"Greetings."
A smooth robotic voice broke her from a deep sleep, but she brushed it off as her imagination. Her eyes remained shut and she laid still. Willing to drown herself in sleep again.
"I will not depart simply because you have refused to acknowledge my existence. I need your assistance and I shall not disappear from your presence until you cooperate." A loud thud accompanied the last sentence.
Amy jumped and her eyes flew open. She and Sally must have fallen asleep in the night. She never thought she could have fallen asleep in a place like this, but during all their talking they must have drifted off. She had been using Sally's arm as a pillow, but now she squeezed it in an attempt to awake her companion.
Sally flinched at the painful compression on her arm. The sun was up and the ground had showed no mercy to her body in the night. Her muscles still ached, even after washing off the Eggman's chemicals. She noticed Amy's grip had not eased even after looking at her, proving she was awake. She followed Amy's stare and her jaw dropped a little.
Omega, the muscle and walking weaponry of Team Dark, was kneeling in front of them with his robot eyes beaming. "Greetings, Freedom Fighters, Princess Sally Acorn and Amy Rose."
"Hello, Omega. What are you doing in here?" Sally sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes, realizing this wasn't a dream.
"Dr. Ivo Robotnik captured me from a formally hidden secret G.U.N. base and brought me to this unknown location. He attempted to wipe my memory; to turn me into the mindless killing machine I was before Gamma sent me the free will code." He stood up and cast his large shadow on them, not meaning to be imitating. "I believe his motive was to have me betray G.U.N. and kill the two of you without mercy."
Amy tackled Omega, but, of course, he solidly stayed upon his feet. She hugged him tight with her super strength which had no effect on the well build robot. "Aw, you poor guy! How did you mange staying your sweet same old self?" She released him and dropped to the ground.
He pat Amy on the head kindly. Gamma had gone rogue freeing Amy and a flicky bird from an Eggman base. Gamma's memories had been uploaded into Omega's subconscious right before Gamma's death. Omega saw the world as Gamma had, because of this Omega had a special fondness for the pink hedgehog. Without her assistance he never would have gained free consciousness. "The free will code apparently cannot be reversed. The Doctor gave up and threw me into here, anticipating that his slaves would destroy me. I assume he has placed the both of you in here to seek revenge upon Sonic?"
"Yes," Sally nodded, stretching as she stood up. "And I assume you want to team up and find a way out of here together?"
"I believe it is the best chance we have if we would like to continue existing," Omega responded, not missing a beat.
"I agree," Amy chirped. "with Mister Roboto!"
"No kidding," Sally smiled. "We could use all the help we can get and with the three of us we can take on anything Eggman dares to throw at us."
"That is why I began my search for you the moment I was placed in here," Omega droned. "The fat fool will have to deal with not only me when we escape, but Team Dark also. Knowing Shadow he will be furious."
"Not to mention the Freedom Fighters beating the crap outta him too," Amy punched the air with playful aggression. "I can't wait to flatten his face with my hammer."
Omega nodded, enjoying the hedgehog's enthusiasm.
"Omega, do you have any idea what time of day it is," Sally questioned, glancing at the sky.
"It is late morning," Omega answered. "The both of you slept for a restful six hours."
"Um . . . you watched us sleep," Amy said, raising an eyebrow. "That's creepy."
Omega turned to her and did a stiff robotic shrug. "Is it? Shadow crawls into Rouge's room every night and watches her sleep while listening to Taylor Swift sing Eyes Open on repeat through his earbuds. He is an Ultimate Life Form so he doesn't sleep just as I a robot doesn't."
Amy looked at him wide eyed. What the fuck!
Sally waved her arms around in denial. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that!" She shook her head as she tried to erase the image from her mind. "Can we please just go now?"
"Affirmative," Omega said. "Also say nothing to Shadow or Rouge because I was supposed to keep that information classified."
"We won't say a word about it, Omega. Hopefully by then I'll have it blocked out of my mind." Sally led the make-shift team and began to walk in a random direction, seeking a way to get back to their friends. Chaos, I hope this will be easier now with Omega by our side.
. . .
The world was spinning and he hadn't even opened his eyes yet. Mobius, does my head hurt. He felt wind hitting his body, running through his fur and quills. Am I still running? His memories of fighting Metal Sonic came flooding back to him. No! What is this? He cracked his eyes open to discover a pair of purple feet staring back at him. Oh, Chaos, I'm dead and Barney the stupid dinosaur is in heaven. That's so not cool. He didn't dare move; his entire body was throbbing with pain. He moaned with agony and lifted his eyes, thinking he'd probably see a purple pitiful dinosaur leaning over him, but instead his blurry vision met Rotor. Thank the Source of All!
"Hey Sonic," Rotor said happily. "You're awake!"
Creams knelt beside Sonic and pat his head gently. "Don't move Mister Sonic, your injuries aren't that bad, but your body's still not taking them well due to your lack of rest."
Tails was driving, but he glanced back anyway to see Sonic's face. "You scared the Power Rings outta us Sonic! Why did you keep chasing Eggman when you knew you couldn't take it?"
Sonic gave them his trademark smirk. "Hey gang, you saved me in the nick of time, but I could have chased that thing forever, little bro, if Eggman's girlfriend hadn't shown up." He lifted his head best he could as Cream scoot a pillow underneath it.
"Metal Sonic did this to you," asked Nicole from seat behind him.
"Yup," said Sonic cheerfully. "He likes to play rough, that one. Now I've got a question. Where are we? And no offense bud, but you should start wearing shoes cuz my sense of smell is dying."
"It's good to see that this hasn't beat up your spirt, Sonic," chuckled Rotor.
"Seriously, dude, my nose is gonna start bleeding any minute," Sonic said making gagging gestures.
Cream and Cheese giggled. "We're in the Hover Cam, Mister Sonic. The Death Egg hasn't moved since Metal Sonic bullied you. Tails is driving underneath it then we can think of a plan."
"Great," Sonic said lightheartedly. "Now we can finally see some action!"
From Sally's hover board a few feet away Antione laughed. "Sonic, you juzt got the butt handed to you and already you want to fight again."
"I didn't lose! Metal-Face just ran off like the coward he is! Nobody can beat down this Hedgehog!" Sonic with a confident smile defended his honnor.
"Sugar Hog, you were a defenseless mess when we found you," Bunnie giggled from above them.
"After my victory I took a nap so sue me!" Sonic scowled.
"Sure, whatever, Sonic," Tails laughed.
They didn't feel complete, but all of them felt a bit better knowing Sonic was alright. The team felt little lost without Sally's leadership and hollowness fell over them without Amy's bubby-self pushing them forward. They'd do anything and would never stop until their teammates were with them again.
Tails guided the Hover Cam into the Death Egg's shadow. "Ok guys, now what," Tails questioned. "Rotor and I did alter this thing, but it's still limited how high it can go. At best we'll only get a few feet above the tree line."
"That sucks bro!" Sonic sat up with a grunt before continuing. "Why didn't you just use our transforming cars? Those would have been perfect for this."
"We only have three of those," Tails responded. "We needed something to hold all of us."
"Speaking of all of us," Sonic said looking around. "Where's Big?"
"Big had to stay at HQ," Nicole answered matter-of-factly. "We couldn't leave it defenseless."
"You forgot to mention the fact that the guys fat enough to have this hover saucer dragging the ground." Sonic smirked.
Cream wagged her finger at him. "That's a very mean thing to say Mister Sonic," Cream scowled him like he was the one who was six. "If you don't have any nice to say don't say-
"Guys, we've got company!" Bunnie interrupted.
Tails slowed down, noticing the shapes of people ahead also. "They don't look like badniks."
"That's because we're not," a familiar growl rang through the trees.
Tails stopped the Hover Cam in front of them. Shadow and Rouge walked towards them casually as if it was regular ordeal to meet people underneath a sky station that had the ability's to destroy half of Mobius.
"Hey Shadz and Rouge," Sonic rose to his feet, refusing to show weakness to his rival. "Nice day isn't it?"
"Shut it, Faker," Shadow snarled. "What are you doing here?"
Bunnie landed next to them and glared at the black hedgehog. "No reason to get angry, Shadow. We've just got some business with Eggman then we'll be on our way."
Rouge raised an eyebrow. "What business might that be, Rabbit?"
Cream hopped out of the saucer and walked over to them. "Hello Mister Shadow and Miss Rouge!" Cream smiled and said cheerfully. "Eggman kidnapped Miss Sally and Amy. We've come rescue them!"
Their expressions and body language changed instantly. Shadow looked away from the small rabbit and turned to Sonic. "It seems we are on the same boat, Faker. The Doctor has taken Omega and we are here to rescue him as well."
The Freedom Fighters looked shocked by this new information as they all gathered around the two Team Dark members, unanswered questions buzzing through their minds.
"Why would Eggman want Omega, Sally, and Amy? Somethings fishy about this, guys." Rotor exclaimed. "He must have something bigger planned then we thought."
"Yez, but what?" Antione's voice quivered. "The man iz crazy! He could be doing anything az we speak."
"I agree with you Twian, but now here's what I think we should do." Shadow groaned as Sonic continued. "We should team up, Faker. We both have the same mission here so why not?"
Rouge and Shadow glanced at each other. Shadow shook his head, but gave in when Rouge glared at him. "Fine, we will team up with you, but don't you dare start throwing orders at me."
"Great," Tails said tiredly. "But how are we going to get into the Death Egg?"
Shadow smirked, showing off his fangs. "Simple, fox boy, Chaos Control."
"Ya'll have a Chaos Emerald," Bunnie asked.
"Oh, please, Shaddy, doesn't go anywhere without it," Rouge scoffed.
"That's perfect!" Sonic nudged Shadow with his elbow much to the black hedgehog's dislike. "You thing you can get us all up there at the same time, Shadz, or will this laundry load be too much for you?"
Shadow shoved him away. "Faker, I'm an Ultimate Life Form, I can do anything."
"Besides listen, sleep, love, hope, be a person people want to be around, or laugh." Rouge listed with a smile, counting with her fingers. This caused Shadow to glare at her. "I could go on."
"Please do," Sonic smirked at Shadow's discomfort.
"Guys come on, this is serious," Nicole interrupted their teasing. "We don't know the lay out of the Death Egg so how is Shadow supposed to teleport us in there without us getting noticed?"
"Shadow and I used to work for Eggman remember," Rouge stated. "We've been in the Death Egg hundreds of times. We know what we're doing when it comes to getting in, but we need an escape plan."
"I'll teleport us into the loading dock. We shouldn't draw any attention there, but if we do the badniks in there are easily destroyed. All they are built for is unloading supplies from flying badnik ships. We should spilt up, gather information without getting caught, and meet back in the loading dock. If any of us manage to find the squirrel princess, Rose, or Omega don't attempt a rescue until fox boy is present because there are alarms and assume he knows how to disable them." Shadow raised an eyebrow at Tails.
Tails nodded. "Yes, I can do that, but what happens if we are noticed and the entire Eggman Empire tries to kill us?"
"Then I leave you for dead," Shadow growled as leaned over the small fox menacingly.
"Wow, Shadz, chill," Sonic said. "If we're caught we'll fight them off and retreat back to the loading dock where you will teleport all of us back here."
"I suppose it's the best plan we can come up with under the circumstances," Nicole said.
"Let's do it to it then gang," Sonic said while running his finger underneath his nose with a smug grin.
"I hate that almost as much as you," Shadow grumbled crossing his arms.
"That's the spirit, Faker! Now teleport us to the metal egg in the sky, times a wasting!" Sonic said with excitement.
"Cream, I think it'd be best if ya and Cheese stayed here," Bunnie said putting a hand on her shoulder. "This is gonna be dangerous and yer too young for this. Just stay here and keep the Hover Cam running."
"Ok, Miss Bunnie," Cream said sweetly as she ran and hopped back into the Hover Cam. "We'll be here! Cheese, guess what I brought a puzzle!" Cheese squealed in delight as they tore open the box.
"Oh, that funny bunny and I are so different," Sonic chuckled.
"Let's juzt get thiz over with," Antione stated dryly.
"Fine, Twain," Sonic said clapping his hands together. "Ok everybody hold hands cuz we have to be connected for this to work." He turned to Shadow as everyone took hands, offering his own hand to Shadow with a grin. "Beam us up, Scotty."
Shadow snorted at his rival. "I hate you, Faker." With a look of disgust he slipped his larger hand into Sonic's slim one. He grunted at contact before turning away to take his hidden green chaos emerald out of his quills. "Alright, don't be stupid and use your common sense unlike the, Faker. . . CHAOS CONTROL!" A green flash swallowed them and they disappeared into thin air.
Cream and Cheese gasped. They'd heard of Chaos Control, but they'd never seen it with their own eyes. "Wow, Cheese that was amazing!" Cheese cheered happily in response. "I hope they come back alright."
I wanted to shake things up a bit. So I added Team Dark to the mix. Why would Eggman have a collection of his robots without the robot that got away? I assume ya'll know who Gamma is if ya'll have watched Sonic X or read the comics.