Secret of the Seven Gems
By RocketDarkness
Chapter 8
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"Well, what's our first course of action, then?" Rouge asked. "We can't just run around and hope to succeed through dumb luck."
Knuckles quickly joined the conversation. "Before you and Sonic found me, I had just left the G.U.N. compound you had mentioned. It's built like a fortress, but maybe with all of us, we can figure out a way inside. We have to."
"You know, Knuckles, I can always use Chaos Control," Sonic scoffed.
"Yes, I guess that could...work."
"Makes me wonder why I even bothered to give you guys all that cool stuff when you can just Chaos Control, then stroll in through the front door," Tails pondered.
"Don't worry, Tails, I still appreciate the effort," Rouge said, tapping her Treasure Scope proudly. She gave him a thumbs-up sign to emphasize her point. He grinned wearily in response.
"At least SOMEONE appreciates me," he said, glaring playfully at Sonic.
"Anyways," Sonic said, changing the conversation, "we should probably get going. We've got a long way to go, and I'm not wasting rings with another Chaos Control. So, you guys ready for another adventure?"
"I've been on all the rest, and I'm not about to stop that tradition!" Tails responded.
"Seeing as how it's my island we're doing this for, I think the answer is obvious."
"G.U.N.'s been a loose cannon for too long. I've got to put a stop to their corruption."
They each looked back and forth at each other, preparing themselves for what could be their most dangerous mission ever.
--
"Okay, the main compound should be somewhere around here..." Rouge said, glancing around at their surroundings. "The main path is hidden somewhere in all this underbrush. If we can find it, we've found our target."
Knuckles glanced down at the mud. "I think I've been here before!" He got down on his knees, and looked at the mess of tracks they had made. "Yep. Right here is my footprint going away from here. This must have been after I left, which means we're extremely close." He stood back up.
Sonic turned to Tails. "Hey, check out our location, but don't fly too far up. We don't want our visit to be announced prematurely."
"Can do, Sonic." Tails flew up above the treetops, then began to comb the sky, looking for any signs of G.U.N.'s location. Sonic watched until he was out of sight, then sat down on a nearby log to wait. Rouge sat down next to him.
"You two have been through a lot together, haven't you?"
Sonic turned to look at her, slightly startled at first. "Yeah, we've been friends for a long time now, and gone through so much. I trust him with my life." He grinned, remembering their past exploits.
"With your life?"
"I have before, and I'm still here."
"He seems like a great kid."
"Yeah, the best." An awkward silence ensued.
Tails returned a few minutes later, panting slightly. "I think I've found it. There's a patch of trees that don't quite look right from the air. Follow me!" He took off, back into the air.
Sonic and Knuckles followed on the ground, while Rouge, flapping her wings, decided to fly alongside him. She rose up to his level, waving at him as she caught up. Tails sped up, eager to see whether his intuition was right. The airborne duo remained slightly ahead of them along the way. Tails pointed a slight ways ahead of them. "See, right there!"
"It does look different," Rouge commented. She then reached to her head, and flipped down the Treasure Scope's eyepiece. "Aha! It's right there. I guess they added some sort of camouflage or cloaking mechanism recently, since I did see it when I flew over it a few days ago. Though doing that sure takes up a lot of power."
"We should land, in case we're detected by their radar or something." Tails said. The fox and bat descended down in front of Sonic and Knuckles. "It's right ahead, you two. Now be careful." The group began to slow down to normal walking speed, keeping an eye out for any sign of robots. Knuckles walked over to the left slightly, pushing ferns out of the way.
"Over here." Knuckles pointed at a concrete wall with dozens of little indentations in the concrete. "This is exactly where I climbed in the first time, which means the entrance is right over there." He pointed to the right. "Sonic, how many rings do you have?"
"More than enough to get what we need, as long as we don't waste our time." Knuckles quickly climbed back up the wall, and peeked over.
"C'mon, get up here. We might as well get as close as we can before starting the count." Rouge and Tails flew up, Sonic dangling from the grasp of Tails. They landed on the outermost wall.
"Now, are you guys ready? Since you've all got a Chaos Emerald, you'll be left unaffected by the Chaos Control. Ready, set, CHAOS CONTROL! " As soon as Sonic finished his sentence, they jumped down into the main courtyard and dashed for the door.
"Shoot, it's locked!" Rouge shouted. The large metal security door appeared impenetrable.
"Don't worry, I came prepared!" Tails quickly made his way to the keypad and attached a small device. He pushed a few buttons, and the other three watched as the gadget ran through every combination until it found the correct one in a matter of seconds. Tails pulled it off, and dashed down the hallway. Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge soon followed. "So, Knuckles, exactly what do you plan to do here?"
Knuckles came to a screeching halt. "Um..."
"You mean you dragged us down here and you don't even have a plan!?" Rouge shouted. Knuckles began to give a response off the top of his head, but he was interrupted from embarrassment by a blast of yellow energy that hit the area where Sonic had been moments before. A Hunter stood behind them, appearing larger and menacing in the small hallway. Sonic raised his fist toward it, and then extended his two fingers.
"Tails, I love these gloves." The robot convulsed with the electricity before shutting down, all circuits fried.
"How could it have been unaffected by the Chaos Control?" Rouge snapped her fingers, and pulled down the eyepiece once again. Scanning the hall way, she discovered that the surrounding area was now bathed in the power of a Chaos Emerald. "They've got another emerald here! Sonic, you might as well stop wasting your rings and disable the Chaos Control! It's not going to do anything useful." She reached up to push the scope back up, but she decided it might come in handy to detect any other secrets this place might have.
With a wave of his hand, the Chaos Control faded away. "Now what? We should probably get out of here before more robots get a chance to arrive.
"No way, Sonic!" Knuckles stood defiantly against the idea. He stood up straight. "If they have one of the emeralds, then they must know where the island is underwater. And if they know where the island is, then..."
"...we can find the Master Emerald!" Rouge finished his sentence triumphantly. At that moment, a group of Hunter robots turned the corner and began to open fire. Sonic raised his fist again, but Knuckles intervened.
"I've got a better idea!" Knuckles drew back his fist, then put all of his effort into punching the wall. It crumbled from both the force of the punch and the power of the device housed within the gloves. Another steel hallway waited on the other side. Rouge jumped through the hole, and glanced both directions. She motioned for them to follow, then took off to the right. "Rouge, do you know where you're going?"
"I'm following the signal from the emerald. It's power output is higher the closer we are to it. Chances are, they'll store this precious power source near the mainframe computer, which is where we'll find our information."
"Well, then, lead the way!" Knuckles said, gesturing towards the path in front of them. They increased their pace, hurtling through the synthetic hallways as a large blur of color.
"You know, if I had ever tried this in one of Eggman's bases, you can bet I'd have activated an alarm by now. G.U.N.'s really off the mark, aren't they?"
Rouge screeched to a stop, quite literally with the metal soles of her boots. "They must have silent alarms, since the security is all automated, and the scientists are probably alerted through their computers. Which means..." The area seemed uncannily quiet. She could just barely detect the steady hum of several computers. "We're close." Rouge looked around the room, flipping between several vision modes of the scope. She walked slowly towards the side of the room, and put her hand against the cool metal. She felt up and down, then pushed. Her hand went through the wall effortlessly. "Aha." She disappeared through the wall. On the other side, a dark, cool room greeted her. The yellow Chaos Emerald, sitting upon a makeshift pedestal, was attached to several tubes, and was apparently being used to power the entire place. Glowing computer screens emitted soft light out onto her face, and she looked down at them to see what their purpose was.
"So you were right. This is the mainframe," Tails commented. "Do you think they have the information we need?"
Rouge shrugged. "I'm not going to sit here and sort through it all, especially when they probably already know we're..." Her sentence tapered off as she noticed a small security camera for the first time. She pointed upwards to it, mouthing a silent swear. "Stealth was never my thing anyways," Sonic commented.
------------
A/N: Another chapter done before Winter Break ends. Hurray. I love feedback, preferrably as a review, but if you've already reviewed, please, by all means email me, or use AIM. rocketdarkness@yahoo.com for email, rocketdarkness as my screename. I'd like to see how the readers like the gizmos I've given our heroes.
By RocketDarkness
Chapter 8
------------
"Well, what's our first course of action, then?" Rouge asked. "We can't just run around and hope to succeed through dumb luck."
Knuckles quickly joined the conversation. "Before you and Sonic found me, I had just left the G.U.N. compound you had mentioned. It's built like a fortress, but maybe with all of us, we can figure out a way inside. We have to."
"You know, Knuckles, I can always use Chaos Control," Sonic scoffed.
"Yes, I guess that could...work."
"Makes me wonder why I even bothered to give you guys all that cool stuff when you can just Chaos Control, then stroll in through the front door," Tails pondered.
"Don't worry, Tails, I still appreciate the effort," Rouge said, tapping her Treasure Scope proudly. She gave him a thumbs-up sign to emphasize her point. He grinned wearily in response.
"At least SOMEONE appreciates me," he said, glaring playfully at Sonic.
"Anyways," Sonic said, changing the conversation, "we should probably get going. We've got a long way to go, and I'm not wasting rings with another Chaos Control. So, you guys ready for another adventure?"
"I've been on all the rest, and I'm not about to stop that tradition!" Tails responded.
"Seeing as how it's my island we're doing this for, I think the answer is obvious."
"G.U.N.'s been a loose cannon for too long. I've got to put a stop to their corruption."
They each looked back and forth at each other, preparing themselves for what could be their most dangerous mission ever.
--
"Okay, the main compound should be somewhere around here..." Rouge said, glancing around at their surroundings. "The main path is hidden somewhere in all this underbrush. If we can find it, we've found our target."
Knuckles glanced down at the mud. "I think I've been here before!" He got down on his knees, and looked at the mess of tracks they had made. "Yep. Right here is my footprint going away from here. This must have been after I left, which means we're extremely close." He stood back up.
Sonic turned to Tails. "Hey, check out our location, but don't fly too far up. We don't want our visit to be announced prematurely."
"Can do, Sonic." Tails flew up above the treetops, then began to comb the sky, looking for any signs of G.U.N.'s location. Sonic watched until he was out of sight, then sat down on a nearby log to wait. Rouge sat down next to him.
"You two have been through a lot together, haven't you?"
Sonic turned to look at her, slightly startled at first. "Yeah, we've been friends for a long time now, and gone through so much. I trust him with my life." He grinned, remembering their past exploits.
"With your life?"
"I have before, and I'm still here."
"He seems like a great kid."
"Yeah, the best." An awkward silence ensued.
Tails returned a few minutes later, panting slightly. "I think I've found it. There's a patch of trees that don't quite look right from the air. Follow me!" He took off, back into the air.
Sonic and Knuckles followed on the ground, while Rouge, flapping her wings, decided to fly alongside him. She rose up to his level, waving at him as she caught up. Tails sped up, eager to see whether his intuition was right. The airborne duo remained slightly ahead of them along the way. Tails pointed a slight ways ahead of them. "See, right there!"
"It does look different," Rouge commented. She then reached to her head, and flipped down the Treasure Scope's eyepiece. "Aha! It's right there. I guess they added some sort of camouflage or cloaking mechanism recently, since I did see it when I flew over it a few days ago. Though doing that sure takes up a lot of power."
"We should land, in case we're detected by their radar or something." Tails said. The fox and bat descended down in front of Sonic and Knuckles. "It's right ahead, you two. Now be careful." The group began to slow down to normal walking speed, keeping an eye out for any sign of robots. Knuckles walked over to the left slightly, pushing ferns out of the way.
"Over here." Knuckles pointed at a concrete wall with dozens of little indentations in the concrete. "This is exactly where I climbed in the first time, which means the entrance is right over there." He pointed to the right. "Sonic, how many rings do you have?"
"More than enough to get what we need, as long as we don't waste our time." Knuckles quickly climbed back up the wall, and peeked over.
"C'mon, get up here. We might as well get as close as we can before starting the count." Rouge and Tails flew up, Sonic dangling from the grasp of Tails. They landed on the outermost wall.
"Now, are you guys ready? Since you've all got a Chaos Emerald, you'll be left unaffected by the Chaos Control. Ready, set, CHAOS CONTROL! " As soon as Sonic finished his sentence, they jumped down into the main courtyard and dashed for the door.
"Shoot, it's locked!" Rouge shouted. The large metal security door appeared impenetrable.
"Don't worry, I came prepared!" Tails quickly made his way to the keypad and attached a small device. He pushed a few buttons, and the other three watched as the gadget ran through every combination until it found the correct one in a matter of seconds. Tails pulled it off, and dashed down the hallway. Sonic, Knuckles, and Rouge soon followed. "So, Knuckles, exactly what do you plan to do here?"
Knuckles came to a screeching halt. "Um..."
"You mean you dragged us down here and you don't even have a plan!?" Rouge shouted. Knuckles began to give a response off the top of his head, but he was interrupted from embarrassment by a blast of yellow energy that hit the area where Sonic had been moments before. A Hunter stood behind them, appearing larger and menacing in the small hallway. Sonic raised his fist toward it, and then extended his two fingers.
"Tails, I love these gloves." The robot convulsed with the electricity before shutting down, all circuits fried.
"How could it have been unaffected by the Chaos Control?" Rouge snapped her fingers, and pulled down the eyepiece once again. Scanning the hall way, she discovered that the surrounding area was now bathed in the power of a Chaos Emerald. "They've got another emerald here! Sonic, you might as well stop wasting your rings and disable the Chaos Control! It's not going to do anything useful." She reached up to push the scope back up, but she decided it might come in handy to detect any other secrets this place might have.
With a wave of his hand, the Chaos Control faded away. "Now what? We should probably get out of here before more robots get a chance to arrive.
"No way, Sonic!" Knuckles stood defiantly against the idea. He stood up straight. "If they have one of the emeralds, then they must know where the island is underwater. And if they know where the island is, then..."
"...we can find the Master Emerald!" Rouge finished his sentence triumphantly. At that moment, a group of Hunter robots turned the corner and began to open fire. Sonic raised his fist again, but Knuckles intervened.
"I've got a better idea!" Knuckles drew back his fist, then put all of his effort into punching the wall. It crumbled from both the force of the punch and the power of the device housed within the gloves. Another steel hallway waited on the other side. Rouge jumped through the hole, and glanced both directions. She motioned for them to follow, then took off to the right. "Rouge, do you know where you're going?"
"I'm following the signal from the emerald. It's power output is higher the closer we are to it. Chances are, they'll store this precious power source near the mainframe computer, which is where we'll find our information."
"Well, then, lead the way!" Knuckles said, gesturing towards the path in front of them. They increased their pace, hurtling through the synthetic hallways as a large blur of color.
"You know, if I had ever tried this in one of Eggman's bases, you can bet I'd have activated an alarm by now. G.U.N.'s really off the mark, aren't they?"
Rouge screeched to a stop, quite literally with the metal soles of her boots. "They must have silent alarms, since the security is all automated, and the scientists are probably alerted through their computers. Which means..." The area seemed uncannily quiet. She could just barely detect the steady hum of several computers. "We're close." Rouge looked around the room, flipping between several vision modes of the scope. She walked slowly towards the side of the room, and put her hand against the cool metal. She felt up and down, then pushed. Her hand went through the wall effortlessly. "Aha." She disappeared through the wall. On the other side, a dark, cool room greeted her. The yellow Chaos Emerald, sitting upon a makeshift pedestal, was attached to several tubes, and was apparently being used to power the entire place. Glowing computer screens emitted soft light out onto her face, and she looked down at them to see what their purpose was.
"So you were right. This is the mainframe," Tails commented. "Do you think they have the information we need?"
Rouge shrugged. "I'm not going to sit here and sort through it all, especially when they probably already know we're..." Her sentence tapered off as she noticed a small security camera for the first time. She pointed upwards to it, mouthing a silent swear. "Stealth was never my thing anyways," Sonic commented.
------------
A/N: Another chapter done before Winter Break ends. Hurray. I love feedback, preferrably as a review, but if you've already reviewed, please, by all means email me, or use AIM. rocketdarkness@yahoo.com for email, rocketdarkness as my screename. I'd like to see how the readers like the gizmos I've given our heroes.