Chapter 9: Quest for the Emeralds
Nite was panting heavily. Then again what canine wouldn't? He and his fellow Hunters where in the middle of an active volcano. There had been rumours of the Cyan Emerald, the emerald Nack said they would find, being in the volcanic region known as the fire plains, north of pumpkin hill. Nite had no idea why Nack had volunteered them; there was no longer a promise of money involved, all Nack had said was "I owe Sonic". He figured it was to do with the last encounter Nack had with the blue hedgehog. Nite figured however, this was more trouble than it was worth; this lava was making him pant like a common dog.
"Are we there YET?" he said, it was the sixth time he had asked.
"Look mate, do you SEE a light blue magical stone near here?" Nack asked
"No" Said Nite
"Then we aren't there yet" Said Spike "So quite asking already"
"Bah, if you ask me we should be fighting that Streak our selves!"
"You saw what he did to Amy, Tails, the Chaotix and Dynamites mate… I doubt he would leave much o us" warned Nack
"Yeah, keep your coat on Nite." Said Spike.
"Don't ether of you find it odd that this Cyan emerald is here? From what I heard the thing's demon was an ICE Phoenix, what would a monster of ice be doing in a realm of fire?" asked Nite
"Uh, it's version of coolin off?" Suggested Nack.
"Meh" Said Nite.
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Shadow had swapped places with Knuckles who was now on his way to look after Tails and Sonic. The Ultimate Rogues where in the windy valley, that's where Sonic had once found the blue emerald, so they hopped it had returned there as they had no other leads.
"Whoa!" Said Rouge, she was almost blown away before Omega grabbed her ankle
"Careful Rouge, this area has highly unpredictable air currents." Said the robot.
"Yeah I noticed… thanks" She said "So uh, Shadow, Sonic is ok isn't he?"
Shadow Glared at her "if you mean he isn't going to turn bad then yes."
"No need to get Snappy, we wanted to make sure we didn't have two killing machines on our hands"
"Hmph" Said Shadow
"Fine, forget I asked!"
"… You didn't see Sonic in that hospital bed… when I told him Amy and Tails where in a comma… I thought his heart was going to snap in two… Do not ever refer him to being like Streak again"
"If I remember right it was you who wanted to kill him all those years ago. What? He did?"
"Your Grandfather's right Rouge I did… but I was mistaken then"
"Then what makes you so sure you aren't now? Quit it Grampa!"
"If you three don't stop arguing I will confiscate that sword, forcing you to stop." Said Omega. He was clearly sick of infighting "We are here for a reason, to get the blue emerald so we can stop Streak."
"Alright alright, I'll stop. Finally Grampa" Said a mix of Rouge and Joz
"Very well then" said Shadow "We have no time for games anyway"
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The Metal Miscreants where making their trek through the Aquatic ruins, hoping some sign of the magenta emerald was there. Miles had placed a new micro chip in Metal that he was working on, one that could sense Chaos energy, similar to the sensor Eggman had used to obtain the emeralds before. They had found a rather deep part of the ruins that Metal had found a signal coming from.
"Urgh... one thing I did inherit from Sonic is a dislike for deep water… if I go in that; I will drop like a stone. And what's worse, unlike Sonic, I'll rust!" Said Metal
"What do you think is one of the upgrades I gave you Metal?" Said Miles "Your black shield was modified so that you don't tough water when you go in it… no rust! Well still rust, but the same amount you would get outside of water."
"Hmph, still don't like it."
Miles pushed Metal in and both he and Mighty followed.
"Hey what did you do that for?" said Metal
"To get you to keep moving, we still have an emerald to locate you know!"
"Hmph, wait how are you talking?"
"Look around you, your shield is also keeping us from being drenched in water. It's making a large air bubble"
"Meh"
"So Miles, I bet… weren't expecting a machine that separated Sonic from..." Said Mighty
The old Fox sighed "No, but in a way it's just as bad… I just hope Shadow can beat him this time…"
"He won't" said Metal "If I know Sonic, he will be the one to beat Streak"
"You know nothing Metal, without this… Streak in him, I don't think Sonic is in a position to fight."
"He will find a way, he always does."
"I don't even think he can go super… without Streak, he's just a fast blue hedgehog"
"Say what? Where's the proof?"
"In his eyes… when Sonic went super, his eyes changed from green to red… noticed the colour of Streak's eyes?"
"Red…so?"
"Think about it, would that not mean that he had Sonic's super powers?"
"Not necessarily, if that was the case then they would still have the same body." Said Mighty
"Both of you ganging up on me now?" Said Miles
"You voiced your theory, we voiced ours." Said Metal. "Anyway. I'm sensing the signal in this direction"
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The Hunters had been walking for a while, they where now in an underground part of the Fire Plains, it was easy to tell that most of the lava came from these underground caves, and each team member was beginning to get fatigued.
"I've been meaning to ask you Nite…" said Spike
"What?"
"Why did you have that red emerald?"
"Um, soon after the whole demon thing, the thing came flying through the air and hit me on the head… I thought it looked cool so I kept it"
Spike chuckled "You're serious?"
"Yup"
"Right on the head?" asked Nack
"Yup, so?"
"I heard a lot of these emeralds… I have never heard of them hitting someone on the head after Sonic or Shadow has used them" commented Spike
"Yup, has to have been one of the easiest finds." Said Nack
"Hey, whasat?" asked Nite. They where now in a large room with lots of platforms in a circle. He pointed to a light blue shine on the wall opposite them.
"That mate… Is our goal I believe… the cyan emerald, finally!"
"And…" Nite gulped "What is THAT?" his finger now pointed to a large bump rising in the lava. It kept growing till it grew a face, which roared at them, then laughed insanely"
"WHAT THE!"
The bump then took a much more recognisable shape as it floated above the lava. Spike and Nack instantly knew the shape from past workings in Pumpkin hill and old pyramids.
"A Lava Ghost?" they both squeaked
"Er… Now the time to run?" Asked Nite
"I'd say so mate!" said Nack
Spike on the other hand stepped forward "No it isn't, we need that emerald, are we going to let some livingly challenged blob of lava keep it from us?"
"Yes" said Nack and Nite
"I got quite enough bruises from that robot three days ago thank you." Said Nite
"I always run from those things! Even when they AREN'T made of lava!" said Nack
Spike sighed. "Fine if you two want to act like cowards, then stay here, I'm going for that emerald" he said, rushing into battle
"Who's acting?" said Nack
"I guess we have to go" said Nite
"What?"
"He's our friend, I'm not going to stand by and let a friend get roasted" said Nite following Spike
"Butthe, andthe, ifthe… oh codswallop!" said Nack rushing, to keep up
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The Ultimate Rogues also found there emerald, but it took a while from getting from where they saw it to where it was.
"Why did a twister have to be in the way of the emerald?" Said Shadow
"Cause the emeralds want to be hard to get?" Suggested Rouge and Joz at the same time.
"Hmph…"
"Illogical, the only thing that would do that is the demons inside, each of which where defeated" said Omega.
"What he said. Anyway, we are finally close to the… emerald?" Shadow was bemused to see what looked like a larger green Omega stand in front of them
"Trespassers, identify yourselves." Said the robot, Shadow noted the marking E-122 on it's chest and an odd symbol on it's left shoulder joint
"Friend of yours Omega?" asked Shadow
"E-122 Psi" said Omega "The youngest of my big brothers."
"Omega? What are you doing here?" Said Psi.
"Retrieval of the emeralds"
"Negative, I got no word of your removal from Dr. Robotnik's pyramid base."
"I no longer work for Eggman"
The green robot seemed to growl, "Then you are my enemy! All hail Robotnik!" it said as it blasted at the rogues."
"So it seems your whole family has anger management issues Omega" said Rouge
"Not funny Rouge." Came the reply "Psi, stop! We need the emerald in order to beat something that will not only destroy the Eggman Empire, but…"
"Cease the lies Omega, if you don't work for Robotnik then you are a traitor to the cause, and therefore are to be destroyed immediately." Said the robot, still blasting away at everything
"If he keeps this up, then the emerald could fall, it will take days to get it back from that gorge." Said Shadow
"Affirmative" agreed Omega "The only way to get it is to go through Psi"
"Go through that thing? He's huge!" said Rouge
"But you forget, he is less advanced, I am the Ultimate E series robot!" said Omega. With that the team rushed into battle
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"The signal is getting stronger you guys." Said Metal "We must be close."
"Good, I've had enough water to last me a life time" Said Miles
"What about Sonic and his friends? Most adventure's they have had involved going in or under water." Said Mighty
"Your kidding?"
"Nope"
"There it is!" Metal interrupted "The Magenta emerald is up on that ledge!"
"Finally!" said Miles "now we can get out of… hey what's that?"
A giant squid moved out of it's hiding place behind the emerald and swam towards the team
"A Kraken?" Said Mighty
"I thought they where extinct." Blurted Miles
"Obviously not, battle positions everyone!" warned Metal
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The Ghost was giving the Hunters a very hard time. Every time they tried to hit it only ended with the attack bouncing off target. Least that was with their fire arms, they didn't dare using close combat, since the thing was made of lava. It on the other hand, had been throwing attacks left right and centre, each one getting ever closer
"So any more smart ideas Spiky?" mocked Nack
"There has to be a way to beat it" said Spike, ignoring Nack
"Better think of it soon, here it comes again!" Added Nite
Then Spike noticed that it always kept away from the emerald in the wall. He remembered what Nite said earlier about it holding a Phoenix made of ice. It made sense, a Ghost of fire fearing a bird of ice. "Nite?" he said
"Yeah?"
"Can you use other power sources for your bazooka?" he remembered that Nite's weapon had a lot of extra features; it needed batteries regularly for them.
"Yeah, I think so, why?"
"Cause I'm about to get you one" said the porcupine. He jumped ahead of the group and next to the emerald. He jumped to the wall and grabbed it, pulling it free easily, though painfully, it was burning hot with the heat from the lava below. Spike could barley keep hold of it. He ran back to his friends to find Nite smiling. Nite had obviously guessed what was on Spikes mind, and had removed the weapons battery. Spike ran by placing the Emerald in the slot. He then ran forward to keep the ghost busy. "Hey brimstone breath! Can't catch me!" he mocked
The ghost roared in frustration, following the spiked hunter, not even paying attention to the others
"Here we go!" yelled Nite. The ghost turned, horror could almost be seen on it's face "Ice Cannon!" a bean of white light burst from the bazooka, it hit the ghost in the stomach, it froze solid and fell onto a platform and shattered.
"Take that bucko!" yelled Nack.
"Yes!" said Spike
"Quick thinking there mate, I'm impressed"
"Me to, I never would of thought of using an emerald for a power source" he sniggered "Wonder what it would be like with all 7?"
"Don't even joke Nite!" said Spike "Anyway, that's our job done, let's head back to Station square."
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Back at windy valley, Psi was still causing havoc. Not one missile hit the rogues, but it was hardly surprising considering Psi's aim. Instead he had hit just about everything else, luckily they had got the emerald in passing, but now the renegade robot wouldn't let them past, and every time Shadow tried Chaos control, a missile barley missed his head, making him have to dodge and lose concentration. It was much to far for rouge to fly and Omega hadn't even had time to aim.
"This is ridicules, what is he trying to hit?" asked Shadow.
"Everything else by the looks of it" said Rouge
"We don't have time for this, my radios say that Streak has started moving towards Station Square." Added Omega
"Damn, if he gets there, he could make our friends much worse off, and we are stuck here with a super powered robot that needs target practise!" Shadow cursed
"Does it have any weak spots Omega?" asked Rouge
"Weaknesses have yet to be found in the E-series E-type armour" said their robotic team mate
"E-type?"
"A-type was the basic armour like Gamma, B-type was the two gunned form like Delta and Epsilon, The C-type was a room guard like Zeta and the D-type was a jet like form, like Beta"
"So E-type is you and Psi over there."
"Correct, it is the ultimate form, as I said, no weaknesses found yet"
"Then lets find some." Said Shadow. He started spin dashing around the arena; Psi was still trying to blast everything in sight. He didn't even notice Shadow till a spinning black ball tripped him up.
"Wha?" it said in robotic confusion
"Ha, didn't even hit me, ROUGE!"
Rouge flew over as fast as she could and drove the Annemuir deep into the robots body. It slowly shuddered right until Rouge removed the sword, the rogues ran out of the way as the green robot exploded.
"Yay! We did it!" Rouge yelled.
"What a second, where is the little animal?" asked Shadow
"The E-type armour no longer needs animals to power it." Replied Omega
"Well at least that is good." Said Rouge
"Come on, we need to return to Station square now!" said Shadow, and the team ran off.
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Metal's team had the emerald now, for what good it would do them. The kraken had knocked it into Mighty's waiting hands, but the creature was worse than Psi, it was hungry, and in it's eyes, it's lunch had just walked into it's waiting arms, all ten of them, it wasn't going to let it go.
"What does that thing want?" asked Metal. As if to answer it lunged it's beak at Miles, luckily Miles had shot it with his paintball before it got close enough to take a bite.
"We can't hurt it, we would be responsible for killing a member of an endangered species" Miles explained
"I think WE are the endangered species here Miles." Said Mighty
"But…"
"Mighty is right, besides, if we don't get this emerald back to station square, Streak will kill your grandson, is that what you want?" asked Metal. Miles remained silent. "Right you two, attack it with all you got."
"Ok Metal" said Mighty
"For my grandson" said Miles reluctantly, he switched to electrical mode, it wouldn't affect them while in the shield, but the surrounding area was water, it would electrocute the squid ten times worse than anything else he hit with it. He aimed for the Squid and before anyone else could do anything, he took his shot. The Kraken squirmed agonisingly as it felt the new pain flow through it. After the pain passed it still floated there. Stunned. The Metal Miscreants stood on guard, but the kraken instead of attacked blew out ink and swam away as fast as it could.
"Well that was unexpected." Said Metal "looks like we didn't need to kill it after all, well done Miles"
"I thought it would of killed it, I doubt it would go after any people again." Said the bemused old fox.
"Quit the chatter you two" said Mighty "we got to get back now."
And so the last team ran back to station square, prize in hand.