Chapter 6: S, O, N, I, C....Let's Go!!!

Author's Note:

I thought that this chapter should get two important things. Number one, I DON'T OWN SONIC X!! Accursed sticklers for copyrights and disclaimers, I turn my nose up at you! I merely watched a subtitled, yes imported over the net, version of the first episode of Sonic X. Then, I wrote this chapter.

Number two; after I watched that episode, I took the opening scene, added in my own scenes, thoughts, and interpretations of what I saw. So, if you ARE a person that hates spoilers, I suggest you watch the sneak preview on the Fox Box this Saturday (August 23, 2003) at 10:00 am, then come back and read the rest of my fiction. THANK YOU!! (Oh, and I can't read, or understand Japanese, so whatever the subtitles said, is what I put for (a lot of, a good part of it is mine, however) the dialogue.)

Now: ON WITH THE SHOW... Er, FIC!!

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Dr. Eggman was impatiently pacing back and forth in the lab. He didn't bother to interrogate his two prisoners, who were there in the room with him. All he was focused on was Rouge's arrival. Where was she, and why had she taken all day? Didn't she know Sonic and friends would be here soon? Blast her, he thought, because Shadow's mental programming wasn't complete, and he was undergoing said treatment in another lab, Eggman couldn't use Shadow now, or any time in the NEAR future. He needed those emeralds and he needed them NOW!!

Suddenly, who should appear? But, none other than his own personal devil: Rouge. She strolled in like she'd done absolutely nothing wrong. Before Eggman could begin raving, the cameras detected a streak of blue speeding past what was once a cute little house.

"You little fool! See what you're slacking has done?!" Eggman bellowed when he saw Sonic coming, he turned to Decoe and Bocoe, who were at small computer stations. "The hedgehog is on his way, activate ALL security measures, he must be stopped!"

Rouge was always in a slightly jollier mood whenever Eggman took to hysterics. "Well, then," she started, "I think you'll be happy to have this." She handed the red Chaos Emerald to the doctor, who was still furious. "You'd better believe it, but you won't receive anymore pay NOW until Sonic is stopped, or when I dominate the world, whichever comes first!" Rouge smiled, "Fine enough then, I'll just hang around here. I'll collect AFTER the show." She thought that this was going to prove most interesting indeed. Just how far this little drama would play out, she didn't know, but she'd be giving it two thumbs up by the end. For now, she climbed up the side of a nearby wall and perched herself on a ledge to watch things unfold.

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The night was so still, the moon shone brightly upon a very calm pool of water. It was that rare time of year that, as many had hypothesized, that during its orbit, the half-piece of the moon left would show its side that hadn't been damaged by the Eclipse Cannon. Big had been enjoying his fishing vacation so much, he'd taken to a nap, fishing rod in hand, Froggy next to him. He slept soundly, until his large ears detected a loud wailing sound, like sirens. He raised his head up from his resting spot against a tree. He looked off into the distance and could make out huge searchlights beaming down from a far off tower. He hoped the sirens wouldn't be loud enough to scare off any potential biters.

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The fortress was coming alive at every building and emplacement. In the distance, Sonic could tell that this was definitely Eggman's pad. So, he was expecting the worst Eggman could throw at him, and then Sonic would rub it in his face. The defenses came at him in stages once he reached the clearing.

Machine guns and missiles guarded the outer perimeter. The machine gun robots, on tank treads, laid down suppressive fire. Sonic laughed and just whizzed by the bullets whizzing at him. Split seconds later, missiles by the bushel were in the air and raining down on the battlefield. Try as they might, they just couldn't hit Sonic. The machine gun robots began rolling back in order to keep Sonic in their range of fire.

Sonic emerged from the smoke and dust raised by the missiles and got within the machine guns range again. But, he'd gotten so close, and was moving so fast that they missed every shot and Sonic wound up jumping on them like springs and catapulted himself over the huge security fence.

Now that he was within the fortress's walls, he met the second stage of defenses, more machine guns, but only a few of those. The real defenses were the huge white robotic thugs that Eggman kept in special hangars. It was them that had captured Cream and Cheese earlier. They activated and took off in search of the intruder. The "intruder" happened to be zooming for the central tower in the fortress.

Thinking the worst was over; Sonic was actually shocked and detoured when two of the huge robots burst out of the ground. The robots took off hot on his heels. Hoping to lose them, Sonic ran into a tunnel, they continued their chase. One of them really surprised Sonic when it cut him off by crashing through a wall, Sonic narrowly turned toward a nearby exit. Trying to think of what to do next, he zoomed into more open ground. That's when it happened.

As Sonic was focusing on dealing with the robots, he failed to notice a huge spring decorated with Eggman's face. It flung him into the air and a pursuing robot brought back an arm and batted him away for an out of the fort home run! It looked over with. At least it did, until lagging-behind- reinforcements had caught up to the raging battle.

"Sonic!" Tails screamed as he gunned the motor of the Tornado 2. He was so blinded by his determination to help Sonic that he didn't notice the ant- aircraft batteries around Eggman's fort. The bullets sprayed through the air and found their mark, hitting the plane and causing Amy to yelp in fear. "It's smoking," she yelled noticing the damage, "What are we going to do Tails?!" Trying to calm both Amy and himself, Tails said, "It's alright Amy! Just a bit further...." as he reached for a lever. When Tails pulled the switch, he let off a missile aimed for Sonic. It was time to see if his theories were going to pay off, Heaven help them if they didn't. The missile streaked toward Sonic, then shattered. Out of the collapsing projectile came a single gold band. A Power Ring!

From the fortress, it appeared that the threat was eliminated. But, looks proved as always, deceiving. A great flash of light rose up from the forest for a second, then a high-flying streak of blue returned to the clearing and continued onward. Sonic had used the Ring like Tails thought he could. By focusing his mind on the one Ring, he could initiate a very short, very powerful super boost. After all if fifty combined could create Super Sonic, then what was the potential of ONE?

Sonic found out as he rolled into a somersault and kept going in a Super- Charged Sonic Spin. With the ease of a hot knife through butter, Sonic cut through machine gunner after machine gunner, then he shattered a hole in the fence. He kept going. His next target was two of the earlier sentry bots. Though it took a little more time and force, Sonic cut through the two of them and they exploded. The third robot was slightly faster though. He actually managed to snatch the spinning hero and slam him to the ground. Next thing it knew, though, it's arm exploded as Sonic shot straight up, up, up, until he went through one of the searchlights along the under side of the central tower. Next stop, EGGMAN!

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Meanwhile, Tails was trying to negotiate a crash landing. He had managed to get the plane down on the ground, but he couldn't seem to slow it down. Bad break, as the plane was screaming straight for a huge rock in the field! Tails fought with the controls, but there was no stopping it, they were going to be smashed! At that point Amy finally opened her eyes to look. She wished she hadn't. "Look out!" she squealed, "Do something!" "I can't!" shouted Tails.

Out of nowhere, the rock shattered right before them! Instantly, Tails resumed his efforts to halt the plane. He succeeded by spinning it to a complete stop. As they began to breathe again, the two flyers looked up on another nearby rock and saw none other than: Knuckles the Echidna! "Knuckles..." Tails shouted with glee, "Thank you!" Knuckles looked down at the two, snorted, and turned his attention to the embattled tower in the distance. "Knuckles..." Tails mumbled in confusion. Amy couldn't help but feel somewhat miffed with their savior, "What's with that attitude?"

Knuckles was focused on other matters. He felt that he had definitely given Sonic, and especially his little pals, a big hand by deciding to come and help after all. With this done, he felt that any unpaid debts of the past had been settled, and that he wouldn't have his conscience bothering him any more, at least after he'd done them THIS favor. While he stayed with the "rookies", he'd leave things to Sonic, who was already up to his eyeballs in a new mess. Knuckles couldn't help but calmly comment out loud on the explosions some distance away, "Whoa, he's really gone too far."

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So far, Rouge's evening matinee hadn't disappointed. The "fireworks" were spectacular as seen on the monitors. Now, came her favorite part, the clashing of the antagonist and protagonist.

As alarms rang and emergency lights flashed in the halls, huge metal doors closed off any hope of getting into Eggman's lab. As the last one closed, and it's corresponding light blinked on the monitor, Decoe turned to Eggman, "Lord Eggman! All bulkheads are in place!" "Very good!" Eggman said, near raging again, "Why must that pest Sonic always interfere?" For the first time that day, Cream had found enough courage to speak to "that bad man".

"That's obvious Mr. Eggman," said she, while fearfully clinging to Cheese inside their bubble prison, "that's because you're always doing nothing but bad things." Cheese backed her up, "Chao!" The two timid, tear-jerking creatures caught Eggman's attention. They offered up his favorite kind of weak, helpless victims. Not that he was really cruel. He just really took satisfaction out of encouraging that kind of "respect" in others. "Well, he's too late!" Eggman stated triumphantly holding up the red Chaos Emerald, "When the last Chaos Emerald is inserted in this machine, my Mechas will have infinite power!"

Cream had to say something, "No! Please stop!" Cheese had to too, "Chao, chao-chao!" Translating for Cheese gave Cream a little more resilience to her voice, "That's right! Sonic won't let you!" This was thrilling Rouge to now end, first the macho action junk, now she got to see the heart- wrenching drama. Apparently, Eggman and her own opinions of hostages were so similar, that they each giggled and laughed. Eggman then resumed his belligerence, "All the bulkheads are in place. He won't be able to break in that easi..." he was cut short by the explosion of the door behind him.

Sonic's super charge had given out after he'd gotten through the last bulkhead. Good thing it lasted him that long. Now that he was here WITH Eggman, he felt he wouldn't need it anymore. Sonic was happy to hear Cream cheer out, "Enter Sonic!" it meant that she was safe for now. As for Eggman though....

The surprised scientist stared disbelieving at Sonic for a few moments, and then regained his composure, "No matter!" That said, Eggman quickly slammed the emerald in its proper place in the machine, closed the cover, and spastically made the final keystrokes necessary. Then he held up a trigger button in one hand, using the other to lean on his masterpiece. "I'm one step ahead of you," Eggman stated to his old foe. "So, all I have to do is press this button!" Eggman cackled at his good fortune, he took greater joy out of the fact that HE was rubbing something in Sonic's face for once. That's why he decided to savor this moment as long as he could.

Sonic smirked at Eggman, knowing that always bothered him, "How about I just take it from you then?" Eggman was caught off guard on that one. Eggman and Sonic knew Sonic had the speed to cover the feet and inches between the two of them and snatch the button before he could tense his thumb. Neither Sonic nor Eggman moved a muscle, though Eggman was quite nervous, Sonic wasn't. But, Eggman got a "pick me up" when he saw his E-13 security robot behind Sonic. Returning Sonic's smirk with a chuckle, he dared, "I'd like to see you try it"

Hearing that and the clicking of rounds being loaded, Sonic zoomed to one side as bullets once again flew all around him. "Too slow!" he yelled back at his attacker. As Sonic ran up a wall, Eggman lost all concentration on the trigger button. Instead, he was determined to end his "rodent problem" first. He ordered the already engaged robot to "Get him!" and started to stomp his foot in excitement. At that moment Rouge was still perched up on her ledge and watched as Sonic streaked by, not taking notice of her. Or did he? Rouge had to duck her head slightly to avoid being hit by the one- track mind machine.

Despite nearly losing an ally, Eggman still cheered on the robot. "That's it," he called merrily, "Keep shooting!" Instantly, Sonic jumped down from his course along the wall and landed DIRECTLY in front of Eggman. The robot automatically turned and zeroed in on Sonic/Eggman. Eggman threw up his hand screeching, "S-S-S-Stop!!" Taking their cues, Sonic leapt away while Eggman ducked down smacking his hands to the side of his head for little to no cover. E-13 resumed firing. The rounds shot straight behind Eggman and into his Chaos Emerald machine.

Raising his head up, he noticed that in his panic, he had hit the trigger button. The machine had been activated! "What'd I do?" Eggman asked of no one. Then noticing a build up light and noise, he looked behind and saw that things weren't right. As the machine crackled and powered up, Eggman screamed to everyone, "Ah! It's broken!" No one in the room, excepting the two robot assistants, who had remained out of the whole fiasco, knew what that meant. Sonic, Cream, Cheese, and even Rouge watched in uneasy, frozen poses as the machine began emitting a bright light that seemed to stretch out, slowly but gaining in speed and size.

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Outside, Knuckles, Amy, and Tails had been watching from the vantage point provided by the boulder in the field. After the initial explosion had settled down, the tower had been deceivingly quiet. They waited and watched quietly as they hoped for signs of a happy ending.

Suddenly, a huge ball of white light seemed to grow out of the tower. It grew and grew at an incredible rate. It was all consuming. Amy was first to speak, "What the?" Knuckles and Tails remained quiet. Knuckles knew what it was, though. He'd felt the same energy released when he was aboard ARK and Sonic had magically appeared in front of him. He also knew it was too late to out run it, if you could. At the rate it was going, it could engulf the entire planet. There was no escaping, "Chaos Control" as he quietly identified it.

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Back at his fishing hole, Big was paying no never mind to all to the ruckus that had occurred earlier. He just wanted to enjoy his fishing trip. Whatever was going on would end soon enough. Just then, a bright light began to emanate from behind. He turned to look, then thought, "Daylight already?" With that he and his companion, Froggy, vanished into the wall of light.

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End Chapter Sonic Shout-Out:

Exciting isn't it? Another chapter's up, so another past reviewer gets some thanks:

Matt!!

Hey, even though it came closer to being a flame, I really enjoyed getting this guy's comments. It showed that he had enough passion for the franchise to challenge what he considered to be someone in the wrong. And I applaud him for it. So, never worry about hurting someone's feelings folks (especially mine) because honesty is always the best policy. So, I hope you'll be honest enough to come back as things have gone from bad to worse for Sonic and his friends.