Chapter 44: Run-in

Along the blue energy-powered roads that were a trademark of Grand Metropolis, Sonic Tails and Knuckles barged their way through hordes of robots on their way to a power plant belonging to HEXAeco, the energy company that controlled the city's power and where Dr. Eggman was currently hiding in. The reason Sonic and the others knew this was because Tails' Emerald Detector picked up signals of a Chaos Emerald inside the power plant. Several feet behind Amy's group followed Sonic's at a fast but quiet pace. Elsewhere, the Chaotix Detectives and Shawn's group were destroying all the robots that had spread throughout the city.

"Well, guys, we finally made it," Sonic said, looking up at the towering power plant. "Now let's show Eggman what we're made of when we work together as a team!"

"Yeah!" Tails and Knuckles said in unison.

Using the Homing Attack, Sonic manage to break the front door in and while he led the charge in pummeling all the robots before them Knuckles and Tails helped out. Eventually, they found themselves inside a large energy storage tank with a lava-like substance bubbling below them. After a few seconds, the liquid substance started to rise at a slow but steady rate.

"What's going on?" Knuckles asked nervously.

"Dr. Eggman must've programmed the energy storage tank to overload," Tails said, levitating himself up into the air with his two tails spinning rapidly. "He's trying to kill us!"

"Then we should get out of here!" Sonic said, grabbing Tails' feet.

Knuckles did the same to Sonic's, and together the three of them flew up to the top of the storage tank. An unusual gleam caused Sonic to look up. Above them three mysterious figures were also flying upwards with one of them carrying a large silver gemstone in its hand.

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic said, pointing up towards the opening. "Look up there!"

"What is it?" Tails responded as he looked up.

"I think those guys above us have a Chaos Emerald on them," Sonic answered as the three figures disappeared through the opening.

"If so, then that must've been what my Emerald Detector was picking up," Tails said, flying faster.

"I wonder who they were," Knuckles wondered out loud. "The one who was flying them up there looked kind of familiar."

Once Sonic and the boys safely reached the top, they were greeted by the frowning figure of Amy with Cream and Big standing on either side of her.

"Stop right where you are, Sonic!" Amy shouted, lifting up her enlarged Piko Hammer. "You're not getting away from me this time!"

"Amy, what are you doing here?" Sonic said in mild shock. "This place is going to blow any minute now!"

"I'm not leaving until you answer my question," Amy responded. "Are you the one responsible for stealing Chocola and Froggy?"

"What makes you say that?"

"This picture!" Amy said, tossing the newspaper with Sonic's picture printed on it to Sonic.

After briefly looking at it, Sonic said, "This can't be me! I was in Rail Canyon all morning yesterday until noon. The picture was taken in Lost Jungle, which I wasn't even close to."

"All right, then who did?" Amy asked, taking a step forward.

"Probably Eggman; I don't know."

"Then let's battle for the truth. If you win I'll believe you, but if I win then you're going to have to apologize and make up for what you did."

"Why should I apologize for something I didn't do?"

"You take that back!" Big said and lunged forward to punch Sonic when Knuckles blocked him.

"No one attacks my friend and gets away with it," Knuckles said and shoved Big so hard that he nearly toppled over.

"There's no need for us to fight, guys," Tails said coming between both groups. "We can work this out if we all calm down and talk about it."

Cheese suddenly let out a furious cry and flew right into Tails' gut. Tails got immediately thrown back and would've fallen if Sonic hadn't caught him. In retaliation, Knuckles was about to punch Cheese when Cream used her flapping ears to fly right up to Knuckles and kick him in the face.

"Don't even think about hurting Cheese," Cream said as she landed. "Or I'll hurt you back!"

Then with that, the two groups charged at each other.

###

"Should we interfere?" Shawn asked, watching the fight between the two groups of unusual humans with animal ears and tails sticking out from them.

"I'd rather not," Rouge said as she took the Silver Chaos Emerald from Omega's hand and stared at it longingly. "I'm just glad we found a Chaos Emerald in this crazy city."

"And I got to smash Eggman's robots in the process," Omega said slowly curling its fists in triumph. "Now let's find Dr. Eggman."

"I was just about to say the same thing," Rouge said and followed Omega who turned away from the fight and walked towards the edge of the building they were standing on.

"Wait," Shawn said, and pointed at Sonic. "That blue-haired one…what's his name?"

Rouge looked in Shawn's direction and replied, "Oh, that's Sonic the Hedgehog. He's currently possessing the body of a boy named Sonny Hedge, who's a nice kid but not the brightest when it comes to love."

"You mean the girl with the pink hair is his…girlfriend?"

"In a way," Rouge said with a shrug. "Still thinking about interfering?"

"No," Shawn responded following behind Rouge. "I have no experience with such matters."

###

"All right! We liberated the city from Eggman's robots for good!" Charmy exclaimed, buzzing around for joy around the remains of four robot turtles.

"It's a good thing the city was evacuated by G. U. N.," Espio said, putting away his shuriken. "Otherwise, we'd have to explain ourselves to terrified civilians."

"Come on, Espio," Vector responded. "We're not that terrifying."

"Chaotix Detectives!" shouted the voice from the walkie-talkie. "Do you copy?"

"Copy!" Vector said as he answered. "We destroyed most of Eggman's robots like you asked us to."

"Good! Now head for Casino Park next," the voice said. "I've received word that's where Eggman has retreated to."

"Okay, we're on it!" Vector said as he hung up. Then he turned to Charmy and Espio and said, "Well, boys, it looks like we're heading for Casino Park and looking for Dr. Eggman there."

"Sweet! Let's gamble there while we're at it!" Charmy said excitedly.

"No, that would be too risky considering how poor we are," Espio said. "Right, Vector?"

However, Vector was staring off absentmindedly with a big grin on his face. "You know, that's actually not a bad idea."

Espio sighed irritably and reluctantly followed Charmy and Vector who were charging off down the empty street in an excited hurry.

To be continued…