Sonic Evolution
Unity Story
Chapter 4: Team Dynamics
The day was once again sunny, as if celebrating the formation of Team Unity. The team consisting of Sonic the hedgehog, Rouge the bat, and Vector the crocodile was going to be dedicated to bringing down the likes of two others, Bandit the raccoon and Talon the hawk. However, as Sonic had said earlier, they definitely will need to practice some team dynamics before they can do missions.
One particular sunbeam hit Rouge square in the eye. She groaned and remembered where she was. Their base of operations was to be in Tails's lab in Emerald Town. Although… why did SHE have to sleep in the fox boy's room while Sonic got his own room and Vector got the guest room? Didn't they know how to treat a lady? She sighed and got up. She picked up and put on her pink vest as she looked around he room and couldn't help but to smile at how Tails had decorated it. He had pictures of himself, Sonic, and even some with both. There were also blueprints all around and even pictures of other friends like Knuckles and Amy.
Rouge always thought that one's room said a lot about a person, and since she never really had a real "room" per se, it reflected how much of a loner she was. She just looked fondly around at all the pictures and thought that maybe being surrounded by friends was the way to go…
She quickly shook her head. What was that about? She's Rouge the bat, master treasure hunter! She sighed. Either at she had that thought, or she forced herself to repress it. She eventually walked over to a funny looking Chao doll whose head kept bouncing up and down. Probably one of the fox boy's inventions. She fondly touched the head when it suddenly fell off! Rouge caught it and quickly tried to put it back on in a bit of a scramble. Another gloved hand took it from hers. She looked and Sonic was right next to her.
"It has to be fit in clock-wise. Of course, you didn't know that."
Rouge sighed, "Um, thanks… I guess."
Sonic hadn't heard. He had looked over to a certain picture that depicted Team Sonic and Team Rose shortly after Metal Sonic had been defeated. They were on Emerald Beach and all the members of Team Sonic were joined hand-in-hand while Amy was hugging Sonic from Behind. Cream, Cheese, and Chocola were hovering behind while Big had Froggy on his head. Sonic was mainly looking at the picture of his team and Amy in light of what had happened.
Rouge looked from Sonic to the picture and back to Sonic again. Her ears dropped a bit. This was just way too much of a downer.
"Sonic…" Then she lifted his ear and put her mouth right next to it, "Sonic!"
"WHAT!" Sonic shouted, then breathed for a bit.
"You really must stop doing that… It makes ME sad."
"Hunh… you'd understand better if you made better efforts to make friends."
Rouge made to immediately disagree, but then just sighed at Sonic's being right. There was an awkward silence until it was broken by the dual rumbling of both Sonic's and Rouge's stomachs.
"Guess we ought to have breakfast." Rouge said.
"Yeah… think you could make something?" Sonic asked.
"Wh-wh-WHAT!" Rouge suddenly shouted, causing Sonic to widen his eyes for two seconds, "You think I can cook just because I am a young woman! That… that has to be the worst thing anybody has every said to me at any time!"
Sonic put his gloved hand over Rouge's mouth, "I assumed that you could cook because of how you are a loner and you need to fend for yourself to survive." He then took his hand off.
A thin red blush formed on Rouge's muzzle, "Um… No, no… I never really learned how to cook… despite being a loner."
"Well that's just great." Sonic muttered, "Tails always did the cooking when I was here… how are we going to eat?"
As if on cue, a smell wafted into the room and into their noses.
"What's that…?" Sonic asked dreamily, it smelled good.
The hedgehog and the bat exited the room to the kitchen and were surprised to see, of all people, Vector over the stove with a frying pan, bobbing his head to the music on his headphones.
The other two looked at each other in disbelief. They approached and Vector looked behind, "Good morning, Team!"
"Vector… you can cook?" Sonic asked.
"Ohh yes. For a time I lived with that kid and the somewhat egotistical ninja. When you live with all males, one of you has to learn to cook! Besides, it's easy!"
After a nice breakfast, the team discussed strategy.
"The last time I trained on team dynamics, Eggman had plenty of robots for us to work out on." Sonic said.
"I suppose we could create targets."
"That'll take too long!" Rogue said with a wave of her hand, "I have a better idea."
-
"I paid a pretty amount of rings for these, but it's worth it."
Per Rouge's idea, they had to go to Club Rouge in Night Babylon. There, Rouge had stored a bunch of security droids that she bought off of Eggman anonymously.
"This is great!" Sonic said, "These things will do perfectly! Great idea!"
Rouge thought… when was the last time such a compliment had been given to her? She thought back on all the other "Teams" she had been on. Eggman wasn't really much to give compliments, Shadow was incredibly antisocial, and Omega… well, he had a bit of a one-track mind.
"So… we can just trash these guys and they'll just keep coming back like new?" Vector asked.
"That's how they work."
"All right, Team!" Sonic declared, "Let's get to work on our abilities! I think we all know everything that the Speed formation entails, so let's go right on to flying formation!"
"I'll take it from here!" Rouge said.
Rouge leapt into the air. Sonic leapt up and the joined hands. They landed on Vector, who took Sonic's feet.
"Let's go to the roof of Club Rouge from here!" Sonic suggested.
Rouge took off… or rather, tried to.
"Ungh! Have you ever considered a diet, Vector?"
"EXCUSE me? At one point, you carried around a huge robot!"
"He was surprisingly light-weight!"
"CHARMY could carry me!"
"That really helps…"
Rouge tried again and this time took off like what would be considered normal. They landed right on the roof where some of the newly dubbed training robots laid in wait.
"Eat Thunder Shoot!"
Rouge and Vector tossed Sonic forward. The blue blur smashed into one of the training robots. Rouge then used her strength to heave Vector as another robot. Sonic landed, then immediately jumped back into Rouge's hands and Vector came back and grabbed Sonic's feet. After that, they disbanded.
"Good!" Sonic declared, "I think we can be done as soon as we get good at the power formation!"
"Here we go!" Vector said.
Sonic and Rouge moved to either side of the crocodile in time for some more training robots to arrive.
"All right, you guys! Into my mouth!"
Sonic and Rouge exchanged a look that showed that they didn't believe what they just heard.
"What?" Vector asked, hands on hips.
"In your… mouth?" Rouge asked.
"Yeah! Then I launch you out! What's so hard to understand about that? My basic attack is a chomp!"
"Have you ever considered using your arms?" Sonic inquired.
"Uhh… maybe."
"Try that." Rouge said immediately.
In their respective teams, their power characters had been the same. Both Knuckles and Omega used their fists and launched their teammates in their own way. This is why they sprung for a similar power character in this team.
Vector ran at the training robots with Sonic and Rouge barely behind. Vector thrust a fist out and smashed one. Immediately Sonic and Rouge balled up and rolled into Vector's hands. Vector gripped them, then with his characteristic throaty yell, tossed them into two more robots. Both of the others bounced back. Filled with momentum, Vector fell and started to spin, shooting fire in a circle. Many of the training robots were incinerated.
"I've refined that attack over the years… making it the most powerful I've got!"
"Cool," Sonic said, "now how are you at hovering?"
"I've got that covered! I blow a balloon with gum and float right down!"
"That's disgusting! How did those other two ever tolerate you!" Rouge said, reeling back at the thought of being propelled by a gum balloon.
"So… what? I have to change that, as well?"
"In a word, yes." Sonic winced, imagining the gum popping and getting into his beautiful quills.
"I suggest the Triangle Dive. Your team also used it, as I observed." Rouge said.
"Wait… when did you observe that?" Sonic asked
Rouge folded her arms; "I do have the experience of an agent so you can't blame me for doing a little bit of spying out of habit."
"On Knuckles…" Sonic said so nobody would hear.
"How about getting back to the matter at hand?" Vector cut in.
To make a long story short, Club Rouge had a large fan in the ground. The team used it to practice the Triangle Dive, which Vector took to quite well.
"I think we're almost done! Last we need is our Team Blast!" Sonic said as soon as they landed.
"I suppose since you're leader, it's going to be YOUR team's attack?" Rouge asked.
Sonic rubbed his chin, "Not really, but good idea!"
Rouge sighed.
-
Sonic described Team Sonic's Team Blast. After a few bits of individual practice, they got together to try it out. A bunch of training robots were propped up as target.
"Ready?" Sonic asked, the other two nodded, "Go!"
Quickly, Rouge and Sonic jumped into the air. Rouge grabbed Sonic's feet and landed into Vector's hands. Vector spun them around a bit then let them go. Sonic and Rouge hung dangerously over the training robots. This was when the attack called for Rouge, the flight character, to kick Sonic, the speed character and propel him into his attacks. Most unfortunately, Rouge wore the metal-tipped hearts on the ends of her shoes.
"AIEEEEE!" Sonic shrieked when being kicked. He comically fell to the ground on his face, skidding a bit and landing in front of one of the training robots.
"That's going to hurt tomorrow." Vector winced.
Rouge landed next to Sonic, "Are you… okay?"
"Nothing a nice good period of crying wouldn't heal." The hedgehog groaned.
A bit of time and an icepack later, the team came to an agreement that they should try another Team Blast. Team Dark's blast was next, for Rouge was second in command.
"Although, it concerns a Chaos Emerald, which Omega always had."
"No problem!" Sonic said, taking out an Emerald, "This is one of the false Emeralds that Tails made. He uses it in a lot of his inventions. If I could use Chaos Control with a fake emerald before, then I can now."
With that, they got into a position to perform the Chaos Inferno. Rouge held Vector while Vector supported Sonic with his feet.
"Chaos Control!"
There were lights indicating that the Chaos Control had been executed. Then, substitute for Omega's lasers, Vector gathered his strength and shot a huge steam of fire.
Once they were done, Rouge said to Vector, "You didn't rotate!"
"Rotate?" Vector asked.
Now that she thought about it, Omega did rotate his torso… and only his torso. So much for the Chaos Inferno.
As a last resort, they finally tried Vector's Team blast, the Chaotix Recital.
"Okay," Vector said, fishing out some instruments, "Sonic, you get the string instrument and for the flight character, drums."
"Drums?" Rouge repeated, taking the instrument, "I feel that's insulting to my intelligence."
"Charmy had no problem."
"… And that's supposed to HINDER my point?"
"I know, I know. Now, here's what you play. We should make an explosion of musical notes fly when we do this, all right? Let's play!"
Rouge rolled her eyes as she beat the small drum. Sonic frantically plucked at his instrument, trying to play what Espio could so easily. After a few second, Vector clutched the microphone stand in front of him and sang a note really loud. When he stopped, he looked and all the training robots were still standing.
"I played my part…" Vector mused.
"We both did," Rouge said, "Sonic was off-key."
"Off-key!" Sonic shouted back, "You hit the drums WAY too hard!"
"They're DRUMS!"
"Yeah, and you can't play them right!"
"I'm sure you embarrassed yourself more than I did, being all twitchy and stuff."
"I HAD to, the notes were so fast! I nailed them all, too!"
"You're probably down a hertz… In tone and in your brain."
"I'LL HERTZ YOU!"
Both of them threw down their instruments and Sonic charged at Rouge, catching her in the stomach and making them tumble over in a dust cloud of fury.
"Uggh…" Vector sighed, slapping his forehead and running the hand down his long muzzle in exasperation, "We're not even platinum and there's already bickering… STOP IT!"
Immediately the dust cleared and Sonic and Rouge froze in place. Sonic was flat on his back, clutching two of the bars of hair under Rouge's head and Rouge was straddling Sonic, a hand on his chest and a fist raised to pound his head in. They both looked at Vector.
"I can tell right now this Team Blast won't work."
"Then what?" Sonic asked, neither he nor Rouge changed position, "We go without a Team Blast?"
"It appears as such." Vector muttered, "We can have… THIS happening in the heat of battle! Let's just go back to the lab."
As Vector walked away, Sonic and Rouge realized what position they were in and for the second time let out yelps and jumped off each other. After trying to avoid each other's gaze for a couple of seconds, they ran after Vector.
-
Back in the lab, there was little going on until Sonic happened to look at Tails's invention desk and picked up an odd scanner.
"Now what could this be? It looks like Tails was working on it before he went off to the vault with Knuckles…"
"What have you got there?" Vector asked, coming from behind Sonic.
"Um… this scanner. Do you know what it does?"
"Let me see." Vector took it and pushed some buttons, "Hey…! This is incredible! This baby can pick up on acute Chaos frequencies from any point! Maybe if I can recalibrate the output…" He looked to Sonic, who returned a blank stare, "Um… where's Rouge?"
Rouge was just as excited about the scanner, which in words Sonic could understand, can track Chaos Emeralds. Vector and Rogue went off talking in all sorts of jargon while Sonic could only hang back and let the question marks pop up over his head.
"I didn't know you knew so much about tracking technology!" Rouge said.
"When you're a detective, knowing where people are is essential! Besides, with proper training anybody can get the hang of it!" Vector gave a thumbs-up.
"Except for Sonic the hedgedork over there."
"Oh, leave him alone. It's not his fault he left all the technological aspects of his adventures to Tails!"
After a while, they finally emerged, looking proud of themselves.
"We have here, a perfected Chaos Emerald locator!" Vector announced. Rouge flashed her hands by it in a showy fashion.
"You mean with this thing we can find Chaos Emeralds?"
"You bet! And you know, I bet they'll give us the edge over Bandit and Talon that we need! Either that, or we could at least level the playing field. I bet that wind attack that took out Amy was powered by the Chaos Emerald Bandit took!"
"Yeah!" Sonic remembered something, "I thought I heard a voice, but I didn't think of it… I think it was Talon using the attack! Chaos Gust, or something like that."
"All the more reason we need that Emerald! I bet they could also be searching for Emeralds to increase their power!" Rouge cut in.
Sonic and Vector nodded.
"Let's test this out!" Vector said, and then pushed a button. The screen lit up and there was one definable purple glow.
"There it is!" Rouge trumpeted.
"Yeah… that's the new Security vault made after Prison Island was destroyed!" Sonic said, knowing his fair share of the world.
"I pillaged it once, I can do it again!" Rouge said, hitting her fist into her palm.
"Come now," Vector said, a sagely finger pointed in the air, "we're not pillaging… we're more like forcefully borrowing with little chance of return."
The three of them burst into laughter as Sonic lead them to where the Tornado was locked up.
-
Sonic drove the tornado and the three of them looked down at the Security hall.
"How do things look down there?" Sonic asked.
"Looks the same from the last Security Hall!" Rouge called out over the whipping wind.
"I bet it wasn't reinforced with so many lasers like that!" Vector called, indicating that the roof was covered in lasers.
"I bet I could find what switches them off!" Sonic called.
"NO!" Both the others shouted.
"You're the only one who knows anything about flying this deathtrap! I'll go!" Rouge called, getting ready to jump off.
"Make sure you don't land on any of the lasers!" Vector said.
"No, Vector," Rouge muttered, dripping with sarcasm, "I planned on making a ten-point landing directly onto that laser right there."
"No need to patronize." Vector muttered.
"I think I see a good spot to the right a bit!" Rouge called to Sonic.
"Here? Okay… Good luck!"
When Rouge free fell toward the building, she thought about Sonic's words, "Good luck." Had she ever been wished good luck in the past? Well, why should she have? All she did was steal and do things in the name of evil, save her most recent two teams. She was shaken out when she got within a good distance of the roof. She straightened out and landed perfectly on the roof. Suddenly her communicator crackled to life.
"Rouge!" Vector's voice said, "Sonic used the Tornado to scan the roof… apparently, there are three transmitters that keep the roof covered in lasers. You must find these transmitters and take them. That way, the Tornado can land! I've downloaded the frequency of these transmitters so they will register on your radar!"
"Got it!" Rouge said and leapt over some lasers.
-
Characteristic of her treasure hunter stereotype, Rouge ran, ducked, flipped, and somersaulted under over and around lasers until finally her radar began a slow beeping. She looked and saw the outline of one of the transmitters on her radar glow green. She grinned and walked forward more, looking out for lasers. She looked around and saw she was going the right way, for the outline turned yellow and the beeping sped up. In the distance she saw a pole and felt that was significant. When she got right under it, the outline when red and the beeping was constant.
"It's got to be close!"
She looked around the pole and noticed when she went away from the pole at all, the outline turned yellow again. She then looked up and saw a glint at the top of the pole.
"Haven't done this in a while."
Rouge leapt and grabbed on to the pole. She quickly climbed her way up and made herself level with the glint. She saw an odd box with a flickering red light. She picked the box off the pole and the red light stopped flickering. She looked down and saw the lasers fade, and then regain their glow.
"Only two more to go…"
Rouge dropped and flew over the lasers. By dumb luck, the radar beeped with the location of the second transmitter. She immediately dropped and looked around. The sight she saw made her gasp. She quickly scrambled behind a wall. As soon as she did, a GUN Gun Hunter passed by.
"Not these guys again…" Rouge moaned. She looked at her radar. It had turned red, "It's in him?"
The Gun Hunter looked at where Rouge used to be, then directly up in time to see Rouge come down and deliver a Drill Drive right down the middle. In the process, Rouge picked up the transmitter inside. The lasers once again flickered.
"Only one left."
As soon as Rouge turned, she noticed a Gold Beetle ahead. She took a running start and with a yell and a kick, the Beetle was in pieces. Now that her fun was over, it was back to work. It took quite a bit of roaming, but the third transmitter began to beep. Rouge looked around and saw the familiar glint… in the middle of a bunch of lasers.
"Just great…"
She walked over and estimated that she could reach out and grab the transmitter if she did not trip any of the lasers. She took off her pink jacket, for it could get in the way. She then reached her sleeveless arm through the lasers, sweat dotting her brow. Eventually she felt the transmitter and lifted it up. Immediately all the lasers faded. She calmly put her pink jacket back on.
Rouge gave a frail sigh, and then shouted, "I've got it!" She did a triumphant spin, then hooked her arm forward.
-
Rouge looked on proudly as the Tornado landed.
"Great job!" Vector trumpeted with a thumbs-up.
"There's still more." Sonic said and motioned for the other two to come. Below a window, many GUN Laser Hunters could be easily seen.
"There's too many…" Rouge muttered in an exasperated tone.
"No problem!" Vector grinned, cracking his knuckled, "Leave them to me!"
The window was opened and Vector leapt through the opening.
-
Vector landed hard, making all the Laser Hunters fall. He then ran around, smashing his fist against and ripping apart all of them in a close radius with his jaws. He continued forward and noticed that the doorway ahead of him was barred. He looked around and spied another Laser Hunter. One scrapped robot later, the bars lifted.
The crocodile stomped through and all seemed well until he noticed an oncoming swarm of GUN Gun Beetles. Vector waited, and then pounced with a Hammer Down that bounced him to the next Beetle. He Hammer Downed again until there were no more Beetles to bounce off of. The rest he waited for to swoop down upon him upon which he took them out with his fist.
The next room entailed a chasm and an opposite end at a lower height than the entrance. Vector backed up, then ran and leapt. He then spun around in mid-air, actually making him launch forward faster. He landed on the other end with room to spare.
There followed a narrow hallway, which Vector crossed and came face-to-face with a Shield Hunter. With a yell he tried to smash the shield in, but only succeeded in injuring himself. He blew on his hand and looked as the Shield Hunter raised the shield to fire. Vector rolled his eyes at his brash fighting, then clamped on to the Shield Hunter's torso with his jaws and ripped it in two. The bars lifted off the path ahead. A Gold Beetle appeared right beside Vector and faced him. Vector gave the golden one a quizzical look, then drove his fist through it.
The large room below was filled with all sorts of GUN robots. Vector sighed at having to fight them all, but noticed an odd box at the other end of the room. He swiftly made his way over to that side and noticed the box had the picture of a bomb on it. Curious, Vector punched the box and the bomb exploded, making a shockwave throughout the room and destroying all the robots.
"Cool." Vector said with a grin.
Vector jumped down and looked about. Another hallway ended with a bunch of locked doors. Vector got ready to start punching doors down when he noticed a missile next to him with a big green button. Once again curious, Vector stepped on the button and the missile took off! It smashed down every door in the way.
"Once again… cool."
Vector ran through the hallway and was besieged by a bunch of Gun and Laser Hunters. A whole lot of punching later, they were all downed.
"That's the way!" Vector proclaimed, first swinging an arm across his chest, then returning the arm to its appropriate side and sticking it out, giving a thumbs-up.
-
Sonic and Rouge finally caught up, or more like Sonic caught up, clutching Rouge's arm as he half-dragged her so she would keep up.
"Seems like there's an elevator over here… but it doesn't work." Vector said, indicating the elevator.
"Do you think the answer is somewhere down there?" Sonic asked, pointing toward a staircase leading downward, "I'll find out! If the elevator activated, get right on in!"
The blue hedgehog took off down the stairway.
-
Sonic ran down the stairway, managing to not misstep and fall. Surprisingly, there was a dash panel that redirected him to the right and into a flat hallway, then another to direct him right again and down another flight of stairs. Eventually Sonic emerged into a wide-open area with many safes and lasers and robots. He grinned and ran forward. He came to meet some Gun Hunters who fell to a series of Homing Attacks. Some crates blocked his path onward, so he somersaulted into them to break them.
The path after the crates was a steep downward straightway path. At the end of it was a spring, which propelled him to another spring, and it continued until Sonic reached a ledge. None other than a Rhino Spike was there to greet him. Sonic ran and somersaulted into the robot, avoiding the spikes on top. Ahead of the Rhino Spike was a spiral staircase. Sonic more took notice of the handrail on the side. He jumped on and grinded down the handrail, trying to keep good balance.
As soon as the handrail stopped, Sonic jumped off and grabbed onto a horizontal pole. Sonic swung from the pole and eventually let go, propelling him into a field of lasers. The parabolic path he took kept him entirely safe from lasers. Sonic landed on top of a row of safes and ran across, reaching a dash panel at a slanted angle. Sonic hit it and flew into the air. He landed on another row of safes and kept running. He noticed no dash panel ahead, but a row of rings. Sonic lifted his feet and landed on one of the rings, activating his Light Dash. The Light Dash thrust him through the line of rings and directly into a rainbow hoop, where he performed a trick in the air. As an effect of the trick, Sonic landed on another rail.
The hedgehog crouched on the rail and it took him down to a definable ground. Sonic took off on a fast run as several safes started to fall from high up. Sonic dodged around to keep from being flattened. The floor ended abruptly, but not before Sonic saw an orange-and-white striped ramp. He ran up the ramp and jumped off, performing a spinning trick in mid-air. The trick gave him enough horizontal gain to launch forward and fall right through another field of lasers, not hitting a single one.
Once he landed, Sonic noticed a chasm with a line of Mono Beetles across. He knew a Homing Attack bridge when he saw one. He took into the air and Homing Attacked his way from each one to the next. The last one he did quickly in a panic, for it was a Gold Beetle and he knew how those things disappeared. He got it and made it across safely.
As he passed under a low area, he hit a dash panel and kept running, for a supply truck started to barrel down toward him.
"NOT AGAIN!" Sonic shouted as he tried to outrun the supply truck.
A bunch of turns, ramps, rings, and smashed equipment and walls later, Sonic found his salvation in a low-hanging catwalk. It was high enough for him to pass under easy, but the supply truck wouldn't be so lucky. Sonic enjoyed the metallic crunch of the truck hitting the catwalk. He hit two more dash panels and when he landed for the last time, he noticed he was on the terminal end of the elevator seen earlier.
"Yes!" Sonic shouted in triumph. He took two steps forward and swept a hand over nothing in particular.
-
Vector turned when the elevator turned on again and opened. He grinned, "Sonic."
Vector and Rouge walked into the elevator and the crocodile pushed the bottom of two buttons. Then they waited for the elevator to reach the bottom.
"Rolling around at the speed of sound… got places to go, got to follow my rainbow!"
"Ugh… I hate elevator music." Rouge groaned.
"I concur." Vector sighed.
They reached the bottom eventually and came out to Sonic, tapping his foot impatiently.
"Nice hustle." Rouge complimented, trying it out for once.
"Thanks." Sonic said, then turned to a door, "See that?"
"'Main vault…'" Vector read, "THAT is the MAIN vault? How far below the ground ARE we?"
"Pretty deep, I'd say." Rouge muttered.
"Well, we are literally deep in now… no turning back!" Sonic declared. Vector punched the door open and held it for Sonic and Rouge to go through.
-
The vault was huge and mazelike. The team decided it was better to stick together so they didn't lose one another. The only thing they could do besides walk was talk.
"Um… thanks again for the compliment." Sonic said to Rouge, scratching the back of his head, "I didn't really think that you were one to give out compliments."
"Well, I had to. Seeing as how you did the favor first, it was the least I could do."
"True."
Vector messed around with the Emerald Tracker and looked around. Rouge looked around at all doors, knobs, numbers, and whatnot and had to say more.
"You know Sonic… now that I've actually taken you seriously, I've come to realize you aren't as dumb and absent-minded as I initially thought."
"Thanks… I guess. I suppose that in the same sense, I've come to realize that you are more dependable than you first come off."
"It's your fault, really. All the niceness of being in Team Unity has rubbed off on me."
They exchanged a smile before Vector said, "Hey!" And pointed forward. The path split into three ways. Each way seemed to lead to the same end.
"Well, we didn't want to split up, but it seems that since this path leads to the same way, we might as well split up."
"Sure thing!" Sonic said with a thumbs-up, "Take care!" He walked down the leftmost path. Though he probably directed those last words to both of them, Rouge couldn't help but to think that he had said it solely to her. She and Vector exchanged a nod as he went down the middle path and she down the path to the right.
-
"You!" Vector shouted and pointed. A bit down the path, he had come across the form of Bandit the raccoon, as he seemed to be going the same way.
"Who are you?" Bandit asked.
"I am Vector the crocodile, the leader of the Chaotix detective agency!"
"Chaotix, hmm? I thought they were all taken out."
"What? Are you and that hawk responsible for the disappearance of Espio and Charmy?"
"Talon? Well… we were instrumental."
"Urgh! Where are they!"
"How should I know?"
"Don't play dumb!"
"No… that's your job."
"You'll pay for that!"
Vector and Bandit ran at each other in preparation to fight.
-
"You!" Rouge shouted and pointed. A bit down the path, she had come across the form of Talon the hawk, as he seemed to be going the same way.
"Ah, you must be Rouge."
"I don't care how you know my name! Just tell me what your aim is!"
"What I or my cohorts do is none of your business."
"One of these 'cohorts' wouldn't happen to be Bandit the raccoon, would it?"
"Why, yes."
"Then it IS my business! I'm sure you know what he did to me all that time ago!"
"Ahh, yes. At the Station Square vault. We had a good laugh."
"LAUGH! I could have died from blood loss!"
"And you think I'd care… why?"
Rouge gasped, "You monster!"
"Sticks and stones may break my bones…"
"… But my feet can do the job so much better!" Rouge finished.
Rouge and Talon flew at each other in preparation to fight.
-
"You!" Sonic Shouted and pointed. A bit down the path, he had come across the form of
Sheena the leopard, as she seemed to be going the same way.
Sheena jumped and gasped, "Don't yell! You scared me!"
"What are you doing here?" Sonic demanded.
"I saw Talon go in here… and furthermore, I saw that raccoon go in with him!"
"Bandit!" Sonic said, hitting a fist into his palm, "I knew they were in cahoots!"
Sheena nodded, "I followed them in when they disabled, then re-enabled security."
"You really shouldn't have gone in alone," Sonic said, "what if you found them both?"
Sheena bit her lip, a tear formed at her eye, "I'm sorry… I just… wanted to make up for failing to catch Talon earlier!
Sonic remembered when she put it upon herself to do that earlier, "It's not your fault, Sheena. I was just glad that he hadn't hit you with a Chaos Gust. I probably couldn't take another loss."
"Really?" Sheena looked with a warm smile and happy glint in her eye.
"Really. Now, let's get to the room at the end of this path. Maybe we can find them there."
Sonic and Sheena ran to the end in preparation for the end of the path.
-
Sonic and Sheena emerged at the end of the path and saw a mainly large, empty room, but at the opposite end was something familiar.
"The Chaos Emerald!" Sonic exclaimed and looked at the purple gem in all its glory.
"I'll get it!" Sheena said excitedly as she ran forward.
"Let's hope- WATCH IT!" Sonic dashed forward and grabbed Sheena, pulling her back in time for a Chaos Gust to barely miss her. In a bit of shock, Sheena clung to Sonic. Sonic blushed, and then gently pushed Sheena off. They both beheld Talon with another Emerald.
"Get away from the Emerald." Talon said, but was suddenly tackled from behind by Rouge.
"Rouge!" Sonic said.
Rouge had not time to react when Talon kicked her off, next to Sonic and Sheena. As if on cue, Vector ran from the third path, followed by Bandit. The team of three faced the team of two.
"So…" Sonic said, wearing a big grin, "The fight of the year is finally here!"
"Please," Bandit said. At this time, one would notice how cool his voice was, almost like how one would remembers Shadow the hedgehog's, but not so raspy and with more attitude, "now that we're on a second date, allow us to properly introduce ourselves."
"Talon the hawk and Bandit the raccoon, hereby known as Team Evolution at your service." Talon, with a voice like Bandit's but sans attitude and a little bit of volume, saluted in a military-like style.
"Team Evolution?" Rouge asked.
"Believe me when I say that we are, undoubtedly, examples of the highest forms of life." Bandit gave a thumbs-up.
"Well, Team Evolution," Sonic said, "you're about to feel the wrath of… TEAM UNITY!"
Sonic adopted his regular fighting stance, almost like he was on a surfboard. Rouge turned in toward the middle slightly, placed a hand on her hip, and shifted her weight to her back leg, letting the other one jut out. Vector, in between the other two, raised his head to the sky and has his powerful arms stretched out, hands also balled into fists. The three of them held their positions for a bit of time.
"Wow," Sonic mused, "for making up a team pose on the fly, that was pretty good."
"I know." Vector said in awe.
Bandit clapped slowly, "Nice. Are you trying out to be cheerleaders?"
"No." Sonic simply stated. Rather than make a comeback, all heck seemed to break loose as both teams rushed at each other and engaged in combat.
Team Evolution got first blood as Bandit jumped off of Talon's back and rammed his fists down, knocking Sonic and Rouge in the back of the head and making them fall on their faces. He quickly landed and back flipped to avoid Vector's swing. Sonic and Rouge picked themselves off the ground and both went after Talon, who flew up. He grinned at the other two, but Sonic and Rouge nodded and they adopted the flight formation sans Vector, who was busy with Bandit. They got level with Talon, who looked surprised. Rouge launched Sonic forward in a Thunder Shoot, which connected. Talon hit the wall and started to slide down.
Vector struck forward with both fists and his jaws and was still unable to get Bandit. The raccoon leapt back with grins and suddenly sprung forward, connecting an uppercut to Vector's chin. The crocodile stumbled back, and then readjusted himself in time to see Bandit come forward again. Vector opened his mouth and received Bandit's fist, clamping down hard. Bandit's eyes widened in pain and panic as he flailed around. A smile crept to Vector's lips as he shook his head, then did a back flip, letting go of Bandit and making him fly up into the air.
"I think we've gone easy long enough!" Bandit declared, balling a shaking fist.
"I concur!" Talon shouted, looking over at Team Unity.
"Come and get some, boys!" Sonic made a four-finger beckon.
With a shout, Team Evolution rushed forward and their speed was unprecedented. Talon had kicked Vector into Rouge while Bandit performed a crushing clothesline on Sonic. Vector immediately got off of Rouge and charged forward. He swiped several times at the other two and never succeeded. Talon bopped him in the head and Bandit slid under his feet, tripping him.
"URGH! Espio and Charmy did that to me all the time! One would think I'd know better by now!"
Bandit came from above and tried to smash Vector with his tail, but the crocodile rolled out of the way at the right time. He then ran over to Sonic and Rouge in attempt to get them back on their feet.
Sheena, in the meantime, had only been watching. She looked around, "I have to help!" She looked and saw a supply closet. She inched toward it and reached it. Inside were a bunch of odd batons. She picked them up.
"Sonic!" Sheena shouted, getting the attention of all in the room. She indicated she was bringing help.
"Thanks, Sheena!" Sonic smiled with a little hope.
Sheena tossed the weapons to Team Unity, but it was Team Evolution who intercepted them. She gasped deeply as they brandished the weapons, which turned out were electric batons. Bandit had two.
"Yeah… Thanks, Sheena." Bandit gave a thumbs-up to the leopard.
Sheena stood there stunned and shocked at what she just did, her face entirely pale.
"This is just great…" Rouge muttered, "Now they can electrocute."
"No problem!" Sonic said with determination, "We can still take them!"
"Oh how WRONG you are!" Talon shouted as the weapons flared forward.
Team Evolution slashed forward with their weapons and Team Unity could only dodge. Sheena clenched her fist. She had to try again! She looked and saw the answer: The Chaos Emerald. If she got that, she could use it. Sheena took off in a run towards the Emerald.
Team Evolution immediately swung around to look at her, "STOP!"
Sheena was so close to the Emerald… but so far, too. For in no time, Bandit and Talon were on her and all three electric batons hit her.
"AAAAHHHH!" Sheena shouted as voltage from each baton coursed through her body.
"NO!" Sonic shouted.
The other three only watched in shock as Team Evolution finally relented. Sheena moaned in torturous pain as she slowly toppled over and fell to the floor on her side, smoke rising from her fur.
"It's her fault. She got too close." Talon said.
"You… You'll pay for that!" Sonic swore.
"What can you possibly do?" Bandit asked.
As if in response, it seemed all three members of Team Unity were concentrating on something. After a bit, their eyes opened and they scrambled to the center of the room.
"Black Wave!" Rouge called, thrusting her arm in the air and spinning. The black circle appeared in the air.
With a yell, Vector shot a stream of fire from his mouth. The fire ran straight into the Black Wave and made it into a ball of black fire.
Lastly, Sonic jumped in and shouted, "Sonic Wind!" A wind blew into the black fire and made it form a tornado of black fire. This tornado kept growing, and then shot out in all directions.
Team Evolution gaped in horror as the wall of black flame wind rushed at them. They tried to make to escape, but they attack hit them head-on, making them fly through the air and smash into the wall painfully.
As everything settled, Sonic, Rouge, and Vector exchanged glances.
"What was that?" Rouge asked.
"I think… we just did a Team Blast!" Sonic replied excitedly, "It shall be called… the Delta Strike!"
"It was weird… I just suddenly knew what to do!" Vector exclaimed, looking confused.
All three looked to see Team Evolution get up… or rather try to.
"All right…" Bandit moaned, "Take the Chaos Emerald… we'll get the rest… you'll see!"
"Then…" Talon winced, "We'll come after that one!"
"Chaos Control…!" Both shouted and they were gone.
Team Unity enjoyed a moment of triumphant smiles, but soon they turned to looks of distress and worry as they ran over to Sheena.
"Sheena!" Sonic called.
"Are you okay?" Rouge demanded.
"Say something!" Vector near-pleaded.
There was silence until Sheena coughed, a cloud of smoke coming out, "I'll… live…"
Sonic sighed, "Thank goodness…"
Rouge turned her attention to the Chaos Emerald. She walked over to it and looked it over, making sure there was nothing to trip if she took it. She then swiped her hand forward and snatched the Emerald.
"What a day!" Vector sighed, "Let's go!"
"Yes… let's." Sonic said, picking up Sheena. He somehow got a flashback of when he had picked up Amy. Only this time, the figure in his arms was going to wake up eventually.
"Let me." Vector said, "I'm stronger."
Sonic nodded, and then held Sheena out to Vector. The crocodile gently nudged the leopard onto his back, her arms wrapped around and under his head.
The three of them walked through the line of safes for a bit, then as they exited, none of them saw the laser on the floor that all three stepped on at the same time. All the alarms went off.
"Aw jeez…" Vector moaned, but still smiled.
"Never a dull moment!" Sonic said with a grin.
"Let's blow this Popsicle stand!" Rouge said enthusiastically.
The three of them started in a run forward until Sonic grabbed Rouge and Vector's arms and made the three of them take off at sonic speed.
-
"How is she?" Sonic asked later when they were all back at Tails's lab. He was talking about Sheena.
"Well, you heard her." Vector replied, "She'll live. She hasn't suffered anything permanent, which is very good for how badly she got zapped."
"That's good to hear." Sonic said as he walked out of the room and came upon Rouge, sitting in a chair and feet propped on the table, admiring their new Emerald, "Some things never change, do they?"
"Well, pardon me for appreciating a good jewel." Rouge said, then grinned at Sonic as she tossed the Emerald to him, "Catch."
Sonic easily caught it, "Sharing a jewel? How unlike you."
Rouge shrugged and stood from her point on the chair, "I think it's amazing we have this thing… no thanks to that crazy leopard."
"What!" Sonic yelped.
"Hey!" Vector called, "I thought we'd get together all three of us before discussing her!"
"Discussing WHAT!" Sonic demanded, looking from Rouge to Vector and back again.
"All right, Sonic." Rouge said in a calming manner, "I'm sure you can remember all of what happened today, right? Let's say we fight with Team Evolution many more times… we can't just have Sheena underfoot, messing up all the time! She's a liability, Sonic!"
Sonic looked appalled, "She's only trying to help!"
"I'm not so sure…" Vector spoke up, "From what I've heard and seen, this Sheena is a suspicious character. I mean, when Talon first struck, she was there. Then she volunteers to go after Talon and fails. Now she supposedly follows those two down into the new Security Hall? She's awfully interested and involved for somebody with no reason to be."
"She saw Amy go down and since she lost Talon, she's felt a need to prove herself!" Sonic argued.
"Sonic…" Rouge said, almost in a pleading voice. Almost.
"No!" Sonic snapped, "I know for a fact that Sheena is a friend and if anybody disagrees with me, they can feel free to challenge me!"
Rouge and Vector stood stunned at Sonic's passion. The blue hedgehog looked from one teammate to the other, then after a while loosened up.
"I thought so."
"On another note," Vector said after clearing his throat, "did anybody else notice that Team Evolution vowed to have all the Chaos Emeralds?"
"I did." Rouge said.
"What do they need them for?" Sonic asked.
"I don't know…" Vector mused, "But we know that Team Evolution can't get all of the Chaos Emeralds, for whatever they have planned can't be good!"
"That's our mission, now?" Rouge asked, "Find the Emeralds before Team Evolution does?"
"I guess so."
"Well, Team," Sonic said with a grin, "we have our cause! Let's show those Evolutioners!"
The three of them held their hands one over the other.
"TEAM UNITY!"