Chapter 5

The Art of Subconscious Clairvoyance

"Man…Leo…" Sonic sighed.

"That's not the biggest deal either," Tails told them. "This is going to cripple the universe."

"How?"

"With the Earth gone," Tails explained, "the whole universe is going to collapse on itself and plunge into the sun."

"WHAT?" all members their cried.

"Hey…cantchy'all keep it down?" muttered RaGiff.

"'Giff!" Cassie cheered. RaGiff's face was the only thing exposed. The rest was wrapped in body cast or under the sheets.

"Man oh man, what happened?"

Sonic's face fell. "You're never gonna believe this…"

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"C'mon guys, what are you doing anyway?" Knuckles pleaded.

"Knuckles, we have a good gig going here," Vector explained. "Plus, in all honesty, that whole alter dimension story isn't something we're inclined to believe."

"You've gotta be kidding!" Knuckles cried. "You still don't believe me on that???"

"Well…no," Mighty admitted.

The phone rang.

"Call!" shouted Charmy. He zoomed over to the phone to pick it up. Vector watched the bee zoom faster and faster to the phone, then picked it up just before Charmy reached it.

"Chaotix Detective Agency at your service, we never turn down work that pays, Vector speaking." A grumbling Charmy floated away.

"I told you before you should hang with us at the detective agency," Mighty said.

"And I told you many times before I can't leave the Master Emerald…at least not without someone to guard it."

"But now you're getting a replacement."

"But I'm getting it because I'm going to the 8th dimension."

Mighty tossed his hands up in the air and shook his head. "Whatever man."

"Hey," Knuckles started, "where's Espio?" He had just noticed the purple ninja chameleon wasn't in the room.

"Training. Where do you think?"

Knuckles nodded. He should have known.

Suddenly, the ground shook like crazy. Vector dropped the phone, and Charmy accidentally hit a wall. Knuckles and Mighty held onto each other to stay up. Then, the roof crumbled and rained stones down on the crew. Finally, Knuckles and Mighty fell.

"Oog," Knuckles groaned, rubbing his head. Instantly, a bright blue light flashed from the sky, spotlighting Knuckles. A large wave emitted from the echidna, sweeping the room and temporarily blinding Vector, Mighty, and Charmy. It took them almost a minute to regain sight, and when they did, there was someone missing.

"Red?" called Mighty.

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"Now what???" moaned Knuckles as he followed Tikal and Lianne.

"Something's gone really wrong. Something that will destroy the universe if something isn't done. Your search for an apprentice will have to wait."

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "What now? Is Sonic a bad entity because he looked at one of you the wrong way?"

"Only you can see."

"Say what?"

"Shh!" hissed Lianne. "We're here."

Knuckles looked ahead to see the old labyrinth he remembered from his last gig here.

"Where's Chaos?" he asked, then he immediately added "Never mind," realizing how stupid that last question was. Lianne looked at him with a confused look on her face, then spun back to see the entrance. "Go in and take a right. Go all the way down and you'll enter a bright green room. Just kneel down."

"And…?"

"That's all," Tikal told him. "Everything else will just flow with you."

Before Knuckles could ask what the hell that meant, they disappeared. Actually, Knuckles disappeared and reappeared in the first room of the labyrinth. He just remembered that whole "a simple thought got you anywhere" thing. He turned right and sprinted most of the way until he was a few steps from the green room. He slowed down to a slow, slow walk, nervous about what could possibly happen in the room. He finally took one large step in and shut his eyes, waiting for something to happen. Then he reopened them. All he saw was the glimmering green wall again. Oh yeah, he had to kneel. He did so, then collapsed.

His vision became a rush of images that, while consciousness, he would have no clue what was happening. But his mind was in another state, a state only reached through the Chaotix power of the Master Emerald. The images all flashed so fast not even the subconscious state could register them before they were gone. But within a minute, he woke up and sprinted out of the labyrinth, forgetting that he could just think his way out.

"You are never gonna believe this," he gasped, "but Shadow is back. And something big's gonna happen. Real big."

"Shadow? The ultimate life form?" Lianne asked.

"Yeah."

"But what's the big thing?" asked Tikal curiously.

"Blade…He's going to destroy us all."

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"Man, my head hurtin' so much, man," RaGiff told them all, "but what little fox man says is right on. We ain't got more than a day or two, if that. Unfortunately…it's too late. At least for our man Leo…Sorry Cassie!" he cried when he saw Cassie's tears. "I'm real sorry, girl! But if he was anywhere near the planet, let alone on it, he'd have been sucked in by now."

"Let me be the judge of that," said Tails boldly. He took his laptop out of his backpack and clicked away on one of his custom GPS programs. After a few minutes, he had a very happy look on his face that quickly turned to confusion.

"I have good news. The first thing is, we're in a separate galaxy from Earth. We won't be affected by Earth's being destroyed."

The group smiled. "What's the bad news?" Sandrine asked.

"Not as much bad as it is weird beyond reason. The Space Colony ARK is currently in orbit around Mobius with Morphos, Little Planet, and Chrostoff."

"How can that be?" asked Cassie.

"That's what I'd like to know," Tails told them.

A knock on the door.

"More guests!" cheered RaGiff. He quickly moaned in pain as he tried to get up.

Amy walked in. "Hi guys." She and Sonic hugged. "How are you doing, RaGiff?"

"Oh, I'm makin' it. Don't worry."

"I…I heard about the Earth…"

"Tails just clued us in," Sandrine explained, "that it wouldn't get us messed up. But the Space Colony…Oh, I'm sorry, I'm Sandrine."

Amy was confused until she quietly jerked her thumb at Tails and winked. Amy winked back. "I'm Amy." She did the same with Sonic, and Sandrine winked back as well. Then Amy crossed her fingers. Sandrine's eyes widened and she gave the thumbs up sign.

"Uh…right…" Sonic and Tails said at the same time, perplexed.

"That still leaves us with why the Space Colony is in orbit around THIS planet," Sonic wondered aloud. Suddenly, the ground began to shake. RaGiff bobbed up and down yelping in his hospital bed. After a few seconds, the fire alarm and sprinklers went off. Amy yelped, and everyone covered their face-everyone except RaGiff.

"Evacuate the building immediately," the P.A. system blared. "This is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill."

"What the hell?" shouted Sonic over the din caused by the alarm and the screaming from outside.

"A bomb! A bomb!" someone cried, running past RaGiff's hospital room.

"Guess we know why now," Tails murmured.

"I'm gonna go check it out," Sonic explained to them, and before anyone could protest, he was gone.

"Hey, look outside!" exclaimed Cassie. She pointed to something outside. The group assembled near the window.

"Hey, can't see through ya!"

"Sorry RaGiff." Cassie and Tails moved out of the way so the immobilized RaGiff could see.

There, on the highway outside the hospital, was Shadow, taking out anyone who came out of the building. And next to him, fighting off other people was…Shadow?

"Hey, there's two of 'em!" shouted Sandrine.

"Make that four," corrected Tails. "There's two more on the other side of the road."

A black shadow swooped from above the window down near the entrance. He was holding something that looked like a remote bomb.

"Five??" asked Amy, getting a bit faint.

"That's the one!" RaGiff called. "The one with the claws-that's the one who done this to me!"

But the group was more concerned with why there were five Shadows. One looked like the normal Shadow. Another had red neon claws and a sleeker body. A third one was shooting lasers from its hands, a fourth was swinging two neon green swords that appeared to be attached to its arms, and a fifth one was holding another glowing neon weapon, a blue staff.

"What in God's name is going on?" asked Tails. Hearing this from one of the two geniuses in the room threw the others. They all turned to RaGiff.

"Hey, don't look at me like I set them off on you or somethin'. This is all new to me."

"It just got weirder," Sandrine told them. "Look!"

Outside, a bomb fell and exploded right next to one of the Shadows. All looked up to see a large jet fighter dropping bombs on the Shadows below.

"Leo?" asked Cassie.

"Naw," RaGiff told her, "that ain't the War Machine."

"All civilians," a radio altered voice called from the ship, "please go back to the building or find another place to hide. One of these things destroyed my planet, and I won't let it stand!"

"Wait, I recognize that mark on the ship…" Tails observed. Just then the group noticed a symbol on the zooming fighter that resembled a biohazard sign. Then, Tails' eyes bulged in shock.

"That's an Affinity fighter!"