"Finally…" a red echidna sighed as he entered the emerald chamber. He was very relieved to find them all there. Hiding the island was impossible, so he took a great risk in leaving it hovering unprotected. Sonic was going to owe him for all he's done, and now he was going to direct his island toward the mountain of Gimmick. He was to bring the emeralds in order to complete the bargain in case things didn't go as planned.

Knowing Sonic as he did, things were probably not going according to plan. Knuckles hoped that if it did come to giving up the emeralds, that he could find a way to take them back without incident. If the hedgehog did anything stupid he would give him a good wallop.

He put a gloved hand upon the Master Emerald and it glowed with a green light. A light rumbling and the island began to move. The echidna had to make sure he channeled enough energy into the island so that it could stay afloat without the emeralds for awhile. He couldn't imagine the damage that would be done if the island landed onto the lands below. It was a hard enough impact on the water's surface.

The echidna hoped that he wasn't directing the island to his downfall.

Looking along the tunnels of Mount Gimmick, Sonic realized that not much had changed since he had first explored here almost a decade ago. The walls were a deep grayish tone, and contained rough gouges, as if a large beast had attacked the cavern with sharp claws.

He continued to feel himself torn by what had happened back there… he wanted to go back and help Dulcy, though he hadn't known her as long as he had the rest of the Freedom Fighters, she still was an essential team member. But Tails's peril pulled him more then the dragon did… but he could feel his heart split. He felt terrible for leaving her in that way. But his mind was made up, he had to help Tails, and when the fox was out of harms way… then would go back to help her. The hedgehog at least knew that she wasn't going anywhere soon. She was heavy enough in organic form.

Sonic was surprised as he kept moving forward, there seemed to be no changes at all. It was kind of disappointing; the hedgehog expected Snively to be prepared for his arrival.

As soon as he had thought this though, the grey rock had come to an end, and his feet began to make loud noises against the metallic floor. The hedgehog had to stop for a minute, as before him stood a massive structure that could have only been man made. Conveyor belts, high and low, were transporting some sort of rock. It looked as if Snively was building a base inside of the mountain. Which was strange, since the human seemed so confident he would have changed the past back on Flicky Island. Sonic couldn't help but laugh a bit, maybe Snootly had grown so accustom to losing that he had been building this the whole time, and was ready to run to it as soon as the plan had failed.

He wondered where Tails could be. If only Snively hadn't found that tracer he could find him in a Sonic-second. The only way he could hope on finding his pal now was to just search. Even with his speed, this could take awhile.

The hedgehog moved forward, his sneakers clanging against the metallic flooring, echoing across the factory like room. Other then the sound of his steps and the whirling of the conveyor gears, there was silence. It was far too quiet for Sonic's liking. He started to pick up his pace, looking for a way to get to the higher levels of this makeshift base. Sonic knew that Snively probably flew the Wing Fortress here, so he would probably be on a higher floor.

Sounds of footsteps started to echo, but these were much louder then the hedgehog's. He was not alone. Then again, Sonic would have been disappointed if he was.

Darkness began to fill the area as the large lights dimmed down, causing the hero to look up. His eyes moved among the higher platforms that surrounded his current position. There had to be more then three dozen red sensors glowing down upon him. Sonic could instantly recognize them as Swatbots, and it appeared they had prepared an ambush.

A sole light shone down about 50 yards in front of the hedgehog, revealing an elevator, exactly what Sonic was looking for. He could see a short green man standing upon it. The hedgehog glared at what he could make out to be none other then the tyrant who had kidnapped his friend.

"Well, Well…. Like leading a rodent to cheese." Snively sneered.

Sally, Bunnie, and Jerome were pushed back into their seats as the tank was climbing up the rear of the mountain. The vehicle was handling the climb with relative ease, but the amount of torque required was really eating away at their fuel.

"We'll have to deactivate the cloaking devise, or we won't make it up the mountain." The princess pointed out.

"Guess we couldn't stay hidden forever." Jerome stated.

Bunnie watched on as Sally began to deactivate the devise. "Sugarhog is probably causin' a fuss. I think we'll all be alright."

"Let's hope you're right Bunnie…" Sally responded as the vehicle became visible once again.

Cold red eyes looked amongst the spybot surveillance screens. Metal Sonic had received specific instructions from Snively to keep an eye out for any other organics that decided to come out of the wood works. The robot couldn't understand why he couldn't just head down and take care of the hedgehog himself, but he had patience, and eventually it would be just Sonic against him, just as it was in the Sky Sanctuary. This time though, Metal knew he would come out on top.

A red light flashed on the console causing the robot to investigate. The screen showed a large vehicle climbing up the rear side of the mountain. The large cannon that was mounted on it explained how the dragon was shot down. Metal knew that there had to be some explanation.

The robot stood up. With the speed the large machine was traveling, it'd be easy to handle these intruders all by itself.

"Cut it Sniffs! Where's Tails?" the hedgehog leered at the human who stood in the center of a bright red arc generated by the visors of the many Swatbots.

"Where are my emeralds?" Snively retorted.

"Knuckles is on his way here with them." Sonic told the vertically challenged kidnapper.

The human shook his head in response. "Then you've broken the deal rodent… 'come alone with the emeralds and I would give you your friend' I believe was our agreement. Since you went back on your end, looks like I'll have to go back on mine." The villain smirked. "But I suppose the deadline is still a few hours a way. You could always be a good little hedgehog and fetch the emeralds and be back in time to save your friend."

Sonic clenched his fist, was he just going to let his friend be used as an item of trade? Chances were Snively had already harmed his pal, and if he ran off it'd give the human even more chances to harm the fox.

"Go fetch, 'Fido'…" the human cackled at his lame joke. Lame as it was, it was enough to cause a surge of anger to rise through the hero. Sonic didn't care that he was outnumbered! He was here to save his friend, not bargain with the man that had taken so much from him.

Looking up with fires in his eyes, the hedgehog yelled. "I can tell you where to stick those emeralds!" The voice echoed in the room, causing a great, long silence.

As the silence persisted, the hedgehog began to become worried. His friend was in danger, and now he could have just pulled the final string that would cause the short human to show no mercy to his captive. The way the human's face scrunched at the hedgehog nasty reply was not a good sign.

The silence was disrupted by a whirling of the elevator platform the kidnapper stood upon, going up. "I guess that means our deal is off. I was going to let you at least say goodbye to the twerp, but because of that comment…" He didn't need to say anything more as the Swatbots raised their laser weapons. "Farewell rodent…" were Snively's final words as he disappeared to the floors above.

Sonic looked behind him where he had come in to see that the room had been closed off. The red beams of light started to glow more brightly as the room started to fill with the sound of robots moving about and charging their weapons.

"I think I saw a metal hatch up a head." Jerome said looking out through the external video feed.

Sally turned from the controls to look where the mouse was. Seeing the shine of the metallic surface brought a smile to her face. The vehicle continued to climb the mountain with relative ease as the princess made light adjustments in her course. "Alright let's get ready to penetrate the rear of the base, you guys ready?" the ground squirrel looked to her comrades.

They were about to respond when there was a sudden grinding noise that caused the three Mobians to cover their ears. The cabin of the vehicle rattled as the internal lighting flicked. And as soon as the strange chaos had begun, it had ceased.

"What da hoo-ha happened?" Bunnie groaned as her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting. Whatever had occurred obviously affected the electrical systems, since the external video display blacked out and the vehicle came to a complete halt.

"I don't know Bunnie," Sally sounded worried. "We probably hit something. I guess we could hike the rest of it."

"Sounds like a plan, I was getting kinda anxious to move anyway." Jerome tried to remain optimistic, moving toward the emergency hatch. With a shove of the latch the night air came in to replace the artificial cooled air with a natural mugginess. The air seemed to have gotten humid rather quickly. It looked like it was going to storm again. Knowing that the robotisized Dulcy was out of commission made Sally pretty sure that this gathering of ominous clouds was created by nature.

Bunnie also noticed the gathering storm. "Might wanna all get our keesters in the base Sally-girl, I don't wanna rust up."

As the princess turned away from the horizon and to her friend her eyes grazed upon the machinery they had just come out of. A long gash could be seen in the side causing Sally to forget what she was going to say. Her friends notice the leaders silence and turn to see what had gathered the princess's attention.

When Bunnie turned to see the damage done she gasped. "My stars, it's like somethin' ripped right through it."

Jerome shook his head. "That's a lot of armor to just rip through…"

Sally didn't like this, not one bit. The tear in the hull seemed all too familiar to her; it was as if Sonic had sliced through it. "Everyone, be careful… I don't think we're alone out here."

The albino mouse understood, taking out an EMP grenade that he had brought with him. It was a good chance they were dealing with a robot. How it was able to strike and disappear so quickly caused them all to be on edge. Bunnie looked around, ready to strike at anything foolish enough to charge at them.

Sporadic lights flashed on the distant clouds and each flicker was followed up by a low rumble. Seeing that there was no threat in the immediate area the three began to move up the steep hill toward the metal hatch. The climb was a bit more difficult without the tank, as it was a pretty sharp incline to traverse. This also troubled the princess, because terrain like this would be almost impossible to navigate for a machine like a Swatbot. That could only mean that what was out there was far more dangerous…

Jerome suddenly stopped in his tracks. "Hey look, it's Sonic!"

With those words the princess and her rabbit friend stopped. They looked in the direction that the albino mouse's eyes were pointing. In the dark shadows stood a figure that had quills and looked exactly like the blue hedgehog, but because of the cloud cover it was hard to make out any distinguishing features.

Sally was about to call out to him when a harsh breeze blew over the area causing her fur to ruffle. But as the wind washed over the figure, the quills didn't move in the slightest. Something wasn't right… "That's not Sonic…" the princess voiced her suspicions.

Though her comrades were reluctant to believe their leader, her statement was proven true as the figure's eyes came into view. A crimson, fiery red glared at them through the darkness of the approaching storm. Metallic laughter filled the air as the three stared at the malevolent form.

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That's it for now, next chapter will be up on April 21st.