S.S.: Yay! Chapter 7. Knuckles: yay… Rouge: Oh come on Knuckles: Your telling me to come one. You called me KNUXIE Rouge: So, you called me Batty Girl. Like what's with that? Knuckles: I couldn't think of anything better… S.S.: Uh, guys? Knuckles & Rouge: Ya? S.S.: Your names were both lame… Knuckles: Well what kind of name is Stephanie Speed? S.S.: I don't know. Sonic said it not me. Rouge: Ya but you agreed with it. S.S.: Enough! Your wasting the readers time! Knuckles: We are? What about this story? Rouge elbows Knuckles in the ribs again. Knuckles: Damn it! That's the same spot!
Stephanie slowly opened her eyes. When she saw her surroundings, she sat up straight, startled. Then she remembered the last night. She groaned, pulling off the covers and started to put on her black boots. Stephanie stood up and pulled down her skirt a little bit, because it was a little too high, and pulling up her black tube top a little bit, because it was a little low from her restless sleep.
She opened the door and stepped back when she saw Decoe and Bocoe staring at her.
"Good morning." they both greeted.
"Uh, good morning." Stephanie said back with a raised brow.
"Eggman has been waiting for you to wake up." Decoe said.
"We shall take you to the main control room." Bocoe said. She followed them down the metal hallway and into a room. There was a big monitor on the wall, a wide keyboard underneath and a "swivel" chair in front of it. In the middle of the room there was a red couch and in front of it there was a long glass case attached to the wall. She went up to it and placed her hand on it.
"That is a healing tank." Eggman came up behind her. Startled she turned around.
"Now." Eggman walked over to the computer desk, which the keyboard was on, and picked up a device and walked back towards Stephanie. "Use this to do your first task."
He handed the gadget to Stephanie. It was a thick rectangle that had a screen and a small satellite dish coming out of the top.
"What is this?" Stephanie asked.
"It is a P.R." Eggman replied. Stephanie looked at him confused. Eggman sighed.
"A Portable Radar…" Eggman said rubbing his forehead.
"Oh." Stephanie felt stupid.
"Anyways, it picks up high energy readings. Use it to find one of the chaos emeralds in White Jungle." Eggman walked to his computer and turned it on.
"I will be monitoring your progress. Bocoe will accompany you." He gestured to the shorter silver robot. Stephanie timidly opened the door to the outside of the ship and saw that they had landed. She let out a sigh of relief and stepped out. Good thing I didn't have to sky dive off the Carrier Stephanie smiled. She walked into the jungle with Bocoe by her side.
Stephanie wished she had gone with Decoe, he probably didn't talk as much as Bocoe. Bocoe had been talking non-stop about the Egg Carrier. Her stomach growled. She hadn't eaten anything since she was at Tails' workshop. Stephanie spotted some short trees that grow banana-like fruit. They were pale yellow with pink stripes.
"Are those edible?" She asked Bocoe. Bocoe observed them and nodded his head. She jumped up and plucked one out of the tree. She peeled it and then took a small bite out of it. A smile spreaded on her face. They were delicious. She closed her eyes and took another bite. Soon the whole thing was gone. She dropped the peel on the ground and looked at her monitor. There was a large green dot that was blinking, north from where they were.
"Come on." Stephanie said and walked in the dot's direction.
After about five minutes the dot was blinking rapidly and was close to where they were standing.
"Over here." Stephanie gestured towards a thick mess of vines and tropical plants. She cautiously pushed away the obstacles and the robot tagged along. They soon came to a clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a…
Crater! Why is there a crater in a jungle? Stephanie thought, slowly walking towards it. She came to the edge of it and peered down. Her eyes grew wide.
"Oh… my… god!" Stephanie jumped into the crater and Bocoe carefully "climbed" down. She walked over to the reason why she was surprised and startled. There lying on his stomach was a beaten up, unconscious Shadow the hedgehog.
She cautiously crouched down on her knees beside him slowly turning him onto his back, holding his head in her hand. Stephanie slightly shook him to wake him. He groaned in pain and slowly opened his eyes. This made Stephanie even more nervous, but she let a small smile grow on her face. It was good to see him still alive. He fully opened his eyes and was startled. He would have jumped if he weren't in this condition.
"Tell Eggman to come her immediately." Stephanie turned her head to Bocoe.
"Who are you?" Shadow asked weakly.
"That's not important now. What's important is that we get you to some medical attention." Stephanie surprised herself at how mature she sounded. She ran her fingers over the cuts on his arms and looked at the wounds one his chest and stomach. His white fur was temporarily stained with blood. Then she noticed the green emerald in his hand. She quickly took and hid it in her tube top. The Egg Carrier's shadow casted over them and Shadow passed out.
Eggman and Decoe stepped out of the flying vehicle and walked to wards them.
"Decoe, help me carry him inside." Stephanie ordered. Deco helped Stephanie stand up Shadow and he took the one side while Stephanie had the other. Once inside the Carrier, they went to the main control room.
"Put him in the glass case." Eggman said as he quickly walked to the computer and started to type. Stephanie carefully wrapped her arms around him and put him in the tank. She put the breathing mask around his head and just looked at him. She hadn't noticed until now, he was pretty cute.
She closed the door to the tank. Eggman pressed a button and the tank filled with liquid and too greenish lights that were on the bottom of the tank turned on, making the liquid look pale green.
"How long will it take for him to heal?" Stephanie asked still staring at the sleeping Shadow.
"I don't know. Some heal faster than others." Eggman shrugged. "Did you find the chaos emerald?"
I knew he would want it! I'm not giving it to him, it belongs to Shadow. Stephanie thought angrily.
"No." Stephanie replied calmly.
"Hmm… I'll have to fix the device. I'm just glad we have our team member back.
You mean yourteam member. I'm not on this team. Stephanie thought. It will take you more than a gun to my head to switch sides. But Stephanie didn't know that soon there would be a reason to switch sides.