Sorry for the long wait. I understand that the last chapter might have confused some of you. For those of you who did, if you want you can email me so that I can explain what was going on. Other than that, read on to Chapter 26! The end is near, HAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!
Cold-hearted Metal
Chapter 26
Emerald Coast
Time: 7:08 AM (14 hours 55mins. Remain)
Sonic had caught up with Shadow as they were on their way to meet Tails at the coast. When they got there, they both saw that Tails' Tornado was already set for departure. It began to hover over the ground.
"C'mon, you guys!" Tails shouted.
Both Sonic and Shadow jumped in the plane as they began to fly away. They could see underneath them chunks of ice in the ocean. Everyone was quiet, until Tails decided to speak.
"You two are surprisingly quiet." He said to the two hedgehogs. "Did something happen?"
Tails saw that Shadow was quite calm, with his arms crossed and his eyes closed. His face showed a small hint that something as bothering him. Tails then looked at Sonic, who had the same attitude he had back at the workshop two days ago, when Amy visited. Tails turned back to look in front of him, and he sighed.
"It's about Amy, isn't it?" Tails asked. "What happened this time?"
"Let's just say she's nowhere near the city right now." Sonic said.
"Wait, she's not in Station Square? Oh, don't tell me she's where I think she is."
"If you're thinking that she's gone to South Island, then you're right." Shadow said. "We just missed her when she left."
"After what happened to her yesterday, she's already headed to the island?" Tails shook his head as he kept on flying the plane.
"That's Amy, alright." Sonic said. "She's really crossing the line. Let's just hope she doesn't do anything stupid."
"For someone who claims that she's quite a nuisance, you show a lot of feelings for her." Shadow joked. Sonic flinched. He turned to Shadow, who sat right behind him, and gave him a dirty look.
"For one thing, Amy's a friend. And two, why do you care?" You don't even know what happened, or did she tell you?"
"No, but by her attitude before, Amy seemed really pissed off at you. Whatever happened, looked like you weren't being much of a friend, were you?"
"Since when do you care about what happens between me Amy?" Sonic raised an eyebrow. "You're planning something, aren't you?"
"Cut it out, Sonic." Shadow raised his voice. "I see no point of you being suspicious of me."
"Kinda hard not to, since you're the one who was found with her in the city."
"And at that time, you seemed bothered by it."
Sonic ignored Shadow, and continued. "You were pretty pissed off too, when Amy got hurt by that robot."
Shadow finally opened his eyes and looked at Sonic. "Where are you going with hat statement?" he asked him.
"You have feelings for Amy too!" Sonic yelled.
"I do not!" Shadow said furiously.
"You do to! You can't deny it!"
Sonic could see that Shadow was getting really annoyed with him. Sonic had a grin on his face. Then before he knew it, Sonic had received a punch to the gut by his counterpart, Shadow. Sonic quickly recovered, and threw a punch back at him, right to the cheek.
"Would you guys quit it?!" Tails yelled at the two. "C'mon, now's not the time to fight. We've got other things to think about."
Sonic and Shadow got back to their seats. They refused to even glare at each other, but they their own disgusted faces.
"Lover boy." Sonic whispered.
"You're quite pathetic, Faker." Shadow hissed.
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Knuckles and Rouge were already on their way to South Island. Rouge was able to borrow one of the president's military helicopters. The two of them had also packed some equipment for Eggman's second base. Knuckles was sitting beside Rouge as she flew the chopper.
"A spy, a jewel thief," Knuckles began. "Has a car, flies this thing. Is their anything you don't know or own?"
"(Laughs) since when were you so interested in what I do?" Rouge said, keeping her eyes in front of her.
"I really don't. I'm just curious." Knuckles then paused for a bit. Then he said, "You know what? That's really none of my business."
"Oh, really?"
"Well, why would I be interested?"
"I don't know. You tell me."
Knuckles only grinned at her in response. Then both him and Rouge fell silent for a while. They could only hear the helicopter's propeller in the background. Knuckles then looked out the window, and said to Rouge, "So what's the deal now?"
Rouge took a glance at him, then looked back. "What?"
"I'm guessing that the president ordered you to investigate Eggman, and now we know what we're dealing with. If all goes well and we take care of him, what's you're intake on this?"
Rouge smiled. "Are you trying to figure me out again? I thought you said that you weren't interested in me."
"Correction, I said that I wasn't interested in what you do. I-was-curious."
"So you're admitting that I'm interesting enough for you to be curious about what I do."
Knuckles got caught. He wasn't fast enough to make a comeback. Instead, Knuckles looked back at her with a smile on his face, and crossed his arms.
"How sweet of you, Knuckles." Rouge joked.
"You didn't answer my question yet." Knuckles' smile quickly faded, but a hint of blushing remained on his cheeks.
"But, you already know what my answer is, right?"
"Oh...it's the jewels, isn't it?"
"Of course."
"Why am I not surprised."
There was another awkward silence between the two of them, until Rouge suddenly spoke.
"We should be at the island very soon."
"Good. I can't wait until I get out of this thing (referring to the helicopter)."
"Why?"
"You keep disrupting me."
"Oh really? Thanks for proving my point."
"And what point was that, bat-girl?"
"If you fell that I'm disruptive to you, then I am interesting enough to you."
"Hmph, whatever. Don't flatter yourself."
South IslandTime: 7:32 AM (14 hours 31mins. remain)
Amy was at the edge of a snow-covered beach of the island. She just got out of a small speedboat she used to get there. Amy took a few steps forward and looked back at the boat.
'Lucky I was allowed to borrow that boat from Mya (friend that works at that newspaper stand).' She said to herself. Amy then started to think about something else. "Eggman's here. I'm sure of it."
She looked in all directions, examining her surroundings. "But where's he hiding? I guess I'll have to start looking anywhere I can."
Amy sighed, and then started to run forward. Her speed wasn't nearly as great as Sonic's or Shadow's, but her jumping ability surpasses theirs. Amy leaped along across the beach and headed towards a nearby plain.
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"We're here, you guys!"
Tails flew his Tornado over the island and landed his plane in a clearing of snow. Sonic and Shadow jumped out of the plane before Tails had settled it on the ground.
"Hey Tails," Sonic called out. "How much time do we have left?"
"Exactly 14 hours and 26 minutes." Tails answered. "So should we wait for Knuckles and Rouge?"
"We won't have to worry about that." Shadow said. His ears twitched.
"How come?"
Shadow only pointed his finger upward. Sonic and Tails looked up at the sky and saw a helicopter coming their way. It slowly started to descend right beside Tails' Tornado. The two hedgehogs and the fox backed away so that the snow flying around wouldn't hit them. Once the chopper rested on the ground, the propellers stopped spinning, and the noise settled down. Sonic, Shadow and Tails soon after saw Knuckles and Rouge coming out.
"Great," Sonic said. "You two made it just in time."
"Sorry if we kept you guys waiting." Knuckles said.
"Nah, we just got here."
Everybody then got together in a group, in a circle.
"First thing's first." Tails began. "We need to find the base. Rouge, don't you have a map or something?"
"Of course I do." Rouge snapped. "I wouldn't be doing my job right if I didn't."
Rouge then took out her beeper from her back pocket and held it in front of her. She pushed a few buttons and it began to show a hologram. It showed a blue print diagram of Eggman's base.
"We're pretty close to the base from here." Rouge said. "Shouldn't be too hard to find, once we find the key."
"The key?" Knuckles wondered.
"Yeah, it's built underground, but the key is outside of it. We just have to look for it."
"No problem." Sonic said. "We've got that covered, right Knux?"
Knuckles flinched. He then looked at Sonic. "What? I have to find the key?"
"Don't sweat it. Rouge will help you. It'll save us a lot of time."
Both Knuckles and Rouge let out a sigh and looked back at the map. Rouge then shut it off and put her beeper back in her pocket.
"Let's get started then, shall we?" Shadow said.
Right then, Rouge took flight and headed forward, followed by Tails. Sonic, Knuckles and Shadow ran right behind them.
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"(Pant, pant) I gotta take a break (pant)."
Amy sat on the cold ground, trying to calm down and taking deep breaths. She had been jumping from place to place for a long while, she wasn't used to working hard like that yet. Amy then found herself staring up at the sky, without realizing that she blanked out in deep thought.
'I can't quit now,' she said to herself. 'Who knows what Eggman's doing right now. I've got to keep going.'
Amy slowly got off the ground. She wiped the snow off her coat and her behind and she started leaping again, only this time she leaped much faster and farther. Amy couldn't help but feel a little tense. She kept worrying about the card reading from that morning. It almost made her feel like her heart was about to pound.
Amy suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. She froze in shock of what she saw a few miles away from her.
"Oh my gosh." Were the words that past through her mouth.
There was an army of robots, and not just any old army that Eggman had before. The robots covered the whole field. They stood very still, as if they were waiting for something.
Amy sweat-dropped. 'What now?' She thought.
Amy then felt a slight rumbling on the ground. It had to have been from behind her, since she found nothing happening in the front. Amy got out her trusty Piko Piko Hammer and held it tightly with one hand. The silent rumbling slowly stopped, and then Amy felt a light breeze. Yet it seemed familiar to her, she whispered,
"Sonic?"
Almost instantly, Amy saw blue and black streaks of light coming her way. She could clearly see that it was Sonic along with Shadow. Soon after the other arrived and stood next to them.
"Amy," Tails said. "You're here!"
Amy only smiled and waved her hand in response. She then remembered the robots she saw before. Amy's smile quickly faded and she pointed her finger to the direction behind her.
"There's something that I think you guys should see." She said to them.
Everyone walked to where Amy stood. They were soon almost just as surprised, as Amy was when they saw the robot fleet for themselves. Everyone then turned back.
"Did you just find out about this?" Sonic asked Amy.
"Mmm-hmm" She said as she nodded in response.
"Why do I got the feeling that that's only the beginning the what's going to come?"
TO BE CONITNUED