Hey everybody! Time for another chapter of this epic tale of action and drama! So...I guess no one actually saw the last chapter update, or maybe the lack of action just pushed everyone away...is that it? You guys don't like downtime chapters? I need to know what's wrong if I'm gonna make the story better. Leave me a review so I know. Anyway, when we last left off, we introduced a few new characters and explained the plans that the teams were putting together to accomplish their goals. Also, we now know the origin of Droids and their connection to Ba'Gan as an Incursite.
Speaking of Ba'Gan, it appears that Sonic is still making things difficult for him to keep control, and now Tails has a plan to break Sonic free. The only question is, will it work? Well, you'll have to read on to find out what the details of the plan are and if it'll work or not. So without further ado, here is the next chapter! Enjoy! I own nothing except the story and Yukon "Houdini" the Sugar Glider. Aurora the Hedgehog belongs to E-vay
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Once the large team of heroes confirmed the location of Eggman's base, it wasn't long before they were on their way. Of course, seeing as Blue Ridge wasn't reachable by land, certain arrangements had to be made in order to accommodate everyone and make sure no one was left behind. And so it was that Miles "Tails" Prower took about half of the team in the toned down X-Tornado, while a different pilot took the helm of the original Tornado, and this pilot was a very unlikely one.
"So...Cream, when exactly did you learn how to fly this thing?" Amy leaned up in her chair to give a sly grin to her little sister.
To her credit, the rabbit girl did her best to keep her composure despite Amy's incessant teasing. When Tails had revealed to everyone that he'd taught Cream how to fly his planes - no matter how logical the reason - Amy couldn't help but break out into a full-on toothy grin, one that caused Cream to want to hide behind her ears and never come back out. "Tails started teaching me a few months ago, and he already told you why." she replied without taking her eyes off the sky.
"Yeah yeah, I know," Amy rolled her eyes, the grin never leaving her face. "He wanted to make sure that if anything ever happened to him, someone would be able to fly the plane in a crisis, totally and completely logical." she leaned forward again and her smile grew larger. "But what I wanna know is, why you? Why not me or Sonic? It sure seems like you and Tails have been spending a lot of time together lately."
Cream tried not to react, but even with her ears flapping in the rushing wind behind her, she could feel her cheeks warming up and her heartbeat suddenly pick up the pace. "Amy please, I'm trying to concentrate, I'm still learning how to fly and I need to pay very close attention to what I'm doing." she said as politely as she could.
"Fine," Amy closed her eyes and shrugged, leaning back in her chair. "But mark my words, we're not done here." the darker pink hedgehog opened one eye and smirked again. "Just for the record, I think I saw Tails blush when he saw you in your adventure outfit."
The rabbit gulped back her response and chose not to answer her longtime best friend. Just before they'd left to go after Eggman, Cream had gone down to Tails' bathroom to change into an outfit somewhat similar to Amy's that she'd been gifted. It was a sleeveless a-line dress that went down to her knees with a brown belt tight around her waist. Added to the ensemble was a short, dark orange scarf that covered her shoulders and was tied in the front, and her gloves were also different as now instead of just being plain white, they had a splash of yellow on each glove with an orange outline, and her shoes were sneaker versions of her classic yellow and orange ones. "I'm beginning to think I shouldn't have worn this."
"Hey, give the kid a break, it looks like you're embarrassing her."
Amy frowned a bit and turned her head to look at the figure who was tightly holding on to the right wing of the Tornado. "Yukon, right?" she received a nod in response. "Listen, this is just how Cream and I are, she knows I'm just messing with her," she turned her head back towards her young friend. "Right Cream?"
"Most of the time."
Amy gave a deadpan look at that, not that Cream was able to see it. She then turned back to the Sugar Glider who seemed to be trying very hard not to get blown off the wing by his gliding membrane. "Enough about me and Cream, what's your story? I assume you're a friend of Blaze?"
"That's right," Yukon nodded. The future-dwellers had discussed their alibis with Blaze before takeoff, and they'd agreed to tell the truth as long as they didn't reveal anything that would indicate where they really came from. "Blaze needed help to get the Sol Emeralds back, and we all banded together to try and do that, unfortunately we got overrun." That much was truth, and the marsupial inwardly cringed as he remembered exactly what had happened before their arrival in the current time period.
"You and the others?" Amy tilted her head a bit. "You guys mentioned your names before we left but I'm still not sure exactly who you are."
"Does it really matter?" The voice of the Master Emerald guardian came from the other wing and got everyone's attention. "At this point we need all the help we can get, we can't be picky about who we get to help out." Knuckles looked directly at Yukon. "I'll readily admit I'm not the most social guy in the world, but I can tell you're telling the truth about wanting to help, that's all that matters to me."
Amy smirked. "Of course, because you're such an excellent judge of character." she put a finger on her chin and looked up quizzically. "Let's see, how many times has Eggman tricked you already? Once, twice, three times? I think it might've been more than that."
The echidna growled and whipped his head to glare at the pink hedgehog. "You're in no position to make jokes at my expense! How many times have you mistaken someone else for Sonic?!"
"That's low!"
Yukon watched wide-eyed as the two went back and forth in a heated argument, and he leaned forward a bit so he could talk to the rabbit girl who was trying desperately to tune it out. "Do they always argue like this?"
Cream shook her head and sighed. "Amy and Mr. Knuckles are very alike, they both have a very strong will and they don't like backing down from fights, even if they're against each other." she sighed again and tried to refocus her attention back on the sky ahead of her. "I sure hope Tails, Blaze and the others are having a better time than we are."
While it was certainly quieter in the cockpit of the X-Tornado, the tension wasn't any less thick; the reasons for the tension were completely different however. "Blaze, relax." the fox boy pressed a few buttons on his dashboard before putting both hands on the steering mechanism again. "I know you don't like heights but I promise, there's no safer place in the world than right here."
"You don't like heights?" Aurora, who was sitting in the seat behind Blaze, leaned up in her seat and tilted her head questioningly at the now mortified cat girl. "You seemed ok when you climbed that tree in the Mystic Ruins."
"I...have never been a fan of heights." she slowly replied through gritted teeth. "Of course, information like that is on a need-to-know basis," Blaze leaned up and made a fist and held it front of Tails' face so he would see it. "And no one else needs to know, are we clear?"
The young genius gulped. "Crystal." he pressed another button on his dashboard and the intense image of Sticks on a wing of the plane appeared on the small screen next to him. "So...your friend Sticks...she didn't really seem like she liked the idea of flying, any particular reason?" he said in an attempt to change the subject.
Aurora spoke up first in order to make sure her young uncle stayed alive. "Sticks and technology have never really gotten along," the light pink hedgehog explained. "She would much rather camp out in the woods than hang out in the city, and it usually takes her a while to get used to something new when it comes along." she laughed a bit. "She's my best friend and I love her, but she can be more than a handful at times."
"That's an understatement," Blaze scoffed. "Nevertheless, she is a valued member of my team and she has already proven herself as such, I have no doubt she will be a great help in our mission."
"I'm still a little confused, what exactly is our mission?"
Tails smiled a bit, inwardly relieved that his previous snafu had apparently been forgotten. "It's simple Aurora, we're going to find a way to sneak into Eggman's base, grab the Chaos Emeralds, and then we find Sonic so I can use my Gene Splicer on him." he held up his device and then set it back down again. "After that we'll play it by ear, we still have to find what Ba'Gan's weakness is, whether it's in his normal form or while he's inside of a host."
"And you have no idea what it might be?"
Tails shook his head. "Not yet, I'll have to try and do some experiments first, but that can wait until after we find Sonic." A loud beep then invaded the cockpit as an alert flashed on Tails' screen. Seeing what the screen was telling him, Tails put on a headset and spoke into the microphone. "This is Tails, we'll be over Blue Ridge in about five minutes, everyone prepare for landing!"
"Got it Tails!" Outside the two planes, the gizoid guardian flew at high speed next to the psychokinetic hedgehog who had also opted to do things his way during the trip. "Ok intruder, Tails says we'll be over Blue Ridge in about five minutes, hope you're ready."
Silver sighed and shook his head. "Look, I'm sorry about trying to break into Tails' lab, we all are! But if we're gonna be on the same team, can you at least call me by my name?"
"Maybe if I knew your name I would," Gemerl turned his head to look at the silver hedgehog. "What is your name anyway?"
"Silver," the hedgehog said with a smile. "The name's Silver the Hedgehog, and yours?"
"My given name is Gemerl," the robot looked away. "I'm essentially the reincarnation of an ancient fighting machine who was programmed to destroy the world and everything on it." If he could grin, the gizoid would've been doing so at the nervous look Silver was now giving him.
"Pretty cool...heh..." Silver gulped and flew ever-so-slightly away from the robot. "So uh...how come you're...not destroying the world?"
Gemerl shrugged. "I decided I liked having friends better." he looked back at the hedgehog. "In all seriousness though, I owe a lot to Tails and Cream and everyone else. I have some of the memories of my predecessor and from what my memory banks can tell, they put up with a lot with me, in both my past life and the one I'm living now. Tails managed to reprogram me after Eggman made me his slave, and now I have a will of my own."
"A robot with a soul," Silver smiled. "I guess stranger things have happened."
"You have no idea." Gemerl looked back down and saw land below, and saw that the two planes had already begun their descent. "My sensors indicate that's Blue Ridge down there, let's go pay my old master a little visit!"
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Once the team landed in the quiet little town of Blue Ridge, they were instantly welcomed by a chill in the air that left goosebumps underneath everyone's fur. Everyone except Blaze and Gemerl of course.
"What a quaint little town this is." the Sol guardian said with a small smile as she looked around the area.
The chilly alpine region featured snow-covered mountains to the northwest of the tiny airfield they'd landed in, and to the northeast was a large power plant that was providing the necessary energy to keep the few residents warm in their homes and workplaces. With tall fir trees and distinctive azure grasses paired with the gentle snowfall, it was the very definition of a winter wonderland.
"You're not cold?" Yukon shivered as he wrapped his arms and gliding membrane around himself. The cat answered his question by smirking and lighting a small flame in the palm of her hand. "Right, the flame thing, got it."
"It's a little nippy out here, but it doesn't seem so bad." Amy shrugged her shoulders before going over to Tails who was busy working with his scanner. "So, any idea where we're supposed to be heading yet?"
Tails looked up from his scanner and frowned at the darker pink hedgehog before nodding. "I'm getting unusually high power readings all around here," Tails motioned to the power plant in the distance. "At first I thought it might've been the power plant up there, but I've managed to recalibrate the scanner to ignore it, and what it's detecting now is actually under Blue Ridge."
"Under huh?" Knuckles gave a toothy smirk and raised a fist that now had one of his signature tools on it. "This sounds like a job for the good ol' Shovel Claws!"
Knuckles was about to start digging when Tails grabbed his arm and held him back. "If we were just looking to storm the place, I'd agree, but Ba'Gan's down there somewhere and so is that Metal Sonic, not to mention whatever army of robots Eggman has in store for us." Tails let go of Knuckles' arm and looked to the rest of the team. "If we're gonna pull this off, we need to get the Chaos Emeralds away from Ba'Gan first, I don't think any of us want to deal with a super-powered Sonic while he's under someone else's control."
"So a stealth mission then?" Amy asked.
Knuckles crossed his arms and scoffed with his eyes closed. "Our track record with stealth hasn't been that great lately."
"I know, but we've got to try again," Tails sighed anxiously and ran a hand through the fur on his head. "None of us are equipped to deal with the kind of power Super Sonic possesses, and as long as Ba'Gan has the Chaos Emeralds, that's a very real and very lethal threat."
"Then we find a way to sneak in." Blaze stepped up. "Let's try to find where we can safely enter."
"Agreed, but first," Tails turned and pulled a small device from his toolbelt and placed it on the X-Tornado, and then he did the same with the original Tornado. "For insurance." the boy genius pushed the red button on a remote control he then pulled out, and then the two planes began to shimmer and actually fade from sight. "One of my latest inventions," Tails said proudly. "A fully functional cloaking device."
"Pretty nifty," Amy smirked and pumped a fist. "Now let's go save Sonic!"
"Shh, wait!" Yukon suddenly exclaimed quietly. "Do you guys hear that?"
Everyone went silent as they tried to listen for the sound that the sugar glider might've heard, and after a moment or two, their eyes widened as they heard a faint humming sound coming towards them. "I know that sound, everyone in here, quick!" Tails pushed everyone within reach towards the nearest building, and just seconds after the door closed behind everyone, the team took cover and watched as three small flying-saucer shaped robots with rotors on the bottom slowly flew by and seemed to observe the area before moving on. Once they were gone, the team came out of hiding and looked at each other grimly. "Sentry drones."
"Eggman's definitely here," Knuckles turned to the young genius and raised a skeptical eyebrow. "Still convinced we need to try stealth again?"
"More so now than ever." Tails put a fist on his chin in thought. "We could probably find a way into Eggman's base by figuring out where those sentry drones are coming from. Problem is, it'd be impossible to get in there without being seen, and my cloaking devices don't work on organic life forms yet."
"I thought you said they were fully functional!" Amy shouted in disbelief.
The fox boy grinned sheepishly and rubbed the back of his head. "Maybe I should've said almost fully functional?"
"Then we find another way." Blaze crossed her arms and lowered her head, but it quickly shot back up as an idea came to her. "Tails, you said your cloaking devices only don't work on organic life, correct?"
"Yeah that's right, why?" Tails' eyes suddenly widened as he realized what the Sol guardian was suggesting. "You want me to use my last cloaking device on Gemerl and send him in to find Eggman alone?"
"Not if someone has a better idea," Blaze looked around. "Do you?" Silence and anxious expressions around the room answered her question. "Give him the cloaking device Tails."
"But Blaze!"
"Cream," Blaze looked right in the eye of the clearly distraught rabbit. "We have to save Sonic, and Gemerl is the only one who will be able to go in unseen."
"Not necessarily." the team turned to look at Aurora, who had just stepped up and walked over next to Gemerl and looked at the robot for a moment before turning towards the others. Then she closed her eyes and her brow furrowed as she began to concentrate, and much to everyone's shock, Aurora began to disappear from sight. Seconds later, she was completely invisible, and she opened her eyes with a satisfied smirk, one that no one could see of course. "With my powers," she had to stifle a laugh when everyone looked around the room trying to figure out where the voice was coming from. "I can bend light to the point where I'm completely invisible, so I'll go with Gemerl and find the Chaos Emeralds!" she reappeared and inadvertently shocked everyone again, and then she smiled when she saw the gleam in her uncle's eye.
"Ladies and gentlemen," Tails said. "We have a plan."
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Once Tails attached his final cloaking device to Gemerl's wrist, the gizoid activated it and soon shimmered out of sight. Aurora followed suit with her own powers, and they then waited outside for the sentry drones to reappear. "You ready for this?"
"Uh, yeah." Aurora responded unsurely. Her confidence wasn't the issue, she was just used to doing these kinds of missions alone and not with a partner. "Where exactly are you Gemerl?"
"Shh, my sensors are picking up something!" they both quickly quieted down, and sure enough, the three sentry drones were now flying back past the building, presumably headed back to their base. "That's our cue, let's go see what ol' Egghead's got for us today! Follow me!"
"Yeah, Gemerl," Aurora put her hands on her hips. "I can't see you."
"Here, grab my hand," Gemerl suddenly had his infrared vision blocked. "That's my face Aurora." the robot gently grabbed her hand and together they followed the sentry drones all the way to a well near a small cottage in the middle of the woods. They watched as the drones flew down into the well and disappeared, and they looked down into the well to see if they could spot anything from above. "My sensors lost their signal, looks like they went into Eggman's base."
"Oh good," Aurora shimmered back into view and sighed in relief, and the gizoid deactivated his cloaking device moments later. "I'm not used to team stealth missions, not like this anyway."
Gemerl chose not to comment and instead began speaking to Tails through his own internal communications system. "Gemerl to Tails, we've tracked the sentry drones to a well about a half a klick west from your position, we're going down to investigate."
"Acknowledged Gemerl, good luck."
Gemerl then turned to Aurora who seemed very anxious about going down the well. "Something the matter?"
She looked up a second and then looked back down into the dark well. "I've never really been a fan of the dark," she gulped. "But," she screwed on a determined expression and clenched her fists. "We have a job to do, so I'm just gonna have to suck it up and get over it."
Gemerl would've smiled if he was able, so he settled for an assuring thumbs-up. "That's the spirit." he activated his cloaking device and shimmered out of view. "Follow me."
"M'kay, I don't think you're computing this Gemerl," the pink hedgehog deadpanned. "I can't see you!"
"Sorry about that," Gemerl grabbed Aurora's hand and ignored the surprised little yelp she gave when he grabbed it. "This way." As Aurora shimmered out of sight, the two slowly and quietly climbed down the well until they reached the bottom where it was almost pitch black save for the hole above they'd just climbed down and the small red light above what appeared to be a metal door...with an Eggman symbol on it. "I doubt he could make it any more obvious."
"Subtle has never been his strong point," Aurora looked around the room, thankful that the room had at least a little bit of lighting since she couldn't use her own powers to light it up without giving themselves away. "Now we wait until the next batch of robots come out and we jump through." she whispered.
"Right." They waited for about five minutes, the tension building as they waited for the precise moment they would need to make their move. Finally, without warning, the doors began to slowly open and three more sentry drones came flying out and hovered up and out of the well. "Go!" they both dove for the entrance and managed to get through just before it closed completely, and they both sighed in relief once the realization hit that they'd successfully infiltrated the lair. "How're you holding up?" Gemerl whispered.
"I'm ok," Aurora panted as she put her hands on her knees. After a few more seconds, she relinquished one more sigh and put her hands on her hips before looking into the dark and dank depths of Eggman's underground base. "So, any idea where we need to be heading?"
The invisible gizoid shook his head and tried to activate his communications system, but all he got was some static in his head. "Eggman must have some kind of signal dampener in this place, I can't contact Tails." he looked down to where his chest was and pressed the top button. "My emergency homing signal should be able to get through so the others at least know where we are, but for all intents and purposes, we're on our own."
"Fantastic," the pink hedgehog huffed. "So I guess we just pick a hallway and start walking."
"Sounds good to me." This time Gemerl didn't waste any time and simply grabbed Aurora's hand to avoid any potential of getting lost. But as they quietly made their way through the tunnels, going past unsuspecting robots all the way, the gizoid could sense Aurora's heartbeat steadily beating faster as time went on. "Your heart rate's going through the roof," he whispered. "Are you ok Aurora?"
"Yeah I'm fine," she replied hastily.
"Are you sure? You don't seem-"
"Shh!" Aurora got the gizoid to immediately silence himself, and she closed her eyes and focused on the feeling she'd just gotten. "I can feel the energy coming from the Chaos Emeralds, we're getting closer!"
"What, you're some kind of emerald radar?"
Aurora opened her eyes and looked in the direction she'd sensed the emeralds radiating their energy. "I guess you could put it that way, I'm sensitive to positive and negative energies, that includes the types that the Chaos Emeralds give off. We're almost there!" Aurora was about to race off with Gemerl in tow, but she was suddenly knocked to the ground after bumping into something, and the surprise knocked her out of her invisibility. When she looked up, her eyes widened as they met with a very menacing figure. "Uh oh." she squeaked.
"Aurora!" Gemerl grabbed the hedgehog by the collar and pulled her out of danger just before the imposing figure of Metal Sonic could slice her in half with his electrically-charged razor-sharp claws. Gemerl then deactivated his cloak and held his arm out protectively in front of her. "Ok, I've heard of you before, Metal Sonic right? You're supposed to be Eggman's cheap copy of the genuine article." The blue robot didn't respond and instead advanced to attack, and Gemerl leaped out of the way and made a clean dodge. "Not exactly a talker huh? Alright, actions speak louder than words anyway!"
"Uh, Gemerl?"
The gizoid craned his neck to look behind him, and what he saw would've caused his eyes to widen if they could. "Oh boy."
The two intruders were now surrounded by several large guardian robots and laser sentinels, all with their weapons set to destroy them at the slightest twitch they made. "How utterly foolish of them to expect to invade my fortress undetected, as if they could ever catch the illustrious Dr. Robotnik off guard!" Eggman gloated from his main computer console as he watched through the eyes of Metal Sonic. "Now then Metal Sonic, capture both the girl and the robotic traitor and bring them here to me so I may interrogate them and use them as hostages to take care of the rest of Tails' ragtag crew."
"Are you gonna torture them?" Cubot asked with a scratch of his head. "Like with thumbscrews and stuff?"
"Don't be ridiculous!" Eggman turned and glared at the yellow robot. "That's such a crude and barbaric method, even I have my standards!" he turned back to the console and grinned. "No, we're going to use a much more efficient approach to solve this."
"Doctor!" Decoe suddenly shouted. "Intruder alert in sector six!" Suddenly an explosion was heard in the distance. "Now it is in sector five!" Another closer explosion. "It appears that whoever it is, they are heading straight for the others!"
"Metal Sonic, take care of them now!" Eggman shouted.
The robot nodded and began charging up the laser cannon in its chest, and both victims braced themselves for the incoming attack. But before the attack could get off, the side wall suddenly exploded from the other side and sent everything - including Aurora and Gemerl - flying into the other walls with a harsh thump. "Yeah," Aurora winced and grasped at her left shoulder with her right arm. "I'd say that's gonna leave a bruise."
Through the smoke came a very large looking machine, and the pink hedgehog's eyes widened when she realized who had just saved them from certain death at the hands of Metal Sonic. "Eggman robots destroyed, switching target to Metal Sonic!"
"No way! Omega?!" Aurora watched in awe as the hulking form of E-123 Omega went after the robot version of her father with a barrage of bullets from the gatling cannons where his claws normally would be. Then she turned back to the smoke and saw Rouge the Bat flying through it to take care of some of the leftover smaller robots with a Screw Kick that sent several of them crashing into a wall. "Aunt Rouge..." her eyes widened further and she slowly turned back to the huge hole in the wall, tears beginning to well up in her eyes as her heart began to beat painfully fast in her chest. "Can it be?" The last of the smoke cleared, and one last figure was revealed as a result.
"Are you injured?"
The final member and leader of Team Dark walked up to the pink hedgehog and held out his hand to help her up. She wanted to cry, scream, leap for joy, anything other than just sit there on her knees and weep at the sight of who was in front of her...so in her state of total shock, her body shut down and she fainted on the spot.
The emotional strain of seeing a living, breathing Shadow the Hedgehog was too much for her to take.
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A/N: BOOM! Enter E-123 Omega and SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG! Well you all knew it would happen eventually, Shadow had to make an appearance in this time period at some point. The Shadow in the future they left behind was killed by Ba'Gan, but the Shadow in the present is still alive and kicking! And poor Aurora, bless her heart, she got overwhelmed by seeing him alive again. But they're not out of the woods yet! Eggman knows they're there, and even with Team Dark now on the case, Ba'Gan is still there and the Chaos Emeralds are still in the wrong hands.
Before I continue, I just wanted to make this little announcement. As of very recently, I now have a Tumblr account of my own! You can find me as echidnapower obviously and I'll be posting little images here and there to illustrate what certain things look like if you're unsure. Like for instance, still have no idea what Blue Ridge looks like? I'll be posting a photo that shows exactly what it is. Cream's adventure outfit? It's a design an old friend of mine made for his own project and he drew me the picture because I said I wanted to use it too and he let me. He's since abandoned his project but I still love the design. If you need an image to get in your head, I'll be putting it there!
So with that out of the way, things are getting exciting again! Now Gemerl and Team Dark will have to fight their way out of Eggman's underground base. Will they get out unscathed? Or will they be foiled altogether? The answers lie in the next chapter. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and PLEASE leave a review!
