CHAPTER 21: Thoughts and Ideas

"Black, in here now!" growled the voice of the figure who never left the dark exposed. "I want a word."

"Coming, Master!" replied the voice of Black, from outside the figure's chamber. Once inside, Black knelt down in the dim light of the room.

"I've been thinking Black, perhaps the bug, while good for wiping out entire cities in a single missile attack, would be unsuited for my short-term goals. You know what those are, of course."

"Yes, I do, Master. Kill the blue hedgehog's friends, then kill him, slowly."

"Right. But, my thoughts are, while the virus is a very horrid and painful way to die, the process is not drawn out enough. Suspend production of it for the meantime."

"Yes, Master. Anything else?"

"I want you to find the five most able-bodied slaves, and remodel them using some of the new cyberware. Also, select some of the smaller weapons being designed for the C.W. program, and equip the slaves with them. I want the end result to be living organisms transformed into cyborgs. Sort of the opposite of the prototype sent to kill the secondary target last week. I liked the metallic endoskeleton and the AI installation, but I want to see if we can't cut costs yet produce a similar weapon to the original design plan. Install charges in their skulls as well."

"Yes, Master. I will do that immediately."

"Then go." Black backed out of the room as his master rested its chin on its hands. "One more thing. Make sure they remember who's in charge. Also, if you should make mistakes remodeling them and they don't appear likely to recover, go ahead and kill them. Send Blank in here on the way out. I have a job for him."

"Yes, Master." A few minutes later, a smaller robot than Black walked in. On his arms, small lasers were mounted, just powerful enough to kill someone, provided they were properly aimed and fired from within twenty feet. They would still be able to hit a target from up to fifty feet, but they were not focused enough to kill from that distance. His whole body was black, just like Black's. His legs were cylindrical with small jump jets mounted to his feet. He was lightly armored, with a medium-sized torso and a small head equipped with infrared and X-ray scopes. He was obviously built for light combat, but he mostly worked security, keeping the slaves in check. Unlike most of his master's creations, he had a sense of decency about him, and the slaves felt less bitterness toward him. They still felt some, because he'd occasionally had to kill a few or treat them a bit roughly, but overall, they preferred him to others.

"What is it you require, Master?" Blank asked, kneeling.

"It is time to begin gathering the seven Emeralds," the figure said. "I need you to bring me someone suited for the job, preferably of their own free will. Bring them to me, but make sure they are unaware of where they are, and that they will be unable to return without your guidance. Trick them, kidnap them, whatever, just get it done."

"Yes, Master," Blank said. "I know just the one. However, I will not be able to trick him into coming here on my own, as I am too conspicuous, nor will I be able to capture him, for he is too powerful for me."

"Take a slave, then. Choose one and implant charges in whoever it is, then give them their instructions. Remind them what will happen if they try to escape or tell someone about us. And if they fail, bring them to me and I will kill them myself."

"Yes, Master." Blank backed out of the room, bowing.

"Alright, here it goes!" Sonic was headed straight for the cliff's edge. Just another 100 feet to go before he went over. He was approaching full speed, which meant he'd probably have a nice sonic boom going on before he was done. Just another thirty feet to go. Twenty, fifteen, ten, five! Sonic kept right on going- and began to run down the side of the cliff, onto a rounded part a bunch of kids had shaped and polished. He ran down a twenty foot slope, then swerved right, out onto a wooden platform the kids had built and mounted to the cliff wall. He ran for another thirty feet, then took a sharp left and headed downward into a corkscrew that took him fifteen feet. He came out of the corkscrew and ran across to another cliff wall roughly twenty feet away. He ran back up about ten feet, then followed the smooth part of the wall to the right slightly and ran back down, jumping when he hit the ramp at the bottom and landing smoothly on the ground. "Well, now I see why kids like skateboarding down that thing. Too bad they couldn't have picked a bigger cliff and made a longer path."

"You're such a show-off, Sonic," a voice said. Sonic turned around and saw a black hedgehog about his size, with red-striped quills, a patch of white on his chest, red eyes, and rocket skates on his feet.

"Shadow! What're you doing here?" Sonic asked with a grin on his face. He couldn't help it, showing off was one of his favorite pastimes.

"Just finished my little tour of the world," Shadow said casually. "Didn't learn anything about my past yet, but I figure it'll come back to me if I keep at it. So what about you? It's only been two months, but I'm sure you've been up to a lot."

"Not really," Sonic said. "I ran into Amy recently. We kinda wiped the slate clean and now we're dating."

"Took her long enough," Shadow said with a grin. "So she didn't club you with that hammer of hers this time, huh?"

"Nah, no hammer this time. She just kinda looked me in the eyes and asked me to wipe the slate clean. Then she asked me out."

"Nice one. She's learned to use the power that lies in the eyes. So, didja kiss her yet?"

"Yeah. I'm no expert on the subject, but I think she's a pretty good kisser."

"You sure noticed quick, didn't you? How many times have you two gone out so far?"

"Just twice. Both times were disasters, though."

"Keep talking. Tell me what was wrong."

"Well, it kinda started before I even ran into her the first time she asked me out..." By the time Sonic was done explaining, Shadow's eyes were wide, and he would've thought Sonic was lying, if not for his deadly serious tone.

"You have got to be shitting me. Please tell me you are."

"No Shadow, I'm serious. Someone's after Amy for some reason, and I don't know what it could be. I doubt she's the only one, though. I mean, she's never done anything to anyone, except Eggman, but you know he's dead, so that means maybe it's because she's connected with someone. Maybe it's because of me, which makes sense, considering I've pulled one over on more people than just Eggman. Or maybe it's just a serial killer that's after her. If that's the case, he's pretty persistent and never acts directly, but it's possible. But back to someone being after her because of someone she's connected to. Let's say that person's me. Let's say they actually do get her. Wouldn't it stand to reason that they'd go for someone else close to me next?"

"Good points, all of them," Shadow said, folding his arms over his chest. "But why would they have tried to kill Amy in the park when you were two feet away? You would have been such an easy target. Either someone's got it in for Amy for some other reason, or they have much more malicious intentions."

"Such as?"

"I don't know. Possibly they have a grudge against you and want to leave you without friends or family, or maybe they just want to deprive you of everything you hold dear to you before they go for you."

"But who?"

"Don't know. As far as I know, after Eggman died, his robots all deactivated themselves and sealed themselves up, and someone found that place and destroyed it later on. That means it probably can't be one of his creations come back to haunt you. It's probably someone else doing it."

"I haven't really done anything too bad to anyone else. Most of the people I got the best of, I did that in a few bets I've made, and the most I took off them was a few credits. The others were just some guys I beat in a street race. Nothing serious."

"Maybe someone's wife found out they were gambling and divorced them, and they came after you because they went mad and thought you were the reason it happened."

"That would be a bit extreme."

"Come on Sonic, you of all people should know, when someone goes mad, there is no such thing as extreme. Remember that time about a year after Eggman built that bigass ship that dwarfed the Egg Carrier?"

"When Eggman unleashed a missile attack on that city so he could lure me into fighting that T-Rex thing with no weak point? The one I had to use the Emeralds' power to beat?"

"Yeah, that time. Blowing up the city and killing all those people was worth it as far as he was concerned. He didn't mind getting his name at the top of the FBI's Most Wanted list as long as he got the chance to kill you, which he nearly pulled off with that damn thing."

"He sure didn't forget the escape pod, did he?" Sonic's face was distorted with anger at this point: Eggman had NEVER pissed him off that badly before, and his hatred for the man had never decreased since then.

"Mad doesn't necessarily mean stupid. But anyway, I gotta run. I kinda wanted to get home and relax. I'll see you later, alright?"

"Okay, see you Shadow." Sonic had to yell this out, as Shadow had already set off back toward Station Square.

Alright, all you Shadow fans rejoice. I've had a spot in here for him all along, I just had to wait until we got to that point before I threw him in there. Lotsa dialogue in this one, huh? Shadow is now up to scratch on what's been going on so far, and he seems to have some theories of his own about who it could be. Have you started to notice, all the more important characters in the story are a bit smarter and quicker thinkers than the lesser characters? Anywho, on the other end of the chapter, it seems our mystery villain, whose identity I will reveal a little later on in the story(it's not Metal Sonic, so perish the thought now), has decided not to use the very sickening virus for its "short-term goals", opting to try something else. Also, about five of its slaves are about to be forever changed, probably for the worse(a bit later on, I'll reveal how those people came to be slaves). Lastly, Blank, a robot whose main job is security, has been given the task of finding someone to gather the Emeralds for his master, and he claims to know just the guy. You wonder who it is, don't you? Heh heh, that's for me to know and you to find out. R&R please.