Hey guys, I'm back! I had relatives over, so that's why I didn't update sooner. Good news, though. I got a new computer! It is so much better than my old one, and it also has a spell checker on it! Hooray, no more dumb spelling errors (at least, not as much). So then, on to Chapter 12!

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"You really think you can beat me, don't you?" Gemini asked, his black eyes fixed upon Shadow. "You must be even more foolish than I thought you were. I suppose that being called the Ultimate Lifeform must have gotten to your head!"

"We'll see about that," Shadow declared. The black hedgehog clenched his fists, preparing for the battle to begin. As he predicted, Gemini charged at him, dark energy surrounding his fists. Shadow stepped aside, but Gemini pivoted as soon as he touched the floor again, and sent a kick to Shadow's face.

"Was that supposed to be a kick?" Shadow taunted. "I've seen flies hit harder than that. Heck, even Knuckles can't kick that softly."

"Shut up!" Gemini tried another punch in fury, which was easily caught by Shadow. As the two black hedgehogs fought with each other, Rouge watched from her secret hiding spot, looking rather amused.

"Is fighting all those boys ever think about?" The white bat asked. Knuckles and Tikal watched from behind her.

"I would hope not," Tikal replied. "Fighting never solves anything. We have to stop them, or they'll end up killing each other."

"Not to worry," Knuckles explained. "They're immortal, they can't kill each other. We just let them tire out a bit, and then we go in and subdue Gemini."

"It's not going to be that easy Knuckles," Tikal cried. "With fights, it never turns out the way you suspect they will. Please, we must stop them!"

"She may have a point there," Rouge agreed, flattening her ears against her head. "I have a bad feeling about this, and the source is right over there." She pointed to the entryway into the room below.

"Hey, that's Eggman!" Knuckles exclaimed. "What's he doing here?"

"Whatever he's doing, you know that it's going to screw everything up," Rouge refocused on the fight, the two combatants fighting so fast, it was almost impossible to tell what was going on. Every once in a while, a flash of black or green would shoot out, indicating that Chaos and Dark Magic were in play.

"The others are coming," Tikal muttered quietly, "and they bring with them the final Chaos Emerald. That, combined with Doctor Robotnik's, Gemini's, and Shadow's emeralds, makes a total of seven. I predict that this will get much worse than any of us have imagined." The two treasure hunters exchanged worried glances at each other.

"I didn't know that your cousin was a prophet," Rouge said.

"All of us guardians can prophesize at times," Knuckles explained. "She just has more experience with doing it. Tell you the truth, I think she's right."

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"Hey, there they are!" Sonic called out, racing ahead of the others. He had already dropped off the GUN commander, and one of the nearby soldiers had given him a Chaos Emerald that had been salvaged from Gemini's rampage. Looking over his shoulder, Sonic see that the others were following close behind. Up ahead, the Blue Blur could see the computer room, as well as Eggman and the two fighting brothers.

"Eggman," Sonic said as he came to a halt by his enemy. "I'm not surprised that you showed up. How'd you know we'd be here?"

"I had one of my Egg-Spies on the foxboy's computer," The mad doctor explained. "Are the others coming in behind you?"

"Of course they are," The blue hero replied, looking at his Chaos Emerald. It's bright gleam caught the doctor's eye.

"So, you managed to find the last emerald," He noted, looking down at it. "Trade emeralds with me? I have the red one." Eggman pulled out a blood-red Chaos Emerald, holding it out towards Sonic.

"Don't see why it really matters, but I guess." Sonic said absentmindedly, his eyes on the fight. He then took a hold of the red one, while Eggman took the white one. As soon as he did, he quickly swiped back the red one, seeing as Sonic's guard was temporarily down.

"I can't believe you fell for that!" Eggman cackled, holding the two emeralds in his hand as the characters behind Sonic finally caught up to him.

"Sonic, what did you do?" Blaze asked, glaring at the hedgehog.

"He sort of' took my emerald from me," Sonic replied, looking up at the doctor. Eggman began laughing maniacally, catching the attention of Shadow and Gemini.

"What are you up to now, Robotnik?" Gemini spat, Dark Energy crackling in the air around him.

"I have enough emeralds to power my Egg-Walker's special ability," Eggman explained. "Egg Walker, initiate Ultimate Lifeform Capture Program!" Immediately, three large, clawed tentacles thrust out of the Egg Walker, sweeping everyone away as a small antenna came out of the back of Eggman's chair. Then, one of the clawed tentacles grabbed Ciel, as the other two headed for Shadow and Gemini. They clamped on to them before either could escape, and the antenna on the Egg Walker began to glow a light blue. Suddenly, an electric current began coursing through the whole system, creating an electric field around the Egg Walker.

"That's new," Sonic exclaimed. Inside the electric force-field, Eggman continued to laugh maniacally. He had closed the cockpit of the Egg Walker before the electric spurt, so he was unaffected by any of it. As for the three projects, the electricity was also coursing through the tentacles, zapping them mercilessly.

"Genius, isn't it?" The mad doctor asked, looking down at Sonic and his friends. "This Zap Generator I built is putting out over twelve thousand volts of electricity! Very little can stand up to that, and I doubt that most of you can. There's no way you'll be able to save my grandfather's projects now!"

"Twelve thousand volts? That's insane!" Tails cried. "Why are you doing this Doctor Eggman?"

"Isn't it obvious? I am going to make the Ultimate Lifeform and his brothers work for me!" Everyone stared at Eggman, including Rouge and the echidnas.

"I swear, Eggy must have flipped," Knuckles exclaimed. "There's no way he can ever control Shadow and his brothers. Can he?"

"He might just be able to," Rouge answered. "I'm going down there." The white thief opened up the hatch to her hiding spot, gliding down to the floor. Tikal followed behind her, as did Knuckles a bit afterward.

"Oh, Rouge and Knuckles, what a surprise!" Eggman cackled. "I'm sorry, but you can't save them either, no matter how much you want to."

"I don't care what you think," Rouge replied, "because that's what we're going to do!"

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Twist! Yay! Actually, I don't know how much 12,000 volts is. I think it's a lot, but I don't know. Oh well. Will Rouge and the others be able to save Shadow? Find out next time on Triple Shadows:Remix!