy."

Charmy stopped for a moment to say, "I told you not to call me that. How many times-"

Vector said, "I know, you're Ryan to everyone else."

He sighed, leaving Espio to silently chuckle as Charmy continued to work on hacking in. Vector thought, Why does he have to act like he's so sophisticated? It doesn't make much sense to me.

Then, a beep sounded from the keypad, confirming that the lock had been hacked. Charmy said, "Alright! We're in!"

"Espio, do you happen to remember what piece of info we were looking for?" Vector asked.

Espio replied, "I think we were supposed to find the location of any Chaos Emeralds in the region of the city."

Vector said, "Oh, great. He's planning to use the Chaos Emeralds for something big, most likely."

They walked inside, and Espio immediately noticed that there were three technicians below, working on some of the circuitry, hardly noticing that the door a floor above them had opened. Right before he leaped down, he noticed a figure crouched perfectly on the roof, watching the technicians as if waiting for the perfect time to strike. He instantly recognized the female chameleon, and about muttered her name under his breath. He quickly diverted his eyes to the scene below, and suddenly made his move. He leaped down and threw tranquilizer darts into their necks. Almost instantly, they fell over asleep. The rest of his team came down and Espio looked back up at her, who was just as surprised as surprise to see him as he was to see her. She leaped down, startling Vector and Charmy.

Charmy yelled, "Who are you, huh? A G.U.N agent, perhaps?"

She replied, "I could ask you the same."

Espio asked, "Emerald...what you doing here?"

She replied, "I could ask you the same. I'm here because I'm trying to find out what G.U.N is up to."

Vector asked, "You're on our side, in a way?"

Emerald replied, "In a way. However, if you get in the way of what I'm trying to do, I won't be merciful."

She walked over and simply inserted a disc into the drive. After a few moments, she pulled it out and said, "I've got just the file of data I needed."

Charmy said, "Alright, then we'll get our data and be on our way."

"Who sent you, Chaotix?" she asked. Espio was surprised that she even knew who they were.

Vector replied, "Some hedgehog named Shadow sent us here to find out the locations of all of the Chaos Emeralds in this city, and we're being paid a good amount, too."

Charmy was typing away on the computer, hacking into the top secret data profiles with ease. Emerald watched him in surprise, and asked, "How are you doing that?"

Espio explained, "He majored in this kind of thing during high school. He came to us with a great deal of knowledge on how to work and hack into electronic devices and now he's become the master of everything involving electronics."

Emerald turned back toward Charmy, and then Espio asked, "How did you survive that encounter? I thought you had died."

Emerald replied, "So did I, but someone saved me. I don't know who they were, but owe a large amount to them. They didn't seem to notice that they had saved me, however, as if it had been an accident."

Suddenly, an alarm sounded, and Charmy said, "Damn! I accidentally triggered security! Hang on, I almost have the data!"

Espio said, "Double time it, Ryan! They're coming!"

Several robots jumped into the room and landed around them. Emerald pulled out a katana while Espio simply readied his knives. Vector said, "You keep working, Charmy. We'll cover you!"

Espio took the offensive, diving between the robot's legs and throwing knives onto its back. It turned and began shooting at him wildly. He just vanished from sight and appeared on top of it. He threw a shuriken into its neck, severing a vital wire. He leaped off as the robot sparked and fell over deactivated. He turned to see Emerald's robot fall apart, having been cut into several pieces in the blink of an eye. Vector tore apart the one in front of him with his mouth, using his powerful jaws to rip it apart. Charmy turned and said, "Alright, everyone haul ass! We've got to get out of here!"

They began running, backtracking towards the exit. Espio said, "Emerald, follow us. We'll do a lot better if all of us stick together for the moment being!"

She nodded and ran with them. For the most part, Espio led the group, using his ninja training to look around him without having to even turn. He led them onward, but as they arrived outside, two large mechs landed in front of them, halting their progress. Espio said, "Split into pairs. Emerald, come with me."

Vector asked, "Since when are you the leader?"

Espio said, "Vector, don't argue, just act!"

Espio and Emerald both vanished in sudden sync, something that they hadn't done in a long time. The mech pilot seemed surprised that they had vanished, and then turned to take out the other two. However, it didn't get that far. Espio had planted several thick knives in the joints of the legs, and Emerald appeared on top. She cut off the missile launchers with two clean swipes. Then, Espio leaped up while the pilot was in a state of confusion, and threw a knife through the glass and into the pilot's head. The mech stopped moving, its pilot now dead.

Vector and Charmy had done as Espio had told them, and were running to engage the second one. They both leaped aside of the machine gun as it fired at them, and it swerved to try and hit Vector. However, this allowed Charmy to get behind it and latch on. He began hacking into the mech, trying to shut it down while Vector ran around it, occasionally slamming his body into one of the legs, trying to trip it. However, it then lifted up off of the ground to get an advantage over Vector, but it began malfunctioning as it flew away. It dropped to the ground, deactivated. Then, Vector ran forward, jumped onto the front of the glass, and punched it in. He grabbed the pilot and forced him into the glass, and through it, knocking him out.

He called, "Alright, let's get out of here!"

They began running off again, and now Emerald asked, "Are you going back to your headquarters?"

Espio replied, "I think so."

Emerald asked, "May I come with you? I really have no place to stay right now."

Espio turned to her and replied, "If it's alright with the boss, you can stay. I don't know what he's going to say about this matter."

Then, he said, "It's great to see that you're still alive, Emerald. I could never shake my mind off of you after that encounter."

Emerald smiled and said, "I'm glad that I'm back with you, Espio. I guess that now it'll be like old times, right?"

Vector asked, "So, you two are old friends?"

Espio replied, "Back when we were younger, we were best friends. Then, an accident happened and I thought I had lost her. And now...I don't really know what to do. She's back."

Vector said, "That's odd. You didn't seem that overjoyed."

Espio said, "That's the price of being a disciplined ninja."

Suddenly, they stopped, and they saw Shadow standing in front of them. He asked, "I heard the alarms. Did you get the data?"

Charmy handed him the flash drive that he had put the data onto. Shadow smiled in the darkness and said, "Very good. Now, I'll get you your money after I win a few games at the casino. Sound fair?"

Vector replied, "That sounds good to me!"

Emerald asked, "You...you were the same person that sent me to that base."

Shadow replied, "I didn't send you there. I just told you where to find the information you were looking for. Now, shall we get going? There's an important meeting going to be happening in a few hours."

This OC isn't really an OC, I guess. I took it from a few fan art pics I saw. Well, now I have the soon to be love for Espio. I'll be updating soon!