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VIII: Home Truths

"What else goes on in the future that I don't already know about?" Sonic asked as he watched the small hedgehog pick at the grass. "Rouge hasn't changed much, Tails is a father, Shadow has become even more psychotic and Knuckles is a drunk."

Knuckles' head snapped up to glare at Sonic, but he just waved back which made the red echidna snarl at him before walking over.

"Well you haven't changed much in the future." Knuckles smirked.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "One moment you're saying I have changed and the next minute I haven't. Make up your mind Knuckles."

"In a sense you haven't." Knuckles answered ignoring Sonic's sarcasm. "You're still the same thrill seeking, arrogant, pesky, annoying, stupid and ignorant hedgehog as ever."

"Love you too Knuckles." Sonic grinned.

Sky rolled her eyes. "You two fighting doesn't change much either. Hey Knuckles, remember that time on the camping trip when you pushed Sonic into a lake?" She threw her head back and laughed and Knuckles joined in.

Sonic pulled a sour face. His fear of water was no secret and he hated it and it looked like his friends were still using it against him in the future.

"So how do we meet?" Sonic asked Sky trying to end the conversation about this apparent camping trip he was going to have.

Sky stopped laughing and went back to picking at the grass which she seemed to be finding more interesting than ever.

"I've always known you." She answered and Knuckles looked like he was about to say something sarcastic before Sky smacked him on the back of the head, a gesture Sonic always used when Knuckles had been tricked by Eggman. Looks like his attitude rubbed off on his friends' kids. He was sure they'd love him for that one.

Sonic was hungry to know more about the future. "What does everyone do now, we saw Cream and Amy earlier. What've they been up to?"

"Cream helps out at a bakery while Amy is a temple priestess." Sky answered. The one about Amy made him stop short and chuckle.

"A what?"

Knuckles and Sky both shared a weird look.

"Don't ask." Knuckles said as he sat down next to Sky.

"Yeah, I live at her temple sometimes." Sky said with a longing tone in her voice.

"You must miss your family." Sonic noted as Sky began to look sad thinking about her apparent second home.

She nodded reluctantly. "I've never been away from them this long before. I know they're worried about me, but this is something I have to do."

Sonic nodded in understanding. He couldn't begin to imagine what the kid was feeling. It seemed like she'd really been through a lot and now that she found out she was in serious danger, it must really be taking its toll on her.

Sonic, Knuckles, Rouge and Sky all talked and laughed together for the rest of the evening, almost forgetting the danger they were all in. Sonic felt great relaxing with his future friends, but still kept his eye on Shadow who was still standing still on the edge of the field. It looked like Shadow was joining in on the Eggman hunt, although Sonic admitted it would be useful having him around. The black hedgehog had a knack for getting what he wanted and was extremely ruthless. A useful asset to have on the team.

The sun had set and Sonic looked over to see Sky curled up and completely passed out on the grass and couldn't help but smile at the sight of her.

"Good kid isn't she?" Knuckles said, breaking the silence as Rouge sat a few feet away, filing her nails.

Sonic looked away from her and nodded in agreement.

"Looks like I'm lucky to be meeting such good friends in the future." Sonic commented as he stared up at the moon.

"You are a lucky guy Sonic." Knuckles admitted as he leaned back to relax.

Sonic sighed. "Am I though? It seems like I'm destined to screw everything up."

Knuckles snorted. "Don't you always?"

Sonic didn't say anything. However, everyone jumped, apart from Shadow and Sky, when a loud shriek was heard from the forest that sounded like someone was being murdered.

"Relax." Shadow commanded, his voice full of authority as usual. "That Shadow Demon is over ten miles away." He added before walking over and sitting down with them.

"They're so creepy." Rouge shuddered as she pushed the book of the underworld away from her.

"They're meant to be." Knuckles said as he picked up the book. "They were designed to look disfigured and demonic because its sparks people's fear of the paranormal and the unknown. It's all here in the book."

Rouge looked impressed and both Sonic and Shadow glared into the trees.

"It's so quiet." Sonic mumbled as he strained to hear the sounds of the forest and insects, but nothing happened.

"They're completely sucking the life out of everything." Rouge gasped in horror. "Soon there won't be anything else alive left if this continues."

"That's why we move in the morning." Shadow said as he fiddled with his chaos emerald and practiced shooting out sparks at a few rocks across the field.

.

Sonic's eyes snapped opened and sat up taking in his surroundings. Then he remembered the events of the previous day and immediately felt wide awake. Knuckles was still asleep, but everyone else was awake and seemed to be planning something.

"His base is located deep within the volcano where the energy makes it difficult to track him." Shadow explained as he pointed something out on a map.

"I don't think the doctor will be very welcoming." Sky mumbled as Shadow marked on where the defences were.

"You let me worry about that." Shadow said. "I'll create a diversion while you guys look for the chaos emerald. It will no doubt be in the core of the base where it will be powering Eggman's robots."

"Come to mama." Rouge said rubbing her hands together. Knuckles sat up, now awake and rolled his eyes at the Kleptomaniac bat.

"We can use the energy from the chaos emeralds to seal the hole then?" Knuckles said and Shadow nodded his head.

"Sounds like a piece of cake." Sonic said smirking at the map.

Shadow huffed and picked the map back up. "Let's move."

Finding Eggman's base was easy once you knew what to look for. Plus, the robots that looked like they were preparing for battle gave the whole thing away. Sonic rolled his eyes at how big Eggman had built the place. What would be the point since he always kept destroying them? The evil genius was so conceited.

"Ok, get ready to move." Shadow ordered before throwing a chaos spear to the other side of the courtyard where robots were marching forward. The egg pawns all froze and began running wildly as Shadow threw more at them. Shadow teleported as far away from the door as possible, letting the robots see him. The stupid creations soon caught sight of Shadow and they all began running towards him, shooting every weapon they had, but to no effect.

"I guess that's our cue." Sonic muttered as they all followed Rouge who said she had been here before and remembered most of the way around.

"Dealing with Eggman sure has its perks." She chuckled as she flew ahead of them and stopped outside the sealed door.

"How about the aggressive approach?" Knuckles laughed as he showed off his fists, preparing to break down the door.

Rouge and Sonic both had to grab hold of his arms to prevent him from doing such a stupid move.

"You really don't understand the whole concept of sneaking in do you?" Sky snapped sarcastically as Knuckles huffed in annoyance.

"Well unless you have a better way of getting in." He remarked and Rouge pointed towards the top of the huge metal door.

"How about that conveniently placed air vent?" She asked as she flew up to open it.

She then flew back down and picked Sky up and carried her up, then Sonic followed by Knuckles.

"Have you been comfort eating during our little breakup sweetheart?" Rouge purred as she pretended to struggle to carry Knuckles up.

Sonic and Sky both looked at each other before gagging. They both parted as they let Rouge crawl past them and they began following her through the tightly packed air vent.

"I'm getting really claustrophobic in here, I'm going to want to do twenty laps around the world when this is over." Sky mumbled in a shaky voice.

"Never had you down as being one to be scared of tight spaces. You're about to be a sacrifice and you're worried about a stupid air vent?" Knuckles said.

"There's nothing wrong with wide open spaces to run around in." Sky defended and Sonic looked at her in shock.

"It's like we're twins." Sonic laughed and Sky let out a nervous laugh in response.

"Sssh you guys." Rouge hissed. "Egghead might hear us."

"You're the one who's talking." Knuckles hissed back.

"Yeah, to tell you gossiping old ladies to shut up." Rouge snapped a little louder.

"I'm not an old lady!" Knuckles snapped back even louder.

"Well stop acting like one." Rouge shouted.

"I'M NOT!"

Sonic and Sky exchanged a fed up glance.

"I thought we were sneaking in?" Sonic interrupted them, halting their stupid argument.

"Define 'we'," Knuckles snorted. "Bat girl is only in this for herself."

Rouge gasped. "How dare you? I'm trying to help out and you still can't be nice to me."

Sky groaned. "Will you two just kiss already so we can get on with this?"

Sonic laughed at the expressions on their faces and Rouge continued on without a word. Knuckles was mumbling to himself the whole way until they came across another entrance to the vent.

"We're better off following the corridors now." Rouge said. "I know my way from here." She kicked the grate out of the way and jumped out, followed by the others.

The corridor was completely made of metal that looked like it could with stand a nuclear strike, let alone some molten rock. Sonic whistled lowly at how much Eggman had really outdone himself this time. Energy seemed to be flowing across the walls which he guessed was energy from the chaos emerald.

Sonic walked over to one of the walls and knocked gently on it. Sky came up behind him to see what he was doing and looked at him curiously.

"I must admit, I'm going to have a hard time blowing this place up." He admitted, looking at their reflections in the strong metal walls.

Sky smirked and Sonic gasped as he took in her reflection next to his. Her smirk was exactly like his and her eyes held that same cheeky sparkle. He stared at her reflection with wide eyes and kept comparing it to his own. How had he not noticed it before? She was almost the spitting image of him despite the odd feature here and there. Sonic started getting creeped out. Was she that much of a fan of him that she altered her appearance to look like him?

Sky seemed to notice his reaction and her smile dropped into a look of concern.

"Are you ok? You look a little ill?" She asked

"I'm fine." He managed to squeak out before clearing his throat. Who the hell was this girl? Why was she trying to be like him so much?

"What's taking you guys so long?" Knuckles demanded half way down the corridor.

"Coming." Sky said as she ran after them.

Sonic followed without a word and continued to keep his eye on Sky. There was something funny about that girl and when they got out of here, he was determined to find out what it was. Maybe then he'd finally know the inside joke he was missing out on.

"Bingo." Rouge said as they hid behind a huge metal doorframe where the chaos emerald was being kept.

"Looks like we have no choice but to use the aggressive approach now." Knuckles said as he cracked his fingers while eyeing the four Eggman robots guarding the container where the chaos emerald obviously was.

Sonic shrugged. "Fine by me." He said before spin dashing and zooming into the room, taking the robots completely by surprise.

Knuckles laughed and joined in followed by Rouge and Sky.

Sonic had to admit that he was impressed with Sky's fighting skills. The kid seemed to know what she was doing as she took on the large robot single handed, but he soon gasped as the robot Rouge was fighting aimed its gun towards her.

Sonic didn't even have time to shout out before it shot at her and didn't even have time to blink as Sky disappeared in a blue blur only to reappear at the other side of the room giving a cheeky grin – his cheeky grin. Now she was incredibly fast too? He guessed that explained the incidents earlier when she just seemed to disappear. Sonic stood there with his mouth agape, the robot he had just trashed completely forgotten about. The only other person who ever rivalled Sonic's speed was Shadow. Sonic was starting to get a headache.

The last robot hit the ground with an almighty crash and Rouge made her way over to the small container.

"Alright my precious gem," Rouge gasped as she prepared to life the lid. "Come to mama."

She lifted the lid and inhaled sharply when she saw nothing there. Sonic and the other's also gasped and began to look around wildly for any sign of the emerald.

"Seriously!?" Knuckles blurted out as he punched one of the destroyed robots in frustration.

"Ho ho ho!" A mad laughter sounded over the loud speakers and they all covered their ears. "Thought you could steal my precious chaos emerald did you? Well the doctor was one step ahead of you." Eggman laughed again.

They all cried out as large bulky robots appeared out of the secret passage ways in the walls and grabbed hold of the four intruders before they could even react. They all struggled to break free, but even Knuckles was having trouble making a dent in the strong alloyed metal.

They heard Eggman's mad cackle again before he shouted menacingly. "Bring them to me."

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