Sorry about the lack of pre-comments people, but I've been a bit...rushed...lately. I'm afraid I've got horrible, yet oh so great, news in my family. Anywho venturing on. I'm afraid that Quarma the Panther will not be getting in this story. HOWEVER! Do not fret and shoot me saying 'You said I could get in!' You will. It's just, to hang the suspense, I will be wrapping up this story somewhere between chapter 11-17. I will write a sequel to this as soon as I've finished, any characters submitted from now on will be getting in that story over this one. So, on to actuall story news. At long last I've managed to get in Stacey Parker, please don't kill me if her personality is off, I get slightly carried away sometimes. However, if any of you have a problem with th eway your character is displayed don't hesitate to let me know. Again, I'm really really sorry to you, Quarma, but unfortunatley the story is just too close to it's end to fit your character inAND give him a good role, butI promise he will be in the first few chapters of the second story, (I need a holiday :P)Lastly I want to thank Prominince Flare and Purifying Wind for all thier support and comments, thanks to you both, I am very pleased to say that both of your characters are planned to continue into the next story. THANK YOU BOTH! IT MEANS SO MUCH!
Now...Enjoy the chapter!
Sonic raced along the metal hallway, dragging Knuckles behind him.
"Can-ow!-you-eh!-slow-hey!-down-ouch!-please?" Knuckles asked who was being banged against the floor as Sonic dragged him along. Sonic grinned and shook his head
"Slow down? You're kidding!" Sonic said as he picked up speed. Knuckles twisted his wrist around in Sonic's grip and lowered his flying feet to the ground. His shoes scraped along the metal as he dug his feet into the ground, slowing Sonic to a stop.
"Now, can we take this quieter?" Knuckles insisted. With a sigh, Sonic agreed to slow down. Knuckles held up a hand to silence the hedgehog before he could speak. "Shhhh…Hear that?" Knuckles asked for he could faintly hear footsteps. A turning his head to hear better, he grabbed Sonic's wrist and yanked him forward. The pair continued forth, quietly creeping forwards until they came to the end of the corridor, and off to the right, a new one. Knuckles yanked Sonic towards the corner and pressed him against the wall "Shut up and listen!" He hissed darkly, peering around the corner. Unfortunately, another bend blocked his view. "On three, jump the robots" Knuckles said "One…Two..." The echidna tensed, preparing to leap. But Sonic was tired of being told what to do by a 'solitary' echidna.
"Three!" Sonic shouted as he grabbed Knuckles by the wrist and dragged him into the clearing. As the hedgehog turned the bend, he found himself staring at...himself. A mirror? No. It was another hedgehog that looked strikingly like Shadow, but was blue like Sonic. Sonic let go of the startled echidna and charged at the Blue copy. "Faker!" He shouted as he did, but the hedgehog mirror zipped aside at almost the same speed, but as he did, Sonic noticed that the Hedgehog's movements were sluggish and his reactions were slow. But he still moved fast enough to avoid the speeding hedgehog. He prepared to charge again when Kylo stepped out in front of the hedgehog
"Would you calm down?" She demanded impatiently, one hand on her hip, shaking her head disapprovingly. Knuckles looked from Sonic to Kylo to the other blue hedgehog.
"I'm being thwarted by blue!" He said sarcastically. Two blue hedgehogs and one blue fox. When would it end? But Espio silently slipped around the corner. Shrugging off the though of being overrun by blue, he turned to the Sonic clone "Who're you?" He demanded, pointing a scolding finger at the clone. The hedgehog looked bored, but shrugged
"My name's Spike." He said, shaking his head slowly. Sonic opened his mouth to speak
"Another one of Eggman's failure clones?" He sneered, upset at being the subject of clones yet again.
"Nope." Kylo shook her head "This certain hedgehog was created by G.U.N." She explained "To destroy some…Shadow? Shadow the Hedgehog…that's what the log said." Spike shot a questioning look at the fox. Kylo just stared ahead, but flicked her ear in acknowledgement. She was keeping Spike's record of his little 'Temper tantrum' a secret between the trio. Espio did not object. Knuckles shrugged and decided to continue on. He wanted to get away from the crowd. The sooner they found Tails. The sooner he'd get away
"Let's go already. Every minute we waste could mean trouble for Tails." Knuckles stated. Sonic shrugged and dashed ahead, Spike flinched then grinned
"Hey, he thinks he's better than me because I was created to look like him…" He paused, shuffling his feet "I'm going to show him that looks aren't everything, Wait up!" He yelled after Sonic, and tore after the hedgehog. Espio and Kylo traded a look, said nothing and followed the pair of racing hedgehogs. Knuckles followed at last with a shrug and a sigh.
Niomie quietly walked the hallways of the Floating Fortress. Charmy tagged along, gazing in awe at the shiny surfaces. Vector closed the mini-parade, looking grim and cramped in the small tunnel.
"How far is it to the control room?" Vector asked. (He is slightly claustrophobic. I mean, he's a crocodile after all) Charmy shrugged and flew faster, to keep up with the quick-striding Wildcat. Niomie rolled her eyes. She wanted sooo badly to leave the whining crocodile behind and take off on her own. She'd have more success if she did. But she forced herself to slow and allow the Crocodile and his little companion to follow. After all, they said Kylo had betrayed them all. They had a reason to be around.
"Do I look like a map? No. In a forest, I can guide you, I can tell you which way's civilization and which way leads to danger. I know what way is north and south, I know how to survive without food, but in an overgrown toaster? I know nothing of where to go." She stated sharply, Vector grunted, taken back by the younger cat's words, but shrugged and followed anyway. Charmy called out from ahead
"Hey guys, do you think this is it?" He called. When Niomie and Vector caught up, they saw a large steel door with a small keypad on the side.
"Could be" Vector said aloud whilst pushing his way ahead. "Step aside," He crowed as Niomie stepped forward to open it "This is a grown guy's job." Niomie hissed in her Cat-like manner, but folded her arms across her chest and stepped back with a cold smirk on her face. Puffing out his chest, Vector let a fist fly at the door.
BANG
The metal door was hardly dented; Niomie chuckled as Vector shook his fist from the impact.
"A grown-"Niomie had started to say; probably to mock the crocodile, but Vector silenced her with a dismissive wave of his hand. He clenched his fists and threw them both at the door
BANG!
Nothing. A bit more of a dent in it…but…Nothing much. Niomie grinned
"It's steel, idiot. Care to let me do it?" she asked she pushed ahead of the crocodile. Vector let her go. With all his power he couldn't bring the steel door down. He smirked. She could do no better. To Vector's surprise, the Wildcat passed the dented door and extended her claws
"Giving up?" Vector asked
"Not at all." With that comment, Niomie lashed out with her claws, plunging her right hand into the small keypad and ripping it from the wall. Sparks flew from the broken machine; Niomie tossed it aside and advanced to the door. Slipping her claws into the metal between the wall and door, she pulled on the steel mass, grunting with the effort. The door opened just enough to Niomie to slip through, she planted her feet against the door-side, and then wedged herself between the opening. Using the muscles in her legs, he slowly pushed the door open,
SCREEEEEEE
The door slid to a stop in its small slit. Niomie stretched out her arms as she rose to her feet "A grown guy's job? Puh-leese." She mocked, stepping through the door after the already flying Charmy. Vector mumbled something and sighed, but followed the pair inside the room. The inside of the room was large, lined with metal bars as walls. This wasn't the control room, this was-
"A cell room." Vector said, intrigued. Niomie growled under her breath then spoke up
"Alright it's a cell room whoop-dee-do now, let's go." She said, turning to walk out the door, But Vector grabbed her arm and yanked her forward "Hey!"
"Someone's in here!" Charmy said. He was near the cell at the end, peering into the bars. Vector dragged the unwilling wildcat over to the cell. Inside was a pacing figure. The figure was a feline again, pink in colour, with several dark brown spots along her body. Draped in a tank-top and jeans, the figure was female, slightly smaller than Niomie, by species, but not too different.
"Thank god! I was getting bored!" The feline commented slyly, with a grin. Niomie instinctively hissed, turning her back on her fellow feline. Vector shook his head at Niomie's clouded behavior.
"How'd you get in here?" The crocodile asked
"Well…" The feline paused whilst walking up to the bars with a sheepish grin "If you must know, I arrived on this strange…polluted planet a few nights ago, when I tried to find my way home, I ran into Eggman's robots! So you know…classy fight, the heroine fails and poof. I end up here." The ocelot explained impatiently "Now can I get out of here?"
"Sure, just one…" Vector trailed off as he pushed down on the button to open the gates "Second!" The gates jerked and screeched, then opened up slowly. The ocelot slipped out a soon as she had enough room.
"Finally! Now, It's your turn, what're you doing on this station?" She asked, tilting her head with a grin.
"Well, we originally came here looking for a friend of ours…but instead it looks like we found you." Charmy explained in a hurried manner whilst zipping back and forth energetically. The ocelot shrugged
"If anyone's never seen a corny meeting, this is one." She said, but she tilted her head and smiled. "Do you mind if I tag along?" She asked, stretching out her arms. Vector shrugged, Niomie grunted and parted towards the door as Charmy nodded violently "Yeah, c'mon!" He grabbed the ocelot's hand and dragged her after Niomie and out the door.
"So, what's your name kid?" Vector asked as he turned to follow Niomie down the hallway.
"Stacey Parker," The Ocelot replied brightly, Niomie rolled her eyes. She was obviously not fond of having another kitty around. Stacey shrugged at Niomie's lack of welcome and grinned at the excited bee.
"We're picking up a circus." Niomie muttered darkly as she led the way through the hall.