CHAPTER 7

Blaze brings you all inside the castle and to a large den with long, comfortable couches. She apologizes for not giving you all the grand tour of the palace, but with the world being threatened, she wants to get straight to business.

She starts with asking about you and what brought you all to her dimension. You bring her up to speed with what's been happening, from the Marauders invading your world, to chasing Imperator Ix to the Twilight Cage, and upon returning to your world after battling him, over two hundred years had passed and the Eggman Empire had taken a strong hold on the planet, despite the efforts of the Resistance to take it back.

However, you stuck it out in the future for a little while, and managed to banish Nega through an out of control Chaos Control.

"And I guess Nega was sent to this dimension," Blaze muses out loud, "Makes sense, since he literally appeared to drop out of the sky about seven years ago."

"And all this time, we were fighting the same Eggman Nega, but from two different time periods," you say this as you rub your chin in thought, "Funny how things work."

Tails looks over to Blaze. "So Marine mentioned something about you cutting her off for a period of time," he says, "What's that about?"

"Yeah, Blaze!" Marine shouts angrily, "What IS that all about?"

"Like it isn't obvious?" Rouge mutters, crossing her legs without a care.

"It's not what you think," Blaze replies, "I'm sorry I hadn't kept in touch with you, Marine. With all that's been going on, I had to keep on top of Eggman Nega. I didn't want you to get hurt…"

"Well, ya did hurt me, mate," Marine crosses her arms and fumes, "I thought you were mad at me. I get I can be a handful, but a reason would've been nice… We were gettin' along so well an' everything…"

"You're right," Blaze replies, lowering her head, "I guess I still have a few things about friendship that I need to learn about." She raises it back up to Marine, "Can you forgive me?"

Marine glares viciously at her… but can't keep that face up for long before smiling and laughing. "Aw, what are best mates for?"

"It didn't do all that good anyway," you say, "Johnny came back, and he attacked Marine's village. Even tried to take her hostage."

"He what ?!" Blaze jumps to her feet, clenched fist in a flame.

"Easy, sheila!" Marine jumps up to calm her down, "I'm apples now. My sis Sticks was able to give Johnny the ol' heave ho. He won't be bailin' up on anyone anymore."

"I can vouch for that," you nod.

Blaze looks at you, smiling and nodding. "Glad to hear," she says, "Nega has been attacking quarters of the world spontaneously and without warning. My guess is he's trying separate diversion tactics as he searches for the Sol Emeralds and the Jeweled Scepter."

"And you don't think he's going to look here?" Knuckles asks as he holds his hands out, indicating the entire castle.

Blaze shakes her head 'no'. "He knows I don't keep them here," she replies, "That would be too obvious. Ever since he last stole the Jeweled Scepter, we relocated them both to a new secret location, one where he has yet to discover, hence his multitude of attacks." She lowers her head in disgust. "Even innocent villages, like Marine's…"

She lifts her head back up. "My crew and I have been trying to pinpoint where his exact location may be. But as soon as we home in, he sends out a subordinate to throw us off guard. He himself is nowhere to be found, which is what gravely concerns me. Now that he's stooped to kidnapping my friends, I cannot afford to waste any more time. I must stop him at all costs!"

Silver stands from his seat and holds a fist to his chest. "That's what we're here for!"

Blaze looks over, apprehensive. "I… I don't know," she murmurs, "I appreciate your wanting to help, but I don't want to shoulder my problems onto all of you."

" Your problems?" Silver grunts, "In case you missed that part of Sonic's story, Eggman Nega ran a cruel empire on our world. He had nearly the whole planet in his grasp, and made so many people suffer. I came here to make sure no one else suffers by his hands ever again." He jabs a finger in the air towards her, "So don't you dare tell me this is your problem that you're shouldering onto us!"

Blaze blinks, astonished. She then lowers her head. "I'm sorry… I didn't mean to offend you."

Silver softens up. "Hey, it's not a big deal," he assures, "It's just with a problem like this, you may need all the help you can get. So I wouldn't turn it away if I were you."

Blaze glances up at him, then looks over to you. You reply with your usual grin. "C'mon, Blaze," you say, "You're not seriously going to fall back on old habits again, are you?"

Blaze is quiet for a moment, before finally giving a smile of her own. "I suppose I could use a little help dealing with this."

Shortly afterwards, your meeting is moved from the den to the War Room, where Blaze's soldiers have a map of the world laid out. You study the map yourself; it's just like your world, only… it's not. Sure, there's an ocean, continents, islands, and the like… But they are much different than in your world. Different dimensions, all right…

You notice two different colored markers stuck to the map; Red and blue.

"We have different colored tabs on the map to indicate where Nega has attacked," a lion soldier says to you, as apparently he noticed you looking at the markers, "Red indicates areas he or his armies has already attacked. Blue indicates what remains untouched. We must keep our eyes open. He could strike any one of those blue markers…"

"I have my own soldiers stationed at most of these untouched areas," Blaze says as she pulls out a pointer stick, "They are to alert me right away if they spot even the slightest sighting of Nega."

She indicates the stick towards the bottom of the map, "As you can see by all these red markers, Eggman Nega has already covered most of the south. But we have look-out stationed in areas just to be safe."

"You said Nega was looking for this Jeweled Scepter, and your Sol Emeralds, correct?" says Shade, "Where are they now?"

"Forgive me," Blaze replies, "But I don't want to reveal their location to anybody. Safety reasons."

"Understandable…"

"All Nega knows is that they're somewhere out in this world," Blaze continues, "And he's getting desperate, attacking cities and our sister kingdoms in the hopes that I'll eventually cave in and give him the location of our treasures." She narrows her eyes and clenches her fists, "That's why it's vital to stop him as soon as we can."

"Princess Blaze!"

You all turn to see one of Blaze's soldiers (a female mouse with long, black hair) rush into the War Room, nearly out of breath. Probably had to run a good mile or so… "Eggman Nega has been spotted again!"

Blaze growls. "Where?!"

"We have confirmed sightings of Eggman Nega or Eggman-related personas in THREE separate locations!"

" Three?!" Blaze's eyes widened, "Even I know he can't be in three places at once." She glares downward, "He's at one of them, but where? Angie, where are these locations?"

"Northern App Mountains, North-Western Island, and out in the middle of the ocean in the far west," Angie replies.

"Nega knows I'm unable to investigate three locations at the same time," Blaze growls, "He's trying to throw me off my game."

You cross your arms confidently. "Too bad no one told him you added more players to your team."

Blaze looks up at you and nods. "Thank you, Sonic. This will make things much easier. We'll split up into three groups. I'll take one up north to the mountains."

"I'll check out one of the other locations," Knuckles offers.

"I'll go with you, Knuckles," says Shade.

Rouge narrows her eyes, but gets distracted when Shadow takes her by the shoulder. "I'll lead the third team," he says, "Rouge, I'll need you and Omega to back me up… just in case."

Rouge smirks. "Whatever you say, handsome."

For some reason, that made Knuckles glare at her.

"I'll stick with you, Blaze!" Marine chimes.

"Then I'll take my chances with Knuckles' team," Amy grunts quickly afterwards.

Knuckles snorts in response. Tails steps up to him. "No sweat, Knuckles," he says, "I've got your back as well."

"I'll go with Blaze," says Silver, "We can exchange intel about Eggman Nega on the way."

Blaze nods. "Sounds like a plan."

Now who's team are you going with, Sonic?

Blaze's Team (North App Mountains) -CHAPTER 52

-Knuckles' Team (Far west) -CHAPTER 53

-Shadow's Team (North-Western Island) -CHAPTER 57