Ultra Sonic 06

Heroes Charge

Sonic charged down the hallways of Eggman's ship, chasing Metal Sonic as best as he could. Zooming left and right, through doors, and over misplaced crates, Sonic could just barely keep up with Metal Sonic.

"Hey Metal! Wait up! I thought we were supposed to have a fight!" Sonic yelled after Metal.

In response, Metal made a quick turn around another corner, and Sonic followed only to run into two stationed Eggbots with beam cannons. The Eggbots took the moment of surprise received by Sonic to each fire a quick shot. However, Sonic quickly recovered and after a single Homing Attack, both robots were taken down.

Sonic now had a problem on his hands though. Taking a few steps forward he saw himself at an intersection with 3 possible paths to take.

"Now, if I were a hunk of metal that happened to be the spitting image of myself, which way would I blast off towards?"

While Sonic continued to stand and debate which way to take, a panel opened in the ceiling, and soon a small TV came down in front of Sonic.

"Oh dear, Sonic, how are you?" said Eggman, as his face appeared on screen.

"Eggman, what's going on here? Why did you send Metal to terrorize the city?"

"Oh, dear Sonic, the truth will soon become evident, but first you must make it to the center of the base to find out what you want to know. Here, I'll even help you by lighting a pathway for you," Eggman emphasized this fact with a set of glowing lights leading straight ahead. "Now hurry along little hedgehog."

Sonic knew it was a trap; Eggman never invites people in without cause. But he knew he had no other choice, and besides, all the other times it was all decided on a one on one fight, how else would it be different?

> > > > > > > > > >

"Eggman say you will have to stay here to watch the show for snooping around, so I suggest that you make yourself comfortable. I must go now." Silica said. She then turned and left Shadow and Rouge locked in a cell. While Rouge continued to shake the bars in anger, Shadow lay back in the bed there and was trying to get some sleep.

"I told you we should have just left."

"But you don't want to find out what Eggman's doing, or steal the Master Emerald back?"

"We already have what we need, we should have just left."

"You're such a party pooper Shadow."

"And you like to play the thief too much."

Shadow then proceeded to close his eyes and try and get some sleep once more.

"How can you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Just sleep at a time like this. We need to get out of here."

"Well what are supposed to do, the bars are too strong to beak."

"Good point." Rouge gave a defeated sigh, and then finally sat down, leaning against the cell bars. She didn't stay sitting for long before the sound of a grating smashing against the ground caused her to jump up.

"What was that?" Rouge said, getting into a fighting stance. The air vent had come off on the other side of the cell. Preparing for whatever might come out, Rouge stood her ground and got herself ready for anything.

But she didn't expect to see Knuckles fall out.

"Knuckles! It's you!" Rouge yelled, truly happy to see him after the last time they parted. "Hurry, open the door so we can get out of here."

Knuckles, looking straight at Rouge with an undecipherable expression, walked slowly towards the cell bars before finding the control panel. He smashed it with one punch, and the door proceeded to open.

"Oh, thank you Knuckles!" Rouge yelled, running to hug the echidna. However, Knuckles instead gave her quick punch to the jaw, sending down to the ground. "Hey! What was that for?"

"That was for earlier, now I suggest you quickly get off this ship. You know that if I was really trying, you wouldn't still be awake right now." Knuckles said in an extremely angry voice. "And don't go and try to 'help' me find the Master Emerald and get it back. I'm going to handle it myself, and I don't want to ever see you again." Knuckles then turned and jumped back up into the air vent he had come down from. After a couple sounds of him crawling through, he was into the next room and couldn't be heard.

Shadow then proceeded to get up and walk out of the open cell door, and then help Rouge up.

"You ok?" He asked in a concerned voice.

"Yeah, I'll be alright."

The two started for the door together before they saw a figure walk out in front of them.

"Where do you think you two are going?" Came the cold voice of Silica.

> > > > > > > > >

"Take this you hulking piece of metal!" Amy yelled, smashing yet another Eggbot in her rampage with her hammer. Tails in the meanwhile was using his Tail Whip attack to take down his own foes, other times bopping them with his ball form.

"Amy! We've been out here too long, we've gotta give Sonic some support!" Tails yelled, realizing how long they had been out here.

"I was thinking the same thing, let me lead the way!" Amy, with new fervor, starting charging the ship whilst flailing her hammer back and forth. Tails followed close behind. They quickly reached the docking ramp, but as soon as they started up they were knocked right back out.

Looking up, Tails saw to his dismay Metal Sonic.

"This isn't going to be easy Amy..."

"Who says I wanted it to be?" Amy said, readying her hammer.

However, the cold stare of Metal Sonic froze both into their tracks.