Chapter 7

The Egg Carrier

SOMEWHERE IN THE SKY

Tails flew the Tornado 2 in pursuit of the Egg Carrier. Sonic was stuck with the boring job of watching for the Egg Carrier. Finally, amidst all the clouds and fog was a flying vessel, (besides planes, what else could be a flying vessel?) the Egg Carrier.

"I see it, I see it!" yelled Sonic.

"Wait…" Tails stared. "Yeah, now I see it!"

Tails continued to fly the plane when mini jet fighters which had flown at them before started flying at them and shooting. Tails easily dodged them and shot some of them from a distance. He passed around the side of the vessel when fiery spiked balls flew at him. Also, there were floating and spiked mines and the air. Soon, the Tornado 2 came in front of the Egg Carrier. Eggman must not have thought the two would get that far, so the laser at the front didn't fire at them. Tails decided that this was the best time to show off his new plane.

"Ha ha! So far, so good!" Tails yelled over the sounds of the plane.

"I hope you know what you're doing…" Sonic said.

"You bet! Watch this!" Tails said as he pressed a button.

A claw came out of the back of the plane picking up Sonic. The plane shifted gears now and the plane changed its shape. What was once a regular plane, it was now a faster, and better fighting plane. The hook let go of Sonic.

"Let's do this!" Tails screamed.

Tails decided to go around the Egg Carrier again, first going to the left-hand side of it. There were more mines and spiked balls here. He started shooting them. After that, he made a turn so they went through the bottom of the Egg Carrier. There were mines, spiked balls, and pincers trying to hurt them, but nothing would. They finally went over the Egg Carrier and flew across it and finally went back to the front. The laser in the front was still there. First, spiked balls came at them. Tails shot them. Subsequently, the laser shot at them. The Tornado 2 was fast, though, as it dodged it.

"Tails, what do we do!" Sonic screamed.

"Um…" Tails started. "I know! We should wait for it to open! I'll shoot it and it should malfunction."

Tails tried it out as the balls flew by, and the laser cannon opened. Tails shot at it. The laser looked to come out, but nothing happened. Smoke finally rose out. The laser was destroyed.

"All right, we're in!" Tails yelled with glee.

"Okay, now let's land!" Sonic said.

"Whoops…" Tails started. "I forgot to put in the landing gear!"

ONBOARD THE EGG CARRIER

Gamma finally regained consciousness when he got to the Egg Carrier. It was time to show his master the frog he found and see if it's the right one.

"I've got the right one! No, I've got the frog! That's a toad!" the other E-100 robots said amongst themselves. All of them except for Gamma. Finally, Eggman stepped towards them to inspect for the right frog.

"No." Eggman said while passing by E-105 Zeta.

"No." Eggman said while passing by E-104 Delta.

"NO!" Eggman said while passing by E-103 Epsilon. "Why can't you hunks of junk find a simple frog!"

"Wait a minute… Gamma, you found the frog!" Eggman said with joy. "I knew you could do it! As for the rest of you, BE GONE!" He pressed a button and green light surrounded them. They were being teleported to different parts of the world. Epsilon looked at Gamma before he was gone. Gamma knew nothing about the differences of good and evil at the time. All was just about whatever his master, Dr. Eggman said.

"Gamma, I have a new request for you." Started Eggman. "There is a girl hedgehog in one of the jail cells in those rooms over there. I am not interested in the girl, but the bird that she has contains a Chaos Emerald. Bring me the bird."

Eggman left and Gamma headed towards the doors. Eggman had not specifically said which door, so he walked around in a circle to pick randomly. Of the three doors, he picked the one on the left. In that room, he saw his brother robot, Beta, with his parts being scrambled up and fixed. Gamma didn't understand. He walked out of the room with only one conclusion:

"This is not the correct room."

He decided to take the one on the right, which indeed took him into the prison. Inside was Amy clutching the bird as tight as possible, trying to assure herself that Sonic would come and they would be saved. Gamma walked in, looking at each cell and the last one contained the hedgehog and the bird.

"Give me the bird." Said Gamma.

"No, this bird's mine!" Amy lashed back.

"Give me the bird."

"No way!"

"Why not?"

"I don't need to tell you anything! Why do you need it is the question."

"Does not compute."

"You don't even know? Wow, that's sad. Can you help us, then?"

"Illogical. You care for something you know nothing about."

"Wow, I feel bad. Your functions don't include caring for others." Just then the bird flew out of Amy's hands in front of Gamma's eyes. Gamma suddenly felt something beyond his programming. Emotions that he has never felt before. Obviously, Eggman never intended for this to happen, since right after that, he let Amy go.

"Go, escape." Gamma said.

"What? Are you serious?" Amy responded.

"It is dangerous here."

"Wow, thanks. You're a lot nicer than I thought. We can be friends if you want." Amy ran out the door while Gamma stood for a while, thinking about what had just happened. Amy was out the door, but she had to face one more room.

"Ha, ha, ha! You think you can get out of here that fast, can you, Amy?" Eggman's voice said through a PA. "The only way out of here is if you beat my high score on my brilliant Hedgehog Hammer game. Good luck!"

Eggman must have no life. To spend his time trying to whack Sonic dolls. Ha! Amy thought. She walked up to the middle of the gaming system. The rules were: Whack the Sonic and Super Sonic dolls for points (Sonic – 100, Super Sonic - 500). Hitting the Eggman dolls lose 200 points. Eggman's high score was 2000 points. The game started as a Sonic doll came up out of a hole. Amy whacked at it, but it moved back into its hole. Then, a Super Sonic doll came out and Amy destroyed it. 500 points. She'd hit an Eggman doll after that. At the end of the game, her score said, AMY – 2300 points. 00:00 seconds left.

"NO! How could this be!" Eggman's voice said. Above her head came the words, "NEW HIGH SCORE! NEW HIGH SCORE! WARRIOR FEATHER EARNED!"

She felt the Warrior Feather snap over her left ear. A voice said, "This is the Warrior Feather. It allows you to swing your hammer in a 360 angle. But don't do it for too long, as you will get dizzy."

Amy ran out the door and went through the middle door of the three doors that Gamma had gone through. Zero had met up with her there and started chasing her.

"Come on, birdie! We have to get out of here!" she yelled.

She ran into the room which was the "Hot Shelter" as said with a sign on the side. Suddenly Zero jumped over her from the ceiling. Amy screamed and ran away with the bird.

OUTSIDE…

"Wow, this thing is really huge!" Sonic said.

"Come on, Sonic! We need to find Amy!" Tails screamed.

"You're right, my friend! So here we go!"

"If I know right, there should be some sort of monorail system to get to the bridge quickly. Let's look for it!"

Sonic and Tails ran around looking for the monorail system, when they found a sign with a train symbol on it.

"Don't get any ideas, fools!" a voice said. It was Eggman's voice. "Let me show you the power that this vessel really has. GET A LOAD OF THIS!"

The Egg Carrier switched from one straight bar shaped vessel to one straight bar shaped vessel with wings.

"Wow, the Egg Carrier just changed shape!" Tails exclaimed. "Did you see that?"

Sonic gave him the Evil Eye and went on to say, "Darn, how are we supposed to get to the bridge now!"

"I hate it when he doesn't listen to me…" Tails said to himself.

"Don't worry you idiots, there is another way, but a more difficult way." Eggman started. "That only way is the Sky Deck. Oh, yeah, I hope you survive." He finished, laughing maniacally.

The hedgehog and the fox ran forward to see the octagonal-shaped door.

"This should lead to the Sky Deck…" Sonic said.

"Well, it's worth a try," Tails said and they walked into it.

INSIDE…

"Where's Froggy?" Big asked out loud inside the Egg Carrier. He didn't understand. Why would Froggy just run away? This might have happened long ago if they weren't friends at all, but he couldn't understand why now.

He walked around aimlessly. He didn't know what to do. Suddenly, he saw a door open and close.

"Froggy?" he asked. It probably wasn't Big's pal, but his instincts told him to go through the door. That door led a room with a bridge leading towards a big circular container with water and fish in it. One animal in there was not a fish, however. That animal was Froggy. Big danced excitedly and accidentally stepped on a button on the ground. That button emptied the water from the container and onto the floor. Out with the water came Froggy and the fish. Big, with his new lure, was able to catch Froggy easily.

"Froggy!" Big screamed. He took his best friend in his hands and ran out the door.

ON THE SKY DECK…

Knuckles wandered around the Egg Carrier, eventually making it to the Sky Deck, where he sensed Master Emerald shards. He came to a room and saw a lever that could change the direction to where gravity pulls you. At the same time, Sonic and Tails walked into the deck (not knowing that Knuckles was there) and were surprised with the sudden change of force.

"Whoa!" Sonic yelled.

"I think Eggman might be changing gravitational pull direction!" Tails screamed back.

Knuckles didn't seem to mind the change. The change in gravity seemed to open certain doors that couldn't be opened on regular gravity. Strangely, Sonic and Tails never saw Knuckles throughout the whole ordeal. The hedgehog and his twin-tailed sidekick were able to survive the changes in gravity, while the echidna found the final three (or what he believed to be) emerald shards. That, however, led him to yet another flashback.

UNKNOWN PLACE – MASTER EMERALD ALTAR

"Aw, man! Where am I again!" Knuckles screamed angrily. Then, he looked up and saw something burning. It was the Master Emerald's altar. He ran up to it and saw the girl echidna, Tikal, crying in front of the altar and some dead Chao.

"Oh my goodness! What have I done? What have I allowed to happen!" She screamed hysterically. She looked at the burnt Chao and started crying harder. She turned and saw Knuckles just standing there. "I've got to stop this all! Chaos is going to destroy life on this planet as we know it!" She ran towards the altar. Knuckles reached out towards her, but the light engulfed him and he left the place.

EGG CARRIER - ON THE BRIDGE

Amy was trying to run away. Trying to get off the flying vessel. She ran to the edge and saw how high she was from the ground.

"Wow! I don't think I've ever been this high, even on a plane!" She screamed to herself. At that moment, someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around and it was Eggman in his flying machine.

"Eggman! What do you want?" she screamed.

"Give me the bird, girl, or you will suffer the consequences." He replied.

"No, never!"

Sonic and Tails suddenly came from inside the Egg Carrier, but it was too late as Eggman took the bird and revealed why he wanted it so much. The bird was carrying a Chaos Emerald.

"Don't hurt the bird!" Amy yelled.

"Wow, that bird had a Chaos Emerald the whole time?" Tails screamed.

"You fools are too late. Now, you're going to have to face the wrath of Gamma!" He yelled as if he was in total domination.

"What is your wish, Master Robotnik?" Gamma asked while coming from inside the Egg Carrier.

"Take care of these fools, Gamma. Don't let them escape." Eggman said.

"Oh, I'm gonna have fun with this." Sonic said.

"No, Sonic, don't hurt him! He helped me!" Amy screamed.

"Stay out of this, Amy! He's mine!"

Gamma locked-on to Sonic and shot his laser at him. Sonic was surprised at this move and was hit in the chest.

"You're gonna regret that, robot!" Sonic screamed.

Sonic used his supersonic speed to dodge the lasers and hit Gamma with such force that he literally collapsed.

"I told you, robot! Do you regret it now?" he yelled again. He charged right at the robot when Amy stepped in front of Gamma.

"Amy! What are you doing? Get out of the way!" he screamed angrily.

"No, Sonic! This robot helped me! Don't hurt him." She said, trying to convince him.

"C'mon, Sonic. This is probably some girl stuff. Let's just leave them alone." Tails said. Suddenly, the ship shook. "I think the ship might be losing altitude!"

"Aw, man!" Sonic yelled. "You guys get off the ship! Tails, take Amy to Station Square! Robot, do… whatever robots do."

"But Sonic…" Tails started.

"No, Tails! I'm not gonna lose you guys! I'm gonna get Eggman!" Sonic said. He charged away looking for a switch to change the vessel back to the form that it has when he first saw the plane. Tails followed his best friend's orders and took Amy and flew towards Station Square. Gamma went into flight mode and flew towards the Mystic Ruins.

THE CENTER OF THE EGG CARRIER

Big was trying to find a way off the ship, when he encountered a shark-like monster. Eggman flew up right next to him and didn't seem to notice him. He gave Chaos the emerald that he had acquired from the bird, while Froggy jumped right into Chaos's mouth. Doing this, Chaos 4 had turned into Chaos 6 and Chaos had also regained his tail. Suddenly, the formation of the ship had changed and Sonic appeared onto the scene.

"Hello, doctor." He said.

"Sonic! How'd you get past my robot! Was that---?"

"I beat up the robot, and I spared his life. Yes, I found the button that changes the ship's formation."

"Well, it doesn't matter now! Chaos has already consumed 6 Chaos Emeralds and found his tail!"

"Froggy? Froggy, come back!" Big yelled at Froggy, who was inside of Chaos.

"If that frog's your friend, I'll help you get him back. Just leave it to me!" Sonic said to Big. Big nodded and stepped aside.

Chaos started by jumping up and causing the ground to shake, making Sonic lose his balance. Sonic tried to get up but he was swatted back down thanks to Chaos's tail. Chaos then shape-shifted into a vase-like figure and his tail went inside what looked like the opening to the vase. Chaos started to shape-shift making long and sharp shines stretch towards Sonic. Sonic barely dodged these. Suddenly, Sonic was caught in a ball of ice thanks to Eggman dropping a freeze bomb on him. Sonic was able to break through, but he felt weak. Chaos saw this and tried sucking him up through his mouth, like Kirby. But then, Sonic had an idea. He grabbed a freeze bomb and chucked it towards that open and sucking mouth of Chaos. Sonic's plan worked. Since Chaos is a water monster, the freeze bomb turned Chaos into a big ice cube. He then ran up to the frozen beast and homing attacked it, crushing it to pieces. The reign of Chaos was over (hopefully).

"NO! I can't believe this!" Eggman screamed. His minion was defeated for good (again, hopefully). Big grabbed his frog friend and dashed away, not wanting to be part of any of this. As Big left, Knuckles appeared on the scene.

"Hey, Sonic!" Knuckles yelled.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in! Knuckles!" Sonic yelled back.

While Sonic was distracted, Eggman tried to make a run for it. "Goodbye fools, we shall meet again!"

Sonic chased him until he was at the edge of the ship. Then, he tried to jump dash onto Eggman's mini-ship. Sadly, Sonic missed and fell down a long way to the ground.

Knuckles smiled. There weren't many things that could make Sonic jump off a flying vessel, knowing that the ground was thousands of feet away. Suddenly, he heard a squishing noise. He looked to his right and backed away. Chaos came back.

"What! Isn't that the monster?" he screamed in terror. Chaos bellowed louder than anything Knuckles had ever heard. "I guess I'll have to fight this thing to get out of here."

Knuckles faced the same attacks and difficulties against Chaos that Sonic did. Knuckles's way of destroying Chaos was just a little different. When Chaos tried to suck him in, Knuckles was being pulled right in. He grabbed a freeze bomb on the way over a he andt the freeze bomb were swallowed. Chaos froze again, and Knuckles punch his way out of there. It seemed like it was over now. Chaos melted away and the six Chaos Emeralds that he comsumed were now laying on the ground. Knuckles decided to take them with him to Angel Island. He grabbed the emeralds and glided off to his island.

EGG CARRIER - LANDING ZONE

Big wandered around looking for a way to get off. He was on the verge of deciding to jump since there was no other way that he could think of. Then, he saw the Tornado 2.

"Hey, that's a plane!" Big exclaimed. "I don't know the first thing about flying this thing, Froggy, but it's our only chance to get off this ship!" Big hopped into the pilot seat with Froggy and with a bit of luck, he got it to fly. Next stop, Mystic Ruins.

Editor's Note: I'm sorry again for not updating in so long. I'm gonna try to get back into this so I can finish and have peace with myself. If it takes me months, I WILL get the next chapter up.