ADAPTION chapter five

"I wondered what it was I could sense. How the hell did Bowen find the shards when even I couldn't?"

Tekno shook her head hopelessly at the view screen.

"I'm sorry Knuckles, that's one of a great many things we haven't been able to figure out yet. Perhaps it's noted somewhere in one of the files Porker's been unable to hack into.?"

Knuckles looked visibly annoyed; he'd been searching for the master emerald for over a year. In the search he'd found many things, some clues to his past, the other emeralds, a new friend, and now he'd found out Dr Bowen had it, he obviously wasn't happy.

"I'm going to come over. It'll take couple of days, but I'm coming over. I want to be there if and when you go in there to rescue them" he paused "I want what's left of my emerald back."

He nodded goodbye and switched his communicator off, leaving Tekno to tell Sonic and Porker that he was paying them a visit, probably with Rouge in tow.

Tekno was about to turn away and find the others when the communications control bleeped at her again.

Kintobor looked blank, raising his eyebrows, "No idea I'm afraid, could be anyone."

Tekno shrugged and turned the screen back on again.

"Is that Tekno?"

She blinked, surprised, one of the doctors from Milestone city? The young squirrel that had spent the past few days helping Bowen.

She frowned, "What do you want? And how the hell did you get this signal code?"

The young doctor looked relieved, "Oh thank goodness, my names Melissa Sampson, and Amy gave me the signal code."

Sonic wasn't too happy when he heard about Knuckles and Rouge paying them a visit. He'd never really gotten along with Rouge, however much Knuckles liked her.

Melissa Sampson's news however, he took much better.

"So, now we've got absolute proof that Tails and Amy are fine, and not only that, but the codes into Bowens more secretive files" Tekno had told them. Porker had instantly run off to get his portable computer, bringing it back to the kitchen where they were having the hasty meeting.

The instant he'd sat back down again he'd started going through Bowen's files until he found the ones Melissa had told Tekno about.

"Here, Melissa was telling us true." He showed them the page he'd just brought up, it was an incredibly detailed page of notes and instructions about the procedure of merging a living being with a shard of the master emerald. New pages had been added, each one a thorough account of each of the subjects experimented on so far.

Sonic pointed at something, a strange expression on his face, "Porker. tell me that's not what I think it is?"

Porker turned the computer back to himself and read through the page Sonic had pointed at.

"My god, Sonic.it is. Amy and Tails weren't the first after all. they were simply the first to pull through, the first that went right."

Sonic closed his eyes momentarily then looked at Porker and Tekno, "We have to find out who the first were, what he did with them."

Tekno nodded as Porker stared at the page he'd just read,

"There's no need Sonic, it says right in here what he did with them and where they are now," he read a little more, "They're all still alive, and still in Milestone."

Dr Sampson looked around to make sure there was no one near and stepped into the cyborgs quarters, closing the door behind with a quiet click.

She walked calmly down to the tanks holding Amy and Tails and looked up at them. She was always unnerved when in this room, over the past couple of days, the ranks of cyborgs had grown, the whole room was now full, forty cyborgs in all. Every one of them as blank as the other, staring out at each other, not moving unless ordered to, not speaking unless asked a question, mindlessly obeying all orders.

She shuddered involuntarily and watched as each one of them closed their eyes and the camera's clicked off.

Amy and Tails looked down at her, 'I've told them all I know, given them the codes for his files, everything, but I still don't know how to get the two of you out without Bowen noticing'

Bowen would surely notice his first two captives were missing; they were his most prised creations, the two he used most in collecting new recruits and securing his hold on the city and the closest villages. The faces of the two former freedom fighters gave the people an extra scare it seemed, made them stay in line.

Amy nodded, she understood, but Tails looked a little upset at the news, being the one most used, because he could fly, he had done some atrocious things over the past couple of days, kidnapping an old friend to be turned being one of the worst.

'That's ok Melissa, you've done all you could, and we thank you for it, now all you have to do is make sure you don't get caught. Don't give Bowen any reason to suspect you in anything that happens'

Melissa nodded and left them.

Amy went back to relaxing and thinking over the problem of escape.

Now there were so many of the new cyborgs, she and Tails could never leave; Bowen would send them out on a rampage. It would be terrible; Amy knew what their new bodies were capable of and to risk that much destruction was unthinkable.

At least they had Melissa on their side though, the thought gave them some comfort, not a lot, but enough to let them sleep at night.

When Melissa had told them who she was, they had known her instantly, mentally cursing themselves for not recognising her sooner. Melissa was an old friend, though much grown since they had last met. Two years ago, a sixteen year old Melissa had helped them out of the city, after Robotnik was defeated and Bowen started taking over.

They hadn't seen her since, but obviously, she had made some new friends within the city, and secured herself inside Bowen's stronghold, doing what she could to sabotage experiments whenever it wouldn't be noticed for what it was.

Amy sighed and closed her eyes, the only way she could think of escaping was by fighting their way out, but with next to forty emerald merged cyborgs in the way, and some of them friends, it wasn't a very promising escape plan.

Hopefully, with all the new information, Tekno and Porker, even Sonic, could find a way to help them.

Hopefully.

A couple of days later, Knuckles and Rouge turned up, the former looking particularly annoyed.

"Hey bud" Sonic and Knuckles clasped hands briefly and then Sonic led the two of them down to Tekno and Porkers work rooms.

"We've broken into all of Bowen's files over the past day or two. A lot of questions have been answered, for example, how he managed to find the master emerald."

Knuckles interest was peaked, "How did he manage it?"

Sonic shrugged, "You'll have to ask Tekno, she understands it better than I do,"

Rouge grinned at him when he said this; he glowered back at her, "Though she'll probably put it in layman's terms now you two are here, just to annoy me"

Tekno and Porker were both looking at a computer screen when they came into the room; Knuckles dropped his bag onto the sofa near the door then joined them at the screen.

"What can you tell me then Tek?"

Tekno looked up and smiled a greeting, "Ah, hi Knuckles, Rouge,"

She moved back to her own desk and screen, "Basically, Bowen already had a shard of the emerald, he found it right after the emerald was shattered. He used the shard to power his laboratories for a while, until he started taking over and found workers to power most of it. That's when he started to think of merging."

She pointed at a diagram on the screen, it was the crude beginnings of what Amy and Tails had now become, "That's when he started making the cyborgs, remember? Well, he added something to them that no one ever noticed, not even me; they had a rudimentary system capable of tracking the energy the shards gave off."

Knuckles looked irritated, "So that wasn't simply mindless destruction? They were searching out the shards."

Tekno nodded.

"I'm afraid so, but at least now we know how he collected them all. I'm sorry to say that he has got them all Knuckles, and to put it simply. he's used them all."

Rouge and Knuckles glanced at each other; knuckles sighed and sat down on the sofa.

Rouge gave him a sympathetic look, and asked the question for him, "What's he used them for?"

Sonic answered, with a disgusted look on his face, "NeoBorgs."

He nodded at their shocked looks and tried to explain, "Knuckles, you must remember the way we both react whenever one of those things comes near? We're both attuned to the chaos energy, we can both feel it, even use it to a certain extent, though I can't use it as well as you. We feel that way because they've got shards of the master emerald grafted to bits of them."

Porker took his portable over to Knuckles and showed him the diagrams and cross sections, "Bowen has been trying to perfect the melding for nearly a year, and now he's finally done it. All those NeoBorgs, they were the ones that went wrong, the ones that survived the procedure but weren't perfect."

Rouge looked over their shoulders at the screen, "Do you mean to say. Tails and Amy are.?"

Porker nodded, "And not just them now, over the past few days Bowen has been sending them out to collect more 'recruits.' By now I estimate he should have at least fifty."

Sonic leaned against the desk Porker had been using, arms folded in a frustrated manner, "So, does anyone else get what he's up to?"

They looked at him blankly, "He's vying for world domination people. Can't you see that? He's created the perfect NeoBorg, finally, something he's been working at since the beginning."

He stood up properly, "I don't know about you guys, but this scares me crapless. We have to find a way of stopping him before he pulls it off."

Dr Sampson was dreaming fitfully, curled up in her bed in the house given her by Bowen for working for him. In her dreams she was lost, it was dark and she was surrounded by glowing green eyes, all staring at her blankly, without emotion.

She screamed for help in her dream, crying uncontrollably, running, probably in circles, trying to find anyone or anything that could help her.

She ran into something and bounced back, landing roughly on the hard ground. She looked up and saw that she had run into Amy Rose. Amy wasn't staring blankly though, she was looking down at her, eyes full of some emotion she couldn't place.

'I'm sorry Melissa, I'm sorry, we couldn't help, I'm sorry Melissa, Melissa, I'm sorry!"

She jerked awake and realised the nightmare was true; her bed was surrounded by glowing green eyes, all staring down at her.

".no."

One of them reached down and grabbed her by the arm, "You are to accompany us to Dr Bowen's laboratory Dr Sampson."