Sonic Evolution

by Captain Gamer

When a new team begins collecting Chaos Emeralds and taking out anybody who would stand in their way, it is up to the remaining heroes to team up and combat this threat!

7. U Boomey Boo

Sonic Evolution

Unity Story

Chapter 7: Boomey Boo

Amy Rose really did like not being in a coma. To be awake and able to squint into the sun or need to brush one's quills from her face was really a great feeling on a fantastic, sunny day like this. Sonic had saved her yet agiain.

Then her face suddenly fell as she realized that no, it wasn't Sonic who had saved her. She knew it before, but the full effect just hit her head-on. It was not her true love, but her true love's so-called nemesis, Shadow, who had ultimately brought her out of her comatose state. It gave her a tight feeling in her chest to finally realize this. She stared into the sands of Emerald Beach, as if the answer to her current stress was hidden inside any of those grains of sand. She knew that Sonic loved her. She didn't think so or have a hunch, she KNEW. All she had to show for this was the fact that he saved her life more than a few times.

However, now that aspect of a relationship was lost. The exclusivity of it all was nothing. For all anybody knew, by her logic, now Shadow loved her. The only difference is that the black hedgehog had actually said so... or at least something close to it. Then, by her logic, Shadow loves her more than Sonic does. Then again, it might not be so bad to be with Shadow. Sonic seems kind of out-of-touch with reality a lot, which was something she would work on when they got married. Shadow, on the other hand seemed very down-to-earth and applied utmost logic to most cases. His mean streak and aggressive tendencies were going to be something she'd work on curbing.

Amy made a sudden audible intake of breath, then used the gasp to fuel her planned exclamation, "WHAT AM I THINKING?" She howled towards the horizon, the sky meeting the water, and the sun looking paper-thin as it seemed to squeeze between them.

She loved Sonic. She would always love Sonic. Never would she hate Sonic. Sonic was her world. Then again, so was Maria to Shadow. Wouldn't Shadow feel like he would be dishonoring the memory of Maria by being with Amy? Unless...

"Amy! Hey!"

So suddenly, a very familiar voice knocked her out of her thoughts. Amy stared in disbelief, rubbed her eyes, then looked as Sonic approached. She couldn't believe her eyes. HE came to HER? She was the happiest girl in the world!

"Sonic...! Hi...!" Amy gasped, a thin ribbon of red along her muzzle. This sudden display had her flustered.

"Funny seeing you here." Her blue heart responded, "I sometimes come up to this part of the beach to watch the sunrise. Not all the time. What are the chances, huh?

"Oh."

"Oh," was right. Amy didn't know whether to feel upset or embarassed. For all she knew, she could be impeding on a very important morning ritual for him!

"So, you got the latest?" Sonic asked, still looking at the sun.

"Huh?" Amy grunted at first, unsure of what he was talking about, then once again felt stupid for temporarily forgetting the most important conflict the world currently knows, "Oh! Yes! Vector told me everything that happened since I've been 'gone.' I'm really sorry Chaos took your Emerald. I'm sure if I remembered, I would have told him to give it back."

"Don't apologize, Amy." Sonic said in his usual carefree way, "We'll get another Emerald. And besides, an Emerald not owned by Team Evolution is a good one."

"I guess." Amy drew circles into the sand nervously. This was much longer than the typical conversation she had with him. Usually she would make some kind of forward comment, causing the blue hero to dash away, maybe screaming. Perhaps the key to chasing her hero was to not chase him at all. She wanted to see where this went, "So, do you guys have any plans?"

"None beside waiting for the Emerald tracker to pick up something. Where the Emeralds are, Team Evolution will be. Then we can beat out of them how we can get the others back in the waking world."

"I hope that's soon." Amy swooned a bit, she loved it when Sonic got all heroic like that.

"Me too." Sonic said softly, laying both his hands down and leaning back on them.

Amy looked at Sonic's bare hand and gently laid hers down a distance from his. Then, slowly but surely, she slid her hand accross the ground, awaiting the warm bump of Sonic's hand.

"Hey, Sonic!"

Sonic leapt up and looked to the source of the call while Amy, with no hand to stop her own, completely slid over, landing on her side and wearing a surprised expression. Perched on the top of a tree was Rouge.

"What's up?" Sonic asked, shielding his eyes from the sun.

"Our unofficial master of the Emerald tracker says that we had a signal, and it could reappear at any time!"

"Cool! I'm there!" The blue hero looked to Amy, "See you later, Amy. It was nice talking to you."

Amy stood up as she watched Sonic speed off. "It was nice talking to you?" Ever since when was it nice to talk to her? Amy giggled, giddy that she might have found the way to her true love's heart. She was about to leave, herself, until she saw the shadow cast by Rouge was still there. She looked up to see the former agent looking back down. Rather than getting indignant, Amy felt a little creeped out by the indecipherable stare. Thus, she was relieved when Rouge excused herself with a condescending "humph," leaping back gracefully and spreading her wings to take flight.

-

Vector tapped a couple of keys on Tails's large computer before turning away in a dismissive manner. Waiting for him in the main social room of the lab were Sonic and Rouge.

"Ah, I see you're all here. And in time too-"

The main doors slammed and a dash of pink entered the room, "I'm here!"

There was a bit of a silence, then Vector, "Since when was she part of the team? Nobody tells me anything."

"You ARE third in command out of three." Rouge muttered in a superior fashion.

"I thought we agreed there were no ranks." The crocodile responded, "Isn't that what you decreed, Sonic?"

Sonic shrugged. A large BEEP, startled the four of them to attention.

"Is it a live one?" Sonic asked, looking in vain toward the tracker.

"Funny you should use the word 'live.'" Vector chuckled after locking on to the Emrald's signal.

"Dare I ask why?" The impatient bat interjected.

Vector tapped a key, then looked back up, "It seems our Emerald is inside a supposed haunted house!"

"Haunted?" Amy gasped.

"Aww," Rouge cooed, "is the little pink hedgie afraid of a little ghost?"

"I've tangled with ghosts before," Sonic rubbed the top of his finger under his nose in typical fashion, ending with a thumbs-up, "no problem!"

Amy inwardly growled. That bad bat! Was she trying to relate to Sonic just to spite her? Well, if that was her game, she had another thing coming!

"I was only asking for clarification, for your information!" Amy huffed, "And I was loud because I'm so excited to help you all out!"

"Well yes... it's haunted. Thanks for asking." Vector muttered, then another BEEP sparked an identical start in them all, "We won't be alone!"

This time Vector held the tracker for all to see.

"Green?" Rouge observed.

"Team Chaos..." Sonic seethed, "Let's go!"

Rouge didn't patronize Amy enough to not share a concerned look with her and Vector. They hadn't exactly seen Team Evolution's blue Emerald on that tracker. Sonic's "Let's go!" had "vendetta" written all over it.

-

The Tornado touched down on soil and foliage. All inside jumped out and turned their attention to a large, black, ominous mansion with four large towers on each corner sticking out.

"In there?" Sonic pointed.

Vector tapped some keys on the tracker, then nodded, "In there."

As they approached the rotting structure, it didn't take long for some familiar faces to be seen.

"Oh!" Tikal called when she turned and saw the other team, "Unity!"

"What?" Shadow growled and turned around, causing both teams to face each other down.

Amy sagely stepped in front of them, "All right, enough awkward silence! There is NO direct competition going on here, so let's focus on the task at hand! Maybe we can all cooperate!"

"There is an evil prescence contained in this building." Chaos hissed slowly, "It is best to let Evolution attempt to obtain this Emerald. They run a chance of perishing."

"No way!" Sonic waved his hand, "Letting one of them draw from the power of the Chaos Emeralds is stupid enough, but to let them double their strength? This isn't a risk we can afford to take."

Shadow made a condescending mouth noise, "For once you are right, Blue Hedgehog. however, the more fit team to take on this task shall accomplish it. If you wish to risk your life to certain doom, then feel free. Let's go!"

With that dismissal, Team Chaos made their way around the others present and had vanished into the horizon, but were surely making their way into the mansion.

"Concieted jerks." Sonic growled.

Amy emitted a concerned whimper for her love, but knew he was too sore emotionally from the last fight to be pleasant with Shadow any time soon. The Emerald tracker beeped once more, as if taking it upon itself to remind the foursome of the Emerald they were persuing. It took Vector's strength to pry open the double doors leading into the mansion.

-

Once inside, Team Unity and Amy looked around at the stereotypical house, complete with more doorways than one could count and two stairways leading to one long platform that had two more stairways coming from it and leading to the second floor of the same room. Once they were all in, the double doors slammed shut, causing much of the light to leave.

Amy yelped, then turned to Vector, "Did you have to close them so hard?"

"I didn't close them!" Vector responded, making Amy shiver a little at the thought they closed on their own. Vector found a torch and tossed one to Sonic, both males finding their ways to light them.

"This reminds me of that Hang Castle place..." The pink hedgehog muttered.

The beeping from the tracker ceased. Vector tapped the tracker in a jarring fashion, then sighed, "Stopped giving out signals... we'll have to loook around."

"No problem!" The optimistic Sonic said, "Just look through all these doorways and see if we can find any leads!"

"You mean... split up?" Amy said slowly.

"Um... yeah."

"You haven't watched very many horror movies, have you, Sonic?"

"Um... no."

"We'll split up into teams of two, then," Rouge sighed, then quickly added, "Since you are on that side of the room with Vector, you can be with him. Sonic and I will look through the doorways on the other end."

"Sounds like a plan." Sonic confirmed.

A blue streak ran its way down from Amy's eye, then was replaced by a red popped vein. Rouge WAS trying to spite her!Rouge would get hers one day... she'll see. She'll be doing something shifty and it will be Amy Rose who points out that bat's untrustworthiness to Sonic! Amy looked over at Vector, all business, looking through a doorway, when she saw something that made her gasp, a transparent white ball with black eyes!

"YEEEK! WHAT IS THAT?"

"What's what?" Vector asked as he ran over, then looked at the direction Amy's shaking finger was pointing to, "There's... nothing there."

Amy peered through her fingers, "Huh... no! I swear I saw something!" She then tugged Vector's arm, "Please! You're the most sensible one of us all! You of all people should know that when somebody claims to have seen something freaky, that it is more dangerous NOT to believe them!"

"Or..." Vector yanked his arm out to raise a condescending finger, "This place's reputation is just getting to you. There's a remote possibility that there ARE no ghosts here!" On cue, the same white puff landed on Vector's muzzle. It was like a white blanket was draped over an arcane ball with tiny arms, and two large eyes that looked like large tears in the blanket and were all black, "Make that... an IMpossibility."

"Take this you spiteful specter!" The pink hedgehog shouted and whipped out her Piko Piko Hammer. With a shout, she thrust the large-headed weapon at the ghost.

"Chirchen?" The ghost chirped, then calmly lifted itself upward. The Piko Piko Hammer continued on its course, slamming into Vector's muzzle and pinning it to the floor for a couple of seconds.

"I missed!" Amy cried out.

Vector stood up and rubbed his sore nose, "Nope... you got me."

"It's getting away!" Amy shouted and made chase with her hammer.

Vector sighed, "How is THAT thing going to stop a ghost...? Hey! Wait up!"

-

Meanwhile, Sonic and Rouge explored the dank halls of the mansion elsewhere.

"Scared any?" Sonic asked, turning around and pointing the torch at Rouge.

Rouge grinned and folded her arms, "You kidding me? Darkness is my element!"

"You say that now... but one time I was in this huge pyramid with a couple of ghosts..." The blue hegehog placed the torch under his face, causing a well-known shadowy effect on it, "...and they were friendly ghosts... at first. There was this sun roof, see, and it was wide open, showing us the sun." Rouge rolled her eyes in a bored fashion, making Sonic grin at her skepticism, "However, as time passed, the sun roof would close. The sun would slowly leave us and the ghosts would begin to feed on the darkness." To illustrate, Sonic held his other hand out horizontally, then slowly drew it toward the hand gripping the torch, which got Rouge's attention, "As the sun faded, the ghosts grew bigger, and not only that, but scarier. They got fangs, horns, and eyes that burned holes into you!" The hedgehog pantomimed out these things with odd detail. He brought his face closer to Rouge's, "Then... you hope it never happens, but all you can do is see it play out in front of you. The sunroof closes all the way. With a deafening thud!" He slammed his horizontal hand against the fist holding the torch, making Rouge jump. he then looked down and chuckled softly, "And when that happens... when it happens... heh heh heh..."

Rouge put on a concerned look. He was officially creeping her out, "Sonic?"

Sonic immediately thrust his head up. His eyelids were pulled back into their sockets and he had no pupils, "YOU BELONGED TO THEM!"

"AAH!" Rouge yelped and leapt back. When she landed, she popped a vein as she heard a more Sonic-like laughing.

Indeed, Sonic had pulled his eyelids back to normal and unrolled his eyes and was laughing, "Of course, that only happened to me once. I quickly found a switch to open the sunroof again. However, it was a pretty scary couple of seconds. You should have seen your face!"

Rouge forced an angry smile, "Yeah... you really got me there, Sonic. If I ever saw any ghosts like that, I'd give 'em a screw kick in the face! Even if they do exist, a ghost is only scary if you let yourself fear it!"

"Actually, that's a pretty good creed to live by!" Sonic nodded.

Their conversation unexpectedly fell flat and they were left only to semi-awkwardly look at each other, emerald eyes to emerald eyes, only lit by the torch Sonic held. There was actually a bit of a mood until there was a squeak from behind a doorway. Both hedgehog and bat swerved their heads toward the sound, then flattened themselves against opposite sides of the doorframe.

"Think it's Team Evolution?" Sonic said quietly. He looked as it seemed torch light was coming from the other side.

"Can't be Vector and that girl." Rouge muttered.

"Okay... on three. One..."

"Two..."

"HAH!" They both yelled as they jumped past the doorframe in battle stances.

"Wah!" Cried a female voice.

"Huh?" Rouge grunted, then pulled Sonic's torch in front, "Not YOU, again!"

Sheena the leopard pitched her own torch forward, "What is that supposed to mean? I'm trying to help! Team Evolution was going this way and I followed them in here! I knew it would be a matter of time before you guys showed up!"

Sonic grinned, "The more the merrier, right Rouge?"

"Right." Rouge growled between her teeth, trying her hardest to convey she did NOT want Sheena with them.

Unfortunately, her signals were lost on him in his playfully naive mood. He led Sheena through, almost entirely forgetting about Rouge. There goes her alone time with Sonic. She quickly realized that she had no torch to light her way and shouted for them to wait up. At least, she would have, had a harsh blow not come from behind and knocked her down.

"Wait, Rouge!" Sonic said with a start and leapt back. Sheena seemed reluctant to follow, "What the?"

He brought his torch foward and saw Rouge on the ground, behind her a red-faced Amy and Vector, looking down in humored disbelief.

"I thought I saw the ghost! It's not my fault she has a white head." Amy defended herself.

Sonic lifted the torch toward Amy, "What ghost."

Amy tried to describe, "The, uh, the... the- THAT ONE!"

Sonic wirled around and came face-to-face with the same ball of ectoplasm that had caused Amy to smash Vector in the face. There was a tense moment in which all, including a newly recovered Rouge, watched the ghost for any sudden movements.

Tense, that is, until Sonic smiled.

"Hey there, little guy!" The others fought the urge to fall over out of disbelief, but surprisingly enough, Sonic was soon stroking the ghost in a friendly fashion, "Check it out! As long as we have a light source, he's completely harmless!"

"Just like the sun roof." Rouge said softly.

Amy frowned, "What sunroof?"

The bat grinned. He never told Amy that story? Interesting...

"I'll call him Boomey!" Sonic smiled widely and tickled the newly dubbed Boomey, laughing.

Vector cleared his throat, "Maybe, um, 'Boomey' can help us find the Chaos Emerald in this location!"

"Good idea!" Sonic commented, then looked to Boomey, "Hey Boomey, have you seen any Chaos Emeralds recently?"

"Chirchen?" Boomey chirped, and tilted its entire body to the side. Sheena seemed to shift her weight nervously.

"Jewel?" Rouge tried helping.

"Shiny?" Sonic continued.

Vector sighed and stepped forward, holding out the Emerald Tracker, "Have you seen THIS?" The tracker displayed the image of a Chaos Emerald. Boomey looked into it.

"Chirchen!" The little ghost chirped merrily and faced a certain direction, then took off.

"I think he's got something!" Sonic said merrily and followed.

-

Boomey kept an apparently clear path beaten through the cavernous halls of the mansion while the five followers stayed in close proximity, mostly to keep their torches on him.

"Chirchen!" The miniature ghost chirped at last when it came to a door.

"'The room of a directly proportional amount of trials.'" Rouge read from a nearby sign.

"What does that mean?" Sonic scratched his head, "Math never was my strong point."

"It doesn't really specify what the amount of trials is directly proportional to..." Vector shrugged, "kind of hard to decipher."

Sheena bit her lip, "Does that door really contain 'trials?' What if they're those kinds of trials that test how good a person is and only lets them by on that basis?"

Amy nudged the leopard, "We shouldn't have any worries, then! We all know we are good of heart! Well... MOST of us at that rate."

"Ouch." Rouge muttered sarcastically.

"Chirchen!" Boomey chirped before phazing through the door.

"Woah! Hold your horses there!" Sonic called after, opened the door, and ran through, causing all else to pile in.

-

Nobody waited for, nor caught up with Sonic on the other side of the door. Rather, the next room was a completely empty dining hall. He waited for a couple of seconds, then when nobody came through the door he just entered through, was fed up with all the waiting and walked forward a bit.

"There you are!" Sonic yelped after a time of walking, then jogged over to where Boomey was floating, looking on into the distance, "What was with the rush, anyway? Heh, never thought I'd ever ask that question."

The minute ghost turned around, then tilted its entire body left, examining Sonic. It then shrunk back, and pointed with a stubby arm, "Chirchen?"

"What are you...?" Sonic began when he looked behind and saw what, "No way!"

As if they had materialized out of thin air, an army of flying robots, robo-magicians, GUN beetles, and even some classics like dragonflies had littered the airspace of the room. Sure enough, a line of them parted to make way for their most obvious ringleader, afloat in his Egg Carrier.

"Eggman!" Sonic declared, "You're behind all of the nonsense going down lately, aren't you? I bet Team Evolution is your doing!"

The good doctor scoffed, "I have no clue what you are talking about! I merely saw you and your motley crew of friends enter this haunted house and thought it to be a good place for an ambush! Notice how you are all alone?"

Sonic's face flushed for all of two seconds, "What have you done with my friends, you bad egg!"

Eggman fingered his mustache, "You know what, I won't tell you, for you shall be sharing their current condition in a moment! Or maybe, I'll just detroy you right here!" To accompany these claims, the robots began to edge forward, awaiting their master's call, "Notice my masterful manipulation of the GUN's machines? Difficult to break apart their coding, but once I did, I found them to be quite formidable machines, and under my command and reprogramming, they will be a force to be reckoned with, even for a blue rodent such as yourself!"

On cue, one of the beetles shot forward a bullet. Sonic dodged it as expertly as he could, but ended up flailing away rather than making a graceful leap. He landed, adrenaline rushed from that sudden and sonic-speed attack.

"Man!" Sonic gasped out of awe, "I barely saw that coming! You've outdone yourself yet again, Eggman!" Sonic moved to normal standing position as Eggman took the moment to chuckle, then give his trademarked laugh, actually filling Sonic with an uncharacteristic sense of trouble.

The room full of robots seemed to rotate about the blue hero. The GUN beetles reared their guns and cannons, aiming squarely at the hedgehog in the middle of their primal circle. The wizards held their staffs forward, ready to deliver harsh blows or heal their comrades in metal. Just now, E-1000s began to appear from behind the crowd, accompanied by more of Eggman's and the GUN's robots. Boomey slowly slid behind Sonic, giving a frightened chirp. Sonic bore his teeth as his observations came full circle. This was not going to be easy.

"Well?" Eggman smugly remarked, hovering above the soon-to-be scene.

Sonic growled, then used his borne teeth to grin, "You bloated egg! It doesn't matter, now what happens! I will never give up the fight!"

"I hoped so!" Eggman howled, "Get him!"

Sonic didn't wait for any robot to advance on him. He decided to be the one to start. He took off on a run to the nearest robot and leapt, aiming a kick that would rip the robot apart. Much to his surprise, his foot sailed clear through the robot as if it were not there.

"What?" Sonic yelped, then landed. He whirled around to face an attack from behind only to see none coming.

In fact, the room was once again empty.

Sonic's afore shout still echoed throughout the room. He looked around. No robots, no Eggman, nothing. As if to remind Sonic that HE existed, Boomey emerged from behind Sonic's back. Sonic smiled at the ghost for a second, then returned to a befuddled stare about the room. Was this a ploy by Eggman to make him lower his guard? If so, it was a bit much, even for Eggman. Maybe the rotund doctor realized that his army would have been reduced to scrap and just left. But wait! He still probably had his friends! He had to find them!

"Chirchen!" Boomey yelled, then floated in a direction.

"Hey! Hold up!" Sonic called. Maybe Boomey felt the same and wanted to find the rest. Boomey stopped in front of double doors. "Are they in there?" Sonic asked and looked around, then saw a plaque on the wall. He looked at it out of split-second curiousity, reading it aloud, "In the face of danger and almost certain peril, sentience tends to resort to despair. It takes one of a truly strong heart and heroic resolve to not only give up, but to even keep faith in themselves and that everything will turn out well in the end. Keeping one's resolve is, most often, the way to make a loss into a victory." Sonic reflected on these words, then wore a face of disbelief, "This was all one of those 'trials?' It's a bit excessive, if you ask me. But hey, if I passed, I passed. That means that the others aren't in trouble after all! Come on, Boomey!"

With an excited chirp that was happy for Sonic, Boomey floated forward and kept up with Sonic as he pushed the doors opened and ran into the following hallway.

-

Usually, darkness was Rouge's element. Pitch-darkness, however, really tested her abilites as a bat. She had come to use her eyes so often that her inherent and little-known ability to echolocate had gotten rusty. She really shouldn't have let the others hold the torches. Well, it made perfect sense, as they were all close together, bust suddenly she had been separated from the rest, and not just some, but ALL of the rest. How was that possible? They only went through a little door!

"How inconsiderate of them all!" Rogue huffed as she walked through the darkness, letting her words bounce off of anything in her path and return, painting a picture of the immediate area for her, "They insist that I'm supposed to be one of them, yet once we get separated, they make no effort to try and find me! Some team!" Rouge continued to talk to herself to maybe find a way out and into a room with some way of lighting, "I'm glad I didn't invest so much emotion into this so-called team, if I had, then just maybe my feelings would have been hurt by this unsightly circumstance! It's not like they extended their frienship to me, or anything. I bet they only see me as a means of getting their precious fox boy and ECHIDNA back! Well, that's fine with me! I hope that Knucklehead it groggy after waking up, then I can take his Emerald and be done with them all once and for all! And best yet, I would need nobody's..."

The white bat didn't finish her thought as the floor gave way from beneath her. In an odd coincidence, Rouge yelled out the last word of her sentence, merely from surprise, shouting out a resounding, "... HELP!" which could have passed for a call of a one in need. Rouge highly resented the floor causing her to shout such a thing, as if she needed any help. She caught the side of the hole, after all, and only needed to pull herself up.

Truth be told, she actually did need help. Sure, she was hanging and posessed the upper body strength to pull herself back up, but some force was keeping her from rising any, like a dark hand took hold of her and tugged down just as hard as she pulled up.

"There you are!"

Rouge saw a light approaching and felt the distant heat of torches until they came right next to the hole. Rouge willed herself not to see several staring faces looking at her in this moment of need, but cast a look back upward and, sure enough, the remaining members of her team and their two cheerleaders all occupied a corner each of the view. "Couldn't you pull yourself back up?" Said the blue leader.

"Gladly!" Rouge grunted, then gave another mouth noise of effort as she strained her thin arms to pull herself out of the hole, but was dismayed to feel that same tug keep her at the same place still.

Looks were exchanged amongst the other four. "If I didn't know better," Sheena scratched the back of her head, "I'd say she needs our help."

"Nah," Said Amy, the first of the four to talk earlier, "She always gets by fine by herself. And if she can't, then do we really need her?"

"WHAT?" The hanging agent yelped and redoubled her efforts to pull herself up. All she wanted in life was to pull those pink, frilly little quill bangs until that pink, frilly little hedgehog screamed loud enough for even Knuckles to hear. With a shout, then an eventual half-moan of submission, Rouge tried again to pull herself up, but failed yet again.

Amy clicked her tongue in pity. The rage was almost enough to tinge Rouge's fur red. A harsh clearing of the throat from the oldest of the five stopped Amy. "That's not very nice," Vector lectured, "Whether you like it or not, Rouge is part of the main team, Unity, and, in effect, one of us."

"Yeah." Sonic continued, following up by extending his hand down the hole, "Now come on and just take my hand, Rouge. I for a fact know that this mansion is capable of weird things. If you told me that you're inability to pull yourself up is not your fault, then I'll totally believe you."

"If it's some kind of ghastly trick, you might need my help, too." Vector spoke again and also held out his hand.

"We're wasting time... Team Evolution could be hot on the trail of the Chaos Emerald by now." Sheena said, oddly businesslike, and held out her hand.

Amy sighed, "Despite every fiber in my being, I have my priorities... and a friend of Sonic is a friend of mine. Just get this over with." The pink hedgehog then extended her own cuffed hand.

Rouge could not believe what she was seeing. Four whole hands extending not only their assistance, but their own way of an offer of friendship. Her feelings turned a complete one-eighty. Isn't this what real friends do, help each other out in times of need without gaining anything besides satisfaction at helping out this friend in question? How funny. Even when she thought over the situation in a hypothetical way, she referred to herself as a friend.

Something snapped in the bat and she let go with one hand. "Guys..." She said in a low voice, then reached for the nearest hand with her free one. "Thanks."

And just like that, Rouge was no longer hanging in a hole in the floor.

But she had not been pulled up. No, it was more like a flash and the split second after accepting her fate as one of a team, Rouge was back on solid floor. She was even in the same position she had been, one hand in the air as if grasping an edge and another hand reaching to the cieling, as if grabbing for a helping hand. Rouge felt stupid standing in that way, and acted upon it by immediately returning her hands to her sides. Just what had happened?

A door came into view that most certainly had not been there before. Rouge approached it, the warning of falling through the floor "again" nagging in the back of her mind, but never really acting upon it. Once she got to the door, a plaque, nailed on the door high enough for Rouge's eyeline, shone brightly. Rouge felt she had to read it.

"When a problem in relations arises, one must consider what must change for everything to work. Even if they are not at fault for the problem, there is never nothing they can do to repair, or even start on getting to win and influence those around them. They must look into themself and find any wrinkle in their personality that would be arguably the source of the problem and try to smooth it out, often before circumstances are too late to change. Oh, brother." Rouge folded her arms, "I get it. I passed this 'trial' because I accepted the help and friendship of those illusionary 'friends.' That is so typical."

The bat then pushed the door open and walked through, a bit sore at having gone through all that just to prove to a mansion that she was capable of accepting others... at the time.

-

Whereas his team members would have gotten confused at this sudden separation, as Vector found himself completely alone after going into the room of trials, the crocodile knew full well that the separation was part of his own trial. When he passes, no doubt he'd see his team again.

It was logical, and logic was what Vector had lived by. Sure, in the past he seemed a bit out of touch with the world and completely into his stereotype as the gruff private detective, but current circumstances called for a bit of seriousness. Thus, Vector was free to show a side that even Espio and Charmy did not know too well.

Last time, it was a routine takeover of the world. This time, Team Evolution was a force to be reckoned with and they did not kid around. They just did everything they could to take out the competition before anything real happened. Along with his default sense of justice and tendency to stick his scaled nose where it did not belong, Vector had a little vendetta to settle, as his two aforementioned buddies were now comatose thanks to that raccoon and eagle... and cheetah, apparently.

What was up with that third member, anyway? If she was only reserved for when she was needed, then Team Unity was more further in than they realized. Chaos had said that this "Ayla" character was the most powerful of the three, and that sure would be saying a lot, judging from what they had seen of Bandit and Talon.

Vector looked at the Emerald tracker as he ran through this new hall, seeing that it still registered a signal. He followed the signal, he'd find Team Evolution, he would squeeze from them how to get back Espio and Charmy, not to mention Sonic's friends. A nagging feeling told him that there was more to this. Much more. There was a bigger underlying mystery, nay, conspiracy, and he just had no leads besides the superficial conflict, and even the mystery of Ayla the cheetah.

Team Evolution was very tight-lipped about their intentions with the Chaos Emeralds. Perhaps if he put his mind to finding out this alterior motive, then Vector could head off the villainous team without having to beat them to every Chaos Emerald. Well, at least they had help. That pink hedgehog Amy sure seemed eager to help Sonic, along with those other two, the rabbit and the gargantuan cat. And, lastly, the newcomer to the Sonic style of adventure, Sheena the leopard.

What was up with Sheena, anyway? Other people can meet new allies in peace, but not Sonic and all associated. No, something was off about Sheena. Maybe...? No... too obvious, if one were to look at the scene from an exterior perspective. There was the possibility that Sheena COULD just be a bystander who wanted to get involved... but that was just on the opposite end of the spectrum, impossible to even take seriously.

A door appeared at the apparent end of the hallway. Vector, ever the observant one, took notice of a plaque on the wall and read it aloud, "A message is a versatile thing. It can contain information, instruction, or perhaps a riddle. To say that the before statement is true vice versa need not apply all the time. Though not all the time, some of the time is still possible. A riddle can contain a message if intended to be read as such, between the lies, or if the source of the information saying that it is a riddle is merely lying. Could a riddle contain a message about a riddle? Perhaps."

Even Vector had to scratch the back of his head after reading that. It was cryptic, to say the least. He took out his trusty notebook and began to jot notes. Just because this plaque talks about riddles, it doesn't necessarily mean that the riddles have to be contained within the same area as where the riddle was presented. A wide smile appeared on Vector's face. He was starting to sound like that plaque. Once he was done jotting down possible meanings for the plaque's message, as well as their relevance to his mind wanderings before meeting the plaque, he pushed the door open. His individual trial was done with, but the larger trial encompassing so many more had yet to begin.

-

"Sonic!" Amy Rose, in typical form, shouted once she found herself alone. Even if everybody else was with her, she probably would have called out his name still, for he truly was the only one she needed with her. The pink hedgehog continued to weave through doors and around rooms, trying to reclaim sight of her blue hero. Every door she opened or corner she turned was another chance to perhaps see the familiar silhouette of a hedgehog from the pale sun that filtered through the poorly maintained windows.

And around a particular bend, Amy got her wish... but in the most unfortunate way possible. A thick beam of light struck the ground right where Shadow the Hedgehog stood.

"Well." The crimson-eyed figure muttered, "I honestly expected that blue hedgehog or one of his friends to come around that corner. I guess I got my fighting spirit all riled up for nothing."

Amy considered being passive, but that just wasn't her style, "Just what do you have against Sonic, anyway?" She walked over to Shadow, the light bathing him making him seem intimidating, "You both teamed up to save the world from the ARK! Not to mention you graciously helped out in giving him enough time to gather power to defeat Metal Sonic. One would think that you would have made friends by now."

Shadow folded his arms, "I will agree with you about the incident with the ARK, but I haven't a clue what you mean by the second instance. Who, or what is Metal Sonic? Sounds like something Eggman would make."

"He is!" Amy yelped, but then took a few seconds to regain her composure. "Listen, the fact is that you and Sonic are more alike than you guys think. And I don't just mean in the fact that you are the same species and look a lot alike. Deep down inside you are both on the same side of the fight. Why must you make everything such a rivalry?"

"To be honest," Shadow closed his eyes irritably, "That was a possibility. We had a bad start is all. It's not my fault the first thing he did when he saw me was attack. By all means, I am not responsible for the sour moods we share with each other."

With a "hmph," Shadow turned ninety degrees to dismiss the topic. And by all means, it had been. There really was no way for Amy to discuss her way out of that circumstance. If Sonic had attacked, then there was no civil way to go about it. That only raises the question... why did Sonic do something so rash... even for him? Could it have had something to do with her state of being at the time?

To dispel the current silence that plagued them both, Amy took Shadow's team into account, "Where are the other two?"

"Ahead," Shadow merely said, "I was trailing until stopped by you. Come, we can catch up together."

"Together?" Amy squeaked, adopting a stance of one completely caught off guard, "You had better not be getting fresh with ME, mister!"

Rather than ask why Amy was so defensive, Shadow was actually able to infer why and moved on to a new question, "When will you give up on Sonic?"

Again, Amy was taken by surprise on so many levels. First of all was the question, of course. Give up? When she was so close to achieving her goal? And she took notice at how the ultimate one actually used Sonic's name, indicating that he took the question it was used in very seriously.

"I have no reason to give up on Sonic!" The pink one snapped, knowing well it was a weak comeback.

"If not give up on HIM... then perhaps... open your possibilities?" Without waiting for how Amy would react, Shadow's boot thrusters activated, propelling him forward.

Even if he had waited, not much would have been there for Shadow to look at. Amy would have remained standing, stunned at the closing remark, her mouth hanging open, disregarding any outside anomolies for a long time. When she was done gawking at where Shadow used to stand, Amy looked down in confusion. Open her possibilities? That would only confuse her sweet Sonic and make him think that her world was any thing but him solely. It was a rule of dating, or at least she heard, to have a backup plan in case plan A did not go swimmingly. Amy, however, felt she did not need a plan B, for her plan B was to keep at her plan A until it worked! But still...

Was Shadow trying to say something, perhaps promote himself for Amy with that remark? Open her possibilities... to him? She didn't even LIKE Shadow! Well, she didn't NOT like him, but she didn't LIKE him like him... Did she?

All of these add-ons! Couldn't she just finish a thought or tie up a loose end without two or three words messing everything up? Standing there like her shoes were melted into the ground wasn't going to solve anything, so Amy walked forward to a door in the distance. When she reached it, a plaque was built into the ground, as if anticipating that she would be hanging her head at that exact moment. Amy's eyes widened at this odd coincidence and had to read this opportunistic plaque.

"Why offer a trial when one's own thoughts are a constant trial?"

So is that what the sign all that time ago meant, that this mansion was magically capable of making trials to prove one's worth? Was Shadow merely an apparition for the purpose of a trial? Amy considered what the plaque said, then narrowed her eyes at the engraved words. The mansion didn't GENERATE its own trial... it saw that her life was complicated enough! Should she be flattered at the possibility that the mansion took pity on her, or insulted at the possibiliy that the mansion was laughing at her? Not another unanswerable question... Amy shook her pink head and just pushed the door open.

-

A nondescript hallway lead to a room with dozens of doors. Path this room, another nondescript hallway leads back out. All five of the furries, one with a ghost riding shotgun, who entered the particular room earlier emerged in this multi-doored room each from different doors. Needless to say, they were all surprised to see each other. In fact, they all remained in a solemn silence, for they all knew that some odd event was behind each and every one of them. Not even Boomey gave out a chirp, but merely kept looked from Sonic, to the rest, and back to Sonic again until somebody said anything.

Sonic was the first to speak, "How about... we just don't talk about what had just happened?"

"Agreed!" Chorused the other four, all of the females in much more of a hurry to dismiss their respective events than the lone male crocodile amongst them who, in all rights, had nothing to hide from his trial.

Just to make sure no awkward silences dominated again, Vector cleared his throat, "I guess that the 'room of proportionate trials' referred to how many enter the room. Five of us, five trials. Unless..."

"No," Sonic interjected, knowing Vector's side thought, "Boomey was with me the entire time."

"There you go. Five trials." Vector nodded as if figuring that out solved every other problem in the world.

"Chirchen!" Boomey declared, breaking the shell shock and charging forward.

"How many times is he going to do that?" Sheena asked wearily.

"As many times as needed if it means beating Team Evolution to the Chaos Emerald." Sonic took off after Boomey again, prompting the following of the rest.

-

The preceding hallway was dark. Quite dark. So much in fact that Sonic had to tell Boomey to wait up until torches were reclaimed, for all held torches were lost in the trials. Finally Vector and Rouge returned, each with a torch in hand and all was set for further exploration.

Entering the next room showed several doorways out. Five voices went up in a chorused moan at their misfortune.

Amy sunk to her knees, "I HATE THIS PLACE!"

"We need some kind of map to get through here." The white bat of the five huffed.

Amidst the looks of frustration and despair, Sonic retained his characteristic smug grin.

"No offense, but what are you so happy about?" Vector half demanded, wanting in on a bit of that happiness.

Sonic wagged a finger, "We don't need a map! We have Boomey!" he turned to the minute ghost. "I bet if you really put in the effort, Boomey, you can really get a good feel for where the Chaos Emerald is!"

All eyes were on Boomey. Boomey rotated around to look at all those who depended on him to find that Emerald and put on a look of determination. He floated into the center of all the doorways and rotated around, gaining speed, until he stopped on a dime, one stub of an arm pointing directly into a doorway, "Chirchen!"

"Is that it?" Sonic grinned widely, then after the ghost gave an affirmative chirp, prompted the group to follow.

This process repeated for several areas with several paths to follow and Boomey spun and pointed for every one of them. After a particular spin and point, Boomey's eyes inflated almost twice the regular size.

"Are we at the Emerald NOW?" Amy groaned.

The path that Boomey pointed out so ceremoniously lead to a barricaded door, barred up with planks.

"You may have to take that thing in for a tune up." Sheena said needlessly.

"It's this DOOR that needs fixing!" Vector declared as he jumped past everybody else and reared a fist back, letting it fly and connect with the door. The door shot directly forward, tearing through the hinges like they were butter. Eventually the force caught up with the door and without hinges to extert on, had only itself to take the force and split in two before resting on the dusty ground.

Then came the bats. Most likely spooked from the door being smashed down, a horde of regular black bats ejected from the empty doorframe as if shot from a cannon. There were a bunch of surprised yelps among the group, minus the ghost who merely watched all the bats fly by and through him in fascination. When the last of the bats left, a gust pulled through the hall, blowing out every torch and making the scene nearly pitch-black. The only light came from the door that was just blasted down. There was probably a light source around the corner, but not bright enough to reach where the group currently was.

"Oops!" Sonic yelped.

"I dropped my torch!" Vector called.

"Sonic!" Obviously Amy shouted, reaching out.

"That's MY hand!" Rouge growled.

"EWW!" Amy reached and felt something soft, then rubbed her hand on it to get all the Rouge germs off.

"Who's rubbing my back?" Sheena said with a creeped-out waver.

Amy quickly took her hand off, making a mental note to wash out good and well when she got back to her room in the city.

"Everybody just calm down while we get the torches back up!" Sonic called, fumbling on the ground.

The uproar stopped, replaced with panting of those who were shouting. Amy heard Sonic's call from in front of her, so she backed up so as to not accidentally get in the way. She bumped into a large figure behind her.

"Oh!" Amy yelped, surprised, "Sorry, Vector! Did I get you?"

"I didn't feel anything." Vector muttered.

"Then what...?" The pink hedgehog's face paled as she, Rouge, and Sheena slowly turned to whatever was at Amy's back.

It was Boomey. But certainly not the Boomey they knew.

Boomey's shape was retained, but was now a size twice as large as Vector. Sharp horns threw off the arcane shape of the top of his head. Rather than perfectly round circles, Boomey's eyes looked like they were slashed out of his otherwise cloth-shaped face, giving them a mutilated look. And a mouth, Boomey now had a mouth for sure. A large mouth with two rows of what appeared to be razor sharp teeth. He no longer had stubby arms, but two large claw hands that seemed to float independent of the ghost itself. The three females stood, irises no larger than grains of sand.

"SHOOOORRRSHUUUNNN!" The now giant ghost howled.

Sonic and Vector had not heard the ghost, for Vector used his highly refined ability to snort a burst of flame onto both torches, fully illuminating the hallway. By the time they finished checking the torches to make sure they were structurally sound, Boomey had shrunk to his regular size and look.

"What's THEIR problem?" Vector scratched the back of his head as he and Sonic looked at the three cowering girls in front of them.

Boomey seemed to share in that confused sentiment. He floated over to Amy, tilted to the left, then nudged her head with a soft, "Chirchen?"

"WAAAAHHHH!" Amy cried at the touch, and promplty fainted on her stomach.

Rouge peeked through her arms, "Wait... 'chirchen?'" the bat echoed and looked to see the better Boomey looking right back.

"Never thought I'd see YOU outwardly scared of anything, Rouge." Sonic heckled, amused.

Rouge's face turned red in more ways than one, "He went DEMONIC! I'm sure YOU would have been DOUBLY scared!"

"Is that even a word?" Vector mused.

"S-stop talking!" Rouge blurted before finally completely regaining her compusure, "We have an Emerald to find!" She huffily grabbed Sonic by the arm and carried the blue hedgehog with her through the busted doorway. Boomey, none the wiser, chirped happily, then zoomed off, easily floating past the two and making them give chase. Vector snorted, then followed.

Sheens, already over the encounter, wondered how to wake Amy up. She eventually settled on delivering a swift kick to the pink hedgehog's rear end, prompting a shriek of pain, then an angry chase.

-

Boomey led the group of five down a long hallway that was filled with a mix of torches, lamps, and oddly functional electronic lighting. That explained the light source down the hall and around the corner from earlier, and gave an anticlimactic end to the need for torches, or finding a way to keep Boomey illuminated. The ghost was fast, so it kept all of them running.

"Are you sure we can trust this thing, Sonic?" Rouge asked, "We've been through a whole lot and STILL have nothing to show for it!"

"Of course we can, he knows where he's going, it's just taking a while is all!" The blue hedgehog grinned back and concentrated on running. He then noticed Rouge making a mouth noise, "What's up?"

Rouge seemed to concentrate for a second, then looked back, "I accidentally echolocated down the hall..." then after getting a look from Sonic. "What? I'm a bat! Anyway, I got back some images of a lot of familiar forms."

Suddenly, Sheena gasped, then upped her speed. Surprisingly, she had a burst of speed that exceeded even Sonic's leisurly running speed.

"What...? She's fast!" Sonic gaped at the leopard's retreating form.

"Yeah!" Amy called, "And I even got a taste of what her speed is like... she never went that fast!"

Vector scoffed, then reached for his notebook. However, he really couldn't write while running, but he sure would remember what he wanted to write down when the appropriate time came.

"I'll catch up to her and see what's up!" Sonic called back and blurred his legs as his speed increased dramatically and chased after Sheena.

-

Sheena was stopped at the end of the hall and opening to another room. Sonic stopped right beside her, "What's with the rushing?"

The answer was right in front of him. In the expansive room in front of them, Team Chaos was locked in a battle with Team Evolution. Chaos, the large blue creature, fell right in front of them, and both the blue hedgehog and leopard looked up to see a triumphant Bandit on the a high-rise.

"Father!" Tikal cried and ran to Chaos.

"I am fine." The blue creature hissed.

Tikal looked over to see Shadow fending off Team Evolution, then happened to look over to the entrance of the room, "Is that Sonic... and who is that?"

"A friend!" Sheena called, then ran in, "I messed up last time, but I'm going to make up for that now!"

"Wait!" Tikal called after, "They have a Chaos Emerald on their side!"

Sheena didn't listen and ran towards Bandit, who had just knocked Shadow back. Bandit seemed unready to recieve Sheena until a brown blur scooped her up. After it cleared, Talon was seen grasping Sheena in an immobilizing hold.

"Put her down, Talon!" Sonic shouted up.

"Very well." Talon grinned and spun, gaining momentum and tossing Sheena straight forward... into Tikal. The angelic echinda had no time to react before the projectile leopard slammed into her. The glint of a purple jewel in the air gave her a look of horror as she fell.

"The Chaos Emerald!" Tikal shouted before she and Sheena hit the ground.

"Chaos Emerald?" Sonic echoed, then ran towards the purple Emerald. It vanished before he got to it, "What?"

Talon reappeared, holding both the blue Emerald and now the pruple Emerald, "Bandit, catch!"

Bandit looked over and expertly caught the Emerald tossed to him. He then looked back to Shadow, who he had been sparring with.

"Chaos Mirage!"

"Chaos Cont-!" Shadow could only get out before Bandit used the short burst of speed from his attack to ram the black hedgehog in the stomach, causing him to fly through a rotting table. Shadow, however, kept hold of the green Chaos Emerald.

At this time, Rouge, Vector, Amy, and Boomey finally caught up. Talon looked over.

"I think it's time for us to take our leave!" The hawk called to his cohort.

"Yeah, we came to get an Emerald, we got one! See you all later!"

"Chaos Control!" Both members of Team Evolution shouted and were gone.

-

Sonic ran over to where Sheena was and helped her up, "Are you okay? Anything hurt?"

"Only my pride..." Sheena whined.

The wreckage of the table Shadow fell through burst into smaller pieces as Shadow helped himself up. He slowly walked over to where the rest of his team is.

"Is everything accounted for here?"

"I am well." Chaos said.

"I'm sorry, Shadow... I lost the purple Emerald!" Tikal buried her face in her hands.

Shadow narrowed his eyes in a sympathetic pity. He gingerly walked over to the floored angelic echidna and took her hand to help her up. He then turned to where Team Unity was in a perfect lineup and scoffed, "It isn't your fault." He then walked over to that only other team in the room, "It's YOUR'S!"

"Me?" Sheena replied, reeling back.

"Don't play dumb! Though I doubt you need to pretend to be as much." Shadow raised his fist, "Your reckless idiocy not only let them get away, but with one of our Emeralds, too! Now they both have great power at the same time! Do you understand this?"

Sheena shrunk back even more, "But... I'm a friend. I was only trying to help."

Shadow bore his teeth, "With friends like you, who needs enemies?" And grabbed Sheena's shoulder.

"Hey!" Sonic cut in, "Lay off, Shadow! I mean it!"

The black hedgehog breathed in and out slowly, "I could decimate you."

"I don't care. Leave her be."

In an act unlike him, Shadow relented rather than shove Sheena or something of the sort. "I'll just take comfort in knowing that her ways will get you killed, or close to it. Mark my words, Blue Hedgehog."

"It's 'SONIC.'" The opposite hedgehog growled.

"We'll have to agree to disagree." Shadow grinned, his mood lightening from Sonic's annoyance. He then turned to his team, "Come. That Chaos Emerald remains unfound and Team Evolution has twice the power now."

Shadow and Chaos turned to leave, and so did Tikal, but she then turned back around. "Please don't let Shadow get to you. He really is above this, and it is really disheartening to see one as yourself to get so soured so easily." Tikal then whipped around again and hopped a few steps to catch up to her teammates. There was a bit of silence as her final words hung in the air.

"She's right, you know." Sheena, of all people, spoke up at last. To accompany, Boomey chirped and pat Sonic's shoulder a couple of times.

Sonic rolled his eyes in playful reluctance, "I'll be good."

The Emerald tracker at Vector's waist beeped a couple of times. The crocodile picked it up and looked, "It says here that we're pretty close!"

"Yeah!" Sonic rose a motivated fist, "Let's go to it, then!"

They made for the same direction Team Chaos left, but where halted by a chirping. All looked to Boomey next to a book case.

"What NOW?" Rouge muttered.

Amy, the closest one, walked over and looked at a book that Boomey indicated. She place her hand on the book, "This one?" And then pulled. She barely got it half out when the book case started to move by itself, turning nintey degrees and revealing a torch-lit stone tunnel.

"A shortcut!" Vector observed.

Boomey beamed, moving in a fashion like a head nodding, then took off down the tunnel.

-

The tunnel wormed around under the mansion, then finally emerged in a courtyard overlooked by four large towers at each corner. Boomey floated into the upper right tower, as indicated by an aged stone-carved map of the courtyard. Once through the narrow door of the tower, directly on the ground floor, in the middle of planks spiraling upward, was an altar with a very welcome sight.

"The Chaos Emerald!" Several, if not all of them said.

Sure enough, the yellow Chaos Emerald stood at the top of the altar, shining brilliantly, imploring any and all who look upon it to take it. They walked toward it, relief at finally being done with it all flooding them all.

But it never is that easy.

A flash of orange and white plummeted to the floor. Tikal drover her fist into the ground, creating a tremor. The five in front of her yelped and fell forward.

"Forgive me..." The echidna muttered.

With this opportunity, a puddle of blue climbed the altar to the top. Chaos rose from the puddle and thrust his hand onto the Emerald, suspending the powerful jewel in his large blue fist.

To keep anyone else from reacting accordingly in time, Shadow emerged from behind Chaos, leaping over and landing in front of the group picking themselves off the ground.

"Consider this the equalizing factor for what happened earlier." The ultimate one lectured. "Chaos, now we can leave."

Chaos nodded. He placed a hand on the shoulders of the other two. "Chaos Control."

Just like that, a moment of triumpth became a moment of humility and defeat.

"Well... that was an anti climax to be sure." Vector heaved a sigh.

"Let's look at the silver lining." Amy quickly cut through the despair, "The name of the game is keeping the Emeralds away from Team Evolution. So this is good in the long run."

"My ears are burning."

The cool voice emanated from halfway up the spiral plank. Bandit stood, casting a patronizing glare down at the group of five underneath him.

-

Amy growled before anybody else, whipping out her hammer, "We're not in the mood for you morons - YES, I can see you in the shadows, stupid hawk boy - So just HONK OFF!"

Talon emerged, clicking his tongue, "Such manners."

"Rather the lack thereof." his raccoon cohort shrugged. "But hey, let's let her expend all that energy before they all perish, anyway."

"Care to make good on that comment?" Sonic narrowed his eyes and adopted a fighting stance, thumbing his nose.

"Oh no... we don't need to do anything." Bandit leaned in, knowing that they suspected him of having something of his sleeve. "Talon, when does the sun set today?"

Talon closed his eyes in though, then opened them again, "According to the weather forecast, nineteen hundred hours."

"Seven o' clock, in other words. What time is it now?"

"Eighteen hundred hours and fifty-nine minutes."

"Six fifty-nine... that means the sun ought to be setting at any time now, right?"

"What's the point of all this?" Vector demanded, exasperated.

"Riddle me this." Bandit sneered, "When the sun sets, you get no more light. And when you get no more light, well... you fill in the blanks. Speaking of which, I think we ought to get out of here before it happens, Talon."

"Chaos Control!" Both members of Team Evolution called, using both Emeralds they possessed merely to show off.

"Jerks." Amy spat.

"Just what were they talking about before they left?" Sheena asked.

"Something is supposed to happen when the sun sets." Sonic held his hand back to finger one of his quills thoughtfully. As he said that, the sun took one final peek over the horizon before shrinking down into it for the night, causing a great darkness to fall over the scene.

There was a bit of a silence until Rouge's head snapped up, "The ghost!" The agent shouted.

"Boomey?" Sonic tried to clarify, then felt the blood rush out of his face. "Uh... Oh... Where is he?"

They all looked to see Boomey huddled in a corner. He was trembling and chirp constantly. Then, he jerked backwards as the shade overcame him. He floated over the altar. Sonic and the rest watched in horror as Boomey swelled an grew, a particularly large twitch enlarged him to a gargantuan size. The horns poked from his head and reached to the sky. The stubs of arms broke off and grew into clawed hands. Boomey's eyes swirled until they grew jagged and his mouth unsealed, swinging open.

"SHOOOORRRR!" The now malicious ghost howled. The horror of the onlookers intensified.

"I take back the tone of voice I had put on earlier." Vector apologized softly to the three females.

Sonic grimaced at his ghost friend turning into a wild creature. Team Evolution had let Team Chaos get the yellow Chaos Emerald, as long as they made a nice diversion in time for the sun to fall, causing any ghosts to become dangerous. Meeting Boomey was an unsuspected bonus for them. "Boomey... no..."

-

Boomey still seemed to be struggling with himself, as if trying not to revert to a primal, violent way.

"Do you think he's still friendly?" Sheena asked in a voice half as loud as usual.

Amy, in a voice just as loud, muttered, "I'd rather not stick around to find out."

The group of five whirled around to beat a path out of the tower, but the sudden movement snapped Boomey to attention much like blood does to a shark. With a shout, Boomey shot his two floating hands forward.

"Whatch it!" Rouge shouted in warning, leaping over a racing outstretched hand. The hand came full cirlce, but was unable to catch the bat as she kicked off the wall and flew to the other side of the ground floor.

Boomey's other hand reached out for Sonic. He had nothing against his former best friend, he was just the closest. Sonic outran the hand for a bit until he got an idea to just run around the hand, disorienting it until it dropped.

Amy saw a chance and brandished the piko piko hammer she took out earlier. "It's time to UNHAND this ghost!" The female hedgehog leapt into the air and let her hammer down upon the ghost's dropped hand. Too bad the hammer went right through. "Eh?" Amy muttered, seeing the cracked ground under Boomey's hand. The hand then lifted, and grabbed Amy. "How come it's solid NOW?" She whined.

"My guess..." Vector scratched the back of his head, "He can control that."

"WAAAHHH!" Came another female shout from behind. Boomey's other hand floated to the main body, holding Sheena.

Rather than depositing his hostages in his mouth in typical form of a large monster, Boomey merely passed his hands through the main body, dropping off his cargo in the main body in the process. He then turned to the three members of Team Unity.

"We should have just run!" Rouge said to the others.

"Well we can't, now!" Sonic clenched a fist, "He's got Amy and Sheena!"

"How do we get them- WOAH!"

All three dodged as a massive hand came down, encompassing the area where all three of them used to stand. They leapt onto the spiraling plank that lead up to the top of the tower.

Vector traced the path of the spiral up, "That's it! Those stone maps! They showed searchlights at the top of the towers! Maybe we can shed a little light on our friends to help things out."

Sonic nodded, all business, "It's the only plan we have so far. We have to try!" Boomey tried once again, this time bearing the claws of his hands forward and sending them like missiles. The team each ducked and jumped under and over the two claws, respectively. The hands sailed past and crashed through the stone walls of the tower, soon to return to the main body. "No time to waste!"

The famed blue blur lived up to his name as he grabbed the arms of both his teammates and ran up the spiraling plank to the top of the tower. Boomey kept level with them and launched his fists at them repeatedly, missing each time, whether by a miss or whenever the team jumped over. Sometimes the fists crashed into the plank, causing holes in which Rouge was able to keep the team from falling.

At the top of the tower, the searchlight certainly was there. Boomey sensed a possible way to his down fall and seemed ready to bust the searchlight.

"I see the switch up there!" Rouge pointed out, "Create a distraction or something!"

Sonic and Vector nodded to each other. The hegehog jump on the alligator's shoulders and waved his arms, "Yo, Boomey Boo! Over here, buddy!"

Boomey grimaced at the pair and sent a fist forward, barely missing the stacked duo. The other fist came at middle height, making Sonic jump up and Vector duck for two seconds before returning to the position they were in before the second fist had come.

"Lights on!" Rouge called, flying up to the switch and pulling it. The searchlight ejected a stream into the sky. Not one to be unprepared, the bat then dropped down to where several supports kept the searchlight standing. "This one!" She confirmed, using her momentum to kick the support.

The unsupported searchlight slowly tilted down, then flopped onto a new axis, pointing directly at Boomey. The ectoplasmic menace was unfortunate enough to be staring directly at the source and shrieked, holding its floating hands up in an attempt to block out the light. With his concentration broken, the ghost fell.

"My turn!" Vector shouted, allowing Sonic to dismount. He leapt from the spiraling plank and followed Boomey down the large shaft. When Boomey landed, Vector reared his fist back. He then thrust the fist forward and directly into the ghost. As he thought, Boomey had no concentration enough to go intangible, so Vector was able to punch right through and dig into the transparent ghost like a thick birthday cake. Amy and Sheena saw this attempt and reached back to Vector. Unfortunately, Boomey was over his bright experience in time. "Uh oh." Vector muttered simply.

"SHOOOORRRR!" Boomey shouted, using the compression that Vector generated to inflate back out, bouncing directly upward and actively destroying the tower from the bottom up. The balloon-like inflation also bounced against Sonic and Rouge, sending all members of Team Unity skyward.

Rouge, the former agent she was, landed in the courtyard expertly on her feet. Sonic twisted around in mid air and oriented himself so his feet hit the ground. Vector's experience as a private detective, however, came in no use for landing carefully, as he roughly hit the ground on his back. By the time Sonic and Rouge helped him up, Boomey had found them and was approaching again.

There was a point of interest, though. The spot on Boomey where Vector had all but penetrated had swollen and seemed to be cheaply covered up in a layer of white, like a ghastly bandage.

"I think that got to him!" Sonic pointed out.

Rouge looked about, then pointed, "To the next tower, then! Maybe if we do the same thing, it will work the next time!"

Team Unity charged into the tower, getting Boomey to follow.

-

It was a long process. Like Rouge had said, they were able to con Boomey into getting face-fulls of light two more times and each time, Vector nearly reached Amy and Sheena. Each time, also, Boomey had a new bandage added and his attempts were getting slower. Three towers were leveled, and hopefully the fourth time would be the charm.

As Rouge lifted herself to pull the fourth switch, Sonic said aside to Vector while dodging a fist, "You have to go for broke this time... the girls seemed a little green around the gills when I last got a glimpse."

The searchlight fell on Boomey. No matter how many times he felt the light, Boomey always reacted the same, falling to the bottom.

"I'm doing it this time!" Vector declared before jumping off and keeping his fist ready for impact. He bore his reptilian teeth with determination until he reached the spot where Boomey lay. With a shout of effort, Vector thrust forward and plowed into Boomey with both arms. Realizing this could be the final chance, Vector strained all he could and once he felt his effort peak, clenches his fists. They clamped securely around the arms of those trapped inside. "Gotcha!"

To get Vector off, Boomey once again inflated, taking down the tower. Like clockwork, Rouge landed first, then Sonic, and finally Vector, on his back. This time, out of the need to keep Amy and Sheena out of harm's way.

"How are you guys doing?" Sonic immediately asked.

Sheena coughed, giving Amy an opening to say, "We'll be fine."

Sonic nodded, then looked to Boomey with four swollen spots and four bandages. Rather than assault, Boomey tried looking away and growling in a pained manner, like it hurt more to attack his friends than the actual pain that was resulting from it.

"He's trying not to attack us." Sonic muttered.

"That's good!" Rouge narrowed her eyes, a little bit of sympathy showing, "He's trying to stall himself to give us an opening to get away!"

Vector picked himself up, "I'm fine, thanks."

-

It didn't take long for Amy and Sheena to recover at the five of them raced through the mansion, retracing their steps to find the original entrance and their big exit.

"Not far now!" Vector called, remembering certian spots. He emitted an involuntary groan at his back pain.

"Finally!" Amy gasped.

A bit of noise came from behind, but the group concentrated on their running. Sheena was the first to look back. "Uh... guys?"

The rest looked back to behold a terrifying sight. Hordes of ghosts melted from the walls and began their own transformation into their darkness selves.

"Oh, man!" Amy compained, "We can't possibly outrun all THOSE."

"We have to try!" Sonic squeezed his eyes shut, but realized he couldn't run at top speed for the risk of leaving the others behind.

Directly behind, a great crash was heard. Several confused yelps emitted and the group of five stopped. A familiar large ghost with four swelling spots topped by bandages had come through the wall and propped itself in the way of the incoming ghost horde. He inflated to block off the entire hallway from the ghosts.

"Boomey?" Rouge said in disbelief.

"It is!" Sonic said with a mirroring look, then he beamed, "He must be helping us out with whatever right mind he has left!" Boomey's hide swelled with incoming ghosts trying to break through to no avial. "But wait... how it HE going to escape?"

"Does it MATTER?" The bat next to him cried, grabbing his shoulder and forcing her emerald eyes upon his, "Don't you get it? He's doing something noble and I for one am not making it go to waste!"

Sonic looked to the wall of white, then back to the rest of his friends, who were all nodding at the voice of reason. "But... Boomey..." He shook his head, "Right... let's get out of here!"

As if on cue, the efforts of Boomey to block off the hallway were taking its toll on the structral integrity of the hallway. In fact, the entire mansion was shaking off its foundation. In no time, the dilapidated establishment shook from every doorway to every supporting beam. It got so bad entire walls were collapsing and beams fell from the cieling. Dust flew everywhere and kicked up clouds.

"I can't see!" Sonic shouted over the destruction.

"...on... ...Mis... ...ic...!"

"I hear a voice!" Sheena called.

"...Mis... ...Son... ...ov... ...ere...!"

Sonic turned his head, "That way!"

"... here, Mister Sonic! Over here!"

In a line so nobody got lost, Sonic lead the rest to where the voice came from. Sure enough, the source of the voice stood far away, her chao friend also calling out.

"What's CREAM doing here?" Sonic wondered, though not complaining.

Amy brushed a quill back, "I kind of told Cream and Big about what we were doing before we left."

"Oh... wait, Big, too!"

The said cat made himself known with a call of his own. The blue cat stood in the doorway, apparently holding it up.

"It was going to fall apart! It's awfully heavy!"

"How long can he hold it?" Vector posed.

Not long, by the looks of it. Big already seemed to be crumbling under the weight. Cream and Cheese seemed to be picking sides to help Big on, but in the long run, they were losing ground. If he could run at top speed, Sonic could make it. But he couldn't just leave the others hanging. If only he could give his speed to the rest.

"That's it!" Sonic yelped suddenly, then looked to the group, "Listen up! Vector and Rouge! Get to either side of me and take my hand! Then Amy and Sheena, go to opposite ends and take their other hands! Don't ask why, DO IT!"

Known in the ways of switching formation supposedly minus Sheena, the other four quickly did as Sonic said, for his rare moments of absolute authority kicked in. Nobody complained, except for Amy's bitter wondering at why Rouge got to hold Sonic's hand and not her.

"Now, Amy! Sheena, we all saw you, too! GUN IT!"

Having heard enough of Sonic's easygoing lingo, they both knew it meant to go fast. The three speed characters worked their legs over time, taking the flight and power characters with them. Sonic was fastest, so they made a wide V formation.

"It's going to fall!" Big warned, giving a long drawl on the last word, emphasizing a warning.

A five-colored blur of blue, purple, green, pink, and yellow flashed by Big, telling him that the others were out. Making sure that the cute rabbit and her chao were also safely outside, Big finally let go of the doorway, making a comical dash of his own to get as far away as possible. It didn't take long after Big relented for the doorway to crumble, starting a chain reaction that took down segment after segment of the mansion, leaving only the largest pile of wreckage that any of the onlookers would have ever seen.

The words of Chaos ringed in Sonic's ears. An evil force was CONTAINED in the masnion. Meaning that if the mansion fell, so did all inside.

"Boomey..." Sonic muttered, blinking tears and shaking his head.

There was a bit of silence for the ghost. The group of five knew that deep down, Boomey was a good ghost who could not control himself.

Vector eventually broke the silence, "Come on. Let's, uh, let's go. I think we all need a rest afte that, to say the least."

"I'll see myself home." Sheena muttered, excusing herself.

"See you later." Amy attempted.

By now, there was just a somber feel about the remainder as they walked back to Emerald Town, the feeling being mutual once all was told to Cream and Big. It just was not fair that feelings of loss just had to keep piling up. They were no closer to getting Tails, Knuckles, Espio, and Charmy back. Plus, Team Chaos beat them to the punch. Again.

When were things going to start looking up?

-

The doors to Tails's Lab slid open, giving entry to a weary Team Unity. Through all the excitement, they never really took in consideration how late it had gotten by the time the Tornado would return them. They all sat around a round table, trying to avoid each other's gaze. Rouge, ever the quick one to pessimism, started the conversation.

"All of that... for what? Humiliation?"

Vector snorted, "As much as I don't like the underlying message in that, I have to agree with you. All we got was our tails handed to us. We are beaten to two Chaos Emeralds and even lose one."

"Team Evolution just gets stronger and so does Team Chaos."

"Well," Sonic said at last, taking a breath, "One thing is for sure tomorrow. The sun will come up."

Rouge and Vector shared a look, Rouge talking, "Point being...?"

Sonic looked up, but with a mouth that slowly curved upward, "Point being that whether it is a good day or a bad day, it always starts with the sun coming up! There are still three Chaos Emeralds to be found and who knows what the next day could bring, right? With such a bad luck streak like ours, we're due for some good fortune, am I right?"

"Well!" Rouge responded, not helping a perked attitude herself, "Somebody get themselves a mood lift!"

"I'll say." Vector nodded.

The happy hedgehog rubbed his chin, "I've been given plenty of time to assess how I've been acting and, well, I've been so much unlike myself I probably would not recognize myself in a million years! I say it's time to ride that silver lining to victory! Who's with me?"

"I am!" Vector put his hand in.

"Same here!" Rouge extended a slender gloved hand.

"TEAM UNITY!" The three of them called out.

"It doesn't bother anybody we do that whole shouting thing, right?" Sonic asked, "You know it's just some silly thing we do for motivation."

Vector smiled, "I wouldn't call it silly. Sure, it was a bit much at first, but one gets used to it after a while."

"It's a bit to team-y to me." The bat shrugged.

"Yeah, and it's not like we're a real team or anything, are we?" Sonic teased.

Rouge huffed, but not in a way that meant anything. Fatigue washed over them all at the same time.

"All I know it I need my beauty sleep!" Rouge yawned.

"Yeah, the sooner we get to sleep, the sooner the new day full of possibilities comes!"

"Now you're just over-doing it, Sonic." Vector rolled his eyes.

"Oh... sorry."

A newly rejuvinated Team Unity... well, motivated, to say the least, moved to their respective rooms to get some earned rest and look forward to a hopefully better day when the sun next rose.