Chapter 19 – Trio of Teens

30/07, 3 am

I opened my eyes and rubbed the sand out of my eyes. Letting out a yawn, I sat up from my bed and looked around.

"That's strange," I thought. "Where is everyone?"

I didn't see any of my teammates in their beds. It seemed that everyone had gotten up already. I slowly got off my bed and made my way out of the bunk room.

However, I froze.

The bunk room hall was a mess. The walls were slightly cracked. There were broken glass everywhere. The lights were flickering.

"What the?" I thought. "How come? We didn't make a mess yesterday and we cleaned everything up."

I slowly walked through the hall and head to the bathroom. It was a mess as well. The floor was slightly damaged. The walls were scratched. Almost all the mirrors were cracked. The sinks were broken, spilling out water. I looked at the mirror and there was something written on it in black ink.

IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT.

I shuddered.

Something wasn't right.

Whatever happened, I wondered why nobody told me that this kind of situation would happen.

I slowly crept back, but I felt myself touching something.

I looked behind.

Emerald was lying on the floor.

Motionless.

Not breathing.

"E-Emerald?" I said nervously.

I bent down and placed my hand on her chest.

No heartbeat.

My eyes widened.

"Emerald? No….no…no…are you still alive?"

All of a sudden, her body started to glitch and disappear.

I started to breath heavily.

My heart was pounding.

Something wasn't right.

I ran out of the bathroom and into the HQ hallways.

"HELLO?!" I called. "I need help! Emerald is…"

I trailed off when…what I saw was horrifying. There were a lot of bodies, motionless and dead. There was no blood, but the atmosphere was creepy. To my horror, I noticed that some of the bodies were glitching and some of them were my friends.

Including Bubblegum, Sonic and Mecha.

"No…" I said. "No…no…no…no…"

Visions flickered in front of my eyes as I remembered about the massacre Infinite did in front of me all those months before. It sent a chill down my spine. I shook my head, trying to ignore the bad memories.

"Pull yourself together, Clay," I thought. "This can't be real…"

I ran past the corpses and head to the meeting room. However, it was also a mess. The tables were in half, the computer was cracked, wooden planks laid on the floor and the walls were cracked and filled with scratches. There was a large crater in the middle of the room…with red wet-looking cracks.

The air was rancid, stinking of gas and blood.

I looked down to see something black in front of me.

I picked it up...and gasped.

Belt's glasses.

They were slightly splattered in red.

"W-what?" I said. "I…I…I don't understand…"

"You let them die."

My eyes perked upwards. I looked up.

"It's all your fault."

"W-what?" I said. "W-what are you talking about?"

"You should have know."

"Who are you?!" I said, looking around.

"You are such a mistake."

"Stop it!"

"You are a failure."

"Come out right now!"

"You shouldn't…even…exist…"

"This is not funny."

"You let your brother die."

That voice was RIGHT BEHIND ME.

I broke into a cold sweat and slowly turned around…

…to be face to face with Infinite.

"Boo."

I screamed and fell backwards, hitting the floor with my back.

Infinite laughed as he hovered above me.

I tried to use my powers, but when I shake my hands…there was only a small amount of yellow energy that flickered from my palms.

I concentrated again…

…but nothing come out.

"W-what?" I said, realizing that they weren't working. "B…but…how?"

"I guess you let your emotions get to you, huh?" said Infinite.

He pointed to my right arm. I looked at it and to my surprise, it wasn't black anymore.

It looked…normal.

"What?" I said confused.

"I got to say that I am impressed that you manage to control the darkness," said Infinite. "But…I can't have weaklings like you to live on."

He summoned many red cubes. Without a second thought, I turned on my heel and ran off. I heard them chasing after me, so I rushed out from the meeting room and ran through the hallways. I didn't look back at the flying red cubes. I heard them coming close. I thought that they would electrocuted me, but they didn't…yet. They were still far behind.

When I thought that it was all over for me, I spotted an opened door, so I zoomed into that room and slammed the door before locking it.

"Let's play a game."

I looked around. I was in…a dark bedroom.

A child's bedroom to be exact.

There was a bed, a torchlight and a closet.

I tried to open the door, but it is locked.

"OK…" I said in dread. "Rich. Very rich, Infinite. How many horror video games have you been playing?"

I picked up the flashlight and turned it on. I flashed the light around the room. I was all alone and this…loneliness was enough to send chills down my spine. It was creepy this room…it was as if there was no other life in this bedroom. Some kind of jukebox was playing from somewhere.

I heard the door creek opened and I looked behind.

A bloody face of a corpse.

I nearly screamed, but slam the door. It hissed and tried to open the door, using its nails to scratch. I could hear the wood being ripped off the door from the other side and the grinding of the zombie's teeth. My ears immediately flatten themselves to try the block out the noises.

I heard the closet opening and there was another monster.

I quickly closed it before it could pop out.

"Geez," I thought. "This is bad."

I looked down and saw that…my body was…partly black.

My whole fur was black.

But…I didn't feel darkness.

"That's weird," I said out loud. "How come? I don't feel any darkness. This only happens when-"

I was cut off when something grabbed my shoulder.

My eyes snapped open and my blood ran cold.

Something was RIGHT BEHIND ME.

I was frozen, unable to move.

I shifted my eyes to my shoulder to see a large black-gloved hand on top of it.

I wanted to deny that it was just nothing, but I knew that it was there.

Touching my shoulder.

I felt it breathing on the back of my head.

As much as I didn't want to, I slowly turned around.

Only to meet the face of Infinite.

However, the mask was made as a face, so it had a mouth with sharp teeth.

SCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEECCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I screamed as Infinite shrieked at my face, revealing his awful sharp teeth. Unable to move, I fell down onto the floor. He took the upper hand by grabbing me by the throat.

"ARGH!" I screamed. Tears started to roll down my face. I didn't want to die at that moment and I was scared out of my mind. "P-please! Stop! I-I don't want to die!"

"Oh really?" said Infinite. "Why would anyone like you should live? You should have join me in the first place, Dark Wolf. You let your brother die!"

"N-N-No! He's still alive! I swear I know it!"

"Stupid kid. I TORE HIM apart. That fear and pain I saw in his eyes…it's delicious."

My heart skipped a beat.

I…failed…to…save…Belt?

I shook my head, trying to deny it.

"I don't understand. I took out a lot of people like you, but you always try to get back up. Do you think you are different from them? Do you think anyone REALLY care about you? Do you think you are SPECIAL?"

I saw something spewing out from his back. There were long thin tails coming from his backside with sharp ruby-like knives on their tips. They were dripping in crimson red and the shine on their pointy tips was caught by an invisible light.

They look like ACTUAL SPEARS.

"How adorable," hissed Infinite. "How pathetic. It would be such a pleasure to hear you cry."

That was when the knife tails dove in towards me.


Bubblegum's POV

THUD!

"Urgh…"

What the hell?

THUD!

"Urgh…"

I covered my ears as I tried to hide under the blanket to block out the noises.

THUD!

That was it.

"URGH!" I grunted, sitting up. "What's going on?"

I saw my Pink Wisp and Rookie's Cyan Wisp floating in front of me. They were…shivering.

I forced myself to open my eyes and tried to adjust them to the dark.

"Anything wrong?" I said to them.

The Cyan Wisp pointed…to Rookie.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH! STOP! PLEASE!"

Oh no.

I whipped my head towards Rookie who was crying in his sleep. He was moving a lot and screaming out in pain. The wolf was breathing heavily as he tugged his blankets tightly.

"PLEASE STOP!" screamed Rookie. "IT HURTS! I'M BEGGING YOU!"

"Rookie?!" I said.

I slowly got out of my bed and looked at the others. Emerald and Mecha were still sleeping. Sebastian had a pillow over his head, unconsciously trying to drown out the noise.

"Idiots," I hissed in annoyance. So much for extra help.

At least our Wisps woke me up in time.

I wasn't sure what was going on with Rookie, but he appeared to be having a…nightmare.

I felt the need to help Rookie.

He was screaming loudly for mercy or he might hurt himself.

I couldn't take this.

He doesn't deserve to suffer like this.

When I got to his bed, I placed my hands onto his body.

"Rookie!" I said. "Wake up!"

To my horror, I felt his heartbeat beating faster.

Something was wrong. I didn't know what was happening to him, but by the looks of it, it looked bad.

"Rookie!" I called. "Wake up! You got to snap out of it! I know that you can't hear me, but GET THE HELL OUT OF THAT STUPID TRACE, IDIOT!"

For some reason, Rookie didn't hear me.

I had no chance, but to punch him in the stomach.

That was enough to wake the turquoise wolf as the second I punched him, he shot straight out from bed.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"


Clay's POV

As I screamed, my eyes shot open. I jerked out, nearly jumping out of bed.

"Rookie?"

I breathed heavily, trying to regain some air. My eyes were stinging in pain and my body felt sticky, drenched in sweat. At first, I couldn't see anything, my eyes darting everywhere. I thought that I was still in danger, but when I looked down, I was still in bed.

I was back in bed.

The lights were out. With night vision, I saw that Mecha and Emerald were sleeping. Sebastian was groaning with a pillow over his head. I saw on my side was Bubblegum, her Pink Wisp and my Cyan Wisp.

"R-Rookie?" she said.

The two Wisps squeaked at me in concern.

One moment, I saw myself being stabbed to death by Infinite, but at that moment, I was back in bed.

I was safe. Safe with Bubblegum.

It was just another bloody nightmare.

I stayed quiet for a while, before letting out a loud howl. I wrapped my arms around Bubblegum and started crying hysterically. Everything…was…so…painful…and I couldn't stand having those nightmares for so long. I was used to this pain, but it was always unbearable. After all those six months of terror, I was starting to fall apart.

I thought that I can't hold myself from the edge for that long.

"Rookie," said Bubblegum. "Calm down. What happened?"

"I…I…" I struggled to say through tears. "I…had another nightmare."

"I'm guessing that it was very bad, huh?"

"Yeah…I don't know how, but God doesn't give a dime about me and just let me have these nightmares."

I hugged myself as I trembled in fear. Bubblegum shifted her blue eyes away as if having a deep thought, before staring back at my golden eyes.

"Rookie?" she said. "…when did you have those nightmares?"

"I…I started to have them when Belt was taken from me…" I explained, trying to block out the nightmares I remembered. "…they got worse…when I saw your friends got murdered…"

"What?"

"I dreamed of many people die…including me…including my brother…by dropping down…chopped up…drowning…electrocuted…stabbed…hung…and being cut into many pieces…there were so many deaths…I…I don't know why I have them…this is too disturbing for me…"

I stopped and let a few tears out. "…just why? Why does…God keep tormenting me? Why do I have to suffer? I…I didn't do anything in the first place…they always haunt me in my life and remind me of how much of a failure I am. They will never leave me alone…maybe I should just take my own life so that they can stop."

Bubblegum winced. She placed a hand on my shoulder. "Rookie…I don't think God or anyone else is responsible for making these nightmares. And you still have a place to be in here. It's just the events that happened themselves. You don't deserve them, but something happened in your mind that made you see those things."

I sniffed. "What is it?"

"Questions first; when you saw disastrous things, do you remember those bad memories?"

"…yes…"

"You broke down when facing Infinite. Did you feel helpless? Hopeless? Traumatized?"

"…yes…"

"Do you tend to tremble and break down into tears? Do you become quickly paranoid when experiencing things you don't want to face again?

I nodded.

"Did you tell ANYONE about your nightmares?"

I nodded again.

Bubblegum gasped and placed her hand over her mouth. I saw tears in her eyes.

"What is it?" I asked.

"You…you have post-traumatic stress disorder…" she blurted out.

Silence.

"W-what?" I said, struggling to understand it. "So…all that shaking, fear, crying and pain were all because of a stupid disorder I got?! H-how can you tell?"

"I am studying psychology and therapy," said Bubblegum. "I studied them, so that I can understand how others feel. Yumi suggested that to me, so that I would improve my social skills. You had a traumatic experience that not only caused you to have nightmares, but also changed you drastically."

I placed my and over my mouth. "Oh…my…gosh…"

I looked down. "It shouldn't be a surprise though. I'm…I'm starting to lose sight of myself the whole time."

"How so?"

"Well…before all of this…I was…a happy wolf who felt safe in the world. Now…I changed. I stayed quiet the whole time and barely feel happy. I just feel…sad…angry…fear…alone. I-I am so depressed. I tried to smile…but…I can't…no matter how hard I tried to…it doesn't feel right when I barely feel any happiness. What you're seeing isn't the true me, Bubblegum. I wasn't like that before."

"You feel happy at sometimes," pointed out Bubblegum. "Remember? The time when you saved those civilians? Me apologizing to you? You performing with Mecha?"

I nodded.

"I…I think that your PTSD is gradually breaking away from you. Psychologically speaking, you've been thinking that nobody cared about you and you try to avoid people. It may be a 'good' way to direct the energy away from talking about your nightmares, but it's going to last longer. I guess that…because of the support I and the others gave you…you started to smile. Hell, you even feel proud for doing wicked moments for saving others. Even in the darkest time, we were able to help you. You are slowly breaking out of your funk."

I nodded again. "Yeah…I guess so…"

Bubblegum sighed. "This is hitting you so hard already. This disorder is serious and it can't be extinguish completely. It can still affect you. However, if you let us help you, then you will feel better. And if we save Belt, you will be MUCH better. There isn't a cure for your health, but it can mitigate if you learn to talk more. You are not alone."

I felt so touched that I started to cry harder. I hugged Bubblegum again and she wrapped her arms around me.

"It's OK," she said as she let me cry. "It's OK."

"No…" I said. "I'm…I'm just so happy. Thank you for…being with me. I…I thought I was alone for the whole time…but this lone wolf…found a new friend. I-I like you…as a friend…my first best friend."

This caught Bubblegum by surprise. Then, I heard her sniffed. "Yeah…I guess I felt the same way…after I lost my friends…I still have my remaining friends. I'm more than happy to welcome you. I-I can call you one of my best friends…"

I smiled in tears of joy. We both continued to hug and cry together. It felt so…relieving.

When the two of us let go, I spotted my Cyan Wisp crying. She flew to me in an embrace. I returned the favor, gently wrapping my hands around her small body. I could tell that she was touched by our conversation.

"Is…is she OK?" said Bubblegum.

"Yeah," I said quietly. "It's just that…she…she is a bit depressed like me. She is feeling better when around me."

After a while, I wiped away my tears and looked back at Bubblegum.

"So…friends?" I said.

Bubblegum nodded. "Friends."

The two of us shook hands.

"This…this feels good," I said smiling. "This…this almost feels like-!"

I immediately leapt back upon seeing someone behind Bubblegum.

"M-Mecha!" I exclaimed, my smile dropping.

"H-hi, guys!" said Mecha sheepishly.

Bubblegum quickly turned around in fright. "M-Mecha?!"

The bird smirked. "Did I interrupt your little night session?"

My muzzle turned red. "W-what?! N-no! Just now! We weren't…"

I trailed off, feeling embarrassed.

"It's fine!" reassured Mecha. "Your little secret is safe with me!"

Bubblegum looked away, flustered. I couldn't help but growl a bit.

"Anyway," I said. "I'm going to bed now. We got to sleep."

"Huh?" said Bubblegum. "But are you-?"

"It's fine. Because you were there for me, maybe I won't have another nightmare if I close my eyes. We'll talk later in the morning."

I laid onto my bed with my Cyan Wisp snuggling next to me. I closed my eyes, trying to hide my red muzzle. A smile formed on my face. I couldn't help but grin at what happened. My tail started wagging. To think that I have to suffer the nightmares alone, I found myself having a stronger bond with Bubblegum.

I am happy to call Bubblegum my best friend.


Mecha's POV

I watched as Rookie climbed into bed and closed his eyes. I could tell that he was still awake. He was trying to hide his face with his blanket. I nearly laughed at how adorable he suddenly looked.

Bubblegum looked at me. "Mecha?"

"Hmm?" I said. "Yes, soft kitty?"

"I think I need to explain to you something. Let's do it outside, shall we?"

The two of us went outside of our bunk room. The light was still on and there were some Resistance soldiers walking around.

"So…" I said. "What is it?"

Bubblegum sighed. "Look…what just happened…something…something is going wrong with Rookie. I have been noticing this for a while and I realized that he has-"

I cut her off by raising a finger to her mouth. "Post-traumatic stress disorder…I know."

"You…you know about this?"

"It doesn't take a genius to figure it out. Remember back at the shuttle in space? I saw him shivering in his sleep and suffering a nightmare. When he woke up, he barked at me to go away. As soon as I saw that, I started to think that he is going through that disorder because of something. Now…just to let you know…I woke up when Rookie started crying. I heard the whole thing. It is true…that…he saw your friends being killed?"

Bubblegum hesitated, looking away. "Y-yeah…he…he was there…he saw the whole thing…"

I stayed quiet for a while, unable to respond. So he was there when our town was attacked. He saw a large group being killed. I started to feel guilty, thinking that my bullying probably got him over the edge into thinking that it was his fault for nearly getting our team killed on our first mission: reminding him of how he failed to save Bubblegum's friends.

The pink cat slowly looked at the soldiers passing by. I noticed that some of them were shivering or were crying a lot due to their eyes being bloodshot.

"Rookie isn't the only one here," said Bubblegum. "A lot of people are suffering."

"Yeah," I said. "It ain't pretty."

A question popped up in my mind. "Is…is Emerald affected by this?"

Bubblegum turned to me. "No…well, of course. She is still herself. She is always so happy and positive…kicking away negativity. Maybe the reason why she isn't completely traumatized by all of this is because she watched horror movies with me nearly every night."

I snickered, imagining Emerald watching a horror movie. "Sure…you two watched horror a lot."

Bubblegum smiled a bit, before frowning. "Is…is Sebastian affected by this?"

I sighed. "At the start of the war, Sebastian started to have anxiety. He is shaken by this fact that a lot of people died that he started to fear that he would be killed as well. However, thanks to my sister, he went back on his feet."

"…I…I don't want to make you uncomfortable, but…are you affected as well?"

My eyes widened. The memory of seeing Finn being killed appeared in front of my eyes. I closed my eyes and clenched my fists…and then uncurled my hands.

"Yes," I said. "Ever since Finn died…it made my depression worse. The war made it worse. During our time in the bunker, I was just sulking away. I still choose to still be alive. When the Resistance offered us to join them, I thought that it would be the moment for me to make up for my mistakes. To finally feel as if the world isn't so grey anymore. You know; mech no mistakes! And ever since we became soldiers, I finally felt proud of myself for helping out. However…it's…it's hard to believe that I'm becoming more honest…I'm still depressed and I still remember Finn, but I'm OK."

"You're not suffering from PTSD, are you?"

I shook my head. "No…because I have looked up on high content that is out of my age, I know these kind of things would happen. I learnt how people can deal with trauma, so I try to stay as health as possible...maybe not that because I don't talk to others that much. I am traumatized, but I don't have vivid nightmares. Also…before the war, I saw a group of people dead…"

Whoops.

"What?" said Bubblegum.

I quickly shook my head. I nearly spilled out my other secret. "Forget it. Let's just say I accidentally stumbled upon a massacre."

She nodded. "Oh…right."

"What about you? Are you suffering from PTSD now?"

Bubblegum crossed her arms. "A little bit. I had a few nightmares of seeing Infinite. Back in the bunker, I was depressed, but I had to help my friends on their own issues, so that took my mind off. This isn't really the first time I had PTSD. I had it once after…we accidentally 'killed' my father…and after my mother's death. Jade offered me to see a therapist and I'm healthy already. What happened in town was devastating and I'm slowly coming to terms that my friends are gone, but I'm not mentally ill. Hell, I think that I shouldn't be here, but I don't want to make my father disappointed! I'm just depressed …I'm sorry that you have been like this for a long time."

I looked away, uncomfortably. Even though Rookie was the one who had a mental healthy problem, both me and Bubblegum are depressed, even before the war.

"What about Sonic?" I asked. "Is he OK?"

"Sonic?" said Bubblegum. "He's a complete story."

"Yeah. He is always cheery. I wonder how a guy like him can handle torture for 6 months."

"Well…he told me once about it. He is upset…but he never let his hopes die. That must be why he isn't totally fazed by everything that happened. He said he just have to believe that there will be a solution to win the war. For everyone."

"It's kind of overwhelming. The war has been going on for 6 months. Do you think we can win? Do you believe that Sonic is right?"

Bubblegum was quiet for a while. "A part of me believes so. I always wish that there will be a way to end the war. End the suffering. End the pain. We all know that the Eggman Empire is powerful, but in the end, Eggman always loses. It's…eh…natural in Sonic's adventures."

I laughed at that. "Natural. I have a feeling that we will win for sure."

I yawned and flexed my arms. "So…shall we see what mission we are on now?"

Bubblegum gave me a look. "It's way too early."

"Hmm?"

I looked at where the clock was. On the wall, it said '3:38 am'.

"Oh," I said. "But…most soldiers get up pretty early. I'm partially nocturnal, so…I can get up early."

Bubblegum sighed and rubbed her forehead. "You dummy. There are some squads out there checking on Eggman and the bunkers, but we haven't been called to get up yet. Let's just get some rest first."

"…eh," I said with a smile. "OK then."

I opened the door to see my Yellow Wisp and Bubblegum's Pink Wisp playing in the dark room; their bodies bright like lamps. Yellow was just lovingly rubbing his head onto Pink's, much to the latter's annoyance.

I snickered at this. "OK, Yellow. I think that's enough."

That was when my Yellow Wisp flew towards me, but not before the Pink Wisp pushed him away.

"Pink," said Bubblegum. "Be nice."

Her Wisp rolled her eye before flying into bed.

I looked at my Yellow Wisp. "You really like females more than I do, huh?"

He squeaked in return.


Clay's POV, a few hours later

I woke up feeling fresh. I was relieved that I didn't have a nightmare.

When I opened my eyes, I saw my Cyan Wisp right in front of me, squeaking curiously.

"Morning, girl," I said, yawning a little. "I'm feeling better right now."

She babbled happily and circled around my head.

"Morning Rookie," said Bubblegum. "You're looking well now."

I looked at her and saw that she changed into the clothes Amy gave her. She still wore her gloves and her police vest underneath her opened camouflage jacket. Her outfit made her look more…modern I got to say. It looked better with her covering up her arms and legs.

I blinked. "Oh. You already got changed."

Bubblegum shrugged, smiling. "Well…can't stand wearing a spandex suit for too long. I thought that this might look nice. The only thing I don't like is that the jacket covers the tattoo on my arm."

"I don't really like your tattoo," I said. "Sorry."

Her Pink Wisp warbled, observing Bubblegum's outfit.

"Do you girls think that she looks nice in that?" I asked to the Wisps.

Cyan nodded.

Pink looked a little embarrassed, looking away while huffing.

That was when Mecha came into the room, wearing his new outfit. He still have his goggles and gloves, but he looked pretty stunning with that purple shirt and the golden necklace.

"Rise and shine, Rook," said Mecha, looking at me. "Did you have a good sleep?"

I nodded, shrugging a little. "I am fine…"

I was thinking of telling him about the nightmare I had, but I forgotten about it.

"Nice outfit," I said.

Mecha smirked. "It looks pretty neat I have to say. Along with the necklace. I still don't get why I have to keep it."

"You should put yours on before we go out," said Bubblegum.

I nodded. I took my pile of clothes that I left on a table and got changed. While I still wore my headphones, gloves, rings and cross necklace, I placed on my new Resistance outfit. Truth to be told, I pretty much like the vest I was given; it looked pretty…fashionable.

"Not bad," said Mecha once I finished changing.

"You look nice," said Bubblegum.

I blushed a little. "T-Thanks…"

An idea popped up in my head. "Actually, there is one more thing."

I quickly opened up my bag and took out two shining pieces.

Two fake golden earrings.

I clipped them to my left ear, making sure that they stayed properly. I was a little worried that they would cut through my ear, but they stayed nice. When I let go off them, they hung on my ear nicely.

Good. They didn't drop.

Bubblegum gave me a look. "Why did you place earrings on your ear?"

I shrugged. "Well…you have a spiky bracelet and Mecha has a golden chain necklace, so why not?"

Bubblegum rolled her eyes.

Mecha nodded in approval.

His Yellow Wisp cooed in surprise.

"Let's go," Bubblegum said.

We all went to one of the largest rooms of the headquarters for a huge meeting. The leaders explained our next move.

Within 24 hours, Eggman's plan would happen at around midnight. Or early. The following morning, a plan was made to destroy Eggman's last generator. The last one was at Death Egg as the Phantom Ruby required an incredible amount of energy, which only the Death Egg could provide. Like last time, we simply stop the energy transfer in order to weaken the ruby.

"Simply?" said Knuckles. "Last time I checked, the Death Egg is a heavily fortified…well, Death Egg. Ever since our invasion there, Eggman made the weapon systems tighter than before. It is pretty formidable."

"But we came up with a plan," explained Tails. "We set up a decoy to get Eggman's attention. While he's distracted, we use the Chemical Plant computer to hack into the Death Egg's weapons systems and shut it down. With no weapons, destroying the Death Egg will be a piece of cake. No Death Egg means that the Phantom Ruby is nearly useless. Without much power, we will be able to capture Eggman and stop him once and for all."

"We have already sorted teams out for this mission," said Amy. "A lot of squads are away on rescue missions – including Sapphire Squad as they need to stop Metal Sonic at Aqua Road – so Pink Squad, Yellow Squad, the Chaotix, Moon Squad and Silver will lure Eggman's forces out of Chemical Plant. The Black Squad will then sneak into Chemical Plant to shut down the Death Egg's weapons systems and that's when Sonic head to the Death egg to blow it up."

"What?" said Vector. "Are you sure about this?"

"Don't worry about it," said Sonic. "This time, we won't lose. We aren't going to lose our troops this time. Besides, everyone is on good terms already."

"Alright!" said Knuckles. "You got your orders, everyone. We only have one more day before Eggman's plan is executed, so let's hustle!"

Everyone cheered, agreeing with the plan. I was actually feeling confident about this. Yes, I was nervous, but I felt a sense of hope that I could get along with my teammates.

As all the soldiers got ready for battle, Emerald and Sebastian came up to Bubblegum.

"Hey Bubblegum!" called Emerald.

"Oh hey," said Bubblegum. "What do you want?"

"We just want to tell you something," said Sebastian.

"Shoot."

"We thought if you, Rookie and Mecha can go your own to go to that Chemical Plant," said Emerald. "Sebastian and I will help the others distract Eggman."

Bubblegum looked shocked. "What?! No! We can't split up again!"

"Well, since you are just made amends with Mecha yesterday," said Sebastian. "I want to see how you can work with Mecha. Besides, we will be fine. What can possibly go wrong?"

Bubblegum rolled her eyes and sighed. "OK then. Just be safe."

"We will," said Emerald.

That was surprising I got to say.

Emerald and Sebastian are going to ditch us to watch us try to work together?

I turned to Mecha. "Should we just tell them to stay together?"

Mecha sighed. "I think we should. It's better if-"

He was cut off when we heard someone yelling at us to get prepared.

I shook my head. "It's just the three of us now."


Bubblegum's POV, Chemical Plant

Who knows that I was going to be the one to break in an Eggman facility again?

My job was to go with Rookie and Mecha and head to the Chemical Plant. We needed to find that computer room and shut down the Death Egg's weapon system, so that Sonic could destroy the Death Egg. I honestly thought that some other squad would do that, but…we got this task by dumb luck.

We waited on the mountains that surrounded the base of Chemical Plant. There was a cold breeze, but I wasn't bother.

OK…that's because I was wearing a jacket.

Clay was shivering, forcing him to zip up vest.

Mecha was rubbing his arms.

We stood there alone, waiting for the other squads to distract Eggman's forces and lead them away from the base.

"Well," said Mecha, trying to smirk. "This is going to be fun."

"We got to be careful though," I pointed out. "Even if they lure the guards away, who knows what's in there?"

"At least they will get Eggman out of the way," said Rookie.

I looked up to see Ash, Tyler, Jayden and Joey on top of another mountain. Using my earpiece, I managed to hear what they were saying.

"OK," said Ash. "We are at the south of the Chemical Plant. Silver, Sebastian and Emerald are at the north, the Chaotix are at the east and the Pink Squad are at the west. We haven't got to the bots, but we are in position."

"Good," said Knuckles. "Be careful though! We don't know what Eggman might have in store for you."

"Oh man, oh man, oh man," said Tyler nervously. "This is bad…"

"Pull yourself together!" snarled Jayden. "We aren't even in battle yet! Also, we will be fine like always."

"Uh…guys…" said Joey. "Where's Mandy and Blizzard?"

The four guys were silent.

"I thought they were behind you Tyler!" said Ash.

"Me?" said Tyler. "N-no! I thought that they were on Jayden's side!"

"Don't look at me!" said Jayden. "Joey was responsible for taking care of them!"

They looked at Joey who stared back dumbly. "What?"

"For Anubis' sake," said Ash, shaking his head.

"Stand by everyone!" called Silver. "I'm receiving info that the Chaotix are getting Eggman's forces out from the west!"

"Oh boy," said Rookie.

"Huh?" said Angelica. "What the…? There's some kind of unusual strange thing at the base…"

"What's going on?" said Silver.

"It looks like-"

"What the hell is that?!" I said, looking over the mountain.

Rookie and Mecha turned their heads to see where I was looking at.

Right in the middle on top of one of the towers was Blizzard…dressed as an anime girl.

I wish that I was kidding…

…but he was wearing a full pink ballerina dress.

"KONNICHIWA, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARDS!" yelled Blizzard through a loud speaker.

This caused attention as all parties turned to were that white tiger was at. Immediately, the robots went flying to him, trying to shoot him down. With quick feet, he jumped and flew through the air. He landed onto one of the platforms and started running away, leading a large portion of Eggman's forces out of the base.

I was pretty speechless. I will admit that I would get ticked off by Emerald's stupidity, but I never seen THIS before.

Clay even had his mouth opened, unable to say anything.

Mecha was snickering.

"Is that REALLY the BEST he can do?" he laughed.

"Really?" said Angelica deadpanned. "That is like so old!"

We heard Mandy laughing through the radio. "This is SO worth it! We got advantage of Eggman's dresses!"

"Really?!" said Ash and Jayden in unison.

Laughter could be heard through the radio, even though this was supposed to be a serious mission.

"This is so priceless!" chuckled Emerald.

"I'm recording this!" said Sebastian.

"OK! Hold on here!" said Knuckles sternly. "Just what is Blizzard doing, Ash?"

"I swear I didn't know about this!" objected Ash.

"Oh my lord…" said Rookie.

We watched as the other squads lured the robots out of the Chemical Plant. I lost count of how many there were as they seemed to blend in with the machinery around this land. After a few minutes, the Resistance squads managed to lure them away, further away from the facility.

I checked one last time for any robots, but it was clear that all of them were stalled.

"OK, Black Squad!" called Knuckles. "Get in there!"

"Got it!" I said.

We three got out of our hiding place, ready to infiltrate the Chemical Plant. The mountain we were on was actually a cliff facing the large facility, so we had to jump down.

Mecha jumped off the cliff, did a somersault and landed perfectly onto the ground.

I just used my grappling gun to lower myself down.

Rookie did the same, but as usual, he did it slowly.

He's still afraid of falling…

By the time he was done, Rookie retracted the wire and landed on his butt softly.

"Could have asked for that grappling gun," said Mecha.

We looked up to see one of the main entrances of the Chemical Plant. It looked so empty without the robots there.

"OK," said Rookie. "Back to where we had our first mission."

We ran off and made our way inside Chemical Plant. We just passed the entrance when Mecha stopped.

"What is it?" I asked.

The bird looked around the place wildly before pointing at a large vent door that was hanging in front of a larger building.

"We could use that to get inside," said Mecha.

"Are you sure?" asked Rookie.

I shrugged. "Better then running around the place to find a PROPER entrance when the place's filled with drones. We don't know how many enemies are still around here."

Mecha opened the vent door opened and one by one, we got in.

As we traveled through the vents, I realized that the place was dark, cold, damp and narrow. Again, it was a good thing that we were small enough to get through the metal tunnels. Rookie went in front as he have a good sense of smell and night vision. I was in the middle as I used my ear piece to track down where we were supposed to go. Mecha was at the back, watching out for anything that might come to us from behind.

"There are a lot of tunnels here," I said. "I located one that is the closest to the computer room. We just have to take the vent on the…left…then take the next one on the right…it will lead to…"

"I think we get it, soft kitty," said Mecha.

OK. That was getting old.

"Really?" I said annoyed. "I think it would be best if we stop calling each other nicknames."

"So you're saying that you are fine being called Beth?" said Rookie.

I thought for a while. "…you can say that."

"Does my name sounds like a nickname to you guys?" said Mecha.

"You should have ask that to your tournament teammates back home."

"I…I think so," said Rookie.

"Then what should I be called?" said Mecha.

"…maybe Corvin…Lot…Ryan…Goldsmith…Talon…Falcon…Lorcan…Robin…Jay…Lucifer…" I suggested.

"The last one is a very BAD one."

"Thought that might suit you. What about you, Rookie? You always have the name 'Rookie'. Care to tell us what your real name is?"

"I…" Rookie stuttered. "Um…let just not talk about it now…just ask Belt…"

He was quiet for a while before coming up with a question. "…if we are human instead of animals…what will you look like and where would you live in?"

"Well…" I said. "I sometimes think of myself with light peach skin…brown natural hair…and I am American...but I like to be Japanese."

"For me…light peach skin…black for natural hair color…and I would be from Asia…I think."

"If I was human," said Mecha. "Then I would be from Britain because that's where I was when my mother hatched my egg. I would have tan skin and blonde hair."

"Why's that?" I asked. "It's not a bad set, but why?"

"I thought that it might suit my looks. I would REALLY like tan skin. Anyway, Rookie. Do you see anything?"

Rookie looked around. "There's…nothing…"

"Oh great," I said. "After spending an HOUR in here, I'm starting to think that fighting an army of extra robots would be better."

"But I SMELL something ahead! It must lead to the Computer Room."

We kept on travelling until Rookie told us to stop.

"Now…" he said, looking down. "We are on a large vent door that is below us which may lead to the room…or some hallway. This door is the size of the area we are covering."

"I guess we are sitting on it now," said Mecha.

"Want to do the honors?" I said.

Rookie shrugged. "OK then."

He lifted his fist up – letting it glow yellow due to using his powers – and punched the vent door opened.

The second it opened, we fell through it.

Big mistake.


Clay's POV

Whoops.

Below us was a long vertical tunnel into the plant with rotating pink LASER BLADES that guarded the tunnel. They were all spinning around like fans.

I screamed at the sight of this.

Seeing a hanging pole, Bubblegum used her tail to grab it, before grabbing MY tail. I quickly grabbed the falling Mecha by HIS tail. Soon, we were holding onto each other, looking at the moving laser blades below us.

"OK," said Bubblegum. "This is BAD."

"I'm sorry," I said, trembling. "I'm sorry…"

"Don't worry, guys," said Sonic. "I would enjoy this even more if I was on THAT mission…if I was you. Just skydive through that tunnel and you'll be fine."

"ENJOY THIS?! SKYDIVE through THAT?! Being on the brink of death?!"

I squirmed as I felt a pain on my tail that connected to my back. It felt like it was about to be torn off.

"I don't think we can hold on for any longer," I whimpered.

"Whelp, at least we know how useful our tails are," said Mecha flatly. "I thought that they were just useless."

"There's only one thing to do," said Bubblegum, gulping a little. "Hang tight, everyone! I'm going to let go of the pole."

"What?!" I said.

"She wouldn't!" said Mecha.

"One…"

"She would…"

"Two…"

Mecha and I started yelling at Bubblegum to not let go.

"THREE!"

But the pole Bubblegum was hanging onto BROKE.

It slipped out of her tail's grip and fell below.

We watched dumbly as it hit the laser blades and was burnt into cinders.

We looked down.

At the very high vertical tunnel.

For a while, we were just floating in mid-air cartoon-like.

We were standing on nothing.

ABSOLUTELY nothing.

And gravity ensued.

"CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…!"

We screamed all the way down as we fell through the laser tunnel. To my surprise, we were able to skydive through the lasers and reached the bottom of the tunnel WITHOUT BUMPING INTO ANY OF THE LASERS. Mecha was able to land on the floor with his feet…and then I fell onto him…then Bubblegum fell onto me.

We were all in one huge pig pile.

"Ow…ow…ow…" I said as pain went through my body.

"For some reason," said Bubblegum who was perfectly fine. "You feel fluffy."

I blushed. "F-Fluffy?!"

"Ouch…" groaned Mecha. "Why does this always happen to me…?"

"Oops," I said sheepishly. "S-sorry."

Bubblegum hopped off me. I stood up while helping Mecha get up.

"Next time," said Mecha as he ruffled his feathers. "Can we be a bit choosier on where we go next time?"

Bubblegum rolled her eyes and pressed on her ear piece. "OK. We are in!"

"The computer room is up ahead," said Knuckles. "You should be able to shut down the Death Egg's defense system from there."

"Got it!"

"C'mon!" said Mecha pointing to a hallway.

We ran through the glass hallway before we entered a large long room that was glowing red and filled with machinery. There were different platforms that lead to many rooms. Using Bubblegum's ear piece, we were able to locate the computer room, running through the platforms.

"That's a lot of junk around here in Chemical Plant," said Bubblegum. "That's for sure."

"Wait!" said Mecha, stopping us.

He quickly halt and we stopped. Suddenly, a purple steam of liquid went falling through the air and through the small holes of the floor.

"What…was…that?" said Bubblegum.

"Some kind of…waste…" I said.

We continued on and bumped into two robots that were standing on a set of stairs. I quickly got out my Wispon, but before I could press the trigger...

…another stream of purple chemical fell down again…onto the robots.

BUZZ!

As soon as the purple liquid drenched them, the robots froze in spot. When the chemical cleared, the robots started to twitch violently and electricity was spewing out from them. They tried to move, but their arms and legs were shaking uncontrollably. They weakly fell onto the ground, powerless.

We stood there, speechless.

"Let's just find that computer room before we are next," said Bubblegum nervously.

"Agreed," I said, gulping.

"WATCH OUT!" shouted Mecha.

He quickly tackled Bubblegum to the ground and was about grab me, but I was suddenly dumped by the same purple chemicals.

"AAARRGGGHHH!" I screamed.

I gurgled through the chemicals and tried to get out, but I couldn't. My vision was blurry and painful. I couldn't breath. My whole body felt like I was swimming through frosting.

Finally, the chemical dump ended. I fell onto the floor, dazed.

"Rookie!" said Bubblegum, helping me to get up. "Are you alright?"

"I'm alright," I said yawning. "I'm feeling kind of loopy…"

I shook the chemicals out of my body like a wet dog. I pinched my nose as I smelled like purfume – but not a good kind. For some reason, I felt…kind of tired. Everything was nearly spinning. I tried to keep my eyes opened. Mecha took a droplet of the purple liquid that was dripping from my hair with his finger and licked it.

"What are you doing?" said Bubblegum.

"Testing it," said Mecha. He yawned a bit. "It appears that the chemical can impact the brain."

"Which part?" I said.

"The hindbrain…I mean the pons. It would cause that brain part to fail for a period of time and it will put you to sleep for a while."

"And when will that happen?"

"Um…somewhat in an hour. Don't worry. You will be fine."

I was about to ask him how he knew that kind of stuff by just licking something when Bubblegum pointed to something.

"Over there!" she said, pointing to a hallway. "There's the computer room!"

"All right!" said Mecha. "Now we can destroy the Death Egg."

Out of the blue, an alarm could be heard.

"Uh…guys…" said Silver. "You better hurry. We can't hold out Eggman's forces for that long!"

"Let's go!" said Bubblegum.

Wasting no time, we ran to the hallway and entered the computer room. It was large inside and very dark. There was a bridge that lead to a well-lit and highly advanced computer room. Large monitors were hanging on the wall, displaying footage of several destroyed cities and a few projects Eggman used. In front of them was a large crescent-shaped control panel.

"Wow!" I said. "This place is so big…"

"That's Eggman we're talking about," said Bubblegum.

"Almost look like my computers I have," said Mecha, going up to the panel. He tapped on the keyboard and a hologram screen appeared from the panel.

"Hello," said a female A.I voice. "Welcome back to Eggman Chemical Plant System. Please put in password."

Mecha's eyes widened before groaning in frustration. "Of course! I knew I should have brought my computer. That way, I could hack into that stupid thing!"

"Uh…" I said. "Bubblegum and I know the password from…Death Egg."

"What is it?"

I sighed and blurted out this.

"'eggman'."

Silence.

"Pfft…HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

Mecha burst into laughter, hearing that password. He was laughing so hard that I swore that I saw some tears in his eyes. Laughing himself sick, he banged his fist on the table several times.

"Really?!" he crowed. "Is that what Eggman would use?! That pathetic password?"

"Just shut up and start the computer already," said Bubblegum.

Mecha finally settled down – thought he was still giggling – and put in the password.

"ACCESS GRANTED."

The hologram screen expanded and showed a hub of all the different features of the Eggman Empire.

"What do you choose to do today?"

"Shut down the defensive systems of Death Egg," said Mecha.

He moved the mouse to click on the category 'Death Egg'. A large map of it appeared, revealing the giant circular space station. There were a lot of buttons on the screen, showing the different functions and features of the station. Mecha clicked the 'defensive system' and then clicked 'turn off all'. When he did so, a large warning box appeared.

"WARNING. YOU'RE GOING TO SHUT DOWN ALL THE DEFENSIVE SYSTEMS OF DEATH EGG. ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO CHOOSE THIS.?"

"YES," said Mecha coldly before pressing the 'yes' button.

"Undergoing turning off all the defensive systems of Death Egg…affirmative."

A loud sound echoed through the computer room, vibrating the place a little.

A large green tick mark appeared on the screen saying 'ACTION COMPLETE'.

"Guys!" called Rouge. "The Death Egg's weapon systems are down!"

"Good work, you three," said Vector. "Best to get out of there before Eggman finds out."

"And that's how you don't mech any mistakes!" chirped Mecha victorious.

Bubblegum playfully rolled her eyes and patted Mecha on the back. "I'll admit that you are good with this one."

Something came to my mind.

"Um…Mecha…" I said. "Can you…search if…my brother is still alive?"

Mecha shrugged. "I guess I can try."

He typed on the computer and the hologram screen showed a database of living people. There was a large list with several names. They were all highlighted in green or red or yellow.

"Oh man," said Bubblegum. "Why would he have this?"

"Probably to keep track on who's alive and who's dead for whatever reason," said Mecha flatly. "The list says there that the names in green are the people who are alive, the names in red are the people who are dead and the names in yellow means…he placed tracking devices on them to find them easily."

He clicked onto the search bar.

"So what's your brother's name again?" he asked.

"Belt," I said. "Belt Colourz."

Mecha typed that name in the search box and one result appeared:

Name: Belt Colourz

Current State: Alive

My eyes widened.

"Oh…oh…my gosh…" I stuttered.

Tears formed in my eyes. I was so overwhelmed. This is good. Belt is still alive. After all those 6 months, he is still alive. I thought that he was dead for a long time despite hanging onto the last bits of hope.

Bubblegum and Mecha looked at me.

"Rookie?" said Bubblegum. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," I said, wiping my tears. "I'm…I'm just happy that Belt is alive…guess I'm not a lone wolf after all…"

I didn't know what I was doing, but I gratefully hugged Mecha. "Thank you so much."

The turquoise bird was surprised by this. He then chuckled and rubbed my head, chuckling a little.

"OK then, boy," he said as I let go. "I'm still not comfortable with this."

Bubblegum smiled before looking back at the hologram screen. "His name is in yellow which means that Eggman knows where he kept him."

Mecha looked back at the computer. He pressed a few buttons and a whole map of the world appeared. A red spot appeared on the south of the United States continent. An information box appeared beside it.

"It…it appears that…" said Mecha. "He is held captive at the Eggman Empire Fortress. That place is next to Metropolis and that is where Eggman is currently at. I believe we can get to him in time."

I smiled, feeling a large wave of relief.

"Don't worry, Belt," I thought. "I'm coming to find you."

All of a sudden, I felt…lightheaded. Everything started to spin and blur. I felt so…tired. Every part of my energy started to fade away and my eyes were heavy. My body felt pretty weak as they slowly became depleted.

"Is it just me…?" I said wearily as I held onto my head. "…or is the whole room shaking…?"

"Uh…" said Bubblegum confused.

"Oh no…"

I felt so tired that I collapsed onto the floor and blacked out.

For some reason, I didn't feel my head banging onto the floor.


Mecha's POV

OK. That one was unexpected.

Bubblegum and I watched as Rookie fell onto the floor. His eyes closed and he started to…snore.

"Rookie?" said Bubblegum, prodding the wolf's head with her foot. "Are you OK?"

"Not…now…" Rookie said unconsciously. "I'm too darn tired."

The pink cat looked up and glared at me. "'An hour' the genius said."

"I didn't know that it would happen any moment," I said. "I think it's taking effect now."

At this, I felt…sleepy. I yawned and my mind was letting go. My head was spinning and I felt…so…lightheaded. I nearly fell down, but I quickly grabbed the computer for support. I got up, groaning.

"Remind me to take a coffee when we get back," I said.

"I think it's gonna be more than sugar you need to take," scoffed Bubblegum.

An alarm went off. Sirens could be heard and red lights flashed all over the room.

"OK," said Bubblegum nervously. "Well, that was fun."

"Now what?" I said annoyed.

"They have spotted you!" called Tails. "Get out of there now!"

At this, an army of robots appeared, blocking the only way out of the room.

"Just hold tight!" called Espio. "We will get to you-"

Bubblegum looked at me taking out her Wispon. "I guess we got a little action after all."

I smirked and got out my Wispon. "Heh. I bet that I can take out more of these guys than you."

"Pft. In your dreams."

Exchanging competitive looks, the two of us jumped and charged towards the robots, ready to blast and drill them into pieces.


Third Person's POV, Eggman Empire Fortress

6 months.

6…FREAKING…MONTHS.

That is how long Belt was imprisoned for.

Caught by Eggman, he was sent to a generator room: forced to stay in a glass cylinder so that his rings were connected by wires to suck up the unlimited energy as a battery. He tried to break free, but every time he dared to move, he would be electrocuted…or when Eggman was feeling sassy. He couldn't move. He was given food to eat, but that wasn't enough to fill the red wolf's heart. His glasses were broken and he couldn't see properly.

Belt thought that Eggman would kill him, but because he was in possession of the Light Rings, he needs to be ALIVE so that anyone could use the rings.

Belt felt guilty. He lost everything. His parents. His home. His younger brother. And little by little, nearly his own self-esteem. Sanity can count as one. He had been away from Clay and Belt didn't know if the turquoise wolf was alive or not. He would get reminded everyday by Eggman or Infinite that Clay would turn on Belt and join the bad guys due to holding the Dark Rings.

Belt wanted nothing but to run away and be with Clay. He didn't care that he was in a hopeless war. All he wanted was to be safe with his only family. It was his fault for abandoning Clay. It was his fault for not letting him know of his powers, because it would do something to him. Something dangerous.

He still held onto his hope and love for Clay. He would never break his relationship with him. He just wanted to be free, but he was stuck. He couldn't do anything to stop Eggman.

On this day, Belt overheard that the Resistance had destroyed two of the Phantom Ruby generator and were about to capture Eggman. What they DIDN'T know was that the Phantom Ruby was still working. There was ANOTHER generator. Everyone was in trouble. Belt had to do something.

Belt sighed. He didn't want to use his powers, but if he wanted to stop the war, at least he could send a message to someone. ANYONE.

He moved his hands a lot, trying to break the wires.

They didn't budge.

The red wolf winced, fearing that he might be shocked again.

He didn't dare move another muscle in his body, forcing himself to stay still.

"There's one thing I can do…" thought Belt.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. All of a sudden, he felt energy shooting through his body and a large mint green wave of energy exploded out of him. It shattered the glass and snapped the wires. Belt sighed in relief as he felt the fresh air of the room and the pleasant smell after being trapped in a stinking container. A slight cold breeze brushed his fur which was drenched in sweat, burns and tears.

He looked at his rings. "Only for this time."

Belt would never use them again.

He looked around the huge room despite his glasses cracked and dirty, and he could barely see. It was filled with machinery and platforms that led to different hallways. He looked down from the platform he was on. Below him was nothing but a bottomless pit. On the same platform he was on, there was a nearby computer panel.

He chose to come over to use it. He couldn't use his phone because it was out of battery already and his phone services were probably offline at that moment.

He tapped on the keyboard and a hologram screen appeared. He clicked on the phone call and placed in a random number. He had forgotten what Clay's phone number was, so he had to think quick and record his voice to at least SOMEONE who is with the Resistance. Once he finished typing, he clicked on 'voice message' and recording started.

"H…hey there," said Belt, his voice shaking. "My name is Belt Colourz and I lived in Australia. Just before the war started, I was captured. I don't know who is gonna hear this, but please. If anyone finds this, please let the Resistance know this no matter what; the Phantom Ruby is still in full power and there's a BACK-UP generator at Eggman Empire Fortress!"

"What's going on?" said Eggman's voice from somewhere.

Belt's eyes widened. "Oh no. They're coming back. T-T-This is a plea for all the people of the world…"

"INFINITE! GET HIM!"

"Get out of your homes, find something that can fly and get out of Earth!" screamed Belt at the computer. "I repeat. GET OUT WHILE YOU STILL CAN! NO ONE IS SAFE! EGGMAN IS READY TO DESTROY THE WORLD ANY MIN-!"

That was when he felt Infinite grabbing him by the throat and carried him in the air. He went into flight mode as he started swinging his arms and legs around in a fit to try to stop the masked monster. He wanted to get out of the fortress, but not everything is a miracle for him.

Belt struggled to breath. "L-Let me go! LET ME GO RIGHT NOW!"

"Begging won't lead you to anyway," said Infinite as he turned Belt around to face him. "You seem to cling onto life."

"I-I d…don't care if…my life is in danger…" choked out Belt, fire flaming in his eyes. "I…I…I'm more interested in g-getting your darn empire…burn to hell!"

"By 'burn to hell' you mean to say 'flee with my tail between my legs'. I'm quite displeased of what you say. Even yet, your brother hasn't accept my offer yet."

"H-H-He will NEVER become like you…monster!"

"Oh, he will be. It appears that he's becoming worse, eh? I remember seeing him cry in front of me. Such a pathetic coward. He seemed to be trying to hide the fact that he is the Dark Wolf with bandages, but I guessed that nothing can be covered up for that long.."

"H-he won't! H…he won't become the beast you say! He is kind, sweet, innocent, caring…HE WON'T BE LIKE YOU!"

"We will see, but unfortunately, you will never see that happen."

That was when Infinite threw Belt onto the ground, destroying his glasses. As soon Belt's head hit the floor, he felt as if his skull cracked.

Everything was dark.

The last things he heard before his light went out were voices.

"Infinite. Get him ready for the Death Egg Robot."

"Yes, sir."


Bubblegum's POV, Resistance HQ (around noon)

It took us a while, but Mecha and I had to drag Rookie out of the facility. Since we took a long time trying to escape, we got back late. We were picked up by Silver and Yellow Squad.

"Well that was a lot of fun!" said Blizzard as we got off the shuttle. "Did you guys see me there?"

"Why the hell did you need to wear a DRESS?" said Jayden.

"Because it looked nice! And it looked clean!"

"It was the perfect distraction to lure the robots away," said Mandy.

"Next time I see you two airheads do something like this again," snarled Jayden "I will bang your heads together."

"Be civil, dog," said Ash. "They did a good job."

Jayden rolled his eyes. He looked behind to see me and Mecha.

"What happened to Rookie?" he asked.

"Juuuuuuust something happened," said Mecha while I whistled nervously. "Give him time to rest. He will wake up soon!"

Mecha and I slowly carried Rookie to our bunk room. We laid him onto the bunk bed and I pulled a blanket over him. Immediately, the turquoise wolf snuggled into his blanket and hugged it like a soft toy.

"There we go," said Mecha. "He looks cute when he's asleep."

"I just hope that the chemical wears off," I said. "I'll be right back. I'm going to check on the others."

I walked off and entered the meeting room where I was approached by Amy.

"Oh!" she said cheerfully. "Hey Bubblegum!"

"Oh…" I said. "…uh…hi…"

Wow. I almost sound like Rookie.

"I want to say well down for breaking into the Chemical Plant! You did fantastic."

I smiled. "Thanks. I guess that working with someone I hate wasn't that bad. How is Sonic going?"

"He's going fine. For some reason, the Death Egg's weapon system turned back on. I guessed that they have an override switch, but it doesn't matter now. Sonic was able to get in there and he is now destroying that generator!"

"Good to know," I said.

"Well, well, well…" said another voice.

Amy groaned. "It's you, Rouge."

I looked at the side to see Rouge coming towards us.

"Oh, hi Rouge," I said. I didn't know Rouge very well on a personal level, but only talked to her once.

"Well, look what the pink cat brought in," said Rouge, shaking my hand. "You did good out there. It's not like you just waited until the last minute to come in and act all cool saving the day."

"Why thank you."

At this, I spotted Richard walking by. The brown cat gave me a seductive smile before walking off.

My cheeks turned red.

"I'm starting to think that Richard is liking you already ," said Amy.

I shook my head. "W-what?! I-I don't know what you are talking about!"

"C'mon, sugar," said Rouge smirking. "We saw you walking with Richard together last night. You also had your first kiss."

OK. That wasn't a TRUE kiss.

"F-First kiss?!" I stuttered as my face turned magenta. "H-How do you know? T-that was just an accident! Somebody pushed Richard and he accidentally reared in."

"Well, you're welcome."

"You're welcome? What are you talking about…?"

I trailed off as I remembered what happened last night.

"Richard?" I said.

He was about to speak when…

…a flash of white appeared behind him and pushed him.

PFFFFFT!

Within moments, I found our lips…to be in contact with each other. Richard was nearly on top of me, his face near my face. His lips were pressing against MY lips.

He…was kissing me.

My heart started racing and an explosion set off in my mind.

I looked behind to see the white figure running off, laughing with an alluring female voice.

A white figure…

…a person with white fur…

…and that person's voice sound like female…

The person who pushed Richard to kiss me was

I put the pieces together…and realized what happened.

"YOU pushed me?!" I said in disbelief.

"Yeah," said Rouge slyly. "Technically gave you a push of faith."

I tried to find the right words to say, but this only made me frustrated and embarrassed. I tried to say something, but stuttered. I placed my hand onto my head again; showing signs of frustration before shaking my head.

I am SO sick of everyone teasing me of being a 'thing' with Richard.

I gripped Rouge's hand hardly her arms, but she remained calm. My face was turning red in anger.

I was so TICKED OFF.

"Do that again and I swear…" I snarled through gritted teeth. "...I will CHOP OFF YOUR STUPID WINGS, IDIOT!"

And that was when I saw Shadow a few kilometers away…with a stern look.

Street-smart, I grudgingly let go off Rouge…not because of my own safety.

"You're welcome," said Rouge.

I growled. But being a cat, I didn't sound threatening like a wolf.

KABOOM!

I looked up to see the monitor. It seemed that there was an explosion happening on the live video.

"Huh?" I said. "What's going on?"

"I did it, everyone!" called Sonic. "Sit back and watch the fireworks."

On the monitor, it showed the Death Egg. It was seen suffering numerous explosions around its hull before it exploded. The once large ugly space station was replaced by a large red and black flaming explosion in space.

Everyone cheered as we saw the Death Egg finally destroyed.

"They did it!" said Amy. "The Phantom Ruby's power should be done to almost nothing!"

"Mission accomplished," said Tails, typing on the computer. "The Phantom Ruby's signal must have got much weaker."

"This should effectively put a stop to the doctor's greatest weapon," said Shadow.

"This is the moment we've been waiting for," said Silver. "Time to settle the score!"

"Now that the Phantom Ruby is out of the way," said Knuckles. "We can finally smash Eggman into an omelette!"

"Hey," said Rouge. "Don't count your chickens before you smash your eggs!"

"Rouge is right," called Sonic. "The fact that Eggman and Infinite are still around means we can't let our guard down."

"Who knows what Eggman has up his sleeve?" I pointed out. "The world isn't safe yet and the Eggman Empire are still conquering the world."

Knuckles sighed. "All right, fine. We still have most of our troops on their own missions in different parts of the world. I want every squad to get ready to take down Eggman once and for all."

Everyone cheered at this. I couldn't help but cheer as well. I did a great job, managed to get along with my squad and was one step away from saving the world.

I just hoped that my friends back home are OK and if I can rescue Belt in time.

I noticed somebody peeking from the room's entrance.

Richard.

When I looked behind, he brown cat quickly hide, blushing.

"What is that all about?" I thought curiously.

I crept slowly to the entrance where I saw Richard talking to Mic from a distance.

"What's wrong?" said Mic.

"Well…she saw me," said Richard, somewhat nervous.

"At least you didn't look like a creep there."

"Got to say; that face I made was my best one."

"You know what they always say; you need to impress the lady if you want her."

Richard chuckled nervously. "I…I guess so."

My mouth opened wide when I heard that.

Is…Richard trying to…win me?

Does he love me?

Maybe 'win' wasn't the right word, but I…eh…loved him and he seemed to love me back.

Those thoughts made my heart started to race.

I still I can't believe it.

"I…I guess Amy isn't wrong after all," I thought smiling.

All of a sudden, I realized something.

"Where's Emerald and Sebastian?"

Speak of the devil, in came Sebastian.

"What's up?" said Sebastian, coming towards me. "You were SO DOPE out there, dude! I'm telling my boys about this when we get back home."

I rolled my eyes playfully. "You don't have to. All I want is to make the world a better place and…I guess that I did a great job."

Sebastian gave me a quick hug. "I bet that your parents would be proud of you!"

I laughed slightly. "Where's Emerald?"

"Follow me."

Sebastian led me to the cafeteria.

"You got to try those spicy wings they have now," said Sebastian.

"I thought they are just giving out rations for the soldiers," I said.

"Yeah, but Alexia decided to make those to celebrate our victory," said Sebastian, opening the door. "I guarantee that they are the best wings in the-AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGGHHHHH!"

Sebastian screamed upon seeing something in the cafeteria. I looked at where the lime wolf was looking at.

H-Hold on…I…I think I'm going to puke…

Alright, I'm fine now. I'm fine…

I shouldn't think about it or I will have a stroke. But I'm forcing myself to say it to let you all know.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" I exclaimed.

There, Emerald was in the middle of the room; all PUFFED UP AND LOOK LIKE A GIGANTIC BEACHBALL. Her body was plumped like a giant blueberry. Her floppy ears nearly touched the ceiling. Many soldiers looked at her with looks of disbelief, disgust and surprise.

"Hi Bubblegum…" said Emerald, smiling dumbly. "Ash has been giving me some delicious sushi!"

I just looked at the plumped Emerald in horror. "W-what?! J…j-just how are you SO FAT NOW?!"

That was when Ash and Tyler came in carrying boxes of sushi.

I glared at them.

"And YOU," I hissed, pointing a finger at the duo. "WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING TO HER?!"

"Feeding her a delicious lunch," said Ash flatly.

My reply?

Throw Ash and Tyler out of the cafeteria anime-style.

I slammed the door and looked at Emerald.

"You big galoot," I groaned as I came up behind her. "Hold still."

As close as I dared, I placed my hands onto Emerald's body.

"Wait," said Sebastian who was in front of Emerald. "What are you-?"

And then, I squeezed tightly.

…that was my biggest mistake.

I like to apologize to everyone…because…it is probably best to not write this scene down as it is graphic, intense and may disturb some readers. But what I can tell you is that when I pressed my hands onto Emerald's side…well…if you were there, you could Emerald vomiting and Sebastian screaming like a little girl.

It was…revolting.

When I was done, I looked at Sebastian.

"Whoops," I said. "S-S-Sorry…"

The crowd saw this, letting out groans at the mess I did.

"Ew!" said Mandy.

"That is so NOT cool," said Blizzard.


Mecha's POV

I sat on my bed, looking at Rookie who was still sleeping. He was snoring loudly and curled up into a ball as he snuggled through his blankets.

I am surprised that Rookie didn't seem to have any nightmares at that moment. Maybe it was because he was in a good mood at that moment. From what Bubblegum told me, Rookie was suffering from PTSD and that was a heavy problem for him. I knew it. If it wasn't for him yelling at me during our flight to Death Egg, I wouldn't know.

"Heh," I thought. "One day I was just a bully, but now…I'm starting to befriend those who I looked down on…maybe this isn't so bad…screw those stupid beliefs I had before."

For once, I felt proud of myself. I was becoming a better bird thanks to the war…but…

My smile turned into a frown. "W…will Dad notice me? Will he know that I am helping the Resistance for the war? Is…is he even still alive?"

I let a loud sigh.

"I wondered if my REAL dad is proud at me for being a hero," I thought. "But I…I'm sure if he is still alive. The war destroyed a lot of people and besides, the world naturally changes every moment. Who knows? Maybe he isn't on Earth anymore and instead sunbathing on the moon."

CLANG!

He stood up. "What was that?"

It came from the door. It was left opened.

Outside laid a piece of metal.

That looks suspicious.

I walked over to the door and opened it.

"Uh…hello?" I said. "Is that you again Sebastian? It is not April Fools' Day, so-"

I was cut off when the door slammed behind me. My instincts kicked in as I whipped around…

WHAM!

…only for something to hit me in the face.

I stumbled as I focused on the pain. Pain shot through my beak and my face. I swore that my beak bent a bit. It felt like being hit by a bowling ball (not like this was the FIRST THING I was hit by a bowling ball).

Everything was spinning and blurry, and I couldn't figure out the figure that was in front of me. There was a shadowy figure in front of me, but I couldn't tell who it was. I would have quickly snap out of this, but thanks to that stupid chemical I licked, it was taking effect and my brain was getting tired.

"Dang it, Mecha," a stupid voice said in my mind. "Nice one for taking another unknown drink."

At that moment, I knew that I was screwed.

"I love Angry Birds…" I slurred before dropping to the floor.

The last thing I saw was the figure reaching out a hand to grab my shoulder.


AN: I know that it's kind of cruel to have Clay to have PTSD, but during the story, I was thinking on how I can build up his characters since he is seen as the main character. Both Bubblegum and Mecha have their own problems, so I feel that I need to have Clay's more worrisome than the others. In the end, not only I chose him with the burden of holding the Dark Rings, but also suffer PTSD and depression.

And yes, the nightmare Clay had has a reference to FNAF 4. I couldn't think of trying to make his nightmare more scarier.

OK. The part where somebody dressed as an...anime girl just came up in my mind. Sorry for the randomness! Ha, ha, ha...

Who do you think knocked Mecha out? You just have to wait until next week.

As always, thanks for reading this chapter! If you enjoy this story, 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).

Until next time, keep on rocking!