So this is when the timelines of the chapters get very, very, very, very, very, confusing/overlapped. So for the sake of everyone's (including Halo and my) sanity, we're just going to say that this chapter takes place exactly two months after Sonia and Knuckles first meet [or a week after 'The Warning' and 'First Date' and 'Perfect Crime' (those chapters take place the same day, if you hadn't figured it out.)]
It takes place maybe… three days after 'Ganging Up'? I'm not sure. Halo?
Yeah, that sounds right.
Well there ya go. Anyway, so the next five chapters literally take place on the same day. Why? Because we're getting the stories connected! Yay! Now I'll stop talking and let's read (or type in our case).
Reviews!
Gwencarson126: Right? (IKR?)
StarlightSparks: You will never know how much your review confused me… Who's Star? And I took offense as well. Thanks a lot Halo. I love that song! (I agree, having Sonia burst in with her motorcycle would've been hilarious~ but we've got a whole plan mapped out for how this story is going to work, and unfortunately Sonia and her bike won't coming in till later.)
Zosonils: You may be busy, but I'm not… Just kidding. I have a love hate relationship with all cliffhangers. You want to kill them but you don't. (Thanks for your support (and promise not to hunt me down). I still feel so bad for doing this to my baby… DON'T HATE ME, MANIC! I LOVE YOU TOO MUCH!)
Autumn: I can't wait either. (Glad to hear it!)
UltimateCCC: (Well, the thing is, that's not how it is. Sorry, but no.) I'm with Halo on this one.
SonicLozDPLove: Okay, go back about two chapters and reread the beginning author's notes. There's your explanation. (Going out on a limb here and guessing that you haven't been reading the author's notes. We mentioned in one of them that the POV order was going to get messed up because of timeline issues. So Manic had two chapters in a row.)
MeowthKitty: Thanks! Hope you continued to enjoy! (Aw, you're sweet~)
Sonic's relationship with GUN… Um… Yeah. I have no idea what's going to go down in this chapter…
YAY! Mystery chapter! (Even to the writers!) Let's find out what happens!
Sonic's POV:
"I was framed!" the small weasel yelled as I dragged him behind me towards the gate entrance to GUN headquarters in Station Square.
I rolled my eyes and glanced at Tails, "Are all crooks this stupid?"
He shrugged, "For the record, he probably didn't see us in line when he held up the cash register."
Amy, from my behind my right shoulder gave out a small chuckle, "Still can't forget his face as you grabbed him by the collar and flipped him on his back. His eyes were the size of saucers."
Back to the whining weasel as he struggled to get free of my grip.
Honestly, where would he go? I'd catch him in ten seconds if he escaped, so it was pointless to even try. Yet, here this guy was, trying to convince me he was framed of a crime that I saw him commit.
Times like these, I'm grateful Robotnik isn't this much of an idiot. Otherwise, I'd be embarrassed that I hadn't caught him in the six years we'd been fighting.
Woah, I've been fighting him for six years? My mind found that hard to grasp. It seemed like only yesterday we started our friendly rivalry in the Green Hills. But six years? I really needed to rework my life.
Snapping back into the present, I stopped at the reception window and knocked on the glass.
Xander jolted in surprise, falling right out of his chair. The human hurriedly stood up and apologized. "I'm sorry, Sonic! I was so enwrapped in my book, I didn't see you there!"
His 'book' was a magazine that involved Mobian folklore and superstitions. Never really bought into those things, personally- I'm more of a 'seeing is believing' kinda guy.
Anyway, I shrugged, "You're fine. Can you let us in?"
"Sure thing." He pressed the security gate button and the gates swung open. And of course that's when the weasel tried one last desperate escape. Unfortunately for him, Amy was ready with her hammer. CRACK
"Nice swinging, Ames." I commented as the thief fell to the ground with a moan.
Amy tapped the ground with her mallet's head. "Thanks, Sonic."
We dropped off the weasel with an officer and proceeded on to the center of the facility. It was time for our biannual psychological checkup.
No. I'm not kidding. I am required to do this to keep my job.
Allow me to explain: I am a sixteen year old teenager who saw their parents engulfed by fire and lost the rest of their family in a similar way that I really don't feel like discussing. My job is to hunt down the madman who did this to me and countless other innocents and eventually bring him to justice.
Tails' mother died in childbirth and he watched his sister kill herself at the age of three. Literally the next day, his father shoved him out of the house and he became a street rat until I found him three years later.
Amy… Okay, I don't know about her issues, but it's probably nothing pleasant. I know it has something to do with her parents and her hammer. That's all I got.
So if we don't need therapy… well, congratulations to us.
As we walked through halls, we ran into a few familiar faces. First up, a repaired Omega.
"Hey, Omega! How are you feeling?" I asked.
"Systems active. Neutralizers charged and ready to maim."
Yep. Omega's fine. "Well, I'm glad you're having a good day. See you around!"
Next person was Rouge. Amy and I immediately averted our eyes and tried to not notice her. Tails didn't really seem to notice our reaction and waved anyway.
"Rouge! How're those communicators working for you and your team?"
"Fine. Thanks for the tune up, Tails." She glared at me and continued walking.
My brother looked a little confused, "What was that about?"
"Nothing!" Amy and I chimed together.
Then came Faker. We didn't really say anything, but just nodded to each other.
Right outside General Tower's office we ran into the last member of Team Dark. Hope Kintobor, Robotnik's third niece on his mother's side… I think. Doesn't really matter. She's too nice to be officially related to him, anyway. Also, I think Shadow would kill me if I said otherwise. He really likes this kid (and I'm going to guess it has something to do with the M-word. Just a hunch).
"Hey, Hope!" chirped Amy.
"Hi guys! Can't talk right now- Omega's gone and wrecked another fighter pilot and Towers wants me to take a look at one of the thrusters to see if we can salvage it. Talk to you later, 'kay?" Hope rushed off down the hall.
Amy, Tails, and I looked to each other and shrugged, then knocked on the general's door. A gruff, "Come in," was heard and we pushed onward.
If there is a book on how to properly greet a General, I haven't read it. So generally, I just walked in and said, "Sup, General?" Not sure how he felt about it, but he never complained. Tails just smiled and gave a friendly wave accompanied by a 'Hi!' Amy, who must have actually had some kind of training in events like this, gave a small curtsy. "Lovely to see you again, General Towers."
Towers gave a nod to acknowledge us, then suddenly became all business.
First to have a 'session' was Tails. There was two reasons behind this. One, he's the youngest. Two, he can't remain sitting focused for very long (pretty sure the kid is ADD… really should get him tested or something) and if he's bored he starts to tinker. And that can sometimes end in an explosion. Yeah, not the best way to start a Saturday.
While he was in the room with General Towers, Amy and I sparred in a nearby training room.
What? Not all of our time is spent gardening.
I ducked a hammer swing and tried to kick the giant thing out of her hands, but Amy flipped gracefully out of reach. Chaos, she's beautiful during a fight. Her pink hair fell in her bright green eyes and- Wait, what? No! Sonic, stop it! Stop it!
Okay… um… back to the actual plot.
"Nice dodge, Ames!" Yes. Much better dialogue.
"Thanks, Sonic. But don't think I'm going to take it easy on you, just because you took me out on a date." She swung again, and this time kicking my legs out from under me after I had dodged the stroke.
I yelped and rolled out of the way of the next hammer, springing to my feet and sprinting around behind her. Then I flipped up and grabbed her hammer, yanking it out of her hands and throwing it across the room. "Well, I'm not going to be easy on you either."
Amy just crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, "Seriously? You just take my hammer?"
"Is that a problem?"
"You do know I have unlimited supply of hammers and taking one isn't going to do anything?" she pulled another hammer out of thin air (I still haven't figured out how she does that).
With a small hesitation, I replied, "Yes… I just may have forgotten."
Amy laughed and charged again, narrowly missing me when I dodged out of the way. She was getting better. If I didn't have my speed, she would have flattened me by now.
The door to the training room swung open, Tower's head popping in. "Amy? If you'll come with me, please?"
She nodded, vanishing her hammer and walking out the door with the General. In her place came Tails, looking a bit shaken but cheerful nonetheless.
"How'd it go?"
"It was okay," he said, shrugging. "He just asked me if I was happy and if I was keeping you out of the kitchen."
"Glad to see he has such faith in me."
"Take it as a compliment," Tails smiled, "At least you don't blow up a workshop every other day."
I winced slightly, "Oh, right. Forgot about that."
Because of the past few explosions in the shop, GUN had been threatening to take away Tails' toolbox. And trust me, when that happens, he's not the only one who almost goes insane. Ever had a smaller sibling keep bugging you because they have nothing to do? Yeah… that's what I have to go through every time they decide to revoke his inventing privileges. It's not fun.
We changed the subject and started a new sparring session. Unlike Amy, Tails could fly, which made everything a lot more interesting. Also, he's my little brother and like most younger siblings, he has a nasty habit of faking injuries then taking advantage of my overprotectiveness to get what he wants- in this case, to win the fight. Basically, picture us fighting, then me panicking and rushing over while apologizing, then a yelling match which turns back into the sparring match. Thus is the Circle of Family Life.
By the time it was my turn to have a chat with the General, Tails and I were going through our tenth or so argument, and Tails was beginning to get frustrated.
"Sonic, I swear, I'm fine!" Tails insisted after I had landed a hard left hook.
"But you have a black spot where I hit you!"
"I singed my fur in the shop last night. It doesn't even hurt anymore. Really Sonic, I'm okay."
I sighed. I could be really overprotective sometimes, but I couldn't help it. "Sorry, buddy."
"No, you're fine."
"Sonic?" said the General, knocking on the opened training room door. I nodded and walked out, trailing behind him to his office. He opened the door for me and gestured to the empty chair in front of his desk. I sat down, crossing my arms.
"So, Sonic…" began Towers, pulling out a file of papers from a drawer in his desk. "How's life treating you?"
Great. He wants to play shrink. "I'm doing okay," I said flatly.
"Glad to hear it." He flipped through the pages in front of him, pausing a few times to read. "How are you enjoying living with Tails?"
"Same thing I told you six months ago- things couldn't be better."
"Anything you'd like to add to that?"
"Yeah. When's the interrogation gonna end? I've got better things to do with my Saturday."
Towers glared at me over the file of papers and I glared back. He wants to pretend to be a psychiatrist? Let him make believe all he wants, but I ain't telling him squat.
"Have you had any more nightmares as of late?"
"...No." You liar. You have them at least twice a month.
"Have they been about your family?"
"No." I hate it when he guesses right.
"Do you feel like talking about anything?"
"No!"
Towers looked at me, his steely, mismatched eyes boring into my head. Or my soul. Can't decide. I began to sweat.
"... Are you sure?" he asked in a small voice.
I wanted to keep shouting no. I wanted to run out of the room. For the love of Chaos, someone make this torture end.
"Because anything you say in this room, stays in this room. It's all between you and me, Sonic."
"...yeah. I know." I know the drill.
"So have you had any nightmares?"
"... yeah."
"Would you like to talk about them?"
"... I guess."
"Tell me about them. Are they the same ones as usual?"
He was talking about the dream I've been having for the last ten years, and the one he's been hearing about for the last four. It's not even a dream, really; just me reliving the same night, over and over and over again. I didn't like to think about it, much less talk about it.
"... Not this time." That was the truth. My regular dreams of watching Mom and Dad go up in flames and losing Sonia and Manic had morphed into the thing I've been terrified of since I was twelve. Since Tails became my brother. Since Amy joined the team. Since Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, Cream, Vanilla and everyone I loved and cared about entered my life.
General Towers seemed to have read my mind, "Is it related to the last mission's… ah, interesting turn of events?"
"... yes." What? Robotnik almost killing Amy and Tails was a terrifying experience.
"What exactly happens, if I may ask?"
"What do you think?" I shot back. I really hate these things. Chaos, please save me.
I guess Chaos was in a mood to answer my prayers because a sudden beeping noise from the General's phone cut in before he was able to try and pry the details of my dream out of me.
He looked a tad annoyed, but pressed the 'answer' button. "General Towers."
"I know you said not to interrupt you, sir, but I thought you may want to be aware that Doctor Robotnik is attacking Mystic Ruins with an army of buzz-bombers. Just thought you should know."
Never in my whole life had I been so happy to hear the words, "Robotnik is attacking." Hallelujah!
I sprung to my feet and sped over to the door, only stopping when my hand was on the knob. "Permission to give Robotnik a piece of my mind?"
The General looked a tad annoyed, "Granted. We'll finish this conversation later. Head to the debriefing room while I alert Team Dark. And grab your team."
I gave a mock salute, then was out before you could say, "Chaos Control."
How do I describe debriefing without boring myself out of my mind?
The absolute worst part of any mission, in my not-so-humble opinion, is sitting in a boring room with some old military dude yakking on and on about mission details while fat boy is going to town on the town. And it seems that the more dire the situation, the slower the pre-mission debriefing. Someone put me out of my misery.
To make a long story short (a very long story, mind you): Robotnik's got himself a new toy and is testing it out.
Oh, and apparently Knuckles is needed to drill through the metal (at least according to our inside information… how do we even have an inside man? Whatever. Not my problem). Only problem was, the Knucklehead wasn't actually at the meeting. I promised the General I'd call him as soon as we were done.
When the word, 'dismissed' was finally uttered, I zipped out leaving a trail of blue behind me. Everyone else caught up with me at The Tornado. Tails decided to make things longer when he halted everyone for a brief moment to remind us that Robotnik was trying to kill us.
"He's always trying to kill us." I pointed out.
"Remember the last time we fought Robotnik?" said Amy.
"Oh… right." I said sheepishly, rubbing the back of my head. "Um… Tails, do you have a weapon this time?"
He looked at me with a confused look, "Uh… I have a screwdriver. And a monkey wrench."
The two of us just looked at one another for a second, then I turned to Shadow, "Hey Faker, you have a gun Tails can use?"
Now it was Amy's turn to sputter protest, "Hold on a second, he's a kid! He's eleven!"
"Almost twelve!" interjected Tails indignantly.
"He doesn't need a-"
"You had a giant hammer at the age of twelve and nobody said anything to you." I argued. Her protest died in her throat, but the sour expression lingered.
Shadow raised an eyebrow, "Does he know how to shoot?" We all turned to Tails in expectation.
"Uh…" said Tails. "Sorta…? I did design the blaster pistol that GUN now uses for its agents."
Faker stared for a moment, then wandered over to the weapons depot. "Close enough." He grabbed two standard GUN blasters and tossed them over to Tails who caught them very reluctantly. He started to protest, but I interrupted.
"Tails, it's just a safety thing. You do fine with the robots, but with Robotnik and his traps?" I raised an eyebrow.
The kid grinned sheepishly, "I guess this is why you're my older brother."
"You got that right, buddy."
"Great. Now if you two cut it out we can get down to business,." said Shadow, crossing his arms and scowling.
You can probably guess that we left pretty quick after that. While on the wing of the bi-plane, I finally called Knuckles… who ignored me.
I tried again. Again, no answer.
I decided to try one more time and was rewarded with a grumpy, "Yes?"
"Yo! Knucklehead!" I grinned slightly and decided to tease, "Why'd ya keep hanging up?"
"I'm busy, Sonic. Make it quick."
"Busy? Wait, are you with Sofia?" I couldn't help but glance over at Tails who shared a smirk with me. Oh, Knuckles was going to have a fun conversation with us later.
A very timid, "Maybe," came over the radio.
"Hi, Sofia!"
A female voice with a slight southern accent came back, "Hello, Sonic."
Again, I couldn't help but tease, "Sorry to interrupt, but I need to borrow your boyfriend. Do you mind?"
"Sure, just make sure he's back by five."
"Five? Why?"
"Because I was planning on dinner tonight."
Tails and I exchanged a look of mild amusement and shock.
"Uh… I'm going to take this over there. Hold on a second." I heard a shuffling in the background, then Knuckles's voice snarled back into focus. "Sonic, this had better be important."
"Aw, what's the matter, Knucklehead? Did I interrupt your cuteshy-wootshy, wuvvy-dovey date with Sofi?"
"SHUT UP, SONIC!"
"Sheesh, man, calm down. I was only teasing."
"Sonic, I don't have time for this!"
"You do now. Robotnik's attacking."
Knuckles's voice changed to one of exasperated concern. "You're serious?"
"As Chaos Control. And something about the bot's metal makes it almost impenetrable, so GUN wants you to make an appearance."
He sighed. "You're sure that you guys can't handle this without me? I'm kind of in the middle of something."
"Dude, you can put off your date with Sofi for a few hours. I promise you'll be back by five."
"It's not that simple."
"It kinda is."
"I'm on the island."
Wait, what? "... Why?"
"I wanted to show Sofia the Master Emerald. I didn't know there'd be an emergency like this."
Note to self: Meet this girl that apparently Knuckles likes and trusts enough to take to Angel Island. She has got to be very special or something to get this far with the Knucklehead. "Well, that much is obvious. Couldn't you just like, I dunno, bring her or something? You said she was a pretty good fighter, and I don't think GUN will have much of a prob-"
"Dude! How thick are you?" interjected Knuckles, angry again. "She's my girlfriend, and as hard as it may be for you to grasp, she isn't used to fighting robots like yours is!"
Amy, who was only listening to our conversation with mild interest before, perked up and stared at me. I blushed bright red.
"Knuckles, she's not my girlfriend." I said through gritted teeth.
"Oh, gimme a bre-"
"And she's standing right next to me and can hear every word you say."
Knuckles went silent for a minute, but unfortunately, that didn't last long. "What's the matter, Little Boy Blue? Did I embarrass you in front of your shweety-weety, wuvvy-wuv Amy?" That followed up with several loud and particularly wet-sounding smooching noises.
Amy giggled and my face burned. "Okay, fine. Do the baby talk. Get your revenge. I'm sorry. But seriously dude, can't you drop her off or something?"
Silence for a few moments, then he replied, "Sonic, by the time I did that, you'd be dead. Or done fighting. Whichever comes first."
"Okay, ouch. Then why don't you… um… Oh, forget it. I have no idea what to do. Ideas?" I glanced around at the full plane.
Shadow ignored me (unsurprisingly), Rouge just shrugged. Tails gave me a, 'don't look at me', and Amy scrunched up her face in thought.
After a few seconds, I gave up, "Well, we got nothing. You?"
"I… I'll try and work something out. Where are you headed?"
"Mystic Ruins, we'll be there in about thirty minutes."
"Alright. I'll meet you there." Then a click was heard indicating that Knuckles had hung up.
I looked awkwardly at Amy and rubbed the back of my neck, my face still slightly red. "Um… that Knucklehead sure is taken with Sofi, uh?"
Tails jumped on the sentence, "Hey, he's accepted she's his girlfriend. I guess Angel Island was just too big of a secret to keep."
We fell into silence again.
Amy was ticked off… or at least I think she was.
The worst part was I didn't know why. She just stared at the shredded town below with this murderous look in her eyes. When we got the actual ruins the look turned from angry to concern.
"Tails, land!"
The fox looked at her a bit confused. "What?"
"Oh, forget it!" As if my day couldn't get any weirder, Amy jumped off the plane.
No. I'm not kidding. The good news, we weren't that high up. The bad news, it was still high. The weird news, Amy landed on the ground, rolling into a somersault and standing up, her hammer drawn as she smashed one of the bots… and she was completely fine.
Shadow and I looked at each other and jumped after her. Unfortunately, by the time we got down, Amy had taken care of the area and was now helping a coyote who was grumbling something in Spanish. And to my surprise, Amy was answering back in the language as well, probably telling him to calm down.
I radioed Tails to take Rogue and start rounding up the stray bots in the sky. From the explosions in the sky, I guessed they were already on it. Shadow headed towards the town without a word, probably to start clearing it of killer robots.
And now I was stuck between helping Amy and finding Robotnik. The hedgehog was now helping the coyote by patching up a pretty nasty scratch on his arm. "José, hold still! I can't wrap a moving arm."
José, apparently, ceased his fidgeting. He glanced over at me and nodded politely, "Hola, Señor Sonic. Amelia has told me much about you."
Wait, what? I glanced at the now blushing Amy, who hurriedly continued with her wrapping.
"All good things, I hope." I smiled back.
"Si, Señor."
"Sonic. Just Sonic."
Amy snipped the bandage. "There you go, José."
"Gracias."
Amy helped him to his feet and smiled, "It's good to see you, Señor Rivera"
"Si. It is." For no apparent reason, he took her right hand and brought it up to his eyes for inspection. No wait. Not her hand, her bracelet. "Como esta, Rin?"
Hurriedly, Amy pulled back, "She's fine. We'd better get going. Nice to see you again, José."
Okay then… weird behavior from my girlfriend. WAIT. STOP. NO, SONIC. SHE'S A FRIEND. FRIEND FRIEND FRIEND FRIEND.
Sheesh, what is with me today?
"You know that guy?" I asked Amy once we were out of earshot.
"He's an old friend. Come on, there's a whole swarm of bots over there!" Amy charged, hammer at the ready, smashing bots into scrap metal. She could be really scary. And cute.
FRIEND FRIEND FRIEND
It was probably time for me to do something that wasn't standing around watching my girl- I mean Amy, do all of the fighting. I jumped into action, spin-dashing through three buzz-bombers at once.
A large crunching noise to my left informed me that Knuckles was already here. And he did not sound happy.
"Yo! Knucklehead!" I ducked a laser shot and spin-dashed into another bot as Knuckles punched one into oblivion. "Where's Sofi?"
"Still on the island."
Amy smashed a bot and stared at him incredulously, "You left her on Angel Island?"
"It was her idea!" Knuckles protested as his fists crunched into another buzzer.
Shadow suddenly appeared in a burst of golden light, smashed a bee, then vanished in another flash of light. About three yards away, the same image repeated. Then he just seemed to vanish.
I stared at the broken shreds of metal left from Shadow's interactions. "Show off."
Tails suddenly appeared from behind and dismantled a bot that was about to shoot in my direction, "You're just jealous."
"Am not!" I ducked down to avoid a laser.
Amy's voice came somewhere behind me, "You're telling me, you left your girlfriend on Angel Island." A loud smack was heard and I guessed a bot just got hit by the hammer.
"Once again, her idea!"
"That doesn't mean you should just leave her! What's wrong with you?"
Tails and I double-teamed and took out about a dozen more bots, "Admit it. You're jealous."
"No, I'm not! Why would I be jealous of a egotistical, brooding angst-hog?"
Shadow suddenly appeared next to me and glared, "You know I can hear you."
I grinned sheepishly. "Um…hi?"
"On your left." He vanished in another flash of light just as I swung and punched a bee back before zipping straight through it.
Knuckles raised voice caught my attention, but I couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from. "I'll be back right after the fight! Which should only be about thirty minutes, at this rate."
"How do you expect to get back that fast?" Amy's voice asked followed by more crushing sounds.
"My Guiding Star Gem."
[Oceanera12: Yes, it is a real thing. Look it up.]
"Did you say, 'Star Gem'?" Rouge arrived at that moment and seemed to perk up at the thought of another precious gem.
Knuckles popped up to my right and glared at the bat, "It's not for sale."
I smirked, "Yeah, besides, you already got your gem quota for the week, remember?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Rouge stiffened up slightly then destroyed about three bots in a spinning kick.
Amy and I shared a knowing look, "Stephanie's didn't rob itself."
"Really. Can you prove I was there?"
"No, but you can't disprove it, either."
Rouge kicked through another bot, "What about a Star Gem?" Okay, Rouge. Go ahead and change the subject.
"I told you, it's not for sale. Or theft, for that matter."
"Oh Red, you're no fun," said Rouge, pouting and batting her eyelashes flirtatiously. Knuckles rolled his eyes.
"Back off, Rouge. I have a girlfriend."
"...Yes. Her." Rouge said, obviously disgruntled about the whole affair. She smashed another bot with a powerful back kick, sending it hurtling into a line of buzzers.
Amy grinned out of the corner of my eye, "You should find yourself a guy, Rouge. Then maybe you won't be so…"
"Batty?" Knuckles offered.
I ignored the large argument that immediately erupted between them...again, and continued talking to Tails, "No really, why would I be jealous of Shadow? He's the faker."
"Technically," Tails disarmed a bee's weapon's defense system and then shot free of it as it exploded, "neither of you are a 'faker.' Shadow was made by scientists in space over 50 years ago through altering DNA and growing him out of a test tube. You…" He suddenly paused and cocked his head, "You were naturally born, right?"
"Yes." I ducked a blast then destroyed another bot.
"-I'm just saying Rouge, a guy might do you good."
"The day I find a 'guy' is the day I turn in my thief's license."
"So you do admit you are a thief?"
Not sure how all of us kept track of these conversations. I mean, I had four going at once and was listening to three others. Tails and I were still arguing about me not being jealous while at the same time the both of us were teasing Knuckles about Sofi. Amy and I were yelling at Rouge for stealing (again) and Shadow kept randomly appearing and exchanging a few words with me (they mostly consisted of 'duck' or 'three o'clock'). Meanwhile, Rouge and Knuckles were arguing about this 'Star Gem' (turns out it can teleport Knuckles places. Who knew?), Amy was still ticked at Knuckles for leaving Sofia on Angel Island by herself, and Shadow was giving everyone orders (see, it's not just me!).
Confused yet? If not, try and keep track of them while destroying a small army of bees that are trying to kill you. Welcome to my life.
Enough of that, time for the 'big boy', as Robotnik likes to put it. Remember coo-coo's last big creation? The giant scorpion-squid hybrid? Well… this one wasn't like that. It looked more like a giant rock golem, but it was made out of thick pieces of metal. Knuckles had his work cut out for him.
He seemed to agree with a low whistle, "I guess we know why Robotnik hasn't attacked in almost two months. He was busy getting all of… that."
"Holy Chaos," Tails mumbled.
All of us were standing on the roof of one of the many mansions staring into the distance at the approaching bot.
Rouge hovered about a foot off the ground, "So… what's the plan, partner?"
"Mm… if Omega was here, we could just send him. He'd provide a proficient distraction."
I looked over at the hedgehog, and eyebrow raised in question, "Where is Omega?"
"Secret mission for the President."
Okay… why not? "Then what do you propose we do, Faker?"
Most people assumed that I took lead in all mission because I had been fighting the longest, and yes, I do take lead in a lot of situations. But when confronted with this 'new Robotnik' and new style of fighting and execution, the military history genius was definitely the better option. Thus, Shadow was in charge this mission.
"We draw his fire while any available driller works on reaching the core. Miles, what are the power readings off the machine?" Shadow glanced at my little brother, his face as impassive as ever.
Tails tapped something on his electric-pad and frowned, "The power readings are rather erratic. Not sure what's powering it."
"I do," Knuckles growled, "I can feel it."
Shadow nodded, "As do I, Guardian. A Chaos Emerald."
Exasperated, I threw my arms in the air, "Where does Robotnik get those things? I swear, if we just locked them in a vault, this wouldn't happen."
Rouge started to flap a little higher, "Well, I'll just-"
"Not on your life, bat," Knuckles growled, "I'm on the Emerald. You stay with the others."
Shadow nodded in agreement, "We need both Tails and you to draw the air fire. Knuckles, can you handle getting the power core by yourself?"
The echidna cracked his namesakes and nodded.
"Sonic, Amy and I will keep Robotnik distracted directly. Rouge and Miles hang back to make sure we didn't miss any buzz bombers. Knuckles, go around to the back and work from there. Any questions?"
I raised my hand, "Ever thought of being a military general?"
"Shut up, hedgehog."
"Yes, sir!" I saluted, then took off before Shadow could reply. Everyone was close behind and went about their jobs (although Rouge did so rather reluctantly).
Time to fight.
This was not going according to plan.
Don't blame this on me. I'm not the mastermind behind this disaster. Blame Faker. It was his stupid plan, he's the jerk responsible for this.
Yup. All his fault.
You're not following?
Then allow me to explain.
So it was going great at first. We were bashing bots and dissing 'Botnik and having a real fun time. Total party.
And that's about the time that things started going wrong.
Amy and I cleared a path through the swarm of buzzers for Knuckles and Shadow to get through. Shadow teleported to the other side of the bot, leaving Knux to focus on our side. Rouge swooped down from the sky and lifted Knuckles up to the shoulder of the machine, then flew off once more to cover the aerial attacks.
As I fought alongside Amy, I watched Knuckles drill through the robot with his powerful fists, shredding the metal into bits of shrapnel. Soon he was out of sight, having drilled into the core. I might not have been able to see him, but I could tell that he was tearing the thing apart, and I liked it.
I didn't notice at first that anything was wrong. I heard shouting in the background and and lot of loud crashes, but thought that was just the normal sounds of battle I had long since learned to block out. So when I finally turned around, I was nearly knocked off my feet in shock.
It was happening all over again.
The chest plating of the bot had fallen off at the hinges, revealing an enormous crystalline pit, Knuckles at the bottom. He was punching everything in sight, but the crystal didn't even dent. Shadow was popping in and out of focus all around the perimeter of the cage, appearing to try to be getting inside but in vain. Amy and I exchanged looks, then ditched the buzzers to help Knuckles.
Frantic ideas were running through my head as I rushed to the bot. I caught sight of the core now, which had wires threading through it connected to a blinking ball of red. And the blinking appeared to be picking up speed. A bomb. Robotnik was doing it again. Knuckles had drilled himself into a death trap.
Shadow slammed his fist on the shielding. "I can't teleport through! I think it has to do with the Chaos Emerald!"
Amy swung with all her might, but found the same result. Up above, Tails and Rouge were trying to disable the robot from the head, trying to stop it from moving so we could properly hit it. I spin dashed as hard as I could until I could feel my quills burning with pain.
"Ugh! Hang on Knux!" Amy and I exchanged a nod, then attacked together. Nothing happened.
On the inside, Knuckles slammed his whole body against the 'glass' in desperation. Again, not even a crack. A muffled, "Chaos, what is this stuff?" was heard.
"We're going to get you out of there, Knuckles! Hang on!" I promised.
Behind me, Shadow gave me a look that didn't seem to agree with me, but didn't say anything. All three of us slammed into the glass with all our might. Nothing.
The blinking light had picked up speed. Knuckles looked at it and shook his head, he placed his hand on the glass and looked at me, "Sonic, get out of here. It's gonna blow."
"No," I shook my head, "We're not leaving you!"
Shadow didn't agree, "Sonic, if we don't clear this, then the whole city will be damaged in the explosion- or worse. I can teleport the bomb somewhere safe to detonate."
Amy hammered the glass again, "We are NOT just going to give up!"
"AMY!" Knuckles slammed his fist on the glass. "Don't you get it? There's no time!"
I could now hear a loud beeping noise coming from the bomb, moving much faster than I would have liked. Rouge and Tails finally disabled the machine and joined us on the ground. My mind was frantically looking for a solution; I closed my eyes and the sounds around me seemed to just fade.
My concentration focused on the bomb.
Remember when Shadow first showed up in my life and Robotnik tried to kill me by throwing me into space? I escaped by performing my first chaos control with a fake chaos emerald. I had never tried to do anything like that since then because it had never been necessary. Honestly, I had been so shocked that it had worked that I was afraid to try again.
Sure enough, I could feel the chaos emerald in the machine, pulsing lightly. And here's the weird part: I felt as if it was unhappy with the situation. It did not like how it was being used and wanted out of it.
I had no idea what I was doing. My instincts took over. I reached out and touched the glass-like shielding and channeled the feeling. My eyes flew open and I stared at Knuckles. He cocked his head slightly, a little confused.
"All together on three!" I backed up slightly and tensed up. No one moved at first, but then Amy stepped back and steadied her hammer. Tails pulled out the two guns and joined me a little ways back. Rouge flew up and got ready to dive. Shadow shook his head, but stepped back and tensed up. Last of all, Knuckles nodded.
"One!"
I heard shifts and weapons raised.
"Two!"
Muscles tensed up and I crouched down, channeling the strange chaotic energy.
"Three!"
The sound of a shower of chaos spears and laser blasts filled the air followed by two grinding spin-dashes, a large hammer slamming as hard as possible with a flurry of kicks and punches. When the smoke cleared, we all panted and stared at the glass.
There was a crack.
The process repeated and the crack grew.
The beeping and flashing was now almost hardly apart and just seemed to be a single sound and light.
Knuckles stared at me and shook his head.
My expression hardened and replied with one word, "Sofia."
We nodded at one another and tried one more time. As we slammed into the glass, I felt something inside of me seem to wake up. A sudden image flashed in my mind. It was very brief and was only a shadowy figure that I couldn't decipher. But the feeling that filled every fiber of my soul screamed danger. A single word echoed in my mind. "Elder." Huh. Weird.
There was the sound of glass shattering and a bright flash of light. I felt my body fall on the ground and a large explosion was followed shortly after.
"Sonic! Sonic, can you hear me?"
"Miles, let go of him!"
"Sonic! SONIC!"
Beeping. That was the first thing I heard. My eyes pried themselves open to a bright light, squinting shut again almost immediately. Everything hurt.
"Sonic?"
I forced my eyes to open again and found Amy staring intently at me. A huge grin appeared on her face and she threw her arms around me. "Sonic!"
"Ow!" I winced and withdrew slightly, pain shooting to my brain.
"Sorry! I forgot you're hurt." She pulled away and quickly straightened her headband.
I rubbed my head and looked around at the room, recognizing it as the GUN hospital. "How did I get here? What happened?"
Amy frowned, "What's the last thing you remember?"
"Well… we were fighting one of Robotnik's robots and… Knuckles. Oh Chaos, is he-"
"He's fine, Sonic. Relax." Amy smiled, "He went back to the island as soon as he knew you'd be fine. Sofia was probably starting to worry. It had been like, two hours, after all."
I sat up and attempted to get out of bed, but Amy fought me, "Oh no, you need to rest."
"But-"
"No, buts, Sonic Hedgehog. You aren't going to get rowdy again for a while."
"What exactly happened?" I asked.
"Well… after that last 'smash' against the glass ended up completely breaking through. Shadow jumped through and grabbed the bomb, then just... vanished. Then in the distance, there was this huge explosion and Shadow appeared again. Sonic, you just fell unconscious after that."
I shrugged, "Must had been more tired than I thought."
"I guess…" Amy smiled and took my hand. "Please, never do that again. I thought you were dead, at first."
"Eh, I'd never leave without saying goodbye."
"Right." Amy gently punched me in the arm.
I grinned, "What? I wouldn't."
"You'd better not."
I gently kissed her hand, "I won't, Ames."
Amy's face turned bright red, but I saw trying to hide her smile.
Tails suddenly burst into the room and began to give me an earful about scaring the living daylights out of him and if I ever almost died again he'd kill me and oh chaos, is he glad I'm still with the living.
Amy and I exchanged a look.
Vaguely, I wondered how Knuckles was doing with Sofia. It must be going better than Amy and I.
Oh Sonic… you have no idea.
There was a reference to a previous story, 'Shattered Thorns'. That was where our coyote friend comes in and where Rin is explained. Highly recommend you check it out.
We also had some foreshadowing in here. Yay! I love foreshadowing!
Review please!