Chapter 14 – Race with the Devil.

The sound of a metallic bleep and a continually winking red light pierced into Seraph's resting state; the former guild member was instantly fully prepared for any kind of assault. His rest had been interrupted by a light on the dashboard, the vehicle required refuelling and had already identified the nearest refuelling station along the course he had plotted for it. Working the controls of the truck, the creature of the night pulled into the gas station and aimed deftly for one of the diesel pumps. Checking his alignment, the bat opened his door and emerged into the enclosed area, rapidly forcing the diesel pump into the correct fuel hole and filled the tank, running up a bill of nearly sixty before the tank was filled. Rapidly moving towards the cashier, he brought out the money necessary to pay for the fuel; to maximise efficiency, he wanted the secondary targets in the appropriate position before the sun rose; that would give him enough time to infiltrate the primary target's base of operations and then trigger the assault. The grudge that had plagued him for seven years would soon be destroyed; the perpetrator of the crime would be undone by his own insidious methods.

The teenage cashier was reading a newspaper and peered over the top of it as the bell rang; he had to take two good looks to assure himself what he was seeing was actually real. No-one dressed like that in this day and age; he had a few Goth friends but not even they were that extreme. The leather the customer was wearing was crackling as he moved around, buying several bottles of water and a moderate amount of food. The young cashier started as his newest, and if that fuel bill was anything to go buy, most wealthy client strode towards him and he saw no face, just a black mask. He wasn't a shy guy by any stretch of the imagination and he was safe behind half an inch of bullet-proof glass, so the teen squared himself as a few bills were slipped under the counter.

"Sorry sir, could you take your, er, mask off a second?" For a second the figure didn't react, then he made a few gestures with his hands. The cashier shook his head,

"Sorry, can't understand sign language – here, write on this". He slid a small pad of post-it notes under the gap in the counter, the thicker wedge of paper displacing the crisp monetary notes. The customer, it was one of those man-sized mammals, he was sure of it but didn't voice the theory out loud, took out a pen and scribbled a word down – Why?

"Company policy".

The one instance where the law could be broken. Face must be concealed to prevent recognition.

Luckily this was not a problem Seraph was unfamiliar with; in the rare instances he actually had to interact with people he was often asked, threatened to or in some cases ordered to abandon his camouflage. To combat this seeming obsession with security, he had devised many strategies to allow his mask to remain – now was as good a time as any to put one of them to use. Writing his reasoning on the sketch pad the clerk had provided for him, he utilised the first reason he had ever devised. Holding the pad up in view, the assassin quickly realised that this delay to his journey would hopefully end relatively soon.

Bad facial burns – okay that was a valid reason. The cashier nodded and swiftly counted the money, continuing to make a seemingly one-way conversation with his mute customer.

"Nasty, still, will it heal up soon?" The customer gave an exaggerated shrug as the teen calculated the change and rang the till.

"Where you headed for?" There was a little more writing as the coins were slid under the counter and a black glove closed over them. The clerk saw his reply as the customer took his merchandise and headed for the door.

"Oh right, that's a trek. Have a good trip". There was a slight wave as the door bell rang and Seraph departed.

Heaving open the back of the lorry trailer, the silent Mobian hoisted himself in and rapidly placed a bottle of water and a food item of some description in the hands of each of the guild members. The cranial plating each wore was programmed to allow the hosts to partake of sustenance at specific times; enough to maintain a body at a resting state but not enough to allow the accumulation of body fat. This pattern would return almost indefinitely, until some key phrases were spoken and the secondary programming overrode this resting state. These phrases included mundane commands such as 'come', whereby the brain box would instruct the host towards the transmitter held in Seraph's glove. There was one phrase, unknown to all but the programmer, which gave a much more unusual response; it was this response that Seraph had calculated would allow the grudge to be avenged fully – his primary target would be destroyed by the same methods and people that he had used to destroy the creature that had become Seraph. The bat shook his head; fulfilling the grudge was the only concern at the moment and the likelihood of endeavour succeeding was decreasing with the time spent here. Closing the back door and jumping into the cab, Seraph gunned the engine and allowed the programme to take over again; maximum efficiency had yet to be attained and his wounded right shoulder had yet to fully heal, but he had still some three hours of travel to regain his lost performance.

Tails opened his eyes as the sun began to streak in through the windscreen of his vehicle; the fox was one of those lucky people that always rose with the sun. Didn't matter if he'd only been asleep for a couple of hours, or even a couple of minutes, but once he'd been hit by a solitary sunbeam that was it, he was awake and he wouldn't be able to sleep again. Yawning and dashing the sleep from his eyes Tails rapidly realised that he was the only one conscious; Amy's chin was rising and falling in tandem with her deep breathing while the other three were stretched out in the back, the seats having been completely lowered to allow them to lay down. This was it then, time to be off and try to catch up with whatever scheme Seraph had in mind. Reaching across, the fox carefully buckled Amy in safely and then reached into the jeep's glove compartment, simultaneously smiling and sighing as he realised it had finally come to this; he'd hoped he wouldn't have had to let anyone know about this development he'd created, but now there was no hope of it staying under wraps. Still, if it helps save my friends, that's all that matters, reassuring himself that this was the right thing to do, the fox turned over his shoulder and reversed out of the parking bay, revved up gently and then took off onto the open road, occasionally glancing down into his lap to ensure he was heading in the right direction.

The Tornado had just passed the twenty mile barrier around Station Square and Tails was just consulting his impromptu map when the person next to him stirred. Amy stretched as much as was possible before realising that her previously stationary bed was now on the move. Looking around for a few seconds while she regathered her bearings, Amy's eyes eventually fell on her chauffer.

"Tails, where, er, where are we going?" The fox flashed a grin that reminded her far too much of Sonic in her direction before answering.

"Where do you think we're going – after Rouge of course".

"Oh, okay", Amy was dumbfounded for a minute; she could have sworn that Tails had said he hadn't been able to find the route from the laptop, "how do you know where she is?"

"Easy, I used the tracker". This just confused the rose hedgehog even more,

"But Seraph took her boot off, the tracker's not on her, unless", she gave an incredulous expression as the realisation dawned and Tails gave a cramped victory pose, "you sly little fur-ball".

"Oh yeah, cunning as a fox me", the kit replied as he glanced downwards and turned right. Amy shook her head and smiled deeply.

"Okay wise guy, how'd you do it this time?"

"I didn't trust the fact that just because we were out of the cabin Seraph wouldn't be able to hear us; he put the fruit in there in the first place remember".

"Yeah, that's right", she snapped her fingers, "and he wouldn't have known we were going there unless he'd tracked Knuckles before then".

"Right, I thought it was Nack at first, I actually never suspected Knuckles", the fox admitted before continuing, "so I thought that just in case that was the case, we'd need a second way to keep in touch with Rouge if Seraph still managed to find her. Luckily I had just the thing", he indicated the radar device on his lap, "this is the most powerful tracker bug I've got; I always keep it in the glove compartment of my Tornado. I was going to use it if Sonic and I needed to be separated in enemy territory, but that hasn't happened yet. While the rest of you were sleeping, I flew back to the Tornado and got the bug". Amy felt her eyes widen as she tried to follow this; despite herself, she began to agree with Rouge.

"Rouge was right, you need to consider starting a career as a spy; with gadgets like that you could be the next James Bond". She gave a small giggle as Tails thought about that scenario.

"No way; could you imagine me in a tux in shedding season?"

"Okay, maybe not Bond himself, but you could be the gadget guy, Q".

"Maybe, but anyway", Tails steered away from the diversion, pleasurable as it was, "I got the bug and quickly woke Rouge. I whispered my plan to her and she swallowed the tracker – that way Seraph couldn't get to it without serious meddling".

"Clever, but", she voiced a concern as she remembered one of the fox's previous disclosures, "how powerful is it? You said the other one couldn't transmit between Station Square and Knuckle's Island". To her surprise, Tails patted her knee and said in a comfortingly,

"Don't worry Ames; I made this for Sonic remember? This baby will transmit pretty much across a continent, not even Seraph could get that far in a night. We're onto him now; I hope he's ready for a serious butt-kicking". Amy echoed his wolfish smile and put an arm across his shoulder, winking at him.

"Too right; he wanted my hammer, so I'm going to let him have all and then some. Should I wake the others?" Tails shook his head,

"No, let them sleep, we'll need to be as fully rested as possible when we catch up. Oh, but if Knuckles rolls onto his back, give him a poke will ya?" A pink eyebrow was raised curiously as its owner smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Why?"

"You've never heard him snore have you?"

"Knuckles snores?" Amy was suffering a recursion of the giggles and Tails was in severe danger of becoming infected; he made no move to immunise himself, however – if anything he actively encouraged them.

"Like a buzz-saw".

"Got a Dictaphone in here?"

"No", Tails was a little shocked by this request, "you devious little…that's just nasty. Recording a helpless echidna snoring, why?" Amy's eyes gleamed,

"Think of the bribery. Floating Island; the waterfalls, the walking, the sights".

"Check the glove compartment and your door; there might be one lying around somewhere".

Morning was nearly half done as a single articulated lorry pulled down a seemingly deserted stretch of dirt track, towards some abandoned mines nearly three hundred miles away from the prosperous city of Station Square. The destination appeared to be completely random; all that remained out in these desolate plains were a few tiny border towns and the mines themselves. Once these had been rich reserves of copper, lead and opal, but those times had long since passed. The ores had run dry, the miners had moved on and all that remained where their structures, the once busy lanes of industry had been sealed off and warning signs had been erected to ward off any would-be prosperers and wayward children.

The generally accepted fact was that there nothing here, at least nothing that would attract the attention of a transport company; Seraph, however, did not believe this general consensus. In fact, he had journeyed down into the depths of the mines themselves years before in the past. The trek into the darkness of the earth had been long and arduous, but ultimately had been worth it as he had discovered what he had searched for. Below his feet was something the government would have given a collective left arm for and he had pinpointed its location, marking it with a dormant beacon that would only activate under specific conditions. Only four months ago, an electronic image of this continent had suddenly been lit up by a tiny dot; the signal had been broadcast and Seraph had rapidly prepared. He had been careful; during the previous visit, he had skilfully destroyed all but the five most direct routes to the heart of his goal. Now, the primary target was in a known location unaware and unsuspecting of the fate that would rapidly befall it.

There. One entrance to be covered. Disembark.

Pulling his ride to a stop, the former guild member rapidly leapt from his position and, after extracting the required tools from the back of the lorry, made his way slowly towards the seemingly innocuous mine entrance. A whispered word in the receiver on his glove with the smallest finger clenched ensured his footsteps were dogged loyally by a second, larger Mobian. After ensuring the area was clear, Seraph selected a shady spot, marked on the mine entrance with a single scratch from a fine knife blade, and had his companion stop and stay there. Rapidly outfitting his unwitting helper, the assassin departed, leaving Chalkie the fox-cat standing stone-still outside a single mine entrance, guarding it whilst wearing the equivalent of Kevlar riot protection and armed with an ominously large projectile weapon.

One entrance secured. Secure others before beginning infiltration.

He was being rocked, gently and slowly. It was a sensation that was unusual to him, but it felt strangely pleasant, the sense of warmth all around him and the low purring from somewhere only aiding his illusion that he had attained Nirvana. Sighing, the blue hedgehog didn't resist as there was another, more forceful rocking of the cradle he felt himself in, this time succeeding in dislodging him from his position and sending him rolling to the right. The hedgehog impacted on something soft and squishy and in turn felt something soft roll up against him, helping to warm the right side of his body. Something brushed his face; it was light and feathery, disturbing him as he tried to get more comfortable. It wasn't moving, continuing to irritate the skin of his face as he tried to remain under the gossamer blanket of beautiful sleep. After a few seconds of ignorance he resigned to defeat; the whatever-it-was had more persistence than he did at the minute; he was going to have to move. Flicking the mystery thing with a hand, Sonic reluctantly peeled open a single eye. Wow, that's red. He closed his eye quickly – he hadn't expected to see something that bright so early in the morning. Trying to get his brain to cycle through the gears, Sonic tried to logically find out what this thing could be. Getting a second, longer look, he realised that a small red worm had been nuzzling him, this had awakened him, and several worms were attached to the head of this…he jolted awake; he was in a confined space, possibly a moving vehicle, with Knuckles Echidna snuggled up next to him!

There was a violent shuffling from behind them, so Amy poked her head round in time to see Sonic shove the still sleeping Knuckles away from him and sit up, a look of mixed wonder and disgust twisting his face.

"Morning Sonic", she said brightly; as her voice only seemed to confuse his further, she decided to explain the situation a bit, "you're in the Tornado, we all slept in here tonight". Sonic closed his eyes and willed his mind to remember the events of last night; they had been undeniably grim and ill-boding, he certainly remembered that before, oh yes, Amy was right; they had all crashed in his young bro's machine for the night. Giving a haggard smile, the hedgehog exercised his eyelids and asked,

"What happened?" Amy made to answer but seemed to check herself as she realised Sonic was the only one on the back three awake.

"Wake the other two up first, gently" she demanded as Sonic made to wind up a grand-slam punch to the echidna's prone form; vengeance, he reasoned, for the guardian giving him such a shock as he woke up. The blue hedgehog tried to look aggrieved at being denied his free hit, but capitulated at Amy's stern face. He decided to settle for a rough shake and caustic comment instead.

"Yo not-so-rad red", he increased the force of his shake as Knuckles made to roll away from him before an evil idea took root in his mind. Leaning forwards, the hedgehog whispered in the echidna's ear, "The Master Emerald's been stolen".

"WHA!" The guardian shot to his feet; unfortunately for him, the roof of the Tornado's car mode wasn't high enough to allow that and all he managed to achieve was a thump on the top of his noggin. He sat back down as Sonic's laughter rang in his ears.

"Well, that one worked".

"What are you going on about faker?" Sonic looked over his shoulder to see that Knuckles' pratfall had awakened Shadow, the black hedgehog pushing himself to his hands and knees. Before Sonic could answer a large, spurred hand attached itself around his neck and Sonic quickly found himself face-to-face with a rather irate guardian. Sonic saw his reflection in Knuckles' blazing purple eyes and gave a cheesy grin as the guardian cocked his other fist.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't put you back to sleep, permanently?"

"Because we might need him to rescue Rouge", came a voice from the driver's seat. The echidna released his choke hold and glowered at the hedgehog as Shadow looked at the origin of the voice.

"Rescue Rouge, how?"

"You found her?" Knuckles forgot his quarrel with Sonic immediately; hope flaring up in his heart at Tails' announcement, "you know where she is?" Amy answered for the driver as Tails took a left and right in quick succession.

"Yep, our little Einstein came through again". Knuckles unclenched his fists, looking like the weight of the whole world had been lifted off his shoulders. Sonic noticed this and clapped him on the shoulder, offering unspoken apology and assurance as he asked,

"How'd you do it bro?"

"Long story short, I had Rouge swallow a second tracker – this was more powerful than the…"

"YOU DIDN'T TELL US?" Knuckles gripped the back of Tails' seat until the upholstery threatened to tear from its moorings, "you knew where that maniac was taking her and didn't let us know?" The echidna couldn't believe Tails had been so stupid; they could have followed almost immediately and caught up to Seraph much earlier. He felt a hand on his arm; Shadow shook his head and stated firmly,

"I'm sure Tails had his reasons, and damaging the Tornado won't help", the black hedgehog turned to the fox and asked calmly, "I assume you wanted to rest up first".

"Got it in one", Tails turned to face his passengers momentarily, Amy facing forwards, "it was pointless chasing as we were; Shadow and Sonic were still smarting and I couldn't have driven safely, not without sleep. I kept quiet because if I had have told people we'd have all taken off like headless chickens and lost any semblance of order at all". The logic of this argument worked on Knuckles' misplaced fury and it dissipated slowly; he gradually released his crushing grip on the back of the driver's head rest and sat back, breathing more freely as he realised that now the trail was warm again, he had a chance to both save Rouge and swallow his pride to admit a few things. Things he should have said a long time ago. The echidna gave a sad smile; it was true what the old stories said, you never truly missed something until it was gone – now he knew Rouge was missing, and even worse, possibly in danger, it was like there was a hollow cave been scooped in his soul. Sonic, noting Knuckles had thankfully fallen silent, piped up,

"How far are we behind them?" The answer fired up all of the pursuers to a new level of hope.

"Only about a hundred and seventy miles now and the transmitter's stationary". There was an outbreak of minor celebration as Sonic and Shadow exchanged a high five and Amy gave Tails a one-armed hug, forcing the fox to duck and pretend to scrutinise the map to try and hide the light blush that brought out. Knuckles grinned and silently offered up a prayer of thanks to whoever felt like answering that Tails was on their side.

"How'd you manage to close him down?" The young genius answered the guardian's question after a second's recollection of the drive thus far.

"I've been driving pretty much since dawn; you know how I am with sunlight", there was a nodding for Sonic and Shadow; both knew that once Tails was awake, that was it, he'd not sleep again, "well I've since I started I realised the Tornado's faster than whatever he's driving, so I've been catching up steadily. When the opportunity presented itself", the fox shared a secret smile with his new partner in mischief, "I went off-road to try and catch up as well". Amy couldn't hold it in at this point; she fished her mobile out of her dress pocket and lit the screen up.

"That was the funniest thing ever", she looked seriously as the three older Mobians, "you were all bouncing around like ping-pong balls, and the positions…" she tailed off, leaving the three sweating as she got to the pictures section of her phone. Opening the most provocative picture she'd managed to capture, the rose hedgehog passed her phone backwards and ducked down, waiting for the explosion with Tails. Right on cue, it arrived.

"NO!"

"Is that even possible normally?"

"Only if you get ribs removed".

"What are you doing with those barbs?"

"You can talk; look at you playing with my hair". Shadow decided to take the initiative but before he could react Amy had snatched her phone back with a sly smile.

"Nuh uh, I'm recording these for all posterity". Shadow felt his skin crawl as the thoughts of that photo falling into the wrong hands, he couldn't allow it!

"Amy, please delete those pictures". The black hedgehog's voice was thick and shame-filled but that didn't sway the younger hedgehog; she wanted to make the most of this.

"Oh no, I think I'll keep these, just in case, you know?" As she slid her phone back safe into her pocket, she missed Shadow put his finger to his lips and slide up silently behind her chair. The first she knew of his attack was when both his hands snapped round the side of the seat in a two-pronged assault on her sides.

"Eeeekkk no, Shadow stahahahap!" Amy thrashed to try and get away but was held in place by her seatbelt. The black hedgehog was relentless; poking his head over the shoulder of the chair, the ultimate life-form demanded.

"Hand it over or I go for the ribs". The black hedgehog has discovered this was her worst spot as a result of a moment of summer madness; he, Tails and Cream had been dragged into an all-out wrestling bout as Amy had made to leap on Sonic at a barbeque Tails had hosted and the blue hedgehog had dodged. All five had fought each other happily until Cream discovered that Sonic couldn't take the back of his knees being touched. One thing had led to another and Shadow had eventually been crowned the victor after overpowering Amy herself; he hadn't wanted to hurt her and had been at a loss until a quiet voice in his ear had pointed out she was vulnerable in this respect. A Shadow speed tickle attack had had her screaming for mercy and tapping out, granting Shadow bragging rights for the rest of the day, or at least until Tails had introduced the water pistols.

"Okay, just quiheeheeheet", Shadow stopped tickling and Amy, face flushed, handed her phone over, telling him straightforwardly how to delete the artworks she'd created, "that was a rotten trick" she complained.

"And taking photos of people when their asleep isn't?" Knuckles queried as Sonic snatched the phone and moved into the photo area, the other two watching over his shoulder, grimacing as each new image flashed up.

"We never speak of this again, right?" This idea was greeted enthusiastically by the other two, though there were some sniggers from the driver's seat. Sonic, face red as a cherry, spoke to Tails as he tried to contain himself.

"And one word from you and I'll do something I might very well regret later". Carry on threatening me and I might too – no, not now – aww, but his face – no! – oh okay, you're the boss; Tails nodded mutely, keeping his deadly knowledge inside himself for now, like magma stewing inside a volcano. And like a volcano, this secret was too big to stay inside; sooner or later there was going to be an explosion of biblical proportions. For now though, Tails had managed to postpone the inevitable.

A while later, the situation had changed a little thanks to a most fortunate pit stop; as Tails had filled up the Tornado, Knuckles had used his head and, just on the off chance, had asked the gas station cashier if anyone else had called in during the night. The information that a strange guy dressed all in black, including a mask that had covered his burnt face, had caused the echidna to pretty much leap for joy; having told the others as the fuel bill was paid, they had all taken this as a sign that they were on the right track. The till worker, once he realised that Sonic the hedgehog and his friends were in his station, proved to be a proverbial goldmine of information; he remembered that the customer had been driving a truck and run up a high bill of gas and plenty of provisions. As they had reboarded the Tornado, Shadow had summed up.

"Right, he passed through about five, maybe six hours ago; how far behind him are we now?" Amy ducked to peek in Tail's lap and answered,

"About a hundred and five miles, but he's moved a bit since then; it looks like he's going in a rough sort of circle".

"Right, assume we can move at sixty for the rest of the trip, we get to the tracker in about an hour and…"

"Hang on, it's moving".

This was the last potential exit for his target; the remainder were covered by four members of his brainwashed posse. Looking down, Seraph called on his catalogue of memories to remind himself of how far this shaft descended. This would be critical; the mine shaft was like a bordered up, ten foot by ten foot plunge into darkness, there wasn't much room to manoeuvre just for himself and his wings weren't meant to glide like his tools' were. Completing his recollections, he commanded his target to rest and then took hold of her. Straddling over the fence and warning signs painted on the weather-beaten wood, Seraph halted on the edge of the precipice then simply dropped downwards, holding Rouge in his arms as his wings slowed the fall into the shadows.

"Okay, it's stopped now". A collective breath was let out as Amy, who had kept her eyes trained on the tracker's icon the whole time, made the announcement. Knuckles wasn't sure if he could take too much more of this; raising his voice from his backseat he demanded,

"Put pedal to the metal Tails; we gotta get there now".

"Way ahead of you". There was a sudden burst of acceleration as Tails floored it onto the open road; there was no turns for at least the next twenty miles, so Tails decided to push it a little as Knuckles, closing his eyes and settling back in his seat, crossed his fingers within his mighty gloves, silently pleading that Rouge would be okay when they arrived.

Landing completed. Equip tool appropriately. Progress to final objective.

Letting his burden slide from his arms, Seraph slowly and carefully closed his wings; he could not sense anything that might have been a camera, but having thoroughly researched his target he had given himself zero margin for error; a single instant of complacency now could undo all his prior planning. He swiftly bent down and pulled a pair of pistols out from his thigh holsters then unbuckled them, letting them fall to the ground. They restricted his movement and banged against the rest of his camouflage, increasing the noise he made and making the risk of discovery much too high. Clenching the ring finger of his left hand, Seraph placed the pistol butts in the fruit bats' hands before uttering a command.

"Hold". The guns were immediately seized in a grip of iron, the brain box unwilling to release that which it had been commanded to seize. The last implement of his vengeance was now in place; the primary, final target was surrounded by a ring of steel and soon Seraph himself would make escape impossible. Then, only then, would the others know and his grudge be truly settled for all time. No time to lose; the sooner he was in place the sooner the endgame would begin. Moving into the shadows of the mineshaft, Seraph disappeared round the nearest corner towards his goal and clenched his entire left fist, opening the communications to all five of his temporary puppets.

"Guard" and it was done; there was no escape, and there would be no mercy.

"Only about thirty minutes people", Tails had been keeping a heavy eye on time since he'd been able to prove Shadow's prediction grossly inaccurate due to his ability to go off-road on this desolate place, "we're not stopping now". The other four all prepared themselves as much as they could in that time; Sonic was trying to remember every move Seraph had made against him in his last battle, Shadow was toying with the red emerald to plan how he could call his Chaos attacks – Seraph appeared to be protected from direct assault, but there should be nothing to stop him warping behind him and getting the element of surprise. Amy was relaxing as much as she could in the fraught atmosphere; she wanted to be at the peak of her abilities when crunch time came. However, unknown to the other four, Knuckles was going through the most vigorous preparation of all. The echidna was husbanding his power, summoning it almost to the point of no return then reining it in again. Though outwardly it looked like he was meditating his mind was actually buzzing, remembering all that had brought them to this and his own, unwitting part in the bargain. All these thought collided like a pack of shuffling cards, each random flicker of consciousness hammering against the others until each found its place, allowing him to harness his inner strength and then, eventually, garner him the ability to call it forth at a moment's notice.

Though he was by far and away more than competent at most aspects of his trade, it was at infiltration that Seraph truly proved he was the master. The vampire bat was as silent as the grave as his camouflage blended him into the darkness, the gift of echolocation allowing him to assess the way ahead for potential threats and devices that may have reported his presence to his target. It was clear, this region of the mines looked untouched; obviously his previous activities had done well in focusing the target's attention away from expanding his domain to clearing the rubble from his base. There, up ahead there was a glimmer of light and, yes, the tools his target favoured. No weapons, these were obviously simple workers, toiling like termites for their bloated king. The former guilder wondered if they contained surveillance equipment but took no chances either way; keeping close to the rough wall of the hollowed out tunnel, the bat waited until the pair had turned their backs to him before ghosting past, finding his place in another patch of shadow as he went one step closer to his goal. He remembered the way to his final destination with precision; there was a quarter of a kilometre of ground left to cover, no more, before he could signal the assault.

Tails veered off the road again after a grunted warning, he was driving with every ounce of control he had to take the most direct route to the tracker Rouge had ingested. So far, since the last movement, it had remained stationary on his map but that didn't mean it was going to do so indefinitely. Not long now, the fox wiped one of his sweating palms on his knee before returning to grip the wheel, watching as more dirt flew up to spatter the front of the Tornado, just stay still a little longer and we'll be there. Hold on Rouge.

So close, he could almost sense the grudge ending like the memory of a sweet taste on his nerveless tongue. Seraph was in deep into the enemy territory; he had passed through poorly lit corridors and hugged the walls of wider expanses of rooms, avoiding the searching glare of cameras and motion detectors by striking the devices themselves with a small EMP device; again, like the WD40, this was a standard part of his armoury and had neutralised the scanning devices for precious seconds while he had moved past them. Now he used the EMP blaster again, knocking out a small camera as he dodged past it, coming into contact with a steel door. Not wasting any time, the Spyder was produced and shorted out the door code pad, leaving it to swing open quietly and let the assassin slip in. Yes, only two more rooms to enter before he could reach the goal he had set himself. As he swept the room he had entered with both eyes and sixth sense, he realised something had changed since he had visited last; there was a much more imposing and upgraded door barring his path and the large computer bank that had been dusty and decrepit last time was now humming merrily away, taking readings from a large plexi-glass capsule off to one side of the room.

Making a snap decision and checking the coast was clear Seraph sprinted into the lee of the computer bank for a better look. There was a figure in the capsule; a prisoner? No, he re-evaluated that last estimate as he read the inscription on the bottom of the capsule and correlated it to previous information he had hacked from his target's information systems. Interesting, but the delay was unproductive; he had to move forwards and the door would both take too long to crack open and be an immediate give away to his target. Looking upwards, Seraph saw his answer and dashed to the opposite wall, using his gecko-gripped gloves, elbows, knee and chest pads as well as his boots to cling to the wall and swiftly begin to climb up it.

As his journey began, so a second ended; warned by Tails' observations, all five would-be rescuers piled out of the Tornado, Tails immediately activating the inbuilt security features to dissuade any potential tampering. Amy took the lead, following the lap-top sized receiver unit until it locked on to the tracer. Excitement plain in her tone, she nodded in the indicated direction.

"This way, come on". She made to move out but was stopped by Sonic's hand on the back of her dress.

"No way sister", the blue blur demanded, "we're going to stick together for now; we assume Seraph's close and watching. He'll pick us off if we split up".

"Good thinking that hedgehog" Knuckles commented dryly as Tails finished his securing of the Tornado and returned with the two radios in his hands. Moving out as fast as possible, the pursuers closed on their goal, now mere hundreds of metres away.

There was a tiny clink as the last screw was removed from the air vent cover, followed by a slight squeak as Seraph pushed the grille on top of the vent itself. Easing himself into the air circulator itself, Seraph was able to squeeze through the vents into the next area he needed to go. It was a more round-the-houses way of getting to where he needed to go but this was less conspicuous and had less chance of discovery. After shuffling forwards for minutes at a time, his mask drew level with a second grille. Excellent, there was a direct route to his target location from here; he had to take the next left turn in the vents to reach it. As he dragged himself forwards elbow-lengths at a time, Seraph thought ahead to what to do next when he had sounded the advance and attained his hiding place. As his strategy became sounder, he reached the turning he needed and began to ease himself round, twisting like an eel in the narrow passageway to allow himself to complete the turn. Mere hundreds of metres separated him from the end of his quest.

"So this is it huh?" Sonic looked at the hole in the ground with a mixture of apprehension and distaste as Knuckles clambered over the fence surrounding the forgotten mine shaft. One look told the echidna all he needed to know.

"He was here, the ground's loose and soil's disturbed".

"That and the fact there's a truck over there" Amy pointed out, causing the others to squint a little.

"I thought that was a mirage". Sonic admitted before giving his attention to the hole again.

"According to this, she's almost directly below us", Tails tapped the screen, regarding the hole almost hungrily, "but I don't know how far this goes".

"Right", Knuckles had heard enough and lowered himself onto his hands and knees, "give me a radio; I'll climb down and radio up how far down it is". Amy stepped forwards and looped the radio cord around Knuckle's neck, whispering good luck as she did so. Just as he was about to start the climb, Tails took the red Chaos emerald from Shadow and stepped forwards, pro-offering the jewel to the guardian.

"Take this to see down there; you might be in love with a bat but you can't see like one". Knuckles swiped at the cocky kit before taking the emerald and stashing it in his glove.

"You better pray she never finds out you said that".

"Whatever", Sonic thrust a fist forwards, face more serious as he said gravely, "good luck man". Knuckles nodded, touched fists with the blue hedgehog and began to climb downwards, down into the darkness to find the light of his life.

Forwards, forwards and he was nearly clear of this last room before the one he wanted to get to; as he had suspected, this was the main control centre for this underground base, the heart of a foul subterranean cancer. Passing the last grille before he exited the room, his keen ears picked up the swinging of a metallic door and the resounding bang as it impacted on the wall behind it. Pausing for a moment, Seraph shuffled soundlessly backwards, putting his eyes to the grille for the final proof.

Visual identification confirmed. Complete temporary objective.

After pausing for a few more seconds, seeming to drink in his target with his covered eyes, Seraph set himself forwards again, elbows pulling for purchase to force his body ever nearer his hiding place. Soon he would wipe clean the grudge of seven years; before the day was done, the blood on his hands would be washed clean with the truth behind the murder he stood accused of.

Knuckles slid downwards into darkness, the damp, musty smell of the earth around him more sandy and arid than the soil of his Angel Island. He kept a meticulous count of the number of hand lengths he had taken; it was a rough estimate that there was one foot per handhold. That was probably a tad too high but far better to overestimate than underestimate distances. He kept such focus that the feel of solid ground beneath his feet nearly made him yelp. He had counted thirty so quickly switched the radio to send as he flipped out his Chaos emerald, the ruddy red light suffusing the passageway as he turned around.

"It's about thirty feet down Tails; if you start airlifting I'll…" There was a long pause, the radio falling away from temporarily nerveless lips as the full sight of what was in front of him, "…oh my God, Rouge!"