Author's note: Nothing much to say, so, enjoy!
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. The rights of the franchise and all Sonic characters and media belong to Sega, Sonic Team and other connected companies. I only own the OCs.
The Mutagen Saga.
Chapter 6: "I'll Beetle You."
While Team Sonic was dealing with things against the Egg Reaper, and Team Rose, watching the battle, continued to look for clues and witnesses upon the mysterious beam that hit the moon before hitting the Earth that caused the de-aging and mutation across the continent, the Chaotix were looking every nook and cranny for clues and samples of the mysterious substance, asking the people on what the purple fog looked like and if it was still lingering around, while looking for it as well. So far, no luck.
But they did have one clue and it came from somewhere in the middle of the city, so Vector, Espio and Charmy decided to try their luck there, even with the police and GUN also out on looking for the mystery behind all of this. From what the three could see, the only ones not effected were the newer generations around 3 to seven years, and even ten year olds.
"That's weird. I can't tell if everybody's turned younger again or it's just most grown ups." Charmy remarked, rubbing the back of his head in confusion.
"Yeah, it's hard to tell with all these kids around. Makes ya' wonder if Chris de-aged when we came to our world and still looked like the kid as if years didn't past here." Vector muttered, scratching the top of his head. "I don't know about you guys, but whoever made that fog really doesn't like anybody getting old."
"Finding the sample of the mysterious substance would require more than just looking for it. It may as well have dissipated by now." Espio said, glancing around with a serious expression. "I think it would be best to ask someone or at least find something connected to what happened last night."
"Yeah, but it's not like anybody's gonna volunteer and Eggman's crazy enough as it is." The crocodile pointed out, declaring. "We're gonna have to keep looking, boys, and solve this mystery once and for all!"
Suddenly, the moment of Vector's declaration of determination was interrupted when he and his friends heard a man screaming in fear, causing the trio to look at the other side of the street and saw him running away while other people moved out of the way in alarm, before he literally leaping onto a power pole and climbed up, clinging on for dear life, quivering.
"Help! A giant robot-caterpillar's after me!" The man screamed girlishly.
When the Chaotix looked in the same direction as the other people to see what the guy was screaming about, their eyes all widened in shock and bewilderment, and in the humans' cases, fear as a large green, dog-sized Caterpiller-Robot hybrid crawled it's way towards the people on the other side, but just passing them and the man who let out another unmanly shriek, before noticing that he was safe and sighed in relief. Another man then screamed out and moved out of the way before leaping onto the pole himself, clinging onto both the first man and the pole.
"That fog not only de-aged us, but also mutated the rest of life!" The second man screamed in fear.
What has scared this guy was what appeared to be a dog, but with a bird's beak, a cat's tail and...it's torso also partially roboticized. The humans screamed and stared in fear, while Team Chaotix stared in shock and sweat drops, almost completely speechless.
"What in the name of Chaos...?" Espio muttered, his eyes completely wide.
"Looks like the fog did more than just de-age everybody and grew a giant worm." Charmy stated blankly. "Whoever did this must've watched too many horror movies to make this happen just for fun."
"We gotta find whoever's behind this and stop them, and figure out how to reverse this mess!" Vector declared, becoming increasingly worried.
"Agreed. We must make haste." The purple chameleon agreed.
"I'd say this is the weirdest dream I ever had, but everybody's seeing the same thing." The young bee stated.
Their leader nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I wish I was dreaming."
As the trio began to re-trek their search to find even a small sample by searching around, Vector suddenly felt his vision blur a little as unknown to him, the mixture of the substance that was placed inside him during the teleportation, and the surviving Mutagen still inside his blood stream were slowly bubbling away before it ceased. The detective paused in his steps and groaned, placing a hand onto his head his eyes spun.
"Why's everything spinning like a washing machine?" Vector grumbled, feeling light-headed, before the dizzy-spells wore off and he shook his head to regain his senses. "Great, now my weird cold's coming on and off."
"Hey, Vector." Espio called up as he and Charmy paused, having noticed their boss's lack of movement.
"Aren't you coming, boss?" The youngest member asked.
"Hey, wait for me!" Vector cried out, quickly hurrying to catch up to his friends, fully unaware that Narasu's Fly Pet was observing this from a roof-top under orders from the mad transformed scientist. It then buzzed before flying away to return to it's master.
Not long after Team Sonic had knocked Eggman back and then checked out his new Base for clues before finding it unusual unfortunately, but thankfully no signs of the documents on Shadow's origins, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles headed back to Station Square to find the abandoned place where the evil scientist found their lost comrade. Thankfully thanks to Chuck and the President, the trio were granted access and thus all of the security systems were turned off for the time being.
"So this is where Shadow was sleeping, huh?" Knuckles remarked, his arms folded to his chest with a deep frown. "I don't like this place."
"It's giving me the creeps, but if we're right, the main lab and observation room should be in the far back." Tails said, checking his Miles Electric to track Shadow's capsule.
"To think that he's been here on his own for around forty-one years...I wish I knew his full story." Sonic muttered to himself, his arms also folded. Being this close to the very place where Eggman had found the black hedgehog and convinced him to join forces which had put the blue hedgehog in jail after a misunderstanding due to their face resemblance made him feel uncomfortable.
Which also brought back memories to the last time he ever saw the Ultimate Life-form, back when Sonic had been ready to sacrifice himself along with his rival when Shadow had punched him away.
"Chaos Cont-UGH!" Super Sonic grunted and gasped as Super Shadow unexpectedly punched him right into the gut, shoving him backwards and far away from the explosion. The younger hedgehog then realized as he was being forced away, what the older hedgehog was doing.
'No! No, not again!' Super Sonic thought desperately, while screaming out. "Hold on, Shadow!"
"Sorry, friend. But we wouldn't want you to get hurt." Super Shadow muttered, forming a smile on his muzzle, before forcing Super Sonic far away to safety as the latter screamed while spinning.
Once he knew that Sonic would be safe and back with his friends who needed him, Super Shadow turned around and with a mighty punch, shouted out. "CHAOS CONTROL!"
With a burst of energy, it engulfed the explosion which almost blinded everyone, before it came to a stop. Super Sonic stopped spinning and shook his head, before gasping in horror as he saw what just happened. His eyes widened while his heart pounded, feeling history repeat itself, except this time there was no coming back.
Tears formed in his eyes, as not one but two friends...were gone.
"SHADOW!" Super Sonic screamed out, anguished.
"...Shadow." Sonic whispered, feeling his chest ache. Sorrow and guilt lingered and while it didn't hurt as much as it was on the way back home which Cosmo's death had doubled, and now having her back to life mended his heart a little, the fact that Shadow was gone still hurt. He wished he could see the black hedgehog again, to apologize and maybe, just maybe, finally get to know him better despite that they probably wouldn't be friends straight away.
"You okay?" Knuckles asked as he and Tails both noticed their friend and leader silent.
Sonic blinked, then sighed to get a hold of himself. "Yeah, I'm fine."
"Sonic..." Tails trailed off, seeing the pained look in his older brother's eyes. This place must've triggered memories of Shadow, including his death, in Sonic's mind. While the two hedgehogs had been sworn enemies, in times of the universe nearly ending, they put aside their differences and teamed up with great determination, and a couple times the teenage hero saw the good in the Ultimate Life-form.
Both times, Sonic had been saddened by Shadow's sacrifice. Except the second time was the last. The blue hedgehog was always known to hide his feelings when it came to deep emotions, but the time of Cosmo's sacrifice made the young kit realize that Sonic thought he would lose him because of the failure to save her and Shadow.
"I'm okay, really. Don't worry." Sonic reassured with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, but he shrugged. "Just thinking."
"Of what?" Knuckles questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Just stuff. C'mon, let's check this place out and make sure those document files are truly gone before Egghead decides to invite himself again." Sonic waved it off, and began approaching the doorway, unaware that his friends were sharing a confused and in Tails' case, worried glance before hurrying to follow the cobalt hedgehog.
Yet like with the Chaotix unknown to Sonic's team, the same Fly overheard their conversation before flying off, it's eyes blinking as it scanned what it recorded.
Having returned to his lab without anyone really knowing, and installing quite a few things in his new pet that took a link towards him since his own unwilling transformation, Dr. Kai Narasu was monitoring Station Square since he didn't get much sleep at all. Instead, he observed what was going on having installed his monitors to get the news around the world as well as creating his own Spy-Bots.
The half robotcitized man had watched from the monitors he installed like a camera and what he saw and heard made him less than pleased.
"So, those fools want to use MY Mutagen, and use it to their own gains while attempting to convince the world that they wish to stop the merging. Well, I refuse to allow that to happen, though I must admit, it was a mix-up with my creations and Christopher Thorndyke's Porthole, but now Dr. Eggman is back as well." Narasu hissed darkly, having heard what the Chaotix and just now Sonic's group had said.
Even in his insane condition, he still believed that Sonic and his friends were evil, which was why Narasu had to put a stop to this once and for all.
"If I recall correctly, that area is where Professor Gerald Robotnik's organism weapon, Project Shadow, was created. Perhaps they seek to create a new Shadow and having that blue hedgehog go there himself." Narasu thought incorrectly, his human hand placed to his chin before smirking.
"Well, seeing my Mutagen has done so much more, I think I will keep that blue rodent and his cohorts busy. In the meantime, I'm quite interested in keeping an eye on that big gallot alligator since he has yet to be re-effected by my original Mutagen." He added to himself, before tapping the side of his head as his red robotic irisis glowed. "Fulgar, my little Fly-Bot, keep your sight on those three so called detectives and do not let them see you."
The Fly-Bot in question, which he had quickly gotten to like in the past 24 hours, did as he was told, while Narasu held out his hand towards the spot where he last saw Sonic's group enter the building and like what he did with the giant worm, a laser beam shot out and surprisingly straight into the building and into the ground where it hit a lone beetle near the entrance of where Shadow the Hedgehog was found.
Surely enough, the little beetle froze on the spot before wincing in pain and then rolled onto it's back, where is then began grow and transform.
The trio had been told that the President they once knew had long retired after his presidential days were up, but he still kept in touch with Chris's family in a friendly manner. The current President, while a bit strict, was still kind and had known of Sonic's heroics and thus agreed that it would be best to have the teenage hero to investigate further with his friends just in case, and Chris has mentioned that the man had been rather concerned about the Commander of GUN, Abraham Tower, whom the heroes haven't met before.
So it was luck that Tails typed in the security code he downloaded on his latest invention, and Team Sonic were walking through the corridor of the abandoned building, the power turned off save for the emergency lights. Every security robot created by GUN under using the technology of Eggman's grandfather Professor Gerald Robotnik, who was also the grandfather of Maria, Shadow's first and very close friend, had all been smashed and rubble was the only things left of them.
It didn't help that the temperature seemed to be decreasing in here, it was almost unbearable.
"Brr...It is just me or is it freezing in here?" Sonic asked, rubbing his arms a little as he felt a little chilled.
"Man, it's really cold. It's almost like this place has been air conditioned like a refrigderator. Though I shouldn't be too surprised considering how long it's been." Tails agreed.
"For everybody here, it has been nine years." Knuckles reminded.
Sonic nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you can tell with all of these cobwebs and cracks. I'm surprised that it's cold and not warm, and it's in the middle of summer. Maybe Egghead broke the heater's or something when he busted into this place."
"I can't imagine Eggman's reaction when he found out about this, and his origins being here." Tails remarked while following the map's direction on the Miles Electric.
"I can't believe Earth is where Eggman came from all this time." Knuckles grunted.
"Yeah, who knew Eggman had been from here all this time? No wonder he couldn't breathe in space like the rest of us. Now I'm curious how he and his dad ended up in our world in the first place without the Chaos Emeralds or even having come up with portholes like Chuck and Tails did." Sonic shrugged.
"Maybe it was something entirely different nobody even knew of, and people here erased it like Eggman's dad did to avoid in being treated like aliens." The young fox suggested.
The red echidna scoffed at that claim. "Yeah, well, humans didn't waste time in treating us like aliens at first since they were alien to us."
"It wasn't always like that. Clearly our kind and humanity lived together before the world split into our world and Earth." Sonic pointed out, folding his arms again before shuddering. "Now the merging we worked so hard in preventing is happening again and Time's slowly being destroyed as we speak. It was easy before with the Porthole taking us back home, even though I had to use the Chaos Emeralds to get home myself when Chris didn't want me to go at first."
Sonic sighed as that memory lingered, shrugging a little sadly. "He was scared that if I left, life would go back to before we ever came and he'd be lonely again. Can't say I was too surprised, since I kinda suspected that and had the Chaos Emeralds with me just in case, and I don't blame him, either. To be honest, leaving here was one of the hardest things I ever done."
The trio paused as both Tails and Knuckles stared at Sonic who sighed before quickly perking up and said. "But enough of the past talk. The sooner we find whether those files are still here or not and decide what to do next, the quicker we can meet up with the others and hopefully find a Chaos Emerald or two. Like I said, we've gotta figure out how to stop the merging again or it's bye-bye Time."
Even though his best friends had no idea how the blue hedgehog could shift through moods quickly, or that he just didn't want to think about bad memories, they knew that he was right. They had no idea how much time they had left, so they nodded in agreement and continued along the hallway to find any sort of clue or at least make sure that all of the files on Shadow's creation were gone, attempting to ignore the tense heat. But as they were reaching the doorway, what they found was baffling because in front of them between the doorway and them was a dog-sized navy blue beetle, with some metal parts on it's body and apparently it was guarding the entrance.
Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all sweat dropped at the sight of another giant mutant.
"What's goin' on here?" Sonic asked, his eyes wide in shock.
"Where did that beetle come from?" Tails asked, bewildered.
Knuckles grunted, "Who cares? This thing's in the way and we gotta beat it! Stand back, I'll take care of this thing!"
The red echidna launched himself forward, fists flying and ready with a battle roar, punching at the giant beetle on the back and face several times, knocking it back where it crashed onto the floor. The mutant large insect laid there for a moment, twitching in pain over the Guardian's attacks. Tails's eyes widened in amazement while Sonic, letting out an impressed whistle, applauded his rival.
"Not bad, Knucklehead. You turned the tides on that bug." The blue hedgehog congratulated.
"Not bad? I'm much more impressive, you're just jealous that I'm built for strength, Sonic." Knuckles replied smugly, his fist balled up in the air.
Sonic chuckled with a shrug. "Hey, whatever works, at least you cleared the road block."
But as the two teenagers were talking, Tails was about to join in when he turned his attention back to the giant beetle and his eyes widened in shock when it suddenly began to bubble up and something dark blue and purple liquid came dripping out like ink blots. To make things worse, it began to crack before it started to turn black and vanish, spreading into the blots and began to form into five beetle-like shapes.
"Uh, guys? I don't think we're out of the woods yet...!" The young fox trembled a bit, pointing a shaky finger at the sight.
"Huh?" Sonic and Knuckles blinked, and when they looked up to see what Tails was pointing at, their eyes widened in bewilderment as they let out shocked gasps. The blobs formed into five more half-metal beetles with glowing red eyes, breathing in the cold chilly air menacingly.
"No way!" Sonic cried out in disbelief.
"Wha-how did this happen!?" Knuckles exclaimed, unable to understand how the giant beetle could multiply into five more of them.
One of the giant beetles then strangely inhaled deeply before spitting out a globby-like ice stuff which forced Sonic and his friends to try and jump back to avoid in getting hit. But when it hit the floor and exploded right at Knuckles' feet, resulting in all three of them to cry out in alarm and the red echidna screaming, thick light-blue mist covered the area which had this awful like smell that made Sonic and Tails cough while covering their mouths and noses.
"Ugh! Man, those beetles breaths stink!" Sonic complained. "Now I know why they call them dung beetles."
"AH! SONIC!" Tails screamed out, his eyes almost popping out of his head at the sight in front of him.
"Huh?" The blue hedgehog muttered when he looked up again, and almost screamed as when the fog cleared up, there stood Knuckles...and not moving.
The poor echidna was now currently frozen in a newly made ice block created by the blob from the giant mutant beetle, with a bewildered and freaked out expression on his face, and if the situation was any different, Sonic and Tails would've laughed. But seeing how these things not only mutated from one giant beetle into five after Knuckles attempted to get rid of it, but they could somehow produce ice-like attacks to trap their opponents.
"Well, he did need to chill out eventually." Sonic awkwardly joked with a shrug.
Tails just gave his best friend a dull look of exasperation over the comment, just as the giant beetles fired more freezing blobs at the duo. But the two of them jumped back to avoid in meeting the same fate as Sonic then Spin Dashed to smash through the ice while dodging more of the disgusting and freezing blob things. The blue hedgehog hit the five beetles who reared back in pain, but to his and the two-tailed fox's shock, more appeared, multipling to even more with each hit.
"I can't believe it! Each hit causes them to multiply!" Tails exclaimed in shock, now worried that things are taking a turn for the worst.
Sonic was dumbfounded with his eyes almost as wide as four dinner plates combined, before realizing that he and his friends had no way of defeating these things like this.
"Gonna have to bail on outta here and come back later!" The cobalt hero decided, jumping up to avoid multiple attacks before he kicked and punched at the ice that kept Knuckles trapped, only managing to break off the outer layer that had the ice block with the echidna inside stuck, and grabbed hold of his friend friend, grunting at the heavy weight but ignored it and held it over his head.
"Sonic?" Tails asked, worriedly.
"No time, buddy! Let's move before we end up turning into popsicles!" Sonic informed sternly.
The two were almost caught off guard when several of the mutant ice-beetles fired more freezing blobs at them, prompting them to yelp in fright before Sonic awkwardly grabbed hold of Tails' arm and made a beeline for the exit, the frozen Knuckles in one arm over his head, and the shell-shocked young kitsune in the other. The beetles though wouldn't let them escape easily as they then took flight to follow the escaping trio who neared the exit as quickly as the young heroic hedgehog could run.
"Sonic, the beetles!" Tails cried out, pointing behind his older brother as he was carried over the hedgehog's shoulder.
Sonic looked over his other shoulder awkwardly to see the giant bugs buzzing towards them and spitting out more frozen blobs that turned the corridor into a corridor of ice in spots where the trio were just at seconds ago.
"These guys just don't quit!" Sonic exclaimed in annoyance, before telling his little brother to hold on, and then went into full speed and managed to make it outside. Wasting no time in putting his friends down after skidding to a stop, the blue hedgehog then quickly went to close the doors to prevent the beetles from escaping.
Tails quickly went to help him and the two surrogate brothers pushed as hard as they could and just as the small army of frozen-beetles could reach the exit, they succeeded in closing them and stepped back several steps just in time for the ice to be seen steaming out from the other side. The two waited with held breaths before relaxing a little as they had the mutated things trapped inside. For how long though, neither of them knew.
"Man, that was close!" The young fox sighed, wiping sweat from his forehead.
"Yeah, I feel like we're in one of those monster horror movies." Sonic chuckled a bit nervously. "It's like the underworld freezing over."
"MMMMPPPH! MMM MM MPH MPHH MMMPPPPHH!" A muffled sound seemingly shouted behind the duo, making Sonic and Tails look around nervously.
"What's that?" Sonic asked, nervously.
"Uh...Sonic?" Tails muttered awkwardly, realizing it came from behind them, which when the hedgehog turned to see what his adoptive fox brother was looking at while trying not to laugh, he saw that it was Knuckles who, still frozen in solid ice, was only able to move his eye-balls.
Now that Sonic and Tails got a good look at Knuckles since they'd been unable to see him at the front until now, the poor echidna's face was amusing. His mouth was wide open in a look of complete shock and being caught off-guard, his eyes wide, and judging by the look in the violet pupils, he didn't look happy and just wanted to be thawed out. Despite the situation, the blue hedgehog and the two-tailed fox couldn't help but snicker, trying hard not to laugh. Well, at least Tails tried hard not to laugh as he covered his mouth with his hands, but only managed to muffle his giggles.
Sonic on the other hand only tried for a second before he burst out laughing.
Even frozen, Knuckles was not amused at all.
With their skins intact despite the failure in reaching the room where Shadow was found due to the mutant insects now currently guarding it, or just trapped waiting to get out, Sonic and Tails took Knuckles back to Chris' house to thaw out their friend, and it wasn't long before Teams Rose and Chaotix returned as well to give out their own reports in not having any much luck in their cases so far despite having a few clues, only to have seen what happened.
Using heaters and hair-dryers to thaw out the red echidna, which took about half an hour before he was finally freed, and was now wrapped in a blanket, seated on an arm chair, shivering as he was still freezing.
"ACHOO!" Knuckles sneezed loudly, shivering violently while rubbing his arms and clutching the warm blanket. "Brr! I n-never want to g-go through t-that again...!"
"Been there, done that." Sonic replied, still in half of amusement, but at the same time sympathized with his friend, having expericed in being frozen in ice himself during the Metarex crisis. "It's no fun in being turned into an ice cube, believe me."
"If you make more cold jokes, I'm gonna kill you." The guardian warned angrily.
"Hey, it's not my fault that the weird fog-mutant stuff turned one beetle into a freezing giant monster that makes copies of itself everytime we attack it and it spits out gross goop that freezes everything." The blue hedgehog shrugged.
"These beetles must have a freezing point of very low body temperatures to be able to produce something to gooey liquid form that freezes everything almost instantly." Chris thought deeply as he and his grandfather tried to come up with a meaning of this.
"And seeing how the temperature drops significantly, this is a huge problem to get into that facility, and if they escape, Station Square would freeze over if we don't stop them." Chuck added gravely, which instantly made everyone imagine what Station Square would look like if the beetles did escape and multiply while he continued. "They would continue to multiply no matter how hard people stop them, and if they continue to do so, the Earth would be put into a new permanent Ice Age, only with them dominating the planet and other lifeforms become extinct."
Most of the group were horrified for that future outcome that even Sonic wasn't immune to such a terrifying thought, while Charmy was confused as the young bee asked. "What's Ice Age?"
"An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and greenhouse periods, during which there are no glaciers on the planet." Tails explained.
"Basically, it's winter all year around. No Spring, or Summer or even Autuum." Sonic translated, having also heard of this during his first time here on Earth. He then added to a slightly confused Cosmo. "It'll be like the planet Breezer we went to looking for a Chaos Emerald."
"Well, I like the snow, but I couldn't stand in living in winter forever. I bet this has something to do with that weird beam that hit the moon before being reflected back onto the ground last night." Amy stated.
"Did you find out where it came from?" Tails asked, curiously.
"No. Only that it was somewhere from the city. It could be anywhere." Cosmo shook her head apologetically. "Somewhere in the middle, but nobody knows for sure."
"I'm sure we'll find how this happened, like how we'll find a way to stop those beetles." Cream reassured optimistically.
Sonic smiled at his youngest friend's reassurance while adding. "Cream's right, Cosmo. We'll figure this out, 'cause there's no way I'm gonna let those overgrown hard-shell guys turn the planet into a giant refrigerator. All we gotta do is find their weakness."
"Maybe while we're at it, we could get a sample from those glob stuff to figure out how this fog stuff works since we couldn't find anything useful." Vector suggested.
"It could be the case, if it wasn't for the fact we risk in being frozen like Knuckles did recklessly." Espio agreed, much to the aforementioned echidna's annoyance while being handed a bowl of hot soup by Ella to warm him up.
"Hey, how was I supposed to know those things would multiply like that!?" Knuckles argued.
"Calm down, Knux. Nobody's blamin' ya." Sonic tried to relax his friend.
"Yeah, Knuckles. We're just trying to figure out how to stop those things without them keeping on multiplying. Problem is, how do we stop them?" Chris added.
"Well, there's gotta be a weakness somewhere." Vector pointed out, rubbing his chin, only to find himself feeling light-headed again, and, to his annoyance, his face felt really hot like he was running a fever.
As everyone looked to see if their crocodile friend was alright as he looked like he was about to sneeze, to the shock of Sonic and the rest of the group, when Vector began opening his mouth to do so, strangely enough the detective's snout began steaming up with smoke and an unusual glowing red and orange ball formed in the back of his throat like fire.
"Uh, Vector? Did you swallow a fire ball or something?" Charmy asked, confused.
Seeing the fire grow, Sonic's eyes widened as he then exclaimed to everyone, pushing Amy, Tails, Cosmo, Cream and Cheese down. "Look out!"
"ACHOO!" Vector sneezed loudly just as everyone ducked for cover...well, except Knuckles who ducked too late as he screamed, while the crocodile unknowingly sneezed up a burst of flames out of his mouth, and the red echidna was scorced, and a couch was also set on fire.
"AHH! I'm on fire! Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot! Hot!" Knuckles screamed as his head was on fire.
"Quick, get the fire extinguisher!" Chuck exclaimed.
Tanaka quickly did so along with Sonic who, with his speed, yanked a bunch of flowers out of a vase and while the butler put out the flames on the couch, the blue hedgehog poured the water onto the red echidna's head to save him, also putting out the flames, but leaving Knuckles charred brown, and coughing up smoke with a bewildered look.
Vector blinked as he saw what happened while feeling his snout and mouth feeling uncomfortably warm, as everyone else turned to him in bewilderment.
"How...did that happen?" Amy asked slowly.
"Wow, Vector! I didn't know you could breathe fire!" Charmy exclaimed, being the only one amazed.
"How did you do that?" Espio asked, dumbfounded.
"I have no idea!" The crocodile exclaimed, shocked beyond belief. "But my nose and mouth feel like they're on fire, and all I did was sneeze!"
"This just keeps getting weirder and weirder." Sonic commented, blinking in bewilderment, before asking everyone assembled in the room. "Is everybody okay?"
While Chris, his grandfather, Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese, Cosmo, Espio, Charmy, Tanaka, and even Knuckles(who recovered after shaking off the soot) all replied that they were, they all then heard a growl of anger coming from the one person who didn't reply. When Sonic and the others looked to see, they all(except Tanaka who attempted to remain calm but he did look a bit nervous for once) flinched in fright and nearly screamed when they saw just how stiff and frightfully angry Ella looked. She wasn't hurt, but the furious look made them all terrified.
"Uh-oh..." Charmy muttered, his eyes wide.
"Uh, Vector? I think you're in big trouble." Chris muttered nervously, while gazing at the ruined and expensive couch.
The said crocodile detective glanced at the couch, realizing his bad aimed sneeze and sudden new fire ability which caused the damage, gulped nervously, holding his hands up in surrender and stepped back a little while everyone else got up slowly and nervously.
"You...You big, ill, brute...!" Ella growled darkly, so furious that you could practically see flames surge all around her like she was about to erupt. "I just cleaned and refurnished that piece of furniture...!"
"I-I-It was an accident, ma'am!" Vector protested in fear, sweating and panicking while trying to talk his way out of this. "Honest, I swear!"
"Uh, Chris? Just how expensive was that couch?" Sonic whispered to his human best friend.
The de-aged boy gulped before whispering back, "Mom and Dad bought that couch last month and it costed around $10,030, including some of the movie money salary."
"WHAT!?" The blue hedgehog screamed with his eyes almost popping out in disbelief. "Why pay that amount of money for that!?"
"Well, the old one needed replacing and you know how my parents are, even though they have spent more time with me before three years ago." Chris shrugged sheepishly. "Most rich people are crazy that way."
"Do you realize the damage you've done, Vector?" The housemaid continued, making almost everyone afraid even more.
"I promise I'll fix it! I'm really sorry!" Vector pleaded, terrified beyond belief on what the human woman could do to him.
"You can't fix something that's been set alight." Chuck pointed out, making the detective sweat in fear even more.
"Ms, Ella. Perhaps you should calm down." Tanaka suggested calmly.
"Mr. Tanaka's right, Ella. Vector didn't mean it." Chris added.
Cream looked so scared she held onto Amy for support, with Cheese behind her in fear. The young six year old girl whimpered. "Please don't be angry, Ms. Ella. Vector really didn't mean it."
As if by magic, hearing Cream's frightened and upset voice brought Ella out of her anger episode and, seeing her favorite house guest who had seen her like a second mother to her during her first time here before Vanilla's arrival brought to tears almost instantly made the kind but firm woman calm down. She hadn't meant to frighten the little rabbit girl, or anyone else for that matter once she saw their frightened expressions as well.
Sighing, Ella carefully approached her youngest friend, bend low and patted Cream on the head, saying apologetically. "I'm sorry, Cream. Don't cry. I haven't meant to be angry."
Seeing how Cream unwittingly calm Ella down, Sonic and everyone else all sighed a big sigh of relief. If there was one thing they knew about Cream and Ella, is that they had a very close friendship and before Vanilla's arrival, the housemaid had been a mother figure to the little girl along with the company and comfort of Sonic, Amy and Tails, and even Chris and his grandfather. Cream and Cheese were never alone.
"Well, while we're attempting to figure out the new problem with Vector's cold, let's come up with an idea how to stop those things before they multiply even further. If they get out of that place where Shadow was found, everybody's in for an early winter." Sonic declared, hoping to get back to the topic of their current problem.
"We also have to warn GUN not to engage with fire power on those things, or else they'll only just make things worse. I think we should call the president and tell him about this." Chris suggested.
As the former twenty-one year old mentioned fire power, Tails began thinking deeply as did Espio, and Sonic. Between the three of them and Chuck, and then Chris once he realized what he said, they began to remember how ice melts against the heat of heaters and hair dryers, and they have managed to thaw out Knuckles.
"Hey, what if we used fire to stop those things? Heat is able to melt ice and warm up the tempreture." Tails suggested. "All we gotta do is figure out how they're being able to be stronger."
Sonic was thinking along the same lines while trying to figure out what made the beetles almost invincible, until he then remembered how cold it was in the corridor. His eyes then widened in realization as he remembered.
"Brr...It is just me or is it freezing in here?" Sonic asked, rubbing his arms a little as he felt a little chilled.
"Man, it's really cold. It's almost like this place has been air conditioned like a refrigerator. Though I shouldn't be too surprised considering how long it's been." Tails agreed.
"That's it!" The blue hedgehog exclaimed, snapping his fingers as an idea formed. "That place is what's making them stronger since the power's out!"
Everyone turned to the teenage hero before he turned to Chris and Chuck, asking, "Is there a way to restore power to that place and turn on the heating system?"
Realizing what Sonic had in mind, Chris smiled and nodded. "Yeah, we just have to find the control room and turn on the emergancy system."
"Great, and while we're at it, we just need a flame thrower." Sonic beamed, turning to Vector and continued. "And that's where you come in, Vector."
"What? Me?" The detective crocodile asked, pointing at himself. He, and most of everyone else stared at the blue hedgehog like he's lost his mind.
"Sonic, it's too risky." Espio warned. "We can't be certain if Vector is able to control this mysterious fire breathing problem."
"He's right, Sonic. I don't think it's such a good idea." Tails said worriedly.
Seeing the point, Sonic shrugged before saying. "Well, maybe not, but maybe if we can help him get the hang of it while figuring out what the problem is, it might save us the trouble in having to go find or build a flame thrower. I'm not saying we go straight in right away, and I wanna be careful when it comes to ice. If I run on it without being calm, I won't be able to go anywhere without feeling them underneath me. Just gotta make sure we don't burn down the place at the same time."
Everyone was silent for that moment, before Tails suggested. "Well, if we split up after we go in, one group will find the control room to turn on the emergancy power while having automatic heating systems, with Vector being a back-up just in case."
"I don't like the sound of this, especially since I never breathed fire before." Vector stated uneasily, scratching the top of his head.
"Well, you'd better not do it again in this house, or else...!" Ella warned, glaring at the detective who sweat dropped nervously, at did Sonic and virtually everyone else.
"I-It's not gonna be anywhere near the house, Ella! W-we can help Vector to get the hang of it back on our continent, or even on Angel Island!" Sonic quickly reassured, holding his hands up and waving them in surrender and fear.
"Maybe you should take a break and calm down, Ella and grandpa and I will handle in replacing the furniture. Just...don't tell Mom and Dad about this." Chris suggested with a sweat drop.
Thankfully, Tanaka agreed as he approached the housemaid. "Master Chris is right, Ella. It is best you do rest and I will handle the clean up."
"In the meantime, maybe we should come up with a plan on how we can work this out." Amy also suggested.
Everyone else nodded in agreement, while Vector gulped nervously as the human woman, while cooling her expression a little, still gave him a death glare that made him actually want to faint, thinking to himself. 'How did I end up in this mess? Sure hope we can find a cure soon, 'cause I'm goin' all crazy.'
As Sonic said, things are getting weirder and weirder.
Short time later, Teams Sonic, Rose and the Chaotix flew back to their Continent to begin their planning, first letting Vanilla know what was going on via Cream's request and her friends' agreements, then heading over to the perfect location by going to the mountains Sonic usually goes to, away from their village and away from Station Square. Knuckles was firm and clear that he didn't want anymore damage done to Angel Island, as he went there to check up on the Master Emerald and was relieved that it survived the transportation before returning to the group.
Vector in the meantime tried to contain his sneezes without breathing more fire, which was proving to be rather difficult. So as soon as they landed, he, Sonic, Knuckles and Espio agreed to help train him in getting used to his new ability, while Tails, Charmy and the girls worked up on making slight upgrades with the Tornado planes as well as working on the Miles Electric, connecting it's signal to Chuck's and Chris' computers back in the Mansion.
"I feel like a kid in school." Vector grumbled, tapping his foot impatiently with his arms crossed.
"Sorry, Vector. But if you wanna get the hang of being a fire-breathing crocodile without causing accidents or damage, you're gonna have to learn a few new tricks." Sonic shrugged. "Okay, so I'm probably not the best guy for teaching, but I can at least help by playing a running target."
"Better than me, anyway." Knuckles grumbled, his arms crossed as well.
"Even so, with the three of us, we can only hope that Vector masters his new ability, regardless of what is happening to him. For one, he must learn to relax." Espio said calmly.
"But I do relax." Vector pointed out.
"I mean you must be patient and relax your mind." The purple chameleon corrected himself. "One must be calm with your body and learn not to rush into things when it comes to their natural gifts."
"Oh, come on! We haven't got all day!" The crocodile complained.
"I know what you're saying, Vector, but Espio has a real good point. Coming from me, but I think I can give out a few useful tips." Sonic spoke up. "Even in limited time, you shouldn't let that thought alone take over you. Sometimes you make mistakes, and yeah you do end up panicking, but when it comes to what's really important to you, like friends for a perfect example, and teamwork, focus on not giving up and relax while being in a battle. You know what I'm saying?"
"Since when were you a philosopher?" Knuckles asked, raising an eyebrow. "You have zero patience."
"And your patience is even lower than that, Knucklehead." The blue hedgehog smirked. "You could use some tips too, buddy."
"Well, I'm patient." Vector stated.
"It's true, but sometimes you rush into things without much thinking. If you let fear of hurting others overcome you, it will only increase the lack of control with your new ability. First, we shall try the breathing technique." Espio pointed out and instructed.
Vector looked at his friend with a deadpanned expression, asking. "Is this gonna be a meditation lesson?"
"On the countary, meditating eases the mind and to remain calm, even in trying circumstances." Espio answered with a smirk.
"My idea to remain calm is running, taking naps, and relax in a field of beautiful flowers." Sonic remarked with a proud smirk.
"That explains why you're so laid-back." Knuckles deadpanned. "We don't have time for any of this."
"Which is why it is important to start now." Espio declared, turning to his friend and boss, telling him. "Now then, close your eyes and focus, but don't fall asleep."
The crocodile detective grumbled. "Easy for you to say."
None the less, he did as he was instructed despite being the leader of the Chaotix and closed his eyes. He tried taking tips on what the purple chameleon and even the blue hedgehog had told him. Sonic and Knuckles watched as Vector tried thinking about what he was told, but all he could think about was paying off all the bills, being famous as a hero with Espio and Charmy, their agency business growing larger, even day-dreaming of going on a date with Vanilla...
Unaware that he'd actually fallen asleep, falling onto his back and snored. Sonic, Knuckles and Espio stared before they all sighed in exasperation, Sonic shrugging and rolling his eyes, Espio facepalming himself, and Knuckles growing in irritation, clenching his fists as he began to lose patience.
"He's off into dreamland." Sonic announced dryly.
"This is why I've never taught him or Charmy my techniques of meditation." Espio sighed, shaking his head.
"Hey, Vector! Wake up, you overgrown lizard! This is no time for a nap!" Knuckles shouted angrily, already tired of wasting time.
That startled the detective awake as Vector yelped, and while he didn't sneeze, he breathed so hard and quickly that he felt his insides flare up, to which Sonic and Espio noticed the same fireball in his throat build up and immediately knew what was coming.
"Look out!" Espio exclaimed, as he and Sonic who yelped moved out of the way, the blue hedgehog pulling the now alarmed red echidna out of the way, just in time as Vector accidentally exhaled another flame thrower out of his mouth, which hit a rock and making it hot before he stopped.
All four of them, including Vector who, realizing what happened, all had their eyes widened in shock and dumbfoundment with sweat drops.
"Maybe we should try a breathing technique with his eyes open." Sonic suggested wirly after an awkward moment of silence, before glaring at Knuckles and added. "Without Mr. Less-than-zero-patience trying to get us all burned up."
"We're wasting time here and those overgrown Ice-Beetles could break out at any moment!" The Guardian of the Master Emerald argued.
"Breathing...of course." Espio whispered in realization as an idea hit him. He turned to the still stunned and slightly guilt-ridden Vector and said. "Let's try on calm breathing techniques and practice on it."
"How's that gonna help?" Vector asked, worriedly.
"As I said, remain calm and this time, do not fall asleep."
Grumbling, Vector attempted to try again, while Espio told Sonic and Knuckles to stop arguing.
In the meantime up the Blue Typhoon, Tails was adjusting a few screws in his Miles Electric while Amy, Cream and Cosmo helped him bit by bit after all four of them and Cheese decided to take a break on upgrading the planes a little. They were all in the main cockpit and saw what happened before all sighing and holding worried expressions.
"I know Sonic was trying to help, but Knuckles really needs some major lessons of his own." Amy remarked in annoyance, her hands on her hips as she saw the commotion.
"You know how Knuckles is, Amy. He's more too impatient than Sonic most of the time." Tails pointed out knowingly.
"Maybe so, but I worry what would happen if those creatures escape from the secret base Shadow was found in." Cosmo stated worriedly.
"Don't worry, Cosmo." Cream reassured brightly. "Everything will be okay, plus Sonic can find a way to stop them."
"We're worried too, Cosmo. But this isn't anything like...well, back when the Metarex attacked." The two-tailed fox added, hesitating in finishing it without bringing up bad memories, though he paused in his work as a result. Despite that he was so happy that the seedrian girl he fell in love with had come back to life, he still felt guilty for being responsible for her death in the first place.
Even with Sonic having reassured him that she wouldn't blame him for what has happened.
One month has passed since returning home after the final battle. It was also a month since Chris returned to Earth, and everyone stopped yet more of Eggman's evil plots as life has finally returned to normal. Though not everything was the same. Tails for one, not only still mourned for Cosmo's death, but he also had nightmares of the horribles things the Metarex had done.
The young fox cub was watering the seedling he planted inside a pot, which began to grow a bit bigger each passing day. It has started off as a little plant with two leaves. Now it began to bloom as a tiny pink flower bud.
"I hope you're doing okay, Cosmo. I...know it's not much. But I think you're growing more beautiful each day." Tails whispered to the growing flower as he set the watering can onto the desk next to the pot plant, before sighing in sadness. "I miss you so much. I would you were here..."
"Hey, bro. How's it comin'?"
Blinking in surprise at the sound of Sonic's voice, Tails turned around to find the blue hedgehog standing in the doorway of the garage.
"Oh, hey, Sonic. I'm okay." The young fox replied, smiling a little in sadness.
Sonic's bright radiant smile faded into that of worry, but being the optimistic hedgehog hero that he was, he smiled a little in sadness before approaching him, and, taking notice of the growing flower, he remarked. "Lookin' pretty good. I got a good feeling that Cosmo's plant is gonna grow into a very beautiful flower."
"Thanks, Sonic. It's not easy growing plants, considering how I usually build machines and planes and fly them. So I'm doing my best with Cosmo's flower, and not only I've looked up gardening books in how to take good care of plants, I've also asked both Amy and Vanilla pieces of advice on how to, uh, raise flowers." Tails explained, shrugging.
"For what it's worth, you're doing a great job at it. I bet Cosmo would really love it." Sonic replied, placing an arm around his adoptive little brother's shoulders.
Even though he deeply appreciated the comfort from his older brother, Tails looked away in sadness and to Sonic's worry, guilt.
"Tails? You okay?" The teenage hero asked after his best friend fell silent.
Sniffling while trying to hold back tears and wiped away those that developed, the young kit tried to remain calm, but the pressence of Sonic and memories of what happened a month ago lingered in his chest, guilt rising up.
"H-how can I be, Sonic? Cosmo's gone...I...I know you told me that-that I didn't kill her...but what if she...what if she hates me for it? For all I know, she's blaming me for what I had to do to her...! It's all my fault...!" Tails began to sob.
"Tails...!" Sonic whispered in shock, guilt rising in his own chest for the reminder of what happened, before mentally shaking that thought away and instead focused on comforting his still mournful little bro. He pulled Tails towards him and hugged the crying fox cub who by then buried his face into the blue hedgehog's chest.
"Shhhhh...Tails, don't cry. I'm sure Cosmo doesn't hate you and I'm definitely positive that she doesn't blame you for what happened." Sonic told him, gently rubbing his little brother's back to soothe him.
"R-really?" Tails sniffled, hesitantly looking up at Sonic who smiled brightly a little.
"I promise." Sonic replied.
Even though Tails had gotten a bit better each day, now that Cosmo was here, what did she really think of him now? The reunion yesterday had been wonderful, but he still felt uncertain.
"Tails? Is something wrong?" Cosmo asked, noticing his saddened expression, which brought the fox boy she loved out of his thoughts. Amy, Cream and Cheese also noticed and gazed at him worriedly, making the young cub slightly nervous.
"Uh, well-" Tails was cut off when the Miles Electric began buzzing, much to his confusion. Picking up and found that the calling connection was working, he pressed a button and surely enough, Chuck's face appeared on the screen.
"Tails, do you read me?" The elder Thorndyke spoke, looking quite panicked and concerned. Chris was behind him with a similar expression.
"Loud and clear, Chuck. I'm surprised the Miles Electric works even more. But, what's up?" Tails replied, becoming concerned as his previous troubled thoughts were pushed into the back of his mind.
"It's the Beetles! It's on the News! GUN is about to break into the front door!" Chris explained quickly.
"What!?" Tails and the girls all exclaimed in horror.
"You must get here with Sonic and Vector, now!" Chuck informed urgently.
Even though they were worried that Vector didn't have enough training yet, they knew that Chuck was right. The Beetles have to be stopped before it was too late.
News Reporters have gathered around the base as the GUN military have noticed that Sonic, Tails and the frozen Knuckles had gotten out before locking the door which began to become frozen with ice, as many soldiers has lined up to deal with the issue on the mysterious freezing event. However, things have become more complicated as there were also two giant cockcroches with metal parts on their heads and legs, with menacing looks.
"Sir, we have mutant giant Cockcroaches guarding the base of Professor Gerald Robotnik. Orders?" One soldier spoke in the communicator.
"Take them down. We cannot afford any casualties and must focus on how to reverse these effects of the fog." A deep voice answered from the other side of the line.
"Yes, sir." The soldier replied, readying his rifle. "All units, prepare for attack."
The other soldiers around him copied his move, just as high above them, three Tornados, the X Tornado piloted by Tails with Knuckles and Sonic on the wings, and Vector and Espio in the seats behind the young fox with Charmy on Vector's head(much to the crocodile's annoyance and embarrassment), the Tornado 1 piloted by Amy with Cream and Cheese and Cosmo with her, and finally the Tornado 2 with Mr. Tanaka piloting, and both Chris and his grandfather behind him, arrived only to discover too late that the crowd has already gathered.
"This is bad. Looks like we have more but problems." Knuckles grunted, narrowing his eyes.
"We've gotta get inside that base before those guys accidentally break down that door!" Sonic exclaimed, before having an idea, which was risky but he knew that there was no other choice. "You guys go on in without me, I'm gonna take care of those Cockcroches!"
"Hold on, Sonic! Maybe I can radio them." Chris radioed from the Tornado 2, before radioing the military down below. "Come in, GUN. This is Chris Thorndyke. Can you read me?"
The lead soldier, surprised on how Chris has managed to radio him, responded. "Not now, Mr. Thorndyke, and I can't believe that even you were de-aged. We're busy and about to storm into the base by taking care of this bug problem."
"But there are more inside and these things can't be taken out by force. If you keep attacking them, they'll just multiply because they have abilities of ice. We're working on getting inside somehow without letting them escape and if we're right, theoretically, their weakness may be heat and we're going in to turn on the emergency power to turn up the heating system." The de-aged boy quickly explained.
"Look, kid! We don't have time for this nonsense! Just because you're a scientist like your grandfather, doesn't mean science is always right!" The soldier argued, quickly losing patience.
"But it's true! Ask Sonic! He'll tell you. He, Tails and Knuckles had to shut the door tight earlier to stop them from leaving. We have no idea how those things can do it, but you can't open fire!" Chris insisted.
"I've heard enough! Sonic or no Sonic, this is GUN business! So you and that hedgehog get out of here and leave this to the military!" The soldier grunted, before cutting Chris off. "Get ready, men!"
"Sir!" The other soldiers responded.
High above, Chris, Chuck and Mr. Tanaka all sighed hopelessly, with the de-aged boy grumbling. "Sometimes I really don't like the military."
"They are more impatient than Sonic. Not true warriors." Tanaka muttered in agreement.
"Well, looks like it's Plan B time. I'm goin' in! You guys go on ahead and hurry!" Sonic instructed, after he and the others found that there wasn't much they could do.
Unfortunately, just as Tails tried to fly a bit closer for Sonic to Spin Dash into the two cockcroches, there came the dreaded order they and their friends had feared and despite Sonic's warning, the men readied their weapons.
"Fire!" The first Soldier commanded.
"Wait, no!" Sonic screamed out, but it was too late.
The soldiers opened fire and Sonic and his friends all had to look away as they feared in seeing such a gruesome sight. The Cockcrouches, despite their metal armor, stood no chance against the bullets, but neither did the doors as some accidentally hit the now already frozen locks. Which as the men stopped firing, as the heroes had fired, the doors were burst open and now about fifty of the giant freezing beetles came charging out, the chilling air from their abilities to freeze anything steaming out of the building.
Despite this, the men, shocked to see that Chris was right about one part of what he said, quickly opened fired again. But as Sonic's group had predicted, more kept on multiplying and soon began to form into 70 more and still counting, making the soldiers stop firing all together as they and the News Reporters all gasped in horror of this unusual event.
"Uh-oh...!" Sonic, Tails, Espio, Vector and Charmy all muttered worriedly, while Knuckles gaped in shock, speechless.
"There goes Plan B." Charmy muttered, strangely calm.
Sonic felt his heart sink, wishing he could've done better to stop Eggman from coming here, so that none of this would've happened and despite that he wanted to stop the substance from spreading, he felt that going into the base earlier was his biggest mistake.
"This is all my fault. I wish this was all just a nightmare." The blue hedgehog whispered, squeezing his eyes shut in guilt. How were they going to solve this problem now?
"Our fire power's no good! Those things keep multiplying!" One of the other soldiers screamed out in horror as he and most of the men began to back away in fear, with their leader figuratively frozen in shock as he realized that Chris was right, and he was to blame for not listening to the young man's warning.
"That's just great! Now what do we do?" Knuckles grunted.
"If only we could lure all of those Beetles back inside and go inside ourselves. But how?" Tails thought, desperately.
It was then another crazy idea formed in his mind, and, determined to not let the world be frozen and taken over by giant beetles, Sonic narrowed his emerald eyes as he knew what he had to do.
"Leave the luring part to me! You guys do what you gotta do!" Sonic instructed, and this time wasted no more time.
He jumped off the wing he'd been standing and riding on before Spinning down towards the entrance, and whistled out loudly, which caught not only the people's attentions, but also the giant Ice-Beetles who all turned around at the sound of his whistling, looking agitated and annoyed as they apparently didn't like screeching noises at all.
"Hey, bug-heads! Come and get me!" Sonic taunted, waving his arms to make the mutant insects take up the challenge. Surely enough, all of the Beetles lost interest in the humans and instead turned their attention to the blue hedgehog who turned and raced inside, luring them back to where they came from.
"He's luring them back inside!" One of the soldiers exclaimed in surprise.
"Sonic must be attempting to stop them from spreading out across the city, while Mr. Thorndyke carries out the plan to defeat them." Another soldier theorized.
The leader stood there, stunned and feeling a bit jealous on what was happening.
While this was happening, Tails and the others landed on top of the roof of the building, before they all hurried out of the Tornadoes and towards the top entrance of the building.
"Okay. Knuckles, Vector, you guys and I hurry to help Sonic. The rest of you find the Power Room and turn on the back up systems!" Tails instructed as Espio and Tanaka opened the door quickly.
"You got it, Tails!" Chris replied, hurrying inside along with his grandfather, butler and friends.
Sonic raced through the corridors which by now were frozen in ice, except for the floor even though there were patches here and there. But learning from his last experience, he Spin Dashed across and felt the ice underneath him to make sure that he didn't slip or ended up stuck. The blue hedgehog made sure that he wasn't too fast so that the beetles wouldn't lost interest in him, but still fast enough to make sure he didn't end up frozen in ice himself.
"Ha! Just you creepy crawlies wait! I'll beetle you!" Sonic taunted, smirking as he looked over his shoulder, which infuriated the beetles who spat out more freezing goop at him. He easily dodged and even ran along the walls that weren't frozen yet, turning around the corner and the little over one hundred beetle squad followed him.
Meanwhile, after Knuckles, Tails and Vector split from the rest of the group, Chris, Chuck, Amy, Cream and Cheese, Cosmo, Espio, Charmy, and Tanaka hurried to find the generator room to find the emergency switch and turn on the heating system, going through the dark but following the map on Chris's new Iphone since mobiles have advanced over the years.
Finally the group of nine found it and found that it was unlocked and dusty.
"It's a wonder why nobody came in here to clean up this mess. It's too dusty." Amy coughed.
"The emergency generator must be here somewhere." Chuck stated, glancing around with a flash-light as did Chris and Tanaka, along with everyone else.
"What's that big metal box on the wall?" Charmy spoke up, flying over to the said box that stuck out, getting everyone else's attentions as they saw what he discovered. As the group approached, the humans felt a sense of relief and hope as the recognized what this was.
"This is it! You found the generator, Charmy!" Chris said in relief.
"I did? I thought it would've been a bit bigger like Eggman's stuff." The young bee muttered, confused on how he found the very thing they were looking for which was nothing as he or even his friends had expected.
"It doesn't matter. What's more important right now is that we turn it on and heat up the place." Espio said urgently, as Tanaka yanked the door open before easily turning the emergency switch on.
Surely enough, despite the years of being out of commission and a couple of light bulbs popping and sparking, the entire room lit up and soon the rest of the place soon followed. Amy and the others's faces also lit up in relief as the first phase of the plan was working.
"It's working!" Cream cheered in relief.
"Chao, chao!" Cheese also cheered.
"Now it's Phase 2, right?" Cosmo asked, with hope.
"Yeah. Now we've gotta find the heating system." Chris announced, as he and the group quickly began the search of their next part of the plan.
"This could be it?" Amy asked, looking over at the switch on the wall now that the room was lit up. Above the lever was the words, 'Turn on Heating System'.
"Well, this makes things just as easy." Chuck remarked.
"All right!" The pink hedgehog cheered as did her friends, before she jumped slightly and grabbed hold of the lever, declaring. "Hang in there, Sonic! Here comes the heat!"
With all of her might, even though it seemed to be stuck and Chris, Cosmo, Amy, Espio and Cream hurried over to help her, Amy pulled down the lever. As promised despite the building not having been used in decades, the room began to warm up, and soon the rest of the place followed.
"Cosmo, I think you should wait outside. The heat might not be good for you." Cream suggested, suddenly concerned for her friend's well being.
To her surprise, Cosmo shook her head. "I'll be alright, Cream. I'm not really a normal kind of flower."
Despite her worries, the young girl realized what this meant and even though she saw the truth in her other best friend's eyes, she also realized one thing.
She didn't want to leave without Tails.
Sonic in the meantime yelped as one glob of goop nearly hit him by the heels which almost instantly made him decide to go faster.
"Whoa! These guys are faster than I thought!" The blue hedgehog admitted, before looking ahead of him and gasped in horror as he found that he was reaching a dead end, before crying out in dismay. "OH NO!"
He skid to a stop before he would end up crashing into the wall, but as he looked desperately for a way out, Sonic was cornered and spun around to find the beetles catching up to him, ready to spit more of the freezing goop and turn him into a frozen hedgehog. He was trapped, but he tried to remain calm, his mind frantically searching for a way out of this mess.
'It's going to take forever for the guys to find me by the time they do. Guess I'll have to wait until they thaw me out, or I jump over them. Wait, that's it! I'll jump over them!' Sonic thought to himself, smirking at his own idea and waited for the monsters to make their attack.
Then, once they did, Sonic jumped high and leaped over the attacks, narrowly avoiding the freezing fog and used the backs of the beetles as skipping stones with his speed to his advantage despite them moving and skittering and attempting to make him fall, which he almost did a couple of times, but he managed before landing safely on the floor behind the herd and laughed victoriously and then took off once more.
"Hey, Sonic!" Tails' voice called out from very close by, and when the blue hedgehog looked to his right, he saw his little brother, and two other friends run up from ahead of him from another corner.
"Hey, great timing, guys!" Sonic greeted, easily coming to a stop in front of the three. "Well, time for phase 3?"
"As much as I'm ready to take these guys out, I'm not sure if I can control this new fire power." Vector admitted, clenching his fist. "But I ain't gonna give up, 'cause I'm getting all fired up!"
"You can do it, Vector. Remember what Espio briefly taught you." Sonic encouraged the crocodile. "Breathe in and calm down and think about what's most important."
"And I suggest you do it right away, because here they come!" Knuckles suggested impatiently, pointing at behind the blue hedgehog while Tails and Vector's eyes widened. When Sonic spun around, surely enough the herd of Ice-Beetles began to creep closer and closer to them, and while the power was now on as the lights lit up, the heating system was still off.
'They seem to be taking their time. Looks like we'll have to rely on Vector 'til Chris and the others turn on the heating system.' Sonic thought to himself, focusing on remaining calm.
"Just do your best, Vector! You can do it!" Tails encouraged the detective.
Vector stared ahead and despite wanting to just try it out, he began to panic but was determined to help out everyone. While he doesn't always get along with Sonic's group, they were all a team and have gone through so much in the recent months. He then remembered what Sonic told him earlier.
"Even in limited time, you shouldn't let that thought alone take over you. Sometimes you make mistakes, and yeah you do end up panicking, but when it comes to what's really important to you, like friends for a perfect example, and teamwork, focus on not giving up and relax while being in a battle."
Focus on not giving up, and relax while being in a battle, and also the breathing technique. As though realizing now what those meant, Vector closed his eyes and focused hard, even as the Beetles marched closer and closer and Sonic, Tails and Knuckles began to tense up, but the blue hedgehog remained as calm as possible, putting all of his faith in the Chaotix leader.
'Focus, Vector. Let the fire burn within you, and let it out all out...on these guys!' Vector thought to himself, feeling the familiar heat up his throat, but this time he felt something somewhat warm up inside him, which while still unaware that the mutagen was bubbling away, they seem to light up and then shrink, and the more he focused as quickly as possible while relaxing, the more he had the urge to let it all out under his control.
Finally, just as the Beetles were about to fire more goop at them, the crocodile snapped his eyes open, inhaled hard and then roared while exhaling, a huge ball of fire flaring out of his mouth, covering the first line of Ice-Beetles who all shrieked in pain at the overwhelming heat, which their burning bodies began to creep onto the rest of the herd. At the same time, the heat for them began to worsen as the heating system finally kicked in, and soon the monsters began to struggle and become paralyzed.
"I did it!" Vector cheered in victory.
"Yeah, now let's show'em! Let's go, guys!" Sonic cheered, now firing up for battle himself. His two best friends and Vector nodded in agreement before they all charged. The blue hedgehog Spin Dashed into several which due to the heat, didn't cause the beetles to multiply, but instead began to cripple and melt into ice which then melted into small puddles of water.
Tails jumped and, another trick he learned from Sonic, Axe-kicked in another, causing it to collide with more. Knuckles Knuckle-punched several with impressive strength and speed. Vector punched several more and while being careful in not to set the place on fire, breathed out more fire on five more beetles as the numbers began to decrease finally. Still, there were lots of them and the four of them felt that it could take a little while before they would finally get rid of all of them.
"Just a little more, guys!" Sonic encouraged, only to blink in surprise when behind the herd, some of the beetles were knocked down and soon he and his friends discovered why.
Amy stood there with her Piko Piko Hammer ready, whacking several as she yelled out, "Back off, you creepy crawlies! Or I'll squash ya!"
She wasn't the only one, because Cream leaped up from behind the pink hedgehog, and with a battle cry of her own, she and Cheese flew in before kicking and stomping on a couple of the melting beetles with determination. Cosmo, despite feeling a bit warmed up, leaped up and caused several beetles to crash into each other before, to everyone's surprise, especially Tails', stomped and kicked at one and leaped onto another. Even Chris, with a broken pipe in hand, whacked two to make his way through, while Tanaka, being a not-so-bright martial artist but close enough, karate-attacked three more.
Charmy and Espio then came in, the former making faces at one beetle which made it angry and then he flew up before laughing when it crashed into the wall, while the latter tossed several shurikens at the heads of more, defeating them almost instantly as the heat became too much for the mutant insects. Despite the surprise Sonic and the others were seeing, they quickly joined in to finish off the battle while Chuck had stayed behind due to his age and not being a fighter.
Soon there was only one left, the leader and the strongest despite being weakened.
"Here, Sonic!" Tails called out, tossing a Power Ring to his best friend who smirked while grabbing it, and felt it's power flow right through his body.
"Time to squash ya!" Sonic declared, jumping before Spin Dashing right into the last remaining mutant beetle who let out a painful and defeated roar while he leaped back as he and his friends watched with tension at the mutant.
To their relief, it gave out a moan before collapsing onto the floor and like with the giant worm last night, the beetle glowed and shrank back into it's true original form. While Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Cream and Cosmo were still stunned by this, this time they weren't as surpised as the Chaotix, Chris or Tanaka who all stared in shock.
"Well, that happened." Charmy remarked calmly, while Vector sweat dropped.
"At least it worked." Espio stated.
"Sonic!" Amy exclaimed happily, and to Sonic's dismay, hugged him tightly and nearly glomping him before she loosened up a little. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay. Nothing to worry about." Sonic replied, smiling a little as he gently hugged her back. He then glanced over to Vector and praised with a thumbs up. "See, Vec'? I knew you could do it. Great job!"
"Thanks, Sonic. To be honest, I couldn't have done it without you guys. Still got a bit of getting used to my new Flame Thrower." Vector replied, giving the blue hedgehog a thumbs up in return.
Sonic chuckled, before turning to Chris and said. "Nice battle moves there too, buddy! Real proud of ya."
Chris scratched the top of his head sheepishly. "Well, I kinda took some lessons from Mr. Tanaka. Just in case I was in for my own crazy adventures while I'm not a scientist all the time."
"Cosmo, are you okay?" Tails asked as he and Cosmo reached each other before embracing. "I was really worried."
"I'm fine, Tails. I was more worried about you. A little heat doesn't bother me." The Seedrian girl replied, happily hugging the boy she deeply loved. They then noticed the smiles and knowing looks from the rest of the group, much to the duo's embarrassment. Cosmo and Tails, blushing heavily, moved back and looked away from each other, the latter rubbing the back of his head.
"Aw, don't worry, you two. We're just happy that you're both okay." Sonic reassured with a smile, deciding that it was best not to tease his little brother or the young fox's 'girlfriend'. He then suggested, "Why don't we turn off the heating and power and then find those documents so we can burn them and then get outta here."
"Sounds like a plan to me." Knuckles replied, relieved that they can finally finish what they intended on doing.
No one was aware, however, that during the battle, the giant fly was spying on them, which it's recording was sent back to Narasu, who saw what happened.
And boy was he dismayed?
"OH NO! Those animals and that brat and his butler have melted by latest plan!" The mutated scientist screamed, his hands on his head before growling as he was now facing more failures due to the return of Sonic. "Ugh! I hate that hedgehog!"
Sobbing pathetically like a baby, and having to come up with another plan for his own insane goals, Kai fell back into his chair which was tilted too far and he ended up falling backwards onto the floor while hitting his head.
"OW!" He yelped in pain.
Meanwhile, still recovering from his latest defeat from Team Sonic, Eggman, Decoe, Bocoe and Bokkun were left in the middle of the desert, having lost track of his Egg Mobile and had to make the long trip back to his newest secret base, panting as they walked across the wasteland.
"Grr...I hate that hedgehog!" The evil scientist growled angrily, panting as the heat was really getting to him.
"I hate this heat." Decoe complained.
"Are we there yet? My parts are killing me." Bocoe moaned.
"Water...water..." Bokkun panted, his robotic tongue sticking out.
"Oh, stop it! I refuse to stand this heat and cope with your whining! Put your backs into it! It shouldn't be too far now!" Eggman yelled in irritation.
None the less, they kept walking onward as the sun began to set, hoping to reach their new base as soon as possible to cool down and relax before Eggman would come up with another evil plan.
Nearing the exit of the forest, Shadow had just used Chaos Spear to throw back a mutant giant wing-less bird with a horse's head that had sharp fangs like a lion, the monster hitting a tree hard before it slumped onto the ground, defeated. The black hedgehog sped up before stopping in a safe distance, glaring hard before Rouge and Omega, the two having helped in defeating it, arrived.
To the trio's surprise, the monster glowed before it began to shrink, and before long, it took the form of it's true self; a little sparrow bird who chirped before looking around and, it's strength coming back, hopped before flying away.
"I knew it. Attacking these things seem to return them into their normal selves." Shadow remarked, raising an eyebrow in suspicion.
"Whatever that fog is, it doesn't seem be protected by battles. But attacking them randomly doesn't seem like a good idea." Rouge stated, with a hint of concern in her voice.
"The data on the fog is still unavailable. This does not compute." Omega said. "It is certainly not the work of Dr. Eggman as they are not robots."
"Well, then we've got a mystery to solve. The city shouldn't be too far now." The bat thief shrugged.
Shadow was inclined to agree, but that left some troubling thoughts in his mind.
'If Dr. Eggman is truly not the cause of this mysterious fog that has spread out across the planet, then where did it come from? It looks like I have no choice but to find out soon.' He thought to himself.
Deciding that enough time was wasted, Shadow lead his team out of the forest and towards who knows where.
The mystery that everyone was facing was still yet to be fully discovered.
A/N: I know this chapter wasn't as good as I hoped it was, but I've done my best and hopefully the future chapters will be better in the future. However, I'll be busy for the next couple of days starting tomorrow. But I will update again as soon as I'm able.
See you later!