Chapter #4: The Hunt "Heats Up"

10:00 AM

Exit to Station Square's Garbage Maintenance System

Time Left: 35 minutes

Eggman's prediction happened just as the words left his mouth.

As he, Cream, and Cheese were walking out of the road tunnel leading out of the sewer system, Sonic suddenly felt very dizzy and nauseous. His vision was clouded with colors and shapes. He swayed on shaky legs and leaned against the brick wall to get a breather.

Cream and Cheese didn't see their savior's strange behavior, and so they kept on walking. Just as they were about to go onto the sidewalk, Cream said, "Thank you for helping us, Mr. Sonic."

A groan and a thud answered her.

The duo turned around and gasped. "Sonic!" Cream shrieked, and she ran to the hero, who lay in a crumpled heap. She shook him vigorously and whimpered with tear-filled eyes, "What's wrong with you? Please, say something!"

Much to her relief, the hedgehog slowly sat up. "Ohh…man, my head hurts," he said as he rubbed the bruise from his fall. "But I'm okay. I need to go find everybody else." He stood up, his eyes glinting with determination.

Cream pulled the purple Chaos Emerald out of her pocket. "Will this help?" she asked.

Sonic grinned and replied, "Yeah, that'll help a lot. Thanks!" He took it from her and tucked the blue one in his shoe. "Now let's go!" With his permission, Cream climbed onto his back and looped her arms around his neck, and he sped off.

With the energy from two Emeralds guiding them, Sonic, Cream, and Cheese rocketed through the city. In only a minute they had the trail, which ultimately led them to the harbor district. Suddenly a fire truck sped past them, with its siren wailing. Wondering where the fire was, the hedgehog raced after it. He found it and three others parked in front of a burning warehouse.

"It looks bad," said Cream as she fell gently off Sonic's back. Suddenly she noticed the hero studying his Emerald. "What's wrong?"

"The Emerald is glowing..." he replied, his brow creasing with worry a bit more. "That means one of the others is around here...maybe inside the warehouse."

Suddenly something dawned on Cream, and she covered her mouth in dismay. "Oh no! Mr. Sonic, this was the place where Dr. Eggman kept us!"

"It is?"

"Yes, and when Eggman took me away, I remember him telling his robots to set it on fire!"

"So one of the others must be in there!" The hedgehog turned to run for the burning building.

But Cream wasn't done. Her eyes filled with tears, and she sobbed, "He also told them to leave Tails inside!"

Sonic screeched to a halt. He turned and stared at her in disbelief. "Not Tails..." A horrifying image of his best friend suffocating from the smoke flashed through his mind. He turned back and said with rage, "If he's hurt or...worse...I'll make you pay, Eggman!" Without another word he rocketed past the fire trucks and surprised firefighters into the blazing warehouse.

The whole building was a great big inferno. The fire was hungrily consuming any wood in its path. Smoke clouded Sonic's vision, causing his eyes to water. He took a deep breath to call Tails' name, but instantly went into a fit of coughing from the dangerous smoke. He ducked down where the air was freshest and crawled into the main room of the building, feeling his way to the center.

If this is the place where Eggman kept Cream and the rest, then that TV screen had to show the room they were held in, Sonic thought. It looked like the cage was in the center of the room... He felt his hands touch iron bars, and he looked up. Bingo! Here it is! He peered into the cage and called, "Tails! Are you in there?"

A small whimper of some sort answered him. It was small, but it was enough.

"Hang in there! I'll get you out!" he yelled, and he got up and searched for the door. He found it locked. "Darn it!" Then he spotted the place where Knuckles had been trying to force the bars apart. He had almost succeeded; it only needed a bit more prying before someone could squeeze himself through. The hedgehog glanced around for a crowbar, and his gaze settled on a closet. He busted the door down and found a crowbar next to a toolbox. With a bit of hard prying, the bars opened wide enough for Sonic to get inside the cage.

A small, furry form lay in one corner.

"Tails!" Sonic bent down by the fox and shook his shoulder. "Are you all right? C'mon, buddy, answer me!"

Tails rolled over onto his back with a moan. He stared at the blurry figure through half-closed eyes. "Wh-who's there?" he mumbled, suddenly going into a coughing spasm. But his vision seemed to clear, and he saw his rescuer better. "Sonic?"

"No, it's the President. Of course it's me!" replied the hedgehog with a grin.

Groaning, the boy sat up and looked around at the blazing room. "This isn't exactly the place to be making jokes," he remarked.

"Good point. Let's get outta here." He stood up...and instantly went back down, holding his head in one hand. "Ohh man, not again..."

"What's wrong?" asked Tails, concern for his best friend written all over his face.

Sonic shook his head and said, "I'm fine, just a headache, that's all. It's probably from inhaling all this smoke."

Tails started coughing harder than before. His friend picked him up and pushed him through the hole in the cage. After getting himself out, he grabbed Tails' hand and guided him out of the room. They paused to look for a safe way out, and then they heard the ceiling groaning. Not daring to look up, Sonic shoved Tails forward right before the doorway collapsed. This narrow escape and several similar ones pushed the hedgehog and the fox onward without rest through the smoky hallways until they found the front entrance blocked.

"Aw man, it was open when I ran in!" said Sonic as he stamped his foot in frustration.

"Now how do we get out of here?" said Tails in despair.

A cold voice froze them in their tracks.

"You don't."

The duo turned to face the speaker. Tails' face showed complete surprise. "Metal Sonic? What are you doing here?"

Not taking his eyes off of his robotic twin, Sonic grasped his friend's wrist and hissed in his ear, "No time to sit and chat. Run!" They dashed down the hall to their left, narrowly avoiding the laser blasts Metal had fired from his fingers.

With the robotic hedgehog on their heels, Sonic and Tails ran down the maze of halls, looking for any windows that they could break through. But Eggman's firetrap was foolproof; every window was boarded up, and plenty of wood was left lying around for the flames to engulf.

The fire seemed to decide for them their path of escape; nearly every time they stopped at a junction some burning wood fell into at least one way, and they were forced to take the safest route. But like the smelly, dank sewers Sonic had almost been lost in, they seemed to be going further into the chaotic blaze, not out of it.

Just when they thought they had lost Metal and were going to find a way out, they reached a dead end. The duo turned to go back, but then part of the ceiling collapsed into their path. Sonic moaned, "We're stuck!" He was ready to scream in frustration, but he first took a glance at his buddy.

Tears were beginning to well up in Tails' eyes, and they certainly weren't from the smoke; he was losing hope in escaping. Metal Sonic would catch up with them any moment, and the warehouse was starting to look more and more like a tomb. The hero had to be confident for his friend, or the boy might give up entirely.

As he tried to think of something that would hopefully raise Tails' spirits, Sonic noticed a slight crack in the left wall of their dead end. He shoved his shoulder into it, and he felt it give slightly. "We're not dead yet!" he cried with confidence. "Stand back, Tails!" Once the boy had obeyed, he curled into a tight ball and charged at the weak wall. The hedgehog's spindash broke through completely, and the brick collapsed to reveal the outside.

With a cry of triumph, Tails rushed out of the warehouse, with Sonic following. Once they were far from the building and hidden from sight behind an ambulance, they fell down and took a well-deserved breather.

Suddenly a voice called to them. "Mr. Sonic! Tails!" It was Cream; she had been sitting inside the ambulance waiting for them to return. Both Cream and Cheese hugged Tails. "I'm so glad you're okay, Tails!" said the rabbit, with an agreement from her Chao. (Not trying to make a Tails/Cream thing here.) But suddenly she pulled away and wiped her dress. "You're both dirty!"

It was true; both the hedgehog and the fox were covered in dirt from the smoke (is it called soot?). The two stared at each other and chuckled. They grabbed some towels from the ambulance and set to wiping themselves clean.

In a nearby alley, the shadowy hulk of Eggman's walker sat silently, its pilot watching the trio. Then Metal Sonic appeared beside him.

"I'm sorry, Master. I failed to destroy them," he said.

"No worries, Metal. The poison will rid us of Sonic soon. Although he seems to be more resistant to it than I first supposed, and that worries me..."

"Do you want me to kill him now, Master Eggman?"

"No, Metal, let's wait and see if he can save the other two..."

Time Left: 20 minutes