Troublesome Searching

"Uh?" Egrend stated in slight confusion, orange eyes glancing around the large room.

It seems as though the building was never deserted, having not heard the ruckus of Grendor's rampage near downtown due to the clinging a chains and their own commotion, so Egrend and Sonic were staring at the humans and mobians. Very few continued on with their games, not caring or aware of the situation, but most had stopped to stare back, and there was a few gasps and thudding of a few fainting as they saw the duo. They all already had saw the news about the alien invasion and the blue hedgehog's participation in it and was believing that something horrible was happening.

Sonic glanced around the room, attempting to find the emerald amongst the crowd, but the name of the place was more accurate than he thought. Although their was golden shine of coins and rings being traded around, their was several gemstones that was among that group and even most of the building's design had actual jewels embedded into the walls and ceilings, including emeralds though none that he currently could see was not the one they were looking for.

His right eye twitched slightly in annoyance, whether directed at the people gawking at them, the loud commotion in the background that caused one of his ears to twitch, or the increasing difficulty of obtaining the emerald was unknown, but it was likely a combination of the three. The fact that Grendor could be in some form of immediate danger was not helping, but at this moment he had no time to contact the giant Sharpscale, though he presumed he was okay. After all the encounters with the black hedgehog and his friends, he came to the conclusion that Shadow never was alone in a situation for a long period of time. If they weren't here than it was likely that they were trying to stop Grendor.

Sonic glared at the crowd in front of him and tossed up an air ball, striking the elegant chandelier that hung overhead and forcing to crash in the small area between the hedgehog and alien and the others.

That seemed to snapped them out of their small trance as many scrambled to avoid any flying pieces from the damaged decoration from harming them. The others began running around in a wild attempt to escape, several screaming in fear, and a few more fainted.

"We're all gonna die!" One human screamed out, causing blue ears to folded back in slight anger as it was a little too loud for the blue hedgehog's sensitive ears. Those same appendages stood up quickly as both he and Egrend turned to face the door, it's wooden frame cracking slightly from the pressure it received from the other-side, as they heard the thudding sound of something beating at it.

It was when he heard the whirring sound of something charging that the hedgehog threw both himself and the Sharpscale to the ground.

A red laser flew above the duo and several splinter of wood flew out from behind them. They both looked back as they spotted Tracktron standing at the remains of the door, its tail raised slightly and smoke emitting from the hole.

"Commencing scan for chaos eme-" it was rudely interrupted as a black and red spiky ball struck at it in the head. It wobbled slightly to the side, it's head facing left before sharply turning toward Shadow who had uncurled and stood in a fighting position. Its optics glinting brightly almost in anger, "Recalculating, commencing attack sequence." It lifted its right arm up, aiming the launcher at the mammal before firing a rocket.

Shadow dodged to the side, the missile colliding with the wall instead which left a large gaping hole surrounded by bits of rubble. Many of the panicking citizens began running out of it, trying as best as they could to escape the casino that had suddenly became a battlefield.

"Pathetic." Sonic stated as he watched the crowd run through the make-shift exit. He began to turn to search through the evacuating building only to have a red laser hit the ground in front of him. Emerald eyes sharply turned to the robot, which had launched itself at the blue one, claws stretched out as if ready to tear through the hedgehog's skin.

Which only caused confusion for Tracktron as he practically went through Sonic as if he was a hologram.

Tracktron looked back toward the hedgehog, who had a air ball formed in one hand, and shot a laser at the ceiling. Pieces of it fell in front, causing Sonic to step back slightly in reflex. He coughed slightly as bits of dust filled the space around him and his eyes had closed to avoid having any enter them. However, blue ears perked up at the sound of the robot moving away, a slight head start that he and Egrend had missed by only a few seconds.

"Haha, see you later, losers." Bokkun voice was clearly heard as Sonic's right ear twitched slightly, the sound of the small, black robot's jet-pack clearly heard as he followed the other further into the building.

"Damn it." he cursed as he looked toward Egrend, who was basically looking around in slight confusion as if completely lost, "Come on," he snatched at the alien's wrist before dragging him in further, "we gotta find that emerald before anyone else does."

"This is not what I signed up for. For once I actually wish Racko was here."

"Are we...done now?" Racko panted as he laid sprawled out on his belly against the metal floor of the pit. The red Sharpscale was exhausted beyond belief, and after receiving ten more rounds to the opposed sixty for his continuous complaining he was happy to simply lay his scaly body against the cool metallic floor. He just hope Scazer doesn't decide to give him some more, he was sure to pass out during one of them he did.

"Very well, Racko, you may take the next hour to refresh yourself. I'll be giving you your next assignment." The draconian Sharpscale lord stated as he signal Falrow to open the door to the pit.

The metal doors slid open, a gaping black hole among the white walls that surrounded the area. Racko lifted himself to all fours, staggering slightly as he dragged himself out of the place. His tail dragged lazily behind him. The lights flashed on when he entered, revealing the long hallway. A lone Sharpscale leaned against the wall, yellow scales flashing brightly by the sudden light.

"Well, I see you made it through, Commander Racko." Krogatro stated, the alien's tail having been cut off to be regrown as the bones in the tail were beyond repairable from the might of the young hedgehog's hammer, "For a second I was beginning to think that you wouldn't come out out 'til your brother showed up."

"Oh shut up, Kogatro; why are you here anyway?" he stated grudgingly as he slowly made his way past where the other alien was. His thoughts were becoming jumbled slightly in exhaustion, and he forced himself to lean against the wall to avoid drooping down to the metallic floor and falling asleep. Kogatro gave an amused smirk as he followed. He, too, was using the wall for balance, something that was lost with his tail beside a bit of pride.

"Well, I was hoping you would be well enough to help me with a little plan of mine."

"Make it quick. I got to get some rest before Da-I mean Lord Scazer sends me out on some other mission."

"Aw, is someone not aloud to call him "daddy" because he's not heir to the throne." Kogatro mocked, smirking as Racko responded with an irritated growl.

"Although I do not agree that Egrend should rule, you should watch your tongue when speaking to your superiors; I am still of higher ranking than you are." the yellow Sharpscale rolled his eyes.

"Listen, I'm proposing that we go rescue our captured comrades and get rid of these pesky mobians that continue to get in our way. Maybe Scazer will give the crown to you instead of him."

"Ha, yeah right, and exactly how are we supposed to do that 'genius'. That was my best unit and I lost them to a bunch of non-reptilian creatures. Failing to rescue them would only strengthened the fact that I am not getting the throne to the empire." Racko stated. Orange eyes glued their attention to the floor in slight disappointment as he let a sigh out, "He might be sending me to rescue them when I get rested anyway. Did you think about that, or did that pink hedgehog hit you in the head as well."

The duo turned a corner, and the sound of metal clashing and varying noises of battle roars echoed down the hollow hall.

"Humph, I'm only trying to help," Kogatro stated as he stopped at the door that led to the training grounds, "but I forgot I'm talking to a member of the Dracoken family. Come see me when you have any better plan, Commander." And with that Kogatro disappeared from Racko's view by the closing of the steel doors.

Sighing, Racko let his head hang down in defeat, his red tail wrapping around him as he sat on the floor.

"This is not what I signed up for. For once, I wish Egrend was here."

"A hiking we will. A hiking we will go. Hi-ho, the derry-o, a hiking we will go. Everyone. Oh, a hi-"

"Shut up, Charmy!" Knuckles,and others stated as loudly as they dared to be. They all knew how dangerous the island was, and it wasn't a pleasant thought to imagine drawing them to the group's location because of a bee singing little children' songs.

"Remind me when we get back to the house to block the PBS channel from him." Vector whispered as vermillion eyes glanced back to the bee, who had actually took a seat atop the whale's head, to Big O's amusement. Charmy's head waved back and forth as he continued to hum the song to himself. The crocodile swore he heard the orca humming along to the tune.

"It's more likely that you have forgotten to pay the cable bill, again." Espio stated as he kept his attention forward. Vector snorted, annoyed at the comment, even if it was true. He had already contacted the cable company to send a new bill after the one he "lost" a few days ago.

"I'm surprise the fish smell didn't give our location away, if the bee hasn't already." Claws stated with a hand slightly pinching at his nose.

"The ones in the sack or Big O?" Pinchers asked. Claws rolled his eyes.

"Big O is a mammal, not fish you doofus; you just proofed that I'm the smart one." Claws received a slap to the face by his brother. Growling, he turned to face him, "Hey, what's the big idea?!"

"Shhh!" The rest of the group hushed the lobster, even Big O who signaled a hushing motion bey placing one finger to his lips.

"Oh come on guys, it's possible that the other Terry called some sort of meeting. That's the only reason why we haven't encountered any of the other mutants with the fish smell and the insect's obnoxious singing."

"Hey!"

"Basically nothing is going to happen anytime soon so can we stop acting like somethings going to jump out at us at any moment and-" Claws paused as everyone turned their attention to a nearby pushing that rustled loudly from the moving leaves. A second later three mutants popped out.

The two on the side were wolf-like creatures, two bull horns poking out the side of their narrowed head. Hard, pointy spikes covered their back, bristled up slightly as they growled at the group. The one in the middle appeared to resembled a winged dog with an eagle's beak, a Chamrosh Knuckles identified from one of his ancestor's ancient drawings. It seemed as if Professor Lewis had one point attempted to create creatures that never or no longer existed; that would explain both Snap and Terry's appearances.

"Ah, the prey that Lord Terry wished for; this hunt shall be quite easy will it boys?" the winged dog stated. The two others gave panting laughs which only added to the creepiness of the creatures' unfocused eyes.

"You and your big mouth, Claws." Pinchers stated as he gave an annoyed glance to the brother.