Chapter 10: I'm There For You

Let them talk, I'll get the Emeralds, Rouge thought to herself as she snuck through the corridors of the Egg Carrier. This was her job, after all.

Now, where was he keeping them? Her best guess was in the very center of the base and heavily guarded. Strangely enough, her wrist-comm/Chaos Emerald tracker was telling her the exact same thing. Her biggest objective would be to get there without being noticed. No problem.

Rouge peeked around the corner. Robots. Good, that meant she was getting warmer.

She analyzed the guards' patterns of movement, looking for a possible path to take to sneak by them. There were only two of them, making the typical parallel paths in front of a door. Rouge could never understand why so many guards did this; it left the door unguarded about half the time. That would have to be enough for her. Since the robots weren't looking up, she could fly over them, zoom in and try to crack the code before they turned again. If not, she'd have to fight them.

Rouge took wing and hovered at the spot right above the door, waiting for the guards to pass...Now.

She dove downwards and quickly analyzed the lock. Within a few seconds she cracked the code and was in. Too easy, she thought. Is that all you got, Eggy?

The treasure hold. It almost seemed like too big of a room for only holding a few Chaos Emeralds. Eggman wasn't exactly an art collector. Rouge did a quick scan of the room, and spotted the Chaos Emeralds immediately. The cyan and clear jewels were both trapped inside 2 glass columns.

I can fix that.

Rouge prepared herself to slip in and take them. Once she did, she knew the alarm would go off and she'd have to get out fast. Rouge was just about to launch her kick to break the glass when a voice interrupted her.

"I've been expecting you."

Eggman. Of course. He wasn't stupid enough to make it this easy. It didn't matter that he was here, though: Rouge wouldn't let herself be distracted. Besides, he wasn't here, it was just his voice, over the loudspeaker...

"Always the renegade, weren't you?" Eggman continued. "Going against your own teams' wishes once again. But then again, you really aren't one of them, are you?"

Rouge paused. Focus, she commanded herself. But something about what he said bothered her.

"Oh no," the doctor continued, his voice low yet mocking. "Rouge is always out for number one. That's why she steals the emeralds when her friends are about to give me theirs."

"Don't try and fool me," Rouge snapped.

"I'm not, dear. Why don't you take a look for yourself?"

Suddenly a large monitor lit up on the wall. Knuckles appeared. "Alright, Eggman, we'll work with you," he said.

A trick. Surely. Then again, Knuckles had been known to be fooled by Eggman before. It was something she'd have to help him work on.

But why would everyone else go a long with it? No, this was a trick. But a believable one.

She'd hung around here long enough. Rouge launched her powerful kick, shattering the glass that held the Emeralds and snatched up the jewels. She then turned and headed for the door, but blocking her way was a huge robot that took up half the room. It had to be at least 100 feet tall and had numerous claws protruding from its body.

How had she not heard it approaching? Dang it, she'd let Eggman distract her. The doc sure could be crafty. But she was craftier.

One of the claws reached for her, and Rouge jumped out of the way. She managed to get a few kicks in the tough, steel hide before one of the claws grabbed her. There were just so many of them, and the bat couldn't fight it by herself. Rouge cursed and struggled to get free, but the grip was like a vice.

"It's a pity you had to switch sides, Rouge."

The bat managed to bring her wrist up to her mouth. "Knuckles I need help," she pleaded.

Upon seeing how distressed Rouge looked on the small monitor of his wrist-comm, Knuckles lost it.

"EGGMAN!" he roared, causing the whole team to jump back. "I thought we had a deal here!"

"She was the one who broke it. Did you want me to just let her steal my Emeralds?"

"I thought-" Knuckles let out another roar and took off further into the Egg Carrier. If Rouge was hurt, heads were seriously gonna roll.

The echidna barely noticed all the robots that now cluttered the corridor. His fists worked like pistons, crumpling robots left and right. He should have known Eggman wouldn't keep his deal. What happened to good, old fashioned honesty?

Knuckles watched as Sonic sped up ahead of him in his spin dash, destroying a whole line of robots that had been in his way. Sonic then stopped and glanced at his wrist-comm, looking for a signal to tell them where Rouge was. Knuckles paused and the rest of the team caught up with them.

"She's in there," Sonic said, and took off again, spin dashing more robots. The team followed Sonic in the door, and sized up the robot holding Rouge. Knuckles wasted no time, jumping up and punching out the claw. He managed to break off the bottom part, catching Rouge and shielding her from the fall by landing on his feet.

"Are you ok?" he asked.

"I am now," Rouge said.

"Oh, I'm almost touched," Eggman said, his voice dripping sarcasm. "It's a pity. I would have absolutely cherished working with you. I guess I'll have to resort to destroying you instead. Ho ho ho ho ho!"

Suddenly they were assaulted with a bunch of smaller, faster bots, distracting them from the much larger robot, which had put up a shield just like the ones the ships had. Everyone tried to attack it while dodging the smaller robots, but neither Knuckles' fists, Sonic's spin dash, Amy's hammer, Blaze's fire balls, nor Silver hurling smaller robots at it could land any damage. However, the robot could still attack them.

"Sonic we have to get out of here!" Tails cried desperately as he avoided a laser blast.

"I'll hold it back, you all run!" Silver said as he focused on just the large robot, paralyzing it.

Liking the idea very much, Sonic grabbed his girlfriend and best friend by their wrists and zipped back to the X-Tornado. Knuckles and Rouge followed him, but Blaze stayed right next to Silver, fending off the smaller robots for him.

"Blaze, go!" Silver commanded, straining against holding back the huge robot.

"I'm not leaving you," Blaze said fiercely, locking her golden eyes with his.

"You have to," Silver insisted. Out of everyone he wanted Blaze to be safe.

"No, Silver. You can't get out of here fast enough," the cat said, and then gasped, but it was too late. The bot came out of nowhere and struck Silver from behind, causing the hedgehog to double over in pain.

"SILVER!" Blaze yelled and destroyed the offending robot with a fireball before catching Silver's now unconscious body before he sunk all the way to the floor. No, no, he couldn't be dead...Blaze looked at him desperately, willing him to come back. "Silver, please," she begged, dread turning her stomach into knots. When she heard Eggman's laughter, though, she realized she had a bigger problem.

Silver wasn't holding back the robot anymore.

With a strength she didn't know she possessed, Blaze gathered Silver under her arm. It was hard; he was so heavy and strong, but she somehow managed. Blaze hightailed it out of there, aware of the robot on her heels. She would be much faster under normal circumstances, but not when she was carrying a hedgehog that weighed more than she did.

Blaze met Sonic halfway; he'd already gotten the others out and had come back for them.

Sonic's green eyes got wide. "Silver-"

"No time," Blaze snapped and rushed for the X-Tornado. She felt Sonic grab Silver from her but before she could protest, he was gone. Then Sonic came back, grabbing her wrist and pulling her at supersonic speed back to the plane.

"Tails, MOVE!" Sonic yelled as he jumped in the seat right behind him.

"I'm going!" he said, and started the engine.

Blaze sat in the last compartment, cradling Silver in her lap, Amy right in front of them.

"He's gonna be ok," the pink hedgehog reassured, letting go of Silver's wrist. "He still has a pulse."

Blaze stroked Silver's quills, willing him to come back to reality. Silver had never been injured this badly before. Blaze hated to think what would have happened if she hadn't insisted on staying with him. She was surprised at her desperation, her need to see that he was okay.

Suddenly she felt Silver move slightly, and his eyelids twitch. Thank goodness. The injured hedgehog groaned slightly and his amber eyes made an appearance.

Silver squinted as light flooded into his sight, trying to make sense of where he was. In a plane. Wha- oh. The battle. The robot-

Suddenly he was being hugged. By Blaze. Oh goodness, he was in her lap and her arms were around him, clutching him tightly to her body-

He was quite sure that he was about to pass out again when Blaze let go of him.

"You're ok," she breathed, and Silver felt her breath on his cheek. "I mean, you are right?" Blaze asked, her eyes wide with worry. She just couldn't lose him.

"Yeah," Silver said awkwardly, feeling his face get warm. "Just...my head's killing me. But I'm fine." He tried to readjust himself but jeez, these compartments were only meant to hold one person, so he and Blaze sat squished up really close...

"Silver don't," Blaze said, gently placing a hand on his furry chest to settle him. Yes, he was certainly going to faint again. "Just relax."

Sure would be easier if she wasn't this close to him-

Suddenly the plane lurched, and Silver was forced right on top of Blaze. Blushing profusely, the hedgehog tried to right himself, but he really didn't have the strength to move at that point.

"Sorry guys," Tails said from the pilot seat. "But Eggman's not finished with us yet. He's sending more ships at us."

"Use the lasers," Sonic suggested.

"I can't, they have those dang shields up," Tails said. Add one more thing to his to-do list: figure out a way to pierce those shields.

Silver tried to look up at the incoming ships. This would be up to him again. He needed his mind right now, but Blaze was right under him, not to mention the pounding headache he had.

Doesn't matter. Suck it up.

Summoning all the strength he had left, Silver righted himself, then raised his hands and focused on the ships.

Blaze watched the hedgehog with complete admiration. He'd been out cold just a minute ago, and here he was, trying to save all of them. For the third time.

Ignoring his headache, Silver sent a psychic wave to encase one of the ships, then sent it hurling into the one next to it, creating a domino effect that wiped out the whole line.

BOOM. The ships were gone.

Silver collapsed back on his seat, spent, his breaths coming out in short but quick gasps. Blaze put her arm around him, comforting him. He was so tough...

"Silver?" Knuckles turned around and asked, bewildered. "I thought you were dead back there."

"Hedgehogs don't die easily," Silver responded, resting his head against Blaze's shoulder.

"Truer words have never been spoken," Sonic agreed from a few compartments up.

Good thing Silver has Blaze, huh? Not to mention Rouge and Knuckles. :) See, Sega, having these characters dating each other would make the franchise much better! But I digress. :)