Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles "Tails " Prower, Knuckles The echidna, Amy Rose, Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat or other character's made by Sonic Team. I do own RX and Maya hedgehog.
Summery: In a depressed moment, Amy does something no one had expected, and Knuckles must face something he had never expected to. Warning, Sonic Adventure 1 - 2 and Heroes and Advance 3 spoilers sure to follow as the story progress.
A good deed gone wrong
Part X
-
Asthe green light died down, Cream and Cheese could only stare in horror as the Master Emerald landed on the ground harmlessly, it surface glittering strangely as it returned to its normal size. "Mister Knuckles, Miss Tikal!" The young rabbits scream filling the air as she moved towards the gem.
Before she could reach it however, a set of clamps settled down onto it, causing her to stop in shock at the sight of it as the gem was lifted up into the air. Looking up to find out what was going on, Cream gasped as a large Egg-O-Matic hovered in the air with the Master Emerald now attached to its bottom. "Eggman!"
Then the one controlling the machine became clear to her as it moved away. It looked like the doctor but had a small metal dome for a head and a more round body. "Come back with that gem, please!"
Not answering, the robot began to increase the speed of the Egg-O-Matic and gained height at the same time, the only thing running through its head was its mission. Reclaim the Master Emerald by the direct orders of Master Eggman.
"All Eggman robots must be destroyed!" The sudden droning voice of Omega reached the Eggman like robot as a swarm of bullets ripped through the belly of the Egg-O-Matic, heavily damaging the flight ability of it, but not completely destroying it.
Turning her head to see who had attacked the Eggman like Robot, Cream blinked as she noticed Omega lumbering towards her, Rouge moving slowly behind it as she supported her Wight on his side. "Mister Omega, Miss Rouge." Her voice making the female bat cringe as she lifted her free hand up to her head, trying to somehow making the pounding feeling going through it stop.
Facing the young rabbit, Omega called up her name from his memory banks as he lumbered closer to her. "Miss Cream, what happened to Knuckles and the female Echidna?" The question making the female bat on his side, look up as well.
"They vanished when Tikal made some kind of wish on the Master Emerald." Her voice a bit lower then when she had greeted them, she turned to face Rouge when the batgirl moved her hand away from Omega. "Are you okay?"
Giving the young rabbit an annoyed look, Rouge looked up to see the Egg-O-Matic barely moving as it tried to escape. "What are you waiting for Omega, stop that robot!" Her own yell sounding like a series of explosions going off inside her head, making her moaned a bit as she grabbed it to make the pain go away, all while she felt Cream move over to support her.
Moving forward at her command, Omega locked his more heavy weaponry onto the flying craft, letting lose a series of missiles and rounds of bullets in one go, each one of his attacks scoring a direct hit on the Egg-O-Matic. "Target completely destroyed."
The Master Emerald falling down and lading with a clinging sound in the middle of a small pond formed by a waterfall, its light back to normal as it just lay there.
Still supporting Rouge, Cream helped her over to looked own at the large gem stone from the top of the small hole that the pond lay in. "You did it!" came the happy cry from the young rabbit as she turned to face Omega. "You're the best."
Merely staring at her for a second at her comment, the tall body of Omega moved over to scan the Master Emerald as he failed to figure out a way to respond to her. "No damage sustained to gem stone at present moment, but moving it will be a problem."
Snorting softly, Rouge moved to look down at it, her eyes taking in each and every one of the finely cut surfaces of the large gem. "It had better be okay, my nightclub's a ruin because of that thing."
"We have a bigger problem then that." Cream almost yelled out, as she pulled on Rouge's arm, desperate to get her attention for just a minute. "The gem took Knuckles and Tikal, just like it did with Amy."
Eyes and head snapping around to stare at Cream, Rouge blinked her eyes a few times as she tried to figure out what the young rabbit had said. "Knuckles, is gone?" Seeing Cream blink, her eyes lit up with sheer amusement. "Well, if he's gone, no one can blame me for claiming ownership of the Master Emerald!" A dark laughter coming from her as she moved to reclaim the Master Emerald.
Next to her, Cream gave a shout of shock at the female bats refusal to help them. "No, you can't! We need the Master Emerald to free Amy, and the others!" Moving t o Tackle Rouge at her last yell, she had second to blink as the light show started up again, this time in a strange pulsing manner.
-
Winds rarely moved inside the perfect world created by Master Emerald to house the soul of first Tikal, then Amy Rose along with the living guardian of the choa, Chaos. Today however a roar erupted as a storm level wind ripped through the area, starting at the shrine top and then traveling out to the edge of the small world.
As it faded away and left the place in silence, Amy Rose slowly stood up from her safe spot, hands still holding onto one of the shrines pillars. The wind had taken her by surprise, but she had still managed to grab a hold of something to support her before she was quite literally blown away.
Now that the wind had died down, she could cast a look ahead and frown as two figures became clear, one that's he knew somewhat, and one she had only seen once before in a dream and as a ghost fading away in the sunset filled sky of a ruined city. "Knuckles? Tikal?"
As she spoke out each name, the Echidna it belonged to groaned and hesitantly sat up, eyes blinking slowly at first then rapidly as they saw not only Amy, but also a place they both recognized instantly from memory.
Getting up from the hard ground first, Knuckles quickly brushed off a bit of dust from his arms and reached down to help Tikal up as well. Even as the peach colored echidna leaned on him to steady herself, the red colored guardian of the Master Emerald was busy taking in his surroundings, looking for any kind of danger.
As he finished, he focused on Amy again, noticing that she had moved back a bit from him, no doubt wondering what his reaction would be. Clearly she was expecting it to be an aggressive one by the look on her face. "Amy?" His voice making her nervous as he focused on her, no doubt she was fully expecting him to start a lecture on how she shouldn't have messed around with the Master Emerald to begin with. "Is this where I think it is?"
Opening her mouth to reply, Amy was beaten to it by Tikal as she stepped away from Knuckles. "This place is limbo, sort of." her voice carrying a bit of doubt in her own statement. "The Master Emerald created this place based on the memories of both me and Chaos when we were first imprisoned here."
Turing to watch the horizon that barely changed, she sighed as she easily recognized every detail from her own memory. "My soul resided in here as payment for the power needed to pull in Chaos and imprison him." Facing Amy she gave a sad smile at the pink hedgehog. "When you wished for Knuckles to be happy, you freed me from my prison, and your soul was placed here instead of mine."
Eyes narrowing a bit, Amy nodded as she could understand some of it, not all of it, but some of it. "And you took my place out there, until my wish had been for filled?" Her voice not revealing her own fear at the answer she just knew would be a bad one.
Opening her mouth, Tikal wondered about herself. If Knuckles did become happy, would that mean she'd be pulled back into the Master Emerald the instant he achieved that? The thought alone sent a shiver down her spine, but then another side came up. If she made him happy, her sudden imprisonment would leave Knuckles hurt and sad, thus meaning her was no longer happy and therefore she couldn't be sent into the Master Emerald.
There would be no end to the wish until the guardian died, whatever would make Knuckles happy would be provided to him, with Amy life as payment for it. "How do you undo a wish like this, there'll no end to it." Her voice shaking a bit as the full impact of it hit her.
"You overpower it with another one, a more powerful wish." Knuckles replied as he rubbed hand over his head, he was together with Tikal and Amy on a world locked off from everyone else. Most guys would have no doubt killed for that chance he mused, but all he could think off was how to get out, cause there was no way he would spend eternity locked up in here, no matter how cute the girls were or how paradise like the prison looked. "And I am very much open for any ideas on what to wish for?"
Tikal looked around nervously as she began to fiddle with one of her dreadlock like quills, her mouth closing a bit. "We can still try the original plan, to free Amy by wishing her to be replaced with something or someone else." The words spoken rather low as she avoided looking at Knuckles, not wanting to see the hurt look she knew her words were causing. "I should be trapped her, not Amy, not you, just me."
Taking a deep breath as he clearly heard her, Knuckles slowly turned to face her, eyes slightly narrowed as he watched her reaction to it. "I will not give up, there has to be a way to get you both out of here." Voice colder then Tikal had ever heard it, Knuckles turned to face the Master Emerald. "You were trapped when you wished for the Master Emerald to stop Chaos from destroying, your body's life-force was used to carry it out and your soul was trapped."
Lifting up a fist Knuckles growled as he stared at the gemstone before him. "But we stopped Chaos again, he has no wish to destroy the world, he's peaceful now."
"No." Amy's voice cut through as she walked closer to them. "I saw Chaos when he left, he wants to hurt someone for what they did." Lowering her eyes, she faced the floor of the shrine. "Chaos is going to destroy Eggman for hurting the chao."
Giving a deep sigh Knuckles reached out to touch the Master Emerald, feeling it as nothing more then a bit of cold fog around his gloved hand when it passed through. "Sonic's fighting Eggman, he will stop Chaos as well, I'm sure of it." Closing his eyes, he faced both Amy and Tikal. "And we still need to find a way to free you Amy, and you as well Tikal." Seeing their confused looks, he gave a short, sheepish smile. "I mean it, cause if as much as one of you have to remain in this place, I will never truly be happy."
Blushing heavily, both Tikal and Amy looked away at Knuckles words, the red colored guardian echidna failing to see it as he refocused on the emerald. "There has to be something with the power to free you, but what?"
The three furries shared a look as each of them tried to figure out what could be used to free someone from the prison inside the Master Emerald. A thinking that was interrupted as Amy slowly noticed that her fur were beginning to stand up, almost as if it had been charged with static electricity, the sight making her blink her eyes a bit. "Um, what's going on."
Looking up at her sudden question, both Knuckles and Tikal stared as Amy slowly faded away from their sights, her eyes showing a bit of fear as she briefly faced them before being gone completely.
Facing Tikal, Knuckles had a stern look of annoyance on his face as he saw her slightly guilty expression. "I take it your wish was just granted?"
Eyes moving to stare at Knuckles as he spoke, Tikal could only mumble out a single word. "Ups." No matter how little it did to help cool solve the current situation; it still helped her a little to voice out her feelings.
-
Eyes rapidly blinking as she could see again, Amy found herself facing a wall of dirt and grass, before her sense told her that her boots were filling up with water and her dress getting soaked. Looking around she saw the reason why, as she was standing in a small pool right next to the Master Emerald. "I don't believe this, couldn't it have dumped me back of dry land for crying out loud."
"Amy?" Cream's voice came in a questioning manner as the young rabbit looked down at the pink hedgehog from the edge of the small pit holding the pond. "You're back!" This statement was follow by the young rabbit jumping, gliding down with the use of her ears to grab Amy in a hug, effectively knocking them both back into the water.
Coming up to the surface of the pond and spitting out the water in her mouth, Amy watched as Cream did the same next to her, the rabbit giggling a bit before walking up onto the shore. "Um, sorry about that Amy."
Following Cream out of the water, Amy smiled a bit as she apologized to her. "It's okay, I was getting soaked before anyway." Watching the top of the pit Amy blinked as Rouge and Omega showed up as well, both of them staring down at them with the same uncaring feeling to it, not even greeting her or saying anything. "Hey, you mind helping us get out of here?"
Her answer came in the form of a snort from Rouge as she moved back away from the edge. "I would, but my body hurts to much to do more then just walk around." Moving back over the edge, the female bat's eyes moved to the large glowing green gem beside Amy. "But if you don't mind, I think Omega can pull you and the Master Emerald out of there."
Facing Rouge with a I-don't-think-so look on her face, Amy turned to face the Master Emerald, The place that had been her prison for what seemed like forever to her, and now housed both Knuckles and Tikal inside of it was just lying there in the water, looking so harmless. "I'm sorry you guys, I didn't think my wish would do this." Voice low as she spoke, the pink hedgehog grunted as she reached out and struggle to pink up the huge gemstone.
Behind her, Cream watched Rouge as she got a slightly annoyed expression on her face, Cream turned back to help Amy lift up the gemstone. "Amy, did you happen to see Miss Tikal and mister Knuckles? They were here just a minute ago, and then they vanished." Using the chance to ask Amy as she was still bothered by their sudden disappearance
Mouth opening a bit, Amy felt her mood drop down a bit more. "I did Cream, I did." Even as she spoke, Amy couldn't help but feel a bit lost as it was becoming clear that she was now going to find a way to get both Knuckles and Tikal out of the gem on her own, since the hotheaded guardian wouldn't leave without Tikal.
Why couldn't things just be simple for once?
-
"Chaos Spear!"
Forming his shield as the words rang out, Metal-Knuckles felt his system buck a bit under the pressure of the more powerful attacks that Shadow the Hedgehog had thrown at him in this fight, clearly the emerald in the passion of this hedgehog did more then just allow him to perform chaos control.
In fact, his scans had shown that the hedgehog was actively drawing on its power, keeping himself fully powered for this battle, and therefore unable to tire. Rather annoying when he thought about it. The only one who should be able to fight like that without tiring should be a machine.
And he was the only battle machine around. "Die!" Screaming out the word, Metal-Knuckles let lose a shower of plasma bolts that ripped across the small area, setting trees and the grass a blaze where they hit. All except that blasted red and black hedgehog that had once again simply vanished.
Scanning the surroundings as fast he could, the red colored robot red powered up his shield as fast as he could, thankful that he had gotten it up when a black and red sphere slammed into it, pushing him back through the dirt as the homing dash was followed up by several close range chaos spears.
The battle hadn't been going his way when it started, and it still wasn't going his way now, his systems were over taxed as the black and red hedgehog attacked him constantly, not leaving him much time to come up with a defensive plan, or offensive one for that matter either.
Landing on the ground, Shadow smirked as he saw the robot stagger back some more, it wasn't often he get to let lose like this, but it was far to tempting not to do so right now, the robot had been the one to hurt Rouge, and while Eggman had sent it, he still wanted to get back at the talking trashcan but reducing it to scrap.
Drawing in more power from the emerald, the black and red hedgehog was faintly a where of how it was affecting, chaos power was something his body was built to handle and draw on naturally, but to have access to the full amount of power thought the chaos emerald was something else, and to draw on it in the amount he was doing now, it was like a drug to him. "Chaos spear!"
As the colorful bolts of chaos energy once again shattered Metal-Knuckles shield, Shadow reflected that it might be best to finish the battle before he let himself be drawn completely into the feel of the chaos power and decided to live up to its name.
Shooting off as he saw the opening, Shadow grinned as he felt his quills scrape against Metal-Knuckles armor and not his shield, it was clear that it was down for a period of time again, and it time to use that period to his best. Several bolts of chaos energy flicked out at his command and blasted the robot further back.
Then he landed on his feet and watched as his opponent fall down in a sparking heap of metal, Shadow simply giving a snort as he turned to face the towering base of Eggman's, the place reaching up a good deal. But it didn't matter, one good Chaos Control and he could teach Eggman to stay away from him, Rouge and Omega in the future.
He had the power to do so now, and with Sonic's emerald, he could show the world that no one should mess with Shadow, no one. Pulling out his purple chaos emerald, Shadow grinned a bit as he felt its power seep into his body, ready to carry out his command. "Chaos!" Then everything went downhill as the ground erupted into a small sized earthquake, growing bigger with each second as several small geysers of water shot out from every crack in the ground.
Pushing himself up, Metal-Knuckles's sensors locked onto Shadow as the black and red colored hedgehog was thrown into the air by the sudden rush of water blasting out below him, the purple emerald ripped from his hands in the process. Then the water turned towards the robot, and smashed into his already badly hurt armor.
After that, all the robot could see was the clear blue sky, part of the cliff wall and the jungle below as gravity pulled him down. His body having a less then the desired chance of surviving an impact from this height, even with a fake chaos emerald as his power source.
Then the impact came, sooner then expected, but with the predicted results, his jet engines was ruined beyond repair, his weapons and motor systems wrecked. And his power supply nearly lost. Every scan he made showed the same thing as he had expected, but with a dark twist. While a quick shut down wasn't going to come, he would still shut down, but it would take a long time before it happened, time he would have to spend lying on his back, sensors seeing nothing but a cliff face and blue sky.
And for the robot, he truly understood that comment he had heard one of those humans mutter out once, life truly did suck right now, even for a machine.
Ending his own flight, Shadow felt his mind slip into a blackout as he was introduced headfirst to a rather large palm tree painfully, twisting around to see what had attacked him; he only saw a transparent creature tear in through the doorway of the connecting bridge.
Struggling back up, Shadow shook the pain out of his head, one hand curling up into a fist. Without the Chaos Emerald he could barely use his chaos powers. Chaos Control was out of the question and a Chaos Spear would tax his system of the power need to function.
Walking over to look down the side of the cliff, Shadow eyes narrowed as he spotted a small red and black shape lying on a small outcropping a good deal down. "If I can't use the real thing, I'll just have to settle for an imitation." Mouth moving into a smirk, Shadow jumped out into the air, one hand grapping a small rock and guiding him down the side of the cliff as fast and safely as he could.
The effects of his overdose on Chaos Energy was fading, and for once he was able to think clearly as he climbed down, his anger had driven him to drawn on more then just a surface amount of the power on that purple gem stone, he had nearly gone into berserk mode.
Shuddering a bit, Shadow continued his descend towards the cliff below. When all of this was over he was going on a vacation away from Station Square, and away from those emeralds. He was starting to become to drawn to their power lately.
-
The inside of the Final Egg looked like he remembered it so well, the towering metal bridges and platforms connecting each floor with the other one through a central shaft, corridors leading away to each floor here and there. The only big difference he could see was the traces after a recent battle, but there was only one who could have passed by recently enough to have been in a battle here. "Tails"
As if speaking the name of his friend called him, Sonic found himself looking up as a sudden yelp sounded out, a bit of plasma fire flashing out far up above him as a signal. "Heh." Mumbling out the word, the blue hedgehog set about finding his way up to here Tails was, ducking a few badniks as they tried to stop him, tried to.
Jumping off the last small platform before reaching the massive one above him, Sonic wondered why he hadn't been hearing any more signs of struggle, briefly having a small vision of Tails laying defeated before an army of eggpawns. Then it was gone as Sonic found himself standing on the edge of the large platform.
And on the middle of it, he saw Tails huffing a bit as the remains of several eggpawns lay scattered around the two tailed fox. "Tails!"
Turning around as his name was called out, Tails smiled as he spotted a familiar blue blur heading towards him. "Sonic!"
Stopping in front of Tails, Sonic grinned a bit as he reached out and ruffled the head fur of the young fox. "Glad to see you too buddy." He replied out as he cast a quick look around the place again. "Looks like you really showed Eggman's eggpawns who's the best."
Grinning a bit Tails stood up as straight as he could. "It was nothing." Then his face grew serious as he looked up at the floors above them. "Sonic, Eggman's building another one of his battle mechas."
Mouth curling into a bigger smirk, Sonic felt his adrenaline flow increase at the thought of another fight with one of Eggheads fighting machines. "No problem, I'll trash it as well."
"Really hedgehog?"
Snapping around as Eggman's voice rang out through the shaft, Sonic narrowed his eyes when he saw nothing around him, besides the metal walls of the place. "Where are you Eggman?"
"On the roof of the Final Egg Sonic, but don't worry, I'll have the lift bring you up here."
Blinking a bit, Sonic looked down at Tails standing besides him. "Lift?" Then the question was answered as the platform they were stranding on began to move upwards, the ones above them moving out of its way as they picked up speed, the faint metallic sight of the top section of the shaft became clear as the roof opened up to show the outside evening sky.
A harsh wind buffed the top of the Final Egg tower, the mystic ruin jungle spread out around the place in all directions, the tall trees, rivers and animals of the place severing as a defense barrier for all who dared to invade. But that hadn't stopped Sonic in the past, the lone human scientist sitting in his latest battle robot thought as he watched the floor open up as the lift reached the roof. "Welcome Sonic!"
Turning around at the contempt filled word, a blue hedgehog smirked as he spotted the battle machine, seeing as it shaped very much like the Egg Emperor, this one had a large drill on one hand, and a rapid firing, plasma cannon on the other one Sonic shook his head. If the last one couldn't stop him, how could this version even hope to try? "Come on Eggman, try something new will ya."
Moving his eyes slightly to the side, Eggman allowed a small smile to spread over his face. "I see you found your little tag along, I'm surprised he hasn't run away in fear yet." The words causing Tails to glare right back at him as he faced Eggman as well. "It won't matter, this improved Eggman battle mecha will be your destroyer."
Narrowing his eyes, Sonic began to prepare to do battle against the battle machine before him. "You can't build anything that I can't destroy Eggman."
"We'll see hedgehog, we'll see." Eggman replied as he watched the weapon systems kick in, a metal shield lowering down to protect his seat from Sonic's attacks. "All Systems ready!"
TBC.
AN: Things are moving towards the end and a final battle. Only Two chapters left max, and an ending even I'm not sure to pull off looms ever closer, but I have a vague idea of how to do it. Also, if it is not to much trouble, I would like you, my readers, to also read my other Sonic story, "Flesh and Metal" and tell me what you think of it.
And if you really have some extra time, visit my homepage at: Well it seems there something wrong and linking to the site inside a chapter is not going towork, so all I can do is ask that you use the link on my profile page.
Sorry for the trouble,
Demino.
