I do not own Sonic and Co.

Chapter 16

Sonic the hedgehog, fastest thing alive and hero of Mobius, placed down a rowdy kid "Jeeze kid calm down!"

The raccoon jumped up "I coulda 'andle my self! I'm captin' after all!" Marine tried her best to have an intimidating look.

Sonic looked around and then back "Okay."

The raccoon brushed off her shoulders "Now pardin' me. I gotta find me crew." She ran off into the croud.

Sonic blinked "What was her problem?"

"She always has been like that." The hedgehog turned to see a lavender cat, Blaze princess of the Sol dimension, walking toward him "You should see the reports I get from the island she's from."

"I don't know if I do."

Blaze smiled and crossed her arms "No. I don't think you would. They tend to go searching in places they shouldn't and travel the seas illegally."

"They don't even get penalized for it?"

Blaze shrugged "It's like what Ralph said. They're kids. The law only implies adults and there are no restrictions for driving water crafts on kids… yet."

Sonic snickered "Well. I think our humor is starting to get to you now."

Blaze stiffened and her eyes widened "Err. No, I just felt as if this was a… enlightening moment. My people are here and safe. I feel more relaxed now."

Sonic nodded but kept his smile "Sure. I'll go with that."

There was a sudden commotion and people began to murmur and gasp. Sonic and Blaze turned to face them "What's going on!" Blaze ran over with the blue hedgehog following.

They both stopped to see Anonymous carrying a limp yet very commotional muffling form of Alber and in his other arm dragging Deen. His companion was dragging the other two ex-agents.

Sonic swiftly walked toward him "What are you doing?"

Anonymous lowered Deen and Alber to the ground aloung with the man who held the other two "Stand back hedgehog."

"Why-?" Anonymous pressed a button on his left arm.

The four limp bodies became livly and yeling at the terrorist. Alber shoved herself off the ground and flung at him "YOU! YOU!"

Anonymous grabbed her fist and twisted around to force her into a kneeling position "I know you are deeply upset. His death is distressing and unimaginative. He should have been a match to that robot."

Alber only sniffed and sobbed in her armor. Anonymous dropped her arm and stepped back but Alber remained there crying her heart out "I-I… I only wanted things to go back the way it was. That's why I tried acting how I use to. I knew that… Ralph could bring us back to the old days… I just wanted the old days… Now…" Alber dropped her head into her arms and cradled it.

Deen, Lee, and Nike only stood staring at her in just amount of a defeated position as her.

Anonymous watched them but stood in a fashion like a tall and proud man. Sonic admired that but one thing deeply punched him in the gut "Ralph's dead!"

Blaze raised her hand as if to cover her mouth "What?"

Alber did not even budge to acknowledge that. The terrorist however turned to him with the same monotone as if nothing actually happened "We in fact did go into a trap. Alpha One set it up to go after Ralph in particular. He was our strongest link and had to go in his eyes."

Sonic stepped back and shook his head "No, no. Ralph can't be defeated by… He's dead?"

Anonymous stared at him "There is nothing to be done now."

"That colonel is dead?" Marine and a few other youngsters stood there looking at the terrorist.

Shadow, Rouge, Knuckles, Silver, actually everyone just stopped and stared. The dead silence seemed to even disturb the wind as it suddenly faded away.

Anonymous turned "I need to go."

Sonic leapt at him "No!" He grabbed the terrorist's shoulder. Anonymous turned slowly. "Wait! Ralph is… He can't."

"There is nothing to be done now."

"No!" Sonic looked back at the group "He… If he is gone." He turned back to the villain "We need you to stay. You're the only form of replacement we have."

Anonymous turned to look at his companion "We have matters to deal with. I have a plan to follow. As much as you need me I am need much more elsewhere. I will come back to help as often as I can." He then walked forward and Sonic lost his grip and let go.

The hedgehog did not even try to go after him. That voice he so described as monotone and somehow commanding in a polite yet heartless way seemed to have him root to the spot. He wanted the man's help even if he barely knew anything about him.

Deen, Lee, and Nike walked over and patted Alber on the back. She dropped her arms and pushed herself into a sitting position before standing up. They walked forward right after the terrorist. Silver stepped up "Wait. Guys? Girl? Comeon. What?"

Alber turned to him "I'm sorry Silver. You're sweet and all… but the only reason we came was because we wanted to see Ralph again."

Deen patted her on the shoulder "Now that he's gone… the only place we belong is with Anonymous. If anything he will think up of a plan and you can bet your lives that when he has a plan its big and will have an impact on this fight whether it'll let us win or not… You're best off without us anyways."

Lee began to walk after the terrorist again "We can't really function without Ralph."

Everyone only stared and watched as the group left. No one tried to stop them. They all felt to shocked and terrible for them to do anything about it.

Marine turned to her crew "Alright'y chumps. We gatta mission. Let's go!" She ran off with her gang right behind her. They ran into the forest and out towards the sea.

Eggman paced up and down the hall. There was nothing. Absolutely nothing. He and Sally could not find another single clue, but the fox would not let them without any more clues. Would he? No, there had to be another clue, maybe just one last single clue that was right under their nose and they could not see it. They had to keep going. They just have to dig around and find it.

Sally walked into the living room of the Eggcarrier. Amy, Cream, and Cheese looked up at her "Found anything?" Amy asked as politely as she could.

Sally leaned up against the wall "No… and why would you care?"

Amy looked away "No reason."

Sally huffed "Just because you want to see Sonic so bad does not mean we should stop!"

Amy rolled her eyes "Sonic is way more important that some silly clues."

Sally stood up to her height "We will find another clue, Amy! We just can't find it yet!"

Eggman came in almost in a jog "I have an idea!"

Sally looked up at him in hope "What?"

Eggman pointed around "We have yet to look in here. Maybe he hid it somewhere we can find it in here. Don't know why we haven't done so yet."

Sally nearly jumped up in glee "Great! Alright you three. Clear out. We need to search."

The three got up and rushed out just as the two began to shuffle around the area trying to find a clue. Amy went around the corner covering her mouth snickering "Those idiots. They don't know we hid that clue in the ground." Amy turned to Cream.

The rabbit held Cheese in her hands and felt a pang of guilt come creaping up on her "Yah… good." She looked down as Amy walked on with a dreamlike expression.

"Soon we'll be off looking for Sonic and we can be together once again."

Cream looked up at her "It hasn't even been a day yet."

Amy haulted and stared at her "That is over half a day without my Sonic and that is half a day too long without my Sonic! So don't tell me it hasn't been a day yet. Besides. Once we get there everyone will see how evil the fox actually is and we'll be the only ones who know about that last distractive clue."

Cream nodded with wide scared eyes "Yes, miss Rose."

Amy smiled and patted her head "Good." She turned and skipped down the hall.

Cream looked down at her chao "I don't know, Cheese. Are we doing the right thing?"

The chao looked down "Chao."

"I don't know either."

Blaze the cat groaned as she marched over the campsite. It was not actually bad if she had stopped to look at it. Everyone built their shelters to the best of their abilities though some of the group was still in shock about Ralph. Blaze could hardly feel any remorse for him though considering she hardly met him before. However she has noticed ever since his death the whole group seemed to lose their humor. Even Silver stopped cracking jokes now and then. He would smile once or twice but later he would be seen with a frown.

Yet the cat was not there to study the people there. She began marching around the whole place and tried her best not to kick a tree nearby in case she caught it on fire "Where are they?"

"Who?" Shadow walked up "I don't see anyone missing."

Blaze gave him a stern look "You wouldn't. These kids are nothing but trouble. That… Coconut Crew or whatever is gone off on another adventure or something. I can't find them!"

Shadow looked over the horizon "There's nothing we can do for them now. Let them go on their own. If they are any good they can keep themselves alive in till we can sort this thing out."

Blaze crossed her arms "That's not the problem! The problem is they always get into mischief!"

Shadow looked at her up and down "Like I said, their's nothing we can do about it. Would you like to go looking for them? Tails knows we're in this general area and its only a matter time in till his robots investigate. Team Dark and Knuckles agrees that we should move in the morning."

Blaze stepped at him so they were nose to nose "My people need rest."

The black hedgehog did not even blink "That's why I said in the morning. That's rest enough."

Blaze raised her clenched fist "They need more than just a few hours of sleep! Are you crazy!"

Shadow smacked her fist to the side "Watch your attitude princess! We're here to help you; we're allies not enemies! Now start treating us as such! You're giving off the impression that all you care about is your people! What about me or my team? We just lost one of our own and you're marching around the place asking for some kids who likes to run off on some silly adventures! Ralph is one of the most respected agents on our world and he was wiped out to save this lot!"

Blaze snapped "'WAS'… the most respected!"

Shadow's brow lowered and his jaw line clenched "…You're pathetic. It wouldn't surprise me if your parents just left because they couldn't stand you!"

Blaze rounded on him "HOW DARE YOU!"

Sonic skidded right beside them "WHOA! WHOA, whoa, whoa, whoa…. Whoa. Let's be courteous guys. People are trying to sleep."

Blaze pointed at Shadow "He was insulting me and my family!"

Shadow continued to glare at the cat "And YOU insult my colleague by poking fun at his death!"

Sonic blinked at looked at Blaze "Blaze? Is that true?"

Blaze stepped back and crossed her arms "… I was only getting frustrated that he wasn't taking my situation seriously."

Sonic faced Shadow now "What situation?"

The black hedgehog's gaze never altered from the cat as he too crossed his arms and huffed "A group of kids ran off for a silly adventure."

"Where are they?"

"That's what sour cat here was trying to find out."

The blue blur looked at the feline "How long have they been gone?"

Blaze looked away "A few hours."

Sonic looked around "Well… If they're not here there's nothing we can do. They're too far away and we have no idea where they could have gone off to. We can't risk anyone esle getting lost out here. Is that alright?"

Blaze looked stern but looked down all the same and then back at Sonic "Fine… They're on their own now… unless they get back."

"If they get back we'll welcome them back, but for now there's nothing we can do. Now Shadow. Rouge wanted to see you about preparations for tomorrows move." The dark hedgehog grunted before taking off over the campsite.

Blaze looked at Sonic curiously "You know of what they're doing tomorrow?"

Sonic nodded "Knuckles told me. We need to stay informed as a group. I'm going to contact Eggman and Sally later to give them a status update… I won't mention Ralph though… I don't want to dampen their spirits."

Blaze's eyes fell "Yes… I'm… sorry about his death. I can only imagine what it must feel like. I never meant to insult his memory."

Sonic smiled and waved it off "No big deal. We're all in a stressful situation…Ralph was our biggest bet… relying on him was a bit too much."

Blaze tilted her head at the hero "Since… I don't know what our next move is going to be, maybe we should try and strike a deal."

Sonic looked at her and his smile widened "Opening up are we? You were usully closed off from the start."

Blaze smiled back "Well, I'm just starting to realize you guys aren't that bad after all."

Sonic snickered "Not that bad, huh? Heh… not that bad." Sonic looked off into the horizon. He felt his heart pang with pain. He was dealing with so much now and… he felt like he was losing everything again. Just like before but now worst. His greatest friend and little brother Tails is now acting like his old evil self and now his other best friend is now lying at the bottom of the ocean resting now. He could not help but feel a twinge of fear for Sally, Amy, Cream, Cheese, and even Eggman. What will stop anything from hurting them? Sonic looked over the camp ground "We lost too many people Blaze."

Blaze stepped beside him and looked as well "What do you propose."

"I want to send Metal and Omega back to Eggman. Not to help them in a search mind you, but… What will help them if they get attacked? I probably won't make it in time if they call out."

Blaze scrunched up her eyes "… Yes… No one else from your world should die. You're here to help. I probably should have stayed to help Ralph."

Sonic smiled and chuckled "What could you have done? Alpha One is the second strongest Robot there is- I mean was. Destructor was the top one but he's rotting at the bottom of the ocean on our world."

The lavender cat plopped down on a log "… Will we win?"

"Huh?" The hero looked down at her confused.

Blaze sighed "I just… I just can't help but feel… defeated. We aren't gaining anything. All we're doing is losing."

Sonic bent down "We aren't losing… but neither are we winning. Look out there." He pointed at the camp "We saved all those people. That is a huge gain if I have ever seen one."

Blaze rested her face in her palms "Yes… but we lost your best man."

Sonic looked down "Sometimes you have to lose the queen in chess in order to win, but instead of worrying about our lost let's focus on what we achieve. We rescued your people, we have destroyed a ton of robots, and the best of all is we got our world's greatest terrorist on our side. By the sounds Ralph and his ex-team was making Anonymous is one of the top people you want on your team."

Blaze looked up and rested a cheek on one of her hands "Yah… about him. Don't you have the feeling that he… I don't know… Nevermind."

Sonic sat down on the grass next to her "What?"

"I probably shouldn't mention it."

"No, go ahead I insist."

Blaze sighed "I don't trust that man. He's up to something."

"Yah, he does have that feeling. That monotone does not add to the imagination. Can't tell if he is up to something or not. Adds to the suspense. No wonder Ralph considered him a high class threat."

Blaze looked at Sonic slightly surprised "I thought you liked him."

Sonic looked up at the sunset sky "I said he was cool. Doesn't mean I trust him. Ralph hinted that this guy was a mastermind. If he's anything like how Eggman use to be he probably is in it to help us, but latter he'll turn when he gets what he wants."

Blaze stood "Well, lets hope not."

Sonic jumped to his feet "Yah. I just like to think he's with us till the end."

Blaze looked out "Once we leave what do we do? You've been in this situation before."

Sonic tapped his foot "… What we did last time I guess. Nothing else comes to mind. We gotta get a good place to bunker up then we can go on the offensive."

Blaze turned and pointed "There is a mountain over there. There's a secret base there."

Sonic turned to her "You know we can't go there. Robots will be crawling there."

Blaze smiled cockily "Doubtful. It was a brand new base. I wasn't able to plug it into the computers yet. Tails has no idea about it."

Sonic blinked "Realy? Wow, what a break. That will be perfect. How long will it take do you think?"

Blaze looked over the horizon to see the peaks "About an entire days worth of marching, but I'm unsure if my subjects can take that kind of journey."

Sonic waved his hand "My team is strong. If need be they'll lend a helpful hand. We will take breaks Blaze. We're not heartless."

"After that we go offensive."

"Yep."

"Well… I have an idea, but I need to get to the base to look over maps… paper. I won't use any computers."

Sonic breathed out "pheew… good. Finally… a plan. I'm going to contact Eggman and let him know our stra-no! I'm going to send Metal and Omega with the message in case the fox is listening."

Blaze nodded "Good idea. I'll go tell my people to get some sleep for the trip ahead." Sonic and Blaze walked down the hill toward the camp and split off to do their duties.

Eggman fell down onto the couch he and Sally lifted back to its original place. They have been searching all day long with no such luck. Sally laid on the ground nearly asleep. There was nothing for them to do. They searched the whole place top and bottom more than once and no sign of any clues.

There was a sudden bang at the door and the two jumped. Eggman stood and twisted his head left to right to find a weapon of any sort. Sally ran over and picked up a pipe. The doctor slowly walked over and pulled the door to the side. Metal and Omega stood there "Sir."

Eggman blew out in relief and Sally rolled her eyes and threw her pipe on the ground "Why so secretive you two? We were startled. Couldn't Sonic contact me first hand?" Eggman demanded.

"He told us not to incase Tails was listening."

Eggman stroked his mustache "Must have an idea then."

Omega blurted out "He and Blaze have agreed to go to the secret base in the mountains."

Eggman stiffened "Are they insane!"

Metal raised a hand to symbolize patience "The schematics of the base has not been implemented in the computer system yet. The robots are unaware of it."

Eggman laughed "Well, then it's the best place to hide then… but why did he send you two? He could have ran over to tell me this himself."

"He wanted us to remain here in case of danger."

"We don't need protection. Tails would think we'd move on."

"Sonic wanted us to remain here in case of danger."

Eggman froze "Tails would not think to come here again, not even Alpha One. There's no point. We don't need protection."

"Sonic wanted us to remain here in case of danger."

Eggman grabbed the robots by the shoulder and dragged them inside. He slammed the door shut and rounded on them "What are you hiding?!"

Sally was taken back "Eggman! Sonic only sent them here to protect us. He's worried."

"That's not just it princess, oh no-no-no-no. My robots never repeat themselves unless they're quoting someone just in case they could give away secrets."

Sally turned to the robots "… Metal… Omega… Is there something wrong?"

Amy and Cream peered around the corner "Sonic sent robots to protect us. I knew he wouldn't forget about me."

Cream hugged Cheese "But what's going on? What does he mean their hiding something?"

Sally got no response "Metal! Omega! What happened?!"

Metal shuffled his feet "… Secret protected by Binding Promise Restriction Code 1598625-."

Eggman nearly roared "Override directive 25609! Tell us what's happening!"

Metal stiffened "… Sir you don't want to-."

"TELL ME!"

Metal flinched "… Ralph has been executed."

Eggman's mouth fell, Sally felt her entire body fill with shock, Amy stiffened, and Cream and Cheese cried out "What do you mean!? What do you mean?!" The rabit and chao came rushing out and Amy ran after them "What does execute mean? Is mister Ralph okay?"

Sally fidgeted and walked toward Cream "Go on. Go on. O-o-off to bed." The princess was quivering.

Cream allowed herself to be pushed away by Amy "But what does execute mean?"

Sally turned back to the robots "What happened?"

Omega responded this time "… Alpha One."

Alpha One stomped into the room victoriously "It is done. I have defeated Ralph."

Miles 'Tails' Prower, golden two-tailed mastermind fox, spun in his chair smiling "He's gone?"

"Vanquished."

Tails smile broadened "Excellent. Our plans are beginning to cement. Not even Sonic will be fast enough to stop it."

"There is another problem though."

Tails' smile fell "What?"

Alpha One raised his hand so his palm faced the ceiling and an image appeared. On it held six individuals. Ralph and five other people.

Tails pointed at the man in the back "He was there at that failed assassination attempt!"

Alpha One nodded "Yes, but take a closer look at the these four." The image magnified and the four described now had a white highlight around their image. Tails' eyes widened "That's Ralph's old team. But wait… that means-…" Tails paused "Him!"

Tails backed up "Him!?"

Alpha One cocked his head "I did not know you read up on Ralph."

"Before my trial Sally aloud me access to any file I wanted. I looked up Ralph and his reports on his super terrorists. They are not to be trifled with. No wonder that group swiftly got the upper hand on us."

Alpha One magnified Anonymous now "Do we set a trap for him?"

Tails growled at the image "No. He's a mastermind. A brilliant strategist. He wouldn't fall for that. It looks like me and him have a battle of the brains now… and rest assure that no matter how impressive his record makes him or how intimidating his reputation is he will fall under my mighty hand!"

Alpha One felt pride growing in his robot chest "Get Phase five of the plane done?"

Tails smiled "Why wait? I can't wait to outwit the so called Anonymous. Oh, Sonic you allied yourself with that one? Oh, ho-ho. Are you in a world of trouble now."

Please review. I want to know how I am doing and if I need to change anything. You all may be confused, but I have a grand plan that is now falling into place. All I need to work on is the middle portion that I still need to work on. If all goes according to plan this will be longer than 'Sonic's Two-Tailed Mistake'.