Chapter 36: Hasty Date

Robots burst into the room and Rouge was sent flying back into a wall. Bokkun happily zipped away towards Eggman, chuckling the whole way. He knew something like this would happen, it always did, the only problem was that he also knew Sonic usually always won against Eggman…but maybe this time it would be an exception. They did, after all, have Breeze.

"Tails! Wait, don't shut off the lights yet—oh rats!" Rouge yelled at the two tailed fox just seconds too late. Chris had succeeded in disabling the communication system on the ship and Tails had promptly shut off the lights. Rouge would now have to fight the invading robots in the dark. Not that that was a problem. She had her sonar and echolocation abilities that allowed her to function quite nicely in pitch black; she just worried about the others. They wouldn't be able to see a thing! Great, she thought, now I'll have to hold the robots off and get everyone out of here. I hope there's a reward in this. Come to think of it I do still have that chaos emerald!

"Rouge! Are you alright?" she heard Chris's voice sound out from the darkness.

"Chris, I'm scared. Can I go home now please?" came the voice of frightened Cream.

"Chao, chao" Cheese shivered.

"Don't worry, Cream. I have a light," Chris comforted. Rouge saw the bright light of a flashlight shine through the darkness. At least the kid is resourceful.

No time to think about that now. The robots had already entered the room and Rouge could hear them bumbling about, apparently no good at functioning in the dark. She smiled at her advantage and launched herself in the air, drill kicking one of the blind bots into the ground.

"I guess Rouge is alright," Tails said to Chris as he made his way towards the flashlight.

There were a few more crashes and finally Rouge made her way into Chris' beam of light. She stood, hands on her hips, and looked at them accusingly. "Are we going already?"

"Yeah, of course, thank you," Tails said and Chris led the way out of the dark room, shining his light in front of them so they could make their way back. They didn't have Bokkun to guide them, but Tails and Cream could both smell the way they had come and followed their noses through the twisting halls.

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Eggman cursed loudly and grabbed around the room in search of a light source. Bocoe and Decoe both had lights built into their eyes which they soon activated and then quickly joined Eggman in his quest for his own light.

"How dare those blasted fools shut down all my systems! Now how am I supposed to send robots out to crush them, let alone see where I'm walking!" the doctor yelled in frustration. Bocoe and Decoe sadly shook their heads. It always turned out like this.

Breeze made her way silently to a corner and sat down. She didn't think she should move around too much or she might trip and make noise, reminding Eggman of her presence. She couldn't see very well, but she could still hear and she focused all her energy on her ears, listening for anything that would key her to where Sonic was.

"The only one who could have done this is Tails! That means he's loose on the ship too. Bocoe! Get all the reserve robots to the bridge. Decoe! Go find that pesky vixen," the Doctor shouted once he had picked up a head light and turned it on. He started to vigorously mess with his controls, trying to find some way to restore the lights.

"But, Doctor, how will I contact the robots?" Bocoe asked.

"I don't know and I don't care! Just do it"

Breeze heard the robots moving away from Eggman. One went off in search of reinforcements while the other started to clumsily search the room for her. She cringed and shrunk even closer to the wall. Please don't find me…Sonic, please get here soon!

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The lights shut off and blackness enveloped the Sonic team as they waited in the hall by the door to the bridge. Amy cringed at the blackness and leaned closer to Sonic. He put a comforting arm around her and pulled her closer, to her surprise and looked into her green eyes that he could barely make out in the darkness. He was always such a spontaneous person and didn't see any reason why he shouldn't tell her something that had been bugging him for a long time, right now in the total darkness.

"Amy, I've been wanting to ask you if you'd go out with me sometime after this," he said coolly.

Amy gasped and he heard Knuckles slap a hand to his forehead and groan. "Sonic, we're about to go in and battle Eggman and you suddenly ask Amy for a date? What's wrong with you?!"

Shadow shushed them all and motioned with his hand that he was going to use chaos control to bust open the door ahead. He raised his hand…and four large robot guards filed into the room before he could utter the powerful words that would control the glowing chaos emeralds.

"Oh, great! Now we need the lights!" Knuckles complained and raced off to meet the enemy head on despite his limited vision.

"Guess we better go help the hot head," Sonic said and was about to follow but found himself pulled back by Amy.

"Sonic the hedgehog, before you go get yourself killed or maimed I just want to tell you yes! Yes I will go on a date with you!"

"Great! How about tomorrow night?"

"Okay, you can come pick me up at my place."

"Will you two stop talking and get over here and help me!" Knuckles yelled after being thrown into a wall by one of the robots.

Sonic chuckled and charged at the guards with the speed of his spin dash while Amy followed, yielding her hammer. Shadow turned back to the door and focused the emerald's power to it again. Let Sonic and the others distract the robots, he had to get to Breeze.

A shout out to all you awesome reviwers! Thanks a lot! I know this chapter was a little short, but I had to end it here. More to come!