At long last, my fellow followers! I have returned from the depths of a deep, dark place known as school! And let me tell ya, the amount of crap I had to do before the school year ended was unbelievable. But, on the bright side, I'm am officially a high school freshman! I feel so accomplished for surviving middle school. ;)

Anyways, sorry for the wait, but as you can see from my rant, school is to blame. And all the places I had to go for my sister's softball games. Glad that's over, until travel ball starts. *shudders* Oh well. But right now, enjoy the chapter!

Chapter 18

Dang it! Sonic! It's Eggman! Eggman's here at the house! He-he used chaos control!

Sonic screeched to a stop. He and Amy were about a mile from the house. And, to his horror, Shadow was right. There in the distance, hovering above the house, was a huge flying ship.

But that can't be! It shouldn't be possible! Eggman's not like us!

Shadow's grave voice sounded shaky with confusion... and worry, which was not like him. I guess we underestimated the power of the chaos emeralds.

You need to get out of there! I don't care what Eggy's intentions are, they're never good!

Shadow nodded to himself. He was still at the window, although as soon as he caught sight of the ship, he pulled his head back in and disappeared into a dark corner. I'm gonna get everybody out. If your close enough-

I am!

-then try and distract him. But be careful! And, if there's even the slightest hint of a chance, you destroy that invisibility gun!

Roger that!

Shadow pulled out of his concentration and ran to the workshop. Tails didn't know what was going on. He was just tinkering with the Tornado.

That is, was. Shadow zipped over, picked up the young fox, and placed him on his back (while avoiding his quills). At the same time, the black hedgehog was filling him in on the situation.

"Basically, we need to get out of this house!" Shadow finished. Tails nodded, and they both stormed into the kitchen. Knuckles and Rouge were watching from a window the scene that was unfolding outside.

"What's happening?!" Shadow demanded. Knuckles just glanced at the hedgehog and then turned his purple eyes back towards the sky.

Shadow (as pushy as ever) grabbed the bat's and the echidna's arms and dragged them to the door. He kicked it open with enough force to blow it off it's hinges and ran into the yard. He dropped the three of his cargo onto the grass and looked up himself.

The ship itself was pretty normal for Eggman. Long, wide, with a flat runway on top. It was black and red (Shadow growled at the color arrangement) with the usual oversized Eggman logo imprinted on the bottom of the contraption.

Sonic and Amy were going to work on the fortress in the sky. Between his homing attacks and spin dashes, Sonic was practically flying. He was continuously switching between damaging the ship and taking down robots. His new girlfriend was standing over the cockpit (with a frightened looking Eggman inside) and was slamming into the glass with her Piko Piko hammer.

Shadow smirked a little. "Good to see he's back to his regular fighting self."

Knuckles jumped up from the ground to join the fight. He leaped onto a flying mech and rode it until he was within reach of the ship's runway. Hopping off his ride, he trashed the robot and began eliminating any piece of moving metal in sight.

He also wanted to try out his telepathy thing with Sonic. Shadow said it worked between the two hedgehogs, and the echidna knew for a fact that he could communicate with Shadow, so why not with Sonic? Time to put his theory to the test.

Hey, Sonic?

In the air, the blue hedgehog paused, but was not that surprised. Now, he was pretty used to hearing voices in his head that weren't his own. Which sounded rather insane when he thought about it. He tried not to think about it.

Yo Knux! So Shads and I aren't the only ones with freaky mind powers? Cool!

Yeah, it is pretty cool. Shadow said he thought it had something to do with the emeralds, so you and him using the chaos emeralds a lot, and me being around the Master Emerald pretty much twenty-four seven, allows us to do this. I guess-watch it!

Huh?

Duck!

The cobalt hedgehog immediately dropped his head and curled up. He aimed himself towards the runway and spun. Just before impact, he uncurled and skidded to a halt in front of Knuckles, who punched the mech that almost nailed his friend in the head and had come back to try again. Unsuccessfully, thanks to the red mobian.

Sonic looked at the newest pile of broken parts and smiled at Knuckles. "Thanks for the save, man."

"No problem. Now, should we call the others up here to take this heap of junk down?"

"Sure, but I don't think they'll be needed. Looks like Amy's almost through to the Egghead." Sonic laughed at the sight of the angry pink hedgehog trying to get at the cowering doctor. It was quite the scene.

"Stop" whack! "trying" slap! "to hurt" bam! "us!" crack!

That last shot caused a small crack to form, that expanded with every hit from the hammer. Finally, Amy broke through, and Eggman stared up at her in fear.

"Please! D-don't do it! I can h-help you!

"Why would I want your help? You hurt us without a second thought!" She raised her weapon high above her head. "I just want to return the favor!"

Eggman gave a girly shriek. Sonic and Knuckles shared a look, trying not to laugh. They ran over and stood on either side of the pink hedgehog.

"You'd do well to not make the lady any angrier, Egghead," Sonic told the genius, who swallowed in fear.

Knuckles turned away a bit, towards the ground. He sent out a thought to Shadow. Why don't you two come up to join us?

He saw Shadow nod from a distance, and said something to Rouge. The bat grabbed him and took off, the two quickly approaching the ship.

Once they landed, the pair ran over to the others. Sonic raised his eyebrows at Shadow. "I thought I told you to skedaddle."

The midnight hedgehog shrugged. "The danger level plummeted as soon as Pinky here started steaming."

Sonic smiled and laughed. Then he looked down to Eggman, everyone else following his lead. "Now. What should we do with him?"

"Pitch him off the edge?" Tails suggested. Rouge followed up with, "of glory!"*

Eggman paled considerably.

*Please tell me that you guys know the song Edge of Glory by Lady Gaga.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Please review!