centerDon't Turn Away Chapter 5: Encounters and Alternatives By: Rainie/center

Um, did some people stop reading? Just curious. If you did, it's alright, I don't blame ya! Oh, and this is the first chapter I'm going to try italics and bolds on, cause I think I just figured it out, just so ya know. Heh, anyways, READ ON!

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"Lemme Go! Augh!" Knuckles struggled against the robot's tight grip, to no avail. He was beginning to feel pain in his upper body area, which, he suspected, was where he had been shot. He didn't really pay attention to what the doctor was saying when he was in the hospital about fighting when he had the injury. He'd been too busy planning on what to do about the Master Emerald and Rouge.

i Well, I guess this is a start. At least I'll get inside Eggman's base unharmed this time./i He thought.

"Knuckles! Knux!" Sonic yelled, trying to get to them before they got out of reach. He tried to homing attack the robots, but they were too high in the air to reach by then.

"Tails! See if you can get Knux away from them!" Sonic commanded. Tails obeyed, but was knocked over by some kind of detachable fist of one of the robots. Sonic ran and caught him.

"Phew, thanks Sonic." Gasped Tails.

"No sweat, lil bud."

"Hurry! Chase after it!" Shouted Amy, already running towards the direction the robot was in. Sonic put down Tails, who immediately flew after Amy, who was picked up by Sonic in his rush. The robot was already very far ahead.

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"Hahahaha! Soon, very soon, I will have the Master Emerald, and then the world will be mine!" exclaimed Eggman. Rouge just sighed and rolled her eyes.

"You know this isn't going to work. Sonic will stop you, like he always does." Dr. Robotnik looked at her furiously.

"That's where you're wrong, my dear. Not even Sonic and his friends will be able to stop me, not if they're roboticized!"

"By the way, in case you haven't noticed, they're not here yet." She said brazenly, again, trying to mask her fears.

"No, but your echidna friend soon will be. Followed by the others! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" despite herself, Rouge tried to stifle a laugh. Eggman couldn't finish a sentence without laughing maniacally.

bTHUMP!/b

"Ah, there he is now. Excuse me for a moment."

Eggman left and came back a few minutes later with a red lump in his arms. Of course, as Rouge suspected, it was Knuckles, he had passed out from pain and exhaustion from battling the robot too much. The evil scientist threw him into the cell right across from Rouge's and then left.

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Sonic sighed, frustrated. "Where is that stupid dungeon anyway?"

They had long since gotten into Eggman's base undetected, or, as Tails suspected, Eggman might have let them go through without any harm, just for the fun of it, which didn't seem likely to Sonic or Amy.

"Well, we already checked the basement, so we know it's not there." Amy said, pondering where the dungeon could be so she could be of more help.

"Don't worry, Ames, we'll find 'em soon enough." Sonic said.

"What about in his laboratory?" she asked.

No, what kind of idiot would do that? Maybe he has an attic?" Tails said.

"You both have points. We'll check out both places, just to be safe, alright?"

"Okay."

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"Uhn. . ." muttered Knuckles an hour or two later. Rouge ran to the bars of her cell.

He moaned, and his eyes flickered open. "Wh - where am I? Rouge? Huh? Where are we?"

"We're in Eggman's base. He's holding you here because he wants to force you to restore the Master Emerald, then he'll turn everyone into a robot!"

"No kiddin'," Knuckles said thoughtfully. There was no chance of punching the bars, they seemed to electrocute you when you touched them. He looked around. The place was bleak and dark. No tools whatsoever. He sighed and leaned against the bed at the other side of his jail cell.

"Guess we'll have to wait this out, huh Rouge?" he said, smiling.

"I guess." She said, smiling back and sitting down on her knees behind the bars.

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Eggman sighed impatiently, pacing his lair and waiting for the stupid (Inner Eggman talking, sorry) echidna to wake up. He looked to the giant monitor and saw that Sonic & co. were heading toward the attic, having already checked the laboratory and finding nothing there. He decided to just force Knuckles awake. He pushed several buttons on the main control panel, so that he saw that waking up the furball wasn't necessary. He was already awake. Quickly, he sent a robot to retrieve Knux.

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Knuckles, tired of sitting down, began to pace his cell, and in doing so, noticed a burn on Rouge's right boot.

"Where'd you get that?" He pointed at it.

"This?" she motioned toward the injury. "Oh, I was trying to ikick/i my way out of here, that's when I found out about the electrocuted bars."

Knux grimaced, imagining the pain that would have coursed through his knuckles if he had tried to do the same with his fists.

A robot came through the door, immediately heading for Knuckles' chamber. Grabbing the echidna, he tried to leave without accidentally dropping him at the same time, because Knuckles was squirming and kicking too much.

"Lemme go! Lemme go!"

"Knuckles!"

"Rouge! I - I love you!"

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"Hold it!" whispered Sonic.

"What is it?" Amy asked, clinging to Sonic tighter.

The blue hedgehog narrowed his eyes. "There's something in there, in the next room. I'll go check it out, let go Amy."

Tails pulled Amy gently off of Sonic, and he went in. He saw nothing there at first, because the room was so dark, but then he saw a flash of bright red fur.

iKnuckles!/i Sonic thought to himself. He crept into the shadows, so as not to be seen. There appeared to be a robot holding his friend. The door burst open, and Eggman strode in with the Master Emerald pieces and the robotization gun. Sonic dashed out before Robotnik could see him, and ran to tell Tails and Amy what he had seen.

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"OUCH! Oh, there ihas/i to be some way out of this!"

Rouge sighed. Those three words Knuckles had said had been motivation enough to try and figure out a way to break out of the prison and save him. Multiple burns covered her hands, however, and she was extremely exhausted, having tried to kick the bars loose several times, though she almost knew it was pointless.

Then came a new sound, voices outside the doors to the prison! Was that Eggman? Yes! Yes, it was him, trying to convince Knuckles to restore the Master Emerald without letting him know his plan. Of course, Rouge had told him everything he needed to know, so that effort was in vain, too. She strained to hear what they were saying. Even her ears couldn't penetrate the heavy metal doors to the cell.

"You'd better not argue with me, Knuckles, or I could just as easily program my robot to shoot you like they did last time."

"No chance Eggman! I'd rather die than help you with your latest plot!"

"Really? Well, we'll see about that. Bring out the hypnosis ray!"

Rouge, horrified, began to think hard when she saw a dent in the tiling, revealing a few wires under the floor.

"Hmmm. . ." She bent down to touch one, and the wires almost shocked her.

Just like the barriers!

She began to search frantically in her pocket for anything that might impede the electricity from flowing into the wires and therefore into the obstruction. She finally found an old brass bracelet and wondered if it would be enough. Rouge uncoiled the wristlet, fastened them carefully on the wires, and touched her fingertip to one of the bars.

Nothing.

hastening, she ripped open the bars with her own surprising strength, and rushed out the door. Luckily, she was unnoticed.

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One of Eggman's loyal bots zoomed up to him in two minutes with what Knuckles assumed was the hypnosis ray.

"Now, you have two choices. One, you restore the Emerald of your own free will, or two, I can MAKE you do it myself!"

"Neither!" Knuckles spat. He DID want to restore his Emerald, but not right in front of Eggman.

"My, such cockiness. Well, we can change that. Say goodbye, Knuckles."

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Okay, I know, the Knux/Rouge, pretty quick, yes? Please give me your opinion on it! BTW, just in case this FF ends quick, who wants a sequel? Be honest!

~Rainie~

P.S. - Shadow4ever, if you're reading this, I absolutely ADORE your 'Amy's Wish' Story, and I look forward to seeing more of it! (and I LOVE the A*teens, great choice! lol)