Flip Card 2: (I do not own Sonic, etc.)

Name: Big

Sex: male

Age: 25

Species: Cat

Job Description: Dim witted and slow, Big lives in the jungle with his best friend, Froggy.

"Incoming!" Bark yelled, before hitting the dirt, narrowing avoiding a blast from the laser cannon mounted on Tau's left shoulder. Froggy yelped and buried himself in Big's fur as the cat took off as quickly as he could with his large flat feet. Tau detected the retreat, twisting his entire torso around and firing a net from the back of his right cannon. Wrapping itself around the cat, Big was knocked onto the floor, tangled completely up. He lay there struggling on the jungle floor, his spiked tail sticking up in the air.

Bark used the momentary distraction to come in close, drawing a fist back for a punch. As it impact, the polar bear discovered that Tau's metal skin was much harder than that of the other robots he'd fought. He cried out load as felt the bones in his fist crack. Tau swung back around, his own punch proved to much stronger, smashing Bark through the air and straight into a tree, knocking it over.

Bean darted to the side, several large bombs worthy of the late Bokkun in his grasp. Tau just managed to detect him in time as the green duck tossed them straight at him. Swinging his entire torso around three hundred and sixty degrees, the robots arm acted like a baseball bat, knocking them away from him and straight back at Bean.

"HOLY HELL!" The duck screamed; diving into the undergrowth as his own devices exploded all around him.

Bark shook his head, rubbing the back of his neck. That robot was actually stronger than him, so he'd have to be extra carefully. Simply overpowering techniques were not going to work against this machine. He could call for back up, but there was little time. By the time any help arrived, the robot would have taken the Chaos Emerald and gone. They would just have to stop it by themselves.

Pushing himself up, he assessed the situation. The tank like robot was advancing on the cat who was struggling to free himself and his frog from the net and Bean was cowering underneath a large bush, sourced ground all around him.

"Any time you feel like helping…" The polar bear said contemptuously, before leaping at the robot, landing with a loud thud on it's back. Tau's back send sunk into the mud as the extra weight pressed down on it. Before the robot could try a contour attack, Bark shoved himself off, narrowly avoiding a swing from the large metal arm. Its treads slipping on the mud, Tau was completely stuck in the ground.

That however, it not stop the robot from firing the cannons mounted to its shoulders. Its left cannon rotated one hundred and eighty degrees and fired at near point blank range straight into Bark's face.

Yelping, Bark bend his legs, dipping himself head over heals, landing on his back. The laser blast shot over him and collided with a tree, setting it on fire.

"Helping, right, Good plan." Bean muttered, crawling out from his hiding place, a new batch of his bombs at the ready. Bark nearly threw himself off the ground and the left cannon pivoted around, trying to get a good lock on to fire again. Bark's speciality was by no means, speed, but he still managed to stay one step ahead of Tau's targeting sensors, waiting until the robot let its guard drop so it could fire.

The moment he was waiting for came when Bean tossed a second load of bombs beside its stuck treads, which exploded as soon as they hit the ground, blowing one of the wheels off the metal frame. Tau, now more stuck than ever, rotated it's torso around again, a large metal arm snatching Bean across the mid waist. Bark tried to leap in to help, by Tau shot around at the last moment and tossed Bean right at him, knocking the two of them out of the sky.

"Switching to hover mode." With a fluid motion, the ruined treadmills retracted and a long pair of hover pads descended in their place, pushing Tau out of the buddy ditch and up into the air.

"Ah crap." Bean and Bark said together, before running for all they were worth away from the robot who by now was more mobile than before. Bark reached over and snatched the net that held Big as they ran, desperately dodging and ducking to avoid the blasts from the cannons on his shoulders.

"Let me out of here!" Big yelled down at them as they disappeared as quickly as they could through the trees, sliding down a muddy hill to a river. Tau still close behind, bashing down trees in it's relentless pursuit.

"You'll have to wait." Bean replied, before slipping into the water, disappearing into the deep part that ran down the middle.

"Hold your breath." Bark added, before diving in with a loud splash. Big could hold his breath for yours without having to come up for air, so a quick dip in a river was no problem for him. Froggy, who was naturally amphibious, actually found it enjoyable. Polar bears and ducks were also animals best suited to the water and so the four of them kept underwater, watching the dark silhouette of Tau fly above them. Their only hope now was that he didn't detect them down here and carried on looking else ware. Tau had only programmed the detect heat signatures and he hadn't seen them slip underneath the cold water, which was masking their own body heat.

Bark surfaced briefly, just letting his nose and eyes poke above the surface. A wide smile crossed his face as he watched Tau float away downing the flow of the river downstream.

He dived again and quickly untied the net with Big inside, letting both him and Froggy free. They waited for another few minutes, before they all surface and swam over to the bank. Bean's oily feathers let the water simply drain off him, while Bark and Big had to shake themselves down like a dog to get the water out of their fur.

"Take the pretty rock." Big said almost at once, handing the Chaos Emerald over in an instant. "It's more trouble than it's worth." Without another word he and Froggy disappeared into the jungle, travelling in the opposite direction they'd seen Tau go in.

"Strange guy." Bean commented with a narrow eye.

"Forget about it. We got what we came for." Bark replied, tossing the emerald and then catching it again, before tucking it into his fur. "Let's get back to headquarters before that robot…" He never got finish the sentence as a shadow fell over them. As they looked up, they could see Tau floating over them blocking out the sunlight. "Ah hell."

The jungle erupted into a fire storm again and Tau resumed his chase, desperate to retrieve the emerald and deliver it to Doctor. Eggman. Bean and Bark presently were trying to get of the jungle without having their heads blown off. Dodging through trees, the two of them made their way as quickly as they could towards the south were they'd left the truck they'd arrived in. In that perhaps they might be able to make a clean get away. Just as they sighted the road with the van parked on the side however, Tau fired a beam from his right cannon and the van exploded. Flying fragments of burning metal began to rain down from the skies.

"Oh give us a break!" Bean cried in anger, looking up at the sky before Bark yanked him down through a patch of foliage, narrowly avoiding another blast from Tau's cannon.

"Watch what's going on around you will you?" The polar bear screamed in his face as they ran, Tau close behind.

"I notice more than you." Bean replied. "Like, I notice that you're about to run head first of a cliff and I'm not." Bark blinked and looked forward, seeing a sudden end to the ground. Putting on the breaks and came a halt almost directly on the edge of a five hundred foot drop to the valley below, the cold air whistling very aptly around them. "See?" Bean added smugly, before Tau came crashing through the trees, cutting off their only escape route. "Oh crap."

The flying tank assessed the situation with its limited artificial intelligence. It had them coursed now. All he had to do was demand the Chaos Emerald or let them choose between a death by falling or a death by laser fire.

"Any ideas?" Bark asked as the robot closed the distance between them and the towering cliff face.

"Just one," Bean replied, judging the height of a tall tree behind Tau and the distance between the robot and themselves. The duck reached behind his own back, hiding another bomb in his grasp. "Just be ready to run to the left when I say so." Beans's plans had never actually had much forethought put into them and the polar bear was extremely reluctant to go along with it, until that is he remembered that his other option was falling to his death. Bean stepped forward, waving his free arm at Tau. "Hey, Mr. Machine. Come on, I've got the chaos emerald right behind me. You want it? Come get me!" Hearing the key words, Chaos and Emerald, Tau swerved toward him.

Bean grinned as the robot reached the right position. "Phyk!" He added, withdrawing his bomb and tossing it straight at him. Bark just watched in amazement as it missed Tau completely and hit the tree behind him.

"You missed after all that?" The polar bear asked in expiration. The duck shook his head, giving his friend a thumbs up.

"I never miss." There was a loud groaning sound as the tree began to topple over. Tau did not have the intelligence to realize the threat and kept coming at Bean for the Chaos Emerald. It didn't even see the tree fall, smashing him straight in the back, knocking the robot over the cliff edge.

Bean and Bark peered over the edge and watched the two objects grow smaller and smaller before colliding with a thick canopy of trees below.

"I suppose you'll be wanting some kind of praise for this?" The polar bear began. Bean just grinned.

"Yeah, but you can do that later when we get back to headquarters."

Eggman drummed his fingers as he waited for the go ahead from the worker robots patching up his grand battleship, the Egg Carrier 3. His plans to collect the Chaos Emeralds depended on that ship being up and running. Sonic and his friends had already defeated two of his new E1000 and there had been no word from Tau for some time. His mood was foul so Decoe and Becoe kept out of his way while they did repairs to the Egg Carrier's weapons systems that had been damaged during the battle with Giant Wing.

Hidden under the dense canopy of a jungle somewhere far away from civilisation, in one of the original land pieces that belonged to Mobius, the Egg Carrier 3 remained undetected by the government. Who was doing an extensive search for the would be dictators giant vessel.

"Repairs to the Egg Carrier should be complete very soon Doctor." Decoe announced reluctantly, afraid to draw Eggman's gaze.

"Good. The sooner we get underway the better." He simply replied; his face set in a near permanent scowl. "I still can't believe that those low grade G.U.N people actually came up with something worthy of me." Wing Fortress, the giant flying fortress that they had built using technology they had stolen from his own Egg Fleet. It was a freak, a monster made by grave robbers, a thrown together monstrosity. Once the cannon was repaired and he had more Chaos emeralds to power it, he'd show them exactly who they were dealing with.

With two Chaos Emeralds, his miniature Eclipse Cannon would only first at half strength. With another two, he could unlock it's full potential. Leaving another three Emeralds to spare. Eggman was sure he could find some use for them, no sense in letting a set of perfectly good Chaos Emeralds go to waist even if he didn't have to use them in his cannon.

With this space time he was forced to endure, he began dreaming about his ultimate desire, a world controlled by him. His Grandfather had given him the necessary driving force and skills to succeed in this venture. And when he finally did, the entire world would become part of an Empire that would know no military bounds. Using this fused planet as his headquarters, the Eggman Empire would spread over the entire universe.

"Transmission from Theta sir." Becoe suddenly stated. "He said he's located a Chaos Emerald and is currently on his way to pick it up." A grin finally broke Eggman's face. Finally, a bit of good news for a change.

"Excellent. Tell him to meet up with the Egg Carrier 3 as soon as it's fully operational again."

"Aye sir."

Chuck's new Chaos emerald radar, which he'd built using the remains of the throw together device he'd created with Doctor Eggman during the whole Metal Overlord thing didn't work as well as they'd hoped. Although Sonic already had a fix on one right now, according to the small device attached to his wrist, the jewel was hidden somewhere within the thick and uncharted Red Mountain region, North of the desert surrounding Station Square.

The blue hedgehog checked the sun's position in the sky to the map Tanaka had given him. The Red Mountain Region stretched right up the entire length of the country and finding the Emerald without the aid of Chuck's device would probably be impossible.

The blue hedgehog rolled the map up and tucked into his glove, before racing of down the steep mountain side into a deep ravine.

All of them, expect Metal Sonic who had checked in for more repairs, were out there looking for the Emeralds. Hopefully they were having better luck than he was. The radar wasn't precise enough to allow him to simply follow its instructions. It just told him the Emerald was within a mile of this tunnel ridden, ravine filled mountain range. So far, he'd been combing the place systematically for it but with no luck.

"Here chaos chaos chaos chaos emerald." Sonic muttered, as he reached through a canyon with splintering ravines lancing off in many different directions. "Just how am I suppose to find it in a place like this?" He slid to a stop, his hands on his hips. Where was Tails when you needed him. He was sure this is flying ability, he might offer some help. He however was helping Shadow to search for another Emerald somewhere else.

Realizing that he wasn't going anywhere fast, he came to a halt on the edge of a large cliff overlooking a large canyon with a bottom so low Sonic couldn't see it through the early evening gloom. That Chaos Emerald had to be around here somewhere, but searching for it this way was taking far too long. At this rate, Eggman would have it in his grasp before Sonic would realize it was gone. He couldn't shake the feeling that he was being watched either, though he could see no one around.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he spotted a wild flower growing out of a crevice between two large boulders. It's soft pink petals reminded him so much of Amy it was scary, for more reasons that one. He knew his fondness for the pink hedgehog was increasing with each passing day and although he wasn't complaining he was smart enough to realize that it wasn't like him. Perhaps he'd past some kind of age thing and his feelings had matured from the usual teenage denial. He paused, then chuckled to himself. If he didn't know any better he'd sworn he'd just swapped brains with Chuck. Still, it was a possibility he knew he couldn't just dismiss. He'd have to take some time to think this through seriously, but now wasn't that time.

He had to concentrate on the task at hand before he could let his attention wander. He stood up and took another look around at the large wilderness around him and groaned. Just where was that blasted emerald?

"Funny how we keep meeting up like this." Sonic snapped his head to the side to see a silhouette standing against the setting sun in the top of a towering mountain peak. A very familiar silhouette. The blue hedgehog levelled his eyebrows.

"Oh not you again." He groaned as Theta dropped down to the level platform close to the blue hedgehog, each flame thrower held at the ready.

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire, Hedgehog?"

"Look I'll fight you, just no more of those stupid fire metaphors." Theta just chuckled to himself.

"There's nothing I'd like more than to fry your molecules." A small door hidden within his chest plate opened, revealing a concealed compartment within which was a very familiar object. "But Dr. Eggman will have my head if I don't bring this back." Sonic's jaw nearly dropped as he saw the red Chaos Emerald, it's soft glow suddenly eclipsed when the robot close the shutter door again.

"If you know what's good for you, you'll hand it over." The blue hedgehog snarled, narrowing his eyes.

"Sorry, but I guess we'll just have to postpone our little rumble." Theta replied, the Chaos Emerald hidden within his being before his thrusters flew on and he disappeared up across the mountain peak.

"Oh no you don't." Sonic said through clenched teeth, his legs already a blur as he raced off after him, propelling his entire body up with the mountainous face of rock as the robot tried to make his escape.

Theta looked back just in time to see a flying kick coming straight at him, Sonic's foot flying through the air at intense speed. The attack missed, but Sonic twisted his body around in mid air just enough top grab one of the flame throwers on Theta's arm, tossing him back towards the ground.

Landing with a loud thud, Theta rolled to the side, narrowly missing a spin attack, before somersaulting back to his feet, fire already streaming from his flamethrowers. Sonic leapt over the flames and dealt a fierce series of rapid punches straight into Theta's chest plate. His feet scrapping against the ground, the robot slid back further and further towards the mountain wall with each blow, before he dealt Sonic adside by slapping him across the face with the blunt edge of one of his flame throwers.

"On the other hand." He began, pausing to recover. "Dr. Eggman can wait." He held both weapons out in front of himself. "When I'm done with you, all that they'll find of your remains will be a pair of charred sneakers!"

(In Chris' voice)

The heat is on. Eggman has two Emeralds, Bean and Bark have one and so has Sonic, whose now in a fight to get Theta's. Will Eggman get the majority of the Emeralds had have his Egg Carriers cannon at full power, or will Sonic beat him to them? It's Shadow Vs Emerl next time on Sonic X, Data memories. Don't miss it!