So things are starting to heat up!

-Outbreakgirl

"All non-combative personnel are to report to the safe zone, this is not a drill! We are under red alert."

The Command Room is very busy, watching the computer monitors and tapping on the keyboards in front of them. Mary Weather is sitting in her chair, watching the events unfold in front of her. Sonic and his friends took their chance and retreated into the open door while the beryl is tearing the drones and sentries apart. It fires beams of white light down the hall no matter how many of the robots re replacing the ones that were lost.

"Put the Hunters on standby and activate the CP-Matrix." She ordered, "And be prepared for anything if all else fails. We have to contain this before it gets worse."

"Director! Radar detects two chaos signatures that has entered the canyon!" This has gotten her attention, leaning closer. "You might want to take a look at this." The screen shows a live feed camera showing the sky, position from high in the canyon. There is a giant aircraft looming above, seem to be surrounded by smaller flying machines that are descending.

"Is that one of Robotnik's ships? There is no way that he should know about this base." She grits her teeth. "What about the other signature?"

"It seems that it is following the path, heading towards our location."

"Keep watch for now, put the Hunters at the entrance just in case." Weather ordered. "How did things go from bad to worse?"

Core

There was darkness at first, but the floor lighting helped brighten up their path and the dome-like room they are in. The space is enormous, enough to house what is in the middle. It is a giant circular object with metal plates attached to several cords that is suspending it from the ground. It is in the center of the room, for everyone to see. Charmy flies around the orb in wonderment, but thankfully doesn't touch it's surface.

"Its so big! What is it?" He asked, pointing at it.

"This is...a core." Tails pointed out, as he has gotten a bit closer. "Powering the entire facility, but maybe the source of the energy block, keeping chaos energy from escaping."

"That's just great, but it doesn't seem like there are any other exits." Vector frowns, as the path behind him is the only entrance and exit. It was quiet for a moment before there is this odd buzzing sound. "Huh? Whats that? You guys hear that?"

Rouge nods. "No doubt, I can hear it." She is on the floor, leaning on Vidette still. "I have heard that facility cores usually have protection against unwanted visiors...could it be that the CP-Matrix is active?" She frowns,

"Of course they would have a CP-Matrix, but wouldn't that put us in danger?" Tails sighs, he is worried since they are exposed.

"Uh...what's that?" Sonic asked.

"Its a defense system that protects Cores from outside threats. We have to get out of here-ah!" The young fox jumps as a familiar flash appeared above them. The Anarchy Beryl materialized, floating in the air as its light dances on the solid surface.

"Crap, here it comes!" Sonic points to the door again. "Get out of here, guys! It'll come after me, get going!" He urges them to retreat, the hallway beyond should be clear since they wouldn't be boxed into a dead end in a corridor. The white lights from the floor changed to red, the sound of machines whirl loudly along with a metallic screeching that made everyone cover their ears. "What? Don't tell me its the matrix thing!" He looks up, something is crawling down from the darkness. It is a giant robot that has the shape of a salamander, coated in slick looking dark silver with red spots all over its body. It clings to the surface of the core, it is large, but not as big the object it is protecting. The salamander turn its sights to the glowing object, and it lunged at it with it's mouth open. Its neck extended long enough for its head to gobble up the object, and the head returns to its body.

Everyone is tense, but Rouge's wrist device beeps and she pressed its surface. "Rouge, are you alright?"

"Well, i am a bit injured, but I am alright." She sighs. "Director, we are in the core."

"I know, and as a precaution, I activated the CP-Matrix. Don't worry, the targeting system isn't aimed at you or the others, but you would have to wait until lock down is lifted."

"I hope that it is soon, it has the gem, but for how long?"

"But that's not all, we have detected two parties entering the canyon. Its Dr. Robotnik and something else-" The communication has been cut off, Rouge is confused, tapping her finger on the screen with no result.

The salamander starts to twitch violently, its crimson optics are moving wildly in its sockets, and its red spots are lighting up, but then it turned from red to silver, to yellow, and other color changes.

"Uh, is that normal?" Sonic slowly backs up.

"I am not so sure." Tails answered, as the salamander stopped twitching, staring down at them with its now color flashing optics, but turned to Sonic. It open its mouth, once again extending its neck for its head to reach and consume him. The hedgehog jumped to the side just in time for the head to slam on the ground, but quickly retract to its body.

"No way, the beryl is controlling the robot?" Vidette looks around the room, then she carries the bat on her feet. "It is too dangerous to be out in the open like this. Come, i'll take you this way." The dome is large, so the chameleon took the injured Rouge as far from the core as possible, the robot is more focused on Sonic and no one else.

"Tch, you still want a piece of me?" The hedgehog grits his teeth, but Tails along with the Chaotix joined him, not willing to let him face this thing alone. "It can't be that tough, its all of us against one."

"It might be, CPs are tough, but with the beryl, I think that its going to get even more difficult.¨

¨Oh please, we can take it!¨ Vector slams his fists together. ¨Its gonna go straight to the junk pile!¨

The Salamander coils itself around the core with its slender robotic body, leering at them. Before it could get a chance to attack, Sonic breaks from the small group to his lonesome,it would give the others the chance to attack since the focus is all on him. Tails summons his arm cannon, and fires on the robot. It doesn't seem to be effective as the blasts bounce off harmlessly thanks to a frontal shield. Charmy easily carries both Espio and Vector in the air, but only for a short time. The young bee aims and punts the two beneath, launching them like bullets. The shield still protected the robot, Vector lands on the ground, but Espio hasn't done the same. He has vanished from view, but has reappeared on the back of the robot.

The Salamander doesn't seem to mind this, it is too focused on the Mobians on the ground. His ninja reflexes saves him from slipping from the robot as he clings to the `spots´ that are hollow enough to grip into with his hands and feet. There has to be a weakness of some sort, everything does. So he would have to look for it and hold on as long as he can.

Meanwhile, the battle continues as the machine is trying to keep up with Sonic's movement. It crawls around the core if he tries to run, not caring about the others in their attempt to stop it. Rouge tries to get in contact with the outside, but her communicator isn't working.

Espio's kunai couldn't penetrate the steel surface of the salamander's back, so he keeps climbing as steadily as possible, but the constant movement is impeding his progress somewhat. Along the way, he places apple sized bombs along the way, only placing four.

The robot opens its mouth once again, as a purple orb floats from its mouth and is in the air. Said orb starts to blinks and several beams shot out from its surface, attaching whatever the beams stick to. "Ahhh!" Charmy's leg has been caught, knocking him on the ground. The beams are retracting, pulling the young bee along, even as he is struggling. The ones that aren't caught runs over to him, Vector is the first to get to him before Sonic and Tails, helping him to pull away from the orb. "Save me, Vector!"

"Hold still and hang on!" The Croc grunts, trying to pull him away. Even with his might and the help of the other two, the substance is holding its own.

Vidette and Rouge are lucky enough to be out of range of the beams, but she feels that she needs to help them. However, she doesn't wish to leave the injured bar alone as she could be attack indirectly. Rouge could see it in her eyes, placing a hand on the chameleon's hand. "I'll be fine, help them out." she cannot fly herself at the moment, she would be putting herself and the others in danger. Vidette nods, as she goes over to join in. The Salamander opens its mouth again, but that is when Espio climbs on the neck, just in time to jump on the robot's face to cling onto it for a few seconds, mouth still agape. The ninja back flips off its face, throwing something in its mouth that exploded. The explosions on its body followed after, making the robot fall from the core and rolls on the ground with its belly facing upward. The yellow orb disappears, releasing Charmy from its grip.

"That was a close one!" The young be is happy to get out of that sticky situation. Espio lands on his feat, knowing that it isn't over.

"Stay sharp, we have to take this chance!" He points out, the robot is vulnerable, and now they have this moment to attack. There is a circular light on the middle underbelly, which is expose as it tries to wiggle back on its feet. Vidette joins in just in time for the salamander to have fallen, and figures out what the glowing spot means. She jumps in the air, and performs a kick straights down at the spot and it is a direct hit. It curls from the impact, and the pink chameleon had to bounce backwards. It would still leave the others to finish what she has started since they took the opportunity. The Chaotix climbs on top of the underbelly ready to attack, but the orb turns from pink to purple as the same beams from before shot out at the team.

They are now encased in purple bubbles that are floating in the air as they struggle to get free. Sonic, Tails, and Vidette were not on the robot when it happens, but now the CP twists itself on its fours with its mouth hanging wide open to reveal the beryl. However, the bot's head started to twist violently until it detached itself from the body, floating in the air afterwards. Its optic are still twitching uncontrollably, but the trio can tell at it is leering right at them before it quickly descends upon them.

"Watch out!" Tails warns, but they took heed by jumping away from the impact. The head slams itself on the ground, rending it still before it starts to float again.

"This is nuts! How long can we keep this up?" Sonic grits his teeth as he doesn't want this battle to continue. The thing seems indestructible, and it will not stop until it gets its hand on the blue hedgehog. The open maw starts to glow blue this time, and construct of two hands. Said hands swipes at the trio, hitting Vidette as she is not quick enough to move. Tails flew into the air using his twin tails, while Sonic used his speed to move out of the way, turning to the downed chameleon. "Vidette, are you okay?"

"Ugh...I am fine..." She responds, the wind knocked out of her. The beryl is still focused on Sonic, even when Tails tries to distract it by using his arm cannon. It noticed him, and swats at the young fox as he flies around. What he didn't expect is a third hand grabbing him from behind, and trapping him within its grasp.

"No!" The hedgehog is unable to reach Tails, as he is held far from reach near the head. "Let him go!" He shouted at the thing, as its unoccupied hand reaches for him, but Sonic prevents that by jumping on top of it's closed fist like a platform to get closer to his friend. There is still the other hand, but he jumps away and rolls into a spin dash to attack the hand, only to be smacked back to the floor. He bounced, groaning in pain as he is exposed now. Vidette raced in between the hand that is prepared to grab the hedgehog while he is vulnerable. She would not allow it to take him, as she is ready to defend him with a kunai knife in her hand.

"No you don't!" Someone shouted, as the head is knocked from its levitation to the ground harshly. Its surface metal is being dented by a rapid barrage of fists as they slam down as hard as they can.

"K-Knuckles?" She was surprised, as he came from no where to attack the head. His fists were glowing green, and it is doing damage to keep it down. Two of the hands swiftly came right at, but he stood his ground and uses his fists to shatter the constructs out of existence.

"It'll be over soon, and this time you won't try anything." He hops of the top and aims at the open maw of the salamander. The beryl is right there, and knuckles reaches for it to forcefully grab a hold. The remaining constructs started to fade, the bubble prisons that held the Chaotix and the hand gripping Tails. The beryl once again glows brightly in the echidna's hand, once again resisting the power of the Master Emerald. He held his ground, gripping it tight as a green bubble of chaos energy forms around it. "There, how did you like that?" He snarls, holding the bubble. The gemstone is trapped, but still active.

Tails and the Chaotix are free, but they fell on the ground, landing on their feet. Sonic groans as he stood on his feet, glad that Knuckles has come to save the day. "Guys, are you alright?"He asked, sighs as he tries to hold steady. Rouge walks up to the group as soon as the battle ended, sighing in relief as she held the wall for support.

"Thank goodness you came along, it was getting really rough...ah." She hissed, wincing at the lingering pain on her wing.

"Good thing, I had to use the power of the emerald to trap this thing. It shouldn't cause anymore trouble now." The guardian held the shield in his hand. "In any case, its done for now. I can heal your wounds from the battle." He pulls a Chaos Emerald from his pocket space, its soft glow envelopes everyone's body to mend the pain.

"It tickles!" Charmy chirps.

"It feels great, but what are we going to do now?" Vector rolls his shoulders, the healing seeping within his body. "I'm pretty sure we have caused enough trouble as it is here." Rouge slowly stretch her wings, feeling relieved.

"Don't worry, i'll let the director know the situation, and see where we can go from here." She said, lifting her wrist. The agent figures that since the beryl is now contained, she can get through. She stares the device, flashing orange as she checks the holo-screen that has popped up. Now her face looks grim, looks up at the group. "Guys, we have a serious problem..."