Chapter 8 – See the Power

Clay's POV, Resistance HQ (near midnight)

I slumped onto a chair pretty exhausted. For the past few hours, I had been training by using different Wispons on targets. I decided to stick with my Cyan Laser Wispon – I rather call it a TURQUOISE Laser Wispon, but whatever – as I wasn't comfortable with the other ones.

The Burst Wispon – Nearly set a soldier on fire. For some reason, I smelled chicken when I did that.

The Lightning Wispon – Accidentally shocked Sebastian with it. And then I accidentally shocked MYSELF.

The Cube Wispon – Threw it too high and accidentally hit Mecha on the head. He wasn't happy about that.

The Asteroid Wispon – Those clones were hard to control. It went to the point of them trying to eat each other.

The Drill Wispon – Couldn't keep up. I nearly drilled through a wall.

The Hover Wispon – Got thrown backwards due to the effect of the shock-wave.

The Void Wispon – Got hit in the head by a box which got caught in the powerful pull of the black hole formed at the barrel.

The White Wispon – Not enough firepower. It was kind of weak. No offence.

The Bomb Wispon – Nearly got myself blown into pieces. How am I supposed to know that shooting bombs would be hard?!

The Eagle Wispon – Well…that one was alright. But it didn't really suit me.

The Quake Wispon – Nearly got myself killed for accidentally causing an earthquake.

The Ghost Wispon – That one was TOO uncomfortable. The ghosts that came out of the Wispon was spinning around me, making me dizzy.

The Rhythm Wispon – Hard to aim. Those annoying music notes kept bouncing up and down!

The Rocket Wispon – Accidentally shot a rocket in someone's nuts again. I had to ditch that weapon.

The Spike Wispon – Nearly got my head chopped off and it wasn't on purpose!

The Frenzy Wispon – Too berserk. I ended up losing control of it and it went flying towards a wall.

The entire training was so long and took its toll. I never had this kind of training that took at least 6 LONG HOURS before.

"Well, oh my," said a voice.

I looked up to see Mecha smirking.

"How did the training go, puppy?" he said.

"Fine…" I said quietly, getting up.

"So…you know what, forget it."

He turned to leave.

"What is it?" I asked.

Mecha turned around. "Pardon me if I had been discouraging you."

"What?" I said. "No. Not really."

"Yeah. But…just between you and me, Rookie…do you REALLY think you can be strong? Huh? Don't get me wrong. It's important to save people, but…what I saw…you don't have potential."

I was dumbfounded. "Excuse me?"

"Armies always want to have the best soldiers they have. Even though they just said that age or experience doesn't matter, they are still hiding the fact that you have to be strong. I don't think they would want anyone who can't fight. From what I saw when lifting those dumbbells, you can't fight. You look like one of them. You have the strength of a woman."

He snickered at this. I felt my face heating up.

I felt offended. "I can prove to you that I'm strong from the power of my fist. Small, but DEADLY."

Mecha tutted. "Not all wolves are deadly."

"Well, we can't always be perfect, can we?" I growled.

Mecha smile turned into a frown. "I didn't say that I am perfect."

I remained my glare on the bird. He was on my nerves and I wanted to yell at him to go away.

"OK," he said shrugging. "Good luck. But remember; it's more than physical strength that you have to deal with."

He paused for a while. "And by the way…did your…eyes turn…yellow for a second?"

I looked confused. "Uh…no…why's that?"

"Sorry. I thought I saw your eyes turned yellow a few seconds ago, weakling."

He walked off.

I sighed and shook my head.

"What's with that bird?" I thought. "He's acting so arrogant and just called me something less. Who does he think he is is?!"

One thing I wished I asked was why he was playing with me or even why he had a grudge on Bubblegum.

I snapped out from my thoughts when I felt another tugging on my pants. This time, I was aware. I grabbed my belt and looked behind to see Emerald smiling.

"Oh…" she said dumbly. "You noticed it. Did you? Heh heh."

I growled at her, but I decided to give her one last chance. "What do you want?"

"Nothing," she said. "By the way, I like your headphones. They make you who you are."

My anger calmed down and I looked at her in surprise. Almost nobody told me about the headphones I wore.

"Yeah…" I said awkwardly.

"And you LOOK pathetic."

That voice came out of nowhere. This made me feel upset. Even though that this was a bit of a lie, I couldn't help but feel down.

"But…" I said, only to be cut off by Emerald.

"No cuts, no buts, no coconuts!" she insisted. "Don't even think of shaking your butt!"

She laughed at her joke. I laughed dryly. To my surprise, I smiled for the first time in six months.

"I like it when people with sharp canines smile," said Emerald. "You have a nice smile."

The moment didn't last though. My smile turned back into a sad frown.

"I…I need some time alone," I said.

I gently pushed past her and made my way out from the training room. I was so tired that I needed a rest. I wanted to tell everyone my brother's disappearance. Again, I was not comfortable about sharing that I wanted my brother back. They might not be sure how we could find Belt as there was a lot going out there. Plus, would they believe me if he was captured by the Eggman Empire? Was he EVEN still alive? That thought made me want to cry, but I just kept a stoic look and shrugged.

As I passed by the meeting room, I heard voices.

"Rouge?" said Knuckles through what must be a communicator. "What's going on?"

"I received news from Eggman," said the voice on the other end. "Sonic…he's alive!"

"WHAT?!"

My eyes widened hearing this. What? Sonic was alive?

"Oh, thank goodness!" said Amy. "I knew it! I knew it!"

"Yes. Eggman's been keeping him alive to show him his completed empire. Sonic's been tortured for months now! Not for information or anything. Just for FUN."

"That's horrible!" said Amy. "We have to rescue him!"

"You better get a team to save him. He's imprisoned at the Death Egg. Eggman is moving forward with his plan ahead of schedule. He's going to banish him into space!"

"What?" said Silver. "You CAN'T be serious!"

"I know. It's hard for me to believe as well. You got to send a squad over right now."

"Copy that," said Knuckles. "We'll send a team up there as quickly as we can."

"OK."

He cancelled the call.

"S…Sonic? He's alive the whole time?" Richard said.

"Must be," said Knuckles. "They have been torturing Sonic just to pass the time."

"That's just low. Even for Eggman himself."

"Who should we send to save Sonic before he gets thrown into space?" asked Amy.

Knuckles thought for a while. "Maybe we should let Black Squad do the job."

Hearing this almost made everything around me stop.

I finally said a word.

"What?"

At this, I came into the room.

"So…you want us to go up THERE to save Sonic?" I said.

"Well, count it as your first mission here from the Resistance," said Knuckles.

I rolled my eyes. "Huh. You mean me being with a team of insufferable strangers I JUST MET TODAY and after my FIRST TRAINING?"

"It's worth a shot," said Amy. "Besides, you and your teammates have good qualities. You guys can help us."

I let out a dry laugh. The image of when Mecha had a word with Bubblegum back at the bunker played in my mind. I could tell that they didn't have good teamwork, but I can't blame them. I'm the one with the stupid social skills, so I can barely form a good plan. Whatever mission this was, I would be the PITS who messed up everything.

Richard came over to my side.

"Just be careful, OK?" he said. "You know what might happen on the battlefield."

I nodded though I wasn't sincere. I knew at what cost if I was eager to join the battle. But I still held my hopes high that Belt was still alive, so I shouldn't quit. I could only pray to God that everything would go well.

"This is gonna suck…" I said quietly.


Bubblegum's POV

OK. This was unexpected.

It was official.

Sonic was alive.

I'm not kidding.

I know that would be hard to believe. Believe me, I also find it hard to believe.

Believe or not, Sonic the Hedgehog is still alive.

Knuckles got all of us to come over to the meeting room. Like me, they were surprised of the news.

"What?!" said Sebastian. "For real, dude?"

"Yeah," said Knuckles. "He's captured in the orbiting prison. My spy says that he is in a solitary confinement cell and they've been torturing him for months. Apparently, they're going to throw him out into space."

We all winced. Mecha – on the other hand – kept a stoic look as if hearing torture meant nothing to him. I never know if he ever cared about heroes, celebrities or anyone people had heard of.

"Well, that's just painful," I said.

"We got a plan happening," said Knuckles. "We need a way to save him. I want you to make your way to Space Port in the Chemical Plant to 'borrow' a shuttle. The ones we have here in the Resistance HQ are not suitable for galactic travels, so we need one of Eggman's spaceships. Who's up for an old-school style jailbreak?"

"Alright!" said Emerald.

"Time for some action!" said Sebastian.

"Looks like a shot," said Mecha, crossing his arms.

"How are we going to sneak into Space Port though?" I asked.

"You will all head to the Space Port," explained Knuckles. "The Chaotix will help you by distracting the guard robots there. When you get a signal, you all storm the base to find a shuttle at one of the launch pad. Just get there, keep out of trouble and make it in one piece."

We all nodded.

"Alright. Now let's go. Time's running out."

All of us went out of the meeting room. I started to follow them along.

"Ohhh!" said Sebastian. "Our first mission and we get to save AND meet Sonic!"

"Take it easy," said Mecha. "We can't lose concentration."

We made our way to one of the shuttles where the Chaotix – consisting Vector, Espio and Charmy – were waiting.

"C'mon, kids!" said Vector from that ship. "We got someone to save."

As I made my way into the shuttle, I noticed Emerald was jumping up and down.

"Emerald," I thought. "I swear if you make one stupid move, I will burn you to the ground."

I looked over to see Rookie trailing along. At this, I saw he was wearing a necklace.

It had a symbol on it.

One that I knew before.

"Uh, Rookie," I said.

"What do you want?" Rookie said. He didn't sound too happy.

I gently grabbed his cross necklace and took a good look at it.

"So you're a Christian as well, huh?" I said.

Rookie's eyes turned yellow.

"Uh…" muttered Rookie awkwardly. "Yeah? Anything…w….wrong with that?"

I backed away. "I-I mean…nothing."

I looked away, feeling a bit awkward. "Not like I care or anything, dummy. It's just…I am a Christian as well."

Rookie looked a bit surprised. His eyes turned back to gold, glowing. "Let me guess…you pray to God that the war will be over, right?"

"Yeah…" I said. "Sometimes. But I know that nothing will happen unless I DO something…or at least what I can do. But what I can pray to God is hoping that we will be alright."

The turquoise wolf gave me a stunned look.

Tutting, I gestured him to come along and both of us took our seats.


Clay's POV, Space Port (a few minutes later)

After a while, the shuttle stopped by at a mountain that was near the Chemical Plant. I looked out the window to see a large area. It was entirely mechanical. The whole facility stretched from the eye and the horizon was filled with giant pumps, chemical containers, pillars, blocky structures, chemical tube systems, rotating cylinders with blue goop and rails carrying cargo.

"It's so big," said Emerald. "How are we going to find a shuttle?"

"You see those large ramps there?" said Espio, pointing to a few large ramps with glowing lights far away. "That's where the launching pads are."

At this, the door opened, giving a cold breeze that blew against everyone. I shivered a bit despite being a wolf. I wasn't used to being exposed to the cold.

"OK," said Vector. "The Chaotix and I are going to head out first. We will distract the guard robots' attention and give you a signal to go. We will meet you at the launch pads."

We all nodded.

"Copy that, boss," said Mecha.

At this, the Chaotix left.

"So let me get this straight," said Emerald. "We go down there, grab a shuttle and we get out of there. Easy peasy lemon squeezey."

"But who knows what's down there," pointed Bubblegum. "There might be armies of bots down there. They would outnumber us from 50 to 1!"

"You fret too much, soft kitty," said Mecha, flexing his arms. "We got these weapons to help us. It's about time we put our strength to the test. What can possibly go wrong?"

Bubblegum rolled her eyes. "We just joined the Resistance and just because you're so good in everything, doesn't mean that the mission will go swell. What if something happens to you?"

"Pfft. I don't need to destroy all of them. I just need to get to the shuttle FIRST."

Bubblegum just gave him a deadpanned look.

"We've got the guards' attention!" said Vector's voice through our ear pieces. "Let's move out now!"

"Time to go," said Sebastian.

I took out my Wispon from my belt and stood at the door of the shuttle. We all ran out from the shuttle and made our way down from the frozen mountains and into the Chemical Plant.

The five of us jumped onto a metal bridge that led to the facilities. There were robots there and they turned around. At this, Mecha whipped out his Wispon and easily charged through them, tearing them apart.

"Yeah!" he chirped. "First try!"

"Espio here," said Espio through our ear pieces. "Our team's engaging the enemy in the orbital tunnel. I think we can hold them all for now."

"Stay focused, rookies!" said Vector. "We're off to find a shuttle!"

At this, a large group of robots stood in our way.

"Oh no you don't!" said Sebastian.

Taking out two kantanas, he charged towards them and sliced each of the robots in half, spilling their wiring and codes. He then jumped up and was about to do the final blow to one of the robots.

"HAHA!" he laughed.

Deciding to act silly, I aimed at that robot and pressed the trigger.

SNIPE!

The robot was blasted into pieces by the bright turquoise laser. A confused Sebastian landed in its spot where it used to be.

"Heh," I said. "I like this thing."

"OI!" exclaimed Sebastian. "You stole my shot!"

"This isn't a game, show-off!" snarled Bubblegum. "Focus! We're here to find that darn shuttle!"

"ON YOUR LEFT!" said Emerald.

Out of the blue, another group of robots appeared.

"Get lost!" said Bubblegum, firing spike balls from her Wispon.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

This caused the robots to explode into many pieces.

We continued on with me, Bubblegum and Sebastian using our Wispons to blow the enemies away. Mecha and Emerald followed behind. We took the path to the launch pads. I got to say, it wasn't really bad. I mean, running to the shuttle was kind of a good exercise than just doing stupid push-ups. I actually enjoyed this. The cold breeze felt pretty pleasant even though I didn't wear any layers – just only a vest.

At one point, we all stopped. There was a dead end. I skidded to a halt and nearly fell off the bridge if it wasn't for Bubblegum who quickly grabbed my hood.

"Great," she said. "A dead end."

"What do we do now?" I said.

"See you later!" said Emerald, jumping off the bridge.

"WAIT!" cried Sebastian.

Too late.

She fell through the air. Fortunately, there was a platform below and she landed fine so she was OK. Waving at us, she ran off in another direction.

"She's going to kill herself," grumbled Bubblegum.

"Hate to leave ya all, but someone got to take care of her," said Mecha, jumping off the bridge. "I'll catch up with you losers later."

He landed onto the platform below and ran to where Emerald went.

"I hope that Mecha catches up with Emerald," said Bubblegum.

"Whelp, it's just three of us," I said. "Doesn't get better than this."

"Hey look!" said Sebastian, pointing at something. "Rails!"

Not too far from us were some thick metal rails hanging near to us.

"Buh bye!" he said, jumping off the bridge. "Let's go."

He landed onto the train rail and grinded his feet onto the rail before moving down at high speed and at a great balance.

"Well…this looks easy," said Bubblegum.

"Ya think?" I said.

Shrugging, the pink cat took a step back, before running and jumped onto the rail, perfectly grinding her feet onto the rail. She rode down the rail at a high speed.

"O…K…" I said.

I took a step back and jumped off the bridge. I was able to land on the rail and begin grinding forwards, gaining more speed. However, I nearly fell off due to not balancing well. One of my feet would lift upwards, nearly causing me to tip over. Despite this, I focused and managed to grind my feet on the rail. In front of me was Bubblegum and on the other rail was Sebastian.

"This feels a bit uncomfortable," I muttered.

"Just pretend you're on a skateboard," said Sebastian.

I saw that the rail he was on led to a different direction.

"I'll meet you guys later!" he called. "Stay chill and cool!"

And with that, he disappeared around the corner.

"My guess," said Bubblegum. "He's a goner."

I tutted under my breath. The rails came to a stop, so both Bubblegum and I jumped up and landed onto a platform.

At this, both of us saw a yellow train on some train rails pulling a couple of cargoes.

"That looks like a freight train!" said Bubblegum.

"It's carrying supplies," said Amy, taking a quick scan at it. "I don't think it's armed or anything."

"Doesn't matter."

At this, Bubblegum aimed her grappling gun at a hanging pole. The wire shot out and the hook grabbed the pole. Using the wire as a swinging rope, she jumped off the platform and swung.

"OK…" I said.

I looked down. It was pretty high. One wrong move and it would be all over for me.

I looked up to find another pole.

Perfect.

I held out my right hand and aimed at there.

WHOMP!

The wire came out and the hook wrapped itself onto that pole. Pressing the button, the wire retract with me flying off the platform. It was effective. As I flew in a straight direction in the air, I felt exuberant. This was the first time I flew through the air like some kind of superhero. Despite knowing that below me was a long way down, it was pretty nice and kind of frightening.

However, what I saw in front gave me a feeling of dread.

It was Bubblegum.

WHAM!

As she was still swinging and I was flying through the air too quickly, I accidentally collided with her. To top it off, our grappling guns lost its grip on the poles, so we were falling.

We went flying and hit the top of one of the cargoes of the train. I bounced off the roof and nearly fell over if it wasn't for Bubblegum who grabbed my foot.

"YAH!" she exclaimed as she swung me upwards and onto the train. To my surprise, I landed on my feet.

And then, I saw something that made my heart dropped.

"ARGH!" I screamed, pointing in front of us.

The train was about to go through a tunnel and the entrance was too low for us. Grabbing my hand, Bubblegum fired her grappling gun at a low beam and let the wire shot us upwards and onto the tunnel.

We collapsed on top of the tunnel. It must be another railway as there were rails on it making a bridge. I got up, groaning in pain. Bubblegum got up and she was fuming.

"You idiot!" she said.

"It was an accident," I said.

"Accident my butt! Y-"

I screamed, seeing another train coming towards us. At fast speed. I couldn't move. I was too scared. Bubblegum yelled out something, but I didn't hear. I quickly put my hands over in front of my head and prepared for the death of being hit by a train…

CRASH!

But that didn't happen.

Instead, I heard the noise of a train crashing before dead silence.

I opened my eyes and saw this; a large yellow shield covering over Bubblegum and me with a train destroyed, its path blocked by the shield.

"What the…?" said Bubblegum.

I took a good look at the shield. It was bright yellow with dark yellow swirls.

My eyes widened.

It was the same colors as my rings.

I looked at my rings. They were glowing again.

And my HANDS were glowing as well.

"What the heck?" I sputtered. "How did they…?"

The brightness from the rings faded. The shield flickered before disappearing. I was shocked.

"H-h-how…t…the heck did that happen?" I said almost choking.

Bubblegum looked at me shocked. "What…was…that?!"

"I…I don't…know…"

She looked at my rings before looking back to me. Both our eyes looked at each other. We both had the same thought.

Shaking her head, the pink cat just sighed. "We'll talk about it when we get into the shuttle. For now, we have to find it."

I shrugged. Bubblegum fired her grappling gun at a nearby crane and swung off. I followed her, using the same action. During this, I couldn't stop thinking about what just happened.

Where did that shield came from?

How did it happen?

Could it be connected to the rings?


Mecha's POV

I wasted my time chasing after that carefree Emerald who was running in who-knows-what direction and smashing robots in the way by just swinging her hammer.

"HOLD UP!" I called. "STOP RIGHT NOW! AVETE DA FASSI LASGED!"

('AVETE DA FASSI LASGED' means 'YOU'RE GOING TO GET YOUSELF LASERED' in Corsican)

Humming to some catchy song in her head, Emerald was far from hearing me. I was getting impatient, so my eye kept twitching. I was close to snapping, but I held on my own. Emerald found an entrance to one of the many buildings of Chemical Plant.

"Maybe this would be the way to the launch pads!" said Emerald.

She wasn't wrong. Near the building were large ramps that were connected to the other side of the building. The roaring sounds of ships taking off could be heard nearby.

I followed her inside. I looked around to see large warehouse hallway all tinted in grey colors and machinery. Emerald stopped, so that I could keep up. When I did, I bent down and gasped for breath.

"Emerald!" I said panting. "You. Are. So. LADICROUS! Seriously, can't you just wait up when I call you once?!"

"Sorry…" said Emerald sheepishly.

All of a sudden, a large swarm of robots fell from nowhere and surrounded us. There seemed to be about 300 of them.

"OH NO!" screamed Emerald.

"Guess I have to get rid of them all!" I said, jumping into the air.

With the Wispon in my hand, I was able to fly through the air like a fast light, speeding and penetrating through all the robots. I was flying all over the place like an out-of-control pinball in a pinball machine. I felt as if I was a rocket firing up to the sky. It felt so…incredible. I felt like a real bird when soaring through the air while busting up those robots.

Finally, all the horrible robots were gone and I landed perfectly. Emerald looked in shocked awe. I turned to her and smirked.

"And that's how you mech no mistakes," I said in emphasis.

It felt so good to show off like that.

Emerald chuckled slightly.

CRASH!

I looked behind to see a robot flying and crashed into the wall, breaking into pieces. It was coming from another hallway.

That was…fortuitous.

"What was that?" I said.

We peered around the corner and what we saw was astonishing. There was a large room where the Chaotix were in a curb stomp battle with the guard robots. I got to say that it was ruthlessly marvelous.

Vector – being the strongest of the trio – was beating the robot to rubble using punches, kicks and eventually grabbed hold of one of the robots' large arm, swinging it at his foes like a baseball bat.

Espio was using a mix of kunai and ninja stars, eliminating the bots. Using different fighting techniques, he was able to wipe out the enemies with no sweat.

Charmy – on the other hand – was the least deadly of them all, but did not do the least effort of all. He was distracting the robots, so that Vector and Espio could sneak attack on them.

Emerald and I watched. I never seen a fight so…so…wicked before.

"This is pretty awesome!" said Emerald grinning.

BOOM!

A robot flew past us and crashed into the wall. Not going to lie, I winced seeing that.

"And vehement," I said, staring at that same robot which broke into pieces. "Should we help them or make a surprise?"

I was waiting for a reply, but Emerald wasn't listening. She was…looking at my smoke bombs on my belt. I turned my head to her and back at my smoke bombs.

I was the one who made them; they can emit yellow smoke which can blind other people. Sometimes, as they can be so explosive, they can take out foes in just one blast. The sparkle in Emerald's eyes made me realized what she was intending to do.

"Can I try that?" she said, pointing to my bombs.

I hesitated.

"No," I said as Emerald took four of my bombs. "If we both die, I'm blaming you, Emerald."

With the bombs in her left palm, Emerald held her hammer in her right hand and threw the bombs in the air. As if they were tennis bombs, she swung her hammer and hit them. The yellow grenades went flying towards the fight.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

The explosion was efficacious. As soon as the bombs made contact with anything they touch, they exploded, yellow smoke spilling everywhere. It created such a huge bang that the robots turned into debris. However, the Chaotix were caught in the explosion and accidentally inhaled some of the smoke, causing them to cough or sneeze.

Don't worry, though; the yellow gas is harmless to any living organism. I spent weeks making that gas as innocent as it could be.

When the dust cleared, Vector was the first one to look up and spot us. He gave us an annoyed look.

"Really?" he said.

Emerald looked back at me. "I like those things."

I cringed, but scoffed. Even though I underestimated her, I know how RECKLESS and DANGEROUS Emerald may be, not to mention the stupidity. I am…a bit freaked out by some of Emerald's ambitious intentions. She is probably more fearless than I am. Someday she is going to get herself killed.

I snapped out from my thoughts when a robot piece hit me on the head.

CLONK!

"Ow!" I squawked.

"Anymore of this and I'm going to suffer a concussion…" I thought bitterly.

Groaning, I went towards the trio who quickly recovered from the effects of my smoke bombs.

"Where are the others?" asked Vector.

"We accidentally split up," I said, pausing for a while. "Eh, don't give me that look. Not my fault."

"Don't worry," said Emerald. "They will turn up soon. Let's just head in and grab a shuttle."

Sighing, Vector turned on his ear piece to contact the others.

"We got rid of the robots at the Launchpad," he said. "The rest of you must hurry before they send more bots."


Clay's POV

Hearing what Vector said, Bubblegum nodded.

"We will, sir," said Bubblegum before looking at me. "C'mon."

We came out from our hiding spot and showed ourselves at the robot army in front of us. I fired my Wispon, letting out large beams of lasers that distinguished them into ashes while Bubblegum used hers to slice the robots in halves.

"That was easy," Bubblegum said.

I spotted something. "LOOK OUT!"

I quickly tackled her to the ground as a laser flew and nearly shot at the pink cat's head. We fell on the ground heavily. We were fine, even though pain shot through our bodies when we crashed.

Looking up, I noticed a flying robot in the air. Quickly raising my Wispon, I pressed the trigger and shot the robot point-blank. It exploded into pieces.

"A-are you OK?" I said to Bubblegum.

"I'm fine," said Bubblegum. "Thanks."

Both of us stood up.

"Let's just get the hell out of here," I said.

"Agreed," said Bubblegum.

We continued forwards and made our way to the Launchpad despite many more robots trying to get rid of us. At one time, Bubblegum had an idea.

Jumping upwards, she attached her grappling hook at one of the robots and retracted it, dragging herself to it. She was flying through the air, so she held her feet out and banged onto the robot.

BOOM!

By the impact of her spiked-soled shoes, the robot blew to pieces. She bounced off it and landed onto the ground. She was still for a while with wide eyes before shrugging.

"Well…that was crazy," she said.

I looked at her in surprise. "How…how did you do that?"

She shrugged. "Just luck. Remind me to thank Mic for this."

We continued to make our way to the Launchpad. By the time we got there, we found the Chaotix and the rest of our squad nearby a space shuttle. They were getting in.

"Perfect!" said Vector through our ear pieces. "They won't mind if we take this for a while."

"Hurry up, you two!" said Knuckles. "Your squad won't leave until everyone's on board. Step on it!"

I had an idea. I grabbed Bubblegum's arm.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Hold on," was all I could say.

Aiming with my grappling gun, I fired the wire and it quickly attached to one of the holding bars of the shuttle door. I pulled myself and Bubblegum towards the shuttle and quickly reattached the hook as we flew into the shuttle.

BLAM!

Flying into the shuttle, we accidentally bumped into Mecha, falling into a pile.

"Ow…" the bird groaned. "Oh god…"

Bubblegum looked at me unfazed. To my surprise, she smiled. "…this is a much quicker way instead of being late."

"Eh…" I said, feeling my cheeks blushed and my tail wagging. "T-Thanks?"

I slowly went up – right after Bubblegum got off me – before looking at Mecha.

I reached out my hand to help him up…only for him to slap my hand away before standing up. He just gave me an annoyed glare and grunted as he turned his back.

Geez. He was quite rude.

"Let's go already!" said Espio, closing the door shut.

"Does anyone know how to fly this?" said Sebastian.

"Let me try," said Mecha, jumping into the pilot's seat.

"Do you know how to fly, kid?" asked Vecotr.

"Trust me! I'm a professional."

Bubblegum rolled her eyes. The turquoise bird pressed a few buttons before holding onto the wheel.

"Hold on," he warned. "We are taking off."

We could feel the engine turning on and the shuttle roared into life. We all quickly sat into the nearby seats and buckled up.

My ear twitched hearing that Sebastian didn't put on his seat-belt on.

"You're going to put your seat-belt?" I asked.

"Who needs seat-belts?" said Sebastian. "I don't need no stinking..."

I felt the shuttle started to move forwards before gathering speed. It started to go fast before flying off the ramp and took off into the sky in FULL HYPER SPEED.

"…SEAT-BELT!" screamed Sebastian.

He went flying and smashed into the back of the shuttle, nearly breaking a window. As Mecha steered the shuttle, Sebastian unexpectedly flew to another direction, hitting his head on another wall by the strong inertia force.

After a few minutes, the shuttle left the atmosphere of the Earth. The strong inertia in the ship finally stopped. Mecha activated the artificial gravity, so that we wouldn't be floating around in the shuttle.

"Geez," grumbled Sebastian, getting up. "Thanks a lot."

"My bad," said Mecha, pressing a few buttons and stood up. "The shuttle is on autopilot and will fly over to Death Egg. It will take only a few…I don't know…minutes or hours to get there. No more than 1 hour though."

"Great work, Black Squad," said Knuckles. "Nice one on your first mission."

"A bit hasty though on the fact you split up," pointed out Amy.

Bubblegum turned to me. "Now, let's talk."

"About?" I said.

"About that big shield that protected both of us from the running train earlier."

"What?" said Emerald.

"A big shield?" said Espio.

"A yellow shield went over us when a train was about to smash into us," explained Bubblegum. "It appeared out of nowhere. Do you know?"

"I…I don't know," I said. "But maybe…"

Suddenly, my rings glowed again.

"I think this shield came from them," said Mecha, pointing at my rings.

All eyes were on me. I looked at my rings.

"T…That can't be possible," I said. "I wore this for a long time and…they barely made this strange thing."

Mecha looked at them with his hand touching the tip of his beak. "Hmm…the color…the glow…the pattern…the power…"

He seemed to try to figure out what those rings were, but gave up.

"I can't seem to figure them out what they are," he said. "My mind's foggy at the moment. However, from first guesses, they might be useful. They hold great powers."

"Huh?" I said confused.

"Observe."

He stoke one of my rings and a yellow energy ball appeared from the palm of my hand. My draw dropped at this. For some reason, I felt an urge of dominance taking over me, energizing me. Everyone was shocked seeing this.

"Whao!" said Charmy. "That's incredible!"

The energy ball disappeared.

"Holy shogun…" I muttered.

"I'm guessing that those rings gave you these powers," said Mecha. "They can make these energy balls, shields…and probably the power of force and speed. And because of how strong that shield was able to stop that train…your powers are immortal."

"Such magic," I said, looking at my rings.

I concentrated and a yellow swirl magically appeared from my palm before disappearing into the air.

"Yeah," said Mecha. "I believe that you can tap your powers through strong emotions. Your powers can be activated when you are experiencing extreme emotional stimuli or under your own mind control by thoughts. I don't know how strong your power is, so it's best to try to remain calm or else something bad may happen."

I looked at him with a worried look. He turned around and walked back to the pilot's seat.

"You're still inexperienced in fighting," he said coldly. "But you DO have interesting powers. Like I said, it's more than physical strength that you have to deal with."

I stayed quiet.

Mecha was right. Maybe I do have interesting powers. I could try them out and learn these secret weapons. However, it didn't change the fact that they might SINISTER. I remembered that dream when that shadow monster referred me to as 'Dark Wolf', so it would be possible that the rings were connected to something…some…some black magic. The thought of that made me shiver.

"Dark Wolf…"

My ears perked up.

"Dark Wolf…"

I looked around. Again, I still didn't find who was saying that.

"You're OK?" asked Bubblegum who was still standing with me. "Your eyes just turned yellow."

"I-I'm fine," I said, quickly heading back to my seat.

The thing is…I was NOT fine at that moment. I was still unsure if I wanted to talk about my problems to them. I guess I had to hold onto these powers until I discovered the real truth behind them. And…did my eyes really turned yellow?

"This is going to be a long day…" I thought.


Third Person's POV, Green Hill Zone, 28/07 (somewhat after midnight)

The night sky stretched over the entire environment at Green Hill Zone. The lush green fields and beautiful blue lakes filled the horizon with flowers, floras and trees in various colors. This was one of the places that wasn't destroyed by the Eggman Empire as this wasn't a civilization place and only used as a tourist place.

Dragging the broken body of Omega, Tails and Minty grunted as they walked through the grassy area.

"Man," said Minty, looking around. "I'm not a fan of plants, but this place looks so good! It's a wonder all of this is untouched."

Minty was blathering away about the place when she noticed that Tails stayed quiet the whole time. She noted that he looked…depressed.

"Tails?" she asked. "Are you alright?"

"I failed Sonic…" the fox could only say.

Minty halted. "Let it out."

"Eggman's monster got him and now…he's gone."

"…I'm sorry that happened. You know that I saw what happened there. I was at that scene as well. You shouldn't be too hard on yourselves. Everyone is feeling the same way."

"I know…but…Sonic is like an older brother to me. I looked up to him my whole life as there were people who put me down before. I promise that I will help in in times, but I…I failed…"

Minty took a look at the young fox. There were tears forming at the corner of his eyes. Both of his tails wrapped around his body, showing his anxiety. His ears were drooping down. The little yellow cub looked depressing, nearly on the urge to cry. Since Sonic's death was 6 months ago, Tails was nearly numb, but his body shook by a silent sob.

Sighing, the green hedgehog placed her hand on Tails' shoulder. "Here's something I wish I learnt a long time ago; when my grandfather past away, I felt that it was my fault as I was his favored daughter. My mother told me that it is important to move on, but always remember the good times with your loved ones. They might be gone but…that doesn't mean that they won't be in your heart anymore."

Tails looked up to meet her teal eyes.

"From what I heard from your adventures, I understand. Look, the place might be filled with bullies and hypocrites and there will be someone trying to tear you down. However, you know that there are still people who care about you, even though you're alone now. You might have suffered the pain for a long time – even longer than how I dealt with the loss of my parents – but you got to be strong."

Her soft and sympathetic expression turned to a cold determination.

"I tell you what; if we defeat Eggman, this war will be over. If we find a secret to his power, we will be able to avenge those who perished. We must focus on those who are surviving now and not concentrate on those who died. At least the ones who moved on might be in somewhat a better place. Sonic would want us to continue fighting, wouldn't he?"

Tails nodded and gave her a small hug.

"Sorry…" he said. "I thought that we would be lost without him."

The conservation was interrupted when they heard grumbling from somewhere.

"Huh?" said Tails. "What was that?"

They slowly crept around a mountain to find Eggman in his egg mobile, talking to a holographic image of Infinite.

"Them?" said Tails in shock.

"First a long deadly walk across Park Avenue and NOW we have to face Infinite?" groaned Minty.

"Don't worry. I think it's just a message from Infinite. It's just Eggman we have to face."

On the holographic image, Infinite crushed a gem that is a red icosahedron-shaped ruby with black ripples. The virtual pieces went everywhere and disappeared in a glitch on the screen.

"And with that, the disposal of the Phantom Ruby prototypes is complete," said Infinite.

"It was a defective model," explained Eggman. "It could only record the DNA of the one that triggered it."

"Only a being with my strength of will could ever activate it."

"It doesn't matter now with the lab locked down in Mystic Jungle. No one will ever get in. Speaking of which, did you banish Sonic yet?"

"Not yet. The rest are giving him the last moments of pain and torture before we throw him away."

"The hedgehog still lives. That is a great source of concern."

"Yes, but he was powerless against me. There is no need for concern. Maybe…for you perhaps. He has beaten you for decades, yet I defeated him in our first encounter."

Hearing this, Eggman scowled.

"You know what? Moving onto the plan. When it's complete, the resistance will be ERASED. The world will be nothing but ashes, from which a glorious Eggman Empire will rise! In THREE SHORT DAYS, my plan will eliminate the bothersome lot of all of them!"

Eggman laughed manically while Infinite just stared at him. Minty was angrily trembling.

She gritted her teeth and started to move forwards. "Like, I will tear that mustache off your face and shove it up your-!"

Tails quickly stopped her. Eggman looked around only for the two to quickly hide before the mad doctor saw them.

"Not now," whispered Tails to Minty.

"We got him right there," said Minty. "I'm close to making an omelette for tonight's dinner."

"Infinite is still around. If we kill Eggman now, that masked monster will know about it. He's stronger."

Minty sighed, her ears drooping downwards in obvious disappointment. "Fine."

"At least we know that those Phantom Ruby prototypes might be the cause of this. The information might be at that lab in Mystic Jungle. So…if we can head back to my workshop, fly to that lab…"

"…and find the pros and cons of the Phantom Ruby!" said Minty, finishing Tails' sentence. "If we can find a weakness in the Phantom Ruby, we can use it to stop Infinite!"

"Who's there?" called out Eggman's voice.

Both Tails and Minty looked at each other.

"We got to get out of here now," said Tails. "Even though it's two on one, who knows what he have in hand."

"I agree," said Minty.

Hearing him coming, they quickly picked up the broken Omega and walked away.


AN: I hope you like this small moment between Minty and Tails. Before, I thought Minty would be just one of those flat characters, but seeing that she would be stuck with Tails in the beginning might make her a sister-like figure to Tails. It would be sweet to write Minty trying to cheer Tails up.

Some of the different Wispons at the start of the chapter AREN'T from the game. I just made them up as I find it a little unfair that not all Wisp Powers were used in the game. That's why Clay has the Cyan (or turquoise for his point) Wispon and Bubblegum has the Pink Wispon.

I decided to skip the Classic Sonic VS Eggman fight. I found it a bit too much of a challenge and Minty and Tails might not have the strength to defeat the Egg Dragoon.

If you enjoy this chapter, be sure to follow or favorite this story, so you can get updates about this story. Make sure to review this chapter on what you think about this chapter. I'm OK of hearing improvements from you (please no flames).

In the next chapter, we arrive at Death Egg where Sonic has been kept alive the whole time! But things take a worse when both Clay and Bubblegum take the mission...

Until next time, keep on rocking!