Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog.

Here it is and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Chapter 22: Before Chaos

Texas, outside G.U.N. Base.

Air filled my lungs; it felt like the first real breath of air since we left New York, which was a five minute trip.

"Oh stop that," Dart growled kicking me in the gut as I helplessly lay on the ground, "That run should have done nothing to you."

"Ow!" I yelped turning over, holding my hand over my eyes to block the sun, "It would have been easier, but I had to drag your butt here too, which was no fun."

"Haha, very funny," Dart laughed sarcastically while looking over at a base that stood in the blank landscape.

I got up and walked over to Dart, taking a moment to look out at the base I laughed, "Well, this is going to be interesting, let's hope Miles is right about this 'EMP' thingy."

"One way to find out," Dart said reaching into his pocket and pulling out the Light Blue emerald, I nodded and pulled out the Blue one, "Ready?"

"Ready," I nodded and we held the emeralds together. I expected a loud 'boom' or something to happen, but what surprised me was that nothing happened, expect of course the two emeralds were vibrating.

"Well…" Dart started, seemly just as disappointed, "I certainly was expecting something more, you think it worked?"

"I don't know," I grumbled, digging into my pockets to look for anything that would prove it worked, I grabbed something and pulled it out, it was my cell phone.

I briefly hoped that the emeralds didn't work for I didn't want to lose my brand new phone, I flipped it open and frowned, the cell phone screen was blank and dead.

"It worked…" I sighed slipping it back into my pocket, hoping my Mom kept the receipt I stared at the base, which seemed to be working just as fine, unlike my phone.

"I don't think it hit the base," Dart said grimly and I nodded.

"Perhaps we need to be closer?" I glanced over at him and he nodded.

But while we were talking we didn't notice that the Emeralds in our hands were getting brighter and brighter, until of course we got exactly what we have been expecting… an explosion.

I was rocked back by the wave of power that exploded from the emeralds, landing hard in a dune of sand; thankfully the only injury I received was a horrible headache. It took a moment for me to get up, with my head spinning so much I couldn't help but lay there for a moment before finally forcing myself up, stumbling a bit I finally got my footing and looked around for Dart, I spotted him a little bit away from myself, he too was just starting to get up.

"Sonic, are you okay?" Dart said, trying to shake the headache that no doubt plagued him too.

I smirked and gave a thumbs up, "Now I wish it didn't have to explode, damn that hurt."

"No kidding," Dart agreed before standing up straight, seemly over the headache, I followed him soon after.

Glancing over to my side I noticed that the base seemed different, no longer was there machinery heard coming from there, the entire surrounding was dead quiet, meaning that the explosion probably worked.

"Looks like it did the job…" I said while gripping the emerald, causing the power to overtake me and transform me once again.

"We better get going then," Dart said, he too transforming.

"Yep," I grinned before running forward, kicking up sand into Dart's face as I yelled back, "Ten bucks says I find the emerald first!"

I managed to hear Darts protest just briefly before I entered the base, he was screaming something about 'how this isn't a game' when I had jumped the fence.

I looked around briefly taking in my surroundings, there was small buildings everywhere, offices, training centers, but it looked like their HQ was the large building with large smoke stacks rising above it.

"I am SO going to beat the knucklehead there," I couldn't help but laugh at the idea of grabbing the emerald and coming back before he even entered the base… sadly I stood laughing for too long and I was suddenly thrown down to the ground, face first.

Dart had caught up to me and gave out a 'face to ground' slam that momentarily dazed me.

"If that's the way you want to do it then fine, Sonic!" Dart yelled running ahead, leaving me down on the ground.

"Haha!" I said getting up, trying to think of a retort. "Run you little red animal, because Sonic is going to get you!" I paused at that and muttered, "...That sounded better in my head."

I got my wits together and broken into a run, passing Dart in mere seconds I was on my way to the HQ, laughing all the way through.

I beat Dart there without being noticed by any of the G.U.N. members, clearly without their cool gadgets they were incredibly blind, after all I had been standing at their front door for five minutes now trying to find a way through the humongous metal door.

"Stuck are we?" A voice called out at me, I frowned and turned to see Dart, "I can help if you want."

"Help?" I laughed weakly, "I was just about to cook up a plan where I use the power of math to aim myself directly at a window and break in with style."

"Right," Dart rolled his eyes why walking over, "Or I could just do this!"

Dart slammed his fist against the door causing a massive crunch! At first I thought it was his hand breaking, but it was really the door crashing under the power of his punch.

"Yeah… but it lacks style," I shrugged, while I was actually impressed (and a little scared) by the power of the punch, there was no way I'd admit it.

We stepped in through the door and glanced around, it was dark and you could see the lights from flashlights coming closer to investigate the broken door.

"Looks like it's time to hide!" I hissed glancing around before running ahead and ducking right into the side of the room, letting the shadows cloak me.

Dart did the same and hid in the shadows as the foots steps grew louder, and in mere moments at least five men appeared fully equipped to fight.

"What the hell did this?" a soldier asked while staring at the broken door.

"I don't know," another one said looking around, "But it just happened, so whoever did this can't be far."

"Alright, let's backtrack and see if we missed them," one of the G.U.N. soldiers said motioning for the group to follow him back down the hall.

"That was close," I said to myself as they were leaving, "Luckily the lights were out or we would have been in big trouble."

And then something happened, a voice was heard over the speakers… the speakers that needed electrify.

"Backup power activated, lights being restored."

I cringed, the lights came on and the soldiers got a good look around the area and noticed us.

"What the!" one yelled as he jumped back in shock.

"Did some of the experiments get loose!" another one guessed as he aimed his gun at us.

"No, its Sonic the Hedgehog, kill him!" the leader of the group yelled beginning to squeeze down the trigger, it was do or die now and I didn't feel like dying.

I jumped up into the air just as the bullets flew from the guns, as I was in air I grabbed one of their guns and used the leverage to swing my leg up and kick him hard in the head, causing him to hit the floor unconscious.

While the rest of the soldiers turned to fire on me Dart saw his chance and rushed forward, slamming his fist right into one of the guards it sent him flying back into the wall, wasting no time he took out two more by slamming their heads into the ground. The last one was mine, I used my speed and delivered about a dozen or so hard punches to his chest, causing him to crumble and fall down.

"That was worth ten points!" I yelled pumping my fist, Dart stared blankly for a moment.

"So now we're putting points in this race?" Dart asked rolling his eyes, "If that's so I earned at least twenty points for those attacks."

"Five! I took the big chance and attacked first."

"Five!" Dart asked as I nodded, "That's crap!"

"You're crap," I retorted while grinning at Dart's rage.

"Why you..." It seemed for a moment Dart was going to punch me, so I did the right thing and ran ahead.

We took out a dozen more enemy on our way to the emerald, how did we know where the emerald were? We didn't, but we knew it was somewhere in this base so the way we saw it if we ran around long enough we'd find it. Very effective if I do say so myself, after ten or so minutes of wondering we came across another steel door. I waved my hand and gestured at Dart to smash the door, he grinned at that fact and walked over, pulled his fist back, and slammed it right into the door: causing it to break open.

"I think we're close," I said with confidence stepping past the broken door and into the room, it was far large with many capsules placed around the eerily dark room, "Capsules of strange experiments, check, and a not-so-well lit room? Check, it must be here."

"We better be careful about what we touch, we don't want to unleash anything from these things," Dart said motioning around, I agreed, not wanting another Chaos like creature running around.

We stepped through the room carefully, reading the labels on the capsules as I walked by, one read:

Project 'Gamma' E series, number of tries '102'

Status: Canceled

Project 'Omega' E series, number of tries '123'

Status: Success, needs transferring.

Project: 'Gizoid' Unknown series, number of tries '1'.

Status: Trying to Revive.

Project 'M.S', Unknown Series, Number of tries '1'

Status: Canceled, found a better replacement.

Maker: Albert Robotnik.

"Jeez," I said looking through them, "Look at them all."

Dart glanced at the capsules but simply shrugged, clearly more interested in finding the emerald and getting out, not that I don't agree with him.

"Listen," Dart started, "Why don't we split up? I'll continue down this path while you go that way."

He pointed to my left, there was a path breaking off from the one we were walking in.

I nodded in agreement, "Right, sooner we find it the better."

We broke off from there, I went left like he said and he continued straight, I walked through the path with interest, this entire place was a giant experimental lab with things that I couldn't wrap around my mind, but one thing did grab my attention, it was a steel door that was shut tightly, it too had a label:

Ultimate Life-Form.

Maker: Gerald Robotnik, previously Albert Robotnik.

"Ultimate… Life-Form?" I asked reading the label once more, I reached for the door handle when my head started hurting, blinding pain echoed through my head as images began to flash in my head, I saw my brother Michael, a day before he went missing, a horrible beast that resembled Chaos, and all seven of those emeralds floating around a shadowed figure.

"Gah!" I yelled out in pain, I couldn't figure out what was going on, but one thing I did know: I had to get as far away from that door as possible. I ran away, nearly running into a couple of the capsules as I did, slowing down when I felt the pain going away.

"What the heck just happened?" I asked myself trying to catch my breath. Something was keeping me from opening that door, and really, I didn't want to.

"Sonic!" Dart called from across the room, "I found the emerald!"

"Really?" I asked beginning to stand up, "Great!"

Dart began to run across the room when I noticed something: the capsules were different, there was no lights in it as it previously had and the water inside it now had drained… one of them had opened up.

It was the label that read 'M.S.' and whatever was in that capsule was out, and alive.

"Dart," I started, preparing to see what it was going to do, "I think you just turned off the power."

The way I understood it was that emerald was powering these capsules, which must be why they were released earlier when we shut down the power.

"What do you mean?" Dart asked closing in on me as that thing began to stand up, it looked like a human in shape, but lacked a face, hair and everything that made human a human, it was like a walking metal person.

"What I mean…" I said as it looked over at me, "Is that we might be in a lot of trouble."

Suddenly that things eyes (or where it was supposed to be) lit up red, and rushed at me with unnatural speed.

"Whoa!" I yelled flipping back just as it swung its fist at me, causing a dent in the floor where I stood earlier, "What are you!"

It looked back at me, lifting it fist from the floor as it spoke with a robotic voice, "I am Metal Suai, and I must defeat the intruder."

"Metal what!" I repeated, how the HELL did it know my last name, "How is that possible!"

I didn't get an answer; instead I got a metal fist to my face that batted me straight back with tremendous force.

"Unauthorized personal, activating missile launcher."

Wait, did he just say missile launcher?

I thought as a giant rocket launcher seemed to morph out of his hand. It seemed he could twist the metal on his body to shape what he wanted, and that wasn't a good thing for me who was sitting on the floor as a rocket launcher aimed straight at my head with a near pointblank range.

Metal Suai clicked the trigger… and nothing happened, I gave a sigh of relief as he looked over the rocket launcher.

"Error, error," it began to repeated in an almost panicked voice.

"Let me guess," I said jumping up at him, "You were built with parts from China?"

Using the blue emerald I began to charge up an attack then released the power blue gale on the Metal Suai causing him to go flying across the room and slamming straight into a wall… and then exploded.

"Whoa," I said to myself watching the flames lick the walls, "I guess the rocket launcher did go off anyway."

I turned around to see Dart finally catching up, "What did you do, Sonic?"

"Nothing much... I just owned a robot!" I grinned to myself as Dart's expression seemed to get darker, "What's wrong?"

He raised his hand and pointed behind me, I turned around to see Metal Suai get out of the flames, the metal reforming onto him like it was some type of regeneration ability.

"I take it back," I grinned weakly, "Perhaps you're made in Japan…"

"Die!" Metal Suai rushed at me again, his metal was red from the explosion and it seemed to me it had weakened him, despite the fact he rebuilt himself.

It dodged to the left but Dart stood and fought, swinging his fist straight into his stomach, literally, his hand was stuck in his stomach.

"Dart, get your hand out of him!" I yelled as it started to rebuild itself, with Dart's hand inside. Thankfully he managed to get his hand out... only to get punched three times with an incredible force that would bash a normal person's head in.

"Dart!" I yelled running up to Metal Suai and kicking him straight in the head, causing him to let Dart go, "Dart, tell me you're okay!"

"I'm fine," Dart grumbled, thankfully we aren't exactly normal people.

"Good," I said staring down Metal Suai, trying to find out what his next move will be, sadly for him I already had one. If the explosion seemed to briefly work we would need something to completely burn it altogether, and those smoke stacks from earlier were perfect.

Metal Suai rushed at me again, this time I was ready and I stepped out of the way just before he punched me. Grabbed his arm and with all my strength I flipped the metal freak on the floor, once it was dazed I picked him up again and leaped, using Metal Suai as a battering ram I rammed through the roof to outside.

I let Metal Suai go as it started recovering, I waited until it saw me before I leaped up onto a higher building, slowly making my way to the smokestack with it right behind me.

I landed on the smokestack, looking around I waited for him to catch up, and he did… in fact he was standing right behind me.

I tried to attack but it beat me to it with a punch, sending me nearly off the smokestack and making me hold onto the edge as it approached me.

"Target weakened, proceeding to finish it," it raised its leg right above my head and was about to slam down when I grabbed it, using its strong metal body to pull myself up and flip behind it.

"Nice try, but I'm not being defeated by a copy!" I grabbed it once more then flipped him right off the smokestack and falling into flames, "A cheap copy for that matter."

I watched fall and hit the flames below, it melted, attempted to rebuild, but only melt some more. The battle was over and I was the victor.

"Now to collect my prize," I grinned to myself, jumping off the smokestack and heading back to Dart.

He was waiting for me on the destroyed roof why holding the silver emerald, "Ready to get out of here?"

"Of course," I nodded, "By the way, I think it's fair to say I won the race."

"I got the emerald though," Dart said, pointing out the races rules.

"But I took on the robot; I think that right there is earning me a win."

"Sonic, just get us back to New York," Dart said grimly.

"I know," I said just as grimly, not liking the idea of carrying Dart back to New York.

Nevertheless within moments we were off to New York, as victors, we beat Albert to the last emerald after all.

Dart and I arrived at my house around five or ten minutes after we left from the G.U.N. base, still aching from the recent battles we stepped inside, Mom shouldn't have been back yet so the house should've been empty.

"Are you thirsty Dart?" I asked walking up to the fridge and opening it.

Dart walked in looking around cautiously, perhaps making sure my Mom or Dad wasn't home, "Someone's here, Sonic."

"Eh?" I asked looking back, "What do you mean?"

Dart stepped into my family room and I saw him visibly get calmer, "Tikal, what are you doing here?"

I stepped right behind Dart and spotted Tikal, just standing there.

"Sonic, Dart, I was waiting for you two," Tikal said looking at us, I felt my stomach get sick, knowing whatever she had to say wasn't good, "It's about your friends, Miles and Maria…"

"What do you mean?" I asked walking past Dart and up to her, "What wrong with them?"

"They're in the hospital," Tikal said causing my already sick stomach to get sicker.

"Hospital, what happened!" I asked, feeling panic overcome me.

"Albert attacked Maria's house, the police found her parents dead, Maria and Miles were rushed to the hospital," Tikal explained.

"Albert… her parents…" I said to myself trying to wrap my brain over the information, "Albert is related to them… how… how could someone do something like that?"

Sickness turned to guilt, guilt turned to worry, worry turned to anger, anger that towards myself and Albert.

"I think it's Chaos, it must be corrupting his mind," Tikal said but I wasn't listening, I clenched the emerald, making myself turn to Sonic the Hedgehog.

"Thanks for the info, Tikal, but I have to go now," I said and before they could ask where, I was off…

I arrived at the hospital nearest to where Maria's house was, assuming the incident happened there they would have been brought here. I turned back to Sonic Suai and began to approach the hospital, my plan was to check on them then find and beat the crap out of Albert. No backing out this time, next time I see him would be the last.

"Heading up to see your friends, Sonic?" A voice called out to me.

I turned around to see a man cloaked in a dark trench coat and a dark hat, "With no flowers, why Sonic where are your manners? It is my niece in there after all."

The man tossed a group of flowers to my feet, I looked up at him and scowled, my anger being raised to a new level as he took off his trench coat, revealing the one man I absolutely hate.

Albert Robotnik.

That finishes this chapter, next it the last (with the possible adding of an epilogue), enjoy and don't forget to leave a review, it is after all what motivate us writers to actually write the chapter.