Chapter 14

Shadow helped Silver and Sonic, and Amy continued to try and free Tikal.

"Look out!" shouted Tikal.

Just then Espio grabbed Amy from behind. She struggled to get free. "Let me go!"

"Sonic, the girls are in trouble!" said Silver.

Sonic ducked under a punch and ran past the four students toward the girls. But one of the students shoved him into the wall as he ran past and held him there.

"Sonic!" yelled Amy.

Miles made his way to the machine and inspected it. "I can't find an off switch!"

"Huh?" asked Eggman. He looked over at his machine and saw Miles. He pointed at Knuckles. "You, stop that kid!"

"Miles, look out!" Amy shouted.

Miles turned around and saw Knuckles charging at him.

Knuckles leaped at him.

Miles jumped and spun his tails around allowing him to hover for a brief moment before landing on Knuckles' head.

Knuckles threw Miles off of him then picked him up by his arm.

Silver and Shadow stood back to back as they fought the only two students in the room that weren't busy with someone else. Silver dodged a punch then tapped on Shadow's shoulder and pointed at Miles.

"You want me to save the kid?" he asked, sidestepping a hit.

Silver nodded before getting kicked in the leg.

"Fine." He caught the fist of the student he was fighting and threw him over his head into the student Silver was fighting. He sped off to where Knuckles and Miles were at.

Silver saw Sonic being held against the wall. He ran to go help him but one of the students Shadow knocked to the ground grabbed his foot and tripped him.

Shadow sped to Knuckles and punched him in the face.

The blow knocked him back a few steps and made him let go of Miles's arm.

"Go," Shadow told Miles.

"I have to stop the machine."

Knuckles lunged at Shadow knocking him down.

Shadow looked up and saw someone sneak up behind Miles and grab him.

"Aah!" Miles called out.

Shadow jumped up. Knuckles punched him but Shadow sidestepped. He punched him again and he ducked. Knuckles kept throwing punches and Shadow dodged them all. Eventually Knuckles punched and as Shadow dodged to the right Knuckles grabbed his shoulder and flung him into the wall. He then grabbed both of his shoulders and held him against the wall.

"Ho ho ho!" Eggman laughed stepping out from behind his desk. "Perfect, now bring them to me!"

The mind controlled students lined up, holding their captive's arms behind their back.

The gang struggled to get free.

"How noble of you, coming here to rescue your friends but you should have run when you had the chance," Eggman grinned evilly.

They all glared at him in return.

"I told you I'd explain everything and I will; you see I found the plans for a mind controlling device in my grandfather's journal. I found a way to turn the device into a hat, it actually worked better that way, closer to your brain, anyways after getting the old principal out of my way I put the hats on the members of the school board so-"

"We already know that part," said Sonic. "Tell us why!"

"I'm trying to talk!" Eggman shouted.

"I don't care. Tell us why you're attacking a high school!"

He turned to the others. "Is he always this annoying?"

"More then you know," said Shadow.

"Hey I'm trying to get information here!"

"They argue even when they're captured," Silver muttered.

The door swung open and three students walked in and dropped an unconscious Rouge on the floor.

They all gasped.

"Oh good you brought me another one," said Eggman.

"Ahem!" said Sonic. He glared at him.

"Oh fine, since you want to know so badly, I knew if I was a principal I could actually make people wear the hats. And besides…" his face broke into an evil smile, "who can hurt a bunch of innocent kids only being made to obey me?"

"You're crazy!" shouted Amy. "They'll hurt us if they have to!"

"Oh I'm sure they will, but by then it will be too late. I'll be unstoppable behind my shield!" he balled his hand into a fist. "Muahuahuahuahuahuahua!"

While he was still laughing Rouge woke up and slowly lifted her head up and looked around the room.

"Shh," Sonic mouthed.

She quickly dropped her head back to the ground and closed her eyes.

Sonic looked back at Eggman, who was still laughing. "Like it will actually work," he said sarcastically.

"Oh I know it will, and there's nothing you can do to stop me." He turned around and picked a hat up off his desk. He turned back and slowly stepped toward Sonic. "Any last words?"

"Yeah, now Rouge!"

Rouge jumped up and punched one of the students in the face. She spun and kicked the other in the stomach. She then cart wheeled to a shelf in the corner of the room, she picked up a kind of heavy book and hurled it at Knuckles' head.

Knuckles held his head after the blow allowing Shadow to escape.

"Thanks, Rouge."

"Anytime."

"Hey, what about me?" asked Sonic.

Rouge flipped over to stand in front of Sonic. "Weren't you supposed to stay out of trouble?"

"I could say the same to you," he retorted.

She sneered before jumping back to dodge a hit from one of the students.

Shadow ducked to dodge a punch. While ducking he grabbed the student's arm, turned around, and hurled the student over his head.

Another student ran up behind him and shoved him into a wall.

After hitting the wall Shadow turned and punched the student hard with the arm Knuckles punched earlier. "Aah!" he held his arm.

Rouge swooped down on the one holding Miles and knocked them both down.

Miles jumped up and ran.

"Hel-lo!" said Sonic. "Isn't anyone gonna save me?"

Shadow tackled the one holding Silver, setting Silver free.

"OK, now you're doing that on purpose," said Sonic.

Silver ran over to a shelf and picked up one of the hats.

"Set that down!" Eggman shouted.

"Sonic, duck!" Silver kicked the hat at Sonic.

Sonic ducked and the hat hit the student standing behind him.

"Nice kick, Silver!" said Sonic, giving him a thumbs up.

"Thanks!"

"Help us!" said Tikal.

"Oh no, the girls!" Sonic ran over to a tool box hidden in the corner and grabbed some tools, he tossed a screwdriver to Miles who was standing nearby trying to stay out of the fight. "When I say now throw it."

"At what?"

"You'll know. Girls, duck!"

Amy and Tikal ducked their heads.

"Now!" Sonic and Miles threw the tools at the students holding the girls.

The tools hit them in the face and the girls broke free. "Thanks guys," Amy and Tikal said in unison.

"No problem," said Sonic.

Sonic ran and jumped over Eggman's desk; he opened the drawer and started rummaging through it.

"Get out of there!" Eggman swiped at him.

He jumped back to dodge. He grabbed a stack of papers and jumped on the desk. "Next time you capture someone, you might want to cut back on the monologging."

"Why you…."

Sonic jumped over Eggman and ran back to Miles. He handed him the papers. "Everyone get behind me."

They all fought their way to the wall behind Sonic.

Tikal started to run when Espio grabbed her arm and drew his fist back to punch her. She closed her eyes but when she didn't get hit she opened them to see Shadow standing next to her holding Espio's fist.

Shadow punched him in the face allowing Tikal to escape.

"I'm coming!" Silver yelled to Sonic. He turned to run from the student he was fighting when another got in his way and punched him. The first one punched him and he staggered backwards. The other one went to punch him and he sidestepped just before getting hit. "I'm getting tired of this." He kicked one student hard in the side and knocked him into the other. "Hah! They don't call me an Emerald Hill Knight for nothing!"

"Silver!" Sonic yelled at him.

"Coming!"

Once they were behind Sonic he rolled into a ball and spin dashed all over the room knocking down Eggman and his mind controlled students.

He jumped into the air and landed next to the others. "Get to the machine and find a way to stop it, we'll take care of the others," he said to Miles.

He nodded, picked up the toolbox Sonic had found and ran for the machine

"I thought I told you not to call all the shots," said Shadow.

"Oops," Sonic said like he didn't really mean it.

The students started to get back up.

Sonic ran over to one and punched him.

He caught Sonic's fist and punched him, knocking him to the ground. He grabbed his throat and lifted him off the ground, choking him.

Amy screamed. She picked up the wrench Sonic threw earlier and ran to him. She hit the student's hat with the wrench knocking him down and making him drop Sonic.

"Thanks," Sonic coughed.

Amy smiled.

The student jumped up, grabbed Amy's arm and threw her across the room into a student Silver was battling.

"Thanks!" Silver said running away to go fight someone else.

"Uh, you're welcome?"

One of the students charged at Shadow.

Shadow spun around to build momentum and kicked the student hard in the stomach sending him flying past Eggman.

Eggman dove under his desk. "Get them!"

"Rouge, behind you!" said Shadow.

Rouge looked behind her and saw a student running at her. She back flipped away from the guy she was fighting and he charged at her.

Rouge kept her eye on both students, when they got to her she flew into the air and the students ran into each other. She blew a kiss as her way of taunting them before flying off to find someone else to fight.

Tikal was standing in the corner trying to stay out of the fight when she saw Espio running toward Miles.

"Help!" she said pointing to Espio, but everyone else was too busy with their own fight to notice. She looked back at Espio, now determined, knowing this was up to her. She chased after him ducking and dodging the fight as she ran. She stopped before getting run over by Sonic's spin dash then kept going. She jumped to the side to keep from getting punched.

Espio was almost to Miles when she ducked between Shadow and the student he was fighting then ran and leaped onto Espio knocking him to the ground.

Espio and Tikal looked up in time to see Miles reach into the machine and rip something out.

"NO!" yelled Eggman who had been watching from the safety of his desk.

The light on everyone's hat went off and they started to look around confused.

Knuckles had Sonic pinned to the wall with one hand and was about to hit him with the other when the hats went off. His fist stopped just short of Sonic's face. "What's going on?" he asked looking around.

"I'll explain later," said Sonic. "But for now, let me go!"

"What are we doing in the principal's office?" asked Espio.

Tikal helped him up. "You don't remember?"

"No, what happened?"

"It's kind of a long story."

Eggman was slamming his fists against his desk. "No, no, no!" He ran toward Miles to try to take the part away from him. "I can rebuild it."

Miles threw the part behind him and it hit the wall and broke.

"No!"

"Get over it, Eggman," said Sonic.

"You…" Eggman glared at him.

"You know you might not want to stay very long, cause now you're in a school with a bunch of former mind controlled students and teachers, they might not be too happy," said Sonic.

"Mind controlled? What are you talking about?" asked Knuckles.

Eggman ran out the door.

"Should we follow him?" asked Amy.

"Nah, what can he possibly do without his hat goons?" said Sonic.

"Hat goons? Mind control? What's going on?" Knuckles shouted.

"Long story short, the principal's evil," said Sonic.

Knuckles just stared at him confused. "Oh thanks, that helped," he said sarcastically.

"You're welcome," Sonic said laughing.

Amy ran up to Miles and hugged him. "That was awesome! I didn't know you could use your tails to hover."

"Neither did I," he admitted.

Tikal ran up to them. "Great job, Miles!"

Miles frowned and thought for a little bit. "Know what? Call me Tails," he said smiling.

Amy smiled too; glad he had finally accepted being different.

"What were those papers Sonic gave you?" asked Tikal.

He held the papers up. "Blueprints to the machine."

Tikal laughed "Of course."

"Good job, Shadow," Sonic said giving him a thumbs up.

"Whatever," Shadow said before walking out of the room.

"Geesh, I was trying to be nice."

Tails pointed at a clock hanging on the wall. "It's past my dinner time."

"Yikes, past mine too," said Amy. "I'll take you home." She took Tails' hand and they ran out the door.

"I better be getting home too," said Tikal.

"I'll walk you home," said Silver.

Tikal blushed slightly. "Thanks."

"Glad that's over," Rouge said with her arms crossed. "Don't ever get me into anything like that again, OK Sonic?"

"Me? What did I do?"

Rouge didn't answer him, she just walked out of the room.

"I'm confused," said Sonic.

"Get in line, I've been confused," said Knuckles.

"Oh shut up," said Sonic. "Hey, where'd Amy go?"

"Amy? You already found a new girl?"

"Never mind," Sonic said sounding annoyed.