(I do not own Sonic…etc.)

Flip Card 2:

Name: Bean and Bark

Age: 17 and 25

Species: Duck and Polar Bear

Sex: Both male

Job description: New G.U.N recruits.

Not much happened around the deepest part of the Mystic Ruins. No one really ventured that deep into its uncharted reaches and so, Big found that he could fish without interruption. A group of archaeologists had come to study the ancient pyramid ruins that stood in the centre of the jungle, but they stayed out of the cat's way. Mainly because they had seen the size of his foot prints in the soft mud and assumed him to be some form of large, unknown, possibly dangerous animal. Lying back in the foliage, his fishing rod stuck in the mud next to his large feet that stuck up into the air, he snored loudly, the river just in front of him vibrating with each intake of air. A dragonfly buzzed around him, the landing on his nose, making him sneeze. But even that didn't wake him up.

Several fish skeletons and scattered bones lay on the long grass next to him picked clean of fish expect for the heads and tails, a very strong smell rising into the air from what was left of their rotting flesh. Froggy was asleep on the cat's stomach, nestled in the thick white fur, hidden apart from a green and orange spotted back sticking up into the air. There had been a fish caught on the end of the lien for some time, but as its tugs went unanswered, it eventually managed to prey its mouth free from the hook and swim off.

There was a thundering clap from the sky and within a moment the air was full of coin size rain drops. Several hit the cat straight in the head, waking him up. As he opened his eyes, another fell into his left one and he quickly sat up, rubbing himself with the back of his head. Froggy slid out of his fur and down to the ground with a loud "Ribbit!"

"Come on Froggy. We'll go fishing again tomorrow." The cat said in his usual slow voice, offering a hand down toward the frog, who hoped back his hand and up onto his shoulder after absorbing some of the water through his skin and then taking shelter underneath the fringe of purple fur at the back of the large cat's head.

As the cat paused to pick up the rest of his finger equipment, he failed to notice the sparkling object drifting downstream toward him until he waded out to catch the end of his line that was trying to swim to ward's the waterfall some distance away. It was a jewel, about the size of a closed fist with cut surfaces and a strong purple glow radiating from it.

It hit the back of Big's foot and the cat turned to look down.

"Hey Froggy. It's that pretty rock you swallowed." He stated, bending over to pick the Chaos Emerald up. Its warm purple glow highlight his face. "What'ra the odds of that?" He added, tossing it up into the air and the nimbly catching it again, before pocketing it into a knotted piece of fur near his belt.

The President surveyed the Eight standing before him around the table, trying to keep a sceptical eye, yet found himself failing as he knew the fact that these were the very best defence he could ever hope of coming up with and as such, he couldn't help but admire them. Sonic the Hedgehog had proven himself a great hero many times over, as had Amy Rose and Miles Prower. True he was disappointed that Shadow had declined, but that was to be expected. The ultimate life form had never liked them. Rouge the bat was the best agent in the business, there wasn't a single mission she couldn't handle. She had helped unearth the Project Shadow conspiracy and aided the downfall of the Metal Overlord. So had the greatest robot in their arsenal, E:123 codename: Omega. Since that time, he had been greatly upgraded for greater durability in the battlefield. He was faster, stronger and far more efficient. The President was only glad that he was on their side instead of Eggman's. Espio the chameleon was the unknown factor amongst them. A skilled ninja without any doubt, with stealth skills rivalling Rouge's, however the President had yet to assess the Chamleon's character. As for the last two, the President gave a long hard stare. He had heard nothing but good things about the Polar Bear and Duck from their training instructor. Bark, the polar bear, had pale yellow fur and royal blue eyes. Even in the nicely central heated command centre of Area 99, he wore a green scarf, thick black gloves and a red bobble hat. He had said nothing since sitting down at the table with his arms crossed and chin pressed against his chest. In fact, the President was beginning to wonder if he'd fallen asleep. Bean was almost the opposite, with thick green feathers, some mounted into a frill on the top of his head. He almost reminded the President of a green version of Daffy Duck. He had been talking none stop with those around the table.

"Dude, it's an honour." Bean said I a rush shaking Sonic hand, although the blue hedgehog himself was not quite sure how he'd ended up talking to him anyway.

"Hey Omega, long time no see, you look especially shiny today." Rouge began, leaning one of the robots large arms. "Did one of the tech's give you a wax?" Unbeknownst to Rouge, the tech's had done a lot more than simply coat him in turtle wax. Hidden inside his body was now several missile firing compartments, already loaded and ready for action. His steal talons had been made far more effective and useful in battle.

"Agent Topaz was beginning to wonder where you had gone." He replied in his normal flat, emotionless voice. Rouge, who hadn't seen her old partner for a while, hissing in through her teeth.

"Hope the old gal wasn't too angry." He added playfully. Omega's large yellow head swerved to look directly down at her.

"She said that if she ever got her hands on you she would forcibly extract a…"

"That's quiet enough of that." The President quickly added, gaining everyone's attention and the process bloating out the end of Omega's sentence. "We have s serious situation and we'd like to get it resolved as soon as possible." Sonic yawned and leaned back in his chair. If he'd known there was going to be any talking involved, he'd have volunteered to go help Shadow instead of this. The President ignored his statement of boredom and carried on. "Precisely two days ago, Eggman Empire forces entered the atmosphere and proceeded to the Atlantic ocean." He paused while an agent turned on a slide projector and an image was projected onto the screen behind him. "They then created a formidable defensive perimeter before we could stop them, and now with that perimeter in place, all question of a large scale attack on the Undersea base is out of the question." Sonic had nearly gone to sleep but was quickly revived when Amy kicked him in the back. "What we need you eight to do is to pilot our new stealth Sub, the Fox Trot 1, through that defensive line. Enter his base and then deactivate his security system so we can attack." There was a sudden click and the picture changed to show blue prints of the miniature submarine. It seemed like Tails and Omega were the only ones to pay attention at that point, even Espio looked bored, balancing the point of a shuriken on one finger. The President coughed, gaining their attention again. "I realize that some of you aren't too found of covert operations and that this kind of tactics isn't you style, but this is probably the only way we're going to get an early shot as stopping this madman."

"How about once I we get inside the base, we chasm everything we see?" Sonic asked rudely, leaning on his hands. The President hesitated.

"Well, that could work too." Bean, Sonic and Espio rubbed their hands in anticipation, while Bark stared at his companion with a strange look on his face and Tails began to wonder if perhaps changing places with Metal Sonic would probably have been a better option.

The Foundation Organisation was originally started as a military owned company, helping the United States to develop weapons for use in various wars. After several years, it became a dominating financial company in the economy. Its current head of operations was a Mr. Arthur Falcon the 3rd. Who inherited the company from his father, Arthur Falcon the 2nd. The company had divisions in nearly everything that could be considered profitable, from new military technology to the current Chao integration and research program. So far, Chuck had found little in the publicly available information to link these people to the ghoulish things Shadow claimed had attacked him. Quite frankly, Chuck was beginning to think the black and red hedgehog was becoming ever so slightly obsessive.

Metal Sonic, displaying the annoyingly human character of boredom, ad leaning on the table next to the computer, a thick wire leading from his main engine, recharging his energy cells. Several of the adaptations and improvements that Chuck had installed on him could not be sustained by the robots own built in generator, so every few days he would have to recharge himself. The robot was slightly resentful of being kept inside, although he understood full well that he was not the most popular person around here after the whole Egg fleet thing and they were still trying to figure out exactly who had tipped off the authorities while he was being repaired.

"Wait, go back." Shadow suddenly snapped as Chuck scrolled down through the information he had been able to acquire. Chuck hesitated, looking back at him over his shoulder, before scrolling up, revealing the image of a Chinese Dragon. Shadow had seen it before.

"It resists."

"As expected."

"Initiate subjugation plan alpha." Without warning they swept forward like shadows disappearing across a field during sunset. It was like fighting the very darkness itself, Shadow's kicks, punches and energy attack just didn't have any effect, yet they were able to hurt him. Their plan was obviously clear, these constant attack were meant to simply tire him out. Apparently, they did not want him damaged. What annoyed Shadow was that he could tell these…things weren't very strong physically speaking, their blows hardly left any damage. What they relied on was their immunity to his attacks, using that to wear him down.

Eventually, he managed to gain control of this brawl and was narrowly avoiding the nearly invisible swipes using his in-human agility. There was timing involving in all this, these things could turn themselves solid and punch-able but only when they went for an attack. With this in mind, Shadow waited for an opening. They were rare, and when they came they passed too quickly for him to use them to his advantage, but still he waited. He kept his eyes on one of them, waiting patiently for it's time to swing. As it came forward with several others for an attack, Shadow spun around in mid air and fired a chaos Spear directly into the chest as it raised a arm to strike him. Proving his theory correct, his attack struck him in full force and the attacker was thrown by the sheer magnitude over the ground, landing with a loud thud against the desert sand. The others, seeing this display, quickly hovered backwards as their injured companion pulled himself up with a great deal of effort. His cloak and clothes underneath had been burned away on his chest, revealed a tattoo on his skin. A Chinese dragon with its entire length wrapped around the chest, it's open mouth towered the neck.

It was exactly the same as the tattoo, the one he'd seen after tearing the cloak from one of them. There was no mistaking it; it was completely identical in ever detail.

"What this?" Chuck asked in surprise. "It's the Foundation's original logo; its original owners were eastern millionaires. When the US military bought them out, they changed their logo to what it is today." A cruel smile crossed Shadow's face. Chuck suddenly got the hint. "You mean…"He turned back to stare at it. "That's the mark you saw?"

"Unmistakeable." Shadow replied. Chuck was left staring open mouthed. That didn't make any sense. Sure the Foundation could claim ownership over project Shadow if they wanted to; they were its legitimate financial backers after all. But why would they bother? There was little project to be made by capturing the only remaining source of the Project, Shadow himself. "This links my attackers to the Foundation. My intuition is never wrong." Metal Sonic leaned on his elbow, giving him a coy look.

"Sounds more like a lucky guess." Shadow narrowed his eyes at him threateningly, a small ball of chaos energy forming between his fingers as the start of a Chaos spear attack.

"Well Ok. Maybe this is slightly suspicious." Chuck began, running his hands over the keyboard, saving all the data for access later "But let's not fly off the bat before we gather more information. If could be possible that your assailant simply copied their old logo for a tattoo." Shadow didn't say anything for a moment, before adding with a devious smile…

"But it's also possible that he could be working for the Foundation?" Chuck looked at him blankly.

"Yes that is a possibility. Which is why we're going to do a little more detective work before we throw ourselves into the abyss." He quickly brought up some more of the information he'd been able to acquire. "The Foundation's office building is situated in the high rise region of Station Square. It's where they store all their files and written documents." He pulled up a picture of a large sky scrapper with the Foundation modern logo, a steal grey arrow head encircled by two triangles, one eclipsing the other, upon its top. "Details of everything from business transactions to employ registrations are kept here. If the Foundation are the ones who sent those, er…people…after you, then details of it' will have to be in there." Chuck's fingers paused, shrugging. "Although if they were, Id doubt they'd be stupid enough to file it. Of course, it's our best lead." Shadow ignored Chuck's statement, already thinking back. He remembered when he was standing before the invisible force the Echidna's called Krish-Kra-Pal, and it claimed it was responsible for his existence.

"Embrace me Shadow." The presence demanded this time, looming over him, like it was extending a pair of hands around him, preparing to snatch him up in it's grasp. "I am your destiny." Shadow felt sick to his stomach, the words spoken were empty and hollow, doing little to disguise their speakers true nature. Shadow could, see, right through them to this monstrosity. It was what he saw that made him so sick. A mind so full of darkness and emptiness that for a moment he began to doubt his own perceptions of the world. It was trying to force it's way from the outside and directly in to him, and it's presence around him was literally pushing him out. It was trying to replaced his mind with it's.

An image of his old friend, the girl with sea blue eyes and blonde hair flashed before the black hedgehog's eyes and whatever striking hold this thing had over him evaporated.

"I don't care who you are, or what you claim, or what you've done or are going to do." He crossed his arms in front of his chest. The insides beginning to burn with chaos energy. "I am not your property. I make my own destiny!" He closed his eyes and turned inward, tapping into his own power, the residual energy of the chaos emeralds their power had left in him. "CHAOS CONTROL!" He screamed, throwing his arms out and instantly his body was engulfed by a white ball of the purest light, forcing the threatening presence away from him.

"NO!!!!" The voice shrieked, trying desperately to snatch as him, but found itself being pushed further and further away.

The things that had attacked claimed that they had funded project Shadow, so could there be some kind of a connection?

"You coming Metal?" He asked, turning to give the robotic hedgehog a glance over his shoulder as Metal withdrew the ire from the wall, retracting it back into his body.

"Batteries all charged up." He replied, pushing himself to his feet. "Can I asked you a question?" Shadow paused for a moment, before nodding. "I've been trying to get Sonic and his friends to expect me. I've succeeded with Sonic, but well, he's Sonic. , you know what he's like. The others are still cowering in fear of me, although I don't blame them, it is annoying." The black hedgehog looked like, what he though for a moment was regret in the black visor that served as Metal Sonic's eyes. "You were once considered their enemy, like me. How did you gain their trust?" That proved to be a far more difficult question to answer than Shadow would have originally thought. He hadn't really noticed, or tried for that matter to gain anyone's trust. All he'd been trying to do since awakening on Prison Island had been to find out the truth about himself. Sonic and the others may have helped out of pity, or compassion. Or both. Metal Sonic's case was somewhat different, all he had tried to do was satisfy his unquenchable thirst for power. Scratching for an answer, he just came up with…

"Time is all that's needed." It was a cliché, hurriedly though up reply, but Metal Sonic seemed to buy it. "So are we going or what?"

Three air craft carries belonged to the United States military was poised just outside of the defensive, undersea perimeter Dr. Eggman had built to keep his base undisturbed. Each one had a hundred G.U.N robots and walkers waiting for activation inside. Of course, with that perimeter in place, any sort of attack would fail.

"This is Fox trot1." One of the Technician announced once Sonic and the others were down up on deck. The submarine was small, only about twice the size as some of the fighter planes around them and hocks were being attached to its top, preparing to lower it into the water. It was oval shaped like an egg, but with three long, thin tails on the back, a propeller in between them. By its sleek design, it was obvious that this vessel was built for stealth; it didn't however look like it could move very fast. The G.U.N logo was printed on both sides of its steal grey hull.

"Nice coffin." Sonic stated, looking over it sceptically. This really wasn't his style; he was a land creature in every respect. He didn't do water, which was probably, he realized, why Eggman built his latest base under the sea.

Rouge cringed when he saw someone familiar in a military navy blue uniform talking to some technicians.

"Ah nuts." Topaz turned around, saw her old partner and formed a frown. Rouge knew that she was in for it now.

"And just where were you?" The human demanded, smacking the bat on the back of the head. "I had half the department looking for you." Rouge simply smiled sheepishly at her, scratch her back of her head with her right hand in a very Sonic like gesture.

"Would you believe in the ancient past?" Topaz narrowed an eye sceptically, before shrugging.

"If you're going to go on vacation, you should at least notify us first."

It actually took a Amy holding her hammer at his back to keep Sonic from running away as they boarded the submarine. Tails couldn't wait to actually get his first glimpse at the controls, stars in his eyes as Bean showed him the short controls that sat directly in front of a plastic arched window, capable of withstanding high water pressure. There was a small chamber towards the back that was large enough to house Omega, as long as he stayed in compact, mobile mode.

"You're certainly not what I imagined." Bark stated as he and Sonic climbed inside the compact vessel, quickly followed by Amy with hammer in hand. "You look taller on TV."

"They say the camera adds ten pounds." Sonic replied with a large goofy grin, trying hide his nervousness as Bean, at the controls, began the submarines decent. The Hedgehog cringed, almost as if he could feel the water all around him. He managed however to keep a level head, despite the fact that all that was separating him from countless tones of crushing seawater was a few inches of steal and several centimetres of hardened plastic. To take his mind of it, he took the time to give Bark a proper look over. He was somewhat larger than the average mobian, standing a good head and shoulders above the hedgehog's own height;. His fur was a thick white, on the verge of a pale yellow. His eyes were hardened grey and Sonic's eyes were just sharp enough to notice a small scar underneath the thick fur of his left cheek. A thick, woolly green scarf was wrapped tightly around his neck and a woolly, red bobble hand sitting on the top of his head. A shaggy, mane like thick of hair sprouting out the back of his head and running down his back. His arms seemed to be made of pure muscle underneath the fur. "So when did you and the green Daffy duck over there…" Sonic began, gesturing to Bean who was trying to stave over a curious Tails. "End up working for G.U.N?" The Polar bear chucked, as if experienced some personal joke.

"We volunteered." He replied. "We sort of lost our previous occupations when the worlds merged and we had to come up with employment somewhere. The Government was hiring, their pay is over five figures a month and here we are. Off to the bottom of the ocean to fight some madman." Sonic hadn't heard the last bit.

"Five figures a month?" He asked suddenly.

Preparations complete, the ascent began. Eggman could feel the ground beneath his feet as he watched the outside ocean from the comfort of his throne in the control room. Decoe and Becoe running all over the place, trying to keep everything in order. This new little project of the good doctor's was rising towards the surface of the ocean at an incredible rate. Since they started inside a deep trench, shielding them from G.U.N radar, it would take them another twenty minutes before they surfaced.

"Doctor, we have an object on long range sensors." Eggman looked back over his shoulder toward the robotic henchman and the radar screen behind it. There was indeed a small object approaching from the surface. A large grin crossed the doctor's face.

"Ah." He exclaimed, putting his fingers together, his eyes gleaming in anticipation. "Right on time."

Bean, after being nagged for five minutes, finally let Tails take the controls, and imminently Sonic felt his breakfast come back to haunt him as the vessel rocked back and forth in the hands of an inexperienced pilot.

Espio, whose mind was else ware, hardly notice. He was too busy admiring the shuriken he was holding between two fingers, his reflection visible in the metal's surface. He was playing with it through his fingers like a coin, flicking it up into the air at one point and then catching it again. He wouldn't actually be here unless a large sum of money hadn't bee promised to help keep the Chaotix detective agency afloat. They owed a lot of money here and there and this went a long way to paying off their debts. There was a sudden vibration and the entire craft seemed to tip to one side.

"Ok, that wasn't me, I swear." Tails began as Bean took the controls back.

"That came from below." Bark stared, already to his feet. Rouge, Amy and Espio were already at the front, staring out the plastic window at something. The others followed their gaze, their mouths dropping open in astonishment. A colossal, dark shape had sudden raised itself from the depths below them, thousands of blinking lights from what could only be windows reached out from the darkness. As it rose, it was pushing the water above it upward, making the Fox Trot 1, rock from side to side uncontrollably.

"Sonic, you're about as predictable as they get." A voice suddenly stated over the radio, one they all recognised in an instant.

"You knew we were coming Eggman?" Sonic began in exclamation.

"Of course I knew. You always turn up at some point." Dr. Eggman had been anticipating a visit from his rival for some time now. In fact, Sonic was late according to his estimations. "Impressive? I do hope so." He asked as Sonic look out at the giant shape in front of them. "Allow me to introduce to you my latest battleship, the Egg Carrier 3." The darkness in front of them was now obvious a solid shape, with thousands of gleaming lights running over its surface. It seemed to fill the entire field of vision out of every window and then it was realized that the ship was rising from underneath them. "I pride myself on my engineering handiwork. This particular piece took my seven whole days none stop to design." Sonic smirked.

"You really need to get a life." He said with a wide grin. Eggman, on the other end of the line, shrugged his shoulders.

"Ok. Yours will do nicely." He ran his fingers over the key command console in front of him, all his teeth showing as his smile began to widen. "I can't imagine that dingy little sub of yours came compete with the firepower my vessel can produce." The statement was ominous through them all, confirmed as true when Bean tried to bring the Sub marine sharply around to starboard to avoid any attack, the actual vessel itself moving unbearably slow, certainly not enough speed to avoid a torpedo, which was exactly what Eggman had coming right up, the robotic crew down in firing room one already finished loading, the Fox Trot one in the evil mad man's cross heirs.

"So then, this is it. I'll truly miss our rivalry. So let me take a moment to remember it." Eggman breathed in deeply, sighing out through his mouth. "Alright that's long enough, bah-bye." There was a clicking sound as Eggman pressed a button and the water around the entire ship seemed to vibrate as a torpedo was fired from somewhere in front of them. Sonic's legendary speed could do little to help any of them now, and even with Bean at the helm, the Fox Trot 1 was slow in the water. They could see it now, streaming towards them as the Egg Carrier 3 continued to rise to the surface. Every instinct is Sonic's entire body was telling him to do something, preferably fast, but just what could he do? He was trapped inside here, along with everyone else.

It was then that he realized his greatest fear was about to come to pass. He was about to die at sea.

Eggman turned his back on the screen as the torpedo impacted and tiny fragments of metal were blow out into the water. The shock wave passed through the water, making the floor beneath his feet shake. After all the defeats, all the set backs, all the frustrating battles, he'd finally accomplished the one thing he though near impossible. He turned back to see that all that lay outside now was a few floating bits of metallic shell, the thin traces of oil and scrapped yellow paint still drifting in a thin cloud.

"Confirm?" The scientist asked Decoe, who was already by the radar screen.

"Reading no life signs amongst the wreckage sir." The robot replied, looking up briefly. Eggman leaned back in his chair, a wide smile on his face. His hands pressed each other's fingers. He knew that it was traditional for him at this point to let his roll back and scream with evil laughter, but he really didn't feel like it. He had prevailed over the Hedgehog finally, but he had rather expected more of a climatic end to his rival.

"Sir." Topaz began, shock plain on her face as the President turned to look at her. "We've just lost radar contact with Fox Trot 1." Before the President could react, there was a loud crashing sound from outside as the water before them began to heave upward was as colossal object at least ten times the size of the air craft carrier began to rise up. The water began to forth and boil; causing the ship to rock to the side as the peak of Eggman's latest monstrosity. All those on board could watch in amazement and horror as the Egg Carrier 3, a giant flying ship twice the size of its two predecessors, loomed in the sky above them, a thin rain of sea water falling fro the sky as the titan hovered for a moment to allow the access weight to be deposited. Like the two Egg Carriers before it, its underbelly had a forest of laser turrets sprouting away from it. On top, just in front of the bridge ran several runways each one with at least two dozen updated Egg fleet fighter planes just waiting to be launched at a moments notice.

It's massive wings, folded against it's side, served as two colossal shields on either side and like it's underbelly, these had laser turrets lining their outside as well. Branded on either side was the Eggman Empire's symbol, the face of Eggman himself. At it's direct front that tapped of compared to the massive collection of thrusters at it's back, lay the same triangular front made of armour metallic alloy, hidden within which was an extremely powerful weapon, which only Eggman himself knew about.

"Well." Eggman began, his sensors onboard already telling him of the air craft carrier's presence. "It seems we have a welcoming committee." He turned around in his chair to face a com station. "Oh Emerl. I have a job for you." On the tip of the Egg Carrier's tapering front end stood the black Emerl, the robot Eggman had created using parts and data from the original AI combat unit that he had been able to salvage. It's skin black and gold instead of orange. Several plates of armour places upon it's arms and legs. One large sea blue eye glaring down from a third eyepiece directly in the centre of it's forehead, above a set of glowing red optics. The robot turned to look down at the flimsy collection of ships that paled in both power and size to the Egg Carrier 3. The order was received, and that order was, Destroy.

(In Chris voice)

Oh no! What's happened to Sonic and his friends, has Eggman finally won?! Find out next time on Sonic X, Rise of Giant Wing. Don't miss it!