Author's Note:
Sorry for the slow updating guys, but this is a busy year of my life :/ Still, stay with me while writing this, cuz I won't give it up :D This chapter is sorta setting the scene a bit for what's to come, I promise more romance and fighting in the next chapter. But I warn you now, more people are gonna start dying... O_O

~Waters of Change~

Caged In

Several emotions ran through Amy's head. First shock and surprise barged in, then nausea crept through, forcing her to collapse against the wall. Finally, overwhelming sadness for her dead friend. As she sat on the floor, unable to take her eyes away from the ground, in fear of glancing once more at Espio's glazed over eyes, no longer seeing, Sonic was searching around the room with his keen eyes, not yet wanting to examine the body to determine the cause of death. Nothing in the room was disturbed. With no other alternative, Sonic moved on to the body. Although it was obvious that the neck had been snapped, there were no clues as to who or what did it.

As he did this, Amy was sure she could hear a sound, faint in the distance, and the hairs on her body pricked up as she encountered a further emotion. Fear.

"S..Sonic?" she called out weakly to him. Sonic turned in surprise, forgetting she was there in his thorough examination.

"What is it Ames?" he asked, daring to use the nickname he hadn't so much as uttered since their fight. A few minutes ago she was cool and distant from him, but now she edged closer to him, looking around with paranoia.

"Sonic." she continued. "Whatever k- ….. Whatever did this to Espio is still out there, right? It could still be... nearby."

Sonic gulped down his fear. She had a point. Clearly it had to be something powerful to take down Espio. Sonic was at a disadvantage being in the dark with not much room to fight. If he was with any other person, he would have shared these thoughts with them, but he was with Amy. He glanced at the worried, innocent, frightened look that she gave him. He had to be strong... for her.

"Don't worry Ames, I'm here for ya." he reassured as he reached out an arm and pulled her close. "Nothing's gonna get you while I'm around." Amy sniffed, and rested her head against Sonic's warm chest. She could hear his heart beating, a little faster than normal. Sonic closed his eyes, concentrating on the warm form of Amy resting against him. It felt… nice. No! What was he thinking, they were in the middle of a crisis!

He was about to get up, when he heard footsteps coming round the corner. Both hedgehogs' ears pricked up as they shifted apart, and they angled their heads to see who it was. Sonic clenched his fists, preparing for the worst, but then the familiar silhouettes of Tails and Chuck came into view. Both hedgehogs sighed with relief.

"Guys, we've got a crisis!" let out Sonic and Tails at the same time. Both looked in shock at one another, tying to imagine what could possibly be worse. "You first" they both said, once again, synchronised. They let out a nervous giggle. Sonic, who couldn't even imagine how he was going to explain Espio's death to Tails, simple said "You go first." So Tails began telling his story.

Well, that's the last of the lights candles and other stuff handed out. Nice job guys!" Chris smiled triumphantly at the Chaotix, Francis, Danny and Helen. The hall was now lit with dots of lights from every source possible, flickering lazily about like fireflies. After no one else had appeared through the doorway in over 20 minutes, Mr. Tanaka had done a head count. There were around 25 guests in the room, plus him, Ella, Cream, Rouge, Knuckles, Chris, Helen, Francis, Danny, and The Chaotix. No one knew where Tails, Chuck, Sonic Amy or Espio were, but they were confident that they were safe.

Still, this didn't stop a flicker of worry dash fleetingly across Chris' face. Mr. Tanaka noticed this, and placed a firm, comforting hand on Chris' shoulder. "Master Chris, I am positive that your friends are all right. After all, Master Sonic can handle himself, yes?" Chris smiled.

"He sure can." He muttered to himself. "It's not him I'm worried about." His thoughts trailed back to the unseen Espio. Although he was a skilled fighter, it wasn't like him to disappear off without at least letting people know where he was. He shook the thoughts from his head, and instead concentrated on Helen's face, lighting up the room brighter than any light, with an inside joke shared with Cream and Francis.

Sonic and Amy sat still and silent after Tails and Chuck ahd finished explaining. Sonic puzzled over his thoughts. "So, all of the wires were just... cut in half? Who could have done it?"

Tails looked at him questioningly. "You mean you don't know?"

"Know what?" Amy asked.

"Well Rouge... Knuckles said..." He took a deep, worried breath. "He said that the person who attacked Rouge, we think it was Metal."

"Metal?" Sonic sharply sucked his breath in. "But that's impossible."

"We know, that's what we're confused about." sighed Tails.

"Anyway, what was it you wanted to tell us?" asked Chuck. Sonic and Amy shared a saddened and worried look.

"Espio's dead." Sonic said flatly, unable to say it any other way without his voice cracking. Tails blinked at him.

"Waht, no way. He couldn't. Wha-" Sonic just gestured to the bathroom door, still ajar. Tails nad Chuck made their way over, and peaked inside. "No no no no no, this can't be happening." groaned Tails.

"Well it is buddy. And there's nothing we can do to sotp it." said Sonic, stone cold with hatred for the Metal robot haunting his dreams.

Metal's hand wavered over the button disabling the invisibility force field surrounding the metal barriers. As soon as he pressed this, the humans would be alerted to his presence. He was sure that the blue hedgehog and his friends knew he was here already, after his slip-up with the bat. However, he still had the element of surprise in his hands. They had no idea what was coming.

The metallic grind of the robots disappearing off into the corridors had long since faded. There was no use waiting any longer. He pressed the small, yellow button, and heard the whoosh as the invisibility force field dissolved. Then, quiet as a rat, he slunk down the corridor, searching for new pray.

Rouge wasn't sure what quite had happened. All she knew was one second she was starting to sit up on the sofa, searching round for someone she knew, then suddenly darkness washed over them. Well, almost darkness. People still had flashlights lit, but the sudden disappearance of the moonlight came as a shock. Most of the guests started to panic, running about franticly, clinging to each other. Rouge groaned, and massaged her neck. She could do with some painkillers. As if Chris knew her pain, he set out to make it worse, and shouted out to everyone.

"Calm down!" Flashlights flickered towards the sound, illuminating the young Thorndike balanced on a table in the centre of the room. "Everyone please quieten down! We don't know where that barrier came from, but we're gonna find out. It's no use panicking, it's not doing any harm, is it?" Guests uttered in agreement. Rouge muttered in sympathy for her aching head. She sat up, feeling dizzy spells twirl about behind her eyes, but kept her ground.

"Rouge!" She turned to the person calling her voice.

"Knuckle-head" she smiled to herself. The echidna dashed over, and offered her a supporting arm.

"You shouldn't be up and about." He scolded worriedly. "You're not completely better.

"I'm fine" lied Rouge, and struggled to stand by herself.

"Well, at least your awake, we're having a meeting about what to do." Knuckles explained, and led Rouge over to a group of people huddled in the corner. Chris' voice drifted through the air as they approached.

"… and this could only be down to Metal. We need to divide into groups, and decide what to do."

"We must keep the guests calm." worried Mr. Tanaka. "If they panic too much, they will be impossible to control. Although…" he glanced behind Chris, towards where his parents were socialising with a group of important but worried group of people. "Mr and Mrs. Thorndike seem to be handling it rather well."

"Me, Helen, Francis, Cheese and I can help too!" piped up Cream. Ella put an arm round her.

"And I will look after you" she grinned affectionately.

"Also…" Chris paused. "I think we should send some people looking for the others." Silence answered him. Everyone else had been thinking the same thing. "I mean, otherwise we'll just be hanging about doing nothing. Plus, I'm sure we could use the extra brains figuring out Metal's plot. So, who wants to go?"

After a pause, Knuckles raised his spiked glove. "I'll go. My fighting skills aren't put to much use here."

"And I'll go with him." stated Rouge.

"Rouge are you sure, you're still-" started Knuckles.

"I'm fine" she snapped. "And besides someone needs to make sure you don't do something stupid." Knuckles opened his mouth to say something, but closed it again, turning slightly red.

"We'll go too." chimed Charmy. "I wanna know where Espio's gone." Vector nodded.

"Alright, then me and Danny can-" Chris was interrupted by Mr. Tanaka.

"No Master Chris, you must stay here."

"Bu-"

"You are not skilled enough to go wandering about in the shadows with a killer robot on the loose. However, people look up to you. You are better off staying here, and giving orders, especially if Master Sonic and the others find their way back."

Chris was about to argue, when Helen put a soft hand on his arm. "He's right Chris." she said softly but firmly. He looked down at her innocent face, then sighed.

"Alright." he grumbled. Every broke into relieved smiles, and began separating out to their tasks.

The sudden whoosh of moonlight disappearing stopped Sonic, Amy, Tails and Chuck in their tracks. They were makign their way down a corridor, searching for everyone else, when the barrier blackened out the moon. At first, the four of them looked round in confusion. Amy broke the silence, moving closer to Sonic.

"What just happened?" she asked shakily.

"I dunno. Let's check it out." Tails stood up, and crept to the nearest room. He opened the door, and peeked in. "Huh?" he said confused, and made his way to the window.

"What is it bud?" asked Sonic, following in Tails' footsteps, Amy and Chuck close behind.

"Well look. The curtains are drawn, but there's absolutely no light coming in from the window. Even a bit of moonlight still gets through storm clouds." He attempted to squint through the window, but saw nothing but darkness. He looked back at the others. "Chuck, pass me that candlestick". He gestured to it on the side table. Chuck obeyed, and Tails swung it at the window, causing a cascade of glass to twinkle down from the frame. "Flashlight, Sonic." He held out a hand, which was filled by the flashlight's handle. He shone it out, and gasped. The others looked out of the window and repeated the same reaction.

A wall of metal, about a foot away from the window, blocked their view. Sonic dashed to Tails' side, and rapped his gloved knuckles on the metal. A hollow sound came from it, but Sonic knew that no amount of gold rings could enable him to grind his way through it.

"Hmm." he thought puzzled, then began pacing round the room. The others ignored him, searching for the reasoning behind this.

"So…. we're essentially trapped in a giant dome of metal." Amy concluded. "With no known way out, and a psycho robot on the loose?" Tails and Chuck's worried expressing said it all.

"I've got it!" exclaimed Sonic, reminding the others that he was still in the room. "Metal's a smart robot. Veeery smart. But, it's not like him to build a massive contraption like this, and have it all laid out so carefully. He's more of the wing-it type."

"Well maybe he's changed his ways, Sonic." grumbled Amy, not understanding his excitement.

"No, wait! He obviously wants revenge for us all, but he isn't going straight for the kill. Now, obviously a psychopathic robot would want to string it out and make us suffer for as long as possible, but I somehow don't think he'd have the equipment or the patience to build all of this. He isn't exactly an expert in electronics."

"For God's sake Sonic, maybe he just got stronger from when we last saw him!" snapped Amy, her patience running out.

"But you guys are missing a crucial detail!" said Sonic, exasperated. They all looked at him, questioningly. He sighed. "Metal was destroyed! How could he suddenly be here now! There's only one explanation…" The truth began to dawn on them.

"Who's probably the only person who knows how to put back together a super-evil robot?" Sonic shot out. "Who's organised enough to put together a plan like this? Who would have the equipment to build this? Who haven't we seen, let alone heard about any recent take-over-the-world plans of his for over a year, because he's probably been plotting something big for a while?"

They all sucked their breath in, then whispered in final realisation.

"Eggman."

So the heroes finally guessed the master behind it all. But do they know how unhinged he is? And hwat about the creppy robots entering the house? More to come next time :)
Question: If each robot has an individual power, name one of two of powers they might ahve E.G. Superspeed, and say who the'd be matched up with in a fight, E.G. Superspeed with Sonic.