Shadow Saves Them All

Chapter 13

5:30 P.M. Sharp, time to get moving. Dylan got up from the couch in Cream's house. He walked grabbed his jacket and Caneblade off the coat rack in front of the door. He looked to his left and saw Vector, Charmy, Espio, Vanilla, Cream and Cheese sitting at the dinner table with Tails and Amy. They must've stayed the night, when Dylan remembered something. Where the hell were Knuckles and Rouge?

"I'll get Knuckles the Snowman and get him a coffee or something on the way to the party," he remembered Rouge telling him the night before. Where did they go? Did Rouge make a break for Angel Island with Knuckles pursuing her? No way, it had to be something else. Unless, Eggman was looking for Chaos Emeralds at that time…

He zipped up his jacket and hastily thanked Vanilla for letting him stay. He burst out of the door and ran quickly to the "Starbucks" across the street, it had a large hole in the front of the space and had a sign on the building saying "Under Construction," and was unsurprisingly not very crowded. He ran to the front counter and said, without missing a beat.

"Did you see a red echidna and a white bat come in here last night?"

The cashier froze for a second then cautiously said; "Y-yeah, those dudes got some coffees and then those freak robots broke in,"

"Robots?"

"Yeah bro," the man said relaxing a little. He spoke with a Hawaiian accent.

"They broke in last night, didn't you hear?" as a matter of fact, he didn't. Dylan slammed his fist on the counter, denting it.

"Did the robots take them?"

"Yeah bro! It was intense!" That was all he needed to hear. Dylan burst out of the building just as quickly as he had entered and ran for it. Where would he go? Where could go? Eggman was beaten, so what was left? Where would Eggman have taken them that wasn't the base? Then he remembered Maria, she wasn't in those buildings that made up the 'Skyscraping Egg' so she was probably in a safe house somewhere. Eggman actually thought ahead!

Dylan stopped in his tracks on the sidewalk, he thought for a moment. Where would Eggman make a safe house? He stopped suddenly when he remembered something Eggman said once;

"The power of the Master Emerald is amazing! With it I could locate all seven Chaos Emeralds in no time!" One by one the pieces clicked together like parts of a puzzle and the gears started to turn. He didn't capture Rouge and Knuckles for hostages, he wanted them because they both knew where the Master Emerald was on Angel Island! But did that mean Maria was with them? Who knows.

Dylan stopped in his tracks and looked around for a second. After getting his bearings he rushed off to Angel Island. Running as fast as he could out of Station Square and across fields, over mountains, and even falling out of a tree. After making it to the top of an old mountain Dylan could see he was about twenty miles from the floating island.

"Well it's still airborne, so they haven't found it yet," Dylan thought. He backed up a little bit and then jumped at intense speeds. Soaring through the air and getting closer to the Island by the second. He got closer and closer until he landed square on his feet on the edge of the island.

"Phew!" he sighed.

"Now to look for them," he dashed through the forest keeping his eyes open and checking everywhere for a sign of a white bat or red echidna. He checked his watch, 5:45 P.M. he had fifteen minutes until the rendezvous. He ran faster and faster, crossing the desert, blazing through the forest, looking in the volcano, and everywhere else he could think to look. He stopped at the bottom of the mountain to catch his breath. When he heard a rustling noise, it was a person moving through the foliage nearby. It was Maria, dressed in her normal light blue dress, which gave her away easily. Dylan ducked down and kept low and out of sight.

"What is she doing here?" he thought franticly. It was only until he saw the people behind her that he knew what had happened.

"I made sure not to tell you my real plan!" Eggmans words rang through his head, he had forgotten about that and now he knew what it was. The 'Skyscraping Egg' was a distraction. Omega was walking behind Maria with his gun to her head, but something was different about him. His usually red eyes now had a glowing yellow to them, he also had some electricity flowing around him, shorting him out every few seconds. Behind him was Rouge and Knuckles, both of them handcuffed. Two other Eggman robots were behind them with guns.

Maria was being used as a hostage so Knuckles and Rouge would show Omega the way to the Master Emerald. Omega must've been given a virus or something by Eggman to make him do what he told him to. With the power of the Master Emerald finding the other Chaos Emeralds would be a cinch, even for Eggman! His mission was clear, save them. But if he jumped in right now then guns would start to blaze! He needed a plan. He followed behind them closely, watching them. They travelled for another ten minutes before they stopped at the Master Emerald shrine. Dylan had been there before and had made a trap just in case. He tossed a blanket over the Master Emerald and connected the back of the blanket to a wire, the wire was connected to some rockets aimed directly at where someone standing in front of the emerald would be. Once they took it off. BOOM!

He waited as the two Eggman robots stepped forward, leaving Omega to keep the three of them in check. They pulled the blanket off and the trap went off. The rockets screeched to life in the distance and fired. They hit the two Eggman robots blowing them up on contact. Omega grabbed Maria and put the gun to her head saying robotically; "Come out or else,"

I was still hidden but this time I was ready. I slowly walked up the stairs of the shrine behind Omega and took out my Caneblade. Don't worry, I wasn't going to hurt Omega. I raised up my weapon over Omegas head as the robot looked left and right scanning for an enemy. Rouge and Knuckles saw me and smiled, Omega saw them and followed their gaze. As he began to turn around I had to act fast, I brought the hilt of my weapon down onto Omegas head Full Force. With a loud CLUNK! Omega's eyes shut off and his entire body deactivated, he fell with an even louder clunk to the ground.

"Yes!" I said. I was pretty proud of myself for that one. That was the quietest I had ever been in my life. Maria ran from Omega and hugged me, tearing up.

"T-t-Thank You!" she said sobbing. That was probably the most intense situation she had ever been in. I patted her on the head and gave her a warm smile.

"It's alright you're okay now," she smiled back and hugged me tighter, making me cringe a little.

"Humph, nice job pal," Knuckles said grinning at me as he pulled his handcuffs apart.

"I would've done that before but Maria was in danger,"

I pulled Maria off me and he walked over to Omega's body. I checked the gun on Omegas arm, I wasn't surprised at all after investigating it.

"Not really," I said getting up. "There were no bullets or lasers in the gun," Knuckles, Rouge, and Maria were all struck with surprise, Dylan however was not.

"Eggman might be evil, but he's not THAT evil. Maria is the only family he has, I doubt he would ever harm her," I said dusting off my hands. I checked my watch, 5:51 P.M. nine minutes left to go. Maria stopped sobbing after Rouge gave her a hug, one that she really needed.

"Well, thanks for saving us Dylan," Rouge said winking at me. Heh heh, now I know what Knuckles feels like when she flirts with him. I scratched my head, feeling my face go a little red.

"Heh, no problem," I said awkwardly. "So anyway, I guess you guys will be staying here?" Knuckles looked over at the Master Emerald. He stared at it for a moment and then turned back to me. He took a glance at Rouge and then sighed.

"Well, I guess I will, but only if that bat comes too!" he said pointing at her.

"Awww, still worried about your pretty Emerald Knucky? Why don't you let me take it off your hands?" she said with a sly smile. Knuckles face got red with rage.

"That emerald is mine! Stop asking me that!" he said grunting. Rouge snickered and flew into the air. I looked back down at the unconscious Omega and felt a little bad for him, I couldn't carry the guy all the way back to Station Square, so what was I going to with him? Then a thought occurred. I touched my belt buckle and Alice came on the display.

"Yes Dylan?" she asked.

"Hey Alice, can you digitally pixelate someone into another location yet?"

"Yeah," she said typing on some keys. "I finished the program yesterday, sadly though, it only works on inanimate objects. Like a rock for example.

"What about a deactivated robot?" she sat back in her chair and thought for a second.

"Well… I dunno, I haven't tested it on one yet so…"

"Great!" I interrupted. "Make it so!"

"Wait what?" she sat back up in her chair and I deactivated the call.

"Who was that?" Knuckles asked.

"That was my assistant, Alice,"

"Hmmm, she looks pretty," Rouge said to me. She put on her sly smile and asked;

"So are you and her… you know…" I knew what she was insinuating and I was going to stop her right there, if not for a file loading up to my belt. I clicked a button on it and a new program was installed into my belt. I linked it up to my watch and aimed it at Omega. With a click of a button a green laser beam hit Omega and he was turned into little pixels, like ones you would see in an 8-bit game. The Pixels hovered in the air and them soared off in the direction of Station Square.

"So are we going or what?" Rouge asked still flying in the air.

"Yeah! One sec," I shouted back. Maria got on my back and I got off to a sprint. Rouge flew down behind me and picked up Knuckles, much to his discontent. He was struggling and grunting, saying stuff like; "Hey! Let me go! Get off my you stupid bat!"

I looked back and chuckled, this was going to be a fun day. I ran at incredible speeds and then jumped off the edge of Angel island. Maria and I screamed in joy and excitement. Rouge shouted; "Woo Hoo!" While Knuckles screamed in fear, he had never fallen at such great speeds. Finally I hit the ground running and bolted for Station Square with Rouge and Knuckles right behind me, and with Maria literally right behind me. Finally we made it to Station Square and I stopped in the center of the park, exactly where we had agreed to Rendezvous. I checked my watch, 6:00 P.M. on the dime. It was getting kinda dark out, the sun was starting to set a little and the city was bustling with people and cars. I looked over and saw Sonic, Shadow, and Silver all waiting by the statue at the center of the park chatting. They ran over to me as I set Maria down off my back. Rouge set a very upset Knuckles down on the ground as he pouted.

"You made it," Sonic said.

"With some friends I see," Shadow added, noticing everyone.

"Yeah, what's up? We thought you were going to be here early to get a head start, we even stopped at a McDonald's for a quick meal," Silver said, carrying his light blue backpack from the hospital on his shoulder. My stomach growled, I just now noticed how hungry I was.

"Well I might tell you guys but I'm just too darn hungry to remember," I said with obvious intent. Silver grabbed a hamburger out of his backpack and tossed it to me, I quickly unwrapped it and took a bite.

"Mmm, much better," I said.

"Now where was I? Oh yeah," I gave them the Sparknotes version of the story and finished my Hamburger.

"And that's what happened," I said concluding the story. Suddenly a ton of Pixels flew in the center of the group and re-pixelized whatever it was. When it was done we saw Omega lying there, still out cold.

"Well I guess it worked," I said to myself. Omega's eyes flickered back to life and he began to stand back up again, but this time he wasn't shorting out and his eyes were back to their normal red.

"Scanning memory banks, no files pertaining my presence here," he said.

"I think I'll take him back to my place," Maria said taking Omega's hand.

"I'll fill him in on what's happened and check him for any bugs or viruses," she said cheerfully. She had gotten back to her happy self and was more than happy to help.

"Okay I guess," I said. She walked away guiding Omega. I pulled my attention back to the current situation and spoke to Rouge and Knuckles;

"Well it's been fun, but we've gotta get going! I said." I expected Rouge and Knuckles to ask why we were leaving but instead they were compliant… huh.

Knuckles started to speak; "Yeah well, we already missed the Christmas party, so I don't wanna miss the…" Rouge slapped her hand over his mouth and shushed him.

"Sorry about him! He doesn't know what he's talking about, well gotta go! Bye bye boys!" she pulled Knuckles into the air with her as he struggled to break free of her grip.

"Have Fun!" she shouted to us winking, and then she flew off. I chuckled, it was nice to see them back to normal.

"Alright then!" Sonic said.

"Let's get going!" I nodded my head, alongside Shadow and Silver. I bolted straight north and I was out of Station Square in not time. Sonic caught up to me in no time as Shadow and Silver caught up as well. How did Silver do it? Easy, slowest runner in the series, also the fastest psychokinetic flyer. And we were off to the North Pole, but I still had the feeling that I was forgetting something, something important…