Chapter 17

Hiding

"How long have we been here?" asked Espio.

"Twenty-six minutes, thirty seconds, and five tenths of a second," Charmy replied.

Everyone in the house had tried to get the color emerald to work in their favor, but it didn't react to any of them. Shadow thought he heard something in his mind when looking into it, but it was a little faint. He was beginning to get used to it.

Zaira hovered nearby. She looked on at her color emerald sitting dead on a table. The very reason for why they couldn't attack Vivilock right at that moment. She was still in the way, but not at the same time.

"Hang on a second, what about Dr. Eggman?" asked Apple.

"He's still back there! What if Zaira has him?!" asked Rabby.

"I'd seriously doubt that. Besides, what would she want with that old Egghead anyway?" asked Sonic.

"We should still see if he's okay. If we lose Eggman, Sega will throw a fit more than likely. Eggman has been around as Sonic's rival since the beginning of Sonic himself. Even I came after Sonic and Eggman," Tails said.

"Don't break the fourth wall Tails," said Espio.

"So, how are we supposed to rescue Eggman if he's out there? We're stuck in here until we can get this color emerald to work," Knuckles pointed out.

"Gold, does this house have a message transmitter?" asked Tails looking around.

"I think he does upstairs. It might be in that chest in my bedroom," Runner said.

"So that's where it went…," Gold said to himself.

"Runner sending what's not allowed! Sending messages all around! Surely he'll make Father proud! Sarcastic we are cause he's going down!" R.T and B.T rhymed.

"Chao…," Fury said.

"I wonder why he would a message transmitter…," Cream told Cheese.

"Chao!" Cheese agreed.

"That doesn't matter now! Runner, get that transmitter!" Gold commanded.

Runner scurried up the stairs. They all heard him burst open the chest and dig noisily through it. They heard him scream 'Ah-hah!' from the room and he ran back down the stairs.

"I found it! Should I hook it up right here?" asked Runner.

"YES!" everyone yelled.

Runner started racing to set it up. As soon as he had it all setup, all he had to do was plug it in, but when he did, nothing happened.

"Uh… Why isn't it working?" asked Orange tapping his foot. "The show must go on!"

"I think that there is no electricity in this house…," Runner remarked looking around at how the electronics weren't working.

"Does anyone in this house have electrokinesis?" asked Apple.

I'd love to do it, but I can't. I'm kind of nonexistent at the moment.

Zaira sighed in her mind. Another complication… Vivilock probably would've been done for if she wasn't a ghost…

"Hey, Kaira! Can you do it?!" asked Sonic.

"I'm a little busy with a force field at the moment!" she retorted.

"GREAT! We have no power!" Orange said stomping his foot.

"There is only one way to get power now. There's a backup generator in the back of the house. Although, whoever's going to turn it on will have to be outside of the force field for a second. Also, if Zaira finds the force field, she'll probably destroy it. We have limited time on this!" Gold explained to everyone.

"We got it!" Sunshine said.

"Well, who's going to be the one to leave the force field?" asked Amy looking around.

There was a long silence. Nobody wanted to do it. Finally, they each looked at Sonic. Sonic backed away slowly.

"Why can't Shadow do it?!" demanded Sonic.

"The sunlight will give me away! I have black fur! Black stands out in the light!" Shadow explained.

"Knuckles?" asked Sonic.

"I'd think that you would blend in better with the royal blue flowers behind the house where the generator is!" Knuckles explained.

"Runner…," Sonic moped.

"I'm the wrong shade of blue! Besides, I don't have nearly the same amount of guts that you do!" Runner chirped.

Sonic sighed. It was official. Sonic was going to hook up the generator. The blue hedgehog walked a step out of the front door. Kaira was standing outside holding up the force field.

"You gonna go or what?" she asked.

Sonic nodded. She let him through the force field and continued holding it up. Sonic snuck off to the side of the house. The force field went all around the house and got everything other than the generator… Sonic crawled along the edge. Then he heard some people talking to each other.

"Are you sure that we want to do this?" asked one metallic voice.

"Yes! We've been over the plan a million times! We wait for Zaira to cause a diversion so we can break in from the back end of the house. While she's attacking from the front, Kaira will direct the strength of the force field to the front. That'll make the force field over here weaker!" another voice answered.

Sonic nearly gasped. That was Blue Sycamore! The metarex were going to break into the house to kill them all! Sonic trembled fearfully and ducked into a bush. He crawled from bush to bush until he was directly behind the metarex.

"Why do they have to be so close to the generator?" Sonic asked to himself so quietly that they didn't hear him.

"How much longer?!" demanded another metarex stomping on the ground.

"Patience…," Blue Sycamore said holding up his hand for silence.

Sonic hopped to another bush. The leaves made a little noise when he dashed into it. Blue Sycamore whipped around and looked at the bush Sonic was in. He began to approach the bush. Sonic held his breath.

"Well, greetings hedgehog! Don't suppose we could chat?" asked Blue Sycamore to the trembling blue hedgehog behind the bush.

"A tea party with one of my enemies and having a nice chat? I don't think so!" Sonic cried.

"What exactly were you doing back here?" asked Blue Sycamore. The rest of the metarex had gathered around Sonic and had him surrounded.

"Just doing some stuff… Like trying to find one of those chaos emeralds that I believe you have," Sonic squeaked.

"Well, I don't think that's the truth. You were going to turn on the generator. Although, we destroyed it. No need to thank us," the leader said. Sonic sighed.

"I should've known…"

"Anyway, I do believe that you would look better tied up and used as a Christmas tree. I have heard that the holidays are coming around. Troops, tie him up with a string of lights and put a partridge on his head. We may get to toss him in a lake later and drown him. Get moving!" yelled Blue Sycamore.

"Killed while being used as a Christmas tree! What a way to go…," Sonic said.

"Indeed. Now be quiet!"

Before Sonic knew it, he was tangled up in a strand of lights. He stood there with an annoyed look on his face. He finally realized that the metarex leader wasn't that frightening. He was just so "nice" that it made him sick. He had great skills and was definitely not as mean as most at least. A little bit better of a villain than Black Maple.

They all sat in a quiet anticipation. He saw Zaira off in the distance. Calculating the right time to strike. She smirked as if she had an idea. She nodded to Blue Sycamore. He nodded back. Sonic figured that they weren't telling him something. Zaira launched herself forward towards the force field. Sonic figured that Kaira was going to strengthen it when Zaira made contact. Although she did something completely different. She swerved away at two centimeters from smashing herself into it. She grinned and waved at her sister. The force field suddenly looked weaker. Sonic flinched.

"She's playing with us!" Knuckles exclaimed. He shook his fist at her.

"No, she's come up with a plan that has worked. She was using herself to weaken Kaira's force field. Because she made it stronger, she's losing power faster. This is bad!" cried Cosmic.

"Chao!" cried Fury and Cheese in sync.

"Well, what now?" asked Tails.

"Where's Sonic?" asked Amy hopefully.

"What's your plan Blue Sycamore?!" demanded Sonic who was now tied up in a string of lights. The robot shook his head and waved his pointer finger at Sonic in the form of Sonic's finger wag. Sonic looked offended.

"THE FINGER WAG IS MY GIG!" Sonic yelled. The metarex army giggled.

"It's soon going to be mine."

Zaira pointed at Blue Sycamore and he nodded. They burst into the side of the house. Sonic could hear a bunch of screams from his friends.

"It's an ambush!" cried Jack.

"Everybody! Out of the building!" yelled Gold.

They all flocked outside of the giant mansion. They then stopped when they saw Zaira fluttering in front of them. She glared at them with menacing eyes and looked as if she were going to swoop down from the sky and carry them away one by one.

"Uh… Guys? I think we're a little stuck…," Rabby said staring forward awkwardly.

"It's either her or those robots!" Vector exclaimed.

"There's too many darn people trying to kill us!" Knuckles yelled.

"Let them go! I should be the one you want to get rid of!" Sonic persisted.

"Ha! Us metarex do have a grudge against you, but Master Zaira has one grudge in particular. Well, actually two," Blue Sycamore replied to the blue hedgehog with a shrugged.

"Let me guess, Shadow and Kaira?" she asked.

"You know more than you let on. Yes. Now be quiet! The final confrontation should happen here and now…"

There was a rumbling noise that came from beneath all of their feet. They all looked beneath their feet but disappeared into the ground before they could figure out what was happening. Everyone except for the bad guys. Even Sonic disappeared.

"Blue Sycamore, did we set up a plan for ground swallowing up all of our enemies?" asked Zaira.

"No."

"We didn't?"

"I don't think so…"

"Oh… Well, I didn't want to have a fight yet anyway. We need to summon the metaltrons. I was just playing with them. I thought that maybe I could hold them captive for a night, but no. The ground had to eat them!" Zaira snapped to herself.

"Er… Right…"

Of course, it wasn't really the ground that had gotten them out of that predicament. It was actually another one of Dr. Eggman's inventions. Although, do you think that anybody else knew that?

"Where in the world are we?!" asked Tails looking around in bewilderment.

"Tails! Is that you?!" asked Sonic.

"Sonic!" Tails said in surprise.

"My sweetheart?! OH MY GOSH! SONIC!" Amy cried.

The pink hedgehog raced over to Sonic. Sonic groaned. Another violent hug by Amy he guessed. Although, she stopped in front of him obviously fighting the urge to grab him. Sonic was dumbfounded for a second.

"Sonic, what happened?" she asked somehow sounding casual.

"I got tied up by the metarex. The string of lights should be somewhere above us is what I'm guessing. They didn't tell me anything other than most of what happened," Sonic explained to her. She nodded.

"Makes sense."

"Why exactly are you not tackling me?" asked Sonic finally addressing the elephant in the room. She looked up at him with somewhat serious eyes.

"This entire situation that we were dragged into, it got me wondering. Is there time anymore to not concentrate on what really matters? We are in a serious situation that only we can stop. I told myself, I can still love you and tackles you, but only after this is finished… No matter how hard it is…," she explained to him.

"It just doesn't seem like you!" Sonic said still hardly able to believe the sudden personality change.

"If it's what must be done, I'll do it," Amy told him.

"Well, it is indeed quite the great chat you two are having, but we really must consider what we are going to do," a voice said from behind them. It was Eggman.

"So, she let you off the hook," said Sonic.

"Barely. You know, I've met her before. She wasn't at all like the new her. The last time I saw her, she was confused and unsure. Anytime I said something she would almost seem distant, but she did always have a thing for Shadow," he answered showing no hostility.

"You met her?" asked Tails.

"Yes. Have you noticed anything different about her anyone?" asked Eggman looking at everyone.

"Yes. I have."

Everyone looked over at him. Out of everyone in the room, Shadow had been the one to go through the strangest experiences. It was all because of the fact that Zaira likes him and used to always be hanging around him, but now, not as much (they thought).

He can't say anything! He can't say anything! Not yet! Not now! If they know, they'll approach Vivilock with what they know! If they do that, that'll mean that their destruction is for sure. Please Shadow, don't!

Shadow's ear twitched almost as if he heard her silent plea. Zaira was surprised.

I'll see what I can do.

Now Zaira was really freaked out. Who was talking to her?! Then it dawned on her. The voice was Shadow's mind speaking to her. There was no doubt about it. Shadow was the spirit of the prophecy who would bring her out of the world of being a ghost.

Sh-Shadow?

Shadow didn't answer her this time. He simply walked up to Eggman. Nobody else in the room knew what just happened.

"I knew her best. She was the leader of the metaltrons who had evil plots that would never end. Although, then she met me. Something about that started to change her.

I saw you. Everything.

"She's experienced my whole life I'm sure because she was bored. However, after that trip to her base which she told me about, her personality began to constantly change. I didn't really know her objectives anymore. Almost as if I've impacted her so deeply that she changed. Once we were teleported to the human world, I'll bet she slammed the door on herself. She convinced herself that she couldn't change and would get world destruction no matter what it took. That is what I think, but the last time we met up, she only looked at me with her eyes with the burning fire of rage. Every time I've ever seen her, she never looked at me like that. That's all I know," Shadow said telling as much of the truth he could, but leaving them in the dark about the full truth.

"You've reached the same conclusion I have! Terrific. That'll make time go by faster. We aren't going to get out of this unless if we stop her. All we've been doing is stalling, but we do need to fight the real fight at some point," Eggman told them.

"We can't stay here forever…," Runner commented.

"Indeed. Why haven't you decided to fight her yet?" asked Eggman.

"This," Amy answered holding up the colorless emerald.

"That must be what a color emerald is. It looks sort of powerless. I'm guessing that it hasn't found its vessel yet. Since it hasn't, it looks sort of dead. I do believe that you should hear me out on another thing," Eggman said.

"You know of the color emeralds?" asked Pink.

"Yes. Like I said, I have met Zaira before. She told me something really important about the color emeralds."

Did I?

"She said that love can trigger the color emeralds. I said that I wanted to take over Shadow's, but she told me that I'd have to really love Shadow to be able to activate it. That got me to start studying it. Turns out the color emeralds are triggered when someone feels very strongly about something. That's why they only choose certain people. I'm guessing that you all have found the vessels for the color emeralds other than that one," Eggman explained.

Oh yeah. I did say that.

"Now, let's say that Sonic here had a really strong bond with the person who owned the color emerald. If they liked him back with the equal strength, Sonic would be able to be a temporary vessel for the emerald. Make sense?" asked Eggman.

"I'm a vessel? Quit making me feel like a boat!" snapped Sonic.

"Whatever! That doesn't matter now. You don't have the person who is the one destined for this emerald, so we need to find the one with a strong bond with the one who does.

The only ones who'd be able to even have a chance would be Rouge and Shadow. Shadow… Would he do the trick? We do have a strong, if not strange, bond. Maybe he could…

Nobody in the room said anything. Rouge looked over at Shadow. Shadow stared at the floor. There was nobody else. Rouge nudged him. Shadow still didn't move. Rouge leaned over and whispered in his ear: "It's the only chance we have now. You."

Shadow finally looked over. He understood the circumstances and what was at stake. If not him, who else. It wasn't like the really Zaira was going to randomly appear to help guide the way. Shadow finally nodded.

Zaira, do you really know if this'll work?

No. I don't.

Shadow shook his head half annoyed. He stepped up to the emerald.

"Shadow, what are you doing? I'd doubt that you'd have a strong bond with this person," Sonic said.

"I still have to give this a shot."

Color emerald, don't let me down.

He lifted it up in his hands. It at first didn't do anything. When Shadow looked deeper, it had a little spark in it. He triggered the emerald.