Me: I have a million excuses for my lateness, none of them necessarily justified. Oh, and have you ever been sick? I was, for, like a week, which was followed by a week-and-a-half's worth of make-up work. Which would've been fine, if not for the abundance of March birthdays, every one of which I was forced to attend. And just who has a birthday party on a weekday anyway? Last week, when the make-up work was finally out of the way, I got addicted to Riven (elaborate puzzle solving game). And then spider solitaire. Yeah….But I'M BACK, and I'll try to make up for it.
Oh! Message to Starburst4106! First of, Longest. Review. Ever. Secondly INPORTANT NOTICE: I update ANY of my stories every weekend, not just this one! Yes, I haven't updated anything in over two months, but now I'm gonna start stocking up chapters so that next time life sneaks up on me, I'LL BE PREPARED! …Yeah, So enjoy! Happy Reading! ^_^
BOOM!
'YIPE!' Shari squeaked as Sonic instinctively dove away from the explosion. 'What the HECK was THAT!'
"They must've spotted us," Sonic replied before chuckling. "Egghead'll be pretty ticked I got out of that trap of his."
Then he felt a twinge of annoyance from his companion. 'Ahem.'
"Oh, right. That you got us out of there. My bad." He chuckled, getting to his feet. "Now, lets go and rescue Tyla."
'Tayla.'
"Whatever." And with that, Sonic took off toward the fortress. After a few moments, Shari began to wonder why he hadn't said anything about his recent discovery. Truth be told, she was mentally panicking. When Sonic had finally sawed through the base's outer wall, she couldn't take it anymore.
'So…You're not…gonna lecture me or anything?' she began meekly.
Sonic trashed a robot before zipping around a corner. "Why would I lecture you?"
'Oh, cause…well, I didn't tell you who I was?'
Sonic sighed. "There's a time and a place. Right now, our main focus is rescuing…that friend of yours."
This did absolutely nothing to ease Shari's nerves as dread pulsed through her. '…A time and a place…' was a close relative to 'Just wait till we get home…' and a cousin of 'We need to talk.'
Sonic sensed her fear as he vaulted a support beam. "You okay, Shari?"
'Huh? Oh…yeah, I'm fine,' she murmured, then changed the subject. 'So, do you have any clue where Tayla is?'
"Nope." Sonic trashed a robot, completely unconcerned.
'What? Then were are we going?' Shari demanded.
"Well, you see-" Sonic paused to saw through the ceiling, landing on the floor above. Taking off again, he continued. "Tyla isn't the first person-"
'Tayla.'
Sonic rolled his eyes. "Your friend isn't the first person I've rescued, you know. While Eggman may always move his prisoners, they're always kept pretty much in the same area, near his main control room. So, I figured we could head in that direction, and then work on from there."
As he spoke, Sonic was sprinting down a random hallway. At the end, the blue hedgehog screeched to a halt. "Dead end," he muttered, turning to head in the opposite direction. He'd gotten no more that ten feet before he was suddenly propelled backwards by an invisible force. "What?" Sonic walked forward, hand outstretched, until it came to rest against the unseen barrier. It glowed green where he touched it.
'Sonic, what is that?' Shari inquired, bewildered.
"Forcefield," he replied. He drew back a fist and struck it. Nothing. Then, he turned and ran back toward the wall, jumped off it, and spin-dashed strait into the barrier. Instead of shattering like expected, the forcefield held in place, unwavering, as Sonic bounced harmlessly off of it.
Sonic frowned, feeling slightly worried as he got back to his feet. "I've never seen one this strong before," he muttered, placing a hand against it. "Or this color, for that matter. It must have a different power source."
At this observation, Shari felt like sticking her head in the nearest microwave. She knew what was powering the shield. It was a mixture of Mobian alloys thought up by a rather ingenious fanfiction writer. Tayla must've given Eggman the information. Drat. Even though it wasn't her fault, guilt prickled her conscience.
Again, Sonic sensed her distress, and was about to ask her what was bothering her, when…
'Oh, no…,' Shari groaned as a thick purple fog began to filter into the room. Knockout gas. A tiny corner of her brain wondered why Eggman didn't just poison them, but the thought was wiped from her mind as Sonic began to frantically spin-dash against the walls. Shari knew, however, that it was useless. Eggman wouldn't have trapped them in here if escape was that easy. It was only a matter of time before…
Everything went black.
Shari groggily opened her eyes. What…? Where…? She sat up slowly, groaning. Her head was throbbing and she felt slightly nauseous. What had hit her?
Drowsily, Shari took in her surroundings. She was back in the hallway. With that realization, the past few minutes came rushing back to her: the forcefield, the knockout gas, etc. What had happened?
'Sonic?' she called, trying to reach him. No response. Shari closed her eyes and concentrated, mentally searching for his presence. It took a while, but she found him. He was fast asleep, buried deep in his dreams. He didn't seem anxious, though. Good. That meant it wasn't a nightmare.
In the meantime, Shari was once again in control. Huh? Didn't knockout gas affect the body, not the mind? So how could she…?
A metallic clanking startled her out of her musings. Robots! Shari struggled to her feet, checking herself over. Yep, this was Sonic alright. Fur, quills, gloves, shoes, some sort of watch-type-thing…Probably a communicator. As long as he was asleep, she'd have to find Tayla on her own. Sonic had given her the basic directions.
Hopefully, he'd wake up by the time she neared the main control room. Until then, she had to somehow avoid the myriad of robots, traps, lasers, and God-knows-what-else. By herself. With absolutely no experience. What. So. Ever.
"I mean, come on!" she whined. "I'm just a mechanic! I work with computers and electricity and…and…" Shari blinked. "Wait a minute…That's it!" Of course! Why hadn't she thought of it before!
All she was really dealing with was incredibly advanced technology, right? And all electrical things, wireless or not, required some sort of signal to operate, something to tell them what to do. So, all she had to do was find the source of their power! How hard could it be?
Step one, get rid of the invisible shield. Shari stood up and slowly walked toward it, arms outstretched like a blind man. After about six feet or so, she glanced behind her in confusion. She could've sworn the shield was behind that hall light. Hmmmm…Well, she had been knocked out. Maybe her memory was fuzzy or something.
She kept walking until she reached the end of the hall. Or maybe the shield was gone? Why did Eggman take down the shield? Was it because he didn't think he needed it? After all, Sonic had passed out.
Awesome. So, step one was completed. Step two, find the nearest computer. This proved to be easier said that done. Shari wandered around for about twenty minutes before starting to get frustrated. Meanwhile, she had to be making her way toward the control room, but all of the hallways looked the same. Wasn't there a map around here? She'd probably find one on the computer…
Speaking of which, there it was, attached to the wall of one of the hallways! Finally! Shari started toward it, when two patrol bots randomly floated around the corner.
'This is just NOT my day…'
The robots immediately noticed her and began to shoot at her. Now what? This wasn't Matrix! She couldn't exactly hack into a computer and dodge bullets at the same time! With her lack of experience on the battle field, she couldn't fight the robots either. The only other option? Run.
Shari whirled around and ran, the robots on her heals. It wasn't long before the hallway bent left. Unfortunately, She didn't have very much running experience either, especially not at those speeds.
'Turn! Turn! Turn! TURN!'
THUD.
"Ow…" She had no time to nurse her damaged nose, however, for the robots were still after her. So, she got up and continued running. Right, she'd have to turn waaaay before she normally would. Her timing would have to be perfect. Vaguely, she wondered how many of Sonic's scars were from getting up close and personal with a tree.
Her opportunity to perfect her timing came very soon, and when she was about thirty feet from the turn, she veered right. The pain wasn't as intense as before, but she was pretty sure she dislocated her shoulder when she slid against the wall. She carefully rolled her shoulder, testing it. Nope, it was still in its socket. She'd just have to turn earlier.
'Here comes another,' she thought. 'Wait for it…Wait for iiiiiiit…NOW!'
THUD.
"Oooooooh…A bit too early…," Shari groaned as she got back to her feet, hand on her nose. It was bleeding. Lovely. She walked the last two feet to the corner, turned, and continued to run. So focused was she on perfecting her turns that she didn't even notice she'd left the robots far behind.
About twelve failed attempts later, she stumbled across another computer.
"Wooooooow…" she murmured, then whistled. "Look at you…You're a fancy once, aren't you? Now, let's see what you…" Shari paused, frowning. She sighed. "Shari, you're talking to computers again. You have got to stop doing that…and talking to yourself while you're at it. Now, passwords…passwords…"
It only took her ten minutes to hack into the system, locate the signal, shut it down, and find a map. It turned out, the control room was about eleven floors up. How the heck was she supposed to get up there? She remembered Sonic smashing through ceilings…
Nope, not doing that. Sonic probably knew the complex by heart, so he'd know what ceiling led to what floor. If she tried that, even with the map, she was sure to get hopelessly lost. Besides, she wasn't the smashing through metal type.
So how was she going to get up eleven stories? Well, how did Eggman or the robots get up? There must've been an elevator around here somewhere…Huh. The maps didn't show anything, but then they didn't show the doors either. She decided to just search for one.
Of course, it didn't take long for her to get hopelessly confused. Honestly, for an inventory, Eggman wasn't very creative! Every hallway was exactly the same! Because of this, she didn't have a clue that she was actually going backwards. So she had no idea she was back in that particular hallway-you know, that one-until the knockout gas suddenly reappeared.
"Oh come on!" she whined, pressing herself against the wall.
In the far corners of her mind, she vaguely felt Sonic regaining consciousness. He mumbled a groggy, 'Wha…?'
Then every thing went black.
XXxxXXxxXXxxXX
Once again, Shari found herself slowly regaining consciousness. Right, this time she was going to study the map, not just glance over it. It also might've helped if she had looked up where the elevators were. Vaguely feeling like something was missing, Shari slowly opened her eyes. She was staring at the attic roof.
…
WHAT! Shari bolted upright, frantically taking in her surroundings. She was back in her bed, in the attic. She woke up! How could she have woken up? Last time Sonic passed out…But then, he was the one in control. And now that she was in control…Oh no. Now Sonic was stuck unconscious in a base crawling with robots! Well…powerless robots, but still. What if Eggman got to him? He was helpless, unable to defend himself! He couldn't even run! She had to fall back asleep!
Slamming her head back into the pillow, she shut her eyes and waited. And waited. And waited. And…
She wasn't falling asleep, nor would she anytime soon. After all, she'd already technically been asleep for, what? Three hours? The sun was setting…Four hours? Her body was already completely rested and wide awake. But she had to fall back asleep! Did Tails have, like, sleeping pills or something? With that thought in mind, she scrambled toward the door and down the stairs, heading toward the bathroom. As she ran through the hallway, bits of conversation made their way toward her disinterested ears.
"…ank goodness it's you! You had Tails worried sick!" Amy's voice scolded.
"I was not!" came Tails reply from somewhere farther away.
Amy ignored him. "Do you have her?"
"Yeah, I have her."
Shari froze, her hand on the bathroom door. She knew that voice. It was distorted by the buzz of bad reception, but it was undeniable. Sonic was OKAY! He must've woken up at about the same time she passed out!
"Awesome," Amy responded. "How was the defense?"
"…Actually, it was pretty wacky this time."
"Wacky?"
"Yeah…I mean, it started out normally, typical robots, lasers, etc. But then we got trapped in this maze with-"
"Wait, wait, wait…," Amy interrupted. "'We?'"
Sonic hesitated. "…Iiiiiiit's a bit of a long story. I'll explain when I get back. Anyway, Egghead set a pretty tough trap for us, but we got out okay. Then we start storming the base again, and next thing I know, all of the robots start malfunctioning."
Tails poked his head into the room, suddenly intrigued. "Malfunctioning? How? What do you mean?"
"I mean they were just…dead. Shut down. Not working. Whatever. And so was every other weapon in the base. I just waltzed right in, nabbed Tyla, and left."
"Talya…," Shari mumbled to herself, now peeking through the crack in the door. No one heard her.
Tails was going into one of those moods, the ones where you could practically see the gears turning in his head. "But…The only way that could've happened is if Eggman shut them all down…That or someone hacked into his system which, of course, is impossible. Believe me, I've tried."
Time stopped.
Shari had effortlessly hacked into a computer that Tails was unable to access.
No. Flippin'. Way. She…She wasn't that smart! No, it couldn't be that. She may be a genius, but she wasn't…well, she wasn't Tails. Then how…could…she…It…I-It must've been because computers weren't really his thing. He was an inventor and a mechanic. Shari was just a…computer nerd, for lack of better term. Yeah, that was it.
Sonic, however, didn't doubt the possibility. "Ahhhh…That explains it. I'll have to remember to thank her for that."
"Thank who?" asked Tails.
"Long story," Amy replied. "Says he'll explain later."
"Oh. Okay."
"Oh! And, uh, how's Shari?"
Tails and Amy glanced at each other, confused by the seemingly random question.
"Uh, she's…um…"
"I'm right here," Shari interrupted, stepping fully into the room. "I was, er, sleeping. I just woke up."
"Oh, good," Sonic replied, sounding relieved. "Anyway, I'm heading back, so don't wait up. Oh, and I should warn you, this one's just a liiiiiitle-"
"Hey, who're you talking to?" a feminine voice interrupted him."Can I see? What is that? Is that a WRIST COMUNICATOR! Ohmigosh, it IS! Lemme see! Lemme see!"
"Uh-Oh shoot! Gotta go!"
As the transmission ended, Shari chuckled, shaking her head. Yup. That was Tayla alright.
Me: Aaaaaaaaaaand done! Not my best, but hey, it's SOMETHING! It took me a long time to write this because I got stuck. Note to SELF: Never write a cliffhanger without knowing what will happen next. Duh. Oh yeah, and I HAVE A NEW POLL! Anywho, I hope to update this story soon, though I may work on something else for a while. It kinda depends on which story gets the most attention. Happy Reviewing! ^_^