Author's note: I am VERY sorry for the delay of this story. I found myself stuck on this and had trouble trying to figure out how to continue it, but I still intend on completing it one way or another. Things have really been crazy and it's not the end of it, but hopefully this long-awaited chapter will make it up for it.
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 12: Tidal Wave of Crisis.
Last time, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles have reached the Ocean Palace after their new Sea Monster friend helped them to drive off Dr. Eggman who they still pursue, but Commander Tower is becoming more influenced under the strange substance to which he now attempts to capture Sonic and force him to stay on Earth and destroy Time forever.
Meanwhile, the other teams also reach the palace, where Chris, Danny and Frances narrowly avoid capture themselves, the Chaotix learn that the Mutagen that infected Vector is merging with the fog and making his condition even worse, while Team Dark find a Chaos Emerald that helped them escape the Military that are after Shadow who finds a shocking truth that he may be cloned from the mysterious hedgehog Rusca, whom Sonic now begins to question on who he is, but everyone find themselves trapped by the incoming Military who are preparing to strike.
"Tails, what is it?" Sonic asked, worriedly.
"It's-it's-it's GUN! They've got more helicopters and even the Navy approaching the Ocean Palace!" The two-tailed fox exclaimed.
"WHAT!?" Sonic and Knuckles both screamed, horrified as they shared a glance.
The Commander chuckled, thinking to himself. 'Very soon, Sonic the Hedgehog...you will be all mine.'
Will the five teams make it out and stop Dr. Eggman's evil scheme, or will they be captured and Earth and Sonic's world are doomed to merge and Time to be halted forever?
The helicopters and the Navy were creeping closer and closer to the Ocean Palace, scanners detecting the body heat of Team Sonic, Team Rose, Team Dark, the Chaotix and Team Chris, who were unaware of each team's presences due to what's going on, and were in much better trouble than they were before.
"We have five groups in five different locations of the building, sir. But it seems to be drifting, almost as though it's about to sink back beneath the sea." The Captain of one of the Ships reported, peering through a pair of binoculars to get a closer look while the scanner detected that of the groups.
"We don't have much time. It's clear that Shadow has a Chaos Emerald. Kill him and his team, but bring me Sonic and the Emerald. Make sure the rest do not escape and ensure that they drown within that Temple!" The Commander, hearing and deciding that drowning most of the group would be a perfect death sentence for all of Sonic's friends, saving him time and efforts to capture and drag them all to Area 51.
"S-sir! Are you sure this is the correct course? Sonic and his friends have done so much for us! What if they're trying to figure out how to stop the worlds from merging?" The Captain asked, shocked by the cruel order.
"DO AS YOU ARE ORDERED, CAPTAIN!" Tower shouted, and the Captain jumped when he heard something slam through the speakers. "It is the president's command. We must face the reality that it is far too late to save Time. We must learn to cope without it for the rest of eternity."
The Captain wasn't convinced, but he was horrified to hear it and knew the penalty and, despite not wanting to do it and didn't want time to be halted, there was no other choice, so he reluctantly replied in guilt. "Y-Yes, Commander Tower, sir."
The communication was cut off and the Captain felt horrible for this to happen and wondered that maybe it was Chris who caused all of this to happen, all because of his desire to bring Sonic back and force him to stay forever. But it didn't make any sense and why would the boy want to de-age everyone? Unless it's to do with the young Thorndyke wanting things back to how it all started nine years ago and keep it that way forever so that he could keep the blue hedgehog with him as long as he wanted.
"All units, surround the building. Find and capture Sonic and the Chaos Emerald!" The Captain commanded through the speakers, squeezing his eyes shut in guilt, thinking to himself. 'I'm sorry, Sonic. But there's no other choice...! At least try and escape!'
"They're still coming for us!" Danny exclaimed as he, Francies and especially Chris saw, hiding behind the window, that the military were creeping closer and closer.
"We have to get out of here, quick!" Francies cried out.
"But how? If they see us, they'll capture us or we could end up drowning if the Ocean Palace sinks for the next thousands of years!" Chris pointed out, worriedly, feeling dread form as he feared not just for the safety of his friends, but also for the safety of Sonic who could be in grave danger by now, despite that the blue hedgehog was used to facing it and even enjoyed getting himself into danger just for the fun of it.
"We have to at least try, Chris!" The de-aged girl stated. "If we don't, then we'll never find the real culprit!"
Despite that the de-aged boy knew that his friend was right, and that he couldn't just give up now, things were already becoming impossible to accomplish and that it could be the case where Sonic may not be able to save them this time. He then realized what he was thinking and despite things looking bleak now, if there was one thing he knew about his heroic friend, was that even at times when Sonic almost died, things turned out alright in the end.
"You're right. Let's get outta here and find the others!" Chris declared after a moment of renewing his determination, glancing around along with his friends who, surprised to see him quickly regain his de facto leadership, nodded in agreement, and looked to find an escape route.
They saw it across the stepping stones and shared a nod before the trio of de-aged children quickly raced and hopped in hopes in finding Sonic before it was too late. Making to the other side, Chris, Danny and Francies raced their way through the Ocean Palace's corridors while keeping their eyes peeled on Sonic as well as looking for a way out.
But what they found was more complications; as such, a couple of rouge egg-shaped robots that appeared out of nowhere which forced the trio to stop as they gasped in shock and confusion. Some were black, others looked a bit like robot versions of Eggman.
"Eggman's robots!" Chris exclaimed.
"Just when things couldn't get any worse!" Francies complained.
"Chris, maybe now would be a good time to try out our luck in beating these things..." Danny suggested nervously, as the robots began to advance on them.
The robots held out their arms to reveal laser cannons which made the three sweat drop nervously, before they shared a glance and Chris then noticed part of the wall that looked like something could grip onto it. Having an idea and hoping that the gripping hooks could do the trick, the de-aged Thorndyke took out one and quickly but carefully aimed it towards the crack.
"Chris?" Danny asked, blinking, just as his childhood friend fired and the hook struck onto the wall, holding on perfectly much to the ginger-haired boy's relief.
"What are you doing?" Francies demanded, shocked.
"A crazy idea!" Chris replied, while mentally praying. 'Please let this work...!'
Holding onto the hook tightly, the de-aged twenty-one year old jumped and allowed himself to be pulled up. With a yell and much to the shock of his friends, Chris, remembering part of Tanaka's training and having seen Sonic and the others fight all the time, swung upward before swinging down and as hard as he could, stomped onto the head of a robot which it stumbled back and collided into two more. In the meantime he let go and kicked another, allowing Danny and Francies, sharing a nod and nodded, to dodge out of the way when more attempted to open fire on their friend but missed.
"Hey, you dumb robots! Try this!" Francies shouted, holding out a club and as hard as she could while dodge-rolling out of the way, whacked a piece of a robot's fallen head onto another which plugged up the cannon and exploded.
Danny in the meantime pulled out the Nun-Chucks, and like how cowboys do with their ropes to catch cows or similar, he whacked a couple more, damaging them while helping out his friends who kept the other robots busy.
"Yeah!" The de-aged boy cheered, while Chris and Francies rejoined him, the young Thorndyke landing safely and unhooking his gripping hook from the wall.
"Yay! We rock!" The de-aged girl cheered happily. "We should do this more often!"
"Let's not go there, Francies..." Chris suggested with a sheepish sweat drop. Sure it had been pretty cool to fight and actually defeated robots without either Tails' X Tornados or having Sonic around for once, but he wouldn't want to make it a regular thing. "Like I said, crazy idea."
"Crazy, but awesome!" The de-aged girl pointed out.
"C'mon guys, as much as I'd like to keep on celebrating, we gotta get out of here." Danny interrupted, causing his two friends to gaze at him, before hearing the sounds of the vessels outside get louder and as they looked, their eyes widened in horror as they saw the helicopters and the navy begin to draw out their weapons.
"Let's go! We've gotta find Sonic before it's too late!" Chris declared, and his friends nodded before they raced through the corridor quickly, while thinking to himself. 'Don't worry, Sonic! I'll be there soon!'
In the large chamber, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles all looked out of the window after the two teenagers climbed their way up and peered carefully thanks to the stone sticking out on the walls and true to their youngest friend's words, they saw the military creeping closer to the temple.
"All this just for us?" Knuckles remarked in disbelief. "I knew the welcome mat would shatter."
"They're not here for all of us, Knuckles. Tower just wants me, and I have a feeling they somehow knew we're trying to clear Chris's name and decided not to let us handle Eggman ourselves." Sonic pointed out, feeling his chest have a mixture of concern, fear and guilt all over the place. "Either that, or that weird purple fog stuff's made Tower completely lose his mind."
"Sonic, I think I figured out why Tower is acting this away." Tails began, after careful and quick thinking, making his two older friends to gaze at him. "You said you saw the purple glint in Commander Tower's eyes and even the Guard's eyes too, right?"
"I thought I was seeing things, but yeah." The blue hedgehog confirmed, shrugging.
"I think it's connected to the fog, because not only it's effected most of humanity's ages, but it could be bringing out their darkest anger and/or desires they kept in check within themselves from becoming like Eggman, if not worse. For those like Tower, I think the connection with what happened with Shadow-"
"Can you just tell us without getting caught!?" The red echidna interrupted impatiently. "We're running out of time here!"
"To do that, we need to get outta here. Or else Tower's got me or we're all sunk." Sonic pointed out, before saying to his little brother. "But he's right, Tails. We need to go."
"We can't use the front entrance and go around. That'll make it easier for them." The two-tailed fox pointed out, before quickly adding. "But I do remember that in the legend when the Ocean Palace rises, there's at least four or five exits out of here. Two that were underwater, but the others all over the place, two in the back if we hurry enough through the corridors and mazes."
"Well, I guess it's the back door then." Sonic declared with a smirk, jumping down from the window to get going.
"Hey, wait!" Knuckles called out, jumping down as well with Tails hovering down by spinning his name-sakes.
"Let's go before they catch us for the petting zoo!" The teenage hero grabbed hold of the older teenager's right arm and the fox cub's left before speeding out through the corridor that, unknown to Team Sonic, is where Team Dark took and quickly made their way to escape.
As the GUN military were creeping closer, one of the monitors scanned all five teams(unknowingly to each other) making movements and were all heading to the back of the Ocean Palace on all different levels.
"Sir, it appears that they are all reaching towards the back! But the scanners are jammed and we can't figure out how or why they're heading there!" One of the Helicopter Pilots reported.
"Well, don't just stay still! Get them now!" Commander Tower shouted furiously, seeing the same thing through the monitors and hissed, thinking to himself. 'You think you and your friends can escape, Sonic, but it is futile. You belong to me now!'
"It is just me or has the Commander gone to acting like how GUN used to act like before he took over?" The Co-pilot in the helicopter muttered to the pilot that spoke, concerned, once the communication was cut off.
"Personally? I think that weird purple fog stuff made him lose his mind." The Pilot responded, gazing ahead worriedly. "It's like his anger had exploded or something. Maybe this isn't the right thing to do."
"But we don't have a choice. If we leave now, it's severe punishment for sure." His ally pointed out.
"But...are our jobs really worth it at this point? What if Sonic and his friends are trying to figure out how to stop time from being destroyed? What if they already have a plan? Sure they're animals from an alien planet, but they've done so much for us, and that Chris kid isn't one to cause trouble. It's Eggman and Nasaru that I'm worried about." The first Pilot stated, having massive doubts within himself, and personally, he isn't the only one.
The Co-Pilot was silent as he also had his doubts, but at the same, they had their orders. Yet, was it really worth it?
Once seeing that the military were still after them, Amy, Cosmo, Cream and Cheese ran away to find a place to hide as well as finding a way out and hoping to find Sonic's group. The three girls and the little Chao kept on running as fast as they could and to make things worse, both Eggman's robots and the corrupted animals kept on blocking their way.
"HAAAAAAYAAA!" Amy shrieked with determination, swinging her hammer so hard that the mutant fish-monster was smacked and crashed into five more which they all landed into the water and make-shift river before they returned to normal. Once she landed, she glared angrily at the sea-life. "We don't have time for sea-food here! Go someplace else!"
"Let's go, Cheese!" Cream cried out as she and Cheese flew and charged as hard as they could, the little rabbit girl jumping and jump kicked at a robot, knocking it over while the little Chao barrelled into another, knocking it off the bridge the group were running and fighting on.
Cosmo jumped and hovered while fooling each robot and monster to try and attack her only for her opponents to crash into each other, either exploding or falling unconscious and de-transforming in defeat. She then gasped when another robot came out of nowhere, and for a split second felt fear, but then remembered all the struggles she and her wonderful friends have gone through, and her thoughts then went to Tails, the fox boy she fell in love with.
"I cannot let you hurt any innocent people or my dearest friends!" The young Seedrian cried out, as the robot charged before she leaped up into the air, causing it to wobble over the edge of the bridge, which it soon fell to it's demise when Amy saw this and stood behind it with a smug smile on her face before kick it off and it fell, landing in the water with a huge splash.
"Come on, girls and Cheese! We'd better get going!" The pink hedgehog informed her team who nodded and they immediately ran once more to try and find a way out as quickly as possible, knowing that they couldn't go back to the front entrance.
"Chaos Spear!" Shadow shouted as he fired his attack at several robots who stood no chance against the Ultimate Lifeform. It hadn't been long since the black hedgehog, Rouge and Omega, discovering that the military were after them still and were creeping closer, opted to try and get out before they were all sunk into the bottom of the sea along with the Ocean Palace.
The albino bat did her drill kick an Egg Pawn, bashing it right into the chest before flying over it when despite it being heavily damaged, opened fired at her but missed. But Omega certainly didn't, because he just fired upon his own 'brethren' in full force and not showing any mercy, because as far as the E-123 robot was concerned, all of Eggman's robots including the evil scientist were his enemies.
"This is slowing us down! We must destroy all Dr. Eggman robots and proceed to exit in the next ten minutes before the GUN military annhiliate us!" Omega reported while all three if them still fought off against the enemy robot army.
"No argument there! This is getting on my nerve!" Rouge shouted in agreement, kicking away more of the enemies as she went.
Shadow used a Spin Attack to bash his way through several more robots with ease as they exploded upon impact. This was followed by Rouge helping out as she grabbed him by the arms and flew up high while Omega surprised them by spinning rapidly and then opened up his turret which revealed a pink laser that oblierated the other robots that charged with their drill arms but were vaporized before they even had a chance.
"What do you think you're doing, Rouge!?" Shadow demanded, glaring up at his companion who gave him a sly smile.
"Just trying out something I've seen Tails do with Sonic whenever they teamed up." The bat thief replied. "I throw you, you go into that spin attack thing you hedgehogs are famously good at."
At first confused and surprised on what she was talking about, the black hedgehog quickly caught on and gave a sly smirk of his own with a chuckle. "Then let's not disappoint these pieces of junk."
Rouge nodded before she and Shadow waited and then the former threw the latter who went for another Spin Attack, barreling through another large bulky robot which was destroyed from inside out. Once the Ultimate Lifeform landed, his smirk grew wider as he muttered, glancing over his shoulder at the success. "Hmph. Perfect."
Omega, who had finished off his fair share of opponents, also saw what happened and had analyzed the strategy Rouge and Shadow had commenced. "Analyze scan complete; strategy was an 100% success. Very excellent idea."
"We make one heck of a team." Rouge said happily, only to feel huge vibrations and a quake which made her jump, Shadow alarmed and Omega alert, the robot member of their team scanning the situation.
"Alert! The Ocean Palace's guardians are rising and a giant mutant sea monster is approaching as well as we speak!" Omega warned.
"Let's move out! We can't waste any more time!" Shadow ordered. The other would've argued, but they decided not to and followed the black hedgehog's lead, all the while trying to find a way out.
True to Omega's words, deep beneath the ocean and swimming just underneath the navy ships, was a silhouette of something huge, about the same size as the giant sea monsters that saved both Sonic's team as well as Team Chris, except this was shaped more monstrous and mutant-formed-like and it gave out a roar underwater.
Meanwhile, the Chaotix were fighting their way through more mutant monsters, with Vector punching and bashing them with his fists and tail before frying more with his new fire breath ability, while Espio used his invisibility to trick his opponents before tossing his shurikens at them and attacking them with ease, and Charmy bashing more with his stinger and other useful skills.
"I think the mystery of the Ocean Palace is already solved and we already took out a lot of the mutant guys!" Charmy cried out as he and his companions made their escape. "Plus those army guys don't seem to be happy!"
Once the trio found a hiding spot, they all breathed a sigh of relief and panted, even though Vector felt overwhelmingly warm and very uneasy all over his body. "Man, I'm not sure if my bad mutant cold or whatever it is is getting worse, or all that fighting is putting up a sweat."
"Hmm...Your fever has returned, and your pulse is increasing. I'm not a doctor, but with whatever's going on, it fear that the Mutagen along with the fog's infections is making you worse." Espio said grimly, checking his friend's forehead and pulse.
"Do you think that Narasu guy really is behind all of this?" Charmy asked curiously.
The older two shared a glance before the crocodile leader took out the empty capsule and muttered. "There's no other explanation. Problem is, how was this dropped here in the first place? Unless that guy was riding Dr. Eggman's Egg Mobile."
"Maybe he's got mutated by his own invention?" The young bee asked cluessly. "He might've had the worst hit by that fog stuff if he's behind it too and didn't go all young and is just as crazy."
"Nah, scientists don't use themselves as experiments." Vector shrugged, before realizing something and said. "Speaking of Eggman, shouldn't Sonic and the others have dealt with him by now?"
Before either one in the team could even speculate on this, the walkie-talkie buzzed to life again and Vector answered, with the mysterious caller speaking. "I trust that there is a problem?"
"It's not a problem as things are so crazy. We took out as many of those mutant monsters and found this vial that's familiar and we have an idea that we know who's behind it. You ever hear of a guy named Narasu?" Vector responded.
"Excellent work, boys. As for Dr. Narasu, yes I've heard of him. Unfortunately, he has been missing for the past few years and has secretly been plotting revenge against humanity. Or so I have heard rumors. Whatever the case is, that man is dangerous, now more than ever. Being a scientist of biochemistry, which is for researching, studying and experimenting on chemical and physico-chemical processes and substances that occur within living organisms, as well as the living cells within every body of every lifeforms, it's no surprise." The mysterious cilent explained, which only made both Charmy and Vector sweat drop, dumbfounded.
"Bio-what, Physi-what and organi-what now?" Charmy asked, very confused.
"Translate that in English please?" Vector asked sheepishly.
The mysterious caller groaned, exasperated before answering more simply in a forced calm voice. "In other words, our bodies hold more than what you originally thought! They are more alive than even the planet itself. Narasu has the scientific and dangerous mind to change a living being's body with chemicals that are not poison, but changes how our bodies react. Your job is to find him and stop him, and if calculations are correct..."
"Then Narasu is behind the purple fog; it is his doing." Espio realized, remembering what they found in Chris' old lab and the vials that were found before Chuck was arrested. Plus the human-shaped hole in the ceiling and Vector's mutagen returning. "It makes perfect since. He re-designed Chris' Porthole to somehow use his new version of the fog, which is the upgraded Mutagen and sent it across the planet to get revenge on humanity, going behind people's backs by disobeying the law and his use science."
"And with Dr. Eggman's own porthole opening up, it got affected and mixed things up somehow!" Vector realized. "That settles it! Not only we figured out who's behind this, but we found proof that Narasu's the one who framed that kid! We gotta find him and take him down!"
"Yeah! Sonic's gonna be so happy when he hears this!" Charmy cheered.
"But first, you must find Narasu before it's too late. Also, Dr. Eggman is part of this plan and it is a top priority to take both of them down at the exact same time and exact same place for the truth to be discovered." The mysterious caller informed them. "You'd better get going, fast. There's not much time left."
Before the Chaotix could even ask what the mysterious caller meant, he hung up and left the trio even more confused despite having learned more about the whole thing. Eventually, the youngest of the trio muttered. "Well, at least we figured out most of the truth."
Suddenly the whole building, making Vector and Espio almost lose their balance while Charmy cried out. "AAH! Earthquake!"
"No! The Ocean Palace! It may either be sinking back into the sea, or the guardians are disturbed by the military coming to invade it!" Espio exclaimed, his eyes widening in shock and fear.
"That's even worse!" The young bee exclaimed, panicking.
"Then we'd better get our butts moving, or else we're as good as goners!" Vector declared, taking the lead once more. But as he did, both Espio and Charmy noticed his entire body was giving out the same purple and red aura glow as before, only this time it was more visible. Despite the fear of this, the two shared a glance before racing after him.
As Sonic, Tails and Knuckles were trying to find a way out of the Ocean Palace, they were once again ambushed by more mutant animals as well as more of Eggman's robots which they fought their way through as quickly as possible. Sonic used his Spin Attack to barge through several enemies with ease, before uncurling himself and punched and kicked several more, jumping and bouncing among them as well as the walls.
Knuckles was punching at several more without showing any mercy to them, and Tails whacked others as hard as he could while copying Sonic's special moves to some extent, before the trio defeated all of the enemies in their path and rejoined, then continued along as quickly as possible. Or rather, the blue hedgehog was running as quickly as possible while his two friends were holding on for dear life.
"Man! Eggman and whoever's behind all of this sure don't give a guy a break!" Sonic commented, though he was smirking at the excitement of this adventure despite that the first day was almost up and they only had two and half days left before Eggman's latest plot in taking over the worlds take place.
"We'd better hurry, or else the Ocean Palace will sink with us in it!" Tails cried out while clinging on as much as possible while a huge rumble shook the entire place and pillars began falling over, but it was nothing that the blue hedgehog couldn't handle as he easily sped past them without worry, with his friends clinging on.
"Don't worry, Tails!" The blue hedgehog reassured his adoptive little brother. "We'll be outta here without anything else to be thrown at us!"
Knuckles rolled his eyes, then he and the young fox cub heard the rumble get louder and when they looked over their shoulders, their eyes widened in horror while yelping as they saw something coming towards them, before the red echidna gazing back to Sonic, calling out in an increasing panic. "Oh yeah? Well tell that to the giant stone wheel that's about to flatten us like pancakes!"
"Huh?" Sonic blinked in confusion, looking over his shoulder and like his two friends, saw the aforementioned giant wheel chasing after them after it rolled from the ceiling, as though they unknowingly triggered a trap. Yelping, he sped up in his fastest speed, leaving a trail of blue, red and yellow blur while the stone rolled after them.
"Okay, forget what I just said! Let's just hope that's the last thing that's thrown at us in this place!" Sonic re-announced quickly, while Tails and Knuckles screamed as they tried to hold onto the speedy hero.
Outside of the Ocean Palace, the Navy and Helicopters prepared to board and search the entire place when the ships' radars began to pick up three signals of something very huge and dangerous, alarms blaring which had each captains and their crew scrambling on what was going on.
"Captain! Something huge is coming towards us!" One of the crew members informed, sweating nervously.
Before the captain could even ask what it was, ocean began making waves, causing the ships to almost lose their balance and get caught in the rough tides that shook not just the sea, but also part of the land and across to the Ocean Palace itself. Then something huge emerged from the water and when everyone looked up in both crafts, all of them cried out in fear, shock and horror when it revealed itself to be a giant mutant sea monster, shaped like a mixture of Godzilla but with octopus tentacles on it's back, four in total with it's arms missing, a long fin-tail like a fish and it's eyes like a fly's.
Everyone all sweat dropped at the sight of this mutant beast.
"We...are in serious trouble." One of the helicopter pilots said, nervously while the co-pilot next to him chattered his teeth in fear.
Back in the GUN HQ, Tower was informed of what was going on now and listened to one of the captains frantically saying. "We cannot get any further with that thing in the way! Your orders, sir?"
"We cannot get to Sonic or the other fugitives now...! Even if we do, men will be lost and time is wasted enough as it is. That thing must be destroyed!" The Commander growled, before giving out his orders. "Fire at will!"
"What if our fire powers don't work?"
"You have your orders! Keep firing even if this fails! DO IT!" The corrupted man roared, his eyes glowing purple which was now turning into a darker shade of red, his vision becoming blurry as the effects of the fog was getting worse. It was now to the point where the lives of his men mattered very little.
All he cared about was getting Sonic and killing both Chris and Shadow.
All those waiting their orders shared shocked glances, but knew that they couldn't disobey. Yet at the same time felt that they were only going to be getting themselves killed and for what? For Commander Tower to capture Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds and get rid of all of the blue hedgehog's friends and allies? Despite this, they had to at least try to defeat the mutant monster and agreed to at least give it a shot.
"Fire!" One of the captains ordered, echoed by the rest of the those under the command of this operation.
The ships and helicopters opened fire at the monster who roared, the missiles and lasers exploding on it's scaly skin, while underwater, the two sea monsters that Team Sonic, Team Chris and the Chaotix encountered began to swim towards the giant beast, determined to protect both the Ocean Palace, and all of the heroes who are trying to save the two worlds and time itself.
"We're almost there!" Sonic announced as he continued to run, while Tails and Knuckles, hanging on for dear life with their feet not even touching the ground, whimpered and the stone wheel still chasing them despite it being so far away that they were already losing sight of it.
"AH! SONIC!" Tails called out, pointing up ahead.
When Sonic looked, he gasped and quickly skid to a stop just before he and his friends could end up running straight into a huge hole in the floor with water at the bottom, a bridge that was destroyed long ago and their only way out on the other side. The trio stared in shock, before gasping as they turned to see the giant wheel beginning to catch up to them. The two teenagers grunted with glares as they and Tails felt terrified, sweating nervously while trying to quickly come up with a plan on how to get out of this alive, and the quakes were only making things worse as the Ocean Palace shook.
"Alright, Tails, think you can carry us to the other side?" Sonic quired.
"Huh!? Sonic, are you crazy? I can carry one person, sure, but two people!?" The two tailed fox exclaimed as he and Knuckles gazed at the blue hedgehog in shock. "I've never done that before!"
"You can do it! I know you can!" Sonic encouraged, smiling at his best friend. "Believe in yourself, buddy. You're stronger than you think you are."
"We don't have much time. You're our only hope right now and getting out of here!" Knuckles quickly agreed frantically.
Despite that he felt some doubt if he was capable of doing so, Tails then remembered all of the accomplishments he did through out all of the adventures he shared with his friends; everyone who always supported him no matter what. Plus there wasn't much time and as he glanced back at the wheel that was getting closer and closer, the young fox cub knew that he had at least try.
"Okay!" He finally said, and lifted himself off the ground with his tails spinning like propellers, and held out his hands. "Grab on!"
"Yeah!" Sonic replied, grabbing onto Tails' hands as he was lifted off his feet, with Knuckles grabbing onto the hedgehog's ankles and the trio then flew off of the side and over the hole.
As Tails flew with Sonic and Knuckles holding on for dear life, the three of them looked back to see the wheel getting closer and closer, but by that time they were miraculously already halfway there and thus safely avoided it while the giant stone rolled over the edge and fell into the water below. The young kit held onto his friends as long as he could, forcing himself to keep going, encouraging himself to keep flying, taking Sonic's encouragement to heart. By this time despite the extra slight weight from the red echidna, Tails successfully made it and gently lowered Sonic and Knuckles to the ground in a safe distance from the other edge while landing on the ground himself, panting a little.
"I did it!" Tails celebrated happily.
"Way to go, Tails! I knew you could do it." Sonic congratulated, placing a hand onto his friend's shoulder, offering him a thumbs up and a wink, to which his little brother thanked him and returned the trademark gesture.
"I gotta say, you sure impressed me, kid." Knuckles admitted. "Not every day you carry more than just one person at the time."
Tails giggled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, you know as they say; first time for everything."
"Let's get going before those creeps catch up to us!" Sonic declared, knowing that they still had GUN to escape from.
Unfortunately, the entire place shook once more, due to, unknowingly to them and the other teams there were unaware of, the battle of the giant monster against the military who were putting in all of their power to defeat the monster, and to make things more confusing, the two Guardian Sea Monsters emerged and began to fight against the mutant beast who roared and turned to glare at them, much to the shock of the humans outside as they wondered what was happening.
The captain who had his doubts and hoped that Sonic's group would escape, knew that it was becoming far too dangerous and despite that Tower's orders were absolute, he couldn't take it anymore and squeezed his eyes shut before making a decision.
"Everyone fall back! FALL BACK!" The Captain commanded, much the shock of the crew.
"Sir!?" One of the crew members asked, bewildered.
"What about the Commander's orders?" Another asked in disbelief.
"It doesn't matter! We can't fight these things without getting killed and the Commander is out of his mind! He's unstable! Our only hope is for Sonic and his friends to save us all! What's more important? Our jobs or other people's lives?" The Captain argued firmly, and this was heard by everyone else hearing this in both the other ships as well as the helicopters.
Even though some were fearful, those who felt the same way as the Captain, coming to the same conflicted decisions, they all realized that he was right and ultimately agreed, all saying in unison. "Aye aye, Captain!"
Back in the battle against the monsters that quickly started, the sea monster that saved Sonic's life as well as Chris's group roared before bashing it's head into the mutant monster's chest, forcing it back as it also roared in pain and anger. It then got back up as the water was at it's waist, before it swished it's tail around, but it was blocked off by the darker sea guardian monster who took the hit, shielding the Ocean Palace and the heroes inside, but the impact caused the place to violently shake and make everyone almost lose their balance while they screamed in alarm.
With Team Rose, the girls and Chao all screamed while Cream held onto Amy and Cheese, crying out. "Amy, I'm scared!"
"Chao!" Cheese squeaked in fear.
"It's going to be okay, Cream!" Amy did her best to comfort her friend, holding her and the Chao protectively, all the while blaming herself as she thought in her mind. 'This is all my fault! I never should've gone out to look for Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds! Or even let Cosmo, Cream and Cheese to come with me! We've gotta get outta here, or we're done for!'
"We need to leave, or else we're in bigger trouble!" Cosmo exclaimed as the shaking was steady going on and off.
"You're right, Cosmo. C'mon!" The pink hedgehog agreed, holding onto Cream and Cheese and took the lead with the Seedrian girl following and as luck would have it, they were nearing the exit. "We're almost out!"
The cause of the quakes nearly had Sonic, Tails and Knuckles lose their balance, but the battle outside triggered a failsafe as a huge slab of stone shaped like a circle rolled from above and blocked Team Sonic's only way out, sealing them inside which made the three look up and gasped in shock.
"Oh no!" Tails cried out. "We're trapped!"
"You're kidding me! How many fail-safes does this place have!?" Sonic cried out in frustration.
"Maybe the military's trying to attack it and it's causing the Ocean Palace to close up more quickly, meaning that we don't have time left before we're all sank beneath the ocean!" The two-tailed fox theorized fearfully.
"Then we'll just have to bust our way out!" The blue hedgehog declared, knowing that they didn't have much time left.
"Let this to me! I'll get us outta here!" Knuckles reassured with confidence, taking out his Shovel Claws and clawed and punched his way through the thick slab of stone while Sonic and Tails shield their faces with their arms as their friend dug their way out.
With Team Chris, the leader of the group, using his own club, did his best to dodge another robot's attack before charging and literally bashed it's head off, causing it to explode as he backed away, while his friends did the similar thing with hooks and Nun-Chucks since they had one each for convenience, before they all hurried to reach their exit as quickly as possible, only to come to a stop as due to the quakes caused outside, the bridge was destroyed by the fallen rock.
"Uh-oh..." Both de-aged boys muttered as they and Francies sweat dropped worriedly.
"How are we going to get across this?" Danny asked.
"Guys, look!" The de-aged girl quickly spoke up, pointing to the right as she noticed something. Both of her friends turned to gaze out of the window close by and all gasped when they finally saw the battle take place, the three giant monsters blocking the military from getting even closer to the Ocean Palace. The three de-aged kids recognized one of them, but were shocked to see another.
"It's that same monster that saved us earlier!" Chris exclaimed.
"And there's another one! They're both fighting that thing to protect us?" Danny asked, amazed and in disbelief.
"Chris, I think those really are the guardians of Ocean Palace, and they're protecting us and this place from both the military and that monster. We have to get out of here now!" Francies theorized.
"Easier said than done, Francies. We're stuck." Danny reminded.
Chris knowing that Francies was right, gazed over to their only exit point before trying to remain calm and thought about what would Sonic do in situations like this. Well, knowing the blue hedgehog, he would think quickly and come up with crazy ideas in getting out of situations like this. He then looked up and saw a hole in the ceiling and then remembered his last strategy before another crazy idea formed. Moaning to himself and when Danny asked what was wrong, the de-aged Thorndyke held out his gripping hooks and fired at the hole where it hooked itself securely.
"Hold onto me, guys. We're gonna swing across!" Chris ordered, causing his two childhood friends to gasp in bewilderment.
"Chris, you're not serious, are ya'?" Francies asked.
"It's our only way out! C'mon, we don't have much time!" The de-aged boy quickly said.
The ground then shook once more and the three of them looked out to see the monsters's battle become more violent. So at Chris' urging to hurry, the other two didn't argue and cling onto him as tightly as possible while he declared nervously but with determination. "Here goes!"
With a great big leap after a short countdown, Chris, Danny and Francies all swung off the edge and over the hole below them in Tarzan style, screaming while praying to not fall into the hole. For a split second the hook became lose and the trio panicked and it then slipped free. They screamed louder in fear, but somehow they managed to swing over to the other side, landing on the edge. But Francies quickly lost her footing and began to fall backwards, crying out in alarm.
"Francies!" Chris screamed out, quickly grabbing her left wrist while Danny grabbed his, preventing the young Thorndyke from falling over as well. As the other de-aged boy struggled to hold onto his friends, Francies tried to hold on while scared that they would lose their grip. "D-Don't worry, Francies. We got you!"
"Okay...!" The de-aged girl replied, putting all of her trust into her friends.
Eventually, Danny and Chris managed to pull Francies to safety and they quickly hurried away from the edge and panted, the de-aged Thorndyke asking the de-aged girl. "You okay?"
"Yeah. Thanks for saving me, guys." Francies said gratefully.
"It's what friends do." Chris shrugged, making his friend giggle before the entire place shook again, making them alarmed even more.
"We'd better go, or else we're done for." Danny informed them and they agreed, before they all hurried outside, finally exiting the Ocean Palace and out of the other side. When the three of them turned to see the battle now that they were back out, their eyes widened when they saw the creature for the first time and cringed. But what they also saw surprised them; the army was retreating save for one helicopter which was unnoticed and flew over the monsters as unseen as possible, apparently finding something more important.
"The Army's moving away." Francies realized.
"Must be because of the giant monsters. Two that are the guardians and that thing being the biggest threat right about now." Danny theorized.
"Most likely." Chris thought, while thinking in his mind. 'I just hope Sonic's okay. We still haven't found him yet. But what if GUN have already taken him away?'
Realizing that they had to use this chance to escape despite that Chris was still worried about his blue hedgehog best friend, he then realized that he had to hold onto the hope that Sonic was alright. So he told his companions that they had to keep looking and both Francies and Danny agreed before they took off once more, unaware that they were missing Team Sonic and the other three teams.
BOOM!
With a final punch, Knuckles had made a hole big enough for him, Sonic and Tails to successfully escape through. The red echidna smirked, "That oughta do it."
"Thanks, Knuckles." Sonic said with feeling, before the ground shook once more and the group sweat dropped when not only more rocks threatened to fall, but they also heard sounds of massive roars coming from outside.
"Let's get outta here before we're trapped again!" Tails screamed.
"Way ahead of ya!" The blue hedgehog declared, grabbing hold of his friends' arms once more and sped out of the place, escaping just in time as another fail-safe blocked the exit, then grind down a twisted carve that acted like stone railings before leaping off after a few surprising twists and turns before landing safely on the ground and ran once more.
The group looked back while the heroic hedgehog smirked. "Ha! Made it! Now it's time to look for Egghead!"
But as Sonic and his friends made to look ahead again, they stopped and the blue hedgehog skid to a pause when they finally saw what was happening in the ocean. They gasped in shock when they saw the giant sea monster that saved them before, another one identical to it but darker, and a huge mutant monster all fighting and to their confusion, the military that had them trapped were flying and sailing away.
"Not another giant mutant monster!" Sonic, Knuckles and Tails exclaimed in dismay, then gasped again when they saw their monster friend doing it's best to push the mutant monster away, hissing in pain before growling at it's opponent.
"Our friend is fighting that thing! With another one of it's own kind!" Sonic then cried out, seeing that the two sea monster guardians were getting badly hurt.
"Why call it our friend when it trapped us in the first place?" Knuckles asked, believing that the giant sea monster lead them into the Ocean Palace on purpose.
Tails on the other hand thought otherwise. "One of the sea guardians must've hit the Ocean Palace while trying to protect it and us and would've kept us safe from GUN, but I guess that giant mutant monster made them run away since their weapons weren't able to even harm that thing."
As Sonic watched the two giant sea guardian monsters fight, he thought back on how the one that had rescued him and helped to save his friends from Eggman's metal clutches and pointed them in the right direction, and couldn't help but wonder if it wanted him to know more about the truth of Rusca and the past that caused his world and Earth to split up in the first place. Maybe it was supposed to lead to a clue on how to save both and time itself. Either way, he couldn't just stand there and let the gentle sea creatures get hurt or killed.
"Either way, I'm not gonna stand by and do nothing!" Sonic declared with determination, and despite that it was in water, he sped off to try and help the two gentle giant monsters to fight against the evil mutated monster with tentacles.
"Sonic, wait!" Tails and Knuckles cried out, before hurrying to follow their crazy friend before he would get himself killed.
Unknowingly to them, Amy, Cosmo, Cream and Cheese had finally reached their exit, ironically, just above the one Team Sonic had been on and Cream carried her friends into the air and down towards the ground, though they finally saw the cause of what was going on and were shocked, fearful and confused. Not only were the military running away, but there were also three giant monsters fighting each other.
"Giant monsters?" Cream asked, fearfully.
"Are they Metarex?" Cosmo asked, worriedly, worried that the most powerful enemies in the past have somehow come back to life just like she did.
"I don't think so, Cosmo." Amy responded, sensing something odd about this. "That giant monster with tentacles is probably another sea animal mutated by that weird fog and...not sure why, but those two giant Loch-Ness monsters might actually be helping us. Like they're guardians or something."
"I bet that's why the military people are going away, 'cause they can't fight them." The little rabbit girl suggested, with Cheese muttering in agreement.
"At least that's one less thing to worry about for now." The pink hedgehog agreed, she and her friends all sighing in relief. "That was way too close, though."
Cheese then noticed something and cried out, making Cream look up and she gasped, calling out. "Look! Down there!"
When Amy and Cosmo both looked, they too gasped in shock as they spotted a blue blur along with a yellow fox and red echidna racing towards the titanic battle of the beasts, and almost instantly they recognized the three.
"Could it be...?" Cosmo asked, stunned in surprise and worry.
Amy was speechless at first, but no doubt in her mind that she found who she was looking for, one that she had promised to help as well as find the Chaos Emeralds, one who made her push on without giving up, the male blue hedgehog of her dreams.
"It's Sonic!" The pink hedgehog exclaimed. Then, realizing that her 'boyfriend' was going to risk his life in fighting the monsters, she looked up to her friends and declared. "We've gotta help them! C'mon, girls! And Cheese! They need us!"
"Understood." The Seedrian agreed, wishing to help Sonic, Tails and Knuckles.
"I'll do my best! Hang on!" Cream cried out, altering her course and flew into the huge epic battle while hoping that it wasn't too late.
'Hang in there, Sonic! We're coming!' Amy thought to herself, refusing to let anything horrible happen to him again.
When the Chaotix finally emerged, they only saw glimpses of the giant monsters fighting but decided to avoid them, and instead kept on running when they saw the military making their exit, going back to where they came from. Vector, Espio and Charmy collapsed onto the ground as they just left the beach and panted.
"We managed to escape the army." The purple Chameleon sighed.
"More like they ran away from those giant monsters that are way too hard to beat even for us." Vector admitted, grumbling. "I wouldn't mind being a giant myself to take out those guys, but only if I could shrink back to normal without needing aspirin."
"At least those guys aren't gonna be chasing after us." Charmy stated. "For a while there, I thought we'd be caught by them. But once again, the Chaotix triumpths!"
"You said it, Charmy. Not sure where those monsters came from, but we don't have any time to be taking a break." The crocodile detective announced, standing up and pulled his two friends up and pointed up ahead. "We've got two crazy scientists to catch up and more mysteries to solve if we're gonna solve this case!"
Before either of them could say anything else, Vector once again took the lead despite Espio telling him to wait, just as Charmy whispered to him worriedly. "Ya' think we should tell him how he was glowing all red and purple like fireworks?"
"If we ever get the chance to tell him, but I know that he must know. I fear that Mutagen within his body is mutating and getting worse." Espio whispered back.
The fact that it was only getting worse because neither of them knew that it was only a matter of time before the full effects take place and then Narasu's prediction he thought already happened in Sonic's world would soon come true here on Earth, which would spell everybody's doom.
"My sensors detect multiple activity." Omega announced as Team Dark reached the roof of the Ocean Palace, or at least outside of it but still not outside of the ruins itself but were getting pretty close. Thus giving them a front row seat view of what was going on. "Three giant monsters are in an all-out brawl; two that are identical besides the colour, and I suspect they are protecting these ruins from the mutant monster, who have frightened most of the military away. Those cowards are retreating."
"I'd bet my life that those two non-mutant giant monsters could be the guardans of the Ocean Palace." Rouge roughly guessed, before groaning. "It's too bad this place didn't have any rare and valuable treasure, and we still only have one Chaos Emerald."
"Two guardians of the Ocean Palace, huh?" Shadow muttered to himself, largely ignoring Rouge's complaining for the lack of jewels and other Chaos Emeralds. "I thought Loch-Ness Monsters were a pure myth."
The white female bat caught on what the black hedgehog had said, and couldn't help but mutter. "So you know all of those silly stories about some long-necked dinosaur monster living in a lake, do you?"
"In my time, yes." The Ultimate Lifeform muttered, looking away as it made him think about Maria once more, and he tried to ignore the painful memories of her death. Reading up about the Loch-Ness monster with the sickly girl who was like an older sister to him was one of the fond memories he had back up on the Space Colony ARK.
Rouge must've caught on because now she felt awkward and looked away, feeling a bit guilty for inadvertently bringing up memories which unfortunately reminded her friend of the time he lost Maria, and the horrible things Professor Gerald Robotnik did since his granddaughter's death impacted him terribly to the point of losing his mind.
The two were brought out of their thoughts as Omega suddenly blared up. "Alert! Alert! GUN Helicopter approaching!"
"What!?" Shadow and Rouge both looked up and as they feared, one helicopter decided to stay behind and rather than foolishly fight off the giant monsters, the pilots instead, the two who were the most loyal towards Commander Tower, spotted them and returned to the main objective by destroying the black hedgehog and claim the Chaos Emerald.
"Not again!" The two grunted in irritation.
In the HQ, Tower was absolutely furious over the betrayal his men had committed by taking the cowardly approach and fleed the battle from the two mosnters, all except one helicopter which wouldn't do any good. But what he saw next did bring a bit of satisfaction as he could see the images of Shadow, Rouge and Omega glaring up at the chopper.
"We failed to keep Sonic and the other fugitives trapped in the ruins, sir, but we have located Shadow the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat and the Eggman robot, and they still have the Chaos Emerald." One of the Pilots within the chooper reported.
"Good. Kill them all and bring me that Chaos Emerald, and keep looking for Sonic and the other fugitives, and do NOT fail me!" Tower commanded, grunting as he was unknowingly now glowing purple and red all over his body which then quickly faded, but it seeped deep into his eyes. "That blue hedgehog and those Emeralds will be mine...!"
The giant Godzilla with Tentacles monster roared as it reared back from the latest attack from the two guardian monsters who glared at it, attempting to force it to leave or take any drastic action to destroy it and protect both the Ocean Palace as well as the heroes that may still be trapped inside, especially the teenage young hero Sonic the Hedgehog.
It then decided to play dirty, by stretching out it's tentacles, two on each neck of each sea monster who both grunted as they were being strangled and tried to escape, but no amount of thrusting or splashing could help them to escape the tightening grip, while the mutant monster grinned as it prepared for the killing blow, only for a Spin Attack from a blue blue to hit it in the arms and face, causing it to roar in agony, while Knuckles suddenly appeared and punched it's head several times despite that it was harder than it looked. Next came Tails who copied Sonic's attack and hit one tentacle, which forced the giant mutant monster to recoil it as well as the other tentacles, freeing the two giant guardians who were gasping for breath.
At that moment, Sonic and his friends landed on a large rock that sat in the middle of the ocean, the blue hedgehog taunting the evil mutant, who turned and glared at the three smaller heroes who glared back. "Hey, you ugly Squid-Zilla! You leave everybody alone, Fish-breath!"
"We're not gonna let you get away with this!" Tails added.
"You're gonna have to mess with us now, you monster!" Knuckles declared boldly.
The 'Squid-Zilla' as Sonic had dubbed it, hissed a growl before it swished it's tail towards them, but Sonic, Tails and Knuckles leaped off of the rock and while the two-tailed fox flew, the other two leaped and jumped from other rocks to avoid in getting crushed while the rocks were smashed into pieces, before the blue hedgehog had an idea and leaped upward instead backwards or side to side.
"You're gonna have to do better than that!" Sonic taunted with a smirk.
Back with Shadow's group, the trio stood glaring up at the helicopter that got closer and closer, preparing the take the order of destroying Team Dark and steal the Chaos Emerald before moving on to find and capture Sonic.
"These guys just really don't get it, do they?" Rouge commented.
"Humans never do. Most of them, anyway." Shadow grunted.
"I have detected the body temperature of the pilots inside the helicopter. They the mutation of the mysterious unnatural fog has corrupted their minds and it is only getting worse, overwhelming them to pure anger and hatred and greed." Omega analyzed.
"Then we have no choice but to take them on." The Ultimate Lifeform said darkly.
That worried the albino bat, because she said, somewhat pleadingly. "How about at least knocking them out and not actually killing them? I might be a thief, but I'm not a killer."
While Shadow flinched at the suggestion and plead, he knew that killing people just because they were infected by the unusual fog was pretty heartless, especially once he thought about it for a moment or two, and while he didn't like the idea of letting these men go free, he couldn't just run away like a coward either, so he just hesitantly nodded.
"Targets locked on." One of the pilots reported, the laser cannon opening up on both sides of the helicopter. "Fire!"
But as they opened fire, Shadow, Rouge and Omega dodged easily while running all over the roof and then across the Ocean Palace's railings and walls, or in Rouge's case, flew. Shadow and Omega counterattacked by firing both Chaos Spears and laser shots at the helicopter's attacks, which all three attacks exploded in the middle.
Sonic then descended and landed onto the tail of the giant mutant monster and while he almost lost his balance as it tried to swish him off, the blue hedgehog raced his way towards it's head while Knuckles, Tails, and the two Sea Guardians, who saw that the three young heroes have come to help them, distracted their opponent while careful to not cause the teenage hero to fall off and land into the ocean.
"Sonic, here!" Tails called up, throwing a ring towards Sonic who jumped and caught it, absorbing it's power and performed his Super Spin Attack at the back of the Squid-Zilla's head.
But while the attacks were effective, to their shock, the giant mutant monster counterattacked quickly and used it's tentacles to whack Sonic, Tails and Knuckles who all screamed and flew all around the sky, before the two-tailed fox, attempting to ignore the pain, flew over and grabbed hold of Sonic's hands who held on tightly while Knuckles grabbed onto his legs and they tried to fly away while their monster friend and it's companion charged once more, yet it the Squid-Zilla didn't seem to be slowing down at all.
"Nothing's working!" Tails cried out, whimpering. "I don't even have the X Tornado to help us in this jam."
"What kind of mutant monster is this!?" Knuckles grunted in frustration.
"You know what? I have a feeling this calls for the Super Sonic Cannon from the Blue Typhoon or at least a Chaos Emerald." Sonic grunted, only to notice something shining from within it's stomach, as they flew around as hard as Tails could despite that he was already losing altitude due to being in the air with his name-sakes for so long, which the blue hedgehog failed to spot until now.
Something red and shining and giving the giant monster extra power mixed with the fog inside it's body already, and his eyes widened as he, and soon his two friends who also noticed, quickly realized what it was, the blue hedgehog crying out in disbelief. "No way!"
"It ate the Chaos Emerald!?" Knuckles and Tails cried out simultaneously.
"Now I get it. It must've swallowed up the Chaos Emerald which is giving it power along with the fog it was mutated from!" The young fox exclaimed. "The only way to get it out is to beat this thing with another Chaos Emerald!"
"Which is what we don't have!" The red echidna grunted in irritation just as Tails landed them and himself on another rock, the young cub panting in exhaustion.
"There's gotta a way to get it out without in there!" Sonic grunted, shuddering as he couldn't help but remember the nightmares and the near-death experience of being swallowed up by Dark Oak's giant form. "I get enough bad memories and nightmares as it is."
"Sonic!" A familiar voice called out from the distance, making Sonic's eyes widen as he gasped in disbelief, before he and his two companions spun around and to their shock, spotted a familiar group of a pink hedgehog, little rabbit girl, a small Chao and a green and white with pale skin Seedrian flying towards them.
"Huh!?" Team Sonic exclaimed in shock, relief, worry and disbelief as neither one could believe what they were seeing while the giant monster forced back the giant sea monsters who nearly hit the trio who cried out but they thankfully missed.
"Hey, you big water-lizard! Leave them alone!" Amy shouted angrily, as she and her friends flew closer as fast as Cream could carry them. With a swing from their flying companion, the pink hedgehog was thrown before she brought out her Hammer and with a loud yell, she tossed it straight at it's face, pushing it back, while Cosmo, Cream and Cheese both jumped and landed kicks at the unsuspected monster's eyes before all four of them headed towards the stunned male trio who sweat dropped in disbelief.
"Amy! Cream! Cheese!" Sonic cried out as he raced over.
"Cosmo!" Tails exclaimed as he quickly followed while Knuckles was one second behind.
Sonic leaped up and caught Amy in his arms, while Knuckles did the same with Cream and Cheese, and Tails held onto Cosmo while flying again, before all of them landed safely on another rock, and the two sea guardians, recovering despite the injuries they received, swam over towards the now furious mutant monster and the battle raged on.
"You okay?" Knuckles asked the two he just saved.
"We're alright. Thank you, Knuckles." Cream replied sweetly.
"Chao." Cheese squeaked in gratitude.
"Cosmo, what happened? I thought you guys were at Chris' house." Tails asked frantically, worried about the girl he loved so much, but relieved that she didn't seem too hurt.
"We were, but we couldn't wait any longer, so Amy decided we should go look for the Chaos Emeralds to help all three of you, and to help you as well." Cosmo replied, gently holding Tails' hands into her own, making her dearest friend smile warmly.
Sonic overheard as he gently said his self-proclaimed girlfriend down, before asking her. "Is this true?"
"Mm-hm. I couldn't just sit by and not be useful, so I decided to keep on looking for the Chaos Emeralds with Cosmo, Cream and Cheese helping me. Long story short, but the military's gone crazy. They've chasing after us, and we had to escape to the beach, through Seaside Hill Zone, and through the Ocean Palace and just got out before they could catch us." Amy explained.
"What!? The Military's after you girls and Cheese too!? I thought they were just after me!" The blue hedgehog exclaimed in shock, while his two teammates gasped in horror and disbelief over this.
"It looks like the fog has corrupted them so much, it's a bit of a relief that they weren't corrupted enough to try and really fight the giant mutant monster or the Sea Guardians. But we still gotta get the Chaos Emerald inside the bad monster's stomach." Tails realized in horror, making the girls of Team Rose gasp.
"That monster...has eaten a Chaos Emerald?" Cosmo asked, sweating nervously.
"Yeah, and the only to beat it is to use another Chaos Emerald, which we don't have." Knuckles grunted in annoyance.
Amy, realizing and hearing this, smiled proudly as she corrected him. "You mean you boys don't have a Chaos Emerald yet, but use girls do."
While the boys gazed at her in confusion, the pink hedgehog pulled out the blue Chaos Emerald from her dress's pocket, much to their surprise and she held it out in both hands to Sonic, then answered his unasked question. "We found it on the beach earlier. So once we get the one inside that monster's stomach, it's only five more to go already."
Sonic whistled, very impressed and proud of the girls' first success. "Way to go, Ames. Couldn't ask for a much better timing, which gives me a cool and new crazy idea."
She just blushed.
"Now you have a chance to beat that thing, Sonic!" Tails said, surprised and pleased.
"You mean we have a chance, Tails." Sonic corrected, much to all of his friends' confusion. "I might need your and Knuckles' help with this one."
Tails and Knuckles both blinked, confused before the blue hedgehog explained his plan.
Shadow, Rouge and Omega continued to dodge and/or block the helicopter's attacks, before the Ultimate Lifeform came a decision and turned to his companions. "This is our only chance now! I have a plan, and don't worry, Rouge, I won't kill these people."
"I sure hope so. Things are getting really tough out here!" Rouge cried out.
"Why not just annihilate these people? It would be more logical." Omega asked, skeptically.
Shadow grunted as he skated across the outside of the Ocean Palace, before saying sternly to the robot. "I made a promise to a friend long ago, and I intend on keeping it."
Without waiting any further, Shadow spun around and his teammates stopped as well before he pulled out the green Chaos Emerald while the helicopter got closer. Clutching it tightly in his gloved hand, he shouted while using it's power. "Chaos Control!"
Teleporting off of the roof, Shadow reappeared inside the helicopter, just behind the two stunned pilots who turned around and gasped in shock.
"Hey, how'd you get in?" The Co-pilot demanded.
The black hedgehog smirked evilly. "I have my ways, and I'm afraid your flight's been cancelled, my friends."
Before either one could respond, Shadow simply yanked them off their seats and tossed them out of the chopped where they both fell screaming into the ocean, and then he took control of the aircraft and despite having little training of flighting, he quickly got the hang of it and flew it towards Rouge and Omega who stared in disbelief as he landed the aircraft near them.
Through the window, Shadow gestured his team to climb onboard, which they did after sharing a glance and Rouge just shrugged. Moments later after the bat buckled into the co-pilot seat, Shadow lifted the Helicopter off and flew away from the Ocean Palace and towards their next destination, while turning off the communication to avoid in being overheard.
"Well, I never pegged you to be this good on your first helicopter flight, Shadow. You never cease to amaze me." Rouge commented, smiling as she was very impressed.
"This is a very simple thing to learn. At least for me." The Ultimate Lifeform replied, shrugging.
"Analyze complete; Shadow's plan was very successful and clever. I am very impressed myself, despite being a machine." Omega commented.
"For a robot, at least you have better taste rather than following your pathetic excuse of a creator." Shadow responded, smirking.
"You know, he's right, Omega. You sure have been a great ally to the both of us. We should be team more often." Rouge agreed as she gazed at the robot who stared in what appeared to be a surprise.
"In truth, I much prefer to be in the company of you and Comrade Shadow." The robot admitted.
Even though they still had their rough edges, Team Dark had to admit they were starting to finally get along and as Shadow knew they had to land somewhere since the helicopter was unfortunately low on fuel, he told them this and despite that he was still a loner, he had to admit that he preferred to be in the company of his comrades as well.
But he still just couldn't get close to anyone, in fear that he could lose them just as he lost Maria all over again.
The giant Mutant monster roared as it prepared to attack the heroes again, unaware that Sonic, who informed his friends of what his plan was and despite that they thought it was crazy, stood in line with Tails and Knuckles who felt nervous, never having used the power of the Chaos Emeralds themselves before.
"This is guys. You ready?" Sonic declared.
"Ready when you are!" Knuckles said, deciding to give a shot since he could harness and ask the Master Emerald.
"You sure this is a good idea, Sonic? I've never done this before. What if it doesn't work for me?" Tails asked, worriedly.
"It's going to be okay. Just focus and think about happy memories and feelings. Leave the rest to me and focus on the attack." The blue hedgehog reassured.
The two-tailed fox gulped, before nodding and took a deep breath while holding onto Sonic's left hand, as Knuckles grabbed onto Sonic's right wrist just above the Chaos Emerald which glowed as Sonic focused on using it's power, all three of them closing their eyes while Amy, Cosmo, Cream and Cheese watched and the two Sea Guardians holding their enemy back. As Team Sonic did, the leader of the group absorbed it's power like he normally did, except this time he silently asked it to send some of it's power into Tails and Knuckles, who both felt the warm energy flow into their bodies. The youngest of the trio whimpered, but relaxed when his big brother gently gave his hand a comforting squeeze.
Team Sonic then glowed in glow and yellow aura, much to the amazement of Team Rose who breathed in awe as they never saw this before. Then as Sonic, Tails and Knuckles opened their eyes, they jumped off the rock and into the air while the two sea guardians, seeing what was happening, moved away just in time while the giant mutant monster looked up.
"Here we go!" Sonic declared, as he and his two companions formed a circle and then spun around and around and around rapidly, performing their very first Super Triple Spin Attack, flying and spinning right into the chest of the mutant monster who roared in pure agony, before it was covered in bright light, forcing it back so hard that it felt sick, and as hoped and expected, spat out a red Chaos Emerald before de-transforming and sank into the sea in ultimate defeat.
As Sonic, Tails and Knuckles stopped their attack, the red echidna reached out and grabbed the released Emerald with his right hand while the two-tailed fox, despite feeling overwhelmed by the power of the blue Chaos Emerald, flew to prevent himself and his friends from falling into the ocean.
"Got it!" Knuckles declared.
"All right!" Sonic and Tails cheered in victory and excitement.
"Yeah! They did it!" Amy cheered happily as she and her team jumped up and down.
"Hooray!" Cream exclaimed happily.
"I can't believe they did it! It's a miracle!" Cosmo said happily, while the boys landed safely on the rock with them, and she and Tails, who raced over, shared an embrace. "Tails! You did it!"
"Did you see that, Cosmo? Sonic, Knuckles and I beat that monster with the Chaos Emerald!" Tails said excitedly, as he thought this was some sort of really scary but cool dream, unable to believe that with Sonic's help that he managed to pull it off.
"I'm so happy for you, Tails. You're my hero." The young Seedrian said, before softly gasping as she realized what she just said and blushed heavily, to which her 'boyfriend' did the same, before they smiled happily and turned back to their friends who smiled happily.
Tails saw Sonic's very proud and happy smile and gave his blue hedgehog brother a thumbs up and a wink, which the teenage hero did the same, before Amy cried out Sonic's name and to his embarrassment, hugged him tightly and nuzzled her face into his.
"I was so worried, but I knew you could do it! My hero!" Amy exclaimed happily and lovingly.
"Ow! T-Take it easy, Amy." Sonic grunted uncomfortably, before gently made his self-proclaimed girlfriend loosen her grip on him as he responded. "Still, we couldn't have done it without you or Cosmo, Cream and Cheese. Thanks a bunch, Ames."
Amy giggled, before they and their friends heard soft growls which made both teams to look up and saw the two gentle giant sea monsters approach them, making Cream and Cheese a little frightened, Amy, Cosmo and Tails nervous, Knuckles on defense and Sonic get his guard up, but knew that they shouldn't be worried, because the sea monster who saved him earlier leaned down before nuzzling at him and gently licked his face in pure gratitude.
"Whoa! H-hey! That tickles!" Sonic laughed, before he gently patted the monster on the nuzzle, somehow knowing that it was saying thank you. "Glad to see that you and your friend are okay, big guy. Thanks for keeping us safe from that giant monster and those military creeps."
"Sonic, do you know it?" Amy asked, surprised.
"Yeah. When Tails, Knuckles and I were fighting Eggman's giant robot when we were chasing him down, which we still gotta do, when I fell into the ocean and almost drowned, this big guy came and saved me and helped me to save the others." The blue hedgehog explained. "He and his buddy are the guardians of the Ocean Palace."
"Really?" The pink hedgehog asked, amazed, before the two other monsters joined together and gently nuzzled at the heroes who laughed and giggled and, feeling safe, gently patted the gentle giants back. Amy smiled happily. "Aww...They're so friendly. I can see why you wanted to help them out, Sonic."
"They're really cool, aren't they?" Sonic chuckled.
"I think they're very cute." Cream remarked happily.
"Chao, Chao." Cheese squeaked in agreement.
"They really are such gentle creatures." Cosmo agreed.
"Life keeps on getting more fun and amazing." Tails said.
"I gotta admit, these guys are trustworthy. I take back all of the bad thoughts I had of them." Knuckles admitted, finally forming trust towards the giant monsters.
"Still..." Sonic sighed, once the excitement of today's events was finally wearing off as he noticed that the sun was now halfway set and the sky was orange, realizing that the first day was almost over. "We've gotta beat Eggman, before he unleashes his next big taking-over-the-world plot in the next two and half days."
That caught Amy's team off-guard as they gasped while he explained. "Whatever plan he's come up with, he's given everybody three days before he launches that attack. He said so in that message of his earlier after we'd just beaten him in Station Square."
"What!?" Amy exclaimed, horrified while Cosmo covered her mouth in shock.
"Oh no!" Cream cried out fearfully.
"That means the first day is almost over." Cosmo realized.
"Yeah, we'd better hurry and stop Eggman before it's too late." Knuckles declared.
"And since we now have two Chaos Emeralds, I think it's a good idea to find the others as quickly as possible and figure out how to stop the fog from corrupting anymore of the people's minds." Tails added, turning to Sonic and continued his explanation he attempted to finish earlier. "Sonic, I have a theory that the reason why Tower wants you is because you resemble to Shadow and he wanted to kill him for whatever reason, but since you're a hero..."
"He wants to control me as his super soldier. That fog is bringing out most people's darker desires." Sonic realized, knowing that Tails and his own theory were right. As the blue hedgehog and his friends gazed out over the horizon, he narrowed his eyes in deep thought. 'If that's true, then those that don't have pure hearts like Chris are only gonna be even more corrupted until it's too late. But...who could be behind all of this?'
Either way, while he and his friends have managed to escape the Ocean Palace and GUN for now, their journey and the journeys of Team Chris, Team Dark and the Chaotix are only about to become twice as dangerous.
Tower was beyond furious. Not only Sonic and all of his friends managed to escape, but most of his men have rebelled against him, favoring their lives rather than his dark desired orders. He shouted in anger and pounded his fist against the glass window, cracking it slightly, just as one of his soldiers came in, nervously.
"S-Sir...we have caught one of the traitors who is now locked up in the cells." The soldier saluted and stammered fearfully.
Despite still being angry as their captive wasn't who he wanted, the Commander sighed and decided that it was better than nothing. "Take me to the traitor and set up the interrogation room."
Five minutes later, the corrupted Tower followed the two very nervous soldiers who were passing by the strictly locked up cells, with the more corrupted soldiers obediently standing in front of a glassed cell to which their leader stood in front of, glaring darkly at the prisoner who was the one responsible for the escape of Christopher Thorndyke, as well as informing Sonic the Hedgehog earlier.
"Well, what do you have to say for yourself...Agent Topaz?" Tower questioned.
The prisoner trapped inside the cell was none other than Topaz who, battered with a couple of bruises on her arms, and stripped of her uniform and forced to wear the prisoner garment, looked up with some fear, but no regret despite that things have gotten twice as bad.
Topaz has been found out and now was under Tower's custody and clutches, about to face whatever cruel punishment just for doing the right thing, and hoped that both Sonic and Chris can solve all of this, clear the latter's name, and save both worlds.
A/N: Okay, so the battle I really wanted to write still wasn't able to be written yet, but I'm definitely positive that it'll take place in the next chapter and hopefully it won't take as long as this one did. Again, I'm really sorry for the delay and I hope this chapter was worth the wait. Until then, let's look forward for the next adventure as the Mutagen Saga continues!
See you later!