I do not own any Sonic character that belongs to Archie or SEGA.

Chapter 19

Knuckles the echidna leaned against the walls of the cave looking at the crowed that was now lying down and resting. Rouge was patrolling the area asking if anyone was missing. Silver, Sonic, Shadow, and Blaze have yet to return and he would have to go out to make sure they found them. He was not able to tell them where the cave was. He turned and marched right out and looked over the horizon. There was a sudden movement in the distance and a strange grey blur shot right at him. Knuckles yelped and threw his fists in the air in a fighting pose.

The blur, however, stopped and there stood Anonymous, infamous terrorist leader, holding a limp form of Blaze the cat.

Knuckles was shocked to see her in such a condition "Blaze!" Everyone stopped to look "What happened?"

"She wasted her energy and fainted. I was able to pull her away before they killed her."

Silver and Shadow soon came up right behind them. The black hedgehog was holding the unconscious form of Sonic the hedgehog. Knuckles was now ever more surprised "Sonic!? What?"

"The blast intended for Blaze struck the ground sending a wave of energy across the surface blowing Sonic and Shadow away. Sonic received massive trauma and as a result is now incapacitated. As I hear, Blaze has a secret base she was leading you to before the sudden interruption of the ships."

Knuckles blinked. Monotone, yet full of command in the air. The red echidna just wanted to press on for more information, but how Anonymous spoke it felt as if he dismissed it and if Knuckles continued he would only be embarrassing himself in front of everyone.

Knuckles crossed his arms "Err- yah. That's right."

Anoymous walked over to a portion of the ground and laid the unconscious cat gently down "Then we need to wait before moving out."

Shadow walked over to a section and just plopped Sonic on the ground getting an "OUFF!" From him causing him to wake.

The blue hero pushed himself up rubbing his head "Ohhhh… what happened."

Silver crossed his arms "Anonymous came by and saved Blaze, caused the ship to just start spinning, and ran us all up here to the cave Knuckles hid everybody… soooooo… nothing." The hedgehog smiled at his sarcasm.

Sonic nodded "Good. I'll go back to bed." He fell back down and blew all his air out.

Shadow puffed out in disapproval. Sonic poked a finger in the air "I was only joking black hog!"

"You're not even worried about Blaze." Shadow responded distastefully.

Sonic lifted his head and looked at the other hedgehog "I think the words 'Anonymous came by and saved Blaze' can genially put me at ease at her condition." He dropped his head back on the ground.

Shadow rolled his eyes and walked off.

Anonymous lifted the cat's arm and placed it across her chest. He then did the same the other arm. The terrorist soon grabbed a rock and pulled it over and sat down on it above the lavender cat.

Silver cocked a brow "What are you doing?"

"Waiting."

"Yah, I know. I meant why did you do that to Blaze's arms."

"To keep them off the ground."

"Why's that so special?"

"Comfort."

"Why do you sound like a robot?" No response "Why must you use a monotone?"

"I believe I already answered that question."

"Do you use it as a form of intimidation, cause it works."

"It is only a benefit during times of interrogation; I, however, do not have the intention of scaring anyone around me."

"Ohhhhhh-kay… Why are you staring at her constantly though?"

"She has a bindi on her forehead."

"A what? The dot?"

"It is a religious symbol worn by females in the Hindu religion representing spiritual insight on our world."

"Wait, Blaze is Hindu?"

"We are in another dimension, Silver. It might have a completely different meaning here. I was deducting what it meant when you asked."

Silver nodded and walked off "So she's not Hindu?" No response. "Right, different universe. Trying to figure that out. Got it." He ran off.

He stopped right next to Knuckles "I don't know why a man with just a simple monotone can be so… I don't even know a word for it."

"Authoritative." Shadow walked in.

Silver shrugged "Sure. Intimidating and commanding, yet nice and inspiring… yah that works."

Blaze suddenly moaned and her eyes tightened. She raised a hand and pressed it on her forehead, massaging it. She blinked and looked up. Anonymous was looking down at her. She froze and looked around. She was in a cave "Where am I?"

Sonic walked up "Safe. Anonymous saved your life. Luckily he was in the neighborhood."

The terrorist stood and walked off and as he past Silver he spoke "It's to represent royalty."

Silver stopped and twisted around to watch him leave "Where you going?"

Anonymous turned to look at him "I have gathered information that I need to relay to my team."

Silver quickly ran up to him "Wait, don't go. At least stay with us in till we reach the secret base."

"Secret base?"

"Yah, it was not logged into the computers so Blaze is taking us there. We're almost there." Silver pleaded.

Anonymous continued to star at him and after a few seconds responded in his monotone "I accept the offer. However, I must inform you that I require to leave at once when we get there.

Silver smiled and wiped his head "Whew, no worries. You can leave when we get there. We just need help. We're all beaten up and I don't know how long we'll last."

Anonymous looked at the six: Shadow, Sonic, Silver, Rouge, Blaze, and Knuckles. The only one seemingly less tired than the rest was the red echidna, but that was because he did more of the crowd control than actual fighting. The terrorist leader looked over to Blaze who was now pushing herself off the ground. He walked up to her and crossed his arms "I will help you to this base then I'll take my leave till we meet again." Blaze nodded. "First, We need to make sure no one was lost."

"We didn't. I checked." Knuckles was listening.

Anonymous did not even appear to hear him "Secondly, we must send out a scout to make sure it is safe to move. I will act as the scout. Lastly, you must get everyone ready whether it is to be ready for an attack or to be ready to leave. We must consider this the most dangerous area here; especially since the robots know we are in the vicinity. Move quickly and quietly to the safe location then everyone can relax." Anonymous turned and in a grey blur blasted off silently.

Blaze stepped forward only to grunt and wrap an arm around her stomach with a pained expression. Sonic noticed and walked up to her with raised arms as if to tell her to slow down "You relax Blaze. Knuckles, Shadow, and I will tell everyone. Silver has a question for you."

Silver scratched his head. He did not remember telling Sonic he had a question for her, though he did. Blaze stumbled back onto a rock and leaned on it. She turned and looked at the hedgehog quizzically.

Silver smiled nervously and walked forward rubbing the quills on his head. He stopped and took a deep breath "Soooo… I was just wondering… what is that on your head? A… bindi?"

Blaze blinked in confusion "A what?... Oh!" She touched her forehead where the red jeweled like dot was "This?" Silver nodded. "It's an indication of my authority. The royal family place these on their heads to show their royalty and to give the burden of protecting the Sol Emeralds to the new person in power. It is part of the inauguration. The colors vary depending on the royalty's personality and spirit. My personality was perseverance and strength, and my spirit was fire. The mix was this red gem."

"So the gem gives you your powers?"

Blaze blinked "No. I was born with my powers. I was even told I accidently burnt my father's hands once. I was sparking things into flames before I was forced to become the ruler."

"Forced?"

Blaze looked down "… My parents were… killed in a war. We were betrayed by our closest ally."

Silver had a look of realism "So that's why you do not like trusting people." Blaze looked away and crossed her arms. Silver grimaced at himself "Well… you persevered right?"

Blaze looked at him "Yes! Otherwise I would not be ruling my kingdom."

Silver scratched his head "So… you're not Hindu?"

Blaze's brow lowered in perplexity "What? What does that got to do with this?"

Silver raised his arms and backed away "On our world Hindu women wear something like that on their heads. Just wondering. Got to go." Silver dashed off.

Blaze shook her head "This team is just getting weirder."

/

Eggman opened a door and walked in to view the firewall one last time. He had found a way to power it without Silver's help, but what was the point. No other clues can be found. They searched everywhere and the doctor has not the foggiest of ideas where Tails could have hidden one last clue. He understood thanks to the fox's genius and super speed he could create complex machinery in minutes. The very first thing that comes to mind is the first Mega Destroyer ever created. Eggman remembered it like it was yesterday. The fox flew his own ship at him and nearly killed he and Sonic. If it were not for the hedgehog he would be dead. He only left the fox in his ship for at least five minutes only for him to come up with not just one giant super sophisticated robot that surpassed all Eggman created, but three. He even knows the fox built it that fast and hard because he did not even had a design for such a robot. Tails only thought of it off the bat then.

Eggman huffed as he remembered Sonic completely destroying the one robot that was sent after them before Tails activated the nuclear self destruct button. Actually Sonic cannot really take credit for its destruction. The blue hedgehog only fooled it into killing itself.

Sally came in "Eggman?" The Doctor turned to face her. Sally looked down and then back up "Are we leaving?"

The doctor turned to face the screen again. He was continually asking that to himself. A part of him said no, but the other said yes. It was complicated. He did not want to stay, but at the same time he did not want to leave. He regretted coming here ever since Tails appeared to have gone back to his evil side and it only grew worst when he got news of Ralph's fate. Eggman lowered his head and closed his eyes "Yes… Get Amy and Cream ready."

/

Blaze nodded to the group as the entire cave of people stood to get ready to move. They were only minutes away from the secret base. They only had to get there, get settled in, and they were safe. Now all that was left is Anonymous' signal.

The terrorist came zooming in and with a booming loud voice that was remarkably still monotone he shouted "INCOMING!"

Sonic, Silver, Shadow, Rouge, Blaze, and Knuckles got into their fighting stance. Blaze cursed under her breath. They found them… again.

Anonymous slid next to them his right side facing the entrance while h head looked at that direction "I have blocked their signal. They cannot call backup."

"How many?" Rouge asked

"Six."

Shadow continued to stare at the entrance "Mega Destroyers?"

"No."

Sonic smiled "Good."

"Wrong, hedgehog."

"What?"

"You're not going to like what this battle holds in store for you."

Suddenly six robotic dogs came dashing in. Rouge screamed and leapt into the air. She quickly turned "SILVER! GRAB EVERYONE AND LIFT THEM OFF THE GROUND!"

The hedgehog was thrown off at the command "I can't hold that many people up that long!"

Rouge scowled "DO IT!"

Silver moaned, closed his, raised his hands, and everyone lifting them off the ground.

Anonyomous fired a grapple up at the roof and after it struck to top he reeled himself up. Sonic told Silver to let him go and leapt down as he complied.

Rouge yelled at Sonic to stop but he ignored her. Shadow also jumped after Sonic to fight. Knuckles ran up and yelled at them to stop "DON'T HIT THEM! THEY'LL JUST-!"

Sonic and Shadow smashed all six leaving them into twelve piles of metal. Sonic and Shadow looked at them in shock before smiling at each other "That wasn't so hard."

They looked back up to see disbelief annoyance on Knuckles' and Rouge's face "They'll just multiply. I was trying to warn you."

Sonic and Shadow's smile faded and they looked back. The twelve distinct piles suddenly began coming together and now twelve, yet smaller, dogs stood their growling. Sonic remembered these from when they attacked Knothole. He growled and charged. Shadow followed.

Rouge slapped her forehead "STOP! KNUCKLES AND I FOUGHT THESE IN TAILS' BASE WHEN WE SEPERATED! THEY JUST CONTINUASLY GET SMALLER TILL THEY CAN CRAWL INSIDE YOUR BODY!"

Sonic kicked one the size of his shoe away before looking up "Great! SILVER PICK US UP!"

Silver groaned and suddenly they all began to float down. Everyone began to shriek.

Rouge dropped down and grabbed Shadow only to be suddenly grabbed by a pile of ant sized dogs. She yelped as she threw them off her. Shadow spun around on the ground trying to smash them, but now they were ever smaller than ants.

Anoymous shook his head "At this rate the robots will be small enough to get into their pores. Ingeniously designed."

Knuckles growled "The only way we beat them last time is when Bunnie turned them off with the control panel. Since there is non now HOW ARE WE SUPPOSE TO BEAT THEM!... Argg! Silver drop me!" Knuckles fell and he smashed the ground creating a hole the miniature robots came pelting in and the echidna barly had time to get out of the way. Sonic soon came up and covered the patch up burying the robots. The blue blur began tapping on it to patch it down, but he did not have time to worry about them. The rest they did not bury began coming. Knuckles leapt up and pounced on them creating another hole. Shadow was the one that now buried them and rouge patted it down with her feet.

Anonymous pulled himself up and attached the wire he held to his back so he could lean forward and look down at the scene below "Watch it."

Sonic looked up at him "What?" He looked down and jumped "YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" The robots were so small they were now coming out of the ground like a strange fog.

Rouge tried jumping but they grabbed her foot and she strained to shake them off. Shadow leapt in the air with Sonic and once they landed they leapt again, but soon they'll lose. Silver moaned harder than before and he began to lose altitude again. The people began to murmur as family began to hug each other.

Anonymous suddenly turned and pointed at Blaze "I have an idea."

Blaze looked at him "What?"

"You're going to need your strength for this Blaze. You need to fire all that you have left at the robots."

Blaze was shocked "But… I hardly have any left in me."

Anonymous began typing on his arms "I have flamethrowers in my arms, I will help. We need to do this. They're going to die, Blaze."

Blaze looked down. Sonic landed, but before he could jump back up they finally got him. He tripped and landed on the ground and he was immediately engulfed. Shadow landed nearby to see if he could help but he too was suddenly grabbed and pulled to the ground. Blaze's eyes narrowed and with a commanding and angered voice looked at Silver "Drop me!"

Silver nodded with an extremely pained face. Blaze fell and blasted out all the fire she could muster. Anonymous began firing as well and the entire floor was engulfed in flames. After a few seconds they stopped. Blaze stood there, her legs shacking, and then fell over. She gasped for air and looked where the team was. The floor was covered in a silver liquid and to her relief. Sonic came pelting up with a giant gasp and Shadow pushed himself off the ground with a small intake of breath. Rouge was shaking in fear; the robots were just at her neck when it suddenly stopped. Knuckles shook his head; he would never admit it, but he was shaken.

Anonymous detatched his wire from his back, spun back round, and lowered himself to the ground. The grapple unhooked and zoomed back into his arm where he fired it from.

Silver lowered everybody and he suddenly fell to the ground and stopped moving. Sonic began to get up quickly but the voice of Anonymous stopped him "Do not try Sonic. He merely fainted. That was too much of a strain on him. He now only needs rest."

Blaze tried to push herself up, but after a few seconds of uncontrollable shaking she fell back down on her back in the muck.

Shadow looked at the terrorist "How did you know that would work."

Anonymous looked around "I looked at the robot with an admirable eye." Sonic chuckled. He could imagin Ralph or Silver making fun of the statement and mention how his monotone disagrees. Anonymous continued "To first be able to defeat something, you must first have the knowledge of how that thing or person works. It was constantly getting smaller and smaller. No form of solid matter can do that, but liquids cannot remain in solid form. That means that those robots were in a form of both solid and liquid forms."

Sonic's face was contorted into a funny look of befuddlement. Anonymous shook his head "I could get into the science but you would get lost in the description. The solid portions keep it sturdy and the liquid allows it to regrow quickly yet much smaller. The liquid part made it easy to smash, the reason a punch could just seemingly rip it in half. The fox probably made it to torture and terrify its victim."

Sonic shivered "Well… those are the freakiest robots."

Shadow stood and threw some of the metallic liquid off him "So! They were a bit of both solid and liquid! What did the fire do?"

"The fire gave it heat. Heat made some of the liquid parts evaporate, and without those parts they would just crumble, unable to work."

Shadow nodded "Ah."

Rouge took a step treambling "W-we should get out of here before more comes."

Anonyomus nodded and turned to the corwd "Get going."

Blaze grabbed at a rock and desperately tried to get up, but she had no strength left. Fear spread over her face. A shadow loomed over her and she looked up. Sonic knelt down "Need a lift."

Blaze tried one last time to get up, but she slipped and landed on her back once more. She moaned and finally nodded. Sonic picked her up bridal style and began to walk out of the cave "I don't blame you for wanting to walk this off yourself, but we all need help at some point."

Blaze nodded completely flustered. She felt humiliated at the fact she could not help herself to her feet and now needed to be carried. She tried raising a hand to point, but that failed as well. She sighed and nodded toward a direction "There. It's over that hill."

Sonic nodded and looked back "THIS WAY!" He then began walking toward the secret base.

Anonymous walked up to the unconscious Silver, picked him up, and drapped him over his shoulders. He looked around and the silver muck before walking out after the people.

/

Cream sat on Tails' bed looking at the floor sadly, her hands clutching each other tightly. Cheese looked at her looking just as gloomy. The rabbit did not understand why she felt so depressed. She felt like a traitor, like some sort of monster. Others would tell her not, but she could not help but feel that way. This all started after Tails betrayed her. She guesses this is why she was always a little bit cruel at times. She just wanted to take these feelings out on someone, and who better that Tails. She blamed him for these feelings.

Lately, though, she has been second guessing that. She actually started like him again, and since everyone still disliked him she figured there was something wrong with her. So she tried to act like she hated him even more. Each time it felt as if she was stabbing herself in order to get to the fox. It was just painful to her. The news that Tails turned back to evil only worsened this feeling. She blamed herself for his seemingly betrayal. She kept going back to the day she first met him. How nice he was, how kind and understanding. She felt that if she only was nice to him he would not have turned back into the Mysterious Villain. She kept playing those scenarios of being nice to him and they becoming best of friends. Then Tails would not become the villain and this entire thing would have been over by now thanks to the heroic fox… but now she only could live in herself pity and her own little imaginative world.

Cheese knew her true feelings from the start and only played along to help her out, but everything was just seemingly getting worst. Now the little chao did not know what to do to help.

Cream looked around one last time before looking at Cheese "Well Cheese… we'll be leaving here soon… I don't want to… but we have to…"

"Chao." Was the only halfhearted response. Cheese stood and began to walk away, but her heel suddenly landed on the floor that suddenly sank. She yelped and fell down. "Chao!" Cheese flew over to the rabbit.

Cream pushed herself up and looked at the chao with a small smile "I'm okay…" she looked down at her feet "What is that?" She turned and grabbed the section of the floor. It matched the floor almost perfectly. Since Sally and Eggman trotted on it so much it must have gotten dislodge and finally was shoved down by her foot.

The rabbit picked it up. It was a box and she read the words written on the front it "'To Cream'? Me? Did Tails?" She lifted the lid to look inside. There was a letter indicated to her. She picked it up and read: "Cream. I don't know if anyone will ever find this. If this is over I might muster up the courage to confront you, but I would be kidding myself. Those who just put things off are only delaying it so they do not have to do it. I have never truly apologized to you for the unforgivable things I have done to you. I do not expect your forgiveness. I only expect criticism. Well, first, I deserve every ounce of it especially since I never asked for your forgiveness. Second, you have every right to be angry, mad, upset, whatever you want to call it. I took advantage of your kindness and grace only to turn against you. To be honest, I was scared of you. You gave me a strange feeling I had never felt before. You were the first to even touch my heart, and such a new random feeling terrified me. I could not take it and wanted it to go away. The thought of betraying you made me feel sick and guilty. I did it anyways and the regret for it pounded on me ever since I threw you heartlessly into that cell. I was an idiot for doing that. You were the only true friend for me that day and losing you because of my darkness was my stupidity. For my selfish and heartless act I want to give these back to you. I want you to find the true friend who deserved these and I hope they fulfill the emptiness I placed inside your heart."

Cream looked inside the box with tears threatening to fall out. She gasped and pulled out a even smaller box and inside it was a flower crown perfectly preserved. The exact same one she gave Tails the day he betrayed her. In the center of the crown was written in a fancy text "To My Best Friend."

Cream clutched the box to h chest, tears flowing down her cheeks. She sobbed as she looked at the empty wall. How could she be so rude to a fox that was so heartbroken and hurt from everything he has ever done. She did not even know if she could forgive herself now.

Then she froze. There was a way she could redeem herself. She must help Tails. The fox was innocent she just knew it. She leapt up; letter in one hand and the flower crown box in the other "Come on Cheese! We must tell Eggman and Sally about the other clue!" The two ran off.

Cream skidded down the hallway and nearly bumped into Sally. She looked at the rabbit in surprise "What's wrong?" She suddenly noticed the box and letter "What are those?"

Cream placed the letter inside the box with ther crown, shut it, and tugged on the princess' arm urgently "We need to go outside!"

"Why?" The chipmunk was surprised at this action.

"Because… Amy and I found a clue from Tails and she hid it out there underground."

Sally's eyes widened as she spun around and charged "METAL!"

The robot came pelting out of nowhere "Yes?"

Sally turned back to the rabbit "Take me to the spot."

Cream nodded and ran off. She passed Amy who was confussed at the commotion "What's going on." Sally passed her but not before giving her a deadly glare.

They dashed outside and Cream pointed at a section of ground "There."

Metal dashed up to it and slammed his hand into the ground and came up… with the very clue Amy hid there.

"Why…" They turned to see a very… angry… pink hedgehog "Why you little!" She was just about to pounce when suddenly an arm came up and lifted her off the ground.

Eggman looked around "What is all this exitment about."

Metal passed the clue over to Sally who took it with a wide smile and raised it to give it to Eggman "The last clue from Tails."

Eggman dropped Amy and grabbed it. His glasses sparkeled at the sight of it "The blue prints for Seven." He nearly whispered in wonder "Now we can fix him."

"AHHHHHH!" Amy dove at Cream who jumped back frightened.

There was a flash of blue and Amy was being held by Metal Sonic "Leave her alone, Rose!"

As Amy began kicking and screaming Eggman ran inside "Now we can start rebuilding Seven! There's no need to leave now!"

Amy froze once she heard that. Then she moaned and fell forward. She was not going to see Sonic soon now. Eggman did not care though. The fire inside him was now burning even harsher than before. He was going to PROVE Tails' innocence. Nothing was going to stop him from that.

/

Sonic laid Blaze down on a mattress. She was vastly asleep ever since they walked into the secret base a few minutes ago. Everyone was getting nestled in thanks to the help of the leader Anonymous. He apparently had to do this often and knew what to do. He even gave Shadow a list of what to do to be fully moved in. Silver was on another mattress sleeping off his energy drain and the rest of the people were now laying down to get fully rested now.

Rouge, Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles walked over to the entrance to see Anonymous off. They all waved as he passed, but before he opened the door he looked at them "I understand I am not your leader, but you will obey me when I say this. Understand?" They all nodded "Do not leave here until you are all rested and capable of fighting. You all need rest and since no robot knows of this place, there is no need of a night watch."

Sonic smiled "Got it. Thanks for everything Anonymous."

The terrorist leader nodded and stepped out. Knuckels closed his eyes and sighed "… alright… I admit… he's kind of cool."

Sonic reeled his head back ""Kind of cool"? What you mean? He's super cool. One of the coolest men alive!" Sonic followed Knuckles to their resting quarters.

Rouge looked at Shadow "You going to rest?"

Shadow hesitated but nodded "I cannot seem to bring myself to disobey that man. I don't fully understand why."

Rouge smiled "Maybe Sonic is right for once. It's because he's cool." The bat walked off.

Shadow huffed, but then smiled "Maybe."

Anonymous looked over the base with curiously. He then turned and activated his radio "I have what I need from Tails. My plan is a go. I'm in it too deep to stop it now. Get ready. It's time the fox and I had a little chat face to face."

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