With luck, I can update two chapters at a time, depending on how much I can get done and how much I can get to the library to post...
Chapter 13: Emerald Mines: Act I
A warp ring had appeared after Team Raket's victory over Eggman and took them to a dully lit place. The only light coming from oil lamps of either side of the tunnel, with wooden support beams surrounding the walls and ceiling. They guessed a mine.
"Do you think Eggman came here?" Sonia asked, looking around. The walls sparkled with gems of all colors and sizes just visible under a layer of dirt.
"I don't think he'd fit." Light laughed. Raket and Sonia smiled at the joke.
"Let's take a look around, just to be sure." Raket said, answering Sonia's question before and walking deeper into the mine. Light and Sonia followed after the silver hedgehog, keeping close to one another. They weren't sure how long they had been walking before they came across a mine cart. "Wanna take a ride?" the leading hedgehog asked, climbing carefully into the cart.
"It could get us through faster." Sonia reasoned with herself, pulling herself in after Raket.
"Let's go!" Light proclaimed, pushing the cart forward and jumping in just before the first drop of their ride. It was like a wooden rollercoaster without seatbelts. The metal cart they sat in jutted and bumped over the track as they soared down and then sharply up, coming level once again for several feet before take a smooth left turn. Their cart continued on a level ground, with bumps every few feet. Sonia suddenly became aware of a chittering above them and the sound of wings. The only winged animal that lived in places like this that she could think of were...bats. They went over a hard bump, echoing through the cave.
"Raket...I think there're bats in here..." Sonia said, looking around at the ceiling. Neither Raket nor Light had time to answer before dozens of lights sparked to life ahead of them. The cart jolted down and suddenly back up the small hill. The lights came closer and the fluttering of wings got louder. The three ducked as a winged shadow swooped by them, just skimming the top of Raket's head. Light turned to see the shadow better, and a light suddenly lit the form. It was a robot bat...One of Eggman's.
"He is here." Light growled, staring at the bat in frustration. "He's got his 'bots all over the place." The fox gestured to the lights they were heading toward. A small curve around an oversized rock put them directly under the bat 'bots. Sonia looked up to get a better look at them, they were slim and purple with a light bulb on the tops of their heads. Their wings were mechanical and matched their bodies color. Beady little eyes followed Team Raket as they went under, and were away from the herd of resting robo bats. One fluttered after the team of three, followed by three more, then five, and more until there were no more bats on the ceiling. "They're following us." Light told his friends, looking back after hearing the bats wings against the air. A sharp left threw Sonia, Light and Raket into the side of their cart.
"This isn't fun at all." Sonia moaned, rubbing her bruised rib. A loud screech was heard behind them, startling the three into turning around. The bat robots behind them seemed like a cloud of light at their distance. "I'll get 'em." Sonia offered, taking her keyboard rifle out and aiming steadily. The eggplant hedgehog managed to shoot down more then half of the flock chasing them before a sharp jolt knocked the weapon from Sonia's hands. "Oh no!" she cried out in dismayed shock, reaching over the edge in hopes of catching it. "My medallion." The rifle fell down, away from the cart. Sonia stared longingly after it. It was her most treasured possession...her mother had given it to her.
"Don't worry Sonia, we'll get it back...I promise." Raket said reassuringly, pulling her back into the cart in time to dodge a wall that almost touched the side of their cart. During the medallion incident, the robo bats had caught up and were attacking the three, Light throwing out punches at any that came too close. The metal creatures flew off as the cart dropped down a sharp hill and straight down into deeper darkness.
OoOoO
Team Guardian landed silently on the soft dirt of the mine. Looking around, they found a neatly polished mine cart sitting in wait for them.
"That's weird..." Cloud murmured, following her team over to examine it.
"Should we use it?" Acio asked the echidna and hedgehog standing with her. Anash swept his eyes over it quickly, why did it look so new? "Should we use it?" Acio repeated her question.
"We could try it..." Anash said finally. Acio jumped into the cart, reluctantly followed by Cloud. The wheels spun smoothly as Anash pushed the metal cart and jumped in with the other two Guardians. Their first hill sped them up to a perfect speed, the speed a mine cart should be going. Oil lamps still lined the walls as they went through the track.
"It's a pretty smooth ride." Cloud observed. "Almost like it's new."
"Or fixed to be like new." Anash pointed out. Cloud looked at him curiously, urging the echidna to continue his statement. The black echidna put one hand on the edge of the cart and went on, "They haven't used this model for years. Not since an accident that killed a couple dozen Mobians and humans."
"What happened?" Acio asked, now in the conversation.
"I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but one of the carts went out of control with a Mobian riding with a few pounds of gold. Somehow it went off the track and struck several other miners then went off the edge of another track it got on after colliding with another cart." Anash explained. "There were several other incidents like it, so they replaced this model with the kind they use now." The only noise that could be heard was the rattle of the wheels going over the track and an occasional chittering.
"Hey...are we going faster?" Cloud asked, looking at the oil lamps now going by in blurs. The two black mammals looked around, they were speeding up...but they had been on level ground almost the entire time, how could they speed up? The ride suddenly became a bumpy one. A hard bump shot the three several inches into the air and back down. Cloud held to the edges tightly as the sharp right turn took them into total darkness. All three gasped as they suddenly shot down hill, and as fast as they had gone down, they were up again. Lights dotted the air above them.
"Eggman's robots!" Acio growled, pointing to the metal bats that swooped down at them. Anash slashed the bat in two quickly with 'Emparo'. The robot bats one-by-one lost against the sword the black echidna carried.
"We need to catch one." Cloud said. "We'll need the light." She added quickly. With an annoyed sigh, Anash sheathed 'Emparo' and waited for the bats to catch up with their high-speed cart. One made it, but was caught by Acio's ever-quick cat hands. The bat shrieked and beat its wings wildly, attempting to escape the cat's grip. "Hold on to it." Cloud instructed, grateful for the light the bat made.
"It's squirming." Acio growled at the hedgehog, fighting to keep her grip on the bat, "So it's kinda hard to keep it still."
"Quit fighting." Anash demanded with a fierce growl, "We can see now, that's good enough."
"Now we can at least see where we're going." Cloud grumbled, in no mood to fight with the stubborn echidna. The other bat 'bots disappeared into the darkness behind them, leaving the captured bat the only source of light for Team Guardian to depend on. It still squealed and fought against Acio's grip, its want to be free willing it to fight harder.
"It won't sit still. Isn't there something we can tie it up with?" Acio asked, now holding the bat down against the floor of their cart. Another hard bump jutted the cart forward and toppled Acio into Anash. "Uh...S...Sorry, Anash." The black cat apologized with a slight blush. Cloud turned to face the front and watch what was happening, her eyes suddenly widened.
"Do we have a break?" she asked.
"No, why?" Anash answered after quickly looking around.
"'Cause we really need it..." the hedgehog answered, pointing ahead of them. Even with the little light the mechanical bat provided, they all saw the hill before plummeting down.
OoOoO
Laya lit a hand on fire, providing more light for herself and her sisters.
"What was that, back there?" Laya asked, more rhetorical then for an answer.
"What was what?" Sumowa asked, though she had an idea of what her sister was talking about.
"That attack we pulled off during that fight." The orange seedrian answered, moving her hand around to better see her surroundings; nothing but dirt, jewels and wooden support beams.
"I dunno, maybe some special power we have." Sumowa shrugged, following her sister's light. No one answered the statement as they started walking down the mine's dirt path. Laya's fire proved to be much better than any the oil lamps around them could provide. Cosmo mechanically followed her sisters, deep in thought about the attack they had used to destroy the remaining threat in their battle against Eggman. Something about it...seemed familiar. 'Didn't Tails and Sonic talk about something like that before? What did they call it? A team blast?' she wondered, struggling to remember the details of that conversation. As her thoughts went back to Tails, her stomach churned as she remembered the reason they were in this dark mine. 'I hope they're okay...'
"Cosmo! Come on!" Sumowa's voice broke into the green seedrian's thoughts.
"What?" Cosmo looked up to her rainbow colored sister several meters ahead of her.
"I said come on, Laya found a mine cart!" she shouted back. Laya punched the air victoriously as she climbed in, first checking it was safe. Sumowa jumped in after her Cosmo and had given the cart a push down its first hill. It was a smooth first hill, promising an enjoyable ride through the mine. The promise was broken soon after as the mine approached the top of the next, much smaller, hill. The metal cart shot forward with speed as if from nowhere and hit a sharp curve hard, throwing the seedrians into the side of the car. Cosmo rubbed her head where she had knocked it against the hard metal frame. Sumowa held tightly to her arm, the impact against the frame had cut her arm. Laya held tightly to the sides of the cart as it swung around a soft right turn and dropped down. The girls let out a simultaneous yelp of surprise as the cart's drop stopped and they continued, flying across a level ground. A hard bump sent Sumowa and Cosmo into their sister up front. A sudden chittering stopped anything Laya was about to say. The metal cart they rode in seemed to slow down to a normal rate over the smooth track. Cosmo, Sumowa and Laya looked around, where had the chittering come from? A flutter of wings made them all look up and into a cloud of bats coming at them.
"Bats!" Cosmo cried, ducking low as one swept by her.
"No, robots!" Laya corrected, hitting one with a fire ball and watching it fry from the heat. "Eggman set us up." Sumowa threw out a punch as several neared their cart, taking out half of the four that had come at them. The ride got harder. Bumps appeared on the track much more and curves proved to be just as much a pain as the bats that followed, flashing the lights attached to their heads to momentarily blind the seedrians with light, then darkness. The middle seedrian swatted away two bat 'bots as the got close. Still several dozen to go. Laya shot a stream of fire at the rest of the on coming bats; crispy robots fell into the darkness below them. The three sighed in relief as the fluttering and chittering stopped...no more robo bats. Their relief was short lived as the plunged down into the darkness below them, going through a swirl of motion as the descended. All three grabbed the sides of the cart tightly once again.
"Hang on!" Sumowa called over the wind that rushed around them. "Don't let go!"
OoOoO
The detectives set quickly down the walkway of the mine they had been dropped off in by the warp ring. The walls shimmered with jewels and light of a flame.
"Now where are we?" Waffle sighed, looking around.
"Looks like a jewel mine." Snow answered.
"Probably where they hide jewels from Rouge." Kaity sneered. She got quick glares from her friends, which she waved off. "Regardless, Eggman must've come through here, so we should too."
Snow looked at the chameleon, hoping for further detail. "How do you know?"
"The print in the dirt is new." Waffle cut in, directing the tiger's attention to the soft dirt. It was only a straight line going through, a sign of the Egg Mobile. "Not so new that we can catch up in a matter of minutes, but fresh enough." The vixen shrugged.
Snow nodded, "Okay then, let's go." She said starting forward once again with Kaity and Waffle following closely behind. The tiger jumped as she felt a hand come down on her shoulder. She spun quickly, facing her chameleon friend in the light.
"It's kinda dark in here, we have to stay together." Kaity shrugged, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder again. Waffle held onto the chameleon's shoulder; no one spoke as they kept going down the trail. A couple of minutes later, the three found a metal mine cart. The three climbed in, and were on their way. The first drop took them through a spiral, and then to a flat path through total darkness. A soft chittering came from close above them. Waffle raised one hand to the ceiling, it touched with no problem. The fox's hand swept over a shadowed shape and sent a shiver down her spine. She had no idea what it was. The flutter of wings made the three wish for light as the sounds repeated itself in a choir of flutters.
"Sounds like bats." Snow whispered, hoping none of the nocturnal creatures woke up.
"I heard bats make nests in your hair and fox tails." The only reptile present grinned through the darkness. Snow and Waffle paid little attention to the chameleon's warning, focusing on the lights that had now appeared below the bats. The robot bats suddenly swarmed around the three detectives, darkness covering them once again. Snow waved her hands about, beating away any that dared come close to her. Something suddenly yanked her hair forward. The tiger paled slightly, remember what her friend had said. Snow let out a yowl as she felt another hard tug.
"It's in my hair!" she cried out, thrashing her arms at her head. She stopped suddenly, she felt something by her head...an arm. Laughter from behind her mixed with the fluttering and chittering of the bats. "Kaity!" the tiger screamed in anger. The chameleon only continued laughing at her cruel joke, though it quickly turned to chocked gasping as the angry tiger gripped her throat.
"Can't...you take...a joke?" the chameleon gasped, trying the slip away from her stronger friend.
"Fight later." Waffle growled through the dark, "Get rid of the bats first." Snow released Kaity, she'd get even later. The white tiger swung 'Dragon Fang' in the air, taking out a sizable amount of the enemy. Kaity pulled a gun from her pocket and fired at the bat 'bots lights that flashed occasionally. While Waffle hit the flying 'bots with fast and well-placed punches. They hadn't been battling long before the bats quickly disbanded and Team Gracious plunged down another hill.
This is all I've gotten done so far, hopefully I can post more soon.