Chapter 3: A Friends Plight

(A/N: okay I am so so SO sorry I haven't updated this for a couple of months, my list of excuses is: I lost the internet for almost a month, I lost motivation, I have had shed loads of homework and coursework, I lost interest in Sonic the Hedgehog and tons more but I really have no excuse. If you read this and review it I am going to be so happy because I can't believe that people like it enough to come back. Anyway sorry again and here is chapter 3 at last! ((please please review it will help give me my motivation to write back!)) )

It was a quiet day considering that it was the holidays, quiet that is until Jake Shade blazed into the car park of the mall in a coloured blur. He came to a skidding halt with a huge grin plastered to his face, his new speed amazing and enthralling him. He leant against a car and removed his skate blades from the soles of his shoes, placing them in his backpack. He then walked over to a bench and waited for his friend James. He didn't have to wait long as a car pulled up beside him and out jumped his friend. James had emerald green eyes and was a little short but that didn't stop him from being just as good a runner as Jake, the only reason he hadn't run to the mall was that he lived too far away form it. He was wearing the total sports get up, sports jacket, jogging trousers and trainers, he even had a pair of fingerless gloves on and a bandana was tied around his… Jake did a double take, his friends naturally brown hair was a deep sapphire blue! And James didn't look too happy about it.

"Hey Jake how are you doin..." his friend trailed off as he noticed Jake's eyes were crimson red! "Uh Jake? What happened? Are those contacts?" his friend asked cautiously, not wanting to upset his friend. Jake gulped

"No they're not, I woke up this morning and my eyes had turned red! And what about your hair?" he asked still staring at the uncanny colour.

"The same thing, I woke up this morning after a freaky dream and my hair was blue!" James answered. At this Jake froze

"A freaky dream? What happened in it?" he asked quietly, reminiscing his own nightmare.

"I was sitting on a mountain at first, then I jumped off and started running down the side. I got down to the ground going really fast but then there was a flash of light and this yellow orb was floating in the air. I stopped and walked up to it but when I touched it a face appeared inside. It looked like some kind of mutant hedgehog but it had huge eyes and it had massive blue quills sticking out of the back of its head, then it just smiled and shot me with something that made me feel worse than that time I had to eat the schools Tuna pasta bake!" James' lengthy explanation had an unexpected effect on Jake, who looked like he could have swallowed a football and his eyes were wide.

James waved his hand in front of his friend's vacant face when Jake suddenly snapped out of it.

"Heh sorry about that" Jake mumbled then an expression overcame his face "James…" he started "have you been running yet?" he asked his friend cryptically. James raised an eyebrow

"No why?" he asked

Jake smiled " just try it alright" James didn't fully understand Jakes request but couldn't miss an opportunity to run, so he put a foot behind him and leant forward, then sprinted off. He kept his head down as he ran but he could feel the air moving apart for him which was strange, he looked up and saw the corner fast approaching. He yelped and blasted round it keeping a constant speed of around fifty mph. He ran round the car park a few more times then came to a stop next to Jake who was grinning like a maniac.

"Okay Jake give! How did you know about that? And how did I just do that?" James demanded his eyes wide with shock and elation. Jake grimaced

"Because the same thing happened to me…sorta" he revealed "I had a dream a little like yours but the face in the orb was black and red and the orb was green" then he blazed around the car park faster than James. "and then I found out that I could run this fast" he finished.

"okay, Jake this is seriously freaking me out what if someone sees us and we get taken away and…" James trailed off and shuddered as disturbing images floated to mind "okay forget about that sigh I just… let's start from the beginning, you and I had the same type of dream right?" James asked his friend

"Yup" Jake answered

"We both saw a floating orb with a creature in it?" continued James

"Yup" Jake repeated

"And today we find that we can run abnormally fast and who knows what else we can do?"

"Yup"

"…WILL YOU STOP SAYING YUP! IT'S ANNOYING AND THIS IS FREAKING ME OUT SO COULD YOU SHOW A LITTLE SYMAPTHEY?" James exploded

"Okay! Okay! Sorry, I'm just trying to lighten the pessimistic aura you're giving off, you've only done this once and that was when you accidentally blew up half your dad's garage while messing around with your new chemistry kit" Jake explained, "I'm just saying that this isn't like you, you're normally the one who's headstrong and wild and I'm the sensible quiet one standing in the background" he finished.

James took a calming breath

"yeah okay, you're right but what happened to us?" he asked, Jake just shrugged

"Who knows? Who cares? It's a fact and we have to live with it, not that I'm complaining mind you, anyway this isn't why I called you down here, I need your help in picking a present for my grandparents now come on!" he exclaimed and dragged James off in the direction of the entrance.

"I'm glad you can just forget about this and act as though nothings happened" James grumbled

"The miracle of being antisocial my friend, you learn to let things slide but keep them in mind" Jake shot back "besides if we don't give it away that we have unnatural abilities then we'll be fine yeah?"

"Yeah…" James answered "well at least it can't get any worse he said as he walked through the doors to the Mall… and was greeted with a massive scream.

"…Shit" James mumbled, "note to self, do not EVER say that it can't get any worse!" A horde of robots were swarming in the center of the Mall attacking anyone and anything that moved. They looked like eggs, but with arms, legs, a jetpack and guns. One of them picked up a screaming girl who had been running for the door

"YOU DO NOT FOLLOW EMPORER ROBOTNIK…DIE!" came the metallic voice of the flying egg and it hurled the girl at a shop window. Jake didn't even stop to think; he raced over to the girl, faster than the blink of an eye and caught her before she collided with the window.

"Are you alright?" he asked quickly

"Yes thank you so much!" she exclaimed, holding onto Jake as if he were the only thing keeping her from death… and she wasn't far off either. The robot who had thrown the girl raised its gun and aimed it at Jakes head.

"DIE PITIFUL HUMAN!" Jakes eyes narrowed , but before the gun fired or he moved a partially blue blur slammed into the machine, knocking it into three of it's companions.

"That's what you get when you mess with my friend!" James announced to the robot, unfortunately this statement attracted all the robots attention to the three figures by the window.

"Oh SHIT!" Jake yelled and grabbed the girl and James then dived through the window which was further destroyed the next second by a barrage of lasers. Jake, James and the girl cowered behind the counter as lasers fried the air above them. Jake reached over to the girl and shook her hand.

"Hi, I'm Jake and this is James, nice to meet you!" he announced. The girl looked at him as if he was mental to introduce himself at a time like this but then she smiled.

"Hi, my names Calli!" she told them, she had bubblegum pink hair and emerald green eyes a lot like James'.

Suddenly the laser bombardment stopped and there was a sort of peace in the air

"I hope you don't mind me asking now," Calli asked "but what are those things and what are we going to do?" Jake faltered, he had been expecting to come in here and pick out a present for his grandparents and talk to James about their strange phenomenon, not end up in the middle of an attack! Suddenly a thought that wasn't his surfaced in his mind and he knew what was attacking them.

"Eggbots…" he whispered in a completely different voice, it was darker and would probably sound rather scary if used when he was angry. "They're cooling their rifles now but what are they doing here?" he continued. James gave him a look that clearly said: What. The. Fuck? And Calli had a very confused face. Before either of them could ask anything of Jake a metallic hand crashed down, out of nowhere, on the counter they were hiding behind and was followed by a face, glaring at them with an unnatural coldness. Neither Jake nor James wasted a second; Jake launched himself into a handstand kick while James leapt up and delivered a spinning jump kick to it. The robot flew out the destroyed window among it's comrades, scattering them like bowling pins. Jake glanced around the shop they were hiding in and saw one thing he wasn't expecting, a long sword lay in a display cabinet half a foot from him. Not even thinking about stealing he smashed his foist through the glass and withdrew the blade, while James picked up a metal pole from a window display. Glancing over his shoulder Jake yelled to Calli

"Get out of here! I think they have some kind of field or something up, we couldn't hear anything outside the Mall, get out of here and call the cops" Calli nodded and turned to the door

"we aren't really going to do what I think we're gonna do are we Jake?" James asked, his eyes wide at the malicious glint in Jakes eyes

"no time to think about it James. Just GO!" he yelled as Calli burst out the shop door, A robot tried to shoot her but James leapt in front and smashed the weapon out of it's hand while Jake shot out the window and slashed three of the bots' heads off before they even knew he had left the ruined shop.

The bots circled Jake while several swarmed James. Jake's eyes darted round the massive ring the robots had created and lowered his sword into an easy position for an uppercut strike. He wondered how he would deal with this when a voice whispered in his head "aim for the joints, that's their weak point" it was the same voice that he had spoken in a moment ago and now he recognized it as the voice of the creature from his dream. His eyes narrowed and he crouched… then blasted forward and slashed at one of the robots elbows, cleaving it off and relieving it of it's gun. He slashed again and again, dispatching twenty or so bots before the gun had even hit the floor, unfortunately there were a lot more than that. He back flipped and grabbed the gun by it's barrel, dodging laser fire at the same time, which devastated the robots' comrades, he then swung the gun as he landed and knocked another robots primed weapon away, resulting in the self-dispatch of several robots. Jakes face formed a manic grin as he spun round incredibly fast shooting a large amount of robots, and any that came too close met the business end of his sword. Unfortunately Jakes reign of destruction didn't last long as a robot fired a shot through his defences and severely burned his side, another laser narrowly missed his leg but also burnt it with the heat produced. Jake collapsed, his grin replaced with a grimace of pain, his stolen gun clattering to the floor, but he managed to cling to his sword. The Eggbots encircled him again and raised their weapons…only to have them knocked down again by James' metal pole.

"JAKE! Hang on buddy!" he called and swung again, viciously removing another bots head with his blunt weapon. Jake gritted his teeth and stood up, a fire of determination burning in his red eyes, he raised his sword and slashed low, removing several metal legs and feet. He leapt back up and kicked another Eggbot hard enough to send him through a sheet of metal, which is technically what happened as the robot smashed through one of his comrades. Both robots exploded in a variety of coloured sparks, shorting out several damaged bots nearby. Working in unison Jake and James dispatched the rest of the robots. They stood in the middle of the circle of destruction, breathing heavily. Slowly a group of terrified shoppers peeked out of the shop they were hiding in, the sounds of lasers no longer being fired gave them the courage to look out further and they were surprised to find two teenagers standing back to back, their weapons held in a battle ready stance.

As more shoppers came out of their hiding places a gentle applause started in the crowd and quickly spread, becoming a thunderous clapping for the two heroes.

"looks like we know why the parking lot was so quiet now!" James whispered to Jake who laughed quietly and lowered his sword and used it to rest on, they had both used a lot of energy in the fight and those wounds hurt, Jake had his burn and James had a gash across his back from a broken Eggbot arm and a nasty headache forming from colliding with a flying bot (courtesy of one of Jakes kicks). As the two teens were chuckling to themselves the police crashed through the entrance to the Mall, late as usual. One was shouting into a megaphone to tell the destroyed robots to lay down their weapons while the rest had theirs trained on the hall. Calli stood beside one of the officers, a heavy looking piece of metal in her hands and a triumphant look on her face. As soon as the police realised the fight was already over they started directing the civilians outside, Jake looked over at Calli and the chief of police and gave them a mock salute. Calli returned it and the smile James gave her and ran over to them,

"You guy's did it! I'm sorry we're late but I passed a construction site and they were trying to bring it down, it would have destroyed tons of houses and there was someone fighting them so I went to help him and it took ages and…" Calli was cut off as James laughed

"it doesn't matter Calli, it would have been nice for the police to get here sooner but what's done is done right?" he asked

"hmmm, I guess you're right, but I'm still sorry" she apologized "oh! And the guy I helped is here too, when he heard of the robots he came with me" she told them as a figure walked through the door towards them. He was a little shorter than James but still had a slight air of heroism and there was definitely a hint of boy genius in the air, his almost sunset orange hair sat on his head neatly. At a distance he might have looked absolutely fine but up close Jake could see some wounds and bruises marking him, come to think of it he hadn't realised that Calli was injured, but when he looked closely he saw that she was limping and had obviously been hit a couple of times but there were no serious wounds.

"Heh guess we all got our share of bruises I see" the kid stated causing the entire group to laugh, recognising their fatigue. "I'm Alex by the way" the kid introduced himself, shaking hands with Jake and James

"I'm Jake and this is James" Jake told him "you obviously already know Calli"

Yeah we met" Alex chuckled " She told me about you guys and I got sucked into this series of events like you did, doing nothing wrong and then get pulled into a massive fight" Alex told them "I mean it was bad enough waking up this morning having a crazy dream about some creature and finding my hair and eyes had changed colour but a fight against an army of robots?" he finished. Jake and James looked shocked but Calli's eyes went wide

"Hey! I had the same kinda dream! It looked like a pink mutated hedgehog but she was really cool and had a great fashion sense!" she exclaimed "what did your's look like Alex?" she asked

"The creature in my dream looked like a fox" he told them, now Jake and James were positively freaked out but James went and opened his mouth before Jake could tell him not to.

"hey we had those kinda dreams too! There was a blue hedgehog in mine and a black and red one in Jakes" he told them.

It was Calli and Alex's turn to look surprised, Jake smacked himself in the forehead and was about to explain when he noticed that Calli and Alex looked really tired and as if they were on their last legs when just a second ago they had seemed better. Suddenly Jake saw a flash of green light and he felt the pain from his wounds hit him full on and the tiredness he had been holding back washed over him. He staggered and collapsed besides the others, dimly noticing that James was out too. He clung to his sword limply and the darkness took him.

Somwhere deep in Jakes conscious a black and red hedgehog unfurled from it fetal position after witnessing the events that had just passed.

"maybe he's not such a faker after all" was the only thing that escaped his thoughts.

Far far away from the attacked Mall and construction site, somewhere up in space, a sinister person watched from a hidden camera in one of his robots that hadn't been completely demolished, unfortunately there was no sound as the mic had been destroyed.

"How dare they!" the figure roared "those two boys thwarted my attack on the mall and that kid and girl defeated my robots at the construction site, and those other two that destroyed my robots at that reactor. They thwarted them just like Sonic did so many times, it's just not possible! Argh!" turning around suddenly heyelled to another smaller robot, hovering in the air. "you! go and find out where those six kids are! I want you to find them all so I can exact my vengeance on them! Now that Sonic and Shadow are dead nothing can stop me! I Doctor Ivo Robotnik, shall rule the world! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

(Okay that's that chapter done ((finally)) hope you enjoyed! Please review this! I really need it!)