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Sonic Battle Adventures Episode 11: The Chaotix Quest! Tracking down Eggman!

Vector saw the sun come up, and the light passed through his eyelids. He opened them up, turned around to check on the Master Emerald, saw that it was still there, and fell back asleep…

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She woke up, and realized she was in her own bed. Amy looked around her apartment, and sighed. It wasn't a dream after all. Cream and Cheese were gathered up into a ball, silently sleeping, and Sonic was simply lying on his side, snoring loudly. Sometimes she wondered why she even loved him. But those thoughts quickly went away whenever he looked into those deep green eyes…

"Looks like someone's up!" A voice said softly, startling the pink hedgehog. She looked over at Emerald, and he winked, and signaled her over. She got out of bed, and started walking out, but in front of a mirror, she looked at herself. Her dress was dirty, wrinkled up, and a little torn.

Have I really been traveling like this? She asked herself, and then walked out, to see Tails, Knuckles, Gamma, and Emerald playing a game of cards.

"I still do not understand the concept of this game," Gamma replied. Emerald nodded as well.

"Yeah, me too. I thought you said this was as fun as fighting, Tails!" He accused at the two-tailed fox.

"Well, it's not exactly just as fun, but it's a good way to wind down and simply relax with your friends!" He replied.

"But what is the objective of this game?" Gamma asked. "You tell us to go fish, yet there is no pond or lake to fish in, and these cards would not make a good lure." Amy sighed, looking at the pathetic fight.

"Tails, you need any help?" She asked, sitting down next to him. He nodded with pleading eyes, and she took it from there.

"Go fish is just a figure of speech!" She explained. The point of the game is, when I ask if you have a certain number of a card, and you have that card, you have to give it to me, and I take the card of the same number from my hand, and place it down so everyone can see! If you don't have that number, than you tell them to go fish, where they draw from the top of the deck! If that's the card they need, they place it and the card they have on the table, and they get to go again! Understand?"

"I guess…" Emerald said. "So you win by emptying your hand?" Amy and Tails nodded. "Okay! I think I've got the hang of this game now, so bring on the fishies!"

"I still do not understand why you refer to fish…" Gamma muttered.

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"Well, ready to go?" Mighty asked, staring at the sunrise through the hotel room window, stretching his arms out. He turned around, to see Espio nod. "Hey, wait, where's Charmy?" Espio pointed towards the hotel bathroom.

"Brushing his teeth…" He said.

"Does it really take him that long? After all, he doesn't have too much teeth, so…"

"HEEEEEEELP!" Charmy screamed from within the bathroom. Espio and Mighty came storming in, and sighed. Charmy was stuck inside the bathroom sink. Mighty shook his head, grabbed Charmy with two fingers, and pulled him out. Charmy zoomed at Mighty's face, kissing him again and again.

"Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" He cried out!

"I'm not sure I truly want to know the answer, but what exactly were you doing in the sink?"

"Well, actually, it happened twice!" He said. "You see, while brushing my teeth, I saw this bug, and I tried to kill it with my stinger, but it was behind some sort of glass wall, so I bounced off of it and fell into the sink! I managed to get out of that one, but when I tried to rinse my mouth out, I realized I had to turn on the water, and then place my head under the faucet! So I did so, but the water sprayed me down there, and I fell into the drain!"

"Something tells me this is going to be a bad day…" Espio muttered to himself.

"Hey!" Charmy cried out. "This day couldn't have been worser than the time when Vector flushed me down the toilet! When I came out, I had to take seven showers before all the brown stains would come out, and that stuff made some very nasty chocolate!"

"I'm gonna agree with you on that one…" Mighty replied to Espio. "But let's check out already. The government is only spending the minimum amount it has trying to support us."

"But a hotel like this is a lot better than the dump we live in," Espio said.

"Yeah, well, Ray said that he wanted us to meet at the coffee shop across the street, to discuss how we're going to conduct our investigation," Mighty explained.

"But I thought we made things up as we went along!" Charmy cried out.

"No, that's what you do. But strangely enough, it works most the time…" Espio muttered.

"So, lets head out already!" Mighty said, running out the door. Espio then ran after him. Charmy looking in front of the mirror, looked at his shiny white teeth, and zoomed off after the two.

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"Yeah? Well, hello to you, too, Bob," Vector said on his cell phone. "Well, I'm on a diet, so I'll take four large cheese pizzas, with thin crust! Yes! Deliver it to the Shrine of the Master Emerald! What? What you do you mean you don't know where it is? It's the only place in the Mystic Ruins that has a giant glowing green rock rotating around all day long, you idiot!" There was a pause. "No, I don't want to speak to your manager! Yeah, well, you suck!" Vector closed the phone, and sighed. He was hungry… The Master Emerald would be fine if he went for a lunch break, right?

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"Ah, good to see you could make it!" The yellow squirrel said, sitting in a booth in the coffee shop. "I trust the hotel we paid for lived up to great detectives such as yourselves' standards?"

"You bet!" Charmy cried out. "It was in, out, around, and above our standards! In fact the only place lower than our standards would be under a rock!" Espio then snatched him from the air, as the chameleon and armadillo took their seat, across from Ray.

"Actually, what he meant to say was…" Mighty began, but Ray held up his hand.

"Don't need to say it. I ran a background check on the Chaotix Detective Agency. You guys are still paying off bills from four months ago." Mighty looked down at the table, embarrassed.

"I guess we're not exactly the detectives you thought we were, huh?" He asked.

"Hardly," He replied. "If Rouge suggested you to help us out, than that means you're obviously the best outside of the Government."

"Are you kidding?" Charmy burst, escaping his captor's hands. "We're the best there is: total! Do any cool Detective Agencies have a theme song like we do? Did any detectives help beat up a big blue robot? Of course not! Huh, what?"

"Charmy…" Espio said. "Why don't you go to the longest line you can find, and order for us?" He replied. The bee nodded, and zoomed around the Shop, looking for a line. A waitress named Kathy came up to them, and Mighty ordered a cup of coffee and a stack of pancakes, and Ray and Espio ordered a cup of coffee. She walked off, and they continued their conversation.

"So, where are your partners?" Espio asked. Ray shrugged.

"Bean's been trying out this new gunpowder thing he created, while Bark probably is working on our car somewhere. It doesn't matter, since they don't participate in this part of an investigation," he answered. "The Detective work is left to me, while they handle the big arrests. But I guess you'll be helping me out with this, which will be very helpful."

"I'd assume so," Mighty replied. "How exactly does a little squirrel like you get around to interrogating people? Doesn't exactly look like you're an on the spot type of person." Ray shook his head.

"I've taken some training classes in self-defense, but usually I do my interrogating inside the interrogation rooms. I'm not exactly the hands-on type of person. Besides, being locked up in a square room with only a black glass with your reflection in it to look at can be very helpful with my work."

"I see," Mighty replied, rubbing his chin. "Well, we're more of the 'hands-on' people, as you put it, and we usually question people on the spot. So, I want to get straight to business. Are we doing this investigation your way, or will we do it our way?" He smirked.

"That is why I have this, my friend," He said, pulling out a piece of paper in front of them, and then a pen.

"What's this?" Mighty asked, staring at the paper.

"It's a contract," Ray answered. "Basically, we hand the Omega investigation over to you now, and you have full advantage of our resources. However, I go along with you, and at the end of the day, I give a written report of the day's events to the President."

"Omega investigation?" Espio asked. "What exactly are the details of the case?"

"Well, because of Rouge the Bat's advice, the government decided to use Dr. Eggman's E-Series robot; E-123 Omega as part of the new government agency, sworn to the arrest of Dr. Eggman. Agent Omega decided to agree, for it would aid in the destruction of Dr. Eggman. The government has Omega all types of new equipment, making the final and strongest of Dr. Eggman's E-100 Series robots even stronger and added enough firepower to take down a small Egg Fleet. He also had weekly inspections to see if any foreign program has been implanted into him. But then, he just started to become overly aggressive, as he fought Sonic and company. Obviously, part of his new programming was to despise Sonic and his friends to the point where he almost blew his cover, if it wasn't for Shadow to stop him. Then, on the Space Colony Ark, Rouge and Omega were battling Shadow the Hedgehog for the Purple Chaos Emerald, but Omega betrayed them all, and escaped the Space Colony, with the Chaos Emerald in hand.

"After further investigation, we later discovered that Omega was paying off the mechanics to simply skip the inspections and write down a fully positive report. My theory is that Dr. Eggman placed some program into Omega, thus making him completely loyal to his creator once again. Armed with the fact that Omega is so powerful, and knows many government secrets, he's become a large threat. Thus, we must now take down Eggman and Omega immediately, before they can hatch any plans against the world. Rouge the Bat didn't believe anyone inside the government could be trusted at the moment, so she decided to hire you guys. She obviously thinks you're good detectives, otherwise she probably would have done the investigation herself.

"Well, we're flattered by the most part," Espio said. "So how exactly will we start?" Ray liked the way Espio was getting down to business.

"Well, we have discovered a group of 'Eggmen', as we like to call them, are heading up a meeting inside this very city."

"Eggmen?" Mighty asked.

"Yes. Organic beings loyal the Eggman Empire. They're promised they won't be roboticized when Eggman takes over the world, so they want to keep their free will."

"I see. So, what do you suggest we do, Ray?"

"I believe that we head up a full surveillance on each member of the meeting, and after they leave, track them down and see if they can get us any closer to Eggman," He said. Mighty smirked, and shook his head.

"When's the meeting going to start?" He asked.

"2:00 P.M., so in seven and a half hours from now. It should be plenty of time to get the manpower we need in a rush."

"No need to rush," Mighty replied. "Like you said, time is of the essence. So, we might as well get the information as soon as we can! So just bring Bean and Bark, and maybe a few other Agents that you can trust, okay? We can meet back here in three and a half hours, to go over our battle plan, and then when the meeting begins, we'll strike!"

"You're planning on invading them on their home turf?" Ray asked. "Doesn't that sound a little dangerous?"

"Please…" Espio muttered. "Listening to Vector sing, that's dangerous. This will actually be fun," He smirked, as their meals came. They ate their breakfast pretty quickly joking around a bit, until the check came. Ray said to put it on the Government tab, and the three left, but Espio felt like he was forgetting something.

"Huh? Hey guys! I can't find any lines around! Are you sure we're in the right place?" Charmy asked, zooming up to the table. "Ahh! They left without me again!" He cried out, zooming out the door.

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Sonic looked out from the rooftop, looking down upon the city. Things were quiet in the morning. He considered jumping from rooftop to rooftop for some fun, but he didn't want the others to get worried. He thought about the tasks at hand. Eggman had the Purple Chaos Emerald, Shadow had the Silver Emerald, and they had the Gold and Red Emeralds, along with Emerald himself. He just needed to find the two blue Emeralds, snatch Eggman's Emerald, and somehow find a way to get the Emerald from Shadow. He wondered if searching for the Chaos Emeralds would be any good, anyway. But Emerald, though he didn't show it, was looking for answers, and the Seven Emeralds together might give him the answers he needed.

Not only that, but both Shadow and Eggman were after the Chaos Emeralds, and even though the two are on different sides now, the last time they were looking for all of them, there was a very big laser cannon that could blow up the planet involved. He kept wondering and wondering, but eventually, there were too many questions. He would get them answered later. Until then, he jumped off the rooftop, onto the roof of a fast food restaurant. He jumped from that one as well, jumping from rooftop to rooftop, waving at the people looking up at the blue blur. He guessed he could have some fun for a little while.

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"It's Showtime, boys!" Mighty said, putting on his trench coat, and walking into the building, following a human and a porcupine. Ray did the same, as Espio and Charmy waited outside. The two of them kept following the two people talking, and eventually found the meeting room. Someone was already speaking, meaning the meeting had already begun.

"Hopefully it won't be a short one…" Mighty whispered to Ray.

"You're telling me!" The porcupine said, overhearing Mighty's comment. "The last one, one of my spines was broken off on the chair, and it was stabbing me for three hours!" Mighty laughed politely, but shied away from them, with Ray quickly behind.

"So these agents of yours, they any good?" Mighty asked. Ray nodded.

"All you have to worry about is whether your guys can hold up their part of the plan, he said with a wink. The two took a seat, and Ray checked his watch. "It's 2: 15, almost Showtime!" Ray said. Mighty wasn't listening to Ray, however. He wanted to hear what the speaker was saying.

"As you know, a new Chaos Emerald has been found!" The man behind the podium cried out with excitement. He was fairly tall, maybe in his mid-forties. Slight graying jet-black hair, nice navy suit, and a yellow tie, completely clashing with the rest of his clothing. "E-1023 Omega himself is coming to pick it up, but until then, it's up to us to make sure the Emerald remains there, and you know who doesn't get there, first!" Everyone froze when he said "you know who". Was Sonic all that frightening to them? But Ray was staring at his watch the whole time, and wasn't listening.

"This will be easier than I thought…" Mighty muttered. "We can take down Omega, just as long as he tells us the location. Maybe we won't have to execute the plan…"

"What?" Ray asked. He had no idea what was going on.

"Haven't you been listening?" Mighty asked. "The guy just said that there's a Chaos Emerald that Omega's coming down himself to collect!" Ray looked shocked, a little embarrassed.

"Sheesh, you do everything by the book, don't you?" Mighty asked. "Well, try listening to the enemy for a change!" Ray shrunk down in his seat, as a small beep went off. But it was loud enough to freeze up everyone in the room.

BOOM! An explosion from the west door came roaring, sending the door soaring into the air. Everyone immediately, got up, and started panicking!

"It's a trap! He's here to get us!" Porcupine yelled out. A blast from the east made the East door blow away, as it only left the main south exit, and the emergency north exit.

"Everyone, stay calm!" Navy suit cried out. "Those in the south side, use the south exit. Those in the north side, use the north exit, don't try to trample over each oth…" Suddenly, a Chameleon was breaking down his neck, a short knife held at his throat.

"You have to be the leader of this meeting," Espio said. "Tell us, who are you?"

"Tell me who you are, first?" He demanded, but Espio pressed the knife closer to his throat.

"Don't try to make this any harder than it is for you," He responded. "Just answer my question!"

"Fine! My name is Charles E. Choose, head of the Eggman Unroboticized Empire! I'm the proud director of this operation, and I will not answer any more of your questions!" Espio cut his throat a little, causing some blood to run down his neck, as Mr. Choose groaned in pain.

"Next question. Where exactly is this Chaos Emerald located?"

"I will never tell! Go ahead and slit my throat, but you've only succeeded in dooming yourself!" Espio sighed, and hit the man in the head with the butt of his knife, knocking him out.

"Maybe we should tie him up and bring him to our place," Espio suggested.

"Yeah, that would probably be best," Mighty replied, suddenly hearing a metal clanging sound. A lot of them. "Looks like we're gonna have company!" Mighty cried out, balling his fists, as the North and South Entrances suddenly poured a large number of Eggbots. But not all of them were unarmed like the ones on the Egg Fleet 2. Some had lasers, some had machine guns, some even had lances. A Silver Eggbot from the South Side with a metal shield and a lance suddenly aimed his lance at them.

"Get them! Lances first!" He cried out, as the Eggbots charged, ready to impale the intruders.

"Not so fast!" Espio cried out, jumping into the air, sending a flurry of shuriken towards the North Side. Four Eggbots fell to the ground, but one with a Lance still charged.

"Ray, how good are you in a fight?" Mighty asked, back-to-back with the yellow squirrel.

"I've had some training, but I'm not necessarily skilled!" He replied, holding his watch to his mouth. "Bean! Bark! Heavy! Bomb! Get over here now!"

"You only brought along two agents?" He asked.

"These two agents are something special, I tell ya," He replied, suddenly pulling out two knuckled spikes. There was a button on the side, and when he used his thumb to press it, electricity came out between them. He suddenly dashed towards an Eggbot with some speed, and pierced the spikes through the armor, and electrocuting the Eggbot. The robot deactivated, and Ray moved on to the next one.

"Looks like I don't have to worry about him!" Mighty replied, charging an Eggbot. He grabbed it, and tore it in half like it was tissue paper. He then crumpled each side into a ball, and threw them at two other Eggbots, smashing them to pieces. "Espio! You ready?" The two of them nodded to each other.

"Leaf Swirl!" Espio yelled, jumping in the center of everything and bringing up a tornado full of leaves. The wind an leaves sliced into the Eggbots, but barely did any damage. But the wind was so powerful, they couldn't see Mighty suddenly slam his fist into the hard ground. Pieces of metal and rock were sent flying everywhere, smashing into all the Eggbots that neared, tearing them to shreds. Then, Ray jumped from out of the wind, right at the Silver Eggbot.

"You're mine!" He yelled, slamming the spike into the Eggbot's metal. But the spikes simply slid off, as they couldn't puncture the hard armor.

"I am an upgraded Eggbot!" He yelled out. "Weak attacks can't hurt me like the rest!" He drove his lance straight into Ray's gut, the squirrel managed to get out of the way for the most part. The lance scraped his side, however, and left a clean cut. Ray stumbled backwards, falling on his rear, looking up at the Silver Eggbot. "In the name of Master Robotnik, you shall be executed!" He yelled, but an bee suddenly zoomed out of nowhere, glowed a bright red, used his stinger to pierce right through the Eggbot!

"Zoom!" Charmy cried out, as the Silver robot fell to the ground, lifeless. Charmy performed a victory pose, but suddenly felt a sharp pain in his stinger. "Ow!" He yelled. "Ow! Ow! Owie!" He flew up towards Mighty and Espio, tears forming in his eyes because of the pain.

"I think you need to work on your super sting," Mighty replied, grabbing Ray. They looked at the 10 lance Eggbots, and they were all destroyed.

"Who else wants some!" Mighty yelled, pounding on his chest. But he shrunk down, as he realized the remaining 20 Eggbots with the lasers and Machineguns were all surrounding them, aimed perfectly. "Oh shoot…" he muttered.

"In the name of Master Robotnik, you shall be executed!" They cried out in unison. Then, a large string-like substance shoot out of the West doorway, and ran right through the crowd of Eggbots on the north side.

"Huh?" An Eggbot asked, looking down at the string. It was a large amount of dynamite, with a string running straight through the middle of them! "Uh oh…" A green figure in the shadows lit up a match, and Bean's face was revealed. He simply flicked the match at the end of the string, as all the Eggbots on the north side simply watched the flames on the string travel to the dynamite. The explosion erupted, as one dynamite exploding caused the next on to explode, and so forth. The Eggbots on the north side were taken care of, with the exception of a few scattering around helplessly. A polar bear came charging in, however, and smashed all of the Eggbots running around. Bean and Bark stepped out of the flames, and gave a thumbs up to the two behind the Eggbots on the south side.

"Hi!" A strange round red creature said, waving to them. "3-2-1…" he held his breath, and exploded! Eggbots were sent flying all over the place, as a large robot stormed in, and flattened each and every one of the Eggbots still intact. Suddenly, the red round creature stepped forward, as if he never exploded…

"Bomb and Heavy!" Mighty cried out to the two. "You guys are the agents?" Bomb smirked, and gave his thumbs up.

"You guys know each other?" Ray asked. Espio nodded.

"A while back, Bomb and Heavy were with us when we helped Knuckles defeat Metal Sonic," He explained. "They left after that, so we never really knew what became of them. I guess things are going good for you, huh?"

"Sure is!" Bomb replied. "I get full dental, and I don't even need my teeth!"

"Yes," Was all Heavy replied with.

"So what are we gonna do with him?" Mighty asked, pointing at navy suit lying on the ground, still unconscious.

"I have an idea," Espio said. "Let's take him to the Chaotix Headquarters,"

"Why there?" Mighty asked.

"Because, the guy won't talk in a normal interrogation room. So we need a place that looks like a dungeon. Let's go."

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"Ahh… what a good breakfast…" Vector said, carrying a large cooler up with him was he walked up back to the Master Emerald. "Hello to you there, too!" He said, waving to the Master Emerald. "Want some chicken?" He held a leg out to it. "Oh, then you must be a vegetarian! Oh well, you know what they say! Save a cow, eat a vegetarian! Hahaha!" He stuffed the leg in his mouth, and he chewed it up and swallowed it: bone and all. The Master Emerald sweatdropped, rotating around as normal.

Am I really supposed to feel safe with this guy guarding me? I want Knuckles back…

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"Wha-?" Choose cried out, waking up. "Where am I?" He was tied up to a wall, as he looked around at his whereabouts. It was a dark gray room the light shut off, and no wallpaper whatsoever. It must have been some kind of dungeon!

"Hello there!" A voice said to the side of him. He looked over to see a bee chained up to the wall as well. "What did you do the them?" He asked.

"What do you mean?" He asked, his voice hesitant.

"I mean, I flew into this place, and the owners here trapped me! They then locked me in here, said they're gonna let me starve to death! They could at least just swatted me to death like any other household!" Choose froze up, thinking how he got in this. Suddenly the door opened, and an armadillo, a squirrel, and the chameleon from before came in.

"Hello there," the chameleon said, waving to Choose. "Sorry, but we wanted to get you to a place where we could talk without being attacked by a bunch of Eggman Robots." He grabbed a stool, and sat down right in front of him. "So let's continue our talk. You were going to tell me the location of the Chaos Emerald?" Choose said nothing.

"You know, it might be wise to talk to me. After all, you have no idea what kind of crazy things I'll do!" He snapped his fingers, and the armadillo walked up, tore the bee free, and walked out of the room.

"NOOOOOOO!" He heard the bee scream. "Not my wings! AAAAAAAGH! HELP MEEEEEEEEEE!" The bee was heard screaming again, but it was cut off. The armadillo came back, with bloodstains clearly visible on his white gloves. He stood behind the chameleon, crossing his arms, keeping a straight and mean-looking face.

"Are you sure you don't want to tell us?" The chameleon asked. "If you do, we'll be glad to set you free!"

"I can't…" Choose said with hesitation. "He'll kill me if I do…"

"Mighty!" The chameleon snapped his fingers once again, and held up the metal stool. The armadillo, presumably named Mighty, bent the stool into a large metal ball with ease, not a hint of strain in his voice. But the show wasn't over. He let the ball go, closed his hands into fists, and shattered the ball to pieces with both his fists. Pieces of the metal flew everywhere.

"That's how we're going to finish you off if you don't tell us!" The chameleon said. "But first we'll electrocute you, cut your fingers and toes off one by one, and several other cruel and painful things before we crush your head like a melon. Now Eggman? He'll simply vaporize you with a laser. Nothing painful. Are you sure you can take our interrogation? Besides, when we let you go, you can still run and have a chance for survival, no matter how small. A smart guy like you? I'm sure you'll have the connections to pull such a thing off." He stopped talking for a bit, and the words sunk into Choose.

"It's… It's in the jungle of the Mystic Ruins. Stuck in the mud of the river. We're keeping it in such a strong current of water because we're aware that he can't swim. E-1023 Omega is coming by at Midnight to take it and deliver it to Master Robotnik…" He put his head down, not believing that he actually talked. The chameleon smirked, and waved the squirrel over. He nodded, and pulled out a pair of handcuffs, and a tape recorder.

"Got it?" He asked the squirrel. The yellow creature nodded.

"All recorded on here, baby. I'm surprised you had a few batteries lying around this dump of an apartment of yours…"

"Charmy!" The armadillo yelled out. "The plays over now! You can come down now!" The bee suddenly zoomed in, and stuck his tongue at Choose.

"What? What's going on here?" A polar bear and a duck suddenly came in. The polar bear untied Choose, and the squirrel placed the handcuffs on him.

"You just got fooled by a bunch of detectives, Mr. Choose!" The squirrel said. "Now, you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right…" The voice droned on as they took him outside, and into a police car waiting outside.

"Looks like we accomplished something, huh?" Mighty asked. Espio nodded. "By the way, excellent plan!"

"Thanks," Espio said, looking at the car speed away, satisfied. "Now, we should take the train to the Mystic Ruins."

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It was time. Knuckles, Gamma, Tails, Emerald, Cream, Cheese, and Sonic were all waiting outside Amy's Apartment, awaiting for her to "get ready".

"Tails?" Emerald said, looking up at the sky.

"Yes?" Tails replied, looking at his watch.

"Why is the sky blue?" He stopped looking up to look at the fox.

"Uhh… because the particles of light the sun brings down scatter…"

"Oh. One of those sciency things. I thought it was actually a cool story…" He muttered. Tails looked down at the ground in disappointment. "Well, blue is not the right color for covering the entire world. Green… now that would be a better color for the sky to be. He raised his hand, and a green ball of light appeared in it. Suddenly, it shrunk down, only a speck of green.

"What're you copying now?" Sonic asked, looking at the speck of green.

"A particle of light, like Tails explained," He answered. Raising his hand up and watching the green speck of light fly up into the sky. "Even if the sky can't be green, I guess it would be cool for a just a tiny speck of green in the sky. A little piece of me in everything…"

"Ooh… that's so beautiful, Emerald!" Cream praised.

"So… Cream, you're coming with us?" Tails asked, weirded out by Emerald. He's been having quite a bit of mood swings lately, but it was to see it was a gentle one. Gentle is better than arrogant and violent, right?

"I would like to!" Cream replied. "Since Amy's been gone, Cheese and I have been bored! So if we go out on an adventure, won't things be more fun? Besides, I've gotten all dressed up and everything!" Cream was wearing a bright orange t-shirt with a yellow star in the center, orange shorts, and a pair of shoes that were yellow in the back, and orange in the front. She also had an orange sun visor to block out the sunlight from her eyes. Cheese was wearing almost the same thing, except he had a pair of light blue sunglasses, and was looking cool.

"Chao…" he replied smoothly, like the ladies Chao.

"But Eggman's involved with this ordeal," Knuckled warned, crossing his arms. "Are you sure you and Cheese can handle yourself?"

"Of course!" Amy cried out, stepping out of the apartment. She was holding a large pink bookbag over her shoulder. "Just because Cream's young doesn't mean she and Cheese can't beat down her fair share of robots! Besides, you know she helped us beat Eggman and Metal Sonic before!"

"Is that why you were taking so long?" Emerald asked, looking at Amy's new attire. "You had to change your clothing?" Amy nodded. She was wearing a white but mostly pink top, pink pants with a white stripe down the side of the legs, and an alternating pink and red tennis shoes. The wrists of her gloves changed, too. They were red on the outside and yellow on the inside.

"This time, adventure's not taking me by surprise, so I'm going to make sure I'm fully ready!" She replied. "Besides, it's about time I changed my threads!"

"I don't understand this clothing thing…" Emerald muttered. "Me, Tails, Sonic, and Knuckles don't wear any clothing, but females have so many different types of it. Do they have some kind of secret that they don't want to show males?" Cream and Amy giggled, confusing the green guy even more.

"You could say something like that!"

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"Oh… the pain!" An Eggbot cried out, and then fell to the ground and deactivated. The Mystic Ruins jungle was full of shattered robots, as Mighty, Espio, Charmy, Heavy, and Bomb tore through them easily. Thus, they eventually found the Chaos Emerald.

"Yep! It's stuck there alright!" Mighty said, looking at the rushing river. "I'd get it myself, but I'd get washed away by the river as soon as I jumped in!"

"Heavy, you think you can get the Chaos Emerald?" Espio asked. The large robot stepped closer to the river.

"Negative, Espio," The robot replied. "If I went down there, I would not get washed away by the river, but I would get stuck in the mud."

"Darn…" Charmy said. "Hey! Bomb can blow the river up!"

"I won't go off underwater…" He replied to Charmy as if he was an idiot.

"Then lets fish it out!" The bee yelled, zooming into the air. "We just need a good rod, and…"

"Charmy!" Mighty interrupted. "You can't fish in a rushing river!" Just then, a large cat with a frog on his shoulder stepped up to the river, sat down, and threw his lure into the river. "Then again…" He ran over to the large cat.

"Hey, big guy!" He cried out, waving his hand back and forth. The large purple cat turned his head, and the frog croaked.

"Huh?" He asked, looking towards Mighty. "Yes?"

"Uhh… I was wondering if you could give us a hand, here!" He replied, scratching his shell. "You see, I was hanging out with my friends in the river, and I found this jewel! I was going to fish it out for my girlfriend, but the river's too strong for me to get it! Do you think you and your rod can get it for me?" He put an innocent smile on his face.

"Uhh… what do you think, Froggy?" He asked the frog on his shoulder. He croaked in response. "My polliwog pal says he doesn't believe you!" He replied. "Are you lying?" Mighty stepped back, shaking a little.

One smart frog…

"Hey! Big!" Charmy yelled out, zooming up to the cat. "Remember me? And remember him?" Charmy pointed towards Espio, walking towards him with Bomb and Heavy following. Big thought they looked at the bee and chameleon for a bit, and it clicked.

"Hey, you two I met on the Egg Fleet!" He said, pleased to see those guys again. "You helped fight Metal Sonic!"

"Indeed," Espio replied, thinking it was awfully convenient to meet someone like this at a time like this.

"Why didn't you just say so?" Big asked Mighty, and looked around into the water. "Is it a big shiny blue rock?" Mighty nodded. And Big suddenly jumped into the water! He trudged through the mud, against the rushing current, dove down into the water, and grabbed the Chaos Emerald! He jumped out of the water, and landed a surprisingly graceful landing.

"Wow…" Charmy and Espio exclaimed. "When did you learn to jump like that?"

"Training for next battle," He explained. "When the bat lady, black hedgehog, and robot from before came after the shiny jewel, I didn't win. So if they attack again, I want to be strong!"

"Wait, are you saying Rouge, Shadow, and Omega fought here?" Mighty exclaimed. Big just gave a simple "What's the big deal?" nod.

"So Omega's betrayal… you were there?" Espio asked. Big nodded.

"I was stuck on a giant ship in space, and I heard Rouge and Shadow talk!"

"Rouge and Shadow…" Espio muttered.

"You mean the black hedgehog is in this, too? Cool! It can be a Sonic Heroes reunion!" Charmy cried out, shaking in excitement.

"Rouge hired us, and since she doesn't have a partner, she'd need a new one, that would be strong enough to handle people like Sonic and Omega, and with familiarity with Dr. Eggman…" Mighty thought out loud. "So if Shadow's working with the government on this one, wouldn't someone like Ray know something about it?"

"Looks like Mr. Squirrelly gots some serious explaining to do!" Charmy yelled.

------------

"So… the guy tries to hang himself on the lamp post with his necktie because he didn't want to spend another hour in the room!" Vector cried out, chuckling. "You know what? The guy was only sitting in the room for 10 minutes in the first place! Man, weren't those the days!" Vector slapped his knee, laughing out loud. The entire Master Emerald altar was littered with banana peels, gum wrappers, chicken bones, and various breadcrumbs.

What a dump… I hope this guy will clean up afterwards… Hey, aren't I supposed to be some holy ground or something? Heathen…

--------------

"We're here," Bark said, looking around in the jungle. He saw all the Eggbots torn to pieces, and knew that the Chaotix had been here. "Too bad. The party's over…"

"Actually, the party's just begun…" Espio said, becoming visible right in front of them. Heavy popped out of the ground appearing before Bark, Mighty jumped down from a tree landing in front of Bark, and Bomb and Charmy fell down in front of Bean. Espio threw a dagger, and it landed right next to Ray's foot.

"What's going on?" Ray asked.

"I'd like to ask the same thing," The Chameleon replied. "You've been setting the entire thing up this whole time, haven't you? You looked at our records, and immediately thought we'd be on a wild goose chase. But just in case, you kept pointing us in the wrong directions, haven't you?" Ray dropped his eyes, a signal of confession.

"I was trying to make sure you stayed on the case so Rouge and Shadow would be able to investigate other missions, so they'd stay away from Dr. Eggman…" He admitted. Bean and Bark stepped back in surprise. They apparently didn't know what was going on.

"Why would you do that?" Mighty asked, suddenly grabbing Ray by the fur on his chest, lifting him up to the armadillo's height. He force was crushing Ray.

"Mighty!" Espio cried out, forcing the armadillo to drop the squirrel.

"I do what I'm told!" Ray replied angrily, holding the torn fur in his chest. "I had direct orders from… I had direct orders!"

"Tell us, who gave the order?" Espio said in a calmed, controlled voice. But it was a controlled voice that didn't look like it would be controlled for very long.

"I will not divulge such information!" He replied back strongly. Only, this strength was the trigger that sent Mighty to backhand Ray right in the face, straight into the tree. He fell to the ground, bruised face, torn chest, and splintered back.

"Remember when Espio said I'd squash that one guy's head like a melon?" he asked. "Well, right now, it's feeling like an awfully good thing to crush your head right now!" He took his foot, and pressed Ray's face into the dirt with his foot. The squirrel tapped his fist into the ground several times, and Mighty took his foot off.

"I will remain loyal to this country!" He replied, staring a deadeye at Mighty. "I will obey every order given to me by the President with my heart and soul, regardless of feelings!" Mighty, Espio, Charmy, Bean, Bark, Bomb, and Mighty all suddenly screamed out in shock.

"The President gave you orders that would keep Shadow and Rouge away from Eggman?" Espio asked.

"That's right. He also ordered Shadow and Rouge as an assassin's squad to kill Sonic the Hedgehog!" Ray yelled back. "That's the truth. The President told me exactly what he's doing! He's making piece with Dr. Eggman to prevent this entire Eggman Empire war thing from going on and causing many casualties in the process!"

"You really think that's the case?" Espio replied. "Look at your judgement. He's trying to stop killing by giving the machine the will to kill, then killing off the greatest defense we have against Eggman, while keeping all the other threats out of the way, giving Eggman the perfect chance to strike. Do you really think that the President is doing this out if kindness?"

"…" Was all Ray mustered, gripping the dirt with his hands.

"Yeah, that's what I thought you'd say," Mighty replied bitterly. He pulled Ray up to his face. "Now, what do you think of your president now?" Ray didn't respond. Mighty dropped him, and turned towards Espio. "Well, we really discovered how complicated things are, now! So, what do you think we'll do?" Espio was thinking, but Ray already came up with the plan.

"You guys search for Sonic and his friends," He replied weakly. "Tell them to come along with you to the Mystic Ruins. As for Bark, Bean, and myself, we will request Agents Rouge and Shadow to the same place, and we will then explain the situation to all parties. Taking down Eggman is our top priority in this country's safety, especially when our leader is not suitable to handle such a situation." He laughed bitterly. "Amazing…" He muttered. "The best way to serve your country is by breaking the law…" He smiled dryly, and weakly stood up.

"When exactly will this meeting take place?" Espio asked, watching Ray turn around, and start to leave.

"In exactly one week. You've got seven days to find Sonic and company, bring them here. I'm fully capable of handling my end of the bargain, so you just worry about yours," He signaled to Bean and Bark, and they walked away.

"Ooh… Things are getting really confusing!" Charmy cried out loud. "Can someone explain everything to me?"

"Maybe later…" Mighty said. He turned towards Espio, Heavy, and Bomb. "You guys head out towards Holy Summit. I'm pretty sure he could use some help protecting the Master Emerald. And as for Charmy and myself, we'll track down Sonic the Hedgehog, okay?"

"Roger," Espio replied, turning around, with the small red robot and the large towering robot following him.

"So Charmy, you ready to head out on another adventure?"

"You bet! Zoom!" The bee flew beyond the trees, straight into the sky.

Preview:

Sonic: Alright, looks like the spotlight goes back to us!

Emerald: Don't you mean, Tails, Knuckles, and I?

Sonic: What?

Knuckles: Looks like the next Chaos Emerald is in the Ocean. Think you can really help us out much?

Sonic: …

Amy: Don't worry Sonic! I'll be here with you so you won't get lonely!

Sonic: No way! I'd rather take my chances with the fishes!

Cream: Next time on Sonic Battle Adventures: Journey into the Dark Depths: The Underwater Battle! Please don't miss it!

Author's Notes: Yesh! The next Chapter of Sonic Battle Adventures has been posted so soon! I'd be working on my Pokemon fics, but I'm in a bit of a writer's block problem, and my RP board that I'm on has sorta died down.

Speaking of RP boards, Sonic Realms is back! Create your own custom Character to help Sonic and friends go through Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, and a completely new adventure, along with mini series of Sonic Shuffle and Sonic Riders!

s11. the address. C and P it in the url, and then you'll be there! Please! This board needs members!