Alex: Here we are with another chapter of A Change of Heart.
Alexia: You took longer than I thought with this.
Alex: Projects. I hate them. I hate them very, very, very much, especially if I have to work in a team...
Alexia: You hate work, even if you have good grades. What's up with that contrasting personality? At school, you're a freaking hard worker unless you're bone-tired, but at home, you're practically a sloth!
Alex: That's the way I roll. No motivation or incentive equals to no work done. At school, there is enough motivation and I am in the mood to work.
Alexia: I wish you can be that way at home too...
Maia and Nyx: *Nod in agreement*
Alexia: Not you guys too!
Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, and this is SierLeAn's idea; I'm just continuing it. Also, thanks to SierLeAn for doing beta work of sorts!
Chapter 3 - Gem of Ultimate Power
The Freedom Fighters made good time - they arrived at the Great Canyon within an hour and half. However, Robotnik had beaten them to the Canyon, and the group encountered a rather nasty surprise.
"Yikes!" Antoine yelped as the mobians scattered, dodging the rain of lasers headed their way. Sonic immediately took action, grabbing the French coyote and his two-tailed brother before dashing for cover. Sally and Rotor followed suit with Bunnie covering their backs.
They regrouped under the safety of a rock outcrop, temporarily hidden from the SWATbots. Sonic set Antoine and Tails down. "Tails, you go with Sally and the rest while I distract those SWATbutts Get to the Wolf Pack; I'll catch up when I'm done."
"Sonic, wait-" Before Sally could finish, Sonic was gone, running past the SWATbots.
"Yo, you overgrown tin cans, I'm here!" Sonic shouted, waving his arms around.
"PRORITY ONE – HEDGEHOG," the robots droned as they changed course and followed the speedster. As soon as they were away from the outcrop, Sally and the group ran for the entrance to the Wolf Pack while Sonic made a hairpin turn and curled up into a deadly ball of spines. Rotating head-over-heels, he was like a buzz-saw as he tore into the mass of robots.
Explosions bloomed all over in Sonic's wake, leaving behind heaps of scrap metal that were once the SWATbots. They were small, but not small enough to pass unnoticed by Robotnik.
"What was that?" the warlord asked himself, glaring at the direction of the sound. Turning towards his monitors, he pressed a button and the screens flashed, revealing a familiar blue hedgehog destroying his robots.
"WHAT?! WHAT IS THAT BLASTED HEDGEHOG DOING HERE?!" Robotnik roared, lava-hot anger boiling and bubbling up inside of him at the sight of his arch-nemesis. But among all of that anger was also a hint of fear.
'Does the hedgehog know about 'it'?! No, he can't! But...why else would he be out here...?' Robotnik thought, staring at the screens. 'What if...what if he finds it first?'
The mere thought of Sonic having even one of them in his hands brought another surge of anger and a shiver of fear through the mad scientist. 'No, he mustn't!' "Attention all units! Catch that hedgehog, dead or alive! Don't let him get near the dig site. And find his friends as well! Whatever you do, DO NOT let them NEAR the dig site!" he barked through the intercom while sending out the coordinates.
At once, all the robots scattered through the area stood up and headed towards Sonic's location. Robotnik watched as they swarmed quickly. 'That hedgehog must NOT get his hands on it...not now, not ever!'
Somewhere among the cliffs of the Great Canyon, a meeting was taking place. "It was unexpected," Lupe the wolf began, pacing restlessly in front of the Freedom Fighters and her own members. "We were preparing for the attack when a scout told us of Robotnik's arrival."
"He's here, in person?" Sally gasped, shocked at the prospect.
Lupe nodded gravely. Facing Robotnik's robots was one thing, but facing Robotnik personally was another. The madman was that; mad, and at times, unpredictable. They had to be on especially high guard with him so close to the Wolf Pack's headquarters.
"Yes. And as soon as the robots landed, they began to dig for something. It might be a Power Stone, but the energy signature is slightly different. In fact, it seems to be nearly identical to the wavelength of the Power Rings," said Lupe.
This piece of info wrought a faint feeling of terror among the Freedom Fighters. The Power Rings were one of the reasons why they had an edge against Robotnik; the scientist did not have a chance to study them and learn their secrets. If he got something that was similar to the rings, and managed to learn their properties...
"We need to stop him," Sally spoke, a determined look in her blue eyes. "Let's initiate the attack on Robotnik. This might be an opportunity to learn more about what this object is, and if we are exceptionally lucky, we might even be able to recover it."
Lupe nodded in agreement. "Let's do it."
With Sonic, things were looking bad. The blue hedgehog was surrounded by a literal hoard of robots, everything from surveillance robots to the more advanced SWATbots, robots similar to ordinary SWATbots, but much more enhanced in terms of strength and speed.
"Time for the ring," he said to himself as he reached into his backpack and pulled out the Power Ring. There was a bright flash of gold before Sonic curled up and spun head-over-heels, charging through the mass with ease.
"Ha-ha-ha," Sonic chuckled, a smirk on his face. However, it was wiped off of his face when he felt a sudden tug pulling at the glowing ring.
"What the-?" he started, only to be cut off as the slight tug grew so strong that the ring nearly went flying out of his grasp. He himself had a strong grip, and that resulted in him being pulled along for the ride too.
"Wwwwwhhhhooooaaaaaa!" Sonic yelled as he was pulled deeper into the canyon. The ring's glow brightened until it was blinding, and Sonic closed his eyes tightly.
There was a sudden change in the air and he opened his eyes, another shout of surprise slipping past his lips when he found himself falling.
He landed face-first on the ground and groaned in pain. It was fortunate for him that he was not at a great height when he fell, and Sonic quickly got up. "Where am I?" he muttered to himself, looking around. He knew that he was still in the Great Canyon, but at which part?
"Scratch that, what just happened?" Sonic corrected himself, looking at the ring in his hand. To his shock, instead of becoming dull and black as it usually did when he used up its power, it was still glowing brightly.
The ring wiggled in his grip and Sonic yelped in surprise when he was pulled forward. "What's going on?" he asked, extremely confused.
There was no reply, of course, so Sonic resigned to his fate and followed the rather insistent ring.
It led him towards a dig site, devoid of robots. Sonic looked around cautiously, the rather eerie silence dancing on his nerves, but the ring pulsed slightly, bringing Sonic's attention back to it.
The Power Ring pulsed again and pulled Sonic closer to the quarry. The hedgehog blinked and looked down, immediately spotting the glimmer of an object the same shade as his eyes.
"What is that?" he asked himself, jumping down to get a better look. As he walked closer, he felt tingles all over his skin, causing his fur to puff up slightly. He could feel the immense energy coming off of the object, and the way it was similar to the Power Rings immediately caught his attention.
Sonic looked at the ring in his hand at that thought. 'Is it because of this thing...that the Power Ring acted like this?' he wondered. 'Maybe Sal knows something about this.' With that, he put his ring back in his backpack and reached down. His fingers dug through the dirt, unearthing more of the emerald-green object, revealing it to be a round-cut gem, an emerald of sorts.
"Amazing..." Sonic muttered softly, gazing at the jewel in awe. He reached down to grab the gem, but as soon as his fingers brushed against its smooth surface, a surge of power shot up his arm, making him gasp in shock. For a moment, his eyes shone, but it was over and he grabbed the gem.
Feeling no more reactions, Sonic shrugged it off and placed it in his quills. He had a feeling that putting the gem close to the Power Ring would not do any good, especially with the way they reacted with each other.
"Now, to find Sally..."
Nearby, in a tent, Robotnik was watching the event that had transpired after Sonic grabbed the Power Ring. There was not much except for a flash of light and Sonic disappearing from sight.
'Where is he?' he hissed in his mind, eyes running all over the screen in an attempt to find the hedgehog.
Back at the scene, the robots were searching for Sonic as well. Surveillance robots scattered all around in a frenzy, covering every single spot, while the robots were patrolling around, searching every nook and cranny.
Due to their attention mostly focusing on finding Sonic, they never once noticed another group of mobians approaching Robotnik's campsite.
"Everyone ready?" Sally asked, looking back at her group.
Bunnie and Rotor nodded back at the chipmunk. Antoine and Tails were left behind in the Wolf Pack's headquarters to guard the place while Lupe and her group planned to make a distraction of sorts to keep the robots from coming back to the dig site.
Sally and her group snuck as close as they could towards the tents and the chipmunk paused, waiting for a signal from Lupe.
It did not take long to receive a message from the wolf, and what Lupe said surprised Sally. "Princess, you can go ahead; the robots are so distracted by whatever they are doing that they hardly noticed us. I think they won't be coming back anytime soon."
Sally did not know what to make of this development, but she was not going to let it go to waste. "Bunnie, you take the left. Rotor, you take the right, while I'll take the rest."
"Aye, Sally-girl," Bunnie agreed as she ran off towards the tents on the right. Rotor followed suit, only heading towards the left. Sally on the other hand looked at the main tent, slightly bigger than the others.
'That's Robotnik's for sure... If I'm going to find out what he's planning, I have to do this,' Sally thought as she mustered up her courage. 'Here I go.'