Ch 12: Virtual Reality

The next morning begins in the briefing chamber of Mephiles' lair. Darcy had informed him and Rothion about the second Chaos Emerald that was located. Unfortunately for them, Breezy and her friends were now in position of it.

"Ah, so Dr. Eggman now has a nephew?" Mephiles questioned amusingly. "This era is most defiantly a strange one. I wonder if this Robotnik is as predictable as his uncle."

"After he was defeated by Sonic's daughter and her friends, he escaped to his base and stored the Emerald away. But Shadow's daughter retrieved it," Darcy explained. "Do you wish for us to steal, sir?"

"No, not yet," Mephiles said smoothly. "Let them savor their little victory for now. We will take it from them eventually. For now, I have another assignment for you."

"What mission do you have for us, sir?" Rothion asked.

"The job is…"


Meanwhile up in the air, the pirate ship Gesellschaft was flying to another destination. Inside, the core members of the Dynamite Syndicate were having a meeting of their own. Their briefing room was like any other briefing room, with the tables and chairs. There was even a large screen behind it, which was filled with static at the moment.

"It would appear that we have new competition," Skylark said as he sat on his commander chair. "Two Chaos Emeralds have already been taken."

"We're on a goddamned hair-trigger," Nack frowned. "We still have yet to get any money and these guys are just scooping them up like sand!"

"You don't have to remind me," Moana said. "These machines are really expensive. We have to pay for them somehow."

"Yo, I think I may have found a place where we can get some more machines," Bean spoke.

"Yes?" Skylark glared. "What is it?"

"It's a zone called…"


"Digital Circuit," Daisy announced as she looked through her handheld. "The place is a like a whole-other dimension. Lots of pixels and digital codes everywhere. It's also one of the sites of the Black Arms Invasion."

"Wow, that place sounds cool," Breezy smiled.

"Cool, but dangerous," Violet said. "The area is like the internet and it is full of viruses. Best you watch out, all right?"

"So you think there is a Chaos Emerald there?" Kera asked.

"Maybe. I just found some strange power traces there," Daisy said. "It may be best for you guys to have a look."

"Yeah, but how can we get there?" Gadget asked. "Do we even know where it is?"

"I'm so glad you asked little brother," Daisy smiled as she punched several notes into the handheld. A beam of light from it hit the heroes before they had time to react. In an instant, they vanish in a swarm of digital codes.

"Was that necessary?" Violet asked her, eyebrow arched.

"How do you think Uncle Shadow ended up there?" Daisy remarked.

"Point taken."


Breezy and her friends soon found themselves in the Digital Circuit. They were in complete awe of the place. Everything was like a flashing and blinking hologram as they walked on a cyber walkway. "So this is the Digital Circuit," Marisa spoke.

"Si, it's more magnificent then I thought," Samson added.

Kera was also admiring the sites of cyber world. But then she frowned as she saw some familiar drone-like robots approaching them. "We have company," she said as she drew out her sword.

"Aren't those the same robots we fought back in Rio Salaz?" Larcen blinked.

"That means the pirates are here too!" Marisa nodded.

"Pirates? We have to deal with the pirates now!" Athena gasped.

"Shoot, we never get it easy," Breezy frowned.

"Comes with the territory I guess," Gadget said.

"Well, let's show em who's boss," Larcen said. As soon as the robots reached Larcen, he kicked two of them away from him. With a high leap, he came down on another one and did a strong ax kick to crush it.

Kera deflected the shots from the gunner robots with her sword and sliced all the oncoming robots. A tank robot approached her and fired heavy rounds of fire power at her. Kera jumped and rolled from each attack as she ran up to it. She did several slashes that removed the weapons. The she stabbed the core and jumped away as it exploded.

A spinning blade machine that looked a lot like a top rushed at Breezy and Gadget, ready to cut them up. Lucky for them, they managed to jump over them and Breezy followed up with a kick, making it fly out of control and crash. Then a mantis like robot came down on them, making them jump on separate sides. Gadget came down on it with his three tails, causing some damage. Breezy used an up draft kick to toss it up into the air, jump up and axe kicked it down to destroy it. "Wahoo! This is fun!" Breezy cheered as she landed and did a short break-dance.

Omega was knocked back by the robot he was facing but regained his position by using his boosters and claws. He dash back at the sword wielding pirate robot and blocked two sword attacks with his armored arms before throwing some punches. Then one of his hands retracted and turned into a cannon as he forced it into the robot's chest and fired a point black range, causing utter destruction. More beetle robots came from behind him and fire blasts of plasma at him. Fortunately, Omega already detected them and jump from the assault. As he was in the air, he locked on and fire blasts of missiles, each one destroying the robots.

Samson was clearly enjoying himself as he jumped around shooting the robots as he was laughing. At least once a robot would get close enough to attack him at close range, but he would manage to avoid getting hit and kick the robot or shoot it at point black. "This is like a fiesta!" he laughed as he continued firing his guns.

"Hey, don't get too cocky, Samson," Marisa pointed out as she punched another robot away from her. "We still have a long way to go." Her hands began to burn with fire as she threw fireballs at the robots that approached her. As they began to burn, her hands glowed with electricity as she fired lighting shots at them, make them explode in huge blasts.

Maria had a much easier time with the robots. With her Chaos Powers and her fighting skills taught by her father, she was a difficulty opponent. She didn't like fighting, but she would fight if she must. She tossed on robot over her shoulder, throwing it in a pack of five robots and destroying them all. She kicked and punched more robots that rushed at her and threw another around and into an invisible wall. It exploded upon impact. Suddenly, she heard heavy footsteps behind her. Turning around, she found a huge, hulking robot. It looked like a purple gorilla with heavy armor on the knees and shoulders. It reared its fist back before throwing it down to turn her into a pulp. Maria back flipped from it as it came down in a crushing THUD. Using the fist as a springboard, she jumped to shoulders and slowly pulled the head of the robot off, shutting it down. Letting it droop, she jumped up, did a short flip, and came down with a striking Chaos Megaton, destroying it in a large blast.

Athena was using her psychokinesis to kick one robot repeatedly into oncoming squads like a kickball. When she was done, she snapped her fingers and let the robot burn, making it explode. "I'm sure there still more of those robots around here."

"Well, we'd better not waste anytime," Kera nodded as she removed her sword from a sparking robot. "We have to beat the Dynamite Syndicate to the other side."

"Dynamite Syndicate?" Gadget queried.

"The name of the pirates," Larcen answered. "Kera and I fought their leader during the attack on Rio Salaz."

"So then what are we doing standing around here for?" Breezy said ecstatically as she raced off, "Let's say hello."

"Wait for us!" Athena shouted as she raced after her.

"Typical of that girl running off like that," Kera muttered as they all followed her.

The team of heroes ran through the cyber highway and dispatched any robot that came their way. After going through the highway and jumping on the platforms, Maria saw a red portal.

"Look, that's the speed circuit!" she pointed. "If we get on it, we'll be taken to the next area."

"Come on, let's get on it!" Athena said.

Everyone followed the direction, jumped on the speed circuit and immediately they were blasted away into a weightless hyper-speed.

"Yahoo! What a roller coaster!" Breezy cheered.

"Whoaaaah! Too fast! Too fast!" Marisa cried.

"Hey watch out!" Larcen shouted as he referred to the rising red walls.

"They're firewalls!" Gadget said. "They're made to keep us out!"

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Samson retorted.

"The circuits have alternate tracks that we can go through!" Gadget explained. "We can switch roads to avoid the on coming firewalls!"

"You got it!" Athena acknowledged.

Everyone followed the youngest hero's advice and switched between tracks to avoid hitting the firewalls. After a bit of a while, they got to the next area. More robots began to advance on them.

"Man! Do your parents always have to go through this?" Marisa commented as she jumped away from an attack of a huge robot and used blasts of wind to blow it to pieces.

"That's kind of a dumb question to ask," Kera stated as she jump from another attack and sent blasts of water from her sword at them.

"Yeah, like Gadget said," Athena said as she threw another robot down, "It comes with the territory."

Breezy kicked another one and saw some strange searchlights nearby. "Hey all! If we go to those searchlights, something cool will happen!"

"Like what?" Larcen wondered.

"Just watch!" she said as she leapt at one of the searchlights. The light seemed to have detected her coming an immediately brought the beam to her position, drawing her in quickly. The searchlight was destroyed upon her landing.

"How did she do that?" Kera questioned as she arched an eyebrow.

"It must be that in this part of the world, our bodies are nearly electronic," Maria said matter-of-factly, "The laws of physics are bent here. We can do almost anything we want here."

"You mean like walk on walls and things like that, senorita?" Samson asked.

"Logically speaking."

"Hey! Hurry it up over there!" Breezy's voice called over.

"Well if she can do it," Kera began as she jumped toward another searchlight. The same thing happened as she was reeled in and smashed the light on impact.

The rest of the team followed the other hedgehogs and continued going through the cyberworld. They went through loops, speed circuit and more searchlights. The flashing lasers and lights that were there to either help or hinder them were a factor too. They also continued to bash anymore robots that got in their way. And then bash some more robots. Robots, robots, robots everywhere…


In the core of the Digital Circuit, there was a much larger robot that looked like an octopus with four legs missing. The remaining four legs had wheels underneath. It was red and gray in color and had plasma blasters and bomb launchers. Inside the cockpit was the techno expert of the pirate crew, Moana.

"Nack, any sign of the Emerald yet?" Moana asked over his line.

"No luck," Nack's voice responded, "There is no sign of a Chaos Emerald here."

"What about you Bean; did you find any useful parts?"

"Oh yeah! This place has it all!" Bean's voice said with excitement, "There may not be an Emerald here, but at least we ain't leavin' empty handed!"

"Huh? That's odd…" Skylark's voice spoke.

"What is?" Moana asked.

"I just looked through my scanner… we've just lost ¾ of our unit in just up to an hour."

"So then someone other than us is here?" Nack asked.

"Humph! Who cares? I'll teach them not to mess with our mission!" Moana snorted. She flipped some switches on the control board and prepared to launch. "Here we go! Feldynaught: engage!" The mech rocketed straight up into the outer reaches of the cyberworld.


The group of heroes only had enough time to see the Feldynaught coming down on them like a falling billboard. They managed to get out of the way before it flattened them like pancakes. As they stared up at the machine, the hatch on top of it popped open and Moana climbed out. "Hey you! Thanks to you everything's a mess now, huh!"

"Huh?" Breezy blinked. "Who's she?"

"Wait, look at that mark on the robot's leg," Samson pointed to the first leg of the Feldynaught, which showed a very familiar insignia. "That senorita is one of the pirates!"

"She's a pirate?" Gadget gasped.

Moana smirked at the young alien/kitsune hybrid's outburst, "You're a lot dumber than you look. Of course, that should have been self-evident from the fact you're picking a fight with the Dynamite Syndicate. Of course, if you agree to become my servants, I suppose I could forgive you…" she said in one of her calm and sweet voices as she folded her arms. "So how about it? That way I won't have to go through all the stress."

"Join up with pirates?" Breezy frowned as she moved her arm down in a swift manner. "Sorry; we'll have to drop that invitation."

Moana growled, "Alright, fine! See what I care! I gave you a chance and you turned it down! Don't come back crying to me later!" She blew a raspberry at them before jumping back into the mech. There was a tense pause for a moment before the Feldynaught crouched into battle formation. "You're history!" Moana's voice shouted as the Feldynaught began shooting blasts of plasma at them.

"Yow!" Athena shrieked as she jumped over the assault. "What's her beef?"

"She just wants to kick our ass for interfering, that's all!" Larcen said as he ducked down.

"Anger management much?" Marisa said as she fired a lighting attack at the Feldynaught.

"Hey! I heard that!" Moana shouted as she spun around and fired shots all around her. This made it almost hard to avoid. Kera deflected most shots with her sword as Larcen blocked it with his barrier. Kagome used her mirror shield to reflect the shots.

"Have some of this!" Breezy yelled as she curled into a Homing Spin and slammed into a leg of the Feldynaught. As the leg gave away, she recoiled into the air and came back down, striking another leg.

"Hey, cut it out!" Moana snapped. "This mech is already very expensive!"

"Yaah!" Maria cried as she jumped in the air and fired blasts of blue light from her hands. The blasts made sparkling tracks on the ground as they approached the Feldynaught. The colliding blasts made more damage on the machine.

"Knock it off!" The Feldynaught began to spin around and fire bombs all over the surrounding area. Everyone was forced to fall back to avoid getting caught in the explosion. But she wasn't finished. Then she fired a whole stream of bombs at them.

"Whoa!" Gadget yelled as he hovered over the attack.

"It's not over yet!" Moana said. "Shockwave!" She made the Feldynaught jump up and come crashing down, making a huge shockwave. Athena and Larcen where unable to escape on time and got thrown back from the shockwave.

"Larcen!" Marisa gasped in shack. She glared up at the machine with almost glowing red eyes. "Alright, now you've done it!" Her hands glowed with much powerful electricity and she shot out a ball of lighting at them mech. This caused quite some heavy damage.

"Arrg! The systems are at yellow!" Moana grimaced as she read the readouts on the monitors. "I have to finish this!"

Marisa dashed to Larcen's side and held him closely. "Larcen, hey. Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine," Larcen smiled weakly, "It was just a rush."

"Good, you scared me there," she smiled as she hugged him.

Athena groaned as she got up. "Yeah, thanks for looking out for me too!" she frowned.

"Uh, sorry Athena!" Marisa smiled nervously.

"Hey, if you're done maybe we can figure out a way to beat this thing!" Kera shouted as she slid away from a bomb.

"Well, it isn't anything like Eggman Nega's or Snively's machines, that is for certain," Maria said. "Still, perhaps we can use the environment to our advantage."

"Like how?" Samson asked as he fired some bullets at the machine.

"Oh I get it!" Gadget realized. "Maria said that our bodies are nearly electronic. That must mean that our forms are without mass. We can walk on walls here!"

"Hey, that's sounds like fun!" Breezy smiled as she began to jump on the walls randomly. Moana saw this and made the Feldynaught fire shots at her. As always, the daughter of the Legendary Azure Wind was far too fast.

"She's distracted! Now's our chance!" Larcen signaled. The rest of the group began bouncing on the walls and dished out random attacks on the Feldynaught.

"Darn it! I can't take much more of this!" Moana growled as she saw the system readouts inch to red.

"Aguis Illusion!" Kera yelled as she turned aquatic invisible and lunged at two of the legs of the Feldynaught. She managed to get in some slashes with water oozing out of the gashes.

Maria jumped from the ceiling in an acrobatic flip and aimed her pink glowing hands. "Chaos Bloom!" she yelled as she fired her pink energy blot at the mech.

"Hey, I'm not staying out of this one!" Marisa shouted as she fired a ball of fire at the third leg of the Feldynaught. When the attack hit it, it nearly melted.

Moana was getting frustrated as she struggled to keep her grip on the controls. She had no idea she would get this kind of trouble. In fact, she never had this trouble at all. None of her machines have taken this kind of damage up until now.

A rapid beeping caught her attention. Looking down, she found that her controls were malfunctioning. Her pupils shrank in shock.

"Oh no."

The heroes saw the Feldynaught beginning to jerk around and about. Suddenly, it fired plasma shots and bombs everywhere and all around. Everyone was force to jump all over the battlefield to avoid getting hit.

"What is she up too now?" Athena shrieked as she flew out of the attacks' range with her psychokinesis.

"It must be her weapon!" Kera shouted as she jumped over the bombs' explosion. "All that damage must have made it malfunction!"

"Athena, contain it!" Gadget told her as he flew through the barrage of plasma.

"I'll try!" Athena said as she used her psychokinesis to trap the Feldynaught. The white cat struggled as the explosions erupted inside. She was getting a huge headache from all of this. After long a long enough time, she released her hold on the machine and slowly floated to the ground, exhausted. As the cloud of smoke dispatched, the saw the Feldynaught all battered and heavy in damage. The legs were bent back and the sparking circuitry could be seen. Slowly, Feldynaught tried to move again. Breezy would have none of that.

"I'll play with you some other time!" she said as she came down of the machine in a Homing Spin. As she collided, it exploded in a huge flashing blast. Moana was thrown away from the broken mech, screaming as she vanished into the… well, the sky. Breezy popped out of the ruins of the mech and jumped out of it.

"Hehe! That was kind of fun," she smiled cheerfully.

"Define the word 'fun,'" Kera frowned with her arms crossed.

"Yeah, that was way too much," Larcen added.

"Athena, you aren't injured are you?" Maria asked as she went to her.

"I'm just… woozy," Athena said as she held her head. "I might need to lie down…"

Maria placed her hands under Athena's arms and lifted her up. She drew back rapidly on seeing the prominent gash in the middle of left shoulder.

"Oh my God! Your shoulder!"

"What? That bad?" Athena winced as she rubbed it. "I felt it, but I didn't think it was major."

"Well, it is! Hold on, I'll heal you," Maria closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she cupped her hands together and collected green Chaos Energy. Once she had enough, she gentle rubbed the green glow against Athena's injury. Within a few seconds, the injury vanished without any trace.

"What was that?" Marisa gaped with eyes wide.

"It's a healing technique I know," Maria smiled as she faced her. "I call it Chaos Heal. I can manipulate the Chaos Energy I have to heal injuries. It is quite useful if I do say so myself."

"It is, isn't it?" Kera commented. "Looks like there's nothing left for us here. We should leave."

"Si, let's get going," Samson nodded as he and the others began to walk away. Suddenly, a landing clank behind them caught their attention. Turning around, they found Rothion the Owl with his back turned holding some kind of piece of gold.

"Rothion?" Breezy blinked.

The owl turned around and, oddly enough, looked confused. "Mademoiselle?"

"What are you doing here?" Kera glared.

"Nothing that concerns you," he shrugged. With a wave of his cape, he vanished in a black mist.

"Hey, you notice that thing he was holding in his hand?" Marisa asked.

"That must be one of the pieces of the Sanpglyph that Jewels and the Phantom told us about," Gadget explained. "He's all ready got one of them."

"Well, I think it's about time that we find out what this Sanpglyph really is…" Larcen said.