Ultra Sonic 05
The Chase
Two dark figures silently ran through an overgrown forest. The two quickly dodged past trunks and branches, running around vegetation and wildlife. They quickly skipped over lily pads to cross small lakes, and finally came out onto a cliff face overlooking a large ravine. Sitting in this large ravine was a large ship, similar in design to one of Dr. Eggman's usual battle ships.
The two figures walked out further into the light, revealing themselves to be Shadow and Rouge. Shadow quickly peeked over the cliff face to make sure there was nothing to be alerted of. He was one to never want to run into a trap. His companion, Rouge, sat down on a nearby rock and pulled off a backpack she had been carrying. Surveying its contents she could not help but to fall into a hypnotic stare at the majestic jewel that she had stolen. She loved to stare at jewels, but nothing enraptured her as much as the Master Emerald. Something about it felt so vibrant, pure, powerful. But it seemed to hold the ability to be tainted so easily, making it feel more like a fragile child in her arms.
"Rouge, wake up and stop staring at that emerald." Shadow suddenly said, piercing her thoughts.
"Huh? What?" Rouge said, surprised.
"I don't know what is about that gem that puts you into a trance, but right now I need you to concentrate. This is your plan, but I'm still not sure it'll work. How do you know Eggman's not just waiting for us to walk right in so he can take us prisoner?"
"Because all Eggman can think about is defeating Sonic. Don't worry, my plan will work, and we'll be in and out faster than you might think. Now let's go." Rouge quickly put the Master Emerald back into her backpack and then slipped the backpack back on. She then took a few steps back before running straight off of the cliff and diving at the landed aircraft. Shadow quickly also ran off and jumped, just grabbing Rouge by her feet before she lowered them both slowly to the ship.
Once they landed, they quickly found a door and rushed inside. As all of this happened, they neglected to notice a pair of violet eyes glaring after them like a hungry wolf.
"Hey Metal head! I thought you wanted to fight? Where are you running off to now?" Sonic yelled after Metal Sonic as he sped after him and Silica."
"In due time hedgehog, in due time..." Metal Sonic muttered to himself. How he'd love to stop now and challenge Sonic right now, but he had a job to finish first.
The three continued zooming through the plains, with Sonic unable to catch up with them, but with Metal Sonic and Silica being unable to get any farther away. Up above in the new Tornado, Tails and Amy watched the scene below.
"Hey Tails, look up ahead!" Amy yelled over the engines of the plane.
"What is it Amy?" Tails answered
"It looks like there's a forest up ahead. We may lose track of Sonic!"
Tails realized that Amy was probably right. The forest was filled with trees too big to see through from above, but they were too clumped together for him to be able to fly through.
"We'll have to pull up and then go after Sonic on foot!" Tails called back to Amy, raising the altitude of his machine so as to make sure it didn't crash. He then quickly set the autopilot and looked for the best place to jump off.
"Tails, are you serious? We're going to jump off from this height?"
"Yes, now let's go!" Tails yelled, jumping into the air and grabbing Amy's hand in order to pull her with him. Soon after jumping off, Tails started to spin his tails and then the two of them were speeding down towards the ground, catching up to Sonic. Sonic looked over to see that they were there, and then quickly grabbed each of their arms and pulled them along with him as they entered the forest.
The second they flew past the first tree, they almost crashed into a second. Sonic quickly whirred left and right, dodging branches and bushes, and barely keeping his adversaries in his sights. They were moving fast over what seemed a planned course; they weren't having any problems figuring out the best way through to get to where they wanted to go. Sonic figured this might be a trap from the start, but he kept plowing ahead to see where he would be led.
He didn't have to wait long. Soon turning into a large ravine and running for a minute more, the group stopped in front of a large ship towering over them. There was a ramp at the front leading inside. The three could see Metal Sonic and Silica watching them from the top before turning and continuing inside.
"Sonic, I have a bad feeling about this..." Amy whispered nervously.
"I do too, but we have to keep going. Eggman's probably behind this and I can't wait to stop whatever plan he's coming up with."
Sonic proceeded to take one step forward before noticing the sound of a small 'whirr'. Suddenly, a laser was shot at the three heroes and they all had to jump away as the explosion sent them flying.
Sonic, being the first to get up, looked around and saw that there were three more of those gun turrets, all aimed at him. Sonic quickly dodged the next laser fired at him and then started to run around to go and help Amy and Tails.
"Sonic, wait, you go inside and find out what's going on. Tails and I can handle these guys!" Amy yelled out to Sonic.
"But Amy..." Sonic started.
"No Sonic, Amy's right, we can't waste time, like you said, you've gotta stop whatever Eggman's planning." Tails said, siding with Amy.
"Ok then guys, don't take too long with these things." Sonic said, turning and running into the ship.
With one less target the turrets turned on Amy and Tails, Amy quickly threw her Piko Piko Hammer at one turret and blew it up while Tails took to the air and quickly smashed another with his feet.
"This'll be done in no time." Amy commented as her hammer spun around like a boomerang and returned to her hands.
"Don't speak too soon." Tails said in response as he looked at the door to the ship. Many of Eggman's Eggbots were suddenly spilling out, running directly towards the two with pointed spears in their arms.
"Metal Sonic, report!" Eggman yelled into an intercom in his ship's control room. "I just got notice that 20 Eggbots were equipped with spears and sent outside under your authorization. Why have you done this without my knowledge?"
"Sir, Sonic and his friends have arrived." Metal Sonic answered simply.
"Oh, well...carry on then." Eggman said embarrassed before closing the com link. It seems that everything was going according to plan after all. He shouldn't be so paranoid of Metal Sonic.
"It seems doctor that you're still frightened that Metal Sonic might disobey you like he did with the whole Metal Overlord incident." Shadow said in a mocking voice.
Turning quickly Eggman saw before him Shadow and Rouge. Behind them he could see the door still closing behind them.
"Oh, Shadow and Rouge, what a surprise. When you said that you'd be back quickly, I didn't think it would be this fast, but yes, I guess when one is looking for their 'memory', they would work their hardest."
"Just shut it Eggman, just give Shadow and I what we want and we'll be out of here." Rouge responded with a snarl.
"Oh, calm down. I wouldn't want you to go batty, bat-girl. Here, let me get it." Eggman turned and walked over to his computer console and pressed a few buttons. A small disk then popped out and he pulled it from the slot. Turning back around he handed it to Rouge.
"This disk will unlock the whole truth about Shadow, including everything I wouldn't tell you. Go to this location," He quickly pulled out a GPS and passed it to Rouge also, "Go there, find the main computer that holds all of my old files. Use this disk to access it."
"Why can't we just access it from here?" Shadow asked. He was getting suspicious.
"Because, when I found the truth, I knew it was too dangerous to keep. I made a change of my mainframe and left all my old data in my old network, including the Project SHADOW data. Rouge, you saw a glimpse of it when you found this Shadow, and then again when you were on my Flying Fortress when Metal Sonic went wild. If you don't see it all now, you'll see it all when you get there."
"Ok then, let's go Shadow. We're almost there." Rouge said. She and Shadow turned around and started to walk out the door.
"Wait just a minute. Aren't you forgetting your part of the bargain?" Eggman announced.
"Oh yeah," Rouge said, stopping and taking off her backpack. "Here." She said, giving Eggman the large emerald. "Well then, see you later." Rouge then turned and continued walking out with Shadow.
"You take me for a fool, don't you?" Eggman said, pressing a button. Two Eggbots suddenly came down the hallway and grabbed Shadow and Rouge. A third came around and took out another emerald from Rouge's backpack. "I figured you'd try and give me a fake emerald Rouge, and I have that same emerald sensor from Ark trained on you. Just a quick look over my shoulder and I could tell that you tried to deceive me."
"Nice job Eggman. Well, now that you've got your emerald, so let us go." Rouge responded.
"Oh fine, go ahead, leave, I've got what I wanted and you've got what you wanted. Too bad you've gotta leave so soon. I've got a party planned later and I was hoping you'd stay and watch when it happens tomorrow."
"No thanks, I'd like to get off of this creepy hunk of metal as soon as possible." Rouge said, turning quickly and taking Shadow by the hand. The two left the room and made a left before going as fast as possible down the hall. Seconds after they left, Silica came into the room.
"Eggman, it seems a predicament has come up. Knuckles has appeared on the ship."
"I see, I should have guessed that the guardian would be quick acting to get his emerald back, but not so quick. Don't worry though; just send Coconuts to keep him busy, the two can have fun in the pit until Sonic gets there."
"Understood." With that, Silica turned to leave, but then was stopped as Dr. Eggman continued to say one last thing.
"Oh, and Silica, make sure that our hedgehog and bat friend leave the ship unobstructed. We wouldn't want them to accidentally walk into the wrong room. If they do end up coming even close to finding out about my newest plan, I want you to detain them, immediately."
"Yes Dr. Eggman."
Dr. Eggman waited until he heard the door close before returning to his console. He immediately brought up a screen showing the tablet he had uncovered and translations.
"I have to make sure everything goes according to plan." He said, starting to talk to himself. "It's impossible to hold off all of these animal pesks for long, but all I need is Sonic, and then I'll have the great power that the echidnas always dreamt of having under my control. In the past, they didn't understand the immenseness of it all, but I know all too well."
Dr. Eggman's only fear was whether or not he was truly capable of taming such power.