Good Morning Everybody!

Gatekeeper here, hope you all have been doing well. I admit that last chapter was a bit sappy but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Any-who here is the next chapter!

Please leave any comments or suggestions in either a PM or a review here or whatever you wish.

Hope you all have a wonderful day.

Sincerely,

Gatekeeper

Chapter 11: Of madness, maps and misdirection.

Vanilla's house, 1:00am

Rouge had barely been on the roof for ten minutes when she saw the familiar flakes of light that signaled Shadow's approach. The hedgehogs' rocket boosted shoes made up for the "Ultimate Lifeform" being unable to run at insane speeds like Sonic could, and he was putting them to good use. Trailing behind him was a familiar sight, as Eggman's cherry red bodysuit came into view in the moonlight.

Rouge hopped off the roof and with a a few graceful flaps landed gently on the side of the road near the house, lightly illuminated by the porch light.

Shadow blazed up the hill and stopped on a dime in front of her, with Eggman catching up quickly.

"Evening boys. Come inside, we have a lot to talk about." Rouge turned around and sashayed into the house.

Eggman turned his head slightly and watched Shadow out of the corner of his eye. The hedgehog looked as grim as ever, but Eggman noticed that his companion seemed focused on the figure that walked into the house, very focused.

"Why does she walk like that? It can't be comfortable." Muttered Shadow.

Eggman chuckled. "Well she doesn't do it for me Shadow so that leaves our options limited." He said dryly. He enjoyed hearing the sputtering noises the hedgehog made before a glare was shot at him from his companion.

"It's not like that, Julian." Growled the hedgehog.

"Sure it isn't. Come, let's get going before Rouge becomes irritated" Eggman started for the doorway, picking over some shrapnel. Shadow followed suit, muttering under his breath.

They entered the house and got to the living room, where they found Rouge getting ready to load a DVD into the player as the blue TV light washed over them.

She loaded the disc and it quickly loaded a simple file system screen with only one item showing, marked 4.

"OK, Now that we are all here I'll go over what I have discovered." Rouge said as she turned to face the two.

"From what I have gathered this was a well planned and coordinated kidnapping. The entry was practised and from Creams' description of what happened the intruders were ready for resistance, even if they ran into trouble with Vanilla. It would appear that there was constant surveillance for at least the day of the operation and probably before. The timing was set to run parallel to Vanilla's normal activity so they would catch her at her most vulnerable, right before bed. In short this was a professional job, with the only inconsistency being the envelope left here by the Intruders. They obviously wanted for this to be found and inside is a DVD with your name on it Eggman."

Eggman jolted slightly as he processed the information.

"I don't know why that is." Continued Rouge "but now is not the time. Let's watch the video."

With that Rouge moved to the side and clicked the remote, starting the file.

After a moment of darkness a white room appeared on the screen, with a brown hedgehog with slicked back quills sitting behind a white table.

With a grin the hedgehog began to speak.

"Hey there Eggsy it's Boss. Been a long time since I last saw you. Too long, in fact, so I decided to arrange a meeting for us to catch up. Of course as you watch this you'll know by now that Vanilla is gone. It's okay, she's here with me. Oh don't worry I'll be good, at least for a bit."

Boss got up from the table, revealing a plaster hand and a cleaver in his hands. He put the plaster mold on the top of the table. Brandishing the cleaver he started speaking again.

"Meet me where this all began in an hour Eggman. Don't worry, the clock won't start until the end of the video. Oh, and if you decide to delay or bring a friend remember this: if you do then Miss Vanilla's hand goes from finger full to..." he quickly secured the plaster hand with one hand and focused while bringing down the cleaver with his other. A loud chop and thud sounds in the video before Boss brings his head up, a wild look in his eyes.

"...FINGER LESS! AHAHAHA!" Boss laughed maniacally. The video feed cuts out when he throws the plaster hand, minus a finger, at the camera. As the screen turned black, a red digital clock appeared, starting to count down from an hour.

Silence took over the scene as the watchers absorbed the contents of the video.

Rouge cleared her throat. "well he seems… charming, in a psychopathic way. I wonder if he has ever met Scourge, I think they would get along famously."

"He's insane!" Spat Shadow.

"I didn't notice." Deadpanned Eggman. Both Shadow and Rouge glared at him briefly. Eggman shrugged his shoulders and continued to speak. "I'm afraid there aren't many other options. The clock is ticking, we need to hurry to get to Vanilla."

"And how do you propose that? If this 'Boss' character see us together he'll be sure to make good on his promise to hurt Vanilla." Stated Shadow.

"Then we will have to make sure he doesn't see that." Rouge retorted.

Eggman chimed in "Exactly what I was thinking. Here's what I have in mind." Eggman started playing with a gadget until a holographic display of Mobotropolis appeared before them. Stepping off to the side Eggman continued.

"Boss is indeed a cruel, cold, psychotic criminal. He is also, however, very smart. I had the distinct displeasure of meeting him in Eastern Park. Undoubtedly this is where he was referring to in the video. The location gives him two distinct advantages: its open area creates a difficult environment not to be seen at a distance and it contains something very personal to me."

"The statue of Sniveley." Whispered Rouge.

Eggman nodded. "Exactly. However, there is one thing we can use to our advantage: the surrounding trees. Rouge and Shadow, you two should get in contact with as many of the other heroes as possible and get set up in the tree line. I will arrive shortly after you are ready and start the interaction after I've gotten some supplies from my home. When Boss gets ready to pull something you can all jump down and take out Boss and his crew. The reason why I want everyone is that while I am more than certain of your individual combat abilities we need to take out a possible very large group of this without the benefit of a prolonged combat time in case Vanilla is kept in their midst.."

Eggman looked at the two of them "Any questions?"

Shadow looked at Eggman "what will happen when you come along, and how should we introduce them to the problem? You will have to reveal yourself to everyone, they are going to want a answer." He stated.

Eggman waved his hand. "I will deal with that as it comes, just say you received an anonymous tip after finding Vanilla missing at her house. If there aren't any more questions, we must move out."

Eggman stood up, Rouge and Shadow following suit. They walked out of the house and headed their separate ways. Shadow took the task of informing Sonic because "Faker knows where the others hide better than anyone else." While Rouge decided to start by tracking down Amy.

Eggman headed home, quickly blazing through the house to get to the basement.

It was a most curious mix of a laboratory and machine shop, tools and materials littered the floor while delicate testing equipment covered the many workstations.

Located in the corner next to a set of three large lockers sat a computer.

Eggman swiftly walked to the computer, stepping over various projects and parts easily.

He started to power up the computer. "Alpha, awake." He commanded.

The first locker was filled with a eerie red light before a series of clicks filled the basement.

"No I won't need you to wake the others. Please pull up the geographical points for your last engagement; the one in the alley when you took too long."

A couple of clicks and whirrs happened in response to the request.

"No, I did not give you freedom for "dramatic timing" to be used. If you keep this up I'll have to go through your protocol database, you would become a liability. Do you understand?"

A series of clicks with a very faint while called back to him. Eggman looked over at the locker, eyes glaring. "What did you say?" He asked tersely

The same series of clicks repeated with the barely noticeable lack of a whine in the background.

"That's what I thought."

A few keystrokes later and Eggman had received the information he needed. He downloaded it into a built in gps in his suit before opening a video recorder application.

Right then, he thought here comes the hard part. I didn't think I would be recording this for a long time.

He took a deep breath and started the recording.

"To whom it may concern, I leave this message. Firstly to Rouge the bat, Shadow the hedgehog and The Rabbit family. With all my heart I wish you do not find this: for it means I have failed. Forgive me if you can for my failure, for the pain I have put you through, and all of my lies."

"Let it be known that I, Dr. Eggman, also known as Ivo Robotnik am the same as Julian Kintobor. Thus as to disclosing my full identity, being whole in both mind and body, I give this my last will and testament…"

After finishing his message Eggman closes the files before making sure all the encryptions are in place, finally shutting off the computer.

He made his way through the house, looking over the place with both fondness and sadness, before shutting off the lights for one last time.