Chapter 23
Approaching the Mountains
Cummings was streaking down the left side. He deked past one defender, then dished it off to Merrington. Merrington crossed the blue line, split the defenders, then WHAM! Hard check by Baxter from the left side to send the puck flying. Here came Hobbs, racing to the backside of the net. He scooped up the loose puck, just dodged a zooming McKloskey, flipped it to Cummings planted in front of the net to attempt the one-timer, he shoots…
"'GIFF!" RaGiff shook like crazy, shocked by Blade's booming voice. He barely noticed the sound of the goalie snatching the puck out of the air.
"RaGiff, what the hell are you doing?" Blade growled.
"Sorry, man, this is a good game. Lansing is up by one with a minute to go and Capital City just brought on the extra attacker…" "That's wonderful. And then the wild blue hedgehog came and blew up the stadium because you didn't tell me where he was!" "Don't worry, I don't think the hedgehog will be buggin' you right now. He's wandering out somewhere in the Silver Mountains. One you get out of that little dogfight you got yourself into, take a cruise on over there and see if you can find him." "Okay, and he's over in the mountains why?" "Dunno, but he seemed pretty set on getting there. Maybe he's meetin' a contact or what-not. Anyway, he won't last long out there. You might not even have to fight him." "If you can do anything to get these annoying little guys off of me, that'd be great." "See, that's your job. I do the technical stuff, you the manual labor."
"Oh, so you're saying I can't hack into a computer or something like that?" "Hell no." "That's better." "I mean hell no, you can't."
"When I get back there.." Blade started, but was interrupted when a gunshot rocked his ship. He checked his shield and energy gauges. Energy as a whole was decent, but his shield was low. If he lost all of it, hits would start to deplete his fighter's energy, and he wouldn't have enough to land. So he had to drop out.
As he lowered himself from the pack of planes, RaGiff appeared on the monitor again, stunned. "Dude," he began, "you never lost a fight before. Or quit.'
'Technically," Blade explained, "this ain't a hand-to-hand or weapon-to-weapon fight. This doesn't count." "Whatever, man." "How far am I from the Silver Mountains?" "Little more than eight miles. Your ship should be fine if you don't get hit too much on the way." "No prob. What's gonna hit me out there anyway?" "Ya never know," RaGiff muttered as he cut off the connection with Blade. He then called out Tails.
"Fox man, time to go. Head over to the Silver Mountains. Your hedgehog homie is trying to get to them through Red Mountain, so by the time you get to Silver, he should be there, and you can sort this whole big mess out yourselves."
No answer from Tails himself, but the gunning of jet engines was response enough.
"This just in. It appears that the three aforementioned planes and a fourth one appearing to be a military fighter are now flying southeast. Sonic the Hedgehog appears to be gone, and the other three are following at a fast pace. It has been confirmed that both Sonic and Blade Kasille were up in that battle, as well as government informant Miles Prower. It is unknown who the person in the military fighter is as of this point, but all four are indeed heading southeast, supposedly towards the Mystic Ruin mountain range, including Red Mountain and the Silver Mountains-" "Next stop…" Charmy commented to Espio. The chameleon nodded, and the two rushed off to the train station for the next departure.
There she was, inside a cavern, with no light coming in. She had her hammer. Suddenly, Gamma appeared. She tried talking to it, make friends with it again, but instead it started firing. She held up her hammer to stop the gunfire, but it dismantled immediately. Sonic came swooping in to stop it, but something caught him from behind. It was Eggman, with an electrical device that had paralyzed the blue hedgehog. Amy watched in horror as Gamma was allowed to tee off on Sonic and fire his most powerful gunshot. A gleam of light, then Sonic fell to the ground, lying in a pool of blood. She tried to scream, but something stopped her. She didn't know what, but she couldn't talk, shout or anything. Gamma fired another shot, which she just barely ducked under. Amy finally began to run away, but Knuckles and Tails swooped in armed with hunting knives. They took turns plunging their knives into her chest. As she slowly fell to the ground, she heard Sonic's fading voice, "Please, Amy, it's your turn…"
The dream ended with a blaring sound. Unwittingly, her hand had slapped her alarm clock, turning the alarm sample on. She yelped in a high-pitched tone as she jumped and hit the floor. She just so happened to land on the TV remote. On it, a special news bulletin was broadcasting.
"This just in. It appears that the three aforementioned planes and a fourth one appearing to be a military fighter are now flying southeast. Sonic the Hedgehog appears to be gone, and the other three are following at a fast pace. It has been confirmed that both Sonic and Blade Kasille were up in that battle, as well as government informant Miles Prower. It is unknown who the person in the military fighter is as of this point, but all four are indeed heading southeast, supposedly towards the Mystic Ruin mountain range, including Red Mountain and the Silver Mountains. We will bring you more updates as the situation unfolds."
Amy knew where she was going next. The question was how to get her. She had gotten lucky on her way back-the person driving the train had not recognized her. But everyone in Capital City probably knew everything about her now. She needed a disguise or something.
She quickly jumped into her closet, trying to find something she had never worn before. No, no, no, no, wore that on Christmas a couple times, nope, no…
"Oh God no." Buried behind tons of other clothes was the ugliest outfit possible-an eggshell colored blouse and green and gray plaid skirt. Where the hell did she get this from, who gave it to her, and what were they smoking when they got it? It didn't matter, this was her only choice.
Banging on her door.
"Ms. Amy Rose!" someone barked from behind the door. "This is the police! You are under arrest for damage to public property, disturbing the peace, and assisting a deadly criminal. Open the door now, or we will be forced to break in." Oh no.
"Okay," she sighed. "Just let me get dressed first, I just got out of the shower." Quickly, she slipped off her sleep outfit and threw on the ugly outfit. Then, she rushed out onto the balcony. Staring down at the drop into the street below, only one thing comforted her-If Sonic or the others could pull this off numerous times, she could too. She slowly muttered, "One for the money…two for the show…three to get ready…" The door smashed behind her.
"Oh my GOD!!!!!!!" she screamed as she free-fell off the balcony. Then, her easily distracted mind kicking in, she decided to flip around and go face first to keep any sickos from looking up her skirt.
"That's right, red, just chill for a bit. You'll be okay." Mighty was about to comfort Knuckles some more when he heard a buzzing sound. It was that blasted radio Espio insisted on giving him.
"What?" he nearly shouted into it.
"What's up?" shouted a voice from above. It was Vector. "Vec?" Mighty asked, surprised. "What in God's name-" "MIGHTY!" "WHAT???"
"I just said do you think you can get there?" Espio asked through the radio.
"Yes I can," Mighty replied. "Oh wait, minor detail…WHERE THE HELL DO YOU WANT ME TO GO?????"
"Silver Mountains! I just said!" Espio yelled.
"Sorry," Mighty apologized. "I just had motor mouth number two come out of nowhere to greet me." "Vector just got there?" "Yeah." "Okay, can you get to the Silver Mountains from there?" "If I knew what they were, I'd be happy to." "Just come back to the ruins. You'll see Red Mountain pretty easily. Just follow that and you'll see the Silver range before too long." "Alright, see ya soon. I've got a little surprise for you when I see you guys, though." "I'm sure I'll be stunned. Just one last question, Mighty." "Yeah?" "Who's motor mouth number one?" "That," Mighty taunted, "is my little secret.
Chapter 24
Catching the Train
This explained everything! All the crimes, framing, everything! Eggman WAS behind this, and he was trying to lure him into a trap by saying he needed his help! So much for being a reformed politician running for mayor. That bloated jerk was just begging for it.
Sonic kept following the violet jet beam shooting out of the back of Metal Sonic. It was a shame, really, because this was basically undoing all the hard work he had just done running up this mountain. However, Sonic figured Metal would be going back to the base anyway, so it might be easier.
"C'mon rust bucket, come back!" Sonic called ahead. "I just wanna know a couple things! Like why you're trying to ruin my life!"
Metal didn't respond. Of course it didn't. It would only listen to Eggman. Still, Sonic yelled at it.
"So, what's old egghead planning now? Does he want to turn Capital City into a new Iraq? Or maybe he has reformed and just wants to torture me! Is that it, Metal? Huh?" Sonic eventually stopped his torrent of comments. It didn't do anything, and it was deterring his concentration. One misstep was a God-only-knew-how-far fall.
The pair of Sonics continued to rotate around the mountain path until Metal swerved off the path. Finally, Sonic thought, his battery died or something.
But no, Metal had actually cut into a cavern Sonic couldn't quite see yet. The blue hero screeched to a halt in front of it, wondering what happened, until he turned and saw Metal streaking down the cave. Growling, he ran off after him, knowing that there would be fire and lava involved in some way.
Running into the train station, Amy, in her new disguise, still attracted a lot of attention-mainly because the cops were following her. As she dashed through, she quickly swiped her card at a small card reader and hopped onto a just-departing train.
This didn't mean she was inside the train. Just on it.
She was hanging on a handle on the door for dear life, banging with one hand for someone to let her in. Everyone else inside the train was horrified at this walking, talking pink hedgehog, supposedly wanted by the police, slamming on the door. They thought she was threatening them or something.
"Come ON!" Amy screamed. She looked ahead for a split second, and almost instinctively flipped up onto the top side of the train and ducked. "Good God," she muttered as the train entered a tunnel. Had she stayed a second longer, she'd be knocked out, easy pickings for the police, or possibly dead. This must be the kind of life Sonic lived, Amy thought. At first she wondered how he could possibly enjoy this kind of thing all the time, then she realized something. "Damn, this is really fun!"
She rode the train halfway there, through thousands of ceiling lights whizzing past and through otherwise pitch darkness. But at the halfway point, the train began to slow down. Slower, slower, a screeching sound from beneath, until finally, the train had come to a complete halt. What had happened? Had the electricity gone off or something?
Then, the flashlights came from behind.
She was wanted by the police. She was also riding on a public electric train. Amy put two and two together and realized the cops had stopped the train to capture her. Other than breaking Sonic out of prison, Amy had no intention of doing anything illegal. Which meant she couldn't fight off the policemen. She had to run.
Amy quickly crawled across the top of the train to the side. Once off the top, she ran as fast as her little legs could take her. Luckily, she had been working out and losing weight with a new program called "Boxercise." A friend had recommended it to her and he started using it to lose weight and try to impress Sonic. Obviously, he hadn't noticed. But it came in handy here. With a lighter load to carry and her improved wind, she easily escaped the lights. That didn't mean she was out of the fire just yet. They were still following her, but if she continued her pace, she'd be hiding in the Mystic Ruins before they could catch up.
At the base of Red Mountain, Espio and Charmy waited for their friends.
"Wonder what that surprise is," Charmy asked.
"Probably some huge robot Mighty killed off or something like that," Espio responded. "Or some seashell he found on the beach," the bee joked.
Suddenly, Espio had an idea. "Maybe he found the hedgehog???" Charmy was about to make a smart remark, but then realized how right his chameleon friend could be.
"Let's hope so," he said.
"Hope what?" called a familiar voice. It wasn't Mighty.
It wasn't Vector.
It wasn't Sonic.
It wasn't Tails.
It wasn't Big.
It wasn't Blade.
It was Knuckles.
Tails and Blade flew neck-in-neck for a while before they finally noticed each other. Both were so intent on getting to the Silver Mountains that they weren't paying attention to their sides. Until a loud screeching sound emitted from Blade's rear left jet. The two immediately looked at where the sound was coming from and ended up looking at each other.
"You!" they both yelled, but neither could hear the other.
Back on Morphos in his lab, RaGiff got two separate calls at the same time. He accepted both calls at once on his telecom.
"Get me hooked up with _____," they both said of the other.
RaGiff made a 3 way connection with Tails, Blade, and himself, then cut himself off. Then, as an afterthought, he reentered the call as a listener-only. He chuckled to himself. This was going to be good.
Rouge had just slipped to the right side of Blade's hovercraft, preparing to ram it down. This was her reward. She probably could have shot it down, but she didn't want to hit the fox's plane by mistake. She hadn't flown one of these yet in combat-she just passed her examination two weeks ago-and Tails probably knew something about Sonic that she could use.
But before she could drill the bounty hunter's ship, Blade absentmindedly sided up against hers and made a sound of grinding steel. Blade quickly whipped his head around to see Rouge.
He mouthed the word "You!" before heading back to his console. Rouge sighed. So much for a stealth elimination.
Meanwhile, RaGiff got another call on his telecom. "Get me hooked up with military fighter number 650-B-72," Blade asked.
"Listen man, do you want a separate conversation with each one or do you want all of them at once?" RaGiff responded. "Cuz separate can't be done. It's either one or the other, or a three way chat with all of 'em." Blade grumbled something unprintable under his breath. "Such a genius," he growled. "You can hack into the most secure military computers and build a machine like this, but can't get a two way calling system in? Fine, give me both at once."
"Your wish," RaGiff answered, and he pressed a button. Then, he stayed in again as a listener only. He just had to hear this.
Chapter 25
Escape from Red Mountain
The rivers of magma flowed around Sonic as he chased his metal counterpart. Rocks crumbled in the distance. Splashes of lava sprayed across the few solid parts of the mountain. Sonic realized this was a very active volcano-it was never this bad before. The problem was that Metal could just hover above the pools of lava-Sonic had to avoid or jump over them. That meant when he could run, he had to crank up his speed to an unthinkable level.
He leapt over one lava pit and bounced off of the ground onto a wall. He began running on the wall until he saw part of it begin to crack ahead of him. He jumped off just in time to see that same part burst in magma. Sonic barely avoided the spray of hot rock and continued on. A boulder started bouncing across the path. Sonic lowered his head and barely ducked under it. This must be trap path or something, Sonic thought.
The ground began to crumble, and lava began to seep in where Sonic was running. This place was going up soon. How soon, he didn't know. He had to get away from here. But then he'd lose Metal. Sonic just hoped Metal knew how close this place was to erupting as well.
He jumped over the different lava pits, hopped off of the falling rocks, and bounced off the wall to slip past tight paths. Soon, the already small area he had to run with began to grow smaller and smaller. He must be reaching an exit. A shimmer of purple was all that Sonic could make out of Metal. Just keep running, Sonic thought, he had to be slowing down soon.
With all the action going around, it was near impossible to see Metal Sonic, though. Magma sprayed across the volcano, rocks fell, the ground sank deeper and deeper. Of course, Metal kept going at the same steady pace, but Sonic had to take time to avoid all these dangers. Turn after turn brought even more dangers, each more threatening and deadly than the last. Finally, he came to a small archway. This must be the end.
Instead, it lead to another part of the cavern containing a huge, white-hot ocean of lava. Sonic had to screech to a sudden halt to avoid running over the edge into the flowing lava. Where was Metal? The answer was right across from him. Metal was flying with a golden shimmer surrounding him. Sonic remembered this from back on Little Planet, when he battled with Metal Sonic and Eggman at once on the Stardust Speedway. But this was even more intense then that.
A huge rock fell from the ceiling into the lava below, causing a huge tunnel of the fiery liquid to sizzle the walls of the cavern. Sonic felt the ground beneath him tremble. Soon, the platform he stood on right now was going down. There was only one way across. Sonic obviously couldn't jump this kind of a distance, so he decided to go around it. The wall was so long, though, that simply running up along it wasn't going to be enough-he would fall into the lava about halfway through. He needed something faster.
Sonic hadn't performed his Super Peel-Out in a long time-the last time he remembered was on Planet Freedom when he was trying to save Tails and the old owl. Now he realized how useful it could have been in previous situations. He slowly planted his hands on the ground and began moving his feet at incredible speeds. Soon, his bottom half was a blur of red. That's when he knew it was ready. He jerked his hands up and blasted off onto the wall. Just a split second later, the very rock he stood on before slid into the red abyss below. Rocks were falling all over the place and spreading magma onto the walls. This meant Sonic was going to get hit if he wasn't careful. Not enough to cause permanent damage, but enough to burn him, give him some serious pain, and cause him to loose his footing. Faster, he thought, this place is a death trap. He was halfway around the room now, and he saw the small hole that Metal had burrowed just a few minutes ago. It was almost another half-mile to get there. To most, this would take an eternity. For Sonic, he needed to do it in about a minute before he got killed in some wild way.
Then, it happened.
Sonic lost concentration long enough to allow a small speck of lava to hit his foot. He yelped in pain. Even his shoe couldn't stop it from burning through. He kept on running, but the foot got worse with every step. He couldn't keep this up. He needed to try another tactic. Sonic picked up the pace as much as he could, killing his foot, and finally started spinning into a tiny blue ball. He had barely any vision of what was going on, but continued to roll along the wall. Soon, the small hole from the end of the cavern began to pop up continuously in his spinning vision. It was time to exit. He popped out from his rolling position, started to run on his burning foot again, and ran into the small hole, flipping back into an upright position. He continued to run, as the pain in his right foot began to dull, and eventually light crept into the hole. Finally, he was out.
But after all that, he had lost Metal Sonic. Sonic sighed and began his descent up the mountain once more to find the Silver Mountains.
Then he stopped. Something was peculiar about that boulder he just passed. Something just a bit odd. He raced back and inspected it. And he realized why it was so odd.
Laying beside it, sparking and shaking, was Metal Sonic's hand.
Sonic carefully kicked the foot away and used all his strength to roll the boulder away. Beneath it lay the rest of the robot, wires popping out, sparks flying, a total wreck. It was almost sad to see one of his most intense enemies and rivals brought down by a simple rock. But what to do with it now? Sonic's main reaction was to just crush the thing right now, but his gut instinct told him that Metal may prove useful somewhere else.
So Sonic decided to compromise. He kicked Metal off the mountain.
He smiled, satisfied slightly with this choice. On the one hand, he finally got to bring it to his metallic rival, and on the other, it had a chance to survive, albeit a miniscule one. He looked down to see the blue lump of steel tumble to the forest below until it disappeared into the trees. Then, looking up, he saw the Silver Mountains.
"Well, that kills two birds with one stone," he figured. "Get rid of Metal and find the mountain range. Now to go slap that plan of Eggman's back in his big fat mustache."
Sonic began his descent of the mountain. This place wasn't safe anymore. He probably wouldn't feel safe anyway until he was back in Capital City with his name cleared and Eggman dead, but he knew that wasn't gonna happen anytime soon, so he'd just have to settle for getting off this volcano. Then again, he never knew Red Mountain was volcanic. Sure, it had lava and such inside, but that didn't mean it was gonna erupt anytime soon. Oh well, you learn new things every day.
When he got off the mountain's path, he continued right into the forest towards the Silver Mountains. But he didn't get very far.
"Well, look what we have hear," Mighty smiled unpleasantly. "We were just talking about you. A little guest of ours wants to see you for a second." Espio, Vector, and Charmy all entered from the darkness.
"Big whoop," Sonic responded, clenching his fists. "I can take you four on anytime. Bring it." "Oh, but these aren't my guests," Mighty explained.
A familiar red echidna walked next to Mighty.
"Oh…god…" Sonic whispered.
"This is my guest of honor," Mighty said. "And he'd be honored to get some well-deserved revenge with the rest of us."
Chapter 26
A New Plan
Panting, exhausted, and a little groggy, Amy finally made it to the Mystic Ruins. She approached the cave that lead to Red Mountain and was about to enter when she saw something in the air that caught her eye. Flying high up right towards Red Mountain was Tails. Beside him were two ships she didn't recognize. So, Tails was really after Sonic and was bringing a posse to take him out. She thought initially that it was some kind of fluke, but she was mistaken, apparently. Well, no one was going to get near her Sonic without a good 'ol whomping. She tapped her foot with her hammer and sped down the cave entrance.
"Okay, let's get this straight," Blade said through his intercom. "Tails, you and I had that plan together that got broken up because you forgot to mention it to Sonic and he escaped." "Right." "And now he'll probably do anything to make sure you're dead." "Yes."
"So now you're gonna go to the Silver Mountains to clear things up with him." "Yeah." "And you Rouge," he continued. "You were going to catch that hedgehog for some prize money, in jewels." "Uh huh." "But because I was going after him too, you thought I was a threat to that cause and feigned that order from the President to get me out of the way." Silence. Then, "Yes."
"And now you're going to the Silver Mountains to catch Sonic and get your treasure." "Exactly." "And I'm going there to catch Sonic and get money for the cause and hopefully fulfill Tails' plan." "What's this plan?" Rouge asked.
"Alright, Tails insisted Sonic was innocent, so we made up this deal while Sonic and his girlfriend were sleeping in the plane. I would "catch" Sonic with my squad-" "You mean mine," Rouge corrected. "It was mine before you lied to me about that order," Blade shot back. "Anyway, Tails would tell Sonic about it beforehand, he'd pretend to be captured, I'd turn him in and get my reward. Then we'd spring the hedgehog from whatever prison he was in and go from there, try to clear his name or something, figure out who really did it. And with RaGiff on our side…" "RaGiff?" "Long story. Anyway, he made sure Sonic was innocent and he helped us out with this new plan here."
"A bit clever," Rogue said. "But one more question. What's the cause, exactly?" "'Cause I owe it to someone," Blade quickly said. Rouge was satisfied, but Tails wasn't so certain. "I don't know about that, RaGiff mentioned something about…" "Here we go," Rouge interrupted, sensing that Blade wanted to keep this secret for as long as he could. "The Silver Mountains. Sonic should be there by now, right fox boy?" Tails grumbled about the name, but agreed. "Yeah, unless something surprising happens." "And with the way things have been going," Blade added, "that wouldn't be too shocking. Hello," he jumped up suddenly, "what's this?" "What?" Tails and Rouge asked simultaneously.
"I'm getting serious signals from those mountains," he explained. "There's some kind of electronic core over there. Rouge, does the military do any work around the Silver Mountains?" "Not that I know of," she answered.
"Then this could be a bit interesting. RaGiff?" Nothing. "'Giff, I know you're listening, I ain't stupid." "Alright, what is it? You want me to find out what's going on there, don't you?" "Good guess. Go to work, man." "Fine, but you owe me big time when you get back here." "If I ever come back." "So, this is RaGiff," Rouge commented. "Do you always just dive right into a conversation without introducing yourself, especially with a woman here?" "I tell you one thing, you ain't no woman." "Well then, what am I then, Mr. RaGiff?" "It's Mr. Griffin, technically, but if you call me a Mr. again, you will get no more help from me. And second, I'd tell you what you are, but there's a child present, so I'm gonna hafta wait 'til later."
"That's okay," Tails chuckled, "I ain't a completely dumb and innocent little kid." Rouge grumbled a curse under her breath.
"Okay, there's some kinda base there," RaGiff said, "but I can't get a solid reading. Some kind of super-security thing is blocking me. This is really weird, I thought I had a good security system, but this guy is just incredible. He's probably the one who broke through mine too. I'd really like to meet this guy."
"Eggman…" Tails muttered.
"Well then," Blade chuckled, "let's go meet this "Eggman." With that, he thrust his lever forward and flew towards the mountains, Tails and Rouge following.
Approaching the Mountains
Cummings was streaking down the left side. He deked past one defender, then dished it off to Merrington. Merrington crossed the blue line, split the defenders, then WHAM! Hard check by Baxter from the left side to send the puck flying. Here came Hobbs, racing to the backside of the net. He scooped up the loose puck, just dodged a zooming McKloskey, flipped it to Cummings planted in front of the net to attempt the one-timer, he shoots…
"'GIFF!" RaGiff shook like crazy, shocked by Blade's booming voice. He barely noticed the sound of the goalie snatching the puck out of the air.
"RaGiff, what the hell are you doing?" Blade growled.
"Sorry, man, this is a good game. Lansing is up by one with a minute to go and Capital City just brought on the extra attacker…" "That's wonderful. And then the wild blue hedgehog came and blew up the stadium because you didn't tell me where he was!" "Don't worry, I don't think the hedgehog will be buggin' you right now. He's wandering out somewhere in the Silver Mountains. One you get out of that little dogfight you got yourself into, take a cruise on over there and see if you can find him." "Okay, and he's over in the mountains why?" "Dunno, but he seemed pretty set on getting there. Maybe he's meetin' a contact or what-not. Anyway, he won't last long out there. You might not even have to fight him." "If you can do anything to get these annoying little guys off of me, that'd be great." "See, that's your job. I do the technical stuff, you the manual labor."
"Oh, so you're saying I can't hack into a computer or something like that?" "Hell no." "That's better." "I mean hell no, you can't."
"When I get back there.." Blade started, but was interrupted when a gunshot rocked his ship. He checked his shield and energy gauges. Energy as a whole was decent, but his shield was low. If he lost all of it, hits would start to deplete his fighter's energy, and he wouldn't have enough to land. So he had to drop out.
As he lowered himself from the pack of planes, RaGiff appeared on the monitor again, stunned. "Dude," he began, "you never lost a fight before. Or quit.'
'Technically," Blade explained, "this ain't a hand-to-hand or weapon-to-weapon fight. This doesn't count." "Whatever, man." "How far am I from the Silver Mountains?" "Little more than eight miles. Your ship should be fine if you don't get hit too much on the way." "No prob. What's gonna hit me out there anyway?" "Ya never know," RaGiff muttered as he cut off the connection with Blade. He then called out Tails.
"Fox man, time to go. Head over to the Silver Mountains. Your hedgehog homie is trying to get to them through Red Mountain, so by the time you get to Silver, he should be there, and you can sort this whole big mess out yourselves."
No answer from Tails himself, but the gunning of jet engines was response enough.
"This just in. It appears that the three aforementioned planes and a fourth one appearing to be a military fighter are now flying southeast. Sonic the Hedgehog appears to be gone, and the other three are following at a fast pace. It has been confirmed that both Sonic and Blade Kasille were up in that battle, as well as government informant Miles Prower. It is unknown who the person in the military fighter is as of this point, but all four are indeed heading southeast, supposedly towards the Mystic Ruin mountain range, including Red Mountain and the Silver Mountains-" "Next stop…" Charmy commented to Espio. The chameleon nodded, and the two rushed off to the train station for the next departure.
There she was, inside a cavern, with no light coming in. She had her hammer. Suddenly, Gamma appeared. She tried talking to it, make friends with it again, but instead it started firing. She held up her hammer to stop the gunfire, but it dismantled immediately. Sonic came swooping in to stop it, but something caught him from behind. It was Eggman, with an electrical device that had paralyzed the blue hedgehog. Amy watched in horror as Gamma was allowed to tee off on Sonic and fire his most powerful gunshot. A gleam of light, then Sonic fell to the ground, lying in a pool of blood. She tried to scream, but something stopped her. She didn't know what, but she couldn't talk, shout or anything. Gamma fired another shot, which she just barely ducked under. Amy finally began to run away, but Knuckles and Tails swooped in armed with hunting knives. They took turns plunging their knives into her chest. As she slowly fell to the ground, she heard Sonic's fading voice, "Please, Amy, it's your turn…"
The dream ended with a blaring sound. Unwittingly, her hand had slapped her alarm clock, turning the alarm sample on. She yelped in a high-pitched tone as she jumped and hit the floor. She just so happened to land on the TV remote. On it, a special news bulletin was broadcasting.
"This just in. It appears that the three aforementioned planes and a fourth one appearing to be a military fighter are now flying southeast. Sonic the Hedgehog appears to be gone, and the other three are following at a fast pace. It has been confirmed that both Sonic and Blade Kasille were up in that battle, as well as government informant Miles Prower. It is unknown who the person in the military fighter is as of this point, but all four are indeed heading southeast, supposedly towards the Mystic Ruin mountain range, including Red Mountain and the Silver Mountains. We will bring you more updates as the situation unfolds."
Amy knew where she was going next. The question was how to get her. She had gotten lucky on her way back-the person driving the train had not recognized her. But everyone in Capital City probably knew everything about her now. She needed a disguise or something.
She quickly jumped into her closet, trying to find something she had never worn before. No, no, no, no, wore that on Christmas a couple times, nope, no…
"Oh God no." Buried behind tons of other clothes was the ugliest outfit possible-an eggshell colored blouse and green and gray plaid skirt. Where the hell did she get this from, who gave it to her, and what were they smoking when they got it? It didn't matter, this was her only choice.
Banging on her door.
"Ms. Amy Rose!" someone barked from behind the door. "This is the police! You are under arrest for damage to public property, disturbing the peace, and assisting a deadly criminal. Open the door now, or we will be forced to break in." Oh no.
"Okay," she sighed. "Just let me get dressed first, I just got out of the shower." Quickly, she slipped off her sleep outfit and threw on the ugly outfit. Then, she rushed out onto the balcony. Staring down at the drop into the street below, only one thing comforted her-If Sonic or the others could pull this off numerous times, she could too. She slowly muttered, "One for the money…two for the show…three to get ready…" The door smashed behind her.
"Oh my GOD!!!!!!!" she screamed as she free-fell off the balcony. Then, her easily distracted mind kicking in, she decided to flip around and go face first to keep any sickos from looking up her skirt.
"That's right, red, just chill for a bit. You'll be okay." Mighty was about to comfort Knuckles some more when he heard a buzzing sound. It was that blasted radio Espio insisted on giving him.
"What?" he nearly shouted into it.
"What's up?" shouted a voice from above. It was Vector. "Vec?" Mighty asked, surprised. "What in God's name-" "MIGHTY!" "WHAT???"
"I just said do you think you can get there?" Espio asked through the radio.
"Yes I can," Mighty replied. "Oh wait, minor detail…WHERE THE HELL DO YOU WANT ME TO GO?????"
"Silver Mountains! I just said!" Espio yelled.
"Sorry," Mighty apologized. "I just had motor mouth number two come out of nowhere to greet me." "Vector just got there?" "Yeah." "Okay, can you get to the Silver Mountains from there?" "If I knew what they were, I'd be happy to." "Just come back to the ruins. You'll see Red Mountain pretty easily. Just follow that and you'll see the Silver range before too long." "Alright, see ya soon. I've got a little surprise for you when I see you guys, though." "I'm sure I'll be stunned. Just one last question, Mighty." "Yeah?" "Who's motor mouth number one?" "That," Mighty taunted, "is my little secret.
Chapter 24
Catching the Train
This explained everything! All the crimes, framing, everything! Eggman WAS behind this, and he was trying to lure him into a trap by saying he needed his help! So much for being a reformed politician running for mayor. That bloated jerk was just begging for it.
Sonic kept following the violet jet beam shooting out of the back of Metal Sonic. It was a shame, really, because this was basically undoing all the hard work he had just done running up this mountain. However, Sonic figured Metal would be going back to the base anyway, so it might be easier.
"C'mon rust bucket, come back!" Sonic called ahead. "I just wanna know a couple things! Like why you're trying to ruin my life!"
Metal didn't respond. Of course it didn't. It would only listen to Eggman. Still, Sonic yelled at it.
"So, what's old egghead planning now? Does he want to turn Capital City into a new Iraq? Or maybe he has reformed and just wants to torture me! Is that it, Metal? Huh?" Sonic eventually stopped his torrent of comments. It didn't do anything, and it was deterring his concentration. One misstep was a God-only-knew-how-far fall.
The pair of Sonics continued to rotate around the mountain path until Metal swerved off the path. Finally, Sonic thought, his battery died or something.
But no, Metal had actually cut into a cavern Sonic couldn't quite see yet. The blue hero screeched to a halt in front of it, wondering what happened, until he turned and saw Metal streaking down the cave. Growling, he ran off after him, knowing that there would be fire and lava involved in some way.
Running into the train station, Amy, in her new disguise, still attracted a lot of attention-mainly because the cops were following her. As she dashed through, she quickly swiped her card at a small card reader and hopped onto a just-departing train.
This didn't mean she was inside the train. Just on it.
She was hanging on a handle on the door for dear life, banging with one hand for someone to let her in. Everyone else inside the train was horrified at this walking, talking pink hedgehog, supposedly wanted by the police, slamming on the door. They thought she was threatening them or something.
"Come ON!" Amy screamed. She looked ahead for a split second, and almost instinctively flipped up onto the top side of the train and ducked. "Good God," she muttered as the train entered a tunnel. Had she stayed a second longer, she'd be knocked out, easy pickings for the police, or possibly dead. This must be the kind of life Sonic lived, Amy thought. At first she wondered how he could possibly enjoy this kind of thing all the time, then she realized something. "Damn, this is really fun!"
She rode the train halfway there, through thousands of ceiling lights whizzing past and through otherwise pitch darkness. But at the halfway point, the train began to slow down. Slower, slower, a screeching sound from beneath, until finally, the train had come to a complete halt. What had happened? Had the electricity gone off or something?
Then, the flashlights came from behind.
She was wanted by the police. She was also riding on a public electric train. Amy put two and two together and realized the cops had stopped the train to capture her. Other than breaking Sonic out of prison, Amy had no intention of doing anything illegal. Which meant she couldn't fight off the policemen. She had to run.
Amy quickly crawled across the top of the train to the side. Once off the top, she ran as fast as her little legs could take her. Luckily, she had been working out and losing weight with a new program called "Boxercise." A friend had recommended it to her and he started using it to lose weight and try to impress Sonic. Obviously, he hadn't noticed. But it came in handy here. With a lighter load to carry and her improved wind, she easily escaped the lights. That didn't mean she was out of the fire just yet. They were still following her, but if she continued her pace, she'd be hiding in the Mystic Ruins before they could catch up.
At the base of Red Mountain, Espio and Charmy waited for their friends.
"Wonder what that surprise is," Charmy asked.
"Probably some huge robot Mighty killed off or something like that," Espio responded. "Or some seashell he found on the beach," the bee joked.
Suddenly, Espio had an idea. "Maybe he found the hedgehog???" Charmy was about to make a smart remark, but then realized how right his chameleon friend could be.
"Let's hope so," he said.
"Hope what?" called a familiar voice. It wasn't Mighty.
It wasn't Vector.
It wasn't Sonic.
It wasn't Tails.
It wasn't Big.
It wasn't Blade.
It was Knuckles.
Tails and Blade flew neck-in-neck for a while before they finally noticed each other. Both were so intent on getting to the Silver Mountains that they weren't paying attention to their sides. Until a loud screeching sound emitted from Blade's rear left jet. The two immediately looked at where the sound was coming from and ended up looking at each other.
"You!" they both yelled, but neither could hear the other.
Back on Morphos in his lab, RaGiff got two separate calls at the same time. He accepted both calls at once on his telecom.
"Get me hooked up with _____," they both said of the other.
RaGiff made a 3 way connection with Tails, Blade, and himself, then cut himself off. Then, as an afterthought, he reentered the call as a listener-only. He chuckled to himself. This was going to be good.
Rouge had just slipped to the right side of Blade's hovercraft, preparing to ram it down. This was her reward. She probably could have shot it down, but she didn't want to hit the fox's plane by mistake. She hadn't flown one of these yet in combat-she just passed her examination two weeks ago-and Tails probably knew something about Sonic that she could use.
But before she could drill the bounty hunter's ship, Blade absentmindedly sided up against hers and made a sound of grinding steel. Blade quickly whipped his head around to see Rouge.
He mouthed the word "You!" before heading back to his console. Rouge sighed. So much for a stealth elimination.
Meanwhile, RaGiff got another call on his telecom. "Get me hooked up with military fighter number 650-B-72," Blade asked.
"Listen man, do you want a separate conversation with each one or do you want all of them at once?" RaGiff responded. "Cuz separate can't be done. It's either one or the other, or a three way chat with all of 'em." Blade grumbled something unprintable under his breath. "Such a genius," he growled. "You can hack into the most secure military computers and build a machine like this, but can't get a two way calling system in? Fine, give me both at once."
"Your wish," RaGiff answered, and he pressed a button. Then, he stayed in again as a listener only. He just had to hear this.
Chapter 25
Escape from Red Mountain
The rivers of magma flowed around Sonic as he chased his metal counterpart. Rocks crumbled in the distance. Splashes of lava sprayed across the few solid parts of the mountain. Sonic realized this was a very active volcano-it was never this bad before. The problem was that Metal could just hover above the pools of lava-Sonic had to avoid or jump over them. That meant when he could run, he had to crank up his speed to an unthinkable level.
He leapt over one lava pit and bounced off of the ground onto a wall. He began running on the wall until he saw part of it begin to crack ahead of him. He jumped off just in time to see that same part burst in magma. Sonic barely avoided the spray of hot rock and continued on. A boulder started bouncing across the path. Sonic lowered his head and barely ducked under it. This must be trap path or something, Sonic thought.
The ground began to crumble, and lava began to seep in where Sonic was running. This place was going up soon. How soon, he didn't know. He had to get away from here. But then he'd lose Metal. Sonic just hoped Metal knew how close this place was to erupting as well.
He jumped over the different lava pits, hopped off of the falling rocks, and bounced off the wall to slip past tight paths. Soon, the already small area he had to run with began to grow smaller and smaller. He must be reaching an exit. A shimmer of purple was all that Sonic could make out of Metal. Just keep running, Sonic thought, he had to be slowing down soon.
With all the action going around, it was near impossible to see Metal Sonic, though. Magma sprayed across the volcano, rocks fell, the ground sank deeper and deeper. Of course, Metal kept going at the same steady pace, but Sonic had to take time to avoid all these dangers. Turn after turn brought even more dangers, each more threatening and deadly than the last. Finally, he came to a small archway. This must be the end.
Instead, it lead to another part of the cavern containing a huge, white-hot ocean of lava. Sonic had to screech to a sudden halt to avoid running over the edge into the flowing lava. Where was Metal? The answer was right across from him. Metal was flying with a golden shimmer surrounding him. Sonic remembered this from back on Little Planet, when he battled with Metal Sonic and Eggman at once on the Stardust Speedway. But this was even more intense then that.
A huge rock fell from the ceiling into the lava below, causing a huge tunnel of the fiery liquid to sizzle the walls of the cavern. Sonic felt the ground beneath him tremble. Soon, the platform he stood on right now was going down. There was only one way across. Sonic obviously couldn't jump this kind of a distance, so he decided to go around it. The wall was so long, though, that simply running up along it wasn't going to be enough-he would fall into the lava about halfway through. He needed something faster.
Sonic hadn't performed his Super Peel-Out in a long time-the last time he remembered was on Planet Freedom when he was trying to save Tails and the old owl. Now he realized how useful it could have been in previous situations. He slowly planted his hands on the ground and began moving his feet at incredible speeds. Soon, his bottom half was a blur of red. That's when he knew it was ready. He jerked his hands up and blasted off onto the wall. Just a split second later, the very rock he stood on before slid into the red abyss below. Rocks were falling all over the place and spreading magma onto the walls. This meant Sonic was going to get hit if he wasn't careful. Not enough to cause permanent damage, but enough to burn him, give him some serious pain, and cause him to loose his footing. Faster, he thought, this place is a death trap. He was halfway around the room now, and he saw the small hole that Metal had burrowed just a few minutes ago. It was almost another half-mile to get there. To most, this would take an eternity. For Sonic, he needed to do it in about a minute before he got killed in some wild way.
Then, it happened.
Sonic lost concentration long enough to allow a small speck of lava to hit his foot. He yelped in pain. Even his shoe couldn't stop it from burning through. He kept on running, but the foot got worse with every step. He couldn't keep this up. He needed to try another tactic. Sonic picked up the pace as much as he could, killing his foot, and finally started spinning into a tiny blue ball. He had barely any vision of what was going on, but continued to roll along the wall. Soon, the small hole from the end of the cavern began to pop up continuously in his spinning vision. It was time to exit. He popped out from his rolling position, started to run on his burning foot again, and ran into the small hole, flipping back into an upright position. He continued to run, as the pain in his right foot began to dull, and eventually light crept into the hole. Finally, he was out.
But after all that, he had lost Metal Sonic. Sonic sighed and began his descent up the mountain once more to find the Silver Mountains.
Then he stopped. Something was peculiar about that boulder he just passed. Something just a bit odd. He raced back and inspected it. And he realized why it was so odd.
Laying beside it, sparking and shaking, was Metal Sonic's hand.
Sonic carefully kicked the foot away and used all his strength to roll the boulder away. Beneath it lay the rest of the robot, wires popping out, sparks flying, a total wreck. It was almost sad to see one of his most intense enemies and rivals brought down by a simple rock. But what to do with it now? Sonic's main reaction was to just crush the thing right now, but his gut instinct told him that Metal may prove useful somewhere else.
So Sonic decided to compromise. He kicked Metal off the mountain.
He smiled, satisfied slightly with this choice. On the one hand, he finally got to bring it to his metallic rival, and on the other, it had a chance to survive, albeit a miniscule one. He looked down to see the blue lump of steel tumble to the forest below until it disappeared into the trees. Then, looking up, he saw the Silver Mountains.
"Well, that kills two birds with one stone," he figured. "Get rid of Metal and find the mountain range. Now to go slap that plan of Eggman's back in his big fat mustache."
Sonic began his descent of the mountain. This place wasn't safe anymore. He probably wouldn't feel safe anyway until he was back in Capital City with his name cleared and Eggman dead, but he knew that wasn't gonna happen anytime soon, so he'd just have to settle for getting off this volcano. Then again, he never knew Red Mountain was volcanic. Sure, it had lava and such inside, but that didn't mean it was gonna erupt anytime soon. Oh well, you learn new things every day.
When he got off the mountain's path, he continued right into the forest towards the Silver Mountains. But he didn't get very far.
"Well, look what we have hear," Mighty smiled unpleasantly. "We were just talking about you. A little guest of ours wants to see you for a second." Espio, Vector, and Charmy all entered from the darkness.
"Big whoop," Sonic responded, clenching his fists. "I can take you four on anytime. Bring it." "Oh, but these aren't my guests," Mighty explained.
A familiar red echidna walked next to Mighty.
"Oh…god…" Sonic whispered.
"This is my guest of honor," Mighty said. "And he'd be honored to get some well-deserved revenge with the rest of us."
Chapter 26
A New Plan
Panting, exhausted, and a little groggy, Amy finally made it to the Mystic Ruins. She approached the cave that lead to Red Mountain and was about to enter when she saw something in the air that caught her eye. Flying high up right towards Red Mountain was Tails. Beside him were two ships she didn't recognize. So, Tails was really after Sonic and was bringing a posse to take him out. She thought initially that it was some kind of fluke, but she was mistaken, apparently. Well, no one was going to get near her Sonic without a good 'ol whomping. She tapped her foot with her hammer and sped down the cave entrance.
"Okay, let's get this straight," Blade said through his intercom. "Tails, you and I had that plan together that got broken up because you forgot to mention it to Sonic and he escaped." "Right." "And now he'll probably do anything to make sure you're dead." "Yes."
"So now you're gonna go to the Silver Mountains to clear things up with him." "Yeah." "And you Rouge," he continued. "You were going to catch that hedgehog for some prize money, in jewels." "Uh huh." "But because I was going after him too, you thought I was a threat to that cause and feigned that order from the President to get me out of the way." Silence. Then, "Yes."
"And now you're going to the Silver Mountains to catch Sonic and get your treasure." "Exactly." "And I'm going there to catch Sonic and get money for the cause and hopefully fulfill Tails' plan." "What's this plan?" Rouge asked.
"Alright, Tails insisted Sonic was innocent, so we made up this deal while Sonic and his girlfriend were sleeping in the plane. I would "catch" Sonic with my squad-" "You mean mine," Rouge corrected. "It was mine before you lied to me about that order," Blade shot back. "Anyway, Tails would tell Sonic about it beforehand, he'd pretend to be captured, I'd turn him in and get my reward. Then we'd spring the hedgehog from whatever prison he was in and go from there, try to clear his name or something, figure out who really did it. And with RaGiff on our side…" "RaGiff?" "Long story. Anyway, he made sure Sonic was innocent and he helped us out with this new plan here."
"A bit clever," Rogue said. "But one more question. What's the cause, exactly?" "'Cause I owe it to someone," Blade quickly said. Rouge was satisfied, but Tails wasn't so certain. "I don't know about that, RaGiff mentioned something about…" "Here we go," Rouge interrupted, sensing that Blade wanted to keep this secret for as long as he could. "The Silver Mountains. Sonic should be there by now, right fox boy?" Tails grumbled about the name, but agreed. "Yeah, unless something surprising happens." "And with the way things have been going," Blade added, "that wouldn't be too shocking. Hello," he jumped up suddenly, "what's this?" "What?" Tails and Rouge asked simultaneously.
"I'm getting serious signals from those mountains," he explained. "There's some kind of electronic core over there. Rouge, does the military do any work around the Silver Mountains?" "Not that I know of," she answered.
"Then this could be a bit interesting. RaGiff?" Nothing. "'Giff, I know you're listening, I ain't stupid." "Alright, what is it? You want me to find out what's going on there, don't you?" "Good guess. Go to work, man." "Fine, but you owe me big time when you get back here." "If I ever come back." "So, this is RaGiff," Rouge commented. "Do you always just dive right into a conversation without introducing yourself, especially with a woman here?" "I tell you one thing, you ain't no woman." "Well then, what am I then, Mr. RaGiff?" "It's Mr. Griffin, technically, but if you call me a Mr. again, you will get no more help from me. And second, I'd tell you what you are, but there's a child present, so I'm gonna hafta wait 'til later."
"That's okay," Tails chuckled, "I ain't a completely dumb and innocent little kid." Rouge grumbled a curse under her breath.
"Okay, there's some kinda base there," RaGiff said, "but I can't get a solid reading. Some kind of super-security thing is blocking me. This is really weird, I thought I had a good security system, but this guy is just incredible. He's probably the one who broke through mine too. I'd really like to meet this guy."
"Eggman…" Tails muttered.
"Well then," Blade chuckled, "let's go meet this "Eggman." With that, he thrust his lever forward and flew towards the mountains, Tails and Rouge following.