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IX: Caught Out

Sonic shielded his eyes as they were all brought into a bright room. The master emerald was in the centre, shining brightly and there were various computers around the room, all hooked up to the emerald. Sonic looked around and saw Eggman hunched over a desk working away furiously and as soon as the metal doors closed behind them, he turned around to face them.

"What ho? Look who's decided to join us." Eggman chuckled. Eggman seemed to have aged a lot over the years. His moustache was longer and grey and his wrinkled made his face look all shrivelled up. Even under his glasses you could see dark bruises under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in ages and he still looked as fat and gross as ever.

"Nice welcoming party you sent us." Sonic said sarcastically as he tapped his fingers against the metal claw that had him trapped.

"Weren't you just here?" Eggman asked Sonic as he scratched his head in confusion.

"Sonic was here?" Sky gasped and looked around.

Eggman then noticed Sky. "Ah yes, you must be Sky. I can certainly see the resemblance. Then again I could never quite catch you, even when you sneaked into my meetings."

Sky smirked. "Too fast for you eh doc?"

Eggman huffed. "Just as cocky." He mumbled.

"Surrender the master emerald and the chaos emerald Egghead!" Knuckles demanded as he punched furiously at the robot holding him captive. It was no use though.

"Weren't you ever taught the magic words?" Eggman said in a patronising voice. "Anyway the answer will always be no since I've had direct orders from the blue pin cushion to keep it here."

"What? Why?" Rouge asked looking shocked.

"He can be very persuasive when he wants to be." Eggman said looking sorry for himself as he rubbed his cheek where a bruise looked like it was beginning to form.

Sonic gasped. His future self seemed so violent. Even though he disliked Eggman, he would never purposefully harm him in a serious way. He had too much fun foiling his plans to do anything drastic.

"I hope you've had a good luck at your future Sonic because your life won't always be rosy forever." Eggman snapped.

"But why though?" Sonic demanded letting out all his frustration at how much of a bad turn everyone's lives seemed to have taken.

Everyone looked up as Shadow walked calmly into the room and stood there watching the scene and Sonic's reaction carefully.

Eggman looked back at Sonic and laughed psychotically. "That's the funny thing about life Sonic. You can't always be innocent forever. Sooner or later, reality comes to get you and you see the world for what it really is. A selfish and cruel place that always smacks you down when you reach too high. You think you have it all Sonic? You're what? Fifteen? Not long to wait now before you take off those rose tinted glasses…hey that could be a good pun."

Sky rolled her eyes as Sonic stayed in the robots grip looking miserable. His life really wasn't destined to take a turn wasn't it? He wanted to do everything within his power to change it. None of his friends will have to suffer. He guessed he should be thanking Sky for this adventure. Now he knew exactly where things were going to go wrong and he was going to prevent them.

He looked up with a new determination, but was briefly distracted by a dark shadow moving in the corner. It looked like…it couldn't be…?

"So you guys want my chaos emerald huh?" Eggman said diverting Sonic's attention away from what he now assumed was the trick of the light as he never saw it again.

"Hand my precious gem over please doctor." Rouge purred and Eggman smirked.

"Now her politeness I like." He said. "You could learn a thing or two from her Knuckles."

Knuckles huffed. "Yeah, like how to be a good for nothing jewel thief."

"Hey!" Rouge yelled.

"I see these two never learn to shut up." Sonic whispered to Sky who smirked that identical smirk again that made Sonic jump when he saw it.

"No comment." She said before they both watched as Eggman pulled the chaos emerald out.

"Well here you go." Eggman said as he threw it at them. "Happy now?"

Sonic blinked. "That's it. You're just handing it to us?"

Eggman glared at Sonic. "I'm helping out and you're complaining. Make up your mind you stupid hog."

Sonic held his hands up in surrender before Eggman motioned for his robots to let them all down.

"Now hand over the master emerald." Knuckles demanded taking a step towards Eggman, holding his fists out, ready for a fight.

Eggman pretended to think for a second.

"No can do." He replied. "Strict orders."

"DAMN YOU SONIC!" Knuckles yelled making the whole room shake.

"If you can't give it to Knuckles could you at least give it to me?" Rouge begged in an innocent voice, pouting her lip.

Eggman glared at them and shook his head.

"See yourselves out." He ordered before turning away and getting back to work.

"Why did you just hand us the emerald Eggman? What are you hiding?" Sonic demanded.

"I said see yourselves out." Eggman commanded in a more serious tone.

"Not until you give me the master emerald you crazy old man." Knuckles bellowed as he tried to run towards it. The robot that had previously held him captive blocked his way.

"If you can't see yourselves out, I'll throw you out. Robots ATTACK!" Eggman yelled and the robots all began charging towards them.

"Forget the master emerald for now." Sky shouted at Knuckles as she pulled him towards the door. It opened and they all ran out closely followed by the robots who were now shooting at them. Shadow destroyed the robots behind them and began following them. More and more robots appeared as they were chased out with Rouge leading the way to the exit.

They managed to break out with the robots still following them and they were catching up quickly. They stopped in a clearing now far away from the base and turned around to face the robots.

"Looks like these tin cans aren't about to let us get away." Sonic said as he spin dashed towards them in hopes of destroying them. However, he bounced back off the metal as he attacks had no effect.

Rouge tried to kick box one over, but nothing happened and Knuckle's attacks had no effect either. Only Shadow could make only a tiny dent in the metal as he used chaos control to help him.

"Curse that fox." Shadow spat as he strained to knock one of the robots over.

A burst of blue light came from the opposite end of the field which made everyone stop, including the robots. The robots all of a sudden began to short circuit and they all stepped back and watched as the robots twitched and withered before the lights of their eyes went out and they deactivated.

They all turned to where the source of the mysterious energy came from.

"It's about time you showed up." Shadow mumbled as the dark shadow Sonic swore he saw in Eggman's base moved in the darkness of the trees. The light faded and Sky gasped as Sonic strained his eyes to get a better look.

"Dad." Sky whispered.

The dark figure slowly moved towards them and stepped out of the shadows.

Cliff hanger because I'm that cruel. Feel free to leave your opinion and sorry this chapter was shorted than the others, but it had to be edited because it was too long.