S.O.N.I.C

(Sapient Organisms Near Incredible Catastrophe)

Jet continued to shriek in pain as the rest of the group stood around aimlessly.

"Shouldn't we try to help him?" Tails said in a panicked tone.

"Okay hold on, we don't know for sure that he's in trouble." Sonic flicked on his radio. "Come in Jet, do you need assistance?"

A period of silence passed.

"Huh, no answer. I guess we should assume he's okay."

"He's screaming!" Tails frantically waved his arms in the air. "What else do you need to hear?!"

Jet's voice echoed into the room. "If someone doesn't help me, I'm gonna freakin' die!"

"There, see?!"

Knuckles shrugged. "Jet's a cool customer; he'll probably work through this on his own."

"Ah, it just ate my leg!"

"What ate your leg?! What ate his leg?!" Tails called out.

"I needed my leg!"

"He's gotta have his leg!"

"There's a perfectly logical explanation for all of this," Shadow droned on. Unsurprisingly enough he didn't seem too bothered by the situation. Either that, or he was doing a better job of hiding it.

Knuckles rolled his eyes. "You always say that."

"Well, that's because there's always a logical explanation."

"What about the time we saw that spiral notebook. Floating. In mid-air."

"Why didn't anyone tell me about the notebook?!" Jet continued.

Shadow waved his hand dismissively. "The window was open; the wind could have blown it off the table."

"Yeah, but that still doesn't explain how the words, 'get out Sonic, Knuckles, Jet, and Shadow' suddenly appeared on all the pages." Knuckles said.

"Maybe it was the Chaotix Team's notebook. Those guys have always been jealous."

The screaming suddenly stopped.

"He stopped," Tails said. "I think he's dead."

Sonic flicked back on the radio. "Jet, I repeat; do you need assistance?"

Another period of silence passed.

"Yep, he's dead. Maybe we should-."

A loud crunch reverberated off the walls. "Oh God, that one hurt!"

"Hey, he's still alive! We can still save him!" Tails exclaimed.

"Wait, we need to wait for a window of opportunity," said Sonic. "So how do these guns work?"

Tails held his gun up to demonstrate. "These function the same way as normal guns. Each bullet is charged with an electromagnetic field that will disrupt any ecto-."

"Wait a minute." Shadow interrupted. "Why do we even need these guns?"

"They fire the special bullets that-."

"Yeah I got that, but why did you make these things look so unnecessarily flamboyant?"

"Don't blame me, that was Wave's idea."

"Whatever makes you feel better." Knuckles fixed the young fox with an incredulous look. "You sure this wasn't a way to, um... project?"

Tails narrowed his eyes. "What are you getting at?"

"I'm just saying that if you feel like telling us anything that you're hiding - anything at all - we'd accept you without any bias."

"I won't," Shadow quickly threw in.

"I know where you're going with this." Tails retorted "And no, I'm not. This was completely Wave's design."

"I can hear you guys all the way in here!" Jet wailed. "Why are you still talking about this?! Oh my God, just come in here and start shooting!" A few more crunching sounds were followed by even more screaming. "This time I really am going to die, I mean it!"

Jet broke out into a series of gurgles that slowly grew weaker and fainter over time. Soon his cries and pleas came to a complete stop.

Sonic cocked back his oddly-shaped assault rifle. "Alright, that's it. It's time to take some action here."

"Oh, so now we're going to take action?" Tails said snidely. "Great."

"Knuckles, we need you to go in that room, assess the situation and report back here."

"Uh, shouldn't we go in format order?"

"What?"

"Jet went in first, and he's a speed-type character. It doesn't really make sense to send in the power-type when we still have another speed-type to do the job." Knuckles jerked his thumb in Shadow's direction.

"Okay, that's bulls#$t," Shadow snarled.

"Why even have the classifications in the first place, Shadow? We need to be thinking about the system," Knuckles said.

"Screw the system! In fact, I'm transferring to flight-types, that means it's your turn!"

"You can't just change your character type. SEGA needs to create a questionably loose reason first. Juding from the last few games, that shouldn't be a problem, actually."

"I've got a reason right here; hover skates."

"Even you have to admit that's a poorly formed argument."

"Fine, here's a new idea. All secondary characters go first. You're up, chuckles."

"Oh yeah? Well I call seniority!" Knuckles countered. "I've been in this series longer, so I have a lot more to lose than you do!"

"Lose what, the ten people left that still like you? That's not even a quarter of my total fan-basis!"

"He's got a point, Knux," Sonic agreed.

"I can't believe your defending him!"

"Hey, I just calls it like I sees it."

"You guys can kiss my spiney, red ass, because I'm not setting one foot in that room. Besides, what are you afraid of, Shadow? You're a nihilist; consider this that 'sweet release' you've been whining about."

"It's a miracle! I discovered a whole new reason for living, and that's to avoid having my limbs ripped off."

"Well someone needs to go in there and evaluate the situation," Sonic reminded them.

"I can evaluate just find from right here," Shadow declared. "We're in this room, and we're alive. Jet walked into that room, and now he's about fifty different kinds of f#$ked up. That's the situation."

"He didn't walk in the room; he was pulled in by some unseen force," Tails pointed out.

"I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for that."

"Stop saying that!"

"Fine, I'll just go in," Sonic volunteered.

"Finally," Tails sighed.

"Guys, you stay here. Tails, you're with me."

"Good idea. Wait… What?"

A/N: Two down, two more to go. Hope you enjoyed the chapter, and don't forget to give feedback. Thank you for reading, and review please.