Chapter 11

Team Heroes gathered once more in the War Room where the world leaders and the G.U.N. Commander was waiting. Once they all were seated again and the room was quiet, the Commander cleared his throat, "AHEM! Now that everyone is present and accounted for, the world leaders will reveal their decision. Mr. President?"

The President stood and announced, "After much deliberation, we have decided that Team Heroes…" The President looked to the other leaders who all nodded. At his pause, the heroes tensed up and held their breath, unsure of what he was going say. "Team Heroes will remain in this war." Everyone sighed in relief but were quickly silence as the President added, "BUT! I must stress that this is the absolute LAST chance you will receive. One more failure, and you will be removed from all war efforts and moved to the civilian shelters. Do we make ourselves clear?"

"You got it Mr. President! We won't let you down!" answered Sonic as he looked back at his team with one of his trademark confident smiles. Everyone smiled back with a nod, assured that everything was going to fine. The old Sonic the Hedgehog was back and he was going to pull them through this war.

"Now that's settled," said the G.U.N. Commander as he stood, "It's time to get back to business. Espio, what more can you tell us about Cyber-Shadow and EggmanLand?"

"Well, from what I could tell, it seems Cyber-Shadow is completely under 's control. He only acts when ordered to." Replied Espio as he looked at his notes. "As for EggmanLand itself, well it's about as hideous as you could imagine. Defenses of the most powerful kind are everywhere. Visibility was terrible due to the air pollution from the factories. I don't have proof to support this but I believe that unfortunately, Eggman has found some of the Master Emerald shards. The force field around his main tower was simply too strong to be powered by anything else and this was BEFORE he obtained the Emeralds from us."

Knuckles slammed his fist on the table, "Dammit… that explains it!"

"Explains what? That'll I never has those earrings I've been dreaming of?" asked Rouge with her usual sass.

"No, it explains how Cyber-Shadow can use Chaos Drain! The Master Emerald has power over the Chaos Emeralds; it can make them weaker, stronger, or drain them completely. Somehow Eggman must have found a way to manipulate the shards to drain Chaos energy."

Sonic now jumped up, "He uses it with his robotic hand! That must be where Eggman embedded the shards!"

"Knuckles, could that power be used to drain other kinds of energy?" asked Blaze worriedly as she exchanged concerned glances with Silver.

The guardian shrugged, "In theory, yes. I don't know what would happen though is he, for example, used Chaos Drain on someone who wasn't in a Super form. They'd probably be killed."

"I'd bet anything that Eggman not only intends Cyber-Shadow to be the ultimate weapon against us, but that thing will also serve as the tool to extract and utilize the flames when he finds them!" determined Silver as he shuddered, "I'd do anything to stop that monster from getting that kind of power!"

Amy shuddered too before speaking up, "That means we have to find it before Eggman does! Or beat him before he has a chance to find it."

Tails stood and spoke, "As awful as it is, Eggman's use of the Master Emerald shards does give me an idea. We could use the ones we have to construct a powerful shield of our own. I have a feeling since we attacked Eggman on his home turf, he might try to return the favor. A shield like his would be an excellent defense!"

The G.U.N. commander nodded, "That's a good idea. Knuckles, do you have any objections to that?" Knuckles shook his head. "Excellent. As soon as we're done here, I'll assign it to our best engineers and scientists."

"This one more thing that needs to be discussed." Said the leader of Shamar suddenly. He, like the other world leaders, had been quietly watching and listening but now he stood up to speak, "Attacks on my home country have been increasing and more and more of my people's temples are being destroyed. We need more reinforcements!"

"I understand your concerns but G.U.N. troops are already spread out so thin-"

"AHEM!" interrupted Sonic, "Let us go to Shamar! That's our job right? We'll go and take out as much Eggman's army as we can to even the odds."

Shamar's leader hesitated, "Are you sure that you and your team are up to the task? You just returned from EggmanLand."

"I'm rearing to get back in the fight! How about you guys?" the rest of Team Heroes replied enthusiastically, all of them ready to get back on the battlefield and prove themselves. "We're ready to go. Just let us back into the ring!"

Satisfied with this reply, the leader of Shamar nodded and sat down, "In that case, we would be extremely grateful for your help. Thank you."

"So it's decided! Team Heroes will go to Shamar and repel Eggman's forces. In the meantime, I'll get the construction of the shield underway. This meeting is adjourned!" concluded the Commander.

As everyone left, Tails ran up to Sonic, "If you don't mind, I'll stay behind to help work on the shield. "

"Are you sure they can't do it without you? We'll need all of the help we can get." Asked Sonic a flicker of doubt and sadness crossing his face. "Not to mention I was looking forward to fighting next to my bro again."

The young fox shook his head, "You'll get along fine without me. Besides, I'd bet my toolkit that none of these people have ever worked with something as powerful as the Master Emerald before. They'll need my help if this thing is going to be built quickly and built right."

"Alright if you insist. Wish us luck than, sounds like we'll need it."

Just as the hero hedgehog was turning to leave, Tails added, "Oh yeah and one more thing! I'd take one of G.U.N.'s planes. Ours really took a pounding and they're not completely up to snuff yet." With a thumbs up and a smile, Sonic ran to catch up to the others who were already heading towards the hanger.

Author's Note:

Whoo! Looks like our heroes are still in the game! Hopefully everything goes well in Shamar... I apologize for being gone so long; I've been recovering from surgery and from writer's block. I'm feeling better on both accounts so with any luck I'll be posting more chapters. So as always everyone, please read, review, and most of all, enjoy!