A/N: Can you smell that?
Sword: *sniff* Smells like hamburgers...Are we having hamburgers!
No! Can't you smell the suspense?
Pen: I smell doom.
Well, whatever you smell, know this: I don't own any of the characters except Gauge. All the others are owned by Sega.
Sword:...Chicken? Noodles? Oh! Are we having chicken noodle soup?!
Chapter 6-Out of the Fire...
"And this is an upgrade to the engine for the Tornado," Tails explained to Gauge as they walked around his lab. Gauge only understood some of the things that Tails was going on about, but he could barely concentrate as he kept wondering where the others were.
"And over here," Tails began, but was cut off by Gauge.
"Tails, shouldn't they have been here by now?" he asked. Tails frowned as he nodded. "Yeah. In fact, Sonic should have been here first, even with dealing with Amy."
Gauge groaned. "Well that's great. Now we don't know-" but he stopped as they heard a knock at the door. They both raced up the stairs to Tails' front door, where they found Knuckles, Cream, and Cheese waiting for them.
"Tails!" Cream hugged him. Tails blushed slightly as Gauge smirked. Then he turned his attention to Knuckles. "Is Sonic with you?"
Knuckles shook his head. "No. They aren't here already?"
Gauge repeated Knuckles' movement. "Well if they aren't here and they aren't with you guys, should we assume they're still out there?"
"Doubtful," Knuckles said. "Sonic 's too fast to not be here already."
"Meaning?" Cream asked.
"Meaning we assume the worst," Tails answered.
Gauge sighed. "So, we go out and find them and hope they G.U.N. doesn't already have them."
"I can put your minds at east about that spike," a saucy voice said. They turned around to see an albino bat in a pink and black jumpsuit, with the look of someone straight out of a noir film walking up the trail to Tails' house. Following right behind her was a dark hedgehohg with red stripes in his spikes. His expression could be read as either serious or pissed off, but either way it would seem like people tended to stay out of his way.
"Who are you?" Gauge questioned.
"G.U.N. Agents Rouge and Shadow, spike," the bat replied, almost flirtatiously. And we have some questions."
-----
Amy huddled in the corner of the dark cell that she found herself in. As far as she could tell, the walls were made of thick steel along with the only door that led into the room. The door had a little peephole with bars that Amy had tried to peer through, but only been able to see a hallway covered in the same design as her cell. There was a door across from hers, most likely leading to another cell, but nobody had answered when she had called.
So, she continued to sit and wait, hoping that her friends were on their wa to rescue her and Sonic. That's when Amy realized that Sonic was nowhere to be found. She hadn't seen him since they had both been knocked out in the cage.
"Oh, I hope he isn't in danger," Amy worried. She couldn't bear the thought of Sonic being hurt.
Suddenly, the door to her cell was flung open. Two large shadows threw in a smaller one, which landed on the ground with a thud. It groaned as the other two shut the door, leaving Amy alone with this unknown figure.
"Ugh, not exactly five-star treatment," the figure groaned.
Amy instantly recognized the voice. "Sonic?" she asked tentatively.
The figure gazed up at her. "Ames?" it queried.
"Sonic!" Amy exclaimed, rushing over to him. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him into a constricting hug. "What happened to you?"
"Amy!" Sonic gasped. "Can't breath!" Amy let go with an apolegetic expression plastered on her face. Sonic chuckled. "Well, ta answer your question, they 'questioned' me." He used air quotes to emphasize his point.
Amy gasped. "They did?"
Sonic nodded. "Yup. Now, they know we didn't do it." Amy was puzzled, but before she could ask her question, Sonic continued. "They're keeping us here as bait. They want ta lure Gauge and the others."
Amy didn't know whether to be infuriated by G.U.N.'s plan or worried for her friends. She eventually settled on breaking down into tears. This made Sonic feel uneasy as he tried to comfort her. "Hey Ames, it'll be okay," he assured her. "Tails, Knuckles, Cream, and Gauge can handle this."
Amy sniffled, nodding her head in agreement. "I know."
"Then what's wrong?" Sonic inquired.
Amy sniffed. "Well, its my fault we got captured."
Sonic held her close to him. "No, its not Amy. What happened happened. All we can do is hope Tails and the rest get soon." He wiped a tear from Amy's eyes. "Now, cheer up."
Amy grinned as he ran her arm over her eyes. She leaned her head against Sonic as he leaned against the wall of the cell. Amy was about to fall asleep, but she felt something warm on top of her head. Almost like something split apart and moist, as if it were lips. When it went away, she turned her head to Sonic, but he was already asleep. Amy smiled and went back to trying to sleep. She didn't know if it was what she thought, but she decided to believe that it was.
Unknown to her, Sonic's slightly opened one of his eyes and gave a small, cocky grin.
-----
"And that's all," Tails explained. He had been going over with Rouge and Shadow about everything that had happened today. Knuckles and Gauge were watching the windows and door for any sign of Sonic or G.U.N. while Cream was happily playing with Cheese.
"Well, it would seem like Eggman's style to steal the chaos emeralds and blame someone else," Rouge considered slowly. "But..."
"But what is he up to?" Shadow spoke for the first time. "What's his game? No threat or anything?"
"Well who cares?" Knuckles said. "We need to get the chaos emeralds back. And the Master Emerald."
"So I can steal it?" Rouge suggested.
"In your dreams batgirl," Knuckles snarled. Gauge gave a half-grin at their little fight.
"What we need to do," Tails interjected, "is find a way to rescue Sonic and Amy." He turned to Shadow and Rouge. "Is there any way we can get them out?"
"Why should we risk our jobs to help you?" Rouge asked. "We were sent here to bring you in after all."
"Because if this Eggman guy is behind everything, then from what I can tell, things are going to get ugly," Gauge retorted.
Rouge made eye contact with Shadow and he nodded. Shadow pulled out a small electronic pad with the label G.U.N. on it and pressed a few keys. On the screen, a map of what looked like a base came up. "Most likely, they would be held here," Shadow pointed at a space on the screen that showed a room the underground part of the base. "Getting there won't be easy."
-----
Amy woke up in the same darkness as before. She could feel Sonic's chest slowly move up and down and his slight snoring ruffling her quills. She pushed off of him and admired his peaceful state. Amy would have thought it was so cute if the fact that they were still trapped didn't occupy her thoughts.
She surveyed their surrounding, but still found nothing of use. They wouldn't be able to break out on their own as the steel was too thick. So the only thing they could do was hope that help was on the way.
That's when Amy heard an alarm start to blar through the base, warning everyone of intruders. Amy turned to Sonic and was surprised that he was still asleep. How can he sleep through THIS? she wondered as she covered her ears. She shook him awake. He snorted and blinked several times before focusing on Amy.
Sonic's hands went up to his own ears immediately. "What's goin' on?" he tried to yell.
"I don't know," Amy shouted back, but all Sonic could read were her lips. That's when the door to their cell slammed open. Standing there was Tails and Knuckles.
"Sonic!" Tails yelled excitedly as he rushed up to him. He tackled him in a hug as Sonic laughed.
"C'mon! We don't have time for this!" Knuckles told them as he pulled Tails off of Sonic. Tails rubbed his head sheepishly. Before they could leave, the wall behind them exploded into rubble. As they picked themselves up, they saw several robots like the ones that had attacked Amy earlier that day. Hovering above them in an egg-shaped machine was-
"Eggman!" Sonic hissed.
"Hey, what's taking so-You!" Gauge said as he came into the cell with Cream and Cheese.
"Ho, ho, ho!" Eggman laughed. "I just came by to deliver something to you Sonic!" At that, he dropped a bomb into the middle of the group. They scattered, but the blast knocked them all down. "And I came to take something as well!" Eggman had two of his robots grab Amy.
"Amy," Sonic muttered as he tried to regain his senses.
"If you want to see your precious girlfriend again, bring the final chaos emerald to my base!" Eggman stated his offer before he left with his minions, laughing all the way.
"No!" Sonic roared as he attempted to run, but stumbled slightly. "Amy."
Shadow and Rouge came into the cell, but stopped when they saw all the damage. "What the hell?" Shadow uttered.
"What happened?" Rouge asked Tails, who was brushing debris off himself.
"Eggman came," Tails replied sadly. "He took Amy and he wants G.U.N.'s final emerald."
"But where's that at?" Sonic questioned.
"Right here," Rouge answered, producing the green emerald. "When we came here to rescue you, Eggman already had his robots attacking the place. Me and Shadow defended the emerald while they came to get you."
"Well, we need that," Sonic said, reaching for the emerald, but Rouge held it away from him.
"In your condition?" she raised her eyebrow. "I think-"
"I'll go with him," Shadow offered. "You can explain to the commander what happened."
Rouge hesistated, but surrendered the emerald to Sonic before she said farewell to Shadow. Then she ran off to find the commander.
"Everyone gather around," Knuckles said. Gauge, Cream, Cheese, Tails, and him held on to Sonic and Shadow. The two of them touched the emerald before yelling "Chaos Control!" and disappearing into a flash of green light.
A/N: And there is what I smelled before.
Sword: I still don't smell anything.
Pen: Of course not. You're a bloody sword.
Sword: Hey, swords can smell too! Take that!
Pen: Ouch! En garde!
Ah, there's my rating-booster going into action. Anyway, stay tuned for the next exciting installment of "Sonic the...Thief?"!