Chapter 13 – A Base Deserted.

Tails let Knuckles glide the last dozen or so feet to terra firma, allowing the fox to descend gently into the top of his mecha. As the others looked on, Tails disappeared before there was a low mechanical growl and the walker mode began to transform. The fox had realised that a plane wasn't always the most convenient mode of transport and, on appealing to none other than the President himself with a word in his ear from Rouge, had been granted a special license to add a third morph to his already incredible vehicle. The driving test itself had been a mere formality to someone as naturally gifted in mechanics as Tails, so within a couple of weeks the fox had become the youngest driver on the Station Square register. The Tornado rapidly mutated into an off-road jeep type machine, the engine purring as Tails popped open the driver's door and shouted,

"Hop in – the tracker's not too far away and it's standing still. Maybe we can catch up". All four of his friends piled in, Sonic and Shadow convinced that it wouldn't be safe for them to run after their battle. Sonic slipped into the passenger seat and glanced back; after assuring himself the other three were secure, he slapped his younger brother's shoulder.

"Let's roll". Tails grinned and gunned the engine, the Tornado lurching forwards as Tails concentrated on driving, flicking his eyes down occasionally to ensure he was going in the right direction.

"Any idea…"

"No", Tails cut off Amy's question, eyes never leaving the road, "I'm not sure where we're going and I can't go much faster than this".

"Why, something wrong?" Tails glanced round at the pink hedgehog's concern, smiling as he shook his head.

"No, but I'm just shattered – going faster would be dangerous for everyone".

"It might also warn him we're coming", Knuckles, sandwiched between Amy and Shadow in the back seats, spoke for the first time, "we won't accomplish anything by letting him know we're onto him".

"Good point, never thought of that" Amy admitted. A little while later, Sonic reached over and tapped the driver on the shoulder, whispering something quietly. All three in the back seats tensed as they felt the Tornado decelerate and pull up to a stop. Sonic unclipped his seatbelt and turned in his seat, addressing them all.

"The tracker's close, we're going in on foot to try and surprise him. Tails is staying here in case we need the big guns. Amy, you're…"

"Coming with you three", she met Sonic's eyes with a steely resolve, "you and Shadow aren't at your best, so you'll need all the help you can get if the psycho's home". Sonic decided argument was pointless as he saw the remorseless look in the pink hedgehog's eyes, a glare he often had when going up against whatever new machine Eggman had managed to dream up. Without another word, he popped his door open and let himself out, breathing the chilly night air in deeply as Shadow and Knuckles joined him. Amy was last to emerge, carrying both one of the radio units and the receiver for Rouge's tracer chip. Following her lead, all four of the pursuers moved silently, flitting between the shadows of street lamps as they closed on their goal. Stopping suddenly after a few minutes, Amy scrutinised the tracker signal, the green screen giving her face an eerie glow as she turned to her companions.

"It's the other side of this wall", she whispered quickly, causing Knuckles in particular to prick his ears, "there's a gate further down and but I can't see a way to open it from here". Sonic followed her finger and gave a small grin.

"I'll run it and see if I can find a way to open them. Wait here". Sonic took off, examined the gate sides and was back at Sonic speed, though the news was bad.

"There's a switch but it's been shorted, it won't work".

"Then it's up to me", Knuckles announced, sizing up the wall next to him and carefully beginning to force his knuckle barbs in, scaling up easily, whispering as he started, "wait by the gate, I'll try to open it from inside".

"Fine, but no heroics; come back if you can't" Shadow warned him. He received a tiny nod before the echidna was lost to sight.

Knuckles hugged the top of the wall as he crawled up over the top of it, straining to keep as low as possible to the brickwork. Carefully sliding down the other side, the echidna sighed in relief as his boots touched the stone of the floor. From what he had seen so far, he was in some kind of industrial lorry park, but there were nothing here at the minute, the place was deserted. Or so it appeared he reminded himself cautiously; he was not going to let his guard down again, so he stayed close to the shadow of the wall he'd just climbed over and made his way swiftly to the gate. Glancing around, his eyes saw the switch on this side hadn't been touched, so he trusted to luck and pressed it, turning to see if the noise of the gate opening brought any undue attention from any of the nearby buildings.

The squeaks and rattling clangs from the opening gate sounded abominably loud in the still darkness, so all three hedgehogs slipped in through the widening gap in their foe's defences. Knuckles was waiting for them, not sparing them a look as he kept sweeping the open ground in front of them with his sharp eyes. Shadow whispered to Amy as she took in the new surroundings,

"Which way?" The pink hedgehog looked a little lost for a second before remembering the tracker she still held. Consulting it, she gestured towards a smallish warehouse almost directly opposite them.

"Signal's coming from there".

"Right", Sonic pumped himself up and examined the distance involved; luckily for him his observation allowed him to spot a skylight in the warehouse roof, "ah, look there". He quickly pointed this out, asking,

"Knuckles, reckon you can climb up to that?" The echidna favoured him with a sarcastic smile,

"Can you get me to that wall?" Sonic rolled his eyes and motioned to Shadow and Amy,

"Wait here; if you see anything, shout us and radio Tails. Knuckles, take a look through the top and if it looks clear, wave. We'll go for the door when you do. That clear?" When he realised he was getting some mighty queer looks, he creased his brow in consternation.

"What?"

"Who are you and what have you done with Sonic?" Shadow looked at his blue counterpart slightly off-kilter, "he'd never have been able to come up with kind of idea".

"Hey, I can plan with the best of them; I just usually don't need to make plans 'cause I'm that good". He struck a victory pose as Amy snorted.

"That's Sonic alright".

"Now let's get going". Knuckles extended his hand and let himself be carried by the blue hedgehog, shutting his eyes to avoid the stinging wind caused by travelling so fast. Not more than three seconds later, the echidna felt the characteristic lurch of a Sonic stop. Without pausing, he sprang at the wall and forced himself up it, feeling the wind at his back as Sonic left. He slammed his hands into the warehouse side as he levered himself inexorably upwards; this was ranking as one of the fastest climbs he'd ever done. He owed it to both himself and Rouge to make it nothing less than his best effort. He pulled himself onto the roof and ran across it, heading for the skylight and carefully peering into it. It was almost totally dark in there, but from what little light there was it looked completely deserted; he could make out a table and a few other odds and ends but nothing concrete as he made his mind up – Rouge needed their help and, even if Sonic and Shadow were hurt, there was no way he was going to let Seraph beat all four, or even five of them. Standing to his full height, the echidna waved, then squatted, forced the skylight open and took a plunge into the darkness.

"Go!" Shadow led the way as he saw the silhouette of the guardian give the signal and then vanish out of sight. The flames of the black hedgehog's jet skates allowed the other two to follow him easy as pie; he led them to the door of the warehouse and gripped the handle. Giving a rattle, he cursed and faced them as they approached,

"It's locked". Amy pulled out the Piko Piko hammer, swinging it over her head as she used the momentum of her charge to bolster her hitting power. Shadow and Sonic both dived out the way as she yelled,

"Stand clear" and brought the weapon down inch-perfectly, the hammer head impacting on the lock of the warehouse door and cracking it, buckling the door frame and smashing the lock open. The door swung, silhouetting the pink hedgehog in its frame as her consorts picked themselves up off the floor, almost unable to believe what they'd just seen their normally placid friend just do. Noticing their expressions she smiled and flexed her arms, giving noticeable ripples as she hefted her hammer.

"These aren't just for show you know; now come on, the signal's in here". Leading the way, Amy wafted the tracker in front of her before locking onto the tracker bug. Peering over her shoulder, Sonic saw the way and took off, shouting over his shoulder.

"This way, it's over here, it…Knuckles?" The blue hedgehog skidded to a halt as his red friend loomed up out of the darkness. The guardian had his back to the hedgehog and appeared to be cradling something; Sonic felt his elation at tracking this place down drain out of him as he slowed his run to a crawl, feeling rather than seeing Amy and Shadow pull up next to him. Amy saw the peculiar way the echidna was acting and, closing her eyes and taking a fortifying breath, asked the question they all wanted answered.

"What's that Knuckles?"

"He knew", the echidna's normally deep voice was strangled and harsh, barely concealing how hard his discovery had hit him, "Seraph's led us here for nothing, just because he knew". Shadow took up the cue and approached, trying to see what the echidna was holding.

"What did he know?" Knuckles gave a deep sniff and began to turn around, the guilt trip he'd suffered earlier pale in comparison to the fact that his lack of caution had now dashed their last chance of finding their kidnapped friends.

"He knew how we'd follow him".

In his hand was Rouge's left boot, the tracer still attached to the sole.

"He can't be long gone", Shadow spoke up, straightening up and pointing to the others, "split up and search for clues, anything that could help find out where he's gone".

"I've done that here", Knuckles was still holding the footgear as he pointed, "I think there's a computer down there, but I didn't touch it". Amy ducked under the echidna's arm and vanished into the darkness, giving a triumphant exclamation as she unhooked the radio.

"Got it, it's a laptop. I'll get Tails onto this, you search outside".

"You heard the lady, let's move", Sonic headed towards the door before realising that Knuckles hadn't budged. The echidna looked up, smiling sadly.

"Do you think we can find her now; we've lost the trace, there's no chance…"

"Oi, you told me of earlier for that kind of talk", Sonic reprimanded before Shadow continued,

"I don't care if there's not a lot of chance, there's still some kind of chance, and that's enough for me. Now Seraph must have left in some kind of motor, if he'd flown there'd have been no reason for him to fuse the outside gate switch, so I'll go look for tyre tracks".

"Don't do that". Shadow put his hands on his hips and frowned,

"And why not?" Knuckles gave a small shrug and walked forwards,

"Because you don't have a clue about tracking; let me do it because I know what I'm looking for". With that, the echidna was gone out the door, a determined look on his face as he imagined what he'd do if he was Seraph.

Once Sonic had found the parking light switch, the echidna's task became easier; he could easily see that a large lorry had recently left the parking bay and turned right, but that was as far as he could see before the Tornado pulled up into the bay and Tails jumped out.

"Where's the laptop?"

"In there", Knuckles jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the warehouse he'd come out of before continuing, "sorry, Tails, he knew about the trace on Rouge; he must have heard it when you mentioned it earlier". The foxboy nodded, feigning disappointment as he left the echidna.

"Don't worry Knucks, if there's anything on that machine that can help us I'll find it". If only you knew…

"Go for it Tails; the other three are in there already". Watching the kit enter the warehouse, Knuckles turned back to the cold tarmac, willing the trial to become plain towards him, despite the virtually impossibility of the task.

Tails had run past where Shadow and Sonic were virtually disassembling the warehouse looking for clues to where Amy stood over the laptop like a protective statue, hammer out to ward off any who may have had evil designs on their best chance of finding their friends. Tails casually flipped the lid open, taking solace in the fact that all the keys seemed to be present and correct; it was unlikely Seraph had damaged the computer rather than take it with him. He hit the on key, remarking to Amy as he did so,

"I'll deal with this Ames; go help the gruesome twosome turn this place over, I'll shout if anything comes up". The pink hedgehog gave a thumbs-up and a sweet smile as she hefted her hammer, calling out to the other two hedgehogs if the needed any help. Tails smiled as Sonic tried to make an excuse that Knuckles would appreciate her help more but, typical Amy, she wasn't buying it. However, as the computer powered up and began to display a black background, he sobered up into pure business – two lives could be on the line and he was the only one who had any real experience with computers. He waited with baited breath as the icons began to appear; this was unusual, there weren't as many icons as there should have been. He'd been expecting this – Seraph would have been competent enough to delete, and properly delete, any sort of evidence he didn't want them to find, but what really caught him off guard was the fact that what was left was unguarded. Where were the passwords, the viruses, the shut-down clauses that should have tested his skills as a hacker? What was Seraph up to this time? No time to ponder that – keeping his fingers ready to react, the kit moved the cursor over one of the folders, this one labelled 'Information', and clicked it open.

Nothing, there was absolutely no opposition as he entered the folder and entered a gold-mine of research. There were seven files, all in text format, and one of them, he noticed, had his name on it; his real name. Clicking it open, the fox felt his jaw drop.

"Boy, Seraph did his homework" he muttered under his breath. There was a wealth of information relating to the kit in this file; there was a copy of his birth certificate, his driving license, some pictures of the Tornado and other titbits that would have been worth a fortune in blackmail. Especially that one! Tails quickly deleted the offending photo; he felt a surge of shame at having the images that should have been in a private file on his computer here for all to see. It had been Christmas and he'd started talking to Cream before realising they'd been stood under a sprig of mistletoe; Vanilla had snapped them when they weren't looking. It was just a one-off but he doubted Sonic and the others would see it that way. I need to upgrade my firewalls, hello, the kit craned forwards to see the last few words under the heading 'Summary':

Strengths: Extremely Intelligent.

Flaws: Physically weak.

Status: Innocent.

Grudge/Debt: Debt of information owed.

The last sentence rang a bell in the kit's alert mind; closing his file, he opened the file on Nack as it was directly above his own. Reading down to the summary, he noted the difference with confusion interspersed with relief:

Strengths: All rounder, crack shot.

Weaknesses: History.

Status: Target.

Grudge/Debt: Needed to settle primary grudge.

What did that mean? Seraph needed Nack for something, something to do with settling this primary grudge. Did that mean Seraph didn't have a grudge against Nack, or that he bore the primary grudge against Nack and would settle it with him? Closing it down and clicking up Rouge's file, he realised that the latter theory wasn't true; apparently Seraph needed Rouge as well. So he had kidnapped two Mobians to aid some further scheme – Nack and Rouge seemed to be a means to an end, but what was the end? As far as Tails knew, the only thing the two guild members had in common was just that, they had both been in the guild. Whatever Seraph was up to, it involved the guild that he had deserted and that had hunted him down – did he want revenge on all the other members? Shaking his head, the fox filed this line of enquiry away in his memory; he didn't have enough information to make a conclusion yet. Tails clicked out of that file and opened a second, this folder was entitled 'Tools'.

Two things were immediately apparent on opening this file; one, Seraph was extremely into his job and second, Tails had hit the money big style. Scrolling down past the grenades Seraph used, Tails took particular interest in the composition of his sleep grenade; it was apparently a completely legal device as all the ingredients could be found in over the counter medicines, but purifying the chemicals and creating the skin of the grenade must have taken weeks of work. Carrying on, the weapons section came up; the Sypder flashed past, accompanied by a selection of other blades; there were no firearms; that struck Tails as unusual – maybe Seraph wasn't a gun killer. It was when the armour came up that Tails really sat up straight, reading the formula for its construction at record speed as he quickly realised why the Chaos Spear had failed. The fox was so engrossed in his task that he never heard Shadow approach.

"How's it going?"

"AAAHHHH", the fox launched himself up three feet vertically, mind filled with visions of a less-than-impressed Seraph wanting to know why Tails was snooping in his private folders. The fact that Shadow was black furred didn't help matters as the hedgehog jerked back, worried by the violence of the fox's reaction.

"Shadow", Tails managed to gasp as he dispelled the illusion of a diabolic assassin after his blood, "don't do that!"

"Sorry, find anything yet".

"You bet", the kit pointed towards the screen, "that's how he was able to beat the Chaos Spear". Shadow leaned over the back of the chair, examining the screen intently; if this was how, maybe they could counter it somehow. The diagram was a cross-section of the leather armour Seraph wore with colour-coded labels that basically translated into extra armour compartments made of Kevlar, heat resistance systems, air pores to let the skin breathe and something else. Running through the entire suit was a network of what looked like sludge, but that idea changed when he read the accompanying label:

Network of water mixed with powered Chaos emerald. Isolates wearer from Chaos attacks as energy from one Chaos Emerald can not affect a different Chaos Emerald.

Shadow blinked as he tried to take this in; while wearing his suit of leather armour Seraph was basically wearing a Chaos Emerald, completely immune to all forms of Chaos attack.

"Pretty impressive, don't you think?" Tails twisted in his seat to meet Shadow's shocked look. The black hedgehog chose his next words with delicacy.

"Tails, you do realise that this means Seraph can't be hit by any of our Chaos Spears, Chaos Controls and maybe even our super forms?"

"Not if you hit him in the head", Tails indicated the screen again, pointing out that the diagram ended at the neck of the suit, "his mask's not on the diagram, you might be able to catch him there. Also, it might not work fully; it's only been tested on one Chaos Spear that we know of".

"I wouldn't put money on it; anything else?"

"Not yet, give me another couple of minutes and I'll let Seraph pay off his debt".

"Wha'?" Tails pulled up Shadow's information file, showing him the summary.

"He owes everyone here a debt of information – I think this computer is it", when this was met with silence, the kit looked up at his hedgehog companion, "Shadow?"

"I, I don't remember this". The ultimate life-form pointed at pictures in the information and shook slightly, not remembering his photo as it was taken when he was aboard the ARK by Amy, just before he and Sonic defeated the Biolizard and he had been lost through the atmosphere. Tails clicked his fingers and pawed his arm,

"Shadow, go into the Tornado; in the driver's door compartment there's some CDs. Get one; I'll copy this out for you". Shadow remained immobile for a few seconds before vanishing, just hearing the kit' shouted order,

"Let Sonic and Knuckles know about the suit".

While Shadow was on his errand, the kit opened the last folder. The title of 'Control' seemed a little ominous but it was the smallest file available out of the three. The result was a single diagram and explanation, but as soon as Tails got to the word neural, he had a vague idea of what this was about. A coldness crawled over his skin as the full implications of what this device was meant for was spelt out for him. The summary confirmed the kits fears:

All five secondary targets implanted. Proceed to engage primary target. Settle primary grudge.

As the fox reread the statement to ensure he knew how the device worked, there was a sound behind him followed by Shadow's voice.

"Okay, they all know now; Amy's happy that he's not immune to being hammered and I've got the CD you asked for".

"Shadow, get the others", the black hedgehog was brought up short by the normally cheerful fox's downcast tone, "I think I've figured out what all this is about". As he heard the footsteps recede, Tails wondered just how he'd be able to break the news to Knuckles and the others.

"Hey guys", Sonic looked over as Shadow raced up, hailing them, "Tails says he's got a breakthrough, we'd better get inside". Amy smiled as she made her hammer vanish.

"Knew our little genius wouldn't let us down". Knuckles sighed resignedly, agreeing with the pink hedgehog,

"Yeah, just as well; we figured out that he's in a lorry and he turned right out of here, that's about it. Lead on Macduff" the echidna asked of Shadow. Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"Didn't know you read Shakespeare Knucks?"

"What you know about my hobbies could be written on a pinhead with a pneumatic drill" the echidna answered coolly. Sonic made a gagging noise and pulled a face,

"I consider that a good thing; but anyway, I preferred The Merchant of Venice to Macbu…" the rest of the sentence was smothered as a glove suck itself to Sonic's mouth.

"Shhhh", Amy hissed in his ear as she clamped her hand tighter, glancing about as if he'd uttered a terrible hex, "Call it the Scottish Play; if you say its name out loud it's bad luck".

"I think it'd be even worse luck if you didn't let go any time soon" Shadow remarked as Sonic tried to shift the paw that had vulcanised to his lips.

"Huh, oh sorry Sonic, but that was an emergency".

"You are an accident waiting to happen, you know that", the blue hedgehog remarked as he wiped his mouth, "but you're right and the last thing we need now is more bad luck".

"Here, here, now come on, Tails will be waiting". Knuckles led them in, hoping against hope that somehow, he'd found out where the assassin had taken his victims.

Okay, right, I think I've got this... Tails took a last deep breath as the other four gathered around where he was sat. Turning to face them and composing himself, he began,

"Right, Seraph left this here deliberately; apparently he owed us all a debt of information and this is supposed to pay it off. He's left some stuff on it…"

"Can we use it to find Rouge and Nack?" Shadow piped up, interrupting Tails' carefully planned speech. Facing up to the truth, he answered slowly,

"From this, no", the fox saw, almost unintentionally, Knuckles clench his fists and screw his eyes shut at this information, "but I think I've figured out what Seraph's going to do next". The echidna's head shot up,

"What, how do you know that?"

"It's on here; apparently, Seraph's got a lot of information on each of us, but under Nack and Rouge's entries there's a statement saying that they're needed to settle a primary grudge. Now I'm not sure what that means", Tails cut off the questions before they started, "but from what I can tell Seraph needs them alive".

A large amount of tension evaporated at this statement but Tails carried on,

"So he wants them all alive, but there's something else as well. Look at this", he brought up the file showing the control file as the others crowded round, "this is some kind of neural controlling device that implants directly into the central nervous system. Once in, the neural fibres inside it connect to the brain tissue and override it".

"Mind control" one of the four breathed, shocked by this squat, blocky construct on the screen in front of them, the thin tail completing the illusion of a metal scorpion.

"Yeah, basically", Tails agreed, "this is sophisticated stuff; give someone one of these and they're putty in you hands – tell them to eat, they'll eat, jump and they'll jump etcetera. This is the clincher though", Tails pointed to the last sentence, "this says Seraph has five secondary targets implanted. We know he's got two of them; who are the other three?" Knuckles felt his eyes widen.

"The guild", he continued, tone becoming increasingly feverish as he spat out the idea, "there were five excluding Seraph; Rouge, Nack, that Jessie mouse, the rooster and, er, Chalkie, right. There's the five secondary; he's gone after the entire guild and he's got them all now".

"The question is; why did he to capture the five who plotted to kill him…"

"Four, Rouge said she wasn't at that meeting" Knuckles chipped in. Shadow nodded before continuing,

"Okay, he captures all the others, including the one who actually tried to kill him, and he's manipulating them with these things. But why, and what's the primary grudge?"

"Know what I think?" Everyone turned to Sonic as the blue blur straightened, face thoughtful and eyes narrow as he thought.

"Go on, enlighten us".

"I think this has Eggman written all over it".

As the others took time to mull that statement over, Sonic went on to explain,

"Think about it; these grenades, Chaos-proof armour, mind control – that just reeks of Eggman. I reckon Seraph's got a contract out for these five and Eggman's the one with the pay check".

"Why though; what use would Eggman have for the five – remember he probably doesn't even know the guild ever existed, it was pretty secret". This deflated the hedgehog a little but he carried on regardless.

"Well, if anyone would find out it'd be him, and the use, well, you tell me. A collection of professional spies, thieves and espionage experts, what couldn't Eggman do?"

"He's got a point, but anyway, that's not too important right now. We've still got to find Rouge and the others. How?" It was at this point that Tails offered a suggestion, secretly hiding his last trick card for fear of causing a mini riot.

"Look, it's too late to try anything now and none of us have slept properly for at least three days. I'll get the Tornado ready and we bed down here for the night; we'll talk about this tomorrow".

"But…"

"No, Knuckles, he's right", Shadow stepped in as the echidna made to argue, "we're no good to anyone if we're all dead on our feet. I'll get the car fixed, and here's the disk you asked for", he handed a nondescript CD to the fox before turning and herding the others back towards the waiting car and sleep. Tails opened the CD drive and quickly waited for Shadow's file to download onto disk; the black hedgehog would be able to dissect it at his leisure. While he was in the information section, a thought occurred to Tails – it was a little childish, and it must have been embarrassing, but on the other hand he was really curious and, besides, no secrets between brothers right? He opened the file he needed and saw the answer in a few seconds. He closed the file, popped open the disc and took out the CD before closing the laptop down.

Knuckles was waiting for the fox as he approached the Tornado. Speaking quietly, the echidna led,

"Listen Tails, thanks for that".

"No problem".

"We've sorted out the sleeping and you're in the driver's seat, that okay?"

"Cool".

"Good, and thanks again, you're a …" catching a look at the fox's expression, the echidna became a little more concerned, "you feeling alright?"

"Fine, just tired". The fox opened his door and slid in, whispering his goodnights; he didn't dare check the rear view mirror in case he lost it completely.