Chapter 12; adventure in China, death god lurks around the singed ones

Sonic and Tails woke up very early the morning after their night in Spain and immediately requested permission to take off. After 10 minutes they got the permission and the plane took off. When they were on the air they started discussing their next destination.

"So where do you think we should head next?" Tails asked Sonic.

"Honestly dude, I have no idea. The world is huge. And the final god card could be anywhere. Maybe the bastard who has it went to Asia maybe not."

"Then we pick up a destination randomly?" Tails wondered.

"I guess so." Sonic said while taking out Slifer and Obelisk "I really hoped this would be over already. I already feel bad that my counterpart has to wait. I mean he was stuck in the pendant for over….. Gah!" Sonic said grabbing his head.

"Sonic what's wrong?!" Tails asked while putting the auto pilot on and rushing to his side.

Sonic kept gasping due to pain for some seconds until Tails decided to make him drop the god cards. Sonic's eyes opened widely.

"What happened?" Tails asked.

"I…. I had a vision."

"A vision?"

"Yeah. It was something like a palace."

"A palace?"

Sonic described the palace he saw to Tails. The latter immediately recognized what Sonic was talking about.

"Sonic this is the palace of the forbidden city you are describing!"

"Of the what?"

"The forbidden city! A landmark in the center of Beijing! The god cards are showing us the way! They want to be together with the third!"

Sonic's eyes widened in a pleasant shock. Maybe it would be easier than he thought.

"Ok then! Beijing it is!" Sonic decided.

After a short while the rest of the team woke up. Sonic told them of his vision and their next destination. They were all happy that their journey was coming to an end but at the same time sad cause they all had a blast until now. Several hours later the plane arrived in Beijing's airport. Sonic and his friends immediately headed for the forbidden city. It was almost nighttime. People were starting to leave after visiting the city.

"We don't have much time team. Let's hurry up and look!" Sonic ordered.

The rest agreed and split up. Amy and Sonic together headed for the museum section. Everything looked normal. Neither their marks nor the gods reacted.

"Why would the gods lead you here if nothing is here?" Amy asked him.

"No! This can't be! It must be here! It makes no sense." Sonic yelled angry.

"Sonic relax. Everything will be ok. If the person who has the final god is here they will show up." Amy calmed him down.

At that moment the alarm of the museum sounded. The door opened and Sonic barely saw 3 hooded men running out holding a giant golden egg. The guards ran outside but were too late. Sonic stopped on one of them.

"What is that all about?"

"These men stole a precious artifact! The most precious one in the whole museum! The egg of the emperor!"

"I got it! Say no more!" Sonic said and chased after the thieves as well. At the same time he called his friends and informed them of the theft. They all met outside the city where they saw the hooded men boarding some motorbikes and drove away. Sonic immediately reacted.

"Tails! Knuckles! After them!" he said while jumping on his duel runner. They also rode them and initiated pursuit. The rest of the gang also rode their runners and followed them.

Sonic could clearly see the thieves in front of him. Soon they were on the highway heading outside of the city. They were heading southwest towards the mountains. Sonic knew that they would be in a disadvantage since there there would be a lot of turns there.

"Tails Knuckles! Speed formation fast! We need to get them before they make it to the feet of the mountain!" Sonic ordered.

Tails and Knuckles who were riding behind him immediately positioned their duel runners behind Sonic's so they would use the drafting technique and speed up. However they could only get a little bit closer to the thieves since using drafting would slow them down after a few seconds. So they used drafting for a few seconds then broke the formation and re-used it to get closer step by step. Eventually they came almost behind them but they were already at the feet of the mountain. The thieves started using techniques like drifting to take the turns. Sonic being the most skilled of his team in duel runner driving was able to use the same techniques while Tails and Knuckles had to slow down at the turns. Eventually Sonic caught up to the thieves. He started pushing them out of the road causing them to 'crash' in a way they would be caught but not die. He successfully managed to stop 2 of the runners but the third thief started fighting back and pushing him to the edge of the road, trying to cause Sonic to fall into the precipice. Sonic fought back. Tails could barely see them. He noticed the number of the thief's runner. Soon they took a tight turn so Tails lost them for a few seconds.

Sonic took the turn and continued pushing the thief. The latter saw a gas station ahead of them and whispered something about almost there so he decided he had enough and whispered to Sonic despite the roar of the runner's engines "Have a safe journey to hell" as he pressed a button which made his whole runner project a strong light which momentarily blinded Sonic. This gave him the chance to punch Sonic and cause him to lose control of his duel runner. Which resulted in Sonic crashing on the barrier over the precipice. The barrier didn't take the hit and broke. Causing Sonic and his duel runner to fall into the gap.

"AAAAAH! Sonic screamed.

Sonic's scream was heard by Tails who had just taken the turn and saw the whole thing. His mind stopped. He immediately stopped allowing the thief to escape with the egg in the process. He looked into the deepest part of the precipice. He could see smoke coming out of the trees in the base of the mountain.

"SOOOOOOOOOOOONIIIIIIIIIIIIIIC!" He screamed. But no response.

At that moment Knuckles and the gang caught up. They saw Tails next to his duel runner looking at the precipice in total shock.

"Tails what are you doing?! We are supposed to be pursuing the thief!" Knuckles yelled at him. Only then he noticed the broken barrier.

"What happened here?" he asked Tails.

"S….S…."

"What?"

"S…."

"Tails where is Sonic?!" Amy screamed in his face.

"D…. down there" he said unable to speak.

"NOOOOOOOOO! NO! YOU'RE LYING! PLEASE TELL ME YOU'RE LYING!" Amy screamed. She looked down into the precipice." SOOOONIIIIC! SOOONIIIC!"

The team was shocked. Knuckles and Silver were looking at the bottom of the precipice as well. Wave was crying in Jet's embrace who also let his tears go. They couldn't believe what they were going through. There was no way it could be true. They had to be out of their senses. Sonic had crashed. There was smoke at the bottom of the precipice.

SONIC WAS DEAD?

They immediately called anyone who could help. Soon helicopters were flying over the precipice trying to locate the source of the smoke and the police was asking what happened. Tails was unable to speak and his eyes were widened due to the shock. Soon the team was escorted to their plane. They were all mourning for their friend's death. At the same time as Jet noticed when he went online for a few moments he saw hundreds of supporting messages from other people who were also mourning for Sonic's death meaning that the new had already spread in the entire world. Amy being the saddest immediately went to her bedroom and ignored all the supporting messages. They all eventually went to their rooms and tried to fall asleep. Tails was looking at the ceiling of the plane still unable to believe that his best friend was dead. He didn't know how much time he was like this when he heard sirens outside the plane and eventually the door of the plane and several people walking inside. They charged into his room without even knocking. At least 10 cops came in and pointed their guns at him!

"TURN AROUND AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD!"

Tails looked at them shocked but obeyed. They immediately immobilized him and trapped his hands in handcuffs.

"What's the big idea?!" he managed to ask them.

"You're under arrest. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be used against you in court!"

"Why am I arrested?!"

"For murdering Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"WHAT?!" Tails screamed.

"Get up now!"

"I didn't kill Sonic! How can you all believe I did?! That thief caused his death!"

"There is evidence so shut up and get up already!"

"We're not letting you take him without evidence!" the team charged in the room with their nightwears. The chief of the police knew they deserved some answers so he took out a tablet from a briefcase one of his colleagues was holding. He played a video. It was from the security cameras of the gas station outside of which Sonic crashed. For several seconds all seemed normal. But then suddenly two duel runners came to the scene. The one was Sonic's. And the other one was…

"TAILS?!" Amy screamed "No this can't be! This is Tails' duel runner."

After the part where Sonic crashed the video ended immediately. The chief explained that the cameras stopped working due to the owner changing a bulb at that time which caused the building to lose power for several seconds turning off the cameras at the same time. But that was more than enough evidence. The cops forced Tails out of his bed and led him outside the room. Tails looked at his friends. They all looked at him shocked. That was at least until the cops weren't looking at them. Amy noded with a face of determination telling him that she didn't believe all this. At the next second Tails was taken away by the cops.

"I can't believe it." Wave said after several minutes "Tails killed Sonic?!"

"No he didn't!" Amy answered back.

"But you saw the video Amy. You can't deny it." Jet said.

"I don't care about the clues. I know Tails would never hurt Sonic, let alone kill him. We'll find out what is going on and set Tails free."

"But even if Tails is innocent does anything change? Sonic's dead." Knuckles said.

"I know. But the lease we can do to honor his memory is to set Tails free, find the thief and see this mission to the end by setting Sonic's alter ego free." Amy said motivating the team.

"So here's the plan. I will go myself to check on the crash site so I can retrieve the pendant before the police can and possibly my husband's body and deck. Wave and Jet go to the gas station and investigate. Silver and Knuckles you go and inform tails of the plan."

They all agreed. When Amy Wave and Jet reached the feet of the mountain, Amy went to the entrance of the precipice and started carefully driving through the trees trying to get to the crash site. At the same time Wave and Jet reached a police barrier preventing them from reaching the gas station. To make it there they knocked out the entire team at the barrier and once they reached the gas station they hid their runners in a small cave before the station. Then they sneaked in. Noone was there which made it extremely suspicious. Wearing special gloves so they wouldn't leave any fingerprints they started searching the place.

Knuckles and Silver made it to the police station and asked to see Tails. They were allowed to see Tails so they were guided to his cell. Tails was in there still in shock and confusion. They told him that they all believed in his innocence and would do anything to get him out of there. Also before they left they told him that tonight something special was gonna be at the sky and that he should look out of the window at exactly 11PM. Afterwards they left.

Amy eventually made it to the crash site. She made it there by foot so that the choppers trying to find somewhere to land wouldn't notice her. She saw in front of her the Furious Flame destroyed and Sonic's deck scattered around it. The pendant wasn't there though. Neither was Sonic's body. Amy searched around the crash site but nothing. Soon after this she heard cops coming towards the runner so she quickly gathered Sonic's deck and high-tailed it out of there.

At the same time Jet and Wave had made progress as well they had discovered a hidden room behind the garage where cars were washed. It was full of computer screens where someone was once watching the surveillance cameras. One of the computers was turned off. They hacked it and found tons of data about Tails and his duel runner. Also inside was a video with instructions on how to install a duel runner shapeshifting program to a duel runner. Which meant that the bastard who killed Sonic wasn't Tails but the thief who looked like Tails. And the cameras weren't shut off by accident as the chief said. Taking all these clues and a note Wave found about a warehouse outside of Beijing they returned to the jet. Amy brought along Sonic's deck and informed them of Sonic's body's absence which worried them all. Silver and Knuckles had devised a plan to bust Tails out of prison so they had gone and bought hooks and explosives. Wave and Jet showed them the clues they had gathered which proved Tails' innocence. But the fact that the police should have discovered it long ago was suspicious so they had to act alone at this time. At 10PM Amy Jet and Wave headed for the place the note was suggesting while Knuckles and Silver put their plan in action. Knuckles made a prank call that there was gonna be a terrorist attack at the other side of the city so almost every last one of the cops headed for that location. After this Silver defeated the cops who were guarding Tails' duel runner and knocked them out before stealing the runner. Knuckles set the explosives outside of the jail's walls and detonated them causing the wall to break. He then drove the runner outside of Tails' cell which was luckily on the ground floor. He then tied hooks to the bars of the window of the cage and then used his duel runner to drag the bars out of the window causing the window and the wall to be destroyed. Tails came out of his cell, thanked Knuckles and then the two of them met with Silver who was waiting 2 squares away. Then Tails rode his runner and dragged the police's attention who had realized that the call was a prank, towards himself, while Knuckles and Silver headed for the warehouse.

Amy Wave and Jet sneaked into the warehouse at the same time and overheard an argument. Realizing that the mastermind behind the theft of the egg was actually the police chief all along and had manipulated the investigation due to his power so that Tails was framed for Sonic's death and was also planning to sell the egg to a collector for a crazy amount of money, Amy took out Tails' gun that she found in the cockpit before the beginning of this operation and charged in the room.

"Put your hands in the air you bastard!" she screamed.

Unfortunately the chief was faster. He threw a tear gas at Amy and the others and ran away. Amy with a lot of effort followed him outside and saw him riding his motorbike and driving away. She rode her runner as well and told Wave and Jet to direct Tails, Knuckles and Silver to the chief's whereabouts. They informed Tails about the clues thanks to their runners' communication systems. Then they started guiding him towards the chief. At the same time Knuckles and Silver found the chief's superior officer and informed him of the clues. A pursuit was initiated. The chief was now on the run with Tails and Amy at his tail and the rest of the police force accompanied by Knuckles and Silver behind them. Tails, wanting to settle the score told everyone not to put on barricades and challenged the chief to a turbo duel.

"You dare to challenge me?"

"Yes!"

"Fine then! I'll show you how weak you really are bronze medal!"

"DUEL!"

"I'll start this. I set a monster and play the field spell world legacy in shadow."

"Krawler deck huh?"

"Damn you noticed already. Fine. I special summon another one face down due to my field spell's effect.I set a card and end my turn."

"Krawler decks are sneaky. Should I destroy a krawler monster by battle with that field spell out my monster goes down with it not to mention their flip effects. On the other hand smashing the monsters with effects will cause them to multiply. Damnit. Guess we're going back to the old strategy." Tails thought.

"My turn. I draw. I summon red resonator. Thanks to summoning a resonator monster red warg is special summoned with its stats halved."

"Hold it I play light of intervention. Now all my monsters are fipped face up without their effects activating. Which means that your scarlight red dragon archfiend's effect will cause them to multiply and battle is useless now."

"Oh no." Amy said "Tails is completely cornered."

"Not yet I'm not. I synchro summon scarlight red dragon archfiend! Now I activate monster reborn to revive my red resonator. Thanks to his effect when he is special summoned I gain life points equal to a monster's attack power on the field. I choose my scarlight red dragon archfiend." (Tails LP 11000) "And now I play double summon to summon double resonator. Now I activate scarlight's effect to destroy all your monsters with attack ponts less than scarlight's."

"You never learn. They just multiply. When a Krawler monster goes down they summon 2 new ones. And 2 were destroyed so I summon 4 of them in defense mode. Come on out 2 Krawler spines and 2 krawler Glials."

"Fine. Still since 2 monsters were destroyed you lose 500 points for each one so 1000"

"Gah" (Chief LP 7000)

"Now I synchro summon using double resonator and scarlight dragon to synchro summon hot red dragon archfiend abyss who stops your field spell's effect. Now I activate star changer to make m red resonator level 1 and tune with abyss to synchro summon hot red dragon archfiend bane! I'll use his effect to tribute him and special summon scarlight red dragon archfiend! Now I'll use his effect once more to destroy all 4 of your krawlers and deal you 2000 points now since I destroy 4 of them!"

"AAAH!" (Chief LP 5000) "Still. Now 4 new krawlers come to the field 1 krawler spine, 1 krawler glial and 2 krawler ranvier.

"I set one card and end my turn."

"Damn you! My turn. I draw. I use 2 of my 4 newly summoned to complete the circuit and link summon x-krawler qualiark. Thank to it's effect once per turn I can make all my monsters attack you directily!"

"What?!"

"Now I also link summon x-krawler neurogos. Monsters! Attack directily!"

"AAAAH!" (Tails LP 7100).

"Now I play the spell card swords of revealing light. Now for 3 turns you can's attack!"

"OH NO!"

"I end my turn."

"My turn. I draw. I summon another tuner. Double resonator. And I chain with limit reverse to resurrect my other double resonator! Now I synchro summon the level10 synchro Tyrant red dragon archfiend! I activate his effect to blow your entire field!"

"No you don't I activate emergency teleportation devise. For 1000 LP my field is unaffected by card effects. However one of my opponents monster can attack directily with half of his attack points!"

"Fine tyrant red dragon archfiend attack!"

"AAAAH!" (Chief 2250)

"I end my turn."

"My turn. I draw. I set my drawn card and then repeat the previous turn combo!"

"AAAAAH!" (Tails LP 3200)

"It's over prowers! Surrender!"

"Oh yeah?! Let's see about that! Tyrant red dragon archfiend! Blow his field!"

"I activate the trap starlight road! Now your dragon goes down and stardust dragon joins us!"

"WHAT THE?!"

" It's over kid! You just surrender. You can't save yourself! As you couldn't save your friend!"

At those words Tails' heart was set on fire. He felt he was losing himself in his rage.

"YOU MURDERER! I'LL AVENGE SONIC RIGHT NOW!"

"Cry all you want. Your friend is dead and revenge won't resurrect him!"

"I activate pot of desires! For 10 cards from the top of my deck banished face down I draw 2. Yes! I activate monster reborn to revive my scarlight dragon! Now I activate synchro shift to remove him from the graveyard and summon red dragon archfiend in his place. Time to return to my roots. I summon barrier resonator and because I control a synchro monster I special summon creation resonator! I double tune my 2 monsters with my red dragon archfiend! The king and the devil shall now become one! Shake the earth and the heavens with your never ending power! Burning soul! I synchro summon! Now arise from the depths of hell! RED NOVA DRAGON!"

"So this is your first monster! Too bad it can't go through my field."

"Red nova dragon gains 500 attack for every tuner in the graveyard!"

"Say what?!"

"I have 2 double resonators 1 barrier resonator, 1 red resonator and 1 creation resonator so 5 tuners. He has a grand total of 6000 attack points!"

"6000?!"

"Attack X-Krawler qualiark and end this duel!"

"AAAAAH!" (Chief LP 0)"

"Yes! I did it!"

"Damn you! You won't catch me!" the chief screamed and accelerated. Tails accelerated behind him.

The real pursuit started at that moment. Tails easily kept up with him. Several minutes later he took the next exit and got into the suburbs. They started racing through the dark alleys. Tails was informing his friends who in turn informed the cops of the chiefs movements .For some reason in some of the alleys the chief encountered traps set to stop his runner a Tails followed him into the next alley but while racing through it a dark figure jumped in front of the runners while pointing a gun at the chief's runner.

"What the?!" the chief yelled while trying to stop the duel runner.

The dark figure fired the gun and the bullet landed on the front tire. This caused the runner to crash into the alley and the chief to land on a pile of garbage. Tails stopped and searched the chief. He retrieved the egg of the emperor from the chief's pocket. Then he noticed that the figure who shot the tire was coming to him. It looked familiar.

"Who are you?" he asked the figure.

The figure responded.

"You know very well who I am my friend." The figure came in front of Tails' duel runner's lights. Blue spiky hair. Black outfit. Black duel disc. It didn't need a lot of thought.

"SONIC?!" Tails gasped when his friend's face was visible.

"Indeed."

"Am I seeing things?"

"Nope. It's me. With flesh and bones."

"But.. but how? How did you survive the crash?"

"I got really lucky. I activated the flying mode at the last second managing to spare my life. I immediately left. I thought if this guy thought I was dead he would relax. So I hid in the gas station after using one of my blackwings to fly me back up. There I also found parts to repair my runner. When I made sure that no one was around I returned to the bottom of the precipice and repaired the runner. I barely managed to repair it fast enough to come to your aid."

"Man. You are such an idiot you worried us all just catch this guy?"

"Yeah sorry Tails part of the job."

"Hahahaaha." Tails laughed.

The next moment the gang and the cops arrived. Amy almost fainted at Sonic's sight. But immediately after the shock she hugged him so hard that she almost broke his back. The rest of the team helped the cops arrest their chief. Sonic and team returned to the jet. There everyone expressed their relief and happiness that Sonic was alive and still with them. However when they started discussing their next destination Jet suggested to use the same method they used to get here. To make Sonic have a vision of a place that the next god might be. Amy strongly disagreed since they almost lost Sonic for real this time. But Sonic as the leader took the decision to have a vision and promised his friends they would not involve themselves with anything like this anymore during this mission. When Sonic touched the 2 god cards he saw a beach and female dancers with flowers around their necks. Not a lot of thought this time either. The Hawaiian islands. They all went to sleep immediately and at 6AM Tails and Sonic got up and prepared the plane for take off once again. Before they left however a worker who was help them move the plane gave them a package with a considerably big amount of money. It was from the owner of the museum. He was thanking the team for their help in taking care of the thieves and uncovering the chief's real motives. After this the team took off for the tropical paradise of Hawaii.