Still looking for artwork. E-mail me at SUPASONEC@aol.com with examples that pertain to this story
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Chapter 41
Another Criminal
With no visuals, RaGiff was completely blind to the action at hand. Blade, immersed in battle, was too busy to give him an update via the long-distance radio from the War Machine. All RaGiff could hope was that the hi-tech super car wasn't completely decimated, but it might be fun to build another one. And just to piss Leo off, he'd include a volcano detector as well.
Well, nothing to do. Only one choice.
He flipped on the TV and activated his personal satellite. It relayed him to Capital City's connection.
Oh good, just in time for overtime.
Matt Cummings of the Capital City Rage skated over to the face off circle to square off with Sam Morrison of the Milwaukee Swifts…
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sonic had to slow down because of the darkness. There wasn't a single source of light here, not even a torch. Grumbling, he put a hand to the rightmost wall to feel his way down the rocky tunnel. After walking for a tediously long amount of time, he put almost all of his weight on the right side. Suddenly, he jerked to the right. He wondered what was going on and got up to check. The hallway was now lighted by torches placed all the way down the tunnel. He examined the wall and saw a single square pushed in. A secret switch. What was this, some kind of video game?
With the torches, Sonic could now run at will. But his speed was soon interrupted by a crash followed by dull rumbling. In Sonic's history, that was only bad. So he took off. He ran so fast he couldn't even distinguish the difference between the rocks, the torches, and the light. All he knew was to follow wherever the red was.
Soon, the rumbling was gone. He slowed down and realized the tunnel was almost at its end. Past the rock exit was a metallic blue room. He decided to be a little quiet about it to not provoke Eggman. Slowly but surely, Sonic tiptoed out of the cave and silently placed one foot onto the metal. After he did the same with the other one, he straightened up and walked around.
For a bustling burg of metal, this room sure seemed dead. Tubes that were usually flowing with some weird substance were clear. Only a few of the machines were alive and running. Usually there was an army of robots in capsules waiting to be released. There were only four or five of these. Probably because every single robot in existence was most likely outside.
Curiously, Sonic walked up to the small group of capsules to see exactly who-or what-was in there. Upon further inspection, he saw there were five of them.
The first one contained a small, gold robot with a huge horn on his head. Its eyes glowed a sapphire blue. Hm…Odd. Sonic had never seen this one before. Pretty cool looking.
The second capsule contained the same robot as the first, except this one was silver and had gray eyes.
The third one contained a red robot that bore a striking resemblance to Knuckles. Sonic had seen this before, at least twice when he had battled Eggman. He needed to make sure that if he fought Eggman here, the crazy doctor could not get a hold of these guys.
The fourth one was empty. He assumed this one belonged to Metal Sonic.
And the fifth…
The fifth one held Shadow.
Or at least what he thought was Shadow. It could be one of those thousands of robots Eggman made of Shadow back with the Egg Fleet and Metal Sonic. The black hedgehog's eyes were closed, his head was down, and his arms were in an odd position, clasped around his chest. Smiling slyly, Sonic pressed a large green button on the machine. The old doctor must have Alzheimer's because usually, he'd put a password or something. He must be worried he'd forget. Oh well, better for Sonic.
The green liquid inside the capsule quickly drained from the machine. Oddly enough, Sonic felt something wet by his feet. He quickly looked and saw the emerald substance flooding out of the pod.
He looked up again, then ducked to avoid the opening hatch. When he looked again, Shadow was standing in a normal position, peering at Sonic.
"It's you again…" he muttered.
It was definetly Shadow from last time on the Egg Fleet. But was it really…THE Shadow?
Before Sonic could even get out a response, a booming metallic voice interrupted. "Fool! You dare to bring a third party into our showdown?"
It could've been Eggman, but it sounded female.
"Let's go!" Sonic hissed. "Give me a hand with Eggman."
"Sure. Whatever…" responded the black hedgehog. He jumped down from the capsule and joined Sonic as they walked around the room. But they wouldn't walk for very long.
In fact, the moment the huge computer in the center of the room exploded. Shadow blasted across the room with his air shoes to dodge the debris and Sonic flipped behind Shadow's empty capsule.
"Who are you?" shouted the metal voice. "Another one of that old doctor's worthless creations? Very well, I'll stuff you in the same grave I doomed him to!"
So…
Eggman was dead.
Sonic should've felt elated. The one who he could attribute to all his troubles was dead. But who was this woman?
"I am the ultimate life form!" retorted Shadow. "Shadow the Hedgehog."
"Don't flatter yourself! You're no ultimate life form! You barely live! You're just another robot, and I shall prove it to you! I am the greatest being ever to touch the Earth!"
With that, Sonic looked over the machine.
"Wherever you are, Sonic, you are next. I must put this chunk of metal in its place!"
Sonic couldn't see the source of the voice-a large robot was blocking his view of it. Shadow dashed up to the top of the machine Sonic saw, but he didn't last up there long. A loud pulsing sound from above, and Shadow fell to the ground by the machine.
"SHADOW!" Sonic screamed as he ran out to tend to the black hedgehog. But it wasn't really a hedgehog. It looked like one, but the pieces of metal scattered about the floor by Shadow's upper body and legs told Sonic he was, in fact, a robot.
So the real Shadow was most likely gone.
"You've finally shown yourself," muttered the voice. Sonic turned to look at the giant robot he thought was inactive. But he found out the voice was actually coming from the robot.
"My name is Crystal. I am the ultimate life form. Not even the real Shadow can hold a candle to my strength. I can tell you all because you won't need to know it for very long. All will fall to the wrath of me and my master, Lucifer, the Devil."
"So tell me all, "Crystal,"" Sonic responded. This must be another one of the Doctor's crazy inventions that went awry and killed him. About bloody time.
"For starters, neither Blade nor Tails are your foes. Second, I am. I am the cause to all of everyone's problems."
"For a robot, you sure are an idiot. First off, how could you be the cause of all my problems, and second, if you are, why would you tell me?"
"I am no robot. I am forced to find hosts, and I chose you."
"Me?"
"Yes."
"That's how…"
"Everyone thought you had killed Knuckles because you did. You did do it. You were lucky He did return through the Dimension 8.75 labyrinth, but barely."
"So he's not crazy?"
"No. And now, I bring my army to kill you and your friends, then destroy the world. I must take care of you first. I know you're a legend with your supersonic speed, but you have no chance against me. Still, I expect a good fight."
"So just another fight against another Eggman robot? I'm up for that."
"Heh heh heh…"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where was that robot going?
Tails had been following the scout robot Charmy sent him after for quite some time, and by now he figured this was just some defective robot. He was all the way to Capital City now.
"Hey look, it's Tails!" shouted a young boy from below. Great. Start up a commotion. Why couldn't they pay attention to the robot? Just ignore them.
Soon, they reached the center of the city. The buildings weren't as big around here. In all honesty, Tails hadn't been here to often. Only to go to the police station that one time to clear his name for a parking ticked he had received the previous week. It didn't work, and he was out twenty bucks.
Ironically, the robot stopped right over the police station and slowly landed on the roof. Tails followed suit. That robot was really inattentive if he hadn't noticed him by now. Some scout.
The robot revealed a laser in his chest and slowly carved a hole in the roof. What could the robot want here?
Then, he remembered. The Chaos Emeralds. The police had announced they had taken "seven mysterious, colored jewels" from Sonic they assumed were stolen jewelry.
Eggman-or whoever-wanted the Emeralds!
This robot obviously had no clue what it was doing. Sneaking in took too long.
Once the hole was completely cut, Tails jumped the robot. He ripped off the weak machine's head and kicked its lower part onto the street and tossed its head down along with it. Finally, he hopped off the roof and entered the station.
"Ah, Mr. Prower," greeted the secretary happily. "How can I help you?" she asked.
"Just something quick, Natalie. I wanted to take a look at those jewels the cops took in when they captured Sonic."
"Generally," the red haired woman said reluctantly, "we don't do that…"
"I'm on official government business," Tails explained, holding up a fake G.U.N. security card Amy had given him.
"Ah, you're with G.U.N.?" Natalie responded.
"Yes," Tails lied. "They're interested in the gems. They think they might be Chaos Emeralds they can use to power their machines, and they know I'm familiar with them."
Natalie looked nervous, but leaned over the desk. "Follow me," she whispered. She got up and opened a door behind her, beckoning him towards it. He followed.
They walked down a long hallway, greeting a couple high ranking policemen on the way. Finally, Natalie unlocked the last door of the hall. She and Tails walked in. Tails saw the Emeralds immediately, but that wasn't very hard-they were in a large case in the middle of the room.
"The police had the same speculations as G.U.N., apparently. They put these in a different room from the evidence." She paused to let Tails "examine" them as he tried to find a way to open them. "What do you think?" Natalie asked.
"Hard to tell by sight alone. Could I get a feel of them? I wanna check their streak and texture."
"Um…okay…" Natalie responded unwillingly. She walked over to a keypad Tails hadn't seen. "I'll need your card," she explained. "I need to swipe it."
Now it was Tails' turn to be nervous. If the card didn't work, he was screwed. He finally handed it over.
But amazingly, when the secretary swiped it in the thin slot, the case lifted away from the gems.
"There you go," she said. Tails walked up and grabbed one of them. Examining the room again, he saw a loose paper bag in the corner. Quick as a wink, the fox grabbed the bag, shoved all the gems off the platform and into the bag, and ran off down the hallway, Natalie screaming in pure horror behind him.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chapter 41
Another Criminal
With no visuals, RaGiff was completely blind to the action at hand. Blade, immersed in battle, was too busy to give him an update via the long-distance radio from the War Machine. All RaGiff could hope was that the hi-tech super car wasn't completely decimated, but it might be fun to build another one. And just to piss Leo off, he'd include a volcano detector as well.
Well, nothing to do. Only one choice.
He flipped on the TV and activated his personal satellite. It relayed him to Capital City's connection.
Oh good, just in time for overtime.
Matt Cummings of the Capital City Rage skated over to the face off circle to square off with Sam Morrison of the Milwaukee Swifts…
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sonic had to slow down because of the darkness. There wasn't a single source of light here, not even a torch. Grumbling, he put a hand to the rightmost wall to feel his way down the rocky tunnel. After walking for a tediously long amount of time, he put almost all of his weight on the right side. Suddenly, he jerked to the right. He wondered what was going on and got up to check. The hallway was now lighted by torches placed all the way down the tunnel. He examined the wall and saw a single square pushed in. A secret switch. What was this, some kind of video game?
With the torches, Sonic could now run at will. But his speed was soon interrupted by a crash followed by dull rumbling. In Sonic's history, that was only bad. So he took off. He ran so fast he couldn't even distinguish the difference between the rocks, the torches, and the light. All he knew was to follow wherever the red was.
Soon, the rumbling was gone. He slowed down and realized the tunnel was almost at its end. Past the rock exit was a metallic blue room. He decided to be a little quiet about it to not provoke Eggman. Slowly but surely, Sonic tiptoed out of the cave and silently placed one foot onto the metal. After he did the same with the other one, he straightened up and walked around.
For a bustling burg of metal, this room sure seemed dead. Tubes that were usually flowing with some weird substance were clear. Only a few of the machines were alive and running. Usually there was an army of robots in capsules waiting to be released. There were only four or five of these. Probably because every single robot in existence was most likely outside.
Curiously, Sonic walked up to the small group of capsules to see exactly who-or what-was in there. Upon further inspection, he saw there were five of them.
The first one contained a small, gold robot with a huge horn on his head. Its eyes glowed a sapphire blue. Hm…Odd. Sonic had never seen this one before. Pretty cool looking.
The second capsule contained the same robot as the first, except this one was silver and had gray eyes.
The third one contained a red robot that bore a striking resemblance to Knuckles. Sonic had seen this before, at least twice when he had battled Eggman. He needed to make sure that if he fought Eggman here, the crazy doctor could not get a hold of these guys.
The fourth one was empty. He assumed this one belonged to Metal Sonic.
And the fifth…
The fifth one held Shadow.
Or at least what he thought was Shadow. It could be one of those thousands of robots Eggman made of Shadow back with the Egg Fleet and Metal Sonic. The black hedgehog's eyes were closed, his head was down, and his arms were in an odd position, clasped around his chest. Smiling slyly, Sonic pressed a large green button on the machine. The old doctor must have Alzheimer's because usually, he'd put a password or something. He must be worried he'd forget. Oh well, better for Sonic.
The green liquid inside the capsule quickly drained from the machine. Oddly enough, Sonic felt something wet by his feet. He quickly looked and saw the emerald substance flooding out of the pod.
He looked up again, then ducked to avoid the opening hatch. When he looked again, Shadow was standing in a normal position, peering at Sonic.
"It's you again…" he muttered.
It was definetly Shadow from last time on the Egg Fleet. But was it really…THE Shadow?
Before Sonic could even get out a response, a booming metallic voice interrupted. "Fool! You dare to bring a third party into our showdown?"
It could've been Eggman, but it sounded female.
"Let's go!" Sonic hissed. "Give me a hand with Eggman."
"Sure. Whatever…" responded the black hedgehog. He jumped down from the capsule and joined Sonic as they walked around the room. But they wouldn't walk for very long.
In fact, the moment the huge computer in the center of the room exploded. Shadow blasted across the room with his air shoes to dodge the debris and Sonic flipped behind Shadow's empty capsule.
"Who are you?" shouted the metal voice. "Another one of that old doctor's worthless creations? Very well, I'll stuff you in the same grave I doomed him to!"
So…
Eggman was dead.
Sonic should've felt elated. The one who he could attribute to all his troubles was dead. But who was this woman?
"I am the ultimate life form!" retorted Shadow. "Shadow the Hedgehog."
"Don't flatter yourself! You're no ultimate life form! You barely live! You're just another robot, and I shall prove it to you! I am the greatest being ever to touch the Earth!"
With that, Sonic looked over the machine.
"Wherever you are, Sonic, you are next. I must put this chunk of metal in its place!"
Sonic couldn't see the source of the voice-a large robot was blocking his view of it. Shadow dashed up to the top of the machine Sonic saw, but he didn't last up there long. A loud pulsing sound from above, and Shadow fell to the ground by the machine.
"SHADOW!" Sonic screamed as he ran out to tend to the black hedgehog. But it wasn't really a hedgehog. It looked like one, but the pieces of metal scattered about the floor by Shadow's upper body and legs told Sonic he was, in fact, a robot.
So the real Shadow was most likely gone.
"You've finally shown yourself," muttered the voice. Sonic turned to look at the giant robot he thought was inactive. But he found out the voice was actually coming from the robot.
"My name is Crystal. I am the ultimate life form. Not even the real Shadow can hold a candle to my strength. I can tell you all because you won't need to know it for very long. All will fall to the wrath of me and my master, Lucifer, the Devil."
"So tell me all, "Crystal,"" Sonic responded. This must be another one of the Doctor's crazy inventions that went awry and killed him. About bloody time.
"For starters, neither Blade nor Tails are your foes. Second, I am. I am the cause to all of everyone's problems."
"For a robot, you sure are an idiot. First off, how could you be the cause of all my problems, and second, if you are, why would you tell me?"
"I am no robot. I am forced to find hosts, and I chose you."
"Me?"
"Yes."
"That's how…"
"Everyone thought you had killed Knuckles because you did. You did do it. You were lucky He did return through the Dimension 8.75 labyrinth, but barely."
"So he's not crazy?"
"No. And now, I bring my army to kill you and your friends, then destroy the world. I must take care of you first. I know you're a legend with your supersonic speed, but you have no chance against me. Still, I expect a good fight."
"So just another fight against another Eggman robot? I'm up for that."
"Heh heh heh…"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Where was that robot going?
Tails had been following the scout robot Charmy sent him after for quite some time, and by now he figured this was just some defective robot. He was all the way to Capital City now.
"Hey look, it's Tails!" shouted a young boy from below. Great. Start up a commotion. Why couldn't they pay attention to the robot? Just ignore them.
Soon, they reached the center of the city. The buildings weren't as big around here. In all honesty, Tails hadn't been here to often. Only to go to the police station that one time to clear his name for a parking ticked he had received the previous week. It didn't work, and he was out twenty bucks.
Ironically, the robot stopped right over the police station and slowly landed on the roof. Tails followed suit. That robot was really inattentive if he hadn't noticed him by now. Some scout.
The robot revealed a laser in his chest and slowly carved a hole in the roof. What could the robot want here?
Then, he remembered. The Chaos Emeralds. The police had announced they had taken "seven mysterious, colored jewels" from Sonic they assumed were stolen jewelry.
Eggman-or whoever-wanted the Emeralds!
This robot obviously had no clue what it was doing. Sneaking in took too long.
Once the hole was completely cut, Tails jumped the robot. He ripped off the weak machine's head and kicked its lower part onto the street and tossed its head down along with it. Finally, he hopped off the roof and entered the station.
"Ah, Mr. Prower," greeted the secretary happily. "How can I help you?" she asked.
"Just something quick, Natalie. I wanted to take a look at those jewels the cops took in when they captured Sonic."
"Generally," the red haired woman said reluctantly, "we don't do that…"
"I'm on official government business," Tails explained, holding up a fake G.U.N. security card Amy had given him.
"Ah, you're with G.U.N.?" Natalie responded.
"Yes," Tails lied. "They're interested in the gems. They think they might be Chaos Emeralds they can use to power their machines, and they know I'm familiar with them."
Natalie looked nervous, but leaned over the desk. "Follow me," she whispered. She got up and opened a door behind her, beckoning him towards it. He followed.
They walked down a long hallway, greeting a couple high ranking policemen on the way. Finally, Natalie unlocked the last door of the hall. She and Tails walked in. Tails saw the Emeralds immediately, but that wasn't very hard-they were in a large case in the middle of the room.
"The police had the same speculations as G.U.N., apparently. They put these in a different room from the evidence." She paused to let Tails "examine" them as he tried to find a way to open them. "What do you think?" Natalie asked.
"Hard to tell by sight alone. Could I get a feel of them? I wanna check their streak and texture."
"Um…okay…" Natalie responded unwillingly. She walked over to a keypad Tails hadn't seen. "I'll need your card," she explained. "I need to swipe it."
Now it was Tails' turn to be nervous. If the card didn't work, he was screwed. He finally handed it over.
But amazingly, when the secretary swiped it in the thin slot, the case lifted away from the gems.
"There you go," she said. Tails walked up and grabbed one of them. Examining the room again, he saw a loose paper bag in the corner. Quick as a wink, the fox grabbed the bag, shoved all the gems off the platform and into the bag, and ran off down the hallway, Natalie screaming in pure horror behind him.