Part 1
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The car windows rattled in the wind as Percy and Kya rode across the land. The passing roads were a blur of gray, green, and black. Percy watched the radar for Sonic's location. He was moving, but not very fast. "Something doesn't seem right. Sonic never runs this slow, and the way he's moving, it doesn't make any sense." He looked at the screen as it showed the path he'd taken, it was jagged, following the ground as it sped up and slowed down at seemingly random times. It also looked like he was moving back and forth.
Kya kept her eyes on the road. "Where to?"
"It looks like it's down the valley." Percy pointed to a cliff on the side of the car. "But that means his tracker's in the river."
"So he removed it?" Kya shuddered. "Didn't think he had that high a pain tolerance."
"Either that or he's trying to throw us off." Percy said.
"Guess there's only one way to know." Kya did a u-turn, stopping to let Percy out. Then she drove downriver, until she'd passed the location of the tracker by 500 meters. She stopped the car and stepped onto a dry plateau. Kya pulled out her phone and a pair of binoculars, as she looked over the side of a cliff stretching down to the river. "No sign of Sonic here. Percy, have you spotted him yet?"
"No. But I'm closing in." Kya waited for about a minute watching for Sonic before her phone spoke. "I'm right next to the tracker, but I don't see him. I can see you though. Do you see him anywhere?"
Kya looked around seeing Percy in the distance. "No…" She noticed a small glow in the river. "Hold on. I think I spotted something." She climbed down the cliff to get a closer look.
"Kya, what are you doing!?"
"He can't swim. I think I might've found the tracker floating in the water." She climbed down as for a few seconds before hearing Percy.
"Yeah. It's the tracker." Kya reached the bottom and Percy handed her a plastic square chip with lines of metal running along it. A small light bulb blinked brightly at its center. She looked up at Percy who shook his head sighing. "Guess we should get back to headquarters."
Kya spoke into her phone. "Chief Oran." It rang for a few seconds before picking up. "Sir, we just found Sonic's tracking chip floating in the river."
"He did huh?" Chief Oran said. "Guess I should've figured. All right. Good work. Get to safety immediately."
"Copy that sir. We're returning to headquarters now." Kya hung up the phone. Then she and Percy started their climb up the cliff.
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Part 2
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"Knuckles. Tell me you're not gonna blow a bunch of people up." Tails said.
"You told him?" Knuckles raised an eyebrow at Sonic for a moment, then shrugged facing Tails. "We're doing what we have to."
"But hundreds of people will die!" Tails yelled. "Even Sonic never went that far."
"Tell that to Cream." Knuckles glared at Sonic, who looked down at the ground. The Echidna turned back to Tails. "Look, Tails, these are bad people. They have this coming. We're not gonna hurt any innocents."
"I thought you said you don't kill. Didn't you say that's what makes us better than them!" Tails turned away, flying toward the trees with his tails.
"Tails! Wait!" Knuckles chased after him, but Sonic stopped him. "Let go of me!"
Sonic shook his head. "He just needs some time to cool off. He'll come back." Sonic looked over at the forest. "But he's right. That's going too far."
"Not this again. What makes you think you can act all high and mighty." Knuckles walked away, then stopped. "Not that I need your help. But the offer's still open if you change your mind."
"Where are you going?" Sonic asked.
"To break your girlfriend out of prison." Knuckles turned back to Sonic smirking. "You down for that?"
Sonic shuddered for a few seconds then sighed. "Guess we had to do that eventually." He looked at the forest then followed Knuckles. "So, what's the plan?"
Knuckles laughed. "Oh, you'll love this one." He picked a flower from the field. "I just need a little distraction. Then I'll handle the rest."
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Part 3
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Dr. Robotnick soldered a computer chip, working the metal lines into the green plastic. After a few minutes of work he cleaned the pen before turning off the heat. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and grabbed a cup of coffee. As he drank he looked at his smirking assistant.
"You know. We have machines for that." James rolled his eyes.
"True." Robotnick winked. "But machines have limits. There's only so much detail they can place in a pattern. Sometimes you need a human touch." He looked over the lines of gold in the chip.
"Yeah, and the most expensive metal on the planet." James threw him a gray remote.
Dr. Robotnick caught the remote and planted the chip inside. "What do you want me to do? We can't afford for this to corrode."
"But it'll just shut down Sonic. We don't need it to last that long." James raised an eyebrow. "You don't think it'll take that long for this to work do you?"
"I'm not sure of anything. I designed Specimen 343 to be unstoppable." Robotnick sighed. "And now one of my inventions is on the loose: breaking out prisoners and causing all sorts of chaos. Not to mention the PR nightmare Oran's having to deal with."
"We'll fix it." James placed his hand on Robotnick's shoulder. "Like we always do."
"Yeah. You two are wizards, aren't you?" The two turned to see Sonic leaning against a computer and drinking from Robotnick's coffee cup.