Chapter 3: The Gathering of Forces
Eggman has heard Dark's confidence in his vow to complete his mission and is deciding to believe him. "Alright, but tell me, do you need any help at all? I can offer you any bit of equipment you may need! I am very skilled in robotic engineering. My resources are VERY great!" "I'll think about it. Right now, there is something I must do first." Dark does over to his coat rack and puts on his hat. He puts his sword and holster away, and then he begins to close his coat. "What are going to do?" "Seek out Sonic; think of a way to kill him without interference. But, could you tell what you will be doing since I am the one trying to take Sonic down instead of you yourself?" "Simple! My last plan was to take control of the earth's core so I would have the world at my mercy. Sonic and his friends stopped my plan. However, with you taking Sonic and his friends down, nothing will stop me from completing my new plan-Taking control of the earth's planetary orbit around the sun!" Dark understands now. He leaves his house to do some reflection. He thinks to himself. "Why am I hesitating? Am I starting to hate killing? Suzette..when I was with you..I did not have to care about killing. I hope I can feel that again one day."
Meanwhile, Sonic has given up trying to find Dark. He was no where in the area to be seen. He takes this time to make sure his friends are all ok. At the Thorndyke residence, everyone is healing from the attack they previously encountered. Chris is talking into two phones at once; one phone connects to his mother, the other to his father. He is talking to them at the same time. "No! No! We are all ok. I was not even touched. Tails got cut up a bit, but we have him patched up. Ella was not harmed. Mr. Tanaka was only knocked out. Cream and Amy have taken a good number of aspirins, but we had to help Amy since he shoulder was dislocated." Chris listens to what they have to say for a moment. "Mother! Father! I can't speak to you both when you're talking at the same time. We WILL be getting some help on this case." Another pause. "Sure, you can help if you want. We will be investigating the problem here and getting as much help as we can." Another pause. "Ok, I love you too. Bye." Chris hangs up both phones.
Chris returns to all his friends. "Well, my parents might want to help, but we should gather our forces and try to solve this now." Cream speaks out. "I think they are talking about the assassin on TV!" All gather around to listen. It's mostly about the after math from busting up the city. There were only injuries, no deaths. Everyone seems to agree that Sonic and someone just as fast were first chasing then fighting each other. Of course, there is no positive ID. Some cameras managed to catch a glimpse, but they were either traveling too fast or were too far away to make any clear images. Sonic speaks, "And he got away..... I don't know where he went, I don't even know his name, but I do think he might not be a hedgehog." "What do you mean?" asks Tails. "Two things make me think he is something else. His eyes were very strange. Plus, did you get a good look at his quills? They were not fully smooth, like mine. They had more sharp points on each one." "Well if he's not a hedgehog, what could he be?" questions Amy. "I'm not sure."
Sonic begins to leave when Tails stops him. "Where are you going now, Sonic?" "I am going out. Maybe I'll find Dark and finish that battle." Sonic smirks at the thought of a challenge. "But we need you! It would be much better to be gathering people who can help us!" says Chris. "You can handle that on your own. I do things my way." "Well at least take a power ring with you. I left one in the garage. If you do get in a battle, you may need it." says Tails. "Thanks!" Sonic runs off, grabs the ring, and leaves. Chris and the others know they have work to do.
The team leaves. First, they are stopped by reporters who try to find out what they can. Once they have gotten past the press, they split up to see who they can get on their side. Chris, Cream, and Cheese go to Sam and the police. Same seems to be willing to help, especially when family and friends are at risk. And if you haven't guessed, his willingness to take on the case is inspiring others in the police force to help as well. Tails and Amy are merely searching around, trying to find any other good sources of help, but not being as successful. Chris's parents are trying to get some help from the government, but there is only so much an actor and software company owner can do, especially when there isn't enough proof to show if this person really exists or is a threat to anyone.
Later in the day, Chris and all the others meet up at the place they planned to meet. "So, how did it go?" ask Chris. "Sorry, but we didn't really find anyone who could help us. There are not many resources left when we are already getting the police and government to help us. They are going to help, right?" says Amy. Chris nods. "Yes, Sam was really willing to help. I knew he would. I don't know about the government. My mother and father said they'd try and do something to get them on our side. Did you have no luck at all?" Tails speaks up. "Well, we did try to find your teacher, Chris, but he was nowhere to be found." Cream also speaks. "Well, maybe we should ask the Chaotix team to help us. They helped find my mother." All seem to agree so they begin to head towards the headquarters of the detectives.
Earlier, when Sonic had left, Dark had started his way towards the Thorndyke place again. He was thinking to himself. When the dark alleys gave shade, he would take off his hat. At one point, he finds something glowing. "Hmm?" He goes over to look at it. He picks it up. It's the chaos emerald he blasted away from sonic in the first battle. "Purple...... That was Suzette's favorite color." He thinks back to a girl who is wearing a nurse's uniform; a tall, human girl with red hair and gentle eyes. "Hold on, I'll be there in a minute!" says Rouge, who happens to be outside the alley Dark is in. She was talking to someone else. As she is about to go, she notices Dark in the alley, or rather, they both notice each other at the same time. "Sonic?" Dark replies by throwing the emerald at her, and throwing it hard. A bit surprised, she still catches it. However, when she looks back into the alley, he is gone. "Where did he go? Was that really Sonic?"
Meanwhile, Chris and the others have found the headquarters of the Chaotix team. "Well hello! What can I do for you?" greets Vector. "Please, we need your help! Someone is out to kill Sonic the Hedgehog. We need you to find out more about this guy and maybe stop him if you can!" says Amy. "Really?! Well, will we be PAYED to do this?" Espio, who is keeping to himself, notices the unforgettable look of money in Vector's eyes. Chris stands up. "My mother is an actor and my father owns a computer software business. We'll gladly pay ANY price you want if you just do something to help us." "Alright! You've got a deal!" Charmy begins to dance around why floating. "Whee!! We're going on a mission! We're going on a mission!" "So, what is it you want us to do exactly?" says Vector. "We need you to find out info on an assassin that looks like a grey hedgehog." says Tails. "Grey hedgehog?!" says a surprised Espio. "Yes. What about it?" asks Chris. "Well, to tell you the truth, I've been in the underworld once or twice. I heard something once about a grey hedgehog, but I disregarded it as a myth. Maybe it's real after all. We may need help, though." "Don't worry, give us time and you'll have the military and the police helping you!"
Meanwhile, Sonic has found a nice place in the clear, open fields. It's getting really close to sun fall. Sonic looks over to a tree, only to see Knuckles sleeping under it. "Knuckles. What are you doing here?" Knuckles looks up to see Sonic. "Sonic! I was just taking a rest from looking for chaos emeralds." "And it's a shame that you'll both die here." Sonic and Knuckles look over to see Dark emerging from the trees. Both Sonic and Knuckles prepare themselves. Dark gets ready as well. "Come at me." says Dark. Knuckles is the first to attack. They charge towards each other. In common fashion, Knuckles lets his fists do the fighting. First Dark avoids the powerful blows. Soon, Dark grabs one of Knuckles' arms and tosses him to a cliff. However, Knuckles is not so easily tricked. Instead of crashing, Knuckles grabs the cliff wall and begins to climb. Dark transforms his robotic arm and fires at Knuckles. It does manage to take him down from the cliff, but after the initial blast, Dark himself is hit by a spinning Sonic. He falls then looks up at Sonic. "That is the second time I've seen that! Hmm...... If he can do it, maybe I can too." Dark and Sonic run to each other, and then spin attack towards each other. They hit against each other then fall back. Sonic lands perfectly, unlike Dark, who stumbles and falls when he lands. "Wow that was some attack. And Sonic handles it so perfectly; I would be a fool to keep trying to use it against him." "Bring it on! I got something that you can't beat!" Sonic holds up his power ring. Dark looks at it with fear. Sonic powers up with it and attacks. POW! Direct contact!
Dark gets up, Knuckles tries to attack from behind. Dark leaps out of the way. Sonic runs past Dark and hands the ring to Knuckles. Now Knuckles is powering up. He runs to dark, and a number of high speed punches ensue. Out of all the fighting, Knuckles FINALLY manages to hit Dark RIGHT in the face, making Dark fall back. Sonic leaps over Knuckles, they pass while he is in mid air. Sonic does a series of spin attacks at Dark who is trying to desperately avoid them. One does make contact and knocks Dark down. This is becoming a game of fighting ping pong, with Dark as the ball. They are just ganging up on him while exchanging use of the power ring! "Heads up, Knuckles!" Sonic tosses the ring to Knuckles. In that instant, as fast as he can, Dark turns over, pulls out his sword, and throws it as hard as he can. The sword catches the ring and lands far away with it. Sonic and Knuckles watch it fly away in disbelief until they are hit with the blast of Dark's blaster arm. First Knuckles, then Sonic. Dark ISN'T playing around anymore. Dark uses his super running speed. The second Knuckles tries to recover, Dark hits him HARD in the head with his robotic hand. BOOM! Such a blow knocks Knuckles unconscious. By making sure Knuckles is down, he has allowed Sonic to fully recover and get back on his guard. Sonic runs toward Dark. Dark leaps over Sonic and chases Sonic down. They are headed towards the city.
Dark continues to fire at Sonic many times with his gun hand, even though Sonic keeps swerving and avoiding. "I won't let you get away, Sonic! I will not allow it!" They both keep running, but Sonic starts taking new routes in an attempt to confuse Dark since some of the routes are already confusing Sonic himself. Soon, Sonic makes it to a dead end and sees how Dark is really close to shooting him. "HEY!!!!" At that moment, Sam comes driving in, in his car. He swerves to a stop between Sonic and Dark, just as dark fires. The blast launches the car up into the air. "Sam!" Sonic acts fast, leaps up, and pulls Sam out of his car in mid air before it crashes into the side of a near by building. Sam coughs a bit from the blast. "Hey, you jerk! You ruined my new car!" After throwing his insults, he sees it's the infamous grey "hedgehog" Chris told him about.
In the shadows, Chris's teacher, Mr. Stewart is secretly writing down all that he sees in a notebook, recording all the events taking place.
End Chapter 3
Coming Soon: Chapter 4
NEWS:
I am making a soundtrack, or a collection of songs, to go with this story. A list of the songs will be given at the end of the last chapter. Also, if my story gets a lot of positive reviews, or if a lot of people would like to see it, then I will make a sequel to this story.
