Archive of Our Own

Work Text

"SHE WHO SOWS SEEDS OF DESTRUCTION, ARISING FROM THE ABYSS OF THE PIT TO CLAIM HER WORLD"How far does a field span? A field sacrifices all its path to stay bare and protect its lush scenery. It lays nothing amongst its grass, trees and gardens. Albeit with the chaos that ensues it will ensure an existing future. Bearing in mind those who seek to destroy and those who seek to border it. Those of the Free and those of the constrained. But at what point does freedom become chaos?Sonic the Hedgehog runs across these fields in his everlasting travels. A world to call his own with bountiful plains that drive his will. Nay does a thought in his spiky head speak of troubles and doubt. He lets the winds guide him to where ever a inner world is found. His speeding ways, notable and flexible. To see him run...and run...and run...was an honour. World renowned and blessed. Disliked by some for reasons that should be obvious. His chaotic ways, notorious and booming. To see him run...and run...and run...was a bit destructive. His idealism of a world of inbuilt freedom without chaos is a long-shot. The Blue dude with the 'tude was a piece of reverse. Order with Chaos. In his triumphs became legendary. Voluntary or assigned job? Didn't matter. He'd save the day regardless. Otherwise he'll always be running...and running...and running.Hills, trees, rivers...lakes and whatnot. Flora and fauna. The way it should be. Pristine and untouched by consumerist hands. He caught glimpses of these wondrous things in split seconds as he passed them. Speeding past one particular hill he noticed, were a garden of flowers. Red in colour. Taking a super-speed sniff, he gathered that they had be roses. He stopped to a immediate halt and quickly ran towards them. He knelt down on one knee before one tall rose and took a whiff.He smiled at the just gorgeous and breath taking garden and wondered who could have planted them."Do you like the colour red?"Sonic quickly stopped. The voice was low and monotone, but still could sorta be recognized.He stood up and turned around. Before him stood a pink headed hedgehog. He prepared to flee at in an instant, his face contorted at the sight of the girl before him. But before he could run, he noticed something odd. On her face was no smile, but a dull expression. On her body did she not wear her usual red dress, boots and headband, but a strawed weaved hat with a blue flower. She also wore a long baby blue dress with white cardigan and sandals. In her grasped hands was a picnic basket."Wait, don't tell me I agreed to have a picnic with you?" He asked. The girl's head tilted as she looked at the garden of roses, seemingly ignoring him. "These are the rare Abbadonia Roses. They only grow where there the air is fresh and the sun shines down." She said again dull, as if robotic."These Roses are Red. Their thorns are blue."Sonic scratched his head. "Uhh...isn't it Roses are Red, Violets are Blue?" He asked.She ignored him again and knelt beside one of the taller roses. "These Thorns protect the roses from harm. Nonetheless they always smell good."Sonic looked behind him briefly as a gust a wind suddenly shifted past. Turning back he noticed the girl was gone. "What...the..."He looked behind him again, then in front. Spinning around didn't help either. She had disappeared completely. He ran around the Garden. Nope. She wasn't anywhere. He put his hand over his eyes to scan around the perimeters. He shrugged his shoulders and now believed he had been seeing things.Heading in the direction, Sonic bumped into something else. Taking a quick look, it was a charcoal colour with mystic wavy runes with embers entering through small cracks, seeing spiky shoulder pads and arms with paws extending from them as well a belt with silver curved spikes at the hips with blackened legs and lower paws, alongside gigantic seared wings. He stood back seeing a head of fire. The body just seemed to float in front of him. Taking a defensive stance, The creature rose up, extending its left arm and protruding claws.Sonic again sniffed the air. "I smell sulfur..." He commented. The sky turned blood red, as fire and brimstone raised from the once fresh earth. Sonic looked down to see holes appearing around him.The creature raised both arms as beasts hopped and clawed out of the pits.Sonic's eyes went wide as they came out in all different shapes and sizes but all of terrifying appearances and pouring lava blood out of every orifice. "These guys don't look pretty friendly." He said, ramming his fist in his palm. "Time for me to kick some demonic butt!"He jumped into the air and immediately rolled into a ball, homing in on the demons, many that had either one to twenty eyes or limbs. One was made of spikes, except for one area and was rolling around. Sonic simply rolled into a spin ball and rammed himself into the spiky demons bare face, pushing back into the pit from hence it came. Hearing a bated breath behind him, Sonic leaped and back-flipped to find himself behind a dog like demon with eight legs. The dog growls thundered through Sonic's chest, though he did not fear it. "Hey doggy! Wanna play fetch?" He said, violently ripping the whip like tail on it's back, splattering it's lava blood everywhere and causing it to yelp. Sonic used the tail as a rope and quickly wrapped it around the beast. "Gotcha! Now it's time to put you down!"Sonic began swirled the dog around in circles and gathered momentum, eventually raising it up into the air. Finally having enough momentous strength, Sonic threw the beast with such brute force into the pits. He jumped and Spin balled his way through each demon, making sure each was back in their holes. He wiped his face, then looking at the lava blood on the back of his hand. Obviously it was hot, but strangely it wasn't hurting his hand."Only you can take the heat." Said a sultry voice as they clapped. "Bravo."Sonic looked at the demon which was still alive. She was indeed curvaceous with her mystical runes and fiery head. Even brighter eyes sneered at Sonic as she pulled out a sword from behind her, which the blade appeared to be made out of Crawlfangs and Mephbones, twisted and contorted with the base and handle concealing a crimson jewel in a one eye socket demon skull. Sonic stood back."Who ever you are, I can tell you're up to no good." He stated. "Such is the obvious Mr. Thorn." She snarled as she floated towards him. He began walking backwards, almost slipping, but then regaining his balance. He faced behind him, seeing the pits had connected and now the pits of pure abyss created a moat around the small isle of thick dead dirt. Sonic faced back to the creature, who held out the sword in her hands, as if giving it to him."I've already done swords. Not everyone was pleased with that gimmick." He mocked."But Mr. Thorn, it's not for you. Just hold it." She said. She turned the swords handle towards Sonic who took one glimpse at it. The Crimson Jewel in the middle burst, and out appeared a bloodshot green eye. Sonic took a look at the handle, then back at the creature who's grin was considered of mercury. Sonic wasn't too sure about this. It was all too suspicious to him. He reached out to the handle and grabbed it. He had no choice. He knew he wasn't going to get out of there if he didn't.SquishSonic looked at the end of the sword. He froze as the creature had pushed herself into the sword.His eyes dove towards her abdomen, as her lava blood seeped through the self-inflicted wound."Sonic..." Said a wispy voice. Sonic's eye's zoomed back up. The creature's head had somehow changed back into a familiar pink head, tears flowing from it's eyes."AMY!"- - - - Sonic shot up. He batted his eyes a few times to awaken properly. His heart was pounding. He looked around him to gather on where he was. He lifted his head upwards to see the night sky, and the hardened ground he was laying was a tree trunk on a cold winters night as snow fluttered down from above."That...was just a dream?" He mumbled as he rubbed his eyes and pondered. What kind of dream was that? He shook it off as some horrible nightmare. His stare traversing the area, he was atop of a pine tree situated on the outskirts of Station Square. Flicking the bouts of snowflakes off him he was off in a hunch, jumping off the branch onto the ground below. Suddenly the back of his skull was itchy, so he reached through his fur and felt something thin and rough and grabbed it. Pulling it out of his fur, it was a piece of paper. An invitation to Cream's birthday. Looking at the time and date, he realized he was late. Not that it was anything new to his cause. He often skipped boring parties because they were too slow. But this was Cream. She was still young, prompting Sonic to believe she would be rather upset if he didn't end up showing up. He fled off towards the direction of her house...But he couldn't shake off that eery feeling. That dream was particularly disturbing. He tried to avoid having at his fore-thoughts, but it kept crawling back. He'd never seen those demons before in his traversals. And Amy? What did she have to do with it? What ever it was it was literally complicated as hell. He kept placing it as a shifted nightmare. It was all it was. A nightmare. He was going to see Cream and the rest of his friends, a matter of happiness and gleefulness for the little rabbit. He just ran faster, running past overbearing trees and towns on the way, being careful with his turns as to not slip on the icy roads. He passed a clock tower, it reading around 7:30. Creams party started over an hour ago. He was definitely going to be fashionably late. But he sure he forgot something..."Alright Cream! Open my present!" Said Amy. In the warmth of the coziest place this side of Station Squares suburban housing, Cream was over-joyous. Her mother, Vanilla had already giving her dozens of presents. Mostly clothes and new toys. Wrapping paper was all over the place, mounting tables and chairs. Around the two were Cream's colourful guests: A green crocodile, a purple chameleon and a happily buzzing bee sat with each other, as well as a red Echidna and an orange two-tailed fox standing beside the fireplace, watching Cream open Amy's gift."Wow a pink chao doll! That will go well with my collection huh Cheese?" Cream gleed. "Chao chao!" Chirped Cheese, the small blue pixie like chao. Cream fled off to her room and placed the pink chao on a row of multicolored ones. "Thank you so much Amy!" She said, running back and hugging her friend. "That's not a problem Cream!" Amy smiled. She wanted to be angry but she wasn't. She knew Sonic would be late anyway, but also knew that he wouldn't miss Cream's parties.He wasn't mean enough to do it. She shrugged it off and went off to help Vanilla clean up the mess."When's the cake?" Asked the green crocodile. "Soon Vector. Soon. We're just waiting for Sonic to arrive, where ever he is..." Answered the two-tailed fox. "He probably forgot." Amy cooed. Cream shook her head. "Mr. Sonic never forgets my birthday." She assured. "I hope you're right." Answered the red Echidna. Vanilla faced Vector. "Vector, do you mind helping me out in the kitchen?" She asked ever so sweetly. "Would I ever!" He answered with a bit too much enthusiasm as he followed Vanilla.The two-tailed fox and the red Echidna rolled their eyes. "Why worry about Sonic? He's far too predictable nowadays." The red echidna commented."I will say yes and no to that Knuckles..." Said the Two-tailed fox. Knuckles gave a raised eyebrow."Tails...what does that even mean?" He replied. Tails shrugged. "Well...he is but he isn't. A bit paradoxical but that's besides the point."Meanwhile Amy chucked the rest of the shredded wrapping paper into the bins outside. She heard a few sounds before seeing a blue blur speed past. "Finally." She muttered under her breath. She quickly returned inside through the laundry door and went to go look for Cream, who was busy stuffing her face with candy. Amy tapped her shoulder. "Cream! Guess who's here!" She said.Cream turned around, her cheeks bulged. "Mr. Shonish?" She answered, muffled by lollies.As if on cue, there was a knock at the door. Cream quickly swallowed down the candy in a huff and skipped over towards the front and turned the knob."Hey Cream! Happy Birthday!" Announced Sonic, who had his arms out wide. Cream immediately jumped into his arms. "I knew you would come Mr. Sonic!" She squealed. The hug made a tight embrace before letting go. "Sorry I was late!" He apologized. Cream shook her head."It's okay! You got here just in time for the cake!" She said as she snatched his hand and dragged him over towards the dining table. Sonic laughed as the young rabbit took him to the side and saw Tails and Knuckles, who waved to their friend, as well as the bee and the Chameleon hanging around as well.This wasn't so bad. Never really is. He knew the Chaotix, consisting of the mentioned Vector, notable for his crush on Vanilla, in which he must have taken Charmy and Espio along with him. Or they agreed. Assurances on Espio's part, to make sure Vector didn't go too far or somewhat fainted and needed someone to pick up and take him home. Nonetheless, they knew each other well. Plus Charmy and Cream got along swell with one another, being playmates almost.Knuckles and Tails hadn't changed much. Knuckles, for once, left the Master Emerald. He took in the comfort that Rouge was currently on mission with Shadow and GUN. His only concern was Eggman, who could be anywhere, but last reports were that he was some weeks away from revealing some dumb plot for Team Sonic to foil, not to mention Eggman is hardly interested in it anymore, knowing he would probably get a beat down from merely just touching the damn thing. Sonic counted on his roaring rampages to eventually get it back, or if it ever smashed to pieces, he'd find half, Eggman would find half...in the end it'd come back together, like if nothing ever happened. Stereotypical of their adventures. Tails...just Tails. His tinkering agendas were nothing new. He'd recently moved to a more remote location not to far from this particular suburb."So what ya cookin' up this time Tails?" Sonic asked, giving a thumbs up and a wink.Tails shrugged. "Nothing in particular. I was actually trying to decode some old runes I'd found the other week. So far I'm having little luck. So I asked Knuckles to help me out."Sonic turned to Knuckles. "So, what'd ya do?" Knuckles crossed his arms. "Nothing like I'd seen. It's in Ancient Mobian...very Ancient Mobian. Possibly tens of thousands of years old."Sonic nodded in interest. "That's cool. Nothing like Gaia or Babylon Garden is it?"Knuckles shook his head. "Well, no. This thing has its worse vibes, but in our investigations nothing seems to have happened." Ah another ancient historical sight. This planet has fascinating pasts, ranging from Knuckles ancestors to internal planet dwelling god-like beings. Never ceases to amaze Sonic...although they would usually find out because Eggman had discovered them all beforehand. That Doctor really does his research...well, most of the time, prompting Sonic to reflect Eggman on his successive failures. "Although, we did find this really strange type of flower that apparently only grows in that area. In fact, its the only one that grows there. Smells good too." Commented Tails. Sonic loved his flowers. This area had to isolated. Only such beauty lives in untarnished areas. The unreachable would hold such wonders that only most can dream of. "I wouldn't mind having a sneak peek at this place. Where is it?"Tails tapped his chin. "It's about 500km North of where Holoska's Gaia Temple was. It's strange though. It's in-between weird mountains where it fails to snow. What's even more odd is it that the temperatures peeks at almost 30 Degrees Celsius."That was indeed strange. Considering most of Holoska was a frozen wasteland last time they visited."I've seen plenty of flowers on my island too. There's a large range of them that according to Tails, they can be only found there. So I've seen a lot. But there's something fishy about this one." Said Knuckles. "What's wrong with it? Other than it being grown in an impossible place..." Sonic wondered. Knuckles looked at Tails. "Well..." Started Tails. "I've tried looking it up. I've checked from A to Z in types of flowers, wild flowers and flora...nothing there."Knuckles continued. "But when we looked up mythical plants, we found something that was highly identical to it."Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "Okay...you seemed so hyped up about this plant. What does it actually do?"Tails pulled a book out from one of his tails and opened it up. He flipped through the pages very quickly before finding the page he was looking for. "Ah he we go. This plant is very ancient and is known to only be found in a place called Muriel's Garden.""Which is where we were." Said Knuckles. Tails kept on reading. "On old rumors and stories, this plant was said to have two seperate effects depending on how it was consumed. One, if it burnt like an incense, was said to cause violent hallucinations upon smelling it."Sonic's eyes drifted between the two of them. "Wait...smelling it? Didn't seem like it had an effect on either of you."Tails shook his head. "No...it has to be burnt, then smelled. Lucky we had no intention in burning them in the first place."Sonic shrugged. "What ever. What else does it say?"Tails nodded. "Alright, it says the second effect is that if it's grounded up into a fine powder and mixed with honey, water and...hm...wait, does that even exist?"Sonic blinked. "What?"Tail's face contorted in thought as he wondered out aloud. "Lava blood. Honey, water and Lava Blood is thrown into the mix."Knuckles was just as confused. "Never heard of that either.""Does it say what it does?" Asked Sonic. Tails looked back down at the book. "It's said to cure people of comas. Simply pour it down their throats and it should wake them up.""That's pretty neat. Pity about that so called Lava blood though. I guess it's just a lost cause.""I dunno Sonic..." Said Tails, who seemed to be less skeptical. "We've seen some freaky stuff over time. Who knows? It could be under our noses..."Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Perhaps we wouldn't want it under there Tails..." He said sarcastically.Sonic just cleaned his ear with his pinky finger. "Well, I suppose. I want to take a look at this flower. If it's beautiful as you say it is...I might just tag along for the ride..."Tails handed the book over to Sonic. "Even though we should be studying the runes instead of some flowers. I suppose we could kill two birds with one stone while we're at it." He said.Sonic looked at the page briefly. It had a sketched image of the flower in question. It had a big red rose with deep blue thorns. Sonic thought for a moment, trying to place something about it. He'd seen it somewhere...but where? His eyes were brought up to the name of the flower."Abbadonia's Rose." He muttered. His eyes quickly went wide as he flashed back to his dream and skimmed through it, scrolling to the last part where he'd seen..."Sonic!" Yelled a chirpy girlish voice."Amy?" He said, before getting glomped. Tails took back the book that Sonic was carrying...then dropped. Amy had her arms wrapped around Sonic's neck as she took him from behind."I knew you would come! Come on! We're about to have the cake!"- - - - She let go of him as she turned the lights off around the house. Sonic was stunned and in deep thought. "What is this about?" He pondered. Amy stood next to Cream as Vanilla brought the cake, which was a cute white cake with a pink ribbon around it and white icing to the table and started singing Happy Birthday. Cream sat in her special chair as Cheese sat in her lap. Everyone soon surrounded the table cheering. Sonic again shook off his peculiar thoughts and started singing alongside them."..Happy Birthday dear Cream...Happy Birthday to you!"Cream smiled from ear to ear as they sang. "Go on Cream, make a wish then blow out the candles!" Said Vector, who stood on the other side of her.Cream placed her finger to her thumb. "Ummm...oh I know!"Her mother grinned and leaned down beside her. "Don't say it or it won't come true!" She muttered.Cream nodded frantically. She, along with Cheese, finally blew out her candles. Every clapped and cheered. Vanilla leant the knife to Cream. Amy giggled. "If you touch the bottom you have to kiss the nearest boy!" She bragged as her hands flung to her hips. Cream took the knife and pressed it down in the middle of the cake. Doing so, Vector winked at Espio, who grinned evilly and grabbed onto Charmy, throwing him towards Vector, in which Charmy cried out in confused protest. Vector held Charmy by his arms. Cream wasn't paying attention as she 'accidentally' touched the bottom. Amy squealed. "Now kiss the nearest boy!""WHAT? EW!" Cried Charmy. "Oh come on Charmy! It's just one on the cheek!" Said Vector.Amy chuckled. "Wait! You planned this didn't you!" Charmy said in anger. "Just do it! Might do you some good to know you've been kissed by a girl." Espio chuckled. Charmy's head fell.Cream giggled as her head reached his cheek and gave it a little peck, causing Charmy to blush furiously. The rest of the group laughed along.- - - - Not too long after, Vector had spread small plates out while Vanilla cut the cake into pieces and placed each piece on a plate, then Amy gave them out to everyone. Sonic again stood with Tails and Knuckles, slowly eating his piece. "You were white as a ghost before. Do you mind me asking why?" Said Knuckles. Sonic lifted his head up. "I was? Huh...I dunno." Sonic said. It was sorta half true, half false. Memory of his dream had floated back to his mind. The girl...Amy. He was looking straight at those flowers. So was she. But...she spoke in cryptic words. Then those demonic beasts...the pits of abyss. It made no sense to him. But he knew...if anything, that he had to investigate the ruins."So when are you two going again?" Asked Sonic. "Well, I was going to take the tornado over there tomorrow morning." Answered Tails, taking a bite of his cake. "Why dob you join ush?"Sonic tapped his finger. He wasn't doing much else with his time. A little excavating wouldn't hurt anybody. "I think I'm up for a little adventure!"After cake it was soon time to go. Vector helped do the dishes while Vanilla cleaned the house. Charmy buzzed around for a bit with Cream, completely forgetting the fiasco earlier and started playing with her and Cheese. Espio sat down and watched TV, waiting for Vector to finish. It indeed was getting a bit late. Sonic patted Cream on the head as he walked into her room."Hey Cream, thanks for the partay!" He said, giving a thumbs up."No thank you Mr. Sonic for coming. And don't worry about my present..."Sonic blinked, then chuckled nervously. "Oh I knew I'd forgotten something. I promise I'll give your present. Maybe tomorrow?"Cream just smiled. "Oh okay then." She said, getting up and squeezing him. "Heh...stay out of trouble then...you too Charmy, Cheese!""Seeya Sonic!" Said Charmy."Chao chao!" Said Cheese.Sonic walked into the lounge, said goodbye to Espio, then went into the kitchen and said his farewells to Vanilla and Vector. "Thanks for coming Sonic. Cream really appreciates it." Said Vanilla"No problemo!" Replied Sonic. "Cya some other time Vector!""You too!" Responded Vector. Tails and Knuckles had already gone out the door. But then noticed someone was missing."Where's Amy?" Asked Sonic. Vanilla shrugged. "I think she's already left. She said she had important stuff to do."Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "At this time of night? Oh well...cyas!"Sonic went outside in the snow with Tails and Knuckles, somewhat disturbed by Amy who had already left. It wasn't like her. Passed years had her stay behind to clean up. But she seemed perfectly happy and normal before. It'll probably be nothing. Sonic now believed he was taking things out of proportion. It was minor, he was sure. He left those thoughts behind and started walking with Tails and Knuckles."Well, I'm heading home now. I expect to see the pair of you at my house at say, five am?""Five am?" Sonic complained. "Why so early?"Tails crossed his arms and scowled. "Good excavationists have to get to their destinations nice and early, so they have all day to explore..."Sonic and Knuckles exchanged the same looks. "Whatever you say Tails..."- - - - Knuckles gave his indication and immediately went back to Angel Island, while Sonic walked Tails back home. It was quiet and the snow had stopped falling. Tails was still bright and cheery with his white with a green stripe scarf wrapped around his neck. Sonic remembered he didn't have any other warm clothes. But it didn't matter. He could brave the cold. As well as try to avoid catching at cold at least. His head was low as his eyes followed the footpath in front of him. He unconsciously look to the right of him, down a lonesome street, squinting to see a brownish figure with glowing lines running all over it. "What the..." Sonic muttered. He stopped and put his hand over his eyes to see what was there. It waved to him, before spurting blood everywhere...
heeeeeeeeeeeellllllppppp meeeeeeee soooooooooooniiiiiiiiiic
Tails stopped in his tracks and turned around. "What's the matter Sonic?"Sonic faced Tails. "Uh...nothin'." He replied. Tails gave Sonic a concerned look."That's the second time..." He commented. Sonic scratched his head. "Second time for what?""You're white as snow. Did you see another ghost or something?"Sonic's pupils had dilated. "Well...I don't think you'd believe me.""Why's that?" He concerted. Sonic pointed down the road. "Do you see any demons down there?"Tails looked where Sonic was pointing. "Well...no...not really. Just an empty street. It might have been a cat."Sonic shook his head. "Never mind...""Is someone a little paranoid lately? Was that the reason why you were late to the party?" Tails queried as his hands flew to hips, as he looked at Sonic with skeptic eyes.Sonic clasped his ears. "N-no Tails." He wanted to change the subject...as it had become increasingly sensitive to think about. "I was worried that Amy was going to murder me again, because I didn't go to her picnic yesterday."Tails tilted his head. "Sonic...Amy didn't have a picnic yesterday. She was in Station Square buying Creams present."Sonic crossed his arms. "How do you know that?""She called you remember? She said she was buying the present and wanted to know if she could buy your present for her, because she knew you would forget." Tails replied, point the matter of fact."Really?" Said Sonic, now confused. He could barely think of what had happened yesterday. It was all a blur. "Well...OK..."Tails gave a longing look, concerned for his friend. "You sure you're okay Sonic?"Sonic looked up, realizing that he was staring at the footpath again. "I'm fine. Just...the cake..." He said, rubbing his tummy. "I guess the sugar is going to my head. I suppose I better run it off huh?"Tails turned back around. "I suppose. I'm almost home anyway. Run all you like. Just remember, five am.""Okay buddy. See you in the morning..."Tails walked off. "Bright and early..."- - - - Sonic rubbed his head. Why couldn't he remember yesterday? He bolted off in the opposite direction, hoping to be lead anywhere...Sure enough, Sonic found himself in the middle of Station Square, where it was dead still. No one on the streets, but the street lights were still on. Was it really that late? He'd passed several shops on the way. All closed, but looking into the shop windows for anything that Cream would like.Obviously she wouldn't enjoy cleaning utensils, although that would be good for Vanilla. Passing by a chemist, auto stores and the like, before arriving in front of a toy shop. He pressed his hands against the window and let his breath create the fog on the window. "Hmm...lessee..."He saw some chao plushies. But he didn't know which ones she had or which ones she didn't.He tried to screen around, but majority of the toys on display were male orientated. He sighed to himself and turned around, keeping his eyes to the ground once more. His head tilted upwards ever so slightly, seeing another pink haired hedgehog, this time wearing a yellow coat with babs of white fluffy cuffs and yellow boots and beret. She consistently stared at Sonic with her green eyes."Amy don't scare me like that. Almost gave me a heart attack."Amy tilted her head ways and glanced at Sonic. Sonic approached her, then looking above at the now clear blue sky."Why are you out this time of night? Oh weren't you busy?" He said. He looked downwards. She'd gone again. He frantically searched around, seeing her to his left, down in the middle of an intersection. "Amy what are you doing?" He asked, albeit puzzled by her actions and lack of words.He began walking in her direction, before she turned to her side and ran off down the street. "Hey Amy wait!" He said, running after her. She waited at the end of street, often turning around to make sure Sonic was following her. Sonic couldn't understand what she was up to, or why she was acting so creepy. They made twists and turns before Amy walked up a flight of steps and entered through a dark brown door. Sonic checked his right and his left before slowly walking up the steps himself."Hey Amy what was it you wanted to show me-HEY!"The sun was bright and warm and the fields were no longer endless, but pillars of twisted vines shielded the horizon. He walked forward and searched around. Where was Amy?"Hello? Anyone here?" He shouted. Silence. Dead silence. No wind to shuffle the leaves in the nearby trees or the rustle in the long grass. Sonic's ears started ringing because of it."Okay, getting out of here now..." He said, a bit confused at what he saw. He spun around to head out the door...before realizing the door was no longer there. Just a gigantic tree. Sonic stood back in awe of this awesome tree, which possessed swirling runes and the like. The runes were in some indecipherable language, but then rearranged themselves to form something else entirely, which then became legible. Sonic squinted then un-squinted as he read the words out aloud."In bated breath comes the child's flower, sowing seeds of chaotic order."Feeling a tap on his right shoulder, Sonic immediately looked. She was readily standing there in her all breathless stature which outright freaked him out. He stood back raising his hands."Okay...I don't know whats going on, so I would like to be let in on the loop please..." He pleaded.She just stood there staring at him, curiously. She held out a familiar flower...she wanted to give it to Sonic. Sonic hesitated for a moment. "I dunno...last time I was even near that thing all kinds of crazy stuff happened. We don't want that now do we?"Her arm was still open to him. She barely moved from her spot, with her head swaying side to side."Nuh uh. I'm getting the heck out of here. See ya!" He said, before bolting off down the fields.He ran...and ran...and ran...with no end in the sight. The scenery repeated itself. Rows of trees flew by, each one more the same than the last, the same birds flying past repeatedly. He skidded to a halt and wiped his forehead. "Where I am...it sure is cooky." He turned around to see how far he'd gone from the giant tree...only to see he hadn't gotten any further, making Sonic's jaw drop."Come on now! This is getting ridiculous!" He belted. It was getting further and further in obscurity as he went on. None of it was making any sense to him. He turned back around, only to bump into the girl again."Ah man, not again!" He grumbled and sighed. "Look, please. I don't know what you want from me. I want out. I can help you with what you need, but...you gotta help me. Do we have a deal?"The girl once again lent out her hand with the rose. Sonic face palmed. "Aw geez not with the flower again." He had no choice. He would end up running on the spot for the rest of his life.He reluctantly grabbed the flower and looked at it. "Is this what you want? Because I gotta run..."."Yup...now you have to wake up..."- - - - Sonic's head flung up. It was that fire headed woman again, with the lava blood running her 4 dozen fanged mouth. Sonic screamed."Wakey wakey Sonic!"Sonic batted his eyelids and yawned. "Huh?" He mumbled. He rubbed his eyes as he tried to get accumulated to his surroundings. The roof was pointed and wooden, the walls were a faint orange with a window shrouded in green circle patterned curtains blew in the wind of the open window. The duvet was thick and white, the bed single and black. Sonic helped himself out of bed to the smell of toast. He saw a flight of stairs and slowly walked down the spirals onto the bottom floorboards. He yawned before seeing Tails in the kitchen. Then realizing where he was: Tails house."How did I get here?" He mumbled. Tails looked confused as he was spreading peanut butter on his toast. "What do you mean? You asked me if you could crash the night. Don't tell me you saw a ghost again Sonic...your face is all flustered. Bad dream?""Yeah must have been. It's okay man. I'm probably all worked up from yesterdays dilemmas. So we off to the ruins soon?" He asked, desperately wanting to change the subject."Almost. We just have to wait for Knuckles to arrive. I called him earlier. I doubt he even slept." Tails responded as he made sure there was enough peanut butter spread.Sonic shrugged and headed towards the fridge. "That's Knuckles for ya. His opinion is that they'd often get ya at night. If it wasn't for his gullibility it would be impossible for him to leave."Tails chuckled. "Yeah. But I bet he'll have a snooze on the plane over."Sonic grabbed the carton of Milk out of the fridge and drank straight from it. "Of course..." He agreed, placing the carton back into the fridge.Tails soon served up the toast and they nommed that down to the last crumb. Tails washed the dishes while Sonic sat in the lounge on tails still packaged couches."Aren't you gonna remove the plastic?" He asked, shirking at the screeching sounds."I don't want them getting dirty you know...while I'm working."Sonic laid back with his hands behind his head. "What ever you say."He pondered for a while. Another dream...another moment encountering people resembling Amy Rose. But why does that make her so special? There was failure in this sense. It wasn't as if she was in his forethought...KNOCK KNOCK!"That'd be Knuckles. Let him in..." Said Tails. Sonic jumped off the couch and headed to the door."Hey, I'm not late am I?" Said Knuckles.The trio headed down into Tail's Lab. It was extensive and vast, a place for scientific kings. Tails prepared the Tornado for a long hall to Holoska. "Alright...she's ready..."Tails hopped into the cock pit, with Sonic standing at the back, and Knuckles sitting in the newly fashioned passenger seat. Tails placed on his specialized goggles as he pressed numerous buttons, causing the roof to slide down to an angle, using his driveway as a run way."Here we go!" Said tails as a pressed a bright big red button. The Tornado shifted, and zoomed off into the distant sky...Tails kept above the clouds for the trip, and as was suspected, Knuckles had already fallen asleep.Sonic relaxed and let the breeze run over him. No troubles in the sky...but those words were marked in his head...In bated breath comes the child's flower, sowing seeds of chaotic order.He whispered. He mind was consumed in confusion. Flashes of red crossed his mind for no reason...this wasn't a memory...was it?"Do you like the colour red?" He muttered to himself. Red. Red could mean anything. It had to be related to the flowers. Those...Abbadonia Roses. They had to be connected. Their cause...their means. He could have sniffed them at some point, but at what cost? Maybe the reason he couldn't remember the other day was because he might have encountered them. Who knows? His memory as of late was a bit fuzzy. The same people entered is forethoughts. Amy...Amy...different Amys. Many Amys. All acted with such behavior that he couldn't comprehend. One spoke, one didn't...the other preferred to be suicidal. Three Amy's. Nah...Amy would have mentioned brothers and sisters by now. Actually, realizing now, he knew nothing about her. Other than her obsession with himself and her friendships, there was scarcely a thing he knew. She never mentioned family, nor origins or her past other than when he saved her on Little Planet all those years ago. Then again, what was she doing on Little Planet in the first place?Maybe she was native? Nah...I think in response she had been smitten with him. He wondered when Little Planet would come back next. Eggman never kept tabs after the first time. Those damn Time Stones...he didn't know what was worse: Those or the Chaos Emeralds.Obsessionalized Chaos perhaps? So many things unanswered for. Beating robots and creatures and saving the world over and over again...most of the time from the same person. Surely those repeated times would never or hardly change a bit. It was abnormal for Sonic to think that Eggmans strategy with bigger and better robots would change. But this was not about Eggman...it was nor a friend or foe but something more...internal. Battling his own demons? Funnily enough the psychotic thing about it was just those dreams so far. Such little endeavors. They bothered him so much. But why? Why all this confusion and unanswered questions? Someone was trying to speak to him...or warn him. What ever the case, Sonic tried to wonder whether or not to follow up on these or just leave them be as terrible nightmares or the effects of the hallucinogenic flowers. Not that he remembers having burnt any flowers in more recent times. It was so...blank...blurry...only shadows of black and red...brown...dirt...flames. It hurt his head more than he'd like it to be."Well, we're here!"Sonic snapped out of his thinking cap, surprised they'd gotten their already. "Wow Tails that was fast...""Well I did install a new engine." He commented as he banged the side of the plane for good measure.They slowly descended down, Sonic noticing the cold winterous atmosphere that was Holoska. Then seeing the mountainside and the weirdly deep yet colourful depth of the ruins they were going area must be Muriel's Garden, the entirety of it. A mixture of flat surfaces, hills and rocks scattered everywhere. Tails carefully landed the Tornado just outside of the large limestone gate way, in which one of the doors had been broken.Getting off the plane, They walked towards it, Sonic noticing an abundance of the aforementioned roses growing on the sides. He was slightly afraid of going near them again, wondering if the book forget to mention that just a small sniff can cause one to see minor things. He looked at Knuckles curiously. "Hey Knux lemme ask you something..." He said. "Shoot."Sonic rubbed his chin. "You said you smelt the flower. You didn't see anything unusual afterwords did you?" Knuckles shrugged. "No not really. Maybe a few noises perhaps. But it might have been the wildlife."Sonic scanned the area. No birds or any type of animal was seen. Maybe because it was Holoska...a barren northernmost land. "I don't see any..." Sonic noted. Tails checked the book."The book might have forgotten to write that down. Obviously this area was still inhabited before the population vanished. If we investigate this area more, we might find out who lived here and why they're not longer doing so."Sonic nodded. "Alright then. Then solve the mystery of the flower to huh?" "That too." Replied Tails.The trio walked through the large gate. They entered in what appeared to be a wide courtyard. In the middle sat a fountain which no longer sprinkled, but was filled with water still. The ruins were a deteriorated brown and majority of the ground tiles walls and pillars covered in overgrown grass and moss. The atmosphere became a bit humid as the sun pined down from above. Abbadonias grew in here too. They approached the opposing wall beyond the fountain to find a large carving of some sort of symbol. It was a square with a spiraled flower from birds eye view in the middle of it. The ends of the petals were edged."Huh...these people must have worshiped them." Sonic stated. Knuckles looked at the hieroglyphics underneath the carving. "I was trying to transcribe this before. It made no sense to me. I've seen it before elsewhere like most ruins I've seen. But...I'm also not too sure with the transcriptions."Sonic examined the symbol. "Give it to me straight Knuckles...just tell us what ya got so far."Knuckles leaned in to the hieroglyphics. "The style is similar to Ancient Mobikian..."Knuckles cleared his breath before reading on. "Here lies the Garden of Rosales. All guests are welcome into the House of Rosoideae, the bearing fruits of the heavens."Tails rechecked his book. "It says Rosales is the entire area. Not just including this courtyard, but this whole place behind the mountains."- - - - Sonic trailed off while Tails and Knuckles were busy rereading the transcriptions. He had wandered off through what appeared to be a door way into some district. The wind hollowed through the cracks and crevices of the multi-storied limestone bearings. Like the courtyard, aged tiles riddled the floor with grass shooting through, some blades reaching a few meters high. And also like the courtyard, more Abbadonia's filled bits and pieces and seeped through the edges of the tiles.He walked down a little more, before his head turned left, noticing what appeared to be a main street, filled with ancient buildings. Sonic repeatedly checked his surroundings for anything suspicious. He heard footsteps behind him and swung around. "Who's there?" He demanded.No response. He swerved back front, eyes bellowing as a pink haired hedgehog wearing a white line patterned green skirt and bikini top. She also wore a green blindfold over her eyes."Not you again." He moaned. She did not attempt to goad him with a flower, like the other two."You must find her and bring her to her house, for once more the lock has been broken and the last Keyholder is dead. It is clearer with eyes wide shut."Sonic stepped back. "No way man...I've been attacked by that crazy demon lady twice! How do I know you're not in the same league as her?""The blind see more than those who are not." She muttered, having the same exact tone the blue and the yellow girls did. Sonic stood back a little more, ready to bolt off."Yeah uh, I'm actually busy exploring this place. Cya!" He rambled, before heading back towards to Tails and Knuckles. "You want knowledge...I can give you the past."Sonic stopped in his tracks. "If its an artifact of doom, I suggest you seal it off before someone comes to steal it.""No." She stated. "I only want you to see the truth."Sonic faced her once more. Her proposal seemed appetizing, if not intriguing. "I'm not gonna get screwed over here am I?"The girl truffled her way over to Sonic in a snails pace, annoying Sonic to no end. He stood there, staring at her Amy-like resemblance and wondered if they were related somehow. She grabbed his hands and placed them in a butterfly position. Sonic didn't feel any different, just awkward."So...can I move my hands now?" He partitioned. Again, silence riddled his ears. "Okay, opening my eyes now...""Move it Stupilite!" Roared a voice.Sonic unlatched his hands as he jumped out of the way of a moving cart. "Sorry!"Looking around, he realized that he was someone different...no...he'd experienced this before...he was in some different time! The ruins were fully functional buildings, complete with bronze statutes all around, Abbadonia's organized and so forth. Pink hedgehogs roamed the place, exchanging goods such as fruits, meats and fish. Most had short hair, exactly like Amy's, some wore white robes and other articles of ancient clothing. Most laughed and cheered. Sonic's jaw just dropped."Woah..." Was all his mouth could mutter. He walked down the main street, past carts and shops, blacksmiths and the like. Men...women and children. He then witnessed a group of blue hedgehogs, just like him, huddled up further in what appeared to be a temple of sorts. He walked up to them. They wore golden armour with a Þ shaped mark on the chest plates and shoulder armour. They had red silky cloaks bearing the same mark as well as golden spiked spears. Sonic hid behind one of the many tall pillars and listened in to their conversations. One, who had had fringe tufts coming from his forehead and wrinkles under his eyes, obviously an Elder of sorts."We've gotten word recently of ruckus coming from the Echidna clans up north having a bit of strife with one of their deities. We've been tasked to take the Prophetess back up to Miracle Planet for safety." He stated. One of the younger ones, short but proud, stunted his spear."Should we get the Sorcerers to prepare the Altar for her?" He asked. "Affirmative. We cannot afford for the demon to be let lose again." Ordered the Elder. The lessers barged into the Temples doors, while Sonic secretly followed them along. He'd trespassed into a larger chamber, complete with roof and wall paintings. Hiding behind another pillar, he witnessed the Elder Guard approaching a pink female hedgehog in a very revealing white dress. They're all over the place. Sonic thought to himself. She sat on a thrown, alongside three younger hedgehog girls in front of her sitting on matching coloured futons. One was wearing a blue gown, with light blue fluff over her ears. Another was wearing a yellow gown, with some sort of golden brace over her mouth. The last one was wearing a green gown, with a green blindfold over her eyes. Sonic's own went wide and deduced the situation."So that's who they are..." He muttered. He looked up at the Elder Guard talking to who he assumed was the Prophetess."Milady, the King has informed me that the Echidna Clans have been brought on-""By the wrath of the Gods. I know..." Replied the Prophetess, who's voice was wispery and dreamy."We fear they...""No.""But...milady...""I said no..."The Prophetess refused to back down. She sat in her chair and solemnly stared at the Elder Guard."The Gods will not punish us like the Echidnas. Their greed is their own downfall. I pity the young Princess Tikal. She was a good friend of ours"The Elder Guard stood back in shock. "She's dead too?"The Prophetess closed her eyes and clenched the edge of the armrests of the throne. "No...not quite. She will return...but not in our time-line."The blind girl stood up from her futon and started walking off towards Sonic for no reason. The guards paid attention to this, and saw Sonic in the midst. "Intruder!" Barked one of the guards."Bring him to me." Ordered the Prophetess.The Blind Girl latched onto Sonic's shoulder and walked him to to the throne. He was met by glares from the guards, but the other girls seemed to just gave him blank stares."Thorns also and thistles shall bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field." Muttered the Elder Guard."Enough Gabriel, you do not have the authority to command in my temple. Leave us... Mizaru has no problem with this Stupilite. Neither do I.""But...""LEAVE!" Roared the Prophetess in such a Goddess's fierce voice.Gabriel bowed and hustled himself and his lesser guards out of the temple."Mizaru, please sit back with the others." She asked sweetly. Mizaru walked back to her futon and sat there with her legs crossed.Sonic stood there, rather stunned. Then back to the Prophetess. Her stare was piercing and emotionless."You are Sonic the Hedgehog? Are you not?"Sonic bowed his head. "Yes milady." He replied with courtesy."Rise up! I want none of that! You are a Ghost of the Future. Returned by the sentience spirit of Mizaru. And no doubt also lead by Kikazaru and Iwazaru here as well."Sonic lifted his head back up. "Well, I guess so."The Prophetess smiled and crossed her legs. "Good. I am Shizaru, Prophetess for the House of Rosoideae. I am their contact with the rest of the distant lands. You have questions for me no?"
Sonic blinked. "Uh yeah." Shizaru bowed her head. "Speak."Finally, time to get some answers. Perhaps those were purposeful dreams after all. But what questions to ask. He reached to his back and scratched it, inclined about picky choices."I wanted to know...I've been visited in my dreams by these girls. I know who they are now...but who is the fourth one? Could it be related to the demon that your Guards spoke of?"Shizaru rested back. "The demon appears to you because it knows your one of it's greatest threats. It cannot rise until the lock is broken and the Keyholder is dead."Sonic tapped his cheek. "A huh...so...I'm assuming they're alive. I mean, at this very moment."Shizaru bowed her head and closed her eyes."One cannot be certain if either has broken or died. But your future...is bleak." Said Kikazaru.Sonic's head aimed for the light blue girl. Iwazaru the Yellow rose from her futon and turned to face Sonic. With her right hand, using her middle and index fingers together she used the finger tips to wipe his lips. He suddenly then tasted sulfur. "Wait, does that mean it's already happened in my timeline?" He blurted. Iwazaru turned back around and sat down again. "You're here because you are Stupilite...Defender of the House...bound by spirit and law."Sonic face-palmed. "Great...another prophecy..." He moaned."All Stupilites are armed for greater destinies." Mizaru mentioned. "You wouldn't be here if you weren't destined for something greater...""Don't they all mention that? Sounds a bit cliché..." Sonic said sarcastically. "So...what do I actually have to do?""Find the girl and return her to this House. The Wisers will appear to you again when we need you."- - - - In a flash of light, Sonic found himself back in the Courtyard. He saw Tails and Knuckles still rambling on about whatever."So what did you find while I was gone?" He asked. Tails lifted his head up from the book."Sonic...now's not the time for lame speed jokes. I know you're impatient but I've only done one page..."Sonic scratched his head. "I was gone...for like, half an hour."Knuckles sighed. "Yeah Sonic...that is kinda lame dude." He complained. Knuckles eventually moved on to another wall. "Alright...this one says "The House of Rosoideae is humbly protected by the Stupilite Honour Guards. With them harm will not come to this holy place peace and prosperity. Those who intrude the peace or threaten to harm it will..."Sonic's head suddenly froze, all that moved were his lips that said: "Thorns also and thistles shall bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field."Tails and Knuckles both gave Sonic looks. Tails eyes then went to Knuckles."Since when can you read hieroglyphics?" Knuckles brooded. Sonic shrugged. "I can't. It was...something that just came out of my mouth I suppose."The fox and the Echidna gave a quick glance to one another, before looking back at Sonic."Sonic man...you're kinda giving me the creeps." Knuckles commented.Sonic shrugged it off. "It's probably those damn flowers." He suggested. "Probably yeah..." Agreed Tails. Tails went back to his book while Knuckles went on transcribing. Sonic just gave a relieved huff."Ah I see. The Stupilites were a rare group of elite Hedgehogs who were saved by the people here, who were also, coincidentally, hedgehogs. They were hunted down because of their demonic ways, often having abilities some shouldn't." Said Tails. That sounded awfully familiar to Sonic."Their numbers were small. But eventually the House found governed clans across the globe and brought them together. The only thing the House forbade them was to marry one another, as although they were of similar species, they were big on blood purity at the time."Knuckles chuckled. "Relatives of yours Sonic?" He joked. Sonic became flustered. "Probably not...but it'd be cool to have them as ancestors huh Sonic? Something to trace your roots back to." Tails noted. Yes because that kind of history is hugely healthy to have.Sonic crossed his arms. "What makes you think I'm not?" He retorted. Tails rolled his eyes."Who knows maybe you are maybe your not? Their population was low, but got higher over time thanks to the House's efforts. I suppose they had a better relationship than most...other than the blood purity thing." Tails assumed. Whether that in itself was a good thing was another story."Meh...my family was like that. Blood purity this, blood purity that. Dwindling civilizations were pretty much exactly the same. It's nothing new." Knuckles explained.Sonic looked at the door away again, hoping to see any of the Wiser Girls standing there. But with no avail. He had to look for the girl they spoke of. Only problem was that which one?Using at least some of his deductive intelligence, he thought of Amy. Out of all the pink hedgehogs he saw, Shizaru was the one who resembled her the most. But surely Amy had relations with others, family, friends. There had to be thousands upon thousands of pink hedgehogs in the world. But only Amy seemed to be connected to this mess. Oh what ever one would call it."Hmm..nothing new here. Other than the rest of text rambling on about Gods like Chaos, Gaia and the like. I suppose they were pretty informed for such an isolated area. But nothing that'll tell us whats in this place." Knuckles mentioned as he continued to run his eyes all over it.Tails scratched his head. "We could have a look around for a map. If this is a starting place as well as a meeting place, it'll have to have one floating around.""For sure good buddy." Said Sonic,giving a thumbs up. They walked through the same doorway that Sonic went down previously. He himself, trekked behind the two as they were in awe of the décor that was the ruins of Rosales. Incredible." Tails complimented, almost dropping his book as a result.

"Just look at this place..." Said Knuckles, who was slowly making his way around.Sonic's arms were held behind his head, his expression uninterested. Arriving at the main street, They witnessed a crowd of robots headed towards the Temple at the very end."Oh jeez I wonder who they belong to..." Sonic said sarcastically. "What's Eggman doing here?" Knuckles wondered."Obviously up to no good again." Tails pointed out. Sonic simply rolled his eyes. This was typical. The usual nonsense one would suspect especially when they were just getting into the groove in discovering all this neat stuff."At least we found this place before he did." The Blue hog noted. Tails nodded. "Of course. But with his clan of robots, it'll be impossible to excavate this place in peace...you know, with stuff being blown up an' all."Sonic shrugged his shoulders. They would just have to take him out the old fashioned way...and by old fashioned meant giving him a good ol' kick up the backside."We can make sure that his greasy hands don't get to touch what evers there." He declared.Knuckles raised a fist. "Yeah. I mean, surely if he's here, there must be something good hiding within that Temple."Sonic glimpsed at Knuckles. That's why Eggman's usually anywhere they were most of the time. "Of course. I mean look at it. It's still in good shape after what, four thousand, five thousand years?" Sonic pointed out."Must have been built to be sturdy." Suggested Tails. "You can't say that for most ruins we find."Knuckles huffed. "That's because Eggman decides to use the easiest method of getting to things.""You ain't wrong about that." Said Sonic. It was time to get to work. Only they weren't getting paid for it.- - - - The trio decided to use stealth and follow Eggman's robots into the Temple. All three hid behind adjacent pillars on the front steps before heading through the large doors. Remembering what the temple looked like from the inside, Sonic flashed back constantly. The place had hardly changed. Only the paintings of gods and hedgehogs on the roof had slightly worn, as it would do over time. The marble floor was gone and dusted as Abbadonia's had somehow spread in here too. They saw Eggman sitting in his specialized hovercraft, a half cupped piece of mobile machinery. Before him was the crowd of specialized robots. The trio recognized some of them. The front row consisted of a tall chicken robot, next to him was a dark green, stout robot with treads and drills for hands. The second set had one short and silvery and the other tall and golden, like brothers. And finally two robots who could be mistaken for brothers as well as the other two, one skinny and could form into a small red ball, and the other very similar and could warp back into medium sized black and yellow box.Eggman's head went from side to side, facing his front row of special machines."Welcome gentlemen, to the Temple of the Prophets. I have either ordered you or purposely reconstructed you to...aid me in a new project of mine. But first! Let us introduce ourselves, as I bet we haven't even seen one another in a very long time."He waved his hand over them and faced the first robot. The lanky chicken nodded."Uh..hey all. I'm Scratch. How you all doing?" He said with nervousness.The stout dark green brought his drills together. "Greetings my brothers. I am a Grounder at your service."The short silver one bowed down. "I am Bocoe."The tall gold one did a courtesy. "I am Decoe!."The red Ball waved his hand about. "I am SA-55 "Orbot."The yellow and black box swirled manically. "Hey everyone! I'm Cubot! Pleasure to meet yas!"Eggman nodded. "And as you all know I am the number glorious Dr. Eggman! Your true creator. One more for the beckoning?" He said, while a Sonic-looking robot came forward."This is Metal Sonic. One of my greatest creations!"The six robots shook in fear as Metal Sonic glared at each and everyone one of them. Metal Sonic's deathly stare with it's crimson and jet eyes bored into the mechanical souls."I am holding a little competition for you all. For my new project I need two very special volun- I mean eh...companions...yes..." He snarled, rubbing his hands together."What is this plan of yours Doctor?" Asked Decoe.Eggman made an evil grin as he intertwined his fingers."This is Rosales. Once known as the Kingdom of Hedgehogs. No, this has nothing to do with Sonic I assure you. For this plan is so...dastardly not even he can hope to destroy it!""Not that if I have anything to do with it..." Sonic mumbled as they watched from a distance."Here lies great treasures of old! Treasures that are glorious! But also can be quite deadly indeed!" Egghead said with malicious glee."What kind of treasures your repulsiveness?" Picked Scratch. Sonic didn't miss their voices at all.Eggman licked his lips as a he whipped out a remote. A neon green hologram projected from the front of Eggmans Eggmobile. The hologram consisted of a coveted artifact, a small ball with numerical runes on it."This is what you will be looking for. It's called the Sphere of Abyss. It was said to been used by the Prophets to punish their perpetrators by sending them into a pit of no return. Then, maybe then! I will be able to rule the whole planet with an iron fist!" Eggman announced."Sir if I may?" Asked Orbot in his nice calm tone.Eggman was busy grinning and stroking his 'stache. "Yes what is it?""What if everyone would eventually rebel? Do you have any sort of back up plan in case this fails?" Orbot replied. Sonic didn't mind the smaller bots, they were...sort of smarter. But more annoying.Grounder rolled his eyes. "Of course he would stupid! Robotnik always has a back up plan!" He retorted. Orbot grunted. "Hey don't call him that! We can all be civilized people right?" He wondered."The Doctor does not go by that name anymore." Bocoe argued."Sure he does! He'll answer to either!" Scratch fired.As the robots argued, Eggman face-palmed. "Take care of them will you?" He requested as he turned to Metal Sonic. MS Obeyed and produces a shock wave of energy, temporarily paralyzing the six."Listen up dingbots and you pieces of scrap! I need you all to cooperate on this!" He belted.Each pair looked at another. "Now shake hands!" He ordered, crossing his arms."Can we get some tea too?" Pried Orbot.Eggman ignored him as all of them shook hands. "Now that's over and done with, I want to place some rules and boundaries for this competition.""Rules? Since when did you have rules?" Grounder wondered, scratching his head."Since I said so!" Roared Eggman. "The rules in place are: The first pair to find this treasure will be my sidekicks for the project. The rest will relay orders from the winners onto the rest of the lesser robots.""That doesn't sound too hard." Said Decoe.Eggman shook his head. "Oh no...of course not. Except for all the booby-traps that could be situated in the sacred tomb of Shizaru, the 72nd Prophet."Six gulps were heard in sync. "But it will be easy for those brave and smart enough to avoid said traps and claim my prize." Eggman sneered. All saluted."Of course we are!" All said in unison. Eggman laughed. "Excellent! Now only one thing! If any of you decide to...lessay cheat or try to run! I have Metal Sonic linked to all of you, so if you aren't here, we will track you, hunt you down and melt you down and raise you back up as my new electric razor. Got that?"Not a mind spared the thought of becoming the nightmarish experience of shaving the Good Doctor. Even the Trio gagged in retrospect, just imagining it made them sick."Ho ho ho! Now go! Go get my treasure! Meet me back here when you find it!""Yes sir!" They replied, before bumping each on their way out, causing Eggman shake his head in shame."I don't even know why I planned to use them instead of actually using a set of competent robots..."He muttered. Metal Sonic just stood there. "Perhaps you should have."Eggman grunted. "Grrr I don't need your opinion. Come on. We have work to do."- - - - As Eggman and Metal Sonic left the temple, the trio conjugated together. This was going to very interesting, at least it was more exciting than what they were already doing."So Eggman is still up his old tricks huh?" Stated Tails. "That's no surprise. Does that mean we get to bash up some more junk?" Said Knuckles, with a glint in his eye."I certainly hope so. I was getting bored doing nothing anyway." Sonic replied.Tails frowned. "But Sonic, we haven't finished excavating..."Sonic shifted it off. "Maybe we can do both at the same time. It'd certainly make the whole experience a lot more interesting.""If you say so..." Tails mumbled as the three walked out of the temple together.- - - - Meanwhile, three shadowy figures lurked upon a balcony above the temple floors."Well ladies, here's the mission all in a hunch..." Said a seductive and husky voice."I have no complaints about it. Just when and where to we have to start." Said a more girly but serious voice."I'm packing and ready to blast." Said an older yet sweet voice."Alright let's move out!

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 2: More is less.

And then she sends the whispers of doom to her opposers, voicing darkness to their souls.

Out of the vengeful eyes of one Dr. Ivo Robotnik, his henchman and jolly orange badniks, Team Sonic walked out of the temple, evading robots where ever they could. Tails was deep in thought on what they could do. Knuckles was keeping a look out, while Sonic's mind had trailed off elsewhere. Shizaru's voice ran through his head. Find her...The only distinctive clue was the colours of the fur. The historical society of pink hedgehogs varied in shades of Rosoideae Pink and Stupilite Blue filtered throughout. Albeit, was there something to back this up other than vivid visions or lucid dreams? He wanted his own solo investigations, not wanting to worry the others with such nonsense. Tikal had given them hers to most of his friends including a robot, but only Sonic saw it this time. Tails would put the supernatural behind his back and yet the Superstitious Knuckles would go into hyper drive with his Echidna background. Both would eventually believe or disbelieve, depending on the circumstances, but for some strange reason he didn't want to explain. He had no choice but to go alone. But...that too would raise questions. Sonic...holding the balance of belief and skepticism knew that he needed to keep a keen eye on all details, disparaging certain truths and upholding others. He could possibly slip statements through cracks and nothing more to cause alarm. But where to start? What could he look, say or do to start it off?He turned his attention to Tails book. That had sufficient information to cipher off. In fact, it was perfect to find a good starting point. He walked over to his two-tailed friend, looking over his shoulder to see what he was reading."What ya looking up buddy?" He asked. Tails head didn't even budge. "I was looking up the Temple of the Prophets. Says here, the first Prophet helped bring together the House itself by fortelling the union between the King and the Queen. Succeeding prophets would also create the Wisers...ehh...oh dear...""What is it?" Wondered Knuckles."It's said that the Wisers were chosen from lower class peasants of the caste. They would have to go through many trials. The Prophet would choose the one he or she foresaw to have great potential as a Wiser. The House forced the chosen to be put through the Gauntlet and in the end each would find themselves in a different area, where Witch Doctors would do one of three things."Sonic tilted his head. "I don't like the sound of that..."Tails gulped. "Neither do I. It says that. One witch doctor would destroy the ear drums of one, another rip out the vocal cords of another, and...the last would tear out the eyes of the last."Knuckles had to check his own for clarity. "Yikes. That doesn't sound...pleasant." He said, albeit delibrately understating it.Sonic thought about that for a moment. It would explain why the girls he had encountered. It made so much more sense."Kikazaru..." He murmured... "Iwazaru...Mizaru..."Tail's head rose. "You say something Sonic?"Sonic stood back. "Uh...nothing...I uh...can't believe such a brutal method was used."He needed to find something interesting to, what Sonic believed, got Tails off Sonic's own problems."What about the Gauntlet? What does it say about it?"Tails flicked through through the pages back and forth several times, then found a piece of jagged paper somewhere in the middle. "Oh...it seems to have been ripped out."Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "Where did you find that thing anyway?"Sonic then had an idea. It peaked and it was wonderful...a certain trail of words that could get him somewhere. His question was the answer. He began examining the book closer. It appeared to be made of old leather and red silk. and the words and diagrams were drawn with old ink. The paper itself had aged."This? I found it at an old bookstore back in Station Square. The lady was real nice, said I would probably need it more than she would."Bingo. That sounded like progress. Sonic smiled slightly."Huh...why don't you ask her why the page was ripped out?"Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Come on Sonic, we don't have time for that. We got to get to that artifact before Eggman does."Shoot. Sonic knew his excuse wasn't as good as he thought it was. "Oh okay..."He tried to think again. He knew Eggman or his cronies (knowing their intelligence) would be highly unlikely to find it, then again they actually might. He wasn't too sure. There could be a chance two pairs could find it, end up fighting over and break the damn thing. But...even in his heart as well as using common sense, his logic was flawed. Eggman had improved them...but to what extent hadn't been shown. He would have to worry about the book later and find this particular artifact."I suggest we find the Gauntlet then." Sonic suggested. Tails nodded. "We might be able to find it in the map in the Courtyard."The trio headed back towards the main courtyard and straight to the map on the wall."Well, we're here." Said Knuckles, pointing in the southern area. "That's the temple..."Sonic examined the map carefully. There were various bits of small, medium and larger grounds."Well, we know it's used for trials, so I doubt its small. Perhaps a mixture of medium and large areas." Tails stated. Knuckles nodded, he noticed an unusual looking area, west of the temple, darker than the rest."This bit has spirals and has a hieroglyphic stating "Maze of Rosales." He noted.Sonic, as per his usual impatience, gave a thumbs up. "Well, that's good enough for me."He said, as her zoomed off. "I should have been surprised..." Knuckles said sarcastically, following up with Tails.Avoiding most of Eggmans robots as per stealth requirements, Team Sonic approached the Western parts of the city. The came across ferns and forestry, encountering the odd Abbadonia along the way. Soon enough they came across some more old ruins. In their strangeness, the ruins consisted of three doorways going into the darkness of the underground. This definitely had to be the Gauntlet."Well, since the book can't provide us with intel, we'll have to go in one of them." Said Tails.Knuckles crossed his arms. "Which one do we go through though?" He asked.Sonic approached the middle one. "Well, maybe we should split up. We each take a path and when we each find something interesting we'll bring it back here." He suggested."Sounds like a plan." Agreed Tails, giving a thumbs up. Knuckles had a closer look at the emblems above each doorway."Each of them mean something, probably describing the kind of path each has. The left one says 'Silence.'" He said, as he moved on to the middle on. "This says: "Voiceless.'" He turned to the right doorway. "Darkness."Sonic tapped his chin. He knew each must of corresponded to one of the Wisers. Deaf, Dumb and Blind. He wondered who had the best of each. Looking at Knuckles, he had a lot of talent for a treasure hunter and a guardian. He needed him to go where there was hieroglyphics, but was weary for Tails as well, who needed to speak for himself. He wasn't sure for himself. But would eventually find his way. He was willing to sacrifice visibility for the others."I want you two to see where you're going. I'll do the Darkness path." He said.He didn't know what was in store for him in the darkened path. But he wanted to make sure each of them were okay with it. "Say Tails, you could do the Silence path. I need your vision and your voice. Knux...you do the Voiceless path. I need you to hear and see what you're doing. Any objections?"Tails, a bit afraid as his tails were tucked between his legs. But he soon shook it off and gave a fist to Sonic. "I can do it!" He nodded. Sonic turned to Knuckles. "I'm okay with it man. No sweat!" He said, pounding his mighty fists together. Sonic grinned. "Alright. I want you all to be careful down there!"Sonic smirked. He put his right fist in the middle of the trio. "Brofist!" He said. Knuckles and Tails put their adjacent fists in and clashed with Sonic's. "Good luck!" Said Tails.Tails was the first to go down his. He took a deep breath and went down the doorway. It was darkened first, until he reached a suitable area complete with an already lit torch, which lead him to believe somebody was already down here. He gulped. There was an inscription on the wall. Pity he couldn't understand hieroglyphics. But then he saw a hand print underneath them. He tilted his head in curiosity. He mindlessly rested his head on it, activating some sort of projected hologram from beneath the inscription, to find that they were in a language he could understand! He read it out loud:"Hear not, my humble child. For all it is you need to see and speak for."Tails felt his head rumble for a moment. Before the rumbles stopped and the hologram disappeared. Tails scratched his head. "That was weird." He stated. But something wasn't right. He couldn't hear himself speak. He went to the opposite wall and whacked it with his fist. He felt it, but couldn't hear it. At all. He started hyperventilating and held his ears and wrapped his Tails around his legs."I'm so scared..." He stuttered. No...he wasn't going to be like this. He had to be strong. For Sonic...for Knuckles. His best friends. He shifted back up and stomped his foot. "I agreed to do this, and I'll see to it to the end..."----Knuckles headed the doorway of Voiceless. He plundered down through the darkened hallway into a viable room. But it turned out to be a dead end. "Darn it..." He muttered to himself. He looked at where the Torch had been lit. Somebody had been down here before him. He'd have to thank them later for their sudden usefulness. He looked at the inscription on the wall with the hand print and read it out loud."Speak not, my strong and noble. For all it is you need is to hear and see for." He read, accidentally putting his hand onto the hand print. He felt a sudden jolt in his throat. He took his hand away from the print and started to cough. Looking up, he went to open his mouth to speak, but soon found he was unable to. He tried multiple times, even to scream. But alas, he failed. Shaking his head, the wall next to him rumbled, and rose. His path was official opened. He pounded his fist into his hand and nodded to himself, before heading forward...----Sonic was the last to enter. Taking a big breath, he wasn't too sure what to expect. Anything could happen down there. He made his ward downwards, onto his unpredictable path. Armed with hyper-awareness and a look lot of attitude, he could do this, with or without eyesight...The only thing he saw down there was the torch lighting up a minuscule portion of the room he'd entered into. But there was no way out. Taking to his initial experience and problem-solving skills, he'd have to crack this piece of the puzzle. He noticed the hieroglyphics on the wall, then the hand print. It was odd, dusty as expected and...warm. Like someone had used it before. He had to ponder for the moment, whether or not it was such a good idea to do so. He tried knocking on the limestone block walls, but had no such luck. He kept wondering about the wall of text, it was bothering him as such. He wished Knuckles was there but then remembered it was his decision to split up. Idiot Sonic. Then again it was the Darkness Path. It might be a rendition of the word, being unable to see, or even understand."Being left in the dark..." Sonic whispered to himself. He turned around to head back to the surface, but the doorway had disappeared. He was trapped. The only good thing was that the torch was still on, but it didn't help much, just to know that Sonic was not in total...wait...Maybe that was it. If he let the light out, the doorway would open. He sighed. He wasn't going to risk touching something he shouldn't. If all else fails, he would have to do it regardless. He had no choice in the matter. He could there and wait for eternity, or he could start trying. He grabbed the torch of its handle and smash it to the ground, stomping it with his foot. Soon enough, it was pitch black. He stood there for a few moments, waiting for anything to happen...Rumblerumblerumble...Sonic could hear it, feel it, taste it, smell it. But could not see. Darkness was literal. Once again he had to feel his way around in the direction he could hear it, carefully treading towards the open door. Soon enough, he'd found the exit, but not the one he was looking for. His eyes became sore as he constantly rubbed them. He was embarrassed by the fact he had to crawl around on his knees to get anywhere. He also wondered if echolocation could assist him. Maybe listen to any sounds that might be near. Sonic then clanked the walls and focused his pointed hedgehog ears on alleged bangs and scratches. He hated going this slow, annoyed by the fact that his patience could wear thin at any moment. This plus the crawling...so degrading.Trekking on for quite a while, Sonic was growing insane. Within an hour of crawling in dirt, hearing the wind was quite the ironic breath of fresh air. But no doubt this was not the end. He was sort of getting used to the hearing around him part, within that space of time everything was becoming louder. He had become dependent about it, that he knew how the real visually disabled people felt. But no, Sonic did not need pity from others, if he could save the world more times than he can remember, surely one little Gauntlet was nothing compared to them. But...there was no smashing robots or bad guys or what not. Just silence...allowing Sonic's mind to wander elsewhere...It went from person to person...checking and rechecking everything and everyone he ever knew."!"Sonic almost fell into a ditch. His breath was loud enough to allow him to level the and estimate the depth of the ditch. Going from his echoes, it looked pretty deep. The wind howled down in a spiral like fashion, causing a slight chinking and clanging sound from the bottom of it. Something was down there, he knew it. Sonic just took it in his stride to make his way past it from the side. Now he had to be real cautious...But he couldn't help but think, as it the internal voices in his brain made for much better conversation than with dust and wind. His knees were chafing by this point, and his hands extremely dirty, gathering by the dusty taste he was getting by accident. But...again...he had to focus. The pain was part of the plan. He was going through what the Wiser, Mizaru the Green, had to go through.Eventually Sonic had felt his way to a cliff side, albeit smally congratulating himself on avoiding several ditches, pitfalls and just general old holes along the way. He was surprised with himself, for the first time in ages, he was exhausted. Not physically, just mentally. It was...strangely fascinating how it had drained such an energetic, always moving, hedgehog. His brain hurt...He took the time to have a small break from all this feeling business and sat on the edge of the cliff. He tapped his scraped knee and contemplated...He was eternally left to wander, hoping at least some sort of craziness...ANY kind of craziness, would save him from this boredom. He wondered how Tails and Knuckles were coping, want to get Cream for her birthday, if Rouge was busy hunting jewels, if Jet was still racing, if Blaze was okay, if Marine was still building, if Chip was having happy dreams, if...Amy was OK. She'd been in the corner there...nudging about. Sonic imagined her flailing her hammer about to make some room, make sure no one else had that piece of his thoughts. So that part of her would be his. She would be with him. No doubt in reality this had been caused by her persistent pestering. She wasn't a bad person...in fact far from it. It was just...her forcing herself onto him so much that she'd broken through his thick skull and sitting there. Nagging and nagging for him to marry her. She must have known he wasn't so keen. He'd acted somewhat repulsed by her actions. Then again, had he done it first? Was the impact of him saving her all that long ago that also, cracked through her mind and that tiny little image of him was etched...sown...melted...bored...nailed in so tight...it was painful to let go. He felt like apologizing but how would he approach the subject? She might not even understand the problems Sonic was having. Better yet, what problems? Obviously some people have contributed so much to others that it's practically legal for them to buy a plot of land in their mentally built towns. Either positive or negative...you have your fat cats and your poor...winners and losers but usually the forgotten ones are those the middle, the ones that are just there for the delicious pies at the local cafes. They come and go, but only own the tiniest portions of property. So why was it that Amy had one of the largest mansions?Compared to Tails, his and Knuckles were sort of the same size, if not slightly smaller. It wasn't fair. Amy is still a friend. She should have the same size as all the others. He couldn't touch it, not legally. He could visit it, see what more she has. What she has that the others don't. Then he could realize. Nonetheless, he couldn't control it. She resides in her house.A cracking sound disturbed Sonic's thoughts. He then heard voices in the distance. Two distinct voices that he could recognize. He got up from the cliff, finally free of his brain, and tried listening in the conversation..."Idiot, don't let go or we'll both fall..." Complained a rather, strained and cranky being."My treads can't hold on much longer..." Moaned the other, desperate and childish being.Sonic rubbed his chin. He definitely knew those voices, but had to identify them. "Hey is anyone there?" Yelled the cranky one."I'm here! Do you need any help?" Sonic yelled."Finally..." The two said in sync, before the childish one almost sounded like he slipped."GROUNDER!""Sorry Scratch, the rail is too thin too carry us both!"Scratch...Grounder...those two he hadn't encountered in years. He wondered briefly why Eggman would bring them back after all this time. Didn't matter though, he finally had company and someone to listen to...yes...he was that desperate."Hang on! I'm coming to get you!" Said Sonic. He didn't know how, but he would find a way. He theorized if he used his ears to get in on their location. But then remembered what Grounder said..."Hey did you say you were on a rail of sorts?" He asked."Yeah." Said Scratch. "It's a two rail system, so Grounder was using his treads to go over it, until the rusty junk decided it would be funny to slip.""No I didn't you doofus! You were busy trying to adjust my torch and I got distracted and fell." Grounder retorted.Sonic face-palmed. But now he had sufficient info. "Where's the rails?""If you're at the cliff, they should be in front of you. Be careful though, there's a slight gap. Scratch had to stretch out in order for me to get across." Grounder replied.Great. Now he had to estimate the distance by using a combination of sheer luck and sound. He decided to do a runner, then scream, using the reflective properties of the metal to create the echo as he ran along and judged the distance between the cliff and the rails. If he got this wrong, he was a dead hedgehog. By instinct he closed his eyes, even though that was completely pointless, as he jumped back into the air, yelled some more then tried to use the wind through his quills, which he had stolen but not quite perfected it to the extent Knuckles uses it to, to slow his descent. He shouldn't be scared, but his heart was pounding, worried he'd keep falling. He took a deep breath and made a few noises again. Alas there was a faint response."Ah!"His hands fell onto the ends of one of the rails. His legs dangled before he forced himself back up."I'm okay...I'm okay..." He said. Although he wasn't sure if the others cared. Most likely they were in it for themselves as long as somebody saved them. Turning to his side, Sonic put both his feet on the tails, and soon started grinding downwards. This part was easy, as keeping balance was a sinch. He'd used the screeching sounds to pertain any certain spaces or blockages that would stop him, other than that, he happily grinded his way up, down, around, jumped from rail to rail and looped towards where Scratch and Grounder were. The screeching soon indicated that they were nearby as he started to slow down.He then bumped into an object, in which always shifted and made Sonic almost trip."Oh there you are. We could hear you from ages away!" Grounder grunted. "Good! Now let us up!"Sonic wasn't sure how he was going to do this. The rail itself was only 20 centimeters wide. He tried to think of what to do in order to keep his balance. "So...Grounder is it?" He said, acting subtle in order to keep his identity from the pair. "Yes are you dumb?" He retorted. "Okay Grounder, so the other one must be Scratch right?" He asked. "Of course moron! Geez..." He croaked.He knew what Grounder was like, but he would have to get up second because of the sheer awkwardness of how the tread was balancing. Pull that up and risk Scratch falling in an instant. He held onto the railing with one hand and stretched over to find Scratch's hand with the other."Take it!" Said Sonic. Scratch, without hesitation, grabbed a quick hold of Sonic's as Sonic dragged him up. "What about me?" Moaned Grounder. "Don't worry, I'll get you up." He said. As soon as Scratch as safe, well, safe as you could be, balancing on a thin rail, Sonic took Grounder's hand and picked him. Scratch somewhat assisted, putting his long chicken legs into a spread, with one leg firmly on the second rail. "Okay, on three...one...two...THREE!"The two zoomed Grounder up, as he once more fell onto the pair of rails nicely. Scratch wiped his forehead. "Phew, what a close one..." He exasperated. "Thanks a lot there...who ever you are.""Don't mention..." Said Sonic. Scratch hopped back on Grounders back. "You coming?" Asked Scratch."Yeah..." Replied Sonic as he jumped in front of the pair. "I'll be first, use what ever tech-uhh use what ever you have to get across, like you did before you fell.""Absolutely." Agreed Scratch."No distractions!" Said Grounder.Sonic then slid his way around, the distance between him and the two robots increasing by the millisecond. Sonic smiled as he heard a more thudding instead of a claning and ringy ching, as this was possibly the end of it. "Guys, I'm at the end here!" He said. "Don't worry about jumping or anything, because the rails merge with solid ground.""We're coming!" The pair yelled in unison. Sonic wanted to keep moving, but would feel guilty if he left the two by themselves. It was still dark, so he safe for a little while longer...he hoped.The pair crashed into the ground as they reached the end. Sonic rolled his eyes."Hey hand off that!" Yelled Scratch."Get your foot off my a-""Okay that's enough you two. We have to keep moving or else we'll never get out."Sonic heard the pair straighten themselves out. "Yes our savior!" They said, suddenly grateful.Wonderful...actually, not sarcastic. If they now worshiped him, he could use that to his advantage. But he still had to be subtle in his words. "Hm...I wonder if we have some kind of sound wave device? That way we can hear our way through."Sonic heard Grounder huff. "Pff...we've been doing that for ages." He mentioned. "Yeah." Said Scratch. "Even though our eyes or lights don't work, we still have other devices to aid us.""That's what I'd like to hear!" He said, smiling.Grounder stood in front, while Scratch and Sonic stood behind and let him do his work. They would let Grounder emit the waves, while Sonic and Scratch would interpret it as they will. They walked alongside the soundless paths once more, the stuff that made Sonic insane before. He'd bring conversation to break the ice, even aid them a little bit more. But that would not aid him, bringing doom to his despair to the fact that they would eventually find out who he was. Eventually his thoughts came flooding back...In between all this came some weird ulterior motive. For everyone. Whether it's power or sheer curiosity. It could end either differently or the same. Sonic was on the side of curiosity. Both ways were dangerous. It wasn't at first it intrigued Sonic until Tails had mentioned the flower...The Abbadonia...Amy...The Prophetess and the Wisers...that demon. What linked them all?The Rosiodae...Rosales...Muriel? He remembered Tails mentioned two names. Muriel's Garden, or Garden of Rosales? Muriel might be something completely unrelated, or one of the founders. Original founders. He remembered that Tails still had the book. Darn it. Why did Muriel pop into his head? No matter. He had to be focused. What ever plagued his head could easily be run off. But...he simply couldn't. The grinding was fun, that was for sure, but he wanted to move. Move his legs to shake off his worries and see the wonders of the world one more time. But he was here. Cold, dark and cramped. Dirty and dusty with two broken-rebuilt robots from his earlier days.Shizaru had said she wouldn't see him again until he had found her. Her...who was she? Amy still picked at his mind, barging in on his conversations again Why? Why Amy? Surely there was something different. Her origins. Again she never spoke about herself. The only thing he knew of her was of her Hammer, interest in him...her friends...shared dislike of Eggman and his ilk. But there was something missing. His mental perception of her had hidden it deep inside of her mansion, refusing the burst out and cry out to him. Did it really not matter what she did at the time? Now he kinda regretted it. Not once did he attempt to have a discussion about herself and her family. It never came across his mind. Damn it Sonic, you were so selfish...he thought to himself.Yet she was very very persistent. She could figure out him easy but the opposite...not so much. She had devoted so much time and effort trying to get him to date or marry her and yet his rejections. That girl sure was incredibly stubborn for. Then again, he was as well. He wouldn't mind a change in the wind but a relationship was probably too restraining. But...maybe Amy was willing to run too...run with him to nowhere and everywhere. If she had tried everything to grab him and succeeded, she would most likely do anything to make him stick, including running. Yeah...he could train her to run faster, get her a new pair of shoes. She'd become a female Sonic in no time...No...I mustn't think that...He thought again. Amy was a friend he was willing to help out if ever she was in a trouble or needed something OTHER than a pritzy relationship. He didn't need it. She did. He often what she would do if she ever gave up pursuing him? He'd hoped she would go with a nicer guy who was willing to settle down with her. That's who she needed. Not him. He couldn't handle it. His heart ached at the thought of it. The pain shrilling his nerves. No...she needed someone else. He would hardly be there for her. Damn it...why does it hurt to neglect?"Uh...I believe we've hit a wall." Said Grounder. Sonic quickly snapped out of his minor trance."Seriously Grounder...can't you just mash it or something?" Scratch moaned. Grounder used his drills to bore through the wall. Surprisingly it was being effective, according the loudness that the drill was making. It crackled softly, then hard, then soft again. Dirt most likely."Okay stop let me check it." Sonic suggested. He walked over to the wall and feathered it with his finger tips. It was indeed dirt gathering by the rough edging. He slammed his fist through, making a legible hole. "Alright you two, I think if we work together I'm sure we can get passed this a lot quicker. I'll need the pair of you to both slam through as hard as you can okay?""That's easier with my drills." Said Grounder. No sooner had he said it, Grounder was busy boring again while Scratch with clawing his way through, with Sonic throwing bits of rock and dirt away from the area, time to time hearing a chinking sound. "Sorry Grounder." Said Sonic, although he couldn't help but chuckle a little.Sonic could then feel a burst of wind filtering through his fur. It was nice, albeit a bit cold and chilly. He could smell something wet and hear drips. Great. Water. He was screwed. Maybe not?Scratch and Grounder could aid him, guessing even as idiots they had swimming programmed."There might be a pool of water nearby. Any volunteers?" Sonic asked.
"I nominate Grounder." Scratch answered.
"Why me?" Grounder moaned. "You've got some inbuilt boat don't you?" Scratch pointed out. How Eggman tolerated these two in the past was beyond Sonic's knowing.
Grounder shuffled around. "Oh alright...geez..."Grounder was first to tilt himself over, finding out that it was another cliff-side. Scratch held onto his treads as Sonic grabbed onto Scratch's scrawny chicken legs. Using his hand, Grounder tried to extend himself to find solid ground. Sonic's theory had been proven correct. It was water."Okay, carefully lay me down so I can activate the boat thing." Said Grounder. Scratch slowly but surely rested Grounder, with the shifting with Grounder himself, a blowing sound apparent, alongside the resting of a thinnish plastic on liquid. Scratch helped himself on the contraption that Grounder blown up. Sonic jumped on board as well.
"Full speed ahead!" Seared Scratch. A rudder shifted on with engines running. He wished Grounder would have lights on, but they weren't working at all. Sonic tried focusing on the rudder to chase his thoughts away. He couldn't run them away which became more frustrating by the moment. Scratch and Grounder were awfully quiet, probably they themselves were focusing on not crashing. Sonic could do that as well. He felt his way to the front with Scratch to listen around him."I wonder how deep this is." Said Scratch.
"I don't wanna stick around to find out." Sonic stated.He could take the time to probe the pair on snooping on Eggman's behalf."So...what are the pair of you doing down here anyway?""Well, we were on a mission from our boss to look for something." Said Scratch."Yeah...it's to help take of over the w-" Grounder said before being muffled by Scratch's hand.
Scratched just laughed nervously. "What he's trying to say is that it's gonna make the world...uhh...a better place."They hadn't changed. Sonic just smiled. "Ah okay cool. I'm just lookin' for stuff too.""Really? Well it could be the same thing we're lookin' for..." Scratch suggested. To Sonic, it was, but he decided to screw with them anyway. Just for old times sake."Nah mines different..." He motioned, scratching his head. "I'm just an ol' curious civilian.""Are you an archeologist?" Asked Grounder.
Sonic thought for a very brief moment. "Well you got me." He lied. No harm in doing so.
"Wow so you must know a lot history then?" Awed Scratch.Sonic chuckled nervously. "Y-yeah...quite a bit.""Do you know much about this place then?" Poked Grounder. Sonic only knew what Tails had read out from his book. He really did wish he had it with him. That made the perfect excuse."I had a book on me...but...I lost it along the way. So I've had to come through here solo."Scratch tapped on the side of the boat. "Our boss was looking for a book, but said there was only one copy of it. So he went to make his own observations." He explained. Wow, those two were still dingbots, but were far more intelligent then they used to be. Even on the surface if you couldn't tell but there was certainly a major change in the pair. Sonic had to keep on guard for any sudden change from himself. They spent the rest of the time speeding along what Sonic realized have had to been some underground lake. The trip was rather long and quiet, Grounder had to be had going along at least a 2 or 3 knots tops. Again it'd gotten to the point where Sonic's inner self was splurging out unintelligible or mixed messages in the traffic of his thoughts. Some crashing and burning, eventually coming out as nothing but thoughtless junk that meant nothing to him. His held felt, letting the faint splashes of droplets hit his fur. Then suddenly he heard voices, whispers in the air."When are you gonna learn...that it is time to move on from these things...you can't let the battle go forever when there's no one left to fight..."The voice was soft but gravely. He knew that voice. Tails."Tails is that you buddy?" He asked. No response. Instead the voice got louder."It happened suddenly I know that. But you had to push it. Push the blade further in until the pain was no longer there, but instead they'd been dead for before you even reached them."Sonic shook his head. "I don't understand.""Then what was the point of having the blade in the first place?""Hey you there?"Sonic blinked. The boat had stopped moving. "What's the matter?" He asked."I heard a noise." Said Scratch. "It sounded like a monster!" Grounder shrieked."I'll deal with it!" Said Sonic. "But how? We can't even see!" Scratch retorted."Don't worry, I'll find a way!" He said with pride. He shushed the pair as he listened to what ever was around him.WHOOOSHHe jumped as something had whipped across them. He landed on a squishy surface, regaining his balance in the meanwhile. Unbearable screeches forced Sonic to shield his ears, he didn't need to be deaf as well...A force of wind made him hop once more, bouncing across a little closer, to a rather fishy smell. Reminded Sonic of a terrible cake Knuckles once made for some reason. None the matter, Sonic didn't hold his nose, as he needed spare limbs at all times. Each bounce brought him worse scents that he almost vomited because of it. He could tell he was on a tentacle of sorts judging by the soft and thin leverage. A massive deformed octopus? Most likely. Sonic followed the wind and lent his ear around to dodge each tentacle trying to grab a hold of him. His hand accidentally felt something else rather squishy that made his stomach churn even more. Sonic went into a spin ball motion and squished the eye, the scent worsening and blood going everywhere.Sonic had to jump again. The tentacled monster was still using them against him, but rather flailingly, which meant Sonic had found its weak spot. He knew it was extra mushy than the rest. An eye maybe? He regretted using his hands on the scaling surface to find the next eye, all the while dodging the tentacles in several go's. Eventually he found it, and spun his way into a ball and forcibly squished it, before rolling up in the air and get the thing on its head. Sonic had spun extra hard and the monster squealed as hard as it could, almost deafening. Sonic smirked, thinking he had one, as the creature sounded like it was dying... "Victories mine boys! Sushi sent me a message before to kick your butt into the next roll! Haha!" Sonic punned. Scratch and Grounder just made begrudged growls. "Come on, we gotta keep moving!" Scratch announced. Sonic made the effort to head back to the boat ready to move on until...
WHAAAAACK!
Sonic was sent flying deep into nowhere, before hitting water, knocking him out cold...----

All the while the dreamer dreamed, those in the found worlds fled in panic, like lost children...

Sonic heard the whispers of a graveled, demonic voice. It was all that responded to him. No sight, no cold, not hot...nothing but words of a brokered demon.
There is choice Mr. Thorn. Give in or give out. A dreamer can't dream forever, or risk heading down further into the hedgehog hole.
No...he hadn't found what he was looking for. This was not the girls. It was that thing, taunting his mind endlessly.
The pit is right for you. Endless...you can always run because you can never hide. Run forever little Hedgehog. For what use is it to make sense of the unsalvagable? It's a mess up there and down here is so much safer. You are indeed all surface and no inner depth. Do you even attempt to dig deeper? Is there a need for the faux behavior? You are the last dreamer, where others have failed wake up would you join their stead? No. You won't. I know you. I've always known you. You are predictable...
Sonic's mind drifted. Constantly. The voice in his head abandoned him and now he was left alone with question with no answer. He could die here, alone. Darkened by madness...the demon was keen to break his spirit. He could tell. But a soul made of steel could not be broken. No way he was gonna give up. He was just warming up."I'd tell you to shove it up your cake hole!" Sonic roared. "You have no idea how I feel. You yourself are alone which is the main reason this shindig started."
I can tell you now Mr. Thorn I did not start it this time...
Sonic floated away into nothingness. The demon's presence lingered and almost seared his soul. Just another pointless dream...a nightmare that could be beaten into submission.Then light...light that shined brighter that he could no longer feel the demon near him. There was also a faint grasp in his hand, felt like the hand of a Guardian Angel, feeling a warm breath through his lips and very groggy. Indeed all faint but there...no doubt about it. It was powerful enough for the doubt to melt away into the water that clogged his ears. The light of his angel, his savior...He could feel himself being dragged across dirt and slammed down on the ground. For what little consciousness he had, it didn't help. His sight had not yet returned as the light faded away. The waterlogged hedgehog had his chest pressed upon constantly, spitting and gargling in the meanwhile, before finally waking up, coughing like mad. He sat up from where he was and had a hand behind his back as he was gently leaned onto a wall."You okay?" Said a deep feminine voice. Her. His Guardian Angel. Her voice was strangely familiar but he couldn't place it. "I'm okay now...thanks..." He spluttered. "You were out for a while there. Your friends here were deeply worried."Sonic's head dropped from side to side. "My...friends?" He said groggily."Your robotic friends." She explained. Scratch...Grounder...he went along with it."Yeah we were worried!" Exclaimed Grounder.Sonic heard a chink and a clank on the wall beside him. He gathered by the smell of sweat and wet fur, she sat right next to him.

"You were out for the count. I witnessed the entire ordeal." She told him, as her voice echoed from her helmet.Sonic rubbed his head. "You mean you saw the whole thing?"The lady must have hit something plastic. "I have night vision goggles. I got through here easy."Scratch crossed his arms. "That doesn't make sense. We lost our vision completely. No lights, not torches or anything." He complained."I would have to agree with Drumstick here." Sonic mumbled. "Wouldn't any sort of machine or device stop working completely?"The lady sighed. "Mine didn't...I don't understand why. I actually did not understand that until these two mentioned it while you were out cold.""Huh..." Sonic muttered. "So what are you doing here?""..." The lady purred. "I'm part of the Femme Fatalex team. We're here on a rescue mission.""To rescue us?" Grounder hoped."No..." She replied. "To rescue a lady named Muriel. We've been looking for her for weeks."Muriel?"Who's she?" Asked Scratch."Muriel was the one made the original discovery of the Garden. It was named after her. She insisted that others leave it alone for their sake. We suspect someone had kidnapped her in order to find what she had all those years ago. She's a considered and a well respected archaeologist." The lady responded. That made sense. Muriel's Garden. It interested Sonic. "So do you know who kidnapped her?"The lady huffed. "I am not at liberty to say. It's classified."Sonic shrugged. These types always had something to hide. "I understand." Although, it was obvious who might have done it.She gave a brief nod. "But I am currently stuck. You see, because I wasn't affected by the Gauntlets curse, I didn't garner the gift to become the key at the end. I was actually coming back the other way until you three came." Grounder clapped. "Yes! We're gonna finally get to the end!" He squealed.Sonic smiled. "That's a relief. This place is giving me the creeps." He said with relief.The lady helped Sonic up onto his feet. Her hands warms and comforting. "So do you have a name?" He asked. "I'm Agent 41v19. But you can call me Mjöllnir."Sonic scratched his head. "Uhh...can I just call you Olly or something?" He wondered, realizing Mjöllnir might be a bit hard to remember or even pronounce. "What ever..." She replied, apathetic."Just follow me. I know the way to the end. There's one more minor trial that you must go through though. You beat the Tentacled Beast but the last bit is a bit tantalizing..." She explained. Sonic did as she said as he, Scratch and Grounder wandered on behind her. "You have the curse and the gift, therefore can open the final door to reach the end. This is supposed to teach you NOT to trust your eyes. Lucky my night vision goggles avoided most of the impact...but the noises...are insane. You thought the silence was brutal before...but no...this part makes me shudder."Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "But you must have gone through twice to get back here. How did you handle it? I mean, besides the goggles of course."Olly sighed. "You run. You run like you mean it. You will bump into things from time to time. I can't quick step." She explained. "I can." Said Sonic. "If you know your way through of course. If I had checked properly, this is supposed to test your audio focus. If you can mentally filter out the garbage from the important doodads, then you will get through fine."Sonic nodded. "I can take it on. Don't worry about me!"----The quad walked along, following behind Olly in toe. Sonic began to hear strange mutters and pondered if they were close. Scratch and Grounder kept to themselves mostly, gathering by their small whimpers they were deathly afraid, possibly hearing things as well as Sonic."Listen up you guys, we're close. Sonic, I want you to go in front. I will follow up with the other two. We're gonna be right behind you if you have trouble." Mentioned Olly. Her tone was awfully riddled with authority."On it!" Sonic said eagerly, as he trekked in front of the others.Little flickers of white light carelessly whispered down a long and very narrow corridor. He took a deep breath and realized he feared what he couldn't see. Knowing Olly had night vision goggles did little to pander his fears, knowing he had to act stronger and look stronger. He dusted off himself and did a few stretches. A few hours or so of not running did that to him, making his muscles weak."You ready?" Asked Olly. Always "Yeah..." Sonic replied."Good..." She said. "Just remember, focus on the reality part. Anything else that is not a wall or a pillar is not your friend. Avoid everything at all costs and don't stop running. Trust me on that."That sounded like something born from prior experience. What ever the consequence was, it was definitely not pleasant.

"Why?" Sonic asked. Olly took a deep breath. "Because. It took longer for me to actually go through the first time then it did the second time. The whole thing is based on a illusions and tricks. You won't know until you have completed it."Great. Tricksters in the midst. Sonic knew he had to keep a sharp ear out. He went into a lunge position. "Good luck." Scratch and Grounder said in unison.WOOOOSH...Sonic was off in a instant. He was initially met with the drifting white wispy lights that didn't seem to bother him. But in fact help him. But they were the only things he saw, helping determine where the pillars and walls are. He kept running, side stepping a few times as per his natural recent skills. He just bolted through, and felt good because of it. The running of his worries, the fearless he usually had. Oh how he longed for it..oh how he..huh?He skidded as he ran past what appeared to be a ghost. He walked backwards slighting to see someone's back to him. They appeared to be crying,weeping into their hands. Ignoring Olly's advice, completely forgetting it, he approached them. "Are you okay?" He asked genuinely."DO I LOOK OKAY?" Said the demonic voice, whom turned around.

Sonic was slightly startled. "A-Amy?" He stuttered.She was literally a ghost...complete with translucence and grey undertones. Her eyes were pitch black. Sonic raised his hands in defense.

"Uh..what happened?""I'M DEAD SONIC AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" She roared. Black tear drops fell from her eyes. Sonic shook his head. "What did I do?" He asked, more scared than he was worried.From behind her back she brought out her hammer. "HOW COULD YOU? I LOVED YOU SONIC!"Sonic kept walking back, then remembered that it wasn't real. He was an idiot for stopping in the first place. "DON'T RUN YOU COWARD!"Her voice deeply frightened him on a level he'd never felt before. He'd never seen her like that, but it definitely wasn't her. She wasn't dead. He'd only seen her just recently. Running again, Sonic became determined to make it to the end. He sidestepped several times and dodged pillars. But the voices wouldn't go away."Sonic it's Tails. I sorta got stepped on by a monster and now I'm dead. Sorry I sorta failed you..." A muttered serenaded. No. Tails was not dead. He had to focus. "Sonic dude...I got eaten...you'll have to do this on your own..." Spoke another demonic whisper, though Sonic could tell it was Knuckles.Damn it Sonic...focus! He ran faster and faster, eventually ignoring the pillars and smashing them up, causing explosions behind him. "Can you take care of the plant for me Sonic? It's actually growing quite well. I can't remember why I was growing in the first place. I'll see you some other time."Run dammit run...it's not real. He focused on shutting everything off. Everything. The only thing he could was keep going forward.
"Sonic...why do you keep running? It's pointless. Everyone knows you're a fake."
Sonic began panting. No...he was stronger than this. Keep that frontier up, it's important. His heart pounded faster than he ran. Well, according to him anyway. He knew they weren't real, but why were they bothering him so much?"Hey..."Sonic stopped and opened his eyes. He found himself standing in a slightly lightened area. He looked in front of him. A curvaceous woman wearing some sort of coveted-spandex like material, with massive black boots and a round helmet with the cooky night vision goggles that were something that Tails would wear. It wasn't too bright, but he saw the tones of Scratch and Grounder examining a door."Come on...I need to show you this..." Said Olly. She grabbed his hand and brought him over to said door. Her hands flung to her hips. "These two tried doing it themselves, but I'm guessing they need more someone more organic." She explained. Sonic shrugged. He waltzed over to the door and had a brief squint. He could barely see, albeit brought on by faint lighting. "Hey does your stuff work yet?" Sonic asked. "No not yet." Grounder replied.Sonic could see Olly staring right at him, making him rather uneased. "Wait, you're suggesting I do it?" He queried.Olly gave off sarcastic vibes, as he should have known. "I did say that you had the curse and the gift. I had my tricks of the trade but unfortunately none of them will work for this." She explained. Sonic tapped his foot."Well...alright. But are you sure there's nothing behind there for me to be concerned about?" He asked again. He did NOT want to go through that again.Olly looked at the door. "No. Well, maybe...I don't know. There's only one way to find out. You up to the task or what?"Sonic smirked "It's been a piece of cake so far. Why stop now?" He gloated.
If he could see her face, he imagined that she'd have a smirk. "That's what I'd like to hear." She responded in kind.Sonic pushed through the two robots and examined the door with what faint light they had. With his fingertips he caressed the molded stone to find something. Not before long he reached a deep indentation, like a print he had seen at the start of the Gauntlet. Pressing down hard, the room started to rumble slightly. Dirt and stone fell from above as the door slide upwards. Scratch and Grounder fled behind Olly who just examined the event. The door opened completely as the four of them walked in.The room was larger than the rest. It had to be at least ten meters high. The roof, the floor tiles, the pillars and tables were all a jet black marble. Light suddenly flash from the corners of the room, finally giving them some decent vision. Sonic had to shield his eyes from the onset agony. He rubbed them again before a blurry vision was stood before him, everything eventually becoming clear. The lights aimed towards a dais on the other side. Beside them grew healthy Abbadonias.He carefully approached the dias itself without going near the flowers. On top of the dais was a flat surface, inscribed with claw marks, old blood and weird heiroglphics. Olly took off her night vision goggles and investigated the room. Scratch and Grounder took one look at Sonic and gasped."Wait? SONIC THE HEDGEHOG?" They both screamed in unison."Shut up you two, he saved your lives. Deal with it..." Olly barked. She saw countless hieroglyphics around the walls, even on the roof."This must be where they did the procedures." Olly presumed. "The Witch Doctors would pull out the eyes of those who took the Path of Darkness, knowing all too well that the Wiser had passed or was killed in the long run."Scratch and Grounder were busy fumbling to each other and couldn't believe it was Sonic the entire time. "What are we gonna do Scratch? What if the boss finds out?" Mumbled Grounder in his worry. Scratch was just as scared. "He'd be furious!" But then had an epiphany and leaned in to Grounders...invisible ears. "I have an idea...Sonic must be searching for the artifact too! So he will be able to lead us to it first!"Grounder possessed an evil smirk. "Great idea Scratch! I would never have thought of that."Olly walked up beside Sonic as he was checking the slab. "So...got anything?" She asked."No..." Said Sonic in a disappointed tone. "I need Knuckles to translate it for me."Sonic looked at Olly. She had her night-vision goggles on top of her head, but her helmet was like a motorbike one, so he couldn't see her face. "Well, from memory, the end of the Gauntlet had a Witch Doctor for doing the ritual on all of those who dared enter it." She explained.Sonic rubbed his chin and scanned the room. He'd hoped for a vision of sorts to come across his mind, but nothing happened. The one time he need help from the paranormal and it rejects him. He turned back to Olly. "So this might be the place where they happened. Spooky."Olly confronted the two robots. "You two. Look around..."Scratch and Grounder looked at each other. "What should we look for?" Asked Grounder."Anything of the obvious...traps, buttons and stuff that either has relics or a clue to the way out." Answered Olly. "Yes Ma'am." Scratch said, saluting. The pair scattered around searching for what they could. "You do know they work for Eggman..." Sonic muttered. Olly shrugged. "I know. I just wanted them to not bother us for a while."Sonic nodded. "Ah okay, I see what you mean..."The two covered around the dais and the slab. Olly went over to the back to see if anything could either be pushed or moved aside. "There's gotta be something the Witch Doctors used, like a escape route or a button that released a ancient safe."Sonic looked puzzled. "Wait, what was down here in the first place? Were you hoping to find that sphere?""Thats one of many things down here. Now lower your head for a moment..." She ordered. Sonic knelt down to her level. "The Sphere of Abyss was one of seven artifacts of the House of Rosoideae." She whispered. "Used in conjunction with the other six would release a powerful demon in the world."Sonic nodded. Though he wondered if the demon was the same one he'd seen several times before. It was highly coincidental indeed. He suspected Eggman knew the amount and was carefully searching for them, but why it was one of a time he didn't know. There was a lot he didn't know."Also remember how I said I was looking for Muriel? With the factor with Eggman possibly kidnapping her for information could be my chance to stop his plans. I am concerned with her safety however." Olly continued, a bit worried."I doubt Eggman would be that cruel..." Sonic muttered. "I mean, he's kidnapped before, plenty of times. The only thing I would worry about would be if he stuffed her into one of his robots.""That too." Continued Olly. "But she's getting old. She found this place well over fifty years ago."Sonic was surprised, but it left a lot to be answered. "If she did find that long ago, how come nobodies come here until now?""She released her book not long ago. It was all mythical and she wouldn't dare tell the general public. The book was aged, sort of clampy with a red silk cover. Dusty most likely. She said she'd sold it to someone the other week. My guess Eggman heard about her exploits, and wanted the book for himself."The book would have been priceless in Sonic's mind. Anything detailing historical discovering would have been far too valuable to place in anyone's hands. So who did she sell it to? He checked back to Scratch and Grounder who were busy, then headed back to Olly."Who has it now?" He whispered. That's classified. In fact, who ever has the book itself is in pretty grave danger." Olly proclaimed.Sonic thought back to her description of Muriel's supposed book. Where did he see it? He knocked his skull with his fist to try and knock the sense into it. Old...red...dusty...His eyes went wide. "Tails..." He muttered. Olly stared at him."Hm?" She huffed, curious."Tails has the book..." He whispered. Olly nodded. "Where is he?"Sonic frowned. "He's doing the Silence Path of the Gauntlet." He replied. Sonic had hoped he was alright, as that vision earlier gave him horrific shivers down his spine.. "I see. It'll be okay, one of my girls went in there earlier. If he has any luck he might bump into her." Olly stated with words of comfort.Well at least someone would look after him. Tails could handle himself than Sonic gave him credit for but Sonic had that big brother-like instinct to worry.
"Let's hope so." He said.Olly reached further down behind the dais. She tilted her head, examining some sort of extremely small button of sorts. "They might be behind here, kicking from behind to make something happen." Olly believed. Sonic went around to have a look. He saw it too. "You might be right. It does look awfully suspicious."Sonic watched as Olly reached down and tried to push, before he grabbed her arm with his mind flashing with various scenarios, all of them ending badly. "What are you doing?" He gasped.Olly glanced at his hand. "Let go of me..." She said coldly.Sonic's face changed. "You don't know what that button does!" He said, contemplating whether to retract his hand. "We're not getting out of here the same way. The Gauntlet doesn't allow it. We either sit here, wait for nothing or we press this button and see what happens..."Sonic grumbled. She was right. Maybe he was just being paranoid. "Okay...press it then..."
Olly huffed. She moved her finger on and pressed the minuscule button.The two stood up from where they were, awaiting for any response or sign. Sonic tapped his foot with impatience. "Well that stinks..." Sonic groaned. Nothing had happened."Maybe we should press it-AHHHHHHHHH!" Olly screamed. Sonic turned around. That tentacled monster had returned. "Its the Kraken! Hurry Sonic! Grab the others and RUN FOR IT!"Sonic shook his head. "No! I'll help you!"The tentacle had risen out from one of the many marble tables and wrapped itself around Olly, restraining her from using her arms.
SMASHSMASHSMASH
AHHHHHHHSonic spun around. Scratch and Grounder had also been snatched themselves as more tentacles appeared. "Sonic! It's gonna drag us underneath to it's lair! Quick! If you're gonna save us all, take the lid off the middle table and drop down below! It's the-" Olly yelled before she was cut off, being dragged down in the Krakens lair. Sonic nodded. He bolted to the middle table and with more effort than usual he pushed the lid off enough for him to fit through, and headed straight down. He used his quills to gently float downwards. Using this slow descent, Sonic had time to look around as soon as he exited the hole and entered into a wide open space, more like a darkened cave with bits of bluish light seeping in through various cracks on the walls, completely with spikes hanging from above and pushing up from below. This time he had a good look at it. It was huge. The beast was highly deformed and definitely had more than the usual eight tentacles. There had to be dozens both big and small. It reminded him of a pile of dirt, the aroma less than appetizing than a rotten fish inside a whales corpse that someone had vomited up. Moss and mold had grown over bits and pieces, and dirty yellow with black slit eyes were jumbled up. It was a complete mess. It's mouth was on the top of the triangler goo pile, round and full of circular rows of razor sharp teeth. The beasts many blue-green rolls pulsated, with the bottom around a pool of hazardous violet water surrounded, making massive bubbles that burst out. The Kraken had the others dangling upside down. Sonic managed to make it to the flattest part of the bottom and contemplated how to do this. He searched around the cave for anything in particular for him to use."Sonic...the only way to defeat the Kraken is to drain the fluid its living on. I see several pipes in the room, at least four of them." Olly yelled. "Twist the handles!"Sonic nodded. He looked down to see now that the violet water had risen slightly and that he was an elongated ledge. Scanning for the pipes, Sonic formulated a plan to get to each one, but with the Krakens tentacles being fickle and tameless, it could be tricky. Dodging a thwomp from the aforementioned, Sonic hopped on corresponding ledges. He had to stop once the water got too high, all the while dodging whacks and whips. He leaped into the air and jumped, hopped and shifted from ledge to ledge, on which each one got smaller and smaller. He kept an eye on the others, in which Scratch and Grounder were about to be eaten first. "Oh no!" Sonic yelled. The pipes could wait, lives were at stake. He spun himself into a spin-ball, rolling up one of the tentacles and homing in and bouncing off the eyes and other strange anomalies that had grown from it, and kicked the tentacle off the pair, knocking them down. The tentacle let go of the pair, but they did not like the look of the water, and clung onto the rubbery scales of the Kraken. "You two okay?" Sonic asked. The two shook their heads profusely. Realizing he might need help in the matter, he wondered why he didn't even do it the first place. Deciding he would save Olly as well, he used his mighty abilities to bouncing off each eye and object again to spin dash straight onto the tentacle strangling her. It fell off, loosening its grip around her and setting her free. "Thanks Sonic!" She said with gratefulness in her voice.
"No problem!" Said Sonic, giving a thumbs up, all the while dodging a whip again. "Olly, can you fight it off while I turn the handles?"Olly nodded. "Sure. Leave it to me!" She spoke with her sure-fire voice. Sonic watched Olly summoned a giant spiked black and silver hammer out of nowhere, causing him to gasp. "Oh no not another one!" He said sarcastically, remembering Amy with her Piko Piko...hopefully Olly's wasn't as bad. Although gathering by the spikes...He jumped into the air once more as Olly began smashing regrowing tentacles left and right. Sonic jumped from ledge to ledge to reach the first pipe. He stood in front of it and rotated it anti-clockwise with minor strain. After it tightened up, some of the water had started to dissipate. "Alright first one done!" Sonic yelled. "Good job! Three more to go!" Olly replied, smashing a tentacle to bits. Sonic focused back on the next handle to turn. He repeated the same process several times over, with Olly's persistence, endurance and other positive fighting attributed made sure the others were safe from harm, as Scratch and Grounder continued to cling onto the rubbery scales. Finally, Sonic made it to the last one and turned it around tight, causing the Kraken to suffocate from lack of water. Sonic gave a fist. "Success yeah!" He said with pride. He grabbed Scratch and Grounder alongside Olly and brought them to the highest cliff edge to watch the creature die. Sonic wiped his forehead and turned to Olly.
"That was good team work!" He said, giving a thumbs up. Olly withdrew her hammer. "Oh it was easy....wait.... Look!"All four gazed their eyes on the Kraken, which seemed to be trying to cough up something as it was dying. "The artifact!" Olly gasped. She took a starting run, using momentum to jump across to the mouth of the Kraken as it spat up to what appeared to be a golden key. Unfortunately Olly hadn't planned what she was going to do after snatching it, falling into the Krakens mouth."Olly!" Sonic cried. Sonic went into a spin-dash and forced Olly out. Sonic jumped up and grabbed hold of Olly as he leaped onto another ledge. Olly faced Sonic as she lay in his arms."Thanks Sonic...for saving me...again..." She muttered.Sonic felt his cheeks warm up. "Aww it was nothin'. I do it all the time!"Sonic placed her down beside him as she stood in awe looking at the golden key. "So what's that open?" He asked. "Not sure. Once we find Muriel we'll be able to know. Actually, finding Tails with that book might help even more." She replied.Sonic nodded. "So how do we get out of here?""Hey Sonic!"Sonic blinked. Suddenly he was standing back out in the fields with Tails and Knuckles. He faced Tails who seemed cheery. Eerily cheery in his opinion.
The blue hedgehog shook his head. "Well, sort of." He replied, seemingly confused. "What do you mean sort of?" Asked Knuckles, concerned.Sonic shrugged. "You wouldn't understand."Tails rolled his eyes, his face contorted into anger. "I wouldn't understand? I went through lightning and all kinds of crazy stuff, bumping into Decoe and Bocoe who being threatened by this tall lady with a rocket launcher!"Knuckles looked at Tails unsympathetically. "That's nothing, I barged in on those weird tiny robots and walked into a lady who had a real kick that was kinda of familiar."Sonic couldn't help but laugh. "Hah...you guys...we can tell our adventures later on. I think we still have work to do..." He said. In reality, Sonic was deeply troubled. He noticed Tails giving him a massive scowl. "You know our world will fall apart and you're joking around? You really are naïve."

"I said I found something while I was there. A Golden Key. I also had to fight off a Kraken, but the...tall lady, who called herself Agent Bazooka."

Sonic thought back, Olly did mention that she had friends in her group...what were their names again?"Mine was Agent Hooves. She sounds like a real cow. " Knuckles punned. Sonic and Tails groaned.Knuckles laughed nervously. "Uhh... and I also found a key...hehe.."Sonic crossed his arms. "Yeah I had Agent Mjöllnir. I nicknamed her Olly." Said Sonic. Knuckles and Tails exchanged looks. Sonic stretched his arms. "Yeah it was pretty exhausting. I'm actually kinda hungry now. Do you think we can take a break?"Tails face palmed. "Sonic...what about Eggman?"Sonic huffed. "Don't worry about him. It'll be a while until he gets anywhere." He explained. He then looked at Tails. He needed to find out what was really going on...and the real genius in here would have the resources to help them. "While we're out for lunch, do you think I can have some reading material Tails?"Tails scratched his head in confusion, perplexed by Sonic's question. "Uh...do you normally read?"Sonic sighed. "Look. Olly told me something interesting that Eggman might not know about yet. Also we have a missing persons to look out for. A woman named Muriel."Tails eyes went wide. "Wait, that old lady from the book store? Why would anybody kidnap her?""Lets head back to the Tornado, we can discuss it there..." Knuckles suggested.----Soon enough, Sonic had prepared chili dogs for them all, having secretly stored them in the Tornado's storage compartment. "So...who kidnapped her?" Asked Tails, deeply concerned."Well, Olly did say that Muriel wrote a very important book. I'm thinking it might be yours Tails." Sonic told him.Tails pulled out the booklet. He turned to the first page and scrolled down to the bottom. "By Muriel Rose.""Rose?" Knuckles muttered as he was about to take a bite. "Wait...she can't be related to Amy can she?"Sonic huffed. "I'm sure there's more than one family of Roses." He retorted. Although, this was highly coincidental, with a lot of evidence pointing towards Amy, the fact that Shizaru and the entire Rosoideae's factored towards look-a-likes had to be more than that. Or that Olly possessed a Hammer too...he had to run quickly. Run as fast as he could. This was far too much to filter. Sonic watched Tails as he flicked through the pages. "So she wrote this huh?" Tails mumbled. He had his head down, as Sonic noticed he was a little blue."Whats wrong Tails?" Asked Sonic, worried. Tails sighed. "She must have known she was going to get kidnapped...why else would she give me this book?"Sonic rubbed his chin. "Good point there. Well, when and if we find her, we can ask her about it. Okay? She might have rubbed someone the wrong way and hung with the wrong crowd. Who knows? Could be anything. As long as we can get her back." Sonic said, wrapping his arm around Tails neck. Knuckles agreed, although he was rather skeptical. "Unless that 'Femme Fatalex get to her first."Sonic shrugged. "That too."After lunch Sonic decided to take a nap from the troubles of the world underneath. Most of the stuff he had seen was rather...graphic...conflicting. Confronting could be a word to use...but...what was there to confront? It tumbled in his mind. As well as Amy. She wasn't even here and yet she was screwing with him. He blamed himself in part of not knowing her better. He thought once Muriel was found he was going to go see her himself. Although it might have been a bit rude to bombard her with questions such as this. Maybe she didn't know herself. It could actually just make her complain about barging in. He could ask if she was a relative of Muriel. Little questions first, big questions later. That sounded like a legitimate strategy. He then drifted off...somewhere he did not know...----

Leaking the waters of the Underneath was a good idea. A Stupilite would get into the chambers of the Kraken and save the girls from certain death. The Elders did not like it, but the Prophets demanded it. The Rosoideae Elders wanted determined Wisers. Death was a message that they were not the chosen. But the Prophets insisted that their spirit was worth saving.

The Rosoideae Elders were constructed of pride. They believed in their image and their wealth. The Prophets warned them of this behavior would bring about the demons. But they did not listen.

The Prophets warned them that their pride would be their downfall. But they did not listen.

The Prophets warned them that their greed would bring destruction to their lands. But they did not listen. The Rosoideae Elders built their world on top of potential, originally determining the unifactions of Kings and Queens until the first Rosoideae Prophet was found. It was then the split happened, because the first Prophet was the sister to the King, and was next in line.

The House was divided into three. The Royals, who would take care of most leadership affairs and wars, the ones who made the decisions. The Elders, who would take care of political prospects and make suggestions to the Royals. The Prophets, including the Wisers, who would then make further suggestions and warnings, such as floods and threats to the homeland. The fourth unattained faction of the Rosoideae Stupilites brought upon bright, bold and powerful soldiers that the Elders could control. The King and Queen had given them authority to do so. Soon the Elders became the oppressors, owning banks and dealing with money. They sent the Stupilites to War with other counties purely because of Pride and Greed.

The Prophets need to mate with a legible Elder in order to create the next prophet, believing the trait was hereditary. The Prophet was not allowed to mate with a Stupilite Hedgehog(nor could any other Rosoideae Hedgehog) The Elders were xenophobic. It was never clear why. Some suggested that they had a history with demons and could not let the Prophets blood be tainted.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

After an afternoon of congested information and mildly-trafficked adventure, Sonic inhaled through his nose, smelling the blessed spicy scent of his much loved food. He had a fallen asleep atop the wings of the Tornado, laid down with his hands behind his head and stared back at the multiple clouds flying over him, meanwhile bouncing his right leg over his left, dancing his foot around. The air was humid, but with a nice gentle breeze cutting through blades of fur it was nothing to complain about. Gathering where the sun was it was getting later in the day and made him realize that this was going to be a late lunch. Not that it mattered, chili dogs were good for any time of day. Moving his hands to a stable ground he got up slowly to see how it was.Knuckles was at the portable barbecue with Tails preparing the plates. It was routine, seeing how Sonic only had so much space in his spikes, Tails could hide the goods in the plane. Knuckles had a reputation of strange cooking habits. Some days he was good, some were...not so pleasant. He also varied with what he cooked. He did meat very well, but when it came to bakery based food it was outright disgusting. No one would tell him though, not risking his wrath. His gullibility came in handing when one would tell lies. Sonic hopped off the wing and trekked towards the pair."How's those Dogs comin' up?" He asked, noticeably drooling ever so slightly.Knuckles used his spatula and tongs to make sure they weren't under or over cooked. "They're ready now!"Tails got the bread ready as he got Sonic's Special Sauce handy to slather the dogs with. Sonic impatiently waited as the two finished up. "Let's eat!"The trio sat around on nearby rocks and ate slowly, although obviously one wouldn't."Sonic eat your food slowly or else you're gonna get heartburn!" Said Tails.Sonic scoffed down at least three of them, causing Knuckles and Tails to roll their eyes. After they were done, they cleaned up, and stood in front of Tails who had Muriel's Book in front of him."Where do you think we should go next?" Sonic asked. Tails stroked the pages as he read."Well the Gauntlet wasn't much help. The Witch Doctors or any relics weren't there at the end. I'm guessing we weren't really chosen after all." The Fox said, his eyes streaming the text."You might have to be chosen by the Prophet to get the full results." Knuckles suggested as he nodded"It's a possibility." Tails pondered He continued to rifle through the pages to find anything interesting or relatively useful. His eyes lit up."Fascinating. There seems to be a transportation hub around here. Let's head back to the map in the courtyard to see where that might be."Soon enough, they back inside the ruins, surrounding the map. Knuckles then nodded."Well the Temple is in the southern district, as well as this area. The Gauntlet is to the South West which is where we were." Knuckles said as he had to squint as he skimmed his eyes across. He was looking at a weird marking, which resembled a dark spiral inside a circle. There were hieroglyphics underneath."Ah here, found it. They call it the Central Portals." He read. "Center District."Tails whipped out the book and had a brief check."Hang on, I think I saw something about that...uhh here! The Center District was also one of the most heavily guarded areas in the Garden. The Stupilites would protect the Transportation Hub with great caution. They also ran the ticketing system." The fox stated.Sonic cocked an eyebrow as he crossed his arms."Wow even back then they had a public transport system. Who knew?"The three decided to tremble their way towards the Center District. It wasn't too hard to find, gathering as they got closer there were less and less ruins to spot. In matter of fact, the largest building they found had the foundations of a church more than anything. Complete with tower spires and white painted walls of brick, large wooden doors and writing on top that Knuckles translated as "Blessed Altruistic Deities Live In Eternity." Sonic gave pause. There was something about it that disturbed him slightly. Shaking it off it as just a bad hunch, he focused on something else, something that was missing."Does it bother anyone that it's missing the stain glass windows?" He joked. Tails and Knuckles followed him inwards. The room was huge. It was mainly empty floors with inscriptions on the walls. The only light came in through the door, which slammed suddenly. Knuckles groaned."Great, how now am I going to see?" As if granting him an answer, light came back in the form of the three fire torches on each wall lighting up the inscriptions and a larger one on the end wall leading towards a stair case heading downwards. The writing on the walls intrigued Knuckles. He mumbled the word lists several times before finally coming up to a conclusion."So what's the go?" Asked Sonic."Believe it or not, these are price lists." Knuckles replied with a nod."Price lists?" Tails repeated."Yeah..." Knuckles reiterated. "Price lists for going places. Most of them have deteriorated but I can name a few."Knuckles mumbled to his himself again as he worked out the locations."Alright, one of them is called Garden of Sakura. Hmm...funnily enough I have heard of that place."Tails put the book under a lit fire torch and again flicked through. "It says here the Garden of Sakura was one of many Gardens that were allies with the Garden of Rosales and coincidentally forged a partnership as a result of the powers that lie below the Earth that allowed them to be teleported to one of several key destinations, which is also needed to the other artifacts."Knuckles pondered. "I indeed know of Sakura. Its a distant land once ruled by the Ninja Clans.""What's there now?" Sonic wondered.Knuckles shrugged. "Beats me. The rest of these boards of sorts seemed to have faded over time. It might take me a while to translate them all."Tails closed his book and approached the other two. "There's a set of stairs over there. If the book states that there's powers down below, I'm analyzing that it might power the Gauntlet. The book mentions 'Powers'. I think we should find out what that is, don't you agree?"Sonic agreed. "Sure."The three slowly went down the stairs. Albeit where they were was highly dusty and old in nature. Finally they reached an area that gave all a surprised look on their face...They had entered chamber of sorts, darkened by the lack of light sinking through. Sonic took a step before lights began flashing all over the places, eventually settling down and finally revealing the outlook.It was a circular hall with uplifted and hollowed out roof. But unlike the rest of the ruins it wasn't a decayed beige nor was dust and dirt drifting through the air. Instead, there was no smell. The walls were a hardened black with plastic shine, long, blue thin tubes of light rounded on the space between the wall and the echoed inducing roof. The floor was a black with white freckled marble, non-tiled an unscratched. In the middle of the room stood was a four side dais with each side embedded with blue neon lit Mobikian runes. The top of the dais was a flat rock plane with miniature spiked walls, with four larger, shell shaped spikes on each of the four corners. Directly in center, being held by what looked like a metal glove clasping it, a black ball with scratches, orange glowing light seeping through the cracks, but also with written inscriptions. Around the room as well, stood, at least three meter tall doorways. No doors, just the equally black frames, with what appeared to be a keyboard etched on the left side of all of them. Sonic looked down and realized he had stepped on a blue glowing switch tile. No guesses for what had lit the room up. The three approached the ball carefully, keeping aware that any sort of movement or limb placement could trigger a trap or two. Sonic went forward enough to have a quick examination of the ball. Strange amber particles rose and vanished without a trace. He placed his hand near it, not touching it, just make sure that it wasn't booby-trapped. There was a strange aura of emanating heat."That might be the Sphere of Abyss." Suggested Tails. Sonic thought back to Eggman's projection. From memory it was nearly identical to it."I wouldn't grab it if I were you. Something doesn't feel right about it." Said Knuckles, worried from the vibes he was receiving.Sonic retracted his hand, stepped back from the dais and began to look at the empty doorways."Does the book say what these are used for?"Knuckles went to the first one on the very left of them. Using his hands, he gently floated his hands over the viscous black marble. "I'm not getting any readings. They appear to be deactivated." He muttered. Meanwhile Tails flicked through Muriel's book to see if mentioned anything about it."The books description matches it, this has to be the Transportation Hub." He read out.Sonic had quick glances at all of them. Knuckle's eyes went wide."Hey guys take a look at this..."The Hedgehog and the Fox went over to see what the Echidna had discovered. Knuckles knelt down and had his hands creating a circle over a familiar looking symbol with others next to it."I remember the swirling symbol from outside. Here it says 'Portal 1'."Tails checked through his book once more, then back to others."Ah I see now. Makes sense."Knuckles stood up beside Sonic. "What does?"Tails walked around the room. "Muriel calls this the Transportation Hub. This is the Central Portal Room. Add this...let's just say it's the 'Sphere of Abyss' for the moment, as well as these doorways. Now you do the math..."Knuckles scratched his head and made a dumbfounded look. "Uh..."Sonic crossed his arms. "Wow that's an easy one. I'm currently getting the notion that this is like the train station of sorts. Without the trains."Tails nodded. "I'm theorizing that by using the Sphere itself, by the assistance of properly managed gateways, that one can make a connection to other places, maybe different worlds if they wanted to."Knuckles shook his head in disbelief. "Wait, you're saying that this is like...an ancient teleporter device?"The three stood in awe of what they had discovered. Tails retreated back to the pages, while Knuckles quickly looked at the keypads. "Hmm...I'm thinking you need a particular password to get through this portals."Tails faced him."Maybe. Or maybe it was the ticketing system. If you had a ticket with a random number it, you might have to type it down on the keypad and the portal will open for you." He said.Knuckles stomped his foot."Great, now we have to find out where these 'tickets' are." The Echidna whinged.Sonic kept staring at the Sphere. There was something...enamoring about it. Enticing, enchanting, enveloping. Such a device was not to dissimilar to the power of a normal Chaos Emerald or two. Except the Sphere had a more sinister ring to it. It's warmth embracing to say the least. It's darkness. Related to the demon. Had the Rosoideae bitten off more than they could chew? Stealing a demonic artifact is not without its price after all. Even though they knew so little of them, they actually had more knowledge and experience dealing with the Emeralds than these...what ever they were. But they certainly had a empowering factor. And that's what they were going to figure out.Sonic then suddenly remembered the lists on the wall. The Garden of Sakura. Could be one of the places that one could travel to."Hey Tails I had a thought." Sonic said as he scratched his head."The Garden of Sakura. It might have something to do with it."There was no reply. Instead, echoing voices plumed down from the stairway."Tails?"Sonic looked around. The pair had disappeared. In their place however, was a Pink Hedgehog standing in front of him. A male, wearing his spikes none to differently to Sonic's own. He wore a toga and wooden sandals, two gold earrings pierced in right ear and braces on both of his arms, of the light blue and silver varieties, encrusted with small jewels. He also wore a golden circular brooch embedded on his toga, with a darkened spiral carved into it. His eyes were a light green colour."Sir do you have a ticket?" he said in a rather, posh tone.Sonic blinked. He checked himself over."Uh...no...I don't." Sonic muttered awkwardly.The Pink one rolled his eyes."May I remind you we don't have all day. If you want a ticket you have to get it from upstairs. Next please." He said, exasperated.Sonic stood aside, as he had a long line of people behind him. Different kinds. From Hedgehogs, to Echidnas, to cats, even to Crocodiles and many types of reptiles. All colours, shapes and sizes. He might as well be part of the rainbow for all he cared. As he walked back to the stairway he watched as another blue hedgehog had approached the pink one. This Blue Hedgehog had shorter spikes, and wore some sort of metallic armor, not unlike the armor he'd seen on the Stupilites before. He reached for a sachet that was wrapped around his waist. He pulled out a piece of rare amber. The Pink one briefly examined the piece and placed it next to the Sphere. The Sphere then cracked more, revealing a more horrific nature by expanding and piloting a light to scan. The scan soon finished as the Sphere returned to normal. "Alright. You're off to Sakura. Please go to Portal 1." Said the Pink one as he gave Blue back his piece of Amber. "It's a Two Hour Full Fare. So please if you want to come back via the portal keep an eye on out on the suns positioning. Otherwise..."The Blue one laughed. "I know the routine. It's okay. I'm just visiting briefly."Pink cocked an eyebrow and smiled. "It's my routine to make sure, Gabe II. We wouldn't want to make your father worry."Gabe II chuckled. "Don't fret, Teppo. Father has enough on his plate as it is." He said, walking towards the first gateway. Sonic watched as Gabe put his head down to look at the keypad, looking back and forth from that and the amber. The inside and outside of the doorway lit up with blue neon lights, waves of wispy cool air gusting from the sides, then a bright orange water like substance flowed down like a waterfall, the bottom of the doorway opening up to take the mysterious liquid. Sonic took a whiff, the scent of wet fur filling the air as the humidity rose. Gabe put the amber back in his sachet and walked into the waterfall. The orange water stopped flowing. Gabe was gone.Sonic was amazed at the technology, although Tails would be the gushing and Knuckles rambles of historical techs would occur if either of them were there. Although these conspicuous flights through time were beginning to become frequent, they were ultimately useful. Albeit just as useful as Tails book or Knuckles point on archeological findings. Nonetheless Sonic had to make best a situation as he could. He ran upstairs to find a line of people waiting in front of a desk, with several others checking the boards for information. He wished he could understand what they were reading. Even though this had its perks, looking like an uneducated idiot wasn't on the cards or even worse, fearing that he could be an intruder and be attacked would not be wise to implement. Stupilites stood beside each torch as Sonic looked around. There was a desk in the back corner with a sign in hieroglyphics. He had to guess that was the help desk. The lady at the desk was another Pink Hedgehog. She looked profound. She had her quills up in a pony tail, a long white dress with the same brooch as Teppo pinned in near her heart. She had long golden sleepers in her ears and blue cloth wrapped around her right bicep. Her bangs were pinned back by simple patterned clips."Anyone else waiting?" She said. Her voice was soft, unsure of any strength she had. Sonic walked up to the desk and rested his hands on it. He had to give it a try."Excuse me ma'am." He said to her, hoping for answers.The girl smiled."Hello there...how can I help you?" She asked warmly.Sonic had to make an excuse. Hopefully she didn't see him come up from below. He told himself he had to pretend for the sake of...well, just for what ever he had to do now."This...might be embarrassing...but I have never traveled using...uh..." He feigned stumbling.She just continued smiling."Ah you're probably one of the new generation Stupilites born and grown here at Rosales. Now let me assure you if you've never used it that there's no shame for first timers. In fact, I was embarrassed myself when I first used it to visit family in Soleanna. But I was assured that there was nothing to worry about." She told him.Sonic nodded. He'd visited Soleanna before, from memory there had been a festival there. Quite nice actually."So...uh...what do I do?" He wondered.The girl reached behind her to grab a piece of Amber and showed it to Sonic."This is Amberite. We use them as tickets. You can purchase a variety of sizes that determine the terms of travel." She answered.Terms of travel? Sonic thought."Incidentally, where are you planning to go?" She asked in sweet manner. Sonic wasn't sure himself. Not wanting to look suspicious, he spoke the first thing that came to his mind."Uh...the Garden of Sakura?" He answered out of the blue.The girl clasped her hands."Ah Sakura. Lovely place. Anyway we have a list of terms for the tickets. There are two categories 'Time' and 'Status'." She said.Sonic tapped the desk. This was good stuff. She continued:"Time elevates the length for how long the ticket will last. This can range from two hours to a year's worth. Status deals with your..age or social status. For example..." She leaned over the desk to look at Sonic quickly, making him confused slightly. "You seem to be manly enough." She said, obviously trying to flirt as she giggled. "You would most likely be a Full Fare. Children under twelve and those over fifty get concession. Although I would like it if they gave concession to the unfortunate."As much as Sonic would like to know of these unfortunates, he feared he was running out of time where he was and had to garner the more important things. Besides, he was in the past. It wasn't like he could do anything about it now."Most people either get the two hour or the daily. What do you plan on doing in Sakura?"He had to think up an excuse to visit there."Oh...uh...I met a friend from there who came here once. He said...uh...I should visit there sometime." He replied. Obvious lie.Her eyes went wide."Wow you have a friend from Sakura? You're lucky."Sonic cocked an eyebrow."Really?"She nodded. "Sakura is a very peaceful and quiet place. The people are very conservative and tend to keep to themselves. They don't like too kindly on visitors but welcome those who respect their traditions."Sonic believed Gabe must have a good reputation amongst their people if he had gone there. Although as Stupilites were known as the Guardians it'd be a staple. "Tell me, are they training your lot there over there now?"Sonic looked up. "Huh?"The girl winked and waved her index finger around as she leaned her elbow on the desk. "I keep hearing about these 'friends' all the time from you people. It's like a code. Don't worry, your secrets with me."Sonic laughed nervously. "Of course!" He stuttered. He then looked around him. "So...uh...how much are these Amberites?""You'll need a daily for what you're doing." She said, checking her board. The paper she used appeared primal, made from papyrus. "Okay, a Daily Full Fare is twenty gold and two silver."Sonic gulped. He forgot about the currency during these times. He checked the back of his fur for anything that remotely resembled gold. Just a few pieces of junk that must have flung into as he'd been running around. But alas, no gold or silver to be found. Sonic looked at the girl and shrugged."Sorry, I don't have any on me at the moment." He said, a bit saddened. The girl sighed. "That's okay."Sonic froze for a moment. The air became still and the noise turned down to notch. Turning around, the crowds had disappeared, even the Stupilite guards. The torches were still lit and the room was in as good shape as it had been just now."Sonic the Hedgehog."Sonic spun back. The girl was right behind him. Her eyes were incredibly dull and her notable smile was replaced by an unsettling frown. He gulped. "Who wants to know?"Her hand rose from it's side, holding a piece of Amberite. It was bigger than the piece she had held earlier. "This is a monthly. You have an entire month to do your task. Or else she will come back."Sonic tilted his head to one side. "What do you mean?""Hey Sonic!"Sonic blinked. The girl had vanished into thin air. Walking once more, he was still upstairs. It was dusty and dull and the room had deteriorated back into crusty ruins mode. Yup. He was back.Tails approached Sonic who had the Amberite in his palm, causing Tails to query it."Where did you find that Sonic?" Tails asked.Again with the lying business. "It was over there buried beneath the rubble." He explained. He handed it over to Tails to see if he could get a better look at it. Tails hummed and harred as he glimpsed at it from all different angles. "Its colouring...appears to be the same as the Sphere itself."He whipped out his book and flicked the pages. "Amberite. A resource only found deep within the Rosales Caves. It has the look and feel of Amber, but actually has unique properties only found within it." He read.Sonic of course knew what it could do. Now only if he could somehow guide it towards the Sphere like the girl had spoke of. "Whats your opinion on it?"Tails thumbed his lips. "Not really sure if it's relevant. The book doesn't say much about it."Sonic guessed Muriel didn't go that far into her discoveries then. Or a few pages were missing. Didn't matter to him at that particular moment. Then an idea flashed in his mind."If it's the same colouring as the Sphere, could the two be related in anyway?" Sonic asked, hoping it wasn't too obvious. Tails thought for a bit. "It's possible. There's no harm in giving it a try."Sonic nodded. He was glad this part went through for him. They both went back down to see Knuckles staring coherently at the Sphere. Sonic smirked. "If you look at that thing for too long Knuckles your eyes will burn." He joked. Knuckles jumped back. "Really?"The Blue Blur chuckled and paid attention back to Tails. "Could we put two and two together like you say?"Mutters were heard from up above, echoing, driving slight interest from the three. Sonic walked over to the stairs to see who or what it was. Climbing back up the stair case he managed to peak half his head through the space to look around, seeing a tall golden robot alongside a short silver one."Decoe and Bocoe..." Sonic muttered.The pair held bits and pieces of junk and metal scraps. Judging from their body expressions they weren't too happy to be doing so."This is not fair, we were double crossed!" Complained Decoe, shuffling the junk about in his hands."Yeah. That Chicken and that green robot...who do they think they are?"Sonic went back to the other two. "We gotta move. Hurry."Tails was noticebly concerned and confused. "What's the matter Sonic?"Sonic's impatience started to shine as he grabbed the Amberite from Tail's Hand and placed it near the Sphere. "Wait what are you doing?" Scolded Knuckles. "There's no time! Move it!"The three stood in awe as the Sphere cracked open and started scanning the Amberite. Tails and Knuckles blinked with surprise. Sonic quickly grabbed the Amberite and headed to the first portal, hastily reading what appeared to be a code on the object. His fingers weren't as quick as his feet, but he was furiously tapping the keys and in no time flat Portal 1 activated, Air shooting out from the sides as it did before, the orange liquid spilling down from the top inside like a waterfall Sonic snatched Tails and Knuckles hands in the process and ran through the portal all in a super sonic second, their eyes enveloped in light as they splashed themselves through.When all could see once more, the portal behind them closed. Sonic rubbed his eyes and muttered incoherently.From where he stood, appeared to be a large shrine of sorts, with floor planks and black railings. Sonic walked down three steps to see ponds on both sides, overseen by elder willow trees that seemed to sway in the wind. Approaching the pond, which was covered with lily-pads and various water lilies, he witnessed not only his own reflection but the abundance of koi. He then turned down the path which was made of simple stone. Beyond that, however were rows and rows of Cherry Blossoms, whose leaves created a rain of pink in their wake. The sky was the cloudy gray, creating a backdrop alongside snow covered mountains. He scratched his head, this area was not familiar to him at all, although instincts told him otherwise. He turned back to see Tails and Knuckles, only to discover they had disappeared. He went back to the Portal, noticing Abbadonia's had speared themselves through the planks on both sides of the portal. Walking around the portal to see if there was anything else's besides the obvious, he soon gave up."Not again." He moaned. He guessed that they had been transported elsewhere for the time being. There was definitely something fishy about it all. He remembered Decoe and Bocoe heading towards the Central Portals and wondered if Eggman had anything to do with it. It was a complete mystery. All he knew was that Eggman was up to no good. As well as those girls that Olly mentioned before that were the 'Femme Fatalex'. He could find his way back to the Central Portal, or risk getting caught by Eggman's henchmen. Where ever they went...He sighed to himself. He knew he could on this alone. After all his Amberite only had a month to work, therefore the need to solve it quickly became a priority. The thought of Shizaru quickly came to his mind, mentioning having to find someone. Unseen guidance perhaps? That would explain the sudden split. Shizaru might be helping him from afar? No...she said she would appear again once he found who he was supposed to look for. But that doesn't mean she couldn't help. What ever it was, it excited Sonic for it was another chance of adventure. Who needs to look at artifacts all the time anyway? He gave a smirk at this revelation and sped off down the path...Much of the scenery failed to change much, until he reached the start of a mountain. The trees simply vanished as he got closer, putting the side of his hand well above his eyes and squinting to see how vast it was. He stayed still as he heard a noise behind him. The noise was shifty and clunky, metal on metal type of thing, mechanical movements but not of the loudest kind. He turned around. A tiny little doll, wearing a red decorated in floral kimono, tied up black hair that was probably not hair at all and a snow white face with blushed cheeks. The doll just looked at Sonic, who just grinned."Aww aren't you cute?" He chuckled. The doll didn't budge, so Sonic walked up to it to pat it on it's head. He guessed she came from some miniature society, or even something similar to a Chao Garden."HYA!"Sonic jumped backwards as the doll whipped out a razor sharp fan as it emitted a horrible screech. "Woah...last time I pat a doll!" He joked. More mechanical noises echoed across what was between the last of the trees and the beginning of the rocky pathways. Shuffling was heard as more dolls came out from behind each tree and rock, glaring at Sonic, flashing red eyes. Now was time to go.He ran off again as the dolls chased him. Some tried to flop over others to get in front. But Sonic couldn't stand their screeching as he covered his ears. He witnessed a barrage of fans zipping past him. Damn those dolls were fast. As Sonic looked to his right a doll charged by, a blaze bursting from the bottom of it. It gave a nasty smirk as it tried to bump into him. Sonic jumped into the air as he dodged it, the force an explosion knocking him back. "Kamikaze Dolls? That's a new one..." He retorted as he landed back on his feet. The swarm of dolls huddled and tried to surround him, setting off timed beeps. There were simply too many of them for him, he couldn't smash them at risk of getting blown to pieces. He was screwed. Their screeches only got louder, making Sonic kneel down and hold his ears, bracing for death...Suddenly hearing a whistle, Sonic looked up. Further up the mountain side stood someone in complete black spy gear, complete with full body suit, massive boots and a helmet, a darkened screen across the face of it. "Now that's not fair...it's like what, five hundred to one? Let's even it shall we?" Said a familiar female voice.Sonic watched in awe as the dolls screeched with ultimate rage, flocking towards the person. She readied a jet black hammer with spikes, releasing the fury on the dolls, flinging them into the air and causing each one to explode. Sonic smirked. He joined in on the fun, leading the dolls away from the person. Some raised to throw themselves at him, him dodging each and every single one of them. Looking back to the other, Sonic noticed she was getting more than what she bargained for, the dolls numbers increased so suddenly. There were simply too many to whack at once. Every time she hit five, ten more came at her. "Damn dolls, why won't you give up?" She scrambled. "Sonic, the dolls have an underground pipe system, they come out of wells. There has to be at least several of them in this area alone to summon this many. Destroy the wells."Of course...it was Olly. Who else would know that intel? He was genuinely concerned for her, knowing this endless horde of screaming, exploding menaces would keep at it no matter what."Trust me, I'll be fine. I can handle it."Sonic nodded. He zoomed all over the place while Olly distracted the dolls. He found one behind a large boulder. Dolls were pouring of it, the well itself was made of metal. He tried to spin-dash it, rolling into with such velocity. The metal fell over, obviously not very well placed or structured. As a result the well was covered and the dolls continued to explode over and over but it did nothing. That was some strong metal.He ran over once more, to the other side of the pathway. There was another one there and this time he did the exact same thing, causing the streams to stop completely. Olly knocked down the last few with ease, but also with notable fatigue. Sonic came running, then stopped to step back, glancing at the pile of destroyed dolls. Sonic cleaned his ear with his pinky. "Wow...homicidal dolls, who would have guessed?"Olly laughed. "You obviously haven't seen Small Soldiers."–The pair took a break and sat down on nearby rocks. Sonic relaxed for the moment, interested in how or why Olly was here. "So...what is this place?" He asked. Olly snuffed. "Don't you know? We're in the Garden of Sakura, or what we like to call it, Blossom Hazard Zone. Those dolls we fought are called Kimmibots."Of course! He briefly remembered what Knuckles had read out before. How could he forget? It was the first thing that entered his mind when he was talking to the girl as well. Back into the game, Sonic began querying. "We? You mean, the Femme Fatalex?"Olly leaned back and crossed her legs. "Yup. We still haven't found Muriel. But our sources indicate that Eggman has had his forces in this legion for quite a while, and managed to gain a foothold with the locals."Sonic slouched over and rested his elbow on his knee, leaning his chin on his hand, using the other one to tap his opposite knee. The girl had also talked about this place, but didn't ask about the people. "I wander what's here. The locals must be pretty annoyed about, their...secrecy no longer secret."Olly shook her head. "The locals are Chameleon and Human Ninja, the two species working adjacent to protect an ancient artifact.""Another one?" Sonic pondered. "My colleague originally discovered the fact that the competition they worked on was just a test to see which two colleagues could find and handle what ever they could. Eggman already knew where the Sphere was. Turns out he's been using it for months."Sonic's eyes went wide. "Wait, does that mean Eggman is way ahead of us?"Olly nodded. "I've trained here before so the locals know me well. I'm a friend of theirs. And because I'm an Agent as well as the decency to keep secrets, I know what the artifact is...and it should stay secret."This was insane. Although it would make sense. Several pieces of the puzzle were coming into place slowly. If he gathered it correctly, Stupilites would train here. Which means there must be some sort of coveted ring to it. If Eggman took control of the area, it would prevent them from contacting the outside world. Devious, that Robotnik..."Well I'm willing to keep a secret. Surely, they wouldn't mind would they?"Olly nodded. "The locals are very...what should I say...Medieval. They still believe the Stupilite Guards still exist, even to this day. I know I spoke with their chief, saying he was very disappointed that he hadn't seen one in his lifetime. In fact, he also said not a Stupilite had stood in their grounds for many millennia."Sonic sat up and crossed his arms. "So I'm guessin' he won't mind if I knew..." He repeated.Olly's head sank. "I don't wish to betray the chiefs trust. I can take you to him. But be wary, the Village has Eggman's robots swarming all over it. So we must wait until dark when we get there.Sonic smiled in agreement. "Fine by me."The pair made their way over the mountains in just a few minutes, smashing the Kimmibots and their wells along the way, seemingly enjoying themselves and causing major robot carnage. Sonic watched Olly as she made her leaps and bounds of grace, unknowingly mesmorised by her movements, her mastering of the hammer reminded him of Amy, her once again penetrating his subconscious barrier. He ran and smashed some more to try and get her out of his mind...Several moments later they made it to outskirts of the main village. There were large wooden gates with a S like symbol on the sign above them. It was buried in the middle of everest-esque mountains, slightly lifted to prevent serious flooding. Sonic and Olly hid the woods near the closest open clearing. Sonic observed two regular Eggman badniks patrolling the gates, pacing back and forth in a guards cliché manner. Sonic scratched his head, finally realizing something he should have before. "Wait, these guys are Ninjas. Couldn't they just escape using their Ninja powers or something?"Olly looked down as she snuck half herself behind a tree. "I'm afraid it's not that simple. Eggman has thermo cameras docked out all over the place. If one breaks curfew and tries to escape the village, it'll set off the alarm, alerting the Kimmibots and possibly destroy the whole village."Sonic rubbed his chin. "Really? Then we just destroy the wells don't we?""No." Olly replied. "The Wells are on the inside. What we need to do is find the entrance to Eggman's Secret base."Sonic winked. "Gotcha. So what are we waiting for?"Olly peaked her head out from behind the tree and looked left and right. "I know a representative of the Village who was assigned to another agency permanently. I alerted him of his home town being invaded, and he should be coming soon. He will be a big help to us both."Sonic nodded. "So is that why we're waiting until dark?"Olly did the same motion once more. "Yes. Trust me, it'll be easier."Sonic rammed his fist into his palm. "Yes! We get to be super awesome ninjas!"Olly helmet-palmed. "Uh...yeah..."The sun was yet to set. Olly had informed them both that the time was around six thirty. The sun sneaked through a tiny space between two mountains, still giving light to the village. The pair sat and waited for this Rep that she spoke of. It gave Sonic time to ask more questions."So I see you're pretty good with that hammer." He said, breaking the ice. "Do you mind asking where you got it?""Oh my Smish Smasher? Yeah It was made by a client for me specifically. As a thanks."Sonic nodded, then chuckled as he looked down and fidgeted with his hands. "Yeah, I know a girl with a hammer like that. Not as brutal, but can be quite deadly."Olly froze. "Really?" She asked, a slight croak in her voice. Sonic laughed. He leaned back against a tree and smiled. "Oh yeah. She may look sweet at first, giving in to her innocent looks. But put a wrong foot down and you're toast."Olly sat against an adjacent tree and huddled her knees in. "What do you think of her? I mean besides the...you know..." She asked, with a tinge of nervousness in her voice. Sonic shrugged. "She's okay I guess. A good friend at best. Persistent I admit, I gotta give her that."Olly began tapping the ground with her finger and looked away from him. "Persistence is just another word for determination."Sonic laughed. "I guess you can call it that way. What about you? Know anyone as quick as me?" He said with a smirk. Olly felt taken aback. "Well...Uh...I..."Sonic laughed again. "It's okay. You're a secret agent. I don't want to compromise your mission or your identity..."Olly gave a small sigh of relief. She was a bit agitated to the point where she wanted to change subjects."So...uh...Sonic...you ever...you know, have these weird visions?"Sonic blinked. "Weird visions?"Olly looked down. "Never mind. It'll be a dead question anyway."Sonic shrugged. But couldn't shake the words of him. He initially thought nothing of it, but it lingered elsewhere, knowing she might know more than she's been telling. Still, if she had her secrets, it was up to her if she wanted to confide them in others, not being the type of guy or hedgehog to force people to open up. He'd rather them do it themselves when they're ready."So is there anything else I should know? Based on the fact that is Eggman we're dealing with, if you're got any 'schematics', maps or whatnot, it might help."Olly paused for a moment, before relaying her answer. "Well not entirely. We tend to go by ear or do general perimeter scans. Even then we do constant research on the areas we're about to intrude."Made sense to Sonic, in a way. "Knowing the enemy huh?""If you put it that way then yeah."They both stopped as they heard a rustling in the bushes. They kept down to lend their ears as Sonic rested his index finger on his lips. A sudden jump and shuffle of leaves burst out caused Sonic and Olly to stand guard as a the air blurred into a purple chameleon. Sonic smiled as he stood properly."Espio my man!" Sonic said, as Espio turned from a graceful landing, to serious ninja position."Sonic, I did not expect to see you here." He muttered in his low monotones. Sonic faced Olly."So this is your representative huh? Glad it's someone I know who can kick butt."Olly nodded. "Alright. Let's plan this out then. Espio, got the blueprints?"Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "Blueprints? I thought you said you don't usually have maps?""I have photographic memory Sonic." Espio explained. "I have gone into Eggman's base briefly. But I'm afraid the work that needs to be initiated is more of a two person job."Sonic gave a thumbs up. "Well, three makes it even better!"Espio did a silent grumble. "It's more of a Ninjas job Sonic..."Sonic frowned. "But I can play Ninja too!"Espio and Olly gave each other looks, knowing Sonic was acting like a child. "We know you're good at smashing things, giving Eggman a hard time. But all we want to do is get the citizens of the village out safely. We can't risk him finding out you're here or he'll go mental."Sonic became puppy-eyed. "Please! I'll be quiet I swear!" He said, practically begging.Olly's hands flew to her hips. "Oh alright. Just never seen someone so desperate to do some serious espionage."The three sat around in a circle with their legs crossed, Espio sitting up straight with his hands resting on his knees, Olly with her own in front and Sonic leaned back."The entrance is west of the Village. Like the Gates, there are two standard robots. I can take them out with ease with my abilities. As as soon as they're gone, I want the two of you to follow me in. There's an air shaft down the first corridor. We hop into it and go as far right as you can.""What are we aiming for first? Security?" Sonic asked. Espio nodded. "I can take you to the Surveillance Room. It's guarded by some red ball robot and a yellow box robot."Sonic could take a guess at those descriptions. "That would be Orbot and Cubot..." He included."Right..." Said Espio, not really caring. "We take them out, and have a better look around the complex."After a few more minutes, they finished discussing their plan to infiltrate the base. The sun had gone down completely, as Olly grabbed a black bag from the bushes. She unzipped it and pulled out two pairs of night vision goggles and gave one to Sonic and one to Espio, then hitched the bag on to her shoulders. Both strapped them on as the sun had finally disappeared. "I'm glad I can see this time." Said Sonic as they left.One could see the lights glowing from the Village, but they weren't bright enough to cover the outskirts. Dull lights portrayed the entrance to the base, encased with mosquitoes and a botched light that kept flashing on and off repeatedly. The two robots that Espio had been talking about paced back and forth in stereotypical guard fashion. Having a glimpse of the entrance, it was cylindrical with black and yellow diagonal stripes, in which it dug into the side of the mountain. The door was obviously automatic. Espio did his thing, melding into the environment and with simple kicks destroyed both the robots, then took out the camera on top with a single shuriken. He faded back into vision as Espio and Sonic placed their goggles on their head and headed inside...Espio lead the group, leading them down the long corridor, avoiding patrolling robots and surveillance cameras along the way. It was made entirely in sterile technics and metal. No doubt it was Eggmans base. Espio stopped in his tracks and looked up. "There!" He motioned. "I need a hand." He said. Sonic looked confused. "How'd you get up before?" He asked. "There was a robot here last time. I faded as it stood there...actually it'd fallen asleep.""How do robots fall asleep?" Olly and Sonic wondered at the same time. Either way, Sonic stood under he vent while Espio stood on his shoulders and pushed the vent grill out of the way. Espio was the first to jump in while Sonic looked at Olly. "Ladies first." He said with gentleman's charm. Olly simply huffed. "Why thank you Sonic..." She said sarcastically. She got on his shoulders as Espio grabbed her hand, then Olly grabbed Sonic's and pulled him in. Sonic placed the grill back into place, and started following Espio and Olly down the vent. Sonic found himself in an awkward position and tried to look away from what he found himself staring at but unconsciously couldn't help but look forward. He blushed. Olly looked behind her to see where Sonic was, him crawling with his head looking away. "What's the matter?" She asked. "Uh...nothing..." He motioned. She caught wind of his troubles and stopped. "YOU PERVERT!" She yelled.WHACK! Went Sonic's face as he copped a boot full of pain. "Shh you fools! You want to raise the alarm?" Scolded Espio. Sonic rubbed his face as Olly snuffed. "He was looking at my butt!" She complained. Espio shook his head. "We're heading up to small clearing in a minute, so you can change places when we're there if it makes you so uncomfortable."Espio was right, there was a larger vent area nearby. It was large enough for them to stand in, but rectangle hole in front of them as more vents went in up, down, left, right and forward. Sonic noticed a shaft grill and could see out of it. He leaned down to try and see through it."It looks like some sort of prisoners area." He noticed. Olly came by and shoved Sonic out of the way. She could see someone sitting in out of the cells, which had electric blue bars surrounding it. Inside was a small, seemingly elder light pink hedgehog, wearing a white woolen sweater over a green dress, glasses and her quills were up in a bun held with pins. She sat down on a bed, the look on her face was downtrodden. "That's her! I've found her!" She said. "Found who?" Asked Sonic. She pushed Sonic away as she grabbed her hammer, ready to smash the grill. "Wait!" Said Espio, scared. Sonic summed up what courage he had and put himself in her way. "Move! I have to do this!" She sad. Sonic raised his arms and shook his head. "I know you want to save her Olly, but we can't. Not yet." He said. Espio agreed. "Not now anyway. Not until we shut down the entire security network. Then we can save her."Olly already had her hammer above her head, readying the momentum to smash. Sonic gave her sympathetic looks but deep down he was frightened. She seemed to care so much about this lady. Then it hit him. "That's Muriel isn't it?" He asked. Slowly but surely, Olly weaned down her hammer and withdrew it away. "Yes..." She said softly. Sonic and Espio sighed with relief simultaneously. Sonic gave comfort in the form of putting his hand on her shoulder. "She'll be fine."He said, giving a smile. Olly looked away and shoved Sonic's hand off her. Sonic gave a surprised look. "Let's just keep going then. I'll follow."They jumped over the hole and started crawling into the next vent. Espio, then Sonic then Olly crawling alongside. Espio halted and sniffed the air. "Does anyone smell that?" He asked. Both Sonic and Olly did the same thing. "Yeah...I can..." Replied Olly. The scent was familiar to Sonic somehow. He continued sniffing it. It became rather potent, almost causing Sonic and Espio to gag. Sonic grabbed a handkerchief from his quills and placed it on his mouth. "It's sulfur." Announced Olly. "We have to act fast."Espio had covered his mouth, causing the crawling to become awkwardly slow. Even for Sonic. Olly ranted. "Come on you two! Pick up the pace!"Eventually they found the shaft they were looking for. They looked downwards to see Orbot and Cubot sitting down, leaning back on office chairs, glancing at the screens before them."You know, this doesn't seem so bad after all." Said Orbot."I agree. This is easy!" Said Cubot, who appeared to reading a comic book instead."So what do you think of the others?" Orbot asked.Cubot put his comic book down and stared into space. "They seem nice. I dunno about Sonic's doppelganger though.""You mean Metal Sonic." Corrected Orbot. Cubot scratched his head. "Yeah that one. He's been keeping an closer eye on the prisoner lately.""I wonder why..." Said Orbot.Sonic chuckled. "They're nothin." Espio carefully removed the grill without making a sound and shed visibility. He dropped out of the vent silently and glanced at the red and yellow robots."Do you feel something just now?" Pondered Orbot. Cubot had gone back to his comic."No..." He replied, uninterested. Orbot shrugged it off and leaned back into his chair.Espio crept up the Cubot extra slowly and grabbed his mouth. He took out a screw driver and started tinkering with the junk in his back. Cubot resisted, eventually pulling Espio's hand away and gasping."Whats wrong now?" Orbot whinged."Like OH MY GOD Something just touched me!" Roared Cubot in a teenage girls accent. "Not again..." Orbot face-palmed. Cubot started twirling his chair around, hoping to shake what was touching him off, Espio walked back to the wall, keeping his eyes on the pair."Like, come on! I'm for real girlfriend!" Said Cubot. "Do you want me to whack you again?" Orbot suggested. Cubot rested his hands on his...box? "Like oh my god, why don't you believe me?"Orbot sighed. "It's not that I don't believe you or anything...""LET'S GO SHOPPING!" Cubot yelled spontaneously flailing his arms about.Espio was patient and distant, waiting for the right time to strike. Orbot floated over to his demented co-worker and tried to to fix his voice up. Again. "Dear me...it appears you were telling the truth. Or you have very delicate wires." "You know we should, like, by Eggman more flattering clothes don't cha think?" Cubot suggested. "Maybe later, right now we have to get you fixed up."Orbot replied. Espio creeped over while they weren't watching the screens. He looked at the board of buttons before him and started typing as discreet as he could. He had took quick glimpses at many of the screens. One was at the jail cell area where Muriel was, but she was no longer there. Another screen portrayed construction of the Kimmibots. A smaller screen up the top had turned to static, Espio gathering that was the entrance camera he had destroyed earlier, the screen so tiny and so high for them to not care about. He ignored their rants and continued typing. He discovered where Eggman was situated, in a large lab like room, him sitting on a anti-gravitational chair, speaking with a curvaceous, charcoal coloured, and large breasted woman., covered with amber glowing runes and cuts, with spiked shoulder pads and a head made of fire. Her demonic wings fluttering about, keeping her floating above the floor. Sharp claws protruded out of the ends of her fingers and toes. Checking back to the other two, Orbot was busy using tools to fix Cubot up, giving Espio more time to check out a map of the complex. Over the many hallways he could see two heat signatures in what must have been where Eggman and the demonic lady were stationed, noting the glow from her was a lot larger than his. He quickly went back to shaft and gave signs to Olly. She nodded from within and pulled her bag off her shoulders and rummaged through it. She pulled out a USB and chucked it to Espio, who then ran back to the surveillance board and shoved the USB into a port. His trickling fingers typing rapidly over the buttons, from what Sonic saw, created loops of empty hallways and a repeat of Eggman speaking with the woman."There that should do it." Said Orbot, finally fixing up Cubot, who rubbed his head."I still think Eggman needs a better outfit...his current one is getting rather old." He said, his accent back to normal. Orbot chuckled. "Well said my friend." He said, floating back to his own chair. Espio, still invisible, finished up and withdrew the USB before the robot returned. Sonic gave his hand to Espio to help him get back into the Vent. Sonic then carefully put the grill back on, and decided to head back to the larger vent shaft area.As soon as they got there Olly went to have a look at the shaft looking towards the Cells, clasping her hands on the bars. "No! She's gone!" She gasped. Espio shook his head. "I was going to mention that to you..." He said. Olly stomped her foot. "I knew we should have gotten her out. Espio, did you see her on any of the other cameras?""No." He replied calmly. "They might have taken her to Eggman, but she didn't appear on the heat signature map.""Heat signature?" Sonic pondered. "Wouldn't it have a good view of us in these vents?""Luckily for us Eggman forgot to mend it. I couldn't find you guys anywhere."Sonic smiled. "Great!"Olly sat down, with her head fallen. Sonic noticed and leaned over. "Come on Olly, she might be still around if we're lucky. I never said we weren't going to save her did I?"Olly lifted her head up slightly. "...I just fear failing that's all."Sonic gave a smile and gave her his hand. "We all fail sometimes. It's what we learn from our mistakes that makes us better people."Olly hesitated for a moment, then placed her hand in Sonic's, him helping her back to her feet."So what do you suggest we do now then?" Espio asked Olly. Olly paused to think. "Well, we can stop the production of the Kimmibots to free the town from oppression. Then we go straight to the source."Sonic gave a thumbs up. "Sounds good to me." Espio nodded. "The production plant is down from here. Are we prepared to give a jump?"Olly shifted her weight to one side, resting her hand on her hip. "I have suction cups in my bag. I only have two pairs though.""It's okay, I can cling on the side, just not for too long." Said Espio.Sonic and Olly put the suction cups on their hands and knees, then followed Espio down the descending vent. Espio went faster than usual, worried he'd might fall in the mean time. Meanwhile Sonic and Olly took their time going down. Sonic knew Olly had the rush to find Muriel, wanting to reassure her once more. But he said nothing as they kept going downwards.It gave him time to think. Gathering by her behavior she could either be close to her or even zealous in the nature of her saving work. Muriel appeared old also, she might be concerned because of her fragile stature. He would be too. But...she was so worked up about it. He'd have to keep an eye on her if she continued to be this way. No...it was nothing. She was a grown woman. He saw how she handled herself. This was one incident.They eventually got down to the bottom, looking through the bars of the grill, seeing lines and lines full of constructing and constructed kimmibots. "Wow...so many..." Said Sonic. "Any chance of an off-switch Espio?" Asked Olly. "Yes. There's a room nearby overlooking the factory. We disable the panel inside, set off a self-destruct sequence and head out as quickly as we can."Olly froze. "What about..."Sonic wasted no time. "Espio I have a better idea..." He motioned. "What is it Sonic?" He asked.Sonic smirked. "If you can sneak into the panel room like you did with the surveillance room and do you thing, do you reckon Olly and I have enough time to do some rescuing?"Espio wondered about it for a moment. "Maybe. You have to hurry though. Follow my lead through here, and I can point you both in the right direction."Sonic nodded. Olly removed the grill from the shaft as they popped out of the vent one by one.They landed on a platform overseeing the massive factory. Sonic wiped his forehead. "Phew! Its getting hot in here.""Not enough to get my clothes off." Said Olly sarcastically. They quickly took off the suction cups as Olly put them back in her bag. The lines of Kimmibots were numerous and heading in all sorts of directions. Espio pointed to their right. A narrow ledge was just wide enough for them to get across to the panel room. They ran over to it and started shuffling across, their backs to the wall as their legs skimmed across slowly. "Woah!" Cried Olly as she accidentally slipped over. "Olly!" Yelled Sonic as he quickly grabbed her hand, saving her from falling down to the great below. He gently pulled her up to the ledge as she sighed with relief. "Thanks Sonic." She said with gratefulness. "No worries. Just be a little more careful." He said with a wink.They had made it to the other side platform. There was no one inside the panel room gathering what they could see through the window. They went through an automatic door leading to it. Espio immediately went to the panel itself and began to analyze it. "Alright. This might take me a while. A Ninja hacks to learn, but one know must learn to hack." He said. "Use that door and head straight down. Eggman's chamber should be just down the corridor."Sonic nodded. "Gotcha. Come on Olly lets go.""Right." She responded, following Sonic through the second set of doors while Espio did his thing.The corridor wasn't too long, but the ending of it held giant platinum doors. Sonic leaned his ear on it to see if he could hear anything."Allow me..." Said Olly. Sonic watched as Olly brought her bag out. She pulled out a a device that had three cords extending out of it. It was shaped like a box, with one cord on one side with a small suction like apparatus at the end, while the other side had two cords with ear buds. Olly placed one cord on one of the platinum doors. She gave an earbud to Sonic and put one in her ear.There was a rant on the other side. Sonic could make out one the gruff male voice as Eggman, but couldn't decipher the deep womanly voice that he was arguing with."Look, I don't know where it went. I had Scratch and Grounder move it so if we found a chaos Emerald could put one in there!" Yelled Eggman. Great. Now he was looking for the Emeralds again. One emerald was just as bad as having two or all seven. There was something else he had to save."Where is this Scratch and Grounder? Maybe I can talk to them myself." Said the deep, echoed and multi-pitched voice."They're probably snooping as usual for all I care! Those idiotic dingbots..." Eggman roared."Well if you do, you'll know it won't work properly unless I get the rest of those Bleeding Hearts."They heard a thumping. "I know that! We're still trying to find that blasted box." Said Eggman."I've given you the Amberite...I've given you the locations...you just need to expand your search a little wider." The voice mentioned.Eggman grumbled. His associate was being extremely unhelpful."I'm setting up bases at those other Zones you suggested. I'm pretty sure they'll pop up sooner or later." He told them.Suddenly it became silent. Sonic turned to Olly."What do you thinks going on?" He whispered.Olly shrugged."I don't know. They must be thinking..." She replied."I think we have some little rats outside our door." Said the lady.
SCHING!
The Platinum doors suddenly opened before Sonic and Olly. Sonic saw a familiar face as his face widened with surprise."You!" He said, pointing"Sonic? How'd you get in here?" Eggman asked, almost like he was stunned.Olly's hands flung to her hips."So Eggman, I see you're dealing with the devil?" She noted.The lady laughed."No honey, the contract was signed a long time ago..." She sneered, giving off a demonic laugh that almost frightened the pair to the core. She recognized Sonic straight away and blew him a kiss and a wink. It just made him feel sick."This time you've gone too far Eggman!" Sonic yelled."Do ho ho! I've heard that before..." Eggman laughed. His tasks did escalate from time to time. But this...this..."Where is she?" Olly demanded, bringing out her Smish Smasher.The demonic lady looked at her."Where is who sweetie?"Olly became so enraged, that she wanted to pour water on that fiery head of hers. Inflict pure agony."Abbadonia, deal with them quickly!" Eggman ordered."Of course darls." Abbadonia complied.Sonic froze."Wait, Abbadonia?"Abbadonia gave a smirk as Eggman pressed a button on his floating chair and went up a pipe and vanished. Sonic stood back into a fighting position."So you're Abbadonia?" Sonic asked again."Indeed I am...you know what they say about red heads...so much fire in them!" She joked, her laugh so discouraging."Well I think it's time we put that fire out!" Roared Olly. She jumped into the air with her hammer, intending to smash Abbadonia with it. Instead a circle of darkness appeared under her as she descended down into it, the circular hole closing as Olly hit the floor."Where did she go?" Said Olly, panting with rage. Sonic kept an eye out. He felt a warm breeze through his quills. Noticing this, he turned around. Abbadonia had reappeared and attempted to swipe Sonic with a massive claw that had formed on her left hand. Luckily Sonic had jumped out of the way before she could hit him.Abbadonia cackled."Your wretched kind will not stop me this time!" She bellowed. Raising her hand up, multiple circular holes were summoned on the ground. Monsters lept out of them and roared at Sonic and Olly. Sonic had recognized them from his dreams."Let them rise, Mephbones! The skeletal warriors who wield twin swords! Crawlfangs, the three headed dogs with a taste for flesh! Stumpwings!, the leg less winged demons craving to tear you apart limb from limb! Attack!" Abbadonia commanded. The demons flung themselves into the heat of battle. The whole swarm of these creatures bombarded the pair. Olly whacked each one that came her way, knocking the heads off the Mephbones. Sonic speared his foot cracking the skulls of the Stumpwings. All the while Abbadonia gloated and cackled. Olly continued whacking down more Mephbones, then eventually came to a Crawlfang. Take a leap of faith, she landed behind it and smashed her hammer into it's back, causing it to yelp. Sonic encountered two Mephbones. He dodged the slashes, then did a run up and kneed one of them in the chest, causing it crack apart and snap it in two. Using the momentum, Sonic used a spin-dash to smash the skull of the next one.Olly finished off five Stumpwings in sequence. Smash after squish after smoosh. After their struggle, piles of dead demons spread across the floor. They panted as Abbadonia floated there and clapped."Well done my sweeties..." She congratulated. "I'd love to stay and chat but I have work to do. Toodle-oo~"The piles of demons faded away in ashes and blew into the holes that Abbadonia had summoned. The Demon Lady sunk down into the abyss as it closed up. Olly ran over to slam her, but like before, all she hit was ground. Sonic walked up beside her."It's over..." He said, patting her back. She spun around, getting into position to whack Sonic. He couldn't see her face but judging from her body language she was ready to keep going. "Olly..." He tried to assure. Soon she withdrew the Smish Smasher and calmed down."I'm sorry Sonic...but she makes me feel...really angry. Like there's a storm raging in my very veins." She muttered. Her head was down as Sonic attempted to comfort her by his hand on her shoulder again."There's always another time. I'm pretty sure this won't be the last time we see her." He said smiling.Olly was reluctant."It wasn't the first time either." She mumbled."Huh?" Sonic wondered...with confusion.Olly shook her head. "It's nothing. We have someone to save." She said, her head perking back up.Sonic agreed. "Agreed. Let's Be Cool, Be Wild and Be Groovy!"Olly face palmed. "Anyway, let's go back to the Jail Cell. Since Espio fixed the up the camera system we should find it easier without having to crawl around."Sonic nodded. "Eggman already know's we're here." He said, pushing his palm with his fist. "Which we have an obligation to smash some robots."They headed out the platinum doors. Olly picked up her stuff and put away what she had out. Then they were greeted with a plethora of robots heading in their direction. Sonic snorted. "Hey Olly, ready to cause more chaos?" He asked, having cheek in his voice.Olly put her bag on her back and brought out Smish Smasher."I'm always ready Sonic." She said, eager.Sonic went into a Spindash and smashed through the jolly orange robots like bowling pins. Olly happily swung her hammer around, full of beautiful destruction that Eggman would be jealous of. They worked their way around the complex for a while, blowing things up as they went. Sonic sped to a halt when he'd found the door to the cells."Olly over here!" He yelled. She came around and peaked her head through the window."There she is!" She announced with glee. "Stand back Sonic!"She backed up with the hammer and ran and swung it with full force.
SMASH!
The two would have to been a million pieces at this point. Olly ran in then stood before the Main Cell."G-Muriel!" Said Olly, stuttering uncharacteristically."We've found you!"Sonic walked over to the old woman. She appeared frail with a walking stick."Have you come to save me?" She asked in croaky voice.Olly nodded. "We've been looking all over for you! Are you okay?""Yes...I think so" Replied Muriel, who then looked at Sonic. "Ah Sonic! It's so good to finally meet you!"Sonic smiled. "Good to meet you too." He said back. "Are you THE Muriel? The one who gave a book to Tails?"Muriel bowed her head. "Yes. I wrote that book many years ago back in my expedition days as a young explorer. Just as you were."Olly walked around to find out how to shut off the electromechanical bars. She found a board on the wall with a key still in the slot. She slowly twisted it, hearing jerks and groans at the same time. She looked behind to see the bars had gone."Alright let's get you out of here." She said.
WOOP WOOP WOOP

SELF DESTRUCTION SEQUENCE, INITIATED.
"Espio..." Sonic muttered. He picked Muriel up and carried her out. The complex started to shake violently as Sonic and Olly headed back to Espio. Turns out he was waiting outside of Panel room, waiting."Come on! Follow me!" Espio commanded. He lead in front, with Sonic and Olly in tow.They dodged falling debris and jumped around, Sonic holding Muriel tight. They sped through various obstacles. Olly used her hammer to clear paths as they hit dead ends. Unfortunately the roof caved in and stranded the trio. "Oh no!" Cried Muriel. Olly tried smashing through, but more poured down."Hang on a tic..." She said. She bowed down and touched a button on her helmet."Agent Bazooka I'm requesting an immediate evac!" She said."Copy that Agent Mjöllnir, scanning your signal.""Alright, just hang on a tic guys." Said Olly. "Huddle together."The four got closer to one another, with Espio and Olly placing their hands over Sonic and each other, shielding Muriel from the debris. Suddenly a blast came out of nowhere, and from the settling dust was a tall woman with what was two long pony tails wrapped in latex. She herself was curvacious with high heeled boots, black leather pants and a full black shirt with gloves. Her helmet was the same as Olly's design, except for the pony tails peaking out of it. Sonic knew why she was called Agent Bazooka...she held a great big silver one on her shoulder. "Come!"Bazooka pulled the others to her as they ran to follow her towards the front of the complex. Soon there was a glimpse of night sky as a ladder fell down from a helicopter. Bazooka stood by it as Espio started climbing it rapidly. Followed by Olly, then Bazooka herself. Sonic clung onto a ladder rail with one hand as he held Muriel in his other arm. As soon as the others got inside the Helicopter soon went upwards as they barely escaped the explosion, Sonic holding Muriel in tight. They watched as the mountainside collapsed before them, followed by more explosions. Sonic sighed with relief...After they that fiasco, the Helicopter settled down on the outskirts of the village. It turned out that it was the combined efforts of the entire Femme Fatalax, which consisted Olly, Bazooka, and the woman who had been flying the helicopter, the one Knuckles called ''Agent Hooves'' was actually called "Agent Drainer." due to her ability to absorb power. Sonic didn't go beyond that, but got her general description of someone similar to Olly's stature, only less curvy and..flatter than the other two. Which Sonic also did not speak of. The robots were no longer there to torment the villagers.Espio went to house of the Village Chief and explained what had happened. He also spoke Sonic and the Femme Fatalex, thanking them for their efforts to save the town. The Chief was tall and was clad in purple ninja gear. He sat down on a cushion, legs cross and had a stern, worn face and was also balding with grey hair. He took a sip from his tea cup and rested it back on a plate. Espio sat next to him. As was tradition with the Ninjas culture, one must take their shoes off before entering a house, and speak to each other sitting down, as equals and to show some respect to one another. Sonic and Olly were in there as well."I'd like to thank you all for doing so much for our village." Said the Chief. "We would be honored if you would like to join us all in celebrations tonight.""I would love to, but I have things to do." Said Sonic, standing up. Olly pulled his leg."Come on Sonic there's gonna be food!" She pleaded. "There's gonna be Chilli Dogs!"Sonic froze. "Chili Dogs? Twice in one day" He parroted. "Awesome."The night went on as they ate and danced under the stars. Bazooka and Drainer had gotten rid of the cameras and any other bugs that Eggman had planted throughout the village. Sonic talked to the Villagers, both human and Chameleon a like. He learned a bit about their history, how the humans had invaded the Chameleons territory and eventually the humans taught them how to fight. It was eventually they became crucial as the melding reptiles could gather information from afar., as well as learning the name of the clan was Furcifer. It inducted either kind into it's fold and even taught strangers self-defense. It indeed fascinated Sonic."So, was the Clan in good spirits with the House of Rosoideae by any chance?" He asked the Chief."Of course they were. Our ancestors trained Stupilite Warriors and spies. Up until the accident..."Accident? Sonic thought. "May I ask what happened?" Sonic asked."The Knuckles Clan had delved into a Civil War with the Nocturnus. It whipped up something strange in the air. The Legends have it the event that was written in the scrolls as the Ripple of Exchange." He explained. "There were reports of fire that rained down from the heavens. The Prophetess of Rosoideae foresaw the release of eight magical artifacts that spewed out of the Earth, causing panic across the world and strange events.""What happened after that?" Sonic wondered."No one heard from the House of Rosoideae after that. All of them simply vanished. For four thousand years these have been kept on those scrolls until the day the Ripple would return." The Chief continued.Sonic crossed his arms. "Interesting. So does that have anything to do with why Eggman was keeping you all prisoner?" He inquired.The chiefs eyes went back and forth."Follow me."The Chief lead Sonic away from the party and back to his hut. He walked to a wall with a wall scroll, moving it out of the way revealing a keypad. Sonic was amazed."Espio gave us this technology. Its much more efficient than our previous method.""What was that?" Sonic asked.The Chief stopped as his head slunk. "I'd rather not say. But it did involve a tooth pick and alchohol."What? After a strange thought or two, the floor opened up, revealing a flight of steps. The Chief lead Sonic down to an underground area, the walls made of an extra hard steel. In the middle was a wooden table, displaying a massive sword in a glass case. Sonic walked up to it, for some reason, in the back of his mind, was that image of it. But he didn't know why. It looked strange, with fangs and bones, twisted and contorted with the base and handle concealing a crimson jewel in a one eye socket demon skull. His mind flashed back to his dream. It was the same blade that...Abbadonia gave him, which now connected the two together, but didn't make the whole situation hell of a lot easier."We received this blade a long time ago. We believe Eggman was trying to find it. Which is why I am giving it to the Femme Fatalex for safe keeping."Another artifact?"Here's hoping it stays that way." Said Sonic. "Yes. It's very important."They came back up, as the party kept going on with more dancing. Sonic decided to join the local villagers and staged them with his break dancing skills. He could have gone all night, for one maiden called out to him... "Mr. Sonic?"Sonic faced his left. It was Muriel."Oh hey there." Sonic said, waving. The Chief, who was standing from afar, became stern and serious. "How are you feeling?" Sonic asked."Still a bit shaken but I will be okay." She said with a grin. "I wanted to gave my thanks once more. I knew giving my book to Amy's friend Tails was a good idea."Sonic blinked. "You know Amy?"Muriel nodded. "Of course...she's my granddaughter. She was the one who suggested I give it to Tails in the first place."Woah what? It was not that his suspicions were right about Muriel being related to Amy somehow that shocked him but the revelation that Amy told her own grandmother to give such a book to Tails raises even more questions to be desired."She told me all about you Sonic..."Sonic chuckled nervously."Uh...I sure she has..."
FLASH...
Sonic shook his head. He stood in the middle of an empty intersection, with only the wind blowing giving any indication of movement. Sonic looked up at the sky scrapers that circled the the blue sky above. He wandered around for a while, trying to pin-point where he was. He decided to do a speed run across town. But where ever he went, it was just the same. Endless roads that lead to nowhere and everywhere across this nameless barren city. He cried out a few times to see if anyone was around, but had no avail. Turning into a spin-dash, he rolled up the side of the nearest tower and sped to the top. He squinted as he searched over the horizon. Nothing but mimicked buildings that repeated themselves like a pattern. The sun was in permanent sunset, giving off a twilight feel. He looked towards it, not knowing what to expect."You found her." Said a voice. Sonic turned around. "Amy?"Amy slowly walked towards Sonic. Her face faltered as her eyelids were at half-mask. She stood incredibly still like a statue, confusing Sonic."What's going on?" He asked."What's your involvement in all of this?"Amy looked away. Suddenly blood started dripping from the bottom of her dress. He looked down at the pool in surprise. Looking back into her eyes, they were lifeless. Sonic immediately ran to her aid as she fell over, him catching her."Amy are you alright?" Sonic asked with deep concern. Tears started running down her face as a patch of blood appeared on her stomach. She was fatally wounded. "W-what happened?" Sonic stuttered, not knowing what to do. She lifted her hand up weakly and rested her hand on his face."You need to wake up Sonic...please..."

FLASH...

Sonic rubbed his eyes. He was now in a darkened room by himself, only the moonlight coming from the window gave him somewhat subpar vision. He had a blanket over drawn over him, and he realized he was asleep on a futon. Sitting up, Sonic tried to make sense of himself. These dreams...visions...were getting increasingly graphic and cryptic, him failing to understand how Amy, who might be over the top, but was a genuinely good person. But what it mean? Was there some Freudian context to it? Was his subconsciousness trying to tell him something.Sonic heard footsteps outside his room. He got up and slid his door open."About time you woke up." Whispered Olly as she grabbed Sonic, much to his surprise."We need to talk."They sat up on top of the roof and stared at the moon."I need to tell someone this." Said Olly.Sonic looked at Olly with care. "What's the matter?"Olly fumbled, as if unorganized with herself. "I have to take Muriel back home. You have to come with me. Now."Sonic looked dumbfounded. Olly got up and paced back and forth, muttering to herself."I...never mind. I've organized Bazooka to get the Helicopter. You're going back through the portal. Tonight. With Muriel."Sonic shot up. "No, I can run back to the portal myself. I'll just carry Muriel back."Olly held her hand close to her chest. "You sure?"Sonic feigned a smile. "Trust me...I'll be faster."Olly looked down. "Alright. I have to go anyway."Sonic chuckled. "You don't need me here anymore."Olly nodded. "Of...course. Muriel is still up, she should be near one of the shrines."Sonic held out his hand. "Then this is goodbye...for now..." He said.Olly shook his hand without hesitation. "Yeah. No doubt we'll see each other again."The two bid their farewells and headed in the opposite directions. Sonic watched as Olly jumped from roof to roof towards the Village's walls, leap off, then seeing a glimpse of the helicopter. He waved to the Femme Fatalex as their image faded off into the darkness. When they were gone completely, Sonic jumped off the roof and ran around to find Muriel.Like Olly had said, She was busy praying at one of the shrines, kneeling down with her hands on the bench. Sonic tapped her shoulder."Muriel?"Muriel's head lifted up. "It's time to go isn't it.""Yes." Sonic replied. She got up and turned in his direction."Very well. If we must."Sonic sweeped her off her feet and started running back to the Portal."Here we are."Sonic looked up. He stood behind Muriel as she opened a door. Looking around, he knew where he was. Central City. Muriel turned on a light inside."Why don't you come around some time? I'd love to hear what you discovered." She said sweetly.Sonic forced a smile. "Uh..sure...""It's been so long since I have been to those ruins. It'll be good to see them again." She said as she reminisced."Right." Said Sonic. "Well, you better head off to bed then. Be seeing ya!" He said, waving good bye before fleeing off.Sonic running alone at night gave him more thinking room. He'd experienced so much craziness in one day. Then he remembered about Tails and Knuckles and wondered what happened to them. Sonic couldn't just stand around and do nothing about. He had to find his friends, but somewhere inside him said that they could handle it. Neither were weaklings, and could find their way back if they wanted to. Just where they went was a total mystery and was most likely because of the cock up with the Portal. He forget that they had aged, therefore would have become rather dodgy over time. But...Amy kept crawling back in. The annoying poke of her image annoyed Sonic. Everything seemed to head straight back to her. He could go back to Muriel the next day and ask her, or go back to find Tails and Knuckles. Because he was their friend and because it was necessary as the Sonic the Hedgehog, he quickly made the decision to search. In fact, he could do it now if he wanted. Leaving in a rush, Sonic headed back to the ruins, with Amy still on his mind.Every thought was in a constant loop. Save Tails, Save Knuckles, Speak to Muriel, Find Amy...rinse and repeat. One of the problems he was having is that she wasn't even around as such to be forged of such blame. And that dream...the blood...was that...the Prophetess talking?"I congratulate you on finding her." Said Shizaru. Sonic skidded to a halt as he saw her standing there in her usual attire."So I'm guessing by her, you mean Muriel." He corrected."Do you remember how you got out of Sakura?" She asked in her soft voice."Sure I do." Sonic answered. "We came through the portal."Shizaru stood there, deathly still."Do you remember running back here?" She asked."I...". Sonic wondered back. How did he get back anyway? His face scowled. "You can't..."Said Mizaru, who suddenly warped behind Sonic. She was wearing her green garb as she always did."You have found her. Yet your task is not finished." Muttered Kikazaru who came from Sonic's right, wearing her blue garb."What do you mean not finished?" Sonic demanded. He felt a tap on his left shoulder. It was Iwazaru in her yellow garb, holding a golden blade in the palms of her hands. "W-what's this for? I said I was done with the swords. If this has to do with King Arthur I don't have that power in this world. That was just one of those weird, 'Reep you in for some reason' storybooks." He babbled.Shizaru's eyes pierced through Sonic's own."No. You must take the blade and kill Muriel with it." She said, coldy.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 4 – Righteous Ways
Sonic was stumped. He'd only just saved Muriel a few hours ago and now he had to kill her? What kind sick, twisted game was this? Sonic's puzzlement became anger mixed with sorrow. He couldn't comprehend the Prophetess request to murder an innocent old lady. Especially if they were related to one of his friends. Even if she wasn't, he would never do such a thing. Not that he wouldn't...he couldn't. There was no chance in Lava Reef that Sonic the Hedgehog could go to such lengths for some petty excuses. It was an extreme of an extreme. And these measures would not be taken lightly."What was the point of me rescuing her when she has to die? Seriously, where's the logic?" Sonic roared. He backed off from Iwazaru who still held the blade in her hands. The expression on their faces failed to change. Just the same, dull looks that all of them shared. As if they were in a trance."If we told you everything you would not have done it. Now she is safe. Everyone else...is not." Muttered Shizaru. "In order to end it, you must prevent the same event from happening again." Spoke Mizaru. "...the future is red." Said Iwazaru. Sonic walked backwards, trying to get a good distance between them."Look there has to be some other way besides slaughter!" He argued.He felt the glare coming from Shizaru's cold eyes. "It is the only way. Iwazaru...show him..."Sonic watched as the yellow clad Hedgehog waltzed her way towards him with the golden blade in the palms of her hands. He stood back, only to find himself up against an invisible wall. Unconsciously he scrapped the sides with his fingers, trying to find a way out. Iwazaru got closer, as he was forced to jump over to the other side. "If you want to know the truth let her do her job."Sonic shook his head. "No...I can't. I refuse to believe it. Even with reason I can't allow it to happen!"He tried running in another direction, but only ran into more walls. Each way he went, he'd hit one. Iwazaru forever kept her calm and followed him wherever he went "Geez I'd rather have Amy chase me then you guys!" Said Sonic, still trying to flee."Can't you just tell me why I have to kill her?" "Kill who?"That voice...he knew that voice. It came from behind him. He slowly turned around to see a Pink hedgehog in a red dress. Oh... "Amy?"Amy stood there in confusion. "Who were you talking to?"Sonic's mind ran rampant as he sped towards her, checking her over. "Areyouokay?You'renothurtoranythingareyou?" He asked, his way with words were on par with his foot speed, remembering what he'd seen just earlier.Amy was taken by surprise. "What? Of course not. I'm perfectly fine." She said, a little wierded out."Where are you off to?" Asked Sonic. Amy paused for the moment, trying to figure out why Sonic seemed so paranoid. "Well, I was heading off to my grandmothers. She rang me a little while ago said she wanted to speak with me."Sonic was all riled up and deeply concerned. His thoughts bouncing from everywhere and didn't know which one to pick up and use. He rubbed his head and blurted out a few incomprehensible words. "What?" Said Amy."I said...uh...I saw her a little while ago. She just got home. I think she said..uh..." he continued as he fumbled.Amy grabbed Sonic's hand as he fidgeted. He then stopped as he froze his entire body. "Okay take a deep breath Sonic...I don't know what you've been doing but it's left you kinda strange..." She said with worry.Sonic gave her one look. She was right. He was troubled from what he saw. He looked over to where the Prophetess and her Wisers were, and as per typical mystery fashion, they were no longer there. He looked back towards her. Amy was giving a minor smile that briefly warmed his heart. In a good way.He wouldn't dare tell her what he'd just seen. Like before, he'd have to make up some story. The lying hurt but he had no choice. He just went with it. "I was in the neighborhood and I'd seen her walking around by herself. Then, out of nowhere a group of thugs decided to mug her. Knowing my own heroic resolve I rescued her and offered to walk her home."Amy's eyes went wide. She bought it. "Oh no...I hope she's okay..." She said with a gasp."She'll be okay." Assured Sonic. "I got her home safely. I made sure she'd lock the door behind her and suggested she get extra security."Amy sighed with relief. "Oh thank goodness...thank you so much Sonic."Sonic expected a massive glomping and closed his eyes to await for temporary suffocation. Instead he felt nothing. He reopened his eyes. Amy was still standing there, looking through a brown bag of hers that hung on her shoulder. "She'd called me earlier to ask me to bring her some more of her favourite perfume." She said. "It's from Westopolis, but she complained the taxi fair from here to there was too expensive. So I often make runs to the shops.."Sonic nodded. "So you heading there still?" He asked."Yeah. That and just to check up and see if she's okay." She answered. No...no she can't go there. Muriel will tell her side of the story. He'd hope Amy would fall for it due upon the thought that Muriel was senile but he wouldn't be able to confirm it. Instead a gust of wind made Sonic's quills dance slightly. Sonic turned around, and saw a small purple light fluttering about. Sonic gulped. Make up a story dammit!"She told me she was going straight to bed. A good nights sleep will do her good, her dreams taking her away from today's troubles." He lied again.Amy contemplated. "...Yeah...you're right. I'll see her in the morning..."Close enough. He'd have to think of something else for her to think about other than her grandmother, trying to make her forget. "I'll go home then."Sonic picked at the opportunity. Although he wondered if his next question was a honest plea or a shifty move. "Alright. Do you mind if I walked you home?"Amy smiled. "Sure. Well it is late at night after all. It'd be nice to have someone to talk to after all."It was getting late in the western parts of Central City. Although the CBD was still booming with its night life, of neon lights and giant billboards. Sonic's ears were ringing from the horns of traffic and the conversations of the streets. It was good to see civilization, albeit if those that lurk in the night were saner than those he'd seen in the daytime. But it as nice. Amy was completely composed and calm in an Amy sort of way; sweet, innocent and optimistic. Sonic listened to her rattling on about the latest fashion craze or what movie she'd seen recently. Hearing her babble became comforting, knowing she was well and truly okay unstrangled his stomach slightly. So far, there'd been no truth in visionaries including her. Surface wise there was nothing wrong. Just good ol' Amy Rose. It couldn't make him any happier. But...a voice in his head was nagging at him, trying to explain there was something missing from it all. He couldn't find or focus on it. He dug into the depths of his mind, where her mansion was. She was not opening the door for him. This Amy Rose was over-the-top and clingy, screaming incoherent words but a few; 'You missed our date.'He half expected her to blurt out some proposal to do so. So far she didn't. She was sturdy and all the normal for it. Sonic couldn't complain, but...her mansion wasn't as...unkempt as it had been. Maybe his perception of her had been incorrect this entire time. Then it hit him. He'd been so stupid that it only just crossed his mind. He hardly knew her.Sonic didn't know her family, didn't know what her favourite food or place of dining was. There was a distinct lack of knowledge surrounding herself other than the obvious. He never even gave a second thought about getting to know her better, albeit knowing about everyone else. He felt ashamed to know that everyone knew everything about him, yet the opposite stands clear that he knew nothing about them. Save for a few existent and trivial facts, such as Knuckles temper and gullibility, as well as Tails fear of lightning and tendency for techno-babble. But he did know their strong points, such as Knuckles determination and durability, as well as Tails being brave and his vast intellect that rivaled Eggman's. But other than that, nothing. For someone who felt like he was deeply close to his friends, they weren't pseudo family. But why should that stop him from being friends with them? Regardless of what he knew about anyone, what they are or what they do didn't matter, as long as they had a good heart and equal intentions. Surprisingly, Knuckles and Tails only had small cottages, and practically everyone else had plain, white and boring houses all along the same street. The differences with two of his best friends was that they were definitely cosy, and their cottages covered with thick vegetation, but they were comfortable in their corresponding deck chairs, living not too far from Amy. Apparently they lived in the same court, but with Amy's mansion sitting atop a mountain, separating the cottages.Not before long, they ended up at Amy's place. Unlike his mental picture, it looked like she lived in an apartment situated on an empty street. She mentioned she rented this place not too long ago because the landlord was so nice, although he'd kept hitting her for some reason, which made Sonic laugh. They took the elevator to the seventh floor and stood outside her door. Sonic couldn't help but smile at her as she finally stopped speaking to look at him. "What is it?" Amy nervously asked, trying to look away. "Uh nothing..." Sonic replied, unaware of blush on his face.Amy giggled. "I should say thanks for walking me home. We should chat like this more often."Sonic nodded. "No problem at all."Sonic knew she was right. Maybe he should chat to others more often. Although, where he was now, realizing that he could perhaps query Amy about her relations to the Rosoideae. If there was any. He was an idiot not to think of it beforehand. He wasn't even sure there was going to be a next time, knowing that the Prophetess and her Wisers lie on the horizon, awaiting for him to murder Muriel. He'd had argument looping over and over again, each time it didn't make any sense to him, it was baffling to say at the least. Sonic watched as Amy put the her keys into the lock and opened the door. "What are you going to do now?" He asked. Amy rested her hand on the doorknob and just stood and looked ahead. "I was watching a horror before my nan rang. It'll be over now."Quick Sonic, ask her...ask her! He thought to himself. "I'm not doing anything at the moment. We could talk a bit more."Amy strangely hesitated. She forced a smile as she turned her head to him. "Alright. Come on in! I'll make us some tea."Sonic half-expected to see pink everywhere, or worse, some sort of shrine dedicated to him...or images of himself on everything bar the kitchen sink. He cursed signing that contract to that company SEGA, allowing them to make merchandise and games based off him. But as he walked through the door he was surprised. Her apartment was humble. Normal beige carpet that extended throughout a hallway. The first room to his left was the lounge room, consisted of a cream coloured couch facing towards him with white and red pillows. In front was a short and wide brown TV cabinet, holding a 55'' LCD TV with dozens of DVD's everywhere, White curtains on the left of the couch. To the right of him was the kitchen where Amy had turned on the kettle. It too was a simple red and white theme, with the stereotypical (or old school) black and white tiles on the floor, and the cupboards an draws were all made of redwood."I'll be right back. Meanwhile have a seat." She announced.He nodded as he went into the living area which was one door down from the TV room. It had simple white chairs and couches, with their own white and red cushions. He stared at the redwood coffee table that had a simple red square table decoration in the middle of it. He sat down on the main couch and slouched over his knees, his elbows resting on them, rubbing his fingers through his quills. What could he tell her? The truth? The craziness that was going lately? The issue of confiding his worries to her clouded his mind, the problem of her understanding made him do constant rechecks and mental simulations of her reactions. It initially didn't worry him as much, but it made him scared that he was going to go crazy if it persisted on long enough. He could blame the cause on Shizaru, forcing him to do the unthinkable. Today, he'd been through enough...memories of the Gauntlet projected to him, reminding him of the horrors that he'd witnessed...meeting Olly and her group of latex and leather clad women, the Kimmibots and discovering who Abbadonia was, even though it had been for a brief moment. It had been a big day, and Sonic had all the rights to be tired, not that he would admit that anyone, including himself. Culminating his thoughts and feelings at the moment, it was just a big mess waiting to be cleaned up and sorted out. He sighed and lifted his head. He turned his head as he saw a deck of cards next to the table piece. Subsequently picking them up, he flicked through them and noticed they weren't the usual deck one would normally see."These are...tarot cards..." He muttered to himself. That's right...from what ever he could remember she used to use these quite a bit back in the day. He wondered if she still did, occasionally. He quickly put them back on the table as he heard Amy's big red boots on the kitchen floor. She came with one blue cup and one pink cup. Sonic chuckled."Can I take a guess which one is for me?" He joked. Amy smirked. "I have a cup that represents each of my friends. Cream came over one time and helped me get them. Although she decided to get one of those do it yourself ones that come with the textas."Sonic could imagine it. Creams one would have had pretty pictures of herself and Cheese drawn on her name in a cutesy kids font."Yeah that sounds like her." Said Sonic. He leaned forward and clasped the cup in his hands. Amy had then switched her boots for fluffy pink slippers and chucked her boots back in her room further down the hallway. She came back sat on the other side of the couch and crossed her legs, sitting up straight and took a sip. Sonic did large drink and seemed to stare into space, which brought concern from Amy."So you wanted to talk about something?" She asked him.He snapped back into reality. Now would be a good time to question her past, but do it real subtle."I realized now I hardly know you Amy. I thought it would good to get to understand what Amy Rose is all about."Amy's face contorted from confusion. He was going to ask now? After all this time? This wasn't like Sonic. An upfront confrontation to 'talk' about herself. She became deep in thought for a brief moment, before answering him, then figure out what he was up to."So...uhh...what do you want to know? There's quite a few starting points to choose from." She answered. Sonic's eyes drilled deep into the cup. "You know, family, stuff like that.""Oh..." She muttered. She had an inkling that this was about her grandmother. She held onto the belief that what he had told her either wasn't the whole story or the true story. She couldn't comprehend Sonic lying to her for any particular reason. She'd have to worry about that later, realizing these were just petty pointless beliefs. He might be genuinely trying to get to know her better. Deep down...she knew it was too late... She decided to tell him about her family anyway. There was no harm in it."From what my parents told me, my dad was a Brick Layer and my mother was an artist. They used to joke that I got my temper from her and my strength from him. He was the one who gave me my Piko Piko Hammer...right after we first me all those years ago, because he was worried that it might happen again and you might not be there if I got captured again."Sonic gave a smirk of his own. "Heh...guess he was wrong huh?" He muttered. "Which makes me think...what were you doing on Little Planet anyway?"Amy looked towards the tarot cards on the table. "Them." She said. Sonic looked surprised."Really?" He asked, as if not convinced.Amy nodded. Though her power had grown by itself over the years, she hardly understood the reason why. She picked them up and started shuffling them. "These are my grandmothers. She gave them to me when I was little and told me that I would need them more than she did..."That was the same excuse that Muriel apparently told Tails, circulating the book that she had written about her Garden. He wondered if he could ask her about it. "Does she do that often?" He asked."Sometimes." She answered. "She says its for the greater good. I say it's for charity. Which is one of the reasons I love her so much...it could be both."Sonic nodded. "I see she works in a book store. I don't suppose she gives them away for free too."Amy laughed. "No, of course not. She actually gets a lot of books through donations and does exchanges as well.""I see." Said Sonic. "Has she written any of her own? I mean...she looks the type."Amy tapped her lips with her index finger. "Uhhh...well, I remember she used to have a weird book that she kept with her."This what he was looking for. Anything that sounded weird had to fit the topic at hand."What was so weird about it?" He wondered. "When I was younger, she would have the book in the back, stored away on a high shelf. I would come over to the book store and take a peak at what she was reading. But when she realized I was standing there, she would hastily put the book back and persistently ask me what I wanted."This was beginning to sound suspicious. He had to know more. "Go on..."Amy placed her cup down on the coaster and gave various gestures as she spoke."Anyway, one day, she'd gone out and left me inside the store and locked it from the outside. So I got a chair and went to go grab the book. I got down and went to the desk and opened it up.""Then what happened?" Asked Sonic, more curious. Amy put her hands on her cheeks."The pages were completely blank. I'd flipped through them all and not a single page had any piece of writing on it."Interesting progress, Sonic thought. This just had to be Tail's Book...just had to be. Out of all the cooky stuff he'd witnessed, this was comparably tame, albeit still solving attractive. If Muriel's Book had a spell, enchantment on it o whatever some supernatural thing attached, it might have been the reason why he had been split up from Tails and Knuckles. He kicked himself for not going to go search for them. He unconsciously frowned, which brought on Amy's attention. "Something bothering you Sonic?" She said, putting her hand on his arm to comfort him. There were many things bothering the Blue Blur...far too many. She seemed to have no clue as to her relation to this mystery. He'd hoped that there was a small chance that she would have nothing to do with it. It was mainly her grandmother, so Amy might accidentally be involved just by being in relation to her. He felt guilty for thinking she was connected, when the truth was she wasn't. She was just being a kind granddaughter. Sonic thought he would be relieved with that revelation...however that nagging had returned, trying to pull the bed sheets off his mind.Rather than tell her straight up, he'd rather deal with other issues. He could express his current feelings to her just to make sure, or some other crud. Anything else was okay, as long as he could make up a topic. He took another scull from his tea and placed it on the coaster."All this talk about the strange and mysterious is putting me in the mood for some myself."Amy scratched her head. "Uhh...okay. What do you have in mind?" She asked, a little freaked."Well, for starters, would you mind reading my future? Never seen it done before." He said. Amy blinked. "Um...I suppose. There's no harm in that."Sonic decided to kick off his shoes as Amy shuffled the cards and sat on the other side of the coffee table. She put the ornament on the floor. Sonic sat on the other side with his legs crossed."Shouldn't we have candles or a crystal ball or whatever?" He joked. Amy's eyes narrowed."I don't use either. But if you're in the mood I can get candles." She suggested, still shuffling the cards."Nah I was kiddin'. That's stuff's for sleepovers." He said.Amy laughed. "I did it once with Cream and her mother when I slept over there the other week.""Yeah what happened?" Sonic asked. Amy couldn't help but grin. "Oh the things that her mother got were quite surprising."Sonic cocked an eyebrow, seemingly amused. "Am I allowed to know what it was?" He said, smirking."I'd prefer to keep it confidential. Let's just get started with yours first." She replied.Sonic nodded. "Righteo then." He replied. Amy placed the cards to her right. She sat on her knees on top a cushion, and looked at Sonic. "Ready?" She asked. "Always." Answered Sonic. He watched as she picked up the first card from the deck and placed it on the table, facing Sonic. It was a picture of a noble man carrying a sword and holding a set of scales."Justice." She read out. She closed her eyes and placed her hands in her lap. "There's a desire to do right, if and on your interpretations. Its the way you see it...but in the end you might have some difficult choices to make."Simply amazing, its as if it was painting a portrait of his situation, if not, his life On the topic of choices, it became notable that he was being forced to make them. He had a variety of options to choose from and normally he'd pick the one that would be the most moral or if they were all relatively moral, choose the one that would take the least amount of time to depict and enact.Amy reopened her eyes to seek Sonic's once more. "Ready to keep going?"Sonic responded with a subtle nod. Amy reached over to the deck and picked up another card, placing it on the table. The picture displayed a naked angel with a white drape around it, standing on top of the Earth. This time it was facing Amy. Sonic went to go see what it said and tried to switch the card around, before Amy slapped his hand. "It's supposed to be like that." She argued.Sonic rubbed his hand. "Why? Is there any reason why it's upside down?" He queried.Amy again closed her eyes. "The World. Normally, it would mean you would have a sense of accomplishment and a succeeded spirit, but considering it's reversed, it means the opposite.""Come again?" Sonic prodded.Amy took a deep breath before proceeding. "It appears you are quite frustrated, afraid that something might change for the worse. Incomplete and inundated with problems."Sonic blinked. Such big words for a little hedgehog. He wondered if this was another of those stupid, cryptic messages from the great beyond. But he felt real. This was getting far too accurate for his own comfort. How could these cards describe so much? Indeed he was frustrated...frustrated over every nook and cranny, frustrated with life, frustrated with that had been pushing him into pits of darkened worry and culmination of enlightened importance. Were these done before? He had been in this before? He wondered if he could possibly avoid it, although it would tarnish his reputation. What would he prove by running away from stuff he couldn't understand. He blamed Abbadonia and her part. Inside he just knew she played a massive part. Her ploy was no doubt of destructive passions and explosive deeds. The need to find out what she truly wanted became another task of his to do. This became more than an ordinary hero's mission...it was a mission to discover who he was and what he more he could do other than to rush and smash things, hoping to destroy them all the way."One more, then I'll think I'll hit the sack..." Said Sonic, yawning. "Okay." Amy responded, having giving looks of genuine concern. She reached over to the cards again and picked one up. Having placed it next to other two, this one had a naked human male on side and a naked female on the other, an angel in between. As it had faced him, Sonic read out the text on it "The Lovers." he muttered. He hoped this didn't mean what he thought it meant. Amy closed her eyes once more."Yes. Doesn't necessarily have to do with love." She mentioned, sounding a bit disappointed. "But it does surround the possibilities in relation to the Justice Card, namely with a issue of choice. It also stands out the premise of using your intuition and not intellect. A need for renewed guidance."Again, she was right. Or they were right. He'd always use his instincts to guide him throughout his various journeys and adventures. Whether it was battling Dr. Eggman or some random race with some random guy who believed that they could be faster than him. What ever it was, it was the Wind that guided him throughout. The visualization of surrendering to logic wasn't as difficult as it seemed. However on the count of his own present logistics, it wasn't too hard to swallow."So all-in-all, can you...justify or...sum them up all together?" Sonic stumbled. He watched as Amy brought the cards closer to herself, bringing them up to her face and scanning them with her eyes, drifting left to right and right to left, squinting. Finally she placed them back down on the table."You feel obliged to be the hero is how I'm reading it. The tendency to be strong and brave and swift in the eyes of others. You've questioning yourself as fate would have it. And it's exhausting. Making the right choice isn't the problem, but with the world on your shoulders it's whether the choice is morally correct, burying conscience and uprooting forced standings that aren't mutual. What ever you choose is cannot be based of your own...but it can only be made because it was supposed to be that way. Which makes me wonder...are you feeling okay Sonic?"Sonic didn't know how to answer that question. Ever since that dream he'd shoved off the prospect of supposed weirdness and acted himself, surprisingly building the facade of himself. There was a Sonic in there, but someone else had taken control and shoved him in the dungeons of his conscious mind, forcing it to appear as a front. Amy tried to make eye contact but at no avail. "Is there something you want to speak to me about?""Are the cards...always right?" He prodded, which took Amy by surprise."My grandmother tutored me, at the expense and disapproval of my dad, but she always told me the cards are never wrong. I try to stick by them." She answered calmly. That didn't help Sonic one bit. He'd hate to be so stubborn to take the truth in all this but for something so petty and minor she was right. She'd eventually find out what really happened, and mentally debated whether she'd hate him for it."You seem very well mannered tonight Amy. Actually kind of...insightful if I'm not mistaken." Sonic commented. Although he didn't know whether that was a kind of accidental flirting or a middle-ground compliment. He wanted to believe the latter.Amy glared at Sonic. "And what do you mean by that Mister?" She scorned. Sonic gulped. Oops."N-nothing...just..." Sonic stuttered, trying to save himself from the wrathful swomp of her hammer. "I've never heard you speak like that. You must take this tarot stuff very seriously then."Amy frowned and sighed. "Indeed we do...although it never gets me what I truly want though." Oh God...here it comes. Sonic knew what she meant by that. He had to reassure her. "Well, no one does. In fact, we always want what we can't have. There's also the factor that we don't know we've got until it's gone."Amy shirked slightly as she looked away. "I know, I know...we have to try and make the best of what we already have."Sonic smiled. "That's the spirit. I don't have much at all, physically speaking...so I make good use of what's here and now."Amy chuckled. "You know...it's strange...""What's that?" Asked Sonic. "Us talking. We've never actually done this properly. And already we know a lot more about each other than we have in...how ever long we've known one another."Sonic. "True..." He said. What she had spoke of was incredibly useful, even more than he'd realized. Maybe if he'd done this a long time ago maybe he'd never had to resort to running away from her so often. If he had once agreed to go on a date with her and actually listened to her, then there would have been a new insight of her in her mansion. Which had finally opened it's doors, but he would only be allowed in so few of her rooms. He became worried about himself however, and the ever-looming factor that became a minuscule knot in his stomach that he could not define, and shrugged it off as what ever he had at the Village in Sakura. But...he didn't have time...Amy stood up and stretched her arms. "Well I'm going to bed now, You're more than welcome to stay the night." She said, yawning. Sonic was becoming sleepy too. He looked at the time on wall. It was getting closer to 12 o'clock. Amy had a look as well. "Oh my, it's passed my bed time. I've got to do some work tomorrow.""Amy Rose works?" Sonic repeated. Well, maybe he didn't know all about her, but it was a start. Amy paused for the moment, before facing back to Sonic. "Just...office work really. I work in a company down town. Nothing much really, but it's good pay." She mentioned.Sonic nodded. "Huh...oh okay..."Amy put the cushions back on the chairs and tidied up the living area. "I'll get the spare pillows and blankets from the hallway cupboard. You can sleep in the lounge room. If you can't sleep feel free to watch TV or watch a movie."Sonic nodded. He walked into the lounge room and stood in there, tapping his foot and waited for her. She came in with a white doona and several pillows and put them on the couch. "Well, that should do." Amy said. Sonic nodded. "Thanks." He responded. The two stood there looking at each other very briefly."..Good night Sonic." "Good night...Amy..."–Sonic lay there stretched out on the couch with one hand dangling and the other resting on chest. Indeed he knew he couldn't sleep. Too much going in his head. Now Amy knew something was wrong but reacted in a matter he didn't see coming. She'd been incredibly calm and sincere. Out of character for her, who was usually clingy, obsessive and just too darn persistent. It might be all because he'd save her and it suddenly became a cheesy rescue romance. It wasn't just him after all. Upon this thought he'd know he had to keep a close on her...but like before, it could be nothing. She could be doing the exact same task...lying awake in bed with thoughts embezzling. She said those words and she interpreted those cards as such.No...why would he be thinking that. He should be more concerned with Tails and Knuckles. Mentally he wanted to get moving...only for his body to fail doing so, just laying there with apathetic cares. His thoughts bounced from topic to topic...eventually floating in the middle of jumbled pieces of memories. He wanted the mental noise to disappear completely. Then it became quiet...too quiet that all her heard the slight ringing in his ears. His eyes must have shot themselves as what little light he saw faded away in the blackness. Finally he'd fallen asleep. It could be good for him, to let his dreams assess his mental structure and be free with what he had.Light warped into his view, finding himself in that very same grassy field he was in the other day.He quickly got up and stretched...then realized it was a dream, thus he wouldn't need too...but this dream wasn't entirely lucid by normal standards. He jumped a few times, before blasting off in a random direction. This was good, nice. The sun shone down on him with its beautiful warmth. He enjoyed running up, down, eventually the area had melded into good ol' Green Hill Zone, complete with classic badniks that were easily as smashed, ran through loops and collected rings like an old pastime. Everything had shirked away and the dream became it's runaway zone. Nothing to fear, nothing to hide. He could run forever if he wanted to."Sonic?"Sonic opened his eyes to see Amy leaning over him. "Oh it's you." He mumbled. He sat up as Amy sat down next to him, her eyes never leaving his face. Her own was still and emotionless. Her stare was beginning to freak him out, causing him to sweat a bit."Is...anything the matter?" He asked. She didn't reply, instead raising her hand to stroke his cheek with her index finger, then caressed it with her palm."Uhh...Amy, I...I don't know what you're doing but it's kinda weirding me out..." He responded. She kept the same dull expression throughout. Sonic couldn't shuffle backwards, as he was already on the side of the couch. He tried moving his head back, curving up to the corner. But she kept getting closer, much to his discomfort. She grabbed hold of his head prevent him from squirming, and shoved her lips onto his. His eyes went wide as his arms and legs flailed about. His yells and screams were dummied out. He felt her tongue swarming over his. What the hell was wrong with her? His stomach metaphorically burst out in flames. She held his arms down, preventing him from running away. He could feel drips of sweat coming down from his forehead.Finally he gathered enough strength to shove her off of him, Amy falling back to other side of the couch. Sonic panted with puzzlement, his expectation of her to display sadness, disappointment, offended or all of the above...was disproved as she sat there motionless. He had to recompose himself as Sonic went to open his mouth, then witnessed her head drooping. She looked...ashamed, embarrassed complete with tinges of red on her cheeks. No words were spoken as silence filled the rest of the space that the elephant hadn't. Sonic's heart started to hurt as his stomach churned. He held on to his heart as looked down at his chest, then turned back to Amy. Both of them were a mess, entangled in misbegotten and unkempt feelings. He no longer could think for himself, sitting there with a girl he knew could be psychotic. There was a distinct lack of conscious thoughts, and instead a strange passionate desire in it's place, throwing all common sense out the window. The room was spinning, with Amy and him becoming the only still beings in the room. He clasped and opened his fist repetitively. He then scrunched it, gritting his teeth. Amy sat there on the other side of the couch, with her legs folded by her sides, supposedly waiting for Sonic to do something.Upon instance impulse, he flung himself as at her, pushing his lips down onto hers. He couldn't understand what it was, but it became obvious that he liked it. The lack of any thought was quickly filled with blasting emotions that he thrived on, making him kiss her all the harder, with her running her fingers through his quills. It felt good...it felt great. But he couldn't understand any of it, nor did he care. It was just happening and it was wild...free...his stomach was at subatomic levels but he failed to notice. He kissed her neck, receiving a pleasured moan as a result. His arm slowly went down her arm, touching her gentleness. Suddenly a flash of violet light appeared above Amy's head, Sonic's own forced up, almost blinded by it, put his other arm over his eyes to see what the heck it was. It throw itself at him, his whole vision turning white...–Sonic opened his eyes. He was again staring at the roof, held in darkness. His hands still rested in his chest. That...was a dream. What the hell was he doing? He wiped the sweat off his forehead, still in shock from it. His inner voice soon chastised him for doing the unspeakable. How could you Sonic? How could you take advantage of it? It sickened him. He shook his head. He had to get up and get a drink from the kitchen. He searched the cupboards for glasses, before finding one and filled with water from the tap. He sculled it down and wiped his face. The only comfort that he took from his dream was that it wasn't real. He checked to time on the wall. It was almost five am. He was still mentally exhausted and was annoyed his dreams didn't help at all. He hoped next time was just mindless and didn't take a life of their own. Constantly cursing himself, Sonic headed back to the couch. He could leave at any moment, but he unconsciously refused to. The comfort of being in a warm and cosy home was humbling, but not to him. He'd normally sit and stare at the stars until he fell asleep. There was no true home for Sonic the Hedgehog. He kept to the mantra of 'Where ever he laid his head, was home.' But for tonight...or today...he just needed that stability of a furbished place, where four walls and a roof gave a sense of wise safety. Not that there was anything wrong with sleeping in doors every so often. It was winter, he could normally handle the cold, but some nights he'd stay with Tails if it got a bit too chilly, but other than that, there was nothing better than winding down to nap in the great outdoors.He tried to shove everything away and just let sleep take over, praying that he wouldn't have another wandering strike of spontaneous make-out sessions with Amy. He thought back to his usual dreams of her, only when they occurred. They say that most of the time you can hardly remember them, but some absolutely stand out, possibly becoming false rooms in any of his friends houses.Like the dream where he was out on a date with Amy, and suddenly her head got so big it exploded. Whether or not it had some meaning to it didn't matter, at least it temporarily shut her up through out it. He cultivated these 'Date Dreams' as proverbial nightmares. He closed his eyes, but sudden beeps disallowed him to fall back in. He groaned, then realized it was most likely Amy's alarm. He feigned sleep, hearing in as Amy hopped into the shower. She was doing what any general every-date go-getter would be doing...getting ready for work. In fact he was more surprised that she would be waking up at this time of morning.Time passed as she headed into the kitchen and made herself toast, the smell of it making Sonic's stomach rumble, in which he deeply wished Amy couldn't hear it. But then the scent of jam made it worse. She sat down at the table and nibbled everything down. Sonic then heard a ring tone go off. He pondered who would be calling her this time of morning."Amy Rose speaking..." She whispered. "Oh...its you... I have a guest sleeping over at the moment...that's why I have to whisper...really?...I'll be right over Shadow...thanks."Did she say Shadow? He heard shuffling about then stop for a while. More shuffles came afterward before she headed out the door in a huff. Sonic opened one of his eyes to make sure she was gone. He sat up from the couch and ruffled through his fur, then grabbed his shoes and strapped them on."Good morning..."Sonic jumped backwards. "Shizaru...don't do that..." He chortled. She stood there with that same damn look on her face."You had the chance to break it off. And yet, like the others, failed to do so. Do you want change?" She questioned.Sonic stood up proud. "I've decided not to listen to your damn nonsense. You speak of justice and wisdom then you force to me to commit a crime that I wouldn't do in a thousand years!" He roared at her."You do, and there will be consequences to your actions. You praise instinct when you should be praising logic more. Your instinct to use your speed for every problem will not work forever." She warned.Sonic huffed. "Well until it decides to stop working, I will run for everything I stand for. It show's I care for life when I come to help those in need."Shizaru lowered her head. "You will come to regret this."Sonic decided to blast outside. Today he was going to find Tails and Knuckles.It was now getting onto six am, and Sonic was still running around, trying to charge his way back to Holoska, back to where the others were. He felt guilty for leaving them there, possibly dead or captured, which made him even more determined to find them. What would Shizaru know...All he had was his speed and a set of skills needed to survive. It was the Sonic package. Blistering through many a zone, many a city. He'd eventually got to Holoska several hours later, with the help of hitchhiking boats to get across the ocean, then he'd run off again, saying thanks. Fleeing up north, he saw the mountains that surrounded the Garden. But something was strange. He speed around them, noticing, that somehow, there had been a massive Oil refinery built behind them. A lot of the snow had melted, revealing solid earth, creating pools and lakes because of greenhouse gases.Sonic could see tonnes of Eggman robots all over the place, holding tools and iron bars, some welding and some hammering away. Sonic was going to have none of it."Interesting...let's see if I can get to the bottom of this..." He smirked. With a spring and dash in his step, Sonic began obliterating his way to center of the problem. He bounced here and there and within his destructive winds blew up devices here and there, until he met up with a dilemma.Skidding to a halt, Sonic noticed a massive gap between where he was and the other cliff side. Looking around where he was, the environment was like a nuclear winter. Snow fell, covering the area in white. He didn't realize he was so high up that greenhouses didn't matter. Everything was white, and the only other colour he saw was tiny red jewel like lights that brightened and dimmed every few seconds. He shrugged off the cold, and looked over the edge. All he could see was the oil staining the water below. Sonic took a few steps back to get the charged momentum he needed, as he dashed, hoped and soared over the canyon-like gap. His arms and legs flailed in rhythmic motion as his heart raced, the only fear was falling, in which he let the adrenaline flow.Time seemed to slow down as he jumped over. What felt like minutes was only a couple of seconds. At last he was coming to the end...and successfully landing on his feet. He took a bow, but remembered no one was around to see it. Not that he cared, he was now free to proceed.Up head was a large dome, which had to be where Eggman was. Smashing more robots, headed up elevators, dodging lasers. Stuff he'd done a million times before and it never got old. It made his worries float away, knowing he'd get to the bottom time in no time at all. As he got closer to the dome, he could get a better description. The top half looked like it was either rusting or beginner to wear out. Didn't matter, it was going to go on Sonic's terms. Whether Eggman liked it or not. It was Robotnik Red for tear, surrounded by gigantic bolts and poles. The entrance was a big iron door, which Sonic had to figure out how to get through. He fled through tunnels and more loops, blasting badniks and making mince meat out of any diabolical devices that threatened to taint the terrain. At last he had gotten to to big iron doors.Sonic laughed."Come on Eggman, that was too easy!" He taunted. Coming up to the door, he heard a thump and felt the ground vibrate. Sonic turned around to being forced to look up at a giant monster. It was black with purple spikes, humanoid shaped with limbs more rounded and jolly. Typical Eggman Ego head. Big deep eyes constantly switched and swerved one another, mustache as superficial as Eggman's successes as it's round arms held not only spikes, but each had a laser on top. Sonic took a quick stance and watched it churn. It first released a barrage of spikes, one by one launching off it's arms and rocketing themselves off to Sonic. He made quick work by jumping and hopping onto each other, forcing them down by helping gravity work. After the last spike, Sonic managed to get onto it's head. The robot, angered, decided to foolishly whack it's own head, almost knocking itself out after Sonic got off and taunted it."Oohh big scary robot...more like big stupid robot..." He smirked. Steam came out of the robots holes as he stomped about with rage. It raised both arms as the lasers tried to aim at him. Sonic barely dodged them both as it fired purple bolts. It seared the rails and the floor, giving Sonic an idea.The floor was just metal railings, with nothing underneath. Sonic ran underneath the robot, giving raspberries to it."Hey Mr. Robot! I'm down here!" He snickered, poking his tongue out, then patting his butt. Enraged, the robot aimed below him, just as Sonic hoped he could. Sonic slow walked around it's legs as the robots torso spun about, blasting the laser into a full circle. Sonic hopped out of the way and waved at the robot, who was confused and scratched it's head."Cya!" Sonic announced, waving. The Robot looked down, and waved its arms about as it fell down to the depths below. Sonic chuckled, amused at as his own success. He dusted his hands off then walked over to the Iron Gate, which opened itself. He wandered into the dome and glanced at it.Wind howled as it bounced off the red-stained innings. It didn't have decent heating as he'd hoped. Instead there was a object floating about a dais, not to different from the one that he'd seen in the Gauntlet. It was box shaped and an orange glow seeping out of runes. Sonic related it to the Sphere of Abyss. He checked his surroundings then headed over to it. It floated there as whispers echoed throughout. Sonic was tempted to touch it, open it, but he knew better."Hang on there!"Sonic looked over his left. "Agent Bazooka?"Bazooka somehow glided her way to Sonic after she jumped off an upper walkway. She was still wearing the slim tight mixture of leather and latex-like material that shaped her very tall body nicely, and had her signature weapon strapped to her back."Please, call me Bazza." She said in sweet but stern tone."What are you doing here?" He asked her."On a mission. Collecting Artifacts." She replied."Still?" Sonic exaggerated. "Eggman had this base spring up over night. This wasn't what he was looking for specifically, but it did well for Abbadonia." She continued.Abbadonia. That name...the image...filled him with untold hatred. "Eggman's teamed up with her...and they're looking for these sorts of doodads? That sounds about right..." He mentioned."Yes. This one is called, the Box of Temptation."No wonder he had the need to touch it. With a name like that all kinds of weird stuff would occur."Do you know what it does?" Asked Sonic.Bazooka nodded. "Our sources confirm that it can grant wishes, however in order to grant a single wish, you must sacrifice a soul in order to do so."Sonic blinked. "Woah...heavy stuff. But Eggman isn't murderous. There's a difference between wanting to get rid of someone and actually kill them. Nowadays I reckon he just makes robots and difficult obstacles deliberately to slow me down. Not that I mind, it's a little game of ours that we've been doing for years.""We understand that. It's the fact that it being Eggman's possession is very disturbing." She replied.They both had a glance at the Box. "We have to take it back to headquarters and seal it in so deep that not even the best machines can reach it."Sonic chuckled. "If that's what you expect."Bazza snuffed and turned around. "Eggman has gotten weaker over time anyway. Not as strong as he used to be."Sonic rubbed his nose. "He's always been weak, but he's had his fair share of wins and near-misses. Although in the end...I'm always here to save the day!"Bazza sweat-dropped. "I'm talking about his weaponry! It's weak! For instance, that robot outside...he had one...it was easy to destroy!"Sonic laughed. "Yeah I got rid of one easily too. Must have been two or something."Bazza stomped her foot. "That was a Blue-X23 Compound Laser he attached to both it's arms. That model is outdated. Eggman's obviously out for quantity over quality. If he wanted something more effective, he should have gotten the Red-X34. Larger ranged, wider lens. Heaps of destructive power. Although I'd be more concerned about what energy cores he uses and whether his robots have efficient recoil hydrolics."Sonic gave a surprised look. "What did you say?"Bazooka shook her head. "Uh...never mind...I'm just going off in a tangent. Anyway, I'll need to grab the box." She said as she went over to it and snatched it...INTRUDER ALERT, INTRUDER ALERT, INITIATING INTRUDER DESPONDENT PROTOCOL!Sonic looked around as red lights flashed everywhere. The floor below them shifted suddenly, Sonic and Bazza took one look at each with fear, as the floor gave way, causing the two to descend rapidly. Bazza accidentally let go of the Box. "No!" She screamed. Sonic tried to use his quills to make the descent a little slower, but looked up to see blue and white jet-shaped robots decided to shoot at him at the last moment."Ah I see your little game here!" Bazza cried. "Crimson-S2.0s. Compact, light for mobility. Good for multiples and those with low energy but fast recharges."Sonic couldn't believe this woman. She was worse than Tails. They were both falling and she would rather pay more attention to some stinking lasers then they were either going to get killed from being shot or the inevitable splatter. Sonic looked downwards as more of the jetbots came out of holes. He took his chance and landed on one, getting a boost out of it and making a chain of jumps, obliterating the jetbots with force.'"Sonic land on my back!" Cried Bazza. Sonic didn't have a choice. Sonic bounced off a few more, before finally getting on her back. "Grab them Bazza!" He called out."Don't worry! It's the 1337-A4N174 or the "Primal Pocket Portable Parader", the rockets shrink and expand. The ammo should be in my little bag." She explained. He couldn't understand the majority of what she said, but all Sonic knew, was that he could see a smaller than usual bazooka on her back in a silver shine. He unstrapped from her back and rested it on his shoulder, then looked for the ammo. He quickly rummaged through the bag as Bazza herself extended her arms and legs and somehow raised her pony-tails and expanded them immensely, flapping slightly. Sonic had not time to ask or think how she did it, instead he grabbed a single ''rocket'' which had to be the size of a peanut. It confused Sonic, but again, he had no time. He shoved the rocket into the slot and slammed it in. Suddenly the bazooka expanded. "Alright, starting shooting, I'll try and and slow our descent and dodge." She said. Sonic knelt down started aiming. On cue, a group of jetbots clustered together. "They're the multiples conjoinment. Quickly, get rid of them!" Bazza yelled. Sonic pulled the trigger, releasing a rocket and making a fireworks display out of the jetbot cluster."Good job Sonic!" Bazza cried out, giving a thumbs up. "There's some more up ahead."Sonic reloaded and aimed, but for some reason they were descending quicker than before.The network of Jetbots clustered together again to make another charged shot. Sonic aimed once more, and fired away. Debris flew everywhere, forcing Bazza to dodge and Sonic to keep balance. Noticing they were going even faster now, Sonic realized it was because of the recoil.After several minutes or so of falling, they came into an open clearing, which was a massive cave embroiled with little landmass and lava. Bazza saw the box in her sights. "Hang on!" She said. She withdrew her arms to her sides, closed her legs and tilted diagonally, Sonic grabbed onto the back of her suit. "Now Sonic!"They were near the end as Sonic strapped the bazooka back onto Bazza's back and jumped off to use his quills in an attempt at a slower decline. He finally reached the bottom safely, and watched as Bazza grabbed the box, then raised her 'pony-tails' and flapped them about rapidly. She gently fell down to the ground. Sonic nodded, visibly impressed. "Wow, that was pretty awesome!" He said, giving her a high five. "Heh of course." She said, responding.Bazza held the box under one arm as she and Sonic looked around the cave. Sonic gazed upwards, then scanned the area. It reminded him of when and Chip once versed Dark Gaia. "Wow...this gives me memories..." He muttered to himself. Bazza knelt down on knee and pressed a button on the side of her helmet. "Agent Mjöllnir Object confirmation." She coded. "Good work Agent Bazooka. Where are you now?" Asked Olly."Down in the Earths depths. I need an immediate evac.""Copy that, Me and Agent Drainer are honing in on your signal as we speak."Bazza stood back up. "Well, at least that's over." She said with relief. "Still, something doesn't feel right."Sonic nodded. "You're right, this area...it's entirety. Do you think this was planned by Eggman?""Chances are high." She replied. "Just keep an eye out."Sonic did so, and kept his awareness transfixed on any sudden movements in the walls or in the lava. Their heads immediately moved towards in front of the mass of land they were standing on, within the lava something stirred and bubbled. A metallic serpentine monster burst out of it and roared at the two. It was long and baubled, had to stand at least five to eight meters tall, with green on one side and silver on the other. The face was round with large chompers constantly clattering, with Eggman obviously sitting in the cockpit"Think you can get away with stealing that box Sonic? Prepare for the Egg Venom!" He hammed. Sonic and Bazza exchanged looks. "I'm ready when you are." Announced Bazza. "Always." Replied Sonic with a thumbs up. Bazza knelt down on one knee and grabbed her bazooka."Hang on, just need to adjust it..." She said, tinkering with it. CLINK! It expanded dramatically, causing Sonic to stand back in surprise. "Woah...""Get in." She strained as she placed the weapon on her shoulder. Sonic nodded as he rolled into a ball and hopped into the back of the bazooka. The Egg Venom started firing spits of acidic compound at Bazza, who was forced to get up and move with the heavy load. In a pinch, she managed to set back down temporarily and hastily aim at the head. SHUMPF!Sonic in his spin ball fired out of the barrel towards the head. Using his homing attack, he used his savvy attack to beat the machine into submission, bouncing off it several times before destroying a red orb on top. Hearing what appeared to be breaking glass, he hopped off and ran back towards Bazza. The Egg Venom shook it's head and retreated back into the lava."I saw the orbs. We have to destroy the other two." Said Bazza. She used the time they had to strap the box to her belt. She then went through her bag and pulled out two golden rings. "Here absorb one. I think we may need them down here." She suggested. Sonic complied as he took one. He clasped it down, the ring fading away into his body, causing a slight glow. "Feel much better. Cheers Bazza!" He thanked with a thumbs up.The Egg Venom burst out of the lava behind them and gave a loud roar. Bazza absorbed her ring as they switched around, Sonic heading back into the barrel of the bazooka. The Egg Venom again spat out the acidic compound, forcing Bazza to start moving around to avoid them. Two more bursts appeared as more Egg Venoms rose up from the lava. "Where they hell did they come from?" She muttered in strain. She aimed for one of them and fired away. SHUMF!Sonic shot out of the bazooka and aimed to the left most one. He homed in on all three of the orbs and destroyed them all in sequence, causing the machination to break down. As Sonic was finished with that he jumped back to the solid surface and kept an eye on the swarm of Venoms as one sunk down, settling down in the lava. Spats of acid forced Sonic to weave and dodge backwards as they got closer. He went back to Bazza and jumped back into the gun. She aimed at the closest one and fired...SHUMF!Sonic homed in on another, bashing into the orbs several times, eliminating it like before. Given some air, Sonic straightened his body out, and honed in on Eggman's cockpit. He went into a spindash, and blasted the glass. Without word, Bazza decided to withdraw her Bazooka and went for a smaller gun. The only words spoken were techno-babble that Sonic ignored, as he got back on his own two feet. Bazza strapped the bazooka onto her back and started firing away using her smaller gun. In laser bursts, Bazza shot at each of the Egg Venom's orbs, causing screeches and making them sink. Firing a few more, she looked behind her as a spat of acid narrowly missed her. She took better care as she somersaulted forward, missing another one. Turning to her side, she stepped back, then bolted towards one of the the Venoms and flipped, three shots destroying more orbs. She used her "ponytails" and flapped to prevent herself falling in, then looked around as she was surrounded by four Egg Venoms. "You have to teach me how to mass-produce. I seriously could make a fortune on duplications..." She said, not even worried.Sonic was too busy on his end to notice Bazza, instead more focused on the fact that Eggman's own machine had decided to shape shift, the snake turning into a lizard and leaping onto the solid surface."You think you might beat me this time little warthog! But you won't!" Eggman gloated. Sonic snorted. "Yeah, yeah what ever you say Eggman..."The Venom rose its front claw and tried to swipe Sonic, only for said hedgehog roll backwards and give him the tongue. Eggman was intent of pulling it out of his mouth, as the Venom's mouth opened and extended it's own long, blue and slithery tongue and wrapped itself around Sonic."Ahaha! Got you now!" Eggman roared. Sonic struggled to get himself out of the bind. The Venom cracked and crinkled, steaming shooting out of its joints. It squatted down, as Sonic watched the limbs turn hot red and the serpentine parts rumble and shake. "Uh oh...this can't be good." Sonic commented. In an instant, the Venom catapulted upwards, the limbs quickly swerving a good one eighty degrees and clung onto the roof of the cave. Sonic witnessed the demonic smirk that Eggman seemed to possess as he stroked his 'stache. He pressed a few buttons, as the tongue rolled back and forth. Sonic closed his eyes and fumbled around to get free. He reopened them as as explosion sounded out below him. Bazza had eliminated the the lesser Venoms. Sonic grinned."How's it hangin'?" Bazza joked. That grin turned into a nervous one. "Hang on, I'm comin'!"Eggman started whacking Sonic about, causing a little dizziness on his side. Bazza took a foothold on the surface and whacked out her Bazooka once more. She put in her specialized ammo and aimed at the legs. SHUMF!The Egg Venom creaked and shackled, the rounded out parts of it swirled and shivered. Bazza fired again on the other side, destroying a middle limb, which was a little too close for Sonic's comfort. Noticing this, Bazza shook her head at a sudden realization. "Woops...guess I was having too much fun there? Heh..." She muttered...she pulled out her smaller gun, and shot at the straightened layer of tongue, splitting it two and freeing Sonic. Sonic free-falled to the ground, and went over to Bazza."Sorry Sonic, I get a little carried away." Bazza apologized. "Don't sweat it, I do the same sometimes..." Sonic replied in sympathy.The Egg Venom's limbs finally gave way, forcing it to break off from the roof and slam down hard.Eggman slammed on the panel before him. He pressed a few more buttons, raising the Egg Mobile that was held inside the Venom. "Bah...it's not over yet!" He grunted. He pulled out a miniature portable device that had a single button on it. Eggman pressed it, hailing a sinister snarl on his make-up. Suddenly, the cave started shaking violently. Sonic stood back and looked around as rocks fell from above. "He's trying to cave us in!" Bazza cried. "Bazza there's no time for puns here! We gotta split!" Sonic scolded. Bazza strapped on all she didn't have strapped on...except..."The Box!" Bazza shrieked. She fervently scanned for it, noticing it was under one of the rocks that fell. Sonic looked up as Bazza picked up the box. "Bazza watch out!" He yelled. On instinct, Sonic sped towards her, and leapt into the air, turning into a spindash and breaking the rock apart."Woah...thanks Sonic...I guess I was a little rocky wasn't I?" She joked. Sonic rolled his eyes and grabbed her hand. "Come on!" He yelled. They went over to where they had originally fallen through, dodging falling rocks along the way. "Where is that evac?" Wondered Bazza. She had no choice. "Sonic hold this!"She gave Sonic the the box, before picking Sonic up by his waist, then used her 'pony-tails' to fly upwards. She frequently tried to avoid the falling debris. Weaving, falling slightly, barraging, left, right, up and down and in all directions in which the rocks and other pieces of steel and iron intending the stop them or slow them down. Jetbots appeared out of nowhere to try and do the same thing, but ended up being clobbered. Come to the five minute mark of doing such physically demanding labor, Bazza showed signs of fatigue. "Are you alright?" Sonic asked, noticing that they had slowed down somewhat."I haven't done this for very long...I'd never thought I'd do anything like this..." She answered in bated breath."Let me go, I can use to rocks to get back up if I'm too heavy." He suggested. "I don't really want to, but don't get 'boulderized' if you know what I mean..." she joked.Sonic again showed minor disdain, but as Sonic gave back the box to Bazza, she let go of him as he used each of the falling rocks to jump higher and higher up the hole. With a little less weight, Bazza had a bit more strength and endurance to allow her to try and spear herself upwards. Sonic bashed in more Jetbots, spindashed here and there and obliverated rocks to higher heaven. Bazza decided to whip out her gun and started blasting the the Jetbots."Did somebody call for evac?" Shouted a voice. "Agent Mjöllnir!" Cried Bazza with relief.Up higher was Olly and Drainer, Olly busy busting rocks and Jetbots whilst she and Drainer stood on a specialized hoverboards, that Sonic noted that looked like Extreme Gear. They were lengthened like skateboards, with a thin red strip in the middle of thick black outer areas, that were rounded on each side, with a dip in the middle sides. Blue flames emitted from the bottom, gusting out from four geysers. Sonic could see it was wide enough to fit at least a few more people. Sonic jumped on, while Drainer kept an eye on the controls, which purtruded off a pipe. With a few presses, rails shot out of the sides. Bazza finally came up from below and landed on it as well. They held onto the bars while Drainer tail-gated them all out of here, with Bazza giving Sonic the Box back while they blasted the rest of the rocks and jetbots away, Olly using her Smish-Smasher hitting anything that Bazza missed.Eventually they came to surface out back into the dome, Drainer not stopping until they were at a decent clearing. Sonic looked on as the Cold Oil Zone collapsed on itself, exploding and bursting into flames. Sonic wiped his forehead. "Woah...that was close..." He said, smiling. "Fun though." He chuckled. He high fived Bazza who put away her Bazooka."Nice work." Sonic thanked, giving a thumbs up. Bazza nodded."You too!" She replied. Sonic then felt weird, a sensation that he had been feeling before. It originally thought nothing of it at first, but then it became repetitive to the fact that he had to fully recognize. He had been focusing on a rather more potent feeling beforehand, but this one decided it would become stronger with each passing moment. As they flew further and further from Cold Oil, Sonic's vision became brighter and brighter...until it was completely white...Sonic opened his eyes. He found himself staring at a darkened TV, albeit sideways. Confused, he sat up and rubbed his sockets. The TV was still there and a blanket covered his legs. He noticed he was sitting on a familiar couch. This was Amy's apartment."What the?" He muttered. That dream was so vivid, so...real. He looked at the DVD players clock. It was getting on to five am. Huh? Sonic thought to himself. He heard footsteps coming in his general direction. It was only Amy waking up. He laid back down and pretended to sleep, with one eye peeking. Amy walked into the kitchen wearing a red robe with white fluffy trims and a pair of pink slippers. Sonic looked on as she prepared a cup of coffee and yawned. A knock on the door prompted Amy to go check. In Sonic's mind who would be knocking doors at this time of morning. He heard Amy open it, then come back with a rectangular package as well as a newspaper. Amy's eyes drooped as she took the elastic band off the the paper and spread it on the table. She then pulled the string and took off the paper wrapping the package. Sonic's eye's went wide. That box was very familiar."Oh good...it finally came..." She muttered to herself. She picked the box up and examined it. She opened the box and peaked inside."Wait, there's nothing in here!" She said. Scratching her head, she went to stomp her foot, then came to the realization that she was too tired to rampage."That's what you get when you try to do express delivery...dimwits...I'll call them while I'm at work..." She mumbled, succumbing to another yawn. Sonic knew that was no ordinary box.It was the Box of Temptation.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Chapter 5 – Otherwise
He kept a close eye on her, although Sonic was confused as to how the heck the box got to her in the first place. He contemplated about his supposed dream, refusing to believe that it wasn't real. He could feel the Holoska chill down his neck and the perspiration from the heat down near the lava below. He even ached from being whacked around from the tongue of the Egg Venom. And now that the Box has come out of nowhere, Sonic began to wonder...what has he really been doing if he had been dreaming...or hallucinating?Amy shrugged. "Oh well...it was probably empty in the first place..." She said, yawing again. "I'm sure Gran would know what it was."It plagued his mind, pushing the moot point of a subject that Amy was involved. She had such coincidental connections and didn't know a thing. He quickly remembered from last night that she mentioned going to see Muriel today. He could grab her and bring forth several questions but...he was running out of excuses. There had to be some way of preventing her from going over there. But why was he so intent on doing so? She was just an old lady. The chance of Amy not caring that Sonic lied to her was...slim. It occurred to him that the pair were close. It was giving him a headache. His mental capacity told him that she would find out the truth eventually, especially at the thought at being at the end of a tongue-lashing was the least of his problems. The fact that Knuckles and Tails were still missing was still a top priority. He would do so. He needed to head back to the Garden...the Hub.Amy ate corn flakes and read the paper, then as she was done cleaned up the plates and popped into the shower. Sonic now had time to have a look at the box. He got up and tiptoed into the kitchen...until..."I would be careful with that if I were you Sonic..."Sonic deflated. "Yes Shizaru..." He replied apathetically, knowing that droning voice all too well by now. He opened the box and glanced inside. Like Amy mentioned, there was nothing in there. "For something that's supposed to steal souls, it doesn't look very threatening." He complained."It is very dangerous in the hands of those who know how to use it." Shizaru mentioned. Sonic rolled his eyes. "Did you send this?" He asked.Shizaru shook her head. "No. You did."Sonic cocked an eyebrow, not understanding what she just said. "What? How could I? I would remember that." He called out.Shizaru gave that dull yet complex stare at Sonic, almost to the point of an uncanny glare."And yet, dreams tell more stories than your reality ever could." She replied."And what is that supposed to mean?" Sonic cooed. Silence. Typical...typical cryptic ghosts that did nothing other than supply immense amounts of raising questions. Was that to mean that that dream was real? No way. He was already conflicted by the realism of it, that it affected him so much that the pain becomes more than metaphorical. He cursed under his breath, when suddenly the silence became more deafening as he realized Amy must have finally finished in the shower. He went back to the couch and once again feigned sleep. Several moments later Amy came down all clean and neatly dressed. She grabbed the box and put it into a cardboard one, making sure it didn't get scratched badly or even break. He doubted it would, since it was made of a foreign material. Or so he thought. She grabbed a piece of paper and pen and scribbled something down, placing it on the fridge with a magnet. And with that, she headed out with suitcase and box in tow.Sonic got up as soon as she left, and looked at the sheet of paper.
'Dear Sonic. Feel free to use the shower and help yourself to breakfast. Just remember to clean up after yourself and lock the door on the way out. Sincerely, Amy 'heart''
Indeed it was sincere. Her kindness and optimism was one of her best strong points. He was blessed with many friends who had reflected their own kindness. He wasn't biased, connecting to one another as equals. Although Amy had a special effect unlike the rest. She had the ability to pull people together and rally together against a common goal, make friendships with enemies and still kick butt otherwise. He noticed she had continually grown into a decent young woman, although not without her ferocious 'charm'. Still, that minor churn in his stomach swelled about, calling forth ignorance in order to cope with it.He took a note of the use the shower quotation and decided it was best for him to have one. He went to the bathroom down the hallway. It was...nice and rose scented, scorning himself from the bad pun. Taking his gloves off and putting them on the bench, he slinked into the shower and turned the handles. The fresh drizzles of nice hot water pouring through his fur gave relief and comfort, as gushes of water dripped off his spikes. He rubbed his face and closed his eyes, half-expecting to wake up from such simple yet effective pleasures of life. Normally he'd have a soak in a nearby river or stream on his travels, but nothing beat the classical, hot shower. He let the water flowing down his arms and twirl around his legs, cleansing not only his body but his aching spirit.It made him think of the differences between himself and everyone else. Sonic had eternal freedom, the whole world just one large plane for him to trek, edging himself to find something bold, something new and amazing, that it could still be surprising and adventurous for him. He loved it of course, you can't stop a speed demon from route sixty-six. But among him were common folk, working day to day just to make a living, having to buy luxuries or purchase their own stories of adventures beyond the home-holes. Amy made such a life as a commoner, she had her own place and was relatively stable. Tails too, was stable, willing to free-lance himself to tech companies just to get the bills paid. Knuckles...had to be stable himself. Guardian of the Master Emerald was duty-born. Anything that threatened that had to be got rid of. He'd die of his own accord if he thought it was to save that Emerald. Sonic took a big sigh and looked down at his feet and wiggled his toes.The speed that he possessed, the gift of being able to help save the world several times from what ever was just achievements that he marked down, at times when it had gotten so quiet that he'd have to make up his own missions, challenge himself to what ever was there he could take advantage of just for fun. He often wondered if anyone else had what he had, would they do the same?He headed out of the shower and quickly dried himself and put his gloves back on. He walked into the lounge and slapped on his shoes. His stomach grumbled, remembering Amy stated he was allowed to make his own breakfast. Opening the fridge, Sonic stared at what she had. It was alarming at the amount of fat-free, high protein food she had in there. Sonic guessed that she took her diets seriously.He made himself a bowl of cereal and gulped it all in under a minute. In automotive ways, he cleaned up after himself and headed out. Half way down he'd forgotten to lock the door. He went back up and quickly locked it, joking to himself for being a bit careless, and bolted into the outdoors.Again, like the attempt in his so called 'dream', he ran his way back to the Garden of Rosales. This time he wasn't going to get sidetracked. Within a few hours he was back within Holoska on the account of aerial hitchhiking, he ran to the mountain region and noticed that Cold Oil wasn't even around it. In fact, all that was there, was snow and rock. He skidded to a halt when he realized getting back in wasn't going to be easy. The mountains pretty much pierced the heavens at this point. Several times he attempted to run up them, but he was met with slips and minor avalanches.Eventually he came to a cliff and looked up. He had a long ways to go. The cold was starting to get to Sonic who came to the obvious conclusion that he couldn't just stand there. He climbed up the mountain with notable strain, getting higher meant less pressure and more air-headedness. Not that it affected him that much, he was the sort of guy who could take a heap of punishment regarding gravitational issues. The mountain was incredibly steep, becoming almost vertical in slant. He came to another cliff-side and wiped his forehead."Having trouble getting up?"Sonic's head shifted to his left. There stood another familiar woman, short, wearing the black latex/leather/spandex/whatever suit and big, black and even spiked boots that had two horizontal gray streaks. Her helmet was not unlike one of a motorcycle helmet, completely jet with horn like extensions protruding from the end of the top of her skull. She had a brown belt with twin silver blades with purple jewels adorned resting in slots on both sides and wore dark brown gloves."Let me guess...Agent Drainer right?" Sonic asked, noticing a theme between the three."Yes. From what 'Bazza' and 'Olly' told me, you've assigned us all nicknames?" She stated, her voice a simple feminine, not too strong yet not too soft tone that had a bout of unsure confidence.Sonic scratched his head. "Uh...yeah." He muttered. He didn't know whether she was playing jokes with him or not. Or worse...her own teammates making fun of her.Drainer nodded. "Then what would be the nickname for me?" Sonic blinked. She seemed stranger than Bazza. "Well, Drainer seems okay to me. But if you want I can give you one."Drainer lifted her head. "I would be glad. Thank you." She said with such courtesy.Sonic gathered she didn't want to be left out of the fun. Her body language suggested she was rather shy and mellow. Alongside Olly who was brave and strong, although her tendency to save people was a bit overboard...good intentions but a bit over the top, Bazza who was similar but liked to ramble on about different types of weaponry and make jokes when the situation looked thin, Drainer was...odd. Already...Besides, what nickname would go well with Drainer? Drizzle...Sucker...they...sucked. Dazzle? Nope. Leech? Perhaps. Leechy? Lich? Needly?Drastic? Too stupid. Ducky...now that was just getting ridiculous. He remembered Knuckles mentioning something about Hooves...He saw the horns...then chuckled at the thought that Drainer could be a cow. Hoover, hoovy. Piper, Pippy? Things that were related to Drainer reminded him of drainage. He tapped his face with his index finger, contemplating that it was relatively difficult to give such a nickname. "Tell you what, hang out with me for a while and I'll give you a nickname based on your performance."Drainer nodded. "Very well. Let us, how you say, get ready to roll and rock..."Sonic gave a honest look. "You mean, get ready to rock and roll...""That too..." Drainer replied. "I was climbing this mountain to look for a hidden passageway. Normally I would able to teleport inwards, but my device only allows me to travel short distances. As well as this place having an abnormal field of energy that I'm guessing is chaotically based.""That's cool...I guess..." Sonic said, unable to absorb all of it. Drainer turned the mountain and looked up."Some of our instruments are bound to fail because of it. We got in last time because of old technology that I possessed. The helicopter that we usually use is more-of-less, 'grilled'"Sonic wanted to face-palm. "You mean, toasted." He corrected.Drainer didn't budge. "That too." She said.They disconnected speaking and made their way up the mountainside, moving hands and feet and making sure three points of connection were implemented at all times, preventing fatal falls. Sonic followed Drainer upwards to another large cliff area, which had a cave."This should lead us straight to the Garden itself." Drainer mentioned.She seemed to absently stare at the cave for several minutes, Sonic noticing and poked her shoulder. "Is everything okay?" He asked. She shook her head. "It's nothing. We should keep moving."Again not speaking much, they walked into the cave. Not as dark as say, the Gauntlet, as the sun crept through holes up above them, reflecting off a sequence of mirrors, which impressed Sonic. It give a bit of nostalgia for reasons he couldn't fathom.He gathered such a technique would help people get in and out during the day. And since they were now above the clouds the moonlight could help people get in through the night. They must have been strong willed people to get in this way. Or not, considering the usage of the Portals. But still, they were very resourceful people of their time. The passage was timely, as it took them at least an hour to get through the whole cave without any dramas, or it would have, if Sonic didn't decide to ask Drainer to go faster, in which the pair peeled off, moving up and down carved stairs then finally reaching the bottom of the mountains, and the back-ways of Rosales."I gotta back to the Portal Hub and search for my pals. It's a long story that I don't have time to explain." Said Sonic.Drainer nodded. "Very well. I'm looking for the next artifact. They call it, the Shield of Luck. Said to protect it's wearer from anything."It sounded like an awesome thing to have. Using his knowledge of powerful item memes, it had to be repelled by at least one item. Some sort of fail-safe that could counteract it. He'd hoped that Eggman had not yet gotten to it or any of his cronies. He ran alongside Drainer as they came across the Portal Hub in an instant. They went inside and went down into the Portal Room. Sonic pointed towards Portal-One."I went through that before." He stated. "I'd grabbed Tails and Knucklehead and they didn't come through the other side."Drainer nodded. "I see. It's possible that it had a slight malfunction."Sonic scratched his head. "Slight?"Drainer ignored him and checked out the Sphere of Abyss, entranced by it. Her head tilted and bowed down before it, causing confusion from Sonic's direction. "Are you...worshiping it?" He asked."This has great power. Cannot be removed until all artifacts are gathered. In fact, a lot of them don't work properly or to their fullest extent unless they are compacted with one another." She replied.This piqued Sonic's interest. "Wait, I never heard that before."Drainer stood back from the Sphere. "Abbadonia's Relics have their own little quirks about them. But they're only known by four people...besides Abbadonia herself."Sonic rolled his eyes. "Lemme guess, you, Bazza, Amy, and the Chief of the Ninja Clan in Sakura?"Drainer looked down. "Oh...that makes that five then..."Five?The horned agent shook her head. "Never mind that...if your friends were separated by accident, they might have turned up in any of the other places that the portals go to.""Such as?" Sonic asked.Drainer turned to the portal next to Portal-One. "You can try Portal-Two through to Portal-Seven. I've managed to figure out where Five goes."Somewhere Tails and/or Knuckles was, he hoped. "Where, may I ask?"Drainer walked towards Portal-Five. "Goes to a place we call Space Greens Zone. But..."She looked down, Sonic getting the vibes there was something wrong with it. "What ever it is, I'm sure I can handle it!" He said with a smile, a pat on the shoulder and a wink. Drainer tapped her leg frequently. "I've already read on the description on the wall upstairs it's called the Garden of Voi." She stated.That's a new fact, Sonic now knowing she can understand that mumbo-jumbo. She's weird and awkward, but entirely useful by all means. She shuffled her hands then lifted her head at him."You have the Amberite. We must use it as you people say, "To claim on the migration..."Sonic's face went blank as his mouth dropped with utter puzzlement, wondering where in the world she had gotten that saying from. Took him a whole minute to compare it."You mean, 'To get a move on...'" He said."That too." She responded.Sonic brought out the Amberite and hovered it near the Sphere, which rose and cracked opened to scan it like it did before. It had a new number on it, as he went over to the keypad on Portal-Five and input the data. Portal-Five made shifting noises, wifty air again shooting out of the sides and the orange-like water pouring down from above. Sonic withdrew the Amberite and gave a notable look to Drainer, as they passed through the portal...Walking out of the portal, Sonic quickly checked back to make sure Drainer was there. She had, coming out into the open and raising her head up high. Sonic looked up also, gazing at the beautiful night sky. "Woah, that's pretty cool." He said, smiling. He looked at Drainer, who nudged her head to her side. There was a barrage of leafy bushes to the right side of them. Drainer pushed through them as Sonic was on her six an instant. She looked back at him, and indicated with a wave of her hand to come and stand next to her. "Please, just look." She mentioned. Sonic shoved branches out of his way to stand next to her, then suddenly needed to gasp for air in awe of what he saw...The two were standing at the edge of a cliff, looking at the big beautiful world that glowed before them. Sonic could see the whispering clouds that covered the emerald lands, the golden earth and the sapphire oceans, as well as the cerulean glow that was the was the protective atmosphere. It made the stars its audience, and the moon its child in tangent. The well abandoned Ark dwelt it's cherished blessing of peace, caused Sonic to wonder if Shadow or even GUN goes there anymore, although it's a hazard that they had notified it under. Sonic turned around to get a better glimpse of the astounding piece of...what ever he was on...The land was just like the one in his dreams, minus the perfect blue skies. Endless grassy fields, hills, loops as far as the eye could see. He pushed back through the bushes and at the Portal, which was standing on top of rounded dark gray steps, still activated. Abbadonia Roses sprung from the sides, which was to be expected. But...this place was not far from his dreams. He faced Drainer, pining for an explanation."The Garden of Voi back in ancient times was a flourishing place. It's main trade was space material. Such as Stardust, and alien relics."Sonic blinked. "You're saying Alien's visited here?" He said. Although, it wouldn't surprise him...it's not like he's never met them before."Of course. This place was a pinnacle for it. The myth goes the Emeralds came to this planet via Voi." Drainer explained.Sonic didn't know whether to believe that myth, knowing what goes down with those sorts of things fitting that criteria. But if this place was pure business, where were the ruins for it? If Tails and/or Knuckles were here, surely they'd possibly be imprisoned or standing around somewhere. Dear Chaos, he'd prayed it was the later. They ran off together, with Drainer a bit behind. Together they passed trees, rivers, lakes, more bushes, more hills. Sonic could swear he was dreaming. If this was one of those inception like pastures, Sonic would be groaning with disbelief. Sure it was an okay movie, but he had no idea what the Lava Reef was going on. He'd go to Illumina for help, but that would be a bit of a stretch. Any psychologist would be telling him to sort things out. Sonic just needed to run. He was worrying again. He didn't need to, he needed to be focused and in charge of the situation, regardless if nothing was real, there is always something to try and help with. The Gauntlet had to be real...albeit questionable. Blossom Hazard was solid...Cold Oil, not so much. But the box was too much of a coincidence to ignore. Maybe he should see a doctor just in case. When he had time of course. No psychologists, just a normal doctor. He was terrified of needles though, so blood tests were out of the question. Get results, confirm what's wrong, solve it...life goes on and Sonic keeps going strong. Now that he thought about it, when was the last time he had a doctors visit?As they were running, something caught Sonic's eye towards his left. A with a pink-haired girl with a strawed weaved hat with a blue flower. She also wore a long baby blue dress with white cardigan and sandles. In her grasped hands was a picnic basket. Wait, he'd seen that description before. She sat underneath a very tall maple tree, on a neat and red tartan picnic blanket. Sonic forced himself to a halt to make sure he was seeing what he thought he was seeing. Around below the hill was a moat of Abbadonia Roses, leaving entry space to walk up the hill. Sonic signaled to Drainer who complied, but didn't say a word. Sonic went over to the strange girl, who seemed to just stare into the open, legs laid out and basket in her lap. Upon further notice she was a hedgehog who looked just like Amy. Drainer stood behind Sonic, examining at what he was doing."Hello?" He asked, cupping his mouth.The girl didn't respond, but she kept a soft smile on her face eye-lid a third of the way. Sonic waved his arm over her face, as such she did look at him, giving him greasys, then a sorrowful look."Oh I am so sorry..." She pained. Sonic grinned, a mixture of assurance and disappointment drawing in his mind."It's okay, you were dazed as all..." He assumed. She tilted her head and burrowed her brows."Excuse me?" She asked.Sonic blinked and stood back. "I apologize for disturbing your...uhh...picnic..."Sonic noticed her eyes were fixated on his lips for that moment, before looking back into his eyes."My picnic you say?" She mirrored. "I was waiting for my sisters..."Sonic scratched his back. "Oh...okay..."The girl placed the basket down beside her and stood up, dusting off her dress. "You haven't seen them have you?" Sonic shook his head. "Nope. What do they look like?"Again, the girl was focused on his lips as he spoke, Sonic wondering why in the meantime. More questions arose in his mind. This was literally the girl of his dreams, not metaphorically speaking.He became enamored by the colour, then tried to pick who it reminded him of."I'm worried about them. Ever since that red echidna came here, they've been asking him questions about the outside world. Well, one of them does anyway. His Highness tries to get them to do more productive...things..."Sonic chuckled. The one surprise about Knuckles fate was that he was not being mutilated by demons, but by girls. He softened, glad to know he was okay. "Can you take me to that red echidna? I wanna speak to him myself."The girl nodded as she squinted. "Just take him away from here please! Get him out as quick as you can!"The girl picked up her stuff and packed it away. "I'll take you back to the Mansion. Drainer, you too..."Drainer nodded, causing Sonic's head to spin in her direction."How do-" He started, but Drainer failed to respond, instead walking beside them. What the hell was going on? Sonic felt like he was gathering more proof that he was dreaming again. If he'd gotten up once more from Amy's couch for the millionth time, like it was Groundhog Day, he was going to scream with frustration...He subverted his thoughts elsewhere and trailed behind the two. Sonic then put his hands behind his head as he gazed at the stars. He wondered how such a place existed, surely it would be notable in the skies at times. Again, if his theory was correct and he was in a dream, then logic wouldn't have to be applicable for this instance. He was buried underneath piles and piles of unanswerable questions. Drainer was...up to what ever. This girl...Sonic flashed back to that very dream that started it all. Then remembered...Kikazaru. The deaf Wiser. She wore blue. Too many coincidences pointed towards it. She had to be related, just some way, some how. That was also include Amy's involvement. Amy...he felt sorry for her. The signs, the arrows...she's there at that right moment to exist at all. Yet, she was doing absolutely nothing, not baring a clue within her brain that's explaining it all to her. She's just Amy for it. Sonic's thoughts ping-ponged between whether that was a good or bad thing...After a while they stopped in front of a large flat field. The girl reached into her picnic basket and pulled out a remote and pressed a few buttons. The ground did a small rumble as a large white mansion faded into existence. Sonic felt a shot in his mind but could not fathom as to the cause of it. Ignoring it, he followed Drainer and the girl inside the big golden doors that seemed to have familiar runes etched into it. The girl pushed the doors inward, revealing the decorated interior.Sonic's memories kept interweaving with the Temple of the Prophets, as relics, statues showered all over the place, on the wide redwood staircase in front of him. The floorboards scratch-less, covered by burgundy Persian rugs with white shapes and lines. Typical mansion regalia. Walls covered with paintings of royal pink hedgehogs and families. A tall brunette maid stood before them."Hera, you didn't tell me you brought company. Greetings Agent Drainer. Here to check up on our recent discovery?" She asked. The maid was human, wearing red eye shadow blush and her brown hair reached below the ears, two small bangs over her pretty blue eyes. Her face, simple, small sharp nose and chin. She wore the memetic black and white main outfit and held her hands in front of her, bowing to to Hera.Drainer nodded back. "Hello Lily. That recent discovery is Sonic the Hedgehog's friend."Lily bowed again. "He's up with the Prince. Shall I escort him up there?" She said to Hera, who examined her lips."Do it. I wanna see where my sisters are." She replied. Drainer took a look at Sonic. "See him."Lily walked Sonic up the stairs as Drainer and Hera disappeared around the corner. Sonic glanced at the paintings on the walls as he noticed before. All of them...pink hedgehogs. Either men or women, families that had the father at the back with the mother, and their children in front. Some paintings had four women (some had one man), with one at the back and three in front, sitting down while the back one had their hands behind them. Sonic gulped, not sure what he was getting himself into...They'd gotten to the room that this 'Prince' was in. Lily knocked on the wooden doors."Who is it?" Said a male voice."It's Lily your highness. I have Sonic the Hedgehog here."Silence for a moment, making Sonic feel a bit edgy."Let him in."Lily opened the right door to let Sonic inside. He looked around the room. The walls were stripped with white and light pink that seemed to go on forever. A Chandelier held above high, the carpet was burgundy with blue dots, with a red rug with tendrils, that extended from a brown desk down one step. Thick burgundy curtains that had golden tugs covered what little windows were there, as a large painting of a male pink hedgehog wearing a simple golden crown sat behind him.Looking at another male pink hedgehog that had been sitting behind the desk, this one had a stern look on his face. He had smaller quills that protruded upwards, half way covering his ears and at behind three larger quills, a diagonal left one, a straight up one and a diagonal right one. The middle thicker quill had a golden band with ruby jewel embedded in it. The left had a wider golden band while the right had two thinner bands. He had small angled bangs shooting out of the spaces between the large qills. His muzzle was srcuffed on the sides, which reminded him of Tails and was a peach colour like Amy's. His eyes were a hard emerald colour, and a tuft of white fur on his chest.He wore black shoulder pads with golden rims and chains with emblems on them. A red cap draped from behind. Another similarity to Amy was that he wore ring bangles around his wrists. His gloved hands provided a wide golden ring on his left index finger as well as one on his right middle finger. His left thumb and his right pinky had two smaller rings. He walked out from behind his desk to reveal a black belt with a black and gold scabbard concealing a sword of sorts. His boots were also black and golden, with a minor spike-bump on the end, seemingly metallic on the outside. If that wasn't enough, the clinking chains were also gold, which seemed to top the appearance off. He really liked gold."Bout time you got here Sonic." Knuckles snarked.Sonic smirked. "Good to see you're hip and healthy Knucklehead." He said in his playful joust.He turned his attention back to the hedgehog who's look were was stern as Shadow's."Sonic this is Prince Hayden. He found me walking around this place after we got split up from one another." Said Knuckles.Sonic smiled and lent out his hand. "Heya Hades. Nice to meet ya..."Hayden smiled and returned with the shake. "The pleasure is all mine Sonic the Hedgehog. It is good to finally meet you. Have a seat."Sonic sat down on chair next to Knuckles and explained to them what had happened when he went through the portal. He didn't speak of Cold Oil Zone due to the fact it wasn't real, but the skeptical look on the Prince's face said he knew Sonic wasn't telling the whole story. It wasn't going to harm anyone, so Sonic told him anyway, Knuckles growled in his grumpiness."You did all that and didn't bother to find me or Tails?" He retorted. Sonic sighed. The world was content on pulling out his mistakes. "I tried Knuckles, I really did. It's just that stuff happened that I couldn't ignore. You know how it is."Knuckles put one leg over the other and rested his chin on his palm and feigned surprise. "Yeah yeah whatever."Hayden placed his hands on the desk and clasped them as he leaned forward. "Knuckles and I were discussing the collection of the Artifacts."Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "You too?" Hayden looked down and closed his eyes. "You must not know the whole story."The Prince discussed how he was the last of the Rosoideae's Dynasty and wanted to make up for his ancestors most deadly mistake that cost their kind dearly. An event known as the Hell's Sundering tore the House apart. The myth goes that demons ravaged the land, consuming souls in their wake.A collective few survived, fleeing through the portals and ending up in Kingdoms everywhere. Including Hayden's ancestors, but the Prophet and the Wisers...did not. They tried to fight the demons off, buying their people more time. Eventually the Garden was abandoned, no one left there to die. But no one knows what truly happened in there."Majority fled here, to the Space Greens Zone. It wasn't inhabited by anyone or anything, nor can it be seen from Earth. My ancestors scribes wrote what they could of what events transpired then and well after it. Some descendants tried to go back through to the Garden of Rosales, which was empty and people suspected it was haunted. But we had no choice. The King back then, pledged to discover the mystery of Hell's Sundering and his guilty soul, alongside many others, to...amend the sins of our ancestors. But that hasn't happened...and their spirits forever walk the earth, unable to find peace within themselves."Knuckles nodded. "It's an old curse still used by tribes today. They call it Soulbound. It's to make sure promises are filled and dues are paid. Witch Doctors are employed to do it."Sonic faced Hayden. "So that's your motivation huh?"He had competition in the form of Eggman and Abbadonia, as well as the Femme Fatalex...seemingly."That's why I hired three girls to help me out." Said Hayden.Sonic sighed. Maybe not."You're talking about the Femme Fatalex?" He asked. It made sense though, the girls being mercenaries. Quick, easier cash for such an adventurous task.Hayden nodded. "The Girls found me first on their exploratory tasks. For a brief moment this place came under a satellite and caught their attention. They were sent into space to explore before the supposed invisibility returned, therefore being unable to see it."It reminded Sonic of Little Planet, but that had an atmosphere, and was not all land and grass."Do you know what it's made out of?" Sonic wondered, curious.Hayden shook his head. "No. I rather not."The three talked for another hour, Hayden wording that within the past thirty years he's had visitors giving him supplies, namely the maid, Lily. She was lost and claimed to have no memory of events until she came across the Portal Hub and a special piece of Amberite that allowed her passage into the area. Stupilite guards witnessed her trekking about, walking in circles and having no absolute clue where she was. She was brought in and made a Maid in exchange for hospitality. She'd been serving the House since Hayden's father passed away. Since then, Lily practically raised him, and offered to bring plenty of resources himself as they had been living in primal conditions, almostcaveman like for many millenia."There are no longer any Stupilites here. Because the rules were not to marry them, their numbers dwindled dramatically. The last one died three years ago."Sonic frowned. That sucked. Even though they were desperate and clinging on to old ways, populations fell and were possibly wiped out purely because of tradition. If it was from Knuckles perspective, he'd understand completely. But Sonic himself is part of the building blocks of morality. He had a solid view of right and wrong and was not going to have another of that type of mental conversation with himself. Instead, he wanted to get on to the artifacts."There's a descended hedgehog like myself on Earth who has been giving intel to the girls as well. They've been of much help to me and them."Sonic suspected Muriel in this case. Who else would have that important information?"What about the artifacts? What do they have to do with all this?" Sonic pointed out.Hayden got off his chair and started walking. "Come this way."Sonic and Knuckles followed Hayden into a basement chamber that had had a bench with already two artifacts that Sonic noted. The chamber was dimly lit from a single lamp, obscuring the surroundings but only lighting up the artifacts. One was the Sword of Visions, the other, the Box of Temptation. Sonic smiled as he figured it out easily, the pieces of the puzzle slowly falling together. Amy, had ordered a box from somewhere under orders of her grandmother, gave it to her then gave it to the Femme Fatalex for protection and to come here. It was more simple than before. Amy was being kept out of the loop...she had hardly anything to do with it. Sonic internally sighed with relief as his worries seemed to float away, but then one stayed behind and stood in the front yard of Amy's mansion. He brushed it off as some minor relative thing. But...the fact that the Muriel was part of the House of Rosoideae and was working with both the Fatalex and Prince Hayden was slightly interesting, to say at least. Only one matter troubled him."What about the Prophets? And the Wisers?" Knuckles punted in suddenly. "I've seen the girls around here. One's deaf, one's blind and one's mute. What's up with that?"Sonic had already met Hera in the fields. Flicking back, he noticed Hera was reading his lips a lot, in which he idenitfied Hera as the deaf one. Knuckles mentioned the other girls as well that had the same characteristics as Iwazaru and Mizaru."The Elders clung onto near total power after the Prophets disappeared if it weren't for the royals. Turns out they never trusted them or the Stupilites at all. They maintained a statue figure that was purely made for business purposes and all they cared about was making money and becoming the superior race on the planet. If it weren't for the Prophets, the Rosoideae's would have been the most loathed people in the ancient world. The Elders always held old records for meetings and all of them were forced by the King or Queen to make journals. Unbeknown to the ignorant Elders the Prophets would read the Journals, looking for unusual behavior. The Prophets would then inform the King or Queen of any wrong doing and they would enact the punishment. This system kept the Elders in place for many years."Knuckles chuffed. "Would that be made the 'demonstration' of the Prophet's powers?"Hayden chuckled. "Yes and no. Yes because the Prophets had limited precognition. No because they did have a portion of actual fortune telling. That power would be transferred upon the Prophets death unto the next one of their choice."Fascinating. Sonic was not a history buff but he connected the deaths of the Prophets to Hell's Sundering."I get it..." Sonic said. "The last one died and couldn't transfer their powers.""Then they were lost..." Knuckles continued."Indeed." Said Hayden. "The girls you see were my fathers attempts to regain the Wisers on their own. He forced Lily to take them through the Gauntlet and had our Witch Doctors do the tasks handed to them. Unfortunately, they were very young at the time, even when I was a lot younger then. Fighting the Kraken was a difficult quest, until all three claim they saw a woman in black save their lives and help defeat it. My father insisted that this...woman...had ruined the quest for all three and deemed them as failures. Lily looked after the girls and taught them how to use their other senses properly.""How do you know if the girls have the...touch of the Wisers?" Knuckles queried. Hayden thumbed the box open and had a look inside. "We knew there was a chance that the process couldn't be repeated. The special gemstones that were allocated to each of them disappeared alongside the original ones. My father was a monster though...I couldn't believe what he'd said after wards..."Sonic and Knuckles exchange looks. Hayden checked out the Sword of Visions closely and under the light. "He said...'Oh well...maybe the Elders were right after all. They're nothing but a bunch of fakes. All of them were the cause for our sins...darn us for believing it.'"Hayden went on mentioning the final fate of the Elders themselves. After Hayden's father died, Hayden took over everything and shunned them all together, instead using the prodigal sons to better use as Council that had to take on every word Hayden said then deconstruct it. They were all old and senile and eventually died off, leaving Hayden with the Pseudo-Wisers, Lily, by Sonic's speculation Muriel and the Femme Fatalex. Lily lead the other Rosoideae's off the land back on the Earth to live new lives. Hayden didn't want them to spend the rest of their lives dwelling in silence."I'm hear with the girls...alone, wanting to make amends. Atone our sins. And to do that, we must collect these artifacts and solve the mystery of Hell's Sundering."Sonic nodded. "So what happens when you get them all?"Hayden shrugged. "Peace perhaps. Our intel speaks of their great evil, so we might destroy them...gathering them all here will keep them safe from unwarranted hands.""Will that do though? It could be deeper than that." Knuckles suggested.Hayden shook his head. "It's all I have. Events of Hell's Sundering are just fragments of words that I've looking over for years...and there is nothing us to conclude but these..."Knuckles padded his lips. "Do you know who made these? If you figure that out, it'll open all kinds of doors for you."Wow...such an intelligent presentation from thick-headed Knuckles. He does have experience with such relics after all in the presence of his treasure hunting days."Records show the first Prophet made them. Said that he had the first contact with a God that allowed him to produce things to test his audience."Knuckles groaned. "Great...a God. We're really gonna find one wandering around the place just happy to tell us..." He said sarcastically.Sonic rolled his eyes. "We can work alongside the Fatalex on this one. But first, we have to find Tails."Hayden looked at Sonic. "Knuckles was telling me about your two-tailed friend. The Fatalex told me that Eggman has a base in the Sea Scroll Zone. "Sonic blinked. "Sea Scroll Zone? Never heard of it.""Ancient underwater ruins." Said Knuckles. "Rumor has it mermaids once lived there."Sonic huffed. "So what's Tails have to do with it? I've already been to Sakura, aka Blossom Hazard Zone. Eggman had a base there."Hayden nodded. "I know. One of the Fatalex informed me of that was where our informant was being held."Olly."And you've been to Cold Oil. This is Space Greens. Which means you have several places to go then."Hayden turned back to the artifacts. He was very serious in this matter. He had a healthy balance of belief and skepticism that Sonic admired, not to mention appearing very noble and proud, but showing guilt for what others had done, bearing the burden of his entire race. Young, but Sonic noticed in his eyes that they were worn and tired, the factors of working too hard to right wrongs. That sort of determination isn't inherited through genetics, but through good example."First try Sea Scroll. If not in luck there, go to either Enchanted Forest Zone or the ARK. If Eggman's searching too, he'd go there. Our race has history with all three." Hayden suggested.Sonic crossed his arms. "Wait, you guys went to the ARK?"Hayden continued. "Both Stupilites and Rosoideae Hedgehogs found jobs there many years ago, working for a man called Gerald Robotnik. Unfortunately they were killed by a group of humans overtaking the labs...their spirits might still wander around there, waiting for this curse to be lifted."He became silent for a moment, leaning on the bench, his head wandering back and forth between the Sword and the Box."Take Drainer with you. She's a good swimmer." Said Hayden.Sonic gulped. "What?"Knuckles tapped Sonic's shoulder, giving a slight nod that Sonic knew it was time to leave the Prince alone.They went back upstairs to encounter Lily."You leaving so soon Master Knuckles and Master Sonic?" She said sweetly."Yeah we gotta run...we've got things to do and we're running out of time." Sonic replied.Sonic saw Drainer come from around the corner by herself, still clad in her suit. She glanced at Knuckles with curious head sways, until she turned to Sonic."You can inform me about it on the way. Let's go." She said. The three sped back to the Portal, Sonic repeating Hayden's words, to which Drainer responded with subtle nods. "Sea Scroll Zone. Yes I went there briefly. It wasn't very...how you say 'clean as a trumpet...'"Sonic's eyelids drooped from disbelief. "You mean, 'Clean as a whistle'" He corrected."That too." Said Drainer.They'd finally approached the Portal, before the Portal itself activated, two figures poured through the gate, falling over one another as if in attempt to flee."We meet again, Scratch, Grounder." Sonic snorted. The chicken and the drill robots sneered at Sonic and crew. "We're not here to hurt you Sonic honest!" Grounder wimped like a coward, covering his face.Scratch whacked his twin with disgust."Don't be such a cry baby..." The Chickenbot chastised.The two got themselves up as Sonic gave them looks."So what are you doing here?" He said with a tapping foot.Scratched itched his head. "We're actually looking for Robotnik."Grounder nodded frantically. "Yeah...we've been looking for him everywhere!" He said. Shooting his arms up for expressive purpose.Knuckles punched his knuckles. "Are you sure? Or do I have to beat the truth out of ya?" He threatened with a snark.Scratched waved his hands around. "N-no...we're not after you we swear!"Two more figures plowed through the portal, Sonic recognized them as Becoe and Decoe.Knuckles grabbed Scratch by his neck while Drainer jumped behind Grounder and threatened him with her knife."You swear?" Knuckles grunted."Please believe us! They're looking for him too!" Scratch and Grounder cried in sync.Sonic walked over to Becoe and Decoe who were huddling each other in fear. "Are you?" Sonic asked, towering them. The pair nodded in sync."Yes we are Sonic!" Said Becoe."Then how do you explain the four of you here at once hm?" Questioned Drainer.Another shumpf heard from the Portal as a red robot and a yellow robot shot through and scattered about. Sonic just chuckled. "Well, what do have here?"
BONK!
The heads of Cubot and Orbot bumped together by accident, causing them both to see dancing flicky's over their heads. Knuckles chucked the chicken as Drainer booted the drill-mole into the middle. Sonic pushed Becoe and Decoe in as well, with three surrounded the group of robots and gave an evil smirk. "Okay, give it to me straight...one of you. What are you really doing here?"He said. They fumbled about and started over-talking one another. Sonic placed two fingers in his mouth and whistled. "ONE AT TIME! Or I'll have Knuckles pound you into cinderblocks!"All six gulped at the same time. "Yes sir." They replied.Sonic just face-palmed. Why Eggman bothered with repairing them or even making them was beyond him. They were seriously just...stupid wouldn't cut it. He looked at Orbot. "You're the most level headed of them all. Speak."Orbot nodded and cleared his...throat... "Thank you Sonic." He said with a bow. He was met with grunts and groans, which were made quiet by Knuckles stare alone."Now...after your little escapade in destroying the base in Sakura, Eggman had assigned us on our missions to get some materials for him. Namely, Team S5 searched for Isisium, a type of rare metal only found in Holoska, or Cold Oil." Orbot explained.Sonic looked at Scratch and Grounder, who nodded in agreement. "Go on."Orbot clasped his hands together. "Team SX would search for Pelagicite Ore, which could be found in the Enchanted Forest. And...lastly, Team SUNCO would be trying to get scraps of Dragonite Ore, which was in the ashes of Eggmanland."Sonic tapped his foot. "What does he need them for?"Orbot rubbed his head. "That's the thing. He never confided in us on what they were for. Just told us to find them and return to the Sea Scroll Zone.""Did you do it?" Asked Drainer."We did...we all did!" Strained Decoe.Sonic stroked his chin. Eggman was either getting more savvy with his plans, or there was some serious trust issues. Both could be in order, knowing these robots were morons as they were. Especially when two could easily blurt out without realizing it. He'd have to make the decision...since he doubted Drainer knew them well enough and the fact that Knuckles would be gullible enough to the believe their story. Still, he went on."As I was saying, we got the materials we needed and headed back. We'd gotten to his head room and he wasn't there. We went to the security room and searched everywhere. Nothing on his reports mentioned he logged in or out of anywhere, might as well say he'd never been there in the first place.""Strange..." Said Sonic."Indeed." Agreed Drainer. "Eggman doesn't just, vanish into narrow air."Orbot rubbed his head. "Don't you mean, vanish into thin air?"Drainer didn't budge. "That too.""But because these...excuse the language...buffoons have no sense of order or the priority of searching for him faster by splitting up, we've all ended up in the same place at once.""No doubt about that." Knuckles said with a chuckle.Sonic contemplated. Should he help these robots? Or would he be walking into a trap? He huddled together with Drainer and Knuckles for a group meeting"What's your opinion on this?" He asked them both."We should ignore them. They're Eggmans' robots. They don't deserve help." Suggested Knuckles."I agree with Knuckles. Do we have any reason to deliver our trust to them?" Said Drainer.Sonic's head fell. They were both right in this instance. Although they weren't as cunning as their creator they had a substantial amount of idiots luck. Meaning they could be up to anything. Though Orbot had a point in the factor their lack of IQ would prevent them from splitting up, there was something no quite right..."Tell you what, Drainer, take Knuckles back home. I'm sure the Master Emerald needs tending to. If Eggman is back on Earth, there's a possibility he could be aiming for it, knowing you might not be there." Said Sonic.Knuckles grunted. "Or Rouge..."Sonic silently chuckled. "Yeah she's a sneaky one." He snarked."What will you do?" Drainer asked.Sonic thumbed his lip. He was getting to the Sea Scroll Zone one way or another. "You've been through the portals before Drainer. How did you get through?"Drainer's head shifted. "Agent Mjöllnir, or Olly, has a piece of Amberite that lets her in. We all went together once and like with you and your friends it succeeded in sending each of us elsewhere." She explained."You went here?" Knuckles queriedDrainer nodded. "Yes I did. Bazooka...or Bazza...went to Enchanted Forest...but...""But what?" Sonic prompted.Drainer didn't say anything else after that. After moments of huddling and talking, they finalized their plans. Knuckles would be heading back to Angel Island until further instructions were noted, and Sonic would be tagging along with the robots back to Sea Scroll Zone. Drainer would aid Knuckles if needed be. Sonic approached the scared bunch of robots and made his ploy."Thank you." Said Orbot. "I know you're our enemy but when your dear leader is out of your sights there is some concern brought on even from our most hated foe."Sonic couldn't help but laugh at that statement. A world without Eggman would be easier, but it would be no fun at all. No new challenges to subdue.Finally with these commands, they headed off through the Portal and back into the Hub. Drainer directed to Sonic to use the third Portal and that she would catch up with him later on. With that cleared and out of the way along with very brief goodbyes, Sonic wondered if Tails was in Sea Scroll Zone. He brought his skepticism with him and brought up his guard and looked at Orbot."You got them ready to go back through?" He asked him.Orbot nodded. "I have my Amberite ready!" He exclaimed.With a scan and a few notable noises later, they burst through into Portal Three...They ended up in rounded tube reminded him of Aquatic Park back when Eggman had imprisoned the Wisps. Possible inspiration nonetheless. He turned to Orbot for further info."So what's the catch in this place?" He poked."I can answer that one!" announced Decoe, pushing his way through."Alright..." Said Sonic. "Spill."Decoe spoke that they were in charge of Sea Scroll Zone's initial security measures as Eggman had discovered that the name Sea Scroll was brought on by the discovery of underwater ruins that once had an underwater society that was big on records and prophecies of other places, but intially they were big on the seafood trade with a type of rare exotic fish. Becoe eventually caved in and churned out that Mermaids were once here as well, blurting out the bizarre and outlandish fact that was that they believed this to be the lost city of Atlantis. Knowing Sonic's luck, this wouldn't surprise him. Decoe butted back into the conversation saying Eggman was actually looking for more scrolls that the ancient people had once written, extracting a piece of data that said one particular scroll had the locations of the other artifacts."So that's why he set up camp here..." Stated Sonic. He looked down the shoot of the pipes and thought of a plan."What's his set up here? A crudload of booby-traps for me yet easy use for himself?" He asked. Security preventative measure obviously. Pure...Eggman...Standard. Sonic couldn't settle for anything less."Dr. Eggman has set up most of his bases with anti-Hedgehog weaponry...plus a few more organics." Said Decoe."Yeah no-hedgehog zones!" Cried Grounder."We've been busy making every zone hedgehog-proof." Scratch said proudly.Sonic huffed. "Well, where would I start looking for him? In his chamber?"However Sonic had other priorities. He'd have to start searching for Tails before looking for Eggman. He turned around to see the other robots were no longer there, Sonic suspecting some other force of work at place. He carried on and fled down into the well-rounded an supported pipes of the Sea Scroll Zone.He smashed more Eggman Robots like he had done before, seeing the sights as he went. He compared it so much to Aquatic Park, aesthetic Chun-Nan like designs of faded red and mystical blues. It's almost like he was Chun-Nan, then realized he probably was. A combination of pipes and shrines, Eggman actually bothering to construct Robots with samurai swords and build and the like. He was sure good with his theming. Sometimes he'd come across open spaces up on land which were contained massive missile launchers, guarded by larger Badniks. With his own homing missiles he jumped around the white, concrete square base that contained a gray narrowing from the top to the bottom which seemed to point upwards and swirl around continuously. After the swarm of those badniks were destroyed, a blue bulgy robot came out of nowhere. It had a red bandanna around it's head and an etched on karate garb with what seemed to be red pads on its forelimbs. Sonic had to use strategy to eliminate. Dodging it a few times, a learned how it moved and reacted with every move and swack. He noticed the pads on its arms would turn green sometimes, Sonic's belief meant it was recharging a barrier. Taking note, Sonic immediately rammed into it, blowing the arm off. Sonic, in proof of success, smiled."Aww somebody lost an arm. Don't worry, you gonna completely be 'armless...when I'm through with you..." He taunted.Sonic weaved and dodged the lone arm of the robot, waiting for the pad to turn green once more. When it did, Sonic quickly blew it off, then spin balled while in mid air, then came down to smash the head to bits. Then Sonic stole the bandanna from it, and wrapped it around his own head for fun, then through jabs and side-punches. He was digging the Kung-Fu. He then put the bandanna in his own little pocket within his fur. "Maybe later..." He said to himself, laughing. He looked up at the missile launcher. Eggman might be into tradition, but sometimes you have to break it. Like what Sonic did...literally.He searched around and eventually found the self-destruct button. Really Eggman...original. Casually pressing the button, he watched as the launcher collapsed on itself. Happy with it's destruction, he went on to progress through the Zone itself. Trespassing waterfalls, climbing walls and the like. It seemed to go on forever. Not that there was any problem with that. Of course not. It was what he did for a living. He passed more robots, using his homing attack to blow them to smithereens. Then he came across it...A lake of water. Attempting to let speed guide him across, reality bit him as he bumped into a mirror, forcing him downwards into the lake itself. It wasn't too bad, bits of coral here and there, mechanical sharks tried to bombard him as he descended, Sonic barely dodging due to the water slowing him down dramatically. He found another piping and had to walk his way through. Then eventually became desperate for air and found a supply of bubbles, jumping up to get the special air bubble just in time, as his heart pounded, creating a musical rhythm that Sonic swore he had heard before. He walked onwards, dodging more sharks and spiked fish that had a taste of pin-cushioned animals. Sonic simply checked his timing underwater and dodged. Within a minute or so, he eventually gained enough momentum to keep charging onwards. He managed to slow jump his way blocks to grasp himself on solid surface once more. His head lifted up to see a several and oddly piled rounded blocks that got smaller as it got higher but the bottom one was a large was a warehouse. The sliding doors were oil-stained and had black and yellow stripes on surrounding it.Entering it, he discovered a hollow room that was dripping with a mixture of chemicals and oils from a loose screw on the roof. The walls were stained but it was practically empty except for one security camera and a lone, hanging light, brightening up the black rubber floors. He was beginning to feel a bit edgy about this. He saw a door to his left and went through it, only to find the same thing...empty...lone light and camera. As well as another sliding door in front of him. Passing through that, again. Empty...lone light and camera. A door to his right prompted him to get passed. Suddenly several of the jolly orange badniks fell from above holding shields and lances. Sonic avoided them all by using a spin-dash to ricochet off the walls and pinball his way to their weak spots, destroying them one by one. The middle of the floor suddenly moved and slide away, revealing a plate of blue light in the middle. Sonic's hands fell to his hips as he looked around. Another camera kept a close eye on him.He walked to the plate and stood still, as his body faded away and ended up elsewhere."Welcome Warthog!"Eggman. He could hear him over speakers surrounding the dully lit room with a camera on each wall. The roof was high and clad with darkened pipes, water dripping from above creating puddles."I'm terribly sorry, but I've already finished over there in Sea Scroll. I used my robots to slow you down and now I'm one step ahead of you. I've always been." He gloated. Sonic's lip twitched."Tell me where Tails is right now!" Sonic demanded.All he got in response was Eggman's distinctive laugh."WHERE IS HE?" Sonic roared, becoming slightly more agitated."All in good time Sonic. All I want you to do now is test a creation of mine! I call it, Transfusion." He pertained.Sonic groaned at the non-existing word. He should have expected a trap. But he could do this alone. He always could. Part of the wall in front of him split in two and slid in the opposite directions, revealing a robot he's seen many times before as it walked...or rolled it's way towards Sonic, who smirked and crossed his arms."Ah hey Metal! See you got some dull upgrades...I guess Eggman was running out of spare parts." He snarked.Metal Sonic did indeed look different. His legs were replaced by tank-like treads and grew and extra pair of arms with drills instead of hands. He also had another set of long, white arms extended from his pair, with a red chickens waddle on top of his head. Sonic's face contorted, thinking what the heck did Metal do to himself? No matter, his defeat is inevitable in Sonic's eyes. The Blue Blue stood back slightly, placing himself into an almost lunging position, ready to strike at any given moment. He lowered his head slightly, his eyes glaring, with bout of a mischievous and cocky smirk.Metal was the first to strike, charging himself forward, limbs reaching outwards. Sonic simply somersaulted of the way and got behind it, and literally kicked it's butt."Man that was so easy!" Sonic said, feigning complaint through sarcasm.Metal became more agitated and quickly spun around. He charged at the walls, which suddenly became rounded, the rest of them including the roof and the floor forming a sphere. Metal rolled around and used his arms to take swing at Sonic repeatedly, who taunted with raspberries and cheek taps. MS tried to do figure eights, whilst missiles fired out of nearly every orifice. Within his grace, Sonic successfully dodged some, jumped on others and even caught one, flinging it back to him. MS raised his arms to protect himself as a green bubble protected him from projectile harm. Sonic quickly put his two feet back on the ground and snarled."Is that all you got?" He taunted. MS shifted its limbs about slightly as Sonic took one heck of death glare, MS's eye's filling with fiery rage. His drill arms extended outwards, as a larger drill sprung out from his chest. Shoving the smaller drills into the ground, MS lifted up and tilted towards, the bigger drill boring into the rubber and going into the underground. Sonic's only concern was more leakage and a worry that the room could possibly flood. He focused on his hearing and the vibrations underneath his feet to detect where Metal could possibly shoot up from. Sonic spun around, hearing rumbles from the wall behind him. In a split second Metal shot out with the all drills aimed at him but Sonic managed to avoid the attack by ducking, Metal landing behind him. Again MS tried to use the missile but like before Sonic dodged and weaved to avoid them. He couldn't throw them at MS himself, knowing the force field that he had, but had a weak spot at the back. He attempted to grab another rocket missile, snatching a white and red one and throwing into Metal's back. MS...was not amused. He quickly drilled back underground as Sonic kept a close ear and feet. His experience in the Gauntlet helped him a lot, now that he was only grateful for it. A bit of dust fell on his nose as he looked up, the roof rumbling. Sonic backed himself up against the wall as Metal charged through from above, a gush of water pouring through. Damn, he was playing with his lack of ability to swim. MS's laugh echoed it's hollowed yet grainy way, chilling and dastardly.Sonic stood well way from the burst, as the water spilled into the holes. He had some time.MS rolled himself across the room in another figure eight fashion, Sonic leaping out of the way then spinballing into it's back as soon MS' own was turned. MS screeched, the Kimmibots were worse in Sonic's opinion, but nonetheless it was still pretty terrifying. However, it obviously didn't affect Sonic at all. The screech was in the form of a laughing pattern that Sonic couldn't identify. A sequence of uneven rhythms disturbed him. He didn't care...he just wanted to find Tails...The fight repeated itself, before Sonic grew tired of playing games and absolutely smashed Metal to bits as Sonic spun into a spin-dash and rammed into MS' back, the screeching reoccuring. Sonic saw static and forks of electrical discharge firing off MS' body. He grinned and pulled Metal up from the ground, his limbs lifeless and the only thing giving off any signs was his eyes. Sonic's own narrowed down as he held MS by his neck."Where is Tails?" He barked.Metal Sonic gave off his evil laugh. "I'm sorry, but your prince is another castle." He mocked.Sonic couldn't take it and slammed Meta's head into ground and dug his heel into his face, the light in MS's eyes finally fading. Sonic dusted his hands and watched as a screen with Eggman's face came down from above."Well done little warthog...I would like to thank you for giving me more time. I'm sorry about your friend Tails...he's probably elsewhere DYING because you're wasting precious days, hours or even minutes...toodle-o!" Laughed Eggman, as the screen shot up, then shot down again."Oh...I forgot to tell you!" He said with over-dramatic tones."Metal was the fail-safe for a particular new gas I wanted to try. Destroying him immediately shuts down the air conditioning and releases a a potent...gas into the air. Have fun dreaming!"Sonic froze as soon as the screen disappeared. He could smell a scent that he could have sworn he had smelled before. A blue gas gently poured out from above and within the holes that Metal had created. The water still gushed about, the gases turning the water darker than usual. Sonic approached the leak in the middle of the room as it warped. Two sloppy arms appeared from the almost cylinder like waterfall, as green eyes glared at him. Sonic tilted his head in spite of this strange happening. Out burst Abbadonia, wings spread to show hostility. Sonic's eyes widened."There's no where to run Sonic..." Her multilayered voice said. Sonic glared. He didn't say anything as he wanted to get the heck of there. He looked at his feet as the navy-coloured water now reached above his knees. Crud, this place was now starting to fill with water...or what ever it was. He frantically searched around for a door, when a purple wisp like light floated from nowhere and somehow warped in a door on a nearby wall and opened it. Sonic looked at it as it disappeared. No time for contemplating what the heck it was, he needed to get out of there. The room rumble and churned as Sonic ran out and headed towards the portal. But the new room was pitch black and filled with endless spiral stairs. Who cares? JUST RUN!Sonic sprinted as fast as he could, his heart beating faster. Wails and cries for help filled his ear drums so much he couldn't stand it. Keep running...and running...and running.Theses stairs would not end at all. Black, tiled stairs that kept going down further and further down into utmost darkness. He feared he wasn't getting anywhere and stopped to turn around."Don't stop Sonic."Sonic blinked. "Amy?"She was pale as a ghost, blood running from her eyes, nose, ears and mouth. He could see a patch of blood on her usually pretty dress and drips of it coming from underneath it, streaming from her legs.Sonic tried resting his hands on her shoulders but she stood back. His mind went back and forth on what he had to do, but it was screwing with him. Badly."Let's get out here! I...I don't know how you got here, I don't care about that at the moment. I want to get you some help. Go to the hospital...just take my hand!" Sonic said, a crying squeak ripe within his words.Amy shook her head. "No..." She said, coughing. "It's too late for me. You have a chance to go back if you just keep running."More wails forced Sonic to cover his ears."What's the point? I'm not going anywhere." He cried out."You never are." Replied Amy. "But if we still hold on to the faith that you will reach that end goal.""What in the world are you talking about?" Sonic demanded. This was getting weirder and more hectic by the second."The end will wake you up Sonic...that big, rotating ring...let's hope it brings you a...free life..."Sonic ignored the nonsense and tried to grab her hand, only for her to turn blood red and splatter about into nothing. Sonic shook his head and screamed. The only thing he could do was take her advice and keep running...because it's all he can do. Shutting that scene out of his mind, he turned back around, a contraption down in front of him appearing. It lead down to a narrow path that followed on through into the mists of the shadows. Each side contained a red box that held what looked like poles with blue balls at the end of it like a strange turn-style of sorts. Taking a deep breath, he went through them, a bell sound ringing in his ears. He bolted...The wails...the screeches...bits of the shadows turned into fiery red bloodshot eyes that followed Sonic as he had to sidestep several times to avoid falling down into nothing. Loops followed as well as weirder gray and black square patterned moebius strips. He skidded to a halt as a yellow fox stood at the end. His two tails flailed about, but he himself stood there with a dull expression on his face."Don't think for a second Sonic that I actually enjoy playing second fiddle."Suddenly the area warped into a darkened neighbourhood that Sonic immediately recognized.His internal neighbourhood. Amy's Mansion stood up top of a hill at the end of the street, with cottages and houses aligning each side of what the sign said was ''Morpheus Street.""I don't like this house. It's all riddled with weeds and the grass hasn't been mowed. You're my landlord Sonic, shouldn't you be tending to this?" Asked Tails.Sonic looked at the cottage itself. Tails was right. It looked like it hadn't been tended to in years. Overgrown trees and grass and all kinds of muck, the actual cottage looked like it could fall apart any day now. But..this couldn't be the way Sonic imagined it to be. He liked Tails. He was one of his closest friends and enjoyed hanging with him. So...why? Of all people, was Tail's one the least treasured? He had to change this. He needed to."Tails I promise you, I will get to know you better..." Sonic assured.Tails expression change to scorned as his eyes pierced through Sonic, bringing surprise and fear."Are you trying to convince Tails or are you trying to convince yourself?" Said a deep voice.Sonic shifted around."Knuckles!" Sonic cried.Knuckles swung his arms about, giving them a slight stretch, Sonic then copped a face full of fist, sending him flying past . He opened his eyes to see that Tails was gone."Look Knuckles, it's not that bad I swear!" Sonic pleaded, forcing himself off the ground."Not that bad? I have to guard an Emerald for eternity? And you're okay with that?" Knuckles scolded.Sonic knew that wasn't true. Knuckles knew he had a duty. Sonic wished that Knuckles would take it a little less seriously. Especially when Shade was in the picture now. With her help, they could do part time. He'd made that suggestion before and Knuckles even said he would think about it.Sonic stood his ground. But he'd never been so scared, he had tried so hard not to show it. He didn't fear his enemies but...he was now afraid of his friends. Groups of friends, rivals and acquaintances, both Mobian and human came out of their houses and surrounding Sonic. They were all there...Rouge...Shadow...Omega...Jet...Wave...Storm...Shade...Blaze...Silver...Charmy...Espio...Vector... and lots more...even Chip and Cream. He watched as Cream walked up to him with Cheese in her arms. Sonic shook his head with disbelief, muttering the word 'no' under his breath over and over again. Cream glared at him."You're always late. Sometimes you don't even show up at all! You care more about yourself then you do about us!" She cried. Hearing her say that almost broke Sonic's heart. But...it wasn't her. It was himself. His own thoughts on how people thought about him. No...it can't be. There was no justification or even any signs that they would even think that. Sonic stood back a few steps, before being mobbed by friends, looking up to see a silhouette of a winged figure, hearing devilish cackles that echoed across his thoughts. It became a faceless and colourless mob, bearing down and almost stealing his breaths.With what strength he could muster, he burst out of the swarm and onto a more spacious area. He turned his head around to see Abbadonia's Demons chasing after him. But where could he run to? He couldn't run forever. How far could he go before something twisted and sorrowful smothered him to death. He couldn't bring on swiss-army tears, they would do no good. He would expect to be mocked.But where could he run to?He looked upwards at the Mansion on the hill. Amy was not in that crowd of people. She was helping him...telling him to keep running...to find that goal ring...to find...a free life. He noticed a golden object spinning about at the pink doors and spear-headed his way towards it. He prayed that she was right. He prayed so damned hard for it to get him out of here. He walked through it, but nothing happened except for the ring fading away and few strange jingle sounds. Looking behind him, he saw more of the demons crawling towards him. He faced the door and starting banging like crazy."For goodness sake Amy open the door!"No answer. He whacked his fists on it several times more."PLEASE AMY! OPEN UP!"Again no answer. Tears ran down his face as his face and hands rubbed against it, sliding downwards before falling to his knees. He scratched the doors with his nails and pleaded a final time."Please...I'm desperate..." He whimpered.He turned around and laid down against the doors and waited for fate to take him away. He was going to die here...because he thought Amy didn't love him enough anymore. His body drooped over as his eyes closed, all strength gone and tears running down his face."I'm sorry..."- Whereas while the hope is gone, when you think the light has faded, there's still an Angel waiting for you. A broken Angel but still an Angel. . I'm not an Angel myself...just someone else who can become as completely lost in their dreams as you are...and can guide you to freedom. Three ways. Lucid...Non-Lucid...Nightmare. All constructed in nonsensical and incoherent madness. But that is who we are. The Entropy of your mind...the further it goes...more is wasted and quality decomposes. No one knows who you are anymore, not even yourself. We can't stop it...but we can help prevent. The lower layers become more chaotic as you might see. Work your way to to the first floor...the primary layer and seek me out -"Sonic?"A flash of nearly blinding light overcame Sonic as he opened his eyes. He could barely see, but a figure of red and pink that he could only guess was looming over him. His vision was blurred, but he gathered that he was laying down and possibly staring at a roof. He was drifting in and out of consciousness and felt someone picking him and bringing into somewhere...nice and warm. Scented beautifully. He wasn't sure what to feel, and frankly, he didn't care.He surely had to be dead."Everything's going to be alright..."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The eternal whiteness that he embraced, a formless type of escapism that lifted the heartbeats. A single transgression elevates fear, a possible side-effect of leaping into the unknown. Pushed, but not pressured, comes the natural occurrence of archetypal obfuscation, which can cause a lapse in better judgment. Unbeknownst to himself, his mental self was in a senses limbo of sorts, unable to to put his two feet on steady grounds. Wobbly but still, shaky but hardened, sweating but cooled...with the occasional quiver. He laid his weary head on something...soft and warm. His brain warped but not beyond repair as it tried to cool down and inhale his surroundings. But a more pleasant scent, a scent he clung on to and the gentle touches that stroked his head, brought light back into his life. Sanity and seclusion. A breath...one that reached out, soothed but not unscathed, with withered sighs and shuttered gasps, sudden inhales and slowing exhales...reality was fried.His eyelids struggled to stay open. He needed to stay awake. A hand felt a comforting blanket, knocking onto something more solid. His eyes were sore and cheeks red raw from tears. There were moments where a memory would come back to haunt him, but a feminine hush and his head cuddled and rocked would him back to this happy place. The first person he thought of was his mother. Was this...another...past instance of recollection? No...he wanted to go back to where it was safe and warm. He shot up from where he was and rubbed his eyes to look around. A small room lit up like a sunset from a desk lamp, curtains drawn, walls light pink with red rose patterns, lace blankets on a queen sized bed. He knew someone was behind him and slowly turned his head around, only then to find himself unable to speak. Riddled with such shock and confusion his mouth dropped at the visionary of the one who took him away from the world of hurt.The girl he pleaded to...she'd...saved him...enough begging allowed his escape into warmer world of fire place flavor and bed time story toned dreams. He started gasping for air as he held his head. Her gentle hands held onto his head as she pressed her tender lips upon his forehead."Settle down silly boy..." Said that sweet, honest voice that he had begun to love hearing. His bottom lip quivered as more tears ran down his face. This...had to be another sweet, merciful dream. He buried his head into her chest as she held him close and rocked him back and forth. Her light pink silky pajamas felt...good. A hand...fell on her shoulder as he looked at the lamp. The only bright corner in her mansion...Her blessed palm and fingers rubbed up and down his back, his breath slowing and finally calming, with several sniffs in between. No words could describe this...feeling, only to look upon her to see her face. She too, had been crying...he was being so selfish again as he scrunched his fist in anger with himself."Shh...Sonic...Amy's here."Amy. Right now her very presence churned something so deep inside, that it flared up, causing him pain. He was so vulnerable...messed up. He would give anything to say that this wasn't a dream. He was hoping damn hard. He needed this...But her heartbeat was settled, bequeathing a touch of self-assurance to his mangled spirit.He wanted to open his mouth and speak words, but his throat was clogging up with anxiety. A hand...patted down his quills and her own mouth gave a faint smile that could break into a sobfest at any given moment. He subconsciously wiped a falling tear from her face with his index finger. Sonic could feel her warm breath on his face and felt compelled to be in it. A zest of passion throbbing up in his heart, but was extremely reluctant to act on it, feeling it would inappropriate between friends. Good friends...For all the times that Sonic saved her life, it was nothing compared to when she'd saved his. He was the strong, honorable hero with the side-order of saving and she WAS...major emphasis on was...the occasional main source of Distressed Damsel Syndrome. Lately she was trying to prove herself, that she was no mere weakling. She could be...no...she was as strong as Rouge or Blaze. A strong and wild woman, who was also caring. However her rage could promote her title to Queen of the Wind, leading Sonic to be her Knight of the Wind.The similarities further beckoned him. They are both such a destructive force in and around itself.The ability to blast through life. He'd been her inspiration ever since they met on Little Planet.Amy wanted to be a hero. At least, that's what Sonic believed. What she wanted and what she needed were two completely different things. Both held a compassion to help people, but Sonic thought that her chasing him to marry or date her was part of some monkey-see, monkey-do crud that he wondered if the obsession would ever stop. It didn't bother him too much, only times when he thought it wasn't necessary. Especially the parts where it got her kidnapped. Stupid, naïve behaviour. Sonic looked over that. There was a better part to her that not everyone saw. If the heroes self-claimed girlfriend wasn't busy being in the grasps of some evil-doer, she would be smashing what ever she saw to find him and cling on to him like mother and child.The odd day came about, when it became apparent that she was covering up for so much more. Were these pleas fronts? Legitimate? What does the heart of Amy Rose really want in life?She would have her own answer before him. Sonic had no idea what he wanted. He dwelled on his surfaced feelings of a devil-may-care attitude and did what ever. Being snarky, sarcastic to those who dared threatened the safety of innocents. All in a days work. Striving for a better world was a good excuse, but there had to be something more to his life than just to run.No...running was fine. Nothing wrong with it. If the world needed him, he'd comply. So what was with this one girl in all the world?He lowered his head and sat back onto his knees, looking down. Amy had her legs outwards, toes wiggling in lacy socks with red ribbons."You wanna talk through what happened?" She asked.His head was a bit groggy as he forced himself to stay awake at all costs. Why couldn't he just stay in this warmth? He didn't want to speak about it. Not to a shrink, not to anyone. Amy...maybe. But he wasn't in the mood, which in itself was difficult to describe. He gave a simple shake of his head, before it decided to begin drooping, eventually lifting his head up."What...time is it?" He ask drearily, his vision still hazy.Amy checked her bedside tables digital alarm clock."It's around Eight PM. You've been out for quite a while." She confirmed.He gave a slight nose forced chuckle, glad it wasn't Five AM. Again. Her voice was comforting, his ears tuned into her every word. That burn in his stomach flared up more. He took it for hunger pains."Can I get something to eat first?" He asked, his voice like a child's and crackling.Amy only smiled and held onto his hands in her palm, placing reassurance with stroking them with her thumbs. "Of course you can. What ever you want I'll make 'em."To think hurt his brain more and into a status of indecisiveness."Food will do..." He snarked.Amy smiled."I'll make you your favourites!" She said as she slid off the bed and into her fluffy pair of slippers.Sonic could have collapsed right there, but what will he had left kept him. Instead his head fell fast, looking downwards, thinking to himself what was wrong with him? Whatever Eggman had did, he did it well...too well that Sonic couldn't think straight. For all he knew he was already dead and where ever reality was it definitely wasn't here.He heard a door knock in the distance. If this was a doctor, Sonic could just get up and leave. Amy opened the door and a deeper, grunt-filled voice tinged Sonic's memory."I heard he was here." It said."Did you see him running?" Asked Amy."No. GUN got reports of sighting him appearing out of nowhere in the middle of a street. The new Chaos Energy Scanners detected a small amount of Chaotical Energy, but not enough to say it came from an Emerald. Sources say he headed in this direction. Since I knew your place was around, I figured he would have come to you."Amy scratched her head. "So does GUN want a word?" She askedBefore her stood a black and red hedgehog, definitely well known amongst the local populace. His face was almost in a state of perpetual frowning as his red eyes almost pierced through everything it touched. However his eyes did not see through Amy...they were coddling her own."They just want a statement. You know the usual protocols..." He answered.Amy turned back to the stove as she was preparing some chilli dogs and leaned on the bench. He walked over and rested his hands on her shoulders, giving some rather intimate comfort."I know he's here. I just want a word." He stated.Amy frowned and sighed. "He's in my room Shadow." She muttered softly.Shadow nodded and gave a small smirk. "Thanks."Amy said nothing as she continued on cooking, shoulders hunched up.Sonic's eyes widened as she mentioned Shadow's name. As soon as Amy had revealed it, Shadow came strolling down and stood in the doorway. Sonic in the meanwhile looked in a weaker position as he struggled to make proper eye contact. Shadow walked over to the side of the bed and stared straight down."Here to see me lookin' pathetic?" Sonic joked.Shadow shook his head. "GUN just wants to know where you've been that's all...you kno-""Protocol...I get it..." Sonic moaned. Shadow's face scrunched as Sonic swayed around, almost limp and lifeless. The wobbliness intrigued Shadow."So tell me..."Sonic forced his head to shoot up in order to get a look at the black hedgehog. What should he say? A lie or the truth...either didn't matter...he didn't want people on his back at this moment."Your symptoms look familiar. I've seen them in a variety of victims who have brought to hospitals with doctors claiming that they could give a definite diagnosis." Said Shadow.Sonic wobbled his head above, barely keeping his eyes open. "Really? Where?"Shadow snapped a finger and crossed his arms as he lit up."You were under the effects of hallucinogen weren't you?" He asked.Sonic knew Shadow would get the idea eventually. Lucky hedgehog was probably immune to most of this. "Maybe...who wants to know?"Shadow closed his eyes, then looked at Amy's lamp as he reopened them."I came because this has happened before. With other people in places. It's a type of psychological warfare against fair-minded citizens of the planet. We've been trying to hunt down the culprits for quite some time."Eggman. Last moment he remembered before it went all dark was that snivelish laugh of the doctor.He did mention that he wanted to try a new gas..."Eggman..." Sonic creaked out. "Released...Eggman released it."Shadow garnered a better look at him. His eyes were bloodshot, his temperature soaring as he rested his hand on Sonic's forehead. Shadow grabbed his shoulders and forced to sit him up properly as he was examining him."GUN suspected Eggman. But you have it far worse than any of the others. Did you experience severe and violent disillusionment?" He asked.Sonic sat at the end of the bed, barely able to grasp the sides with what little strength he had."Yes..." Sonic answered truthfully. Actually, truth was what he really needed at the moment, now that he looked at it...Shadow nodded. "I see...this is not half-bad information. Don't worry Sonic, we'll get to the bottom of this."Amy walked back into the room, full of her white, lacy apron on top of her pajamas, with a plate of cooked chilli dogs. Sonic sniffed them, making him smile and lighten up a little. He always looked forward to chilli dogs, no matter how weak he was."How is he?" Asked Amy."I need some blood samples. The chemical might still be in his system. I'll order an Agent to extract it and examine it."Amy nodded. "Okay good. Is there anything we can do to make Sonic feel better?"Shadow looked back at the blue hedgehog as he fought to keep his head up. "Rest. No doubt food should perk him up, but other than that, our doctors would recommend rest." Shadow chuckled."But once the Agent is done, she should be able to get rid of the chemical completely. She's been doing it for a while now."Amy smiled. "Great. Then we can track down whomever did this to him!" She said with determination.Sonic's vision went blurry for a few seconds, but all he saw was Shadow leaning over to Amy for some reason, then leaning back as soon as his sight came back and walked away.Amy sat down next to Sonic and put the plate on the bed. Sonic grabbed one and took one bite, before succumbing to a grin, which made Amy happy."I'm glad you're feeling a bit better Sonic." She commented."As...do I..." Sonic weakly responded.After he'd finished eating, he decided to fall asleep. Hopefully his own dreams would make him feel a lot better. Indeed they did...sort of.He quickly opened his eyes and immediately assumed he was still asleep, gathering that he was up and raring to go, the fire streaming through his veins, ordering for the usual sprints. Getting off the bed, he shrugged. Might as well. Running in a dream was just as good as running in real life. He walked down the hallway with a smile on his face, before hearing giggles and stopping in his tracks. It might have been Amy, but then he heard moans and tiny wet noises alongside shafted grunts.Sonic tip-toed down and the noises got louder as he got closer. They were coming from the lounge room. He went on his knees and crawled, stopping as soon as he had gotten beside a cabinet. He lowered his head as two figures rolled about under sheets through the legs of a drawer."How about...THIS!"That was Shadow's voice, laughter ensuing in response. "Shhh...you'll wake him up!" He said with a snort.Sonic's eyes widened at the prospect of Shadow frolicking with Amy. Shadow? Of all people? He had not expected this...not at all. Although it would explain why Amy's first instinct when he came back from Muriel's the other day was not to glomp him, as she appeared rather serene and calm.She was dating Shadow.Why couldn't he think of this before? He was just laying down with her not long ago!Again...it wouldn't be out of reach for her, using that same prospect as she would do with anyone else in that situation. Cold, alone and confused, taking a sick person under her wing and giving them shelter wasn't much of a stretch. But the fact that Shadow, a normally stoic and emotionless guy was having fun with a girl who acted like she could chase Sonic into the depths of hell if she could. There had to be more to this...there just had to be.The fact that it actually annoyed Sonic concerned himself. Why should he care if Amy found happiness in the arms of another man? Seeing the way the pair enjoy each others company and are not afraid to be...well...'cuddling' so to speak. To Sonic's logic it made them improve their attitudes and personalities immensely. Down to it, adding to the logic that it is not his business shouldn't be bothering him. He should be glad. He should be smiling and welcoming the relationship with open arms and hoping something good might come out of it, such as the changed attitudes themselves.Make Amy more mellow and Shadow less serious. Opposites attract...so many different reasons why this would be perfect...yet so many different reasons why this would not.So why...why was it disturbing him so much that it wrenched his heart to unbearable levels?He watched as Shadow kissed Amy's neck as Amy kicked about in a playful fuss."That tickles!" She giggled.She rolled him over on to his back with force, with an evil snarl on her face."You're going down boy!" She snarked.Shadow laughed. "I'd like to see you try." He dared.Amy pressed her lips down hard on Shadow. Sonic winced. He looked down as something wet seeped passed his fingers and knees.Blood.He stood up and looked behind him. It was that pale, deathly looking Amy that he had seen before as blood poured from under dress like it did before. She didn't say a word, only giving a nod towards Amy and Shadow. He looked at them, as more blood riddled along, leaking into the lounge.But Amy and Shadow were too far into themselves to notice the blood building around them. Sonic hesitated briefly, believing this to be another dream. He wanted to scream and warn the pair that the apartment was going to be filled. What was the point? Since it was just a dream?He gave the other Amy another look. She glared at him, before the purple wisp-light reappeared.
The non-lucidity gives less control to the dreamer and more control to his subconscious. If their warrant of fear rises, the environment escalates to shape that fear. What is real is discarded and the only way to escape the inescapable is to force yourself to become so scared, the dream is carved into the most dangerous yet unbelievable vision that when it peaks, you will be free.
The purple wisp floated towards the door to Amy's room.
I can show you the door, but you are the one who must walk through it.
Sonic looked down at the blood, then back at the bleeding Amy. So pale, so lifeless. The red substance ran down from her eyes, nose, ears and mouth as she tilted her head to look at him with curiosity that sent shivers down Sonic's spin."That is right..." She whispered, her voice so hoarse Sonic could hardly hear her.He scrunched and unscrunched his fist repeatedly. He could not control...that was what he knew well. Knowledge of working around that control was easy...either destroy the problem or the controller. Both would be suffice. The problem was that there was nothing to destroy...and nothing that was controlling it. Only his subconscious.So boosting his fears was the only way out. Alrighty then...facing back at the deathly Amy, he focused his thoughts towards her, trying to get her to do an outrageous action. Alas, it did not work. Not to her anyway.She only pointed towards where Amy and Shadow were.
Imagine the worst thing that could happen
He was disgusted at himself for doing this, a hatred so strong his subconscious forged explosion on the outside as he dug his squeezed and shook his head so tightly with rage.
Keep going...
He turned his attention back to Amy and Shadow who weren't even bothering to do anything. They were simple figments of his imagination. None of this made sense to him. He wanted to run so bad.He gasped at an idea that he smacked himself for. But knew he had to do it anyway. It was a idea that was especially terrible and meaningless but it could work. He was ashamed that he would do it. For one so young, bold, innocent, cunning, fearless, brave...chaste. Crud. That would be used as a last resort, so he decided and kept that aside as another idea floated to his head. Yes...he would feel bad, but not as bad as he would have been if he would have done the intial one. Geez...Sonic slapped himself again and went to lay down in the massive pool of blood, instigating negative, violent thoughts as he stared back at the deathly Amy, burning her image into his eyes as to propel the darkness inside.Nothing...nothing happened. The faint smell of blood did nothing to support his efforts. There was the plan to get Amy and Shadow to tear each other apart. Literally. But that was unbelievable to start with. The climax before the build up. It didn't work that way. It needed to be done the reverse way."Your golden heart will not be tainted. Your struggles are amounted to the deepest, darkest fears. Your intentions are pure, and are at the best of everyone's hearts. But these people are not real. You are only too willing to help the illusions that are cast before you, only you know these are illusions in the first place. There's that belief that you yourself contain the mantra that regardless of what people are, they all deserve to live. Death...can be avoidable in your opinion. Your sorrows build when something has to die. But you have a sense of duty, an honour. If life was stolen, you feel the need to give it back. You follow that same code throughout life." Whispered the deathly Amy.Sonic sighed."Then...how can I do this? Escape you mean...if you say my subconscious is not letting me do anything because it's against my morals then I'm stuck." He asked, desperate."Learn to let go..."Sonic could feel the blood around his knees as more came out. Mindless propaganda...less filtering of the insanity to barge it's way through somehow."I can't...I just can't." He said, deciding to run off.He ran to the door and tried turning the knob. Damn thing was locked."What's the matter Sonic?"Sonic turned around. It was normal Amy in her pajamas."Uh...nothing. Just...needed some fresh air..." He muttered nervously."Can you help me then? I need to get all this blood out of my apartment. Have no idea how it got here."Her face was...normal. Like there was nothing wrong in the world, only a leak had sprung, flooding the apartment. She...was in state of becalming motion, like this happened all the time."Uh sure..."Amy gently turned the doorknob...and successfully opened the door. The blood began pouring out the apartment in no time flat. Sonic looked back down the hall way. The purple wisp and the deathly Amy were gone. Sonic gulped. Was this the fear they were speaking of?"I'll get the mops then. Shadow can help too!" She said, happily wandering down to the laundry. Shadow walked out of the lounge room and towards Sonic, who looked away."I know what's going on." He stated. Sonic refused to look at him."Trust me when I say there's a whole bunch of us waiting on the outside for you two."Sonic eye's swung to his. "What do you mean?" He asked."Alright got em!" She said, coming back with three mops.–Soon, the clean up was complete. Sonic thought about Shadow's words in the meanwhile. As well as the deathly Amy and the purple wisp. Shadow gave Amy a kiss on the cheek before leaving the apartment. Sonic stood there like a stunned mullet, trying to absorb most of it."Are you going to take us up on our offer now?" Said Shizaru.Sonic face-palmed. Amy walked back into the laundry to clean off the mops."You still want me to kill her? Wow...you're really related to Amy..." He said sarcastically."You want freedom? You must earn it." She scolded.Sonic snuffed. "I have my freedom. I can go wherever I want to. I don't want you and your crazy girls to tell me otherwise."Sonic swallowed his pride as she disappeared and Amy returned from the laundry."It might take a while for most of this to dry. I had to wash the sheets and so forth." Amy explained.Sonic shrugged. It was only a dream after all. Shadow was no longer here and his fears subsided, it wasn't, however, waking him up. Amy seemed to be taking it all rather well...almost too well."Amy, do you ever have strange uh..dreams?" He asked. She looked at him strangely."What do you mean Sonic?" She answered.Brutal honesty time...well, maybe not too brutal. And maybe a hint of fabrication. He rubbed his neck."Well, let's take a walk over it okay?" He suggested.Outside was cold, yet peaceful. In the midst of the dream walking around the streets of a quietened Central City was pleasant, albeit calming. Sonic subconsciously bought a scarf that came out of nowhere, a baby blue with a single, slim strip and tendrils on each end. He even 'bought' matching mittens and a beanie. Amy wore a tight woolen, dull pink jacket and a pure white scarf and white with one red stripe beanie on top of her usual dress. Whether or not that was dream affected that's a different story.Sonic discussed metaphor-driven versions of his recent visions, in which Amy nodded towards, and prompted her to remember the tarot cards in which she had played for him."I told you my cards were never wrong." She stated with a grin. Sonic chuckled."Yeah, I know now huh?" He said.The two talked into the night, Sonic outlying his current fears to her. Most of them...mainly the fact that he hardly knows anyone and fears that they will eventually come to either harm or rebel against him."You know we won't abandon you. We know you're the hero of this planet. There's no doubt. You know when you need help and we know that we will always be friends." She explained.Sonic pondered. "What about Shadow?" He blurted out by accident."What about him?" She asked, confused."Uh...n-nothing..."As it had done many times before, silence filled the air around them. The cold northern winds created minor gusts, lifting up the tendrils of their scarves. Sonic walked alongside Amy, in equal province. He could wake up and find Tails. That seemed to constantly slip off his mind. He already felt the rift between himself and everyone else. But...this barrier was hardly in place with Amy. There were the differences and the similarities as he had pointed out over and over again. The constant vigil stroked him as the norm."I'm worried...I won't be able to escape." Said Sonic.Amy's head lifted. She stared off into deep space, equally deep in thought, concerning Sonic.She looked at her hands then around her, then back to Sonic."What's up?" He asked.She had that look of realization and tensed. "We can't." She muttered.Sonic eyebrows dove in confusion. "Why not?"She frowned. "Never mind..."–They kept strolling along amongst their mutters of matters, when Sonic heard screams for help banging in his ears. From the looks of it, Amy could hear it too."What is that?" She cried."I don't know!" Replied Sonic. "Come on!"Beside them a sudden patch of meters long grass replaced a tall building. Nothing strange for a dream in particular. They ran into it and filtered their way towards the screeching sounds, hastily running forward. They skidded to a halt as all Sonic saw on an lower patch was a smaller walky-talky. Picking it up, Sonic examined it, thumbing his lip. He pressed the receiver button and talked into it."Uh, hello?" He asked."Hello Mr. Thorn."Sonic froze then spun around. It was Abbadonia, who floated there, grasping on to Amy with a suddenly giant hand."Sonic help!" Amy criedSonic scowled. "That was a dirty trick!"Abbadonia cackled. Sonic gazed at Amy, who looked absolutely terrified. Sonic's heart pounded as the Pitlord sniffed all over body, then began tearing off her clothes."Such a fresh body...how I love being invasive to the non-lucids!" She boasted.Sonic rolled into a spin ball and attempted to pound her arm. It spluttered off with lava blood sprinkling everywhere, the arm itself eventually melting, become lava itself. Sonic ran over and picked up Amy and began speeding elsewhere. He kept repeating bated mutters."Itsokayitsokayitsokay..."Suddenly he saw Kikazaru standing to his right as he ran past and skidded. Taking no hesitation, he fled off in her direction, before noticing Abbadonia's Crawlfangs chomping past, pumping more adrenaline into his veins. By the time Sonic had gotten back to where Kikazaru was, she had gone. His head shifted to his left, where Mizaru stood. Sonic ran towards her as a swarm of demonic locusts stormed their way through, barely missing them. Frantically checking his surroundings, Mizaru was no longer there, only Iwazaru was standing from afar. Taking the hint, he ran over to her, ducking his head down and keeping Amy close to him. Thunder roared as rain poured from above. The rain added on to the decibels as the demons screams were approaching. The thick, tall grass was making it difficult to traverse, the mud making it even worse. His feet spluttered about as he headed off in a random direction, away from the screams."Where do you think you're going?"Sonic had slammed into the chest of Abbadonia, who flapped her wings as her bright, fiery head almost exploded, tiny embers bursting off and attempting to crawl all over the two frightened hedgehogs. Having enough, Sonic jumped up and roundhouse kicked Abbadonia in the head, only for his foot to go straight through. Abbadonia gave the most devilish smirk and snatched onto his right leg, accidentally dropping Amy off in the process. Sonic thankfully squirmed out of her grip and picked the fallen Amy and attempted to flee again, as molten lava streamed up from the ground, forming magma plate-like walls with Abbadonia's signature demonic runes. In a circle like fashion, the walls kept coming into place, blocking possible escape routes until it was just Sonic, Amy and Abbadonia, who used her prowess to create two shoots of fire on each side of her. The look on her face as she towered over the cowering pair, was pure evil. She could do anything at this point, and Sonic was powerless to stop it."What do you want?" Sonic demanded. This business of trying to either kill him or screw with him had to stop.Abbadonia only placed one hand on her hip. "Give me the girl, and I will make sure I will take good care of her..."Although her head was just a ball of fire, her eyes were made of ruby, piercing them to the core and her fangs looked like they were made of magma themselves, with hot, glowing cracks that had to be seen to be believed.Sonic shook his head. He was wet, filthy and on the verge of his brain just imploding from anger."No. You're not going to even think about touching her." He grunted. He couldn't put her down, at risk of Abbadonia pulling out a trick of hers."Sonic..." Amy muttered. "I can fight..."Sonic scrunched his eyes. "I don't want to lose you..." He cried out.Amy smiled. "You won't. Come on...you know me..."Sonic forced a smirk. "Fine..." He bated out. She was practically naked, but the only thing no one could take from her was her Piko Piko Hammer. He placed her down as she whipped said hammer out, burning to fight.Abbadonia laughed. "Two against one isn't very fair..." She joked.Sonic's lip twitched. "You haven't been very fair either!" He berated.Abbadonia rolled her eyes. "Two wrongs don't make a right." She said, waving her index finger about."Shut up witch! I'm gonna pound you into the ashes of history!" Amy yelled.Sonic was the first to make a move as he ran forward towards Abbadonia, spin dashing and colliding with Abbadonia's left arm, which broke off. Sonic back flipped and landed on three points, to witness Abbadonia's arm melting back into existence. Amy charged to her, hammer flailing and up in the air, gathering momentum and hacking off Abbadonia's right arm. Amy moved backwards towards Sonic, the right arm coming back. Abbadonia cackled."You have to do more than just attempting to smash my limbs off to defeat me. This isn't Dead Space you know..." Joked Abbadonia.Sonic gave Amy an indicative nod for an idea. Sonic spindashed forward, Amy running behind Abbadonia while Sonic distracted her front. He weaved and dodged as Abbadonia attempted to swipe him with her massive, extending claws, and tried to whack him with her massive bat-like wings. Amy did a memorable graceful jump as timed seemed to slow down for her, thunder crashing and rain falling like bullets failing to drag her down as she thwacked Abbadonia's back from behind, causing her to scream and waggle about. Sonic did another roundhouse kick to her side, knocking Abbadonia over. With her fury, Amy thumped her body multiple times, bringing hatred and fury in every swing and relief with every successful hit. Sonic looked at the ferocious looks on his friends face, sweating and gnashing of the the teeth. He spun into a spindash once more and collided with Abbadonia's stomach, causing her to gasp in her attempts to speak out."You...pesky little hedgehogs..." She said, coughing in between. "But I'm not done yet..."She grabbed onto the Piko Piko Hammer and dragged herself up along with Amy, who was taken with surprise as she was vaulted straight against the walls. Sonic winced, no...she could handle it. She was a big girl now. Sonic opened his mouth...but soon met with several claws to the chest, scars to his chest prevented him from talking. Sonic then saw Amy had quickly recovered and made the decision to thwack Abbadonia's knee, Sonic getting up and kicking the other one. Abbadonia's screech sounded like a thousand banshees at once, the hedgehogs forcibly made to cover their ears as Abbadonia's wings thrust outward, her pain exaggerated through fire spurts from cracks in the ground. She popped her knees back into place and made the hardened walk to Amy. Sonic thought of nothing other than jumping and using his homing attack her shoulder, causing Abbadonia to twitch around and swipe Sonic, who barely got out of the way in time and used a swerve-skidded kick on her leg to trip her over. Amy used all her might to slam the hammer on to Abbadonia's back.Sonic pressed his foot over near her neck and glared at her."Now tell us, what do you want?" He demanded. It was most likely one of the take over the world or destroy the world ploys. It was what most evil-doers wanted after all. Abbadonia looked like she was no exception.She spat and snarked to Sonic. "She's...fresh. This one...is old, weak and pathetic. If I had...her...I would not be in this mess." She spluttered.Sonic looked at Amy. "What is she talking about?" He asked.Amy raised her hands and shrugged. "I dunno..." She answered.Sonic was still not happy as he twisted his foot over her neck, causing her to squeal. "Why are you collecting the artifacts?"Abbadonia chuckled. "Hahaha...the artifacts. My...creations...I made them...for the Rosoideae..."She said as she turned her head to Amy. "But...the Stupilites...the virulent little thieves...stole them and sealed them away..."Sonic's eyes widened. But he shouldn't have been surprised. Especially with the Stupilites. He twisted his foot further to indicate more information was needed, not to mention his question had no been answered. Abbadonia screeched again."My existence lies with Dark Gaia. But the Prophets...hahah...their existence...their lives...lie with me..."Sonic looked at Amy, who seemed to be staring into space. Sonic felt suspicious. No...she couldn't have known. She doesn't know what she's talking about. He could feel the heat from her ever-lit head on his feet, but he didn't care. He just wanted more answers. Lots more."Again...why are you collecting the artifacts?" He barked.Abbadonia snuffed. "You're a Stupilite. You should know why..."Amy grew impatient. Taking back the Hammer, she hit Abbadonia in the back, which appeared to be her weakspot, considering the joints of the wings sat underneath the shoulder-blades as Abbadonia screamed and gargled mercury."Don't you dare! He's Sonic the Hedgehog and you know it! You answer him now or I'll break your pretty little wings off..." She roared.Sonic had never seen Amy so...fierce and threatening, well, more fierce and threatening than usual. There was a fire in her eyes and that wasn't coming from the reflection of the fire spurts. He had been getting vibes that something in her had changed. Was this the fear he needed to get out of the dream?"Such...power within you...Rosoideae...your kind...however, was built on desperation, manipulated by power and had fallen on such terms. Your own stupidity...lusts for power sent you tumbling into the oceans of hatred. I remember...the first Prophet...he prayed...he prayed for it...sending your kind into eternal damnation."Sonic was reminded of a saying. "You're saying the Rosoideae made a deal with you?"Abbadonia laughs echoed. "I hung on to his pleas. The house wasn't even a proper house back then. The pink hedgehogs were war-ravaged and lax. Like the Stupilites after them, they were scattered across the ancient world, looking for a place to call their own. A young pink hedgehog...I remember him so well because of his foolishness...his name was Judan...prayed and prayed for days on end until I responded...he said...'We need life...we need stability...we need structure...'."Sonic tilted his head in interest. "And you created the artifacts?" He said.Abbadonia smirked. "They sealed their fate with the first one I created for them. Those words that I spoke on that day...were 'Abbaton, Sphere of Abyss."Thunder continued blasting around them, as warping portal appeared out of nowhere, with Sonic seeing Shadow jumping out of it."I finally found you..." Said Shadow.Abbadonia spat at the black hedgehog, then sniffed the air. "I thought I recognized that horrid stench." She said, lying there. Two more figures popped out the portal. One was a white bat, the other a wide, red robot."So you're the one that's causing all the trouble..." Said the bat, in a husky voice."DETECTION OF ANOMALY FOUND!" Churned the robot, loud and monotone."Shadow...Rouge...Omega..." Amy muttered.The portal disappeared as Shadow waved his arm about. Omega crawled about and grabbed hold of Abbadonia and slammed her weakened body against the magma walls, Shadow using his Chaos Spears on her arms, legs and the top and bottoms of her wings. Sonic stood back as Amy ran towards Shadow and hugged him, Sonic almost forgetting this was...still a dream..."Sonic and I beat up her good! She was no match for us!" She said proudly.Shadow grinned as she clung onto his arm. He had a good look at her. "I think you should put some clothes on before we do anything else today."Amy giggled. "I'm so sorry! I almost forgot!" She said, blushing. Shadow rolled his eyes."Don't worry about it...too much." He muttered to her. He then turned to Sonic."Get Amy out of here. Team Dark will take it from here."Sonic blinked. "But I have to keep talking to her! She has information I need!" He plead.Abbadonia rose her head and snarled at Sonic. "I gave you what you needed...you were warned...she has her fate...you have yours. The cycle continues."Sonic tried to retaliate, but was stopped by Rouge."Listen Sonic, Shadow, Omega and I will deal with this. We will have to write a report, but we promise to explain it all to you later on."Shadow nodded. "Yes. Rouge is right Sonic. Don't make me beat the message into you...go..."He turned around and summoned another portal via the usage of two Chaos Emeralds and gave one to Amy."I hear it's a good luck charm..." He said with reassurance. Amy looked at Abbadonia."But I want...to smash her more for what she did to me!" She yelled, stamping her foot like a child. Shadow, in a weird out of character moment, (according to Sonic) hugged full."I know...I know the feeling all too well." He assured. Amy sighed."Alright...come on Sonic!" She said, waving him over. Sonic glimpsed over to Abbadonia, who was giving him her evil smile. There was a quirk about her that Sonic couldn't place. Plus something didn't feel right. A demon like her should have had more...fight instead of falling so easily...
She's...fresh. This one...is old, weak and pathetic. If I had...her...I would not be in this mess.
Those words echoed in Sonic's thoughts. A quote that was stitched into his mind. He would figure it out eventually. Suddenly Sonic fell forward, giving in to the pain in his chest from Abbadonia's good slashing. Great...wounds. He wasn't going to allow himself to pass out. No...he had to still be under the effects of the hallucinogen. Sonic would wake up and it would be all okay.He could trust Team Dark, even though their methods were questionable, they were get the results. Sonic walked over to Amy as they took one last look at Abbadonia, then at Team Dark, and jumped into the portal...Sonic jumped out on the other side. It took him a minute to try and process where they were. Still under the cover of night, below the crater of starshine, what little moonlight shone hinted that he had returned back to the Garden of Rosales. Where it all started.Amy looked at herself and tried to shield her more naughtier parts. "Sonic...what are we doing here? I need clothes! Eurgh!"Sonic almost forgot and blushed furiously. He scanned around for items to construct makeshift clothes. Since there were no proper trees or shrubs in the area, this was going to be a bit difficult. The only notable plants were the Abbadonia Roses that continued to be scattered across the Garden.They were even less than useful. Amy walked behind Sonic as the two hedgehogs explored the ruins depths. Past the fountains and down the main street, the towering image of the Prophets Temple overshadowed the roads, its golden roof tiles glistened in the moonlight. The deathly silence separated them as they walked in the the Temple, Amy stepping on a tile, causing the torches that were across the walls to light up, startling her. The chair on the other side glittered, causing Amy to swoon over it."I wanna touch it! But my logic says usually pretty things are most likely cursed." She joked as she hid behind Sonic, who laughed."Amy, there's no one else here. Why are you hiding when it's just you and me?" He joked.The sound of a Hammer hitting Sonic's skull flung him to the front of the chair, falling face first in the ground. Amy leaned on her Piko Piko and glared at him. Her theory was correct, by her standards. She walked over Sonic on purpose, in order to annoy him."I'll let you know that I am a girl. We have special needs!" She said, sitting on the chair and leaning her feet on Sonic's back, as if he was a rug.Sonic himself grumbled in pain. He would never understand girls. Getting up, he saw that Amy was happily dancing her fingers alongside the armrests. For someone was almost...tainted, she was acting okay. However horrid the situation was, Amy was berserk or moderately calm, which disturbed Sonic. Slightly off would be the better term for it. Of course it was character for her to bash him, so not all was completely lost. The thought of Shadow making her personality better might be a good thing after all. He praised that, Shadow could protect as much as he could, even more so. The illogical reasoning, the oddness, picked at Sonic's conscious thoughts.The Temple started vibrating suddenly, with debris falling from above. Sonic's instinct was to shield Amy, so he jumped onto edge of the chair and held on to the back of it, withdrawing his head in to prevent himself from being concussed. Amy shriveled into a fetal position, not making a sound. Then, as quickly as the quake came, it disappeared. Sonic realized he had squeezed his eyes shut whilst defending Amy, who uncurled herself and stared at Sonic. The blue hedgehog felt his cheeks warm up briefly, as he lept off the chair in a back flip, to see a rather bewildered Amy staring at something, with sparkles in her eyes. Confused, Sonic spun around to see what she had been looking at, and what was making the room glow.Before him sat a tomb like apparatus, the inside had a loose pink silk inside, holding then, gold large ring like necklaces that had gemstones inside. One a baby blue, another yellow and the last a light green, supported a circular pendants. Sonic rubbed his eyes to get a closer look, as Amy made her way and leaned in to get a glimpse, her face in awe of the most beautiful pieces of jewelery she had ever seen. Sonic thought back to what the Prince had told him."I met a man..." He said. "A Hedgehog, pink like you, said he was the Prince of his people. He also mentioned having to search for precious gemstones. At first, I thought he meant the Chaos Emeralds, but no...these are far too small to be Emeralds."Amy looked at Sonic, then back to the necklaces."Doesn't surprise me. The Prince was probably looking for his family jewels." She mentioned.Sonic rolled his eyes at her words, which Amy simply was absent-minded about. "Are you sure these are the ones he was talking about?"Sonic nodded. "I'm sure. They were meant...for..." He stopped, suddenly getting an idea...He grabbed the necklaces carefully, then Amy snatched the baby blue one, stating that it was her favourite. Sonic cracked a smidge of a smile. She knew that they had to go back to their rightful owner, but she wore the blue one just in case. Sonic didn't bother and put the necklaces in the back of his fur, where everything else was packed. Amy no longer felt too naked, but still awkward nonetheless. He spoke of the Portals, to which Amy simply nodded towards as he explained them to her. Taking her hand, they ran off to the Portal Hub and activated Portal Five and blasted inside.Sonic kept running. Regardless of what little was going on around him, he ran to the Prince's mansion in quick haste, Amy barely getting a glimpse of her surroundings. As they reached the front doors, Sonic knocked on them."Hello?" Said Lily, as she opened the door. "Oh hi Sonic! Come on in!"Sonic nodded as he and Amy walked inside. Amy clung onto Sonic's shoulders, still trying to cover herself. Lily tilted her head in curosity."Are you okay there ma'am?" She asked. Amy blushed with embarrassment."I'm...in need of clothes...if you have any spares." She asked, with the bottom half of her head below Sonic's left shoulder.Lily smiled. "I'm sure the girls would only be happy to share." She replied.Amy nodded. She took off the necklace and gave it back to Sonic. "You said your friend needed this...I don't intend to run away with someone elses things." She muttered.Sonic thanked her as he placed the necklace with the others, then faced Lily."You mind if I speak to the Prince? I need a word." He asked her.Lily bowed. "Of course. He's in his room as usual." Lily answered. She looked at Amy to indicate that she would show her to the girls rooms, trying to note that it was okay to get out from behind Sonic. After a moment of hesitation, she finally came out and walked alongside Lily, only stopping to talk to Sonic."How long do you think you'll take? I need to get back home." Amy pondered to Sonic."Not long...I'll make it brief." He answered.Amy turned back around and went on her way elsewhere and chatted alongside Lily as they walked off.Meanwhile Sonic went up to the Prince's main chamber doors and knocked on them."Who is it?" Ordered the Prince."It's Sonic." The blue hedgehog complied."Enter."Sonic stepped inside to a facade of smoke, and the young Prince brooding on his supposed throne. Sonic tried not to cough as Hayden drunk whiskey from a shot glass and pounded it back onto the desk. The smoke had the scent of strawberries, emanating from a cigar that balanced between Hayden's fingers."What can I do for you Stupilite?" Said Hayden.Sonic approached the desk and placed the necklaces on it, spreading them out. Hayden got out of his chair and placed his hands on opposites sides to get a glimpse."I think these maybe those gemstones you were looking for." Sonic promoted.Hayden smiled with surprise. "Really? Where did you find them?"Sonic shrugged. "Well, it was weird. I was in the Prophets Temple and-""The Temple of the Prophets?" Hayden interrupted. "Impossible...we had the Fatalex look all over the Temple and-""Woah lemme finish!" Sonic said, raising his hands in a passive motion, not caring that he was telling off royalty, but Hayden didn't seemed annoyed, just...stunned."Go on..." Apologized Hayden, sitting back, intertwining his fingers and lowering his head in noble shame.Sonic gave a deep breath. "Anyway, I wasn't looking at it at the time, but suddenly this tomb rose out of the ground and it had these in them."Hayden glimpsed at these necklaces very carefully and with utmost interest. The desperation of getting these gemstones...the curiosity of their holdings as if finding a long lost childhood toy.The glint in his eyes, the gape in his mouth suggested all that this indeed, was what he had been looking for.Sonic crossed his arms and went on. "I was with my friend Amy at the time. She sat on the throne as violent young princesses do an-""What?" Said Hayden, his attention spun to Sonic, freezing his motions. "She...sat on the Prophets chair?"Sonic looked left and right very quickly, confused by this confirmation repetition. "Uh...I just said that."Hayden looked down and was in deep thought and tapped his right index finger, scanning the necklaces. "Never mind." He said, standing up. "Thank you. This will help us greatly into finding more answers. Maybe I will discover the true reason of the devastating destruction of our people."Sonic nodded. "Glad to be of assistance." He said, smiling"Incidentally I need you to do another task for me...if it isn't too much to ask of you." Presented Hayden."Shoot." Replied Sonic.Hayden bowed his head. "One of the Fatalex has found another artifact, namely the Shell of Emotions. Deliberately toys with the feelings of other people to mold their judgment. The Shell was used to make future kings and queens fall in love with another, and rumour has it, gain small prejudice against the Stupilites, in order to prevent them from forging unities with the rest of the Rosoideae. She did not mention where she found it, only the possible location of the next artifact."Sonic nodded. These Rosoideae were beginning to sound much less heroic and noble than they used to be. No wonder they went down hill."Remember when I mentioned to you last time, about how some descendants worked upon Space Colony ARK?" Hayden browed, Sonic thinking back. "The Agent discovered the Shell was next to a set of blue prints. I'm suspecting this other artifact was with another group of people. I mean, blue prints next to a Shell...that's a story I'm less likely to believe in."Sonic shrugged. He wondered which Agent was the one that had found, Sonic's thought surrounding the fact that it might actually be GUN. He began to link the connections between the Fatalex and GUN themselves, and Shadow. While he was here, he might as well explain what had happened at the Sea Scroll Zone.Sonic spoke of when he had left the compound and into Sea Scroll. He went up against Metal Sonic, then inhaled a strange gas then went on further about the hallucinations and ending up at Amy's house. Gathering from Hayden's expressions, he had knowledge of this. Shadow did tell Sonic that he was drugged, but the specific drug was unclear to him."Regardless of what Dr. Eggman said, it's not new. It was often used as a type of punishment, not to mention to tame unruly Stupilites...according to legend." Hayden explained.Yet again, Sonic's faith in the Rosoideaes faltered. The morality of their methods was questioned."Lemme guess, it was invented specifically for blue hedgehogs like me?" He said with sarcasm.Hayden poured another shot of whisky and drunk it quickly. "It acts worse...for the Stupilites. Prejudice was common in those days."Indeed it would. That kind of power allowed alteration of standards, no matter immoral it was.After their discussion of gases, Eggman, The Ark, History in general, Hayden turned his attention back towards the artifact. Hayden babbled on about the Ring of Memories and how it could be situated upon the ARK. No doubt, another joyous run throughout the mess of the the place was just as fun as running through the Death Egg. In fact, they had so much in common it was so hard to tell them apart...except for the fact that the Death Egg attempted to live up to its name with its ginormous size and penchant for numerous spikes and gravity altercations. Nonetheless, there was nothing wrong with heading back there. But he still had to find Tails. That kept coming back into his head. Poor guy, Sonic could only continue, as he would not have any clue where he was. He could run around the world to find up, but something, somewhere, would force him to wake up from this supposed dream. Sonic was strong enough to understand it, but even if he did, he doubted his concept of understanding was even close to the real reality. He stood tall and was ready and waiting for the next mission."Alright, so I go to the ARK, find the Ring and then come back? Sounds easy..." Sonic said, smirking.
KNOCK KNOCK
"Who is it?" Asked Hayden."Agent Drainer sir." Replied a voice."Enter."Drainer opened the door, walked inside and closed it. Her head was down, her movements sluggish. She lifted her head as she came to the desk and looked at the Prince."I was ordered by Agent Shadow to extract a toxin from Sonic." She said in a dull tone.Hayden bowed his head. "Very well. Do what you must."Sonic was expecting a needle and dreaded as he winched. Instead, Drainer examined the wounds on the top left side of his chest that he had received from Abbadonia vicious claws. "Be thankful I don't have to stab you Sonic." She explained.Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "Uh...why?"Drainer didn't reply as she grabbed Sonic's shoulders and forced him to face her. Spreading her legs into a star position, her hands rose upwards as she swung her arms across her chest, then flinging them backwards into a shaken struggle, forcing her right knee forward and left leg back into a lunging pose. Sonic's chest seared in agony as a violet light twirled in dust, forming a ball of Emberish yellow in the middle, forcing Sonic to fall over and land on his hands and knees. The pain was almost unbearable, but within fifteen seconds Drainer was done. Sonic puffed and panted as he got himself off the ground. He looked at the strange ember ball being coddled by swirling violet dusts. Drainer pulled out a vial from her belt, then let the ball become fluid and pour into the vial, Drainer placing a cork in it for security. Sonic tilted his head in curiosity, examining the substance in which was pulled out of him."What...what is that?" Sonic asked, weirded out."That...is Abbadonia's Fury. Very potent." She explained. "Made from Abbadonia Roses."Sonic flicked back to what Tails had read out to him. The book had a bit that talked about something that caused hallucinations when burnt. Convenient."You should be fine now that it's out of your bloodstream." Comforted Drainer.Sonic gave a thumbs up."Sweet. Thanks Drainer."Drainer did not wain, nor did she give any indication she was happy for it. Her wearing a helmet didn't help either. Instead, she bowed to Hayden before heading out.Sonic gave a nod to Hayden to get on with it and exited the room as well. Going downstairs, he walked around the mansion to go search for Amy. But what would she do? Her house was either still wet or what ever. He fumbled over what he could do. Wake up...or keep going. He wasn't tired, probable proof that he was deep in slumber. It was time to return to the ARK.Upon Hayden's interrogations, he mentioned that there was a portal that linked the ARK to Rosales. It was built in a secret room that was written on the blueprints. He bumped into Lily, who had gave said blueprints to Sonic, unexpectedly."I knew He would give them to you and only you." Said Lily, keeping a creepily calm demeanor that Sonic ignored."If you're looking for your friend, she's in the girls room. I will take you to her."Sonic complied as he followed Lily back upstairs. Instead of turning left to Hayden's quarters, they turned right into a long hallway filled with many doors. Why did mansions need so many rooms anyway? Half the time nobody uses them. More portraits of ancestral kings, queens, princes and princesses. Families, children and the like. Further down Sonic heard giggles, he assumed it was Amy with the Pseudo Wisers. They finally got to the end as Lily knocked on the open door."Come in."The girls room was quaint...girlish. Filled to the brim with mainly a four colour pallet of Green, Blue and Yellow with splashes of pink here and there. The kings sized bed had evidence all three girls slept in it, the pillow cases adjacent to each one representing each colour, the doona was a cream-white with a silky line boxed all around. Sonic could see the bits of pieces of junk...or treasure hanging off walls. Broken dolls and jewelery, things hanging off the roof and clothes everywhere. Amy sat with the girls on top of the bed huddled in a circle. She was the first to turn around. The PW's had given her some new clothes to wear. Namely a buttoned white vest that bared her midriff and tight, white three quarter leggings. She'd left her boots on the floor and her red headband was still on her.He recognized one girl, who waved to him and had a gaping grin on her face. Her blue clothing indicated that had to be Hera."Who is it?" Said a softly spoken girl. She too, looked like Amy, but wore a green singlet and emerald three quarter jeans."It's Sonic!" Said Amy as she jumped off the couch and hugged Sonic, which Sonic noticed that there was a slight hesitation in her clingyness. Was this what a normal hug from Amy Rose felt like? Maybe he was so used to getting chocked to death. He saw another girl with a small, heartfelt smile. She did not speak, but her choice of wear was woolen yellow shirt, and a darkened yellow track-pants.As Amy let go, Sonic explained the situation to Amy who nodded in turn, albeit surprised at another potential visit to the ARK."Sounds like fun. I'll go with you!" Amy said with excitement.Sonic shook his head, for he possessed a fear that began to make him sick. He was worried that she would be hurt, that sickness continuing to gripe at him."No. Stay here. You will be safe." He assured. He was prompted by the body language the girls were giving off, hoping a protective stance was in order.Her expression changed as her brows deepened. "I can take care of myself!" She said with hard earned determination. Sonic would have none of it."I don't want you getting in my way!" He explained.Amy huffed. "Who says I will be getting in your way Mr. Hero?". Her arms flung to her hips as she leaned forward, wearing a scowl."You're gonna get kidnapped. You know the ARK is unpredictable...if anything you'll get lost, hurt. I want to the mission as quick as possible without having to worry about it!"Amy glared at him. She was not happy with this...not one bit."Of course it's unpredictable! You have to have faith in me!"It wasn't that he didn't have faith...imagery flashed in his mind of that weird ghostly, bleeding Amy from his dreams, or hallucinations. She would better suited to stay with her supposed people. She might even have better use here than on the ARK. He needed to be alone. Just for a while until he got things sorted. With himself."I'm ordering you to stay here and that's final!" Sonic roared, causing Amy to react with a saddened look on her face. She said nothing as she turned her back on him and scrunched her hands."Fine! Be that way! Go on your stupid mission by your stupid self!"He'd rather have her angry with him than her being kidnapped, that picture of Abbadonia tearing her clothes off like that no doubt had plagued his mind, like her innocence was deliberately being torn from her. Why couldn't people just leave her alone? Especially now that she was dating Shadow. Go annoy him instead. He would dare them, because Shadow would rarely show mercy to those who dare cross his line. And that line was thin. Meaning it did not take much to tick the guy off.She turned back to the girls, who all sat next to each other, holding hands and a feared expression on their faces. Amy sighed, letting go off the pointless anger."What's wrong?" Asked Sonic.Amy rubbed her arm. "These poor girls. Been here all their life, living in fear. I told them about the necklaces we found.""And?" Sonic pushed. He took a gander, knowing the three had been living here for so long. The factor of meeting someone else who was of the same kind crossed his mind. Ugh! Why didn't he think of that before?"After what they've been through, they're worried that they're just gonna some tools in their ploy."Who's ploy?" Sonic asked.Hera shuffled forward. "It's...""Girls we have an emergency!" Yelled Lily as she came charging back in.Lily quickly gathered the girls and made them dress neatly. Her face was flushed as she constantly tried to get her hair bangs out of her eyes as she brush the quills of the girls and put make up on them. The girls were shaking in fear, seemingly expecting some sort of visit. She shoved and shooed them to go to the Princes main chamber. Sonic scratched his head in confusion, wondering what this paranoia was all about. Lily took no time in grabbing Sonic and Amy and shoving them into a tight closet."I'm sorry Mr. Sonic and Miss. Rose, but this is for your own good!" She said. Sonic took a glimpse of her face, which was now drawn and tired and beginning to riddle in sweat. Lily slammed the door and darkened the room. The closet was...small...with Amy pushed up against him, their noses almost touching."Did you ask about this?" Sonic said sarcastically."No! None of them mentioned anything!" She barked.Lily banged on the door. "Shh, you two be quiet!" She said as Sonic heard her high heels clammering against the wooden floors and downstairs."What do you think is going on out there?" Amy whispered as she tried to move her arms about, but they were being pegged down by thick towels, only then managing to her hand several centimeters.
BANGBANGBANG! BOOM!
Both Sonic and Amy gulped in unison as massive footsteps raddled about. Sonic tried listening in to the conversations.The front doors had been ripped and thrown across the yard with dozens of the jolly orange robots scattering everywhere and around the mansion. Inside, a well-known Doctor stood beside a familiar Demoness."Dr. Eggman! Abbadonia! It's good to see you again!" Bowed an obviously nervous Lily.Dr. Eggman had his arms crossed and his face in a fowl mood, alongside Abbadonia who leaned on side with her hands on her hips, with an expression not too far from Eggmans."We're here to see the darling Prince." Said Abbadonia. Lily bowed her head."Yes. He's upstairs with the girls." Lily replied. Her voice was almost shaky with sadness, fear and regret.Sometimes we forget that we're still dreaming...The subconscious can build an illusion of reality,and push those thoughts elsewhere.As both the sub and normal consciousnessfilter out rhyme from reason,we carry on with our metaphorical obstacles.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sonic did not fear the darkness, nor did he mind the non-sensory that came with it. It comes in abundance within Caves, Haunted Houses and your general spookiness.But this...this was almost claustrophobia-inducing. Shut inside a dark cupboard, dingy and dusty, Sonic using his will to prevent himself from sneezing. He heard voices briefly although it wasn't Amy, Lily, Abbadonia, Hayden or any of the girls. Amongst the blank black canvas was a hole of light, with people streaming about. A lot of the words were too mumbled to understand. He could have fallen asleep there and then before Amy kneed him in the stomach.Time passed as he nearly forgotten that she was in there with him. How could one forget that a partial reason for this kind of discomfort was made worse by the fact that it was two people slammed into what might of been a closet for blankets and bits and pieces of mansion junk. Wide awake, Sonic could feel her breath on his shoulder, indicating he must have shifted and hit Amy by accident. Her breathing was...totally calm. She wasn't freaking out, but it was so quiet in there he could almost hear their heartbeats, hers was hammering away. Sonic's was as well. Scared, excited, it wasn't too much of a stretch to believe it was the situation. In fact it most likely was.He froze when something hit his nose, something of equal feel. Amy silently gasped."Sorry..." Sonic whispered."That's okay." Amy whispered back.Sonic cursed his stomach once more, scrunching his hand. Seriously, hungry? Again?He tried so diligently to listen in to the conversation beyond the doors.Amongst the strawberry scented chamber, Prince Hayden leaned on the desk before him, looking apathetic as Eggman and Abbadonia stormed into the room, a bunch of robots flocking it. The Psuedo Wisers stood in a row on the right wall, appearing to be waiting for orders. The Prince had the necklaces spread out across the desk, Abbadonia strolling her way towards it. She picked the green one at it, and raised it up to see it in the light. Sporting an evil grin, she looked towards the girls."So...you're the next generation of the Wisers?" She said, her tone seductive. "Your names?"The three could be mistaken for triplets, not for their resemblance but for the way that they had stood next to one another, hands together in front of them, their heads down and avoiding eye contact."I will speak for them." Said the Prince as he shot off his chair, only to be knocked back by a robot.Eggman snarled. "You will wait until you're spoken to!" He barged."I will talk to the blind one." Said Abbadonia, as she glinted at the girl in the middle wearing the yellow."I am Ese..." She said softly, keeping her head down."The girl to the left is Hera, and to my right is Pekas."Abbadonia smirked as she tugged on Ese's cheek. "Aww such a good girl. If only the rest of your kind was as obedient as you."The Prince wanted to stand his ground as he glared at the Demoness, his anger rising, his patience barely holding him together and preventing him from causing utter chaos."I'm glad you have done this for me young Prince, you are one step closer to salvation." Abbadonia said as she nodded and clicked her fingers.Hayden held his head high as the robots let go of him. "I have gotten what you wanted. Now lift the curse and let my people go!"Abbadonia waggled her index finger. "Nuh uh uh! Not until these girls help me find the locations of the artifacts! And now with these...these wonderful necklaces I will harness the true power of the Wisers!"Eggman pointed to Hayden. "Put em' on for her, and we'll make sure we will take good care of them!"Hayden struggled as the robots grabbed hold of him once more, forcing him to take out his sword and slice several of them in half, dodging their thrown punches. But with their numbers he was swamped and punched in the eye."Now now you're highness there's no need to get edgy. How else will your people find rest if you're dead?" Spoke Abbadonia in a baby-like speak.Hayden had his hand over his right eye, then letting go."I will do it myself." He said with pride, withdrawing his sword."Good...now get it over and done with!" Eggman graveled.Pushing his way through a legion of robots, he took each of the necklaces and went to the girls, memories of their past streaming in his fore-thoughts. The way his father treated them were dark, but happier memories of them all playing out in the fields forced him to downplay a smile.He was in front of Hera, who lowered her head. He tapped her shoulder, forcing her head up."Your Majesty..." She whispered. Tears ran down her face, The prince almost resorting to do the same, but kept strong."I don't like the colour red...""Neither do I...that is why we prefer pink..." He lipped to her, her eyes sown on every word.Hayden hesitated for a moment, before placing the necklace over Hera's head. She stood still, her eyes glaring out in a fierce icy blue. At this point she had stopped shaking and had her arms by her sides.Hayden sighed as he went to Ese. Poor girl, blind as a bat, had sweat rolling down her face and a quivering lip."Your Majesty..." She sputtered. Hayden lifted her chin up with his index finger to look into her pure white eyes."Don't fear what you cannot see." He said with calming motion as he placed the necklace on her.Like with Hera, Ese straightened her body out, her eyes bursting out in in light emerald glow.Hayden gave Ese a moment of his comforting stare before switching to Pekas. Her head too was held down low, forcing Hayden to lift it up with his two hands. Her face was emotionless, but he could see that sad look in her eyes."I know you cannot speak...but your actions always speak louder than words ever could."He said as he placed the necklace on her, causing her too, to straighten herself out as her eyes were enveloped into a golden yellow glow.One of Eggmans robots got hold of Haydens shoulders and forced him backwards as Abbadonia stood in front of them and rubbed her hands together with a sinister snarl on her face."For four thousand years I have waited. Since the downfall of the Echidnas and the reckoned uprisings of those humans..." She said, trailing off. Sonic couldn't take it anymore, he wouldn't let Abbadonia or Eggman get away with such villainy. He burst out of the closet, almost knocking poor Lily over and blasted to the main chamber, skidding inside and alerting all to his presence."Sonic what a pleasant surprise?" Eggman sneered. Sonic glared, then looked over to Prince Hayden who was shaking his head. Abbadonia looked over to him."I thought you might head off in this general direction. Only someone as naïve as you would go into a place of what you thought was a probably source of solace." She said "Dr. Eggman, please take care of this! I'm taking the girls elsewhere!""With pleasure!" Eggman replied with glee, rubbing his hands together. He ordered the robots to group up on him, Sonic desperate to jump up and smash them, but there were just too many smothering him up."Hey! Lemme go!" Sonic demanded.With the flick of her finger, a circular hole opened up beneath the Psuedo-Wisers as Abbadonia floated behind them and drew them down into it. Prince Hayden roared as he tried to slash through the robots holding him down, his rage blaring. By the time Sonic and Hayden managed to destroy them, Abbadonia and the girls were gone. All that was left was a pile of broken down robots and a gloating Dr. Eggman. Sonic ran up and lifted him by his collar, and slammed him against the wall, with Prince Hayden joining him, helping support the elevation."Where is she taking them?" Demanded Hayden.Eggman laughed and raised his hands passively."Honestly I don't know!"SLAP! A clean hit to the face by Sonic's palm stunned him briefly."Seriously I don't know!"Hayden poked his sword into Eggman's stomach. "WHERE IS SHE TAKING THEM?"Eggman started to sweat slightly as he waved his arms about. "I was only ordered to escort her here once I got the phone call."Sonic looked at Hayden. "What phone call?" He wondered. Prince Hayden paid no attention to Sonic as the Princes eyes pierced through Eggman, who grinned at that response."BECOE! DECOE! GET YOUR LOWSY MECHANICAL BUTTS IN HERE!" He barked.Suddenly the entire back wall crumbled as a metal claw smashed through the roof, grabbing the wall and tossing it aside, revealing another Eggman mecha in the shape of Eggmans younger self.The cockpit revealed Becoe and Decoe pulling levers, before the protective glass opened up."Come Doctor." Said Decoe, who shifted the hand to grab Eggman out of Sonic and Haydens hold.The hand plonked Eggman inside the cockpit behind Becoe and Decoe and shut the protective glass."Sorry my little warthogs, gotta run, you know, world domination and stuff like that...toodle oo!"He gloated as the mecha blasted off into deep space. Sonic and Hayden ran to the edge in the attempt to catch up, but the mecha proved even fast for them, but Sonic wasn't going to give up, as he jumped out then onto the roof, hoping to grab hold of the mecha's leg but with no avail. He clicked his finger. "Ah nuts!" He complained. Sonic went back inside with Prince Hayden, Lily and Amy, who seemed rightly peeved at Sonic.Hayden stood at the front of his room, looking across at the damage that had been done and sighed.Amy attempted to walk in and comfort him, but was stopped by Lily."This house means everything to him. But the girls meant more." She explained, saddened."Now that Abbadonia has the key to finding the rest of the artifacts, the ghosts won't be able to rest."Sonic scratched his head. "Wait? What do they have to with finding them?" He asked.Hayden turned around and headed towards them. "Legends had it that the last Prophet had tasked the Wisers to seal the artifacts anywhere they could before she died. Might have been her last request." He answered."So they're the only ones that know where the artifacts actually lie?" Amy wondered.Hayden looked down. "Presumably. They were most likely sent through each portal to each area and seal them off for good, weakening Abbadonia."Amy nodded. Then hit Sonic, who was surprised. "Hey what was that for?" He asked."Lily shut us off into the cupboard for a reason! Then you had to come out and be Mr. Hero again!"She replied angrily.Sonic was appalled. "What? How could I have possib-""She was planning to take them away anyway, regardless of what you would have done." Lily butted in.Amy scratched her head in confusion. "Then how did they know that the necklaces were already here? We just arrived not long ago."Sonic was going to say the same thing. There had to be something particularly fishy going on around here. The air was tense and silence did nothing to quell it.Lily just shook her head and fumbled about as she looked to her left. "I don't know. Maybe its best that you two leave while we repair the walls. We will look for the girls. You worry about your friend and the artifacts."Sonic nodded. "Okay will do."The pair made their way back to the Portal when Amy stopped all of a sudden and whipped out her hammer and smashed it to the ground, stunning Sonic."What's up?" He asked, deeply concerned but kept a distance. He could see that there was nothing but rage in her eyes, even more so than before."Idiots! They sacrificed the girls to save their own skin! It's so...stupid!" Amy said, squeezing her fists her entire arms shaking violently.Sonic didn't know if he should comfort her or not, out of risk of her smashing him to bits. Instead, he rested his palm over her fist, prompting to stop and gaze at him with the most confused look on her face. The rage was still there, but was slowly being enveloped with sadness. Deep inside, there was resentment crossed with puzzled spikes. These girls were of the same particular species as her, causing an instant connection with them all. Sonic would not let this go unnoticed..."I hate this...I HATE THIS!" She said, whipping out her hammer again."I don't understand why it keeps changing all the time!"Sonic tilted his head. "What's changing?" He asked.Amy gave him a hopeful hint, but then changed to despair as she held her head. "No...it's nothing. Honestly. We gotta go find those artifacts!"Sonic nodded in tandem, but was curious. There was a truth she did not wish to burden him with. He left it to her devices to see if she eventually spill. But it was none of his own business. Within that silence, They went through the portal and back into the Hub. The Prince had mentioned in their talk that the Portal to the ARK was the seventh one. He turned to Amy."Look, you don't have to come if you don't want to." He suggested.Amy sighed as she checked her watch."As much as I would love to, I can't. Maybe next time!" She said, turning around."Why the change of heart?" Sonic asked, believing that there was more to the story."It's late. I gotta go home. I have work in the morning." She replied."Want me to take you home then? The ARK can wait...I mean, it is a long way back home from here."Amy shook her head again. "Its fine. I can call Shadow to come pick me up." She noted.Sonic just shrugged. Maybe it was true that Amy transferred her dependency on Sonic onto Shadow. After Amy left, Sonic attempted to scan the Amberite once more, trying to access the Seventh Portal. The air shifted, but didn't bother Sonic. He knew who it was and scanned the Amberite anyway."Look, I'm sorry. But it was something I couldn't help." He said, approaching the Portal as it made usual actions and sounds."They can no longer help you. But we still can..." Muttered Shizaru. Sonic face-palmed."Yeah I should thank them for leading me and Amy to almost killing ourselves." He barked."Just turn around..."He rolled his eyes to have a look at her. She was now wearing the same clothes as Amy was. The buttoned white vest that bared her midriff and tight, white three quarter leggings. He noted the lack of boots and headband. Sonic was not entirely happy with her encrypted messages. Why couldn't he just get the straight facts?"Do you still feel that you're dreaming?" She asked him, walking up to him and having her hand over her chest."I keep forgetting that I am." He replied sarcastically."The time will come for when you will soon understand." Said Shizaru.Sonic rubbed his forehead. "Understand what? I'm beginning to understand there's something going on here and you're not telling me anything useful."No reply. She'd vanished once, living a tinge of anger stuck in his mind. Everything was too weird and complicated to sort out. He stuck with what he was properly told by Hayden and go to the ARK.He shoved his anger away and ran through the portal. The other side was dark, only small LEDs flashed across the room. All that was heard was the air conditioner.Sonic walked around as he searched for either a light switch or better yet, a way out.He tiptoed around, feeling the scale-metal walls and ridges amongst smooth and rough surfaces until his finger clicked, causing the room to light up.The whole room was littered with Ancient Mobikian scribble and possible graffiti. The script being red in nature meant they had to be written in blood, assumingly by a slight stench. Whispers filled the silence, as if a thousand souls crowded the room. The roof was low, just above the Portal itself, which had not been elevated like the others, just a clean slate of iron used as a path. Hundreds of black wires connected in the back, meaning there was a certain power source for it which didn't make sense, considering the others didn't have it. Facing the same way the portal faced, there was a violet light circling the corner, bits of its sparkle raining into nothing. It had to be the same Violet Sprite thing he'd seen before. Sonic ran over to sprite, before it vanished behind the wall. Using his fingers, Sonic rimmed around before a slate of the wall shifted sideways, revealing a hidden box passage. Sonic got down on his knees and crawled through it, jumping out. It turned out the passage was just some random air vent and had looked like it was had been used just recently.The next room was slightly better. It looked like a rundown lab, but more cleaner than usual. Except for the more weird Mobikian messages scrawled all over the walls. Where was Knuckles when you needed him? But enough about that, the ARK was a bad enough maze to go through. Sonic walked through another door to trigger his memory.He flashed back to when he and Amy stood at a glass window, after Shadow had fallen after the battle with the Biolizard. This was that same exact room. Whether or not it had more context was not as justified. He approached the window and looked upon the glorious Earth and contemplated.Was this real Earth he had to fight for? For all Sonic cared he was probably some memory filling Dream or some other crud like that. Didn't matter, for Sonic figured, the Earth would look beautiful in blue in any positive visionary. He moved on to several other rooms. All had the same look, but did not have the written messages on the walls. A lot of it was pristine as the day it still functioned as a proper Space Station. He walked passed more lab rooms filled with nothing but tech junk. However he stopped as he went passed one and back walked to see a familiar two-tailed fox working on something. Sonic looked for the nearest door inside and ran inside to see his friend."Hey Tails!" Sonic cried.Tails looked up and turned around. The smile on his face had to be seen to be believed."Sonic I knew you would come!" He said, the Hedgehog and the Fox hugging.Sonic grinned. "You know me!" Sonic conciliated, pulling a thumbs up. He had a glimpse at what Tails was working on."I found it while walking around. I figured, that after I couldn't go through the portal again, I would search around." Tails explained.Sonic nodded. "Were you surprised to find out it was the ARK?" Sonic queried.Tails just shrugged and turned his attention to a small, charcoal coloured ring with onyx jewel embedded into it. "Of course! I looked all over, until I found this lying around in one of the cupboards. This...ring was in a jar filled with some type of unusual but smelly liquid."Sonic walked over to the other side of the bench and leaned over as Tails fumbled with the ring. Taking a good luck at it, Sonic could recognize the runes on it."Is...that..." He started. "Another artifact?"Tails head shot up. "You're suggesting this is related to the Sphere back on Earth?"Sonic then explained the sequence of events that had recently occurred back on their home-world. Including the trips to various zones, meetings with Eggman and the Demoness Abbadonia, the collecting of the artifacts and royalty."Prince Hayden? Sounds fascinating. I'd like to meet him. If you say the Femme Fatalex are assimilating these artifacts for no just historical, but for a higher purpose, for the Prince, I wanna help investigate." He said with a excited tone, somewhat acting his age."Yup. We just need to take it back to his mansion if you don't mind." Said Sonic.Tails smiled. "Not at all." He said back, throwing the ring to Sonic. "You should try it on Sonic. It's incredible. It focuses on areas that have had heavy historical energies. It must focus on the wavelengths of the spacetime continuum and upload videograms allowing a small non-severing wormhole to allow light bend with the temporal to oversee the visions, allowing us to envision highly-potent events without light actually enveloping the rest of the body, therefore not disturbing previous past potential temporal."Sonic scratched his head. "So...we can see into the past?""That's what I just said." Tails exclaimed.Sonic's brow lifted. Why would he need a ring to show the past when he just had random spouts of it all the time? Didn't matter. Another artifact was found and ready to be taken down to the Prince."What did you see?" Sonic asked, squinting at the black jewel."Scientists. Tonnes of scientists! Working on their machines. Honestly, we've been on the ARK like what, two-three times now, and with the amount of running around involved, you'd think we'd seen everything on it!" Tails answered.Sonic smirked. "Looks like we need to find out more huh?"Tails gave a thumbs up. "Right. But don't we need to give that ring to the Prince? I mean, you do have a task to do."Sonic stared into space after that statement. This was far too easy a mission. Tails had just gotten the artifact and now it was already time to go back? The Prince would love to have it, but there was more knowledge needed. He knew he should move, but the scientists that Tails spoke of might have been the same that the Prince was talking about. Sonic didn't know and greatly tempted to find out."Well, just for a little while. The Prince is mostly likely not in the mood for me at the moment."Said Sonic, understanding what happened last time."Whatcha do? Make him angry?" Asked Tails."Never mind." Sonic replied. "It just gives us time to check it out."Tails nodded. "Sure. Simply put the ring on your finger and it automatically starts functioning."Sonic examined the ring itself. He put it up in the light, swearing he could see an amber-like glow to it, possibly talking to him. After a few hesitant moments, he placed the ring on his right index finger. He closed his eyes tight before reopening them, the lights now having a strange pink tint.Tilting his head down, he discovered that Tails was right; Scientists everywhere!They were scattered and surprisingly non-human. Definitely the Rosoideae Hedgehogs. Equal amount of males and females, they seemed frantic in nature, with their brows sweating and the stench of rush in the air. It was all real. Sonic just stood in the middle, watching them all work on various pieces of either tech or chemical work. Chalk boards along white boards with various incomprehensible scribbles. It was a wonder anyone could breath in here, let alone with the air conditioning. He watched over as a door slid open, and revealed a well known past figure.She was tall, blonde haired with a blue headband and cute silky shirt, baby blues skirt and blue slip-ons. She entered the lab. Sonic stood at the back towards the back window, looking on as she talked to the head scientist.This particular one was a darker pink hue than the rest. A massive diagonal scar drawn on his left eye complete with mechanized eye, green sclera and red iris. He wore a grey labcoat and brown pants, and a simple wooden cane and roughed up head fur that was extremely messy. He heard them speak and his voice seemed gravely yet hers was sweat and sincere.The girl nodded towards as she seemed to check to see if anyone was around. She motioned him forward as he walked out. Curious, Sonic followed them.Upon his trails, they walked various walkways and pathways, passing guards and more rooms upon the space station. He remembered it being so...big! But the girl and the scientist seemed rather happy as they laughed along, seemingly going towards Gerald Robotniks main lab."I brought Professor Rose, grandfather." She said.Sonic looked at Gerald. He was a spitting image of Eggman. Except he appeared more clean-shaven and well-mannered. Aside from the signature moustache, the baldness, the nose and the glasses, Gerald looked more human than most."Thank you Maria." He said, sitting down on a chair, looking at blue prints.Sonic gazed at Maria as she walked off with a genuine happy smile on her face, off to where ever, Sonic didn't know. He trekked over to the side of the desk, watching both Professors look at the blueprints."I've having trouble with the machinations of the lizard subject you brought in. Its DNA is completely unstable due to unwary brain retentions like majority of sentient life. It's completely alien in origin." Explained Prof. Rose.Gerald had his fingers feeling through the blue prints, which Sonic couldn't work out."Keep working on it for now...something is bound to come through." He suggested.Prof. Rose nodded. "Yes sir. Might I also suggest something?" He asked, now looking in Sonic's direction, giving off an eery vibe."Yes Eric?" Said Gerald.Sonic stood away as Eric traveled the wall Sonic was standing in front of. Glancing back, it was a familiar mosaic of a large robot holding a giant green emerald in front of a golden hedgehog."I know the house forbids it, but I suggest we bring in the Stupilite Leonard Thorn." Said Eric.Gerald stood up and stood beside him, looking at it."I understand you call the Stupilites "The Guardian Angels" of the World, but on what grounds would they help with progress?"Eric chuckled. "Leonard is the current Elder Guard of the Stupilites, currently situated on Christmas Island. He knows the secrets of the supposed Angelhogs surrounded in myth. Said to be born in times of great peril and...""Is energized by the Seven Chaos Emeralds." Gerald continued. "I know the story."Gerald stroke his 'stache and adjusted his glasses before going to sit down again. "If the lizard fails, we can do a different model or activate a plan b of sorts."Eric nodded. "Yes sir. I will contact Leonard and see to it that GUN brings him up."Gerald sat back in his chair. "Very well. Until then, get the others to keep working on the alpha project. It's still considered Project Shadow, and the lizard can be the prototype for now. What ever does not work on it we will either attempt on this new one or leave it all together. After all, you did say because of its lack of unwary brain retentions. It needs...intelligence. A Heart. Yes..."He said, swiping off the current blue prints off his desk and bringing in random pieces of gridded paper. "I will design this...after the legends...after all, it...is destined to give hope to all and save us from ourselves."Eric looked down at one of the blueprints. "You mind if I take those?"Gerald glanced over. "Yes take them! Take them! A lot of them are empty because I was having a major malfunction in creativity! But the rest are simply maps of genetic material that could be altered, twisted in order to define the aging pathologies. By all means! Take them!"Eric smiled. "Thank you sir."Sonic was intrigued as he too, stared at the mosaic. He recognized it as the one back on Angel Island, inside the Hidden Palace Zone. He wondered, as the familiarity between the image of the golden-embalmed hedgehog or ''Angelhog'' as Eric discussed and Shadow the Hedgehog started to rise. In Sonic's mind he put it together as possible reasons for Shadow's existence. Also alongside the factor that Eric might just be related to Amy, but that is a story for another time as he could be stating the obvious.With these new insights in mind, he took the ring off, and ended up in the same room, seriously opening up Sonic's eyes. Literally. More transcripts and weird insignia, alongside bizarre mathematical equations and the like. It might have been where the madness soon began to spread.Soon enough, Tails appeared."So...what was it like? I could see you looking around, listening in. I guess the ring makes you see and hear, but you're not really there." Tails theoried. "Its like instead of watching a movie, you're seeing it from the inside."No doubt that ring could have potential power. Interesting enough for historians searching for answers to questions that haven't been answered to in a long while."You're right Tails. A lotta scientists that's for sure." Sonic replied."Did you see Eggman's grandfather?" Tails wondered. "I can see where he gets his intelligence from. But I'm guessing his villainy comes from the other side of the family."Sonic crossed his arms and chuckled. "Yeah no kiddin!"Tails stared at the mosaic as well. But this time there was a big crack in the frame, possibly from the GUN Invasion or the Professor's rage and eventual insanity."He must have gone down to Earth at some point, checking out the sites. Could have searched the world at some point, if I'm not mistaken.""He did alongside his wife." Said a feminine, yet familiar voice.Sonic and Tails spun around. "Olly!" They said in unison.Olly strutted in within her usual stance. "During his early years, Gerald was an archelogist before he became a proper scientist. He was fascinated by history just he enjoyed working with medicine. Did you know his wife died of NIDS? Medicine merged into genetics. And when he heard that Maria inherited it he was devastated. So he issued GUN that if he could find a cure...well, you know the rest."She whipped out her Smish Smasher and leaned on the handle. "Hiya."Sonic smirked and crossed his arms. "So...came here looking for the artifact too?" He asked.Olly nodded. "Of course. That would be the Ring of Memories."They walked back to the main lab that Tails had been working in, but something crossed Tails mind."Olly, can I ask you something...its been bothering me..." He wondered."Shoot." Olly replied.Sonic started fiddling with it, trying to make out the runes. He was no Knuckles but the factor remained with utmost curiousness."We've been here before and accessed some of the data files in accordance to what once happened here. But there was no record of Pink Hedgehogs on here at all. Part from strange symbols that are the same as the ones back in the Garden of Rosales. What was going on up here?"Olly looked down before looking back up and shifted position."The Rosoideae scientists were extremely loyal the Professor. Or so it seems. GUN knew that there was sight of others on-board. But the Rosoideae were smarter than they looked. GUN never found the Portal. Their time aboard the ARK...was a complete mystery. Hidden compartments, the Rosoideaes were clever in placing them in many places, only to be unlocked at a later date."Tails tapped his cheek. "So...why was the ring on here then? What possible significance does it have here? It has to be a connection to the Professors archeological experience.""You would be right." Said Olly as she started moving around the room. "Professor Gerald went on expedition a long time ago. He was...alongside a group of others. Several humans. The records were wiped clean but we assumed he met the Rosoideaes. Including one...Muriel...Rose..."Sonic and Tails faced each other. "Is that..." Started Tails. "Amy's grandmother." Sonic finished.Olly chuckled. "We can't be too sure of whether Miss Rose traveled with Gerald that day. Because she stated she was the only one and the first one to discover it.""Did you interview her about it?" Sonic inquired.Olly nodded. "Yes. The reason GUN were so interesting in the Pink Hedgehogs is that they seemingly came out of nowhere. They didn't get on board by ship, which made the then Commander quite...curious."Sonic continued fumbling with the ring. "So what did she say?"Olly looked down again. "She was still going with the same story that she was the first one to discover the ruins. I say there's more to the story than we realize.""I agreed." Said Sonic.Olly stopped walking around and glimpsed at him. "Agent Drainer told me of the incident at Prince Haydens mansion. According to the Prince there was an encounter with Eggman and Abbadonia."Tails looked at Sonic, who rubbed his back. "Yeah...the girls..."Olly nodded. "It's okay. All three are wearing tracking devices inside of their ears. Agent Bazooka is keeping an eye on them. Last time she checked they were heading here."Sonic blinked. "Wait...really?" He said, surprised. It was a possible opportunity to reclaim and save them. He'd still felt guilty for letting them get away."I'm guessing they're after this?" Sonic said, holding the ring up."Yes." Answered Olly. "Now that the Wisers can be used, the difficulty level has spiked.""We have to hurry then and get the others!" Cried Tails."It's okay. I'll take the Ring back to the Prince. I've ordered Drainer to help with the reconstructions and clean up."Sonic couldn't agree more. But then an idea traversed his mind. An idea so insightful that he couldn't believe he didn't ask it before. A smirk rose his lips, causing confusion from the other two."Olly how long until Eggman and Abbadonia arrive?" He asked."Uhh...lemme check." She answered, revealing a hidden wristwatch on left arm and started typing random things. "From what Bazooka told me...hang on...alright...I've worked it as at least two hours. Two hours from now." She announced. "Reports are given she's giving time to prepare herself in the...downstairs department. We're not completely sure but it's probably some solar flare that's preventing her from doing it..."Tails cocked an eyebrow. "Is that just some random hand wave to excuse her from coming here when ever she wants? I doubt Solar flares would affect demons let alone preventing them from doing anything they wanted." He complained.Olly chuckled nervously. "Well...I'd have to ask Agent Bazooka on that one. She's into guns and all types of weaponry but has a slight insight into space...or so she says..."Sonic rolled his eyes. It was probably one of her lame tense jokes. But with that knowledge in mind Sonic grinned. "Great...that gives us plenty of time."Olly exchanged looks with Tails. "Plenty of time to do what exactly?"Sonic cleaned his ear with his pinky, acting all smug. "This ring...sees into the past. I was thinking...that while we're here..."Tails eyes widened. "You...want to look back..."Sonic nodded, causing distraught from Olly."Sonic, I wouldn't want to pry that ring from your eventual cold dead fingers..." She said, sounding worried."What's the problem? You said GUN has no record of the Pink Hedgehogs here. It's crazy enough for me to handle...you want answers..." Sonic pointed out, raising the ring up again. "I can get you them."Olly sighed and face palmed. "...Fine. But you have to report everything you see. Don't worry I have a recorder handy in my bag of tricks." She said, grabbing a small black device out of her bag.Sonic was psyching himself up before putting the ring back on."So, anything in particular you want me to see?"Olly tapped her boot. "Anything that would be useful to us. If the legends and if Muriel's book was correct, the Ring taps into...now we call it, Time Scars.""There's another term for our mental books." Sonic snarked.Tails nodded and brought out said book and flicked through until he found the page."Hey, you're right. They're actually called Time Scars." He pointed out.Olly didn't say anything as Sonic and Tails scanned the book."That's nifty. It says if you focus hard enough, the smaller scars can be seen...uh...what does that mean?" Sonic wondered."It means the lesser events can be seen. Large events have crowds of people, whom their presence can affect and grow the scar itself."Olly lifted her chin. "That doesn't make sense. What about a city for example? They have their tonnes of people stroll through daily. It would be hard to search for a specific person."Tails buried his head further into the book. "I see...the reason for that is because the feelings are...spread out across...meaning either that not everyone iis currently experiencing the same type of emotion or they're not as powerful as fear or love."Olly rechecked her watch. "Well can we do this now? We might need all the time we can get. Especially if Abbadonia decides to jump in early."–As such, they exited the lab as Sonic closed and reopened his eyes. He focused in as small white blurs seem to zoom past, eventuating into solid forms, the white becoming simple labcoats on different Animalia. The ARK was a busy place once, thriving with life."Doctor Edenguard!"Sonic turned to see Maria speaking with a young Rosoideae with her quills dreaded into many plaits, wearing semicircle glasses, a long white coat, tight skirt and stockings, alongside white high heels. She held a clipboard in her hand as she spoke to her. Sonic watched as they then walked to some random room and followed."I see...Maria...with, Doctor Edenguard." Sonic muttered.The Doctor appeared young, vibrant. Same age as Amy, if not, older. They went in what looked like a sick bay. Maria sat on the edge of the bed inside as the Doctor fiddled with with needles and what not."How are we feeling today Maria?" She asked, her voice soothing."Fine, plodding along like always." Maria replied with a pleasant smile on her face, as if in no pain at all as Edenguard injected a needle into her."That's good to hear. Still working on that 'project' of yours?" She asked.Maria smirked. "Granddad said it probably won't be worth it. He keeps assigning Artificial Chaos Units to protect me in case something goes wrong."The Doctor chuckled. "I'm sure you're a very capable programmer Maria...like your mother was."–After a series of tests, Maria was allowed to leave the bay. The two waved each other bye as Maria headed elsewhere. Sonic didn't know who to follow. Instead time seemed to shift as uneventful as it was, blurs seemed to drift pass in an instant as if going through time. He focused again to make it stop, and found the Doctor speaking with Professor Rose in the sickbay."You worry me Eric. Actually your son worries me more." She said, seemingly doing the exact same thing she was doing with Maria."Bah that idjit! Doesn't know right from left!" The Professor barked."But I must admit, he is good with his hands." She said, wiping down his arm.Eric snuffed. "Yeah I know...I'm glad he took up an apprenticeship with Prower."Edenguard gave a stern stare as she injected the needle. "That Fox? Then it's true." She said.Eric nudged his head. "What is? The fact the idjit can't read properly?"Edenguard placed the needle into a special bin before cleaning up Eric's arm with a cotton-bud."Nope...he is trying to flirt with me. I'm pretty sure someone as competent as Moore Prower wouldn't allow an apprentice High End Mechanic hurt himself. Though those scars aren't without their charm."Eric facepalmed. "You don't want someone like my boy. I blame his mother. Smothered him too much I reckon...for a brute, he keeps obsessing over jewelery. Ever since we found that gosh darned ring back on Angel Island..."Edenguard smiled. "I remember...I was there...on that matter he always complements on my necklace."Eric jumped off the bed and grabbed his cane. "I better get back to work. If you're thinking about dating young Thomas...think about it as dating that Leonard Thorn fella."Edenguard gave him a raised eyebrow. "You're saying I can't date your son? Wow, seems like the roles have been reversed."Eric shook his head. "Heck no. I'm just saying I don't recommend it. By all means if it makes you happy, do it! A lady as young as you still has time to make the right choices. I made same bad mistakes in the past so I'm just..."Edenguard grinned. "Look Professor, if you were my father, I would instantly rebel. You know, family n' all." She snarked. "But can't you say one good thing about him to make it worthwhile?"Eric scratched his head and grunted. "Grah...alright. Dunno if I'm going senile or what...he's a good kid, seriously. His heart is in the right place...idolizes that Leonard...even if I don't like em...""I'll go check my cards then huh?" Said Edenguard.Eric rolled his eyes and shifted towards the door. "You do that...make sure they're played right."–Sonic took the ring off as he reappeared back into the present."You didn't say anything, so I'm gathering nothing was that important to make note of." Said Olly.Sonic shrugged. "Not really. Just some Doctor Edenguard and that Professor Rose guy."Olly looked down. "Doctor Edenguard...yes..."Sonic crossed his arms. "She was good friends with Maria from what I saw."Olly shook her head. "I know that. The amount of information that was gathered from many reports said that Maria had great relations with a lot of the staff. But this wasn't the stuff I was hoping to look for.""What were you hoping for then?" Asked Tails.Olly looked down one long corridor that seemed to go on forever and just stared at it, then looked at the book in Tails hand."The Commander was once a play mate with Maria and claimed he'd seen aliens. His father was in charge of the GUN Security and the Commander today jokes about walking around it, getting in to trouble getting into secret areas and getting caught in places where they shouldn't have been. He was one of a few people who knew about Black Doom, the Alien Overlord that was here not too long ago."Sonic remembered that, albeit thinking back and remembering that Black Doom was Shadows biological father. Dark times..."Give me the ring. I'll focus on that particular time if I can...and if it lets me. Tails, you take the recorder ok?"After the exchange of objects, Olly put the ring on and seemed to just stand there. It was interesting being on the other side, as Ollys reactions to see the past were generic, the surprised newcomer.Tails held onto the recorder tightly and followed the agents every movement. Her head shifted upwards, looking at a ventilation shaft. Ignoring that, she began walking down the long hallway."I'm following Maria and the Commander. The Commander is holding a box...rectangle, thin... I think they went up the shaft heading in this direction. I can hear them banging around." Said Olly, slowly making her way down, still looking up. Soon enough, she stopped, then started running. Sonic and Tails ran after her. "No not that kind. They must be heading to the secret room. I'm gonna keep going." Olly commentated. Sonic and Tails looked at each other and shrugged. They eventually encountered a circular dome, noticing a lack of solid ground and full of bits and pieces floating in space. Olly took one foot forward, Sonic realizing that there used to be ground there, the area must have been lost after. The ARK had been around for more than half a century after all."OLLY!" Sonic screamed, as he sped over to her, preventing her from falling out of the ARK's atmosphere by grabbing her arm. He pulled Olly up on to solid ground, her taking the ring off the finger and gasping in surprise at what she was about to do."Damn my clumsy self!" She grunted. "I guess the ring doesn't tell you when something isn't there anymore."Sonic nodded in agreement. "Yeah...that was a close one..."Olly looked on at the space junk that just stayed there, then lifted her head up again. The vents were still there, meaning all she had to do still was follow them. She turned to Sonic."Wanna race?" She asked with a playful tone.Sonic smirked. "Do I ever..."Olly made the first somersaulted leap onto solid debris, causing it shift slightly with the weird gravity in the room. Sonic was next, instead jumping onto another one.Tails shrugged and flew up behind Sonic, who appeared to be paying attention to the leaps and bounds of Olly, who had the skills of an expert gymnist. Sonic rolled his eyes in his own belief that anyone could do what she could. He mimmicked her movements as they went from scrap to scrap, interlapping on the occasional gravity board or rails to grind on, with the Earth as a beautiful backdrop beside them. For larger jumps, Olly used her Smish Smasher and swung it around to aim higher. Sonic needn't do so, feeling that Olly wanted to be a show off, but then he soon admitted to himself that he was his own show off, so it kinda negated the whole point of his quickened thoughts. He landed on another railing that was heading downwards into another area."She reminds me of Amy." Said Tails as he finally managed to catch up to Sonic, who's eyes widened in response.It was true the two were a like in many ways. Could be mistaken for sisters. Get those two in a room and you would have a full scale war on your hands. Sonic just shook his head and smiled, then went serious and turned to Tails."Hey Tails, do you think you could do something for me once we get back down to Earth?" He asked."Sure Sonic." Tails replied. "What do you need?"Sonic glanced over to Olly, who was now also on her respective railings, doing loop-de-loops and jumps, forcing Sonic to look forward and grab onto another in front of him, swinging around to get back into the grind, Tails catching up again."I need you to look up something. Not now, and I'll tell you what I want you to look up when we get back." Sonic answered.Tails smirked. "Oh I wonder who that could be?" He said sarcastically with a sinister look on his face looking in one particular direction.Sonic just rolled his eyes. "I'm just asking you to do it, not to play stupid with me." He moaned.Tails chuckled. "Alright, alright, no need to be a grumpy hedgehog!"–Soon after, Sonic amazingly came first in this weird race to wherever. That dome had to be at least several kilometers long. Didn't matter, as Sonic showed himself off again as he stretched and stunk of smug. Olly's hand simply flung to her hips. "Should I be surprised?" She asked, no anger in her tone, but still the same as before.Sonic shrugged. "Nah!" He said, grinning.Tails floated down to the solid ground and looked downwards. "So do we go down here Miss?"Olly crossed her arms. "This was the only area open, so I'm gathering we still do. And call me Olly, apparently that's my name around here." She said, with Sonic getting the feeling she was staring at him from within that helmet of hers.With Olly leading on, they eventually made their way to a blank wall, but the vent had gone through it, meaning there was something beyond it. Tails checked around it, but there was no doorway. Sonic rimmed his fingers around the walls wondering if there was a secret entrance."Nope...nothing." He said, disappointed.Olly lifted her Smish Smasher, and began banging on it constantly, scaring the daylights out of Sonic and Tails. But even that failed. Olly impatience soon showed as she twirled her hammer around."I'm not gonna fail this. I want...no, I need to find...whats beyond that damn wall." She said with calm anger. "I didn't come all this way for nothing."Tails walked up to her. "What do you believe lies in there?" He asked sincerely.Olly sighed. "Reason Tails...reason." She replied, then looked up. "Hey Sonic, do you think you could give me a lift? Again?"Sonic shrugged. "Sure."Sonic knelt down as Olly stood on his back and thwacked the vent, denting it."Isn't that a little bit dangerous?" Asked Tails, a little worried.Olly snarled. "No...not at all." She said sweetly, finally getting the metal sheet off and throwing it to the ground, nearly hitting Tails who jumped out of the way.The Agent placed her hands inside the vent, as Sonic stood up and chucked her in there. She knelt down to grab Sonic's hand, who held onto Tails arms as they collided in the tiny space inside.Olly went first, crawling her way down the shaft and into a new open area, jumping out and gasping. Sonic and Tails burst out with their surprise...The room was...strange...but that would be an understatement. The room was lit in red, the ground, walls and some scaffolds scribbled in the same old Mobikian parchments. Blood was smeared around as well, as if someone had tried to get out. Tails shook with fear, until he mindlessly brought out the book and flicked through it."The Meeting Place." He said, almost monotone.Sonic spun around, tilting his head in confusion. "What?"He noticed that his Tails were no longer lifting up and down, but were dragging across the floor. His eyelids drooped and his expression lifeless. Deeply concerned, Sonic attempted to lifted his head up, but was met with a sudden electric shock."Proud as you are, at best, hence the cockiness inside. We rather not let you sleep the thousand dreams." Moaned Tails.Freaked out, Sonic stood back. Olly readied her hammer. "Sonic, whats wrong with him?"She asked, freaked out.Sonic didn't know either as he shook his head and raised his hands. "I dunno...I was gonna ask you the same question."Tails kept reading."Asmodeus, Abbaton, Mammonite, Leviatia, Rosier, Belias, Verrinat...arise from your kingdoms...purge the surface world of its light. We will not let the Angelhogs have their way with the world."He murmured, his voice multilayer ed with another. His head shot up and glared at Sonic, who stood back in fear."The Seven harbours of doom and despair."
Pure red. Pure Red flooded the room until all they say among themselves was deep, dark red.
Nothing else...it was like its own dimension of a solid colour. Tails was still in his dead positioning, his stare stuck on Sonic. Tails had to be possessed, by Sonic's thoughts. That Violet Wisp reappeared above Tails, sprinkling sparkles around him."There it is again..." Olly muttered, noticing Tails was trying to swipe the Wisp. Sonic stared at her."You see it too?" He asked, surprised.Olly's head fell. "Oh...oh no." She said...shaking her head and falling to her knees. She took the ring out and placed it on her finger."Olly! Wait!" Sonic screamed as he grabbed hold of her.A flash of light blinded them..."Shh Maria, they're gonna find us here again!"Sonic reopened his eyes. He could see Maria and the younger Commander playing a board game in the room, which was a lot different...A simple table laid in the middle of the room with wooden chairs. Maria and the Commander sat on each side, with the Commander rolling the dice and Maria chuckling for some reason."One...two...three...pick up a card..." She murmured. "Hopefully it wasn't like the card you got."The Commander quietly chuckled. "Just read it..." He said.Maria stuck out her tongue at him. "Okay, I will geez! I always beat you at this game anyway."The Commander snuffed. "Bah! Who cares! I will beat you some day!" He claimed.Maria rolled her eyes. "What...ever!"She looked at the card closely and grinned. "Take two more steps down the board." She read.The Commander banged the table and crossed his arms in a huff. "That's not fair!" He said, scowling.Maria looked at him, giving off a cocky vibe. "What's not fair?" She asked."You always get those cards!" The Commander cried out."It must be my luck!"A beep was sounded over the speaker system. "WOULD MARIA ROBOTNIK PLEASE REPORT TO GERALD ROBOTNIKS HEADQUARTERS? I REPEAT, WOULD MARIA ROBOTNIK PLEASE REPORT TO GERALD ROBOTNIKS HEADQUARTERS? THANK YOU." Said a voice over the loud speaker.The Commander laughed and pointed. "Ha ha! You have to go see your grandfather!" He sang.Maria stood off her chair. "It's probably about that program he's been working on. You know Project Shadow?"The Commander just leaned back and stretched his arms, then bending them behind his head."He's still workin' on it? Can I come? I've never seen it!" He pleaded."Okay but you better be careful."The Commander packed up the game board and slung it under his arm, with Maria moving the tables and chairs away to the side. The pair got back into the vent via getting ontop of a pipe and and slinking down the vent. The air conditioning was the only thing that bothered to show signs of life. Sonic still held onto Ollys arm as they sat against the back wall. Sonic looked at Olly who didn't bother to move, still in shock about the whole all-red room thing. He let go of her, only for the red to fade back...And the full white-eyed face of one Miles Prower, scaring the heck of him. He was met with a punch to the face, sent flying backwards but managed to land and skid on his two feet, mounting into a lunge position."You want out...?" Tails asked, still with the demonic voices overlaying his own. Tails pulled the bright violet orb of shimmering and sparkling out from behind and displayed it to Sonic."Here..." He said, using an unknown power to rise the light into the air. The light got brighter, then formed into something jumbled and so distorted, that it just kept expanding, with red jewels and strange straight triangle patterns and purple stripes with many eyes and the hint of a light beige colour in the stretched out poles, spikes and curved horns. Sonic could hear a high pitched scream that forced him to cover his ears. It was terrifying, putting it on the same line as what he had faced once before, as he didn't know which was first. But within the screams Sonic listened to repeated words.
Wake up...wake up...wake up...
…..
WAKE UP SONIC!
Sonic shot up and looked around. He was...simply astounded at what he saw, which prompted his first response."I'm back...in Amy's apartment?" He whispered.He rubbed his eyes and slunked over, having no idea what was going on, but he had to leave. He had get back to the ARK right now before it was too late. Olly...Tails...No time to see Amy either if she was still in bed. Sonic's head turned to the clock. It was three am.Damn. Had he been asleep all this time as well? He didn't know.He exited the building entirely and went for a run. A run to anywhere would be nice. A place that would not screw with his mind. The streets were deathly quiet, only for the occasionally stray cat or dog to walk passed or fight over food. Ignoring them, as his thoughts were running wilder than he was. His speeding didn't help him forget his worries, it rather elevated them.Sonic was still running away.He was definitely losing his mind. The eternal struggle of knowing what's real and what's not was getting to him. A simple trip over a trash can sent him stumbling into an alley way. He forced himself off the ground and leaned on a nearby wall. He started thumbing his fists onto it so hard, that after several times his hands started to bleed. Sliding down, he opened and closed his left fist, then cracked his fingers, tingling them then forcing his hands downwards to push himself up. He got out of the alleyway and readied himself for another run. Checking around to see if he had any spectral visitors, Sonic half expected something or someone to show up...There was no one.Taking a deep breath, Sonic ran his way towards where ever the wind took him. What ever Abbadonia was trying to do to him was working. In deep thought, Sonic mindlessly ran up the side of a tall building and just stopped as soon as he got to the top of it. The moon shone, as the icy chill prevailed through Sonic's breath. Was there no one...who could tell him...who could speak to him about anything of the craziest things he'd ever seen? He bursted off the building and ran to the outskirts of the city, then reaching into the country side and kept running until the sun rose.Weary and confused after running for hours on end, Sonic made it to some weird medieval city. He walked passed locals and the like, then passed rivers with Gondolas and fabulous bridges and old buildings and castles. He recognized it as Soleanna. Sonic once visited here for a festival they held. Might as well do a little more sight-seeing. After all, he doubted he would encounter anyone he knew here. The birds sung and there was at least chatter about, Sonic relieved at the sign of life.He was enjoying himself for once, not burdened by the sanctums of a Psuedo-hell. If this is what he thought it was then the girls may not have been kidnapped. Actually, upon that thought, they, as well as the Prince, may not exist at all. All figments of his imagination. He shrugged it off as he bought a chilli dog from a stand and ate it, the taste of a Soleannan Dog was just divine as the rest. Walking amongst both tourists and the local populace, he could see the town market, reminding him that he still had to get Creams birthday present. Might as well get it from here.He trekked towards the long rows of stands selling food, souvenirs and all types of local produce. Dancers danced and singer sung, he wondered what he could get that that small rabbit friend of his.He checked jewelery stands, clothes...toys. But he didn't know what she would like.There was a flower stand, that he swore he could see Abbadonia Roses on, so he walked over.The lady at the stand had blonde hair in a bun, a purple dress with a brown appron and no shoes.Sonic thumbed his lip as he stared at the roses."Ah I see you like these flowers no?" She assumed, possessing what might be a regional accent.Sonic looked at her. "What kind are they?" He asked.The lady clasped her hands. "Ooo they're grown in the Royal Garden. These are really hard to grow too! They require the best soil and climate! Or else they die really quickly."Sonic nodded. "Where's the Royal Garden?–The Florist directed him north, behind the giant palace. He sped off in that direction before heading for a fenced off area. The Guards blocked his path with their spears, but after realizing who he was, they let him in. The Royal Garden was full of beautiful colours with a variety of flowers growing.He saw a tall girl standing in the middle, with short red hair and a long white dress that reached to her knees. "That must be the Princess." He murmured. He ran along to see her."Hi there, aren't you the Princess of Soleanna?"The girl was staring at the roses before she turned around to see him. "Yes...yes I am...how did you get passed my guards?" She asked sincerely.Sonic chuckled. "Well, I kinda told them who I was, so they let me in. I must have some reputation around here."The Princess blinked. "Oh...you're Sonic right?"Sonic nodded and smiled. "Yup. One in the same!" He said as he bowed to her.The Princess smiled. "You may call me Elise."Sonic took her hand and kissed it. "Pleasure to meet you Elise."–The pair walked along the pathways between the garden beds. Elise walked elegantly with her hands in front of her and looked onwards."My mother requested the Royal Gardens be made before she died. She wanted to remind the people that there are cycles we all take. Life, death and rebirth." Elise said."It's very beautiful." Sonic commented.Elise nodded. "It is. Actually, nowadays it takes up a lot of the budget in the environment sector."Sonic cocked an eyebrow, but smirked. "Of course it would...look at the size of it!"Elise looked down. "No... a lot of these flowers are dealt with through decent amounts of rain and sunshine...but one type has been causing a lot of trouble lately."She walked them both to a locked part of the Garden, with a tall Gothic fence."This flower...is said to have healing properties. The expensive side of it, is that it requires an expensive fertilizer that is found in the Enchanted Forest...which only the best of my sentries can get to. Unfortunately because of the dangerous nature of it, not a lot get out alive. And the medicine we make from the flowers is exclusive to this area, making it one of the famous parts of the country."They were definitely Abbadonia Roses. No doubt even the roses themselves would come from there. He'd heard about the strange Enchanted Forest once before.–Elise welcomed Sonic into her glorious castle and showed him around, although Sonic had this feeling he'd been here once before. Ignoring that and shoving it aside as one of the crazy particulars, the castle had history. Her Father, the Duke of Soleanna, was also a respected scientist. Elise explained how science helped shaped her ancestry. The grey brick work, the stain glass windows which had a spectacular colourful shine from the sunlight the Soleannan people believe it comes from their god, Solaris. History...beauty and science. Three things that helped shape the world as it was today."The Seven great Kingdoms." Said Elise as they walked down a large area with life-like paintings on the tall, arched ceilings. "Soleanna has been around for a long time and is one of the last surviving countries with notable royalties."They came across what appeared to be a spare room with bookshelves, a few chairs and its own open balcony to looked over the township, the white curtains dancing in the winds rhythm. Elise went to edge and clasped the fence. The view was great as Sonic stood next to her."This is pretty sweet." He commented.Elise smiled. "Yes. I come here when I feel troubled. Which is what I'm getting from you."Sonic looked up at her with a puzzled look on his face. "You can tell?"Elise just had her eyes forward. "You didn't come to Soleanna just to see me. The next festival we have is several weeks away."Sonic rubbed his neck. "Maybe I came to see you, because...I heard so much about you and wanted to finally meet you in person."Elise chuckled. "No...no you didn't. Sonic the Hedgehog visits people when he knows they're in trouble or when something big is happening. I've seen your profile on daddys GUN Network."Sonic's eyes widened. It wasn't the fact that GUN had a profile on him, which he would be surprised if they didn't, but the fact that someone like the Princess would be snooping around on the GUN files left him in bewilderment."Sonic I'm from a younger generation. I'm a teenager. I might be a Princess but I love using the internet. It's what we do."Sonic scowled. "Don't tell me you have Glovebook as well."Elise laughed. "Of course. I have a very select group of friends." She said, suddenly looking behind her."The locals want me to behave like royalty, but, I mean, like seriously. Princess life is incredibly boring when there's nothing to do but sit in court rooms, attend meetings and all that other adult stuff."Sonic checked behind him as well. "You expecting someone?" He asked.Elise giggled. "I don't want the other maids to hear me. But..." She said...unable to conceal her laughter."I have my friends come help me sneak out of my room on Friday nights and party elsewhere. They make sure their Princess gets back by day break...but please don't tell Daddy."Sonic shook his head and smirked. "Yeah yeah...what ever. But why are you telling me that for?"Elise managed to compose herself and waved her hand in front of her face."You should come to one of these parties some time! I have...an acquaintance who does awesome parties at an exclusive Soleannan night club! Only the best of the best come in."Sonic wasn't entirely amused. He liked to party, but usually its with close friends."You're feeling down, right?" Elise wondered. "I can see it in your...eyes. You're tired. But I can promise you one night at Rob'Os will do you good." She said with a wink as she laid her arms on the brick fence."Thanks but no thanks..." He said, forcing a smile."I've been having bad dreams lately."He noticed her expression changed from happy and assuring to sad yet interested."Bad dreams...lack of sleep..." Elise muttered, whipping her indexes fingers from side to side."I've woken up crying from bad dreams. Not that there's any reason we shouldn't cry."Sonic's nose twitched. "Eh...that's not what I meant..."He had a feeling Elise was rather odd or different. But as he thought about it, it was true. She was mostly isolated from the rest of the world, sans if she gets to visit iconic places as per genial visits. But...again she was a teenager and a future Queen. That had to bear a lot of responsibility."I know I know...anything you wanna talk about?" Elise asked with sincerity.Sonic had this strange presence deep in his subconscious that told him he could be okay with that particular type of discussion, but wasn't too sure upon his forethoughts. He shrugged it off."No...just trying...to run as it off." He responded.Elise turned her head to keep glancing at the township."You can't run forever. Trust me...I've tried." Elise muttered.Sonic wasn't convinced. Running and jumping made a lot of what he did."What do you suggest then?" He questioned.Elise grinned. "Try a Dream Catcher."Sonic's head spun in her direction. "A what?"Elise giggled. "You know, those circle things with all the string and feathers and stuff that help take away nightmares? There's a shop in the market that sells them. The man there is a bit too into the dream stuff."Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "Oh a Dream Catcher...yeah I know one of those things.I'm not really superstitious..."The Princess clicked her heels. "Me neither...but it's just a suggestion."Sonic crossed his arms and looked downwards. A Dream Catcher...he doubted it would work knowing what it was made out of. His head lifted, remembering he still had to give Cream her birthday present. Maybe a Dream Catcher will do?"So you say there's a shop that sells them?"After that discussion, Elise pointed him in the right direction and fare welled him as he ran off and waved thanks and goodbye. Sonic fled to the market where the flowers were, then searched for the stall that contained the catchers.He looked at stalls on his right and left that sold all kinds of trinkets...such as a a leather store, that sold bags, toys and jewelery made of dyed leather. There was another that sold tribal clothes and one that had rock based necklaces. But no Dream Catcher. He must have gone passed the food court three times before he skidded to a halt in front of a hidden stall within a dingy area that spoke 'shady'. He went over as he could see large rings of string, wood and feathers that dangled about.A man turned around wearing a purple gown and had a long white beard with grey hair."Can I help you?" He asked. Sonic was suspicious, but didn't want to pass judgment so early. His voice was gravely and old-manish."Yeah I was looking to purchase one of these Dream Catcher thingys..." Sonic answered.The Old man smiled. "Of course my young blue friend! Which one would you like?"–After selecting one, the Old Man wrapped it in a brown bag as Sonic made the purchase and gave his thanks to the old man and ran off to Creams house.For hours he ran. Gathering from the eventual glimpse of the sun, it was after mid day. He hoped Cream would be happy with her present. Still, he wasn't entirely with it. He passed fields, more towns, cities, ran by lakes and rivers and forests on his way to her place. Given the several hours, his mind wandered about once more.Within those depths, he wondered about Olly...and Amy, and whether or not Tails was still okay.He couldn't choose anymore. He already did by choosing to run away from it all when he shouldn't have. There would definitely be a trip back to the ARK, a suspicion from the dream prompted that suggestion as it may, he still had a lot of things to do. Could he believe that the dream was entirely vivid that it had affected him in so many ways that he could no longer separate fact from fiction? Who knows? Sonic has had this internal and mental discussion with himself many times ever since the first dream he had was questionable. There was no way he was going to snap. Apart from the minor breakdown he had in the alleyway earlier, Sonic stood taller than he ever did. He made a snap back from the confusion and leaped into the real world where things were simpler. The dream world refused to come clear to him, it's basis held no probable message. He needed a sentence to understand it, not an entire novel making twists and turns in every corner. Not to mention that the book was most likely hidden on that darkened and horrid street in his mind.Again with the Street. It was just...The Street, as he decided to call it now. The Street...with everyone he knew and loved living on it, their importance and meaning were the wages that paid for the houses and the bills that came with them. The Street was part of The Neighbourhood, which stood for everyone else he'd encountered, and The Town was the rest of the faceless void.The Street...where the colour of the sky varied and the road ending in part of a cold fog. He did not live in a house of his own, for he owned The Street, but did not control it's residents. Instead he had the comfort in the middle of a roundabout, forever running around it and zooming off in random directions.The Bloody Amy stood before him on the Roundabout, her blood running down the drains.She fell to her knees. Sonic approached her and knelt down."Who am I supposed to protect?"Her pale face was brimming with sadness and pain. The tears of blood just creeped him out."What...am I supposed to...do?"The Street became The Maze. The Endless Fields grew in organic walls of trees. He stood up from where he was, just seeing the walls everywhere, possessing an infinite grow technique."Where...am I...going?"A loud metal clang forced Sonic to spin around. A bright light enveloped his eyes.–"Sonic!"He blinked twice to wonder where the heck he was. He had been grabbed and hugged as he just stared at a door. Looking down he could see Cream hugging him. Brushing all the nonsense off at the drop of a happy thought, he smiled at her."I brought your present!" Sonic announced, whipping out the brown paper bag.Cream squealed. "Oh I knew you would!"She dragged him inside where he saw a medium sized, black and yellow robot dusting the furniture in a cute pink apron, and waved to Sonic."Hey, where were you on Creams birthday?" He asked."Oh Gemerl was busy organizing getting the things for mommy's wedding."Sonic cocked an eyebrow. "Your mothers getting married?"Cream nodded innocently. "I think I forgot to mention it...or was it supposed to be a secret?"Sonic rubbed his head. "So...Vector finally popped the question?""Yup." Cream replied. "But I won't forget daddy...I will never ever forget him."Sonic didn't know Creams dad at all. Nor did Vanilla or Cream mention anything about him since they met. In spite of making her upset, Sonic decided not to question it further and changed the subject back."So you gonna open your present or not?" Sonic smirked.Cream clapped and bounced about, as Cheese was busy helping Gemerl out with the dusting."Yay!"Sonic searched around. "Speaking of your mom, where is she?"Cream looked up. "Oh she got a phone call and had to leave. It was very important to her. She called Vector, but he too was really busy. I told her I can handle it, because I have Gemerl and Cheese to keep me safe!" She said with determination.Sonic chuckled. "Alright."Cream invited the other two to sit at the table as Cream opened her present. She wasted no time and tore into the paper like it was nothing and held it up."What is it?" She asked."It's a Dream Catcher." Sonic replied. "It's said to help catch bad dreams."Creams face lit up. "Really? So if I had a nightmare...it will catch it?"Sonic nodded. "Yeah...something along those lines..."Cream grinned as she glomped Sonic. "Hey take it easy will ya?" He said, laughing.–Soon after, Cream headed into her bedroom to go place it above her bed. Cheese got a hammer and hook while Gemerl helped put it in place, putting the Dream Catcher on afterwards.Cream did mini happy claps as Gemerl finished it and got off her bed."Its pretty! And I love the purple and the white on it! It sparkles too!" Said Cream, who clung to Sonic again."No worries!" Said Sonic, who gave a thumbs up.Cheese fluttered by Cream, and started muttering incoherently."Oh I forgot!" Cream announced and ran back into the dining room. Sonic, Gemerl and Cheese soon followed, as Cream was scrambling through a cupboard."Whatcha lookin' for?" Asked Sonic."Aha! I found it!" Replied Cream, pulling out a card from the middle shelf. She ran up to Sonic and put it in his hands. The card was biege and made of that hard cardboard like paper. It had italic text surrounded with dozens of black hearts."Its an invitation to my mommies wedding! We just had them delivered earlier!"Sonic examined the cards date as his eyes widened. "Wait, the Wedding is next week?"Cream nodded. "Mommy said there was an accident at the place where they made them so it took a while for then to get here. But...Gemerl is going to the post office with Mom tomorrow so she can post them off."So many things to do...so little time. Sonic wanted to bang his head in. What did he miss in all of this? Perhaps a gathering of friends to ask around on what the heck was going on was as good as an opportunity as ever. He had a week...or however long he practically needed.
KNOCK KNOCK
"I'll get it!" Cream said happily as she skipped to the front door.Sonic sat down on with one of the chairs, mentally exhausted. His brain was going to explode with all the confusion that was going on. He rubbed his forehead and hoped everything would soon be okay."He's here now! Come on in! I'll have Gemerl make you some tea!"Great...someone else wanted to see him. Who was it?"Sonic! Look who's here."He took a deep breath, getting to intake more crap than he'd ask for. Standing up, he walked over to the front door to see a face he didn't expect..."Rouge?" Said Sonic, surprised at the White bats appearance.Rouge grinned. "Good evening Sonic, can I have a talk with you?"Sonic blinked. "Uhh sure...sure..." Rouge ushered Cream and Cheese back to her bedroom, while Gemerl made cups of tea, then went to go play with the young Rabbit and Chao. Rouge sat in the chair, leaning on it with her left leg over her right, her head on her hand and the other with its fingers around the handle."What do you wanna talk about?" Sonic asked.Rouge gave Sonic a concerned look."I hear you want to know about the Femme Fatalex."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Again we fear the unknown. But why are we now so afraid of what we are inside? How we perceive others has been warped. But it is not your fault. There are those you can trust. There comes the belief where everyone has all but true ill-intent...you can travel far across the world and far across the stars even, the fabrics of time and space can be torn, visit other universes...

Logic is only lost when the laws no longer apply...

But the colours still feel right...
Sonic's mind did a total backflip. He could have gone catatonic from the madness but he didn't. He just completely tripped instead. In the attempts to gather up the current situation became fruitless and pointless. Olly was trapped with Tails, who had gone mad. Prince Hayden was pissed off with him, rightly so...Abbadonia and Eggman had the Wisers...and Shizaru refused to inform him what was going on. And don't get him started on the 'Bloody Amy' hallucinations... Just don't."Sonic?"Sonic was brought back to reality by Rouge's voice. He had no choice but to shut out the noise that came from his skull cracking from too many complications. He squeezed his leg to ensure that he was still feeling physical pain and was willing to listen to Rouge."Yeah...I wanna...learn..." He spluttered out, to Rouge's surprise."Umm okay then..." She said, a little bewildered, but quickly composed herself.Sonic sighed. "Sorry...but I'm getting.. a little mixed up and confused..."He definitely was. In fact, the Femme Fatalex were the least of his problems."That's fine. I understand that completely." She said, reassuring him."Ask what you need to ask..."Sonic nodded. He had hundreds of questions but could only ask one."Who are the Femme Fatalex?" Rouge sipped her tea before speaking."The Femme Fatalex are a Third Party group assimilated by Shadow. Mostly his idea...and even most of the stuff is highly confidential, but I was allowed in to know some of the details." She explained.She started off with the initial organization with a mysterious person who did not wish to be identified, even to Rouge, who never even saw him."He tipped off Shadow by giving him huge documents containing history and numerous photos. Which doesn't make sense, considering I've been with GUN longer than Shadow and yet this person only wants to speak with him...but that's besides the point...you know me."Sonic kept a straight face. Honestly he hardly knew Rouge at all, if that's what messages kept telling him."Anyway, Shadow approached me and threw several files over. All containing profiles of individuals I had to go retrieve and train up. When I asked him what was it for, he refused to answer. I had no choice."The three individuals. Agent Mjöllnir. Agent Bazooka. Agent Drainer. Medium...Tall...Small.They were specifically picked according to Rouge, in occurrence to their pasts and prominent needs."Agent Mjöllnir...she was the first one. She was easy to train, considering she was so well endowed with her own abilities. She had promise. The only issue was her anger...her rage."Sonic looked down at his cup. He'd noticed there were times where she couldn't hold her anger. Specifically back in the Garden of Sakura, invading Eggman's base.Rouge continued. "There was another issue she brought up. I didn't want to ignore but it was at Shadows insistence I leave it be for now."Sonic blinked. "What was it?" He asked.Rouge clasped the cup with two hands as her eyes dived into the tea. "She had trouble with separating fact from fiction. Possible identity crisis. I'm not a psychologist, I specialize in infiltrations of solid places, not mind reading. Shadow didn't want her visiting our own analyzer. I tried arguing with him but he wouldn't budge, saying that if I take her there the whole ordeal would be useless. Nonetheless..."Made a bit of sense. Gathering from Olly's reaction to Tails, she may had seen something similar once before."So I trained her up, gave her a name...Originally it was Agent Hammer, but she thought it was unoriginal. So she picked Mjöllnir instead...no matter how..weird that sounded. But it was her decision so she stuck with it."Sonic chuckled. "You were getting pushed around a bit..."Rouge glared at him. "Watch your mouth Hedgehog. Be careful and I'll show you want pushing around means!"Sonic sat back in his chair, smirked. "Do continue..."Rouge put down her cup. "As I was saying, she was the easiest to train. So I got her to help me train the other two Agents."Agent Bazooka was next on the list. From her profile, her husband was also an Agent of GUN, seemingly died in the line of duty during an incident a few years back. It was from his death that she became fascinated by large rocket launchers, hence the code name. He had tendency to joke around in high-octane situations however..."It's just a coping mechanism. Like with Mjöllnir, they both have something to fight for. I understood Agent Bazookas motivations, but Mjöllnir's was complicated. She proclaimed that...she just wanted a taste of warranted heroism. That's all." Rouge stated.Sonic tapped the table. "You think...there was something else...wasn't there?"At that statement, Rouge looked out the window. "Perhaps..."So with Olly's need to be a hero, supposedly, and Bazza wanting to avenge her fallen husband, what did Agent Drainer want?"Agent Drainer...was a different case altogether. She didn't need anything, she didn't want anything...she was there to be somewhat of a hard bargain."Sonic took another sip of his tea, while he had one arm over the chair and one leg stretched out."She doesn't talk much." Sonic assumed.Rouge nodded. "Shadow told me to ignore most of the her profile, which hardly existed. Any record of her can't be found beyond a certain point, not even a date of birth."So now there was data to work off, as Rouge thoroughly explained their more minor details. So the Femme Fatalex were no longer one sided, crazy women with mysterious tasks, minus the artifact collecting of course. Which lead to..."One of GUNS Satellites found a strange parchment of land within the Earths gravitational pull. It was any wonder it hadn't been found before..."Sonic thumbed his lip. "That would be the Space Greens Zone." He corrected.Rouge crossed her legs and laid her hands on her knee. "Yes indeed...until our scanners read it had huge quantities of Chaos Radiation. We suspected that was jamming the sensors for a while."Rouge further explained how Shadow sent the Fatalex to the Space Greens to meet up with Prince Hayden. This backed up his story completely. Finally, Sonic was getting somewhere and he knew who else to ask."So they have to collect the artifacts because..." Sonic started off saying, hoping Rouge would tell him."To prevent Abbadonia from getting them. She's a sinister witch...and a mean chess player."Rouge continued. Sonic didn't want to know about that last part."Old records dictate that she was the creator and entrusted them to many rulers back many years ago. The Rosoideae Hedgehogs weren't the only group that she made contracts with."Sonic browed. "How many did she...claim then?" He wondered.Rouge bounced her top leg. "Seven. Seven Kingdoms. Some civilizations were destroyed. We can't be exactly which ones they were since few survived but refused to disclose their nature to us. Shadow's working on it."
BEEP BEEP BEEP
Rouge pulled a small black device out of her boot and checked it. "Well, it looks like I'm needed at the base. If you need any more info I suggest talking to Shadow directly, since he is directing this Operation. Actually, go see see old Lady Rose at the book shop. She may be of better help then I am." So Sonic said his goodbyes to Rouge as she left the building and flew off. At her suggestion, he was prepared to visit Muriel once again. Rouge didn't say why Abbadonia needed them. She was a Demoness with extraordinary powers, why would she need such things when she could be a master manipulator. Old debts, who knows? Desperate times call for desperate measures...He went into Creams room and adios'd her, also asking her if her mother would be home soon. Cream shrugged as she didn't know, but assured Sonic that Gemerl would look after her well.With that confidence, Sonic fled off to Central City to see Muriel Rose...Sonic was enlightened by the talk with Rouge, but couldn't get over the fact she somehow knew that he wanted to know about the Femme Fatalex, or maybe it was just a lucky guess. It didn't matter now, the girls had a story behind them and they were only doing their jobs. He wondered about Amy and how she was doing. All this fuss over old pieces of history scattered across various parts of the world. But he supposed it was better that she stayed out of it as much as she could. Saves the kidnapping, if at all. But now these Seven Kingdoms were in order and had it just as bad as the Rosoideaes. Muriel was an intelligent and sightly old lady, she was the one who wrote the book...well, had the book anyway. If Amy's story was true then Sonic had to be very careful where he trekked."Do you understand yet?" Asked Shizaru.The world darkened to a halt, as Sonic was no longer running but standing still as the Prophetess spoke to him."Not really. But I can see why Olly can't separate fact from fiction. I'm beginning to feel the same way."He stood at a literal crossroads that led into fog. A single lamppost stood behind him as Shizaru came into view...looking like Doctor Edenguard for some reason. Complete with plaited quills.Sonic facepalmed. "Look I don't have time for your shenanigans. I have places to go and people to see.""You've taken a few steps in the right direction. I witnessed it myself. If it weren't for the fact that it lead you there, I'm satisfied that you took on the suggestion and went with it." She said calmly.
Pay attention...for the deed has been done and now all you will see in the bright whites of your life representing something...more. The second most seen colour...ambigious. The darkest colours you cannot trust...unless they have bright hearts.
Sonic turned around, then turned back to Shizaru. Colours now? He had to pay attention to certain colours?"It's amongst the patterns of your reality that have been altered for good purpose and reason. Beyond reason is beyond purpose. Go."The front of Central City flashed suddenly before Sonic's eyes. A stillness, but the busy metropolis presented comforting life. The sun shone and the atmosphere should have been okay. But an awkwardness stuck beside him, changing his perspective a little. He decided to take his time to think as he strolled along. He waved to people who knew him, the well-known celebrity he was. But they were just faces. Faces he would protect even though he didn't know them all. From small children, to young adults then all the way to the elderly. There was nothing wrong with the city itself. He should be fine, he should feel safe. But the otherwise was preventing him from seeing it that way. Shoving those problems aside, Sonic took Rouge's advice and ran off to see Muriel.He spindashed up a building as he searched for the direction he was looking for. A gust of wind in his spikes alerted him to turn around, expecting Shizaru to reappear. But she didn't, strangely enough. Maybe she decided to stop bothering him for the day. However the sun was calling out in its warmth. The clock on the tallest nearby tower said twelve o'clock PM. Prompting Sonic to wonder how long he had been out for...he could swear he'd been out for more than that. All he knew was that his body clock said he was later than it was. He hadn't eaten lunch either. Another spindash sent him to a random hot dog stand, purchasing several chilli dogs and downing them all before you could say Doctor Ivo Robotnik. Energized as well as hitching a bottle of water to drink, Sonic backtracked his way to Muriel's store.The humble bookshop still stood there. Aged as it was, it held up pretty well. Sonic approached the wooden door with the simple glass pane as the bell chimed as he pushed the door in. Forever dusty, but homely and somewhat cosy as the sun shown through the windows and a single fan on top. A brown hue with touches of golden yellow from the sun, the dust swirling about in its own business coloured the medium sized store. Numerous old book stands stuck with cobwebs and the like, it looked like some nooks and crannies hadn't been touched for quite a while. Red velvet couches with dust and small cushions that looked torn gave Sonic the creeps. Didn't look like Muriel was doing any properly cleaning or darning. In fact, looking over to the back of the store where the desk was, Muriel wasn't to be seen. There was a single doorway behind the bench. Sonic walked over the bell next to the register and rung it."Hello?" Said Sonic, wondering if Muriel was still around.The silence was enough to hear a small amount of wind to seemingly reply to him. He could barely hear it, but it was there. Shuffling of feet became louder as Muriel came out through the doorway with her walking stick."Ah it's Sonic! Welcome!" She said, giving him a smile that's exclusive to grandmothers.Sonic waved. "Hey there!"She shuffled her way behind the counter. "What brings you to my humble abode? Here to purchase something?"Sonic shook his head. "Nah sorry Mrs. Rose." He replied. "I've come to ask you more about the history of the Rosoideaes...as well as the Seven Kingdoms."Upon hearing Rosoideae and Seven Kingdoms, the green eyes behind the fragile frames of her glasses lit up."Haven't you found your friend yet?" She asked sweetly, coming out from behind the desk. One look at the Walking stick, forced Sonic to flash back to see Professor Rose with one that was very similar. Although he brushed it off as a mere coincidence."Yeah I did. I know where he is...its..." Sonic replied, somewhat trailing off."Nevermind, he's okay."Muriel nodded.They walked over to the well-worn couches and sat down."So...you want to know more about the Rosoideae eh? And it's the first time anyone has mentioned the Seven Kingdoms...that was practically waning...fading off into God's good graces." Said Muriel, looking out the window.Sonic sat on one of the torn cushions. Still comfortable at least. "Yes please."Muriel bowed her head."The Seven Kingdoms existed over a debated amount of millennia. But it was said the suggested Eighth Kingdom was the first kind and are the true Precursors to this world. When the world once flourished with nothing but chaos it was once believed they were the ones who created the Master Emerald and the Seven Chaos Emeralds to put 'Order to Chaos'."Interesting. The Chaos Emeralds played a big part in the majority of adventures that Sonic played part in. This was the first time that he'd heard of such origins. He leaned his head in to listen to more."Then...they disappeared. The Chaos Emeralds spread. Helped develop many races but ultimately each Emerald was dedicated to new Kingdoms, whom developed their histories and mythos. The Precursors did leave pieces of the history, but gave no indication of what they looked like. The Rosoideae were given the Red Emerald as a sign of good faith during the original meetings of the Rosoideae and the Stupilites. However there was the Knuckles Tribe..."
Do you like the colour red?
"Sonic?"Sonic lifted his head. "Yeah?"He didn't realize he'd zoomed out and started staring at the floor as words crossed his mind. The Red Emerald. He pulled the Emerald out from behind and displayed it to Muriel, who's eyes lit up again."Yes that one...that Red Emerald symbolized the pact between the Blue and Pink Hedgehogs. The Knuckles Tribe invaded one day and stole the Emerald. The Prophets said it was meant to be. They were simply trying to get them back to the holy shrine dedicated at the Echidna Kingdom."Sonic just stared at it. "So they lost their source of power...and made a new pact with Abbadonia in order to get that power back..."Muriel nodded. "Precisely. The Stupilites weren't happy about it. Not one bit. Their priceless relic was stolen and the bond between them and the rest of the House became...strained. Legend has it that the Knuckles Tribe had collected and successfully assimilated Precursors old ruins back on Angel Island..."A loud bang was heard from the back of the store, prompting Muriel to shoot up, despite her old age, and walked over. Sonic withdrew the Emerald and followed, reading to leap into action if needed. Suddenly, a massive claw shot from the doorway, and grabbed Muriel unexpectedly, forcing Sonic to jump in to try and save her. Again, surprisingly to him, he was too slow. He managed to follow the claw through a hallway and outside a window, Sonic not noticing anything around him as he focused on saving Muriel. He jumped outside as the claw moved back and settled into Eggman's giant mecha.Tall, fat thing...it was the same giant robot from the Space Greens Zone that kidnapped the Pseudo Wisers. Large red literal orbs that had white lined grids, an orange metal mustache poked out from under the the red nose. The torso was grey with two red zig zag stripes on each side of the dome like chest, the thighs titanium and shins iron man red. The claw extended out from an open round shaft on its stomach. Its arms, cylindrical in all their glory and three gritty spiked fingers on each. This thing had to be at least 20 meters in height. It was massive. A constant chuckle was heard as Eggman rose up above it's head."How do you like my Egg Goliath?" He gloated, wearing a smirk. Sonic quickly scanned it for any notable weak-spots, but had to retrace his thoughts back to the claw. Muriel was waving her hands about. He could hear the rockets coming from behind the Goliath as Sonic ran up the side of a building, dodging the rockets as they exploded on a windows, forcing glass to burst everywhere and the building to shake violently. Sonic kept his balance tight as he heard the fire alarm go off nearby. Looking over the edge, Sonic could see the workers flocking out the back and the front, and did not stop running until they were out of sight. More dodging and leaping ensured as Eggman fired off more rockets, all of them missing him entirely as Sonic jumped off the edge and shot down his left foot to try and break the wire connecting to the claw, instead he met with a Stumpwing, a type of demonic bat as they had met before, with no legs. Its fangs shot up and curved tall than it's stubby head and one eye, the bottom with root like extensions upon its charcoal body and glowing lava cracks. It only meant one thing.Abbadonia was near.After Sonic's foot collided with the Stumpwing, the Blue Blur did a complete back flip and landed safely on the ground. Dozens upon dozens of holes opened up from the ground as Abbadonia's demonic legions crawled out. But where was Abbadonia herself? Not having any of this, Sonic spindashed and treated several of the demons like bowling pins again, knocking them off their britches. Rolling out from a blast of fire, Sonic punched the living daylights out of a Crawlfangs, sending them flying on a bunch of old Mephbones. A Stumpwing flew overhead as Sonic looked up at it as it started throwing out balls of fire. Sonic ran forward and skid underneath, jumping on a Crawlfangs head like a spring, using the momentum and spindash the Legless from behind. In the air for a moment, Sonic witnessed more of Eggman's rockets aiming for him. He grinned and jumped on each one, doing back slips and skidding down the rockets before finding himself on the shoulder of the Egg Goliath. With a simple slide, Sonic got the end of the hand to grab a hold of the claw."Thank goodness!" She said with relief. "Get me out of this thing!"
WHACK!
He should been paying attention as he fell to the ground, surrounded by several angry Stumpwings Instead, a shot was fired as Sonic shot up. GUN Personnel shooting the hell out of the beasts."The cavalry has arrived!" Said Rouge as she grabbed Sonic up from behind just as a Crawlfang breath out flames. He watched as the black suited soldiers continued firing at the hundreds of demons around them. Rouge brought him back up to the arm and helped Sonic break Muriel free from the claw. A single swipe of her razor sharp kicks created a clean cut through the cord, the metal fingers dislodging and letting go of Muriel. Lucky Omega was underneath to catch the fragile woman, as Sonic and Rouge descended."She needs to get to safety!" Sonic barked.Rouge agreed. "I'm gonna take her back to headquarters. You and Omega deal with this piece of junk!" She said as she took Muriel from Omega.With that, Sonic could now focus on the Egg Goliath. He looked over to Omega and nodded."THAT IS PATHETIC!" Omega grunted. "IT WILL BE DESTROYED!"In not time flat, as if having done the same idea before, Sonic ran to Omega who grabbed Sonic and spun around on the same spot, with the momentum and speed building with each turn as Omega used his back thrusters to blast up into the air and fire Sonic at one of the red orbs at high velocity. The sheer force of the blue ball broke the orb, causing Sonic to smile as he heard Eggman pounding away at the console."Fire more rocks you idiots!" He ordered as Becoe and Decoe sat in front of him."Yes Doctor." Said a rather nervous Decoe.More rockets fired from different orifices this time, as Sonic rolled back down the legs. Omega did his job well by blasting hundreds of his seemingly limitless internal magazines, destroying each rocket that came from behind, from the round yellow shoulders, the torso and even the knees. Sonic rolled away from each one to allow Omega to get better aim. Eggman pounded the console even more."Get out the laser!" He barked."Yes Doctor." Said the equally nervous Bocoe.Two antennae popped out from the round metallic head, bending inwards in the middle and joining together. A hot, straight stream of red shot from the laser trying to aim for both Omega and Sonic. Omega was forced to stop what he was doing and run out of the way. Sonic tried to distract the laser, but Eggman was savvy enough to the slower annoyer and almost shot off Omega arm in the process, if it weren't for white jets zooming in from above, destroying the laser within a minimum amount of shots. These planes, although fast, were white with a sun-like insignia underneath both wings, which also had small notches to make them appear like angels, as the cockpits alongside the noses were like gold and gleamed in the sunlight, supporting the resemblance."Woah who are they? Sonic wondered, somehow now standing on top of Omega in the midst of all the running around.Sonic could hear Omega's sensors and scanners buzzing about as he tried to identify them."IDENTIFYING THREE FIGHTER JETS. SONS OF SOLARIS. JET MODEL SOL-2006"He read out. Sons of Solaris?They flew back over again, shooting at the rather resistant metals of the Egg Goliath.Upon a somewhat loud roar, machinations shifted and shafted as the back of the Goliath spread its bat like wings out, causing a head tilt from Sonic."So...why didn't we attack from behind?" He asked himself in sarcastic scorn.Flames hot out from underneath as the Goliath slowly but surely rose up into the air. The arms, legs and torso started moving about as it the giant robot transformed itself into a more suitable flying form. Sonic nor Omega were going to let Eggman off that easy. Speeding up the building in front him, Sonic jumped from rooftop to rooftop to catch up with it. Omega, not being that fast to flying on buildings, was slightly disheartened and shook his fists in rage...until he sensed a Crawlfang was heading in his direction and blasted it in one full shot. Eggman was no longer in his grasp, but these pathetic excuses would have to do."Agent Omega! We need your help!" Cried out one of the soldiers. He might as well. A battles a battle as he dove head first into the barrage of demonic beasts...Sonic on the other hand was busy trying to catch up with Eggman, who kept firing more rockets at him, the speedy hedgehog doing quick lunges at each one, forcing gravity upon the rockets to a solid surface. A fast burst of air rose beside him as he looked to his left to see one of the SOL Fighter jets flying beside him, the lid of the cock pit rising up to reveal a white, hard suited person bearing a tag and a helmet similar to Olly's."Need a lift?" She asked, giving a thumbs up. Surely these had to be from GUN, despite the white suit. He shrugged and smiled."Sure." He replied. The tag read 'Hyperia' upon closer inspection. The lid fell and shut as Sonic jumped on top of the fighter jet, barely avoiding a taller building, forcing Hyperia to swerve to the side as Sonic barely held on. The fight jet steadied itself as the Egg Goliath was firing more rockets."Agent Flare! Left side! Agent Riser! Right side!" Commanded Hyperia. On que, the other two fighter jets flew in from each side, positioning themselves next to the Goliath. Sonic held his three point stance Hyperia flew them closer, then above the flames of the back. He leaped off the jet and onto the back of the Goliath. Eggman came out of a small shaft, whacking the shaft door open and crawling out."Give it up Eggman! You lost!" Sonic boasted.Eggman crossed his arms."What? Who said I was giving up? I came out here to enjoy the fresh air...also..."He retorted, whipping out a spray can. "Just to say...you stink!" He said as he sprayed Sonic with it.The stench...it had to be Abbadonias Fury! A single small whiff turned the sky red. Sonic covered his face. "That's just dirty Eggman!" Sonic cooed. He bolted towards Eggman, his face had a meeting with his fist, but Eggman managed to grab it in time, spraying more of the Fury into Sonic's face, buildings springing up further than they were before, looking like they were no longer made of concrete, iron and all kind of materials, but pure magma, complete with lava spewing out from the windows. Sonic was not about to get into this mess again as he Spindashed into the Doctors stomach, Eggman gasping and almost falling off the Goliath onto summoned spikes."FLARE! GET IN THERE!" Hyperia ordered. Agent Flare's jet floated underneath where Eggman was hanging. Sonic walked over and placed his foot on the chubby gloved fingers to stare at the scared, wimpy face of his nemesis."Sonic! Help me!" He cried. Sonic should help him up. But why should he?"You spray! You pay!" Sonic taunted, jamming Eggmans fingers with his feet, causing him to scream."Alright alright! I'm sorry! I promise I won't spray you again!" Eggman pleaded. Sonic smirked. Such cowardice. Sonic pulled him back up as Eggman dusted himself off and thanked him."So you're going straight to the slammer!" Sonic roared.Eggman faked a surprised expression. "Really? I didn't know that..." He said sarcastically.Sonic rolled his eyes. He waved over to Hyperia, before Eggman whipped out the spray again."SONIC WATCH OUT!"Sonic looked over to Eggman sprayed, but instead a black figure grabbed him out of the way before he got the full brunt of it. He looked up."Agent Drainer?" He said, stunned, then shook his head. "I knew he was going to spray me again anyway!" Sonic claimed, trying to protect his pride.She helped him stand up again as Sonic glanced over to see Agent Bazooka holding Eggmans hands behind his back. Sonic smirked. "Well done there...but I coulda' taken him..." It wasn't long before Bazooka headed down into the Goliaths main console and knocked out Becoe and Decoe. She safely landed the Goliath above GUNS Helicopter roof pad as the Sons of Solaris landed in the plane bay nearby. Bazooka had Eggman in handcuffs, while Omega had arrived back with the others just in time to grab Bocoe and Decoe and take them off Sonic's hands. Rows of GUN Soldiers made a path as Sonic walked in front of Bazooka, Eggman and Drainer who stood on the other side of Eggman. The three pilots soon followed as Omega trailed behind."Who'd thought it would come to this?" Said Decoe, being dragged by Omega."I know...it's probably the most humiliating failure." Replied Bocoe, who was also in Omegas clutches.They walked inside the GUN Complex as Rouge fluttered by."Bazooka and Drainer, take them down to the high security prison. Hyperia, Flare and Riser, follow me."Sonic scratched his head. "So...what am I supposed to do?" He asked, looking at the long spiral the headed all the way to the ground floor. GUNS Headquarters was dreary, mostly darkened walls with the occasional pot plant and couch and chair with hundreds of people walking , scientists and engineers. Out of the crowd stood the Bloody Amy, sitting down with her knees facing in and surrounded in bandages. She just gave the sad stare at him as he stared back at her as she disappeared back into the crowd."Sonic did you hear me?"Sonic faced back to listen to Rouge. "Wha? Sorry!"Rouge face-palmed. "Drainer is gonna take what level of Fury Eggman splashed on you. The New Commander is expecting you as well."Sonic nodded. New Commander...the other one he knew...that he flashed back to on the ARK. Retired most likely. Not that he heard much from GUN's point of view anyway.Drainer tapped on his shoulder, giving indication that they needed to go to the infirmary. Rouge took the Sons of Solaris as well as Agent Bazooka and headed up to the top floor. Meanwhile Drainer walked alongside Sonic, who remembered he had to ask about Muriel, then thought it was better to ask her later...maybe this new commander could tell him some more facts."So what happened to Olly?" Asked Sonic. He had his suspicions but he had to be sure.Drainer remained stoic. "She's on the ARK still. We haven't had contact from her since yesterday."Sonic did a head check. No...she can't be. She might be. Sonic brushed it off."Want me to go look for her?" He asked, genuinely concerned, having the strangest inkling that she was in danger, knowing what happened before in the dream."Agent 'Olly' can take care of herself. One of her rules was that no one was to look for her if she disappeared for several days at a time."Sonic chuckled at the ridiculousness of that. "What idiot makes that kind of rule?"Drainer didn't show any other emotion. "As Team Leader, she's in charge."They were getting closer to the infirmary as Sonic heard screams. Yup. Definitely it. But for Olly to instigate such a stupid mark on her team mates was out there. Narcissistic at best..or just plain selfish. Then again, Sonic did do a lot of things alone, by himself mostly. Even then, he still had friends to help him out from time to time. She could be being held by her entrails or bleeding to death. He expected the Bloody Amy to arrive as he looked around, but she was nowhere to be seen. The pair walked into the infirmary and found an empty room as Drainer brought our her blades again."Are you gonna do it through my wound again?" He asked her.Drainer stared down at his chest. "It's become a scar. To open up that wound again would be foolish. Give me your hand."Sonic gulped. "Uh...okay."Sonic displayed his left hand to Drainer, who examined his arm with her fingers and tilted her head with obsession. She knew what was she doing...but the primary fear was that she had done this before. He didn't know whether to be frightened or fascinated."I wanna know...what's Olly really like..." He said as Drainer looked for a place to jab her blade."She's...a competent leader. Done a lot of S-Rank simulations and has a 95 percent success rate."Sonic had no idea about simulations or S ranks, but 95 success rate couldn't be all bad."But she's quick to anger." Drainer continued, making a small incision near Sonic's shoulder, causing him to shirk a little. Bits of blood seeping out, but Drainer kept the blade in while it absorbed Fury out of his blood stream and into a small amber coloured ball that she disposed down the nearby sink. She patched his arm up with a single bandage and he was good to go."It was a small amount that you inhaled. Shouldn't have been that much hallucinogen..."Sonic certainly hoped so.After that was done, Drainer took Sonic to the Commanders center. The room was worse in its dinginess. Frame-less screens that varied from small to large and seem to portray the clean up from Abbadonia's forces in different parts of the city. Sonic was impressed by the fact that they reacted so quickly. The desk sat above a small set of stairs, the floor was all metal, save for a single red rug underneath the desk. Around a black chair stood the Sons of Solaris, Rouge, Omega and Bazooka."Commander..." Said Drainer, giving a salute. The chair spun around revealing the most unexpected.Sonic's eyes went wide. "Shadow?"
Drainer walked them both over to where the others were. Shadow stood up, now wearing a long sleeve GUN Jacket, greyish in colour and wearing a multitude of GUN decorations on his left side and his right side his badge. He wore the shoulder pads like the old Commanders and a classic brown belt, and surprisingly a grey pair of pants. But, as it was still was Shadow, he wore his usual skate shoes, glove and golden bands. Now wasn't the time for questions onto how Shadow actually got to be sitting in the most important chair in the entire room, but rather more important measures that needed to be addressed.
"Getting the man down there was easier than expected." Said Bazooka who broke the ice.Shadow's head fell. "Eggman is not our only problem." He responded.Sonic walked forward. "It's Abbadonia.""Abbadonia has been a thorn in our side lately. She teamed up with Eggman purely for conveniences sake, knowing his history with previous deities. I doubt she would care he was gone." Shadow continued. "She was there today...but remained hidden surprisingly."Hyperia rose her head. "Can I make a suggestion?" She said, taking her helmet off, showing her short read hair that made Sonic blink."Elise?" He asked, not expecting that.Elise grinned and winked at him. "Sure am. I guess I forgot to mention I work for GUN as well. Cool huh?"Sonic ignored the mysterious revelations. "Yeah I suppose..." He said, preferring not to deal with small talk at the moment.Elise noticed the expression on his face, realizing now wasn't the time."Go on..." Said an impatient Shadow.Elise pardoned and straightened herself up, holding her helmet under her arm. "Eggman was here...with only that giant robot and his two little robots. He knows Central City is heavily guarded. So Abbadonia backs him with her troops yet she's nowhere to be seen."Shadow looked on, intrigued. "I think I know what you're implying."Sonic faced Elise. "Eggman was a distraction?"Shadow crossed his arms. "Abbadonia was looking for something...so while Eggman was busy terrorizing the city with GUN troops scattered across the city, the real threat was roaming freely without fear of getting shot down."Rouge sat on the edge of Shadow's desk. "That's logical. Eggman was trying to kidnap Muriel Rose again."Sonic browed. "I found that to be the strangest part. I understand she has important information about the artifacts that they're after. But..."Drainer's head shot up. "Eggman has the Wisers in full strength who know exactly where the rest of the artifacts are."Sonic tapped his lips with his index finger as his arm rest in his other. "They could be stalling. I dunno..."Shadow grunted. "Even Mrs. Rose is keeping a tight lip about it all. She claims she doesn't know."The mention of Rose made Sonic think back to Amy and wondered where she was in all of this. Far away, he imagined. He silently prayed for her safety, then flashed back to when Abbadonia had Amy in her clutches...
Such a fresh body...how I love being invasive to the non-lucids!
Sonic gazed into space, ignoring what was going on around him."I want you two to interview her." Shadow said to Elise and Rouge.Rouge's hands flew to her hips. "You just said she doesn't know anything."Shadow glared onwards. "She knows more than she lets on."Elise raised an eyebrow. "She's an old lady! What morals don't you have!"Shadow clenched his fists in anger. "Don't you dare speak back to me like that! As your Commander I order you to interrogate her."Elise slammed her fist into the desk. "I came here because you needed my help with Eggman. I did as you said. I'm a Pilot! I fly! I shoot! I do the dirty work from above! I don't verbalize with the elderly unless they're a councilor."Shadow looked away as Elise gathered the other Pilots and walked out of the room in disgust.Rouge smirked. "You know it is obvious you haven't been Commander long..." She said.Shadow grunted. "Shut your mouth. I know what I'm doing! Or would you rather let me interrogate her myself? And you know how unforgiving I am to those who stand in my way."Drainer walked forward. "I'll do it."Shadow, Bazooka and Rouge stared at her. "What?" Said Bazza."I said I'll interrogate her. Commander, if you say there's something suspicious about Mrs. Rose, then I will interrogate her for you."Shadow sat back down in his chair. "Very well Agent Drainer. I had her escorted to Interview Room Three."Drainer saluted and headed off. "Of course sir." She before walking out."What about me sir?" Asked Bazza.Shadow tapped the desk, then glimpsed at Sonic, who was still in deep thought, then looked at Bazza."Agent Bazooka I want you to keep an eye on him. Facilitate Protocol 76 if you need to."Agent Bazooka saluted Shadow. "Yes Sir."Rouge rolled her eyes and ended up throwing a pencil at Sonic's head."Hey! Blue sponge!" She taunted.The pencil knocked him out of his trance. "Woah what?"Shadow intertwined his fingers. "If you have anything to contribute, please tell me."Sonic's eyes prevented eye contact. "Oh...no it's nothing." He lied.Shadow bowed his head. "I want you and Agent Bazooka to head back to the ARK. Find Agent Mjöllnir and ask why is it taking her so damn long to find that damn artifact."Technically Sonic wasn't a GUN soldier, but he would have done the same thing. Especially if it was to go find Olly. And Tails...if it was him.After Sonic and Bazza left, Shadow was left with Rouge and Omega.Rouge sighed. "Shadow please tell me if this plan of yours is working."Shadow smirked as he crossed his fingers together and fumbled his thumbs. "Trust me. Operation LUCID" is going according to plan..."–"You seemed pretty spaced out lately. You alright?" Asked Bazza.She and Sonic hitched a GUN Jet to parachute near the Garden of Rosales. They'd strapped in on the side of the plane as Sonic grasped onto the seat belts and continued to be deep in thought."I'm fine. It's...something that Abbadonia said that disturbs me." He explained.Bazza looked around. "Well there's no one else here...cept the pilots." She said sincerely."Their heads are pretty much in the clouds."Sonic smirked at that statement. He could count on Bazza to make light of the situation.She was a nice woman after all. Technical but wasn't bothered by much. From Rouge had told him before, she was a widow, living it up to her late husbands honor. Sonic knew, if he could see what Bazza was doing with her life, he would be proud. Sonic watched as Bazza started tinkering with her weaponry."If we go on entire team missions, Olly would be the one with all the gear. But she told us to always be prepared." She said, engaging and disengaging several locks, causing the Bazooka to either elongate or shorten."She always that wise?" Sonic asked.Bazza chuckled. "She trained me. Before this, I was nothing. I did a little teaching at the local school until it was destroyed. It wasn't Eggman...but Abbadonia."Sonic frowned. "Revenge?" He theorized.Bazza shook her head. "No...you see, my husband died in combat. Does sound like a double revenge ploy, but he did tell me however, that if he died, that he wanted me to live happily. So I did. But at times where I missed him so much, I'd stand tall for him and the rest of my family."Sonic nodded. "So where does Olly come in?"Bazza continued fumbling with her Bazooka. "She knocked on my door. She'd seen my profile and thought I could be perfect GUN Material. Money was good...good enough to get my child through school...after all, being a teacher's aid as well as money from the government isn't that much to get along with to pay the general bills...Bill himself was a hard, hard man to please." She joked with a slight laugh.Sonic smiled again and looked forward. "Good that she did. I saw before, I was very impressed with what you could do."Sonic had a feeling that under that helmet of hers Bazza grinned. "Thanks Sonic. You're a lot like Olly in a way. She does compliment often...but when her anger takes it toll you better watch out."Again with the reference to Olly's temperament. He'd seen her rage, but wondered if it was the worst of it. Gazing at the Bazooka with a tilted curiosity, Sonic was interested in Bazza's obsession with weaponry tech."Husband liked big guns?" He asked.Bazza nodded. "Yup. Taught me what I needed to know in case I needed to defend myself. Although when I was your age I dreamed about being a manufacturer of the best high-tech weapons so I dove inside military books to read about rifles, snipers, pistols...you name it. Even the most the complicated bullets and ammo that could pierce through almost anything. But rockets will always be my favourite..."After a lengthy discussion, they made it to the cold Holoska north. Still brisk, Bazza lent Sonic a parachute, who shook his head as he grabbed a piece of random iron board that had been floating around. Shrugging as the back opened up completely, Bazza jumped out and extended her ponytails to allow for a slow and steady decent. Looking downwards whilst holding on to a bar, it was obviously a long way down. Throwing the board into the air, Sonic ran out in a spin dash and landed cleanly on the board. Bazza had her arms and legs out wide, while Sonic somersaulted and spun around as they fell and aimed their center of gravity towards the mountainside. Clouds whizzed by as the forceful breeze waved Sonic's spikes in erratic rhythms. Adrenaline pumping and heart beats sky rocketing with excitement upon the two daredevils as they got closer. Sonic pushed the board downwards, sending it down to the mountain with a mighty crash as the blue blue spread out like Bazza, using his quills to help decrease his speed. Bazza withdrew her limbs and shot forward like a atom bomb and grabbed Sonic's leg from behind, holding onto him as she flapped her ponytails rapidly as they finally made it to the mountain.With much less talk, Sonic and Bazza wasted no time in going to the Hub once more. No funny business happening this time around. It was still a gentle afternoon after all the trouble they had earlier. The weather, calm and of mild warmth. The lack of notable noise disturbed Sonic, as troubled thoughts took residence in his mental neighborhood. The Agent and the Hedgehog walked down the main straight of the ruins to glimpse upon the Temple of the Prophets, its majesty over-shining the rest of the Garden of Rosales, wondering if it was for the deliberate overshadow.Potentially passive, Sonic ignored the temple for now, trying to waste no more time. Although, if he could get a hold of the Ring of Memories, this place was bound to display the passages of ancient history, and from what Prince Hayden mentioned, that particular phase and point in time, 'Hells Sundering'.Bazooka tried to break the ice with cracking a few puns, inter weaved with insane descriptions and analyzations of her favourite movies and how some of them get them wrong. She was rather hyper-observational at that, within westerns, action and sci-fi, their guns and all types of weaponry. She liked the Light Saber from Star Wars and was spewing herself on how she wished the Force was real. In a world like this, Sonic thought, you could probably find some form of improvisation. To the point, she babbled on like nothing else was more important, to say that how they could have developed a proper aiming system for the lasers on the Stormtroopers as she complained about their terrible aiming. Sonic couldn't think far back enough to remember watching the saga, most likely when sitting around with Tails on a rainy day watching nothing but movies. Bazza mentioned having a family, and a husband and went off topic."You have kids?" He asked, surprising Bazza."You mean kid...I wish I could have more. We were thinking about having another child before he died. I guess we never got around to it." She replied shrugging.That was too bad. Sonic believed at least she had someone to fight for. For the happiness of a child. Motivation to do the right thing and set a good example. He smiled.They entered the Hub and went into the Central Portal Room, checked in on the Sphere of Abyss, and traversed their way into PORTAL-7. Like before, they'd gotten into the portal room inside the ARK, where Sonic lead Bazza into the foyer area near the same ARK Sick Bay that they were near before. Tracking back and using signs and minor iconic features, the pair ran down the hall way and eventually into the destroyed section where again Sonic jumped onto a rail and grinded his way to the other side with Bazza flying beside him. Probability of finding Tails and Olly was a slight chance, but given the size of the ARK, they would have to follow clues once they got to the so called 'Meeting Room'.Arriving, Sonic explained to Bazza about what happened before he was...thrown back to Earth so suddenly. Bazza nodded along, seemingly confused at how Sonic was teleported with no additional help. The Chaos Emeralds didn't explain anything, but Sonic knew he would go nowhere if he told her he just 'woke up' at Amy Rose's apartment. Bazza was a technical woman, but he doubted she would understand elaborate dream science. Unless guns and ammo were involved."So we got in through the vents here." Sonic mentioned, reading himself to get in, before getting a tap on his shoulder."Hang on there Sonic...let me do the honors. Honors always do you." She joked, readying her signature bazooka. Standing back, Bazza inserted the specialized expanded ammunition inside and knelt down on one knee whilst keeping a safe distance between herself and the wall. In position with the bazooka on her shoulder, she fired a single blast...BOOM!Following the explosion, Bazza stood back up and strapped the bazooka back on her back and walked forward as the dust settled. Sonic walked next to her as they entered through the now shattered wall and into the strange room. As soon as the dust disappeared, Bazza examined the blood-written runes on the wall."Only if we had Drainer here...she might be able to transcribe these." She said.Sonic looked around the room. There was the table still stacked up against the other wall. He walked over and looked behind it, and saw a black object in the shadows and grabbed it.Flipping it between his fingers, he recognized it."It's the Ring of Memories." He announced. Bazza looked at him."I'd seen the mythos file. Powerful stuff...probably not lethal though. But still pretty cool." She commented.Sonic had to know what happened here and where Tails took Olly. He grasped the ring in his palm."I'm going to put it on. I will find Olly." He said.Bazza crossed her arms. "So...if I see you in trouble, want me to grab you out?" She asked, concerned.Sonic browed. "I doubt I would be...I'm just visiting..."Bazza lifted her head. "Oh I get it. You can see the past, but the past can't see you."Sonic nodded. "Exactly."He gave her one final nod before placing the ring on his left index finger and closed his eyes...…..Upon his focus, he decided to pick the bit before he was thrown back to Amy's couch, that way he could see what actually happens when he disappears. However, that was if that was a dream or not. This will either prove that he was awake the entire time, or it never happened, it only occurred in the complex thoughts of one Sonic T. Hedgehog.Funnily enough, three blurs came into vision, sharpening them to the point Sonic could properly recognize the figures. To his surprise it was him, Olly and Tails not too long ago. Or however long ago it was, it was still fresh in Sonic's mind. He could see Olly cling to his arm. You couldn't see her face, but Sonic knew, from her body language, that she was darn right afraid. The room was crimson red like before. His past self had the ring on, which was about the time where he had seen Maria and the young Commander pack up their things and left, then watched, whom Sonic believed to be possessed, Tails walk up to the pair and lean over, his head invading Sonic's personal space, then outright punching him in the face. The Violet Wisp reappeared and tried to distract and repel Tails, but instead Tails grabbed him and proceeded to distort what ever the heck it was into a monstrosity that freaked Sonic and eventually...vanishing. Within that split second, he was no longer there, the ring falling off his finger and rolling away. The Violet Wisp managed to punish Tails by reforming charged at him full throttle, knocking him off his feet. It then flew over to the other side and created a doorway for Olly, like it did for Sonic when he was drugged by Abbadonia's Fury. With no time to waste, Olly ran through the door and just kept running. Tails got back on his feet and looked over at the Ring and snarled. He stood there with his Tails refusing to waggled about, but were rather limp and just stayed still. His chest went up and down so at least he was still breathing. Sonic watched as his face became fixated on the floor for about several minutes,Current-Sonic wondered what he was doing. Again the atmosphere changed dramatically from tense to worse. Suddenly he lifted his head up and slowly walked off, stopping next to Sonic and looked forward again for about a minute, the titular two-tails kept still and were now dragging his feet along as he practically slid. But now, he was in the state of frightening silence for several moments."He's...just standing there." Said Sonic, knowing Bazza would hear him.Who ever was possessing Tails was quite a weird fellow. He was not interested in the Ring at all, but was fixated on Olly. She was long gone, but the redness soon faded and it became notable that the door was still there for Tails to walk through. The Wisp had left and Tails was still standing there. How Sonic wished to know what was going through his head. Perhaps he was busy fighting a battle on the inside. Many things but he refused to utter even a whisper in the desolate place. The oxygen vents hummed and things beeped, but other than that...nothing. Tails head rocked back and forth as he breathed, Sonic just stared.Then Tails head turned in Sonic's direction, as if gazing at him. He was expressionless...dull...lifeless. An empty living carcass it might have been. Sonic turned to face him and blinked, still thinking about what this strange possessor was doing with the possessee.A smiled formed on his face, albeit a very creepy one that almost stung, and tilted his head. His eyes seemed to be locked on with Sonic's."Boo!"Sonic fell backwards with surprise, immediately taking the Ring off and looked around. Bazza was beside him, kneeling down."Easy there Sonic...fall was last season..." She joked as she helped back up."What did you see?"Sonic stared down the endless hallway mindlessly as he failed to reply, but murmured a single sentence."He saw me."If Sonic could see the look on her face, she would be cocking an eyebrow."Who saw you?"He placed the ring back on his finger, and focused once more, trying to find where Olly ran off to. He rewound to the part where she'd just gotten out, and fled down another corridor."She went this way!" Sonic announced, pointing in the same direction and bolted.He caught up with her eventually, but she bounced her way through various lab rooms and general admin areas but just kept running...and running...and running. She'd finally stopped as she hit a dead end, then checked behind her to see if Tails had followed her. A lack of sound response did nothing to ease her nerves as she leaned on the wall and slid down to catch her breath, which became jittered, as if gasping for air. She held her legs in close as her body rocked back and forth. Within time, she slowed to a halt, then lifted up her head as Sonic got closer, as if she could see him. He felt her stare which made him wonder..."He just left! Why did he leave?" She muttered. Sonic didn't know what to say, other than to inform Bazza that Olly was here."Why do you mean he was sent back on purpose?"Sonic blinked with surprise. He checked around himself to see who she was talking to. Nonetheless, no one was there other than himself. He sat down against the wall next to her as she took deep breaths. He wished he could put his arm around her for comfort, but refrained from doing so."Is he coming back? TELL ME CHAOS DAMNIT!"Sonic looked forward, then let his head fall as he returned to his deepest thoughts."She had trouble with separating fact from fiction..."Looks like Rouge was right. She was probably seeing things again. If it wasn't the stress of the job then he had no idea. He hallucinated quite a bit himself but he wasn't going to let it get to him again.Although...
"So...uh...Sonic...you ever...you know, have these weird visions?"
He should have gotten the hint, regardless if she'd knocked the conversation back. Olly's head hit the wall."I'm tired...and frustrated Gabriel...I wanna go home."Gabriel? Why did that name sound so familiar?The air shifted slightly as Olly crackled knuckles, placing her hands on her helmet and was about to lift it until..."Sonic we have an emergency!"Bazza pulled the ring off Sonic's finger to see her. Sonic looked to his left to see that Olly didn't stay there. He stood up from where he was and glanced at Bazza."What seems to be the problem?" He asked.A single point from her finger aimed in the right direction and gave him a head tilt. Dozens of creatures, that looked like Tails, except for the fact that they seemed to float there like puppets with no strings, and that their fur looked more like clothing fibers and stitches, with each a small pole sticking out from the top of their heads with a small, round red light on them. Their eyes lifeless and heads were rolling all over the place like a rag doll."Tails Dolls...lot's and lot's of Tails Dolls." Said Sonic, his eyes looking over them. Bazza took out her Bazooka and somehow split them in two, tinkering with them until the became larger than normal lasers."I doubt they want to play with us." She joked.One moved forward very quickly, but its limbs dragged behind as they attempted to smother the two. Bazza blasted her way through the hordes of strange puppet like robots. Sonic on the other hand tried his homing attack on a few them just to get the heck out of there. Bazza trailed behind but there were just too many around. Instead, she pulled a small cylindrical silver device from out of her bumbag and pressed several buttons and threw it on the floor. She jumped up and started gliding above them all, barely catching up to Sonic as the device exploded behind them."Uh oh, more ahead!" Sonic announced. Seeing an upcoming corridor to their left, they took a detour and swerved to avoid the mass. Running as Bazza spun herself around, her front to the roof, she began firing multiple blasts as the Dolls were summoned from the roof. She swerved back around as they came across a set of sliding doors that lead into the ARKs atmosphere protected exterior. Sonic jumped up and grinded on the connecting rail, then jumped upon a platform and pressed buttons to make it move. Bazza flew and settled down beside him, aiming her guns towards the doors as the mass of Dolls burst out and hooked their red orbs underneath the rails, looking like a production run. Bazza began firing like mad to prevent them from catching up. Unfortunately several were too quick, swinging themselves around to make it to the transporter. With the Earth in the background, there was nothing below them. One simple fall from the platform could mean doom for them, unless Bazza uses her quick thinking to save him, but she was busy blowing up heads. Sonic kicked and punched several that came on-board and round house kicked three off the platform, sending them down into the darkness below. Deciding the platform was too slow, Sonic jumped off it and onto the rails in front as he cried out for Bazza. She flew off but not before destroying more dolls. She flew beside him as fast as she could, as they reentered the safer parts of the ark and kept running.They came across another dome like area that looked more like a lobby than anything else. Sonic ignored the scenery as more dolls dropped down from above. Sonic jumped up and homed in on each one, hitting the antennae on the head confirmed that that was their weak-spot. He forced himself down to skid across and slide underneath several as Bazza flew overhead and destroyed each one in her way. Sonic meanwhile found a rather narrow hallway, but was forced to burst through. Bazza tilted to fly sideways, making sure she had enough space to do so. Sonic skidded to a halt as he went through into another room, letting Bazza fly inside as Sonic pressed several buttons to force the door to be locked.This new room had a tall roof, computers everywhere with several tubes in the middle. It was dark, barring the numerous amount of neon green lights everywhere...floor, roof and walls...computers and the tubes with an ambient green fluid. The computers beeped and hummed. Bazza kept her guns aiming towards the door in case the dolls decided to be funny and open it.Sonic stepped forward to properly check the place out. He felt a bit dizzy all of a sudden as Shizaru stood in front of one particular tube, wearing a long white buttoned up lab coat...and nothing else."This is room is being cloaked. It is not what it seems." She muttered.Bazza withdrew her guns and refit them both into her titular bazooka after a moment of watching the door, being somewhat sure the Dolls wouldn't be able to get through."New all-range, all purpose Bazooka that I designed myself. It's called the Baz-Neon two-in-one X-343 Combine." She babbled, whipping the Bazooka onto her back and facing Sonic, who was busy staring at the large test tubes as bubbles rose in the water. She walked over to a computer console and faced one of the monitors. She motioned Sonic to come over with the wave of a hand. Complying, he walked to go next to her as he stared at the monitor himself. Nothing interesting was happening. He turned to his left to see she had disappeared again. Typical...he scanned the hundreds of buttons for anything in particular, only to see one button was completely red."This place gives me the creeps..." Bazza commented. "I don't know whats creepier...here or the dolls..."Sonic examined the button for another moment, before deciding to press it, causing all monitors around the room to light up in their light cascade hue. Tails face lit up in all of them, but now he had deep bloody eyes, sharp fangs and a nasty snarl."Greetings Mr. Thorn. I see you finally made it to the party." He said, his voice deep and gravely.Sonic turned around and blinked, as he saw that the walls were no longer there, except for an endless fog-induced light, with the roof low and black, enriched in lava blood cracked runes, spanning as far as he could see. Looking down, the floor was in the same exact state. The monitors spread all around, with now a single large test tube in the middle, containing Olly attached to several cords as she slunked there in unconsciousness."She will be very pleased at this specimen." Said Tails. "As well as capturing the one Stupilite that refuses to follow the orders of his original house."Sonic and Bazza ran up to the glass tube and rested their palms on it."Olly!" Bazza cried. She stood back and prepared her Bazooka, before Sonic placed his hand on her shoulder."That might do more harm than good." He suggested.Bazza sighed and withdrew. "Fine...but we have to get her out of there!"Sonic tried spindashing into the glass, but it had some sort of force-field around it, a blue aura that glew every time a fast-moving object was thrown at it."Foolish Hedgehog! I'm not letting you leave this place!" Tails taunted. "The Tails Dolls will take care of that."Plopping down from above, they were surrounded by even more Dolls. This time, they were a lot larger and riddled with drips and swishes of blood. Raising their arms, they were more akin to zombies than anything else. Wasting not time, Sonic spindashed and homed in on each one, bouncing off as many as he could. Amongst the flocks, they began making high pitched noises, but sounded like they were speaking backwards. Using Sonic as a distraction, Bazza could now use her Bazooka properly and started firing at large groups wherever she could. It seemed endless. Sonic landed back on the ground, then stared at Olly, who started squirming. Checking beside the test tube was the Bloody Amy, still bandaged as she was back at GUN Headquarters."Sonic look out!"Sonic faced back in front of him as a Tails Doll grabbed hold of his neck. Through sheer will, Sonic kicked it in its chest, then pulled out his red Chaos Emerald."Chaos...CONTROL!"Time slowed down, as Sonic got out of the Dolls grasp, time speeding back to normal afterwords."Woah you didn't tell me you had a Chaos Emerald on hand..." Said Bazza, firing off another shot.Sonic kicked the antennae off the Dolls head, then kicked into a crowd, forcing several more to explode."I keep forgetting about it..." Sonic said, chuckling nervously, then punching a doll in face.Bazza sweat-dropped and reloaded. "You might be able to disable the force field with it. Give it a try."Why didn't he think about it before? After spindashing several more Tails Dolls, Bazza disengaged her Bazooka once more as quick as she could as more and more Tails Dolls came from above. Using her two laser pistols, she started shooting them in improper sequences."Surely you all have HELL to attend to..." She boasted as Bazza flipped forward, knocking two antennae off the heads with her feet, rolling out of the way as the two claimed several others in the blast. "You could be dolling it up there as the devils plaything!"Sonic hopped on heads to get to the tube. Despite not using the Chaos Emerald just yet, everything dragged on as each second became five and five seconds became twenty. He forced the Emerald into the force-field, placing his energy through his arms and struggling to break through the barrier. Series of images flashed in his mind otherwise, they were too far for Sonic to have a good look at them, but mostly splashed bloody images that he did no worry or bother to interpret. He grinded his teeth, then screamed as he put all of his strength to finally smash the force field surrounding the tube.Standing back, Sonic got into position and immediantly rolled into what he hoped to be the final spindash as Bazza flew around to Sonic's area and started shooting like mad, screaming out bad Doll and hell puns as she obliverated each one. She was enjoying this too much. As soon as Sonic collided with the tube, it smashed into pieces, with the ambient green fluid splashing out everywhere. Sonic slid to the other side and spun around to run back and grab Olly's body without a second thought. More and more Dolls surrounded them."You have to wake her up! Do it!" Bazza screamed with strain.Sonic held Olly in his arms. He could take her helmet off to give her mouth to mouth...but..."Come on...you have to wake up! We gotta get out of here!" He pleaded to her. Still no movement."Olly! Please!"The Violet Wisp suddenly reappeared above her head and circled around Sonic, before flying over to a distance and creating another door. The environment went from bad, to worse as lava seeped from the runes on the ceiling, hitting Bazza on the shoulder and searing her suit."Bazza!" Sonic yelled. He picked up Olly in his arms as he stood up."I'm okay!" Bazza confirmed. She turned her head to see the door the Violet Wisp had formed and ran over the same time as Sonic did. Bazza followed Sonic through and kept her eyes on the swarm of Dolls and shot at few before fleeing.Needing to find their way back to the portal, Sonic bursted forward with his super speed, with Bazza barely keeping up. She looked around as the ARK's architecture merged with the black and white visionary. It couldn't be coming from Sonic's psyche, as Bazza found it awfully strange as well. It was possible that it was coming from Olly instead. The ARK's walls became magma with Abbadonian writing. Tails Dolls came out of nowhere, but Bazza flew up above Sonic and fired at each of them. All they could do now was hopefully return back to the Portal. But with no proper direction, none of them were getting anywhere as far as they knew, but still tried and ran. It was all they could do for now until they found a recognizable area. If Sonic's theory was true, Olly's mental state affected the ARK in tremendous ways, fearing that she might have been exposed to a high dosage of Abbadonia's Fury. It was then Sonic decided what was going to do next...
We might be together in life...but we always die alone. But we make due with what we have.

The single thought that visits our mental houses once in a blue moon makes mention of when, what, how and why will we die. We don't like these visitors, so we call so many others over that it's often lost and forgotten until the day after. It may visit again and again and the persistence of our subconscious to push it out is endless...until it actually happens. There is the conundrum of whether those visits were necessary...
Pushing forward through more dolls, It came to a point where they hit another dead end. Bazza took a chance and grabbed Sonic as they flew up, Sonic not even realizing that they could ascend. It was to another outer area with a platform transporter. Though it was debatable on whether it was the same one. Regardless, Sonic jumped on to the rails once more as Bazza flew behind.
Yet again, we can never truly understand life. We can make assumptions and try to prove facts, but what's there to say that even the most solid facts can change over time...change itself, is fact and can be proven to back up the new claims. Within death creates the biggest change of all. It leaves a void. Each void can be easy or quite difficult to refill. When something dies...it's never forgotten. It...no longer grows inside your mind and could be forced to move elsewhere...within the looser depths of the neighborhood and only living in another part of town.
Getting onto the other side and back within the ARK. He used the Ring of Memories to disappear and slow down into the past, Bazza's cry fading into the darkness. He witnessed Tails wandering around the ARK by himself, wondering out aloud. He began following him down a path as jumped and flew around the place, looking for another to get himself back down to Earth. Walking Sonic to another room, being led by a noise that wasn't too dissimilar from the Tails Dolls. Tails stood back and held his nose in the disgusting smells. Sonic could somehow smell it well. Sulfur.
Maybe...
The room was now a deep burgundy, more deceptively darker than the usual reds he had been seeing. Tails looked for a switch, before everything went white...Bazza had grabbed a hold of Sonic and slapped him."I'm usually a happy person, but what you're doing makes me angry..." She announced in annoyance.Sonic was even disappointed in himself. "I'm sorry...it's just..."Bazza shook her head. "Never mind. It's just that I'm concerned about Olly. Once we get her to the infirmary, I'll get Drainer to have a better look."With that, they ran off again, but Sonic made sure he never forgot that room. It seemed like Tails was led to it on purpose. Those strange sounds...he definitely knew what he had to do now. After ten minutes of more running around, they finally made it back to Portal Room. Sonic checked Olly's bag for her Amberite and gave it to Bazza, who gave him a look."Why are you giving this to me?" She asked, confused.Sonic refused to respond as he gave her Olly to hold as well."You take her. I've got things to do." Sonic finally replied.Bazza waved her hands passively. "Woah woah woah...hold on there Sonic...I will hold Olly for you..." She said, making another bad pun. "But I should come with you. We can both save Tails together."Sonic sighed and looked down. "No...I'll do it. I can trust you can take care of Olly for more than I can."Bazza looked at Sonic...if he could see her face she would be frowning. After a moment of silence, she turned to the Portal and activated it. Putting the Amberite in her bumbag, Bazza took Olly from Sonic and gave him one last nod, while he did the same with a smile and a thumbs up, giving a sense of sure-ness and confirmation. Bazza faced the other and disappeared into the amber fluid. Now alone on the ARK with potentially hundreds of Tails Dolls, Sonic was glad. The one important task he had to do now was save his best friend. He got out of the Portal Room and held onto the Ring tight in case he needed it again. Taking a deep breath, Sonic followed the path in which they'd come from earlier. He burst a few more Dolls along the way, but not as many as there were before. Perhaps what ever they were trying to protect was gone now. Olly could have had some importance to the game this possessed Tails was playing. Baring no ill will for his friend, he became determined to get him out of his state and back into reality. What ever that was...He came back to the room Tails had walked into. The door was closed, and locked by the look of things. Sonic started pounding his fists like crazy, before kicking the door down with fierce force. The room was still dark, bloody red like before. He walked in with all confidence and a smirk."Well, I'm here now. Where are you so I can hit the ghost out of ya?" Sonic taunted.A pit made of void expanded before Sonic, not unlike Abbadonia's usual creations. He expect another swarm of demons but was surprised as Tails ascended out, along side a shadow creature that appeared to have nine tails behind it, it's eyes a sparkling crimson...it appeared it's entire body was of a shadowy darkness that streamed out, its ruby spectacles glaring at Sonic. An arm appeared and was raised above Tails head, who shot up."We meet at last Mr. Thorn. Properly...and all..alone..." Said Tails. His own voice was overlapped with a demonic one, which didn't surprise Sonic at all."Good...I won't be alone when I'm through with you." Sonic boasted.Tails expression was dull, his eyes still as white as clouds. He was just a puppet as the rest, but the only puppet he cared to the cut strings off of. Sonic sneered."So...what's gonna take to get my buddy back?"It's chuckle was hallow and echoed off the walls."I wouldn't mind seeing the pair of you facing it off, fist to fist..." He cackled.Sonic crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "So...all it takes is to knock him out?"He wasn't too thrilled with the prospect of exchanging blows with Tails. He didn't want to hurt his best friend, but he'd rather knock him out quickly and get it over and with."Sure..."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The overshadowed cloak of darkness could not tip the fear into Sonic's soul. All it succeeded in doing was making a cliché entrance that reminded him of that Pokemon movie he watched with Tails once. Ironically enough the main attraction in that movie reminded him a lot of his favourite angsty black hedgehog for some reason. Maybe it was the red and black, he didn't know. What mattered now was that that he had to snap Tails out of this puppetry. He wasn't worried, he knew it wasn't the real Tails talking, though he had some suspicions before hand. Dusting his hands, Sonic prepared for a fight he never intended to encounter. His plan was to cut the strings before it got too messy. But the problem was that the strings were invisible, and were more metaphorical than he'd liked.He'd destroyed the Tails Dolls, but now he had to face the real one. He was lucky last time that the mind warping was defective, but this time it had supernatural origins, so now it was more difficult and less likely to fail. Although the source was there, unplugging its power required extra effort and double cunning. The whispy smoke that rose from its wavering tails to the glistening shine on its gritty sharp teeth, it rose an arm, creating a magical circle under its claws, the runes tipping off it's obvious allegiance. The room transformed into the black, forever-expanding roof and floor with the horizon all white fog."Abbabonia sent you here my good chump?" Sonic snarked as Tails Dolls dropped down and formed a ring around the three.The creature snapped it's finger and waved its hand around. It had a air of arrogance around it, a touch of over confidence."I am the Demisune, loyal servant of Abbadonia. I have been on the ARK since it's inception. I breathed life into it's most loyal precipitants and showed them their most darkest analogies."Sonic crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Yeah. Frankly, I don't care where you've been or what you've done...I'm here to kick butt...sorry, kick ASS...and save my buddy here."With no reply, The Demisune raised Tails arms as he did with the puppets and forced him to charge at Sonic, who with no effort dodged him. A series of charges, jumps, punches and kicks soon followed, but each time it missed Sonic completely. But gathering from the lack of emotion on Tails, he was just as straight-faced as the rest of his robotic duplicates, his arms and legs flopping around like a ragdoll. Sonic went with a speedy attempt to punch Demisune, but collided with a sliding Tails Dolls, who somehow created a protective shield."The child recreates battles by embroiling his toys." Said Demisune.His cheek twitching, Sonic felt a small shot of wind behind his back and reacted by cartwheeling to his right. He raised his arm to defend himself as Tails kicked him, then did a handstand as he watched his friend try to trip him over. Doing several backflips, Sonic fell into a fighting stance and kept his eyes glued to Tails. The Demisune raised it hands up and flicked them about. Tails flew up into the air and shot through with two closed fists. Sonic somersaulted forward and avoided the collision. There was a doubt whispering away in his mind that this wasn't going to end until the other was dead."Lets up the ante a bit shall we?" Said the Demisune. He waggled his fingers about in the air.Suddenly Tails fell to the ground and arched his back, his spine showing briefly, before another Tail sprouted in between the other, Sonic wrenching as Tails screamed, opening and clenching his fists as the situation just got nastier."The Kingdom I watched over, the Garden of Inari, were full of his ancestors. I was seen as their God! I can reward them with power...if they paid a certain price." Said Demisune.Sonic's heart tightened with disgust. "Well this is the future! You can't just treat people like that!"Claws grew from Tails fingers and screamed. Sonic was not going to fight him when he was already in pain. The now three-tailed fox charged at Sonic again, now that he had three Tails, he was even faster as Sonic barely got out of the way. Tails flew up and and drill-spun towards Sonic, who managed to grab a hold of his fists as his heels dug into the ground, slowing Tails down. With a small space in time, Sonic threw Tails over himself who then hit the ground."Tails...I...I'm sorry. I don't want to have to do this..." Sonic apologized, now feeling more pity than anger.Tails simply got off the ground again and gave Sonic the biggest glare that etched a bit of worry into his stomach. Sonic ran circles around Tails, creating a small tornado that sucked him up and dropped him down in a slow rate. Not phased one bit, Tails shot up once more and spin balled Sonic in the chest, sending him flying into a force field in front of a line of Dolls. On his stomach, Sonic slammed his palms on the floor, and got up with less than a struggle. That was powerful...and yet Tails felt no pain at all."It's easier when you see them as those...action figures? Yes...I think I got that right..." Demisune commented. "You can get them into many fights as you want, and they won't get hurt!"Sonic's patience was wearing thin. He ran up and punched Tails square in the face, splashing blood from his nose. He ran back, in shock with himself at wondering why the heck did he do that? Tails rapidly responded in his moment of weakness and kicked Sonic in the head, smashing it to the floor. Feeling woozy and light headed, he was then met with repetitive stomps on his back, causing him to grunt with each corresponding thud. In between a stomp, Sonic grabbed Tails leg with both hands and slammed him down hard. Tails quickly recovered by back kicking Sonic in the eye. He got up and grabbed Sonic by the neck and snarled at him, blood coming from a cut above his eye, his nose and his mouth.Meanwhile Sonic now possessed a black eye and was beginning to become slightly weak, but remained headstrong and fiercely more determined. He looked over at saw the Bloody Amy over in the distance, giving a penance stare. Shaking his head, Tails tightened his grasp on Sonic, choking him. Sonic clasped his hands and thwomped him on the head, forcing Tails to drop him. Sonic used his strength to roll back, and go into a spin dash and collide with his side, a sickening crack echoing throughout as Tails fell. Running his finger under his nose, Sonic could see the blood on his index finger, then looked over to Tails, who was trying to get up again."Let's try four shall we?"Sonic's eyes widened as Tails screamed in agony as his back once again arched, his spine rolling along as another tail burst out. Which made Sonic think...He must make Tails aware of the transformations...Sonic thought to himself.
He might be awake as well...
Using this theory, Sonic would have to provoke Tails into gaining another one. He got into the fight stance yet again and smirked, taunting Tails with the 'come and get me' sign he'd seen in a movie once. He joked about his originality."Remember that?" Sonic boasted.Tails got off the ground and spun his four tails at high velocity. His fur turned a darker colour as his body became enveloped in flames. He began shooting at Sonic with massive fireballs that had formed from his hands and mouth, but using his wicked break-dancing skills the blue blur barely avoided each and everyone of the fiery balls of doom. Throwing his fists down and screamed a scream that sounded more like a hundred souls pleading for death, Fire vines shot out and attempted to wrap Sonic up, but instead he ran around Tails, getting behind him and round house kicking his neck.Grasping the floor, his claws dug into ground. His breath was now jaded and heavy. Leaning over, Tails picked up a larger boulder and threwit behind him. Sonic rolled away and karate chopped the four tailed fox on his chest, albeit his body was still in flames, forcing Sonic to spring back and blow the fire off his gloves.Next, Sonic watched on as Tails attempted a drill dive as he rose into the air and fell down fast, Sonic rolling out of the way, but was soon met with a punch with a face. Good reflexes...better reflexes. Sonic was not going to lose this, so he too, used his good reflexes and kicked Tails in the knee, a horrible snapping sound bursting in the process. Rolling away, Sonic got onto a three point position, spitting out blood in the meanwhile. He felt guilt as a bone shot through the skin of Tail's knee, but his expression wasn't agony...just pure insanity by this point."Next..." Said Demisune as he wiggled his fingers about again.His eyes rolling into the back of his head, Tails dropped to the floor, his scream was unbearable as the fifth Tail burst."TAILS! IT'S ME SONIC!" Sonic screamed, hoping his friend would come through to him.In a split second, his eyes became normal, and became filled with Pain and sadness as he looked at Sonic, with tears running down his face. But they were soon replaced with pure crimson, overlapped in ruby blood. His fur got even darker as he grew bigger, his spin twisting and conforming as another set of smaller eyes grew out on his forehead. His screams became roars as the claws grew longer.
He was there...for a split second he saw me...now let's hope he keeps fighting inside...
The fox spun his tails at such a high velocity that it almost broke the barrier that the Dolls had created. Demisune's chuckle was heinous enough for Sonic to spit at him. Tails scratched the ground and charged at Sonic who jumped over him, but unfortunately for Sonic one of the now larger Tails whacked his legs, sending him plummeting to the ground, but used his cat-like reflexes to land on his feet. He turned around to see Tails looking down on him, creating a cocoon around Sonic with his Tails, enforging him in darkess, only now seeing the flames in Tail's eyes.His heart pounded fast, now fearing he might not get out of this next attack. So he fell onto his knees and prayed."Tails please...you can take control of this! Don't let this idiot use you! Remember the good ol' days Tails? You..me...Emerald hill..."It was sweet but painful silence for a moment there, except for Tails recessive heavy breathing, meaning there was a spot his voice had finally hit. Sonic felt a small connection with a light in his eyes, almost blinding him.
~His brainwaves are going crazy! I think something bigs happening!~
The light faded away...that voice sounded a lot like Tails..."How about...Chemical Plant...Aquatic Ruin..." Sonic continued, hoping like hell this was working.More heavy breathing ensured. His breath stank of blood and all kinds of deathly nastiness."Remember playing the slots at Casino Night? Those days were fun! For some reason you kept getting the spikes but you got up again each time with that smile on your face."He was met with a vicious roar that almost deafened him. Obviously that set off some unknown nerves. Subtle jokes were his forte, but for this enraged beast...it didn't like being teased."Dude...Hill Top...Mystic Cave...Oil Ocean..." Sonic continued. The stillness but minor breeze made Sonic believe that his...supposed compressed brain power was working hard to work out what the heck Sonic was saying. If a minor part of Tails was in there, he was holding the beast back."Hah Metropolis...those days it was just an annoying machine factory with those annoying starfish robots that kept shooting at us. You told me to watch out for their flashing cores...because that was the sign that they were gonna attack."Sonic watched as the tails flew away and witnessed an angry Demisune glaring at Tails."What is the meaning of this? You were supposed to tear him apart!" He grunted.Sonic chuckled. "Well too bad, because wait till ya see what he REALLY does."Demisune raised his hand and twirled his fingers about, Tails wincing as the sixth tail emerged from behind. His fur became even darker, the bone from his legs disappearing as they became digitigrade legs, not unlike a dogs hind legs, his pectorals becoming enlarged with his gloves too small for his now massive hands and claws."Hang in there Tails...try to remember Sky Chase and Wing Fortress. You and me...you piloting the Tornado...which reminds me...it's still parked at the Ruins waiting for you." Sonic called out during his transformation.Tails roared into the air. He tried to stand up straight, and ended up back slapping Sonic to a barrier with the back of his hand. With a shaky stand up, Sonic's will kept strong as he went back in passive mode."And we kicked Eggman's butt back on his Death Egg...like, several times. And his robots...and his missile from destroying Station Square. In fact, if it weren't for you, I wouldn't have done a lot of things that I do."Tails fired more fire balls from his mouth, with Sonic flipping his way around to dodge each one. His injuries threatened to slow him down, but he wasn't having any of it. He was going to get to Tails one way or the other. The Deminsune enforced his grip on Tails with each transformation, however, that became unlikely as for a very brief moment as Tails towered over him, he swear he could see a small grin and a glint in his eyes. He wasn't sure if Tails was pretending the whole time or that he'd finally gotten through to him. It no longer mattered, because his gut was unflawed. Tails was definitely still in there. Sonic then got the impression that he'd stopped for a reason. He didn't understand what it was until it dawned on him:He wanted Sonic to attack him, therefore the Demisune would give him more power. Tails was indeed a cunning fox which Sonic was entirely proud of. The blue blur jumped up and kicked Tails in the face, who faked surprise and minuscule weakness to ensure Sonic would get the next blow in tandem. Landing, Sonic did not hesitate to back flip and uppercut Tails in the gut. The guilt poured into his conscious, deeply regretting even more so than before. Tails did a few fake swipes with his claws and tails, flicking kicks here and there and the odd headbutt attempt. Sonic looked over at the Demisune who became rightly frustrated...just what they wanted. And predictably, he gave Tails more power...the seventh tail. Only two more to the exclusive nine. His snout extended forward as his head shrunk slightly and his fur became more like a darker shade of grey. His bottom set of eyes now had fire through them, dim but not unseen..."WHY WON'T YOU DIE?" The Deminsune screamed. "CONSUME HIM, I DON'T CARE!"Sonic shrugged as he let Tails whack him with one of the seventh ones which sent Sonic flying, backflipping and skidding backwards as he hit the ground. Several Tails Dolls had snatched Sonic from behind, locking him into place to ensure the real Tails would get the upperhand."Hey! Didn't you know Fast Food isn't good for you?" Sonic punned. He damned Bazza and her groaned-inducing jokes...she must have rubbed off on him. But he wasn't afraid to make his own every so often. It was probably Bazza that made him realize it. Smirking as blood ran out of his mouth, Tails swiped Sonic, who impressively managed to avoid each one by SOMEHOW moving bits of his body were being aimed for. Sonic kicked Tails in the stomach, who faked pain."You are nothing more than a weakling? Why did I choose this type of Inarian Canis?" The Demisune complained. Sonic thought the Demisune only cared for power and superior strength.Tails spun his titular appendages like a windmill, creating a huge gust and blasting the Tails Dolls holding Sonic, who was freed and ran behind Tails and tripped him over with a simple 360 slide with his foot. Tails rolled backwards and jumped back and roared once more as he charged at Sonic, who sped up to throw himself at him. Tails had his arm raised and in a punch-ready position.The Hedgehog did the same, both their fists met with the others cheek as they collided. Tails rolled himself into a Spindash and rolled around in a figure eight way, gathering momentum before jumping and attempting to home himself on Sonic, who borrowed a piece of a broken Tails Doll and swung it around like a baseball bat, before hitting Tails to hit the barrier in front of the Demisune."I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOUR INSOLENCE! I AM GIVING YOU ONCE LAST CHANCE!" The Demisune announced, a red aura signifying his absolute rage. His raised his hands and gave Tails one more from his back...Sonic glanced as the Eighth Tail popped into place. His fur became charcoal and his front chest was pure white, with curved runes on chest chest symmetrically. All of his eyes became flames as his canine teeth grew to become massive fangs. This was the last straw."NOW...unleash hell..." The Demisune said calmly.Tails breathed in and out he looked at Sonic, then lowered his head at him, and nudged forward.Sonic didn't get this signal. His front fangs glinted. Nope...still no proper hint...Until Tails slowly turned around to face The Demisune, who became confused. Sonic realized this was the moment Tails was waiting for. He had enough power...supposedly. The Demisune tilted his head."What are you doing? GET OUT THERE AND BEAT HIM!" The Demisune commanded.Tails ignored him and dug his claws into the barrier, somehow creating cracks. He moved his forward and piercing the force field with his fangs, then tearing a large hole. Tails motioned to Sonic to jump through. Nodding, Sonic ran and hopped out of the forcefield, and bounced and destroyed the ring of Tails Dolls that were enforcing the barrier. Upon a look back, Tails grabbed onto the Demisunes arms as they became upon an eternal struggle. Both the hands held onto each others arms as if they were trying to take the other down. Tails roared into the Demisunes face as Sonic watched in awe of the great foxes."YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME! I AM THE ONE AND ONLY FOX GOD!" The Demisune boasted.The Demisune let out a huge roar, and became bitter about this betrayal, which didn't make sense to Sonic. The Demisune was one idiotic God that was for sure. The glint in Tail's bejeweled eyes sent the message out that Tails was in complete control. The arena fluctuated in negative sparks as dolls twisted and contorted, skewed and transformed as if reality was bending itself over. An exchange of struggle was overlapping with their relentless strength, either representing Tails or the Demisune's mental state. In between all this, Sonic abruptly rolled back, homing in on the Tails Doll to prevent them from getting a hold on their rampaging template. A shot of crackling purple electricity struck through Sonic's right eye, the Hedgehog falling over, holding his eye, but only allowed himself to inhale and exhale, minimizing the impact of the soreness. It was most likely dead at this point.Tails threw a punch at the Demisune, who only caught it in mid air, but in his stupidity made himself open to Tail's other fist and knocked him in what looked like his jaw. The Demisune floated away, and drew out both arms and swung them around like mad. Bits of reality were torn into little pixels, revealing the nothing behind nothing. Just black setting the stage as pixels flew everywhere like a tornado, the gusts reaching up to higher than 200 kph in Sonic's estimate. Tails spun his eight rapidly, using the force to push the Demisune forward. Tails howled briefly before taking a huge chomp into its' neck, with ghostly blood spewing all over the place as a result. At the drops collided with imaginary walls, the smoke that was forming was evident that the blood was acidic in nature. Sonic on the other hand had nothing to hold on to, but was being held down by a mysterious invisible force as more flashes decided to visit...More blood, more danger, more explosions...horrendous demons decapitating innocents and causing pure chaos throughout...and this forcing of torment made Tails even angrier as he himself sliced off the Demisunes head. Black and white repeatedly flash about with runes carved into them, giving Sonic a headache. The Demisune regained it's head and threw Tails to the side, and with all it's fury charged at Sonic and pierced it's eyes into Sonic's only working one."You cannot win Stupilite..."The Demisune tried forcing itself into Sonic via his mouth, some ghastly remnants decided they should crawl into his eye."SOOOOOOOOOOOOONICCCCCCCCCCC" Tails roared, his voice very deep and garbled.

Let's see what you hide!

Sonic stood in the middle of a room with wooden walls, floors and roof. No doors...no windows. Dead as a door nail. Claws rose up from in between the floorboards, wallowing towards Sonic and slashing him with no luck, as Sonic smoothly dodged them. He ran towards one wall and tore it out, red, pink and blue zig zags pulsating everywhere, rising and falling as they moved along with a weird beeping noise on a black background. Sonic kept running towards them, only to look behind him and see a massive grey fox head inhaling through his massive nostrils and flaring out flames.A tree popped up from underneath, Sonic swerving and skidded to change direction. Suddenly, a dark, monstrous but not too taller than Sonic, with cleaved shoes, navy fur and great fangs, threw a punch at the Demisune, it's arm stretching and bashing the Fox Head to the ground. The monster disappeared as quickly as it came. The Violet Light Wisp reappeared and made a circle to create a door of light that Sonic headed straight for...

An open space with a lonely Gothic patio with several purple dream catchings dangling from the roof, somewhat charging up on top of a spiked mountain, with Shizaru, The Bloody Amy and Sonic's subconscious projection of Amy stood, staring at him, all wearing the same clothes as Amy, the only differences were the headbands...Shizaru wore white, The Bloody Amy wore blue and Sonic's mental projection of her wore the regular red. The Demisune found himself crawling up slowly, hearing large chink sounds as his claw dug into the rock face. The sky was nothing but those three coloured bouncing zigzags with the beeping gaining a beating bass line. Sonic stood amongst the flurry of Amy's, they all surrounded him in protection and in perfect unison pulled out identical hammers and glared at the Demisune. Sonic was laboured in breath but slowly breaking in spirit, his front was not standing up for long.

"You shall not harm him." Shizaru announced, standing on the steps. "Your sheer incompetence will cost you dearly."

The Demisune formed itself as a black cloud with red beading eyes. "Shove it Prophetess. This planet was warned again and again. And did fail to heed my sisters warnings."

Shizaru sneered at him with her hammer. "Fate, as it may, will catch up on you..."

Sonic just stared at the Demisune. His chaotic motives were just as vague as Abbadonia's.

The Demisune growled and looked over at Sonic. "You weak minded coward...you have...women guarding you? Is this your true inner strength?"

Sonic gritted his teeth. "No...I just respect women more than you do." He said, his cheek twitching.

The Demisune charged at Sonic, but was stopped but the three look a likes with the phrase. "CHAOS CONTROL!"

Sonic blinked, but nodded in understanding. He went into a spindash and smashed into the ruby eyes, sending the Demisune out of his system...
Sonic opened one eye...and remembered the other was still sore, then found himself needing to vomit. Tails lurked in the distance and crawled over."Tails...get away..." Sonic choked, his head bouncing as he spat. "GET AWAY!"Although Tails was now some gigantic monster, the scorn in his eyes was painful to look at. His grumbles and growls were unkempt, then stiffed as Sonic heaved over and hurled out the Demisune. Sonic got up to his feet and started bashing the darkness out of the Demisune who went back into his somber kitsune form. Needing all limbs, Sonic let go of his eye and squeezed it shut, then charged at the Demisune with his right fist, peeling away as he ran and made contact with it's jaw. This was becoming increasingly violent as the Demisune bit into Sonic's shoulder, Sonic retaliating by kneeing it in the chest, then homing in on it's back.Amongst the fight, Shizaru faded in next to Tails, who tilted his head, thinking it was Amy."You have the power to change the game in your favour." She muttered. She was back wearing her classic toga garb."And you know it...take the challenge and usurp...your kind needs it."Tails looked on as he had troubled retaking it all. Shizaru vanished, but Tails eventually got the message into his thick head. With new found determination, He propelled his eight tells and forced himself to take the Demisune on it's back, whacking Sonic away in the process. Dazed for a moment, he could see Tails restraining the demon as his vision returned from blurry."CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOS CONTROOOOOOOOOOOOOL!"Sonic's shielded his eyes as a bright light blinded him. Grunts, cries, screeches, wails, snuffs and sniffs echoed along as crunches, punches and thuds were heard. Eventually the arena changed once more into a space-like battlefield with Sonic floating in a weird wormhole like place. Tails image flashed before Sonic in his normal form."Sonic..." Said Tails, smiling as his regular two tails danced about behind him.Sonic blinked. "Woah Tails...what's going on?" He said, freaking out. He had no idea what to do.Tails looked down as tears fell from his eyes, sparkling and drifting away into the light."I...want to thank you for the experience you've given me. It was one heck of a ride!"Sonic's eyes widened as he realized what he was doing. "No...no Tails...you can't!"Tails shook his head. "It's okay. I've learned a lot about myself when I was with you. I wouldn't have gotten the courage to do anything if you didn't believe I could...and the amount of friends I made as well. I wouldn't have asked for anything more."Tears were now swelling in Sonic's eyes. No...his best friend...his first real buddy in the real world...one whom he could count on and depend on. "You can't go!"Tails looked down again. "According to the information the Demisune has given me, I have enough power as eight tailed Kitsune to do a cross-dimensional chaos control of my own." He announced."I'm taking him some place where he can't harm anyone anymore!"Sonic was deeply moved and saddened at the prospect of losing his best friend...and not being able to do anything. He couldn't say anything."Once you get back to Earth, I want you to go to my drawer next to my bed. There should be something in there for you. And take care of my plant okay? I have a feeling it's finally gonna sprout."Sonic's head fell. "We could defeat him still...together..."Tails frowned. "I...I wish we could but we can't." He said. "Every time I was myself I would find out more and more...from this book."Tails whipped out Muriel's book and handed it to Sonic. "If the Demisune weren't so focused on gaining power he would have found this on me. But he wanted me to get you on here to kill you...it was then I started plotting. I know what I have to do it and I plan to enact it. I don't fear it either because I know I have the strength of my friends with me..."Sonic took the book from Tails and put it away into his quills. He straightened himself and lent out his hand, forcing a smile."I know you'll need it more than me." Said Tails with a smile. Dear Chaos it was entirely heart wrenching for Sonic. It built up his confusion more and more than he could handle."I'm gonna miss ya bud." Said Sonic, fighting to keep back the tears.Tails shook his hand and grinned. "Me too...and with the rest of the awesome people I've met in all these years. And I know you're gonna be fine without me. I hear that Agent Bazooka has mechanic hands. I know she'll be happy to help you."DEAR CHAOS HE WAS EIGHT YEARS OLD!Sonic sighed. "No one is ever going to replace you...no one." He said, his eyes practically waterfalls at this point."Love the sentimentality. As long as you have friends who will help you, you will never be alone in the world..."And with that, Tails fell backwards into the burst of light, waving at Sonic as he faded away, and Sonic's vision turned to white...–
You don't know what you've got until it's gone.
Opening a single eye, Sonic looked straight up at the clear blue sky and wondered if he was dead or not. He shot up, now searching around, could see flourishing hills and fields of wavy grass that made patterns with the wind. The only pain that was felt was the incredibly powerful emotions of guilt, sadness and anguish. Looking at his hands, there was no notable injuries, with him wondering if he was dead or not. Evidence was there...as he got up to see nothing but the same green below and the blue above upon the horizon. Turning around, he could see Shizaru standing behind him, wearing a long, plain, sleeveless white dress which waved in the gusts."Is this going to happen all the time?" Asked Sonic. He wasn't really sure what to think at this point.Shizaru didn't reply to him, and remained completely stoic as her eyes stayed locked on to his."I'm not gonna give up because Tails is gone. If Abbadonia thinks that by causing me pain that I'm going to crack. Not gonna happen." He said, albeit with not much assurance from himself.He continued fighting on, as Tails would have wanted that. He wouldn't tune into the blasphemous talks of the mysterious Shizaru. She was causing more problems than she solved at this point. He turned his back on her and started walking."Where are you going?" She asked in a stern tone.Sonic rolled his eyes and kept walking. "Don't know, don't care. I will get out and finish this myself whether you like it or not!"He grabbed the Chaos Emerald from behind his neck and looked at it. So red...the colour that's been burdening him. His street came back to him, as he walked by Tail's cottage. No longer was it overgrown with thick vines, but now it had been consumed by an unnatural essence. A dark aura, a pit. A void in his heart was born. And Sonic cursed himself for not doing anything sooner.Amy's house remained a mansion at the end of the street on top of a tall hill. He could go see her...if she let him. He ran up the street and down her drive way all the way up to the front door and knocked the big doors. One of the opened, revealing a normal looking Amy in the midst, with a massive scowl on her face."How could you let him die?" She screamed at him, tears running down her face.Sonic's head fell down and he rubbed his neck. "I'm sorry Amy, I...wanted to save him...really."He doubted he could convince her otherwise. The conflict of emotions that battered around her shattered heart were too much to bear, however Sonic would gladly accept that punishment, just to allow him to feel and see others were living and were themselves. His guilt could be undone if karma had its way with him, even though it was entirely Tails decision. Too bad nobody saw what Sonic saw. Even still, if she had been there, would she still forgive him?Amy slammed the door in his face. This perception was particularly nasty and unforgiving, his subconscious not even revealing itself to him. Instead, the Bloody Amy stood before him, her injuries not unlike the ones Sonic received in battle."I should push on. I want to push on...I need...to keep going..." Sonic murmured. He left the premises as the Bloody Amy strangely started walking beside him."She would understand." Said the Bloody Amy.Sonic stopped in his track, stunned. He turned to face her. "How would you know?" He asked, possessing a bit of angered burst of retaliation."Because...she believes that you would never let him pass on...she holds onto that belief so strongly it hurts."Sonic blinked. "Who...are you?"
0o0

In bated breath comes the child's flower, sowing seeds of chaotic order.

0o0
Opening his eyes, Sonic was blinded by bright lights, and was aching all over. His right eye had a bandage on it and his left arm was all wrapped up. He coughed up a few times as he tried to sit up, seeing a male GUN Nurse, a young human fellow with messy blonde hair and glasses, wearing grey nurse gear and writing something on a clipboard."Ah Sonic, good to see you're awake." Said the Nurse, his pitch was relatively moderate giving a sense of normalcy, not to mention sanity.Sonic rubbed his head. "How long was I out for?" He asked."A few days. It's Monday." the Nurse replied.He was out of whack and a bit on the woozy side. Being frightfully injured wasn't fun. He attempted to get of bed, before being stopped by the Nurse."Woah hang on there...wait for the morphine to settle then you can get up okay?"No wonder he was feeling a bit drowsy and worse for wear. But he stood up anyway."Uh sir...it's not advised you sho-""Save it Roberts..." Said Drainer as she walked into the room. "Leave."Nurse Roberts stammered, before nodding and walking out. Drainer wandered around and leaned on the edge of the bed next to Sonic's."How are you feeling?" She asked.The Nurse was right...he shouldn't have gotten off as the room seemed to be spinning."I've had worse." Sonic replied. Gogged down and weary, Sonic grabbed a cup of water that was on the table next to him and sculled it."Sh- I mean, the Commander wishes to speak with you." She said. "He wants to know what the big explosion on the ARK was all about..."Another thought crossed his mind as his memory returned. "Olly! Where's Olly?"Drainer stood firm. "Olly...is going to be fine. I got rid of the toxins and sent Bazza to escort her home. She will be taking some time off to recover properly."Sonic sighed with relief. "I'm glad...I was really worried for a moment there."Olly was another to watch out for. She was quite the fighter but obviously had some serious issues. What was the Demisune planning to use her for?Drainer looked downwards before lifting her head back up. "You must see the Commander...he would like to have a few sentences with you.""You mean words..." Sonic corrected."That too..." Said Drainer.Sonic followed Drainer out of the infirmary and walked to the Commanders Tactical Examination Assessment Room. In the time that they had to stroll to the location, Drainer made notes."Ever since Shadow became Commander...he's made staff changes and spots for extra jobs." She said.Sonic bit his lip. "He's recruiting..." He assumed.Drainer nodded. "There's the expectation that something big is coming...but none of us know what it is."They'd gone into the Commander's main room as Sonic held Shadow belting out orders left and right, as the numerous monitors portraying action throughout Westopolis with explosions and from soliders perspectives."Commander, we're getting calls that more of the enemy has surfaced near Ordinal Church." Announced an Intercom specialist at one of his panels.Shadow stood up from his chair and brought up more holographic screens from his desk, looking at a birds eye view of Westopolis city, and zooming into the sector that held Ordinal Church that had large red dots surrounding it."Where's the nearest Squadron?" Shadow demanded."At least two hundred meters south sir." The specialist replied. "Six Squadron."Shadow nodded. "Get them over there ASAP. Get the second nearest Squadron near there for back up...and find that damn radar!""Yes sir." The Specialist noted as he spoke through his headset and rapidly typed on his keyboard.Shadow turned to the another specialist with a buzzcut. "O'Brien, where's Agent Bazooka's position?"O'Brien twisted to face Shadow.  "She's seventy-five meters, on top of the Naka building as per your order sir."Shadow did a soft slam on the arm rest with his fist. "Good. Patch her through to me.""On it!" Answered O'Brien.Shadow sat back and tapped the tips of his fingers together as his elbows rested on the arm rest."Commander, I've got my aim on the church now. But I can't determine if anyone is in there. All I see are Eggman's Counter-Shielded robots surrounding the premises. What could they be looking for?" Said Bazza over the intercom.Sonic leaned to whisper to Drainer. "What's happening?"Drainer complied. "Somehow Eggman has invaded Westopolis, unnoticed and within a span of a day with no warning. How he'd gotten so many robots in there is beside me...and he's still in the prison downstairs and heavily guarded." She answered.Sonic rolled his eyes. "You mean beyond me...""So you don't understand it either?" Drainer wondered, obviously not getting it still, earning a facepalm from Sonic, who decided to go with it."Motive...he has motive. What ever is in that Church is what he's after."Watching the events on the monitors, several GUN Soliders had come from down the street. They were loaded with rifles aiming at red and silver lanky robots that had big red eyes and their own set of lasers. The Soldiers opened fire first, blasting away at the robots who immediantly fired back. However, the talked about shields activated upon each shot that landed successfully. Several of the soldiers cried out about them, but were instead told to keep firing away, hoping in hell there would be some eventual destruction on their part."Agent Bazooka! I order you to get in there immediantly!" Shadow barked."Yes sir!" Replied Bazza. She leaned down on one knee as she grabbed her weapon from behind. Loading it, she then looked for a place to aim. The entirety of the area kept getting swamped with more of these robots, prompting one of the specialists to murmur out aloud on to where they keep coming from. Eggman was nowhere to be seen either. Bazza fired upon a group, blasting several away."Commander!" Cried O'Brien. "I'm getting huge readings from across the city! Squadrons One to Five have fallen! Squadrons Eight to Thirteen are MIA and Squadrons Fifteen to Twenty Fire have been overrun!"Shadow kicked the desk in anger. "Damn it! Where's Seven and Fourteen then? Smith, O'Brien, GET ME THEIR SQUAD LEADERS NOW!"O'Brien and Smith nodded and worked hard to get the other two online. Bazza kept firing away at large groups, then noticing massive holes opened up on the streets, swallowing Squadron Six."SIR! SQUADRON SIX HAS DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY!" Bazza.Shadow rubbed his forehead in frustration. Sonic noticed the sweat rolling off his brow as he scratched his muzzle in frustration"I want an Air Strike..." He said with a creepy calmness."Sorry sir if I misunderstood you, but did you say you wanted an Air Strike?" Asked Bazza with a bit of disbeliefShadow banged on the desk. "AIR STRIKE! GET ME THE ENTIRE SONS OF SOLARIS AS WELL AS THE WESTERN EAGLES! DO IT NOW!"With those orders, the entire intercom board alongside Smith and O'Brien started chatting away, calling Elise's group, and the unseen Western Eagles. Shadow decided to butt in to them, now mentioning about calling the Eastern Wind Bladers and the Southern Aqua Storm Pilots.Sonic ran up to Shadow."Did you even remember to evacuate the citizens of the city?" He cried.Shadow closed his eyes and tried to calm himself. "After Black Dooms assault several years ago, Westopolis was fitted with an underground tunnel system, so if any attack occurred, they would be able to escape to a safer place...so don't even try to order me around when I know what I'm doing!""That's debatable." Sonic snorted, before being grabbed on the shoulder by Drainer."Don't..." Said Drainer. "Leave him."Shadow cracked his knuckles. "Agent Bazooka, get in contact with the Squad Leaders of Seven and Fourteen and get them the heck of there!"–Bazooka withdrew her weapon and stood up, walked back several steps before running forward and leaping off the building, gliding along and searching for the two lost Squads."Hey Rouge! You there?" She asked over her intercom."I got Shadow's message, we're a kilometer away from Ordinal Church on Flinders Street." Rouge replied. "My men and I are heading downwards now."–Shadow clenched his fists pretty hard. "Smith, what's the status on the Air Strike?"Smith turned around. "Twenty Minutes, Thirty tops!"Shadow gritted his teeth. "Just make sure the rest of them get out of there as quickly as possible!"Sonic wanted to go and help them so badly. He ran out of the room in such quickness that Drainer didn't realize he'd disappeared before it was too late. He was on his way to Westopolis.He ran through as hard as he could, considering his left arm was in a sling and his right eye was bogged. Despite the soreness he was doing pretty well, running down the streets of Central City and just not stopping until he got to Westopolis, which was fair away from where he was. He could save both teams as fast as he could. He'd gotten to the outskirts in no time flat, then into the open fields. Within ten minutes, he was out into the country side already, and was going faster and faster until he practically broke the sound barrier. There was the comfort of his legs not really being injured, but he had been in a coma for several days. Anything could have happened within the weekend. Those questions were for some other time. With jumps and flips without complaint, Sonic eventually made it to Westopolis and could see the scourge of robots storming the city. Using that sheer speed, he blasted through rows of the tall and lanky, disregarding their shields which couldn't take the impact of his sonic boom. He ran up the side of a building and ended up jumping on each one as he passed, his speed so incredible that the jumps were soon ignored. It was better than running on water. Running on ear was an feat in itself. Spear-heading himself through another horde, he could see a Squadron surrounded by robots and made a path for them."Thanks Sonic." Said the Squadron Leader. "Let's move out men!"Sonic remembered Shadow said there was a tunnel system that the local populace used and asked the leader about it."The Tunnel System uses a codeword that city officials and volunteers possess. The entrance to the tunnels are scattered, we're heading off to one near the BANG casino." He said, shooting his way as they ran.Sonic helped escort the men down the streets, with his attempts to home in and destroy the robots proving painful, but he went on anyway, tripping several to create the domino effect."Leader Fourteen you have seven minutes until the bombs drop...and tell Sonic he is an idiot."Shadow said over the intercom. The Leader chuckled. "Roger that Commander...Sonic...the..."Sonic chuckled. "I know...I know..." He said, too busy kicking robot ass.Seeing flashing lights in the distance, Sonic forged another path for the GUN Soldiers and could see a black round pod sticking out of the walking way."Is that it?" Asked Sonic."Yes." Answered the Leader. He ran up to the pod and started pressing buttons until a door slid open. "It's good to go. One by one...smooth and just run the heck south and don't stop running!""SIR YES SIR!" The others replied. The Leader turned to Sonic. "You gonna go down you are injured after all."Sonic shook his head. "No. You look like you have things under wrap here. I gotta go help the others."The Leader nodded and saluted Sonic, who did the same back and ran off to search for the others.Sonic theorized he only had at least three to five minutes before the Air Strike arrived. Running around the streets frantically looking for the Seventh Squadron, he could see Bazza behind a group of more GUN soldiers and Rouge flying and leading the pack, drilling with her steel tipped boots. Bazza had her Bazooka disengaged and using the lasers like she did before. Sonic ran up to them and ran by the group."Sonic, I didn't expect to see you here." Said a surprised Rouge. "We've got four minutes left. Follow us."Sonic nodded, knowing Rouge would understand completely on why he was here. So he kept homing in and destroyed dozens of robots, creating a path for them. He could see a pod shooting up in front of a theater and spindashed his way throughout, getting the group through successfully. Rouge rapidly typed as the door shifted open. She got her soldiers inside one by one as Sonic and Bazza kept a look out. Sonic bashed in a few more unseemly robots while Bazza began shooting away. Rouge came into the act as she flew up and started kicking the crap out of each one that attempting to reach them. Bazza kept looking back every so often to make sure the soldiers got in safely."One minute"Rouge listened in as she could hear lound noises in the distance. The last of the soldiers had entered into the pod...and it was destroyed by a random robot."What a pity." Said Sonic, incredibly stoic.Rouge flew up, as more and more Robots crowded around them. With no hesitation she grabbed Sonic by his right arm and zoomed up, with Bazza following and kept shooting at those who tried to get hold of Sonic's leg."Come on Bazooka, we gotta get up as high as we can!" Rouge ordered.Bazza complied as she flew up beside Rouge and Sonic as they flew passed the tallest building and into the greyish clouds, just about high enough as several fighter jets streamed past. Time slowed down again as the bombs were released in the majority of parts of the city. They kept flying up, then headed off as south as they could as explosions that had to be fourty meters tall, enveloped the city in harsh colourful flames, with Rouge and Bazza flapped away as fast as they could until they were well out of the city and watched on as another set of Fighter Jets came past and obliterated what was left, the only things standing were buildings that were set to ruin. Taking a deep breath of relief, he wondered of the soldiers got out alright. He had a lack of knowledge of how the tunnel system worked, but kept the faith about it's use and assumed they survived."Poor Westopolis. First the Black Arms and now this?" Said Rouge.The three returned back to GUN Headquarters when the opportunity arose. Sonic was expecting scorn from Shadow, but the probability of Shadow outright punishing him was low. He didn't do anything wrong. Instead, Agent Drainer received the scold for not keeping an eye on him. Sonic and the others went inside the Meeting room with the others as he belted at her briefly behind closed doors. Reappearing, Shadow sat in the commanders chair at the end of the black table, surrounded by Agents and the 14th Squadron leader who on the right side middle. Sonic sat far from Shadow as possible, left and nearest the exit. Bazza sat on the left side while Rouge sat on the right side of Shadow, cementing a difference with Drainer sitting next to Sonic.Shadow looked around. "We don't know how he did it, and I plan on interrogating him on it, but Eggman's surprise attack on Westopolis has given us challenge here. It was unprovoked and entirely random. I'd gotten word that the others escaped the city unscathed. As for the rest...may Maria bless their souls."Mentioning of Maria as some sort of deity raised an eyebrow from Sonic, but he didn't comment on it.Shadow stood up. "I have informed their families of their fate. We're not entirely sure with some. Their trackers have not showed up on our satellites. Those trackers are supposed to work regardless of the damage that is done to them and continue working long after they are dead. Instead, they just 'magically' disappeared into thin air."The Squad Leader stood up straight. He was now without his mission gear and was wearing dark khaki gear and a name badge with the word 'Ford'. He had short, brown messy hair with shaved sides. His blue eyes small but strong, strong cheeks and chin and broad shoulders. "Permission to speak Commander?"Shadow sat down again. "Permission granted Lt. Ford. Speak."Lt. Ford nodded. "In the throes of battle, I could swear I could see random holes just opening up in the ground. Like it did the other day when Abbadonia attacked."Rouge crossed her legs. "We know they're working together, and the last time was a possible distraction. This...unannounced attack might be same thing."Shadow leaned over and stared over the table in deep thought."It's plausible." He said. "Which means there was something hiding in Westopolis as well..."Sonic wanted to go revisit Westopolis straight away...somewhere...he was feeling that that Ordinal Church had something to do with it. But...Sonic had other plans. It was his turn to stand up."Yeah I'm gonna leave now. You guys can figure it out on your own..."Shadow looked at Sonic with curiosity. "You could have gotten yourself killed Sonic."Rouge nodded . "I agree with Shadow. You aren't exactly in the best shape."He could argue, but he was too tired at this point. He wanted to go visit Amy, of all people. There was the announcement he needed to share with everyone. Out of everyone, Sonic felt he should tell her first. Shadow dismissed everyone else and took Rouge with him downstairs.Sonic left without too much hassle as he walked the streets of Central City. He wondered if Tails died painlessly. His statement about teleporting him to another dimensional seemed weird and off-putting...since he only knew of Blaze's dimension. But the amount of probable dimensions was most likely staggering and could have been any one of them. There was the nagging voice that told Sonic that he had to be alive somewhere even if you couldn't see him physically. Common sense told him to accept that he was gone but his heart held on so tight. Yet, he'd seen others come and go and yet, he'd willingly believe that they've gone. Maybe he'd seen them disappear. Who knows?Chip vanished, but didn't die. But Chip was a deity so that was an entirely different story. Sonic sighed as he kept walking along and entered the street with Amy's Apartment.Walking upstairs and knocking on her door, he waited for a minute before it opened revealing Amy in a white dressing gown, bags under eyes and a sniff. Sonic frowned. "Sorry Ames...I didn't know..."Amy's eyes widened, her arms suddenly wrapping around his neck as she hugged him without saying a word. Sonic became confused, but nonetheless reciprocated the hug back."Hey..." He said, smiling, but winced at the pain.Amy got off him and nervously chuckled. "Sorry..." She apologized.Sonic shrugged. "It's okay.He entered inside, with Amy closing the door, grabbing a tissue and blowing her nose."What happened to you?" She asked, her voice nasely.Sonic gave a small smile. "I had a little fight on the ARK."Amy froze for a moment, then motioned to the chair for him to sit. Doing so, Sonic sat there while Amy prepared a hot coco for him. She made sure she washed her hands first."But I'll be okay..." Sonic tried to assure her. "I'm concerned about you and your cold."Amy didn't face him as she turned on the kettle and grabbed the coco container."I was coming home from work on Friday and a car splashed water on me. The next day I was stuck in bed with the groggy feeling in my head and my nose all runny..."She made two hot coco and held the cups as she looked at Sonic. "I was watching a movie...do you want...to join me?"Sonic nodded. "Sure!"The two sat on the couch in the lounge room as the wide screen tv portrayed some random movie.It got rather cosy as Amy had a blanket wrapped around herself and huddled in the corner with the remote in the other hand. Sonic hadn't drunk from his yet, instead he was playing around with the marshmellow, continuously poking it. He sat on the other side, noticing it had gotten warmer. Amy pressed play and placed down the remote."So...what are we watchin'?" He asked. There was a sudden sting of guilt, as Sonic remembered watching movies with Tails. The contemplation of telling Amy what happened swam laps in his mind."The Blair Witch Project." She replied apathetically and yawned.Sonic scratched his ear. "Ah."It was nice. He'd heard of the movie but never seen it. He was never fond of horror movies. Maybe because the first horror he'd watched was Jaws...stemming his fear of water. He took a sip from his hot coco as he watched a scene where they were traveling along in the woods. It had a different style about it however."The girl is doing a documentary on the supposed myths of the Blair Witch..." Amy explained.Sonic snuffed. "And...bad stuff happens?"Amy took a sip from her cup. "Yup."In thankfulness and in blessing, everything was serene and calm. The movie probably wasn't the best to support it but it gave Sonic that normalcy he unknowingly thrived on and being part of proper society. It didn't mean he didn't like to run all over the place, because it was his passion to do so. See the sights of the world before he carks it and what not. No...this was just the stillness he didn't mind, where no one was bothering him, giving him cryptic remarks or barking orders. Amy could be demanding, oh dear Chaos could she ever..but Sonic didn't mind this calmer version, although he did miss the more hyper active Amy. As long as Amy was still Amy in the end, it didn't matter. However, he suddenly wanted to tell her so bad to what happened to Tails...so why weren't the words coming out of his mouth?The movie had gotten to the point where they heard strange sounds at night. Amy became a bit jittery. Sonic on the other hand was drifting off into nanaland. The occasional yawn, he finished his hot coco and placed the cup beside the couch. His closed his eyes for a moment...well, it felt like a moment...

0o0

Do it vertically, efficiently

Do it horizontally, surprisingly

Do it sideways, hide aways

Do it anyways, fly aways

0o0

but wasn't as he looked at the time on the DVD player...the movie had been playing for a while. He could see someone bringing the camera downstairs and screaming, then waggling the camera about as she searched into the basement, seeing someone standing in the corner, looking into it, before the screams cut off and the camera dropped as the movie faded into black.If Sonic watched the entire movie it would have stunned him...maybe...he wasn't too sure. He looked at Amy who was now resting on his legs. She'd fallen asleep. Sonic smiled, feeling his cheeks heat up. He reached over to the remote controls and turned the DVD player and the TV off.This was...nice. Holding onto the belief that this would overshadow his problems for a while took over as he found himself stroking her head, then jolting his arm back after realizing he shouldn't be doing it as his cheeks warmed up. Instead he got off the couch and placed a cushion underneath her and tucked in the blanket for her. Poor girl. He noticed a white patch on her arm, small but noticeable. She probably had a minor accident at work, nothing too serious.
FLASHFLASHFLASH

Spills of white, brown and red, an instant in believing. Possible to ignore but impossible to forget.
Sonic decided it was time for him to leave. He walked over to the door and placed his hand on the knob, before feeling a breeze on his quills."It's a dangerous night tonight." Said Shizaru.Sonic rolled his eyes and turned to face her, only to see Shizaru in her usual white garment standing alongside the Bloody Amy."What, you two best friends now?" Sonic snarked. His right eye was in so much pain as he cupped it with his hand and near-squatted. "Usually I can ignore the little types of pain...but...ow!""Didn't you know what they did to your eye?" Said the Bloody Amy in a croaky voice.Sonic ignored and barged through the two as he walked over to the bathroom and looked into the mirror. His one functioning eye was fine, staring at the wrapped in bandages side of his head. Grabbing the end of the bandage, he slowly unwrapped it from his head and gasped at what he saw."Woah what the heck?" Sonic shrieked, freaking out.Shizaru and and the Bloody Amy reappeared from behind Sonic."During the battle with Tails, your eye got infected. The Kitsune came from the Steampunk City and were guaranteed to have more diseases than the rest of the kingdoms." Said Shizaru.Sonic still couldn't believe what they'd done to it. "So instead they put a bionic one in there instead?" He said, his tone raising. The sclera of his right eye had been replaced with a dark, hard material, while his iris was now a circular glowing glowing light with several cut line circles uneven but parallel to each other. He pull his eyelids with his finger and thumb to examine a bit more, instead the cut lines of the circles moved about, his right eye suddenly zooming in closer than expected, causing Sonic to jump back and nearly trip over."Did it occur to anyone that I did not give any permission to get me another eye?" He complained."You were in a coma for a few days. It was either that or risk worse infection to the brain." Bloody Amy retorted.Sonic looked at her. "What were you doing? Standing faithfully by my side until I woke up?" Sonic whined. "What are you?"It got silent as within a split second they both disappeared. It might have been time to have his own head checked up. He wondered whether or not Olly's case was worse than his. He went back to sink and washed his face and focused back onto his bionic eye. There was mixed feelings of anger, annoyance, and fascination. The thoughts of what everybody else might think crossed his mind as well, although he wouldn't really care and was just expecting their sudden reactions. It would definitely take some time to get used to it.Going back into the kitchen, he checked the clock on the wall. It was around Nine PM, a bit late and a bit early for some, but it was a school night drifting from a cool winters day. People were still out and about, but not as they were earlier. He checked up on Amy one last time before left. A smile crept across her face that warmed Sonic's heart. Sighing, he left and closed the door behind and went downstairs to go outside. He ran up the side of a building to stand on the rooftops to look upon the horizon. He found his new eye had night vision, which interested him greatly. The next thing that popped into his head was to give Shadow a visit...Roof hopping, Sonic eventually made his way back to GUN Headquarters. He allowed his speed and the air to drift him towards the landing pad, skidding as he landed and entering inside, confusing a few GUN Officers who he just waved at. He saw Bazza and Drainer leaning on walls near one of the rooms."Hey guys." Said Sonic as he walked up to them. The pair immediately made focus to his new eye.Sonic pointed to it. "Don't tell me you didn't know about this thing?" He said sarcastically.Bazza sighed. "Sorry about that...but it was purely Shadow's idea."Drainer looked at Bazza. "Purely the Commanders? Don't you mean entirely?"Bazza and Sonic facepalmed."That too..." They said in unison.Bazza's head turned left and right, as if checking for anyone."There are eyes and ears everywhere. We need to talk somewhere more private..."Bazza and Drainer lead Sonic to the basement, where old junk was dumped and forgotten. The room itself was full of broken chairs, shelves, computers and what not, and looked like it hadn't been tended to for years as paint was wearing off the walls."So what happened on the ARK?" Asked Bazza."Yes. The Commander would like to know what really happened up there..." Said Drainer.Sonic sighed. He knew he had to tell someone sooner or later. What better yet than to tell the Femme Fatalex?He started off with when he encountered the Demisune who had control of Tails...and talked about the rest of it from there...–"So...he died?" Bazza repeated, who couldn't believe what she was hearing.Sonic rubbed his head. "I...I don't know...he gave me Muriel's Book. Said I would have better use out of it than I will."The pair turned to each other before making eye contact with Sonic."He...he was so young..." Said Bazza, with a bit of a whimper."I hardly knew him myself..." Drainer muttered. "But he was a valuable ally. May Chaos drive him home."Sonic's head fell. Tails did freelance work with GUN every so often, with what ever they needed whether it was weapons or vehicles or just your average technology. He made sure he held a piece of him in his heart."He wasn't just an ally, but a good friend...who worked hard...and had no regrets." Sonic sighed.He was forced to bring himself back up in strengths sake. Sonic took out the book out from his fur and showed it to them, with the two Agents looking at with curiousity. Bazza faced Drainer."Didn't she mention she wanted the book back?" Wondered Bazza, fighting off unfinished tears.Drainer nodded. "In the interrogation room she was spouting out all sorts of historical facts..." She explained.Bazza crossed her arms as she leaned back on the wall behind her. "More like historical nonsense."She cooed. "Muriel is one weirdo...""Indeed she is..." Agreed Drainer. "I fear she might be becoming senile."Sonic eye's drifted between the two. "Uh...she is old...any one of you put that factor in?""It's not that..." Said Bazza. "I was behind the mirror with Shadow, looking on. For a lady who's been kidnapped twice, she seems really...I dunno the word...""It's been suggested she could have accumlated Stockholm, but we're not entirely sure." Drainer continued. "Her records indicate she does not have alzheimers or any other sort of mental disability...in fact, it's stated she's really healthy for a woman in her eighties."A voice nagged in Sonic's head. He couldn't unscramble it, but it was there. He put the book away and began thinking."Do you have copies of this interrogation? I want to see it for myself."Although he could have used the Ring of Memories, which he still possessed, he'd rather go the old fashioned way with cameras."We stash them in the Tape Room...we'll go there.." Said Drainer.Bazza got off the wall. "You take him. I gotta go home. My darling is probably wondering where I am...I'd rather just tell her I'm kickin' it with some friends."Drainer became confused. "Why would you tell your child that you were kicking somebody?" She asked.Sonic and Bazza took one look at each other. Sonic didn't need to see her face to tell that her expression was the same as his."Never mind...I'm off..." She announced, placing her hand on Sonic's shoulder. "Good luck kiddo."
0o0
In the midst of the night, Drainer snuck Sonic into the storage lockers to scrummage through the tapes. A few questions from the GUN Official who maintained the tapes was dealt with the answer of research. It was true though, albeit with more altruistic intentions. Upon welcome, there were rows and rows of metal shelves. They went through each aisle before Drainer found the tape she was looking for. She then lead Sonic to the viewing room and inserted the tape into the slot."What can I expect to find?" Sonic asked as he grabbed folded chair and laid it out."A strangeness that needs to be decrypted. Her way with words is...more enchanting. I suspect she is one of the most knowledgeable people that know the events of the past..." Replied Drainer as she laid out her own chairThe two sat down as Drainer pressed the play button on the projector, it spewing out rays of images after a few seconds of words, letters and numbers on a black background. It showed Drainer from the top corner of the room on walking into interrogation and sitting down, while Muriel sat on the other side of the black table with her elbows on the table and her hands clasped together, seemingly praying as Sonic heard her mutters."Ms. Rose I just want to ask you a few questions." Said Drainer on screen.Muriel stopped praying and looked at Drainer. "My, my Agent Drainer. I didn't expect you to speak to me."Drainer ignored her. "We want to know what you're holding from us."Muriel looked surprised, but Sonic could see that somehow she was faking it."I told you before, I have nothing to hide." She said with a sickingly sweet smile.Drainer wasn't convinced. "Can you think of any reason at all why Eggman would try to kidnap you? Whether it was truly the knowledge or something else?"Muriel laid her hands on the table. "Ivo was a good child back in his day. He idolized his grandfather Gerald and his family would come visit the ARK at least once a year, usually with his aunt and uncle who's purpose was to see their child Maria. Ivo had an accident at some point and I patched him up. Maybe he wanted to say thanks?"Sonic knew that obviously that was a big fat lie. "She's dodging." He said.On-screen Drainer looked down, then back up at Muriel."Do you know anything more about Abbadonia?" She asked.Muriels eyes lit up again. "Abbadonia is a Pitlord. Like her title says, shes a Lord of the Pit. Controls a great legion of demons under her. Very dangerous. Also one of the Sixty Six Children."Sonic shook his head. "Woah what? This is new..." He said with surprise. His mind again was trying to make the connections...Current Drainer crossed her arms and nodded. "I told you it was crypted."On-screen Drainer sat back and put one leg over the other."As you might know, she's in allegiance with Dr. Eggman and they are collecting artifacts. Do you have any background to these at all?" She said.Muriel tapped her finger on the table. "When the Rosoideae made pacts with her, she gave each of the Seven Kingdoms a portion of her power in the shape of everyday items."Drainer nodded. "Do you know what they are?"Muriel looked to her right as she thought. "Well...there's the Sphere of Abyss in Rosales..."Sonic imagined back to the Portal Hub with the mysterious orb."The Box of Temptation...which was actually for the Haren, or the Rabbits of the Sky Castle..."Then he remembered Bazza and himself at the Cold Oil area, collecting it."The Shell of Emotions...from the Maelstrom for the Rep'Tilla...or the place we call, the Sea Scroll Zone."Strangely enough Sonic never found the Shell and wondered where it was. He suspected Abbadonia may already have gotten it from Eggmans base."The Shield of Luck...from the Garden of Inari for the Kitsune...nicknamed Steampunk City."Sonic turned to Drainer. "Where is that?" He asked her.Drainer leaned in. "It's to the South Eastern parts. That mystical place, Space Greens Zone, was said to arise from that area as a request from the Rosoideaes...but..." She explained, shrugging at the end.Muriel went on. "The Lance of Love...for the Soleannans...within the parchments of the Enchanted Forest Zone."Explained a lot really."And the last, but not least...the Ring of Memories...originally for the now well known Knuckles Tribe. I originally found it buried within Angel Island all those years ago during the expedition there with dearest Gerald."Sonic pulled the ring out from behind and looked at it. To think, this thing belonged to Knuckles ancestors. He fumbled around with it for a while, now realizing he may have a better use for it than GUN would. His eyes back to paying attention to the screen, he had flashes before his eyes lasting mere nanoseconds, of nothing but fire, ash and blood...amidst hellish screams that brought Sonic to his knees and held his head. Drainer paused the tape and attempted to help him."Sonic are you okay?" She asked, worried. She had her hands near his hips and brought him back up.Sonic tried to compose himself and understand what the heck just happened."I'll be fine..." He lied, still holding his head with one hand as he sat back in the chair.Drainer could see the ring on the floor that Sonic had dropped and went over and picked it up."It wasn't from this was it?" She wondered, looking at it herself.Sonic shook his head. "No...it only works when you put it on.."Drainer grasped it in her hand. Sonic wanted to rub his bionic eye but was stopped by Drainer."Stop...you'll break something..." She said.He leaned back in the chair. Drainer could see he was exhausted. She leaned over him and put the Ring back into his hand. "Maybe you should get a good night's sleep. You know, visit the Saltman..."Sonic rolled his eyes. "You mean the Sandman...""That too..." Drainer stated. "Trust me, you can watch this any time. But your health is of major concern here...maybe a dream or two will help you relax..."Sonic wished he could have a decent dream for once. One that wasn't filled with freakishness and confusion. He could go back to Amy's place. But didn't want to bother her. There was always Creams place, if her mother was still awake at this hour...and they were pretty lenient with him. It wouldn't be the first time he'd slept there."Yeah alright I'll go. Maybe we can catch up tomorrow?" Sonic queried.Drainer stopped and pulled the tape out... "If you want. I'm due to go to Prince Haydens mansion tomorrow to check up on him and give him some updates as well as revisit Westopolis. I think I might hit the bag as well..."Again with the malaproper language. "You mean 'hit the sack'?""That too..." Drainer replied. "Unless the Commander wants me for anything."After putting the tape away and exiting, Sonic headed back up to the Landing Pad. Drainer was attempting to do the same, until she got a buzz."Me and my big mouth." She snarked. Sonic chuckled. "See ya tomorrow then?" She said.Sonic nodded and gave a thumbs up, before running outside into the dark, cool streets of Central City...

0o0

Alone, again...which wasn't too bad. Sonic jumped from roof to roof before landing back on good ol' solid ground. Whilst trying to get up speed, he saw a green crocodile wearing a navy jack and beige scarf around his neck, listening to headphones whilst walking the pathways of Central City heading outwards, presumably to Vanillas. He skidded to a halt and went over."Hey Vector, what's up?" Said a friendly and mostly better felt Sonic. But then he noticed Vector's line of sight went directly to his right eye as he took his headphones off."Geez Sonic, what's with the...you know..." Vector garbled, hinting by pointing to his eye. Sonic only smiled."You want the long version or the short version?" Sonic quipped.Vector scratched his head. He was holding brown grocery bags, gone shopping for the fiance, Sonic guessed. He also had a clear bag with a black something inside in hanging over his shoulder."Short version would be nice." Vector answered.Sonic nodded and began gesturing as he spoke. "Big fight, punched in eye, eye got infected, somehow won fight, went into coma, wake up...do stuff...find out about new eye, freak out and get over it..."Vector cleared his throat. "I...kinda get it. Must've been some fight..."Sonic didn't really want to talk about it, so diverted the subject."So I heard your big day is this week...nervous?" Sonic said, walking alongside him.Vector's chuckle suggested a bit of it. "No...not really..."Sonic smiled, although he could read Vector like a book. "Good for you..." He said with a thumbs up."Uh...yeah..." He said, his tone suddenly changing.Sonic gave a sympathetic look. "Alright, what seems to be the problem? Having cold feet already?"Vector violently shook his head. "N-no! It's not like that at all...it's just..."Sonic rose an eyebrow, curious for answers. "It's just what?"Vector sighed. "We were meant to be married at the Ordinal Church in Westopolis...but instead it it got blasted to smithereens!"Sonic's eyes widened. Crud...he was there just earlier when it happened. He didn't even know the date of the wedding or the location in the first place! Why didn't he grab an invite while he could? Wait, he did get the invite from Cream, but even she mentioned that something had happened at the old place too...but that...doesn't make sense. Unless the Ordinal Church was their second place, how could...never mind..."So...you're postponing it?" Sonic asked, ignoring the confusing revelation.Vector shook it off."Pfft...the fiance doesn't want to move it, she insists the wedding be on Friday. Instead she called me earlier to get Charmy and Espio to tell everyone where the new location for the wedding was." He stated.Sonic blinked. That was really quick of Vanilla to act on it...strangely so."Where's she putting it now?" Sonic prepped.Vector smiled."Before she got Charmy and Espio to ring our guests, whom most did call me the other day for the RSVP date, AND to put into consideration of the most convenient pastor we knew, Vanilla decided we should have wedding at the Master Emerald's Shrine on Angel Island!" He said.Knuckles was a pastor? Now he'd seen everything!"Yeah...I understand what you might be thinkin'...how we gonna get all the guests on the Island! I said Tails could probably do it..."Sonic didn't have the heart to tell him..."But Vanilla said, no no...she said she would ask a friends of hers, who apparently works for GUN, for special flights over..."Sonic thought Elise, but then realized the likelihood of the two even meeting was comedically low."She said...they're not first class, but it's a lot cheaper then hiring a Jet."Sonic nodded."Do you know this friend yourself?"Vector shrugged. "Ah I dunno! Vanilla has a select group of friends. Her mom and dad should be comin' too!"–It'd been a while since Vector and Sonic had a proper talk, although their last encounter was at Creams birthday, they didn't really speak to one another. Vector was the type of guy who, despite his faults, was really a nice caring guy. Loud and proud, the green crocodile could only be silenced and his ego be minimized by one Vanilla the Rabbit. Sonic himself couldn't imagine being tied down like that. He needed his freedom...unless this hypothetical wife had a free spirit herself, there was no way Sonic would get married...never."I wonder if Shadow and Amy will ever get married?" Vector wondered, prompting a quick take from Sonic."What?" Said Sonic, surprised."She was chasing after you for a quite a while...I wonder what changed her mind?"He pondered, then his eyes wandered over to Sonic. "Did you say anything?"Sonic stared forward with a straight face. "Uh. no...I didn't...I was guessin' that she didn't have any interest in me anymore."Vector smirked. "You sound a bit disappointed there..."Sonic glared at him. "I wasn't..."Vector chuckled. "Hah...with a girl like that, she probably believes that if she clicks her fingers, she'll probably for fall the next guy she sees."Sonic raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?" Sonic questioned with an annoyed tone.Vector smiled even more. "You can't just decide who you want to love...you have to give it thought...like, deep thought. A good ol' look back into yourself and realize what you want."What ever Vector was saying was all garble to Sonic. It was becoming increasingly uncomfortable though."Did you do that with Vanilla?" Sonic poked.Vector blushed. "Uhhhh...no...I knew I loved her the first time I saw her..."Sonic became confused, but mild amused at the same time. "Wait, didn't you just tell me...""IT'S DIFFERENT OKAY?" Vector belted in retaliation. "Vanilla is..."Sonic couldn't help but smile. "You did do it didn't you?"Vector looked down in shame. "Yes..."He suddenly straightened himself upright with his arm across his chest, as if defending his pride."But it still doesn't change the fact on how I fell in love with her. It just took me some time to figure out...didn't you ever do that for Amy?"Crunch time...somewhat. He'd hardly considered a rash relationship that was possibly abusive and foolhardy to start off with. She'd probably cling him down and force him to go where ever she wants to. In no sane persons mind would it work properly."Never really crossed my mind that often, to be honest..." Sonic stated...he was beginning to believe he was lying to himself.Vector facepalmed. "Really? Seriously? No wonder she decided to date Shadow!"It didn't matter anyway. Good for Amy. She'd found someone who will appreciate her as much as she would appreciate them. Even if it was Shadow. Like it was mentioned, Sonic is a free spirit...to be stuck in a relationship meant it he would have to tend to them. Not to say at the least all the other stuff that comes with it."She doesn't need me anyway. Besides...she only gets in the way and gets captured a lot." Sonic complained, with Vector noticing his attitude and tone shifting suddenly that only got a grin in response. "What?" Sonic poked."Sonic, Sonic, Sonic...are you really that ignorant?" Vector tormented. "Or are you blind in both eyes?"As a crocodile who was about to be married to a rabbit, Vector took this quite seriously. It was like he suddenly highly aware of romanticism and became an expert on it. Sonic wasn't sure where he was going with it, but Sonic went along with it, no matter how weirdly squirmish he was around love...well, involving him with other people anyway."What's the big deal? Amy's happy, I'm happy and best of all, Shadow's happy for Chaos sake!" Sonic pointed out, not noting he was becoming more defensive about it.Vector just sighed. "For someone who had his eyeball ripped out and replaced with a freaky lookin' thing, you don't look happy."Sonic crossed his arms, looking like a spoilt child who didn't get his way. Although he remembered he was staying over at their place and hadn't asked yet...so he might as well try to be nicer about it."I've been having the worst sleep ever..." Sonic spluttered out suddenly.Vector looked at him. "Cranky, schmanky Sonic. You should get sleeping tablets. Epsio and me give em to Charmy to help him shut up for a while. He's one hyper active bug."Sonic snuffed. Then his smile faltered. "It's not that...it's..."Vector put his hand on Sonic's shoulder, causing him to wince, reminding him his left arm was still sore."You can stay at our place tonight. Cream's over a friends place havin' a sleep over."Sonic blinked. "Really? You sure?"Vector gave him a thumbs up. "She won't mind..."–Upon reaching the Rabbit residence, Vanilla greeted Vector with a kiss on the cheek, wearing a lavender dressing gown and fuzzy slippers, then her eyes widened at the sight of Sonic."Oh Sonic, I wasn't expecting you here." She said with surprise.Vector placed the bags down on the breakfast table "He's just having a little trouble lately. I told him he could sleep the night since Cream's not here."Vanilla looked at Sonic, then stared at his eye but didn't make any note of it. She grabbed hold of Vector's hand and pulled him away. "Sonic, take a seat. I just want a talk with Vector here."Sonic nodded. "Sure..." He stated, confused.As Vector and Vanilla disappeared, Sonic sat down on the chair and rested his head on his hand. He saw Gemerl sitting in the lounge watching TV. He got up and decided to sit on the couch with him.Surprising for a robot to be entertained, although he couldn't remember what Tails had altered, but if he was a helping house robot then so be it. If it made Cream happy as well then it was a bonus. Damn, now he was seeing Tails work everywhere. A thought popped into his head that he had to go back to Tails house eventually and check his plant. He rubbed his head as he slouched over, refusing to look at the tv, the carpet seemed strangely more alluring. Gemerl was leaning back with his feet on the coffee table and arms spread out at the back. Sonic turned his head to see if this eye would be able to read anything off him. It zoomed in on Gemerl, creating a green outline and running through schematic gibberish that Sonic did not understand but then a large digital text flashed, reading 'Gemerl' and other kinds of weird things such as power levels, chaos readings even threat scaling. Gemerl faced Sonic, wondering what he was doing."Uhh sorry bud, just checkin' out this gear of mine..." Sonic assured, chuckling nervously.Gemerl tilted his head, then looked back at the TV. Vector and Vanilla came back from the master bedroom, Vanilla crossing her arms as she saw Gemerl."Gemerl how many times do I have to tell you..." She scorned as she thwacked Gemerls feet off the coffee table. "I don't want your dirty feet on the table."Vector silently laughed, earning ire from Vanilla."He gets that from you." She cooed.Vector looked down in shame...again."Ehhh..." He muttered, a bit embarrassed.Dusting herself down and donning a new smile, her attention went to Sonic."I've talked it over with Vector, and we're allowing you to sleep the night. If there's anything you need, I'm sure Gemerl here will be more than willing to get off his lazy butt and tend to your needs...isn't that right Gemerl?" Vanilla asked sweetly.Gemerl sat up straight and nodded."Good boy."Vanilla lead Sonic to Creams well children-advocated bedroom and turned out the light, fluffing the pillows and adjusting the blankets slightly. She was sweet that way, but could see why she Vector liked her. Her scent reminded him of his own mum back on Christmas Island. But it wasn't her that Sonic was trying to remember...but someone else...Saying good night, Vanilla left and closed the door, turning to lift off in the process. Outside was clear with moonlight filtering in through the window. Sonic lay on his back, with some tenderness that he willfully ignored. Staring up at the roof, he watched the Dream Catcher dangle about and sparkle. He was skeptical about if it worked or not, on whether it had a placebo effect that doctors would talk about it. The light glistened on the sparkled shards that hung within the strings. He raised his left arm, which was still sore and bandaged and checked it as well as he hand. Guilt rigged with physical pain wasn't a good combination, as Sonic couldn't butt out both. Resting his head back into the pillow, he was mentally weary, but not in complete misery. For once, he needed his sleep and for a good dream to at least sort things out for him. He placed his hand on his stomach and slowly closed his eyes...Nothing yet...until the black turned to white within an undetermined amount of time. But it stayed that way. Good, mindless, think-less but full of rushing data colliding in one another was good enough. A thought mending with another, then leading them elsewhere and finding something new. A single notion was forgotten within seconds as his capacity for insanity only worked at certain times. Pain was non-existent. Still bright and blinding, this was neither here nor there but somewhere where one could only get there if they tried, that portions of reality broke down into tiny pieces. He imagined that, for how ever long he had lived for, that he would return to same space in old age as he was a child, recalling locked in memories of the past or just left over emotions that had not been dealt with and needed to be released or told about in any shape or form they desired. This...clouding vision was perfect. Life did not need tending to.Although soon the whiteness faded, and he ended up in another world. Not the world of the Street, but another place...not a void, not endless darkness but one with a bright sun that gave the warmth it should, mountainous lands that connected with the sky in symmetrical ways...that if gravity reversed right now you wouldn't know the difference. He took the time to absorb his crazy dreamworld that gave some semblance to the Ocean Palace, with chess-patterned cliff walls and pure white ruins. But the flickys here here in usually curvy shapes and the Chao were playing with strange creatures that fluttered about but all in all their personalities were very similar. The grass was a vivid shade of green and a small beach cove that looked over at the bright sapphire ocean. What ever influenced him to make this sort of place was whacked. He'd hadn't visited Ocean Palace for ages. But it least it still kept a small track for him to run, complete with loops and springs amongst the like of this play dream. Maybe his subconscious was telling him that he needed a vacation. The atmosphere was unshackled by normal means, untangled from useless vibes. The air was clean and fresh, unlike the dust, bits of debris falling from above in the real world."Enjoying your time here?"That voice...Shizaru...Sonic face-palmed. He came here to escape from the hoohaa and mentally demanding things that Shizaru and her friends were forcing down his throat."Yeah...very comical...thanks for asking..." He said sarcastically.He sat down on the sand watching the waves come in and out as he fumbled with a sea a random sea shell. He heard Shizaru walk over and sit next to him. Wearing a wheat-made sun hat that had a white rose on a white ribbon, as well as white summer dress and sandles, sprinkled eye shadow and surprisingly, a gentle, relaxed smile."Come to invade my privacy as usual?" Sonic asked, completely apathetic.Shizaru shook her head and gave off a small laugh. "I listened in to the crocodiles words...in all fairness, you are ignorant."Sonic rolled his eyes. "I'd prefer this not turn into a nightmare thank you."She rested her hand on his shoulder. He shrugged it off."You are so close yet so far away. Your length of courage can only go for so long, but...for you...you pay attention to others. Your speed can examine others, able to see into their spirits and understand their souls. But you are unable to understand yours."Sonic threw the sea shell back into the water. "If this is about Amy..."Shizaru laughed. "In part to her. I'm not saying you should be selfish, but from within, you are the complete opposite."Sonic shot up from the ground. He was not having a conversation about his feelings when he was fine."You fail to seek an internal promise. For others, it's fine. People love selfless acts. But you are not true to yourself."What was this bulldust that she kept talking about? It made no sense to him at all. He lifted his head up, seeing a red jewel object shining in a nearby temple that connected with the symmetrical island he was on. Old, grey...more medieval like Soleanna than anything. It was just as beautiful as a Chaos Emerald. He rubbed his face."I'll see to it that if you stop giving me encrypted messages, I'll do what you want. Does that sound like a fair trade?"Shizaru stood up as well and faced him. "What do you want to know?" She wondered, having her hands clasped in front of her as the wind played with her dress.Sonic took a deep breath. There were so many questions to ask but had to stick with one."What am I doing here?"Shizaru faced away and stared back at the ocean. "We all have our purposes here Sonic. Yours is heroic by nature...heroic by choice.""Prophecies?" Sonic put out. "I've seen enough of that in one life time. If I've been placed in another then why didn't you say so?"Shizaru closed her eyes. "I am a Prophetess. But not the current Prophetess...but the mentor. But I cannot meet my student because the Destiny of the Blade split us up. And now fate has us all here. Except...for the Wisers...and the Stupilite Honor Guards..."Sonic rose an eyebrow. "You mean...the blue Hedgehogs..."He flashed back to when he was back in the Temple of the Prophets, and remembered meeting a few of them...and then...on the ARK.
I'm tired...and frustrated Gabriel...I wanna go home.
Gabriel...
Thorns also and thistles shall bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
"Gabriel...he was..." Sonic muttered.Shizaru walked over and looked at Sonic with dropped eye lids."Gabriel was one of the Elder Guards, but his official title was "High Honor Guard." His three disciples were Michael, Raphael and Uriel. Stupilite Honor Guards of the finest quality...you met him back in the Temple very briefly."Why didn't he see this before? A Hedgehog like himself. Some of it was coming together now...but the puzzle wasn't finished as a lot of pieces were either missing or he didn't know where to place them due to the severe size of the picture."What do they have to do with anything?" Sonic pondered."He was the Stupilite representative at the Elder's courts, although they never let someone in that position speak unless they asked them so." Shizaru explained. "But he was important in sealing Abbadonia the first time..."Sonic only had one question to ask. "How did she get out then?"Shizaru sighed. "Us, alongside the Stupilite Guards, sacrificed our lives to seal Abbadonia inside an ancient book...it was a hard day and I can still feel the strain."Sonic unconsciously brought out Muriels Book. Which Shizaru glimpsed at."Yes...you a slowly getting closer to some more answers..." She announced.Sonic's eyes swarmed all over it. "Is this was Eggman really wanted?"Shizaru approached Sonic and placed the book to his heart. "You know what Eggman is like. He will do anything...and side with anyone...to get what he wants. When certain people are given to much power, their egos escalate so high that when eventually something goes wrong they blame on what has been given to them, even knowing full well that they were given signals beforehand. Eggman is the same."Sonic nodded. Shizaru was right, she was suggesting something along the lines of."Abbadonia will eventually betray Eggman..." He muttered out.This was known and predictable of the bad egg. He was only a tool to be used in the schemes in lieu of assimilating more power than he could control. It's happened before...
Some thoughts travel downwards in a terminal velocity, they get so buried so deeply that they crash and left and forgotten about in millions of tiny pieces. But they can be put back together, like a puzzle. The difficulty varies from the time the thought was made...or the impact. Low impact memories are hardest alongside the passages of the past. High impacts stick with us forever and are the easiest to put together again. However, there is the rarest of puzzles that can be high impact but are impossible to solve unless help is involved.
Sonic watched as the Chao alongside the other creatures fly around the red jewel in up the strange temple, as the Violet Light Wisp came into being.Shizaru grinned. "Ahh here they come now. Just in time."Sonic scratched his head. This thing was following him everywhere. It flew around his head, leaving a sparkling trail. He had no idea what it was, but it helped him several times, to escape from nightmares.Sonic lifted his index finger up as the wisp came to him. Using his bionic eye, he zoomed in on it, now revealing the thing as a small purple butterfly.Shizaru smiled. "Well finally got him under one. What about the other?"The Violet Butterfly fluttered. "I spoke with Gabriel. I made the other buy one in Soleanna. Although he had a hard time convincing her to get her there."It's voice was ambiguous but familiar voice. Sounded youthful with a distinguished accent.The Bloody Amy reappeared next to Shizaru. "She's stubborn. Like this one. I think my counterpart had the same problems as well."Sonic shook his head as the Violet Butterfly flew off his finger. "What are you people talking about?"Shizaru, Bloody Amy and the Violet Butterfly looked up, forcing Sonic to do so as well. He could see a pink figure standing with two blue ones. The upside down island..."Amy?" Sonic muttered.The Violet Butterfly fluttered about. "Hang on, lemme mold the two together..."The world fell apart, but again shaped itself into a simple flat island with several palm trees and a few rocks. Sonic stood with Shizaru wearing her toga on side, and the Bloody Amy on the other.Amy stood with Gabriel wearing his Armour on one side, and a pale Sonic bleeding like the Bloody Amy on the other. The two groups of three were on opposing sides."What is going on?" Amy demanded to know, making a fuss and swinging her arms about.Sonic shrugged. "Beats me. I know just as much as you do."The Violet Butterfly flew down in the middle in between them. "Ah excellent! At last I can show my true form!"Sonic scratched his head. "Uhhhh what now?"Shizaru and Gabriel placed their hands in prayer positions, while the Bloody Sonic and Amy gave tired looks at one another, slightly swaying a bit as they stood deathly still."I only have one request..." Said the Violet Butterfly. "That you must tell the opposite dying form..."Sonic looked at his bloody self, whilst Amy looked at hers. "What is it?" Sonic and Amy said in unison."Be not afraid."Sonic walked up to his...self. It was very awkward, although it couldn't be any worse that what shape he was in...but his fur was extremely pale...bloodshot eyes with the red liquid running out of them, his nose, mouth and ears. His eyelids drooped as he mindlessly stared at Sonic.Sonic looked left and right. "Be not afraid?" He said, unsure."Say it with meaning!" Said the Violet Butterfly. "BE NOT AFRAID!"Sonic gulped. "Be...not afraid...be not afraid..."One more time."BE NOT AFRAID!"The Bloody Sonic smirked. Shizaru stood next to Gabriel as those two stood aside crossing arms, the Bloody Sonic walking over and standing next to the real thing, who turned to Amy."Oh geez I don't understand this at all!" She complained. Her bloody self approached her, who freaked Amy out. "I see Sonic's but now I see mine? What gives?"Gabriel intervened. "Just say what you've been told." He assured her.Amy rubbed her face. Sonic felt sorry for her, but then his mind was all jumbled as well. So he just observed."Fine." She said. "be not afraid...""MEAN IT!" The Violet Butterfly cried.Amy began whispering it underneath her breath with her eyes closed. Her bloody self just stood there staring at her while she practiced."Okay stop that you're freaking me out..." Amy mumbled.Sonic smiled. "Give it your best shot Amy. You can do it."Amy opened her eyes and looked at Sonic..how she loved his praise...but shook her head."What am I supposed to be afraid of?" She asked, back one step."I can't appear in my true form without distorting into a horrific monster because your mind can't handle it..." The butterfly explained.Sonic checked next to him. "What are these things?" He asked.No one said anything in response, only hearing the sound of waves in the background."Amy Rose...please tell her...say it with strength so I may be able to help you both properly..."Amy sighed. "Can I borrow Sonic's?" She said sarcastically.Sonic smirked and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Sure...just make..."Amy shoved his arm off her. "I know that! Don't need to be a moron!"Sonic just laughed and walked back, raising his hands in passive motion. "Okay okay...calm down..."She slapped herself several times to get psyched up as she jumped on the spot."Okay I can do this..." She said."I know you can..." Her bloody self said in response. Amy bit her lip and took a deep breath..."Be...not...afraid...be...not...afraid...BE...NOT...AFRAID!"Bloody Amy gave her once last smile. "BE NOT !"
0o0

YES...Now I can be free of these bounds that Abbadonia has made. A barrier has been broken down and now I can see and feel the way she wants me to...by Illumina's bond, I will now help you all!

0o0
The Violet Butterfly's light grew bigger and bigger until it was just as large as they were. Sparkles reigned down as a gigantic killer whale leaped out of the sea, blocking the sun like an eclipse and reaching over the island and diving back in the other side. The chao and the other creatures came in pouring from around to see the transformation.Upon the lights fade stood a floating figure. It wore a purple striped jesters hat, on a small head with a small elegant face, pristine eyes. It's torso wore jesters gear, with a pink vest with a red collar and red seems with three golden star buttons that was worn on top of a long sleeve shirt, with white sleeves and purple and yellow triangular patterned cuffs and a red diamond like jewel in the center. It had purple tights with small buttons on top, with small white curves decoration on the outer sides, that covered the feet with moderately size pink with a yellow stripe cover, but leaving the toes purple. It floated there as it raised its arms and hands and wiggle its fingers about as if pretending to play the flute. It flew around Sonic and Amy, with it's legs straight out back and arms to the sides, leaving small star trails as it rolled in the air and spun in circles, being followed by chao and the other creatures.Sonic and Amy looked on in amazement, swearing they had seen it's face somewhere before. It continued flying around in circles before floating down in front of them."Aren't you..." Sonic started, trailing off as he was too busy being captivated."You're..." Amy said, doing the same.It smiled. "Yes I'm me and you're you. Except you do not know the name of me, and yet for most of my life I've known the name of you. Funny isn't it?"Sonic and Amy looked at each other and shrugged. The once wisp and butterfly scanned them both and chuckled."I'm the one...the only...the beloved..." It said...bowing to them."I'm NiGHTS!"

Our dreams can be compared to paradise...we can only imagine.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

He's had these dreams before, where the ones of no origin spurt out of nowhere come crumbling down into his life for a lack of reason. Most of these were hardly lucid at all, but they let the ball roll into the court. It was his duty to pick it up and throw it in again. A game of it's own rules that changed constantly and yet, you would instantly know what these rules are as soon as you realize what the game is about. We can't change them, but they change themselves.In the Street, the house's changed into plain, boring everyday homes. Except Amy's. Hers stayed in the luxurious mansion it was supposed to be. The factor came in, saying that there was someone else living in it, but he didn't know who it was, only that their shadow screened on the window curtains. Didn't matter at the moment...there was other more important matters to worry about, then acting on silly suspicions based on lack of proof but on gut feeling...even if most of the time it was never wrong.Though Sonic had seen this...NiGHTS before. But upon this revelation, it was the Dream Weaver of this world. For now he was glad someone like them was around to help Sonic make sense of what he had been seeing ever since that cold winters night last week. But it was still fresh, but for reasons unknown elsewhere felt old, like he'd been awake forever. Paradoxical at best, like an insomniacs dreams. A disturbance on the Dream Waves was their excuse to interfere, at the request of Illumina, the Goddess of Dreams. It came to him that NiGHTS was in fact leading him to this place to discuss the status of not only the Earth, but himself, a Hedgehogs mentality that was going astray and needed to be mended. Sonic understood that, with his own final self admission, that there was a problem with the way he saw the world, but he couldn't figure out how Amy was factored into this. All he knew was that there, now, was an unsightful edge to her grandmother, alongside the ancestry that they both carried with them. Amy didn't seem the type to be really interested in going back into her own past, she just wanted to get on with her life in peace. Again the topic of stability arose, as it reminded Sonic that he was chaotic at best, at one with the voice of the winds. But Amy...innocent as she was, like her grandmother, had a part of them that was completely unknown, buried in secrecy and denial. Possibly in so deep she'd forgotten about it. As long it didn't worry her it was okay. The issue didn't need to be brought up unless someone mentions something...This world...of dreams brought in pieces of his own life. And parts of hers. A combination of old starting points and new adventures filled the basis of their surroundings. NiGHTS frolicked with the Chao and the identity of the mysterious creatures alongside them were known as A-Life: the dream world's version of the Chao. The Bloody Amy and the Bloody Sonic were no where to be seen, meanwhile Shizaru and Gabriel chatted amongst themselves, leaving Sonic and Amy with one another, unable to decide on what they were going to do.Amy had brought up the point of doing what ever the heck they liked. They were asleep so no real body injuries or sickness came into play. Seeing a whole playground of loops and places to run breathed excitement in the young pink Hedgehog, who mentioned she broke another treadmill at the Gym. Sonic laughed at that, having the whole world as his giant treadmill. Plus the whole thing was Amy-liked anyway, giving her romantic ideas for her and Shadow, which, made Sonic's stomach churn. He tried to be happy for their relationship, but truly he was deeply unhappy about it. Sonic kept telling himself that it was okay for that to happen, for it didn't matter to him. Amy was the first to run off into the island resort like surroundings, like Emerald Coast, Ocean Palace and Sunset Hill slopped together to give them the ride of their...dreams...Sonic eventually caught up and zoomed past her, grinding on vines as the entered a more forestry environment more akin to the jungles of Angel Island. He rolled into a spring and bounced upwards into several more springs pushing him and passed the canopy and into a flock of flickys who flew beside him. Looking over to his left, he could see Amy jumping as well and waved to her. She responded with giving a raspberry. Sonic smirked and made his descent into the thick foliage, landing on a massive log that had to have been from the tallest tree he'd ever seen, running on the moss covered log over a cliff, portraying a bottomless pit below and made it over to the other side. Running in two more loops, a path crossed with another as time slowed down before him, his sonic boom creating a vortex of leaves trailing behind him. As he made it to the intersection, he reacted to a pink and red ball leaping over him, in the most gracefully time-stopping fashion, much like someone he knew who could do such a thing. Time sped up again as he kept running and found himself jumping onto several branches, interweaving with Amy as they jumped from branch to branch. Brushing up against the leaves, Sonic again leaped passed the canopy and into the broad skies, grabbing hold of an abnormally large eagle's talons and gliding across the vastness of the forest. His head turned around, looking to his right and seeing a flock of Stumpwings head down. He tried to angle the Eagle to turn and get rid of them, only to be met with Amy jumping out as well, the size of her Piko Piko Hammer reflecting in his eyes. It was ten times its normal size, with Amy throwing it back, then with all her might slamming down mighty hard on the flock, smashing them as they burnt into ashes and faded away. She swung the hammer to gain momentum for an aerial front flip, then withdrew it and fell to the ground. Sonic let go of the eagle and let himself down as well, free falling before landing on top of Amy."Ow..." She complained. Her vision came back, and as a fellow face lingered near hers, her own heated up dramatically."Sorry Amy..." Sonic apologized, now also blushing as he was now a little too close to her face for comfort.Both were in very compromising positions, as Amy lay flat out on the ground with Sonic on top of her. For a moment there was an unheard but certain click that shifted between them. Both of them had a lack of words to spill out of their muzzles, as his nose was just touching the tip of her soft one, their heartbeats elevating, as Sonic's was ringing in his ears as well noticing a weird sort of short breaths. Their eyes were locked into one another but their hearts clogged up their throats, unable to say anything at all.Amy squinted and rolled Sonic onto his back, making sure she was in control. She had his arms pinned down to ground and a creepy smirk on her face as she playfully glared at him. Sonic lifted his chin at her."Now I don't think this is fair at all Amy...sitting on my chest n' all..." He snarked."Oh boo hoo..." Amy mocked. "You'll just have to live with it..."She leaned over until her head was directly above Sonic's, with barely a few centimeters between their faces. "By the way, I was joking...I wasn't really hurt..."Bah! Sonic remembered it was a dream! How could it hurt if she didn't want it to? That sly pink hedgehog..."Oh you're gonna get it now!" Sonic announced. He rolled her back over, and fell on her chest. The sounds of the forest died down and instead all that was heard were their inhales and exhales. Their eyes locked together once more. That feeling in his stomach returning, burning more than ever and so much that he let the feeling gently take over his consciousness, his face lowering towards hers as his eyes began to close, her own doing the same, a part of her closing off to let him get his way.His head stopped at several centimeters away from her lips, feeling the small whispy brush of her breath through her nose. It tickled the fur on Sonic's muzzle, his pulse rapidly racing...This burning sensation that built a bonfire in the middle of Amy's Mansions backyard, the flames towering to the skies. She stood one side with her hands wrapped around his neck as she wore little black dress, white tights and black high heels. Sonic's own arms were around her waist. The fire that flowed through their veins fueled the light in the middle. Tree's twisted and contorted, even the fire began to spiral upwards. Their eyes lay on one another, not speaking for words would ruin and fail to explain the new found feelings that were even more powerful than before. She took his hand and placed it to heart. The power of the pounds would even shame the fastest drummer.The forest sounds were still gone, as Sonic shifted his head back and forth ever so slightly as his lips widened and shrank, as if unsure what to do with them or how to do it right as he had a mental lockout of his surroundings. Their noses touched with one another before finally...Sonic shot up from his bed to see Gemerl vacuuming the room. Sonic wiped his face as the sun shone down on him. No wonder why he was feeling warm. He swung his legs around to sit on the edge of the bed. He was about to rub his eyes, until he saw his reflection in a mirror and remembered the bionic eye. He got off the bed."Mornin' to you too..." Sonic said apathetically as he walked out.He rubbed his head and yawned as he wandered towards the kitchen to see Vector reading the paper and Vanilla making breakfast. Sonic slid the chair out and sat on it. Vector lowered the paper."Ah good morning Sonic. How was your sleep?" He asked.Yawning, Sonic leaned his elbow on the table and rested his head onto his hand."It was..okay...I guess..." He moaned.Ignoring that dream, Sonic shrugged. He probably hadn't had a good nights sleep in a while...and now it was catching up to him...Vanilla made porridge of them all as Gemerl started vacuuming in the lounge. Vanilla read a magazine while Vector kept reading the paper. Sonic toiled as his played around with his breakfast more than he ate it. Something was tearing him from the inside and he didn't know what, but he was beginning to believe that the hunger pains he thought he was having before weren't at all. His eyes read over to the newspaper as he tried to read the paper upside down."Ehh...do you really think Shadow will make a good Commander? I mean, not even a week has passed and he's declared war based on delusions." Vector asked.Vanilla looked over."I'd say give him a chance. He's not cold-hearted..." She commented."But he is hot blooded!" Vector claimed. Sonic jokingly believed it was a bit of both.Vector took a slurp of his porridge. "This is coming from a guy who had a horrid past, wasn't born like the rest of us, had loved ones killed and had his own agency up against him."Vanilla paid her attention back to her magazine and rubbed her neck."The circumstances surrounding his birth are irrelevant Vector." She said."He's been down many roads in which he did not know where they would lead him."Surprisingly insightful, but true. Although even though there had been a few incidents, Sonic thought that they had to give Shadow enough time to set the record straight and renew his reputation. Give him time to see if he cared enough about the world around him, despite his origins lying elsewhere."We shouldn't treat him like an outsider. I read a lot of controversy over his sudden promotion that was more bias than actual facts. And the facts that mattered were taken as a grain of salt." Vanilla continued.Vector shrugged."Who knows what goes on in that head of his...as long as he can take care of it then I don't really mind." He said.Vanilla sighed."Vector, didn't you say Shadow asked for the Chaotix to be part of the Third Party Program?" She saidVector slammed the newspaper on the table. "Grah...I hate talking about it..."Vanilla frowned. She hadn't seen Vector more annoyed like this."But it's good pay isn't it?"Vector rubbed his face and leaned back in his chair."Team Chaotix is about solving minor cases OR Cases that are worth a good packet. If Shadow is gonna make GUN more commercial than it's own seriousness, he's gonna make it worse in terms of how the public perceive them."Vanilla got off her chair and made orange juice for them all. Sonic scratched his head."Well he is trying to recruit. And they lost a whole bunch of soldiers yesterday." She said.Vector poked the pages."Says it in here. Skeptics are condemning that Shadow's gonna reform the entire chain. Promotions, demotions and playing favorites."Vanilla came back and placed the drinks on the table. "Surely there are standards and rules about that. Or else the humans would get edgy."Sonic took a sip from the orange juice. All this talk about GUN was boring him. He laughed off as the people believed that Shadow had serious political agendas. Though Sonic wondered what happened to the old Commander."The last Commander retired. It's said he shut himself back and moved to Hawaii or wherever." Vanilla stated.Sonic supposed that they come and go. Part of life, part of reality that these things happen. We get older, we get wiser...well, some people do, anyway.After breakfast, Vector prepared himself for work, heading back into the city where his Detective Agency was. Vanilla had to run some errands and left Gemerl to mind the house. Sonic couldn't thank them enough for their hospitality as his mind was left refreshed and raring to go. Saying goodbye, he ran off to GUN Headquarters.But saying his mind was refreshed was a slight lie. It wasn't as worse as it had been, but a lot of answers were still to be had. Those thoughts were left behind as a reminder of what Tails had asked Sonic to do. He needed to get back to his house to look after the plant and...search for what Tails had left behind. Sonic half-expected a will, but at Tails age it was unlikely, albeit with the amount of dangerous journeys he was on it became less surprising. He diverged from the route and ran down the outskirts of Central City's suburbia and ran to Tails house.Entering in, the place looked a bit dusty from a lack of maintenance, not unlike Muriel's bookshop. He could see the green plant growing on the window sill. He walked over to it. It was beginning to dry up. Sonic got a glass of water and poured it on gently. This plant was fairly important to Tails. It was strange looking however. The petals were green and the stigma was ruby red. He was afraid it wouldn't survive as it was the only thing left by Tails that was ever special to him. Leaving it be for now, he looked around to find what Tails had mentioned. He checked several drawers which had papers, pencils, pens, rulers and all kinds of generic math aiding equipment and mechanical tools. He knocked his head and tried to think of where Tails had said it was.
Once you get back to Earth, I want you to go to my drawer next to my bed. There should be something in there for you. And take care of my plant okay? I have a feeling it's finally gonna sprout.
He rubbed his face, trying to prevent himself from tearing up again, as pain swelled behind his eyes, the tear ducts beginning to congest. Sucking it up, he went up stairs to where he had once slept and encountered the wooden drawer. Kneeling down, he pulled on the brass handles, seeing an envelope and a box inside. He took out the envelope first and opened it, grabbing the single piece of paper and began to read it.
Hi Sonic, if you're reading this, I probably told you to do so under the circumstances in which I can no longer speak to you in person. First of all, thanks again. I'm most likely thanking too much, or too little. Doesn't matter. Anyway, as you're my best friend, I'm giving you full liberty of my stuff. If you need a home, take mine. You usually sleep over on movie nights and leave your rubbish all over the place. So this home, is now yours.
Sonic looked up and tried so hard to fight back the tears. He didn't care that he owned the house now, it was the fact that it was the first time he realized Tails picked up after him. There was so much he did to aid him in his endeavors that he was losing the battle of tear prevention.
Secondly, to the others, like Amy, she's like a big sister to me...and even you'd probably hate me for saying this but...please take her out for at least one date! You are so completely stubborn in avoiding it! Knuckles and I usually ignore it, but we felt that her anger might quelled if you just made her happy for one day. It would make her world. Great, now I sound selfish. But promise me you will take her out at least once okay?
Sonic looked apathetic as his eyelids dropped, giving off an surface-dwelling annoyance, but deeper down nervousness was taking over.
Knuckles. Oh geez Knuckles. Good guy with best intentions. He compares with you as the most determined person I've ever met. Maybe alongside Amy's infatuation with you but I won't talk about it, knowing it makes you uncomfortable...
Yes, despite speaking about it just before. Tails was mocking him in his will.
Cream...was the little sister. So bright and optimistic she brings the warmth to my heart. I hope her future treats her well.
Indeed. She had many years ahead of her.
And to all the other friends I've met over the years...thank you for being one...
Sonic was on his last straw...he had to bite his lip and squeeze his eyelids, taking a breath in the meanwhile to hold back.
Sonic, this is my latest edition as you can judge by the scribbles. You've been acting weird lately and I can understand why. I've recently hacked into GUNs file and read OPERATION: LUCID. It's pretty intense stuff. Shadow won't reveal it to you, since I suspect he's planning to usurp GUN. Why? Because he'd been with the Commander a lot lately, who's been sick. I'd gone in there a few times to help fix computers...but when the computers can't be fixed by normal means, I call a friend of mine. Inside the box is a special device that allows you to contact this friend. Just mention my name and she will help you.
Sonic lifted the box up. It was wrapped in brown paper and string. Tearing it apart revealed a remote device with a small screen and antennae. He flipped in his hands and started pressing buttons but had no luck with activating it. He checked back to the paper.
There's a red button that allows the transmission to occur, but she will only answer when she wants to.
He couldn't read the rest of it. He dropped both the paper and the device on the ground and wept. He leaned over with his elbows and knees on the floor with his hands on his eyes, his breathing was quick and erratic alongside several sniffs. Sonic was blaming himself entirely for his demise. He looked over to to the paper once more and read the end note.
Sayonara Sonic the Hedgehog!
The page became drenched in hedgehog tears, as he heard but ignored the footsteps and the shadow that were coming up from behind him."I thought you would be here."Sonic looked up and sat on his feet."H-hey Bazooka...what are you doin' here?" Heasked, almost jittery.Bazza kneeled down beside Sonic and picked up the remote. "Just checkin' up on things here. The Commander ordered me to come here to claim any GUN related assets."Damn Shadow, careless bastard only thought about commercialism and Sonic now thought Vectors opinions were true. Sonic stood up and grabbed the paper."That's a remote Tails gave to me in order to see a friend of his...I dunno who she is..." Sonic explained.Bazza examined it."It's the Tera-Hack Matter Transferrer." She said. "These things are extremely difficult to make it."All boggled words went straight through Sonic's head. He manned up and wiped away the tears."So what now?"Bazza's head lifted. "Agent Drainer's gone to the Garden of Voi. The Commander got a call from Olly saying she was feeling better and wanted to come back to work."Sonic smirked, then turned serious. "What about Eggman? Has he said anything?"Bazza shook her head. "No. Commander Shadow was going to speak to him again today. Do you wanna come watch?"Sonic couldn't resist the offer. He checked everything else out in the house, before finding the spare key and locked the door. He showed Bazza Tails supposed will, who analyzed it thoroughly, mentioning that since the house was now Sonic's, he'd have to check it out for anything Tails had constructed recently according to GUN protocol. All remnants of his existence would be altered dramatically..especially the way he disappeared.They made their way to GUN Headquarters once more. Upon arrival, a soldier had announced that Shadow needed to see Sonic immediately. Agent Bazooka was asked to go elsewhere, for Shadow wished to speak to Sonic alone.Sonic went into Shadow's office and closed the door. His room was dark and dank, with a wooden desk and book shelves behind with him and photo frames and various arch-typical boss like regalia.Before the desk was someone, who wore a very similar suit to the Fatalex, but had a mark, a symbol of a green chaos emerald surrounded in spikes and a circle on the shoulders. Its helmet wasn't too different from the horned appendages on Drainers, except these were longer, more slanted and lower on the head. It's hands more akin to claws, with two fingers and a thumb protected by latex gloves. Its suit covered with two small silver coloured pipes that extended from the bottom of the neck to the back of it's head. It's feet were large but contained in massive boots that were similar to Olly's. It's torso held black cross straps, while, indeed like the Fatalex, wore a latex/leather combined. A small, white circular canvas was held in by the cross straps that was embedded into the suit."Sit down Sonic." Shadow said. Sonic shrugged and did so."First off, I want you to meet someone. A new recruit. Probationary Agent Neptune."Sonic turned his head to the strange new Agent. His visor was more like a pair of attached steam-punk goggles."He doesn't say much, but his abilities are astounding. He will be a priceless agent." Shadow explained.Sonic leaned back in his chair and placed his feet on the desk, much to the ire of Shadow who was not amused. "So...why'd you bring me in here?" Sonic asked, cleaning his ear."I'm forming a new group. It doesn't have a name yet, but I'm currently recruiting them for hard hitting missions. While the Femme Fatalex were designed for infiltration missions, I need a team that is not afraid to focus on the heavy security if things go wrong..." Shadow explained.Sonic rubbed his nose. "So...you want a group to do diversions...if that's what you're saying..."Shadow nodded. "We haven't yet proved that Eggman's true intention was to grab our attention while someone somewhere else was getting another important job, thus using up most of our resources to one single problem.""Yeah sounds like a legit strategy..." Sonic said in a monotone, not particularly caring.Shadow rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I was going to get Neptune to stick with the Femme Fatalex, so he can learn some skills. However, since they themselves have more important tasks to care of..."Sonic cleaned out his ear. "What?" He wondered, not expecting much.Shadow shuffled a goldenrod folder. "I want you to help train him.."Sonic rose an eyebrow. "Come again?"The Commander walked around and stood behind him as he read the notes in the folder. "Neptune needs someone to set a good example for him. His psychological profile indicates that he doesn't know the difference between right or wrong, but according to our psychologists he has the mental capacity to learn."Sonic looked at Neptune. "But I'm not a part of GUN!"Shadow chuckled. "Sonic, I'd had to be the bearer of bad news but..."Sonic sat up and stared at Shadow. "Don't tell me you..."Shadow rolled his eyes."The profile hasn't been completely filled, but my predecessor organized a position for you after some crucial thinking towards the end of the Black Arms incident."What ever happened to just asking nowadays? Sonic just had to face palm at it. The feeling of belonging to an organization wasn't mutual. He resented, considering his well known reputation, being a representative of violence and war. Sonic knew he was an icon, he was practically a heroic celebrity. He's turned down sponsorship offers and interviews with magazines because he feels his opinions could be taken the wrong way. Sonic also possessed the sole belief that others had to chose their own path and the fear that others would attempt to do what he says even though what ever his said wasn't a suggestion but something that he did. He never does it for the money but for the world's safety. He preferred to be more like a dust speckle in the wind than be plastered on billboards and the like. Avoiding others was more his style, the specific type of loneliness that he didn't mind."I don't care if you have a identity to uphold...and I know I won't like it either, considering we're both equals..." Said Shadow. Sonic could hear the reluctance in those words, with Shadow's determination to be better than Sonic strong in his heart. But as a Commander, he had to speak wisely. But the healthy rivalry was still allowed, so both can strive harder to the fastest and strongest thing alive.But Sonic simply wasn't interested. Shadow received that vibe and asked Neptune to step out of the room for a moment. The Probie complied and followed orders as he left the room and closed the door. Shadow's attention immediately went to Sonic as he charged up and pushed Sonic against the wall, pinching a few still sore nerves that Sonic winched at."Listen to me Sonic and listen to me very carefully...you will join GUN. As per the wishes of the last Commander!" He demanded.Sonic wiggled about and was tempted to spit in Shadow's face. But he was the one being held up so..."There is a major conspiracy going around. And if you want in to some of the more finer details of our investigations, then you're gonna have to team up with us."Sonic rolled his eyes but didn't say anything. Shadow's tone was a mixture of desperate and slight sadness, albeit covered in a tone of arrogance and smothered in anger. His eyes told a lot than what he was saying and became a bit suspicious of Shadow's motives. Maybe Vector was right."We fixed you..we gave you a new eye dammit! You want me to rip it out?"Sonic sighed. "I never asked for it anyway. Your doctors were the ones that put it in there."Shadow's cheeks twitched."That's because I told them to! I'd rather my own speed rival to have a fair advantage then to not at all...besides...I like the challenge."Sonic chuckled. "One eye wouldn't disable me for running. Besides, I could have looked like a pirate!"Shadow dropped Sonic. "I will place you in the Third Party Program for now. And if you make one lil pir-""Yarr! We gonna search for this treasure arrrrrGGHH" Sonic mocked, with his neck somehow ending up in Shadow's hand, now back in struggle mode."As I was saying...Third Party doesn't get you into what Rouge calls "the most juicy bits" but it'll give you level 2 clearance. Which means you'll have access to basics as well as being allowed to interrogate prisoners and potential suspects, but only if someone with a level 3 or higher clearance is with you. Is that clear?" Shadow stated, letting Sonic go.Sonic rubbed his neck then looked at Shadow with innocent puppy dog eyes...Shadow saw right through his stupid act and wanted to punch Sonic in the face as Shadow glared at him."Although if you refuse, I call always do the honor of tearing the eye right here, right now. But I prefer not to get any blood on my hands..."Sonic snuffed. "Shadow, I can see stains on your gloves..." He commented with a devious smirk.Shadow grew frustrated. He didn't appear to be but Sonic could see it as clear as day. Having enough of Sonic's antics and annoyance at how he wasn't taking this seriously, he pulled on a small black square object from his pocket and looked at Sonic."Now...Drainer and Bazooka have told me your story about how Tails met his demise..." Said Shadow. Sonic lost his smile and went into stoic mode."Yeah what about it?" Sonic retorted in a rude tone.Shadow held the object out. "Knowing you...you would feel...guilty. In order to...satisfy your feelings and rid yourself of this negative let down is to punish yourself. I've saved you the trouble of doing that..."Sonic browed. "Uhh...why? I wouldn't harm myself over someones death even if I could have prevented it."Shadow chuckled. "I know you too well Sonic. You are trying so hard...to protect that image of yours. The image you prefer to make for yourself rather than let everyone else construct a fake one for you. So...harming yourself WOULD be setting a bad example for all your fans..."Sonic rolled his eyes. "Shadow...I wouldn't slit my wrists and be emo like you. It's the last thing I'd do. I'm not depressed...I'm just trying to get on with my life like Tails would want."Shadow juggled the object up and down in his hand, as if it were a toy. "I know what pain is like Sonic. All too well...I'm well over my past. And am glad to do what I want without restraint. But...the scar is always there. Within you, is the pain of loss of a loved one. I got to know Tails quite well every time he came here to do some freelance work. The emptiness you feel is normal. I was like that when I lost Maria. But I know her spirit is always with me. The deeds been done..."Yeah except for the fact that Shadow's turned into a bigger maniac. He didn't need a lecture from Gangsta Hog. Sonic has his own life to live. There is no desk to stand behind or factory to work in. There is no pyramid network to work around or deadlines to meet. Sonic knew what to do with his own freedom without Shadow blabbing on about pain and loss."I may feel guilty about it, but there is no need to do anything about it." Sonic assured, hoping to get rid of this pointless issue."Of course there isn't..." Said Shadow as he stopped juggling the device. "However, I have the power to bring forth the punishment...from within..."Sonic crossed his arms. "Yeah, how you gonna do that?""Observe..." Muttered Shadow, as he pressed the big red button.Suddenly Sonic fell over in great pain. His right eye was causing him grief and agony, his vision becoming blurry as he held it. He breathed in and out rather rapidly, gritting his teeth and hissing through the spaces in his teeth. What in Chaos name was this?Shadow let go. "I saw fit to put a shocker in the bionic eye...just in case problems like this occur..."Sonic dropped his hand and stood up, glaring at Shadow. "Isn't this black mail?"Shadow smirked. "I do it because it is necessary." He said, ignoring Sonic's question on purpose.Sonic cooed. "Necessary my a-""Now sign...you're not having a codename. You don't need one."Sonic glimpsed at the device, as Shadow brought paperwork around."You can pick your own team name..." Shadow said.Sonic had one in mind, writing Shadow Sme- before being shocked again and falling to the floor."I'm sorry...but I'm afraid you cannot have that one." Shadow stated, obviously having a little too much fun with this. Sonic by far was not amused, but was not gonna let Shadow beat him in a battle of wits.Sonic got up and leaned over as he snatched the pen. Sonic didn't want to do it, but had no choice. He signed his signature and wrote down a team name. Shadow proceeded to pick the page up."Burning Miles. Makes sense." He commented. "Very well...Welcome to GUN!"Shadow lent out his hand. Sonic just stared at him. "Sonic, don't make this difficult than it already is. I don't wanna do it anymore than you do. I'm just following Commander Protocol...and I can make it more difficult if you'd like."Sonic huffed and violently shook Shadow's hand. "There. It is done. I will have your uniform, cards and weaponry organized."His black phone lit up red and started ringing. Shadow whipped it up to his ear. "Commander Shadow...Yes...what? Good...I'll be right done." Said Shadow, before he placed the phone down.Sonic gave Shadow the dirtiest look. He downright hated being used like this. But Shadow had that power. Shadow placed the device back in his pocket and filed the paperwork away, before grabbing another goldenrod folder and heading out."Come...if you want to watch..."Sonic collected Neptune on the way down the interrogation room, following Commander Shadow into the depths of GUN's heavily guarded prison. The deeper they got, the more guards were encountered. Shadow used the retina scanners before the three made it down to an isolated interrogation room...number seven as it would have...Shadow opened the the door into the Observation Room for Sonic and Neptune, giving a little nod to go inside. Sonic hadn't really done this process before, but if he'd seen those shows where they hide in a dark room, watching it from one side, but from the lighter side it was a mirror, then this was most likely the same ordeal.This room had three seats, a computer with a blank black screen and the only things that lit the room up with the green and orange LEDs from the computer. Other than that, the room was near darkness. Sonic sat down on the middle chair, while Neptune just stood with his hands behind his back. A flash created miserable light from the interrogation room, revealing a hand cuffed Eggman wearing gray prison gear with a number on the left side of his shirt and sitting down, staring at the black table before him. Sonic could see the cuts and bruises on his face and blinked.Shadow came in and whacked the folder on the table before Eggman, startling him. Had Shadow made a big mess of the bad egg?"So...let me ask you again...where are the factories?" Shadow asked with complete, yet scary calmness.Eggman spat on Shadow's face, who, slowly wiped it off with his hand. "The ARK is being incapacitated as we speak. We have...scientists about to dissect those Tails Dolls. Do you want us to dismantle your precious associates as well?"The gritty look on the Doctors suggested he wasn't going to say anything. Sonic tried to imagine what Shadow had did to him while he was in a coma. He watched Shadow start to walk around Eggman, giving him a deviously ebony snare. "You're lucky we haven't outright executed you for your crimes."Although Eggman still wore his glasses, Sonic could see the expression on his face, suggestion he was rolling his eyes."No? So...you...let yourself be captured...and placed someone else in control of your assets while you're here."Something was very wrong here...Sonic could feel it. Eggman would be barking at Shadow by now but his silence was definitely out of character. He had a feeling the wounds on his face weren't the only ones he had..."Our tech guys have seized control of your accounts. We're effectively cut off your supposed infinite funding. At least now the world can afford to rebuild itself after the amount of times you're terrorized it." Shadow proclaimed.The Doctor breathed in a out like normal, and continued staring at the table. Shadow stopped walking around and grabbed a chair, spun it around and sat on it backwards, with his arms on the backrest."Surely good doctor, you wouldn't want your grandfather's name to be tainted even more do you?"Sonic saw Eggmans mustache twitch. Shadow was deliberately trying to tick him off."GUN have brought lies to his name. I'm preparing to wipe the slate clean. With the Presidents full approval..."And now the irony begins...The Observation Door opened, with Bazza coming inside."Hey did I miss anything?" She whispered as she tiptoed her way over to the seat on the other side of Sonic, who shook his head."Not really...but Robotnik's acting really weird..." Sonic replied.Bazza nodded. "Yeah...you should have seen the Commander beat him to a pulp the other day."Sonic crossed his arms and leaned back. "Why doesn't that surprise me?" He said sarcastically, knowing now where the wounds came from. "But...he's just...""Soulless..." Said Bazza."What?" Sonic said.Bazza sighed. "Agent Drainer was with him. He'd made her suck the life out of him, then force it back in. Those screams...you could hear them throughout the complex...they would haunt you for ages."Drainer? Sounded like..."She...tortured him?" Sonic muttered with surprise.Bazza's head fell. "Yeah...she might be our team medic but she can be pretty lethal when ordered."Sonic was glad he didn't get on her bad side. He kept close on eye on Eggman who continued be leading astray with his devils lips as Shadow began tapping on the table. For the first time, Eggman opened his mouth."So how many deaths lay in your hands?" Eggman asked. "one hundred...no..two?"SLAP!A red mark grew on Eggmans face as he looked to the side while Shadow withdrew his hand."The blood of many!"Eggman snickered. "Oh really? You know...my intention is not to harm everyone, but take over the world the way it wants me to."Shadow crossed his arms. "Yeah...did it say that?"Eggman chuckled. "The general public forces me to take the hard way. If they submit to me then no unnecessary destruction would be done."Shadow nudged his head. "Heh...because they're not stupid to believe that your reign will be full of sunshine and happy colours."Eggman sat back. "I never said it was. Besides it's always good to have a challenge on your hands. If it wasn't for Sonic I might have stopped years ago!"Sonic stood there with a raised eyebrow. Common sense told him that Eggman's motivations were more bull than anything, and if anything, he did everything because he could."And now you're here. The endgame of your little ploy." Shadow boasted."What do you have to say about that?"Eggman grinned. "I'm sure you're having such a swell experience here, whilst wasting time and precious resources instead of leading your house of irony, trying to think of complex ways to break me. Well little warthog no. 2, it's not going to happen."Eggman's will was nearly as strong as Sonic's, if not more. His determination to do what he does takes a lot of patience that had been stockpiled over the years. The Observation door opened once more, a GUN employee who popped his head in to speak to Bazza, handing her a sheet of paper. Nodding, the employee closed the door again as Bazza read."What is it?" Sonic asked. Bazza scanned the paper thoroughly."It's Drainer. There's trouble on the Garden of Voi." She said. She reached over to the small panel near the screen, and pressed it."Commander Shadow we need to speak with you." Bazza announced over the intercom.The black and red hedgehog didn't look amused as he glared at the doctor, grasping his hands together. "I will be back." He said."Take your time..." Eggman replied.Shadow got off his chair and walked out into the hallway to meet with Bazza. He body language suggested he didn't like to be interrupted. Especially with this sort of trouble in hand."Speak." Said Shadow.Bazza nodded. "Commander, Drainer's sent a message saying there's the intruder in Prince Hayden's mansion."Shadow rubbed his face. "Grab Sonic and Neptune and head up there immediantly. By Portal or by else it doesn't matter! We swore we would aid the Prince at any cost!"Getting ready, Bazza suggested they take GUN's method into getting upon the floating space plateau that was the Garden of Voi; Spaceship. Sonic could have easily gotten back to the portal, but this was at Bazza's insistence. Plus the Probationary Agent needed experience in low air pressures...Using the fighter jet, the three flew over to the countryside, a place east of Central City, at least fifty kilometers away from the CBD or any other notable residential and commercial places Sonic sat there as his vision grew brighter and brighter..."Yo, Sonic!"Sonic lifted his head. Upon looking around the horizons, the glimpses of grass, trees, flowers and hills below a star scattered sky informed him that he was already there. Weirded out mostly, he ignored the signs of blacking out and carried on with Bazza and Neptune. This wouldn't be the first time things have jumped on him. He checked on the others before speeding off towards the Prince's mansion, with Bazza flying in tow, and Neptune getting on all fours and running like cheetah hunting for it's next meal. In all this, Sonic had this sensation of growing numb towards the madness and that anything from now until when ever was no longer going to have a profound effect on him. He was there to a job and save lives like he always had been.The Mansion itself was relatively unharmed and pleasantly yet creepily calm in its normalness. Sonic was about to knock the front doors, before Drainer opened it."I heard your screech. I'm glad you're here." She stated.Sonic nodded. "Sure. What's up?"The others just catching up, Drainer lead them up the stairs and into Prince Haydens main quarters. Again, the destruction of the room looked no different from when Eggman and Abbadonia were here last. Except the for the shanky job someone made of the back wall where the Egg Goliath had smashed through, with wooden planks and blue tarps to stop the breeze coming through. Bazza investigated the broken furniture, while Neptune just had his eyes on everything, seemingly curious."We were here before...and where's Hades?" Sonic wondered.Drainer picked up the Prince's pipe. "The Prince had requested that I go downstairs to check up on the artifacts. I did so, with the Sword, the Box and some new ones...namely the Shell of Emotions that I picked up from the Sea Scroll Zone...and when I came back up the room was a mess and both Lily the Maid and the Prince were gone."Sonic rubbed his chin. "Do you suspect Abbadonia?" He queried.Drainer shrugged. "I am not sure. There was a smell of sulfur upon entering, so there were signs that she had some involvement."Bazza turned around. "We better get these back to GUN Headquarters then. Commander Shadow would have our hides if any of these were stolen." She suggested.Drainer nodded. "Yes. But before we do so, I need Sonic's help."Sonic blinked. "Sure. What do you need?"Drainer shifted her weight on her left side, sitting her hand on her hip. "You have the Ring of Memories still?"Sonic pulled it from behind. "Yeah. Sure do..."Bazza smashed her fist into her palm. "Oh I get it!"Sonic rose an eyebrow. "Care to explain?"Bazza clasped her hands together. "Sonic, remember what you told Drainer and me? How the Ring focuses on Time Scars?"Sonic's eyes bounced about. "Yeah..."Bazza's hands flew to her hips. "If the Prince was attacked, there might have been huge emotional battle that would have ensued, thus a wound that can be easily opened."Crud, he'd been thinking about Tails and Amy so much he'd almost forgotten the schematics of this important piece of jewelery. He looked at the two, while Neptune was busy crawling around for what ever reason. He took one last embalming stare at the ring, before placing it on his right index finger, and closed his eyes to focus...A small white flash covered his vision, until it faded back to reality, with Prince Hayden sitting behind his desk, mumbling about how cold it was as he tried to fix up part of the wall. He didn't understand why. Surely the Prince had a lot of servants who could do the work for him...Hammering away, Sonic saw Lily walk into the room and courtsey."Excuse me your highness." She said in her husky voice. "But there is someone here who needs to see you..."The Prince stopped what he was doing and turned around. A white hedgehog, who had a rather weird head crest of spikes, and a tuft of white fur on his chest, and blue markings on his body entered the scene. Sonic instantly recognized him."Silver..." He muttered. "But what would he be doing here?"The Prince nodded as Lily left. He placed his hammer down on the desk and approached Silver."Don't mind me asking, but I have never seen your kind before." Hayden commented."I've come from the future." Said Silver. Sonic was surprised at how honest and blunt he was being.But it didn't bat a eyelid from Hayden."I see. The only White Hedgehogs you'll ever see are the Albino ones...and you don't seem albino to me..."There was certainly fresh tension building between them, as Silver felt uneasy and radiating it onto Hayden."What can I do for you and your future?" Hayden asked politely. Hayden seemed to be always political focused but more serious and hard when in danger.Silver pointed at him. "You need to die..."Hayden kept a stoic face. "Death seems so adamant nowadays..."Silver's face turned. "You're the reason why my time still burns in reckoning...and all signs point towards you. You're the Dragon Trigger!"Hayden rested his hands on his hips, unmoved by Silvers words. "Do you have any idea who I am?"Silver nodded. "Yes. You're Prince Hayden, Last of the Rosoideae and bringer of Purgatory.""Young man, if you must know...I guide unrisen spirits. If you knew anything about our history you would know that this was already Purgatory even before I was born! Even before my forebears were in the glint of their ancestors eyes! You fail to have properly researched this information!"Silver glared at him as he grew impatient. "No...you are the source of the pain and misery and everything that is hell in our world!"Hayden crossed his arms. "And where is your proof? Your evidence of this claim?"Silver had enough and raised his hands, using his telekinesis to bind Hayden to a wall."Why does everyone have such anger issues? At least I can acknowledge mine." Hayden joked."Don't play games with me Trigger!" Silver barked, psychically gripping the Prince. "You're hiding your own shame! You feel no regret or remorse! I will...make you pay!" He said, slamming the Prince on the roof."So naïve and pathetic." Hayden commented. "Listen kid, I have my own problems to deal with. If it surrounds the Wisers then yes it's my fault. We're trying to find them but unfortunately we have no leads!"Silver stopped using his powers, dropping Hayden to the floor and stamping his foot onto his chest."NO! I have sufficient claims...official claims that the Trigger was a pink hedgehog! And since you appear the most isolated of the ones I know, and since there was mention of your devious past..."Hayden reached for his sword and swung it to Silver's neck. "You believe I am the only Pink Hedgehog that's threatening? Seriously, who ever gives you this data is a bad researcher." He bated.Stepping back, Hayden stood back up, holding the end of his sword at Silvers neck. Not having any of it, Silver telekinetically swung the sword away before he bolted off to the other end..The battle was brutal. Both were at equals...dodging, weaving, swinging blades and force pushing, destroying the new furniture, leaving the Prince in an uncaring loss."I fight for the spirits of this place. My death would mean my work will be left undone." He stated as he avoiding a psionic blast.Silver held his hands up in the air and squatted."Lets keep it that way for the future!" He cried out, releasing another Psionic blast.Hayden wasn't going to give up yet."You fail to understand the true nature of my work. I am simply trying to soothe the spirits of the past." He said as he whacked the blast with the edge of his sword, sending it to his chair and smashing it to a million pieces.Silver browed."Your spirits will destroy our future! With you releasing them you risk the Earth burning up into the New Hell's Sundering!" He roared.Prince Hayden used his sword to gain momentum as he turned into a mini hurricane, whisking up debris and throwing them at Silver, who used his ESP to shield himself."Boy! Do you even know the original Hell's Sundering? Maybe if you were so smart, you could have gone back in time to the first reckoning of our peoples! Your silly little game is pointless and could end in more of a catastrophe than you have realized!" Hayden said.In the midst of the fighting, a hole opened up between them, with Abbadonia rising with blue crystal spiked black hedgehog, with a red sclera and green iris."Nice work Silver." Said Abbadonia who then turned to Hayden. "Your majesty! My my, I'm sorry this is Silver the Hedgehog! Prince Silver of the House of Eusapian!"Sonic tilted his head. Silver? Prince? Surely. Why was everyone suddenly seemingly possessing blue blood anyway?Hayden held his sword out as he was in a jousting position. "Is this my eventually descendant or replacement?"Abbadonia cackled. "I appointed him myself. Silver is very special for the future is very bleak...""I've noticed." Hayden said sarcastically.Abbadonia grinned. "Indeed. Your death would be much appreciated actually. You no longer have any use to me."Hayden smirked. "I will fight for my people until the very last breath..." He said boldy."You are a young Prince of foolish proportions, but you are worthy enough to put it upon my Gallery of Darkness."Sonic was puzzled. Silver was naïve as Cream and more gullible than Knuckles. But he was a noble spirit who did what it takes to get his future right. He'd must have come back at least several times now..."Abbadonia...the vault is underneath in the basement!" Silver stated.Hayden's face paled but otherwise left untwitched."Thank you Silver. You will be rewarded." Abbadonia stated.Hayden shook his head and jumped into the air with sword held back, then he slashed vertically at her, only to slice off the left hand of the crystal hedgehog."Mephiles is my guardian...personally from the Gallery I spoke of." She snarled."Deal with him.""With pleasure dear sister..." Mephiles obeyed, regrowing his hand and spearing Hayden through the chest.Sonic's eyes widened as Mephiles withdrew the spear and reforming his hand, but Hayden was left bloodless, holding his chest and dropping his sword. Sonic held onto his own chest, weirdly sympathetic as he could imagine the pain he was having, making his wince. He checked over to Silver, who looked just as uncomfortable, as his facial expression screamed out regret."Silver. Go down to the Vault. I want to set up a base here as soon as possible.""Yes ma'am!" Said Silver as he ran down the stairs. Abbadonia floated over to Hayden's corpse."What shall you do with him?" Asked Mephiles.Abbadonia squatted over his body. "A real pity...for a noble. The Rosoideae deceased...their spirits will bolster our forces. I'd forseen this death for quite a while. The last of his House with no one to take his place."Mephiles floated over to be next to her. "The Dynasty of the House of Eusapian will begin. We need a female to be queen."Abbadonia chuckled. "Silver will be king...a Queen shouldn't be hard to find. With his gift, he will become a fantastic Pylon."Mephiles nodded. "Pylon-King Silver of the House of Eusapian. Sounds...devious."Abbadonia rolled her eyes. "Not really, but it does sound rather...as the current society calls it, 'cool"Light flashed before Sonic's eyes as he pulled of the Ring. He didn't seem to understand what was going on at all. Silver was evil, or most likely being manipulated. And this Mephiles character...he seemed so familiar yet couldn't place him anywhere."What did you see?" Asked Drainer.Sonic had his own questions to ask. "A white hedgehog named Silver went down the Vault. Didn't you say you were down there?"Drainer nodded, although confused herself. "I was. I'd heard a few sounds before I was approached by Lily. She asked me to help look a set of papers that were hidden in another bomb proof vault. I went in there and she..."Sonic shook his head. "Okay...I get it...what were the papers?"Drainer tapped her helmet. "Just some files Prince Hayden was keeping, really old papers from past rulers. He was checking past clues about the location of the other artifacts. But I was gonna tell him that Muriel revealed the location of several unfound ones, but Lily insisted we check over the old papers, as old rulers would probably have better credibility than an older lady."Bazza checked the floors. "But Muriel has been pretty useful so far. Even though we'd have to save her...twice."Drainer crossed her arms and walked around. "So...what else happened? Judging from your expressions something went down?"Sonic nodded. "Well... I have some more bad news..."After telling them what he witnessed, the women held their heads down in respect."Damn...what are we gonna tell the Commander?" Bazza said with deep sorrow."We need to tell him that Prince Hay-"Bazza kicked a plank of wood. "It was a rhetorical question Drainer..."Sonic looked at Neptune who didn't seem to be listening in at all, but he was fixated with something on the floor."So...Abbadonia is gonna make this her new base? And now she has the artifacts! We're screwed!"Bazza cried out."Shadow is going to have our spines..." Said Drainer."Seriously Drainer! Shadow is going to have our neck!" Bazza corrected."That too..." Drainer replied softly.The girls kept bickering on about how they going to tell Shadow and Abbadonia's supposed whereabouts, but Sonic became enamored at Neptune who squatted and kept poking at something on the ground"What's up Probie?" Sonic asked, wandering over to him.Probie looked at Sonic in a strange way, but kept prodding the floor. Sonic shoved bits of debris away, revealing Haydens beloved sword, embedded with its own set of runes."Drainer...Bazza...I think you both better have a look at this..." Sonic muttered.No answer. The two kept arguing. Sonic just rolled his eyes."HEY!" Sonic yelled, grabbing their attention. If he could see their faces, they would definitely be surprised."You will tell Shadow the truth! For now! You will come here...and Drainer I need your Mobikian expertise..."They both shuffled and leaned over the sword. Drainer examined it closely as she picked it up."It reads...'In bated breath comes the child's flower, sowing seeds of chaotic order'A phrase that once whispered into Sonic's mind. "So...what?" He queried.Drainer ran her fingers across the flat part of the blade. "I do not know. Consult your book?"Sonic nodded and whipped it out, hoping like heck it would explain what the phrase meant. It automatically whipped itself to one page display a sword print diagram, pointing out the various bits and pieces."If anything has this phrase on it, consider it related to Abbadonia." Sonic read.Neptune looked at all three as they exchanged glances."Wait, this blade has blood on it, so it has to be Haydens. Besides, I recognize it anywhere as Haydens as him and me would practice swordfighting together." Said Drainer.Bazza was confounded. "This isn't the Lance of Love that Muriel mentioned...it's definitely a sword." She said."The only thing I can think of it is the Sword of Visions that was taken from the Ninja Village in Sakura." Sonic stated.Bazza shook her head. "It can't be. That has a different design to this..."Yes? No? Maybe? It was hard to tell. Abbadonia might have tonnes of artifacts spread across the world. Even some that Muriel might not know about. Floorboards creaked about forcing Sonic to raise his index by his lips to shush them. Drainer found Haydens scabbard in the corner room and grabbed it, placing it above her own and shoving the sword into it. The footsteps got louder. Then Lily walked into the room."Oh...what...Sonic? Agent Bazooka?" Lily said, surprised. "Sorry, I was downstairs checking for..."Sonic raised his hand in a passive motion. "At ease Lily. We're gonna report back to GUN Headquarters. I suggest you come with us...Abbadonia could return at any moment..."Lily was really jittery as Sonic noticed that she was shaking slightly, giving the impression she was really close to Hayden. Poor girl. Sonic brought forth more determination to bring Abbadonia down once and for all...They returned via...as another blank slate entered Sonic's memories, giving him no recollection how he got back to the Earth. It didn't matter...he didn't care. Lily was interrogated and left to wander with her own devices, GUN gave her a temporary home until they sorted this out. With that dealt with by Drainer, Sonic had gotten to Shadow's office when he could see Shadow's head speaking with who appeared to be Olly. He could see certain gestures that were more aggressive and akin to arguing. Shadow's head fell as his lips moved. Olly nodded, then walked out."Hey Olly, how're you feeling?" Sonic asked, forcing a smile.Olly lifted her head up at him. "Oh hey Sonic. I'm feeling a lot better now thank you."He was glad. She was primed and ready for the next mission. If there was another mission to attain of course."I heard about Tails. I am deeply sorry." She said, sadness in her tone.Sonic nodded, as his smile faded a bit. "It's okay...I'm sure he's gone to a better place."SLAP!A red raw mark was laid on Sonic's cheek, with Olly frantically apologizing for her behaviour."I..." She said, before running off. Sonic blinked with surprise, but decided not to follow Olly. She might feel better physically, but mentally, there was still some issues that needed to be addressed...Sonic sighed and walked into Shadow's office. He had a scowl on his face and his eyes screamed anger yet sadness."Uh Shads. I have some bad news..."Shadow sat down behind his desk and had his hands together while his elbows rested on the bench while Sonic explained the details to him. Shadow's shoulders tensed, while Sonic grew nervous, he didn't show, but stood there, straight and tall, like a soldier. He was expecting an oncoming shock but Shadow refrained from doing so."But Abbadonia failed to get one artifact." Sonic announced.Shadow's eyes beamed at him. "Which one?" He asked."The Sword of Visions." Sonic answered. "Drainer is getting it analyzed at the lab right now. Hopefully we can confirm that it really is the sword."Shadow rubbed his chin. "What about the one from the Ninja Village?"Sonic shrugged. "We dunno. A fake? Ceremonial sword?"Shadow looked down. "That bastard Hayden. He was using the Sword as his own..."Shadow was more calm and aloof than anything as if to say that Prince Hayden really wasn't on their high priority list anymore. Better to focus his resources on normal land. He questioned with what Abbadonia would do with the large piece of floating earth and Silvers involvement. Which was the most unexpected person to join Abbadonia's forces."At least it's not in her hands...or else we're in big trouble." Sonic assured.Shadow wasn't easily convinced. "Even if she had just one artifact, it'd still be impossible to retrieve."Amidst the horrors of Abbadonia's potential, Shadow had no choice but to declare an official war. He rang the President to organize a meeting about it and prepare a statement for national and international news conferences. Shadow didn't look like he enjoyed it, his penchant for pure violence influenced his politics, giving him opportunity to battle. Sonic didn't know what would be worse, Shadow on the field or behind a desk. Either way, there would be bloodshed.Shadow left in a huff, leaving Sonic to his own devices. He wandered around headquarters before heading outside via the landing pads, roof-hopping afterward. Speeding down the side of a building, Sonic bought a chili dog and a coke, then sitting on bench in a local park, not going to worry about current events for once and forget about struggles for a little while. Hearing the birds chirp and the children in the playground, ignorance playing the part, casting a blanket over pain and problems, but several kept popping up, namely when Shadow was properly going to do the announcement. Sonic would make sure he'd get a cosy spot near the gigantic screen on the Spencer Mall building, presumably up a tree and watch the black hedgehog stand behind the current President and his closest associates as he spoke."Can I sit here?"Sonic looked over. It was Agent Drainer with the Probie Neptune."Sure." Sonic replied with a smile.Drainer sat down next to him as Neptune stood by her and watched the kids playing around with utmost curosity. They were in silence, Sonic not wishing to discuss GUN matters."I'm going to Westopolis later. Agent Bazooka wants to check out the Church..." Drainer said, breaking the void. Sonic was more concerned about the citizens returning to find everything in rubble and ruin."I sure hope the people have somewhere to go..." Sonic sighed.Drainer's head fell. "GUN Personnel have escorted them to special shelters constructed. I think the world is more prepares nowadays in case Eggman decides to attack again."Sonic nodded and smiled. There was the small joke that Eggman's madness costs billions in reconstruction efforts, safety precautions and emergency procedures. This was across the world as well with everyone not going to take a second guess. He guessed over the years world leaders have become more savvy and kept a keen eye the narcissistic doctor."Do you know anything about OPERATION: LUCID?" Sonic blurted out suddenly.Drainer began playing with one her blades. "Heard of it. The words were spoken by the Commander once in a red moon."Sonic face-palmed. "You mean Blue Moon.""That too..." Drainer replied with her usually steady behavior."I suggest the only people who would know are Shadow and possibly Rouge."Sonic's nose twitched. "She's just locked out the loop as the rest of us."Drainer nodded. "I would suggest Omega, but..."Omega was just a sociopath. Who happened to only talk with Rouge and Shadow, but his loyalty was unfailing."It's okay. I was just wonderin' anyway." Sonic said. He soon agreed to go to Westopolis with her, as she had mentioned before.Drainer called Bazza along, who was with Olly who insisted she'd tag along for the ride. Sonic remained distant for the time being, with Olly, Probie and Drainer who sat in the jeep, while Sonic ran beside them and Bazza flying above. A slight bite of tension lit the air. Drainer drove the jeep as Olly had her arm resting on the window as she scanned the terrain, not to mention several times unknowingly looking at Sonic, shifting her focus between him and the ruins of Westopolis. Probie sat in the back, minding his own business. Fallen towers, shattered glass and dust still trying to settle down covered the city, with blown up cars and abandoned trolleys, bikes and prams streamed across the streets. It was a very dull day, overcast with brown tinged clouds. It was like taking a trip back in time when the Black Arms were invading. Bits and pieces of robotic junk were spread everywhere, reminders who current and hidden dangers that could still lurk around every corner. Sonic didn't know what did more damage: Eggman's Robots, or GUN's aerial assault.They arrived outside Ordinal Church as Sonic slowed to a halt and Drainer parked the jeep. Bazza floated down beside the group, and looked longily at the Church doors. Probie started poking a random dead robot that had smoke coming out from one of it's joints. Sonic lead in front of the girls and Probie, but looked back to check if they were ready. With synched nods, he pushed the door...The Church wasn't damaged at all. Two rows of benches with the aisle in the middle, covered with a long blue velvety and golden striped carpet that lead to the altar. A display that catered for a hundred and eight lit candles created a glow and the only decent light in the church. Stain glass windows on each side, displaying various historical and biblical characters. The lack of sunlight enforged an eerieness in the atmosphere as a voice echoed throughout the tall roofed establishment, an unusual statue of a female figure stood at the end of the altar, alongside an pipe organ.Sonic scanned over to the left row of benches, seeing someone sitting on the third row from the front, near the aisle, the source of the muttering. Olly walked over and approached her, stepping back after realizing who it was as they raised their head."Muriel?" Said Olly, surprised.The rest of them walked over to her, confused at why she was here of all places."What are you doing here?" Asked Sonic.Muriels joined hands fell into her lap. "Giving my prayers to God." She answered, her voice unusually low.Olly shifted weight to one side. "There's perfectly good churches in Central City you can go to." She queried.Muriel smiled. "Ordinal Church is the only one the acknowledges the existence of the Precursors...who are our real Gods.""This is a restricted area." Said Drainer.Muriel looked at the candles. "I'm also praying to the souls lost in the battle against Ivo's robotic henchmen. It's such a pity...with that childs skills he could have been a successful businessman."Probie stood next to Bazza, who was busy checking out the place, seemingly in awe, while Probie himself was looking around for different reasons, getting unsettling vibes as he raised his arms. Bazza popped out of her trance and noticed Probie's strange behaviour."What's the matter Neptune?" Bazza asked sincerely.Probie snapped into a fighting stance. Something was definitely ticking him off. He could sense it.Sonic lent his hand to Muriel. "Come on, we can take you home."Muriel just kept looking at the statue. "The Gods promises were put into a single phrase. "Put order to chaos.'"Sonic and Olly exchanged puzzled glances. "Muriel, civilians aren't supposed come back here...not until we've checked everything." Said Olly."The Demons sought to undo their work, doing it via the Seven Kingdoms...starting with the Rosoideaes."Olly rested her hand on Muriel's shoulder, before Muriel's head twisted to the side, giving Olly the biggest glare as flames appeared in her eyes."I don't think that's Muriel..." Sonic whispered to Olly.Olly quickly withdrew her hand. "What's the meaning of this?"Muriel stood up on her own accord. "You children and your warfare. The destruction you cause today is the same as the destruction back then. It seems the world still has a lust for power."Sonic tried to hold Olly back, who desperately wanted to do something. Drainer stepped in."Mrs. Rose, as a local LEO, we must arrest you for resisting to comply." She said calmly.

BANG BANG BANG

All heads turned to the large church doors as the loud noises struck. Probie ran over and held his arms out."Careful Neptune!" Said Bazza. She took one last look at the interior and decided she would stand by the Probie. She whipped out her namesake and kneeled down one knee, placing the weapon on her shoulder. "They better pray for mercy!"Olly's attention went back to Muriel as placed her hands on the back rest and leaned over."Muriel, it's dangerous here. We have to leave!" Olly pleaded.Muriel looked down. "My child...I'm sorry..."Olly tilted her head. "Sorry for what?""This..."The doors blasted open, with more robots entering the Church. Probie's hands grew several sizes as he slashed a dozen while Bazza supported with destroying another amount...Holes opened up in the floor, swallowing the benches whole as Badniks jumped out and surrounded them. Olly grabbed hold of Muriel, not caring what she thought as Badniks began shooting them. Sonic jumped and used his homing attack, Drainer sliding out her dual blades and swiping few that had strangely descended from the roof. She jabbed one on the back of the robots backs, and absorbed the energy into it, releasing it into a wave to send more scattering and even more into nothing that a pile of scrap metal. Sonic looked up as a hole was blasted through the roof, noticing the Eggmobile descending down, revealing two unseen for a while characters."Bahaha haaa!" Laughed Scratch. "Got ya now hedgehog!""Yeah! Now who's a babble of bolts?" Boasted Grounder.Sonic facepalmed. "Oh great..."Seeing the others were doing well with the horde of badniks, Sonic headjumped towards the Eggmobile. "What do you guys want?""This is gonna be...what, take three of saving Muriel?" Scratch answered."I thought it was two?" Grounder thought."No you rustbucket!" Scratch barked. "The two skinny morons did it last time, and before that was the small morons.""Oh yeah..." Said Grounder.Scratch played with a few levers, as a elongated arm and claw extended from the front of the Eggmobile, heading towards Olly and Muriel who were hiding behind the statue. Olly swung a few with her hammer."Muriel, you better tell me what the heck is going on..." Olly demanded."Honestly, young child, I cannot." Muriel said apologetically.Olly tried again as more badniks came her way, slamming one until it was completely flat."Why not? Are you working with Eggman?" She brunted, swinging two more.Sonic peeled his way to Scratch and Grounder, kicking both their heads before landing back on the floor. He really wished NiGHTS could be here right about now. He watched as another hole opened up and even more badniks jumped out, with Sonic leaping up and using gravity to force massive stomps on their hides. Scratch and Grounder kept attempting snatch Muriel, who was still rebelling against Olly. Sonic used his homing attack to travel across, one badnik by one in a zig zag fashion and skidded to a halt, raising his arms as he stood to protect the two. He looked over to see Muriel struggling to break free of Olly's grasp. Sonic gave Olly a simple nod, which prompted Olly to take Muriel outside via brown door in the corner that was sparkling slightly. However it wasn't what she wanted, instead there being a set of stairs leading to the basement. Dragging her down there, she found a light switch that revealed a room full of spare plastic chairs, tables and other pieces of furniture and equipment. Throwing Muriel to the back of the basement, Olly was starting to get annoyed. Muriel started cowering over and whimpering with Olly none too convinced."Tell me now Muriel...what is going on? Are you working with Eggman?" Olly questioned quite severly.Muriel sniffed. "My dear child, if you had any idea what I was going through..."Olly shook her head. "What do they need you for? Besides the fact that you have knowledge...there has to be more than that."All of a sudden Muriel started to wheeze and splatter, Olly walking back slightly."What's the matter?" Asked Olly, now deeply concerned.Muriel tried holding her mouth. "He should have killed me when he had the chance. Only by the hand of a Stupilite can this atrocity be dealt with."Olly shook her head, not understanding all this. "Wait...who's trying to kill you?"Muriel coughing grew heavy. "He was given five attempts and even more crucial encounters to do so...but his morals far outweigh the duties he was given.""Who are you talking about?" Olly called.Muriel slunk over and fell on the floor onto her hands, dropping her walking stick. She started to screech, which pierced Olly's ears to no end. The room turned deep red, until there was nothing left but the singular, one shaded colour that served as the backdrop to the two. Olly brought out her Smish Smasher and went into a stance. Her heart began pounding hard, as Muriel's fur turned charcoal and bat wings bursted from her back. The twisted and contorted transformation was making Olly sick, until Muriel arose and started floating, however it was no longer Muriel before her."We meet again youngling." Greeted the fiery headed woman. "Surprised to see me?"Olly gasped. "Abbadonia!"Abbadonia chuckled. "Muriel has been a good host. I've tried to look after her...but as she's aged, I've gotten weaker, and am seeking a fresh body to incapacitate. The reason being is that she lost that damn necklace. No matter..."Olly did not hesitate to charge and throwing the hammer at the Pitlord. Abbadonia simply raised her hand and successfully created a barrier between her and a rightfully angered Olly."How do you hit an old lady, specifically your..." Abbadonia started, before Olly charged at her again, hitting her leg."You shut your mouth right now! I don't care! That is not Muriel!" Olly roared.Abbadonia cackled. "Oh little Agent Mjöllnir! So tough and head strong! But you are none too bright!"Abbadonia floated backwards, summoning demons into the pure crimson arena. These were new types, maroon coloured demonic imps with massive black horns and the snarliest of faces."These are the Implix, minions from my world. When they're done, you will be begging for death." Abbadonia described.Alone with the madness, Olly braced herself as hundreds of Implix started crawling towards her. Olly took a deep breath and started flattening each one that came to her. Accosting to more graceful leaps and bounds, Olly kept swinging her Smish Smasher like there was no tomorrow. Her fury grew with each splatter and squash accompanying loud bangs and thumps. Abbadonia floated away from the chaos with her notorious flame driven smile, gleefully watching Olly battle it out with her minions who kept pouring in. She checked her arm for some reason as her grin fell. She summoned a pit underneath her and sunk into it, closing it afterwards but kept the legions of Implix crawling out and harassing Olly. Her grunts were cried out alongside small tears that she could feel running down her face. Soon the pits shut in as well, stopping the numerous demons from coming out. Olly kept swinging along, also decided to use her feet to enforge massive stomps. Not letting fatigue have it's way, Olly didn't slow down until all of them were dead and gone. Flattening the last Implix, she kept her awareness on high as the red backdrop faded, returning back to the basement."Hey Olly, they're gone and...what's the matter?" Said Sonic as he walked down the stairs, seeing a rather paranoid Olly. "Where's Muriel?"Olly spun around as Sonic approached her. She wanted to fall into his comfort, but decided not to. It's not the Agent's way."Muriel...it wasn't..." She muttered before clearing her throat. "It wasn't Muriel. It was Abbadonia in disguise."Sonic blinked. "What?" He said, surprised. "What did she say?"Olly explained to Sonic what just occurred. It was brought up the fact that it was odd for Muriel to come all this way, and if she'd come in from any direction, would have noticed the sad sorry state that Westopolis was in. There were so many parts that failed to add up in the mysteriousness of it all. Sonic could see, albeit only by body language, that Olly had become distraught by this encounter and having difficulty in hiding it. Her mentioning that Muriel spoke of a Stupilite trying to kill her brought up the discussion with Shizaru about killing her earlier. Since Sonic knew he himself was the more well known Stupilite, he feared that this was the result of his reluctance, but hoped it wasn't.More footsteps were heard as the rest of the group came down stairs in a hurry."Agent Mjöllnir! Sonic! You have to check this out!" Yelled Bazza as she shoved her way through."What is it Bazza?" Wondered Olly.Bazza held out a burnt sided photo. "Neptune found this amongst the candles...I think you better see for yourself."Olly took the photo and had a good look at it. "Dear chaos..." She dully said, giving it to Sonic who squinted at it, then widened his eyes with surprise."This is...Amy..." Sonic commented. "Why would Muriel be burning a photo of her own granddaughter?"Bazza shrugged. "Dunno...I guess she was lighting up the most important person in her life."Sonic's eyelids dropped at half-mask at Bazza groan inducing pun. He looked at it again. It was Muzzlebook-esque shot of Amy's face as she blew a kiss to the camera, a high angled shot. He decided to keep it in case. The message was entirely unclear. It's purpose currently unknown, but they would make sure they would get to the bottom of it, one assumption being that the likelihood of Amy being involved raised tenfold. He would need to have a word with her. But what part she played was unsure of. The dream they'd had, suggested a role, as she had Gabriel and a Bloody version of himself appearing to her like Shizaru and the Bloody Amy making themselves known to him at various hours. There was a notification to be sent to the pink Hedgehog. Bazza made notice of Muriel's absence, before being shushed by Olly who made a too long; don't read version of her story, then the argument turned back to Amy."We should call her, ask her to have a meeting." Sonic pointed out.Olly shook her head. "No..."Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"Bazza face palmed. "Sonic, she's the Commanders girlfriend. If Shadow found out we were interrogating her, he'd have our hides and wear them as ceremonial clothing!"Sonic rolled his eyes. "So? She's a civilian. She still has to abide by the law regardless of who her partner is."Olly withdrew her hammer. "I told you she mentioned a Stupilite that was attempting to murder her...and since you're the only Blue Hedgehog I know..."Sonic gulped. "Hey look, I was not trying to kill her. I..."Olly tilted her head, the other ladies doing so as well. "You what? Sonic T. Hedgehog?" Olly prodded.Sonic sighed. If he told her about Shizaru and the Wisers who were forcing him to do so, but didn't otherwise."Honestly, killing her was not even in my mind at the time." He lied. "I escorted her home safely after the whole Blossom Hazard Zone debacle.""Why would she lie?" Olly argued.Sonic rubbed his head. "I dunno...maybe because it was Abbadonia speaking!" He retorted."There was a hint of truth in her voice...I could tell. You tried to murder an old lady!" Olly barked.A fire lit in Sonic's eyes. "I had no intention of harming her. I took her home and that's it."If Olly could spit out her anger she would. "She told me you tried to do it a number amount of times! Please explain that huh?" She barked."What are you talking about?" Sonic asked. "I never even touched her! Besides, it was ABBADONIA! SHE'S A DEMON! WHY WOULD YOU BOTHER BELIEVING HER?"The two continued to babble and yell at one another, Sonic using his defense and Olly using the words of an ambiguously sided woman. Drainer stood beside Bazza and crossed her arms."Technically..." Started Drainer. "There is no proof in this instant. Are we supposed to take each of their claims as a grain of sugar?"Bazza snickered slightly. "Neither are apparently sweet enough...then you boil it down to syrup."Drainer tapped her helmet. "There wouldn't be much to spread."Bazza rolled back and forth on her boots. "At least we get a taste of it..."Sonic and Olly's debate soon turned to Amy in the heat of the moment."Shadow knows more about this than any of us!" Sonic commented."And I'm saying the Commander wants us to stay out of her way!" Olly cooed."Why? Did he even say why he doesn't want her in on it? Don't give me the crud of 'the Commanders girlfriend!' because I simply don't care!"Olly grunted. "Why? What are ya gonna say? Oh hi Amy, how are you? By the way, have you made any deals with any devils lately?"Sonic chuckled. "I'd get a slap on the face for sure! But at least then I can probably do something about it."Olly brought out her hammer. Drainer and Bazza stood back, knowing what Olly did with it. It didn't phase Sonic one bit, growing resistant and gotten skills on how to avoid the common swatter."What could you do? Seriously! There's nothing because she knows nothing!" Olly pointed out.Sonic rolled his eyes. "Amy's my friend! I would figure that if she told me anything remotely close to important, that I could use it and maybe...not gonna be sure regardless of the info she gives to me, or any of us for that matter..."Now he was rambling and Olly's patience was wearing thin."You dare touch her and you will see the end of my mallet!" Olly threatened.Sonic wanted to rub his eye again, but declined doing so. "I'm trying to protect Amy here! I'm saying the more we know, the easier it's gonna be for all of us and for Amy!"Olly stayed quiet for a few seconds, before belting out again."I'm sure Shadow will have a talk with...her. But don't bother poking out any answers!"Bazza broke into the fight and split the two up, placing her hands on their heads as they glared at one another. "Great, great...Olly, I'm sure Sonic's got the message that he's not to see Amy. There's no need to for more kerfuffle than need be."Drainer looked at Neptune. "What is kerfuffle?" She wondered. Probie shrugged.They headed back to GUN Headquarters shortly after, with Sonic and Olly not saying a word to each other on the trip back. Reporting back to Shadow, who got the four to jot down everything they did in saw within the paperwork, although Probie had trouble with controlling the pen. Bazza was glad to help him out in that department. Olly spoke with Shadow first in his office, and both seemed to be speaking for a long while. After that, they sat in one of the lounges and kicked back. Sonic had his arms spread whilst chilling on the couch, Bazza reading a womens magazine, and Probie watching Drainer clean and sharpen her blades."You guys have showers here right?" Sonic asked.Bazza pointed him the right direction and off he went. The mens showers were near the lockers. It was surprisingly empty, the clock on the wall indicated it was only 1:30 PM. It didn't matter, it at least allowed Sonic to be alone. He walked into the showers and turned the hot and cold nobs, allowing the water to sprinkle all over him. Although they weren't as good as at Amy's apartment. He guessed these were used quite frequently and that GUN didn't spend a lot of their expenses on bathroom maintainability. Shutting the door to allow some privacy, even though there was no where, it brought closure comfort, the feeling of being shut in a sealed area and being blocked off from the rest of the world, placing his items on the shelf beforehand before they would get soaked.It also gave him time to sort out what he had. He brought out the red emerald, the Ring of Memories, Muriels book and the singed photo of Amy. Poor girl. Abbadonia must be plotting something for her. Our Muriel. There wasn't enough data to work with. Stupid Olly, where was it written that Amy couldn't be spoke to about uncertain suspicious behaviours? Another mark to the unseen board of Shadow's buried secrets was drawn. Letting himself get drenched, it temporarily gave Sonic the ability to forget what was going on around him. Pressured and anxious he was desperate to let the pain vanish, but it just kept crawling back. He refused to let it get to him.He quickly dried himself and put back his various items. He sat on the bench and rubbed his face."Ah good you're out."Sonic looked up. It was Drainer. "Don't you realize these are the mens locker rooms?"Sonic pointed out. She was with Probie Neptune for some reason."What's up?""We're heading to Angel Island to speak with Knuckles. He's reported the Master Emerald is acting rather...bizarrely."Sonic nodded. "Ah I see. What do you want with me then?"Drainer pulled out a familiar device. "Bazza attempted to analyze the device that you had given her. She said it played unheard of frequencies. She wanted to return it to you, as Tails did give it to you originally for one purpose or another."Sonic took the strange remote shaped thing. "Thanks. I'll figure it out later. Can I tag along to see Knuckles? I don't think he knows about what happened to our two-tailed buddy."Drainer looked down. "Of course."Drainer lead them both to a landing pad, where Agent Hyperia, also known as Princess Elise, was flying a GUN Transport Helicopter. Drainer explained that Hyperia/Elise has had history with Chaos Emeralds, somewhat in tune to her religious forte, therefore she would prove quite useful if needed. Sonic snuffed, saying that Knuckles has been around the Master Emerald all his life and would know sufficiently the details...minor details but details nonetheless. She was also a polyglot, but only knew ancient languages as opposed to common tongue. Mobikian and Solenac were two, but how many she knew was beyond Sonic, who decided to stay out of stuff he clearly didn't understand and left it to the experts.The flight over was normal, breezy and fresh. There was nothing quite like a trip up just beneath the clouds, squinting at the ant-sized folk below. He sat on the edge and held on to the side with one hand. Using his bionic eye, he zoomed closer to the farms and fields that they all flew across, a small reader text in the top right corner indicating that he had zoomed in at least 400 times the normal vision...with quite the depth too. Zooming out, he checked that Drainer and Probie Neptune were sitting in the seats, firmly strapped in and glancing outside. He looked over to Elise sitting in the cockpit, firmly holding her grip on the joystick and constantly keeping her eye on her surroundings. No one was really much for talk, let alone connecting eye contact. Sonic enjoyed it as long as he forever witnessed the breath taking view from where he was.Arriving several hours later, Elise landed the helicopter half a kilometer away from the Emerald Shrine. They walked over and saw Knuckles sitting on the steps with his chin in palm and elbow on his knee, tapping his foot. He looked over and saw the group and shot up to greet them. He turned to Sonic and raised an eyebrow over his right eye."Um...dude...what's with the...you know the..." Knuckles asked, stunned.Sonic smirked. "Don't worry about it Knux, it's a long story."Knuckles nodded unconvincingly. Ignoring that, he lead the group up the Master Emerald, which started pulsating flunctuating rhythmic glows."So..." Started Sonic. "What does it want?"Knuckles shrugged. "I dunno...I thought that, with what Drainer said last night, that it contained too much energy and she attempted to well...drain it."Sonic's eyelids were at half-mask. "You don't actually believe that do you?"Drainer crossed her arms. "You said it was a signal." She said to Knuckles, who nodded."Indeed. It's been the unwritten rule if that it starts glowing, it obviously needs to contact someone."Sonic looked at him. "What did it say last night?" He wondered.Knuckles rubbed his cheek. "Nothing...Drainer did stuff with it and it stopped. So what it ever it wanted Drainer got it out..."Elise was more fascinated with the Master Emerald, as was Probie, who began poking it."So this is the Master Emerald that the book was talking about...it's so huge...and pretty..." She commented, entranced by the green beauty. "I doubt I would be able to wear it though...maybe if we cut it?"She looked over at Probie who was looking at her. "What? I was joking!" She said, trying to assure the silent creature, who didn't care much.Suddenly the pace of the rhythmic fluctuations had smaller intervals, grabbing the attention of the others."Woah what now? It's so strange..." Said Knuckles. He walked up to it, and rested his hand on the top of the Emerald, then received a surchage of electrically-themed energy as green sparks surrounded his body as he screeched. Two symmetrical lines of light drew on Knuckles head, diverting by diagonal briefly around his eyes before continuing down his body. Bright streamers of white grew from his shoulders and floated in the air, with the several forming a cape-like appearance.Sonic rolled his eyes. "Geez...not you too..." He snarked. First Tails, then Muriel...now Knuckles...Knuckles lifted up and floated, except he had a more positive aura about him. He started speaking in language Sonic couldn't understand, his voice echoing, vibrating, making sure his message was getting through. Sonic just scratched his head in utter confusion. Drainer walked forward and tilted her head, listening to his words."He says...seek out the Necklace of the Prophet. Then Head to the Temple of the Prophets in the Garden of Rosales." Drainer translated.Elise focused as well, checking the lines on his body. " It's Ancient Mobikian...and those runes...I recognize the design. It's not old Solennan...the linear patterns though... Where have I seen them?"Sonic raised his chin. "So uh...weird...possessing guy, why should we find it?"Knuckles again muttered the language that Drainer and Elise nodded at."He says, bring the 74th Prophet...she is the Lock."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sonic was beginning to feel that he wasn't needed as much.This...character, was a cryptic. There were half expectations of baiting GUN and Shadow. Surely hundreds of people would seek vengeance for what Shadow had already done. What Shadow failed to do was plan ahead...but in reality you can't foresee majority of the jolting unplanned battlements. The competence of a Black hedgehog who had previous ties to the enemy, has serious issues with GUN in general, was balanced. There were good and bad points, one not necessarily favoring the other. Being a forced into a life of a soldier was not all bad. They at least had the decency of making contact in case any interesting tasks came up for him to do. But...he was more like a decoy, while the babes in the Fatalex did all the hard work.It was one of the cons to being a well known hero. Everyone identifies you into two categories...if you are the enemy, expect to be laid a smack down upon yourself. A friend or generic worldly citizen would be expected to wave, say hello and/or talk. Maybe one of the benefits of being alone is not being tied down to such relentless annoyances. This leash was the only thing binding Sonic to enact the work. Sonic's not necessarily a neutral being, he just finds it better when he can save the day with the least assistance as possible.The occasional sidekick was okay, Tails filled that slot quite a number of times back in the day. Everyone else had their own agenda to distort the evil running amuck. As long as they didn't get in the way it didn't matter to him. But now, with GUN, there was an uncanny instinct to protect the others on the battle field. Depending on how the battle was taking place of course. The job swung its ploy of investigating premises given with usage of impromptu battle statements. The factor remained that Abbadonia was a threat, and that the one true mission of finding all the artifacts was at play. But even that was failing to a point. Abbadonia donned the Shell of Emotions and the Box of Temptation, two of her treacherous creations that could be used against the world. But, there was something about the whole task that held a trickle of doubt and demanded questions such as; why does she need/want them? And why was she using Eggman? As well as donning Muriel as a disguise? Etc.Sonic casual instincts kicked in as Knuckles came back from being possessed from a mysterious force that emanated from the Master Emerald, asking him what was going on. Elise was utmost curious and started slavering over the Master Emerald. Drainer and Sonic looked after Knuckles, who had fallen over, dazed and amnesiac from the ordeal. They'd made him sit down on the steps as the Probie got him a drink of water. Knuckles rubbed his head and demanded to know why there was slight blank slate of memory."You got hijacked." Sonic explained.The strange glowing lines that had grown on him disappeared alongside the streamer-cape that poured across his shoulders and neck vanished as well. They discussed the meaning of the strange entity words, mentioning a 'Lock' that needed to be found. Knuckles shrugged to the idea, having no clue what they telling him. Drainer described the description of his slight transformation, while Elise finished up with the Master Emerald, mentioning that it reminded of biblical texts relating to Solaris."Wait, was I possessed by God?" Knuckles suggested.Elise scratched her head. "I dunno. I know that with Solaris, using an Avatar isn't far-fetched as it seems, but I have my doubts."Drainer looked up. "Ancient Echidnas of old were prone to getting messages from the Gods yes?"Knuckles placed his hands in his lap. "It was we who received the Master Emerald from the Gods for us to protect. Or that's how the story goes."Sonic tapped his chin. The simplest thoughts traversed his complicated mind. The Master Emerald was an unusual item. It's power supersedes the Chaos Emeralds, having the ability to nullify them or send a message across. A sacred piece of history and energy, held it's own for many milennia and can never be truly broken. The earliest of it's use was connected to Eggman who used to power up his mecha, as Sonic himself used the power of the Chaos and Super Emeralds to become Hyper Sonic, the mystical and of eve greater strength. He briefly remembered Hidden Palace Zone and wondered if it held any other mysterious stories and legends. The mosaic that was held, predicting his fight with Eggman, prompted more desired questions, possibly more profound and possibly foretelling predictions. After all, he doubted he even visited it all after his first visit."Hey Knux, are there any more mosaics down in Hidden Palace?" Sonic asked.Knuckles eyes lit up. "Yes of course. I haven't been down there in a while."Knuckles headed the group down quite a few secret passageways to make it to the main plaza for Hidden Palace. It was in rubble after the Death Egg commotion all those years ago. Rocks and boulders lay everywhere. It was no trouble for Knuckles, who used his powered punches to smash the rocks into pebbles. The Probie scanned around, touching things like a small child, poking rocks and broken pillars. It got darker as they headed deeper, Knuckles scolding Eggman for destroying the beauty of this place. Elise was enamored and entranced with the ruins, comparing them to the castles back home.The place still had a tinge of green, with tile-embalmed pillars, walls, floors and roofs of a variety of colours, somewhat damaged and cracked throughout. Sonic flashed back several times while Drainer skimmed her fingers over various platforms and obelisks. The Palace was made of long and tall hallways that Knuckles seemed to know all the tricks and traps for as he smashed rocks about. Finally it got a little too dark for their liking. Knuckles searched around for anything to light up as a torch. Probie squatted down beside a raised tile with round blue marble like surface and ran his claws over it, causing it to glow brightly.They looked up as lines of light blue lit up on the roof in sequence with two parallel columns reaching around, revealing a new room up ahead with a rather odd chandelier. It was lighting up a small dome like room, decorated in Echidna mosaics. But weren't the ones they were looking for. They displayed various Echidnas playing, toiling in fields, amongst the normal life for the ancient peoples. The dome heralded three other doorways heading left, forward and right. All eyes turned to Knuckles, who face-palmed."Crud...I forgot which way it was..." He scolded himself. Sonic rolled his eyes."I did tell you I haven't been here in a while." Knuckles continued.Sonic nodded. "No matter. We can split up."It was agreed that Knuckles and Drainer would head forward, while Elise claimed in her super imposed self-confidence that she could enter the right path alone by making speeches about how she's not just an acclaimed pilot, preferring to use the term 'Party-Pilot-Princess' which made Sonic groan. Per orders of Shadow, Neptune the Probie had to stick with Sonic as they headed to the left path. All said their goodbyes and made the unspoken rule that if anyone was to find something, use the intercom. Sonic remembered he didn't even get his stuff from Shadow yet, until Neptune lent Sonic his own, knowing that he doesn't really utter a word. Sonic shrugged, seeing his unworded point. Shoving the earpiece into his right ear, he gave a thumbs up before departing.They walked on a bridge, overarching an endless pit of darkness, with the Echidna style lamp posts guiding the way. The cliff sides and the tone of the rocks reached a darkened violet, while the architecture was a unkempt light green. Neptune was busy being a curious and adventurous agent, his claw like fingers dancing about as he crouched and examined partial parts, before jumping onto the next amusing thing. He played with bits of rubble here and there, before becoming uninterested and throwing them over the edge. If there wasn't so much around, Sonic would be running. He sighed as he came across a large pile blocking his way. And smashing these rocks were worse than smashing Eggman's robots.Actually he was more worried about causing a collapse. He started picking up rocks and throwing them away. Neptune pulled Sonic back suddenly and and pointed to himself, Sonic getting the vibe the Probie wanted to do it himself. He pushed Sonic back slightly with his arm, wanting more space to do what he wanted to do. Crouching down again and swaying a bit, Neptune clapped his hands twice before leaving them raised beside him. The claws, contracting and extending constantly, he jumped into the air, swinging both his hands which grew abnormally large with the momentum, blasting the rocks to bits, and causing the cave to rumble quite a bit, with Sonic needing to dodge falling rocks in the mean while. Looking onwards, Neptune had made an good enough entrance for them go through. Patting the Probie on the back, Sonic smiled as he walked on. Neptune tilted his head, and ran forward, letting his hands trail behind him, bumping into Sonic, who was amazed at the beauty of the new area...Vast, spacious, this would have to be the remnants of Hydrocity, a place he hadn't visited in years. Judging by broken pillars and dull colours, the effects of the Death Egg had affected here as well. Sonic looked back at Neptune."Think you can keep up?"Neptune just stared at Sonic, and swung his boots and jumped on the spot. Sonic smirked."Good..."Sonic charged as he ran around Hydrocity like the days of old, with Neptune trailing back a few dozen meters. Sonic knew, to be someone of worthy obtaining a rivalry from him, that they had to have speed as a major component. To be able to keep up with him earned respect in his books. Neptune could handle the loops, the sliding down pipes and avoiding old booby traps that still lingered after all this time. Robots that have decayed and still working platforms that must have had a type of chaos energy powering them. It was hard to forget that this was an island...an amazing island at that. With this fantastic trip, Sonic wondered if the multiple times that the Master Emerald was shattered or stolen and the island fell back down, that it falling down contributed to some of the damage as well. Poor place, he felt sorry for it. An ancient relic that charged up the whole island and was highly depended, was constantly abused. The island suffered as a result. Sonic tried avoiding going into the water as often as he could, using his speed to running across it to get to the other side. Skidding to a halt, he had to make sure Neptune could over okay.The Probie looked at Sonic who smiled. Surely with a code name like Neptune he could swim. The Probie swung his arms twice before diving in the third time, using breaststroke to get to Sonic and climbing out the water. Sonic nodded, before attempting to spin off again, instead had his shoulder being grabbed, causing him to wince at the soreness he still had. Sonic rose an eyebrow at Neptune, who pointed in a different direction. Facing that direction, Sonic could see a hidden path and doorway. Nodding, the two decided to head off there together.It was another part of Hydrocity, notably. Sonic sped off again through more platforms, pipes and what not, carefully avoiding spikes and the like, and checking up on the Probie every so often. The waterfalls still graced the aquatic ruin, as he wondered for the first time the purpose of Hydrocity. He skidded to a halt again as they reached onto the tallest platform they could find. Sonic took the time to examine the world via the Ring of Memories, reminding him that this could possibly aid him in finding more important mosaics. He didn't care that he was possibly going the wrong way, he was hoping for more answers from Knuckles Possessor, and what the Echidna race had to do with the history of the House of Rosoideae. He informed the Probie about the ring, who didn't really care for what Sonic had to do with his aloof nature and kept a look out. Placing the ring on, Sonic channeled what energies were left around him and tried focusing back to an earlier time...Opening his eyes, he could see that the Hydrocity was a functioning, pristine and beautiful place, abundant with not only Echidnas, but with hundreds of different species...adults and children alike, having fun on the water slides and swimming about, with spas and different kinds of water rides. Hydrocity was a theme park!It didn't surprise him though, but dearly wished he join in on the fun...only if he knew how to swim. Sonic checked his surroundings for anyone notable or remotely important. He could see Pachacamac walking on a lower path alongside several guards, heading into another room. Sonic lept into the air and down-kicked his way to the larger walk way and followed Pachacamac into the strange room.Turns out this part was his own private pool and spa area, where several of the richest historic nobles hung out. Slaves and servants gave lavish to their masters, as the light from beneath the pools reflected the waves of the water onto the roof, giving the room a spectacular glow. He passed the glamour and knocked on a door as he reached the other side. A Rosoideae soldier opened up, to Sonic's surprise. He nodded, letting Pachacamac inside, Sonic quickly following before the door closed. Another private bathing area, with Prophetess Shizaru soaking inside with the Wisers and about a dozen guards, including four Stupilite warriors. Pachacamac walked over and lent down on one knee. The walls were of pure light pink and light blue chess patterns, leading up to a rose mosaic on the far wall, with the bath sunk in and in the shape of a cross, with the Prophetess on the back and each of her wisers on the other ends."Prophetess, I am in need of your wisdom." Pachacmac said politely."What is it Lord Pachacamac?" Asked Shizaru.Pachacmac rose up and straightened out. "I fear for my people. The Nocturnus are on edge and I sense an uprising on our hands."Shizaru lowered her head. She laid out her arms on the edge of the bath and relaxed."An uprising...hm...I knew the branch race would sooner conspire than berate themselves for internal conflicts. Have you spoken to Imperator Ix about this?"Pachacmac sighed. "Neither he or his lackeys are willing to share. They are willing to delve into the forbidden arts of...these soulless beings as slaves. I'm calling demonicy on their part."Shizaru rose an eyebrow, then looked to Mizaru on her right."The Nocturnus constructed the Gizoids to help construct and defend their cities. However continuing their involvement with the Demonix will lead to their downfall."The Knuckles Clan leaders head lifted. "You mean they won't attack?"Shizaru looked at Kikazaru to her left."Nocturnus. Gizoids. Demonix. For all their hesitation, one betrayer will survive to tell the tale...in the end, only one of each house will stand."Pachacamac blinked. "What does that even mean?"Shizaru. "It does not matter. She's simply reciting. It would be best if we added it to the Hall of Predictions."Pachacamac nodded. "I will get Tikal to escort these three to the Hall as soon as she's available...she's quite the artist...gets it from her grandmother."Shizaru smiled. "I have no doubt about that. I will get it done."Pachacamac still was unsure about her words and kept prodding."So...what do you believe I should do?"Shizaru closed her eyes. "Keep a close eye on them. Collect evidence."Pachacamac frowned. "How does one obtain evidence of a conspiracy? I can't say it by word alone that they're going to attack us."Shizaru shifted her eyelids at half-mask. "A spy will do fine. Pick one of your most trusted warriors and get them to mold into their ranks. Have them report everything they see."Pachacamac nodded. "Ahh I see. I think I know who I will choose."With that, Pachacamac thanked Shizaru, bowed and walked out. Sonic decided to stay with the women, who chatted amongst themselves. Uneventful, Sonic took the ring off and looked at the semi-decayed on the bath, mold growing in between cracks and broken tiles. It definitely had seen better days. So there was the Hall of Predictions to search for. But he didn't know where to focus his energies. He exited the private room and into the larger nobles room. It too was in a sad, sorry state. Neptune stood there, awaiting for Sonic's orders."So we have to look for the Hall of Predictions. So...we need to find out where this hall is." Sonic explained.Neptune nodded. He clasped his hands together before dislodging them. He started pointing to his left, revealing another doorway. Sonic headed in that direction, entering another part of Hydrocity and running off. It gave him time to think about Shizaru herself, who appeared in front of him, forcing him to skid to avoid colliding with her, although she was a spirit, therefore it was moot. She again was clad in a white toga and sandles, with white eyeshadow and golden bracelets."Oh hey Shizaru." Sonic said unenthusiastically.Shizaru stood there apathetic. "Greetings again Sonic."Neptune caught up and waved to Shizaru, raising an eyebrow from Sonic but choosing to ignore it."You're getting close." She said, smiling at Neptune."Close to what?" Sonic asked."The White Diamond necklace. The power of my being." She answered, surprisingly less cryptic for once."It's here?" He said with surprise."The White Diamond necklace was found by Doctor Edenguard fifty years ago in the last expedition of Gerald Robotnik. I spoke to her, chatted with her. Warned her about the book. She failed to heed it and ended up in a terrible position. She fell into the abyss and never came out."Sonic briefly remembered seeing her wear it during his time on the ARK. He looked at Shizaru with curiosity."So if she found it, how did it...well...why...um." Sonic wondered, trying to find the right words.Shizaru looked at Neptune. "She lost it some time ago. Not long actually. Someone returned it back to it's rightplace...the end of where I had an accomplice seal it here, since the Knuckles Clan had vanished by that point.""Ouch." Sonic commented. "So...you had someone seal it in here after...Hell's Sundering I'm guessing?"Shizaru nodded. "Yes. In spite of what happened, a noble soul arrived in time to honor my last wishes and have my necklace placed in a place far away from Abbadonia's influence."Sonic wasn't going to bother to ask. He just needed the location to the Hall. The necklace was a bonus."So, the Hall..." He started, hoping to get to the point.Shizaru bowed her head. "It is not far. Unfortunately since then a series a puzzles popped out. It was not our doing. The Echidnas saw fit to protect what was theirs."Sonic facepalmed. "Great...just what I need..."Shizaru's expression didn't change. "Just followed this path until you hit the statue of Tikal's Grandmother...you can't miss her.""Thanks." Sonic replied, giving a thumbs up before zooming off.More tracks, pipes and slides, Sonic burst through the zone easy, checking up on Neptune every so often, who was a good probie and was well in seeing distance despite his sluggish speeds. Well, sluggish from Sonic's perspective. The scenery was grand, the endless shades of blue were almost as awesome as he. He wondered when all this puzzle business was gonna start. He could see a statue in the distance and soon proclaimed it, judging from the statue youthful stupor, it was the grandmother from her young years. Screeching his feet, Sonic looked around and found a door. Opening it, he entered a new cascade hued hall that the fire torches automatically lit up from. This was definitely the room. The hall was narrow and the floor from several meters onwards from the first two was nothing but a dark pit. Neptune rimmed his fingers over the tiles, his curious appetite going into overdrive. Ignoring that, Sonic planned to get across. There was not enough room to get a run up and peel off the walls, and they were too wide to do a proper wall jump, surprisingly.Stepping forward, he accidentally pressed on to a switch, activating spikes that sprung from both sides and the roof. Damn, he was screwed. Getting closer to the edge, he looked over at the blackness of the pit. Images of Abbadonia's demons jumping out and attacking flashed through his mind. He should be taking in the comfort that this wasn't happening, but he felt unnerved by it. In deep thought, he didn't recognize Neptune crawling up the wall, then falling back down onto his back. Shaken slightly, the Probie jumped back up onto this feet and tried again. He tried multiple whilst Sonic was in the thinker position.Neptune stayed determined before finally gripping to the top and pressing another switch, allowing himself to fall but this time landing in a three point manner. The hall started shaking with Sonic looking around, wondering what was going on. Neptune stood beside Sonic and held on to his shoulder, preventing himself from falling over. The shaking soon stopped, as a gushing sound was heard but no water was seen. Neptune shoved Sonic away before taking a few steps back to run, then jumped into the darkness below."NOOOO!" Sonic yelled, his hand reaching out. Neptune poised himself into a star shape as he fell and faded into the shadows. Sonic stood back up, not sure what Neptune was up to. Soon, an echoed splash was heard, Sonic browing at the strangeness. Another click ensured, the hall shaking once more, this time water started seeping from the cracks and spaces between the tiles. Head going left and right, Sonic prepared himself. The water levels were rising fast, Sonic barely able to keep his head above the water. He had to take a deep breath and go under as he tried to avoid the roof spikes. Slowing floating down to the ground, he checked for Neptune. The Probie shot up from below, and made a small whirlpool with his spinning body, sucking Sonic and dragging him to the other side. Trying to stop his head from whirl-pooling itself, Neptune was holding Sonic close and began pointing to the stone door. Neptune grabbed Sonic's hand and pressed it against the door, a small bright blue hand printed glow emanated as the door rose up. Neptune began swimming them both through the door way and up to the surface, where Sonic gasped for air. They could see Knuckles and Drainer on the left side in front of their own door, and Elise on the right."I see you solved the puzzle too." Said Knuckles.Sonic walked out with a scowl on his face. "It wasn't really me."Neptune started clapping like a dolphin. Rolling his eyes, the group approached another door which had an inscription on it."It's a riddle." Said Knuckles, reading it thoroughly.Sonic smirked and rubbed his hands together. "Ooo I love riddles."Knuckles scanned it. "It says, 'It can be broken. It can be mended. We lend it to others, where it's tendered.""A ship?" Elise said sarcastically. "Sounds a little better than a dads joke though, so I can give them credit.""I do not understand. A riddle system seems...rather hazardous." Said Drainer.Knuckles looked at her. "Seriously? My people love using puzzles. A bit dangerous of course, but it was part of their security."As they battered on, Sonic went back into his thinking stage. Shizaru crossed his forethoughts, as did Amy...as he had them in his mind, he looked to his left to finally see the Bloody Amy, resting her right hand on the left side on her chest, blood seeping through her fingers and down her dress. A small weak smile crept from her lips. Blinking, Sonic realized what she was meaning."I'm telling you it's rather atrocious." Drainer complained."Oh come on. This is 4000 years ago we're talking about. Obviously we have better ways to deal with things nowadays." Knuckles retorted.Elise crossed her arms. "Guys, guys...shouldn't we be discussing the riddle?" She said, trying to break the banter.Sonic ignored them and looked at the door."A heart. A heart can be broken...a heart can be mended. We give our heart to others...who can tender our hearts."The room began vibrating as the door slide up. All faces looked at Sonic."That...makes sense..." Said Knuckles, surprised.Sonic smirked. "It helps to have one..." He pointed out."Are you saying I have no heart?" Knuckles asked, a little angry.Sonic grinned. "You could say it's two sizes too small."Met with a near fist to the face, Knuckles withdrew his arm and quickly composed himself. With small chatter, they walked on through...The next room was pitch black, save for a line of bright, glowing cyan that stretched across from roof to wall to floor and to the adjacent wall in a square outline fashion. Confused, Sonic silently offered to investigate it alone. Kneeling before the start, he rested his hand on line, another light of glowing red line stretching out in a square was seen above them towards the right corners, smaller than the rest. Lifting his hand, the red line disappeared. Placing his hand on it again, it lit up once more. Standing up, Sonic turned to one of his comrades and raised an eyebrow, his bionic eyes iris glowing to them. Knuckles nodded, getting the idea of the puzzle, but not understanding the logistics of each of them."Hang on a minute, I have never seen these types of puzzles before. Especially on this island. This isn't the Knuckles Clan's pattern." Knuckles pointed out.Elise placed her hand on her hips. "I thought you knew everything about it." She snarked.Knuckles wasn't amused. "Hey, I don't go around wandering and getting lost do I? I have more things to worry about...like the Master Emerald."Drainer remained stoic. "Why aren't you protecting it then?"Knuckles banged his head. "Ack! Stop attacking me with my own logic failures!"Sonic facepalmed. "Guys...please. The faster we get through this, Knuckles can get back to protecting his child from the abusive wife."Knuckles scratched. "Wait, who's the abusive wife? I'm not even married!"Sonic smirked. He was thinking more along the lines of his favourite bat..."Don't explode his brain. You won't hear the blast from the walls of thick skull around it." Sonic joked.Knuckles gritted his teeth. "WHAT?"Neptune stepped forward and stood on the cyan line and stared at Sonic, clapping his hands to get his attention."Ah thanks Probie." Said Sonic, glad someone had the smarts to change the subject.The far-high red square lines turned on. Knuckles went first and went ahead of the Probie. What little light his eyes could absorb he used to determine the path from the lower floor to up above. There were a series of steps which he walked, then realized there was a massive chasm between the the floor upon which he stood on and the red square line. Cracking his knuckles, the Echidna stepped back, ran then jumped over to the other side without much difficulty. Pressing on the red line, an orange light lit up down below in the left corners. Drainer walked forward and made no second thought as she flipped down, noticing from the littlest shine that there were spikes. They proved to be no problem, Drainer simply shrugging it off as she jumped again and made it to the other side with great ease, and stomped her boot on the orange line.Nothing changed this time, Sonic tapped his chin in wonder. "Hmmm...is that it?" He questioned.Elise checked around her, not really seeing anything either."I can see it!" Knuckles announced. "It's up there!""Where?" Sonic asked, walking about.Knuckles rolled his eyes and pointed above Sonic. "THERE!"Switching to put his back to him, Sonic walked backwards, seeing a white line. "I see!"Feeling a tap on his shoulder, The light from his eye portrayed her winking at him."Lemme do it. I was quite the gymnast!" The Princess proclaimed."Although since I usually had a breakfast of bacon and eggs in the morning, I did...get a little gas."Sonic made a face. "Too much information your highness!"Elise chuckled. "I was usually...hung over. I was forced by the Royal Courts to be put into rehab...pfff like that ever worked."Sonic crossed his arms. "Still a party girl eh?"Elise grinned. "Hey, I'm a Party Princess! I will make sure everyone knows that!"Getting on with it, Elise did a few stretches before stepping over the cyan line and looking up at the white square. Swinging her arms back a forth whilst in a lunge, she did several times before leaping up and clinging on the edge above, and forced herself to crawl through it, revealing a dark blue door at the end of a long corridor."Ah good. Looks like we can finally get through!" Sonic announced. With no response, Sonic looked around him. His eyes widened when he could no longer see the others. It was not the darkness the drenched them but the silence as well. Two parallel dotted line strips stretched from the door to Sonic's feet, a holographic path forming in the process. Having no idea what was going on, he tried to find Neptune who was standing right behind him, waving his arm about but hitting nothing. Keeping his game on, Sonic couldn't sense anyone else in the room with him, but he made sure he was prepared for what could be thrown at him. He slowing walked the holographic path and stood before the dark blue door.The door swung open slowly, dust and small stones falling from above. As the doors finished opening, Sonic had a serious look on his face as he went forward. Reaching far enough the doors closed, Sonic looking back and being saddened and worried at the status of his friends. Having no choice but to keep going, he faced his front and found himself in a pentagonal shaped room with four mosaics surrounding him, a floating black and light blue creature staring at the back-most one with a hand resting on it, it's head looking down as if reading text.His head moved eerily, his red sclera and green iris told Sonic who it was immediately."You're Mephiles!" Sonic announced.Mephiles raised his other hand. "Congratulations...you figure that out with the Ring?"Sonic gritted his teeth. "You murdered Prince Hayden...under orders of Abbadonia"Mephiles had a lack of mouth, a lack of expressive facial expressions noted. "Indeed. I do what my older sister asks of me as a dutiful younger brother."Sonic's nose twitched. "I don't care, It's still murder of an innocent person! You deserve to be punished!"Mephiles cackled. "Hahahaha! Really? As I am a being of time, it's interesting to say the least, that with my knowledge of all time and their corresponding timelines, your words are nothing but heroic cliches. Where is the new material?" He mocked.Sonic sneered. That feeling of familiarity popped up again, scratching the walls of his brain, trying to remember. But this sickening beast, a relative of Abbadonia had to be no worse than his older sister...or perhaps the rest of his dark supposed family. Children of Dark Gaia from previous discussions."No matter...a battle is not necessary in a place of peace. The Beings of Yesterlife would not appreciate the worlds hero destroying ascension."Sonic had no idea who the Beings of Yesterlife were, nor did he care. He needed to avenge the Prince who could no longer let the spirits of the past rest. Mephiles glanced at the mosaic."This is a wondrous piece of work. Historians likened it to the same events which occurred between you and Eggman all those years ago, when they missed several important factors."Sonic straightened himself out. He was going to wait, listen in to what Mephiles had to say first. Then maybe he could ask where the others went off to. Best ensuring their survival...now that immediately became the priority.""Where are my friends?" Sonic demanded, all-tone-serious. Mephiles waved his hand."All in good time Sonic. Let me finish my word structures. Proceeding, they knocked off the colour scheme as part of the art style they chose to use. Therefore it was left and forgotten about. The things they left out are extraordinary." Mephiles explained.Checking the mosaic out, it was like a ancient pixel manifestation of a battle between of a dark dragon with small red stripes, opposing a hedgehog-like creature on a black background encased with what appeared to be flames. The Hedgehog was assumed to be Sonic, but there was something different about it. The colours..."This will foretell a great event that will occur...I can already feel the vibrations from the time scars!"Sonic tilted his head. "Wait what?"Mephiles crossed his arms. "I told you I am Time! The Ring you where was part of my co-creation. The Artifacts were formed from Abbadonia's strength and given to several of us...her brothers and sisters of the same complex. I forged the Ring to look into the past. But Time Scars...my powers allow me to sense emotional vacuums in any timeline."Sonic lifted his head. He was going to try again. "Once more, where are my friends?"Mephiles head tilted further. "Time will tell..."Sonic watched as Mephiles raised his hand. "But you won't!"A spear formed purple-blue crystal surged from the creatures palm, shooting at Sonic who stood there stunned at the sudden shift that he should have predicted, but his instinct only lead him to close his eyes as a flash blinded him temporarily. Opening them again, he witnessed a pink hedgehog in a white toga with the spear piercing through her torso, but with no blood. She had her legs out wide and her arms out."Shizaru..." Sonic muttered."Prophetess!" Mephiles cried out. He withdrew his spear and placed his hands together, tilting his head in the other direction. "I should have foreseen this."Shizaru lowered herself.
"I cannot allow you to do that." She said calmly.Mephiles rolled his head around, then lowered his head and closed his eyes, before raising it up again with his hands and flicking his eye lids."Yes...how premature of me." Mephiles brooded.Sonic attempted to walk forward, but was forced back to the wall with a strange telekinetic power."Stay back. Let me handle this." Said Shizaru.Sonic was astounded. Shizaru was becoming more strange by the moment. Mephiles swayed his arms about."You and me...we aren't so different..." He professed.Sonic groaned. "Now who's being cliché..." He complained.Shizaru in her patience, remained still. "The only thing we have in common is time. Nothing else."Mephiles crossed his arms, using his hand to portray the mosaic. "In truth...we cannot deny perfection...the beauty of time. It does so much...in the end you cannot stop progress. Time makes things move...lives are born and are swiftly taken. If we could...stop time...we prevent change."Sonic watched as the roof turned white and became wavy, the floor turning black and the walls disappearing, it now displayed the similarity between here and the darkness the ARK. However the floor changed again into the chess-tile pattern."We are pawns to time. We work by it. We live on it." Mephiles continued.Shizaru appeared unphased. "Sonic...stay there..."He was having enough of this bulldust...this sudden changes. Simple shifts to a undisclosed dimension he never heard of or knew of its existence but seemed to be coming back to him all the time. The determined hedgehog stood up again, before being pushed back."By the words of your sister, she wants Sonic alive. That's the message we've all received. And you're doing the exact opposite." Shizaru mentionedMephiles sneered. "I was erased from existence. By my own element! I'm being kept alive by my sister by being part of her legions...you know the whole concept."Sonic didn't, but hoped like heck Shizaru knew what he was talking about."Your words are just as fake as your conscience. I prefer cleared from the memory."Mephiles cackled. "And since the mind never truly forgets. What makes you think I will be gone completely?"Shizaru remained still. "It's a basis of truth I would rather not discuss..."Mephiles was amused. "We all know what happens when we open our mouths..."
CRASH!
Looking up to the shattered roof, out of the dust appeared Knuckles, ready for anything. Sonic shot up as Shizaru and Mephiles were distracted from his sudden break in."Sorry...I..woah what the?" Knuckles said, startled, surprised by the atmosphere.Shizaru glared at Mephiles."I cannot let her win!" She said, banishing Mephiles away with a flash of light, turning the room back to normal.With one blink Shizaru was gone, with Knuckles dusting himself."That stuff is just crazy." He said."I was pulled out and put into a small shaft. I was practically digging my way to nowhere."Sonic shrugged, piling away his experiences with Shizaru and Mephiles to ignorance. Knuckles proved to be the perfect distraction. He motioned Knuckles to the back mosiac and asked him about it."Hm...well, this one is odd. Sonic do you recall ever transforming into a light purple form?" Knuckles asked.Sonic shook his head. "No...unless you count Hyper...which was multiple..."Knuckles nodded. "Not to mention seizure inducing..."Sonic rolled his eyes. "Out of all the transformations I've done over the years, None were so...vividly violet...well, I do remember one of your forms was a dashing pink."The Red Echidna sweat-dropped. "Hey! That's not my fault!"Sonic laughed. "Heh...to think, you're the Master Emerald's Guardian...they could have at least given you green or what ever...but you're stuck with lovely lighter red shades."Sonic barely dodged a punch to a face from Knuckles clearly annoyed wrath."So what's your conclusion?" Sonic wondered.Knuckles rubbed his chin. "The title is recognized as the Draconix Verses the Angelhog Prime."He'd heard about these Angelhogs before and tried to connect them with the Rosoideae...and these Precursors and what not. But this didn't help with finding the necklace at all."Well our top priority is to find this necklace. I think we're close." Sonic said.Knuckles agreed. "I wouldn't be surprised if there was weirder stuff around. I'm gonna check around."With that, Knuckles checked every nook and every cranny of the room for anything else. Sonic did so as well, growing concerned about the status of everyone else...THUMP!"OWWWWW" Yelled a feminish voice."Are you okay your highness?" Asked Knuckles who spun around.Sonic looked behind him to see Elise on the ground rubbing her back and wincing in pain."Stupid stupid puzzles! I usually fall flat on the floor when I'm drunk! That way I'm numb...and its the perfect explanation for unknown bruises!" Elise explained happily.Sonic and Knuckles facepalmed in sync. The young Princess got off her hiney and straightened herself out."So what's the go here?" She asked. "Where's everyone else?"Knuckles faced the mosaic again. "We don't know. I suspect if you're here and I'm here...Neptune and Drainer will come shortly after."Elise pouted. "Yup yup..." She said. "But I need to go home after this...I planned a hens night for tonight and I ain't gonna miss throwing the lucky lady her last days of bachelorettehood."Not really caring, Knuckles went straight back into searching for the necklace. He used his treasure hunting skills to detect an object within the mosaic and ran palms over it. Soon, over a star-light sparkle image on the mosiac, depicted between the dragon and this Angelhog thing, glew and pushed inwards. Soon a variety of tiles across the room starting pushing in and out at random, the mosiac pushing upwards, revealing an ancient safe."Old fashioned device. What mystical must be used in order to open and CLAIM WHAT IS INSIDE?" Elise called out dramatically on purpose.It was directly square and a navy blue coloured marble like surface, but no raised surface, just an insignia. A white lined box. Knuckles placed his hand on it, but it didn't do much good. Punching it furiously only succeeded in chipping the surface. Knuckles soon gave up and turned away in anger. Sonic examined the safe briefly, hearing barely audible whispers that called his name. Putting his hand on the the safe, which then started turned white and slide upwards."Well dye me blonde and call me bimbo." Said Elise, stunned. "Looks like they were looking for you Sonic...or somebody like you...or someone who has resemblance to you...or just you I guess."Inside held a square black case in which Sonic took out and opened, it's sparkle reflecting in his eyes."This is definitely the necklace." Sonic announced, flashing back to when Doctor Edenguard wore it. The same diamante finishes and historical beauty that he remembered it for. Elise walked over and snatched the necklace from Sonic's hands."Hey careful with that!" Sonic warned.Elise giggled. "Relax warthog! I wouldn't dare scratch it! It's priceless! I think I'm gonna try it on...see if suits me.""Elise wait!" Sonic cried out.Elise ignored Sonic and took the necklace out of the box, throwing to Knuckles who was caught unaware by it. Elise clipped the necklace from behind as she rested it on her neck and chest. The necklace was not too dissimilar from the designs of the Wisers ones, a simple drop pendent, but this one had diamonds all around the chain that shined wondrously. Sonic kept an eye, knowing who owned this particular piece of jewelery. Elise started showing off, doing models poses and giggling."They say diamonds are a girls best friend! And this one is practically the devil in disguise!" Elise joked.Sonic waited for a sign, any sign that would alert trouble. Elise just paraded as usual, before hearing a crack in the roof that brought down Drainer and Neptune and landing on top of Knuckles."If that was Bazza she would make some insanely lame joke." Elise said, chuckling."Do not mind me...I'm just falling by..." Drainer said with a stoicness.Elise rose an eyebrow. "Don't you mean dropping by?""That too." Said Drainer.After that funny escapade, the group discussed current happenings and updated one another. With everything...well almost everything clarified, they needed to find a way out. A small sparkle on one of the mosaics glistened slightly, but managed to catch Sonic's eye. He could swear the portrait looked different before, but now had the imagery of a simple wooden door. Pressing his hand against made the room flash in white, with the group suddenly finding themselves at the Master Emerald Shrine once more.Elise was reluctant to return the necklace to Sonic who put it back in it's case. She began rambling on about how she was going to get her servants to organize one similar in design so she can wear it out. Checking the time on her wrist, she started to panic."Ack! Gotta fly guys! I'm willing to drop you off at GUN Headquarters if you wish." Elise said.Sonic needed to wait for Shizaru's next instructions anyway. He faced Knuckles, who climbed back up on the steps while Elise prepared the helicopter."I'm guessing they haven't told you yet." Sonic said, frowning."Told me what?" Knuckles asked.Sonic rubbed his neck. He wasn't sure if someone already told him of Tails fate, and hesitantly told him the full story, leaving Knuckles stunned."Woah...I would have never expected THAT to happen." He said with surprised.Sonic nodded. "Yeah...I was planning to go...well, I dunno when...to a place nicknamed Steampunk City or what ever...and honour my respects." Sonic mentioned.Knuckles understood perfectly. "I'll go with you when you do. I'm..." He muttered, before needing to sit down. Sonic felt sorry for Knuckles. The three were like brothers, with the impossibility that anyone could fill his vast void. Knuckles was stonefaced and clearly heartbroken. He might be as hot-headed as he was red, but his heart was soft. Sonic rested his hand on his shoulder and gave a small smile."I'll contact you when I decide to go. So both of us can get there and say our final farewells." Sonic assured.Knuckles lifted his head. "Thanks. I still have to make proper preparations for Vector and Vanillas wedding on Saturday. Tonight is Vector's bux party remember?"Sonic blinked. No he didn't, then again he didn't remember getting the invite to Creams birthday until he took it out. His memory was still really hazy from before last week."Yeah uh...where was that again?" Sonic asked, trying on a fake forgetting vibe."New Casinopolis at Eight. Vanilla was going with her friends to a place in Soleanna. I think Agent Hyperia...or Elise here organized it for her."Vanilla knew Elise? That was certainly interesting. But not really relevant.The friends shook hands and hugged each other, ending it with a brofist and saying they would see each other later. The rest climbed into the helicopter and waved to Knuckle as they drifted away from Angel Island...Making it back to GUN Headquarters, Sonic sat in the locker rooms staring at the necklace for ages. Checking the digital clock on the wall, it was quarter to five. Again it was empty, strangely enough. He waited for Shizaru's reappearance, but instead had Neptune walk around with a cardboard box."Whatcha got there Probie?" Sonic asked as Neptune placed the box on the bench. Neptune teared through the box and pulled out shirts, pants and several items of interest each with GUNs logo on it. One tag had 'Sonic' on it. Sonic sighed...a tag would be pointless considering everyone knew him and his famous name. He thanked Neptune who just stood there, staring at Sonic with a tilted face, the Hedgehog getting the creeps from his fellow agent.He got up and looked for his locker and placed his items in there and slammed the door, locking it and putting the card key back into his spikes. Neptune continued standing there. Sonic wondered if the Probie had a home to go to. He didn't speak, only acting through expression. Since he was a good sport, and even though he didn't deserve it, a home to go to, he could give the young agent a place a stay for a while. Neptune clapped his hands in happiness.After checking out, he walked out the Headquarters and lead them both back home to the outskirts. Sonic opened the door and entered inside. Only Neptune still stood outside, as if awaiting for orders."You can come in you know." Sonic said. "My home is your home."Neptune slowly crawled in and started checking the place out. Still in his GUN Suit, Sonic wondered why he never bothered to get out of it. Though he probably wasn't the most social of people. He could have asked Shadow the specifications of Neptunes nature. Or he could lend him to Cream, who would probably adore his personality. Sonic put the box containing the necklace on the dining table and collapsed on the couch, putting his feet on the coffee table. Neptune, amused, copied Sonic right down to the sigh, although the sigh sounded squishy for some reason."Well done Sonic."Sonic looked over to see the usual toga wearing Shizaru smiling at him as she sat on the chair by the dining table. Sonic smirked."I was wondering when you would show up." He snarked.Shizaru bowed her head. "This necklace is my source of power...I am stronger when I am near it."Sonic nodded as Neptune waved to her. Sonic wasn't fazed that Neptune could see her, only Shizaru waved back."Yeah so what do I do with it?" He asked her, relaxing further."The Seventy-Fourth Prophetess needs it. Then you both need to return back to the Temple of the Prophets." Shizaru explained.Sonic rubbed his left eye. "Aw come on man...do we even know who this Prophetess is?"Shizaru grinned. "Isn't it obvious?"Sonic thought for a moment, before realizing exactly who she meant as his eyes widened at the revelation. "You've got to be kidding me..."Shizaru placed one leg over the other and held her knee. "I thought a witty hedgehog such as yourself would have figured that out by now?"Sonic slouched over and ran his fingers over his scalp. "But...what...how?"Shizaru bowed her head again. "Let me mention the signs first, since you failed to put the most blatant pieces together."As they discussed the clues, which were along the lines of the finding of the Wiser's Necklaces and the earliest of clues...the Tarot cards."She said her grandmother taught her how to use them...that's all I ever noticed!" Sonic cried out.He knew his friend had some importance to all of this mess, but believed she had no idea about it."Amy Rose is the next Prophetess. She needs to wear this in order to gain full knowledge and access." Shizaru continued."The Tarot cards are essential. Not everyone can use them to their fullest effect. Only a true prophet can fully utilize and understand the potential and power behind not only the cards, but the past...present...and future of the world."Sonic shook his head. He should have seen this coming...no, he should have been smart enough to realize it. He wasn't gonna let another one of his friends go insane. Tails actions were hard enough, but this would take it too far. This could ultimately push Sonic well over the edge. He was sick and tired of being used, and others. So far, they've been doing is being puppets. Especially if Amy's the Prophetess of Rosoideae lore. He couldn't let her be pushed around against her own will, especially if it's gonna be Abbadonia. This was going to be a lot more dangerous. "You can't expect to leave her with to deal Abbadonia?"Shizarus head fell. "The Pitlord needs a Prophet as a host. Killing the host before Abbadonia becomes stronger sends her back to the Underworld without the ability to re-summon herself up back to the surface or her legions."Sonic's draw dropped. He couldn't believe what he was hearing as rage filtered up his spine and into his fists. "Why didn't you tell me this before?" He yelled, furious.Shizaru remained utterly still and calm. "I told you you had the choice to slay Muriel Rose when you had the chance..."Sonic shot up. "You could have explained to me WHY?"Shizaru's eyelids opened at half mast. "...the problem was...that if I told you everything, you would have focused and wasted your time on pointless ways to help Muriel with her predicament. But now that Abbadonia has forced Muriel to go into hiding, we have lost that chance. She currently plotting out Amy's capture and the ritual to transfer herself over...thus gaining new strengths."Sonic had to hold his head. He was beginning to become a lot more frustrated. "Wait, why does Abbadonia need a host in the first place?"Shizaru closed her eyes and looked down again. "When we made the deal with Abbadonia, she made us sign a contract. In exchange for portions of her power she would allowed a host to upload herself to. As her energies waned in responses, she could no longer maintain a proper physical form without causing uncontrollable and mindless chaos that would abruptly destroy the world."Sonic snickered. "Pff...isn't that her goal in the first place? I mean, she gets the host...gets stronger...boom...world gone..."Shizaru glared at Sonic with an icy cold stare. "It isn't that simple. Abbadonia's secondary goals will all lead to the primary goal of world domination."Sonic gritted his teeth. "Seriously cliché!" He complained.Shizaru blinked. "She will claim this world as her own...as revenge against the beings of Yesterlife...undo the order that was brought to chaos."Sonic rolled his eyes. "Really?" He said with disbelief. "What is there to be gained in total destruction?"Shizaru looked at Neptune. "Even that, we do not know."Sonic shook his head again. Damn this! Damn Shizaru! Damn Abbadonia! Amy was being pulled into this without her knowledge. And it was making his blood boil."What about the mosaic in Hydrocity? The purple hedgehog battling it out with the dragon? What does that have to do with anything?" Sonic demanded.Shizaru stood up from the chair and walked around, waving her arms about."That young Stupilite...is a prediction that has spread across the ages. I predicted it...I foresaw it. Unfortunately I am not allowed to disclose information that has not come to pass."Sonic rose an eyebrow. "So...it hasn't happened yet?" He asked."Correct." Shizaru answered. "Turns out you cannot allow the honest ones to cheat. I should have known that fate cannot be fooled so easily."Sonic took a deep breath and glanced over at the necklace. "Will that protect her?" Sonic wondered."We are not sure." She replied There was the sound of small jingles as NiGHTS flew down from above. Sonic just stared at the jester."Ah I was beginning to think I wouldn't see you again..." He joked.NiGHTS brushed it off. "I'm just here for safety measures and to ensure the Dream Waves are going smoothly." NiGHTS explained.Sonic didn't want to bother with this right now. He had the need to explain to Amy the situation, if she would to accept."I've noticed a few ripples here and there." NiGHTS continued."But Shizaru is here so I'm guessing she's to blame."Sonic no longer cared about the others, he was now stuck with the only thing Shizaru feared he would do."Maybe...maybe not. Point is..." He said, walking over and staring out the window."I'm going to protect Amy no matter the cost. I have no concerns on what you think, or what Shadow thinks."NiGHTS flew over beside him."Don't worry, Amy's protection is on the top of our lists! We can get started on Phase 2!" They saidSonic turned to the jester. "Phase 2 for what?"Shizaru was suddenly on the couch next to an eccentric Neptune. "The words of the being that possessed Knuckles...says you will have eventually return to the Temple with Amy in tow. We are still currently in Phase 1 of OPERATION: LUCID"Sonic tilted his head. How did a ghost and a Dream Weaver be part of a GUN Operation?"You guys are onto that file?" He asked, curious."We know you're are a bit of a gag on that but in retrospect there are many people involved with LUCID." NiGHTS revealed."Unfortunately we kinda...still can't reveal much more than that."Sonic started pacing. There was definitely a much larger story than he normally realized. He couldn't trick these people either, which was a problem. Now there was no time to freak out and whine like Shadow on occasion. Now was to get to the bottom of this and figure out what it all meant. To discover the ultimate truth.Shizaru gave an empty stare. "Your knowledge of certain aspects is noted. But ensure, that in the the depths of morning, you will take Amy down to the Temple where we can initiate Phase 2." She stated.Sonic sighed. "So, this Phase 2 of...what ever you're doing...is it supposed to...show or tell me...I don't get it..."Shizaru nodded to NiGHTS who nodded back. "To give you a slight hint, I will say...that it will open your mind."If this was for Amy's safety, then he would glady take what measures they presented to him. Unless they're of course not within his moral reasons, then he would take it another way where it's less likely to creature unfortunate implications. For a world so strange, none was stranger than this."It will also allow you have a lot more control." NiGHTS stated.Sonic took another deep breath. Ignoring them brought more trouble so far. Perhaps he could start finally listening to them properly. Not killing Muriel was the biggest mistake he'd made. But he didn't regret not doing it. The mental tug of war was getting a hold of him and he was running out of excuses and choices. He needed to be more assertive about the issue."I'll take Amy to the Temple tomorrow. After that, you better tell when I need to straight away so we can get this over and done with." He said, giving them scornful looks."As will be done." Said Shizaru.A split second passed as Sonic opened his eyes, finding himself laying on the couch as Neptune fiddled with the tv remote, pressing multiple buttons, seemingly amused by the controller.Not bothered by his antics, Sonic sat up and rubbed his left eye, then looked up at the clock near the kitchen window. It was already seven thirty. He wasn't too particularly thrilled to be going to New Casinopolis, especially on a Tuesday night. Chaos knows why they planned it on a weeknight. But, now with plans confirmed and played for, Sonic looked over to Neptune who was still fascinated by the remote, which made Sonic forge a soft smile. Neptune was an ambiguous person, species unknown, mysterious yet curious. He could get the Probie to tag along for the ride if he so wished. He took the remote from the childish agent and pressed 1 and 0."I'll show you something good." Said Sonic. "I take it that you've never watched TV before?"Neptune tilted his head again, Sonic called it the cute curious look. The Blue Blur chuckled."Hehe...that's okay. There's the occasional show that I watch or watched with Tails, a game show but they don't take it seriously. The humor is brilliant."They sat there, with Sonic chuckling away, Neptune clueless as a can be, but seemed to be going along with it just fine. For a mute, he wasn't bad at mimicking Sonic's movements, as if trying to understand the pinnacles of funny. An unusual individual, Sonic wondered if Neptune was an alien of sorts, unable to get out of his suit. But, as a colleague, it was best not to ask. Sonic liked to have him under his wing, even if he was odd. After watching the show, it was getting on, as Sonic switched the t off much to the dismay of Neptune."You're coming with me." Sonic assured, placing a warm black hoodie that he forgot he left in Tails' spare room. He sighed at the mention, and hoped one day the truth would be revealed to him.All of it...The two ran to New Casinopolis, in New Station Square. This Station Square was a lot different from the original, a lot of the landscaping and sky scrapers in the process of being constructed and with heaps more defensive capabilities. Which made Sonic glad that the governments were starting to do all these things. He joked at the possibility that he soon be redundant to saving the world. He soon caught up with the bright rainbow coloured neon lights. Which really caught Neptune's attention. In front of the big italic sign 'Old Man Owls' which didn't look exciting to Sonic, he could see Vector, Knuckles and Espio. Skidding to a halt, the boys shook hands with one another, with Sonic introducing Neptune to the others."He doesn't talk much." Sonic stated.With that, they quickly entered the casino-bar with ease. It was filled with more neon than Neptune could handle, overwhelmed with the pretty colours and flashing lights, almost colliding with several of the patrons. At the start of the steps stood a waiter owl looking flash in a red suit."Welcome to Old Man Owls." Said the waiter in an old mans voice.Vector smiled. "I made a booking under the name Chaotix." He said.The Waiter checked the note book on the stand before him, scrolling down the list with his finger, then giving each participant a special card."Mhmm...go right on through! And have fun!"The group walked right on in, glimpsing at the most impossible of rides and slots. The technologies that aided mobian creatures in these places was astounding, making whomever built the places was a down right genius and god of fun. Of course, this was out of bounds for the squishy humans, Old Man Owls being exclusive for the hard headed animal who could take the full brunt of the high octane activities that one could do. The roof was extremely high, with a lot of holographic tech."What's Charmy up to tonight?" Asked Knuckles as the group walked around, trying to find a decent Casino Level play.Vector shrugged. "I left him to play with Cream. Vanillas robot's babysittin' em. I think they were a bit disappointed they couldn't come."Espio looked at Neptune who was hopping around, then looked at Sonic."How old is your friend anyway?"Sonic raised his hands passively. "Dunno. But he's pretty harmless and shouldn't be too much a problem."They continued walking down a red and golden spot patterned carpet that separated the several types of casino levels, Sonic stopping in front of a Miku's Paradise Pinball Machine."I am so doing this!" Sonic said with the biggest grin on his face. Vector chuckled."Alright then. Who want's to press the buttons?" Vector asked.Neptune, being a clueless person, had no idea what to do. He watched Sonic swipe his card, a grey door sliding side ways, Sonic walking in before it closed.Vector wrapped his arm around Neptune. "It's alright buddy, these are simulators...they transfer Sonic to a virtual...hey Espio, what was that whacky invention what's his face made?"Espio sighed. "RPT...or Rosewire's Particle Theorem. Allows one to enter Cyberspace."Neptune nodded. Vector took him to a large pinball machine. Well, the projection screen anyway.Miku's Paradise with full of blue-green and black colours, unusually coloured palm trees with the titular Miku hologram dancing on top, singing one of her songs as her long hair swayed about.Knuckles chuckled. "You really think he can play that thing?" He asked."Good point." Vector replied. He placed Neptune out of the way, and put himself in front of it, put his hands to to the buttons on the sides of the raised pad."Don't worry, watch me do it. It's not too hard. You'll get the hang of it."Neptune was more concerned about Sonic, but watched on anyway.Meanwhile Sonic undressed himself, placed his jacket on it's hook and properly sealed away what ever he had stored and locked them all in a special locker that could only be opened with a singular eye scan. Seeing the wondrous wonderland of spectacular colours, he stood before the edge, looking at the slanted pinball table, from the flippers, the tunnels and bountiful places he was about to visit, Sonic stretched himself while a waiting a sign. A screen covered the entrance, three neon blue bars put on display, with the number three in digital letters and a whole bunch of different words scrawled. This is what he needed. Some fun with the boys. And what better way to have fun than bashing yourself on bells and flippers.One by one the bars disappeared, the screen disappearing and Sonic going into a spinball and falling down, only with the unseen protective barrier protecting him from serious harm and the flippers preventing him from falling. Sonic had faith in Vector, who was in fact a serious Pinballer. Last time they went to a Pinball Simulator he refused to leave until the last ball, which took him into the earliest hours of the morning, and Sonic had gotten very tired by that point, and surprisingly dizzy that he had trouble walking for a few days. But maybe this time breaks would be had. They had a pinball machine, a normal one, in the Chaotix base, in which Vector played often. Charmy would want a go, but had trouble prying Vector's hands fingers off, making false promises that his turn would be next. He was just that obsessed...Hearing the buzzes, bells and bings across the board alongside chings, chimes and all sorts of wacky sounds. Sonic focused on the techno music that played. More hits, flips and frustrated grunts from Vector, who was trying to get Sonic into one of the holes up top. Sonic wished he could take control, but he wasn't experienced with this type of board, so he didn't know what was in store for him. More hitting and banging, there was a brief moment when he was flying through the air, he straightened out and landed on a platform, staring a gigantic Miku in her grey, black and blue-green school ensemble, screaming and shouting at Sonic in front of a starry background full of colourful rave lasers. She was just part of the game, Sonic could see another set of flippers. Smirking, he ran forward and went back into a ball. By that point Miku and summoned four beige flaps with a green question mark on them. Vector knocked Sonic towards the left most one, flipping it around several times before stopping, revealing a picture of a golden ring with red text saying '50'. Sonic could feel the ring absorption and felt a zest of life run through him. He then got sucked down a random tube, sending him back into the main board once more. Vector kept flipping and flipping, Sonic kept banging on more bells and the like, racking in the points for the talented Pinballsmen.Half an hour later, Vector accidentally missed his shot, as the ball fell through to the bottom, prompting a very annoyed Crocodile to bang on the glass."Chill Vector dude." Suggested Knuckles. "Let Neps here have a turn."Vector quickly lost his annoyance to face an interested Neptune."Let's go kid! You have a try."Neptune slid in position, and had trouble with playtesting the buttons with his finger-claws. But he soon got adjusted to it and faced Vector, who could tell he was excited. Sonic waited and did a few more stretches to get ready for round two. Pressing a button, the countdown quickly started, the screen vanishing again as Sonic leaped into action.The others kept shouting and cheering Neptune on to keep hitting the ball. Although, for all the hitting and pressing buttons, with the banging and the chings, five minutes later Sonic fell to the bottom again. But this didn't disappoint Vector."Very good for a first try." Vector commented. Neptune just clapped in happiness."My turn." Said a stern Espio.However...Epsio failed at Pinball...and within a minute, Sonic fell to the bottom for the last time. Vector chastised Espio for his epic failure. Espio didn't really care. Neptune meanwhile waited beside the door, waiting for Sonic to come back out. Soon the door opened with Sonic walking out, wiping his forehead."Geez...not as long as last time eh?" Sonic teased.Vector shrugged. "Your friend had fun though."Sonic looked at Neptune and gave a thumbs up. Neptune tried to do the same, mimicking Sonic."I checked the place out. They have Bingo Highway II." Said Knuckles.Vector facepalmed. "Euch...but we left Charmy at home. We've only got Speed and Power type people here." He said.Sonic looked at Neptune. "Hm...he would be considered Power type too..."Espio nodded. "It is a shame. We could do with at least two flyers. Let's see if anyone else around here is more than willing to join us."Vector rose an eyebrow. "What? A stranger? How do you know if they're gonna be a Flying type?"Sonic crossed his arms. "Surely with the amount of people in here there's bound to be a few. Let's check around."They went to the Bingo Highway II Simulator and found a cluster of mobians chatting away. They frantically checked to see if anyone was obviously of the type. Sonic could see a dark grey fured girl, psuedo-spike with a pink tank top and blue skirt, and blue and purple shoes, white muzzle, looking bored. He walked over to the seemingly aloof girl."Hi there." He said with a smile."If you intend on picking me up I will smash your face." She answered, not even looking at his face.Sonic blinked. "What? No! I was gonna ask what your Affinity type was?"She looked over her shoulder. "I can vary. Depends on what you need?"Sonic chuckled. "So you're like, tridextrous?" He said, making words up.She turned away. "Certain terms. I'm a balanced player. Not the strongest, faster or have the greatest flight stamina, but I have all three in equals."Sonic nodded. "Sounds great. Mind joining us in Bingo Highway II then?"Glitch faced him. "Hmm...so...what role would I be playing?"Sonic smiled. "Flight. I'm speed...obviously...and my friend Knuckles here is Power."Neptune started fumbling with his finger claws and shaking.The girl smirked. "Looks like somebodies being left out here eh?"Sonic checked Neptune, who's body language suggested he felt being left out."I wish I could include you buddy." Sonic said with sadness.She examined Neptune. "You could make him a Flight Type. All you need to do is when you enter the simulation add on the floating E-GAMMA Jetpack...possibly times two for his weight."Sonic scratched his head. "You can do that?"The girls tail swirled about. "Duh. Patch 1.08 allows type change. Geez what a n00b."Sonic made a face. "Well, okay then. Thanks. Oh...also...since we have our flight type now, can you join my friends for a game? They also need a flight type.Her face was full of hesistance and annoyance. "If they really need one I suppose so."Sonic grinned. "Thanks. Its just my friends Bucks night. And we wanna make it special."The dark-greyed one remained a sarcastic figure. "Should have gone to Papa Roach's down the road..." She said, flinging her hands to her hips. "My name is Glitch. Glitch the Wolf."Sonic lent out his hand. "I'm Sonic the..."Glitch walked right passed him. "Yeah I know who you are. Where's your friend so we can get this thing started."As per the games instructions, Sonic walked in with Knuckles and Neptune to Simulator One after introducing Glitch to Espio and Vector. They went into Simulator Two. They came across an an area where the floor was a shiny black. The walls were all neon leds, as three different coloured circles appeared. A blue one upon which Sonic stood on, a red one for Knuckles and a yellow one for Neptune. Sonic could see the incompatibility with Neptune on the screen, claiming he is a Power type. Another prompt came up, asking Sonic if he wanted to add the E-GAMMA Jet pack x2 like Glitch mentioned. Pressing yes, a jet pack phased into existence behind the strange agent. Sonic turned to Neptune."Probie, I will take lead for the majority of this. It's not hard, when I yell Speed it means I'm in charge. When Knuckles says Power, he takes charge. Unfortunately since...you...well uh...don't speak, I will say flight for you." Sonic explained."Why doesn't he speak?" Knuckles wondered."He can't help it if he has a case of the mute." Sonic stated. "So when I say flight, be ready to take charge. The formations will change automatically, so I will be clinging on to you, while Knuckles will be clinging on to me."Neptune tapped his helmet with confusion, but gave a thumbs up, giving the signal he understood. He jumped on the spot indicating that he was ready to go. Sonic gave his signature smile and pressed in the round gear like button on the wall, putting the countdown bars in place.3...2...1..."SPEED!"Sonic jumped out and onto the steepest board you could see. The scenery gave the illusion of how high they were, with the city in the background but far far away. Hard beats played as they rolled down the boards and into various pipes, racking up more rings as they went along. It wasn't too dissimilar from the pinball, colliding with the bumpers and what not. The usuage of a speed booster allowed them to shoot up a halfpipe onto the next area. Sonic hit with one of the bingo coins as a number 1 faded from one of the upcoming bingo boards. More bumpers and bells, Sthey used the momentum to rolled up another half pipe and fly off, still spinning in the air.They were up pretty high from the next available surface and started to free fall quite quickly."POWER!"The group suddenly switched to to holding hands with another, Knuckles using his ability to glide to allow them to gently float down to the ground. Without delay, they headed off to another board and kept rolling downwoards, Knuckles hitting two, but with Neptune missing three. More bumpers, and quite a few flippers that were in a square formation, sending them all over the place, leaving Knuckles to use the games ability to allow the leader to control the flippers. Soon Knuckles was sent flying again with Sonic and Neptune on both sides, collecting dozens of more rings from dropping into a set of slots."SPEED!"Sonic took the lead as he travelled afar, searching for more of the coins, and finding five on the way up a half pipe, number five to be exact. Knuckles managed to cling on to six, nabbing them some coins and a free life. They landed on another surface, this time with crazy floating pair dice."Okay Neps, this is where you come in. FLIGHT!"Neptune felt being pulled upwards as Sonic clung to his legs as jet pack shot out a minor yet powerful thrust. He couldn't step on a frantic pair of dice that wouldn't stop moving. Look around, he could see a switch behind them, and floated them around to touch. Doing so, the dice only went up and down. Unsure but going ahead anyway, the Probie jumped, prompting the others to do the ball jump as well. Feeling another push, Neptune thrusted the jet back, giving him temporary flight, but noticing on the side of his visor that he had a stamina bar, but failed to understand the meaning and kept flying, falling when the bar ran empty, causing the others to scream. Lucky for them, Neptune managed to cling on to the edge of the first die."It's okay Probie..." Said Sonic, straining from Knuckles weight and his grip on Neptunes leg."Watch the bar. Everyone can see the bar in the corner of their eyes. When it runs empty, we fall. So try to watch it when flying."Neptune couldn't feel or understand the thrill and the fear of the situation. Instead, he crawled back up in no time flat. Quickly getting back into the flight formation, Neptune attempted to plan ahead, waiting for the following die to get low enough to jump on. A few seconds later, he took the chance and jumped far enough to land on it perfectly. The next part was another platform full of robots."These Robots are designed to test strength. I'll handle this. POWER!" Said Knuckles.The formation changed again as Knuckles headed in front. He held Sonic and Neptune in their spinball modes as the games programming allowed them to keep momentum. There were green flying robots and orange robots with lances. Knuckles simple jumped in the air and began throwing his two pieces of ammuntion, sending the robots blasting. Destroying them all successfully, they came across another part of the board. They rolled down into a rather psychodelic trip in a neon filled tunnel where the light was almost blinding. But they came across the third and final bingo board. Still in charge as they rolled off a ramp, they could see various boards of the same nature leading down the drop with the bingo coins spread out. Knuckles hit one, Sonic travelling further and hitting two and four respectively This time Neptune was determined to get down to three and withdrew his limbs to force himself to hit it...this time successfully and gaining tonnes of coins...
–
They managed to do the rest of the level quite smoothly, with more free lives and the like. As they finished they exited the simulator, meeting up with Vector, Espio and Glitch."Say, you guys aren't half bad." Glitch commented as they discussed their session with one another.Vector cracked his knuckes and made a smug look."Well it's an easy game." He said.Sonic could sense Glitch's eye on him, before she paid attention with everyone else."It wasn't such a bore after all. I look forward to the next time we play together." She said with a small smirk on her face before walking off in a show offy manner.Vector crossed his arms. "She's worse than me." He joked.Espio nodded. "Indeed. Although her cockiness was a bit annoying."They went to the bar area and sat in one of the cubicles, Vector ordering all their drinks. It was probably one of the most decent and normal of talks they had. Boys to boys just talking boy stuff. Sport and activities, jokes and the occasional bout of random topics. Sonic was completely comfortable with it, until one bit decided to pop up as Knuckles looked at Sonic, then to the others.The conversation warped into Tails and his demise. Sonic spoke few words and was nearly as mute as Neptune, who was playing around the salt and pepper. Occasions, times and personality came in play. The deep pit inside his heart was refilled with more guilt with a bout of confusion. For the first time he didn't want to talk about it, it hurt too much. However, the good friend he was, he tried to contribute his own words about him, remembering and flashing back to the days when they first met and with his help defeated one of Eggman's plots back in the early days, reminding Sonic he was always alone until Tails came along, which hurt him even more."To Tails!" Said Vector, raising his glass."To Tails!" The others said, giving a good ol' fashioned toast to their disappeared friend by clinking their glasses together and taking a scull.Sonic thought this was the perfect moment to change the subject, no matter how rude and horrible he felt about it. They would pay perfect tribute to when they got to that Steampunk City or what ever it was. Sonic hoped that with that he could redeem himself in the eyes of Tails people, ask for forgiveness for what happened to one of their prodigal sons. But even that seemed selfish. He had to respect the dead or MIA. But for now, he wanted to get out of this position he was in."We should also pay toast to Vector, who will no longer be on the list of bachelors as if Saturday!" Sonic announced, raising his glass again.Shrugging, the rest rose theirs as well, remembering what tonight's original intent was."To Vector!" All said in unison, clinking their glasses once more and taking a swig.With that, Vector's mobile rang, his ring tune the sound of some rock song. He checked the screen and browed as he murmured his fiances name and answered it."Hello?...Yeah?...Oh...yeah he's here still you want me to send him over?...alright...will do. Love ya. Bye!"Sonic raised an eyebrow. "So what did your fiance want?" He asked.Vector facepalmed. "Eh...she's asked me to ask you if you could pick Amy up from Rob'O's in Soleanna."Sonic went wide-eyed. "Wha? Me? Why doesn't she ask Shadow to do it?" He wondered, curious as to why her own boyfriend won't deal with it.Vector put his phone away. "She said Shadow wasn't answering her calls. She'd gotten a bit too tipsy."Sonic sighed. He looked at Neptune. "I guess we better go then. You guys have a great night!"Saying their goodbyes, Sonic took Neptune back to his...well, still sorta weird saying HIS house when technically it was Tails. But his sake, and for his sanity, he would say it was his. The stranger fact was that he now had a house. A place to stay unlike just hanging like a drifter. With that out of his head, he took Neptune home regardless. He made him comfortable and left him to watch TV while Sonic went to grab Amy.He couldn't believe Amy would be drunk at her age. He wasn't sure to blame Vanilla for this. They were only teenagers, with Sonic forgetting how old she actually was. Told him how much he was really paying real attention to any of his friends live. But figuring the amount of people that might be at Vector and Vanilla's wedding would be allotting to his friends, it was a good moment to get to know them better...to make up for all the years of ignorance and self-isolation. Sure they got together for birthdays and Christmases, but he always felt he needed to get out again. But his own morals got the better of him and forced him to stay. He wasn't claustrophobic...he was addicted to running. The endorphins that were pumped from sprints of freedom...there was nothing quite like it. He loved his friends dearly, but his subconscious would often crawl out and belittle him for his tendency to push others away. He didn't know what he could do to prevent this. He found nothing wrong what he was doing, but guilt still piled up around him from leaving people behind. Maybe that was half the problem...not many people could keep up with him.He would talk to the wind upon hitting landmarks, as it was the only moving force that stayed with him where ever he went. It was like he was either on an adventure or a holiday. Maybe a combination of both. There was a lack of discipline on his terms. Which would explain why Shadow had the bionic eye implanted. A sense of control over a wild beast. The distinct rampancy of his nature was more destructive than constructive. But his speed and flexibility helped save the world many a time. A failed reprimand..those pros overcame those cons and it allowed him to keep living the way he did...Several hours of dwelling in his own thoughts, he made it to Soleanna's Rob'Os. The exterior appeared to be more like an abandoned warehouse, but from the strip of windows up the top he could see lights flashing about. The sign above the double doors had straight digital text of the club, with a human bouncer checking each person who entered. He came up to the bouncer and smiled at him, before being stopped."I need to see some ID." Said the bouncer in a deep, harrowing voice.Sonic didn't have any identification, instead just stared at the bouncer, tapping his foot."Seriously, I'm all over the place and you have no idea who I am?" Sonic said arrogantly."Sorry 'Sonic', we get impostors all the time...the real Sonic doesn't have a black eye." The bouncer explained.Sonic groaned, forgetting about the eye altogether until he mentioned it. He looked over saw Rouge approaching the two in a skimpy pink dress."It's okay, he's the real deal." She said seductively, which made the Bouncer straighten up."Yes Ma'am!"The club was packing. The bass alongside the trance pumped, the vibrations running through the floor and up Sonic's feet. He followed Rouge to a private table with Vanilla looking sad."VANILLA!" Rouge yelled over the music. "SONIC'S HERE...WHERE'S AMY?"Vanilla looked up and gave a small weak smile. "Oh thank goodness you're here. I think she's on the dance floor with Elise."Sonic nodded with a stern, determined look on his face and forced his way through the crowd. Over on the stage was a human girl that had pink hair in two pigtails and was wearing some sort of white space-suit like regalia with a head set and mic on. Wearing a white top and a white mini skirt and long white high heel boots, she also had a blue plastic gun strapped to her right thigh. She was seen behind the turn tables, wave her other hand towards the crowd and bopping up and down."Hey everyone this is DJ Ulala! How is everyone tonight?" she said, wooing the crowd something fierce in response as they roared to the roof."I'm sorry, I didn't hear you!" DJ Ulala said with a cutesy tone.The crowd went mental, with Sonic still frantically looking for Amy."That's much better! Now I wanna bring up our very own Party Princess Elise to give a very special announcement!" DJ Ulala called, waggling her index finger about, her movement going along with the rhythm, her hips bouncing to the beat.Soon Elise walked up in a two piece, midriff revealing out fit. A white boob tube and tight white short shorts with massive black high heal boots, with just as black long fingerless gloves that reached her elbow and a silver necklace with a onyx encrusted Solaris icon pendant. In replace of her usual white feather hair clips were skulls and crossbones on a red rose. DJ Ulala lent Elise a microphone as the crowd went wild."Hi everyone! I'm here to announce that we have a bride in the house! That's right! We're celebrating the beautiful Vanilla the Rabbit's hens night! So I want ya'll to make sure she has a great time here!"Sonic kept battling and pushing through, until he saw Amy standing and cheering on. Sonic glimpsed at the pink hedgehog, who wore a black ensemble, a cute sleeveless top with collar. A white tie, polka dot old style skirt, black tights with intertwinning line of dots with black clog like high heals, and gloves similar to Elise's.Her usual red headband was replaced with a black headband with a charcoal flower. Amy looked pretty grim for a party girl. As she turned her head, Sonic could tell her eyelids were droppy and slurred her words as she started talking with the other patrons.Sonic had no choice but to pull her out from the crowd, and had a surprised look on her face as he did so.Sucessfully getting her out and towards the bar area, Sonic began to scold with a pissed off Amy."Sonic what are you doing?" She said, Sonic smelling the alcohol from her breath."Why are you so drunk?" Sonic asked, keeping hold of her arm."Let go of me or I'll call Shadow!" Amy squealed.Sonic sighed. "Listen to me Amy...who gave you the drinks?"Amy's eyelids went up and down slowly as she tried to spit out words."Uh...Elise! Elise was giving me Rob'O's special! Call the Rob's...something...I can't remember but it was nice! You should try some!"Amy became wobbly, causing Sonic concern. He wondered how many drinks Elise actually gave her and became furious with the Princess. Some role model she was. But Sonic wanted to get her home safely."Amy, I'm gonna take you home. I need to put you to bed."Amy started giggling like crazy. "Sonic...you dirty boy."Sonic sighed again. He could see that she wasn't taking this seriously. He promptly picked her up and nodded to Vanilla's table, who nodded back. Amy started laughing as they exited the club...Sonic began running back to Central City, holding Amy tight in his arms. Amy weeved in and out of consciousness."Sonic..." She said weakly. Sonic ignored her, not wanting to hear her ramble on about nothing.Sadenned, she tried agaim."...Sonic?"Sonic kept running, but answered her anyway."What?" He said abruptly.Amy looked down. "I don't wanna go home."The emotion that shed off his face was pure frustration. She didn't have the current mental capacity to function normally. He was taking her home and that was it."Seriously Sonic...can we...just stop somewhere and talk?"Sonic didn't reply as rage built up his emotional spine."Please...Sonic I'm begging you...stop..."Sonic gritted his teeth and skidded to a halt. By this time they were in the random fields which were covered in snow, a least an hour off Central City from the rate he was going. The painful reminder that he needed to protect was melding in with his mental fatigue, building up tension and being unable to release it. They were up the top of a hill where he placed her down and turned his back to her, staring out at the clouded sky, not wanting to vent his troubles on the intoxicated hedgehog.Amy had trouble keeping her balance and held on the fence beside her with a frown on her face."Sonic...I didn't want you to stop because I needed a rest. I wanted to talk you." She said.A smidget of fog breath emanated from Sonic's smouth."When I said I didn't want to go home...I meant it." She continued.Sonic crossed his arms, trying to reconfigure his thoughts."I don't wanna hear a 'I told you so' from you, but...Shadow's becoming more distant."Sonic huffed. She was right, he saw this from ages away. But she posed to be ignorant about it."With this war with...this...demon. He's restraining himself and shutting away in that gigantic fortress of his."Again, this did not surprise Sonic in the least. Although he flashed back to when he saw them making out at her apartment, she seemed pretty happy and content. He could help with their relationship, but a minor blockage in his mind prevented him from doing so. It wasn't his business anyway. Sonic felt they were degrading with another with the invisible tether that kept them as friends. Amy's quest to marry him that lowered to the dating scene...he didn't understand well enough why she even persisted. If she knew him well enough, she would have left him alone. It would just be him and the wind...no one else. Everyone would be happy."I know you're with GUN. I'm glad. You could keep an eye on Shadow for me..." She said, tearing up. She fell onto her knees and balled her eyes out. Sonic closed his eyes and tried not to turn around to comfort her. She'd done this to herself. If she wanted to be independent, she would hate dated someone else not in her friend circle...go into the circle of anonymous citizens."But...it's been...really hard to let you go..."Sonic scrunched his fists as he was struggling to resist. Tears ran down her cheeks."I...can't help loving you Sonic...it's like a disease...a cancer that's rotting inside...and it's too painful to bear."Damn you Amy...now he was beginning to tear up to. He reminded himself she was still under the influence and all this was nonsensical babbling."I started dating Shadow because...because at least he could give it a try. But...you're always in my heart..."Sonic had to breath in and out to prevent himself from exploding with mixed feelings. He crossed his arms and continued looking forward as it started to snow. Amy grabbed hold of the fence and wobbled as she stood back up."I wanted to be me. I used to want to believe that if I waited long enough...that you would...accept it. But...I was entirely foolish and discovered all of it was a complete waste of time. My time...and that I was throwing my life away for something I could never have..."A powerful surge of pain struck through Sonic like lightning, wondering why her scorn hurt him so much. Like the rest of the impending emotions, he shut them off like they were nothing."But...it's okay now. I'm living my life the way I want to. No holding back. I couldn't be seen as a lunatic in the watchful eyes of others. Especially you. So I told myself...if you want to get anywhere in life...you have to learn to let go..."Sonic wished he could...he really did. But...yet again, she was not herself."But...it's...it's...impossible!"Sonic knew how she felt. Somehow even if he didn't know that he knew it. It was as aspect of himself he didn't understand either. A riddle for the ages. He heard her fall into the snow and became silent. He finally turned around to see that she'd passed out. The strain of her sadness and anger took hold as she faltered in the world of dreams. He walked over and picked her up."Interesting how you ignored her whilst she pouring her heart out to you. How...gentlemenly." Shizaru said sarcastically.Sonic didn't bat an eyelid. "She was drunk...what else could I do?" He cooed.Shizaru stood there wearing a white mink coat. "You're using that excuse to deflect the issue. I thought Mr. Thorn was smarter than that."Sonic snuffed her off and prepared to run again."If she wants to tell me anything, she can tell me when she's sober." Sonic exclaimed. He then bolted towards Central City, with Shizaru's voice changling inside his head."I wouldn't recommend the route to Central City." Said Shizaru."Why not?" Asked Sonic.The hour passed as Sonic could see the outskirts of Central City, and the plentiful towers and skyscrapers in the background. Sonic didn't know the time, but he suspected it was getting on towards midnight or even the early hours of Wednesday morning. For once the silence was peaceful. Amy mentioned that she didn't want to return home...and she was becoming paranoid about it. It was probably best not to leave her alone, now knowing her impending fate. He and Neptune would protect her, Sonic now thanking Shadow for giving him a faithful companion, although Tails would always have a place in Sonic's street. His home was a cottage, but was enclosed inside, withdrawing himself from sight and was no longer going outside to mingle with the others. Given this cold night, Sonic gave up resisting and took Amy back to his house where she would be protected.He got home and opened the door, seeing Neptune with his feet on the coffee table, laying back and watching tv."Hey I'm back." Announced Sonic as he entered and closed the door. Neptune looked over and waved, doing his usual tilt of curiousness as he looked at Amy."Oh...don't worry. I'm gonna...well...put her to sleep."Neptune wasn't phased as he went back to watch television as Sonic walked upstairs and put Amy to sleep. His face heated up as took her head band off and placed it to the desk, and slowly took her heels off and neatly placed them beside the bed. Taking the doona out, he covered Amy from her chest downwars, carefully resting her head on the pillow. The stomach pains returned, becoming more painful than before. She shifted a bit, leaning onto her side with her arms lying about and bending her knees in. Sonic sat on the edge of the bed beside and and tucked her in."The necklace Sonic." Said Shizaru who appeared out of nowhere as usual.Sonic almost forgot about the necklace. He took the box out from one of the drawers and opened it, staring at it as it glistened in from the moonlight that filtered in from the window. Taking it out the box, he gently put it on her, clipping it from behind and adjusting it slightly."There...what now?" Sonic asked. When she didn't reply, Sonic turned to check the room. Seeing that she had disappeared, he looked back at Amy, who was sound asleep. He got up with the intention of chilling with Neptune until he himself would fall into the land of nod, instead he felt something grab his leg. Amy had mindlessly prevented him from going anywhere. Sonic tried to pull her fingers off, but she was holding on to him pretty tightly."Don't go..." She whispered with a tinge of fear in her voice. He sat back down and she withdrew her hand. He wasn't to sure of her behavioural or subconscious tendencies to cling on after she had just lambasted him not long ago. But...surely a simple lie down next to her couldn't hurt right?He went over to the other side of the bed and laid there, staring at the roof and placing his hands on his stomach. Looking over at Amy, she had her back to him. He stared at her as her body rose and fell as she breathed. Turning to the roof again, Sonic let his eyelids descend as he slept.A darkness arose, with the sound of kids playing as Sonic opened his eyes to find that he was standing in the middle of a playground at sun set, as the wind blew across. Sonic was slightly left bewildered that there were no children around, despite the sounds of their laughter and screams going on around him. He was waiting for something to happen...yet nothing did. He began walking around, realizing the playground was the only thing for miles. The rest was flat and desolate ground that touched the horizon. Black silhouttes with piercing bright eyes began walking around, their shadows walking in the other direction muttering words empired from ancient worlds, stories and legends of the past, some shouting them towards him."We aren't the shrill of manipulation that she is biologically from. Lest she curse you with her castrating sneers and stares that could pierce the heavens.""To build the energy of the weapon that blasts energies of light from it's geysers. Is the energy of Chaos or madness?"Images changed before him as the silhouettes stopped moving, becoming blobs with eyes. The sun finally set, leaving the shadows to let Sonic deal with his own thoughts."Is such the taste of pure chaos that attracts the common creature...or the lust for power that condemns them?"The imagery turned rather erotic for Sonic, his dream world deciding to become a bit too spicy for his liking, seeing Amy wearing those clothes, as they shrank and in the end wearing a skimpy piece of lacy underwear as a pole rose from the darkness, a single light source displaying her as she pole danced, giving Sonic seductive looks. He wanted to look away but he couldn't. His dream self dealings with such...consolation took over his sanity and his own self-control that his ability for thinking disappeared completely, falling into the illusion of red hot original male instinct. She started licking the pole, Sonic for some reason being tired to a chair and unable to move, could not help but be entranced by the thing. It was incredibly wrong, but Sonic's dream self couldn't see it. Swirls of colours danced in the background."You are such a filthy hedgehog." Said Amy as she swung around the pole. She jumped off the stage and did a catwalk-esque strut towards Sonic and sat on his lap, licking his cheek."You dare think about me this way? You are such a male!" She scolded, suckling on his nose.Sonic was still unable to think."You should be disgusted."She attempted to kiss him, but a flash of light prevented her from reaching his lips...He shot up from the bed and shook his head, now being able to think again. The sun shot through the window, giving a good warmth to the morning. After realizing what he had just dreamed about, he held his head as he rubbed his head, ashamed at his dream and cursing himself over and over again. Looking over to the side of the bed, Amy was long gone. She must have woken up at some point and left for better days. Sonic was surprised, as he thought she would have been out for ages, instead had abandoned. Poor girl...opening her eyes to see him next to her with the most horrid of thoughts in her head and fled at first chance. Leaning over to the other side and checking the box, it was still empty. Sigh with relief, he collapsed and stretched his limbs.BANG!His ears twitched as he became more reponsive and jumped off the bed to investigate the large noise downstairs, presumably something that Neptune did. Instead he was met with a smash to the face as he returned to dream land again.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Brainless. Pure brainless, thoughtless void. It was what it felt like. The situation felt more hollow and lifeless than it ever did, as if the world no longer existed. These feelings of emptiness were consistent and pathological, built without pain. And the silence that followed him around, stalking and invading his personal space. He couldn't get out. He wanted to have that fear and desperation but he was stuck in nothingness, the barrels of the abyss.
Drip...drip...drip...
Until he heard rhythmic drops of water at even intervals. His joints ached and mouth dry, head groggy and nose tingling. A small scale of light, albeit blurry, that he desperately hung on to. The signs of life were among him, as the belief that death would not allow him the despair to live with. Opening his eyes, he waited for his vision to be almost back to normal, when he could see he was in iron-clad, moss-ridden and electrical barrier protected room. The drips came from above as he slowly looked up at one of the worn nuts and bolts that kept his prison together. The ability to think returned as he tried to comprehend where he was.He held his head, the tiring efforts of staying awake proved futile but the strength of his will overcame this problem. Voices echoed throughout, chatting, cackling words, Sonic zoning in every time someone mentioned his name. He recognized the voices."He wants to see him." Said a robotic yet polite sounding voice."Yeah he said bring em out and just put it in the...whats that place called again?" Said another robotic yet goofy and high pitched. The other one sighed."Never mind what it's called the point is our second in command wants to see Sonic."Sonic's head dropped as his vision disappeared. He heard a device switch off, and felt himself being dragged on hard ground, his knees grazing against the surface. Time didn't seem to be a problem as he whizzed in and out of consciousness, seeing bits and pieces of the facility he was being held in, the voice kept on talking."You know, I almost feel bad for him." Said the polite one."Poor guy, probably didn't know what hit 'em." Said the goofy one.The gushing of water burst around him and with everyone random moment he gained back his sight he could see black and red people holding rifles lining up on each side, his head swing about as he did so. He soon found himself in strange cylindrical room, the walls of an iron-type alloy, mazes of pipes with leaking green water, moss and overgrown weeds and grass. He was being dragged across the bridge onto a chair."Wake him up." Ordered a deeper voiced robot.Sonic winced slightly as he felt a needle go into his arm. He felt a bit better as his vision came back completely, and realized who he was kneeling before."Metal." Sonic muttered.The blue robot duplicate sat on a makeshift throne with two old modeled Shadow Mechas. He ordered the other robots to leave for now. Metal leaned over and lifted Sonic's chin, checking out his bionic eye."Ironic. You have a knack for deconstruction against artificial lifeforms...and yet...part of you is already artificial." He pointed out.Sonic spat in his face."I'd rather die than be robotized like back in the day." He said with a smirk.Metal let the spit roll off. He laughed."Unfortunately we don't have the materials to make such a machine. Actually, that is not why you are here."Sonic might be feeling a bit better, but it wasn't much different from what he was feeling before. But he had the strength to snark. Which was probably worth it in his opinion. Metal Sonic let go of his head and stood up."What do you want from me?" Sonic grunted.Metal started walking around. "You have my creator locked up in your prison. I have you locked up here. I suggest a fair trade."Sonic chuckled. "Hah...really? Do you think GUN will let Eggman go?"Metal gave Sonic a glare. "We do have backup plans. Which we will most likely need to use. We know of your heroic willpower so we have prepared a statement...we record it and send it to your Commander directly."The corner of Sonic's lip twitched. The other robots, revealed to Orbot and Cubot had brought a boom mike and a camera respectively into the room. Metal instructed them as he picked Sonic up by his neck, deliberately choking him. He then stared into the barrel of the camera with his uncanny glare."Is it rolling?" Metal asked. Orbot gave a thumbs up while Cubot was struggling to hold the boom mike."I am Metal Sonic, calling to you Commander of GUN. I am making a trade of the fairest, the most reasonable as per your weak soft fleshed constitutions. You have our creator, Dr. Eggman, and I have the worlds greatest hero, Sonic the Hedgehog. If you want your hero alive, make sure to be here at two o'clock, or else your precious hero will become a priceless martyr. The directions will be in the package. Good bye."There was an awkward silence for the moment, as Cubot accidentally dropped the boom mike on Metals head."Watch it box head!" Metal scolded."Uh...sorry sir!" Cubot squealed as he took the boom mic back.Not obliging their incompetence, Metal ensured that they had recorded and made Orbot play back the tape. On the onset of further instructions, they ran off to do what was ordered. Metal threw Sonic back on the ground, who started laughing."What's so funny?" Asked Metal.Sonic forced himself up, but was whacked down by the Shadow Mechas."I'm surprised you didn't get Eggmans best friend to help him escape." Sonic pointed out.Metal brushed it off. "Abbadonia has grown weak as the result of her host. We are having trouble with the one she told us to obtain."Sonic grinned. "You realize she's gonna betray you right?"Metal turned his back. Sonic kept going."Seriously...Chaos...the Biolizard thing...YOU! YOU betrayed him...uhh there was also Dark Gaia...""FOOL!" Metal yelled. "Eggman is expected to stuff up. However, this time he plotted a plan so perfect that even I thought it was brilliant..."Sonic rose an eyebrow. "He built you to think that?"
THWACK!
Sonic wiped the blood from his nose after being whacked by Metals hand. Metal crossed his arms."Eggman looked at his own track record. The 100 percent failure rate of allying with an ancient beast has made him pull his finger out and finally have a proper scheme to counteract it, in case it does happen." Metal exclaimed.Sonic was impressed. "Ahaaa...good on ya Baldy. What's he gonna do?"Metal laughed. "Nice try Sonic. Might want to try a little bit harder to make me babble. Take him back to his prison!"Sonic felt another injection go into his left arm, causing him to lop over and dragged over.There was a loss of time. A whirl of smoke that just kept circling around for no reason dwindling in his visioning, falling deeper into the same nothingness he was in before, the only place where he could renounce his sanity. He wasn't completely broken, just a little bit lost as all. Although it would help if he was conscious and could figure a way out of the prison. Unfortunately being drugged kinda stuffed all that up, the hassle of lifting a leg or an arm became a temporary disability. But the only thing that was driving him mad was...
drip...drip...drip...
He wanted someone to clog it up...the dreaded repetitiveness."Annoying isn't it?"Sonic looked up, half expecting Shizaru to be standing there telling him off. When it fact it wasn't. The voice was noble and strong but not aggressive."You..." Sonic muttered under his raspy voice. "You're..."The tall blue hedgehog embedded with golden jewelery scattered everywhere held a reassuring smile. He was a spitting image of Sonic, right down to the spikes and the charming smile. He had bandages wrapped around his arms and Mayan styled running shoes."It's me Gabriel I know." He clarified, crossing his arms. "Glad to see me for a change?"Sonic didn't bother. "Eh..."Gabriel nodded. "I know...the logistics of it are quite confusing, but as soon as you get around it, it's not hard to understand."Great...he was being just as cryptic as Shizaru was."Where's Shizaru?" Sonic asked.Gabriel smiled. "You placed the necklace on the Prophetess. Shizaru is with her. Although the ritual isn't complete."Sonic waved his hand weakly. "I know I know...I gotta go...to the Temple..."Gabriel nodded. "So she won't be needing me anymore. In fact, I sent someone on a quest to get the counterpart."Sonic's head fell, forcing him to raise it again with sheer will. "I don't have to wear a necklace too do I?" He joked.Gabriel laughed. "Hah! Well, even under drugs you can be snarky. I like you. You remind me of my son."Sonic's head swayed a bit. "Eh...I suppose..."Gabriel walked over and sat next to Sonic, resting his arm over his shoulder."Don't think too much of it. You got a black glove...which is hiding somewhere..."Sonic lazily looked over with his over drooped eye lids. "Wha?"Gabriel shook his head. "Heh...strange right? But trust me...it'll be useful."Sonic didn't have the mental capacity to care. The drugs were affecting his way of thinking, barely able to make a sane thought pop out of his brain. This hallucination was probably nothing different."So...how am I gonna get out of here?" Sonic asked.Gabriel tapped his knee with his index finger. "You will eventually. I don't doubt for one moment they're planning to get you out of here. Considering what you've already done for the world so far.""Lucky me..." Sonic said sarcastically.Gabriel shook his shoulder. "Aw cheer up! Smile! At least I'm here to keep you company!...for a while..."Sonic remained apathetic. This character was really cocky and so sure of himself. Cheerful and optimistic, it reminded Sonic of who he was supposed to be. He was so wrapped up in the torment of his own thoughts that he forgot who he really was. Maybe if he admitted what was wrong, that he it could lift his spirits."I'm having some trouble." Said Sonic."What's up?" Asked Gabriel.He need the honesty of his own words to convince him to change back. The tension of secrecy, confusion and the darkness of the path he was being forced to tread was taking it's hold. His feelings and unhinged nature concerned himself...perhaps Gabriels presence was helping him think again."I honestly don't like where this is going. The game goes is that Eggman makes an evil plot and I foil it with little problem. But with Abbadonia in the equation, I fear I'm losing my mind."Gabriel nodded. "I see. Abbadonia liked to do that in the past. In fact she did it with me."Sonic looked at Gabriel at the corner of his eye. "How did that go?"Gabriel shrugged. "A sacrifice here and there. But it was worth it for those four thousand years to keep the world safe from harm. When that Muriel woman found the book...that's when the spell started to wain and the events unfolded all those years ago."Sonic's head fell, forcing him to lift it up again. "Fifty years it took for her to finally see some progress eh?"Gabriel nodded. "Yup. Me and Shizaru did what we could...we don't know how the book got found when it sealed in deep on the ruins of Angel Island."Sonic smirked. "These days it's worth the risk for archeologists to make the greatest discovery known to all. Whether its for fame or fortune, sometimes you wonder if they ever watched Indiana Jones."Gabriel browed. "Who on Mobius is Indiana Jones?" He wondered.Sonic snuffed. "Meh...just a fictitious person. You need to get out more..."Gabriel pouted. "I would if I could..."They spent the next few minutes discussing common society together. He said he'd tagged around with the Prophetess for a while, but never bothering to listen in to her usual gaga. When asked about the Prophetess, Sonic noted he never mentioned her name but knew who it was so it was redundant to ask. He leaned his head back as he ears flickered to the drops."You can't fix that can you?" Sonic asked.Gabriel laughed. "Noooope...sorry!"That's it. He was done for. "You stickin' around for a while?"Gabriel stood up. "Ehh...I might...why you expecting someone?"Sonic shook his head. "Not really...just...need to hear a voice."Gabriel was bemused. "I get the whole...robot thing gets a bit headacheish after all..."Sonic was about to pass out when he murmured a word.. "NiGHTS."Gabriel blinked. "NiGHTS? Oh...NiGHTS was just doing some work for that Dream Goddess..."'For once, Sonic didn't want to be bound by loneliness. He grew resentful and fearful of the void that befell him every time he lost consciousness. It was like being dead. He needed any voice, biding that it wasn't Abbadonia or whomever he didn't like. He could give anything to even hear Amy's voice again. But for now, Gabriel would have to do for the time being...even if he was a bit eccentric for a ghost."So...Hell's Sundering...what actually happened?" Sonic asked, sparking a new conversation."That old thing. You know the Elders of the House didn't like our kind very much. They used us as warriors...protectors after we'd wandered the Earth for some inexplicable reason that not even I can explain. I'm pretty much...quite a lot of generations ahead of that event." Said Gabriel."These days they call it racism." Sonic explained. "It's still around but it's frowned upon nowadays."Gabriel smiled. "So they made a word for mistreatment of people just because they're different? Heh...I wish I was still alive right now so I could pound the Elder's faces in."Sonic rolled his eyes. "I think prejudice was a similar word..."Gabriel nodded. "Ah so racism is built on prejudice. Makes sense..." He said, scratching his head.Sonic groaned. Gabriel went back to the story."Anyway, the Elders had gotten to the point where they wanted the rest of the artifacts...'purely' because someone had gotten the idea into their heads about how Abbadonia came to them first and gave them the Sphere of Abyss. 'Purely' because they had explicit control over the transport system there was the rotten notion of collecting the rest...so they came to the Temple of the Prophets for Shizaru's opinion..."Sonic nodded. "Why does that always happen?" He lampshaded.Gabriel expressed his agreement. "So you can kinda guess the rest..."Sonic batted his eyelids. The assumption he could come up with was obvious."Hell's Sundering?"Gabriel bowed his head. "Yeah. A total war that lasted...I'd say...a year?"Sonic lazily looked at Gabriel. He was currently everything he was not at the moment. The world could use a fella like him around. Gabriel put his hands behind his head and leaned on the wall."In the end so much was lost that when Shizaru's necklace was torn off, Abbadonia took control. I used the Chaos Emeralds my people collected and turned into the Angelhog of Legend, sealing Abbadonia inside the book."Sonic was interested in knowing the rest of the story, but for now keeping conscious was a priority. Tails would kill to know this history, it would feed his ever babbling mouth. The strength to holding on was weakening, but he with his stubbornness he wasn't allowed to make it fail for him. The mental power that it took to stay away was phenomenal, making him wonder whether or not Gabriel was just a general hallucination or just a ghost deciding it would be funny to haunt his own kind. It was inevitable that problems would arise at his status. The scent of rust and water drove his nose crazy, the taste of metal in his mouth was gaggable, but the sheer focus on staying awake shot those minor complaints out the window. Looking over to the wall, Gabriel was no longer visible. But Sonic had to devise a way to escape from this tormenting electrical cage. His ring was useless, his book was useless...but the red Chaos Emerald was still in his possession. Checking out the barrier that held him in, he could use the Emerald to escape. But in his weakened state, it was near impossible. But he tried anyway, very slowly crawling towards the barrier with what he could use inside. Every slunk and every sway that held him down from the weight of his lethargy did nothing to his forceful push towards getting out. He had work to do. Steampunk City and the Garden of Rosales. And Amy. He had to protect Amy. It was his own assigned duty. Sonic took deep breaths, before collapsing at the barrier. Checking the place out, his cell was among a hallway line of electronic cells. Pushing himself off the floor, he took out the emerald, before hearing doors fly wide open and tried to quickly withdraw it. He shuffled as far back as he could and attempted to listen to the commotion before him, the floor screeching."Take the bag off her." Said a Shadow Mecha."Yes sir." Said Orbot.Struggles and shuffles echoed throughout, before the floor started screeching again."We'll have throw her in with the hedgehog...how come we never got the other cells fixed?" Asked Cubot."I don't know comrade." Orbot replied in his polite voice. "It isn't wise to do so...but until we fix the power generators this will have to do..."Sonic continued shuffling towards the back wall and fell back on it, the barrier disappearing as Orbot and Cubot came passed, both of them throwing their newest prisoner in like a log.Cubot dusted off his hands. "There we go!" He said enthusiastically. "Now we do we get to have nap time?"Orbot checked his wrist. "Not yet..another precise four minutes and thirty five seconds, then we can shut ourselves off for an approximate thirty minutes."Cubot clapped with happiness. "Oh goodie! Let's play Guess Who to pass the time!"Orbot shrugged. "Sure. But this time...don't tell me what he's wearing..."The two henchbots hopped off elsewhere, turning the barrier back on while Sonic dragged himself to his new cellmate. Judging by the black suit and helmet, it could only be one person..."Olly..." Sonic coarsed.Using his arms, he pushed himself and dragged the rest of his body and limbs towards her lifeless body. He rolled her over to her back seeing part of her helmet was cracked and parts of her suit torn and ripped. But as due to extreme lethargy couldn't maintain his upper body strength, Sonic's head landed on her chest. Olly woke up to the disturbance and stared at Sonic, a warm glow enveloping her body."Sonic..." Olly called out.It was her turn to roll him over as she struggled to get up herself. She was just as drugged as he. Almost passing out, Sonic got up again, seeing that Olly was barely awake and tugged on her arm. He got up and slowly, but surely brought them both over to the back wall, as he grabbed her waist with both arms as they reached, and placed her back and leaned her head to allow her to theoretically sit up. He pushed himself up next to her, and let his head flop to look at her."What...are you doing here?" Sonic asked.He'd wished she would take that damn helmet off, even if he had to do it himself. In fact, he tried, reaching over to the damaged headgear, before receiving a pathetic slap to the wrist."Don't..." She whispered.Sonic casually blinked. "It's gonna...be no use to you..."Olly looked down. "It's not that...it's...important to keep this visage...this mark and mirror."Sonic rose an eyebrow. "Health or honor?"Olly's head rose. "Honor comes before everything else. Right down to the last breath."Sonic chuckled weakly. "You military types humor me a lot. Sometimes they're just meaningless sacrifices that hurt more than they heal."Somewhere underneath that cracked visor, he could feel a piercing glare. Sonic just smirked.Olly was not amused. "These people do what they can to help their own...to save everyone."Sonic took a deep breath. Olly was soon keen on defending them herself, not letting Sonic's opinions on them matter to her. The bravery yet stupidity of her actions made him wonder what in chaos she was doing anyway."I'd gotten word...that you were missing...I...followed directions...used instinct and..."Her head lowered more, Sonic using his index finger to lift her head up."Anyone else coming?" He asked, his eyelids acting weird."They should be..." She coughed. The graininess in their voices gave good indication on their lethargy levels. Hers were just as bad as his. The dripping from above giving them a headache from the noise that grew with the echoes...
drip...drip...drip...
"I could use the Chaos Emerald to get out." Said Sonic, with his head dropping, in which he responded with a sudden whip back.Olly whirled her head around."How?" She croaked.Sonic's head lowered again. "I could...you know...push..." He said, lazily flapping his hand about."The Emerald into the barrier...if I push it hard it enough it might malfunction or break...or something..."Olly took a deep breath. "The only problem is the amount of strength you'd have to do it. I mean, we're drugged up as it is. I'm using what I can to resist falling asleep."Sonic forced his head up to look at her. "Sleep then...I'll watch over."Olly shook her head as she pressed her palm on the wall. "No...I want to stay awake."Sonic held a small smile. "I promise I won't let anything happen to you..."Olly's head fell forward. "I wanna...stay awake. I don't want to end up in that place again."Sonic grew concerned. "Olly...don't over exert yourself."Olly pathetically slammed her hand. "I'm..I'm not! I'd rather keep active then lie in what I call hell."Sonic sighed. He squeezed his eyes before reopening them. He then chuckled."I guess we're both a pair of stubborn heroes then huh?" He joked.Olly laughed half-heartedly. "Hehe..yeah...we both have a refusal to let life ride over us and make skidmarks..."Sonic's bionic was in sync with his normal left eye, feeling what it feels, making it practically indifferent to a normal eye. He'd sometimes forget it was different. He pulled out the red emerald and stared at it. Olly slid over to gleam into it's glamour, the beauty of the priceless jewel outshone everything."It transfers thoughts into power..." Olly whispered. "Too bad we don't have another...they could set us free..."Sonic agreed, trying to keep his eyes open. "We'll have to make do..."Olly watched as Sonic tried to drag himself over to the barrier, before being pulled back by Olly."What are you doing?" Sonic queried.Olly brought more strength to the surface. "Sonic...at least...wait...even if you do manage to break it, how are we gonna get out of the complex? Crawl?"She had a good point. They weren't exactly in top shape and their fatigue would weigh them down greatly. Trying to think over what would happen, he fell flat, dropping the Emerald in the process. Olly pushed herself over to place Sonic against the wall, and placed the Emerald in his lap."Sleep..." She whispered, allowing his head to fall on her shoulder. He woke himself up in surprise."No...I can't..." He cried out. "There's nothing there..."Olly tilted her head. "Nothing where?"Sonic had to get his breath back. "When I'm...asleep...I'm not dreaming...it's...the scariest feeling."Olly grabbed on to his hand. "We'll just have to keep each other company until the others find us..." She said.Sonic smiled. "Sure...sounds good to me."Sonic lifted his head once more. They could pass the time with chatter whilst they waited. It was foolish to stay awake, but the fear of nothingness kept him from a drugged up sleep. It was terrible, the strain giving him a headache. He could take the time to get to know the Agent a little better."So..." Started Sonic. "Tell me about yourself..."Olly lifted, withdrawing her hands and placing them in her lap."What would you like to know?" She wondered.Sonic shrugged. "Well...anything...family..."Olly sighed as she tried to think. She began speaking how she had a successful older sister, who got married and became a obstetrician. An older brother, who became a bricklayer, married with one child, and another older sister in university studying media."Big family." Sonic commented."Yeah..." Said Olly. "And I somehow became attached to the military. What are the odds?"Sonic smirked. "Put it this way, your sister helps bring life, your brother helps gives those lives a place to live...and your...sister...uh...may put the light in peoples lives."Olly nudged. "And I have permission to take life. Now I'm truly the black sheep of the family."Sonic rubbed his leg. "Heh...well at least you have family...what about your parents?"Olly groaned. "Ehh...my mum and dad divorced when I was seven or eight...and my mum got a new boyfriend whom I hated."Sonic slowly nodded. "Did you like your dad?"Olly sighed again. "Like him? I loved my dad. I loved him and love him beyond his death."Sonic frowned. "I'm gonna ask how...but I won't force you.""It's okay." Said Olly. "He had cancer...got it a few months after he divorced my mum. To say I was distressed...would be an understatement..."Sonic bobbed his head. "I see...so what inspired you to become an Agent of GUN?"Olly played around with her fingers. "Honor. And the chance to prove myself to the world."It was a pretty be ask from someone of Olly's stature. But if it was a goal to set out for then he couldn't really argue, for someone as notable and famous as he."So...your hammer..." Sonic noted.Olly swayed her head. "Yeah...the Smish Smasher. Been a loyal friend."Sonic nodded. "It's funny...a friend of mine owns a hammer."Olly laughed. "She's probably inherited the same gene. But we don't talk about the gene."Sonic smiled. "No...we don't..."They spent the rest of the time chatting away about their lives, Sonic speaking about his childhood on Christmas Island and some random parts which made Olly laugh, albeit very weakly. It was a normality Sonic didn't know he praised. But he was enjoying it. Unfortunately it made them more tired than they would usually be. They spoke for hours, until they heard doors open, with Metal Sonic appearing behind the barrier. Sonic glared with glassy eyes."It is currently One forty five. You have fifteen minutes left." Said Metal. "Eggman better be here when the clock strikes two."Pressing a few buttons, the barrier vanished, picking up Sonic and pressed him against the wall, staring into the depths of Sonic's spirit."We put 50 Ccs of Abbadonia's Hollow into you both and...you don't fail to disappoint..." He said, chuckling."Stuffs weak...nuff said." Sonic snarked.Metal released an electronic surge from his hand, the current running through Sonic, forcing him to scream. Olly brought out her Smish Smasher as she tried to get up."Don't you dare touch him!" She barked, walloping Metal on the back of the head, forcing him to drop Sonic. Olly leaned on her hammer and watched as Sonic tried to get back up again.Metal immediately turned against Olly, whacking her, sending her thumping against the wall. Infuriated beyond belief, Sonic threw a punch to Metal, knocking him back outside the Cell. Standing up with small sparks and discharges, the robotic duplicate fixed himself up quick and turned the barrier back on."Definitely not disappointed." He clammered, before walking out."That showed him..." Bragged Olly, who slid down.Sonic collapsed onto his hands and knees and tried getting his breath back as he panted."You know what this feels like?" He asked her."Holding too many rings?" Olly suggested.Sonic laughed. "Hehe...yeah..."Ten minutes had gone by as the pair slumped up against one another, waiting for the impending fate the was being prepared for them. Sonic felt his lungs clog up, barely being able to breath. But mentally, he could attempt his trick with the Chaos Emeralds...regardless of how hard and energy-taking it was. He held the belief that if he was still conscious and breathing, then it was possible. Olly was still struggling as he gently lent her down, hoping she would stay awake for a little while longer. He crawled over to the barrier and brought out the Emerald again. He pushed it against the electrical field, causing a few sparks and spazzes, rejecting the physical object. Sonic could feel the current run through his arm, but tried forcing into the barrier once more, ignoring the sizzles and sparks, the humming noises that were almost deafening. The small percentile of life in him put all his might into the push, grunting and groaning in tandem. The agony than spread throughout his muscles, the strain on his mind and the heart rate that skyrocketed were taking it's toll. Olly managed to get up to witness Sonic's feat. She attempted to crawl over, but was kicked back by Sonic's foot."No..." Sonic grunted. "I have to do this...it's the only way!"Olly got up on all fours, sliding towards him again. She watched as he squeezed his eyes and his muscles contracting, his foots grip on the floor slipping as he tried to concrete himself down.Underneath her helmet she frowned, feeling the pain. She looked at the barrier itself which was blinking frantically and making funny beeping noises. The Chaos Emerald itself was half way through the barrier, the electricity running up Sonic's arm. She cheered him as sweat rolled down his face."Come on...so close..." He murmured under his breath. This was absolutely killing him. If it, he hoped it that it worked and that Olly would be set free.
CREAKSMASHBANG
The barrier finally broke, leaving them to their own devices. Sonic collapsed on the floor, his eyes staring at Olly. He knew this was the end for him and prompted Olly to get out while she could as he lay there. To him that thought sounded lame."Go..." He muttered. "Take the Emerald and get out of here...protect Amy...protect Amy Rose."Olly shook her head. "Sonic..." She whispered. She slowly went to his body, which was riddled with sparks and was slightly charred, his bionic eye moving about frantically. She picked up the Emerald and placed it in the palm of his hand."As much I would love to do that...unfortunately I'm...I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself for my freedom..." She said.She lowered her head. "Get up now..."Sonic lay there, moaning...readying to close his eyes until...
SLAP!
His eyes, including his bionic one which stopped being erratic and returned to normal, opened wide, looking at Olly who leaning on her hammer."I said...get up Sonic T. Hedgehog. I won't have to ask again." She ordered.Sonic felt new energy from her demanding yet encouraging voice. He withdrew the Emerald and grabbed hold of a nearby pole to help him stand up. Olly could see her bag being hung from a distance."Heh...I knew those two moronic robots wouldn't bother checking my bag..." Olly joked.Sonic looked over to her and smiled."They're as predictable as time." He commented. Looking over to a nearby desk, he pushed himself and started looking through the drawers for anything useful. Seeing needles, he carefully read the descriptions."Hey..." He said. "I may have found us something to help wake us up..."Olly slowly walked over, trying not to fall over. "Lemme have a look..." She said, snatching the needle from Sonic. She made a comment about Drainer and moved on to speaking about how even more idiotic it was that they robots left them there. She was skeptical about them, wondering if it could. Drainer, according to Olly, taught her on certain chemicals that could either help or hinder. Checking the labels, she considered these safe to use."I think we should inject ourselves with these." She suggested. "I'll do you first..."She plonked Sonic on the chair and grabbed a few moist towelettes from the bottom drawer, wiping his arm, then firmly injecting the stuff in, then wiped his arm again, then placing a band-aid on it."You absolutely sure this will wake us up? " Sonic asked, feeling a bit more woozy.Suddenly the weight on his eyelids disappeared, his body more lighter by the second until he was wide awake."Woah...it's great to be me!" Sonic said with triumph.Olly groaned. "Okay...now do me..."After injecting Olly, she grabbed the bag and slapped it onto her back, explaining it has a complex hammer-space system that it...well, quite complex. Knowing the intelligence of the majority of Eggman's robots they wouldn't bother to search. But now that they were out, they had to plan to get out of where ever they were."Wait, so where are we? Why does this place look familiar?" Sonic asked.Olly looked down, but then started examining the walls. "I think it's Prison Island..."Sonic stared at Olly. "But didn't you say you-"
RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE...
"Woah what was that?" Said Sonic.They both ran to the end where the sliding doors were, smashing the orange badniks guarding the cells and bolted to search for the chamber Metal Sonic was residing in.Arriving at the main chamber, they decided to hide up in one the pipes above the main area. Metal was sitting down with various computers, rapidly typing away and keeping an eye on dozens of hanging monitors and several keyboards. One of the larger monitors portrayed a new model typed robot with razor sharp wings, it's 3D Vector going around in circles, displaying the minor details."Could this be the factory?" Sonic wondered.Olly shook her head. "No...there isn't enough robots around. The security is atrocious!"Sonic chuckled. "Yeah...I suppose we should spoil his fun right?"Olly blocked Sonic with her arm. "No...if he's up to something, we should take photos of the documents that Metal produced. If Eggman was in the process of designing a new robot, then we come in and destroy the prototypes if they are ever put into preproduction."Sonic rolled his eyes. "Pfff...we've blown up this place before...can't we do it again?"Olly tapped her helmet. "There's that. But Commander Shadow seems so adamant to keep the rest of this place intact. Never told me why."Sonic rubbed his eye. "Euch...I just wanna get to Steampunk City and to the Temple of the Prophets...this is really delaying my real mission here."Olly sighed. "Look, I know you want to deal with Metal Sonic...I want to get this over and done with just as badly as you do, but we can't. Not yet."Sonic facepalmed. "So we're just supposed to sit here?"Olly nodded. "Commander Shadow ...uh told me to...contact him once I see Metal in my sights."Sonic yawned and leaned back. "Yeah sure what ever you want..."Olly rolled her eyes and attempted to make contact with Shadow."Commander?"A bit of static emerged, followed by short beeps."This is Commander Shadow speaking. Who is this?"Olly nodded to Sonic. "This is Agent Mjöllnir calling from Prison Island..."After a small chat, while Sonic just watched Metal discussing matters with several of his robots, upon inheriting a few exchanged, it looked like they'd discovered that they'd escaped. After finishing the call, Sonic tapped on Olly's shoulder to get her attention."Yeah...bad news..." Said Sonic, pointing to Metal who was berating Cubot and Orbot for their incompetence."You imbeciles!" He roared. "How could you let them escape?""Sorry...our nap took a bit longer than usual..." Said Orbot.Metal face-palmed. "There is approximately one minute until the broadcast is sent. What am I supposed to do without any hostages to threaten? Make dolls and cut off their heads?"Cubot smiled. "Yeah that would be a lot easier! You can borrow miiiine if you want?Metal glared at Cubot briefly before swatting him for his idiocy."Mr. MS, might I inquire that we still do have that other hostage in the refrigeration cell block?" Said Orbot.Metal glanced at Orbot. "Yes...we do. Grab him at once! And bring me that blue chaos emerald that he had on him!"Orbot saluted Metal, before snatching Cubot and running away. Metal, meanwhile, sighed and slunked on the antigravity chair before the monitors and pressed a button on the arm rest."Scratch, Grounder, get your inferior hides over to my chamber at this very instant." He ordered.The sliding door opened as Scratch and Grounder got stuck, as both were trying to squeeze through at the same time. They haggled on, pushing one another before they fell onto the ground. They quickly ran over and knelt down before Metal."Yes sir? What can we help you with today?" Said Grounder with the goofiest smile."Twenty Seconds to broadcast. Set up camera as per the set protocol..." He ordered.The two heroes kept and eye on the villains preparations, with one of the monitors displaying the five second countdown...
5

4

3

2

1
Metal Sonic sat firmly in his seat, his cold deathly stare narrowing down at the barrel of the camera, the lighting set up to be dark and dim, his red eyes glowing, purpose to strike fear into his enemies."I sent the warning approximately two hours ago including the directions. By failing to comply with our demands, we will now execute one of our three hostages."The doors slid open again, with Orbot and Cubot dragging an anti-gravity trailer holding a giant icecube, a darkened shade hiding within the opaque object. Driving it over to be in front of the camera, the two robots shoved it off the trailer, with Orbot handing the blue chaos emerald to Metal."You still have time to bring Eggman to us...but for now we will proceed with the consequences you have brought onto yourselves."With the Blue Chaos Emerald, Metal placed his free hand on the cube. Suddenly the ice cube turned red as it became to steam on all sides, the cube loosing its flat sides, turning rough and rugged, revealing a black suited individual that Sonic widened his eyes out."Neptune!" Sonic gasped. He attempted to jump out of the pipe they were in, but was held back by Olly."No..." Said Olly. "Shadow ordered us to wait."Sonic glared at Olly. "He's gonna kill Neptune if we just sit here!"The mention of Shadow made his blood boil. This Commander was starting to peeve him real bad. He was ready to go out and grab Neptune, but instead he was being held out by the stupidest of orders. There was no trouble or problem on Sonic's on the fly plans, and he wouldn't care if Shadow decided to shock him via the power of the bionic eye. He clenched his fists and grinded his teeth with rage. He wasn't going to let Neptune be killed, but Olly soon brought out her hammer, underneath the cracked visor, he could feel the power of her stare, wanting to ignore it but couldn't.Metal continued to melt the water, revealing the suit just sitting there, the frame of Neptune's body made him just stand there, unable to move. Sonic suspected that while Metal might melted the water around him, there was a small amount of frozen water around the suit, freezing Neptune into place.Metal walked up to the Probie and stared into those goggles of his."I know who you are...what you are..." Mentioned Metal. He brought up the Emerald and examined it."I know you know who I am...I never got to thank you all those years ago."Sonic had enough. Stuff Shadow's orders and stuff Olly's hammer. He pushed the Agent out the way before leaping into action."Keep your hands off of him!" Sonic yelled.Metal's head turned to Sonic, his eyes flashing. "Ah Sonic. I wondered where you had gotten to. Considering all there is here is water you cannot cross.""I'll manage." Sonic snarked, grinning and crossing his arms.Metal cackled. "Your world is crumbling around you...just as Abbadonia foretold.""By world you mean, killing each of my friends?" Said Sonic.Metal paid his attention back to Neptune's still frozen body, stroking his helmet."I wouldn't call him a friend...more like someone who'll be around to help until this war is over."Sonic struck first, loosing his patience. He ran up, attempting to punch Metal in the face, who instead used Chaos Control to teleport elsewhere. He reappeared behind Sonic, who reacted just in time to avoid a swipe to the back of the head. He rolled around, Metal turning to the four robots to set up a new oval shaped barrier, protected the computers, while they tried gathering the cables and forth and taking their valuable data elsewhere...to a safer place. Sonic stood at one side, Metal on the other of the Protective dome, staring each other down. Olly tried to enter, but couldn't. All she could do was sit and watch their battle. She wanted to get Neptune's body out of there, but for some reason, Metal didn't mind having him there in their little battle grid.Sonic stanced himself. Metal stood up straight with the Emerald in his possession. Sonic smirked, bringing out his red chaos Emerald and flipping it about. They ran forward, passed Neptunes' body."CHAOS CONTROL!" They yelled in unison whacking their arms together, creating a portal and confusing the pair who jumped back."What is this anomaly?" Metal wondered. "I'm detecting an influx of energies coming from the vortex."Sonic looked at the confused Metal, using the moment of weakness to smack his doppelganger to the edge of the barrier, snatching the blue emerald off him."Thanks mate!" Said Sonic, waving his two fingers at him. The portal still floated there...when suddenly a large red and black robots plonked through, banging the floor on it's way in."What is this?" Metal called out.Sonic smirked. "Omega! Didn't expect you to drop by!" He joked."THIS PORTAL OPENED IN MY BAY AT GUN. I AM ANALYZING AND SCANNING THE SOURCE OF THIS PORTAL." Omega claimed.Perfect. This would be the greatest chance to get robot to robot fighting. The portal shrank and vanished in the meanwhile. Sonic used the Emeralds to get himself and Neptune to go outside of the Portal via a perfected Chaos Teleport.Olly jumped down from the pipe and proceeded to scold Sonic for his actions."What did you expect from me?" He pointed out."I expect you to follow orders!" Olly goaded.Sonic sighed. He ignored Olly and checked out Neptune, noticing a big hole in his chest. Looking at the Blue Emerald, he placed it in his chest, noting the oddness that he had such a hole, giving insight into what Neptune really was. The suit activated and swallowed the emerald in a cavalcade of small panels that tucked the emerald in tight. The green lights from the goggles lit up as steam rose from the suit. Neptune shook his head, and upon seeing Sonic, gave him a hug."Glad to see you too buddy." Said Sonic, smiling and reciprocating the hug.What ever rage Olly had disappointing as the two embraced in reunion. Hearing a large bang, they turned to the battlefield in which Omega and Metal faced each other in combat.Neptune ran over to barrier, desperately looking on and seemingly cheering on Omega. Sonic scratched his head."Does he normally do that?" Asked Olly.Sonic shrugged. "Dunno. I think he's been isolated for most of his life...but I can't be sure."Bullets blasted from Omegas Machine Gun turrets as Metal weaved and dodged, his battle style proving that looks and speed weren't the only things he and the real Sonic had in common. Metal attempted to kick Omega, who caught the duplicates foot and swung him about, spinning his torso about then releasing him causing him to hit the barrier at break neck speed.Metal, hardly bothered, stood up and criticized Omega."You...pity you have to join the side that wins the most. What happened to your loyalty chip?" He barraged."THE LOYALTY CHIP WAS NOT INSTALLED. EGGMAN FAILED TO USE ME EFFICIENTLY, FOR A TIME AFTER MY CONSTRUCTION I WAS LEFT IN DEACTIVATED STATUS FOR AN UNDETERMINED AMOUNT OF TIME." Omega explained.Metal nodded, the doppelganger charging in torso laser, blasting Omega, leaving the others astounded. Neptune began banging on the outer barrier, not worrying about the electrical charges. Omega had crossed his arms in front of him."SHADOW HAD INSTALLED REFLECTIVE ARM CASINGS. I WANT TO ENSURE I AM THE SUPERIOR ROBOT!"Omega opened up his torso, releasing several laser shots which Metal barely dodged. Metal tried to swipe Omega again, who rolled away from him and used one of his arm turrets to shoot at smaller robot. Metal used his superior speed to avoid getting shot. Sonic looked over at the rather unedged and scared Neptune who was looking for something."What's gotten him so riled up?" Olly wondered.Sonic grew concerned and walked over to his associate. "Hey buddy whats the matter?" He asked sincerely, keeping an eye on the battle before him as Omega's body was slammed against the nearest barrier.Neptune looked at Sonic, then looked at Omega. He placed his hand on Sonic's chest and continued pointing to Omega. Sonic really didn't understand where Neptune was getting at, but offered to find what ever he was looking for. Neptune ran to the barrier where Omega was and banged on it furiously. Omega turned to look at Neptune, who closed his fists and was swinging them about.
CRUNCH!
Metal had stomped on Omega's chest, crawling over and started to take him apart."Damn it..." Sonic scolded. Neptune held his head. Sonic looked around, before seeing a switch like device in a nearby wall. It might have been what he was trying to find. He looked at Olly, and directed her to the switch which was closer to her. Nodding, she ran over and flipped it, with it, the barrier faded away. Omega fell through, fighting off Metal's attempts to rip him a new one. Picking up the blue robot with both hands, he threw him to the other side, but Metal managed to land on two feet.Neptune began looking up at the pipes, then ran to a wall and started crawling up. Olly's hands went to her hips."He can do that?" She commented.Sonic shrugged. "Let him do it...he's saved my life before so I think he knows what he's doing."Metal grew furious. "The odds are four against one. I need reinforcements. Scratch, Grounder, Orbot, Cubot EVERYONE ELSE get your insolent heads into this room now!"Within a few moments, the room was swimming with robots that flooded into the main chamber. Olly took out her hammer and started Shadow Mechas left and right. Omega was not fooled by the design, as he had versed these types before. Firing against the hordes of rampaging robots. He taunted his enemies with..."ANNHILATE!""DESTROY!"Sonic brought his game on with his homing attack, bouncing and hitting the weak spots of the robots he encountered both Shadow Mecha and Orange Badnik alike. Even the henchbots got into the action, with Scratch and Grounder dealing with Sonic while Orbot and Cubot dealt with Olly."Seriously, you two? Geez...you're really not much of a challenge." Olly complained.Cubot cracked his knuckles. "Challenges are too hard anyway." He said.Orbot facepalmed. "We're just Eggman's assistants, we're built to scheme not to fight ourselves!"He said, pleading to Olly for peace.Olly lost her patience. "Hey, red box robot..." She called out, tapping her hamming against her boot."My name is Cubot and don't you forgot it!" He cooed."Do you like Golf?" She said, a hint of cheekiness in her voice.Cubots head swirled about as he tried to think. "Sure. Eggman plays it during his spare time...""Oh dear..." Orbot said with feared, withdraw into ball, knowing what would come next.Underneath her helmet, the biggest grin drew on Olly's face. "Good..."She shoved both robots under her boot and stomped on them, whilst using her hammer like a golf club, gently rocking the end back and forth in order to get optimum power and accuracy."FOUR!" She yelled, smacking the pair with such force, that they broke through the roof of the facility and ending up becoming a small, pretty sparkle in the sky.Sonic was doing well against Scratch and Grounder. Avoiding their pranks and tricks, he taunted them by sticking out his tongue and gave them rude remarks, infuriating their inflated egos. Sonic kicked Grounder to Omega, who threw Metal to his real life counterpart, flicking Scratch over to Olly. Neptune was now up top, watching the madness unfold. He stood upon the pipe whilst Grounder and Omega tried to prove who had the most powerful gadgets, whilst Sonic and Metal tried to prove their speed superiority and Olly and Scratch...just duking it out with one another.He turned to see a pipe handle and shuffled the palms of his hands together. A little rusty and clogged, Neptune struggled to turn the handle itself, but gathered the strength from the Emerald to successfully turn it, squeaking in tandem.A hollowing sound surrounded the battle field, with gushing echoes and splashes. Everyone stopped what they were doing and listened in. Gathering that they could hear it coming from above, everyone looked up in sync as water poured out of the pipe. Neptune lept to the next set of pipes and turned the handles, the rest working the same way as the chamber began to fill with water."Ah nuts..." Said Sonic, disappointed."We better get out of here Scratch!" Cried Grounder."Darn tootin! RUN...uhhh. SWIM!" Scratch called back.The two cowards headed straight to the chambers door, only to find that they were locked from the outside.Metal Sonic face palmed. "Now I am trapped with a bunch of idiomatic scraps."Sonic looked at Olly who ran over and grabbed his hand."You ready for this?" She asked him. He replied with a nod and a thumbs up."Good..."Neptune waited until the chamber was half full, by that time Sonic and Olly were struggling to get above the surface of the water. Omega and Metal sat down, chatting to pass the time."Do you have to work with complete dunces?" Metal queried with Omega, who stood there, looking apathetic."AFFIRMATIVE." Omega answered. "THEY ARE ALL INFERIOR BEINGS."Metal understood. "I can see why Eggman deactivates most of them."The second Neptune could see there was enough water, he jumped and quickly swam towards Omega, grabbing his hand and swimming upwards, much to the destructive bots confusion. He then grabbed Sonic's hand as he charged up with great speed, jumping out of the water and out through the hole that Olly had incidently made for them. They then, without talk or a well warned notification, Omega grabbed Olly with one hand and Sonic with the other, while Neptune sat on Omegas head. The homicidal mecha using his jet packs to allow them to have a slow descent on the roof of the Prison Island complex.Having a flat landing, Omega let go of Olly and Sonic, while Neptune flipped off and began clapping to himself frantically. Sonic rose an eyebrow at the Probie."Geez Neps...never would have expected that..." Sonic commented.Omega crossed his arms. "YOU DISTURBED THE BATTLE OF THE ULTIMATES!" He complained.Sonic found it kind of funny, seeing the instant rivalry between two of Eggmans greatest Robots. Omega walked over and attempted to dive in, before being stopped by Neptune."MOVE OR ELSE CONSIDER YOURSELF EVISCERATED!" Omega announced.Neptune had his arms up, preventing Omega from jumped back in through the hole.Olly walked over. "Come on Omega, there's no point. You can get him next time." She suggested, placing a hand on his arm."Actually I'm more surprised why they're not swimming up." Sonic said, coming over."I'm guessing their tech is more heavy than it looks.""Sure is...the metals they use in their frame work patterns is pretty dense, preventing cucial structure from snapping..." Said a familiar voice.Olly spun around. "Bazooka!"Agent Bazooka stood there in her usual almost seductive stance. "We got the broadcast from Metal Sonic until it was abruptly cut." She said."What took ya so long?" Sonic asked."There was a slight delay. One of our satellites has been tampered with...the Commander said he was gonna get one of our tech mercs to have a look at it." Bazza replied."Come on, we've got the Liberty Ship nearby..."The Liberty Ship had an invisibility core installed near it's engines, in which gallantly turned off in a rather magnificent occasional roll out display. Tall, and perfectly military, complete with rail gun, which Bazza shamelessly described to Sonic, who didn't seem to mind the babble. They made it on board and headed off to the bridge, where Shadow was sitting. The bridge was vast, with a dozen GUN personal working in their particular boards, mapping and keeping an eye on their surroundings. Drainer was standing by Shadow's side with her hands behind her back. Sonic and Olly stood beside one another, with Neptune jumping on Sonic's other side. Omega stood at the back with Bazza, who leaned against the wall."Metal Sonic tried and failed. He should have known better that we would dare release the good doctor." Said Shadow."And yet, Sonic...Mjöllnir...I wouldn't have expected any less of both of you.""Actually, we should thank the Probie." Said Sonic."He saved us...well, got us out of a mess. He's smarter than he looks."Shadow glanced over at the Probationary Agent. "I told you he would valuable to us. I am glad he is learning.""Learning from the best sir." Said Olly.Shadow nodded as he tapped his fingers together. "Noted Agent Mjöllnir. There should be pens and paper in the cabins. I want a report on this."All of them saluted, except Sonic who did a half hearted one."But...expect Drainer to come in and take blood samples... Mjöllnir told me that you both exposed and injected with something known as Abbadonia's Hollow.""I don't deny it." Sonic stated."Good." Said Shadow. "Dismissed..."–Each of them headed to a separate cabin. Sonic noted on how great the Liberty Ship was. He hadn't written his report, but instead stood outside it, leaning outside on the rail, watching the peaceful washing waves. The sounds of the ocean soothed him as he inhaled the salty air. Bazza came past and stood next to Sonic."Lovely isn't it?" Said Bazza.Sonic smiled. "Yeah..."Bazza chuckled. "I went on a cruise with my late husband for our honeymoon. One of the reasons why I love the ocean...it's pure beauty."Sonic didn't enjoy it himself, maybe a slight phobia and the inability to swim properly might have had something to do with it."Although he start yapping on about the engines and so forth...and he would describe GUNS legendary Liberty Ships."Bazza went on describing the ship itself. It was a DreamCast-Class Battlecruiser, one of the best ships ever built. Invisibilty core, the 32X Rail Gun...everything down to the last detail that for the life of Sonic had no idea, that he wished Tails was with him to translate the technobabble. He told Bazza he needed to get to the Garden of Inari...or Steampunk City, to finally honor Tails. Bazza understood completely, and offered a free ride there when he was available. He also mentioned needing to go back to the Temple of the Prophets."Why would you need to go back there for? I would have thought everything would have been found since last time." Bazza stated.Sonic sighed. "Well, I have an inkling..."He wasn't sure if he could trust Bazza with knowing that, because it including the Commanders Girlfriend, he had to take Amy there...he decided to keep it to himself."Don't worry. I'll make my own way there..." He rebuffed.Bazza didn't seem offended. "Meh...you're the fastest thing alive. You'd get there faster than me anyway...After their lengthy discussion, Sonic recluded back into his cabin and finally got to rabidly writing his report. Put back into loneliness, he wanted to get back to shore as soon as possible, without having to deal with the politics and desk work. Shadow had a war to run, and yet, he was here...must have been a vital mission. Although, everything seemed to running too perfectly. Far too many coincidences. He wondered how much was preplanned and plotted and if any of it had to do with the extra super secret private Operation that Shadow held. Hardly anyone knew what it was about and if they did, they weren't allowed to say anything, which made Sonic very suspicious of the entire charade and whether or not the Femme Fatalex have been entirely truthful with him. Nonetheless, he was an Agent of GUN, for as long as Shadow has his sadistic hold over him, which disgusted Sonic to the core...but unfortunately he couldn't do anything about it. The only thing he could do was be told what to do and what the aim was...and he would find his way around to doing it if needn't be. The brilliance in his heroism but high marks in his stubbornness prevented Sonic from taking anything too seriously and anything he did take seriously was when lives were in danger...or the frustration of not being able to use his speed and having to take unorthodox stratagems into the picture. He didn't mind puzzles...in fact he loved them. But if they take too long to uncover Sonic gets bored with it easily. In otherwords, he hated them when they were being too slow for him.But being stuck in a ship...got mixed results. But...he could be relaxing...but something just kept him on edge for some reason...he couldn't put his finger on it. Shoving that aside, he laid on the bed and stared at the roof. The cabin was simple and small, but cosy. The walls grey, the floor two by fours, with the single bed with a dark green cotton sheet and simple white pillow, with a beige wooden desk with a small light above for reading and writing. His thoughts bounced about in their midst of freedom. He spent the rest of the trip alone and content...apart from Drainer coming in and getting the blood samples of course. They had a brief chat, then she left to him to his own devices.Arriving back at GUN Headquarters, Sonic quickly did the paperwork and caught up with Bazza, who revealed that she would be taking a few people along with her. They'd agree to pick up Knuckles along the way. Rouge decided she wouldn't mind going, but Shadow had to stay back. Sonic wasn't expecting him to come along, it was his nature to avoid such events...no matter how subtle they were. However, in a rare act of kindness, he had his subordinates search the networks to find out if Tails had any relatives. In a spout of luck, Tails grandparents lived in Inari. Sonic was glad...but also saddened still. Shadow also explained Amy was going to be working late that night, and apparently told Shadow over the phone to send her wishes and respects, as she was deeply disappointed that she couldn't go.All parties, including Omega, who Shadow ordered to take good care of them, went into one of GUNS larger military planes, in order to hold the sheer weight. Sonic remembered someone...Cream. She was the only one who didn't know, but had the most right to. Sonic asked if they could pick her up along the way. Bazza was only too happy to do so, but had been informed that Shadow had notified all parties known to Tails, especially Cream, had his supposed...yet unusual passing. Picking her up, Sonic explained to her what they were doing. A few tears run down her face, but she picked up a flower from her garden, hoping to place it where ever they needed it. Moving ahead, they picked up Knuckles and headed straight to Steampunk City...the nickname for the Garden of Inari...According to Omega's internal clock, it was getting close to five thirty as the sun was beginning to set over the horizon. Cream sat next to Sonic, leaning on his shoulder, asleep with Cheese on her lap, who was also resting. Neptune did the same on the other side, prompting a giggle and laugh from the others."You'd make an excellent father Sonic." Rouge noted.Sonic was not amused. "Hey, the girls six...and Neptunes had a long day." Sonic stated."I think it's cute." Commented Olly."Yeah daddy..." Knuckles joked.Sonic gritted his teeth with annoyance.Bazza landed the plane outside of the cities limits, the walls made up of hundreds and hundreds of poles and bended pipes, long and narrow towers that reached the sky. Together, the group walked through the gates, aghast at the combination of flora and engineering that merged together quite well. Sonic lead the group, as they stared at the populated streets, full of cars and so forth. It wasn't quite as clean, but more grimy. A paradox of clean and dirty riddled there, as they looked around for the residence of Tails grandfather. Shadow had given them the address. The amazement of the city, which had it's gears out in the open rather than protected and covered, also had buildings that curved, the main streets towers creating a pseudo tunnel effect. Clean smoke and steam shot from all kinds of places, the noise of chatter and grinding gears filled the air, creaking sounds, horns blows and steam shafting through vents, the stench of oil and water come from everywhere. They walked the down the main strip, the orange foxes scouring all over the place, staring at the group of random species. The orange on these were from all shades, and it seemed each had a different amount of tails, ranging from one to five. Their usual war was leather and different kinds of metal, about one third wore gloves and another one third wore goggles. They continued staring at the group. Looking into the air, seeing many foxes that used their tails for flight...so Tails himself wasn't the only one. Most of them could do it as well.Knuckles made a comment about never asking Tails about his home city. Cream clung onto a surprised Bazzas hand, with Rouge making the subtle suggestion that Cream subconsciously knows the signs of a mother. Bazza chuckled and made a lame joke which Cream laughed to, but made Rouge groan.Neptune was seemingly fascinated with the city itself, before bumping into one of the larger Foxes."Hey watch where ya going!" The rather gaunt adult fox cried out. Taking this as a threat, Neptune took a fighting stance, which Sonic noticed."Woah Probie hang on..." Said Sonic. "Sorry, he's like that..."The fox snuffed and walked off. Sonic looked at Neptune."Gotta be more careful buddy..." He said to the Probie.Neptune slunked in sorrow.After that, Sonic repeatedly kept checking the address, namely '7 Verrinite Street'. They were in that street, seeing that design of the houses was almost Victorian like, stuck together buildings but with more gear tastes. Sonic found number 7 and walked up the steps and knocked on the door.The door opened, with an old lady fox with two tails, her fur a light orange, glasses and curly greying tusts of fur on her head, wearing square maroon rimmed glasses, a pair of dark brown leather pants, sandles and a long striped white buttoned shirt. She wasn't slouching, and she didn't look old."Hello?" She said, her voice more firm and strong.Sonic cleared his breath. He knew this was gonna be hard. "Are you Corrine Prower?"The Old Lady Fox nodded. "Yes.""My name is Sonic the Hedgehog. May we come in?"Corrine let them all into her humble home, with doilies...wooden furniture and strange amount of clocks of all different shapes, colours and sizes. But their ticking almost made Knuckles go crazy.Sonic sat down with Corrine and explained what happened with Tails, who then became distraught with emotion. He let her cry, and asked about his grandfather. Corrine explained that her husband, Moore Prower, was a clock maker, which Knuckles noted the reason for the amount of clocks around the house."He should be home soon." She said. "Would any of you like a cup of tea?"They chatted for a while about Tails and his adventures, which made Corrine smile."He was adventurous indeed. His parents moved from here to Westside Island where my daughter in-law gave birth to Miles."Sonic chuckled. "Yeah those were the days..."They conversed and conversed, with the others getting involved with the discussion. Cream got to know Grandma Prower and enjoyed her company. Neptune hung with Cheese and started playing with him. Rouge, Olly, Bazza and Drainer chatted as well, with Knuckles feeling uneasy with a bunch of women, and wanted to know why Sonic was calm about this, who then told Knuckles he didn't know about it until he just brought it up. Soon enough, a tall two tailed fox wearing a brown leather coat and white cravat, wrinkles underneath his and a three banged tuft like Tails came into the house."Oh? Who do we have here?" He said, his voice some calm and alluring, that Sonic related his voice to that famous human actor Tails liked...what was his name? Morgan Freeman?He has small reading glasses and a long white goatee on his muzzle."Ah Sonic the Hedgehog." He said, the other girls in love with his voice as well."I never expected to see you in our neck of the woods."Sonic smiled. "Never expected your grandson to become one of the famous members of Team Sonic?"They sat around, explaining the situation with Moore Prower. Whom, was deeply saddened by his grandsons passing, told the story of how Tails parents died in an accident when Tails was two. Sonic thought back to when they first met back on Westside and their first adventure together on Emerald Hill Zone. He never bothered to ask about Tails about his past...although, if he'd traversed on the Island for a while, he guessed Tails really had no one else to converse with. Now he really felt guilty.Grandfather Prower told Sonic about the old shrine dedicated to the Fox God, when Sonic completely blanked out for a moment, trying to piece together the world he was in when Tails willingly disappeared."We have seen the news reports occasionally about your adventures with Miles." Said Moore."We're very proud of him...but...at least he's with his family now."Sonic smiled. "Yeah." He said, weakly.Moore took the group to the Garden of Inari Shrine, Navigating them through a giant pipe tunnel, then out to overbearing willow, with nice little bed of flowers and Cherry Blossom trees, entering under a torii gate. An altar embedded in the middle and upon closer inspection in the back, a massive chasm lay right behind it. The altar with the special obelisk like structure, where a nine tail fox stood, overcasting a shadow from the sun setting. Sonic could pick bits and pieces out the figure, speaking remindedly, and this one was a lot less intimidating that the real one he encountered. Wind Chimes hung off poles, their songs being played by the voices of the slight northern breezes, which made Sonic's spikes dance.There was a small creek that ran under the shrine itself, the small gushes calming. Sonic embraced the warmth and comfort, the glow of the sun embalmed him. They stood in a line before it, with their heads down and Moore Prower in front of it."Traditions have been altered over the four thousand year period." Said Moore."But honoring the dead is one that is still practiced. Especially when they're family."Neptune pulled out a pot plant that Sonic recognized. "That's..." He muttered. He could have grabbed and questioned the Probie on why he had the plant in the first place. But Neptune had this uncanny sense for the strangest of occurrences, but Sonic had enough confusion for one day, and took faith in his associate that he had the best intentions with it. Neptune brought it up to Moore and displayed it to him."You wish to plant this?" Moore asked.Neptune nodded. Moore looked up to Sonic. "Help him." He said.Sonic smiled as he came up to Neptune, then looked at Moore."Where can we put it?" Sonic queried.Moore directed them behind him. "You can plant it in front of the statue. It is said if one puts in the seeds of life, that it will attract the spirit that it is dedicated to, therefore guiding him the way home into the heavens..."Sonic and Neptune approached the statue of the great Fox God. Sonic held great resentment towards it, but had to hold it back for his friends sake. Taking the flower out of its pot, Sonic dug a little hole in between the rest of the variety of flowers of different colours and sizes. Sonic nudged to Neptune, who put the plant in deeply, before patting it down nicely and neatly tiding it up. Standing back, they went back into the long line and remained silent. Moore looked to his left, grinning at an oncoming batch of small, round and orange creatures that floated in the wind towards the shrine.Cheese flew out of Creams arms and towards the creatures."Chao..." Knuckles muttered. Suddenly the Echidna started sensing something strange. He turned to Drainer who looked like she was sensing it to."What is that?" He wondered."I do not know." She replied. "But it is strong...empowered with such great energies. But it can't be from the Chao."Olly looked at Moore. "Does this place double as a Chao Garden as well?" She asked him.Moore smiled. "Yes indeed it does. Besides my job as a clock maker, I also help maintain this Garden. The abundance of chao are attracted the energies that this area provides, but we dare not use it ourselves."Neptune in his playful glory went beside Cheese to play with the other Chao and frolicked about. Sonic smiled, who then saw Olly standing before the cliff, overlooking the giant chasm. Sonic walked over and joined her."I have to apologize." She said, her voice almost breaking."For what?" Sonic asked.Olly sighed. "For yelling at you earlier. You didn't deserve my scorn. I should have known you knew what you were doing."Sonic placed his hand on her shoulder."Hey, theres no use crying over small matters Olly. We got out alive didn't we?"She perked up. "True."Sonic wished Amy was here. She would have paid her best respects. He hoped Shadow told her that she had to come visit at some point. Sonic imagined the pink hedgehog would be overly emotional, with a box of five hundred tissues...which wouldn't be enough. Remembering what Tails wrote in the letter, she was like an older sister to him. With everyone friend he made as member of his own mixed race family, that he stuck onto like glue. Sonic and Knuckles were the coolest older brothers who took care of him well, even if in the beginning Tails himself was a bit of clumsy klutz, getting hurt, but he had the energy and perseverance to keep going, no matter what was thrown at them. After the first time on Angel Island, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles because the troublesome trio who would knock Eggman back time and time again. It was this...closeness, this family with a hole that nobody could fix.After parches of silence and small talk, the sun was ready to hide behind the horizon. Everyone had somewhere left to go, with the Fox chao saying goodbye to Cheese and Neptune, with Sonic waiting until everybody else started walking away, sensing something amiss."You feel it too?" Asked Knuckles as he walked passed.Sonic nodded. "Yeah...it's probably nothing..." He commented.Sonic motioned to Neptune, who was captivated at something, to hurry up. The sun finally set over the horizon with Neptune left standing before the statue, looking up and staring at a glowing white figure, cloaked with nine tails swishing around and a stare from bright cascade sneering eyes and a small grin. The white cloak covered most and covered half it's head as it slunked into it, before leaping away into the stars. The ever naïve Neptune waving to the strange bright white creature, before hearing Sonic call.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

There were times when Sonic overestimated his own abilities. To bring himself to a standard that he would like to be was practically unseen and impossible. He wanted himself to do more for his troubles. His insane legs, frictionless and the wind behind his back did all they could for the speed demon. His logic and quick-wit saved him a few times, but mostly put the faith into his mileage. There was no desperation for change, just the need to have places to go and traverse, like the open fields in his dreams. A world he could manipulate to go on forever and have the most wondrous and even odd and twisted scenery. But he was already living in such a place, but unfortunately they don't last as long as he would like them to.Eggman was imprisoned, but that didn't mean he didn't have more tricks up his sleeves. His ability to think ahead was becoming more of a nuisance than it ever had been. Plus this crud about Amy wasn't helping either. He once had a dream, where she ditched the cutesy persona, and sold herself as 'Amy the Hedgehog'. She was a little older, her quills reaching nearly as long as Knuckles, and ridding herself of the dress, aiming to be a tomboy with a simple red singlet with white stripes down the sides, long black fingerless gloves and track pants. Her shoes were altered to make her run nearly if not just as fast as Sonic. She wore eye liner and deep red eye shadow, her lips as black as Shadow's fur. Her personality was...different.As mentioned, the cute overbearing facade she held was shed, a more serious and brutal personality took over. Sonic was frightened of her already but this was just too much. She had an older Cream by her side, who held the Lolita look. Big, who was just as a part of Team Rose...was still the same. Sonic doubted he would defile himself to another level. But the fear Sonic held was that this could be a potential outcome of Amy's own future. She was young now but give or take a few years, especially with her now, more calm, sincere and an aptitude for working. He suspected her dating Shadow allowed her to get rid a lot of the steam that she held for himself over the years. The new fresh outlet. But...this dream was before he knew they would be dating. Perhaps a small foretelling with events to come. But with most, he remained perfectly ignorant. His subconscious called on it, while his forethoughts were whimsical at best.With this, there was a new found belief that indeed, they were getting older and wiser at that. Things were allowed to change, for better or for worse. If his friends found new goals to attain, he shouldn't interfere, with Tails freelancer work and Cream doing homeschooling. They all had everyday joe and jane stuff to do. Sonic however, remained the free-roaming hedgehog he'd always been throughout the years. To begin tinkering with his life-style would be drastic, his stubbornness demanding things be turned back to normal immediately, so he could get on with his life. Sonic never thought that far ahead, who's to say five years from now he'd get bored of running? Or be working diligently elsewhere. This torment swelled in his stomach.He wasn't getting any younger, nor wasn't learning anything crucial. He never went to school, only learning bits and pieces from elsewhere, because they were important, like basic reading, writing and pop culture alongside Tails once the fox had settled down. Sure, he had the general public's intelligence, but ultimately, he only knew of the short term and physical abilities to aid him through. He grew envious of everyone, but It was subtle, Sonic putting it as pathetic as it was to even be jealous of the normalcy the world population shared. What he had on him, was athletic skill he could only put in world saving situations, which wasn't bad. Sonic enjoyed it and put it to perfect use as any hero would, becoming the shtick of his savior routine. He well and truly perfected his dancing techniques but didn't use them that often, and became a problem with the party incident last October that ended up getting seven people injured, several chickens from the farm next door to go absolutely insane in which got him banned from attending that hotel for sheer carelessness. Looking back, he laughed at it, but promised himself not to do certain things...He sat on the couch, brooding at home and watching TV. Nothing interesting was on of course. Neptune kept flipping the channels because he had a fetish for pressing buttons. Sonic wasn't paying attention to the cop show that was on, his thoughts wandered of in seclusion, amongst the distasteful and disgusting, not to mention demeaning imaginative toy of past dreams.Am I really different from the rest of them? He thought to himself.The street became crowded, but Sonic stayed in isolation, locked up high in a tower, avoiding all who lowered themselves to the common lands. He looked over, the scattering jumble of faceless, tending to their own needs...work...rest...play. All life had their own interpretations of each. And yet, Sonic felt far from it, the avoidance of the general populace, unaroused by their petty behaviors. The thrive of extremes and the dedication of singular goals come to mind. The abnormalities focused on the abnormalities, like it should always be. The boredom that arrested with everything else was the priority to cover and leave them all to their own devices. But, he was trapped in himself, being left out to observe the clusters of individuals aiming towards their own accords But, even then, comparing all this, the similarities were far more...extravagant."We are under the pool of society, believing we can blend in with others to share our joys and pain."Said Bloody Amy, who stood beside Sonic as he looked at the organic traffic that moved about."But the truth, within the years we earn in loneliness, is we do not understand their pains. Once we have evolved to the point of true independence, everyone becomes nothing more than a statistic for those who hunger for data."Why so many gathered around a small street? Why so many that talk to one another even though they are strangers? Sonic could speak to each for they were no strangers, but people that knew his image that felt comfortable enough to consort with. Neither friend or foe, each person became a fish in a pond.They swam in their schools, but Sonic couldn't swim. He couldn't reach out even if he wanted to. He wasn't totally ignorant to not socialize. He wasn't completely detached from morals and emotions. It was the discipline of reality that he lacked that prevented him from joining the others. Years of being alone caught up with him, as he tried not to regret all those years of avoidance, coming out of the cave when the world needed him. Every other time he was not seen or heard, like a floating speckle of dust."To fit in the common masses, one must take notice of what they say in primordial congress. You cannot simply waltz in and proclaim your statements. You must have reason and the politeness in doing so. In the skills of the normal world, which take a precious amount of time and attention to settle in and see past the walls of encasement."Why did he feel out of place? He had what he needed so what was missing?"Do you want to be normal?" Asked B.A."I prefer not. I love what I do." Sonic responded."Do you want to be normal?""If it's what I love to do then what is it that I'm looking for?""Does your heart feel normal?""I...I think...I think there's something I don't have."Perhaps within the casual nature of life, we expect ourselves to have the normalcy of reality. A home, a job and a good, decent social circle. Maybe a family or loved one. The slot that Tails once filled was filled with hardened concrete, to ensure no one could take his place. But, Tails had filled another slot that Sonic was unable to recognize."You are tired of the loneliness of travel. We seek to see for one and one alone, but the feeling we attain from another seeker, the converse, to embrace...you only have yourself to satisfy. But the satisfaction you feel is enough for someone else to share with."Sonic had Neptune, but he was more of a temporary associate. Not hearing him speak unnerved Sonic quite a bit, as his secrecy was almost as bad as Olly's identity. Not being able to conform to the being underneath the suit, gave the Blue Blur a sore spot, not being let in to the game...comparing it to being outside the pool of society...It was getting late, onto ten-thirty when Sonic decided to go to bed. A Wednesday fulfilled with events and test of will and strength. But now he was mentally exhausted, and hoped a night of decent and empowering dreams will reboost his stamina of mind. Although the past few nights were of questionable...tastes. He said goodnight to Neptune and went upstairs to tuck himself in. However, he lay there with the blanket over him and head rested on the pillow, staring at the roof, now wide awake. He could start questioning, talking to himself but he would rather just sleep uninterrupted. It was the best he could currently do.Smoke swirled about on a night sky backdrop. Stars sparkled. Sitting up, he was again the endless fields he desired so much. The breeze was gentle and the moon bright. But the smoke came from nowhere. Deciding to stand, he needed a good old fashioned run to get his mind off things. He allowed the dream to turn to day in an instant as he charged through at top speed, the grassy environment eventually melding into the rooftops of Spagonia. The enticing spice of accordions charmed their way into Sonic's ear, delighting him and reminding him of pizza, not to mention the smell and the city pride. Coughing up rings, Sonic loop de looped and spin dashed, seeing Orange Badniks lining up like bowling pins. Upon their immediate destruction, Sonic kept running. It was probably the best thing he'd felt in ages.Holding his signature smirk, Sonic blitzed and made new records, forever pushing himself to be better than he ever could be. But...even that was beginning to become hollow in itself. No one was keeping track, and it was hard enough for Sonic to be doing two things at once. In the world of the wakeful, He and Tails would travel across the globe, searching for sublime challenges whilst Tails would be timing him, putting him into a ranking system. They would often find new ways and invent trials, just to keep Sonic in tip top condition until the next time Eggman would decide to dabble in his usual ruse. But this time, mentally, it no longer existed. The thrill was beginning to fade. Whether this was a consequence of growing up or the loss of someone presenting the challenges to him it wasn't clear. He was busy creating conundrums for himself."Do you know what you truly want?" Said NiGHTS as Sonic visited one of Spagonia's cafes in his dream, the time shift so sudden Sonic didn't bother alluding to it.Sonic looked up at him. "To be honest...I have no idea."NiGHTS nodded. The neat little Italian style cafe was complete with simple wood tables and straw chairs, and the white and red tartan on top, the simple umbrella shading them as they watched the windmills on the hills nearby, sipping coffee, which held Sonic's favourite, which must have had a zillion packets of sugar to fuel him. Tails mentioned he reminded him of L. Who ever that was. Some things he paid attention to, others...whizzed on by."That was some impressive feat you pulled off yesterday. The test of your will...I might say, bloody good job there mate."Sonic sat there, leaning on his hand and elbow with his other hand's finger riddled through the handle. He turned his preference to more important matters."So...Prison Island...wasn't the factory?" Sonic wondered.NiGHTS crossed their legs. "Apparently not. But remember what GUN said at the meeting?"Sonic played with his cup. "Yeah...signs that the Enchanted Forest was getting increasing activity."NiGHTS smiled at a group children who walked by. "I say, Shadow should speak with Dr. Eggman. That bugger must have some knowledge on what's going on."Sonic remained stoic. "Eh. Eggplant is just being stubborn. But...if what Metal said was true, he's already planned to do something in case Abbadonia decides to betray him."NiGHTS rose an eyebrow. "Wasn't it established that she was going to do it anyway?"Sonic shrugged. "Yeah...I guess. Who knows with her...she's screwed up my life up anyway."NiGHTS frowned. "Don't let her to get to you. Upon the sacrifices the others have made, you must step up to the plate and figure it for yourself. Or else you will never be free from her octane horrors."His dream turned violent, the sky turning red as NiGHTS vanished as Spagonia transformed into a hellish variant of it's self, firing raining down from the sky and sulfur rising out of the ground with hundreds of demons swarming about, wolfing down corpses as if they hadn't eaten in forever.Abbadonia surely was...persuasive without words, her tasteless ways, thoughtless and forbidden, riddled in such a darkened mix of fire and blood that the nightmare was all over the place. Curvaceous, vivacious, blasphemous. A tyrant of epic proportions, she was elusive, evasive to the point of avoiding direct confrontations when she knew she didn't stand a chance. She was in a weakened state, but somewhere she sat, hunched over on her throne, plotting away at every chance to snatch Amy and complete her ulterior quests. ..–
Pitter patter pitter patter
For once, Sonic woke up to the rain outside. Considering it was still winter, he was surprised it wasn't snowing. It was Thursday. Perhaps he could finally plan that date with Amy. If she was up to it of course. But...there was a small...medium sized chance that she would say no. Who knew of her proper mental state? Confiding that they both needed to go to the Temple together, he could combine the two, making the date not a date, but more of a potential to explore, and find the meaning of Shizaru's words.Going downstairs, Neptune was fumbling around in the kitchen, playing with the pots and pans. Sweat-dropping, he looked out at the misery of the outside world. Today was a terrible day to go outside. Going to GUN Headquarters wasn't such a bad idea. He had breakfast and headed straight down there with Neptune in tow.Upon arrival, he was greeted by fellow GUN personnel. He wondered the Femme Fatalex were up to, until he bumped into Shadow unknowingly."Mein Fuhrer!" Said Sonic, smiling to his superior giving off a friendly salute."Sonic, just the person I want to speak to." Said Shadow, good to ignore Sonic's insulting remarks.Shadow invited Sonic into his office while Neptune stood behind his captain. Shadow sat behind his desk and looked at Sonic firmly in the eyes."How are things holding up with you and Neptune?" He asked.Sonic nudged his head. "Yeah pretty good. He's been helpful so far."Shadow tapped the desk, his thoughts numerous."Good to hear." He said, uncharacteristically."Now the reason I brought you in here is more of a less more informal, and more of a geninune concern..."Sonic rose an eyebrow."That's a first."Shadow rolled his eyes. "The Captain of the Sons of Solaris, Agent Hyperia, has been busy down in the high security prison interviewing Eggman over the supposed Robot Factories."Sonic crossed his arms. "I get it that Prison Island wasn't so much as decoy but a place where several of the higher ranked bots hung on. He left Metal Sonic in charge for a good reason."Shadow nodded. "Yes. However, Hyperia is hitting walls. She's been at him all week and he hasn't revealed anything in particular."Sonic rubbed his head as he leaned back and placed his feet on the desk."You want me to do it?" Sonic asked.Shadow bowed his head as he rested his hands on his desk. "You have known Eggman far longer than any of us. Even most of his bots. But the concern isn't because the blockage of crucial data flow."Sonic blinked, not really understanding his mumbo jumbo. He motioned with a stare to allow Shadow to continue."It's Hyperia herself. After I'd dealt with him, he would no longer respond to anyone. Except Hyperia."Sonic smirked. "Maybe because she's a Princess and not as brutal as the rest of us..."Shadow bobbed his head briefly from side to side. "Possibly, as stupid as that sounds. But most of the interrogations were them discussing her instead of him."Sonic snorked. "Heh...she's a teenage human. They love to babble on when they can. Social bunch they are."Shadow made the acknowledgment and moved on. Sonic smirk became wider."Amy put you up to this didn't she? She knows Elise...why don't you get her to ask the Princess a few questions?"Shadow looked away. "No...it wasn't Amy."Sonic leaned on the armrest. "Then who was it?"Shadow remained silent, then sighed. "Agent Mjöllnir. I took a look into her claims and went through the tapes. From observation Hyperia talks more than Eggman does."Sonic nodded. "Mjöllnir close to Elise?" He questioned.Shadow stared at him. "The Fatalex and the Sons are two teams that work closely with one another. The SoS take care of the larger problems. They compliment each other...Fatalex with the close combat and specialize in infiltration, the Sons are the larger aerial artillery."Sonic chuckled. Bazza fitted that description well, but he didn't seem to care. He was more amused. But he didn't really care about that. He should ask for Amy's location and get them the heck to the Temple. Baldy could be delt with much later...it wasn't like he was going anywhere soon."So...what's your girlfriend up to today?" Sonic asked.Shadow blinked. "Working. Why do you ask?"To tell or not to tell his Commander his plans...Sonic hit a brick wall. He tried imagining different scenarios, or show the will that Tails had given him, confirming and forcing Shadow to conform to taking Amy out on a 'date that is not really a date'. Shadow could care or could care less. Sonic didn't know how he'd react to it. But, there was no sense not telling him something. Sonic didn't really trust Shadow however. Shadow would probably get Mjöllnir to stick with them, which Sonic wouldn't mind, it just wouldn't be practical for a 'date that isn't a date'."I gotta give her somethin'. It was written in Tails will." Sonic said, semi-lying.Shadow crossed his arms. "I'll give her a call. She'll only answer to me anyway. Did that will contain any GUN notes or GUN related?" He questioned.Sonic couldn't remember. The will was stuck in the top of the bedroom drawer. But from what he did know was there wasn't."Nah...just...stuff. Like, him givin' me his house n' all." Sonic answered.Shadow looked skeptical."What?" Said Sonic.Shadow shook his head. "Never mind. Just wait outside."Several moments later Shadow came out of his office, as Sonic was busy playing with a bat with the ball on the string, bouncing to alleviate his boredom."So what'd she say?" Sonic wondered.Shadow hesitated for a moment with a somewhat bewildered look on his face."She said she will meet you at the Docks in half an hour."Sonic nodded and smiled with a thumbs up. "Great! Thanks man!" He acknowledged with a sudden hand shake."I'm going to try new methods with Agent Drainer. I'm putting Hyperia out of the picture for now while we assess her." Shadow concluded."If we need your assistance..."Sonic grinned. "Call your girlfriend. I never answer."Shadow nodded. He watched Sonic run off with a wave, meanwhile Shadow himself grew suspicious...The rainclouds soon passed, as the sun came out once more in its brilliance, giving the subtle warmth from the clutches of winter...The City docks were pleasant, rich mens yachts and assorted and decorated boats say in either dry dock or parked elsewhere. Sonic stood at the end of the jetty, staring out the spectacles of the sea. Sonic didn't hate water, he just hated being in the deep end, sinking like a deadweight. But above was lovely, the suns rays giving it a nice sparkle. He placed his legs over the edge and breathed in the salty air and smiled.Suddenly he heard big foot steps behind him, the chinks and bonks from boots of steel, that decided to join Sonic as it's feminine torso sat next to him."Hey Ames!" He said with a friendly grin.Amy smiled back as she dangled her legs and swung them back and forth."Hi Sonic. So...what was it that you wanted to give me?"Wow...no small talk and straight to business. He was surprised she wasn't as hysterical as he thought. Although lately she never was, as Sonic came to the conclusion that Shadow's emotionless demeanor rubbed off on her. Still, at least they could have a decent conversation without it ending with a back hammer. He noticed she wore the white necklace that he'd put on her after the Hens Night."I never wanted to give you anything." Said Sonic. "Rather, I need you to come with me to the Temple of the Prophets."Amy rose an eyebrow. "Oh...again?"Sonic smiled. But he could the hint of confusion in her eyes, he had to clarify his words properly."So do you wanna come or not?"Amy looked out across the sea, seemingly unsure of Sonic's proposal. "What's at the Temple?" She asked.Surely, after discovering that the Wisp/Butterfly/thing was night and all that craziness dream manipulation hoo-hah, that Amy would accept that fact that there was certainly trouble afoot, with her role large in it's plot and their enemy devious to enact. Denial could be a factor, but Sonic had to run with it. But there was no point with being secretive. So he decided to be blunt."Remember the dream we had...with Shizaru and Gabriel?" Sonic queried.Amy was deep in thought, trying to remember the vivid dream."Yeah?" She answered.Sonic decided to look out as well. Amy knew something was wrong but wouldn't speak of it. She definitely knew what was going on..."I got another vision saying we need to be there, mentioning how it will make our lives...or our missions a lot more easier."Amy's head lifted as she then faced Sonic. "I...I..."Sonic blinked as he turned to her. "You...you?"Amy sighed and shook her head. "Uh...Sonic...you brought me out of work for this?" She scolded.Sonic raised his arms in a passive motion."Amy, this is important. We have to figure out what's really going on here. You know and I know that GUN is hiding something."Amy glared at him. Sonic had pressed a button."Are you accusing Shadow?" She barkedSonic shook his head. "Wha? No! I wasn't accusing him of anything!" He lied.Amy didn't fall far it. "You're just jealous because now that I'm dating him, you want me, so you want to give Shadow a bad reputation, so I will break up with and him and be free!"Sonic was speechless, albeit with a few muttered words. "Amy that's no-"Amy stood up in her anger. "That's not all! You and I will go out for a few dates sure...then you will get bored and abandon me to your smelly shoes and run out again!"Sonic was stunned, and did not expect her to bring this up. Suddenly his chances of getting her to the temple were slim, and he desperately needed an excuse to bring her there instead of visions that he couldn't properly prove. He got up and caught up with her as she stormed off."Amy that was not it at all!" Sonic explained. "I..."Repeatedly, the words 'Tails', 'Will' and 'Date' kept popping up in his thoughts. He quickly thought up of an idea. He grabbed her arm, but was met with a slap. No, he wasn't going to be the submissive type just because she was a girl."AMY ROSE STOP RIGHT NOW!" He yelled.Amy froze in her steps, unable to move. Sonic needed to do this in order to proceed. His care of what she thought had overrun his mind in recent times but now it didn't matter. He had to press the issue hard, whether she liked it or not. For too long he'd be a victim to her rampant and unprovoked attacks."I am sick and tired of your selfishness! Not everything is about you!" He shouted.Amy turned around, her face red with anger."Funny you should say that Sonic..." She said with a calm yet sarcastic manner."IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU EITHER!"The two stood in each other's faces, insulting and degrading one another with any flaw they knew with their personalites and actions, whether it was Amy's disregard for Sonic's feelings or Sonic's ignorance of everyone else, their retaliations getting stronger with each outburst. The tension between them grew immensely, with bystanders watching on in shock."SORRY THAT I CAN'T AFFORD TO BE LIKE YOU!" Yelled Amy"WELL SORRY I CAN'T STICK AROUND LIKE YOU!" Yelled Sonic.The pair were absolutely furious with one another, Sonic not even going to bother to take Amy to the Temple with him. He could go by himself, not caring with what Amy even thought."FINE..." He said, smashing his original idea to bits. "BUT AT LEAST I GOT TO HONOUR TAILS MEMORY!"Amy's eyes widened. "SORRY! I WAS STUCK AT WORK!"Sonic couldn't believe her hypocrisy. "YOU COULD HAVE TOLD YOUR BOSS YOU WERE LEAVING FOR A WHILE...WHAT HAPPENED TO HIS LENIENCY? DID YOU BARGAIN WITH YOUR FURRY RING?"
SLAP!
Amy's blood was at boiling point, the term Furry Ring was an exceptionally insulting slur in their world. For him to use such a phrase was out of character, but the rage that built as the heat went to his head, amongst the madness of the past week brought Sonic to the sharpest edge, unable to think properly anymore."How...dare...you...use...THAT WORD!" Amy screamed, bringing out her hammer. "I KNEW YOU BETTER THAN THAT SONIC T. HEDGEHOG!"Sonic didn't bother to rub or unconsciously soothe the red sore on his cheek, instead, he ran off elsewhere, sneering her off as he ran, denying her brutal words as her voice faded."Well that went well." Said Gabriel sarcastically.Sonic stood up top one of Central Cities largest skyscrapers. He was still quite angry and unable to cool down. The build up was beginning to be unbearable, but for Sonic the tension was already there...he jus didn't know it."SHUT UP YOU!" Sonic yelled.Gabriel looked on in bewilderment. "Geez...never seen you so riled up before."Sonic leaned against a wall with his arms crossed, his finger digging into them."You try to be reasonable..." He said, muffling through his teeth.Gabriel gave a smug look. "The Precursors Creed: 'Bring Order to Chaos' can be applied to a lot of reality counterparts."Sonic sneered at Gabriel. He wasn't prepared for his optimistically enhanced shenanigans."In a world built on Chaotical Physics, the inhabitants believe the existence of Gods, Demons and their mortal heroes. It is forged through purgatory flames before it comes out in a usable form. Basically, to get things done right, you have to go through hell first. Because it becomes a test of might, strength. Those who fall in their quest end up stuck in hell, their agony being that they cannot acknowledge their failures. But for those with the determination to overcome it, end up crawling out of the pit and try again. These are our Mortal Heroes."Sonic slid down the side of the wall, realizing the words of the ancient mystic spirit and the words combusted from hate and pain. They had slipped out of his mouth, the release of a thousand frustrated cries piercing the emotional wall on the only one who could possibly understand everything. But his stubbornness created a barricade made from his ego, creating his fortress within."Life is made of flaws that mark societies notability. I have seen the Earth of today and indeed, no matter how much it might have evolved from four thousand years ago, some flaws stick. We expect, that a hundred years from our time that these will be healed. Turns out, these flaws are just as stubborn as we all are."Gabriel stood in front of Sonic with his hand lent out, Sonic looking up at his near doppelganger, his smile just as charming as his."I traveled around to discover the notables of this place...and realized it's true beauty, it's essence. Enticing. Come with me...and together we can obtain inherent truths and proper ideals. We need to get you to get on your feet and triumph over all else."Sonic stared at his hand. Gabriel was all Sonic was not. A philosophical being of the courage Sonic was thought to have had."I need to apologize to Amy. I shouldn't have said that to her." Sonic said, grabbing Gabriels hand and getting up.Gabriel's voice was soothing and quite convincing as the rage left his heart. He had his own theories towards societal stubbornness."Progress is slow because we have a resistance to change." Sonic said. "But...it's the Stubborn part, Order, that slows down change, which is Chaos."Gabriel grinned. "Yup yup yup!" He said happily. "We make mistakes because we need them. To live without mistakes is to live without a purpose. The world wouldn't function properly if it weren't from the small to the larger of mishaps, things that break and many other wondrous faults in general."Sonic sighed. Most of the inconsistencies were sudden changes to the rules. But this was normal, the friction from fear to fascination was immense. For if it weren't for the stubbornness, chaos would proceed."Would you like to try again?"
Pitter patter pitter patter
Shooting up from his bed at the sound of the rain, Sonic realized he had been dreaming again as he rubbed his head. This was for a second chance at cooperating with Amy and sticking to the truth. He headed downstairs again, grabbing Tails will along the way. That way, he had the right way to convince Amy to come with him to the Temple, him hoping she would get around to it. But...even if it was a dream, Sonic still felt the guilt of insulting her. He looked at Neptune who was still watching TV."Some stubbornness can be let go." Sonic murmured to himself."Only use it when necessary..."He said goodbye to Neptune before running off to GUN Headquarters once more, this time taking an alternate route through the busy streets. Seeing a hedgehog with a pink umbrella in the distance, he could tell it was Amy. She had entered a cafe, possibly heading off to work.He stopped outside and entered himself, to see Amy in one of the cubicle's by herself, talking to one of the waitresses. The cafe was small, humble, of burgundy coloured wood and looked like an old inn that reminded Sonic of those wizardry places in the Harry Potter movies that he and Tails once did a marathon of. The various scents of coffees, lattes, and all kinds of caffeine embroiled beverages swelted the air, the average person wearing their thick rain coats and hats, their umbrellas by their sides whilst reading the paper. Sonic walked over and sat on the other side."Hey!" Sonic greeted with a smile.Amy had a shocked look on her face, but...for some reason a small fire in her eyes."Oh...Sonic..." She said with a bit of reluctance and sadness.Sonic looked at her thoroughly. He couldn't believe he was talking to her still after their huge argument and yet he pretended it never happened. Then realized it never did...he was getting his head mixed up."I wanna show you something..." He said. This time he was the one to get straight to the point. No more mucking around with the cryptic business. He pulled out Tails will and showed it to her."What's this?" She asked, confused."It's Tails Will." Sonic replied. "I thought...that if...well...one of his requests..."Amy looked at him strangely. "There's something for me in there?" She wondered.Sonic was feeling awkward now. His guilt melded with something else he couldn't describe. She started speed reading it, Sonic noticing small tears swelling up, then tilted her head in curiousness as she read something else. She calmly gave Sonic the will back after it and became deep in thought."So...?" He muttered.Amy sighed. "Sonic...I'm sorry that I didn't attend the honoring over at Inari." She said.Surprised, it took Sonic to absorb what she said, to which then he smiled."That's okay." He said."You can go over there when you're ready."Amy lips lifted, before sagging. The Waitress came over with Amy's latte, then turned to Sonic."I'll just have a glass of coke with ice if you wouldn't mind." He asked her. Nodding, the waitress walked away.The two sat in silence for a few minutes, Amy sipping her latte whilst Sonic sat there tapping the table. He knew what was written there, and for some reason was afraid of Amy's response. But was left hanging by her wordlessness. He decided to wait patiently, as Amy leaned on her hand and stared at the raindrops falling down the window. Soon enough, the waitress came back with a glass and a can and placed it on the table. Thanking the waitress, he let her go and took a sip of his coke."I'll go on the date with you..."
PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFT!
The coke shot out of Sonic's nostrils at high velocity, the acidity of the drink burning his nose... "Wha-what?" He said in shock. Funnily enough, he didn't know why he was surprised.Amy rolled her eyes. "I said I will go on the date...geez..." She said, looking away and grumbling to herself.That was way too easy that it made Sonic think why he didn't do it in the first place. Then again, there was a hidden fear that he had held inside that was unable to be described as he inherently adhered to it. But the tone of her voice and her body language suggested she was slightly uncomfortable with it. A subtle apology and an unsubtle one."Sorry." He muttered.Amy leaned on her chair and continued to stare outside."Don't worry about it too much..." She mentioned.Ouch. It didn't alleviate him of his guilt at all. But guilt shouldn't take first priority. He needed to take the opportunity now that she's agreed. A few more wise words should do the trick."Ah sure. I have a place in mind. " Sonic said."Really?" Said Amy, her voice somewhere between monotone and interested.Sonic feigned a smile. "Come on, it'll be like a date you've always wanted. A picnic at the Garden of Rosales."Amy looked at him. "Okay...it'll give us a good chance to talk."Sonic gulped. "Uh of course! Talk! No problem! So when can we do it?"Amy checked her mobile. "Hmm...well, to tell the truth...I've got the day off today. I was coming to the cafe for some peace and quiet...until you got here."Sonic looked around. "You were expecting someone else?" He asked, suspicious and wary.Amy shook her head. "No..." She said unconvincingly.Sonic didn't believe her, but went with it otherwise and left the rest to his uncooperative subconscious. They finished up their drinks, paid and tipped. They walked outside when Amy brought out her umbrella. Sonic chuckled."What is so funny?" She asked, becoming tsun.Sonic smirked. "Surely, you must be fast enough now to outrun the rain?"Amy rose an eyebrow. "Sonic...we're in the city. I'm not running so you can see me slip over."Sonic smirk grew bigger. "Hahah yeah that would be pretty funny."Amy put her back to him. "Hmph! That is not how you treat a la-WAH!"Sonic picked her up by her waist and held her, forcing her to blush slightly."PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!" She yelled, whacking Sonic on the head with her umbrella.Sonic laughed. "There's only one thing that can shield us from the evil, soaking rain. And since you're more concerned about slipping over, I'm giving you a free ride!"Amy gritted her teeth. "FINE! But be careful!"They ran out of the city within a few hours, the clouds dissipating, the sunshine blistering through it's cracks. They passed notable areas of interest, but they failed to lighten up Amy's mood. Sonic did what he could to alleviate his guilt, but he couldn't lay blame to a dream. Although the believe that it's what he really thought of her scared him. True hatred did not lie within. Holding her brought a sense of comfortable warmth...although that was probably him running which heats him slightly and gets his blood pumping.Soon they reached the free plain fields like those of his dreams. Apart from the snow, Sonic thought that the natural mild weather of the Garden of Rosales might do the both of them good. Bringing the literal spring to their step. He needed to smell the clean air instead of the polluted ridden cities or the staleness of the ARK. The unkempt nature, the glow of the ruins astounding Sonic. He remembered he still held the Amberite to enter through the Portals. But from the failure of the artifacts came more important matters to take care of, knowing that Abbadonia intentions included getting all of them and Amy. Which brought him to the Ring of Memories. Did Abbadonia need all that power for what she desired? The Sword was in GUNs possession as well, so that was safe. She was growing weaker by the moment, judging from using poor Muriel as a host, could possibly die. But from that other failure, he realized he should have asked more questions and prodded more, more aggressive with his words and decrypt meanings...but without the help of Tails there was a fat chance. But he did mention his friend, who could only be contacted by a device. Ehh...So many things to remember and mysteries to unravel. Sonic wouldn't have any other way.Running along more fields, small towns, traveling by boat, time went by quick.Like a speck of light...Soon enough they stood in front of the Temple of the Prophets, Sonic having a lack of memory on how they got their so fast, although he was fast himself, so he left it to his own tremendous speed that his own memories couldn't keep up with his feet. And as predicted, the weather was perfect. He loved it, she loved it. They couldn't have asked for anything more...Walking into the Temple, Amy looked around and became stomping her foot on various parts of the floor, searching for a perfect place to place the stereotypical red and white tartan picnic blanket. Sunlight seeped through cracks, but a large enough spot was perfect to place the blanket under. She brought out the basket and put it beside her, whilst flicking the blanket and resting it over the surface. In her own humble speed which Sonic was proud of, she pulled out plates. Knives, forks and spoons and all the usual picnic stuff. Sonic didn't know Amy had all this stuff prepacked, but he left it to her abnormal hammerspace as he so called it. She put a candle in the middle and lit up with a lighter. Sonic smirked, although he was wondering why she was doing it all instead of him, considering it would be more gentlemanly that way. He laid down on his side whilst she sat and bending her legs to the side, leaning on her hand. She'd prepared basic ham and cheese sandwiches and orange juice, as she poured into wine glasses. Sonic was beginning to feel a little bit nervous all of a sudden. It came to him this was the first and possibly last date he had gone on. But it was a date between friends...with no harm or fancy romancy junk coming in between them. It was an adventurous and daring location to start with. It wasn't clean, it wasn't noisy...no music or constant chatter among the dwellings of the background. The silence was the reason for his nervousness.Amy's eyes drifted to his as she took a sip of juice, her vibes in flux."You know this is a perfect time to talk about our relationship..." She mentioned, putting the glass down.On second thoughts, silence wasn't such a bad thing after all."What's there to talk about?" He wondered to her. Why oh why did she have to bring this up?Amy sighed and rolled her eyes. "I've taken the liberty of comparing it now and way back when before I started going out with Shadow."Really? Did they have to talk about this? Sonic squirmed at the thought of it. His stomach churned."The difference between then and now is that I waited, waited for years for us to have a proper date. And now that you have the nerve to ask me I was busy contemplating on letting you try and persist in doing so, you know, sorta like how hard I tried." She pointed out.Ouch. She was right though. He wasn't into it at the time and the encounter rate for her was high, trying to get his attention and sway him to her ways. She had no luck as his interest was non-existent. He was annoyed by her repetitive antics and would try and change the subject. She always failed to get the hint and yet, still went on like it was her job."What was it Sonic...fear of commitment?" She asked him, her words drilling through his head.Fe- fear of commitment? What is this? Sonic's version of commitment was being tied down and forced to do things to a schedule. But, a probable realistic version was saving the world from Eggman, but that was a game he enjoyed. He's not forced because he wants to...he needs to. Without games his life would be boring and he'd have no purpose in his life."Amy, you know I can't be restricted in what I do...a-nd if...well, you...uh..."He had words in his head but weren't being translated correctly out of his mouth. Was his mind conflicting on the right way to explain the true reason?"It's okay. I realized what I was doing was just...stupid. Pursuing what I couldn't get...I wanted the challenge to see if I could really change you. Now I'm not sure whether or not I should have done it in the first place."Sonic himself couldn't respond to that. Her hitting on him lasted a long while. Maybe it was what Gabriel mentioned...the stubbornness and resistance to change. But what made Amy lose that battle and change her mind?"I'd fallen for you. Hard. But I'm getting older and wiser and had to look at the bigger picture. You had your life to fulfill and I knew it was because I could never catch up. I wanted to understand what you were all about. Then it hit me...I fell in love with your life style. I grew up with a family that I hated...no...I was jealous of them. All successful people with their own lives to lead with their own families. I guess I was in the mood to get married quick to show everyone I was a successful child of the Rose family."He never thought about it that way. He gave into consideration that she'd actually thought about this, but never bothered to confront her with the issue properly. Again, he wasn't interested nor did he care. He allowed her to go on as he tried to figure the hedgehog known as Amy Rose."My grandmother was the only one who even took notice of my loneliness. Even then, I needed friends my own age."Sonic nodded, seemingly understanding her point."So what drove you to the Miracle Planet?"Amy looked down, then at one of the engravings on the nearby wall."Like what I heard from Tails, I followed you. I'd heard of you in newspapers and discovered I wanted to be like you. Free. Mom thought I was foolish but I tried anyway."Although it did lead her to getting captured...multiple times."Now that I'm a little older, I can see what my mother was talking about. My gran told me to pursue my dreams but..."Noticing the frown on her face, Sonic brought his hand over and lifted her chin up with his index finger."Amy, we all have dreams that we'd like to come true. But they change..." He said.He could see tears that swelled up in her eyes. There was obviously some inner turmoil that she was battling with. If the boring chick flicks have taught him anything, they were conflicting feelings, making her go crazy. Still, as much as he would like to help her, it sounded more like she was coming to terms with the inevitable and already accepted the fact he'd shattered her dreams over and over again. Plausible and yet, it took a final request to get him this far. If he'd gone to one full date, maybe this wouldn't have happened. He'd brushed her off for so long, that she'd finally cracked underneath the stress of consistently trying. But the thought never crossed his mind on when she'd give up her quest."You're happy with Shadow now. That's all that matters." Sonic assured, his stomach stinging after he made that statement.Amy smiled. "You're right. I have Shadow. I think we started dating because of Rouge, she said that he needed more kindness in his life. And I said I have more than enough kindness to cherish him."Sonic's heart sank. Bit by bit she was deconstructing the obvious. He did care for her, he really did, but not to the extent of dating or getting married. She was a good friend. That was all. But the sickness swelled...that the word that churked up with no more than disappointment...and maybe a whole range of other emotions. It was time to ignore that kind of impracticality of his life and move on."Enough about my silly issues. I want to hear about your adventures recently..."He spoke of several things, disclosing current triumphs and failures, but steering his way towards the determination to defeat his foe, Abbadonia."I would like to get her back after what she did to me. When I see her next I will have my hammer out so fast it'll make ya head spin!"Sonic nodded. "Don't worry, she's probably not gonna bother us for a while."Amy smiled. "Oh what a pity...she couldn't handle the hammer!" She proclaimed with confidence.They ate the sandwiches and small, tarts for dessert. Cleaning up, Amy looked over to the throne in which the previous Prophets had sat."I wonder..." She muttered to herself."Wonder what?" Asked Sonic.Amy looked down and pulled a black glove out."I...I got this from one of Shadow's Agents." She said. The glove resembled a gauntlet, albeit geometric shapes on it instead of the usual runes that he was so used to seeing."She told me that the Stupilites of ancient times would wear a special glove that would allow to hold their swords." Amy continued. She handed over the glove to Sonic who examined it thoroughly."Interesting..." He commented. "Did Shadow tell you to give it to me?"Amy was silent for a second. "...Yes." She replied.Sonic shrugged. "Cool..." He said, pulling it on.Nothing really changed. The glove went onto his left hand, overlapping his white one. Twisting his hand back and forth, small plates protected the fingers, with the tips having small claw like nails. Underneath was a soft fabric that curved over his hand. The plates, like mentioned, had geometric lines from symmetrical and diagonal interlays and nothing else but the screws that held the plates in place. Opening and closing his hands, it looked good. It balanced out his black, bionic right eye."Awesome. I'll have to thank Shadow next time I see him." He said, smiling.Amy grinned. "Glad you like it. You see Shadow got me this necklace that I'm wearing..."Sonic looked over, and saw the diamond and silver chance, with the matching pendant. Theoretically he put it on her, but he was highly supportive of Amy's and Shadow's relationship so he went with it."Looks nice." Said Sonic.Amy played with the pendant. "I know...it was a surprise so surprising he surprised himself."Sonic blinked...he refrained from face-palming.Amy giggled. "You know what? Since this isn't going to be an overly-romantic date...let's have some fun while we're here!"Sonic smiled. "Sure. What did you have in mind?"Amy turned and looked at the throne. Previous events flowed through Sonic's mind...finding the other necklaces then ending up getting the Wisers kidnapped by Abbadonia and Eggman. Maybe it would be wise not to fool around with the ancient magic and booby-traps. But it wouldn't be as fun if it wasn't risky. He shrugged and went through with, albeit baring a heavy heart full of guilt, his own emotional strength would carry him on.He watched as Amy walked over to the throne, curious written all over her face. This was the sort of adventure she was looking for. A passion she oh so desired and needed. After all, white colours are boring. The careful and aware pose that she held in her stance as she kept an eye around her. She stood before the throne and checked all around it."Come on Sonic! There's bound to more cool things hidden, just waiting to be found!" She said with excitement.Sonic joined her, starting around the base. Usual wavy, mobikkian runes that he didn't understand. Probably just some protective enhancement or whatnot. This was probably a good time to have Knuckles around again. He lurked behind the throne and crawled underneath it, wondering if there was anything hidden there."Hey Sonic..."WHACK!"Come look at this..." Yelled Amy.Sonic rubbed his head, after hitting against the slab above him in surprise to Amy's call. He briefly slid out and stood up, cursing himself for being careless. He walked around to front to see what she'd found."Yeah what..." He said, trailing off...Sonic stood in front of the throne, dumbfounded."Is...it?"Before him Amy sat, bearing all, legs tucked in and slunked into the back of the throne, her arms dangling off the armrests with a sinister look on her face. The necklace glistened as the clothes-less girl licked her lips. Again?"Uh...Amy?" Sonic said, confused. His cheeks heated up immensely. "I think you should put your clothes back on.""It's...too hot..." She said seductively.Sonic gulped. "Could prefer to go back home...I'll be more than happy to take you the-AH!"Amy pulled Sonic on to the throne and pushed him to the back whilst she sat on his lap. He was beginning to feel really nervous about this and blushed furiously, his arms being pinned down by her forceful hands. Burns and hyperactive heartbeats amiss."Amy...that's...that's not like you!" Sonic reacted. Amy instead forced her face forward, their noses touching one more as she pressed her lips against his. Sonic wanted to fight and twisted his head away from hers. Seriously, he didn't need this."Amy please...don't." He said with strain. Poor girl's been through enough."Don't...stop?" She muttered, licking his cheek. Dear Chaos Sonic was beginning to understand why she was hot all of a sudden...no pun intended.She placed her legs behind as she placed herself in a very compromising position as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He pulled on the edges of the armrests to try and free himself, but she wasn't letting him go."Sonic...I lied about Shadow...I want you...I've always wanted you...no matter what...don't you...love me?" She whispered into his ear.Sonic was bursting with a unwelded emotion so intently powerful it threatened to take over him. He didn't know what to make of it. The intensity was practically steaming out of his ears. His breath rapid and his heart pounding, the sheer weight holding him down, preventing him from fleeing.His eyelids drooped as his arms wrapped around her back."Amy..." He whispered. "I...I...can't..."Sweat riddled down his face, his patterns erratic, confused and unsorted. Why couldn't he just run? Why...Amy rested her forehead against his. "Trust me Sonic...like I trust you..." She muttered, her own breath and heart racing."I'm so...confused. What...am I supposed to do?" He muttered with a crackle in his voice."Some changes are needed...the evolution of sociological standards..." Said Amy as she kissed his cheeks and forehead, then began suckling on his shoulder, a strike shooting up Sonic's spine as he was forced to lift his head to breath. This...this was the different kind of good feeling that was more than he was used to that it scared him. It scared him big time."Change causes pain. Pain is there to let us know we're still alive. Pain is experienced through many many things..."She adjusted herself properly, making herself emit a silent gasp and to his wide eyed surprise. For his lungs it was like all the oxygen was gone from the world."To know that we exist...we must feel pain. A pain that we feel when we are hurt and the pain that we feel through our pleasures..."She began rocking back and forth, brushing her lips against his. This pain was their pleasure. It was imprecise delicacy that could done in many ways. Their friction hit a nerve center that nearly blew up his stomach with the amount of mental flames that were burning inside. The throne turned into a double bed in the second story of some place, the full moon's light shining down through the open window, with the lavender curtains dancing in the wind. Sonic grabbed hold of her properly, and began assisting her as they rocked in sync with one another. Tears ran down their faces, the pleasuring pain of their existence flowing around them as sparkling white butterflies. He realized that he'd gotten into her mansion, but in the way he least expected.Whys needed to be turned into reasons, the pressing of their tenders, smooth scaling of their torsos and the rhythmic notations of their utmost passion, devoid of past hatreds as he held her delicate body close to him. Amy let off small squeaks with each gasp that followed a rock. Sonic's short, quick breaths became louder, becoming little grunts in the meanwhile..."SONIC!"Sonic shook his head. He was still under the throne when Amy's head popped in from above."Seriously Sonic it's so weird!"He crawled out from underneath and rubbed his left. What in Chaos name was that dream all about? He hoped something as crazy as that wouldn't occur again as he had work to do. Scouting out, he compared the strange dream to them making out on the couch, with this one way more severe than the last...but he didn't know what to make of it.Putting that to the side of his plate, he looked over as Amy was checking the chair out with a tilted had and hands to hips intrigue She then pointed at it."Was this there before?" She asked him. Sonic had a closer look as he stood next to her. The back of the chair had a rose engraving that shone white through the cracks. That certainly wasn't there before. Amy leaned over to touch it, before Sonic pulled her back for her carelessness.
RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE
The Temple started vibrating like it did before. Cracks closed up and mysterious doors were summoned to mend up spaces, enclosing the temple completely. Bright dots flickered across...the butterflies that swam in the air, in their schools. Entranced, Sonic and Amy looked above at the beauty of their wonderful routine. White lines shot up the walls in a striped fashion and didn't stop for the roof, the strangeness of the world getting stranger. Looking down, different tiles lit up like a chess board, with ghost-like apparitions forming from spectral gases and into humanoid shapes, the butterflies spreading out and into each one of them that stood on a lit tile, standing straight and tall, their figures aligning and filling out. Each resembled a Rosoideae."Woah...what...what are those..." Said Sonic in bewilderment."71 Prophets before me." Said Shizaru who dropped by, wearing her toga. The other prophets wore identical togas and necklaces in their ethereal forms. The only noticible difference between them was their figures, the curvy for the female and the straight, broad for the males."The wisdom of Seventy Two Prophets." Said Fourty Two"Beats the Wisdom of One." Said Seven.Sonic and Amy stood back in shock. "Wow...Prince Hayden wasn't joking when he said your spirits weren't going to rise..."Shizaru bowed her head. "Defeating Abbadonia is our Primary need for use to be given the final peace. However, with the 73rd Prophet causing us trouble as the host of Abbadonia and the lack of the Wisers in place, we cannot fully utilize our powers. But for what we need to do now, we have enough...'energy' to put our ritual into place."Amy looked confused. "So...what is this for?" She asked."As the 75th Prophet and current Angelhog Stupilite, it is your duty to annihilate Abbadonia from the world." Said Sixty Six."The ritual will bend the fabrics of reality." Said Twenty Four."The essence of your power, your abilities will be noted." Said Twelve.Shizaru pulled Sonic and Amy towards the throne, watching in awe as the walls disconnected and disappeared, a black eternal canvas set behind them. The Prophets phased into spectral gases, their plates still standing, but the rest of the ground vanishing beneath their feet, the only parts remaining were the throne and the base. The roof was gone, leaving clusters of stars and hieroglyphics. Bits and pieces sent scattering in the shapes of butterflies, whirling and twirling in their business. Amy had gotten scared, at which point Sonic held her close as howling noises got louder and louder, screams and chatter piercing their ears and imagery flashing before their eyes. The spectral's forged into one ghostly figure, before ramming themselves into the pair, knocking them out.–
Pitter, patter, pitter, patter...

Not again...
Possessing a twisted outlook, the wonders of contorted reality thumped through his mind. Such impossibilities, even in a crazy world. Getting out of bed for the third time, he checked the digital clock, it was now Friday...had he...no. These dreams within dreams were getting to him, if that's what they were. But as the hero, he should treat everything as reality until proven otherwise. Sure he would get chastised for it but he is willing to protect the people in his head.Heading downstairs, he saw NiGHTS filtering through boxes. Honestly, was he asleep still? He wasn't sure anymore. The lower half of NiGHTS floated upwards whilst rummaging through everything, making a gigantic mess. Neptune was helping him carry out more boxes from the walk in cupboard, as well as sorting through pictures, tapes, comic books, manga, dvds and cds. Sonic wandered over and jumped on the couch, peering over it and leaning his arms on the top."Whatcha doin NiGHTS?" Asked Sonic.NiGHTS looked up. "Mornin' Sonic, hows my jolly good hedgehog doing today?" NiGHTS asked, with British accent.Apathy was on a high so Sonic shrugged in response."Ah I see. Well, what I am doing is sorting through Tails things. He really is what the Japanese call, an Otaku!"Sonic yawned and lowered his head. "Yeah so?"Neptune brought another box and dropped it, creating more noise."Tails has an excellent collection of movies, cartoons, comics, anime and manga! Although some of these pictures do often have calls for concern. Possible fetish for a particular genre."Sonic didn't want to know. He'd watch some stuff with Tails that was interesting, mainly those giant robot ones. He flashed back to Tails failed attempts to recreate the huge mechas."NiGHTS?"NiGHTS looked up, knowing the serious in Sonic's tone. "Yes Sonic?"Sonic browed. "I wanna know...what was that ritual actually for? You mentioned opening my mind but my mind seems more closed and I'm growing a weirded out resistance field. Mind explainin that for me?"NiGHTS stopped what they were doing and floated there, NiGHTS tapping their lip."Former...perhaps but not really. Latter is a big yes. Trust me...what happened is the completion of Stage 1 and now we're in Stage 2...uh unfortunately we cannot tell you the true goal."Ah secrecy, the stuff of legends. Sonic sunk back into the couch.KNOCK KNOCKUntil someone knocked. The blue blur forced himself off the couch and towards the door, opening it."Hello there!" Said an enthusiastic young boy who became intriguiged by Sonic's bionic eye.Sonic rose an eyebrow. The human boy was not too much shorter than he, had messy silver hair that covered his left eye, covered by a blue saggy cap and the rest of some sort of blue mixed with bits of yellow rims uniform, a very long scarf wrapped around his neck. Sonic stared into his red right eye, full of innocence and hope."You're Sonic right?" He asked.Sonic nodded. "Who wants to know?" He said smugly.The boy pulled out a letter from his black overhung bag and presented it to Sonic."This letter is for you." He said, he also pulled out a pen and paper with some stuff written on it."Can you sign this for me please?"Sonic took the pen and paper and signed his name, not sure why anyone was sending him stuff. From the boys left he saw a little girl tilted her head, as she was shorter than he with long pig tails, a pink dress and blue eyes. Not really sure what to think of it, he gave the pen and paper back and took the envelope."Thank you!" The boy announced, making a straightened out salute before running off with the girl in tow.Sonic scratched his head, puzzled but still apathetic, he smiled anyway. He went back inside and closed the door, sitting back on the couch."Who was that Sonic?" Asked NiGHTS."A letter. Probably GUN I bet."He ripped the envelope open and took out the sheet of paper that was inside. Formal, computer typed out and obviously a thought out letter. It wasn't GUN."Perplexing! You going to read it out are ya?" NiGHTS wondered.Sonic looked at NiGHTS. "It ain't GUN that's for sure." He answered.NiGHTS lit up and floated over, leaning in over Sonic's shoulder with Neptune jumping on the couch and tried to have a look too, his goggles for some reason were spinning and making camera lens like noises.
Hello Sonic T. Hedgehog. I am aware of you taking hold within my brothers den. You may not know me yet, since my brother and I have been estranged. I received a letter from GUN informing me of his demise and was saddened by his passing. I would like to speak to you as soon as possible. I suggest we meet at twelve thirty today on the roof of the Central City clock tower. We have matters to discuss.

Sincerely; Milo Prower.
Sonic lifted his head, confused at this sudden notion."At least he had the decency to mention their estrangement in passing..."Sonic agreed. "Yeah...then I would have wondered why Tails never told anyone about it..especially me."NiGHTS straightened out and crossed arms. Neptune tilted his head as he sat back."I've got a few hours." Said Sonic."I might head off to GUN Headquarters for a while."NiGHTS nodded. "Ah jolly good! Neptune and I will continue sorting through these..."Neptune crawled over and picked up a DVD Case and started examining it. Getting bored with it, he threw it away."We shall speak later?" NiGHTS said.Sonic headeds the door and stopped. "If you're here later I suppose..."He exited the home and closed the door, whilst Neptune found a picture on the floor and was seemingly amused by it. NiGHTS flew over and had a look it. NiGHTS face then blushed."Oh my, that does some rather...risque. Neptune, you perverted creature!"Neptune glared at NiGHTS and began whacking the floor, making nonsensical screeches."I'm sorry...it appears I was mistaken." Said NiGHTS, looking at the picture further."It's more of the...Off shoot dream images. Looks like we're going to have to get a proper filing cabinent for all this hm?"Running through the pouring rain, he was interesting in what the others were doing. Perhaps visiting the Femme Fatalex might give him something to do. He soon arrived at Headquarters and dried himself via shaking, disturbing several personnel. Strolling around, he was greeted by some with simple waves, winks and nods. Most human, some Mobian creatures. One of the clocks on the walls displayed the time as eleven o'clock, so he had time to kill.One of the first places he visited was the armory, seeing Bazza tending to some of the weapons in the hold. He wandered over and tapped her shoulder."Sonic!" BANG!"Ow..." Said Bazza as she hit her head on the interior roof of the rifles cabinet."Hi!"Sonic sweatdropped, but smiled nonetheless. "Heya! Whatcha doin?"Bazza turned back and tended to the rifles. "Just making sure the RSI 57's are in top shape. Know what the RSI stands for?"Sonic looked left and right, obviously he didn't care much for guns. "Uh...no...?"Bazza was busy cleaning and dusting. "Rookie Standard Issue. They're exactly what they mean..."Sonic nodded. "So where's Olly and Drainer?"Bazza began rubbing down the inactive rifles with a cloth, for some reason looked...never mind."Drainer's with the Commander and Olly's busy with...something or rather...have no idea to be honest."The second rainy day in a row. He was remembered of Vanilla's wedding tomorrow at Angel Island, and hoped it would be pleasant day for her."Cleaning keeps me calm. Whether it's aggressive or easy, lets off a miniscule amount of steam." Said Bazza.He could go for another run, but...for now he began wondering why he'd come here in the first place. Boredom for one. Nothing of great interest was happening at the moment. He checked another clock, indicating it was only eleven thirty six. He had under an hour to kill."Hey you guys have good open training facilities here don't you?" Sonic asked."Ahum." Replied Bazza. "The VR System on the seventh floor. You know GUN made the VR Systems first and the people who make the Casino Games used their technology? It's astounding!"Bazza offered to take Sonic there for a spin. As they traveled there, Bazza kept rambling on about the specifications that pretty much whizzed by Sonic's brain, for he had no idea what she was talking about. But, kind as he is, and missing Tails usual banter, he let it slide, thinking that it would make her feel better if he pretended to understand.They soon arrived at the VR System room. It consisted of two separate areas, first was the control area, complete with a window to see into the second area, a rather spacious, silver tiled all around in it's genericness. At the dark dimmed control panel sat a scientist, working on the computer. Her flat screened monitor was decorated in cat stickers. The woman herself had short blonde hair with bangs, lipstick and wore a tight black skirt, a tight navy blue shirt with an usually high collar, stockings and boots. She spun her chair around to see the two, her wearing lipstick and a seductive smile on her face."Hey Doc!" Said a happy Bazza."Oh Agent Bazooka, I finally managed to work out the kinks. There shouldn't be anymore clipping.""Ah good work Doc! Knew you could do it!" Said Bazza."Doc, you've met Sonic haven't you?"Sonic looked at the woman, she seemed...very familiar to him."No...but I have heard so much about him. I'm a big fan of yours!" Said Doc."Nice to meet ya!" Sonic said with a friendly wave. He dear hoped this woman would act her age, considering the words 'big fan'."Likewise." Said Doc. "Now Bazooka, what Virtual Zone will we be practicing on?"Bazza tapped her helmet as she thought. "Well, the settings need to be Player Filter Two, Path Filter at least...three, Length Filter Ten...trust me we will need it..."The Doc began rapidly typing on her keyboard. "Okay we do have several Zones based on that...do you have a difficulty preference so I can narrow a real good one for you both."Bazza stared at Sonic. "Make it...Eight. Surely Sonic can make it through Eight."Doc added those details in. "Okay. So, we have Zone SH-BS-R-P(H)"The air shifted, Sonic sensing a grin on Bazzas unseen face. "Ah that Zone. That's perfect!"Bazza pulled Sonic into the next room as Bazza slammed the door shut. The Doc pressed a button to activate the intercom."Okay guys, you both ready?"Sonic grinned and stood tall. "I'm always ready!"Bazza stomped her feet as she spread her legs. "I'm ready as red!"Sonic sweat-dropped."Uploading Zone!"Sonic looked over to Bazza. "So...should I expect for...WOOOOOOOOOAH"The window and door transformed into the large steel tiles very briefly, before the tiles faded away into black. Great...the ritual all over again. Suddenly Sonic felt air underneath his feet as it got dark.Bazza got into her slower descent pose, her ''ponytails' widening. Sonic took notice and tried to get the wind through his spikes. Knuckles did it heaps better than he, but he at least he learned something off the often-mistaken-for-mole. A light brown/dark orange colour lit up beneath them, as Sonic saw two lines. He knew what they were...Rails...Finally landing, Sonic and Bazza skated across the rails and entered what appeared to be like a desert, with lots of tall rocks, plateaus and mountains around them, but underneath was as flat as a pancake, with dust trailing upwards with the wind and rugged dry grass that Sonic could pick up with his scent. The artificial breeze made his spikes dance as they went through numerous loops and had to jump several times to get onto the next rail. The rails were almost rusted over as sparks few from their shoes had friction with the iron. They soon made it to a platform, consisting of virtual bots for Sonic and Bazza to destroy. Sonic destoyed one with a homing attack whilst Bazza round house kicked one, which sent it colliding with several with a satisfying explosion at the end."YOU JUST GOT CHUCK NORRIS'D!" Bazza cried out in her myriad badassery.Sonic sweat-dropped and proceeded to destroy twice as many. He got to the end as he watched his more larger explosion and dusted off his hands, giving Bazza a smug look."YOU JUST GOT SONIC'D!" Sonic mocked, giving the old finger gun and double tongue click.Bazza was not amused. "Sonic, Chuck Norris is God. You cannot compare yourself with the Norris."Sonic rolled his eyes and jumped up into the air, using a sequence of homing attacks on flying robots, landing on another platform on the other side."Where's your God now?" Sonic joked.She was not going to let him get away with this. She flew to him, standing by as Sonic could feel her eyes stabbing right through him. He laughed...The destroyed more robots, doing a sequence of using Bazzas flight on turbo fans to get higher as well as dodging rockets, which Bazza found...fascinating."Thinkin what I'm thinkin?" Said Sonic, noticing that Bazza saw the homing rockets...and who nodded.They stood in front of the cannon that fired the heat-seaking missiles. Sonic stood in front of the cannon waiting for the heat seeking missle, while Bazza stretched all her limbs."Here it comes!"A giant red rocket burst out of the cannon and came flying in his direction. On the count of three he jumped into the air and landed on the rocket itself, adjusting himself to ride it."Go Bazza Go!"Bazza flapped her 'Ponytails' rapidly and flew up and started gliding around, as the missile started following her around."WOOOOOO!" Sonic yelled. He was having way too much fun with this.The rocket left a tracer trail as Bazza divided down and let the wind and force guide her back up, going under and over platforms, with dozens of confused robots wondering what the heck they were doing. Sonic felt like he need a cowboy hat as he rode the missile like a horse. He should have asked Knuckles...They encountered a rather large robot towards the end. It was more generic than the others. Simple, black tall thing with thin arms and legs. Sonic quickly jumped off the missile, and let the rocket blow up the robot instead as Bazza flew over it. The robot fell over in an instant...ending the simulation...Lines of data appeared everywhere, before fading back into the old steel tiled room, with the Doc charging in."That was cheating." She said. "Yet an effective strategy."Bazza and Sonic laughed. "Aww come on. You're new here. You haven't had time to debug your predecessors mistakes."The Doc rolled her eyes. "I've seen things done that were predicted to be under 0.1 of a percent successful. This job will be a cake walk. Nonetheless less stressful.""Where'd you work last if you don't mind me asking..." Said Bazza.The Doc sighed. "You don't wanna know...to be honest, my boss was kind of a prick."Bazza looked at Sonic. "You know, Sonic here is kinda of a prick too. Geddit, cause he's a hedgehog?" She punned, slapping Sonic's back.Sonic and the Doc both sweatdropped at the same time. "Give me a break..."It was getting on, it was pushing twelve twenty-seven. Sonic made his way to the Clock Tower in no time flat. He stood above the large digital clock that made him flash back to a cartoon he used to watch with Tails. Breathing in the air, he wondered what Milo Prower was like. Hopefully as kind and intelligent, the former more so than the later. But...considering that Tails never spoke of him put the quizzing ticker on, holding onto the puzzling factor on how bad their relationship was at the time. He never saw the name on Tails will...so it must have been pretty bad. Or just suspicious forces at play. At Sonic's state mind, he could no longer make an educated guess. Guilt was still buried there from earlier, and scrambled thoughts. The VR was great, temporarily losing the thinking and putting straight forward sight on a simple goal. He'd have to keep an eye on that system and if any more Virtual Zones can be made, he'd be glad to be their tester...or what ever. Infinite possibilites with such smart technology. Sonic knew Sega had to get their ideas from somewhere. But the links between the military and gaming companies were...minor but there. Majority inspiration. Sonic didn't know them well enough to make the conclusion.By this time the rain had stopped, as it was now twelve thirty two. Where was Milo? Maybe late. Or something. Sonic took another deep breath. His impatience was getting to him, until he heard footsteps shuffling behind him. He took notice of the strange, yet somewhat a midget recognizable gaunt fox. He was leather jacket and jeans, and rough looking runners and appeared to be very tall, his two tails swinging about like an old friend."Are you Milo Prower?" Sonic asked.Milo had his hands in his pockets with a scowl on his face."I might be." He replied, his voice gruffy.Sonic nodded and lent out his hand. "Nice to finally meet ya."Milo smirked and shook his hand. "Nice to finally meet the famous Sonic."The two sat on the edge watching the traffic below."So what did you want to speak to me about?" Sonic queried."You probably knew my brother better than I did, but I'm not talking about that. I think you've all heard enough..." Said Milo.Sonic didn't mind, but if Milo didn't have anything else to do, Sonic could be there to talk about."Well, when ever you're ready to, I'm here." Sonic assured."Noted." Said Milo. "However, I've come here for a more serious matter.""Hmm?" Muttered Sonic as he lifted his head up."You've told GUN about the hijacking of the Garden of Voi haven't you?" Said Milo.Sonic nodded, thinking of how Milo even got this information."Yeah. But they don't seem to be doing anything about it. Well, not since I've heard of it."Milo crossed his arms. "Exactly. GUN have been sending over small squads on Suicide Missions. What ever threat is there is clearly too much for them to handle, so they're shut off access there."Sonic browed. "What's the point? They can get through using the Portals from the Garden of Rosales.""There's that argument." Milo continued. "However, GUN have taken the Sphere of Abyss off it's pedestal and kept it in stasis, burying with the Sword of Visions with it. However where they are now is practically impossible to trace."Sonic rose an eyebrow. "Do you even work for GUN? I'm questioning why you're telling me this because I honestly don't know where they are either."Milo chuckled. "I'm a freelancer there, like my kid brother was. We worked in different sectors so we never saw each other."Sonic wasn't too sure. He wanted to trust him, but an inkling in his gut taught him otherwise. He let it slide until it was proven he was up to no good."So you don't trust GUN yourself?" Sonic queried.Milo waved his head. "They are keeping secrets. Big, massive secrets. I think you might know it as OPERATION: LUCID."Sonic's morals were flip flopping. "I keep hearing that everywhere. Shadow's not saying anything about it."Milo agreed. "Of course...he's busy focusing on Abbadonia. But...she hasn't popped up recently. No attacks, ambushes or murders. Her energies are faltering and she's living off the rest of the artefacts that she'd claimed. After all, each of them were once apart of the great Pitlord. "Sonic browed. "We?"Milo looked down. "I told you, I'm a freelancer at GUN. I'm an Intel Officer. I'm only getting information that I've been decrypting from large files. But since I'm in freelance status, I'm limited into what I can find."Made sense, but Sonic wanted to know what he truly wanted from him."So what is it that you're looking for?" Sonic wondered.Milo grinned. "I wanna join the Burning Miles with you and Neptune as your Intel Officer and Flight Player. I understand your friend Knuckles is busy nowadays...and he's usually your Power Player."Sonic nodded. Made for interesting discussion nonetheless. He'd like to know more about his relationship with Tails and the eventual fallout...as well as it's reason. Milo seemed to be okay, but it would take time for Sonic to trust the taller individual. He was depressed by the sudden team changes. He could understand the flight situation but without Knuckles it felt like nothing. Perhaps it was better for the Echidna to stay put and protect the Master Emerald for as long as he could. Milo was scruff and unkempt, his gloves worn from what might have been consistent typing, the ends of the fingers torn off, revealing the skinny tips. The bags under his eyes suggested he'd gone through some heavy nights. Or he was a drunk of sorts."I'm in it for the Intel. So as long as I can get information via your investigations..." Said Milo.Sonic shook his head. "No, Shadow said we're more of a decoy group for the Femme Fatalex..."Milo blinked. "Really? That sucks...Shadow didn't put the description on the files then. Let's talk to him about it..."Sonic was surprised at this action of Milo, standing up to the more-stubborn-than-Sonic hedgehog. But Milo could prove his point about Shadow's secrecy, in which Sonic had to keep an eye on. Although Sonic had suspected otherwise and had been for sometime, for someone else to be on that same level of suspicion made Sonic feel a bit better, as Milo wanted to truth as much as he did. Rouge was a good lil' associate as Shadow's right hand woman, obeying and standing by him through thick and thin. But she was also being left out, which raised trust issues once more. For now he had to keep things to himself, just to be safe until evidence could be raised.They were in Shadow's office, discussing the benefits of Milo's recruiting into the Burning Miles.Shadow was not entirely happy with ordeal, Sonic noticing the bit of friction between the pair. Their body language proved it, and the way they stared at each other was more of resentment than friendly allies. Shadow reluctantly agreed to let him join, on the condition that most of the data he obtains is sent to him. Milo in his arrogance, pushed up his nose and gave Shadow the greatest smug. If it wasn't for Shadow's position, he would given the sly fox a slug in the kisser. Amongst that, Shadow spoke of the paper work and to get to work straight away, delving into getting more data about Abbadonia.At that point, after leaving the office, Milo had asked Sonic if he could come visit, to see the life his kid brother lived. Sonic was only too happy to let him do so, the blue blur hoping NiGHTS cleaned up the mess from earlier. Nonetheless, Milo followed Sonic to the outskirts, being a two-tailed fox, was as skilled as Tails with his his rotorspinning, allowing Milo to keep up. This time the sun was shining down again, sparkling on puddles and temporary ponds. They then arrived at his house, Milo looking up in awe and amazement of how an eight year old could attain such a thing."I guess genius really does run in the family." Milo commented.Heading inside, Neptune was busy sitting on the couch watching TV as usual, waving over to Sonic and Milo. Sonic saw over to the side and was glad NiGHTS got rid of the boxes and the rest of the junk."Take a seat." Said Sonic.Milo sat on the opposite side of the couch and looked at Neptune."So you're Neptune eh?" Said Milo. Neptune looked at Milo, then turned his attention back to the tv.Sonic sat on the red chair and starting talking to Milo. He was thinking on whether to finally ask why the brothers were so estranged from one another."If you wanna know about us both than just ask Sonic..." Said Milo, as if reading Sonic's mind.Sonic blinked. "Uh...I was wondering...what was it between you too?"Milo began speaking about they had a massive fight when they were little. Over feeble things, however when their parents died, they went to live with their grandparents in Inari. However, the aforementioned 'massive fight' split them apart for good. At least now it it partially explained why Sonic had found Tails on Westside."My bro fled to Westside? Geez...never realized he flew that far." Noted Milo.Sonic smiled. "He was pretty much sticking to me like glue. He was one of the first friends I ever had that could keep up with me. Since then, we've had hundreds of adventures together."Milo nodded. "Heh...I'll admit, when I first heard that he was with you, I was extremely jealous. Nonetheless...it's like I'm picking up where he left off...no offense..."Sonic shrugged. "It's okay. I don't expect you to be an exact replica of Tails or anythin..."Milo chuckled. "Naaaaa...but the gift of the Prower isn't with his tails, but the gift of tinkering. Fox gotta have a purpose in his life."They exchanged histories, adventures and events with one another. Sonic suddenly felt a lot better, knowing that his friend is survived by one of his closest living relatives and was looking forward to working with him properly. But Sonic had to think carefully, like he had been, about the roles that they took. Neptune took Knuckles and now Milo took Tails. But...he took the mantra of change is a good thing and forced himself to run with it, needing it now more than ever. The weight that was lifted from his shoulders was immense, as Milo soon got along with Neptune quite swimmingly as they rambled on well into the night, ordering pizza for dinner and watching TV. Maybe this was the normalcy that the common folk thrived on. Sonic did it with Tails, but...no. He musn't think ill of the dead. Neptune couldn't eat the pizza. Instead he somehow absorbed it through the Chaos Emerald in his chest."Dude...that is extremely...awesome..." Milo laughed.Sonic took a coke out of the fridge and threw some to Milo and Neptune. This was just like old times."So whatcha doin tomorrow? I was hoping we could go for a training exercise..."Sonic sighed. "You know, much as I would love to run, I've got a wedding to attend to."Milo tilted his head. "A wedding heh? Anyone I would know?"Sonic browed. Milo laughed. "Just messin with ya!"Sonic smiled. "Just friends of ours. They're getting married on Angel Island."Milo went wide eyed whilst sipping his coke. "Dude...Angel Island? Really? So jelly!"Sonic nodded. "Yeah. I think it's kinda cool. They both need each other."Milo chuckled. "What about you? Got anyone special in your life?"Rather explicit memories flashed through Sonic's mind. "No...not really."Milo raised an eyebrow. "I saw that moment of hesitation..." He said smugly. "There IS someone...buuuuuuuut you're not tellin me."Sonic shook his head. "I don't. Why are you questioning me?"Milo took another sip. "I know the look on peoples faces and I know when they're lyin' to me. Who's the cookie?"Sonic looked away. He can't possibly be referring to...no...he decided to ignore it. Besides, relationships weren't for him anyway. He wasn't in love. Nope. No siry bob. If he had to be in love, it was with adventure. The thrill of speed. But Milo kept an eye on it, that smug never leaving his face."If you insist..." Said Milo.Sonic kept looking at the fox. He was a near spitting image of his younger brother, right down the fringe bangs. If it weren't for the ruffled muzzle or the slighter darker orange to his fur, Sonic could have sworn it to be Tails in a few years. Sonic decided to talk about a different topic."Abbadonia's been real quiet because of her weakened state?" Sonic started off.Milo leaned back on the couch. "Yeah. She's gone off the radar and even GUN have trouble lookin' for her. But...we also have an inkling of a mole in the system."Sonic looked over. "A mole? You talkin' about Padre the Cleaner?"Milo snuffed. "Pffff no...A mole, as in someone selling information from us, to somewhere or someone else.""Oh that mole..." Sonic said, remembering the meaning. "Do you know who the mole is?"Milo shrugged. "All we know is that we've found evidence of duplicated files, some important documents have special markers, hidden on the documents that activate and inform the IT Admins about..tampering...duplications...even deletions but the Admins always have back ups of those files...stored within the deepest depths of the mult-fire walled GUN Network."Sonic nodded. "So someone set off the markers I presume?""Yup." Said Milo. "We've been trying to trace down the source of it, unfortunately it comes from the Computer labs on the third, fourth and fifth floors. And since it's internal it's the same IP Address.""Bummer." Said Sonic, having no idea what he was talking about, only going by his disappointed tone."They're sly...real sly. Don't worry, I know you don't usually deal with computers so I'm not here to investigate you." Milo assured."Lucky me..." Sonic said sarcastically.Sonic pictured back to his dream with NiGHTS, speaking of the signs that the Enchanted Forest was growing in activity."If you want, maybe after the wedding or even on the Sunday we can go to the Enchanted Forest located near Soleanna?" Sonic suggested.Milo smiled. "Ahh yes...the supposed activity. Usually the activity is due to chaotic fluctuations, Chaos Shards being buried underneath the roots of the trees. But their power levels have been higher than normal, so GUN is keeping an eye on them."Sonic nodded. "Doesn't mean we can't check it out. Who cares about the Femme Fatalex?"The pair laughed. Sonic checked the clock on the wall, as it was getting closer to seven thirty. He had to get up I twelve hours to catch the GUN Transport to Angel Island. But since he wasn't tired yet, he had time for another run. They scoffed down the rest of the pizza and coke and headed outside.More endless fields. The pleasantries and the stuff he loved deep down. As before, he was married to the energy that flowed right through him. Neptune joined as well, as he was having, what NiGHTS would say, 'a smashing good time'. Although Sonic pictured some large nosed red head that wasn't actually Robotnik saying it with a nasal tone. But the Hedgehog, Fox and...Probationary Agent trotted in the snow and made games out of the mountains they visited. Milo was heard cackling and woo, obviously enjoying himself with the riskily duties. Maybe with the wedding, Abbadonia weakening, Eggman imprisoned, Amy being safe as a result, a new found friendship, that Sonic's life would get easier...
SMASHHHHHHH
Or so he thought...Amongst running through mountains and valleys of Echo Pyre Zone, they encountered something of colossi proportions, which, strangely enough, wasn't an Eggman Robot, or one of Abbadonia's minions. It looked aged, withered and moldy and was randomly smashing mountains, sending boulders and debris flying everywhere. Sonic took one look at Milo."I'm ready when you are!" Sonic roared as they went into the battle of the night...

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Carefully balanced and yet, graceful. silhouette twirled around against the magenta background, cascade beams of light shooting through, lighting up nooks and crannies of the beauty. A peaceful trance creating a bubble of imaginative glamor to it. Every flick and every kick showered stars to the faceless audience below, giving them hope with each star giving the faceless their own identity.The party was deep in the depths of Sonic's fortress, where he stood, in front of the reborn identities, trying to work out the works of the beauty, the black riddled dancer who brought joy to them all. A beat vibrated the ground, a rattling of unknown marble like balls poured in from everywhere as the bounced several meters into the air. The purpose of the insanity was...unknown. Partying from every angle, Freudian prancing, whimsical efforts to take down the near ecstatic screaming. But all he did was stand at stare at the silhouette whipping it's perfectly framed arms, legs and head about in swirls, the ends of it's dress having a pink stripe all around, as well as having pink stripes on it's forearms, boots and it's head. Sonic knew the shape, as the green eyes showed and shone over the crows like the light from a lighthouse, guiding the people ships home. He was entranced by the rhythmic movements. Sonic shook his head. Everyone else was having fun but him. He was joined by DJ Ulala and Elise for some reason, in their raving cyberpunk gear as Sonic did his break-dancing in front of the floor, wowing the crowd and bringing forth the silhouette to start clapping him on as he spun on his head. This was great. No pain was felt, he was brimming to edge of life itself."Sonic?" Said NiGHTS who appeared floating in front of him."Be with ya in a minute NiGHTS, I'm busy!" Sonic said back.The jester rolled eyes and clicked a finger, stopping imaginary rave by breaking it into pieces.Sonic opened his eyes, finding himself laying in bed. Looking out the window, it was still dark. Leaning over to check the clock, it was 4:55 AM. Rubbing his eyes, which one was promptly swatted by NiGHTS."Now now Sonic...what did they tell you..." NiGHTS scolded.He sat up, tired and annoyed, rubbing his eyes until NiGHTS smacked him."You have a wedding to attend to. I believe you should get yourself over to GUN Headquarters."Sonic grumbled and weakly waved his hand. ]"Yeah yeah, hang on..."So tired...he was getting into that dream as well. He went through his clothes box that he usually kept here and wondered if he had anything to wear to the wedding. NiGHTS floated over to help him."Suit and tie would be nice." NiGHTS suggested.Sonic started throwing random clothes he didn't even know he had."Bow tie or the other one?" Sonic asked.NiGHTS chuckled. "Well, I suggest the other one...bow tie is worn by the Groom."Sonic shrugged and picked up several clothes, before being interrupted by Milo who entered the room."Knock, knock." Said Milo with a smirk."Hey bud, what are you doin' up so early?" Sonic wondered.Milo leaned against the door frame with his hands in his pockets, wearing a white work shirt with his chest tuft bursting out of the unbuttoned top, he wore proper pants and shiny black leather shoes."I was wonderin' if I could come along, I mean, I wouldn't mind meeting everybody.Sonic rubbed his chin. "I guess Vector and Vanilla won't mind. I was planning to bring Neptune with me so he doesn't get lonely."Milo snuffed. "Great! I'll...get ready then." He said, walking out.Sonic sighed. Milo was great and all, but whether or not he could truly be like his brother was a different story altogether. Then again, like he believed before, he shouldn't expect him to.After getting ready, they made their way to GUN Headquarters and caught up with everyone else. Getting escorted via GUN Soldiers to the landing pad, the guests were taken in multiple transport fliers. Sonic stayed with Milo and Neptune, whilst seeing Shadow with Vector, Gemerl and Charmy. Shadow was busy barking orders to his soldiers, as guests entered the carriers in packs."Heh...your friends have some pretty good perks." Milo commented.Sonic smiled. "Yeah doesn't surprise me though. It's what you get when the Commanders girlfriend is good friends with the daughter."Milo tilted his head. "Heh...Pink? Wouldn't surprise me. I see her all the time while I'm here. Usually bringing Shadow some lunch."Seemed so Amy like, but it didn't surprise him. They were chaperoned onto one their own carriers and strapped in by specialist personal, Sonic seeing multitudes of Guests strapped in as well. Neptune made ecstatic claps which made him smile, while others talked amongst themselves. Looking at Milo, who seemed to be chatting to one of the others next to him, then he looked back to Neptune who was playing with one of the children next to him, Sonic glimpsed at the gauntlet Amy had given him. He wondered what energies he could channel from the great Gabriel, his role in the powers that be were as equal as Shizaru's. The carrier was rugged, looking like it'd been used hundreds of times for missions. The carrier's doors rose and shut tight as GUN Personnel called out for everyone to hold on tight, as they made their way to Angel Island...Arriving, the carrier landed on an open space before an open forest, GUN Personnel leading them through to the main Shrine part of the Island. Milo whistled in awe and of it's magnificence. The sun was just coming over the horizon, putting on a spectacular display. Hundreds of chairs were set before the steps, wedding decorations scattered everywhere, consisting of ribbons and beautiful flowers, as the Master Emerald watching over. Reed fences enclosed the makeshift chapel, a pretty lacy tent over casing the altar. Guests were quickly seated, Sonic deciding to stand up at the back seeing Vector come in, causing him to snicker at his tux."Ah what are ya laughin at hog?" Vector cooed.Sonic gave Vector a wink. "Nothin, just wasn't expecting you of all people to get married."Vector looked away, crossing his arms and blushing."Hey hey! I already had the tailor have issues with fittin this thing on. It's not easy being such a big crocodile."Sonic patted his back, comforting his friend."Don't stress too much...it's gonna be fine..."Sonic could easily tell that Vector was extremely nervous. He felt a tug from Espio, who himself was in his own stunning tuxedo. He and Sonic shook hands."Hello Sonic." Said Espio.Sonic smiled. "Heya Espio! Hows life going at the Ninja Village?"Espio nodded. "Very well. Most of the debris following the factory incident has been cleaned up. We're looking to use that as a bunker, in case anything happens."Sonic gave a thumbs up. "Heh, it's there. Better not waste it!"He saw Mighty who came in, as Sonic hadn't seen the Armadillo in ages. The boys exchanged words, Mighty explaining that he'd been busy working, toiling in mine work. He had no beef with Vector, just normal, brotherly friendships. Mighty left after their first rendezvous due to family reasons, but then got hooked up with a local mining company in order to pay for hospital debts. Which made sense. But they occasionally caught up often for drinks and laughed at their adventures.Among the guests, human and mobian, were relatives, both rabbit and crocodile, and other species both short and tall, amongst a few familiar faces. Somewhere on the Vanilla guest side sat two familiar foxes as Sonic quickly scooted over."Moore! Corrine!" Sonic said, skidding before them. "What are you two doing here?"Moore smiled. "We'd gotten a call from a very young lady the other day and insisted we'd come." He said in his Morgan Freeman voice. Several female guests stopped to swoon. Sonic suspected the only person who would probably contact was a small rabbit.Knuckles soon walked down the aisle, possessing weird Echidna related markings, heading to the altar with a book, which raised an eyebrow and a bit more snickering from Sonic who walked over."Shut up you." Knuckles retorted. "Its traditional formal wear. Get over it."Sonic continued snickering. He looked weirder than Vector."How's the Master Emerald been holding up?" Sonic said, knowingly joking with the tempered Echidna.Knuckles looked up at it. "Uh...no further changes..thankfully. Actually I'm more concerned about Bat-Girl stealing it than anything else."Sonic grinned. "Oh come on, she wouldn't do such a thing..." He said with a hint of sarcastic humor.Knuckles rolled his eyes. "Bulldust. I don't care that her GUN buddies are here, I just don't trust her anywhere near it. I don't care that she and Shade are bridesmaids and..."Wait? Shade? A bridesmaid."That doesn't make sense." Said Sonic. "Don't tell me Vanilla asked Shade to be a..."Knuckles shrugged as well. "I'll leave it up to Vanilla telling Cream to choose bridesmaids...Amy, I understand...Rouge...borderline...but...Shade?"Sonic didn't seem to mind."Cream has this uncanny ability to make friends with everyone. Surely since Shade moved in here she'd been seeing Vanilla for assistance. Or that's what Shade's been telling me." Knuckles continued.Once he thought about it, Sonic never seemed to even see Shade after that incident. He thought she must have taken responsibility for what the Nocturnus had done and returned to her dimension. However, he couldn't properly confirm it."What does she do here?" Sonic asked.Knuckles rubbed his head. "Since she's been here we've taken turns looking after the Master Emerald. A Co-guardian shift if you will. But lately I've been doing it all by myself more often. But that was before I'd given her the task to help me set up this wedding, especially the constructing the huts with Big."Sonic almost forgot about Big, who had to be around somewhere."The past week or so, after our adventure earlier, we were building the huts for the guests to sleep in, which I had help from some of Vanillas friends who flew down for the occasion, as well as several others. Shade was there for a bit of construction but now she's probably perking it up with the others."It once, maybe twice crossed Sonic's mind on to whether Shade was fitting in properly. But she guessed that if she was helping out, earning her worthwhile keep while she stayed seemed a bit fair. Knuckles was probably jealous because he'd hardly ever tasted the full blown freedom like Sonic has. Most of the time the adventures were there but they could hardly do any sight seeing due to the importance of the quests. Besides, Shade was a free spirit now and had been ordered around all her life. Sonic hoped most of the problems would have been solved by now, considering the technicalities and probably culture shocks.Sonic caught up with relatives, meeting Vectors rather...hippy like parents, as well as Vanillas mother-in-law from her previous marriage, which Sonic could see there was some unresolved issues between them. But it was not his business to get involved with their problems. Seeing more mixed species but mostly Rabbit and Crocodile, he was glad for this occasion for all to meet as one, as well as the possibility in succeeding in the goal that was getting to know his friends better.GUN Officials protected the perimeters, Shadow obviously making sure, and possibly tranquilizing Amy's paranoia that something bad might happen. But since they were well and truly isolated, there was a small chance of it. Still, Sonic had to keep aware, but not really a hundred percent. But he wanted to be relaxed and take in the happy vibes of such a joyful day, the sun shining down upon them, Sonic absorbing its rays and blissful in it's everlasting gift. Knuckles started ushering everyone and telling them to get in there seats as the groomsmen, namely Espio, Mighty, and Vectors little skinny brother Voxel, stood proudly with their hands behind their banks and their handsome white Tuxedos. Vector, standing tall, had the slightest of sweat drops coming from his brow. Gemerl placed down his keyboard in front of the Master Emerald and connected speakers to it, obviously playing the usual wedding song for the occasion and put the giant speakers far from each side of the altar. Sonic smiled, knowing Vector was giving Gemerl some instrumental value. But then Sonic was snatched by Connie, trying to reason with him to sit in the front row with Vanillas mother. Sonic shook his head, but apparently Mrs. Rabbit insisted he'd sit with her. Sonic sighed, compelling with Brides endearing parents and sat down shrugging his shoulders, but grinning ensued.Sometime Charmy came rushing with the rings, Vector trying his hardest not to show his anger. Knuckles facepalmed. Vector then grabbed Charmy and placed him next to Knuckles and ordered him to stay, which made Sonic snicker once more, earning a smack from Mrs. Rabbit. After everyone else had settled in, Gemerl started playing music, which made the guest go quiet as Cream came skipping in through the doorway, wearing light pink bows and a very cute and girly silk dress with lace and baby pink slip ons, the adoring smile on her face telling her how much fun she was having with it, as threw red, pink and white flower petals from her little basket, several guests taking photos. Sonic loved it, the little rabbit having the time of her life on such a wonderful day.Rouge came in wearing a beautiful rose coloured gown, her bust very pronounced, making Knuckles jaw drop with astonishment, him seeing stars and could swear he could hear the saxophone playing somewhere in Gemerls song, but he was imagining it as Rouge walked down with her bouquet in front. She made it to the altar and teased Knuckles by winking at him before standing at the other end Sonic could see Shadow standing at the back, stealing Sonic's precious spot of neutrality. Shadow didn't have a smile on his face, but what could you expect for someone of his caliber? But at least he looked sharp in a more formal version of his Commander uniform.Next was Shade, with the same wear as Rouge. She was more straight faced, but was nor angry, sad or happy. She was as neutral as they came but still came down as she did, soon standing next to Rouge with the same batch of flowers. But then the other half of the show came in...Amy came down gracefully, holding a bouquet of white roses, Sonic entranced by her beauty, whether he knew it or not. Her gown was...just breath taking. A light pink silk sleeveless dress, with an interwoven bust that loosely came off it as well as a glistening shawl with silvery sparkles, wearing her beautiful necklace that sparkled throughout wearing red lipstick and mascara, giving her sophistication, as well as wearing silver sleepers in her ears and a pink headband with a white coloured sunflower and white high heels. She had an aura about her, lowering her eyes to see the faded white eye shadow as she smiled to those who had cameras. Her quills swayed as she moved her head, within Sonic's eyes in slow motion. His heart was beating fast, but again, he failed to realize it as his head was filled with nothing but hypnotic swirls.Blitzing in a beautiful gown, embedded with Swarovski crystals and just looked like a princess with the beautiful beige stitching on her ivory dress, complete with the cross stitches on her chest, her train trailing behind, Vanilla looked stunning. She had hooked her arm up up with her father, Mr. Rabbit, who was wearing a black tux and leather shoes, but admittedly had a bit of pot belly and a set of antique spectacles. Although he looked old fashioned with a classic, memetic mustache, he was rightfully proud in his own way as he lead his daughter down the second time."Are you entirely sure about this?" He muttered to her.Vanilla kept her endowed smile. "Father, you said that to Rocky...and I didn't regret it." She whispered back.They made it to the altar, as Vector was grinning at his wife-to-be, then faced Knuckles who nodded to his long-time friend. Sonic looked at Neptune who sat next to him and had Cheese in his lap for the proceedings and waved over at the cheerful Cream. Looking back, Vector and Vanilla stared at one another with their hands in each others, Sonic seeing the longing looks in their faces, seeing the instant love between the pair. Gemerl stopped playing to allow Knuckles to speak."We gather here today, to honor and bless this marriage between Vector Chaotix and Vanilla T. Rabbit." Knuckles started. Although Sonic noted he was just as nervous as these two. But Sonic found it funny...which earned another smack from Mrs. Rabbit.As going through the ceremony, Sonic couldn't help but look at Amy, who's smile never wore off or looked too strained. Sonic didn't realize he was staring at her until he was poked by Neptune. Sonic re-awoke from his temporary reality escape and paid attention to the main couple."I, Vanilla, take you, Vector to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life. I, Vanilla take you, Vector, for my lawful husband, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part."Knuckles repeated to Vector the same bits to him."I, Vector, take you, Vanilla to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life. I, Vector, take you, Vanilla, for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part."Knuckles nodded."Then by the power vested in me, and the Master Emerald, to name you Man and wife."The crowd did a standing ovation as the bride and groom kissed one another in holy matrimony, surrounded by the echoing cheers and claps from friends and relatives and made their way out of the roofless chapel, with others throwing confetti all over the place...Soon after, the professional photographers started taking their photos, whilst the family and friends started taking theirs. Knuckles advised all else to start heading to the reception when they were ready to go, as GUN Operatives offered to take them down. Sonic stood by, watching the various photos being taken in different places, such as the edge of the island and in front of the Master Emerald. He looked on, wanting to look at the happy couple with his hands in his pockets but couldn't help but stare at Amy. Milo walked up to Sonic with a big grin on his face."So...this is the one eh?" Milo noted, nudging to him, joking around. "I remember her..."Sonic did two takes. "Wuh? What? No! I'm just enjoying the views."Milo chuckled. "Surrrrrre...if that's what they're calling it nowadays."Sonic rolled his eyes and starting walking off with Milo putting his hand on Sonic's shoulder, laughing, unaware that Amy was glancing off towards Sonic with a small frown...Heading the reception area, which was being held inside the now neatly decorated Mystic Ruins temple, there were tables and chairs every where, with the back holding the long table for the wedding party to sit, in the back left corner was where the lovely, green and beige cake was, having traditional Echidna Mayan with batches of red markings. Sonic saw Elise charging into the room and heading straight for it, wearing a cute electric blue cocktail dress and yellow high heels and various accessories to match.Sonic rose an eyebrow.
"Right there your highness?" Sonic asked sarcastically as Elise was too busy fawning over the strange cake."Wow...more interesting Echidna decorations? Who's idea was this?" Elise commented. "I said bake a cultural cake but seriously?"Sonic shrugged. "I don't think Knuckles can cook."Elise chuckled. "Hah...with those hands of his? He's made for destruction not construction."Now that was true and it made Sonic smile a little. Looking around, there was a temp bar on his right and a sealed off area, Sonic thinking it was the kitchen for the dinner to served. The temple was pretty deep in and wide in itself, Sonic wondering how Knuckles can atone for his defacing of such a sacred place."Maybe an enhancement or he asked his ancestors if he could borrow it for the night..." Elise suggested.Maybe. But...it was a sacred place for a sacred occasion. He was sure Knuckles would impose rules upon them. But gathering by the large space between the guest tables and the wedding party tables, that was the dance floor...well, you could easily tell by the slightly raised platform and attached lights, with the DJ tuning their speakers in with Gemerl helping out, bring his keyboard back into the right corner, near the . Sonic knew that DJ."Isn't that..." Sonic started.Elise waved to the female DJ. "Yup. DJ Ulala offered her services again after the fantastic hens night. Her and I have been friends for years actually...but I do pay her well."Sonic nodded. "So you organized the reception?" He asked.Elise grinned. "Of course. Dinner is being made by the finest Soleannan chefs and music played by the most awesome DJ. Even that rockin' robot dude is being awesome!"Sonic placed his hands in his pockets again. "You seem to like using the word awesome a lot..."Elise laughed and gave the peace sign to Sonic."My motto is, If you're ready to party, you're ready to be awesome."Sonic smirked. "Never heard you say that before.""Pfffff..." Elise said. "Awesomeness comes from the heart Sonic. I learned that from you...and I expect you to dance later. You...and me on the dance floor later on..."Sonic blinked. "Uhh okay...sure..."Elise squeed. "Great...I mean...AWESOME!"Soon enough, the guests got into their labeled seats, usually clustered in with their families and some mixed with others. But they were all pretty social with one another, Sonic having the exclusive seating at the front with Milo, who was replacing Tails for the night, as well as extra seats for the Grandprowers. Big sat on the table with them, but had a tall cat girl, with yellow fur and red, with white tufts on the ends of her long ears, had jet black hair and crimson eye shadow and black cocktail dress and red high heel boots and fish net stockings, with innocent angel wings. She smiled as she sat next to Big the Cat on the table. Sonic had no idea who she was, gathering she was a cousin of sorts, but she was kinda cute.Waiters placed jugs of a variety of drinks onto the tables and asked guests if that would like anything, and other general requests. Sonic spoke with Milo, whom only had one thing on his mind."I saw you during the Ceremony..." Milo commented."What?" Sonic retaliated. "What did I do?"That spectacular jokers grin that Milo had his face was beginning to annoy Sonic, although he meant no harm."You were staring at her. Non-stop. I even thought I saw a bit of drool!""What? You were sitting behind me!"Milo laughed halfheartedly. "So you were?"Milo, you devious bastard."You so have the hots for the Pink Hedgehog. I don't blame ya, she is pretty hot. Cept I have my own girlfriend."Sonic blinked. "Oh really?"Milo waved his hand about. "She's a total babe! So's yours if you decide to admit it..."Sonic grumbled. "If you're suggesting that..."Suddenly a voice came over the loud speakers. Since its was preachy and cheery, it had to be Elise's."Hello ladies and gentlemobians!" Said Elise behind the DJ stand with Ulala and Gemerl. She held a crystal studded microphone and the perkiest smile."If I could get your attention, my name is Elise! And I will be your Event Speaker for the evening. Now if we could get settled into our allocated seats, we will be seeing the Wedding Party arrive very shortly."Ulala started playing some simple pop tunes over the speakers and more spotlights turning on as they continued preparing things. As was told, the guests sat down and chatted amongst themselves, with Knuckles coming in, having quickly gotten off the ceremonial garbs and into his own stunning deep burgundy suit and sitting next to Sonic. Neptune followed, Sonic seeing that he was wearing deep blue suit on over his usual suit, which Sonic found strange enough but didn't bother with the notoriousness of it. Neptune took his place, conveniently sitting next to Knuckles. Milo spoke with his grandparents and greeted Vanillas former in-laws. Despite the thickened tension, the young gaunt fox used his charms to speak with them, as well as Big and the tall cat girl, who introduced herself as Honey. Sonic decided to join in with the conversation."So Big, is Honey your sister or something?" Sonic asked, wondering.The large purple cat shook his head. "No. Honey is my girlfriend."As if in sync, Knuckles and Sonic looked at one another as their jaws dropped. Neptune just clapped. Milo was amused at their reactions. But their others couldn't believe what they were hearing. How on Mobius does Big, a low-IQed feline, end up with a stunningly gorgeous catgirl like Honey, who hook arms with her oblivious beau."I met Big when he was in the city, looking for a new fishing Rod, since his old one snapped."Honey explained, her voice gravely and yet attractive. "We bumped into each other and it was love at first sight!"Still in shock, Sonic looked away and rubbed his neck, ashamed at himself. Knuckles did the same. Neptune was still happy."You're a match made in heaven!" Commented Milo. "All the best to you both."Big smiled. "Thank you!"Honey giggled. "Oh Big, hopefully, when you and I get married some day, it'll just be as enchanting as this! It's like a fantasy! With the hint of fairy tale!"The entire table started chatting with one another, keeping up to date with recent proceedings and doings. Milo and Sonic talked about the Burning Miles with Milos grandparents, whilst Knuckles had to keep preventing Neptune from putting his greasy fingers in the jugs, Big tending to Froggy as well as Honey speaking with the Former Rabbit In-laws. In a sense, the day was going well, Milo checking his watch and realized it was getting on to five pm, as he wondered where the day went.Sonic looked around, seeing Shadow sitting up the back with some GUN Personnel and several other guests. He probably didn't want to sit down or speak with anyone, but he was forced to...probably by Amy, which made Sonic chuckle slightly.The music stopped, as chats turned to hushes and soon complete silence, lights changing around, focusing on the strip of red carpet in the aisle that split up the groups of tables into two. Elise grabbed a piece of paper and her studded mike."Okay every one!" Elise shouted, pumping on fist into the air."It's time to bring our special participants in! First off, Flowergirl Cream the Rabbit and Ring boy Charmy Bee.Underneath the little arc of flowers and small led lights came Cream and Charmy, with hooked arms and waving to the guests, being met with cheers, claps and whistles. They crossed the dance floor, with Elise making lovely comments about the pair. They walked off to sit down, whilst Elise spoke of the next pair."Okay, I will name out the bridesmaids and groomsmen in order. Shade Nocturnus and Mighty Armadous! Rouge Seychelles and Voxel Chaotix!"The four came in gracefully, Knuckles unable to stop looking at Rouge in awe again, making Sonic wonder if Rouge was doing it on purpose just to tease Knuckles as she looked over to wink at him."And now, for the Maiden of Honor and Best Man, Amy Rose and Espio Furcifer!"Hedgehog and Charmeleon strolled in, Sonic pretty much imitating Knuckles in stupid facial expressions. Milo chuckled."And last, but not least, the stars for the evening, Mr. and Mrs. Vector and Vanilla Chaotix!"The cheers grew louder as the happy couple came in with the biggest smiles Sonic had seen all day. It was just...adorable. They both earned it, Vanilla a hardworking single mother now a hardworking wife, and Vector, a run down investigator now an earnest husband with the most beautiful and sweet step-daughter. What more could they ask for?They allowed for more chatter amongst themselves, several of the guests wanting to take more photos and give their congratulations for the special pair. Gemerl continued tinkering with Ulala and Elise to organize the music once more. Elise left them to their devices and went to sit down at her table, Ulala now taking the microphone."Hi everyone, it's DJ Ulala here! How we feelin?" She announced."I think it's time for our favourite newlyweds to have their first dance together! Gemerl, put on the sweet acoustics!"Gemerl gave a thumbs up and switched on to a nice acoustic guitar and piano song, with a pleasant female singing in the background. The song was calm and gentle enough for a simple slow waltz.Vector stood up first and took Vanillas hand as they made their way to the dance floor. Vector held her waist with one hand and clasped his other in hers, as her grasp made it around his neck. They gracefully waltzed around the floor, earning more snaps from the guests. Soon after, Amy and Espio got up and started to dance as well, then Rouge and Voxel...then Shade and Mighty...and finally, Cream and Charmy, who appeared to be sweating under the nervousness of dancing with the girl he had to kiss on her birthday. More people soon joined in, Big standing up and offering his gentle hand to Honey, who only happily took up his offer and jumped up to the dance floor. Cheese flew up from Neptunes lap and started pestering him, wanting to go as well. Neptune didn't understand, but a thumbs up from Sonic gave him the courage to go up, Cheese tugging him by one of his fingers as she pulled him. A cluster came onboard too, the floor was practically big enough to possible fit a hundred people due to its sheer size. There was brief change of partners, Vanilla's father now dancing with her and Cream with her new step father."Vector, can I say we are very blessed in having you in our family..." Said Cream.Vector had tears in his eyes. "That is the second best thing I have ever heard, after your mother said yes." He said. They shared a heartwarming embrace that earned an infectious and sweet smile and awe from everyone. Espio had hooked with one of Vector's cousins, leaving Amy to grab Shadow, who was entirely reluctant to do so, but did so anyway for her sake."You can at least pretend to enjoy it." Said Amy.Shadow forced a smile as he rested his hand on her waist. "Better?" He asked, speaking through his teeth.Amy chuckled. "Much."Shadow looked over at Rouge, who'd stopped over to Sonic's table and forced Knuckles to dance with her, as she winked at him with the entirely blushing and seemingly overwhelmed Echidna, not knowing what to do with his feet."Ow! That hurt!" Rouge scolded. She responded to this by delibrately stomping his."AH!" Knuckles screamed.Rouge looked smug. "Sorry, my foot slipped."Milo got up and bowed to Princess Elise, kneeling to her and kissing her hand."Would you mind a spot of dancing milady?" He said with his wiling charms.Elise smiled and got up. "Sure! Let's go!"Milo underestimated Elise's over the top ego as she swung her across the room, oblivious to the fact she'd had too much raspberry soft drink and was extremely hyperactive. Sonic laughed, earning a head smack from Mrs. Rabbit, who came over to see if he would join her. Sonic, ever the good sport, was only too obliged as they went to the floor.Soon, nearly everyone was having a good time, the music changing from soft to hard trance, everyone letting themselves go, wild and unrestricted as they grooved through the night.Shadow's pager went off, Amy frowning."You'd promised me you'd leave that thing at home." Amy said.Shadow sighed. "It might be important. I told them only to contact me if it was an emergency."Amy nodded, albeit disappointed. "You better go then. See what they want."Shadow looked at her. "I'll make it up to you. I promise."Amy smiled weakly as he kissed her cheek. "I'll hold you to it!"The black hedgehog caressed her briefly before running off outside the temple. Amy was left alone and sat on a nearby chair.Elise had to go check something with Ulala, giving Milo a break from the crazy dance they were doing. He noticed Amy all alone, glancing longingly at the crowd. The gaunt fox flew up above the crowd to search for Sonic, who, from after the awkward togetherness with Vanilla's mother, was over at the bar area, sipping from a beer can. Milo made the sneeky idea look and flew over, asking the bar tender for a can of what Sonic was drinking. Mobian alcohol ingestion biology was slightly different from humans, but no one really questioned it., but it was normally an age thing. Sitting on the stool next to Sonic, Milo placed a hand on his friend."You know, Pink is lookin' pretty lonesome over there." Said Milo.Sonic lifted his head. He'd been slouched over and seemingly had his body language speaking of depression, albeit deciding not to show it with his face."I'm sure Amy's having a good time..." Sonic motioned, his monotone being covered with fake happiness."Pfffffff..." Said Milo. "Have you honestly had a look at what she's doing right now?""Sure...she was with Shadow a moment ago." Sonic replied apathetically.Milo rolled his eyes. "I cannot believe you! There's this gorgeous girl you obviously have the hots for, judging from the consistent glancing I witnessed earlier, and now you won't even speak to her, even though she's..."Milo wiped his face from the frustration and forced Sonic to look at her by pulling his head around, adjusting his sight in Amy's direction. "For Chaos sake JUST LOOK AT HER!"Sonic blinked. Indeed Amy was alone sitting by herself and watching the rest of the crowd. Sonic checked her line of sight, seeing that she was staring at Vector and Vanilla who did not rest once and continued to dance with everyone there. Sonic looked back at Milo who lowered his chin and raised both his eyebrows. Sonic wasn't so sure. Milo placed arm around Sonic's neck."You're the only person I know who takes the biggest risks. Surely, if you can defeat threatening evils, you can most definitely conquer your fear of uncertainty. Think of it as a Zone, and the last boss is her heart. There are no jumps or homing attacks needed here, only words. This is just a bigger risk as any."Maybe he was right. This was exceptionally difficult for himself for some reason. From the churning pits in his stomach and the wrenching of his heart, he needed to use the quick wit from his brain. He was making it difficult for himself. Looking at it, only Sonic was stopping Sonic from doing anything about it.He gave one last bit of eye contact with Milo, who winked at him. Sonic turned and got off the stool, casually walking over to the lonely female Hedgehog. She was concentrating elsewhere when he stood next to her, clearing his throat to get her attention. He had one hand behind his back and another in front of him. She turned her and looked up at him."Sonic..." She muttered. She swallowed her saliva. "I mean, hey Sonic!" She said with more confidence.Dear Chaos, she was beautiful. Her emerald eyes were just as pristine and powerful as real ones, piercing his spirit to the core and making his stomach inflammations worse that he was nearly..bah, what was he kidding? It sounded extremely corny to him. He shoved off the nervous persona and tried to act like he usually did. Upfront, confident and fearless."Heya Ames! You up for a dance?" He said bluntly.Amy looked around briefly, then shrugged. "Sure! Why not?"Sonic smiled as he lent his hand and pulled her up from her seat, taking them both over. The song changed into a more softer, yet relaxing trance, that most would go back to their seats to continue chatter and wait for their entrees. But there was the small few who stayed to continue, such as Vector and Vanilla, and Charmy and Cream. Sonic did the usual, archetypical position, making his throat clog up with nervousness again. Amy, all the while, kept a serene smile. Sonic tried to make conversation."So, how's work goin' for ya?" He asked, breaking the awkward silence between them."Work's work. Nothing more, nothing less." She responded. "What about you?"Sonic shrugged. "Same here. I was preparing help clean the lab up downstairs, Tails brother Milo's moved in...sort of."Amy chuckled. "Yeah I met up with him before. He's a nice guy."Sonic nodded. "Of course...so where'd Shadow run off to?"Amy rolled her eyes. "Important business. I don't really expect less from him anyway."Their chatter was filled with numerous discussions about others as he tried to delve parts of her life he didn't know, as she was not afraid to the same with him, who was only positively happy to explain his thrill-seeking ways to her, in which she became incredibly tuned into, encased in his story-telling and wide-versed ways. She was a bit depressed that her life wasn't as exciting as his, but he assured her that some day it will be.They talked until the next song was a fast paced rock song, where more people came on and danced off. It made Sonic feel good and prove that this friendship with Amy was more crucial. He was glad for it and he'd hoped Amy felt the same way. Although he felt Milo's stare, but brushed off the gaunt fox's obvious plot to hook them up and Sonic knew it. Completely unnecessary and inappropriate from Sonic's standards.Soon after, it was time for the entree. A nice simple soup with sliced bits of baguettes. Soups varied from person to person. Milo had gotten another beer for Sonic and himself, prying the tag and sculling it down, earning a weirded eye for Sonic. They slurped it all up, Cream getting it all over her face, forcing Vanilla to come over and wipe it off with a serviette. She was also sharing it with Cheese and copied her mother in cleaning the Knuckles watched Neptune absorb the soup through his glove, Knuckles raising an eyebrow as he tried to butter his bread."Hey Knuckles..." Said Milo. "How come you're letting them use this place despite it being sacred ground?"Knuckles shoved the bread in his mouth, chewed and swallowed it. "A lot of ceremonies were done in the grace of the Master Emerald. For the temple, a lot of festivals were in held in here. I'd made sure they placed down proper protectorate materials. Thanks to GUN, they actually placed a giant board underneath and sealed it in, making sure the floor isn't damaged. I dunno how they got the lights up on the roof without putting risking collapses I think they mentioned some mumbo jumbo and I said, if it doesn't wear it out, then I don't care what it's called."Sonic smirked. "Good to see you taking care of the place."Knuckles crossed his arms and snuffed them. "It's my job!"Sonic laughed, earning a nudge from Milo."So, what were you and Amy talking about before?" Wondered Milo, earning a smug look from the gaunt fox.Sonic blinked. "We just talked as all. I dunno why you're prying into our friendship..."Milo chuckled. "Hah! I'll have a talk to you later..."Sonic kept having his soup, trying to forget Milo's obvious intentions.The rest of the night went pretty smoothly. The main meal was a delicious, roast turkey with vegetables that everyone scoffed down as soon as they saw it. More photos were taken, Mrs Rabbit demanding to have group shots. First off, she collected the chosen family, including Gemerl, which took the robot by surprise."This is a new life for a fantastic family." Mr. Rabbit commented. "It has it's oddities sure, but a family is a family.Vector stood with Vanilla, whilst having Cream, Cheese and Gemerl in front of them, Cheese looking over to Neptune and bringing the Agent into the picture, bewildering Vanilla."Oh my, looks like Cheese wants Neptune into the family as well..." She commented.Neptune clapped ecstatically.Knuckles looked on at the mismatched yet harmonious group. "That Chao has taken a huge liking to...that...thing..."Sonic chuckled. "I say let him go. If he can be a big brother to them then there's no harm."Milo smirked. "I think the only normal person in there is Vanilla. The rest are pretty much their own."Sonic had a look at Vanilla closely. She reminded him of somewhere similar to her stature and expressive motions. He couldn't quite pick it though. But he was right about the rest however, Cream was debatable. She could go quite mental if you pushed her too far.Vector dragged Espio and Charmy in as well, and to his discomfort was made to stand next to Cream, where he blushed to no end. He scolded Vector for this, who in barked at him to deal with it. Charmy put on his show on pretending to hate it, but Sonic knew better, so did Vector.But amongst the laughter and tears, it made Sonic briefly, giving his mind some alone time. He coudn't remember much of his parents. He himself was born on Christmas Island, judging by his birth certificate, however that was all smudged off. But he didn't bare his thoughts over small matters. All that was confusing was the business and idealism of togetherness. Most of the time he was dead set on being content on other peoples happiness and his friendship with others was most of the time his only connection to the purposes of the real world. He knew Knuckles would have had a hard time as well. The Echidna longed for some freedom of his own, and envied Sonic's own. They were near opposites, Sonic gathering a stubbornness was familiar trait amongst all spiked lifeforms. He had it, Amy had it and so did Sonic. Knuckles had the desire to connect with others, but often had to fight through his feuds. But ultimately, he had closer ties with the Chaotix than anything else. So in turn, they too were part family.Sonic now really felt disconnected. He walked out of the Temple to leave the joyous others as they finished with photos and moved on to take photos of cutting the cake, which for some reason Elise had high hopes on snapping a piece of her own. Sonic took his unfinished beer and walked out.Exiting, he could see the GUN Soldiers on patrol, talking to one another. Sonic meanwhile, headed up to the top of the temple, and sat down to look at the crater of stars in the sky."Claustrophobic?"Sonic looked to his side. "I don't fit amongst any of them."Gabriel walked by and sat next to him. "But didn't you say yourself that you needed at least one person to be with you? You know, a companion who could keep up?"Sonic browed. "No? I don't recall ever saying that."Gabriel shrugged and looked up at the stars as well. "They get pretty lonely too."Sonic rose an eyebrow. "Who?"Gabriel pointed upwards. "They do their designated job, giving light and warmth to the worlds they cater for. However, like a Hedgehog, you can't get too close or else you'll get hurt."Sonic lowered his eyelids. "Uhh...I don't recall incineration as a technique."Gabriel laughed halfheartedly. "Thanks for ruining my metaphor comparison."Sonic grinned. "Anytime."Gabriel cracked his neck. "Your only problem is boredom. A Stupilite gets bored easily. They thrive adventure. So don't worry, it's more of a blood issue than a mental one.""I'll keep that in mind." Sonic said sarcastically."I dare ya to invite the Rosoideae to Ice Cap. I can assure you the fun you'll have in that." Gabriel suggested.Sonic sighed. "What did the Prophecy say now about this?"Gabriel snuffed. "Nothing at all! If you don't want the prying eyes of everyone and want some privacy with her, then I suggest doing so...geeeez not everything is about the prophecy..."Sonic turned away. "So what does the Prophecy say?Gabriel's hands went to his hips. "So now you're interested..." He complained, rubbing his forehead."If you're insistent, grab the girl and take her to the tip of the Ice Cap. We can discuss the current issues with Shizaru."Sonic nodded. "Okay, we can do that tomorrow then. She's having a pretty good time in there."Gabriel flicked a stone off the edge. "Go see for yourself then eh?"Taking the hint, Sonic headed back inside the Temple, seeing that Amy was speaking with several of Vector's relatives. They were more hillbilly than anything and were probably Vector's cousins. They were rambling on about her quills and make up, wishing they could have been as privileged as her. Gathering from the look on her face she wasn't really enjoying herself as much as she would like to. Sonic approached her, soon being fawned over by the girls, who must have been really big fans of his. Amy, confused by the whole thing, sat there listening to the Girl crocs rave on about Sonic's exploits. Sonic happily discussed it, then, with his sneakiness, mentioned that Knuckles would have more details than he and soon the Echidna was ravaged with the small horde, Sonic laughing it off, then hearing Amy's slight giggling."Thanks for that." She said, smiling. "No offense to Vector, but his relatives..."Sonic nodded. "Yeah I know. Which was why I sicced them on Knucklehead."Amy gladly took Sonic's offer of having a stroll up to the tip of Ice Cap, not really caring that it was going to be cold. She was touched by Sonic's gesture of putting his jacket over her shoulders, admiring the handsomeness of the Blue Blur, albeit embarrassed by it. They eventually made it to the Ice Cap entrance and reflected on it."Wanna race up?" He asked her with a smirk on his face and a thumbs up, before changing his shoes."Sonic...I'm in high heels! As much as I would love to run with you I'll probably slip and hurt myself."Sonic snuffed. "Pffff...your Piko Piko is bigger than your boots, surely, you could tuck them away somewhere...Amy could have murdered him right there and then, the annoyance on her face was showing. But, she forced it away as she put her skills to use, getting rid of the high heels and switching them for her classic boots, which were a lot warmer. For Sonic, they were more Amy like. But now, he needed to give a challenge for her. To assist her to become faster than he...well, almost as fast. He noted her speed would increase with playful fury. So he needed to get on her nerves..."Hey Amy..." He said rather smugfully."What?""You know you got drunk the other night, and tried to kiss me..."Amy blushed furiously. "I...I did...?"The expression on her face changed completely. Tails used a word, that was the same of a Simpsons character...Moe? Was it?Sonic wanted to laugh. "No...no you didn't."As predicted, she flew into a fit of fury and brought out her hammer, as he foretold. She was becoming like her old self, more brash and relentless, and yet, Sonic had missed the side of her, however violent she was. He feared it the most but at least it's a sign of her old self. Her calmed down was awkward and unbalanced. Sure there was the occasional anger, but it was legitimate anger that she tried to hide often. He'd already gathered that Shadow had that affect on her.He bolted up Ice Cap, laughing as Amy hunted him down with her hammer of justice, still with the blush on her face and the occasional screams accusing him of toying with her feelings. But to Sonic it was hilarious. He challenged her to jump off the cliff sides, temporarily letting the Rose Templer slide as they hung on stalactites and hopped off to the next one, Amy forgetting on how freezing it was as she was more focused on holding on than potential frostbite she could attain. Sonic used his wall climb to get to the top using two adjacent walls. Steam came out from Amy's head, annoyed she'd couldn't get up the same way he could. He'd have to teach her."All you gotta do is..."He muttered the technique to her, in which she tried several times. The wall being made out of ice and snow did not help matters, but with each attempt she did she got better and better. Soon enough, she made the final leap to the top, almost falling off, but being held back by Sonic. She sighed with relief as she turned back to him. Quickly remembering why she was mad at Sonic, the Piko Piko Hammer came out swinging as she started to chase him once more to the top of Ice Cap.It became a significant spectacle once the two had made it up to the top. They both had fog breath, and staring out at the rest of the island, low clouds circling it all around like an ocean of precipitation. And the stars were so much closer as Amy tried to make constellations, but then started shivering and regretting wearing such a thin fabric. Sonic stood behind her and rubbed her arms to help warm her up, to which she deeply blushed to, then forced her face forward to look onwards"Nice night." She commented.Sonic nodded. "Indeed." He said, smiling.They leaned against a rock, which was considerably much better than leaning on an ice shard, albeit not being quite as warm anyway."I could sit here and watch the sunrise." Said Amy, with her legs out. Sonic leaned over to button up the jacket, for his general kindness and concern for her well-being. She blushed as he took off his white top and blanketed her bare legs, leaving her to clank her boots together."You didn't have to do that." She said to him.Sonic kept that downwards curve expression. "You're my friend Amy...I do anything for friends."Amy gave a weakened smile and continued having glances out at the island mass, the jungles, deserts and the like. The air was thin but it didn't matter to them. Amy didn't want to do it, but she took his own advice and snuggled up next to him, making it Sonic's turn for his cheeks to redden.An hour later, Sonic had fallen asleep, his head resting on Amy's shoulder. It'd been tough for him recently, facing the inaugural path of heroism."You know the day is approaching." Said Shizaru as she appeared in front of Amy.Amy could feel Sonic's warm breath on her neck. She lowered her head."I know I know...have you found Abbadonia yet?"Shizaru nodded. "We're closing in on her temporary base. She seems to be situated in the depths of the dangerous Enchanted Forest Zone, located near Soleanna."Amy sighed. "I'll need to write a note for both them...so they won't have to search for me."Shizaru tilted her head. "You know they will look for you anyway."Amy did a half-smile. "Because it is like them. However, if I do it nice and early, hours before any of them awake..."Shizaru knelt down before her. "You're doing the right thing here Amy. This way, we can finally redeem ourselves. Your ancestors would be proud of you."Amy's lip twitched. "I'm sure they will."Amy sat there in deep thought, knowing the task ahead, deeply affected her. She'd be warned time and time again and she'd always agree, despite the consequences of her actions. It was not now, it was not tomorrow...but eventually she would come across the choice she couldn't make herself.She looked at Sonic who was sleeping contently, Amy reminding herself that he'd probably slept in far worse places than this. But should she ask him whether or not the things she'd seen, and that she feared for own sanity. Within the depths of the truth that she wielded, was not at all wrapped up as she thought it would be. Knowing these secrets, she painfully withheld them from the one she thought she'd discontinued and disconnected all feelings with. But she herself was just as confused as he, wallowing in her own puzzlement and unable to make the proper connections. She wanted to protect Sonic at all costs. His life was far more meaningful than hers and that the world needed him more than she."Shizaru..." She muttered."Yes Prophetess?"Amy kept looking on. "What changes did we bring?"Shizaru started scanning the horizons. "The changes that have been brought have already arrived. How ever...it will take some time for them to properly arrive."Amy's head lifted. "Does that mean I can finally rev-"Shizaru shook her head. "Not yet. The change has allowed the Processor to be made, however it needs the permission in order to use it."Amy looked down. She had no idea what this Processor thing was, but all she knew as that she had to lead Sonic towards it, make him...find it. But Shizaru was being in her cryptic status again, refusing to divulge crucial information that could make data flow much more faster."The Processor needs Sonic's permission. How do I go about doing it?"Shizaru looked at Sonic. "He's already seen two of them. I might get NiGHTS to grab one of the more logically placed ones."Amy nodded. "Okay. Do I get a description of one of these...""BM Recruits..." Shizaru continued."BM Recruits..." Amy repeated."Sonic will be needing these Recruits over time. What he has now is insufficient enough for what we have to do." Shizaru explained.They spoke well into the night, Amy making sure Sonic was okay. However the depths of his own dreams was unheard of as his cheeks and brow twitched, believing he was having a nightmare, She gently touched his cheek, then reaching her arm over and rubbed his own. Here wasn't appropriate to sleep, but Sonic wanted to see the sunrise. To be honest, so did she. Wants verses needs came into play, intermingling with stupidity and common sense. She was about to get up, before his hand wrapped across her waist, clinging himself to her, making her blush immensely. Must be some dream that he was having.No...she wasn't going to sacrifice his health or her own. Besides, they could see the sun rise from where they were staying for the night. Now that she thought of it, the huts weren't too far from the edges of the inner parts of the Island. Picking him up, knowing her strength was nearly as great as Knuckles, she took them both down the Cap. He must have been in some deep sleep as he did not wake up from the prominent lumps, bumps and jumps. It was much easier to come down. However, with a massive stomp on a ledge, she heard a slight rumbling. Turning around to look at the steep slant, huge snow boulders were sent hurling in her direction with the lethally large avalanche. Panicking, Amy took a run for it. She couldn't believe he didn't awake from all the noise. Although, he was probably used to it all by now.Didn't surprise her. And on she ran, dodging oncoming trees as her legs automatically drove themselves. Seeing an opening on the side, she ran over to the small cave and crawled in, huddling Sonic inwards as the avalanche passed them, blocking the entrance to the cave. As soon as the rumbling stopped, she placed Sonic down and crawled over to the entrance in an attempt to dig their way out. However, it was just too cold for her fingers to keep going. But she kept trying, no matter what.Her heartbeat elevated with fear that they were going to be stuck there for a while. Why did she make the decision to leave? If Sonic was awake this wouldn't happened. Sonic would not have let them get overrun by tonnes of snow. This was the reason why she would never be the hero she envied so much.Her fingers stiffened and started burning from the sub zero temperatures of the wintery elements. But all the while she just kept clawing her fingers in.
RUMBLERUMBLERUMBLE
A series of tremors sent Amy flying back to the end of the cave as the snow caved in and flung her. And the cave itself was just cold, dark and damp that her heart was really racing. No. She could do this. By herself. With no fear. Get rid of the fear and bring on the rock hard determination to escape.So she crawled back and continued to dig. No matter the cost. This was her fault and be damned if she wasn't going to get them both out of it. She would let Sonic sleep for now, for she needed to push herself beyond her limits in order to prove to herself that she could do it. But she knew dumb decisions would hinder her self-esteem. She had the solid belief that they weren't going to die. She had the luck on her side, the heart of the cards so to speak. She'd only looked at her own cards a month ago and they said that she will put the world before herself. But her interpretation of her world was built before she started dating Shadow, meant her world was still Sonic.She was torn between him and Shadow. She loved Shadow dearly, that he'd changed for her, but it wasn't necessary as she loved him the same way. He was generally nice enough to take her out on dates and the great care he showed her was what she dearly wanted from Sonic. He would tolerate going to the cinemas but she suspected Rouge was playing afoot, forcing him to go with it or else. Whether Rouge's threats were real were a different story, but for now, they were a happy couple.She looked back at how she'd fallen for him that day. Again egging from Rouge's perspective on the suggestion she should give him a chance. Her love for Sonic started to fade, but Amy knew it wouldn't go away completely. It was simply buried for the time being. She longed for more. If it wasn't the longing for love of another then it was for adventure. She'd realized the dreams of doing casual dates was incredibly...boring. Years after imagining the perfect one came to a halt when everything was dull and the same, seeing couples having a good time did nothing to alleviate the matter at all.She took off the jacket and shirt and placed them both on Sonic, despite being a bit damp, might help slightly if at all. The lack of light made it hard, and scared Amy a little...knowing those previous dreams were hollow and blank. Amy tried to be strong as she inhaled and exhaled, not letting it get to her now. She began digging again straight after, determined to let Sonic see the sunrise.More hours had passed and Amy was exhausted. The sweat from it turned to icicles, Amy passing off the pain for happy thoughts, forcing her will to embrace the positives and run with them. She knew Sonic would do the same thing, not just for her but for anyone. Once every moment she take a several second break to breath. She looked at her hands. They were red raw from all the persistant and near non-stop clawing and etching of the thick, icy snow. The tunnel was several meters long but had no end in sight. Heck no she was not going to break now. Sonic could wake at any moment and foil her plan. Amy knew she had to do this herself, for herself. She imagined seeing the end of it, but stress was getting to her brain, a massive headache from a lack of liquids putting a strain on progress. She crawled back over to Sonic to make sure he was okay. She smiled weakly as he was resting peacefully. She began to think maybe doing the same wasn't such a bad idea after all. She placed her hand on her necklace, placing the faith that she would have Shadow's spirit with her.
She woke up that morning, laid out on an unknown bed and staring at an unknown roof, with the sun overcasting on her body. Her head hurt. Real bad. Sitting up, she turned to her side, and saw that Sonic was resting beside her. She covered her mouth as she gasped in shock, more worried that she'd done the improbable the night before that she couldn't remember. They didn't...did they?

Sliding off the bed, she checked herself out. She didn't feel any other pains besides her feet and her groggy head. She saw her boots underneath the bed and grabbed them, then felt something on her chest. A beautiful white necklace that glistened in the sunlight. Glancing over to Sonic, who was sound asleep still, she grasped the pendant in her hands, then saw Shizaru standing on the end.
"Woah..." She muttered."Your have a destiny to fulfill. He has gotten you the necklace that was craved by the enemy. Now you must search for the black glove once worn by Gabriel."
Amy looked down. "Yes, Gabriel mentioned the Glove. He called it God's Gauntlet."

Shizaru nodded. "Gabriel used God's Gauntlet during emergencies. Our source has confirmed that it is in the waters of near Prison Island."

Amy's eyes widened. "I can't go there! That's forbidden GUN territory!"

Shizaru's stare sent chills down Amy's spine. "Then your friend will."
The rest of that day was a mere blur to her. But as her eyes whirlpooled into Sonic's face, she had to break herself away and keep etching.Several hours later and Amy was really feeling it. Tired, cold, sore and wet. Her entire body was aching from the repetitive duty she took on herself. She had spearhead that focus into getting them both out of there. Her elbows were red, her knees were red and her dress and shawl torn. She heard Sonic grumbled about and she turned her head to see that he was attempting to sit up. She kept digging away rapidly. Sonic was now fully awake, albeit rubbing himself and whinging about being unable to see. There was a slight glow from the snow outside of the cave, seeing Amy's boot shuffling about. Confused, Sonic crawled over to see what she was doing."What are you doing?" He asked her, deeply concerned.Amy gritted her teeth, then took a deep breath. "I did something incredibly stupid and now I'm getting us out of this mess.Sonic looked around, surprised. The light from his bionic eye lit the area up slightly.Her could see her, almost as blue as he. She had bags under her eyes and her lips were purple. She was shaking to no end as he could see her gloves ripped and her fingers bloodstained. Seeing the digging along, streaks of her blood was scrawn across it. He placed a hand on her shoulder."Amy..." He muttered. "You're hurt."Amy whined. "Oh wow thanks Captain Obvious!" She scolded, swatting his hand.Sonic leaned back and sat on his heels. "No need to get snappy!"His attempts to help her were being blocked by her body, getting him really annoyed."Why won't you let me help you?" He wondered.Amy rubbed her eyes. "Because it was my fault that I made the decision to come back down and put you in the hut...I think keeping warm was more important than seeing the sunrise..."Sonic smiled. "How come you didn't wake me?"Amy sighed. "Because...because I wanted to prove I could do it without your help! I wanted to be as smart and strong as you! I'm tired of being caught all the time and you rescuing me."Sonic sat back. "Doesn't really justify why you didn't wake me up. We could have worked together to get out."Amy resumed digging. "For once, I'm not gonna cry about it. I'm getting us both out, using my method whether you like it or not!"She kicked Sonic back and managed to finally scratch the surface and popped herself out, seeing the sea of clouds before glow gold. She popped back in and grabbed Sonic, who was recovering from a boot to the head. Amy hoped out, lending Sonic a hand, who refused it due to her current behaviour. However she rolled her eyes and smirked at his smart-alecness. They stood next to each other, Amy filled to the brim with happiness as the sun came above the clouds, its eternal shine warming them both, the ice sweat melting off."It's fantastic!" Sonic commented.Amy clasped her hands together and took in what the sun could give her. It was making her extremely glad that she managed to get them both out in time. She started bouncing around like mad, screaming "We made it! We made it!"Sonic chuckled. "We sure did. Thanks Amy..."Amy, amidst her joyous leaps, grabbed old of Sonic's head and gave him a big smooch, his cheeks heating up once more and the shocked look on Amy's face on what she just did. She back-flipped her motions and turned away, looking down at the ground in shame."I could have gotten us out a lot earlier than that. I-I mean, I was too slow..."Sonic was stunned for a moment, then shook it off."Amy, you got us out as quickly as you...wait, how?"Amy turned to him again with an angered look on her face. "Did you not appreciate my effort? You would have done heaps better than me!"Sonic raised his hands in a passive expression. "Woah...I wasn't criticizing you!"Sonic cracked his neck. Man this girl was back to her mood swings. "Can't we just enjoy the sunrise?"Amy pouted. "Oh of course! Pay attention to the prettier woman who sits in the sky?"Now this was just getting silly. It was probable that this was going to go nowhere really fast. There was just no way to please her. Amy stormed off in a huff, with Sonic rolling his eyes and making his own way back, running past the huts, before seeing Knuckles stumble out of his."SONIC PLEASE HELP!" Knuckles yelled.Sonic skidded to a halt. What more could go wrong here? He stopped beside Knuckles who looked bothered and in a rut, his quills all over the place and his face all covered with lipstick. Sonic couldn't help but snicker."Shut up!" Knuckles retorted, notably angered, yet highly stressed. He looked around, before pulling Sonic and taking him somewhere secluded, namely back to the Master Emerald, where Neptune was playing cards with Cheese. He pulled him and forced him to sit down.Sonic could see Knuckles was upset and ready to pop at any moment, shaking and sweating like mad. He'd never seen his buddy like this. They were now sitting down beside the Master Emerald, Sonic strangely needing to hear what Knuckles had done."What's up?" Said Sonic.Knuckles looked around. He was glad Neptune and Cheese didn't speak or understand much. His paranoia was getting Sonic more interested by the minute. He took a deep breath."I think I had a bit too much to drink last night..." Knuckles bated out, bringing a ice pack to his forehead.Sonic rose an eyebrow, smiling with bemusement. "Go on..."
Last night.

Knuckles watched Sonic and Amy leave the reception as he sat down in his chair. Milo came back from the bar and threw a beer into Knuckles hand after saving him from Vector's cousins by throwing them towards Espio. Milo had a successful smug look on his face, with Knuckles confused as to what was going on. Most people were having the cake, dancing or talking amongst themselves. Both Vector and Vanilla had gigantic families so it was easy to get lost in the crowd. However Knuckles and Milo were having a casual conversation about life, Milo more intrigued with his relationship with Rouge. But, instead of pushing it like with Sonic and Amy, he decided to be a little more subtle about it.

The time came when the bouquet had to be tossed. Milo's goal was to find the tallest female he could find. Vanilla had an older sister, Caramel, who was extremely tall. Milo had spoken with her earlier and found out the glasses girl was an avid Shipper, explaining that it is someone who supports a pairing. Milo in his smugness thought it was perfect and plotted with the woman, who had to be in her late thirties and yet, she looked younger than her sister...not to mention acting no older than Cream. No matter, it was enough for his plan to work. In her giggles and squees in the secrecy of their mischievous whispers she agreed to do what she was told. Milo rubbed his hands together in delight. He heard the chatter of wondering where Pink was, when Milo comfortably told them she was busy elsewhere. He agreed it was uncharacteristic, but what she was doing now was far better than catching a batch of flowers.

He let Caramel go amongst the crowd, specifically standing behind Rouge. Milo stood in the distance and winked at her. Vanilla then tossed the bouquet and all the hands of the single ladies in the bunch. Caramel had caught it, but deliberately dropped it into Rouges hands, who punched the air as she held the bouquet. Milo looked smug and extremely devious, as Caramel came back over and stood next to him.
"Your turn." She muttered to him. He nodded.
Milo walked forward with confidence. He could see Knuckles, Voxel and Espio being pushed into the pack by Vector. Milo was very lucky he was one of the tallest men in the room, or else the second phase of his plan wouldn't work. Getting behind Knuckles, they watched as they turned on the raunchy music, with Vanilla sitting on the chair with an immense shade of red on her face. Vector got down on his hands and knees and lifted her dress up and took off her shoe, causing some to cover the eyes of the little ones or tell them to run off during this time. Vector had great chompers and made sure he was delicate with this common marriage ritual. With his front teeth, he slowly, carefully but surely, slide the lacy white garter off her thigh on to her shin and calf and finally her hold of it with his hand, he threw it behind him, Milo lending his hand forward to snatch it, only for him to purposely drop it in Knuckles hand, with the poor social-less Knuckles confused on this matter. He was dumbfounded on the amount of pats on the back he received, but couldn't open his mouth to ask what it truly meant. He asked Milo on whether he should keep hold of it. Milo shrugged and grabbed his beer.
"Ask Vector, he'll be able to tell ya." Milo said, walking off and chuckling like mad.
Knuckles waited until the crowd dispersed and approached the Crocodile.
"Vector, can I ask you a question?" Said the red Echidna."G'head." Replied Vector.
Knuckles held the garter in the air, completely clueless. "What siginificance does this piece of womans clothing have."

Vector cackled to the point he was confused from laughing too hard.
"Knux my friend, you've never been to a wedding have you?"
Knuckles shook his head. "You know me Vec, I hardly get of this darn Island half the time."

Vector nodded. "Understood, understood...but it's simple it's..."

Knuckles eye's widened hard as he froze with shock
"ARE YOU CRAZY?" Knuckles roared before falling over. Espio walked over."What's wrong with him?" Wondered the purple reptile.
Vector took a sip of his wine.
"Heh...I told him about the meaning of catching the garter."
Even Espio had to laugh. "Well I was glad it wasn't me."

Knuckles huddled in the corner, paranoid and scared out of its wits. Milo strolled to him.
"So...I take it you found out?" Said the Gaunt Fox with his hands in his pockets.
Knuckles glared at him. "YOU TRICKED ME!"

Milo raised his hands in a passive motion. "Tricked? They call me the Trickster but honestly, I wasn't the one who pushed you inside the pack did I?"

It was true. Milo loved using his way with words to screw with others. He always saw the loop holes in everything and had every intention to exploit them. He was that kind of person.
"So, I actually have to follow through with this?" Knuckles said with horror.
Milo rubbed his chin. This was gold.
"Of course. You have to mar-""LALALALALALA NOT LISTENING!" Knuckles cried out, blocking his ears with his hands whilst rolling on the floor.
Milo shrugged and walked off. "What ever...He's all yours Rouge..."

Knuckles gulped. Oh crud...

Rouge pulled him by his tie and pressed their noses together. "Look Bat-Girl, I don't care that it's the rules...or that it's tradition...or that the purpose of this is to make us mates..and-"

His chatter was stopped with the pressing off her lips. Dear Chaos this was killing him. It was murdering Milo with the hilarity of it. Apparently Rouge already had a little too much to drink, despite having to be in charge of the GUN troops while Shadow was gone. She pressed the Echidna up on the wall with her body and rubbed herself against him. Knuckles entire body was on fire by now. Dear Chaos, dear chaos, dear chaos, dear chaos, dear chaos...

They soon parted lips. Milo had already given Knuckles the necessary amount of drinks, which was making him go more crazy than usual. He was still wide-eyed, then found himself looking down her cleavage.
"Uh...Rouge...I understand that as rival treasure hunters we must keep our personal space to ourselves..." Knuckles tried to reason. But Rouge was not having any of it."Little Mole..." She stuttered. "Echidna..." He corrected.
Rouge shook her head with sarcastic expression. "EchidNA...you and I both know we left an impression on each other ever since you saved me on the ARK all those years ago. Truth be told I was extremely touched by your heroism...your dedication to protect the Master Emerald..."

Knuckles grunted...and blushed harder.
"Really?" He answered, looking away in embarrassment.
Rouge smiled. Then let go of him.
"But...if you're not going to trust me I won't give you this special gift I've been saving for you for years." She said before turning around to leave.
Knuckles reached out his hand. "Rouge wait!"

Rouge smirked, before changing her expression to sweet. "Yes?"

Knuckles rubbed the back of his neck. There was something small but there, and he felt it for this vulptous bat girl who was damn right sexy...oh great, now he wasn't thinking straight. Damn Milo for shoving the beer down his throat.
"I'm sorry...it's just that well..."
He had to make the excuse...apologize...and see what kind of gift she's got for him. Probably something she'd stolen no doubt.
"I wouldn't mind seeing the gift..." He said.
Rouge smiled. "Sure...it's in my hut if you don't mind a short walk..."

Knuckles smiled weakly. "I need a short walk..."
Knuckles rubbed his head. "Ugh...that's all I remember. She started giving me this stuff...then all of a sudden..."Sonic rose his eyebrows and rotated his hands, wanting to know the rest of it.Knuckles rubbed his eyes. "I think I...I..."
She sat him on her bed, the window facing towards the vibrant moon. He tapped his knees with his hands whilst Rouge poured him another drink.
"So...when are you going to give me this gift?" He asked.
Knuckles didn't want look impatient, he was sure Rouge was sifting through her things to see where this gift was. He drank what was probably his third wine on top of the four cans of beer he had before with Milo. It was mighty tasty, being a fan of the fine wines himself.
"What kind of wine is it?" He asked her, wondering where she placed the bottle.
Rouge snickered silently. "The bottle's on the desk behind the candle."

Knuckles' vision was pretty much very blurry by this point. He reached over and grabbed the bottle, and read it.
"Spagonia Valley Sparkling White, 19XX...wow this is old. No wonder it tastes so good!"
Without a second thought he finished the glass and placed it next to the candle...then proceeded to down the entire bottle in one go, too drunk to feel the burn going down his throat.
"Okay I found it!"
Knuckles turned around, thinking finally. He tried to get his vision together when he felt his lips being pressed. His controlled inhibition vanished and let her slide her tongue into his mouth, which he promptly suckled for it's unique taste.
"What kind of gift is that?" Knuckles grunted angrily, his head swaying about.
Rouge, just as drunk as he, shoved him on the bed, making him laugh oddly.
"Oh I see..." He commented with a seductive smile matching hers, allowing her naked body to smother all his as she throw off his gloves..."Oh..." Sonic said, greatly surprised by this. He rubbed his best mates back."So what happened before I found you?"Knuckles sighed. "I woke up, found her next to me. It wasn't her horrible snoring...just an itchy throat as all. Then when I saw her, I panicked!"Sonic nodded. "Hmm...it's probably best that the pair of you avoid each other for a while then huh?"Knuckles nodded. He shot up, then ran to the edge of the Island and threw up over the edge. Sonic sighed. Poor Echidna, dealing with such a fallout of mental alterations. He himself couldn't do anything about it. Not much anyway. All he could do is stand with support, due to the fact Sonic wasn't that experienced in dealing with it.An hour later, there were mutters amongst the pasture of temp huts. Sonic walked back into the Temple to find Elise passed out on the dance floor. Milo soon came in as well, cleaning up the mess, and picked up the young Princess."Wow you're up early." Sonic said.Milo smiled and nodded. "So are you...I offered to clean up before our trip to the Enchanted Forest."Sonic almost forgot about it. "Ah okay...where's a broom?"Milo had gotten a row of towards the temple entrance and threw the rubbish into them, Sonic wiping down and helping pack up the tables. Several GUN Personnel as well as the Solennan waiters and chefs cleaned up as well. Within no time at all, the Temple was back to it's old , treasured, respectful state. Knuckles would be happy."There...good as...uhh...old..." Sonic said, unsure of the tense he should have used."Yup!" Agreed Milo.Knuckles had packed up and quickly cleaned up out in the shrine area, with Neptune and Cheese helping out too. Milo, ever the gentlefox, made himself and Sonic assist them. Sonic knew, from Knuckles rugged look, that he needed more sleep."Knux, let us do the rest of the work...go..." Said Sonic.Knuckles grew angry. "Hey, this is my Shrine, and I'll be damned if I don't clean this place up..."He said, before running off to the edge and throwing up again. Sonic and Milo facepalmed. He indeed did drink pretty heavily.The rest of that Sunday was pretty swift moving. Vector and Vanilla had their own private GUN Jet heading towards Apotos for their honeymoon, leaving Cream and Cheese in the care of her grandmother. Sonic sat next to Neptune, who looked glum at having to leave his good friend behind. Sonic assured the agent that they would see each other soon. Neptune clapped ecstatically.Knuckles waved to them as they left, but looked like he was searching for Rouge. She wasn't there to stare, but was most likely very hung over and issuing bitchy commands to her subordinates, much to their displeasure. Amy didn't get on the same plane as Sonic, in fact, he didn't see her getting on any of them at all, wondering if she'd called Shadow and asked for a earlier pick up. All possibilities were mentally suggested.Several hours later, they'd returned back to GUN Headquarters as Sonic, Neptune and Milo went back to the Den. Neptune flipped on the TV as usual as Milo went to go get changed back into his leather gear. Sonic stripped off his suit and so forth and was finally free from the realm of clothing.The boys made themselves Weet Bix, and chowed down the food. It was ten thirty, but no one really cared. They sat with Neptune and watched some random cartoon that was on. They were all critically tuned in to cartoon which involved a Cow and a Chicken, sinking into the couch with all their feet on the coffee table."This show never made sense to me." Milo droned.Sonic looked at him, shoving a spoonful of breakfast into his gob. "In what way?""Well, look at the Chicken. Aren't chickens female?"Sonic blinked. "Uhh yeah?"Milo nodded. "This chicken is male."Sonic rubbed his head. "Uhh that make's it a Rooster then doesn't it?"Milo shook his head. "Yes...but this one in particular is actually, a male chicken."Sonic rose both eyebrows, puzzled by the impossibility. "ooookay...never thought about that."The Gaunt Fox chuckled. "I mean, they're brother and sister..."The Hedgehog brushed it off. "It's in the theme song...Momma had a chicken, Momma had a cow..."Putting it all into his mouth, the milk ran down his hoodie then placed the bowl on the bench behind the couch and wiped himself down."That's another thing..."They continued talking about the obscene show as well as all kinds of random, yet ordinary conversations like they had them all the time. The presence of calmness, the steady and the stable lives of a Hedgehog, Fox and...Probationary Agent.After breakfast, they discussed on going to the Enchanted Forest for their training excerise. Sonic had only heard Elise speak about it, as well as Muriel mentioning one of the artifacts were situated there. Made sense, since Abbadonia's Rose was found there but highly hazardous to go and grab, which made Sonic think about what lie in the forest of unknown wonders.
"The Lance of Love...for the Soleannans...within the parchments of the Enchanted Forest Zone."
Sonic stood in thought. "You said GUN held the Sphere. Do you think we could use it?"Milo looked smug. "Lemme see...I'll have someone on the inside who might be able to help us. I'll be back in one moment..."He fled into the basement. Now that Sonic looked at it, he'd forgotten Tails had a basement. Probably labs and stuff, but he doubted Tails would want GUN to look into it, especially with a lot of his projects. But it was none of his business as well. Milo knew more than Sonic about these things...so he let it slide. Besides, Neptune and NiGHTS had looked through the boxes of mostly media based property. So there was probably nothing else interesting down there.Soon after, Milo had ran back up and patted Sonic on the back. "Sonic...don't worry, I have it under control..."
FLASH
More light flashed before his eyes, before he knew it, he was standing in dark green arch way, smothered with vines encased in a variety of flowers. However, what he saw beyond the archway was amazing...Trees as tall as legendary titans overshadowed a wide path way, their roots shooting out of the ground and back into the ground again, some creating their own entrances. Their ages had to be great. Birds chirped as the sun struggling to push past the canopy of billions of leaves, forging the high roof of the forest. Every flower but the Abbadonia Rose was found. This had to be the extension of the Garden of Soleanna Castle. Neptune ran over to each of the ones he found interesting and just had to poke them for his own amusement. The Probie loved it, sometimes making flower angels due to the sheer thickness of the flowers below, with Milo wondering out aloud how the flowers manage to grow so beautiful with the majority of the sunlight unable to get through. Sonic knelt before a beautiful blue flower and smelt it. It was sweet, cheerful and out of this world. Engrossed by the fresh air, Milo stretched his arms and inhaled. Indeed it was the Enchanted Forest...Butterflies were found all over the place, Neptune wanting to catch a flock of violet ones that fluttered by, prancing about before falling flat on his face. Milo flew up to one of the branches and stood on it, placing his hand above his eyes to see how far the forest skimmed to. But the immense amount of elder trees was astonishing, like something out of Lord of the Rings. He blamed Tails for these retarded remembrances. Sonic ran up the tree and stood beside Milo. Neptune on the other hand dug his claws into the wood and climbed up rapidly and erratically, before leaping beside Sonic and tilting his head a lot.Milo took one look at Sonic with this...competitive look on his face. Sonic knew what it meant. He'd seen that face on hundreds of people and it translated into one simple thing...Milo propelled himself with his tails and shot forward, with Sonic jumping from tree to tree, Neptune making his front flips with every leap. The scenery whizzed by them, the leaves they crossed whipped across their bodies, creating a fast crackling noise. It was like the dream he had with Amy. But this wasn't the dream world. Reality had taken place into the unknown pastures of the wilderness...Several races later, they made it to a branch, near some very thick flora, including vines and leaves and all kinds of things blocking the path before them. Neptune quickly whipped them back, obviously having no sense of suspense. Sonic rolled his eyes, then soon widened them.
A gigantic tree a hundred times the size of any other tree in the forest lay on top of the hill, it's roots twisted and contorted like magic, flocks of birds doing their flight routines in front of it, as if it's some kind of relic for the fauna. Hundreds of branches and giant fungi shot off the trunk, with it's thickness as wide as ten ordinary two storied houses sitting next to each other. It made him glad he was more of an adventurer, to see and be able to look at the engrossing views of untouched wonders. Milo shot past him, Neptune following with his leaps and bounds. Sonic grinned as he jumped from branch to branch and made their way to the giant tree...They stood before it, unable to comprehend it's size. But at the bottom was an entrance to the inside of it. It was dark and crawling with bugs as the whispers of the small echoed throughout the hollow trunk. There were gigantic, glowing orange fungi that spiraled upwards in a stair case fashion, prompting Sonic to run up as fast his could, with Neptune in tow. Milo flew straight up, trying to beat Sonic at getting up via flight. Neptune could have been a professional acrobatic from the way he was going and sometimes stopped because he was distracted by fireflies and tried to catch them as well. Fluorescent lights flickered within, creating a spectacular show.Now at the top, the view...was simply breathtaking. Milo was disappointed that he didn't bring a camera with him. Trees upon trees as far as the eye could see, even seeing the Kingdom of Soleanna in the distance, as the curve of the world started to take shape, clouds lowered as light beamed in around them and a cool, blue aura faded with the horizon. Sonic collapsed and spread his arms as he lay on a branch. Milo took in the views and the sensational air. Neptune was busy playing with the Chao that hid up there, taking the other two by surprise..."Heh...a Chao Garden. Who knew?" Sonic commented, smiling at Neptune enjoying himself.Milo nodded. "The Chaotic Energies around here must be immense and supporting the trees weight."Sonic then frowned, unaware that his uncontrolled thoughts maintained his emotive expression as he was disappointed a certain someone wasn't there with him."Why the frown? Charlie Brown?" Wondered Milo, his rhyming on par with Bazzas puns.Sonic looked up at him. "What?"Milo hung off a branch. "You're in deep thought. I can tell."Sonic's eyes were left wandering. "No I'm not."Milo sneered. "Hah! You're doing it again! It's Pink isn't it?"Sonic's eyes swatted back to Milo's, making Milo laugh."Hahahaha! It is! It totally is! I knew it!"Sonic rose an eyebrow, again unaware of what he was expressing failing to realize he was blushing."Man...still? You're serious gonna be in denial about this attraction thing aren't you?"Sonic lowered his eyebrows, annoyed. "I don't like any human singer." Sonic said in monotone, unconsciously deflecting.Milo laughed again. "Sonic! Look at yourself! You're so deep in denial your immediate reaction is to believe it's not there..."Sonic facepalmed, rolling his eyes. He wasn't so sure why Milo was so adamant in this. Again, he was trying to prove something that wasn't true. How could he, someone who, yeah sure, makes him hungry for some reason, be attracted to a girl who was completely insane, crazy, hammer happy and demanding. He was getting real uncomfortable again...real quick. He tried changing the subject but Milo was just as stubborn."Milo! Please stop!" Sonic cried. "What's the meaning of this? All you're gonna get is no."Milo stopped smiling and grew a bit angry."Okay then...lemme tell you something then..." He said, his mood changing completely."What?" Sonic retorted in a huff.Milo sighed. "I've seen you two. I've seen the way you've acted around one another. I've asked your friends. They've seen things...and..."Sonic waggled his hands and shook his head. "Woah woah woah...you've asked and spoken to, everyone I know, about mine and Amy's friendship? I've hardly known you for what, more than a week? And yet you're just as bad as Amy herself, demanding to have answers...and like her, won't take the negatives. You simply want yes. You're gonna keep going at it until I admit it, which I won't, because Amy and I are friends...that's...it!"Milo snuffed. "I told you I'm an Intel Officer. I'm also very good at reading people and their ques."Sonic scrunched his hand and stared him right into the window's of his face, looking beyond the severely interested and obsessed soul. "Okay then READER tell me...tell me what's really going on here?"Milo crossed his arms, smiling and winking at the passing wind, which Neptune caught...somehow."Okay then..." Milo said calmly. "What would you like to know in specific detail?"Sonic rubbed his forehead. He honestly didn't want to do this."Okaaay...lemme see...ah hah! Okay...Amy and I have nothing in common, what do you see in that hm?"Milo brought on his smugness once more. He was succeeding more than Sonic's stubbornness ever could...by smoothly buttering the bread."That is a...really easy question..." Said Milo. "There are plenty...""Like what?" Sonic asked rudely, raising his eyebrow.Milo rubbed his hands and cracked his fingers."For starters...you're both Hedgehogs."Well duh...thought Sonic."What else?"The Gaunt Fox caressed his own cheek."You both have...might I say...eyes as green as an Emerald..."Sonic fell into the trap of unawareness, thinking about the sparkly jewels that lay in her head. Both of them had the same sort of coloured eyes. He wasn't entirely practiced in that...always forgetting his own colour."You are both...determined. You do defeat Eggman, she to...well until most recently, pursue you no matter what!"There was that...damn Fox was right. Sonic was ready to sock one to him."What else. Both of you appear to wear red."
Do you like the colour red?
Milo raised an eyebrow. "Sonic?"Sonic looked up, no realizing he had zoned out briefly. He tried to get back in the zone, putting his anger to the ever pushy Milo."Ehhh Shadow has partly red fur. What's to say she wears it because she likes red regardless of what I wear." Sonic pointed out.Milo nodded. "Point taken." He responded.Sonic rubbed his face in frustration. He wasn't sure what Milo was getting at or what the purpose of all of this was. Amy Rose is Sonic the Hedgehog's friend. And that is that. Yet like Sonic himself told him earlier, they hadn't even known each other for a week and Milo could already see...signs or what ever. He was alright guy when not focusing on the subject of love, which Sonic found involving him quite abhorrent. A gush of wind shuffled some leaves, distracting Sonic for a moment."But come on, if you admit it to me that you at least like Amy, then I promise I will never ever raise the subject again." Said Milo.Sonic's attention turned back to the Fox. Sounded like a sweet deal, faking admitting he liked Amy sounded easy enough."Very well...I like Amy. Happy?" Sonic said with a monotone.Milo chuckled. "Hah! That was nothing...you have to do it with feeling. Your like sounds the same as a Facebook Like. Say it again."Oh great. Why?"I like Amy." He said, a little more chirpier. But Milo wasn't convinced."MMMM...no. Again. More Oomph..."Rage and impatience was beginning to build up, as well as a hunger feeling in his stomach. Mil was never gonna be satisfied with anyway Sonic says the words."Oh c-"Milo shook his head. "Your head is so far stuck up it's own ass it's literally not funny anymore. It's worse than getting someone to admit they're an alcoholic or a serial gambler. All I'm getting you to do, is honestly, admit a portion of those feelings because I know they're there even if you don't. I'm gonna keep repeating myself until I hear those words, clear, succinct and meaningful. Now try again."Sonic sighed. This was getting old in itself real quick."I like Amy."Again"I like Amy."Again."I...like...Amy..."Again.Sonic was clenching his fist and shaking it."I...like...Amy..."Again.Sonic gritted his teeth. The hunger only grew at this point."I, Sonic the Hedgehog, Like Amy Rose..."Again.Sonic muttered under his breath. His nerves were about to shatter."I, Sonic the Hedgehog, Love Amy Rose...better?"Ag-Sonic snapped, nothing was ever going to satiate Milo's appetite for dramatic admissions. The power of the fury took hold of Sonic as he stomped his foot, acting like a child and literally screaming, the hunger turning to flames..."I LOVE AMY ROSE!" He screamed, several birds flocking away from the tree tops in a frightened reaction as Milo fell back and a large thumping sound was heard from not too far away.Milo sat up, bemused from the current, exasperated expression on Sonic's face. He stood there, panting with the most furious look on his face. He couldn't believe Milo at this point, smiling at this...what was there to-Oh...Oh dear Chaos...Oh shi-Milo rose one eyebrow, finally content when Sonic's face quickly changed from one of pure anger, to extreme realization. It made sense. The hunger was never hunger pains but emotional inflammation that flared up when ever they spoke, and the heart racing was from nervousness built on previous unexplored feelings. The pieces were coming together now as Sonic held his head, shirking from his idiocy. He was beginning to freak out with parts began to surface. Still placing the denial in front, his spoken words were telling lies as his thoughts wondered elsewhere, trying to pick the true reason for it. But it was there. Worst of all, Milo was right.He had no idea what to do.Dear chaos he'd been so...blind, so ignorant. Everything was buried deep within, his fast heart and inflammed stomach purely outlets desperately trying to find a proper reaction. No, no...this wasn't how she'd felt as well? Was it? Is this the same for everyone going through the same thing. He couldn't...he shouldn't...he was damning it for occurring. His world was spinning."Sonic?"Sonic looked up at the fox. He couldn't say anything at all. What was all the running away for? A fear? A fear of becoming attached to someone else. A fear of an actually being in love? Commitment? That, the Pink Hedgehog who had pestered him for so long had finally gotten through to him, that he feel deeper after hearing her stories, the reasons behind who she was, than within that depth he began to see her inner beauty and have those...rather explicit dreams that were telling him what he had.
You don't know what you've got until it's gone...
The factor, that he, Sonic the Hedgehog, hero of the world, Knight of the Wind, the Blue Blur, the Fastest thing alive, loved Amy Rose, rude brat, Hammer-happy girl, Tails-titled Tsundere, persistent...sweet, cute, talented, smart...beautiful...Even now his thoughts trailed off. He couldn't find the steady thought within the pool of maddening imagery and words. He couldn't cope with it. No...he couldn't comprehend.So he kept denying it."Milo...I can't. I don't..." Sonic muttered, his eyes bouncing from side to side.Milo browed. "What?"Sonic held his head again. This hit him real hard. She was his friend and that's all it was to it. Yeah, that was it. Milo was there and seemingly the expert. Maybe there was a way to get rid of these feelings..."I can't have feelings for her. Amy's a friend. A bit crazy at times but still a friend." Said Sonic.Milo face-palmed. "You keep telling yourself that...but now that you've come to the conclusion that those feelings are there and the only way you could possibly get rid of them is to entirely ignore them. However, even with ignorance, It's entirely impossible to just...forget. Feelings are feelings because we can't control them."There was the truth in that. It was something he couldn't tame via running or smashing apart. He had to let his head rule his heart and pushed it forward. But then..."If I love her...then why...why can't I do it?"Milo smirked, obviously knowing the answer to that."You're the hero of legend. Some heroes are meant to be alone. They rush into the foil, sometimes not knowing what they're supposed to be doing but they learn by instinct and experience. You have both...you've been entirely consumed by heroism that you forgot how to implement yourself with real life situations and that's the reality of it. Sometime in your life you will slow down and settle. That's the path of growing and time. You can't be the hero all your life. You will try, but then...there's the click in your brain that tells you it's time."One-tracked mind more like it. Which is why he had to do it with the time he had. Soon after, he couldn't handle Milo's philosophized ranting and had the need to run...run real fast and far away from here. Far from others to forgive and forget everything. Distance himself. He couldn't take it and zoomed down the tree...Coming down the bottom, he was so distracted that he collided with Olly, who was holding a long, black, rune encased spear like apparatus. He got up and rubbed his head, apologizing to the Agent."Sorry, wasn't paying much attention." Said Sonic.Olly got up and checked the item. "No, it's okay, this thing popped out of nowhere as well."Sonic nodded. The sight of the objective-minded Agent calmed his spirit. She reminded him of himself, dedicated to completing the mission and almost completely forgetting why he was angry or what had gone wrong just now."What is it?" Asked Sonic, thankful for Olly's random appearance.Olly lifted up. "I have come to believe this is the Lance of Love. It popped out of the trunk of the tree just before. I wonder what made it come out?"Sonic gulped, subconsciously knowing. "No idea. Oh well."Olly began twirling around. "Do you still have that book?" She wondered.Sonic nodded, pulling out Muriel's Book out and flicked through it."Okay...so the Lance of Love...found it...basically...heh...sort of similar to Cupid's Arrow."He read. Olly shuffled herself over to have a good look."You're right...but it's stab yourself, leave your blood on the tip then stab the other. Sounds like a real fun way to transfer blood diseases.""Yeah pretty gruesome."Olly shortened the Lance and placed it into her backpack then reslung on it back on."So what brings you to the Enchanted Forest?" She asked him.Sonic straightened out. "Well, I was with my Burning Miles team mates for a training excerise."Olly brought out her Smish-Smasher and leaned on it, then stared at his glove."Hey, that's Gods Hand isn't it?" Olly queried, staring at it closely.Sonic checked it out once more. "Yeah. Amy gave it to me."
That name...
Olly nodded. "Ah good good...any intel on it?"Not really doing anything else, and deliberately avoiding Milo, he turned the pages and searched for it."God's Hand. Used by the High Honour Guards of Old. Used to slay enemies. A gift of the Beings of Yesterlife.""That's neat." Commented Olly. "So does it actually do anything to help kill those...enemies?"Sonic shrugged. "Not sure. Been wearing it for a while, hasn't really done anything."Olly kneeled down and felt around Sonic's palm. "Nothing really activating at it."Sonic chuckled. "I wonder if it could do any neat tricks then...like, say transform into a drill an-"
DRILL!
All of a sudden, the black glove expanded greatly into a giant ball for a brief second, before deflating and shrinking and twisting itself into a giant drill, then being enveloped by a yellow glow, Olly instinctively clinging on to Sonic's torso as the drill forced itself into the depths of the ground."WOAAAAAAAAAAH!"Bursting underground, Sonic and Olly found themselves behind the immense power of the drilling device, freaking Sonic out even more as he held Olly close to ensure she doesn't get left behind. He had no idea where he was going or where the drill was taking him, but it seemed to be forcing him where ever, going around in circles and loop de loops and traveled all over the place. There was a yellow bubble protecting them from suffocating and being affected by pressure, not to mention preventing them from swallowing kilos of dirt and mud. Sonic found this entirely fun and had a massive smile on his face."I guess...we found out what it does!" Sonic cried out.Olly nodded. "Dear Chaos where's it taking us?" She shrilled.Heading downwards, Sonic could feel a warmth emanating, before coming out from the Earths depths into an underground area. They looked like ruins, except it was similar to something Sonic had seen before but not seen in a while."It's a Portal." Said Sonic.Olly walked to it, seeing Abbadonia Roses. "I wouldn't get too close." She said.Sonic crossed his arms. "Lucky we didn't go through it here then..." He said, pointing to the Portal and checking the place and seeing that there's no known exits.Olly agreed. "Isolated much?"It looked more like a cave than anything else. The portal itself looked a bit rusted for it's age, cobwebs everywhere."You reckon we could get this back to GUN for research?" Olly wondered.Sonic looked at it. "We'd need some kind of teleporter for that. I mean, how long could it take it dig it out?"Olly got an idea. She whipped the backpack off her back and shuffled through it, pulling out a small, silver device with a red flickering light on it, placing it on the side of the Portal."There. That's a tracking device. This will come on GUN GPS, enabling for a successful, eventual dig out."Sonic smiled, giving a thumbs up. "That's great!"A gust of wind circled around the cave, causing Sonic to check his surroundings. He wasn't sure what it was, but it was rather strange considering that the pair were extremely isolated to be anywhere need a gust. His ears twitched, then paid his attention to Olly who had her Hammer out and pointing it towards him."Olly?" Said Sonic with concern."It's not me." She said. "I have a feeling we're not alone down here."From the corner of Sonic's eye, a small dark blue circle opened up from beneath, and out arose a super skinny grey hedgehog, wearing a tight black singlet, showing his ribs, and long glove, with the middle and index fingers uncovered. Beneath the chain ridden belt was a pair of tight shiny leather pants and big black boots, albeit wearing a spike collar as well. His face was hidden behind a gas mask, a pair of yellow eyes beam out and his spiky hair shooting out from behind with a minor dip at the end. He floated as his portal disappeared, his arms reason and handles wiggling about."Is this a surprise?" Said the Grey Hedgehog, his voice filtering out from the mask's breather module."Let her go." Sonic demanded.Grey laughed, with Olly laughed in sync."You and your silly little games Sonic the Hedgehog! You've trespassed on sacred grounds!" Both Olly and Grey said in tune.Olly started swinging the hammer out, attacking Sonic left and right."Come on Olly, snap out of it!" Sonic cried out. Not this out of control stuff again."Such a sniveling pile of misery! Now let's attempt to read your mind..."Pain struck Sonic's mind, the power of it making it near unbearable."So...you like Super Mario Sunshine?" He mocked.It felt like electricity was running through his mind, that Sonic couldn't acknowledge his screwy words."What this? Love? How inadequate...excessive and improbable and yet, you have your own honor. I have never been so exploitative in such a jungle mind. But love creates attachment...it's deplorable..."Flinging Sonic to the nearest wall, Olly was resistant in her movements as she was forced to take steps, her legs shaking from the struggle. Sonic stared her down, his bionic eye activating some sort of previously unrevealed mechanism...a type that displayed data that he couldn't understand, before flashing the word Frenzy in big green letters. It was beginning to pick at Sonic's memories."Frenzy?" Sonic cried out, unsure.Suddenly the glove encased Sonic completely with a purple liquid, replacing his usually mouth with large chomps with gigantic teeth and his mouth black, eyes white and the rest of his body a purple chrome. The Grey was confused by all this, and found himself unable to restrain Sonic. Sonic felt strange, and swatted his foe, forcing him to let go of Olly as well, who ran out of the way, but kept her Smish-Smasher out. Sonic bolted towards Grey and opened his jaw a meter wide vertically, drool coming out of his mouth.The Grey threw psychic-electric spheres at Sonic, who ate them and licked his lips, then swiped at the Grey quickly dodged and threw a large stone from nowhere at Sonic, knocking him to ground. Olly flung her hammer at him, who used telekinesis to protect himself, sending the hammer flying back, Olly just barely avoiding getting hit. She squatted down and grabbed it, as Frenzy Sonic was on all fours and charged towards Grey who teleported behind Sonic and kicked him in the back. Olly came rushing and attempted to squish the Grey, but he teleported once more, the force and fury of the hammer colliding with Frenzy Sonic's back, sending a sickening roar throughout the cave. Olly didn't apologize and scanned the area, seeing Grey reappear in the corner, sending more of the Psi-Spheres her way. Olly, while standing on Frenzy Sonic's back, pulled back his quills, lifting his head and lowering his jaw to consume the sphere, his body growing even more as he growled and started barking at Grey like mad. Grey, however was not bothered."How pradantic...your simple, feral minds unaware of the ultimate goals...and to read yours Agent Mjöllnir..." Said Grey, placing his hands beside his head as he breathed in and out of the gas mask, his fingers waggling slightly."Hmmmmm...your mind...filled with secrets...and their own conflicting desires. You and I are not so different...we're only on opposite sides of the card you and I..."Frenzy Sonic grew furious as Grey continued making a mockery out of Olly, pounced back up and intended to bite the chaos out of this weirdo...
Instead Grey teleported, much to Sonic's annoyance as he collided with a wall, rocks fell from the ceiling. Having trouble getting around, Sonic had nothing but hatred for this creature, who floated in the opposite corner, controlling Olly like a puppet."This one...is intelligent but does not have the mental training of resistance. Her mind has it's secrets but once you go through the maze of crumbling thoughts it's not hard to get the center point..."Frenzy Sonic's eyes narrowed, his rage taking over that he couldn't tell friend from foe. Olly held her hammer forward, waiting for Sonic to strike. For that, he charged at her with all intents and purposes on destroying her. Using his powers, Grey made Olly swing the SS, Sonic grabbing hold of the end of it as soon as he jumped, however, with that, it didn't stop him as he smashed through the ground. He only got up more enraged, his barks more rabid than before, a roar that almost pierced the ear."This dog is too dangerous left alive..." Said Grey. "Destroy him, Loyal Agent of GUN!"Olly walked over to Sonic and picked him up by his neck, slamming him down. What ever was left of Olly was completely taken over by Grey himself."You are the Dreamer Sonic the Hedgehog...don't make this nightmare worse." Olly and Grey said in sync.Grey made Olly push Sonic up against the wall, her strength immense and supported by Greys telekinesis, but unable to understand any of it."Did you really think Silver the Hedgehog killed Prince Hayden? No...it was all a show! Even that Pylon King act...it was...part of our plan part of the plot to ensure you would never be distracted from the safety of others!"Sonic's roared sent a soundwave across the room, knocking Olly over as Frenzy Sonic climbed all over her, his drool dripping on to her suit.
"I might not be able to control you with my telekinesis, but I can still read your mind...let me see...ahaha...you believe the Agent Mjöllnir can snap out of it? Hah! No one can escape the control of Grey the Hedgehog!"Frenzy Sonic's head tilted as he slung his hand against her helmet, attempting to crush it. Not caring what Grey said, his rage was murderous and relentless, almost crushing poor Olly's helmet...if it weren't for a particular ghostly hedgehogs interruption."Woah hold on there!" Said Gabriel, popping out of nowhere. Grey zoomed straight him. "Not you...not you again!" Grey cried out.
He then created a beneath him and got the heck out of there."Gah! What a damned chicken!" Olly scolded, getting control of her own body back. She turned to Sonic who made odd looks. She knew this was trouble. She had her hammer ready, not really in the mood for out of control antics at the moment. Sonic jumped at her with every intention to eat her. His roars echoed across the cave as he continued, Olly rolling and hopped out of his target zone."What ever..." She sighed. She rose her hammer, as roared again, Olly slugging Sonic's chest, sending him packing and colliding with the wall. He returned to normal and woke up, confused and left rubbing his head"Woah..." He said, clutching his chest. "Thanks for that...I got real hungry there."Olly nodded "The glove must give different forms. We'd have to have a further look into it...for now, we might as well get out of here. Hopefully that guy doesn't come back."Gabriel winked at Sonic, before disappearing...

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Hey guys, I know this is probably one the quickest times I've submitted another chapter, but here's hoping the quality sticks. Heh. Enjoy!

Chapter 15 Oncoming Storm
What existed in that thick head of his, was 90 percent adventure and 10 percent everything else, maybe the slight half or quarter percentage that lay with in that ten percent dedicated to love. He only understood it between two people beside himself. He took Vector and Vanilla for example. Complete opposites and yet, their love was undeniable. It existed because it made sense. I mean, Vanilla is such a beautiful, pleasant woman to be around, that it only took a small amount of time until another man (or Crocodile to be precise) to take notice and get the job done, to ensure she has the right amount of support and cherished love. They're a couple that will be around for a long while. Sonic knew that.But with him and Amy? Dear Chaos that was a disaster waiting to happen. A such a clash of attitudes and ideals they could never agree on and, knowing Amy, it would have to be all about her.There were so many things wrong with them that it would take forever to work their issues out. But he couldn't properly acknowledge such love. It was not in his nature to love another in his lonesome life where barely anyone could keep up with him. And yet, those dreams of lust and neediness towards a chosen, mixed up with the mess he had with himself. He wasn't sure where to take things, how he could deal with this powerful emotion that he wielded. The burning sensation that flared where he was near Amy. He needed to suppress it badly. Or he could show it elsewhere. Like the filters that tried to cope with his feelings, he could do the same to show his love to her via protecting her like he originally intended. It was the only way they could not hurt one another. Such love was appropriate for him. Where ever evil trekked he would be the one to save her and nothing more.Sonic and Olly had headed back to GUN Headquarters, noting to Commander Shadow with their encounter with the Grey Hedgehog. Shadow nodded, placing this new threat on his most wanted wall, gathering from the impending seriousness from two of his most trusted agents. Olly gave Shadow the Lance of Love, whom examined it thoroughly and called Rouge up to the desk. Rouge came in some time after with dark bags under her eyes and an extremely grouchy demeanor, her tone bitter and language slightly foul. Sonic suspected a hangover, gathering from what amusing stories Knuckles told him earlier. She took the Lance and saluted to Shadow very sarcastically, before stomping her foot and spun around, charging out with it. Sonic couldn't help but smile...until Shadow glared at him. Out of the awkwardness evolved discussion of the current situation, that Bazza was currently out of commission due to a sickness, but Drainer was readily available. Olly spoke of another task that she had to do outside of work, Shadow reluctantly relieving her of her duties to for her to attend them. The Commander sat behind his desk and ordered Drainer to come up, placing a new mission for them both."I need you both to head back up the Garden of Voi and investigate it further. If Grey was right, then there might be a chance that Prince Hayden is still alive. The Maid, Lily, has been working and living with Royal Family of Soleanna for the time being."Nodding, they both headed to the Garden of Voi..–Getting there in no time flat, Sonic weirded out, beginning to suspect outsider involvement in these strange time skips, but still not acknowledging them out loud with anyone else. He thought himself getting a disorder, if Drainers medical knowledge was anything to go by. Moving on, he inhaled the condition of Voi, which was still as beautiful and pristine as it had been. Drainer being wordless, ran on ahead, Sonic quickly catching up as he was getting out of his distracting thoughts. Getting to the Mansion, it was still the same damaged state as it had been before. Entering, they checked all the rooms, finding nothing at all. Drainer checked the basement, which was entirely empty, including hidden rooms that they scoured. They met back with one another in the dining room."No sign of Prince Hayden...or Silver for that matter..." Said Sonic.Drainer agreed. "I have not seen either. Is this a trap?"Sonic shrugged. "Dunno. If that Grey Hedgehog did really set this up, it was really good and convincing..."Sonic held the notion that Grey somehow displayed a fake memory scar that day, faking Hayden's death entirely. Which gave Sonic some, small but some hope that he was out there, enslaved by Abbadonia. Maybe.A loud splitting and break sound was heard, hollowed yet full of earth pound bass as gravity seemed to change beneath them. They braced themselves were they felt a slight shift, then were forced and whacked on to the roof in response as a unsuspecting force struck them really hard and really fierce, they'd become practically stuck. Sonic tried to turning to Drainer who couldn't do anything either, as she was in the same sorry state as Sonic."If I am correct, the Garden is falling into the Earth at high velocity." Drainer explained."We might be flat as a pan of cakes."Sonic facepalmed."You mean pancakes..."Drainer didn't budge. "Them too."So they were free falling? This was so sudden and unannounced as to the clues giving it's casual descending. Something definitely wasn't right around here. He felt heated up alongside Drainer. He saw Bloody Sonic stand on the ground, looking just as apathetic as his Amy counterpart as he reached his hand out. In a blink of an eye, several orbs of light surrounded Bloody Sonic and continued to circle around him. Sonic strained as he tried to reach. The bright orbs of light kept rounding him up, actually pushing upwards, Sonic managing to snag the hand just in time. He looked to Drainer and quickly grabbed hers as the Bloody Sonic pulled him down to the floor. Drainer looked around, confused at these spirits, but did not seem to see the second Sonic in the room."Their energy is immense!" Drainer commented.The spirits smothered the pair, dragging them out of the mansion and practically flicking them across. From where they were standing, flames from the free fall velocity were shooting in straight line from the edges of the floating Continent as they began to fall into the Earths atmosphere at a very fast and deadly pace. They weren't gonna let this kill them. Especially not for Sonic. Drainer looked down then up as she knelt closet towards on the ground, Sonic grabbing hold of a nearby tree, wondering what she was up. Drainer had clamped down tight, and brought out her blades."I can absorb all kinds of things." She said calmly. "Including force energies."She dug the blades into the ground and started draining the continuously fierce force, working against the gravitational pull of the earth. Sonic looked over to her with his arms wrapped around three, seeing bits and pieces of the Continent snapping off and burning up in the atmosphere.Drainer herself was already feeling the strain from the mass withdrawals. Her body was burning, Sonic desperately wanting her to stop what she was doing before she killed herself. He crawled over, trying so hard to stay close to the ground as he could, but was knocked back to the tree but the spirits who were speaking to him via whispers that sounded like the jingles from a set of garden chimes.
Let her be/Spirits of the World are as one/Order to Chaos/Gods of the Earth protect
They swarmed over Sonic, giving him a protective bubble from the g-forces. Drainer looked like she was being protected as well, a vortex of the energies she was drawing was being taken out via the strange orbs, encasing her their casing glows. Her blades were red hot and parts of her suit being torn. Her arms were beginning to shake violently, but her attempts appeared to be working as the free fall slowed down somewhat, the flares from descent weakening somewhat. Words flickered in static in Sonic's bionic eye, trying to tell him something. His pounding heart and quickened breath made him a bit worried...slightly.RYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!That gigantic roar scared the wits out of Sonic, coming out of nowhere, as huge solid, opaque, crystal coloured flames surrounded the descending Continent. Spirit orbs were buzzing everywhere, still making their music chimes in syncing rhythms, pouring out from the mansions doors and sprinting to the white solid flames. Sonic could see Shizaru standing in front of him."Is that you?" He grunted.Shizaru stared down at him. "Spirits of the World are as one. For the evil that speaks those connected with the Beings of Yesterlife so endearingly and so loyal protect the planet they love so dearly...even those of unexpectations..."Unable to understand her words, he only got the gist of it, meaning she had part reason in doing this. But the comprehending over everything else was far worse..."Abbadonia's ilk have absorbed the chaos energy clean from this continent. She has Prince Hayden in her midst. The spirits are being maintained by a higher power...a higher respected power than someone as devilish as her."Sonic browed as he held on to dear life. "Where's this going to land?" He cried out.Shizaru turned to Drainer, watching her. "This is going to land from whence it came. The very place it originated from. Which is why the Spirits are cooperating with the higher power."Confused, he feared this could end up in a crowded place as his tried to remember where it came from."Garden of Inari." Muttered the Bloody Sonic.Sonic looked up at him, bleeding from his eyes, ears, nose and mouth."Inari..." Sonic muttered."Sonic!" Gabriel cried as he appeared as well."Geez...what a party..." Sonic said sarcastically. "Don't pay attention to me! Go help Drainer!"Drainer was doing all she could, but not complaining about the massive off shoot of energies she was taking into herself that Sonic was surprised she wasn't exploding by now. He gathered the spirits were taking parts of that energy and giving them to the solid white flames...which...were...doing something..."Drainer is being assisted as we speak. She will be perfectly fine." Said Bloody Amy.Sonic bowed his head. This was getting too much for him to handle."Sonic...come with me..." Said a rather urgent Gabriel who took Sonic's hand.They ran towards one of the ends of the continent, Sonic looking back to see the others surrounding and looked down at Drainer. Sonic hoped to whom ever that she would be okay. They reached one of the ends and could see the blues of the skies atmosphere. Out of nowhere, a near blinding figure of light, several hundred meters tall, clamped its gargantuan claws on the cliff-side and raised it's head and it's sneering eyes that glared at Sonic."It's not pissed at me or anythin'?" Sonic wondered.Gabriel chuckled. "No no...back in the old days this was the role of Raphael. He was originally a Faith Healer. Good friend of mine too. But unfortunately he got corrupted influence from Abbadonia and...you know the rest. He was a Fox, like your friend Miles. With the corruption of another fallen God, he grew a hunger for power and due to his healings thought himself infallible. The Beings of Yesterlife disowned him...sent him tumbling down and revoked him of his role. It was such a pity to see him fall..."The blinding figure was aghast in white robes, covering most of its face...or what ever it was, as mystical spacial smoke spiraled and swirled out from it, it's head having peculiar pointy ears.Gabriel confidently walked over, the spirits holding Sonic's down, who rightly freaking out by this point."I know you're not Raphael...you sentenced Raphael away...which was probably a good thing." Gabriel said, using his charmy wiles against the figure."I say you're doin a mighty fine job there buddy...buuUUUUuuuut...we all know what happens when you appear to mortals...Sonic suddenly found himself seizing, gargling from the mouth as his eyes went into the back of his head amongst the unpleasant experience of having a fit, bits of pieces of his sight going everywhere despite the spirit orbs attempts to protect him, blacking out completely...–It was all silent and black, part from the orange line streaks in a rather near tartan like pattern as he stood in the darkness he so feared. This wasn't a reaction to Abbadonia's Fury, but rather something new and different. He felt like his brain exploded from the sheer sight of what ever the heck he was staring out. No. He was not letting this take over him. He forced himself back awake into the real world...for now he was bored with petty hallucinations...–"See look...oh hello Sonic!" Said Gabriel, surprised to see Sonic back up on his feet.He smirked. "Greetings!" Sonic said with a wave.He checked out to look at Drainer, who was still withdrawing the energy. Now the Spirit Orbs had collected the energy from her and were using it, which were in the form of yellow light and seemed to fly under the continent."They're using the power of gravity to slow it down." Gabriel explained."Our friend here is commanding them...as well as pulling his own weight around."Text flickered in Sonic's bionic eye again, going so fast Sonic couldn't read it. He donged his head as it stopped as one word in bold green text said it to him straight."Hover..." He muttered.

HOVER!

The glove oozed out a green liquid that covered Sonic over, the ends of his spikes growing continuous lime coloured circles then fading away as they drifted backwards away from the spikes. His green chrome coloured body started to rise as he turned to Gabriel, looking for an explanation."Oh, some old friends made it for my predecessors. I think there was a few more before I got hold of it." Said Gabriel who was busy speaking with the supposed replacement. "I suggest you take your Agent friend and hightail it outta here...whaddya say?"Sonic shook his head and looked at his hands, then glanced at the straggly Drainer."Big White can handle it from here...go!" Yelled Gabriel.Sonic snapped out of it and zoomed to Drainer, who didn't seem to be fazed by this form."Drainer, take them out. We gotta go..." Said Sonic, grabbing her.Drainer wasn't too keen on leaving, until the Spirit Orbs appeared to her, whispering more words
Spirits of the World are as one/Bring Order to Chaos/Your Ancestors support you.
Drainer's head lifted up really quickly to the chimes..."That's an order Agent!" Sonic announced.Having no choice, she took her blade and placed them back in their slots on her belt. Seeing the gigantic form of Big White, she started seizing on sight, Sonic making no fuss, grabbed her without delay and flew upwards, holding her in his arms as he flew off, as far away as he could away from the falling continent, until they were at a safe distance.Sonic was within the Stratosphere, as continent was being held by Big White's gigantic form, that had since grown in size, The nine surrounding separate flames slowing the descent dramatically and is guiding by the Spirit orbs. Seeing the monstrosities size, it was impossible to make out through the smoke and it's likely ethereal status, just barely making out the pure white eyes. Sonic could only watch as it's descent into the chasm behind Steampunk City's Fox God Shrine. Refusing to just float there, he flew over to the city itself at top speed, a trail of rings that had fallen from beneath the continent allowing him to get down a lot faster yet safer as the line allowed him to use his abilities to a larger extent. Getting to the ground, he could see packs of the multi-tailed foxes looking on in awe as Big White had his large hold, his roar nearly piercing fragile ears.Sonic was surprised that none of the Inarian people were bothering to move, instead a lot started to get on their knees and pray. Sonic saw Moore and Corrine Prower in front of the Fox God statue. Big White's legs fell into the chasm, with dust spreading everywhere. It turned into hundreds of Spirit orbs, completely encasing the continent itself in its magnificent light. Sonic lost his Hover ability and returned back to normal, falling beside Moore and Corrine, still holding onto the unconscious Drainer.The continent made it's final meters and successfully landed and merged with the Earth, dust going everywhere as huge gust of air threatened to take some of the foxes off their feet, Sonic forced to turn to help shield Drainer. Standing in a row near the former edge of the chasm, were Gabriel, Shizaru, Bloody Sonic and Bloody Amy, as a gust of wind brought up blinding dust, they were gone once it had settled in.Moore walked up beside Sonic. "The Legendary Garden of Voi." He muttered in his Morgan Freeman voice. Even unconscious and usually quite stoic, Drainer still swooned, puzzling Sonic a bit.Sonic blinked. "What was that all about?" He queried in relation to the epic event."Here's us thinking the Fox God had disappeared. We'd been having a batch of bad luck despite the prayers our people. And yet..."Sonic's head was extremely saw from the visionaries of Big White...or apparently, THAT was the Fox God of Myth. But...wasn't he destroyed? There were more questions than answers that had been raised...not to mention maps needing to be updated."So the Garden of Voi...what was it really?" Sonic asked.Moore nodded. "The Garden of Voi used to be a piece of land that had a large amount of Chaotic properties and incidentally had it's own Chao Garden at some point. From the written documents it's said the House of Rosoideae bought it from the House of Vulpini...they were looking for something within but weren't quite sure what."Sonic checked Drainer out. Parts of her suit were ripped but she had a tight body suit underneath, a black lycra like material protecting her."Those who are not prepared to see the Gods are unable to take it the sheer power of the being...it is not the fault of the God, but the fault of the mere mortal eye." Moore explained."Does that happen with all Gods or just this one?" Sonic wondered.Moore shrugged. "Now, now... I just study the one God for good taste and local culture pleasures...not to mention the tourism aspect. But all I know is that this one does it."Sonic understood enough. "It happened to me, but somehow I got out of it. Why was that?"Moore smiled. "You must have willed yourself to believe in what you were seeing. Or the God likes you. Or even both!"Sonic scratched his head. It was true he didn't have time for more hallucinated bulldust. But something about it seemed very familiar, and not just in nature. He brushed it off as nothing and tended to Drainer, who soon woke up."Ehh...where am I?" She muttered.Sonic smiled."On solid ground, that's for sure." He said, comforting her.He let her stand on her own two feet, as she pulled herself together."Thank you Sonic. I owe you my life." She said calmly.Sonic rolled his eyes and grinned. "Don't sweat it Dee...Rainer. Drainer..."Damn he still couldn't think of a proper nickname for her. Oh well.She knelt down on one knee and pressed the side of her helmet, getting a call from HQ."Yes. Yes...we'll be there right away." Drainer said calmly. She stood up and looked at Sonic."That was Commander Shadow. Central City has been invaded by Eggman Robots."Sonic blinked. Two events in one day? At least he wasn't too short of adventures. "How can tha...let's get this over with...you sure you're okay?"Drainer nodded. "I will be fine. We must hurry."Keeping a close eye on her, they both ran back to Central City as fast as they could...Several hours came and went in a blink of an eye like it did before, as they approached a near ruined Central City just in time. A mixture of robots were involved, from the small to the very tall and came in variety of shapes and sizes. Buildings were exploding left and right, prompting Sonic to go and find Amy."Drainer, head back to Headquarters and inform Shadow that I'm going to look for Amy." He told her.Understanding, she ran off, destroying robots with her blades and limbs to whom stood in her way. Sonic, entirely focused, raced to Amy's house in the hopes to see if she was home or not.Running around several streets, he drop kicked several of the jolly orange badniks who were harassing a few innocent civilians. Several GUN Personnel were busy protecting and escorting the civilians to the special pods, using the same system that was implemented in Westopolis. Meeting with a tall, Mantis like robot who kept slashing him with his long, silver claws, Sonic knocked the robot off it's feet with his own and stomped it to pieces, before proceeding to head down Amy's apartment.Smiling as he skidded to a halt in front of the block, he ran inside before being knocked back by a giant explosion that blew the block apart. Sonic rubbed his head from the minor concussion and waited until his vision came back, seeing half the building practically blown off. He called her name three times but with no response. He dearly dearly hoped she wasn't home when it happened. He scavenged bits and pieces, shirking with fear when a few charred bodies showed up. This was definitely not good for his fragile psyche. Unable to cope, he fled the scene, now enraged and beating down badniks left and right while making his way to GUN Headquarters.More buildings were blown up, the smoke from the flames overshadowing the sky, just like Westopolis. The amount of robots that kept pouring in from above was staggering, Sonic seeing a few glints shine before realizing there was an entire fleet above them, sending them off. Sonic didn't have time to think where they came from as he used his homing attack on at least ten of the tall lanky robots, the same ones that from the Battle of Westopolis. He skidded at a ninety degree angle around a corner then pushed forward, using a sonic boom to send several of the JOBots flying into several enforced buildings. He encountered more GUN Soldiers and Pods, seeing a large Arachnebot, a large black and white spider robot that shot a web like substance at them. Sonic was not amused as he jumped on to some yellow laser wasp robots blasting yellow electricity, using his homing attack in sequence, before hitting the back, the weak-spot of the spider, making it fall over. Sonic left it to GUN to ensure civilian safety as he made the final sprint.GUN HQ was surrounded by hundreds of robots of a large variety, each equally met with a GUN Soldier who shot the heck out of each one. Unfortunately some got caught as they reloaded their guns, some getting stabbed with the lances of the advanced JOBots and throwing them behind on a pile of bodies, which made Sonic sick. Again, he had no time to feel anything at the moment. He did his best to deal with the robots that threatened GUN's entire complex. Sonic yelled while punching several of the hornet robots and drop kicking some more of the Mantis bots... but there were far too many falling from the sky, prompting Sonic to run up the side of GUN's main tower to reach above the smoke veil. Getting and standing up to on the tip of the dish, Sonic could see the ugly, rusted, blue fleet above him. There was a at least two dozen ships up there, seven more of a larger size with purple bows. Sonic attempted to reach up, before kicked in the chest by Metal Sonic and landing on the pad below, where several bots blew up helicopters and carriers with their guns. Metal Sonic placed his foot near Sonic's neck and twisted."Heh...finally found your way out did ya?" Sonic mocked, Metal digging his foot in further."A needed connection let us out of the mess you and your friends put us in. It was not yet the grave for us but for now, let me make one for you!" Metal taunted in his deep, robotic voice.Metal picked Sonic up by the neck and held him over the edge of the tower."We might get two in one...Eggmans freedom and your convenient...accidental death."Metal snarled, tightening his hold.Sonic tried not to squirm but had his hands around Metals."Pffff I've said it before and I'll say it again. GUN won't let him out so easy."Metal laughed. "You're willing to bet your own life on making sure Eggman never get's out? What a stupid decision to make!"Sonic heard a few footsteps heading in his direction, but as his air was being cut off, he couldn't see who it was due to his fading vision."Just like the stupid stupid decision you're about to make now! Red Needle!"
BANG!
Sonic felt himself falling from the top, before hearing a child-like scream someones name to snatch him."NICHE GET HIM!" The voice yelled.Before he knew it, his fall was stopped by someone, as memories visualized before his eyes...
KNOCK KNOCK

Until someone knocked. The blue blur forced himself off the couch and towards the door, opening it.

"Hello there!" Said an enthusiastic young boy who became intriguing by Sonic's bionic eye.

Sonic rose an eyebrow. The human boy was not too much shorter than he, had messy silver hair that covered his left eye, covered by a blue saggy cap and the rest of some sort of blue mixed with bits of yellow rims uniform, a very long scarf wrapped around his neck. Sonic stared into his red right eye, full of innocence and hope.

"You're Sonic right?" He asked.

Sonic nodded. "Who wants to know?" He said smugly.

The boy pulled out a letter from his black overhung bag and presented it to Sonic.

"This letter is for you." He said, he also pulled out a pen and paper with some stuff written on it.

"Can you sign this for me please?"

Sonic took the pen and paper and signed his name, not sure why anyone was sending him stuff. From the boys left he saw a little girl tilted her head, as she was shorter than he with long pig tails, a pink dress and blue eyes. Not really sure what to think of it, he gave the pen and paper back and took the envelope.

"Thank you!" The boy announced, making a straightened out salute before running off with the girl in tow.
Puzzled, he opened his eyes, seeing said little girl holding him and flying him back up to the top.Metal fled the scene, grabbing hold one of Eggman's Mobile Vehicles and ascending back up to the fleet. The boy held a peculiar gun in his hand, decorated with small amber jewels. He continued barking something incoherently as he disappeared. The girl let Sonic go and floated next to to the boy with a straight face."Should we go after him?" She asked, her voice light but not sweet."Nah...he's long gone. I don't think the Heart bullets can penetrate those kind of ships." Said the Boy.Sonic really needed to stop getting caught like that. It was really beginning to be a bit embarrassing."Aren't you the mail man?" Sonic queried, rubbing his neck.The Boy smiled. "Sort of. But from where I come from it has a different name."Sonic rose an eyebrow. "Different name eh?"He nodded. "Yup. Name's Lag Seeing, I'm a Letter Bee! And this is my Dingo, Niche."Niche stood behind Lag. For some reason, besides the fact that they had met before, they were really familiar. Pushing that aside, he thanked them both for saving his life. Although Niche didn't really look like a Mobian Dingo. She didn't even look Australian."Well, Lag...Niche. As you can see we've got a little problem here. Mind helpin' us out?"Gladly helping, Lag and Niche headed down to the ground, attacking robots, Niche using her...strangely razor sharp hair to slice any robots that stood before her. Sonic in the meanwhile headed inside and headed straight for Shadow's Tactical Response room, hearing him bark orders left and right."Damn, how did they get in so easily?" Complained O'Brien."I don't care how they did it, I want updates on Eggmans Escort through the tunnels."O'Brien rapidly typed on his keyboards and frequently checked his screens."He's about to be taken out of the tunnel entrance in the south area. The Sons of Solaris have arrived and have confirmed to be ready for his pick up and transfer to the Soleanna GUN Branch's Prison."Shadow nodded. "Good. At least SOMETHING's going right here. Smith, what's the status of the Artillery Division? Get me online to Omega!""On it sir!" Replied Smith.Soon enough on the Main Monitor, Omega appeared in the corner of the street camera, using his Gatling guns to shoot down more Mantis Bots who kept throwing razor sharp boomerangs at him."Omega! Report!" Shadow shouted."Data Report: Battle Kill Count: 108 and counting...GUN Militant Fatalities: 28 and counting. Civilian Causalities: Not yet applicable."Shadow banged on his arm rest. "Keep going. We're currently going to receive back up from the Empire City GUN Branch, I've spoken with the Commander there, saying he's going to see if he can get more soldiers from the Branches from Metal and Metropolis cities. You might get more mecha support."Omega shot down a few more JR Robots. "I DON'T NEED ANY SUPPORT FROM INFERIOR DESIGN ROBOTS!"Shadow face-palmed. "Omega...""Sir!" Cried Smith. "We've lost contact with the South Eastern group!""Get the Eastern Brigade down there to sort them out!" Shadow ordered.Sonic walked in and stood next to Shadow, amazed at the amount of robots smothering the entire city."This is much much worse than Westopolis..." Sonic commented.Shadow grasped his hands together. "Hmmmm...I haven't seen Amy either. I called her two hours ago and tried to call her before but she wasn't answering."Sonic browed. "I was gonna ask you the same question..."Oh crap."Where the heck is she? Did you stop by her apartment?" Shadow demanded, noticebly worried.Sonic lowered his head. "They blew the building up..." He said with sadness.Shadow quickly grew irritant. Sonic swore he could see his eyes going to swell up. Shadow shook all of that away and stood up."I'm going to find her...and Rouge..." Said Shadow."Rouge went out before, she was...rather sick so I ordered her to go home. However I tried to call her but she had the same result...I fear she may have been caught as well."Sonic frowned. Rouge was like a sister to Shadow. Sonic believed Shadow couldn't be saved himself if two of the people he legitimately cared about were killed. He could only alleviate that sorrowed feeling if he let Shadow find them himself."Shadow...let me command." Sonic said, resting his hand on his heart.Shadow's head shot to Sonic in surprise. "You? In command? You're better on the field."Sonic shook his head. "It's worse seeing the bodies pile up than hills of destroyed robots. You're the one who's better on the field getting the job done out there." He said, pointing outward.Shadow was reluctant to agree. "Very well. Take care of things here for me. O'Brien and Smith are two of my best Intel Officers..." He said before stopping."Oh and Sonic..." Shadow continued. "Thanks..."Sonic smiled to that response as Shadow vanished to go join the battle outside. Sonic sat in the big guys chair, looking out at the several display monitors before him. Sonic was beginning to regret it, as he saw through the city cameras soldiers getting shot, stabbing, clawed, swiped and cut in half that it was making him sick. He had to act fast."How long until reinforcements arrive?" Sonic asked in a confident tone."Five minutes from Empire City and twelve from Metropolis." Said O'Brien."The Western Brigades are being overrun, their Squad Leader is demanding more back up...what should I tell him?" Smith cried out.Sonic thought quick. "Get me the tracker dots on the main screen!"Smith rapidly typed something before getting the tracker birds eye view on the screen, witnessing the flocks of badniks in the Western parts of the city. Seeing another brigade up north, seemingly spread out across but looked like plenty of soldiers to spare."Get the Squad Leader of whomever's in Sector C4 down there! They're looking lazy up there!"Sonic called out."Yes sir!" Said Smith.In response, the tracker dots on the screen moved about, then started heading south west to the squadron of soldiers being overrun, several of the dots disappearing the process. But luckily enough the other ones had gotten there in time, saving that particular area from further trouble."Sir, Captain Leeroy seems to have charged into the wrong part of town, and ended up getting himself blown up via his own grenade. They have no Squad Leader!" O'Brien called out.Sonic rolled his eyes...then rubbed his chin. "Well give the position to the next most capable and non-suicidle person then!"O'Brien trembled. "Uhh...sure...I'll have a word with the Squadron then.After an hour of devising clever tactics and ordering soldiers around, he soon found himself understanding how Shadow felt about how hard commanding troops was. But so far he wasn't doing too badly. Several sectors were spared and there were still a lot of soldiers in battle. Long by that time reinforcements had arrived from Empire City and Metropolis. Sonic quickly spoke to their Commanders and negotiated their way through Badnik blockades, including Kamikazebots which threatened the pillars of many important buildings.With the Intel Officers, he'd gotten majority of the surviving civilians, including those still recovering from the horrors from the Battle of Westopolis. Sonic wondered if Shadow had found Rouge and Amy, whom he hoped were okay and unhurt. But for now his entire focus was on saving as much of the city as he could. He had a few brigades destroy five meter Egg Mechas that were homing in on HQ. The fleet above HQ was nowhere to be seen, however, that's when...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

the bombs started dropping...bits of pieces of the roof began to fall off, the monitors flickered as the electricity bounced."Damn, sir I suggest we leave this to another Commander..." Smith suggested.Sonic shook his head. "No...get out of it...""But sir..."Sonic shot up from his chair. "You saw what happened to Westopolis. Are we really going to let Eggman win this one? This might be more destructive than his attack there, but we are more capable of succeeding this battle because of their sheer incompetence of their...uhh...robots...but still, they don't have Eggman to do all their strategic planning. All they're doing is dropping robots and bombs in randomly places and hoping to win. They're using quantity and not quality. We're losing soldiers because they're being overwhelmed with numbers. Tell those Squad Leaders to get their acts together and act like real men!"O'Brien and Smith looked at each other, unsure of Sonic's speech but nonetheless relayed the message on to leaders as fast and efficiently as they could.He stood up and pierced his index finger into the air, full of triumph and spirit"Believe in Sonic who believes in you!" He shouted, earning weird glances from the other two."Uhhh sir?" Said Smith."What does that supposed to mean?"Sonic looked down in shame, his arm and finger sinking. "Never mind...just get the job done!"More pieces of the roof fell as the monitors began to flicker, the room shaking violently. The explosions were getting closer and closer. But Sonic was not about to quit just yet. Sonic rubbed his his forehead."Where's the Air support?" Sonic cried out."I'll see if I we can get Western Eagles and the rest on board. Just hold a moment." Said O'Brien, who began tapping with great frequency and speaking over the intercom.Sonic held on to the dearest of hopes, sincerely believing the competence and luck of his friends for them to get out alive. He then ordered to have a five second sequence of the remaining city cameras on loop, to see what was going on around them. Smith complied, programming it to do so. Soon, it began displaying different parts of the near flattened city, rubble and bodies everywhere, making Sonic slightly sick. No one them seemed to show Shadow at all, Sonic fearing the worst."Hey, does the Commander have an intercom device?" Sonic asked.Smith tapped a bit. "I think he grabbed one one on the way out. Want me to patch you through to him?"Sonic nodded. "Do it!"Within moments, Smith attempted to call Shadow out to confirm his location."Shadow! Shadow are you there?" Sonic shouted."I'm here " Shadow responded.Sonic sighed with relief. "Ah thank goodness. Find Amy or Rouge?'"I haven't found Amy, but I have found Rouge, we're currently at her club at the moment, fighting off with a horde of extremely resilient robots!" Said Shadow.Sonic tapped the arm rest as he leaned back. "Want me to come down there?""No." Shadow replied. "I need someone to stay at the base for as long as possible. What have you done so far?"Sonic explained the tactics he'd used and factored in the air support. Shadow then asked whether or not he called for an Air Strike, for which Sonic said no, that was mainly for the Fleet which kept dropping bombs."Good. If you can, try and get Drainer down this way. She's currently in the eastern parts of the city."Sonic nodded. "Duly noted. What about Olly?"Shadow was silent for a moment, before responding."Agent Mjöllnir is unreachable for the time being. But if you can get her to agree to helping out that would be entirely useful."What the? He just saw her not long ago! Surely the battle with Grey didn't wear her out that easily."I'll see what I can do." Said Sonic, albeit surprised.Hanging up, Sonic ordered O'Brien to call in Olly, who wasn't really responding at all. He had them try again...for about thirty times before finally giving up. Sonic got Smith to tell Drainer of Shadow's location and to assist him and Rouge. The loyal Agent agreed and fled to the scene."Oh...sir it's an emergency!" O'Brien cried."What is it?" Sonic demanded."The Sons of Solaris were attacked by a fleet of ships! They were at the half-way mark of escorting Eggman to Soleanna when they were attacked. Agent Hyperias ship has been confirmed to be struck down."
Elise...
"Damnit, what about the other two?" Sonic asked."Agent Flare has some minor damage, Agent Riser is okay. They're trying to battle it out with the fleet as we speak..." O'Brien replied.Sonic sighed. "Get some more god damned air support down there.""Yes sir." Said O'Brien. "Making contact with Southern Aqua Storm and Eastern Wind Bladers!"Sonic was surprising himself by sounding like Shadow. He assumed it came with the job and ran with it. He tried to get them to contact Olly again, but alas, no avail. Checking the citys grid on the birds eyes view, some of the forces were still scattered across, but appeared to moving slowly.Sonic believed they had succeeded in taking down the robots in those areas. Unfortunately, he needed more Intel Officers to get in constant and in proper contact with them if he's ever gonna prevent more causalities.Suddenly, the phone beside the desk started ringing. Raising an eyebrow, Sonic promptly answered it."Hello?" Sonic spoke, looking left and right in confusion."You fool! Why'd you abandon me and Neps? We could have helped ya know!" Scolded Milo.Sonic sighed. He'd almost forgotten about them two. "Where are you both now?"Milo chuckled. "Heading your way. I gotta a call about Central City being invaded by robots...but we're juuuuuuuuust about to hit the area where there was a real neat air crash!"Sonic face palmed. "You idiot! Go check it out! See if Princess Elise is still alive in there!" He cried out.There was a five second silence. "Uhh sorry dude...didn't mean that. By the way, where's the Commander?"Sonic rolled his eyes. "Just go tend to Elise okay? See if she ejected out the plane okay?""On it!"Sonic hung up. Milo was beginning to annoy him more than anything else. He didn't know how Shadow coped. Another explosion rocked the complex, Sonic straining to get things done. He needed a drink. Not just any drink, but a can a beer. Still, he took a deep breath and went on commanding.Another hour passed, of continious shouting, barraging, yelling and growing headaches. Sonic still didn't get his drink. The room was now entirely dusting with some of the monitors having fallen off and breaking, with the central large monitor having a large crack in the top left hand corner. Why did Shadow leave him in charge? He could have done this easily and more quickly as an indiviudual. He thought about that Lag kid and his...dingo Niche and wondered if they were okay.The phone started ringing again, the single thought running through Sonic's head was that it was Milo calling about Elise. Instead, a femimine, tone recongnized voice spoke instead."Shadow?"It was Olly."Olly, it's me Sonic...I've been trying to call you. Shadow said you were unreachable and..."He was cut short by another explosion to the complex."What's going on over there?" Asked Olly, her voice sounding weak and gaspy.Sonic held his arm over his head. "Central Cities been invaded by a hella lot of Eggman Robots...""Oh...I'm sorry I've been awfully busy...I'll get over right away!"CLICK!The Blue Blur didn't know what Olly's deal was. He could try Bazza but unfortunately she was out ill. Sonic prayed on wherever she was currently living wasn't anywhere near Central City. He looked out for Omega and wanted a patch through to him."Omega, how are you holding up?" Sonic asked."DESECRATION OF EGGMNS ROBOTS CONFIRMED, FULL CIVILIAN EVACUATION COMPLETE, CIVILIAN CASUALITES: 336."No as good as the non-civilian casuality from the Battle of Westopolis but it would have to do for now. He was informed that the citizens were evacuated to Metropolis and placed into the care of their GUN Branch. Another explosion rocked HQ, sending a slate of roof falling down on the Sonic's chair, Sonic barely managing to avoid it."Woah..." He commented."You alright sir?" Asked Smith.Sonic nodded. "Yeah I'm fine. That was close.""Wait...that's...that's funny..." Said O'Brien."What is?" Wondered Sonic."The feed I'm getting here. A lot of the remaining robots are retreating. Like, getting the heck of there real quick."Gabriel appeared by Sonic's side."You know what my suggestion is..." Said Gabriel, resting his hand on Sonic's shoulder.Sonic looked one of the remaining working monitors, which appeared to be some sort of bomb detector."Get that...uhh...screen seven on the main monitor now!" Sonic yelled, pointing towards the smaller monitor.Smith got it on the big screen. It looked like a mixture of a graph and a sonar radar system. Something rectangular and extremely hot was growing larger by the minute. Smith confirmed it as extremely deadly and only one thing in particular."You've got to be kidding me..." Sonic muttered in surprise. "GET EVERYONE OUT OF HERE NOW! I mean, put out an emerngency broadcast, seriously, like get EVERYONE OUT!"In an instant response, the Officers relayed the messages to absolutely everyone. Sonic bolted to his locker which still had his gear, including an ear device for the intercom using the satellites above to maintain constant contact even if they'd lost HQ...which they were certainly going to at any given moment. Sonic whipped on his official GUN Uniform, consisting of a singular khaki jacket with practically a hundred pockets for some reason, dog tags which he put on his neck and everything else he needed away, before racing around HQ to get official GUN Personnel into their underground escape pods, including the Intel Officers, Doctors, Researchers. EVERYONE. He'd gotten on to Shadow, and told him Olly was safe elsewhere, which Shadow was happy to hear. Shadow himself had gotten him and several soldiers safely into the underground, running into the tunnels leading to Metropolis and therefore safety and seclusion.Half an hour came when Sonic heard a loud booming sound, he ran up to the top of the GUN tower and could see the ultimate destruction this invasion had brought. Every third building had been toppled completely. There was an eeriness amongst these flames of pure terrorism that Eggman's Robots had brought. He would never have expected this much cruelty from Eggman himself. The scanner had picked up something immense that had been making a very slow descent into the final atmosphere and was now only several kilometers above the ground. Black smoke and brown dust intermingled everywhere giving a rather unpleasant ash and earthy scent in the air. A large black fleet ship, more like an Air Fortress, made itself known to the ruins of the city. Sonic, was the only one standing on the last and tallest tower and just stared at the Air Fortress, contemplating on how Metal Sonic had managed to get so far and so destructive. The bottom of the fortress was well rounded, until something had came out. And it definitely scared the heck out of Sonic. A pink gas came out of lengthening pipes that had come out of the sides, the iron wings of the Air Fortress acting like oars of the sky. The slight breeze had brought the pink gas towards Sonic as he unconsciously inhaled it.Suddenly, his world literally broke. The sky turned red, and the wind picked up rapidly, picking up the large amount of debris off the ground. Whispers muttered into Sonic's ears driving him mad. As soon as the wind drifted all the bits and pieces away, leaving the ground with rather bare concrete, a huge black pit opened up, and out came a gigantic, black and red Neo Metal Sonic that glared at his real counterpart, but this time opening a more organic and hellish jaws that threatened to swallow Sonic hole."Sonic it's Shadow what's your status?" Shadow yelled out over the intercom.A loud roar intercepted his response as the wind seemed to circle around them in a spiral fashion.Sonic seemed to be falling into the depths of insanity, his eyes drooping back and forth, even with his bionic eye desperately trying to display another possibly message."Sonic! Speak to me! I got in contact with O'Brien and said there's a gigantic EC Bomb right above you. GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE GOD DAMNIT!"Sonic couldn't move his body, but somehow fell to his knees. His thoughts were twisiting and converging with negativity, Gabriel standing right in front of him, looking down at him."Sonic get up." Said Gabriel. "GET UP!"Despite the amount of mental pain that Abbadonia's Fury was giving him, Sonic shakily stood up on his own two feet and stared down the deathly robot eyes of NMS. Unfortunately the damage had been done to his psyche, mentally impairing his thoughts."Tails is dead because of me..." He muttered, droning. "It's all my fault."Gabriel grew angry. "Ah get that crap out of your head Hedgehog! It's Abbadonia speaking to you, trying to get you allllllllllllllll mental."Sonic watched as NMS gathered around civilian corpses and began splitting them in two, eating the sliced off torsos of others with great delight. Gabriel grabbed Sonic's chin."Listen to me! If you want something to blame yourself with, it's the disappointment of everyone who has ever believed in Sonic the Hedgehog. The being, the legend, the icon of the world and worlds beyond! Can you not see that this is just a challenge! Just a test! Abbadonia's not even here and somehow, she's plotting your entire downfall, staining your image for the sake of turning you insane and everyone against you. It's a plot, a plan, an idea that is rarely used. The power of screwing with your head is just...another...game..."Gabriels words had some truth, but still couldn't bear the strengthened guilt. He wanted to believe him, he really did...but Abbadonia's Fury was far too unbearable."Sonic!"Sonic knew that voice. "Ol...olly?"He held on to that voice so endearingly, so hopeful. He looked at Gabriel who nodded."Hold on..." He muttered before vanishing...Olly came out onto the landing pad, seeing Sonic struggling to stand up properly.She scanned the area, then felt his forehead. "Geez...you're heating up bad..."A roar from NMS sent a shiver down her spine, prompting Sonic to look at Olly weirdly."Wait...you've got a helmet on...doesn't that have a filter?" Sonic said weakly.Olly nodded and sighed. There was something that was also paining her deeply. Partial regret and secrets that she wielded were...abnormally large."Sonic...our realities are the same. It doesn't matter if I have inhaled or not, it's the fact that we both see each other's current mind sets. It's a real shame Drainer couldn't be here to give take the toxins out, but for now I have to break through your state of mind in order to stablize the current reality"Sonic's eyelids started blinking erratically."How...is this reality? Is...is this reality that can act so damn cruel..."Olly caught Sonic as he fell over, resting him on her lap and holding him close."What if I'm not the hero the world needs me to be?" He said, whimpering.Olly stroked his head. "I'm not sure I should be the one to tell you that. All I know is that you are the hero this world needs right now...and if you can't be the hero then no one else will."She could definitely see the agony in his face, the tears running out rapidly, his entire body shaking."Amy...Amy...she can be the hero. If she spent majority of her time chasing me like I chased Eggman, she could...she could do the same."Olly gulped. "But Amy is not here. Amy is elsewhere. And if she were here she would be putting so much faith into you and your abilities. She would be cheering you on non-stop and always be there for you...no matter what!"Sonic cried harder, as NMS let out a screech, Olly helping him block out the piercing screams. She was incredibly saddened by Sonic's sorry state. She was doing all she could to help him and knew the limits to the reality they were in. The red sky with brown chasing clouds, whisking in circle around them like the eye of the storm. To her surprise, red pieces of wire held him down, turning her attention to Sonic, who had his eyes shut."What...are you doing?" She asked him sincerely."You said..." He muttered before spluttering. "That this is our reality. And...with that taken into consideration...we should be able to control it...see what we want to see."Underneath that helmet of hers, Olly smiled, proud of her co-worker. "I'm glad you're starting to see things that way Sonic.""Me too..." Sonic whispered, giving off a weak smile.Looking over to the restrained NMS, who was being forced back into the pit from whence his came, She turned back to Sonic immediately."Now you've got that...I want you listen to me really carefully..."Olly muttered scenarios to Sonic, trying to get him to mold his fears into something useful. He was informed that his reality was more an enclosed space, a mechanism set by the very potent gas to prevent him from getting out so easily. It was a definite struggle and tug of the wills, as each time Sonic tried to think positive, a harsh negative thought crawled out. Sonic desperately tried to spring back each time, attempting to break the horrific reality he was in...it was going well..."OOOOF!"Before Olly was sent falling off the tower, via a Psycho Ball from Grey, who descended from the sky. This really wasn't what he originally thought at all.Sonic reached over the edge as Olly fell into the clouded darkness below, as Sonic started to whimper and cower into a corner."The trip through a persons mind is a wonderful thing." Said Grey as he landed on the base of the tower."Yours...can create new worlds...the potential of such a device is extraordinary."Sonic gathered enough strength to spit at Grey."And yet, the cockiness remains. Fascinating..."Sonic glared at him, staring down in to other Hedgehogs deep, yellow eyes."The testament of one's will...it gives more of caricature insight into the mind into how far they will actually go..."Grey was sickening Sonic to the point he had to throw up."The rape of the mind is certainly a relentless way to mold one's self into a blubbering mess such as yourself."Sonic's arms wobbled about, Grey picking him up via his telekinesis."But the most abhor thing was that I was unable to find any...passing subjects. Those who's wills have been tested time and time again and for the stubborn behaviorism...oh well, let's just say I've had enough subjects to understand the crucial needs for reluctance and that some negative mental stigmas are needed...to ensure the mind evolves the way it's supposed to. It allows those ideas...that appeal to them to be absolved, and those ideas which are quite...not as much horrid but as much not their kind of thing, to be ignored and pushed aside. Then again, everyone has their own DNA and capacity for individual thinking. If everyone was the same then nothing would change now would it? Or would it be like Schrodingers cat? Would everything change and not change at the same time? Who knows?"Sonic was unable to resist but willingly brushed off Grey's mundane words. He looked over the edge in helpless thought of Olly's unlikely survival. Grey looked over as well."The probabilities of the devotional and dedication to ideals. I like people who's ideas are unshakable, unbroken. They have the uncanny ability to stick in peoples brains even long after the original imposer had gone. Because they have the deepest impact on people. You see? Your heroism is stuck within the general publics mind. And hers...she's clung on to it so needfully she can't let go of it."Sonic sneered at Greys salad wording. Why must everyone speak of things he does not care about?"Are you...the one behind the attack?" Sonic asked, his voice strained.Grey looked at Sonic with curiosity. "What me? NO! Of course not. I heard about the attack...then I saw this...beautiful display of a Nightmare. It reveals the true parts of a persons soul. Their innate blood and ugly scars."Sonic held onto the small but stubborn belief into the fact this was his world that he was dealing with. He was a God of his reality and therefore had the ability to do anything within it.His grin was nasty, causing Grey to laugh."A Hedgehogs final lock snaps as the insanity pours out. I would have never..."The ground shook violently, a strike of white lightning shooting down from the clouds above and heading straight for Grey, who dropped to the ground in agony"So...you're learning..." Grey gasped, letting go of Sonic in the process. "Bring me the pain!"Sonic managed to stand up, grabbing hold of a nearby ledge to help him stand properly. From afar, he could see Olly on nearby tower, standing with her legs out wide and her Smish Smasher in the air, crackling with static. She gracefully leaped over, her Smish-Smasher appearing to have changed form, looking more solid and rectangular in form, not to mention the black being replaced with hard metallic material with bolts and a small emblem on the sides, the handle made of the same metal.Making small steps towards Grey, she lowered her hammer towards him, releasing more charged energy shots. But strangely enough as his body twisted and shook with pain, he looked like he was rather enjoying it."...the power...yes...hurt me more!" He cried out.It weirded Sonic out a little. He tried to shuffle over to Olly and rested his hand on her shoulder."We should...leave..." He pleaded to her. Withdrawing her hammer, she made a finally smack, crunching his ribs before sending him down the two kilometer wide pitch black portal, sending NMS down with him. She rolled the handle about in her hand before withdrawing it completely into hammerspace."You're the same Olly right...?" Sonic muttered.Olly nodded. "Sure am."Sonic was ready to knock this out completely. He was severely disappointed in himself for not pushing it through further. He stood up straight, confident and not about to allow Abbadonia do this to him again. With his mental prowess, he shattered walls of this enclosed world, allowing it to return to the still shattered remains of Central City. Looking up, they both could see the EC Bomb falling at any moment. Without hesitation, Sonic picked Olly up and held her, running down the main GUN tower and onto the city streets. The bomb fell on top of the tower, sending debris flying in all different directions. Sonic was narrowly keeping in front of the explosive dome that threatened to encase them both. They came running down Central City's main thoroughfare, moving his legs faster than he ever did, the bombs radius ever expanding, however Sonic kept pushing himself to go faster as he held on to Olly tighter. This was no true sweat to him, but under the effects of Fury was making things a little more difficult. Cars, windows and appliances were thrown onwards, Sonic forced to dodge as much as he could. Meeting with a fork in the road, Sonic took no chances and took it to his left. Olly kept looking back as the explosion was catching up to them."Sonic, hurry!" Olly cried.The flickering began in his bionic eye again. This time reading..."Laser..." Sonic muttered under his breath...

LASER!

Sonic was swallowed by baby blue chrome, this time, his already impossible speed heightened as a protective sphere emerged, sending them flying at mach 3 speeds. And eventually, successfully and forgiving, out of the danger zone of the explosion...They reemerged into the out-skirting suburbs of Central City, heading towards Sonic's house, which was at least fourty kilometers away from the CBD. Sonic ran up on top of the roof and watched as fireballs rained down, the city amassed in total flames and darkness. He cursed Eggman for this and wanted to see him hung for his crimes. This was probably one of the more greater attacks that he'd ever prepared. An yet, he was still in prison. He let got of Olly, letting her stand next to him as she sighed with relief. They knew the worst wasn't over quite yet."I have a strange feelin' that Shadow's gonna get reprimanded for this." Said Sonic."I think the Commander has other things to worry about at the moment..." Said Olly.He sat down, holding in his legs, baring the the stillbirth pain of fury within as he withstood it. He tried to get rid of it via a humble conversation via Olly."Where were you anyway?" He asked her.Olly sat down next to him. "There are parts to my personal life I would rather keep to myself Sonic..."Sonic raised his hands in a passive expression. "Okay, okay..."She twisted her torso and looked into his organic left eye."Your eye...it's bloodshot."Sonic chuckled. "Don't tell me Shadow's gonna put another one of his bionic ones in there because one's enough..."Olly shook her head. "N-no. I've seen this before. Lately we've seen increasing cases of AF Gas being distributed amongst the populace and this is one of the symptoms we've confirmed it as."Sonic swallowed his pride. His thoughts briefly turned to Lag and Niche, and feared they got caught in the blast. Dear Chaos he hoped they were okay."I'll be fine. It'll wear off like it did before." He said.Olly looked down, changing the subject."Are we going to contact the Commander?" She brought up.Sonic looked up. Another distraction was perfect for now, a new focus to help ignore the screaming voices. He pressed his intercom device and called Shadow."Hey Shads? Ya there?" Said Sonic."Read you loud and clear Sonic." Shadow replied.They conversed words and exchanged their situations. Shadow had informed majority of the civilian and GUN Personnel had made it to safety with Metropolis. Agent Hyperia was found to be severely injured in her crash, but Eggman had gotten away just before Milo and Neptune arrived. Upon informing him of Olly, he immediately wanted to speak with her.After their conversation in which needed to be private, Olly relayed further orders for them to remain in the outskirts until investigative teams could arrive. Scanners from satellite pictures indicated that the near entirety of the main districts of Central City was flattened by the EC Bomb. Most of the area within the fifty kilometer radius were evacuated, leaving Sonic and Olly the last ones around. Governments from many of the Mainland cities were planning to wall the area off, joining it to Westopolis as part of the Ground Zero Cluster, or GZC. Shadow was going to speak with Metropolis's GUN Commander alongside a huge conference to negotiate terms with the refugees whom had fled from within the tunnels. Where Sonic and Olly were located was the Southern Suburb of South Morang, a hilly area with lots of trees, giving Sonic and Olly some leeway and some space for where they were, a hiding area of sorts. Milo and Neptune were heading back, Milo giving Shadow the idea of an important Relaying or a Home Module to stay at. Sonic wasn't sure about it, but given the Lab underneath the house it wasn't such a bad idea to do studies on the aftermath.But Sonic's dwelt on Amy, his fear for her safety rising up to the surface as he started shaking. Agent Drainer was also being sent over to suck the toxins out. Olly took the traumatized Sonic back into the house and sat him on the couch, grabbing a blanket from one of the cupboards and wrapping it around him. Shivering like mad, Olly sat next to him, giving what comfort she could. He became so worried about her that he started bluttering random dialogue."I told myself I would protect her..." Sonic muttered.Olly had her legs and arms crossed, remaining vigil."I'm sure she's perfectly fine Sonic." She assured him.In his state, he wasn't going to be convinced until he physically saw her standing in front of him."You know...I was forced to confront myself earlier, while I was in the Enchanted Forest." He said, knowing the level of trust they shared with one another, that he felt comfortable enough to tell her his current problems."Confronting yourself? Is that why you came running down the tree in such a hurry?" Olly questioned.Sonic ran his fingers over his head. "I was so afraid of what I'd found out about myself not because I didn't understand what it meant...but something more...terrifying."Olly turned her head to him. "That serious huh?"Sonic nodded, his eyelids opening and closing at a slow pace. Olly got up to make him and her mugs of hot chocolate. She sifted through the cupboards and heated up the kettle."It was more forced though. Milo was so persistent in getting me to see it by admitting it."Olly's head fell as she put in the hot chocolate powder. "Maybe because he already saw what was there? The way people act towards one another creates their perception of each other. Milo sees something that was there on the outside but because you're so focused internally you never realize what you're actually showing off."Sonic snuffed. "There's probably a good reason for it too..."Olly chuckled slightly. "Usually its that we don't have eyes on the back of our head to see the backstabbers."Sonic smiled lightly. Olly came back around the corner and handed Sonic his hot chocolate."Thanks..." He said with coarse. Then realized something didn't make sense."Wait, why did you make a cup of hot chocolate for yourself? Doesn't that mean you're gonna take it off?" Sonic wondered, puzzled.Olly froze...placing her cup on the coffee table. "Force of Habit?"Sonic rolled his eyes. "So you gonna take it off or not?"Olly contemplated about it for a moment. She sighed."Might as well..." She said, sounded a bit down about it.Finally...Sonic had waited for this for a while unknowingly, knowing the mysteriously majestic woman behind the cold, hard front warrior goddess. She placed her hands on the sides and went to slide it off her head...
BANG!
"Yo! Sonic dude you? Oh..." Yelled Milo, who barged in and forced the door open with his huge boot. Neptune bolted in as well, leaping into Sonic's lap and cuddling him. Milo wandered in and crossed his arms, a devious smirk on his face. He then saw the cup on the coffee table."Aww Agent...Olly was it? Thanks for making me a hot chocolate! I'm cold as..." Said Milo.Olly stood up from where she was. "I was looking after Sonic, IO. Maybe you should knock this time without kicking down the door.""I warned him." Said Drainer, who walked in her usual stoic manner.Neptune rubbed his helmet against Sonic's cheek, glad that his friend was okay. Sonic smiled, although a bit afraid of Neptune as a reaction. Drainer fixed all that by sitting on the other side and digging a cut mark in his arm and taking the toxins out and forming them into small sphere, throwing the toxins down the sink.Sonic took a breath of relief, his emotive problems disappearing, his confidence and well-defined happiness slowly returning. His signature smile displayed for all to see. He thanked Drainer, who bowed to him. Milo was being brash, as usual and wrapped his arm around Drainer, who didn't seem to care."Can you believe, this Hedgehog Olly?" Said Milo. "He abandoned us during a training exercise, just because I got him to admit to himself he was in love with someone."Olly seemed interested. "Oh really? Who?" She said sarcastically. She wasn't happy about the Gaunt Fox prodding in Sonic's life like that. She wished his thoughts were more concerned about working out a plan to find Eggman as soon as possible."Oh...just a certain Commander's girlfriend..." Milo said with a smirk.Sonic rolled his eyes. "Milo, you're not supposed to tell the whole world! Thanks a lot jackass!" He scolded, embarrassed as he blushed leaned on the couch arm rest, his head on his hand.Milo did the pretend gun shot from his hand. "Heh...no problem."Olly remained still for the moment, staring at Sonic. Milo was laughed by himself, Sonic just face palmed feelings his cheeks redden."Milo Prower, you have no right to divulge in Sonic's private life, especially if he doesn't want to divulge it himself." She said, trying to save Sonic some humiliation. He might have the toxins out of his blood stream but he might be still feeling a little worse for wear.Milo cleared his throat and turned serious. "Alright, alright fine. What are we gonna do about Dr. Eggman?"Finally...the one word on everyone's minds. Except Neptune who didn't have a clue.They sat around on the couch, as Milo explained what happened with the Sons of Solaris."After you called us to head down there it was already too late. Agent Hyperia's ship had crashed. We got her out, there were burns to the left side of her forehead, her left eye had burst as soon as be snatched her out of the cockpit. Both her legs were had received third degree burns from the knees below and...some her bones were sticking out of her arms. She was still alive as Neps and I tried to get her back to consciousness. I looked for Eggman who had escaped from the back seat. I searched everywhere but couldn't find him. The intercom device on her helmet was still functioning so I got in contact with Flare and Riser. They flew down, Riser their team medic, patching her up slightly before placing her in his back seat. I told them to give Shadow a call when they got to Soleanna and inform them of Hyperia's condition."Sonic couldn't imagine the reaction her father would have received when he saw his only daughter like that. The Ruler would breakdown on sight."We had to abandon the ship, so I took Hyperia's blaster gun, since she wouldn't be using it..then Neptune and I did a little more searching. Even then we couldn't find any trace of Eggman's whereabouts."This was dangerous. A cunning foe on the loose could mean anything."We were going to search the Enchanted Forest but it was getting on...time wise. You know what happens with that place at night."Sonic didn't actually, and knowing his nature he was even half tempted to find out. But alas, he reluctantly refused to, much to his own dismay. By this time it was getting closer to six pm. Milo ordered pizza's for dinner, with helmeted Olly and Drainer shifting up the bottom of said helmets...revealing nothing but their muzzles...which were pretty much identical than to more than half the Homo Mobianus population. Sonic questioned her about this, pertaining to the fact she was going to take her helmet off in front of him, before she placed her palm on his mouth, stopping him from speaking further. The small, gas mask like modules seemed to nearly dissolve into the helmets near unrecognizable mouth plate as it tucked itself underneath. Milo joked it was like they had to keep their super hero identities secret. Drainer stated this was part of the contract that Commander Shadow had them sign, minimizing the risks involved in those knowing their identities...After pizza, Milo, Neptune and Drainer sat and watched TV, Agent Drainer asking questions in relation to the tvs fictitious content, making her believe that the movie they were viewing was real. Milo had to explain to her they were actually fake, making her ask more blatantly funnier questions in response to why would they lie about an alien laser blowing up an important political building. Milo cracked up.Olly had to return to the Commander and give a report. Sonic stood with her outside his house, saying their goodbyes."I might be back tomorrow I'm not sure. Depends on what command Shadow gives me." Said Olly.Sonic nodded. "Lemme know if he finds Amy. I'm having this in my ear at all times." He said, pointing to the small intercom device."Will do." Olly agreed, after a minor beat. She then ran off in the darkest of night, shutting the mouth plate and saluting, just as snow started falling once more. Sonic stood there, looking longingly into the shadows. It was a pity, Olly was the only sane person he could speak to at this point and time. He went back into the house, going to bed without saying goodnight."I wonder what's up with him?" Said Milo."He might be tired. It has a been a long day for all of us. Especially for Sonic. I bet he will go out like a candle." Drainer suggested.Milo facepalmed. "You mean out like a light?""That too." Drainer responded.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Tonight his dream was simple, sitting in the middle of his Endless Field, by himself. The sun gave the scenery a rather vintage look to it, pollens were being escorted by the winds. The long, plantations of the wheat grass danced as Sonic ran about in his own mission. He did not wish to think. The harder he tried not to, the faster he sprinted. Stuck in his own imaginary world, it was the only thing that was the closest to the way he wanted life to be. Simple.His wall climbing including wall to wall jumping, loops and drop kicks to smash several layers of unimportant glass. The cities he passed off on Route 99 were numerous from memory. Route 99 was one of the more lengthy roads he enjoyed due to the hundreds of kilometers that were spread in between the super-continents. Although this only existed his mind, where seas were smaller than the land, giving him more places for his leg-bound freedom. Every day he constructed new challenges unconsciously, his passion for running spurred the many ideas for worlds and zones. All designed for him.Pity the real world was limited in itself. Sure it did have it's challenges, but by this point, Sonic would reach a time in his life where he would have seen absolutely everything. But then again, things might change as the world evolved, the birth of new life. He figured that change wasn't such a bad idea after all. It would get awfully boring if existence stayed the same. Something to spike the interest, to engage you into how fresh it can still be. The world was meant for change. The universe too. A sky scraper emerged from the middle of a flat field plain, Sonic running around the sides whilst climbing to the top. Upon arrival, the sky scraper grew even more at an alarming rate until it sat in between atmospheres, seeing the curve of the Earth. The world he built himself was beautiful and would keep changing with his expectations on the perfect playground.A black figure attempted to race him, Sonic having some weird familiarity with it but couldn't place it anywhere in his conscious memories. But all he knew was the competitiveness was perfect as they raced one another in a race to end all races. It was going too fast for Sonic to recognize it's shape, but he got bad vibes off it. But he kept running anyway. It was what he did. The figure kept it's horizontal distance by peeling down on a separate winded road, forging it's own path to try and get ahead of Sonic, who in return just ran all the harder. It was futile for them both, their equality binding their spirits. Deep down Sonic figured he was trying to challenge himself. In the end, a flicker of light changed the scenery, Sonic landing back into an old cottage, situated in the middle of a forest dwelling.The imaginary wind played with his spikes as he breathed in. NiGHTS apparated next to him and sat down on a wooden rocking chair, knitting for some reason. Sonic rose an eyebrow."Having fun there?" Asked NiGHTS with a smile.Sonic made a navy blue couch and parked himself down next to NiGHTS. "Heaps."NiGHTS chuckled. "Good to hear. Now...I think we should discuss what we currently have at the moment."Sonic looked at the Jester. "Like a recap?"NiGHTS was knitting a blue woolen jumper. "Yup...so...where are we now?"Sonic thumbed his lip. "Well, so far, we've collected several artifacts then lost them."NiGHTS summoned a white board, then magically made a comparison list, with Sonic on one side and Abbadonia on the other one."Not really comparison...just a list of artifacts..." Said NiGHTS, who seemed to be speaking to one. Sonic didn't say anything on the matter."So...the artifacts in our possession, or technically you and GUN itself, are the Ring of Memories, the Sword of Visions, The Sphere of Abyss and the Lance of Love." NiGHTS mentioned.Sonic nodded. "We know Abbadonia has the Box of Temptation...and I know Eggman at one point had the Shell of Emotions...but that might be with Abbadonia..."NiGHTS examined the jumper before resuming knitting. "I'm pretty sure she might have the Shield of Luck as well."Sonic looked at the purple dream weaver. "How can you be so sure?"Gabriel faded in next to Sonic. "The Shield was in the Garden of Inari once...but then that rose up to become Space Greens Zone. Once the proper Kingdom Trading Alliance was implemented sometime during the Fifth Prophets life, many a trader used to rub their goods against it, or rubbed their hands against it. Because it was the Shield of Luck after all. Why else would they rub things against it?" The Ancient Hedgehog explained.Sonic nodded. "You're saying with that invasion earlier when they kidnapped the Wisers somehow they had gotten the Shield?"Gabriel stroked his muzzle. "Highly likely."NiGHTS started knitting an arm. "You've also got the rather, crucial thing on your person as well."With a flick of a finger, A round green table sparkled in before them. Sonic standing up and pulling out his personal effects from his Mobian Hyperspace Arsenal."Or MHA for the lazy fellas." Said NiGHTS, who again was for some reason speaking to no one, confusing both Gabriel and Sonic."So far...I have the Amberite...which is pretty much redundant since now GUN has the Sphere of Abyss." Said Sonic. "The Ring...Muriel's Book, the Red Chaos Emerald...and..."He still had the half burnt picture of Amy with him. It reminded him of the fraction of what he was fighting for. There was no doubt about that. Whether or not the premise made sense, it was of what most he could do.Gabriel picked up the Amberite and had a closer look."You know, I never REALLY got how this worked. I never bothered with it...just left it to the usual magical nonsense..."Sonic facepalmed. "You never asked Shizaru?Gabriel bit his lip. "Nope! I'm probably like your friend Knuckles, confused by the technobabble."Sonic tapped his leg. He knew the situation with Prince Hayden was complicated as well."Is he alive?" Sonic asked bluntly.Gabriel and NiGHTS looked at each other and shrugged. "We don't know." Said NiGHTS."Prince Hayden could be anywhere right now."Sonic sighed. He looked at the gauntlet covering his hand. He couldn't make sense of why his bionic eye was hinting on how to use it. He looked at Gabriel, who just whistled non-chalantly and had his arms behind his back. Sonic browed."Gabes..." Said Sonic, not amused.Gabriel rolled his eyes to stall looking at Sonic. "Yesssssss?"Sonic laid out his palm and pointed at it with his other hand, raising an eyebrow."What is the deal?"Gabriel looked at NiGHTS."Gabriel, that is YOUR Gauntlet. YOU EXPLAIN it to him..." NiGHTS cooed.Gabriel crossed his arms. "Aw come on NiGHTS...he can know about it later. It's not relevant."NiGHTS clasped their palms. "You prefer to keep a secret to the plot?"They chatted on with everything that they had seen or done that was remotely relevant to the troubles that had occurred. With Central City gone, Sonic had no choice but to report to GUN'S Metropolis Branch. He imagined his hide getting kicked by his superiors...whom ever they were.He woke up that Monday morning. No birds chirped, no sun. Just dull brown clouds decorating the skies. His house was now just a outpost in the middle of desolation. He had no idea why he was staying in such a place, preferring to go to Metropolis with everyone else. But, with the orders to stay where he was he had no choice. GUN would be putting up their walls by now and assimilating their funds to construct emergency housing. Metropolis was large enough though and more highly advanced than most of the world cities. Their power company, HEXAeco, is a powerful company funding GUN'S research into better weapons and assets. They were one of the few inventors of the highly expensive hover cars and can only be used in various high tech cities, notably on same continent as Empire City, the Capital of the Americana Continent. But with two cities gone, who knew what was to happen next?He took out Muriel's Book and had a look at what he could find next. One page mentioned a creature that it's description wasn't too far off from the dark doppelganger in his dreams. Sonic suspected Mephiles, but he looked different compared to the crystal embedded demon. He was said to have massacred nearly an entire population and caused the down fall of once a great kingdom. A gust of wind forced a few pages to brush passed, a card falling out in the meanwhile, confusing yet amusing him at the same time. Picking it up, it held a skeleton in armor whilst sitting on a horse and holding a flag. The text at the bottom reading, "Death."He really wanted Amy's help at this point, as Sonic was clueless to it's meaning, but only gathered bits and pieces from tv shows, some babble about change. Nonetheless, he checked the rest of the pages, searching for any more cards, but did not find any at all. Ignoring the tricks of his mind, Sonic took the card into consideration and put it away along with the book. Next time he would eventually see the pink Hedgehog, he would have to consult her about it. For now, it was time to roll into the day ahead as he walked downstairs.Drainer had left a note, regarding further that she had received orders whilst he was asleep. He took it upon himself to investigate the ruins of the city. It was pointless however, considering everything had been destroyed and the chance of survival after the EC Bomb was laughable. Drainer claimed it wasn't the orders of Shadow, but of a higher power. Sonic walked downstairs, seeing a snoring Milo lapped out on the couch, whilst Neptune was sleeping in a side fetal position on top of the coffee table. Sonic rolled his eyes, got a cup of cold water and poured on Milo."IT WAS THE POTATO I SWEAR? Ehh? Why am I wet?" Milo pondered, running his fingers through his fur."Time to get up!" Sonic announced, grabbing a can of coke from the fridge and sculling it down, not minding the fact that his throat was burning as a result.Milo was looking on in disgust. "Dude...you need to see a doctor..."The Gaunt Fox quickly got changed into a white top, a green jacket and another pair of skinny jeans to fit his tall figure and tied up his red and white runners. Neptune took a quick trip into the shower, whilst Sonic wolfed down some cold, left over pizza. Milo shuffled his hair and whipped out junk from his two tails, flinging out rubbish in the process. Sonic looked at him sternly."What? I'll clean it up later!" Responded Milo as Neptune came back out.Sonic explained the mission handed to them, which Milo spoke of the pointlessness in the logic when nothing was really left behind but the ashes and flames of the once great city. Still, they walked out into the population-void world and ran through the empty streets to delve into the depressing parts of the former city...There was an eery feeling throughout the broken roads. A pasture of nothing but destruction and misery. A depression born from the sight of such new anguish and pointlessly filled hatreds. The purpose of their visit was to investigate. But what they were investigating was unclear. The EC Bomb had oblivirated nearly everything to planks, splinters, rocks...everything that could be divided a million times from a single slab of concrete. Dirt was raised up from beneath tarred roads, as the wind whisked dust about in the air with a circular draft constantly brought up dust, forcing Sonic and Milo to cover their mouths. It was lucky some bases of a few buildings had survived the explosion. Neptune looked deeply neurotic, within his slouching and lack of enthusiasm. Sonic tilted his head and zoomed in with his bionic eye upon seeing something yellow in the distance. He jumped over to see what it was. Brushing and swatting off wires, he picked it up, realizing it was a child's giraffe toy, part torn and part filthy. He grasped on to it."This place is a mess..." Milo commented, kicking half a can. "What do they expect us to find here?Sonic had been asking himself the same question multiple times. Certainly nothing else would have survived in this mess. They walked all over the place, unable to find anything notable or undamaged goods. Suddenly, the Emerald inside Neptunes chest started glowing, Sonic checking his Red Emerald, as it started to glow as well. Neptune started going mental, prancing and front flipping everywhere."Woah..." Said Sonic."Doesn't this usually happen when there's only two?"Milo checked them both out. "Dunno...perhaps Neptunes one didn't want to be found intially. I'm not an Emerald expert myself, not like my brother."Sonic watched Neptune spaz out. "He knew quite a bit. But...looks like it's affecting Neptune somewhat."He ran up to his ambiguously specied friend and tried to put a stop to his constant jumping."Hey! Probie! Whaddya jumping for?"Neptune stopped jumped and went into a more aggressive stance. Sonic had never seem him like this before, the small rims on his goggles switched and turned progressively, appearing as if those green eyes were zooming and glaring at him. His fingers twitched as his torso lowered. His head whipped around, now leaping across the ruins of the city, Sonic and Milo forced to follow.The glow in his chest grew brighter with every jump. When finally, he stopped, the other two skidding to a halt. He frantically dug through the ground, desperately looking for something, before finishing, raising his head in amazement. He slowly put his hand into the hole, Sonic and Milo unable to see what he had found. He snapped his fingers onto the object, then quickly pulled it out.Sonic and Milo went wide eyed."It's the Yellow Chaos Emerald..." Sonic muttered.Milo blinked. "No wonder why Neps was acting nuts."Neptune coveted the Emerald like a child, stroking the top of it."Explains why GUN sent us then. Never knew they were concealing a hidden Emerald." Sonic noted.Milo nodded in agreement. He checked his surroundings, before seeing a severely scratched sign several meters away. Walking over, he picked up the printed sheet metal and blew the dust off it. It read: "HIGH SECURITY AREA.""Are...we standing right on top of the former tower?" Milo wondered.Sonic checked around. There were poles everywhere. And underneath the dull brown colours were scatterings of silver, grey and black, GUN's HQ theme...but with bouts of red and blue sprinkled underneath from the logos as well. Although it was depressing, they had to get back to Metropolis to hand the Emerald over."Come on Probie...hand me the Emerald." Sonic said condescendingly,Neptune looked at the Emerald, and held it close to his chest, shaking his head erratically."Neps..." Sonic said again.Neptune lifted his feat and started walking backwards with shiftiness. Sonic extended his hand."Come on Neps, I'm not gonna do anything bad to it. We just need to put it some place safe okay?"Sonic said with an unsure smile.But Neptune wasn't convinced at all. He remained secretive and obsessive over the Emerald.A blast from Milo's Blaster spooked Neptune into running away into the thick dust.Sonic glared at Milo."What the heck do you think you're doing?" Sonic reprimanded.Milo didn't flinch nor apologize. "He wasn't being cooperative. You know how Emeralds turn people insane. In these situations we have to be prepared to do anything. Especially when it's as dangerous as an Emerald."Sonic impatience returned as he fled after Neptune, speeding alongside the unsually acting Probationary Agent. He pleaded to his co-worker to stop running, hoping for an explanation for this sudden change in heart. Neptune jumped on top of a floor on a tower base, and shoved the Yellow Emerald into his chest, next to his Green one. His body grew in size, his suit barely able to contain the bulk of his body. Milo caught up, stood with his legs wide and aimed at the agent and continously shot at him. Sonic pushed Milo's blaster down with his hand."Stand down." Ordered Sonic.Milo's nose twitched. "He's going insane!"Sonic was none to happy with Milo's own intelligence at the moment. "Leave him alone! I'm trying to talk to him!"Milo crossed his arms. "Yeah, that's really working. What happened to your up and go attitude?"Sonic sneered. "Hey, a little negotiation never hurt anybody."Sonic walked forward, looking at his erratic little friend. He wanted to feel sorry for him, the Probie most likely unaware of what he was doing. Neptune examined Sonic carefully, notably extremely agitated and most likely to bolt at the first sign of hostile movements. Sonic tried moving closer, Neptune looking down on him closely. He extended and contracted his claws, his knees bent and started making slurping sounds. Angry, slurping sounds. He was trying to speak to Sonic. Milo's impatience was just as bad Sonic's, wanting to take Neptune down for disobeying orders. He wandered off, disappearing behind a broken wall. Sonic kept constant eye contact, ensuring himself that the wrong movements weren't enacted. The tension was thick, Neptune's jumpiness concerning Sonic deeply. The silence and the howling of the slight breeze did nothing to help matters. Sonic could only keep trying to communicate.Neptune spun around as an explosion appeared behind him, distracting him as a long crystal formed joust speared through his chest."NO!" Sonic screamed. Water burst out of Neptunes chest, spewing out liters and pushing out both the green and yellow Emeralds. Sonic ran over and caught Neptune as he fell over, the young Agents head turning to Sonic and bubbled out something incoherently."sooOOOnnniicccccccc" He gargled, before his helmet fellow off. Water spewed everywhere, forming a huge puddle around Sonic. Sonic fell to his knees in despair, holding his fallen co-workers helmet."Destroyers get destroyed." Mocked Mephiles as he floated behind Sonic. Sonic shifted to him."You murderer!" Sonic sniffed. Painful images and flashbacks brought Sonic back towards the dream with the black figure."Gods are Gods because they cannot bleed." Mephiles explained, his fingers and hands moving about."And yet, this one succumbed to a mortal wounding. Such God he was."Sonic's thoughts weren't filled with Neptune's supposed Godhood, but with rage and appropriate anger. He picked up both Emeralds, using the Green one against Mephiles."CHAOS...""CHAOS...""CONTROLLLLLLLLLL!"Light flashed before them, a Portal spiraling out. Mephiles cackled, holding up the violet Chaos Emerald."If you truly want your revenge. Come seek me...in the past...there we can...mend..." Mocked Mephiles, before disappearing into the portal itself.Sonic looked closely at Neptunes empty helmet. He began shaking violently before dropping it.He looked around, not caring that Milo had vanished and jumped into the portal...He dropped out into a lush, green, jungle like area. He wasn't entirely sure where or when he was at. But he current goal was to eliminate Mephiles. It was extremely humid, cicadas shouting out non-stop, and a torrential downpour followed. Sonic ran through the forest, unknowingly following any lead at all. But, if he had to run around the the world seven times over to find Mephiles he would. He ran all the harder...until he stopped before a beach.The rain stopped, and the clouds cleared as soon as he got there. It was nice timing...the sand a clean white, the sea a sparkly blue and the sun shining brightly as it snuck out from behind the grey clouds. Sonic wasn't feeling the niceties, his heart full of rage. He calmed down once he realized he was turning into what Shadow was becoming. He was still feeling the pain from Tails demise and now with Neptunes murder, piling with the deaths he saw during the Battle of Central City. He noticed that previous expeditions with Eggman were from the destruction non-humans...that mindless robots meant nothing to him or to anyone. Eggman could rebuild them as much as he likes. He sat on the sand and looked out towards the sea and it's eventual becalming effect, the soothing crashing waves in sync with his breathing. Letting revenge consume him entirely would be the last thing he wanted. Getting justice for all was what really mattered.He lifted his head as he heard shuffling sounds. His memory played games with him as he started remembering parts of this place. But what? He saw something shine in the distance, forcing him to shield his eyes with his hand and squint through the blurs. A planes propella and engine boomed through the air, as well as a gold figure coming in hot. Sonic's eyes widened as he moved behind a tree. He could see a younger Knuckles in the distant bushes, Sonic kneeling down behind a rock to avoid being seen. The gold figure flew past, only for Knuckles to jump out, punching the emeralds out of the Gold figure, turning him blue. Knuckles gathered up the Emeralds, laughed at the blue figure and ran off. A light propeller was heard above him. Sonic seeing Tails of all people, flying down to assist the blue figure."You okay Sonic?" Asked a smaller Tails, his voice squeaky as he leaned over the smaller blue figure.He sat up and shook his head. "Yeah I should be fine."Sonic fell over in amazement..." This cannot be..." He whispered in shock."Angel Island..."He forced himself to crawl around the island without being detected by those of the past. Why Mephiles sent him here of all places was anyones guess. An ooze formed behind him, Sonic sensing a darkness behind him before turning around. Sonic smirked."You know, you're not very good at hide and seek are you?" He snarked."Your past is more inviting than your future. The origins of a hero lies deep within their memories. This more akin to child's play. The least of the powerful strands of fate. But alas, the beauty of the early days..."Multiple explosions forced Sonic to turn around, his eyes lighting up the reflection of the flames burning the forests of Angel Island. Mephiles used this distraction to attempt a piercing of Sonic, but was stopped by a Psycho Ball. Sonic looked up, seeing a descending Grey appearing."Mephiles the Dark. A very bejewelled thorn in our side." Grey gasped, his voice raspy and scratched through the mask.Mephiles got up with no pain. "Another disconcerting hedgehog? Your entire kind may of sworn themselves to defend this earth but alas, the Earth also receives the true vision of such a pitiful race."Grey cackled. "You betrayed us long ago Mephiles. You damned the Hedgehog name. You might be demon in body but you are still Hedgehog in spirit!" Grey hoarsed before throwing another Psycho Ball. Mephiles melted into the ground, fleeing into the soil. Grey stood before Sonic."Huh...what a dick..." Said Sonic, his swearing appropriate.Grey grumbled. "A death in the past doesn't necessary equal in the future. You're...more needed elsewhere." Said Grey, before bringing out his silver Emerald."You must return back. Mephiles only aims to cause trouble for his narcissistic sister. His has...a...bit of a devotion to her."Sonic nodded. "You did say you weren't siding with Eggman. Then, why were you trying to kill me?"Grey coughed before resigning himself. "I wasn't trying to kill you. My taunts were threats...and I was simply trying to restrain you... Besides, you weren't my real target."Sonic blinked. "Who was then?"Grey face palmed. "Really? Do I have to tap my magic fingers on that handsome little forehead of yours to knock some sense into you boy? Who else do you think?"Sonic thought back to their more recent encounters. First in the deep depths of the Enchanted Forest, then more current with the attack above the tower. His face fell."You were going for Olly..." Sonic spoke in shock.Grey nodded. "Agent Mjöllnir is not to be trusted. She's a shared pet in GUN's Pyramid... If they had their way, their proper way Big Mama would make her her own Branch somewhere safe. But alas, I doubt even with Mjöllnir's near perfect scores they would let someone of her caliber and mental status watch over an entire force of well-trained soldiers."Sonic browed. "I've heard people speak of Olly's 'anger issues'. Is that related?"Grey crossed his arms and floated where he was. "Does the term, OPERATION: LUCID mean anything to you?"Sonic looked at to the ground, then back at Grey. "Yes."Grey nodded. "Good. LUCID had a series of highly confidential projects that lie within it. These projects included genetic modifications, weapons systems and settings, hundreds of computerized simulations. All in the name of the protecting this world."Grey seemed to know a lot more of LUCID than he expected. He held the need to know more, regardless of what GUN thought."Big Mama is one of the big supporters of LUCID but does not hold the greatest details. She acquired funding from HEXAeco, Grand Metropolis. I acquired documents from...an old...friend of mine..." Grey continued.Sonic kept hearing that term a lot, but nonetheless."Did you want to know why GUN is so keen on collecting those artifacts?" Grey queried."GUN had known about Abbadonia since Black Doom's first contact of the organization. One, Muriel Edenguard had contact with...a...certain book."Sonic took out Muriels book."Yes...that's the one..." Grey pointed out."The book was found in Black Dooms possession intially. The true origins of the...books eventual...inheritence are unspecified. Many stories are worded but none of them are true. Project Shadow was part of LUCID...yes...the fifty decades and more were spent on this operation, due to the fracture in the system. Black Doom was an imminent threat that was in dire need to be disposed of."Sonic tapped his chin. "Why would Black Doom have the book then?"Grey shook his head. "Speculation amongst true desponders was that after that...event...""Hell's Sundering." Stated Sonic.Grey tilted his head. "Yes...Hell's Sundering..." He said, the eagerness in his voice rising."...after Hell's Sundering, the book...was lost. Black Doom could have picked up the pieces upon his...usual fifty year interval visits to the Earth..."Sonic snuffed. "Meh...probably just a casual 'hey what's up?' to Abbadonia then..."Grey cleared his throat. "Doom's...goal was more ambigious than his...sisters...one of the sixty six sons and daughters of Dark Gaia..."Sonic rolled his eyes. "They cleared that up a long time ago. He pretty much wanted everyone to be meat in his kids school lunches...""Indeed..." Said Grey. "Some of LUCID'S Documents involve Dark Gaia's Children...they're boring to the point of what they wanted...all of them to be persecuted for their...world take overs.""Like that hasn't be done before." Sonic said sarcastically.Grey nodded. "Doom was no exception...all of them want to bring...hell on Earth..."That didn't surprise Sonic one bit. Heaps of villains would like to take over the Earth. It had become such a cliché nowadays that the only fun in stopping them was to see them get pissed off. Even that was mildly amusing."So...Abba's doin the globe clasping business eh? I knew that." Sonic said abruptly.Rustling of trees prompted the pair to stop talking, Sonic withdrawing the book in retialition as the forest flames drew closer."I am to take my...vengeance on Big Mama by hitting the core of their feeble dominion..." Grey said coarsly."I do not have the means to kill you Sonic...however...should you try and interfere...your corpse will be descreted along with hers..."Sonic smirked. "Sounds fair."Grey rose up into the air, spreading his arms out wide. "If you...want something to do...find Mephiles...he is one of the many children, scattered across the known world who has decided to reveal himself. A rarity as such...for his destruction will herald great things for you and will remove the blocks on your...journey..."Sonic nodded. "Heh...very well then. Find Mephiles...gotcha..." He said, before attempting to run off."Wait!" Grey cried. "I can tell you...where and when he is..."Sonic stopped and spun back around. "I'm listening..."Grey coughed as he cleared his throat. He placed his fingers on his forehead, then shook briefly as he hovered, holding the Silver Emerald in his hand."The Emeralds are speaking to one another...their ability to speak beyond time is extraordinary..." Grey praised."The Violet Emerald should be in the past...four thousand years ago...into the well known depths of the once famous city of the sky, Haren..."Sonic sighed. First the Garden of Voi, now this. Sonic brought out his Red Emerald and flung it out with Greys Silver one. They took them back, before slamming their arms together."CHAOS CONTROL!"A portal swirled open, it's chaotical energies spreading."You seek revenge for your friends death...I seek vengeance for...something not so different..."Explained Grey."We will meet again, Sonic the Hedgehog!"The leatherclad psychic Hedgehog jumped into the portal first. While Sonic had to think at what he was doing. If Mephiles was in this place, Haren, then he would have to be very careful in doing so. The past was the past, no matter how impudent. Sonic looked around, knowing destruction was afoot the island itself from past Robotniks misdeeds. If he had seen it coming, he might not have met Knuckles either. But...he had a task a hand. Avenging Neptunes death was the only thing left to honor the agent. With a firm hand, Sonic jumped into the portal, leaping into the unknown...He'd come out in a rather, temply like place. The clouds were drifting around and about in fog, but the sky above was crystal clear. It was, mild temp like the Gardens of Rosales and Voi. It came to Sonic that these people congregated here due to the perfect weather, completely livable. Neither too brisk or boiling, but just at the right temperature. The temple work looked more recent and tended to as he began walking around. He then realized he was in ancient alleyway as he trotted into the main thoroughfare, seeing hundreds and hundreds of...rabbits...Mobian rabbits...just like Vanilla and Cream...Music played from harps and trumpets, streamers and rose petals being flung from the little ones, and Sonic could see in dribs and drabs of other kinds of races amongst the crowds. There were flags flown, kiosks and merchants along the street itself. The sun gave it's grace as Sonic looked up to see the rabbits flying around, tending to floating islands that were attached to a multitude of stairs. It was a city alright. Houses mad of stone, red tiled roofs and columns seen in the distance. But these buildings were at least ten meters tall. This society thrived among its red brick riddled roads, dancing rabbits in their skimpy little outfits, jewelery and instruments chiming along to songs so beautiful that they couldn't be held to the future. Sonic would smile if he wasn't so down trodden with grief.A little rabbit, very similar to Cream in size, fluttered down beside a frowning Sonic. She wore a pretty little orange one sleeved dress with a line of golden dots running down the diagonal blouse part and a small golden necklace charm. Her eyes brimmed to their fullest with pure innocence."Why are you sad?" She asked Sonic. Why this girl could be the very identical ancestor of Cream by the looks and sounds of it.Sonic tried to smile. "I'm not sad."The girl giggled. "You're frowning...which means you're sad..."Sonic chuckled. "You've got me...""Princess Viennetta!"The little rabbit sighed."My grandfather wants me to join the feast!" She explained.Sonic blinked. "What seems so bad about that?"She grabbed Sonic's hand. "Follow me!"Viennetta took them both back into the alley, running around the back pathways of the city, passing glorious fountains of Rabbit valor and beauty, that it reminded him so much of modern Spagonia. Their fumbling around corners gained curiosity of locals putting their washing on the line or dusting their porches. Sonic could hear clanking of armor behind them. This girl was not comfortable, as it seemed, to do what her grandfather had asked her. She pulled them both to a set of doors leading into what appeared to be a local basement. She struggled to open the wooden doors, faltering under the stress. Sonic flung them open for her, politely pushing her down the stone steps, then walked down himself, then very quickly checking for the horde of guards who ran across the minor intersection. He then shut them with speedy force. Turning around, he saw Vienne pointing towards a random pipe, before crawling into it. Sonic wasn't so sure himself, but took into consideration that he had no idea where he was going anyway. Keeping cautious and aware, he followed her into the tunnels.She didn't say a word of where they were heading, but she was pretty keen on getting where ever she was going. Sonic was going to open his mouth, when she raised her hand to keep him quiet. Coming across a fork in the path way, Vienne tapped her lips, trying to remember which way to go. Several seconds later, she crawled to her right. Sonic caught up behind her as they went, entering into an underground cavern with hundreds of intertwinning pipes. What year was he in exactly?She climbed down a ladder, landing on the solid earth bridge with no rails. Sonic went down as well, and stopped when Vienne was staring at the blackness beyond the bridge below.She stretched her ears and swung them thrice. On the third swing, she used a slight gust of wind as she flew down in the darkness, Sonic weary of this. He looked around for something let him down. He heard a clunking sound, meaning Vienne had reached a more iron-clad surface. A click sound sent a trail of descending swirling rings downwards...hundreds and hundreds of rings pouring down from three open pipes. Getting the idea. Sonic jumped up into the air, and used his quills and the gust from the darkness for his slow free fall. He collected the rings along the way, swirling down, getting and feeling the energy flowing through him. It was more like he was in a well rounded earthen cavern. But he'd reached a pillar weight that was in between a metal sheeted bridge. Even that didn't look as safe.She grabbed his hand again and forced him into the cave before them. She grabbed the torch and lit up via one of things she'd grabbed. Ring powered torches? Heh. Sonic guessed that they used rings a lot in this time as well. They bolted into a well coveted cave, full of decorations and priceless jewels, valuable coloured fabrics, as well a make shift mattress made of hay and a overly stitched pillow and blanket. The carved out walls had nails hanging the jewelery and cloths, as well as a few mediocre wooden shelves holding rock carved figures. Small pots and jars held everywhere as well. Vienne placed the torch on a rack she'd made for it. It looked well more supported, not looking like they were done by a six year old."This used to be a cave for the monster who lived here. But then they scared the monster away. Now the monster lives in the Villa De Haren!" Said VienneSonic blinked. He saw a little wooden chair and sat down on it. He speculated Mephiles was said monster and decided to question a little further."Did this monster have a little purple jewel with him?" Sonic asked.Vienne looked down. "Ummm..."She ruffled through the piles to have a look. "It looked something like this..."Vienne held in between her fingers, a small purple shard."What's this?" He wondered, squinting at it."They do a look of digging at the Gorge down in the land beneath the clouds. I wish I could visit there..."Sonic smiled at her. "You've never been?"Vienne sat on the edge of her bed with her hands in her lap and the sweetest grin."Nope...Momma said that I get to go to the Land beneath the Clouds when I'm older though."Sonic nodded. He had the need to check the book for any particular details on Haren's history. But decided to cipher out what he could from the girl."So why were you running away?" He asked her.Vienne looked down."Grandfather has been having these feasts lately. And with that monster living in there, I'm afraid to enter the Villa."Sonic lifted her chin up. "I bet your momma would be pretty worried with you running away all the time."Vienne nodded. "She is. I know my grandfather is King n' all...and I do love him..."Sonic smiled. "Maybe I can help you..."Vienne's eyes widened. "Wait, are you the Stupilite my momma sent for?"Sonic leaned back with surprise. "Uhhh...I...I..."Vienne jumped up on her bed and started flying around the room, scaring Sonic slightly."OOO Quick! I need to take you to momma now!"She must have some strength as she pulled Sonic with her out of the cave and brought him out to the surface via a unseen pot hole cover. She flew him up several meters up into the air, nearly bashing into fellow flying rabbits who scolding them in some language related to Spagonian. But Vienne was oblivious to their words as she took them both to one of the tall towers off the Castle of Haren, an offshoot of the large villa he could see beneath him. She dodged some of the floating attached islands, swirling about in blissful ignorance. Arriving at one of the castle towers, she flew through the window, resting Sonic down. Sonic wasn't concerned or scared...he loved the turbulence in fact."Momma! Momma!" She cried out. It looked like a grand room they had arrived in, king sized bed, red, orange and brown colours everywhere. A tall lady stood up, with a white veil, wearing a golden necklace with large square pendants, her dress not too dissimilar from Viennes."Vienne!" Her mother cried out as Vienne jumped into her arms. "Thank goodness you're safe!"Sonic smiled. Again, this was a spitting image of the future to come."Here's the Stupilite you ordered!" Vienne announced.Sonic wasn't sure he was exactly what they ordered, but as a good hero he was he bowed to her mother."It's an honor your highness." Sonic said. He felt a hand on his shoulder."Please...call me Nea..." She said, telling him to rise. She looked at his eye with curosity."Is this...the eye of the Gods?"Sonic looked left and right with the awkwardness. "Ummm I dunno...it got infected?"Nea nodded. "I see. But you are Stupilite. And we have a problem..."Sonic crossed his arms. "What can I do for this Royal Family?"Nea sighed. "My father, Neopolitan the Fifth, is currently violently ill. I have...doubts about his current advisor..."Sonic nodded. "Go on..."Nea had Vienne in her lap. "His Adviser, Selihpem, is a little worm...he..." She said, blocking her daughters ears."He keeps trying to...well,..."Sonic wasn't understanding the signals. "Trying to what?"She was giving unusual eye expressions and visual emotives that Sonic couldn't get.Nea sighed. "Anyway...and I have this suspicion...that he's poisoning him...and will eventually pass him on."Sonic knew this was not beyond Mephiles measures...but usually his tactic was stabbing the heck out of everything. Whether it made sense or not, at least he was trying different methods. Or maybe he was trying to lure Sonic to...something or rather."He's currently got my father on the idea of marrying my own daughter! I've told her to go play outside and run to the cave of protection...I had a Witch Doctor from Rosales place a spell on it, since the spell required a piece of memory to block for the monster who once lived in those caves..."Sonic was sickened. Would Mephiles really stoop so low? Then again, he didn't take standards into account. But maybe it was time to put a stop to it...and avenge Neptune."I'll see what I can do..."Getting out from the tower, Vienne offered to fly Sonic to the Villa. Doing so, she dropped them both off at the Villa's steps. Sonic advised to return back to her mother, whilst Sonic snooped around. Harenite Guards wielding their mighty spears did their circuit, looking like the old Spagonian Centurions of old, with their armour, sandles and helmets with the bizarre red mow-hawk like things, big floppy ears popping out of the helmets, and stern, strong looks on their faces. Sonic attempted to sweet talk his way in, trying to use his status as Stupilite to enter inside, but none of the guards were having a thought of it, instead they stood there, ignoring yet protecting their precocious king from a strange Hedgehog."I only wish to speak to your majesty on behalf of the Stupilite High Honor Guard." Sonic said firmly."His Majesty is not expecting any of your kind today." A voice said, deep in tone but high in arrogance.Sonic looked up. The tall, dark furred rabbit, wearing black robes, his eyes glared down at the hedgehog. He ruffled charcoal hair was all over the place, the bangs hanging over his snake eyes.Sonic walked up a first steps before being halted by the guards."Tell him it's urgent!" Sonic pleaded.The dark rabbit shirked. "Hm...I will give you five minutes with him. Then you must leave...understand?"Sonic nodded. "Understood sir."Sonic could see from his lurking and slouchyness, the bags underneath his eyes and the general eery vibe that could be attained, that this was the Selihpem person Nea was speaking of. Sonic was no fool and could see through Mephiles charade...only if he could attain the ability that Grey had displayed, the exact location of the violet emerald. He follow...'Selihpem' into the midst of the Villa, aclustered with a long table of yellow marble covered with an abundance of food, red carpets and candles decorating everywhere, ancient paintings of previous kings. The current King, Neopolitan sat at the end of the table, looking royally plump, but rather sickenly deshelved, his face pale and eyes drifting off into deep space, his ears ruffled and wearing lavishing gold, red and blue regal wear and his huge yet curvacious crown with rubys, sapphires and emeralds. Seliphem slithered his way around to stand behind and lurk over his majesty."My lord, we have a Stupilite here to see you..." Seli whispered into his ears, giving Sonic snippy looks."I...I did not ask...tell him to go away..." Responded the King with a rather ill desposition, his voice deep and grudgy.Seli gave an evil grin. "He says it is...urgent my lord..."King Neo tried to keep eye contact with Sonic, and was soon entranced by his bionic eye."He...he wields the black eye and hand of evil lore! The Rosoideae Prophet predicted his arrival!"Neo announced.Seli cackled slightly. "Are you certain my lord? The Stupilites loyalty is to there proposed Wind guiders...those born of the winds cycle..."Neo hacked and wheezed. Sonic was beginning to feel deeply sorry for him, being restricted to nonsense and incoherent babbling. Mephiles was certainly doing his job then."Tell me...boy...have you come to collect the Box of Temptation?" Neo asked, wheezing again.Sonic blinked. "Uh...no your majesty..."Seli leaned in. "He lies!" The grimy rabbit claimed. "He wishes to take what is ours! The Rosoideaes want to snitch their treasures back!"Sonic shook his head. "No...I swear I came here with urgency of the most noble quality." He said, bowing."The lies! The slander! Will you take the word of an abandoned and untrusting soul?" Seli pleaded.Neo looked at Sonic, who looked up at him. Neo stared into his eyes and tried to read him. With utmost curiosity, trying to place the blue hedgehogs true credibility somewhere. But for his sickness was affecting his judgment even more so. The crusty old leader with his mouth buried underneath his tattered beard, looking ever so somber. The sunlight peered down on the lord from the skylight, Sonic looking underneath, seeing that he was not casting a shadow below him."I know the reason why you are ill dear king..." Sonic said with a smirk.Neo tilted his head slowy. "Boy...my sickness is all but known to so few people. My doctors cannot reason it and yet, a runner such as yourself...and your shoes...made from rich Men I gather..."Sonic forgot about his shoes. They looked so unnatural from the current world. But now wasn't the time to dwell on footwear."I have been to Soleanna, Rosales, the hidden villages of Sakura, and Inari...I am well known and rewarded...handsomely as you would say...for my...services...I have experience of a thousand men."Seli cackled again. "Hahah again! The words that slip out of those lips are made of pure dishonest remands! I see it in that eye of death!"Neo glared at Seli. "For someone who looks like he has done the journeys the Kingdoms have set, it is by common law to listen to the reasoning of the trusting Stupilite."Seli gritted his teeth. "But you said it yourself! He wields the black eye and hand of evil lore! Just as the Prophets predicted!"WHACK!Seli rubbed his nose from the ill kings mighty backhand. Sonic smirked."Nice hit your majesty!" Sonic praised with a thumbs up."So...what is your diagnosis then?" Neo demanded.Sonic nodded. "You're not casting a shadow..."Neo had a confused look on his tired and withered face."A shadow? What? How can this be?"Seli facepalmed. "Indeed my lord...how something as absurd as that suggestion is brought up I wi-"Neo raised his hand. "But it is logical...the Prophets...once said that a shadow protects your from the blinding light and the blithering darkness...you should know that."The annoyed expression of Seli's face told Sonic he knew it was an excuse to explain some sickness in those days. Sonic was just guessing...but needed proof, to persuade Neo it was true or else he would lose the kings trust. He pulled out Muriel's Book and flicked through it, hoping like heck that it would give him some kind of an answer. Seli slithered his way over and snatched the book."What is this? A book of secrets?" He called out in wonder.Sonic glared at the dark rabbit."Hey! I was trying to find the page explaining the..." Said Sonic, not sure what to call the syndrome."Nonshadow Curse!" Neo coughed out. "I'm not the only one with this...several servants have obtained and I feared that I had gotten it off them."Seli frantically checked the book itself, from start to finish and vice versa in the matter of seconds, trying to find anything to frame Sonic with. He closed the book with one hand and glared at the blue hedgehog."It does not have one ounce of mentioning this...curse. It is empty!" Seli roared.Neo ordered the read the book himself. Seli gave a smug glance to Sonic before sliding the book over. Using the 'advisors' hands, he displayed the books non-existent content to him."Your point being Seliphem? I...have noticed your slightly complex yet unneeded attempts to help me. I may be ill but that's because the Senate recommended an Advisor to my stead, I'm quite capable of making my own decisions..."Seli stood back. "Then why dislodge the Stupilite?"Neo chuckled, then coughed. "I do not wish to spread the Curse to the others..."Sonic smiled. "Oh don't worry, your majesty, Stupilites are immune!"Seli gritted his teeth. "You see?"Neo struggled to get out of his chair, Seli advising him to sit down."Your suggestions are not orders!" He barked.An explosion was heard behind them, Neo and Seli spinning around to see. Sonic quickly took back the book and made a stance. The wall beyond had been blasted apart, Sonic waiting to see the dust settle to see what had done it. In a moments time, Multiple Mephile clones popped out with the Box of Temptations. Black smoke rose up, Sonic's vision going blurry. Not again, he thought. He began hearing voices in his head of an unknown language. Gaining back some semblance of accountable consciousness, Sonic witnessed Seli run off into the smoke, commanding the Mephiles clones."Bear witness dear King, I am simply displaying a measure of fate. Fate of the future of our dear Stupilite!" Seli announced, phasing back into his Mephiles form, giving the King his shadow back.Now healthy, the King shot up from where he was, angry and fierce."WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" He roared.Mephiles cackled. "I was simply stalling for time, while my familiars were gathering the needed treasure from your casket!"Sonic stared Mephiles down. "What's the point? Abbadonia already has the Box!"The King ordered his guards to come charging and deal with the dark pest...but Mephiles laughed off and with a single waggle of his finger, more familiars appeared, stabbing and gnawing on the guards themselves, Sonic grossed out by their cannibalism."I know Abbadonia has the Box in the future. But it is what happens in the past that relegates into...the future dear Sonic..."King Neopolitan unsheathed his sword, brandishing it for all it's worth."I, King Neopolitan the Seventh, will not allow you to stain the floors of the city's heart with the blood of the innocent! The Prophet will not allow it!"Mephiles cackled. "Your Prophets have their way with words my lord...but...unfortunately they did not speak of the death of their greedy king!""YOU-"Neopolitan was struck to a spike in the chest, just like the others, infuriating Sonic to bits. He charged at the being of darkness, who was shielded by his familiars, Sonic jumping up into the air and ramming them with his homing attack. Using them, Sonic made a path towards the Box of Temptation and grabbed it out of the familiars hands, doing a few more bounces before doing a front flip onto the floor, and running away to stay at a fair distance."I think I know exactly what to do with this..." Sonic claimed.Mephiles' arm reached out. "No! Abbadonia will be furious!"Sonic grinned. "By the power of the Box of Temptation! I order King Neopolitan the Seventh and his guards to be resurrected, by the use of Mephiles putrid soul!""N-"The box blasted open and left Sonic's grip, white ethereal hands reaching out and grabbing Mephiles by surprise, taking him in to the box, then slamming the lid on tight by itself. Suddenly it went quiet, too quiet for Sonic's liking. He ran over to Neo's fallen body and tapped his cheek."Come on...work!" Sonic muttered under his breath.Neo's eyelids batted before getting a clear look at Sonic."Oh...thank you Stupilite..." Said a very grateful Neo. "You do not know what it is like in the darkness, where it waits for you..."Sonic smiled. "Heh...do worry your majesty, I'm willing to fight what evers thrown out!" He said with a thumbs up.Neo chuckled...then cough briefly, before falling back and not breathing. Wait? Dead again?Sonic checked back at the Box, which made a loud snapping sound as the lid opened, a black cloud shooting into Sonic, phasing into his body. He felt this weird sensation pulse through his body and watched as his arms and chest turned grey and his blue fur turned as black as the night. Sulfur ridden steam curled up and off his body. His pikes lifted, his left eye turning white, and his right bionic eye's usually green iris turned white as well. His body was left with anger and distorted feelings that couldn't be untangled. This, building rage was extremely painful, but the power was immense. He charged out of the Villa, floating in the air. Seeing the frightened citizens hovering back, his sanity took a back seat as he made the most uncharacteristic of grins and licked his lips.A tiny drop fell on his head, but its sound echo through his skull. There was this sense of unknowing, bereft of sight but slightly aware. Slight vibrations sent ripples through his muscles, his mind unusually concentrating on the most benign of events. He could barely remember anything that had just happened, apart from the agonizing aches in his chest. His heart beated in usual rhythm, sending the noise waves to his ears, his breath audible to the strongest winds.The shuffling of footsteps on dirt drew closer, making vocal expressions, ticking and clicking. Sonic opened his eyes, desperately trying to focus. His body rose up on it's on and got on its own two feet. Staring out into the clouds below, he was standing on the edge of the flying city. The scent of sulphur lingered with burning materia, amongst a combination of sickly smells, Sonic wanted to turn around, but felt restrained in movement."I wouldn't turn around if I were you..." Said Grey as he floated in front of Sonic. He held his arms out in a grasp motion."Why not?" Sonic asked, confused.Grey sighed. He looked behind Sonic and squinted before his eyes swung back."Do you...believe in necessary evil?" Grey queried.Sonic rose an eyebrow. "Depends on the type of evil. Actually, truth be told I do get bored when Eggman isn't doing anything...is that the answer you were looking for."Grey lowered his head. "On contrary to existence, when entering into the past you've placed yourself into the future in the eyes of those who see you. Your past was preordained and the likelihood of stopping it is left to fate itself. Therefore, To...undermine the course of time is to...ensure events happen as predicted. It is not hard...what ever you will do simply supports the future regardless...because one can't truly change it...only delay the...inevitable..."Sonic wasn't sure where he was getting at, he was only interested in investigating the smells and began wondering why Grey wouldn't let him turn around."Mephiles was a necessary evil...a Time Keeper if you will. LUCID documents indicate his thriving on every time line and only he, has the true power to change the future. Because he was born with it. Born in the world of chaos and not order."The last thing Sonic could truly remember was the sight of a dark presence entering his body and Neo dying for the last time. He was now believing the unthinkable."That couldn't have happened...couldn't of it?" Sonic wondered.Grey crossed his arms and floated there."It was a backlash...a reaction to Mephiles soul I suspect. I wasn't expecting that...I knew I should have looked into it further..."Sonic shook his head briefly. "Expecting what?" Sonic questioned.Grey rubbed his forehead with his fingers. "The documents failed to mention what would happened...never mind...we must head back to the present. We have more work to do."Sonic glared at Grey. "More work? What else is there? Tell me!"Grey held himself. "Much...much...for now...you can look behind you..."Sonic gained control of his body again, allowing him to sigh with relief before turning around, now freezing without outsider influence, the colour draining away from his face at what he saw. Images of slicing out the intestines of innocent Mobians with what looked like an organically made sword forged out of his arm. Bloody splattered everywhere as people screamed and ran away in absolute terror. The sword was three times as long as his body, and somehow could slice buildings in half. Things burst into flames as the terrofied populace fled from Sonic's psychotic rampage."No..." Sonic muttered out weakly. "I..."Grey looked into Sonic's mind as he pressed his fingers against his temples."This...is a necessary evil Sonic..." Grey revealed.The black furred figure in his dream was exactly this. Was he being warned of things to come? He couldn't handle it as he vomited, witnessing images of murdering children before him."No..." Sonic screeched as he fell to his knees. This pain was just to unbearable."It was...I..."Grey stared down at him. "Sonic...you could blame yourself...or you could blame those who placed this into your hands in the first place."Sonic started blabbering incoherently, with strange sentences that he repeated and that failed to make sense as he stared out. Grey leaned over."The fault is not yours...they knew...they knew the entire time..."Olly stood in the showers, allowing the water to run down her fur. She was alone in her silent world of solace. She ran her fingers through her hair and washed her tail. She had a sick feeling in her stomach that her training had told her to ignore. Perhaps guilt or something else. Nonetheless, she felt different than before. She rested her hands on the baby blue tiled walls and let the heat sink into her, the water soaking into her fur.Getting dressed back into her suit, she exited the locker room and went into the Grand Metropolis GUN TR Center. The room was more lavished than Central City's with greater technology. Three layers of specialized intel boards with their protective fences riddled with GUN's logo, ascending and shortening in length drenched with a pastel white, with a huge holographic system possible several hundred square meters. Originally black in colour, holograms and screens would often pop out of nowhere, a lined map lay on the bottom with screens opening and closing as they would please, typed descriptions flashed and flickered across it in many different bright colours. Olly entered via the top entrance seeing a gigantic black chair and smoke emanating from it, a long, lithe mobian arm with skinny, long fingers covered in a long sleeved mobian glove with a a large gold bracelet. Her cigarette was busy twirling in between her fingers."Supreme Commander?" Called out Olly. She wasn't confident in herself with her ultimate superior"Ah Agent Mjöllnir...come stand next to me... . You know you can call me Big Mama..." She a rather hardened woman, her voice only slightly gravely, but full of strength and empowerment, not to mention some broad sophistication."Yes Big Mama..." Said Olly as she walked over.Big Mama inhaled her smoke. "No sight of Dr. Robotnik?" She asked her beloved Agent."No Big Mama...we lost him some time ago. All attempts to find him have so far failed."Big Mama breathed out and swung her chair towards Olly. She sat there, laying back, wearing a rather seductive silky black dress, with a neck collar but no sleeves, the length of it stopping above her high heels, a slit from her thigh leading down to the bottom revealing her leg. She wore a grey sash around her, her military badges pinned on to it. Her face, well rounded, with pink quills curving around nicely behind her muzzle, each with their own slight, small, forward curl. Her bangs were being held back by a square black hair clip on to the top of her scalp. Her face, her peach muzzle clean, her lips covered with luscious and deep red lipstick, crows feet hardly noticeable but there, her eyes an aqua green, wearing navy eyeshadow and thick mascara, her mobian nose small but humble. All this to fit a voluptuous body with matching elder woman tone.She leaned her elbow on the arm rest and kept a rather grouchy deposition."Get me your associates, Bazooka and Drainer..."Olly lifted her head. "Big Mama, Bazooka is currently out of contact...but"Big Mama slammed her fist on the arm rest. "I don't give ten worthies...get them here...now..."Olly saluted her superior. "Yes Big Mama." She said before running out.The Supreme Commander swung around. "And get me Commander Shadow...I want a word with him."Olly nodded. "Yes Big Mama."Olly ran about the complex...and tried to find her way around the high tech tower. More personnel ran about, information being transferred from place to place in transparent pipes, the electrical transference being seen zipping around in nanosecond intervals. She tried to remember where the Switchboard was located, heading to the front desk instead. Shadow could be anywhere really. But she was in no mood to talk to him herself. She asked the front lady to get Shadow to see Bi...the Supreme Commander. Doing that, the Receptionist did what she was told as Olly went into the streets of Grand Metropolis...Grand Metropolis was the center, more rich center of the usual Metropolis. The rest was practically cyber punk terrority with rotten poverty. The cleaner central, coloured with ugly greens and iron reds, was saturated with holographic billboards advertising the monoply bought products endorsed and built by HEXaco. It was going to be hard to Bazza back from where she was. She wandered around the elevated tube paths that were spread across the city, watching the hover cars fly by. The population of Metropolis was at at least 250 million, even more so with the refugees from Westopolis and Central City. But Bazza walked on alone, leaving reason for wonder.She saw Drainer running down the path, dodging other pedestrians. She fled up to Olly and skidded to a halt."Agent Drainer." Said Olly. "The Supreme Commander wishes to speak with us all. Have you seen Bazooka?"Drainer shook her head. "No. I think she left her beeper at home." She answered.Olly sighed. "Hm...She's gonna be pissed if she doesn't come."Drainer stood there with her stoic body language."Should we go find her then?" Drainer suggested.Olly tapped her foot impatiently. "I'm not sure. We both know where she is...but the fact remains that she..."BOOOM!Both Agents shielded themselves from the small explosion above them. Moving their arms, they saw that the pentagonal glass above them had been smashed to pieces. Looking above, they saw Bazza floating down via her ponytails, with her bazooka on her shoulder."Don't mind if I...drop by..." Bazza punned. Olly facepalmed."You could have gone via one of the landing pads up further..." Olly pointed out.Bazza chuckled. "Nonsense! As soon as I saw you two, I had to come straight down."They walked back to GUN HQ, Bazza speaking of her fantastic trip that she had, but tragically had to cut it short when she heard that Central City had been flattened by Eggmans troops. When asked if her child was okay, she responded that they had been taken care of elsewhere. The old gang was back together again.They went back into the TRC and met up with Big Mama, who had just finished speaking with Shadow, who didn't seem too happy as he marched out, looking at Olly as he left. Big Mama got off her chair and stabbed her cigarette into the silver ash tray. She walked around, placing her jacket on her shoulders and ordering the Femme Fatalex into her office."I have the damned President crawling up my back, demanding answers for the incident at Central City." She said, sitting back down in her office which was filled with war regalia and photos with silver frames, her desk jet black with holographics everywhere."I have spoken to your Branches Commander, and quite frankly, he was quite pathetic about it, said he left the tactics to one Sonic the Hedgehog while he went rescuing your Subcommander."Olly's head fell. "Yes. The attack was so sudden, just like Westopolis."Big Mama lit up another smoke. "Yeah Eggman can be a real bitch like that...tell me, with all the defensive capabilities that been brought up over the years, why the hell haven't you installed the new security brackets around the city?""Permission to suggest something Supreme Commander?" Said Bazza."Permission granted Agent Bazooka. Speak." Said Big Mama.Bazza cleared her throat. "I doubt the councils in each city would spend their budgets on such draconian methods."Big Mama snuffed. "If they wanted to protect their cities better they should have stopped splurging on holidays now shouldn't they?""Supreme Commander." Said Drainer. "Previous events have shown that the Underground Tunnel Protocol has been quite successful, minimizing casualities successfully."Big Mama nodded. "That's thanks to our scientists brilliant minds! We're currently developing a better system to implement a proper teleportation protocol instead of the pissy pod methods.""Isn't that costly?" Asked Bazza.Big Mama sneered at the tall Agent. "It's only costly in the poorer sectors. It's not my fault if the Branch Commanders couldn't persuade their councils to put more funding in the defense foundations."Olly didn't like Big Mama's attitude, but unfortunately couldn't do anything about but stand there and take orders."So what would you like us to do next then?" Olly asked.Big Mama massaged her right temple with her index finger. "I want you three to head to Soleanna and check up on Agent Hyperia. I need to speak with her as well as Flare and Riser on their sides of the story. Go."Bazza flew them in a newly constructed helicopter with a massive GUN logo on the side. Bazza piloted as usual, Drainer taking shotgun, while Olly sat with her legs dangling, looking out into the mass of Metropolis, then random suburbs, then finally nothing but farmland after an hour of flight. Soleanna was non too far from Metropolis, about some hundred kilometers. Upon reaching more outer farmland, Olly tucked herself in and strapped herself as Bazza transformed the helicopter into a more capable plane. Bazza rambled on about it's brilliance and fantastically, almost impossible idea of the transformations...saying it was the only good thing she liked about Metropolis GUN weaponry. She told them both she didn't really like Big Mama, saying she's got some issues."I read some old documents given to me by O'Brien." Said Bazza."It read that the Supreme Commander was once part of Desert Storm a few years back, saying that there was an incident leading to several women and children being burnt alive."Olly was squickened by it, but wanted to believe it was not her fault...that it could have been an accident."Despicable." Commented Drainer.Olly sighed."I'm sorry Olly, I understand you would like to be optimistic of all our noble leaders...but I really don't like Big Mama." Said Bazza."That's okay." Said Olly. "I don't really like her either."Bazza chuckled. "Haha...and yet she seems to like you the most...I wonder why..."They eventually made it to Soleanna, Bazza transforming the plane back into it's helicopter form, and successfully landing it on the pad below, near the main castle area. They met up with that Branch's Commander, a male human by the name of Hawkins, a young leader of righteous proportions with brushy light brown hair and a strong brow, albeit looking like he'd seen a few battles himself during his short life."Ah the Femme Fatalex." Said Commander Hawkins. "Come to check up on Agent Hyperia?"The Commander lead them down the hallways of Soleanna's old and yet still functional Hospital. He walked up to one of the Doctors, who lead them to Elise's room. The room was completely white, the floor a black spotted rubber-like substance. She sat in wheel chair, looking out the roof to floor window, staring at the paddocks."Your highness?" Said Hawkins."The Femme Fatalex are here to see you."Elise spun her chair around. She had her usually beautiful red hair covering half her face, Olly seeing some of the scars. Wearing white patient gown, she had bandages wrapped around the top of her legs, everything else from both her knees onwards had been blown off. She had lost her right arm as well. Her face held some scars on the other side of it, her eyes full of pain and sadness, but lit up somewhat upon the arrival of the agents."Girls!" Elise cried out happily.Hawkins left the girls to themselves and left, while Elise was busy talking about the anguish and disappoint she had in herself in letting Eggman get away."So what actually happened?" Asked Olly.Elise frowned and began to say her story...
Hearing the attack on Central City's GUN HQ, Elise had received orders to escort Eggman to the Soleanna dungeons. Heading straight down with Flare and Riser, she was glad she could talk to him again after being mysteriously barred from doing had run down to his prison, and had Flare and Riser assist her into getting him into the back seat of her jet.

Upon their flight back to Soleanna, Elise and Eggman chatted away.
"So what's the attack about huh?" Elise asked him.
Eggman cackled. "Hey, I have nothing to do with it. Your friends had taken everything off of me. So to speak, I had no contact with the outside world."

Elise nodded. "I see...well, they seem to be a lot of your robots..."

Eggman smiled. "A lot of my robots act out on their own. Thats why I gave them personalities."

Elise tinkered with a few buttons. "I see. You had nothing to do with this?"

Eggman looked smug. "Of course not my dear...now let's get back to the discussion we had when I saw you last hm?
"What were you two talking about?" Bazza queried.Elise smiled. "My family. He seemed entirely interested in our history. I told him my mother was the Queen of Soleanna before she passed on. I don't start ruling until I reach a certain age or until my father dies. That's always been the rules."Drainer saw the bottles of vodka on the table nearby, but didn't question their importance."Do you remember when you got shot down?" Olly wondered.Elise nodded, frowning a bit. "Unfortunately I do..."
They were almost there, Elise happy to be speaking to someone who was interested in her history and not her body. She found that while partying most of the guys were after her in more, social fashion. She'd do the horizontal tango with them for sure, but it was never for love, more for the bragging rights that'd they dipped themselves into royal sauces. She was ravaged for one, every weekend. But after that first time after speaking to Eggman, she'd gotten it into her mind whether not all of it was worth it. She enjoyed piloting more than she partied, but that was because of the stress she endured during the week, having to play the prim and proper princess for the general daylight public. Every discussion had meaning and some heart to it.
"So you know ancient Mobikian?" Eggman asked."Yup." Elise responded. "It's required for us to learn it...nowadays they call it the Royal Language."
Eggman nodded. "I studied it was well you know, my father was taught by my grandfather and my father taught it to me."

Elise was enamoured. "Really? That's cool. I know Knuckles the Echidna, the Guardian of the Master Emerald knows a bit as well...but to see a fellow non-royal human actually know is quite impressive..."

Eggman faked blushing. "Oh you are too kind my dear. I don't have an IQ of 300 for no reason now do I?"

Elise chuckled. "Unless you're from Sparta..."

They both laughed at the memetic nature of it.
"So...what kind of things can you say in Mobikian? I can usually work out sentences but can't form my own properly. I'm still learning." Elise explained."Plenty." Replied Eggman. "Can you...decrypt this?"
He muttered something in Mobikian, Elise trying to figure out what it was.
"In bated breath comes the child's flower, sowing seeds of chaotic order...I think..." She stated.
"Very good." Eggman complimented. "How about this?"
"And?" Said Bazza.Elise looked down. "That's when we were attacked by...something. My ship was blasted before I could see what attacked me. Next thing I know I'm in extreme agony, then forced into unconsciousness..."Olly stared at Elise, concerned. "Eggman was trying to get into your head. By gaining your trust he was manipulating you!"Elise's expression fell. "How could he?...he...he...there was nothing wrong with what we were talking about!""Okay calm down..." Said Bazza. "Geez...Olly was just saying Eggman was being polite on purpose."Elise was greately saddenned...and turned to denial."I want you all to leave." She demanded. The trio looked at each other."Don't make me get Commander Hawkins to throw you all out...now LEAVE!"They trembled out down the hallways of the hospital before heading outside and walking towards the small and humble GUN Soleanna Branch, housing in an ancient fort, but having much greater aspects inside it. They headed to their TRC room and searched for Flare and Riser.. Commander Hawkins had ordered them in immediantly.Hawkins offered the meeting room for them to speak in. They sat around the circular table under the low lights."So one of you tell me what happened that day..." Said Olly.The two could have been mistaken for twins. Both red heads with buzzcuts...it was really hard to tell them apart."Well Hyperia had said we'd gotten a call from the Central City Branch, saying they were being invaded by Eggman's Robots." Said Flare."Yeah..." Agreed Riser. "We followed Elise there, picked up Eggman and headed straight back here."Bazza nodded and crossed her legs. "So what happened then?"Flare and Riser spoke with another...indeed they were actually twins up on the revelation. They went into a private isolated intercom discussion with one another and calling them by their normal names, which were Hellier and Randall respectively. They were busy talking to one another about their most recent Call of Duty matches, whinging on carrying on about which gun was better, then  hackers and the like. Apparently the two were very competitive and strived attention from Elise, who played as well and was, funnily enough, a better played than the two combined.
An blast prompted them to get off the isolated channels and pay attention to what was going on.

"Hyperia, are you okay? Do you read me?" Said Flare.

"Damn it, she's down!" Riser cried out.

A husk of smoke temporarily blinded them, before they saw a fleet of Eggmans ships.

"Shit! 12 O'clock Riser!" Yelled Flare in worry.

"On it!" Riser replied.

They rolled outwards to avoid being blasted by several flying robot ships.

"What the hell was that?" Flare wondered, seeing something shoot up from below.

"No idea! It might have been Hyperia ejecting out...but I don't have her red reading on my radar."

A few profanities later came with them desperately trying to avoid being hit with hundreds of smaller robotic jets plastered with the Eggman face logo. Riser shot at several of them, but there were too many of them to handle at their sudden. Flare flew around, trying to find the original source of the mini jets that assaulted them constantly. Zooming up into the clouds, both agents were at both sides of a flying carrier that had hundreds of mini jets coming out of the sides. Wasting no time, they weaved in and out, blasting the heck out of the scraps, before heading towards the ugly blue squarish carrier and shot. Riser flew upwards while Flare spiral downwards, shooting the carrier from underneath while Riser shot the pipes from above, hitting critical parts and blowing the carrier up. They both sharply pulled away from the explosion and heading towards Hyperia's fallen jet.

"Did you see Eggman anywhere?" Olly quried.

The two pilots looked at one another and shook their heads.

"We didn't see him anywhere...we saw Hyperia's jet encased in flames and we had to get her out of there as fast as we could." Riser explained.

Flare agreed. "We were lucky we got her out as we did. She was very badly burnt."
The conversation about Eggman's whereabouts grew fruitless. All they had gotten information for was Elise's demise. But they were entirely greatful she had survived. They let the two pilots be on there way as the Femme Fatalex stayed inside the meeting room and attempted to cultivate on what they had found. Unfortunately it didn't do much, they pretty much still had nothing at this point.Olly suggested they search the area of incident, to find any clues as to which direction Eggman had disappeared to. Exiting the Soleanna Branch, Bazza flew them to the open field, the outskirts of Soleanna. Small flames still arose around the mass of blackened debris that had been cut off from the General public. Local authorities had mentioned they were still investigating the matter themselves, but let the Femme Fatalex have a look and see if they could make out anything they might have missed. Olly thanked the detectives in charge and let them off. Drainer crawled around, sniffing out anything perculiar, while Bazza picked up bits and pieces of tech, naming the pieces as she saw them. She had knowledge of some of Eggmans mostly used hardware, such as the artificial intelligence boxes he installed into each of his robots, often having three to five levels of varying intelligence that Bazza was aware of. She noted that each small box that was installed had a series of small boards and wires, but ultimately could be told apart by the labels stating the type of AI that the robots had had. These robots we mixed in with levels 1 and 2, usually lacking a voice bank themselves, Level 1s needing orders from Level 2 and beyond. It was the system that was conveyed by Miles Prower and Bazooka herself as well as a several other GUN or Mercenaries who had worked out Eggman's method for destructive robots."Which means none of the Level 3-5 robots were involved, but it still doesn't bat out the possibility that there was someone elsewhere giving the orders." Bazza explained.Olly nodded. "Of course. We know that Metal Sonic is implementing and taking control of the robotic armies while Eggman is incapacitated. Looks like this was another one of those deceptive, distraction plots like what happened to Westopolis."Drainer dugged through metal and burning, lethally smelling plastics to see of there was anything else of notable interest. Suddenly they heard a voice calling out in the distance."Heyyyyyyyyy!" Said a young, boyish voice.The three of them shot up from where they were and looked to their left. Olly recongnized from before."Lag?" She noted.She ran over to the Letter Bee and his Dingo. He held a letter in his hand."Hey Olly! I was told to give this to you." Lag said, giving it to her.Olly was confused. Usually she doesn't get letters herself, she leaves that to her private life. She took the letter from Lag and opened it up, a small card dropping out. Picking it up, she read the text on the bottom that read ''Death'' Confused by it, she opened up the paper that came with it. To her surprise it only had two words.
I'm gone.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The meaning of the tarot card etched its annoying image into Olly's brain and the words I'm gone...what they meant was unknown to her. Who was gone and why? She questioned Lag about where the message had come from. But from what came out of his lips was useless to her. The utmost curiosity crept within. He had another letter for Olly from an unknown recipient, different handwriting compared to the cryptic letter with the card of Death, telling her to meet at the Aerial Bar a week and a day from today at 5 PM with both Bazza and Drainer to come as well. Him and Niche ran off to the unknown, albeit happy that the message had gotten through...On the way back to Grand Metropolis, Olly kept staring at the card, wondering its meaning. Of course she knew from Muriel had told her. But if she had to admit to herself about the truth of the secrets she was caring she had to keep the facade, if not for society then for Sonic, where ever he traveled. She tried contacting the poor Hedgehog via intercom, but alas he failed to answer. She called Milo who didn't either, making her very concerned. But, she couldn't look it. As the Captain of the Femme Fatalex she must stand up tall for the rest.They made it back to Grand Metropolis in one piece, Olly giving her report to Big Mama. Big Mama herself wasn't pleased, but nonetheless gave Olly a reprieve and sent her and her agents away. She was getting a little hungry and still reeling in the strange alteration from Sonic's hallucinations. All she could pitch back was falling into complete darkness, then being plucked out and thrown in the real...well, sort of real world. Was there something that had changed from within? It certainly felt like I, and it was scaring her a bit. Then again, that hammer came out of nowhere. It wasn't the Smish Smasher, but another that she couldn't put two cents towards. It was old and made of some type of rock...with the electrical charges running through it and through her at the same time. She'd attempted to use the ability again but with no avail. Sonic only control over it maybe? But from his standings, it was amazing he had kept it all together. But he, Milo and Neptune had vanished...Olly had to assure herself it was only temporary. They shouldn't go frantically searching just because they weren't answering her calls.She sat with Drainer and Bazza, whilst Bazza's chat from her supposed break kept rambling on about how much delicious food that she ate, which made Olly smile. She made a few puns here and there and Drainers misunderstanding of what she said, always followed by two words. That too.Olly was distant as she became deep in thought...she remembered getting the letter about abolishing the Third Party system, meaning the Femme Fatalex had full access to GUN facilities (albeit the need to know basis was still in full swing), but had to follow full on orders from now on. Not that Olly didn't mind, it was the fact that Big Mama was assimilating more power for herself. In Central City's Branch cafeteria, it was small. This was one was huge, and it was a wonder what Big Mama was speaking of about budgets. There were a lot of personnel, both mobian and human a like. But Olly did not pay attention to the mass. She nibbled down a peanut butter sandwich that she purchased, something small and simple, and for some small amount of protein that she'd gained after it.She must of downed several litres of water that day. She remembered exercising her heart out earlier that morning after Big Mama had taken in all the GUN Personnel from Central City. Of course, they had their private sessions from the unbearing eyes that risked seeing her real, unmasked form. She looked forward to the day where she could reveal herself and be out of this mess. Sure, there was the hunger for adventure, but the way this entire ordeal was heading she might not have a choice for much longer. Bazza whined about Big Mama, not liking her superior one bit. Drainer had to remind her that her task was to do what she was told, and the job was not there be liked but to be done.But most personnel were out finding places for the refugees to stay. Big Mama had most of them stay on the cyberpunked dredges of the mega-city. Bazza complained that it was probably the cheapest and easiest way to get them out of the way and move on to the more 'important' aspects of the work. They bumped into Rouge who had to resign to the more benign tasks that she hated as well. Bazza was glad she wasn't the only one who was picky with Big Mama. She asked Rouge whether or not she had any word from Sonic and Milo. Rouge sadly did not. But Olly kept her head up high and thanked her. Rouge walked off muttering to herself under her breath. She went to go see how Shadow was doing and went to his temp office area.He'd been shoved in a relatively isolated area with tonnes of paper work. Olly knocked on the window before entering."Is everything okay sir?" Asked Olly as she saluted her Commander.Shadow sighed. "Does everything look okay? Eggman is being one major pain in the ass and he doesn't have to do anything at all...even behind bars!"Olly sat on the chair before the riggedy plasticy, puke green fold out desk, Shadow begrudgingly scribbling."So what has the Supreme Commander have planned for you?" She asked him.Shadow rubbed his head. "She says my punishment for my failures was stuck behind a desk. I don't understand this. They have the technology and they want me to do manual labor?"Olly lowered her head slightly. "It'll get worse before it gets better I assure you. Have you told her your side of the story?"Shadow dropped his been and leaned his chin on his hands, his elbows forced on the desk."I did...but what ever I told her she believes something else. I can't believe she's forcing me to be still. For once I understand how the Echidna feels."Olly nodded. "Of course Sir. Have they fitted you with some accommodation at least?"Shadow's eyes drifted upwards. "With the Supreme Commanders imminent bitchiness I told her I would find a place of my own. Knowing her she would have shoved me in something far worse than a corrugated iron shack..."Olly bowed her head. "No sir...I'm sure Subcommander Rouge would have organized it for you?"Shadow let his arms fall to his sides."Rouge's club enterprise expanded it's horizons a year ago. She will have a speak with the manager there and will inform me when we can move in."Olly sighed with relief. "Ah good sir."The next week was uneventful really. They had been tasked with providing the refugees with what they needed such as food, clothes and blankets. A lot of them were frightened by the experience, saying this had been the worst thing Eggman had brought up on them. Olly agreed. But even then, she was beginning to worry about Sonic, who hadn't bothered to call back. She pleaded to Big Mama to go to his house, but Big Mama scolded her for the stupidity, saying that they had cut off the power from those regions and had abandoned them completely. Olly was beginning to see why Bazza didn't like her at all. Shadow and Rouge nearly went out of the radar and the environment and the general morale was severely lacking. Dark times lie ahead as the tension threatened to tear things apart even further.The Femme Fatalex next mission was to head to Steampunk City on call from a worrying message from Moore Prower, saying it was urgent. Big Mama noted the extremely attractive voice that he had and swooned at it, but then collected herself and said that it had to do with what happened when the Garden of Voi entered into the chasm the previous week. It was now the following Monday, where work had gone underway to recover. Taking Bazzas favourite toy, they flew over to the pipe-infested city.They met up at the humble home of the Prowers, Olly intending to take the opportunity to ask about their grandson. They sat around the table with Corrine making tea for them. They lifted up the bottom of their helmets, revealing their muzzles. Bazza flapped out her ponytails, slightly annoying Drainer."So you called us about something Mr. Prower?" Said Olly.Moore smiled as he stood by one of his tall clocks. "Yes, I wanted to speak with that Agent there about the event that occurred last week."They tried so hard not to swoon at the wave of pleasant vocals. Drainer lit up as she placed down the decorated cup. Apparently decorating mugs was a hobby of Corrines."Yes sir?" Said Drainer, lifting her head up at Moore, who walked around."Ever since the Garden of Voi has returned back into it's original resting place, the rest of Inari's populace have changed dramatically..."Moore explained how flocks of the foxes headed straight to the mansion of where Prince Hayden once lived. The Mayor of Steampunk City said the area was off limits, but a lot of kids had ran over during the night, trying to find anything mysterious and interesting to peak their youthful minds. Alas, several kids had gone missing, but were proven alive afterwards. Time and space seemed to distort around them. One incident led two fox lovers there and appeared to have stayed there a week when they only planned to stay there for a few hours...and did according to one of them.Olly nodded and understood the task at hand. She took Drainer and Bazza towards the mansion, passing the Fox God Shrine along the way. Olly stopped as they went by the statue, feeling like something was rambling around and inside her like a smokey silk. It was a strange and new sensation that she was experiencing. She pressed her fingers near her neck and against her chest. Spectral whispers huddled her heads as she was trying to focus on a voice that was speaking to her."Agent Mjöllnir?" Spoke Drainer.Olly shook it off, thinking nothing of it. She looked at the Shrine, and noticed the plant in front of it had grown into a small rose bush, smothering the other flowers that had been beside it. Enamored, she wandered over to it, seeing the beautiful largely spanned petals on the lusciously red roses. It was...strange to say the least, considering Cream had planted it there the other week. A combination of two voices muttered in her brain, Olly struggling to tell them apart. She held the sides of her helmet, getting a headache, before being pulled back by Bazza."What is it Olly?" Bazza questioned, holding Olly back via grabbing her shoulders."It's...never mind...let's just go to the mansion."How fundamentally weird it was to listen to. She would have to check it out later. For now, she set her priorities on investigating the mansion. They walked the nicely placed land, accustomed to the fact that it what had happened with the massive descent only to be stopped by a gigantic figure of light.They asked Drainer what happened, she just calmly and non-chalantly mentioned how she was doing her job in helping save the world. Olly squinted as orbs of light started flying around, looking more social than threatening. They flew back as it appeared they saw Olly wandering by. She was about to open her mouth and ask her associates about the phenomenon, but they didn't appear to look fazed as Bazza was busy chinwagging to Drainer about an unrelated topic. This was not normal was it...or was Olly the only one seeing this at all?Seeing the mansion in the distance, the flying white orbs made a path between where Olly was and the mansion itself. Olly really needed to stop taking those performance enhancing drugs Big Mama was force-feeding her. Even though they were mainly for confidence boosters she was beginning to suspect Big Mama either changed drugs or upped the dosage. Either way, Olly feared her psyche was devolving. But with her force forward personality, she proudly lead her team to the mansion safe and sound.Wandering inside, Olly ordered them to check the place three times over for anything over interest. Olly wandered into Prince Haydens main chamber. The back wall was still half-finished from Eggmans past invasion. She reached over to the desk and scanned it, before hearing the two doors behind her slam. Spinning around, she bolted towards the doors and attempted to pull them open. But they were locked in tight. She took out her Smish Smasher and was about to make her own exit."Wait!"She stopped her throw half way when she heard an echoing, multi-toned, spiritualized voice. Turning back around slowly, she could see the spirit itself, in a well known form that she had seen before."You're..." She whispered, stunned. "The Fox God?"The Fox God still had his nine tails wagging, his head still appeared above his multitude of white cloaks that covered his muzzle. his ears of fox variety and his beaming cyan eyes staring at Olly."Yes...although Gabriel decided to nickname me Big White. I like it, it's not as embarrassing as my real name." He responded. "I know the location of one Prince Hayden. The spirits he cares for are calling for him, for they listen to me, their true alliance is for the one who can truly set them free."Olly stood firm before the deity and withdrew her hammer. Something about the God itself seemed so...familiar that she failed to place it."Where is he then?" She demanded out of the blue.The God nodded. "He's currently stuck in the Tetherstorms...only accessible through the Enchanted Forest Zone."At least Big White had the decency to put things straight forward. She hated them when they decided to use a maze of words. But she had heard of the Tetherstorms once before, from a friend, mentioning that it was a world between worlds and helped keep them in place, but was more like a unpredictable black desert full of nothing and everything."Thanks. I think we'll be able to find out from there..." Said Olly, finally glad they had a lead, even though Big Mama would have probably preferred Eggman, this was just as good.Big White drifted forward. "Hold on..." He muttered.Olly didn't feel intimidated, the Gods essences calming, inviting even. It's as if she had known him for a long while."Yes?" She responded.He looked down. "I know she's going to sacrifice herself for him...and she knows it too."Olly stood her ground. "I know as well. I'm going to let her do it."Big White had every right to know. If he was as good to her as he was to Sonic and Drainer then he was a God who understood the secrecy more than anyone."Come to me." He muttered.Olly walked forward, as Big White displayed his gloved palms to her. She was reluctant, but otherwise put her hands in his. A surge of visions pushed through her mind like wildfire, flames of existence purging throughout. All she could see was a city in flames. The city itself was unrecognizable, but could something tearing down buildings and slicing others like they were nothing. It's evil overran what she saw, as if glaring at her with paralyzing effects.Whipping her hands away, Olly looked at Big White strangely."Lest GUN focus on Abbadonia and Eggman, you will have another problem to deal with."He explained. "The solution to this is visual. The first clue is to what is in your hand..."Olly didn't realize she was holding something in her right fist, and upon looking back at Big White, he vanished without a trace. Opening it, she could see a set of...literal, shiny keys on a keyring with a single tag hanging off, blue and orange triangles. She held onto them tight, trying to figure out what the meaning of it was.Bazza and Drainer came in through the twin doors in unison."Nothing...just some old, ancient junk that's practically useless." Said Bazza."Same here. And I went through it like a fine-toothed brush..." Said Drainer.Bazza facepalmed. "You mean fine-toothed comb...""That too..." Responded Drainer with her usual stoicness.Olly found some new intuitive strengths to keep her going for a while. The more clues, the better. She could trust Big White more than she could trust Big Mama."I have some, more interesting data that I found. Come on!"She tucked the keys away in her bag after she told Bazza to fly straight to the Enchanted Forest Zone. She loved this place despite some of its mystic setbacks, due to the incident previously, but it's what made it so beautiful. Bazza questioned Olly on to why they were here in the first place. All Olly said it that a little white fox told her so, bringing Drainer's attention to Olly upon the mentioning, knowing exactly who she was talking about. Parking some kilometers away from the forest itself, They walked into the lusciousness of the forest, the wind creating twinkling songs with the leaves.Olly wasn't entirely sure where they had to look, idiotically mentally telling herself she should have asked Big White how to get into the Tetherstorm via here. But, as most of the time, she came up with a plan to visit the largest tree in the forest. Charging over with her running and graceful leaps and bounds, Bazza flying around and Drainer just following on her own accord, they eventually reached the giant tree in the middle. Olly told them to check around for anything notable or interesting. Several moments later, they found nothing."Yet again...nothing interesting about a generic tree. We should looked to see if Eggman had any more of those armada ships...now that's interesting..." Said Bazza."Besides, it's getting late. I think my kid is probably wondering where I am right now."Olly sighed. "Very well. You two go. I'll stay here a while then." She said."But Agent Mjöllnir..." Said Drainer.Olly shook her head. "It's okay. I know you both have important things to do."Olly sat at the base of the giant tree after they left, crossing her legs, trying to figure out meanings of the keys and the Card. It was honestly so confusing to work out, none of it made sense. Death meant change, okay that was right down pat. But the keys...their colour nagged at her so much her ear drums nearly imploded. She knew that it had a relation to Big White, whom himself was extremely familiar. She was a top Agent, she should be good at figuring these things out!She leaned back and took her helmet off for once, absorbing the suns rays. If she could leave her helmet off for good, that would be a god send. But orders are orders for good reasons. She attempted to call Sonic multiple times but he refused to answer. She was conflicted on whether to defy Big Mama and head straight to his house, or head back to Grand Metropolis. But she was compelled to head back, knowing that she was a GUN Agent, loyal one at that and had to take the word of the Supreme Commander...who helped her get in the work in the first place...
"Again!"

Big Mama sat in her chair, behind the smoke of her cigarette, and loving the sound of her pseudo husky voice. She was training Probationary Agent Hammer under the ruthless routine of GUN recruit training. Rouge the Bat remained pacified, only under the strict orders of non-interference. She wanted to express her concern of the more recent recruits care and how they were treated. But it was at Big Mama's insistence she come over to Central City's branch and personally apprehend all new recruiting agents.

PA Hammer was doing sit ups as well as a non-VR training course. Running through the same tunnels over and over again until Big Mama was satisfied. She would not stop until each new Agent could get around in it under 1 minute and 30 seconds. No more. Poor Hammer kept getting slightly over from a few seconds to a few microseconds. Rouge abstained from mentioning to give her a break, knowing that this is what happened to her when she first joined GUN. But the only thing giving Hammer pause was the sit ups. Her sides were starting ache after thirty sessions on the same course. She then got up and finished the course. But it still wasn't enough for Big Mama.

"Again!"

Hammer, ever the good loyal and ambitious student, started the course again, fleeing to the starting tunnel. She was starting to buckle under the pressure, but refused to show weakness. Climbing up and down rocky walls to swinging across a muddy field, she was doing okay. And in the pain she felt she peeled herself away from it and pushed herself further beyond the limit a normal person could take...like she had done a hundred times before. Some push ups and so forth. She'd gotten around to the sit ups again and almost sprained herself in the process.

"Again!"
Taking a deep breath, Hammer prepared herself for another run around. She must have done about another dozen or so before she would cut off another microsecond. Hammer gathered that to be the best, you must be fit and determined enough to reach the goals...yours as well as GUNs. The satisfaction of the perfectionist Big Mama was hard to collect. Rouge was standing there with the look in her eyes, begging to let Hammer have a break to rethink and rebreath...as any normal  person would have been injured or broken a long time ago. But Hammer kept the repetition running inside, not letting any sort of physical or mental abnormalities catch her unawares.
"Stop!"

Hammer collapsed on the ground after she'd finished the sit ups, catching her breath. This had to have been two hours concentrating on the same course over and over again. She heard a series of slow claps, followed by seeing a trail of curling smoke above her visor.

"Well done...that was good. 1 Minute 28 Seconds. I'm impressed." Said Big Mama as she stood over her.

"Most Agents manage to get to 29 or just before thirty. You've earned my respect..."

Hammer used strength to push herself off the ground and stand to salute her superior.

"Thank you Supreme Commander." Said a grateful Hammer.

Big Mama smirked. "Call me Big Mama. And I'm promoting you to Captain Agent. Your new code name is Mjöllnir."

Hammer...or Mjöllnir...couldn't pronounce it properly. She hoped one day there would be a more simpler way of saying it.
She took out the water bottle again and had a sip, looking in total bliss after she had done so. It was getting late, and Olly was ready to throw the towel in and call it a day, but extra shuffling of leaves caught her attention, forcing her to put the bottle away and put her helmet back on. She stanced herself, expecting something awful to come out. Then again, she hardly knew anything about the Enchanted Forest. It had high chaotical energies, so there was a guarantee of a Chao Garden located somewhere. The sun settled behind the trees in horizon, the shuffle had long gone by then. But one thing she only just remembered was the rumors circling around the Enchanted Forest at night. Something about the darkness that lurked in there, people disappearing and never coming back out. Olly wasn't going to take the chance and started to leave.
BONK!
Olly should have seen it coming, the source of the ruffling. She got up and saw a small mobian rabbit with her chao friend next to her."I am sorry miss!" She said."Cream?" Muttered Olly.Cream's eyes widened. "Oh, you're that GUN Agent that was at Tails Memorial...aren't you?"Olly stood back slightly. "Yes. Yes I am...my name is Agent Mjöllnir...but please call me Olly..." She said, stunned. "What are you doing here?"Cream dusted down her dress, and smiled at Olly."Cheese dragged me here, wanting to visit Chocola up on the top of giant tree." Cream explained.Olly nodded. "I see. Does your mother know you're here."Cream chuckled nervously. "Uhhh I dunno..."Olly rolled her eyes. "Well I'm about to head back off to Metropolis. I might as well take you home as well."Olly walked alongside Cream, amongst the open lands in the middle of nowhere, whilst leaving Soleannan soils. Cream and Cheese bounced about happily, with Olly unable to help but smile.Cream questioned Olly about mundane childish things, but Olly was only content to reply to each, such as favourite desserts and tv shows. Cream had many favourite shows, usually watching Nickle's Odean and Channel Cartoons for a variety of kids shows. Olly, didn't watch much tv herself. She watched movies and so forth, but was often so busy she simply didn't have enough time. Her work often came first, so she lacked a proper social life ever since she was recruited. But, Drainer and Bazza were often given leeway, due to their private lives having more significance than Olly's own. Olly herself didn't mind. She knew she needed to discipline herself more than most, knowing her past...wasn't quite wild but nonetheless unrestrained. But with this she became more focused and independent...making her realize her real goals and self-worth.They passed a town along the way, unnamed but Olly identified at a place where rogues gathered, but information could be attained if you were savvy enough around the right person. Basically, it was a place where you could usually get what you want...without moral complaint. It was mostly made of generic run down shops, bars, pubs and small houses, the streets rampant with bricked roads, street lights turning on at just the right moment, the night life filled with already drunkards and angry people who could snap at any moment, putting a fight with a random stranger. The town of Innsmouth.Olly could see that Cream wasn't comfortable with it, and ordered her to stay close and not wander off. They had to pass this way anyway, considering the town itself was situated in a valley. It would have been too dangerous to cross the mountains, especially with Cream by her side."How did you get to the Enchanted Forest anyway?" Asked Olly, curious.Cream thumbed her mouth. "Uhh..."They bumped into a large white polar bear, wearing a red hat and green scarf, who turned around to stare at Olly."Hey watch it!" He said with mean fists. Cream cowered behind Olly.Olly kept her cool, despite bears size. "Sorry there friend...I'll buy you a drink?"The bear wasn't too sure, then smirked as he gave out his hand. "Very well..Gunter..."Olly knew that lingo. Gunter...slang for GUN Agent or Soldier. They walked into a danky, rum smelling bar called Moe's. Wood walls with green and red diamond tile patterns decorated halfway down, with stain glass windows and low tube lights above two pool tables, lower normal globes on the many cubicles on the far side with greasy, disgusting occupants drenched in all kinds of toxic smokes, drinking their cheap or expensive alcohol, as well as quite a few round tables with arm wrestling and cards. Several occupants sat around the bar table upon their stools. Olly was desperate to keep Cream and Cheese close and warned them not to talk to any strangers. The bartender was a minor hunchback with curly grey hair, cauliflower ears, pronounced brows and overbites, his skin a slight yellow. Wearing a blue bow tie and a blue apron on top of a grey shirt, he stared at the the Polar who parked his keister on the stool."Heya Bark!" Said the bartender, his voice rough, as he cleaned a cup."Hey Moe." Said Bark.Moe smirked. "Who's ya new girlfriend?"Bark leaned his arm on the bench. "She's a Gunter...so I would watch what you say..."Moe laughed. "Hah! Gunters have no authority here! Innsmouth's just a backwater place!"Olly lifted up the mouth plate of her helmet and smirked at Moe. "I'm not here to arrest anybody...just need some intel...Bundaberg Rum for the Polar Bear, chocolate milk for the rabbit and a coke zero for me."Bark glared at Olly. "Hey! What's with the stereotyping?"Olly gave a smug look to Bark. "Like it or lump it bub. I told you I would get you a drink."Moe laughed. "Dame knows your fave drink rummy! That's a Gunter for ya!"Bark growled then nodded to Moe, who chuckled as he prepared the drink. Cream sat on the stool glancing around at the funny looking things on the wall. In front of her on the desk was a left business card for the bar, complete with phone number. She looked over and saw the old green phone near the wall and got an idea. She pulled on Olly's arm."Yes Cream?" Said Olly.Cream had a sweet look on her face. "I saw a payphone out front. I think I might call mommy and let her know where I am so she doesn't worry about me."Olly nodded. "Very well, go straight there and come straight back in okay? Like I said, I don't want you getting lost in a town like this."Cream nodded as she and Cheese hopped off the stool and headed outside."So Gunter.." Said Bark. "What brings you all the way to this hell hole?"They spoke for a bit whilst Moe was preparing the drinks still. Suddenly the phone rang, so he casually stopped what he was doing to answer."Moe's Tavern." He said. He paused for the moment, absorbing the info."Hang on lemme check..." He continued. He placed the phone down and faced the entire bar."Hey is there a Miss. Boogers here? First name Ita?" Moe announced. Suddenly the entire bar started laughing like mad, a loud boom echoed across the room, getting Moe confused."Oh come on... it's to Ita Boogers...anybody?" Moe called out. He then realized the folly of his own words and zoned in back on the phone to repeatedly scold to the pranker, before slamming the phone back in a humph."...so they required three nozzles to screw on? Tough call..." Said Olly.Bark nodded. Cream and Cheese came back inside just Moe finished making them. He quickly softened at the sight of her face."Aww what's a cute pumpkin like you doing in a place like this?" He asked her kindly as he gave her the chocolate milk, putting two straws in for Cheese as well.Cream put on her biggest non-chalant smile. "I'm with Olly...we're just traveling by." She said sweetly.Olly chuckled, while Moe gave them their corresponding drinks. "So what's the scuttlebutt on your parts eh Gunter?" Moe asked her.Olly took a sip out of her bottle. "Well what kind of scuttlebutt have you heard then?"Bark glimpsed at Olly. "We read about what happened to Central City. Eggman really stepped up to the plate there didn't he?"Olly nodded. "Yeah..." She said with sadness.Moe frowned. "Dang...your home-ground?" He asked her. "Geez..what's this world comin' to?"Bark sculled his rum. "I've been hearing the word of a terrorist bombing over at Aquatic Capital."Olly's head lifted. She knew Aquatic Capital was part of what they called the High Tech Country of the Americana, knowing a few cities with that particular part, Metropolis included."Why wasn't GUN alerted about this?" Olly demanded.Bark shrugged. "I dunno...I got it off a friend of mine who's a bomb expert. He said it was silent, but ended up killing 20,000 people."Olly lowered her head. "Damn...that shouldn't have happened on GUN's watch."Moe cleaned out a jug. "Doesn't GUN have those...bomb detectors or somethin'?"Olly took a sip of her coke zero. "They do. They're usually situated near public transport entrances, and general scanners that are installed on every building. It's near impossible to get anything in there with the detectors screaming at you. Heck, with the High Tech Country red lights flash everywhere.""That's what Bean said." Bark stated. "They must've gotten them in there somehow."Olly nodded. "I'll have a word with my superiors...this doesn't make sense..."Moe stopped cleaning the jug and leaned over to Olly."I know most of the folks who come into this joint..." He whispered to her. "Most are fugitives from other cities lookin' to lay low for a while. If you make it worth your while they might tell some interestin' stories..."Olly leaned in closer. "I'm listening..."Moe looked over to one of the corner cubicles. "Over there..." He nudged in that direction...Olly turning to see a spiked haired man wearing some sort of tight purple gear underneath a dark violet cloak, keeping to himself as he drank scotch."Rumor is he's from Soleanna and a mercenary for hire...said to have slain many men in an unwritten Hidden War." Moe continued.Olly wasn't convinced. "So? Many people slay others in war. Pretty much the norm nowadays...much to morality's displeasure."Moe slouched. "Well la de da miss knowledge up the cram hole geez! Just tryin' to help ya!"Olly sipped her drink. "Well should I go talk to him or not? What do I owe?" She asked.Moe shrugged. "I dunno! Go ask em..."Olly got off her chair, before asking Moe to take care of Cream and Cheese for a bit. She didn't want to leave them alone with a drunken bear, but she took faith in the ugly bartender to deal with it. She walked over and stood in front of the table with the mysterious mercenary, who appeared to be smoking a pipe."May I sit down here good sir?" Asked Olly.The man looked up at her, his expression near emotionless. "Sure..."Olly plonked her butt down on the cushion and put her bottle of Coke Zero on the table."Don't mind me for being rude, but I couldn't help but overhear your discussion over there..." Said the human, his voice being at the right tone of not too weak and not too strong, the middle-man of all voices which was just perfect for the ears."Not at all." Replied Olly, who crossed her legs.The man drunk his scotch. "As a fellow Agent, you don't have to worry about paying me anything.""Oh really?" Said Olly.The man nodded. "My code name is Agent Strider. I'm part of the Seraphim Triad, playing the Flight Member."A human flight member? What did he use? Mechanical wings? A little helicopter that appeared over his head. Didn't matter. Olly sure he had something up his sleeve."I'm Agent Mjöllnir of the Femme Fatalex." Introduced Olly.Strider took a sip of his scotch, his facial expression turned to familiarity. " Mjöllnir? I have heard your name spoken with the lips of a thousand Agents. They call you the Pet of Big Mama."Olly chuckled nervously. "Well, you know..."Strider brought out a long sword and leaned his hands and head on the end of the handle."There's a woman wearing a dark red cloak who casually comes in here on random days, said to be gathering secret supplies for the royal family. She is new, but...has come here often and makes note of herself." He stated."I've spoken to her a few times myself...but I have a feeling she knows the whereabouts about the Pitlord that you've been searching for."Olly nodded. "Does she have quirks that spit it out?"Strider looked around the bar. "Our discussions have surrounded demons as of late. She seems to be quite knowledgeable in those fields."Olly couldn't pass on the opportunity to meet up with a possible Demon Researcher. But she still had to take Cream back home. But Big Mama would scold and berate her for more data."Has she been around today?" Olly asked."I haven't seen her personally." Strider replied.Olly felt a tap on her shoulder, turning around to see a rather tall, overlurking and bulbus human figure wearing a wifebeater underneath his leather jacket, cueball head with a mustache."Yes sir how can I help you?" She said calmly, not intimidated.The cueball had a smug look on his face."I bet you have a pretty face under that helmet..." He complimented with the gruff in his voice.Olly chuckled. "I probably do. Although I doubt there's one under yours."Strider looked on at the pair. "I would be careful if were you..." He suggested.Olly swung her attention back to the swordsman. "Hm?""Cue doesn't really have that good a temper when people tease him."Olly checked back at Cue who's face with red. Olly sighed. Surely...that was only small?She back flipped back after he tried to punch her, but ended up splitting a chair in two instead. Moe complained about how he just paid off his last incident's damages, and doesn't want the bar to be in a big mess again like what happened last time. Bark got off his stool and pressed his hands on the angered man."Cue...take it easy...she ain't from these parts..." He said, trying to calm him down."She insulted me! And you know what happens to people when they insult me!" Cue roared.Olly pitied him. He brought it on himself to comment about her when he shouldn't have. She lifted her head up and stared him down. Bark had a hard time tightening the screws as steam rose from Cue's head. He spat to his side, then saw Cream and Cheese huddling behind the bench."Then I should cook me up some rabbit stew to calm me down!" Cue taunted.Olly froze. "What did you say?" She asked, her voice calm but tinged with tension.Cue licked his lips. "No one said it was rabbit season...then again, no one said it wasn't! COME HERE!"He pushed Bark away and charged towards Cream and Cheese, before being kicked on his side by Olly, sending him smashing onto one of the pool tables, interrupting a game with more of the like minded thickheads. Cue pointed in Olly's general direction, blaming her for the incident. The horde of large men walked to Olly. Moe pleaded to them to stop fighting. Bark tried to intervene by trying to save Cream and Cheese, but ended up being knocked unconscious when one of the men broke a pool stick behind his neck.Moe, fleed underneath the bench, huddled in fear. Olly grew more angry as energy flared up inside her."Hah...ten against one...how do you feel about that little lady?" Cue barrated.Olly shut the mouth plate and crouched down as one of the henchmen charged at her with a baseball bat. She lept into the air as he came towards her and clung onto the the overhanging light, swinging all the while and watching the confused henchmen as he searched around. She dropped down quickly, before crouching and swerving her leg around to trip him from below. He smashed into one of the tables. Within a microsecond she felt the air move near her left as another goon had a ball a chain, smashing glass and poles in the process as he start swinging around. In Olly's quick yet swan-like movements she skipped and ducked underneath the ball itself. She somersaulted backwards and readied her Smish Smasher as she squatted in anticipation. As soon as the ball came in her general direction she hit a home run as the ball smashed into the goons face."OLLY!" Cried Cream.Olly's attention shifted towards the rabbit, only to bit hit by and a table and sent flying back to the opposite end of the bar. Lifting her head, she could see the other goons heading towards Cream as fury built inside of her. She damned herself for getting distracted, but then knew she could have done nothing else. Instead, her borne fury rose as her body sizzled with electricity. She used the sparks to lift her off the floor. Her Smish Smasher transformed in the solid rock like hammer she used before. But she didn't seem to pay attention to that as she walked ever so calmly, and yet, her blood snapped with thunderous rage. A few swift movements blurred around her as the yellow sparks started to grow, hitting random parts of the bar and blowing them up in their entirety.Cue noticed this, and barged his way towards Olly. "Oh look, little lady still want's to fight. Tell ya what, once I'm through with you, I'll make sure you get a bowl of that nice, tasty stew!"Olly had to have faith in herself, even though she had never attempted to do what she was about to, but had to let instinct guide her through it. For she was not going to let Cue get away with it. No. Just no...She lifted the hammer up the in the air, bits of lightning shooting in random directions as in sparked, Cue remained oblivious to the danger and punched his fist into his other palm with sneering, dubious intent gleaming in his fiendish eyes. Olly let herself as waves of thunderous, godlike energy surged through the room, frying nearly everything it touched, blasting the roof off completely...until there was nothing left but the smell of charred wood, flesh and leather...Olly's body crackled with left over electricity as she took down the hammer, her Smish Smasher turning back to normal. She wandered around, down trodding on the fallen bodies, before coming back to her calming senses and ran around to find Cream. To her surprise she was not there, a bit of panic clogging up Olly's throat. She heard a slamming sound, prompting her to turn around and check beyond the bench. There was a wooden lid, slightly burnt, that had been shut. She wandered towards it and lifted it up, seeing Moe hiding underneath a shelf, Strider leaning against a barrel and Bark huddling Cream and Cheese in his arms. Olly walked down the steps as Strider smirked at her."I see what you did there...Agent Mjöllnir." Strider commented.Olly lifted up her mouth plate and chuckled. "Big Mama's idea, not mine...call me Olly."Moe crawled out and started panicking."Ohmygod...ohmyGOD! Look what you've done! Geez..." Moe said, rubbing his fingers on his face."Wouldn't be the first time..." Bark pointed out.They came out of the underground cellar and checked the place out. There were few flames that were being put out by the local fire brigade. Moe spoke to the police while Bark found his unfinished Bundaberg Rum unharmed as he laughed. The ambulance's had a hard time placing the huge men into the back of their cars and had to get a few vans in as well to take the load. But considering this was a run down town, no one else really cared. No audience, no cameras, no interest."I knew this place was like Crack town but man...this must happen all the time." Olly commented.Strider crossed his arms as he stood next to her."It's more grouchy than sleepy." Strider joked.They parted ways, but not before Olly was approached by the police, who used her position to maneuver her way out of their bored hands by mentioning the GUN Supreme Commander. She thanked Strider for his help, and took herself and Cream and Cheese out of the town before anybody noticed them.They wandered in the darkened valleys, Cream unharmed mentally and physically and noting that the men were a lot less scary that Dr. Eggman. Olly checked the time, noting it was already six thirty, but she was glad Cream made that phone call earlier. But she was annoyed she couldn't stay and find the woman in the red cloak for more information. However, she could call Commander Hawkins in the morning to ask about her name and address so she could ask a few questions.But for now, as they walk down the stone brick paths, lit up by the lamp poles on the sides, it was like they were in some sort of adventurous era, with the whispered warnings to keep on the road, or else the monsters in the trees would come get you. Tall trees whisked and matched the mountains on both their left and right sides, cradling the stars above. She looked to Cream and Cheese, who both looked sort of sleepy, losing the fight to keep their eyelids high.Around eight thirty, within the same trail, they could see an old water mill. Olly took the chance for the probable shelter, knowing that they could have stayed at Innsmouth, Olly was more worried for Creams safety there...besides...she had doubts about sleeping in a town full of creeps. They wandered in, using what facalities were in there, Cream having a drink whilst Olly prepared her rations...a simple can of beans. Using the stove top and a gathering of pots from her suspiciously bottomless backpack, they gulped it all, then got ready to go to sleep.Olly offered her sleeping bag to Cream and Cheese, and used her back pack for a pillow as they both stared at the roof. Cream began speaking about normal topics, such as school and the like. There were those students she liked and those she didn't, especially the boy who picked his nose a lot, which made Olly smile a bit. They had the usual maths and English classes, as per the norm. She had trouble during sport, with a lot of her fellow students accusing her of cheating just because she could fly with her ears. Cream, ever the honest rabbit, always refrained from doing so. She was always polite to her teachers and to those who weren't. And her grades slightly above average.But then she got on to the topic of her mother, as Olly grew concerned about the way she talk about how she would come home so late at night, and that Gemerl would make them dinner, but for a robot who didn't have a sense of taste, majority of the time it was horrible. But Cream would eat the dinner regardless, out of respect for her mechanical friend."I know we'll have Vector." Said Cream. "But...it won't be the same without mommy being there."Cream turned her head and squinted at Olly. "Don't you ever take your helmet off?" She asked, curious little mobian. "Doesn't it annoy you when you sleep?"Olly blinked. "I'm willing to make sacrifices." She answered. Olly had the mouth plate opened to reveal her muzzle, but it was all that she was going to show."It's a secret identity thing, like those superheroes in cartoons!" Cream said with a grin.Some time after Cream and Cheese had fallen asleep, Olly went outside and sat on the roof, staring at the stars. All that was heard was the spinning of the wheel and the gushing of the water, but it was other wise cool and quiet. She took her helmet off, but keeping her awareness up high, despite the trees protecting her. It actually did hurt when she slept with it on, but preffered others not to see who she was.She thought of the world, she thought of Sonic, she thought of Sonic traversing that world in peace. She brought out the Death card, albeit knowing it's meaning. She wondered what kind of change would be brought towards her. She called Big Mama, knowing she would still be awake at ten o'clock at night. They spoke of the days entirety and how she was currently escorting a civilian home. Big Mama insisted on sending someone to collect them, but Olly noted that where they were was dangerous and not quite a spacious to get a plane or helicopter in and told her to wait until they had gotten out of the valley itself. Brushing it off, Big Mama worded the next few issues to be apprehended, such as locating the Red Cloaked Woman."Where was the data obtained?" Big Mama queried over the intercom."From Agent Strider from the Seraphim Triad." Olly replied.The young Captain heard grumbling over the call briefly, before Big Mama said anything else."The Seraphim Triad are one of many Rogue Parties we've been hunting down! Shit...go back to Innsmouth...we need him captured alive!...ah forget it, he's a smart one. Probably already left by now...shit!"Olly grew confused. "Rogue Parties?"Big Mama explained how after the Central City Commander retired and left Shadow in charge, a lot of Teams implemented either in first or third parties had disowned GUN, especially after Shadow's order to place an air strike on Westopolis. Big Mama wasn't entirely clear why this was happening, but pushed it towards something obscene and called them useless old whinos, declaring them outlaws in the eyes of GUN's Policies. Big Mama refused to explain the reason why they were chasing the Seraphim Triad in the first place, stating it was on a need to know basis. Olly, being the good little agent she was, understood that."What about that terrorist attack earlier on Aquatic Capital? I'd gotten word they somehow got bombs into the network without setting off the alarms." Olly asked."We're still analyzing the data." Replied Big Mama. "We're currently trying to retrieve some black boxes from the GUN Branch there.Olly nodded. "Anything I can do to help?""Not at the moment." Said Big Mama. "However, we're also getting video footage streamed over from some of the places that were attacked. Once you get back, I want you, Bazooka and Drainer to head on down with Commander Shadow, Subcommander Rouge and E-123 Omega to watch the footage and then eventually I will have both the Femme Fatalex and Team Dark to scan over the place for clues."After their talk, Olly tried calling Sonic again, but, like the last thousand times, he never answered. She didn't let her worries get to her, as she huddled her knees in close and watched over the hill they were on, tuning into the sound of running water. She heard footsteps on the road, watching from behind two trees, she saw a shadow walking by, casted by the lamps. Olly popped her helmet back on and scanned thoroughly. Someone in a red cloak, and gathering by the sound of the clanking steps, had to be a woman. Olly leaped upwards and descended, landing on three points, then stood up before the Woman in Red.She held a basket, and had a burgundy silk scarf with slight gold curved patterns on it, her eyes green but somewhat reaching out to Olly's memories, with her brown hair bangs in hanging over her forehead, shaping her pale face. The rest of her body was covered by the cloak, but judging for small revealings she was wearing a red dress underneath."Isn't a bit late at night to be playing red riding hood?" Olly joked.The woman had curious dark red sleeves that reached around her middle finger, giving a sense of mystical wonder around her."I am simply doing my duty as a servant of the royal family, Agent of GUN." Said the woman.Olly nodded. "Are you the Demon Researcher I have been told about."She tilted her head at Olly. "The words of wisdom at Innsmouth should never been taken at face value young Agent...but I do in fact research demons."Finally...someone else who might be able to help find Abbadonia at last!"Come with me...it's probably not safe to speak here..."Olly lead them to the back of the mill, near some thick bushes."So what would you like to know?" Said the researcher."What do you know about, the Pitlord Abbadonia?" She asked.The Researcher bowed her head. "Very well...Abbadonia is one of the Sixty Six Children of Dark Gaia. As Pitlord, it is her duty to maintain the hordes of demons under her control. She has extensive ranges of demons, varying to the most...hideous to the most heinous. She can breed, crossbreed any kind of demon she wants, depending on the situation. She can correctly identify a demon from anywhere...and depending on it's type...can control it."Olly nodded. This made sense. At least."Over 4000 years ago, mortals, by the blood of the Rosoideae Pink Hedgehogs made a pact with the Pitlord. The Pitlord obliged and gave them an assortment of items. The catch was that eventually she would be able to properly cross over to this world within 72 Cycles.""72?" Olly wondered.The Researcher nodded. "However, when the limit was reached, the Prophet in charge refused to let her through, even after the Elders had ordered to reclamation across the world. The last Prophet died as a result...but their last words were..."Protect...bring Chaos to Order!"Olly was taken aback, but nonetheless unphased."Do you know where Abbadonia is now?" She asked."She could be still in the depths of the Pit she once dwelled, waiting to come out."Said the Researcher.Damn, this wasn't helping. But she still had some other ideas."Okay...that's good. How would you know if...well, she was around." Olly questioned."The scent of Sulphur." The Researcher replied. "...But usually, you have to find huge concentrations of Chaos Energy..."WHIP!They looked into the bushes beyond, The Researcher suddenly getting edgy."Like that...but...Abbadonia's prescence will make Chao flee...for her existence it's too far on the darkness scale for the neutral creatures to handle."Of course they would flee. It was common knowledge that you need to ease the Chao into their transformations on the scale of characteristics. Sudden exposure to either extreme darkness or extreme light can make Chao ill, but luckily, their instincts would drive them away."Anywhere in particular that might have her? Say with said high chaos energy in an area?" Olly asked.The Researcher could sense something in those bushes...that they had to be something."The Enchanted Forest...maybe. I've been detecting spikes there. However, the royal family refuse to let me in there without a guard. So maybe..."She threw down her basket, and took a stance with near open palms, her fingers claw over slight as a black near lanky figure attempted to slash her. She began muttering something underneath her breath as an invisible force pushed the creature backwards. She rose up into the air, muttering something. She turned to Olly with glaring eyes."I swear to you this wasn't a set up." Olly pleaded, reading her Smish Smasher.The researcher had circling glowing spheres in her palms and shot out spectral wisp like attacks at the creature, pushing it back down once more. Olly ran over to the road as were it landed and attempted to hit, but recognized the suit, albeit slightly dirty and damaged."Neptune?" Olly muttered.Neptune got up to run at the Researcher, before being slammed down by her Smish Smasher, then pressing her boot on chest, watching him squirm. The Researcher wandered over, attempting to attack him, but was stopped by Olly."I know him..." Said Olly.The Researcher looked at him. "Pitiful creature. Mutts like these should be put down for their own good!" She scolded as she attempted to attack him again, but a fling from Olly's arm prevented her from doing so."Wait..." Olly pleaded. "He's been in battle. His suit is barely holding itself together..."With a gust of wind, the Researcher was gone. Neptune calmed down dramatically as Olly pulled him to his feet and dusted him down. She noticed water dripping from holes, then reabsorbing them via other ones. Olly sighed."Come on..."She took Neptune to the stream, letting him absorb the water through his fingerclaws. She then took him inside and warned him about Cream and Cheese. He wandered over as he saw Cheese and tried to poke him, but with Olly's angry whispers he refrained from doing so. He sat him down against the opposing wall and check out his suit properly. His goggles were having zoom failures, Olly wishing she had Bazza to help deal with it. She slammed the side, making the goggles stop moving."Oh how I wish you could talk." Olly muttered. "Then you might be able to tell me where Sonic and Milo are."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The next few hours were uneventful just as the previous week had been. Tuesday the day of nothingness and cheap movie access. Didn't matter to most of the populace...but tonight was the night that they had to meet up at Aerial Bar...random stranger encounter much?They eventually made it to the end of the Valley, whereas Olly made the call to be collected from the now spacious area end. Time seemed to pass quickly before Bazza came with her jet-copter and Cream unknowingly jumped into the surprised Agents arms, prompting a stare and a chuckle from Olly. Bazza didn't seem to mind, but ultimately had to tell Cream to jump in the back and strap in. Olly just laughed and assisted in doing so with Cream, Cheese and Neptune.They dropped Cream off at her house, saying thanks and goodbye to them as they left. They were clear in the air when Olly started explaining how Cream spoke of missing her mother and all the other bits of chatter that Cream rolled off her tongue. Olly worded out to Bazza, how if she were Creams mother, that she would miss her daughter as well. Bazza couldn't agree more. Olly doubted that she would have kids in her life time. Too much going on to settle down. If the hunger for adventure ever wore off then maybe. She would have to wait and see. But her career was put forward first, ensuring a peaceful future for the world before them, the generic movement of existence, it's ebb and flow reacting at a rather average pace. But to live outside that common pool of life, Olly wasn't sure whether normalcy could be attained in her life. Jealously was moderate, when comparing herself to her fellow siblings who had careers that had settled in futures. Their lives would go on, all knowing that there was something definitely to look forward to. In a job like an Agent, there was uncertainty. Life...death...probable in the equation of risk. But then there was the pure thrill of it. Her heart hummed, breath bated and blood pumping. It was...the exhilaration.They got back to the Metropolis Branch, and met up with Agent Drainer, as well as Team Dark. Olly was a bit iffy with them, since there were would issues with the power pyramid. Shadow would most likely insist on doing it alone without the Femme Fatalex, Rouge would be bitchy, and Omega...would be Omega. But Big Mama had them in the meeting room, displaying and explaining the properties of their next mission. The Terrorist attack on Aquatic Capital was unexpected to say the least. They had gotten the footage over from the many places that were attacked throughout the city. After hours of buffering and decoding, they managed to detect from several sources at least four people involved with the bombings. Big Mama used the projector to show the camera footage shot at a commercial office building. It appeared to be a normal office, blue collar workers tapping away at their computers. Then static very briefly. Big Mama warned the next bit was not for the faint hearted."Then there's this..." Said Big Mama.Suddenly the workers were all dead...not from an explosion but from being cut in half, blood splattered everywhere...then explosions left the footage for more static...and no survivors.It made Olly sick. Who would do such a thing? They watched a few more videos of mass murder and eventual explosions. These people were far worse than Abbadonia herself that it was making Abbadonia seem less likely to be the villain than anything else.Big Mama stopped the tapes and brought out a tape player, explaining about the emergency calls they'd gotten from GUN Personnel working around the city."This is from a young private who called in about the incident, claiming to witness the destruction on one of the buildings...what you're about to hear...is most likely to have happened." Big Mama stated.She placed the tape inside and pressed play, her eyes scanning across both groups.
"What is this thing?"

"Oh...sh- it totally just plowed through those trucks like they w-"

"WHAT? THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"

"It's...it's grown a gigantic...sword out of it's hand...where's the back up?"

"WHAT THE F-?"

"IT JUST SLICED THROUGH THAT BUILDING! HOW THE...THIS..."

"GAME OVER MAN, GAME OVER!"
The rest of the tape played scrambled messages, illegible to the ear. Big Mama pressed stop as each of the Agents and Commanders looked at one another with confusion."How tall was the building?" Asked Olly.Big Mama paced around. "It was the Ollivander Building which is about 20 floors." She replied.Shadow shook his head. "You sure it wasn't Eggman this time?""Positive." Said Big Mama. "However, the government wants us to check the place out in case there was any trace of Eggman at all. From what I've seen, screw the government. I know Eggman's methods are not this inherently barbaric. Somebody is definitely toying with us."Olly nodded, then remembered what Big White had told her yesterday...Lest GUN focus on Abbadonia and Eggman, you will have another problem to deal with.Olly shot up from her chair."Big Mama...may I make a suggestion?"Big Mama didn't see a problem in Olly's logic with split teams. She wondered why Big Mama didn't think of it in the first place. Nonetheless, there was still tasks ahead of them. With Olly's original leads Team Dark went to search the Enchanted Forest again, scouring absolutely everywhere for anything in relation to the twisted duo. Something had to come up sometime. Olly packed details for Team Dark's mission, from parts of the words of wisdom from the strange Demon Researcher.Bazza flew the team to the scattered remains of the Capital, apparently according to the reports they were given about twenty percent of the south western districts were wiped out in the bombings. But these were different compared to Eggman's attacks. Whilst Eggman related incidents were given an ugly brown tinge to the air, these were gray and near sterile, with hints of red from the murders. Visions of flames marked in Olly's eyes, making her the believe Big White's fears were imminent and Agent Striders findings unhindered. But the words of Rogue Agent shouldn't be taken at face value of course, Olly knew that. But there was some deep trust within him. She wondered what they had actually done to deserve their Rogue Party status. But again, loyalty stood in there way of curiosity...and Olly definitely was not a cat.Before they left, they had Neptune patched up, but unfortunately he seemed too weak without the green Chaos Emerald that was dug into his chest. Shadow mentioned that they would find an alternate way to help the poor thing. What ever he was. Drainer offered to assist when she had time, Olly understanding that they might need someone who has the ability to transfer energy over. But she was desperate to know the knowledge of a voiceless creature, trying to find out what happened to the rest of the team itself.Olly stopped in her tracks, holding her head as her brain ached."Everything okay Captain?" Asked Drainer, concerned.Olly nodded. "I think so...I'm probably dehydrated or something..."Bazza chuckled. "Are you crazy woman? You drink water like it's running out of fashion...although fashion doesn't go that fast anyway."Her words left Drainer puzzled. "Why would fashion run? Wouldn't it prefer to walk?"Olly and Bazza facepalmed."Never mind that..." Said Olly. "We need to find anything...the guys yesterday only found black boxes of data. But our job is to look for evidence and anything in particular that might lead us to the terrorists involved. Anything from bomb fragments or letters...anything!"The trio split up and scanned the area. Bazza kicked a few things about, while Drainer felt her way around. Olly meanwhile walked into an area, still standing, her headache getting stronger while about it. It was dark, whilst a gust of wind created the hollowing echoes of the wind, bringing in mini-tornadoes of dust. She began hearing whispers, as the room got darker and darker as she walked in further and further. Taking in a defensive awareness stance, she kept her eyes and ears open for anything suspicious. What ever was around was near, as the whispers got louder.Olly spun around as she heard a door slam, she became troubled when it occurred that original door had been blown off it's hinges...then the shutters from destroyed windows made the darkness worse, Olly beginning to suspect something was toying with her, knowing her existence and trying to make her feel scared. No...she was excited with the prospect. Seeing Big White made her feel better, knowing there was some higher she could trust, his light pouring into her heart, making her numb to the fear and pumped full of adrenaline instead. She readied the Smish Smasher, watching for any sign of movement. A noise of sparking and more forces of wind bounced off the walls, Olly seeing a portal had been made behind her. She stood back, watching for anything to come out. Instead, it made a small, harmless implosion and disappeared for good. She heard heavy breathing and sludging of thick liquids."Where ever you are...I can hear you. You're in here...and you're the thing that murdered all those innocent people." Olly said firmly, carefully walking about."Innocence?" Said a multilayered voice. "Innocence is just a word. A word for those guilty for doing absolutely nothing at all."Olly snickered. "Are you one of the stupid, depressed creatures who hate love and love hate?"The voice cackled. "I am...nothing more than a guilty soul. I admin I am filled with regret, despair and nothingness...but...it does not compete with how hollow I feel."Olly rolled her eyes. "Oh come on...if Sonic the Hedgehog were here he would probably say stop being emo and be happy!""Sonic the Hedgehog...a name...a name...a tagline. Having such a name...such a title...bears the meaning of hero...easy to identify...wanted...loved..." The voice continued.Olly found this thing to be so cliché and predictable. What was the point?"What's the matter? Mommy didn't love you enough?" Olly taunted.An ooze formed in front of her, rising up and taking the shape of something near death black, with one completely white left eye and a white dot on his right eye, his body having some sort of tattered black cloak. His left arm covered in a dark purple with bits of crystal embedded into an oozy like substance, with a sharp blade at the end of it."One question." Said Olly. "Why?"The creature smirked. "Each person is born with optimism. However, it because we are fed lies from our birth. Society is powered by secrets. Certain information comes at high prices. But...even then, when you do everything you can to learn the things that it is crucial to know...at first I didn't care...then I didn't mind...then it just bordered on ridiculous. And finally...""You had enough?" Olly continued.The creature bowed it's head. "I was...like you...full of spirit...nobility...the belief that I would feel good if I did society a favour every so often. I didn't mind...I wanted to...I needed to. To be free."The death card flipped out of Olly's fingers unknowingly, surprising her slightly."Change. I took the time to understand it's meaning. Then I took the cards I was given and realized...I have made the choice...the choice that was finally made when I placed the pieces together and with a little assistance with some friends and an incident that woke me up from the madness...that I have the choice to create my own world. A world without secrets."Olly rose an eyebrow. "Heh...you're so full of shit. We have Abbadonia...Eggman...those are the enemies you should be dealing with." She scolded...not believing the stupidity in his decisions."Abbadonia is screwing with everybody...heck she's probably screwing with you."The Creature laughed. "You would know...Agent Mjöllnir.""Oh wow...you know my name." Said Olly, sarcastically clapping.The Creature laughed harder. "You're just like him...you are so like the hero...but incidentally, the hero I'm looking for is not the shrouded in suits..."Olly's hands flung to her hips. "Oh really...I'm following orders here. So I'm the best you've got unfortunately."The Creature sniffed at her. "Of course...but...I need the girl...the girl of destiny who can draw me the cards."Another card blew in from behind Olly. She picked it up and read 'The Hermit'.The Agent looked at the Creature...the face behind the mask making looking funny."What are you playing at?" She asked, displaying the card to him.The Creature blinked, confused. "What does that mean?"Olly was taken aback. "W-What are you asking me for? I have no idea what it means!"The Creature dissolved back into the liquid and vanished, what light was taken was given back, surprising Olly."Oh crap..."She wandered out of the building, wanting to ignore the conversation she just had. This thing...creature...who could cut tall structures in two, was just as cryptic as Abbadonia. She wished she could see the Demon Researcher again for kicks...just to ensure and alleviate some suspicions that she had. She wandered around to find Drainer and Bazza. Before she knew it she grabbed them both and ordered them to go back to the Branch...Upon arrival, Team Dark were already back, claiming the Soleanna Guards had denied them access..as well as the GUN agents there. Shadow was fuming, despite being a Commander, that he wasn't allowed to enter. It was strange, considering how Olly was just in there yesterday. She wandered into his office to see what she could do.However, even after the hour of private chatter, there was nothing that could calm Shadow down. She had to speak of the letter she received last week, informing him that they had to meet someone at five PM at the Aerial Bar tonight. He sighed, begrudgingly agreeing to go with the Femme Fatalex otherwise. He took comfort in letting Olly of his concerns for Rouge, who seemed to be increasing in agitation and showing signs of sickness, and that he was considering on taking her to doctor, much to her dismay."You're a good brother you know that?" Olly commented.Shadow smirked. "If you wouldn't mind coming with me of course. Big Mama's orders."Olly ignored the boisterous and bitchy Rouge as she flew them in a GUN Hover car to the hospital, Rouge's protests lowering slightly, Olly grew just as concerned as Shadow did. Rouge questioned why they weren't seeing anyone in the infirmary. Shadow mentioned he didn't trust Doctor House after what happened the last time Shadow was in there."Rouge...what actually is the matter?" She asked, worried for her Subcommander.Rouge sighed. "I've been unable to get rid of this...sickness I've had for days. It's...so incredibly annoying...amongst other matters...they pale in comparison to this irritance!"They made it to the hospital in no time, wandering into Emergency, meeting up with the Triage nurse and discussing the matter. The Triage Nurse listened in to Rouge's complaints and problems and said she was going to organize something. Shadow mentioned the Supreme Commander and threatening to call her if this was going to take long. The threat took the triage nurse into a spin and calling up a doctor who came down within a few minutes. They met up with a Pink haired hedgehog, which raised eyebrows from Shadow who looked at Olly. She wore a long green and white scarf wrapped around her neck, a multitude of layered necklaces and a nice singlet with a white doctors coat, with black pants and slip on high heels, her pink quills in a high ponytail, with a few bangs hanging over her forehead. She held a clipboard as she had held, escorting them into a private consultation room. Rouge glared at them both."I am a big girl you know..." The bat sneered."I don't need you both to hold my hands."The two shrugged and waited outside for a while. Olly could have sworn to have the doctor call herself, Dr. Rose, but insisted Rouge call her Asher. They sat on the seats in the hallway and looked at one another."Relative of Amys?" Shadow wondered."Maybe." Said Olly.Shadow stretched his arms and leaned back. "She did mention family...never really divulged into it much."Olly chuckled. "You really need to know your girlfriend a bit better."Shadow rolled his eyes. "What ever...what would you know?"Olly smiled. "Heh..."Shadow leaned forward with his elbows on his knees. "So...what was interesting at Aquatic Capital?"Olly sighed. She didn't know what to tell him. She hadn't even seen Big Mama after returning back. To speak or not to speak of what she had seen was another story. But Shadow being her true commander, she might as well."I suspect what I saw was one of the terrorists..." She explained."Definitely worse than Abbadonia..."Shadow looked at her. "Another rampaging demon? Like we need more..."Olly shook her head with disgust. "I know. Just as cliché as the rest..."Shadow brushed back his spikes. "Heh...anything else I should know?"She told him about the Demon Researcher, Agent Strider and what happened at the Innsmouth bar last night, which intrigued him."Hmm...I don't mind the Demon Researcher or the Rogue Agent..and hell, I like the part where you kicked some idiot human ass...but electrical powers?"Olly nodded. "I know...something happened the day Central City got attacked...and I haven't felt right since."Shadow browed. "I read the report. You said Sonic was hallucinating...I knew that sounded strange to me..."Olly looked down. "I am always honest in my reports Commander. I write what I see."Shadow glanced at her. "I know you do. But if anything else comes up report to me, don't report to Big Mama understand?"Olly nodded again. "Understood loud and clear sir!"Shadow smiled. "Good."Several moments later, Rouge came bursting out of the consultation room, kicking and screaming like a child."I'm going to kill him! I'm going to kill him!" She roared, with steam coming out of her ears as she stormed off.Olly and Shadow blinked. "I guess that went well." Olly said sarcastically.Dr. Rose came out of the room, looking stressed and slightly ruffled. "Oh dear..."The duos attention kept looking at Rouge as she disappeared."What was the matter?" Olly asked.Dr. Rose sighed. "I said she had elevated hormone levels...which only meant one thing..."Olly froze. "Oh crap..."Shadow looked at Olly, confused. "What? What does that even mean?"The Agent bit her lip. "I'm afraid you're going to be an adopted uncle."Shadow didn't know what to feel at that point. Considering one of his closest friends was now pregnant, he didn't even know how she got pregnant in the first place, or who with. They wandered back to the hover car, raising speculation on who the father was. Shadow was just ignorant on the subject, with Olly laughing on how he could consult his girlfriend on the matter, since she was so in tune with it. Shadow grumbled and barked at his subordinate, claiming it was no laughing matter.Shadow let Rouge blow of a little steam, leaving her to gather what she had and tried to sort things out, eventually planning to ask her who the father was...on Olly's insistence of course. He knew Rouge would most likely be at her club, sobbing away and/or screaming. Poor thing, she was a good agent as well. But to be racked up by something like this had to be terrifying. Her entire attitude towards kids in general was poor, but that had to do with the entirety of Team Dark anyway. They went back to GUN and made statements, Big Mama making her intel officers do the slave work, making coffees and so forth.She worked out for a bit until it was getting closer to quarter to five. Her headache had disappeared completely, much to her thanks to medication that Big Mama force fed her again. She checked up with Shadow, Drainer and Bazza and went into the Hover car, heading straight for Aerial Bar.She'd never been to Aerial Bar herself, supposedly according to Big Mama it was a a joint, hip place, mostly used for raves and so forth due it the bright lights and colours...but it was also a decent place to eat and drink. For the raves only happened on weekends. Shadow parked the car and took his subordinates inside.They could see where the power went off to. It looked like a mini Grand Metropolis, except with less bland colours and more awesome. A waitress took them to a corner cubicle, which was pre-booked under the name Femme Fatalex. Which was strange, when none of them had called the place before, especially if it's their first visit. They sat around the square table, with Shadow and Olly on one side and Bazza and Drainer on the other. Bazza started shaking her foot in a weird type of anticipation, Olly suspecting that she didn't want to be here.Later on, a man in a Commander suit just like Shadow's wandered on by."Commander Hawkins?" Muttered Olly.The three saluted, whilst Shadow stood up and shook hands with the human."Hey." Said Hawkins. "Thanks for meeting me here today...I wasn't sure that I had my details right so I had to give a week in notice."Shadow nodded. "Duly noted."He grabbed a chair from afar and dragged it over."I've...been noticing something strange in Elise lately...or Agent Hyperia." He said."I've been trying to talk to her, but she won't listen."Drainer lowered her head. "She might not be coping at all."Bazza nodded. "Agreed. I would go insane if if I was missing an arm and both legs."Hawkins sighed. "I know...I wanted to express my concerns to Big Mama, but she would most likely relay that back to the Duke. And I don't want that."Shadow tilted his head. "Why not?"Hawkins rubbed the back of his head. "The Duke's acting strange too. I think he's ill...not sure if it's a oncoming illness or someone was trying to poison him."Olly lifted her head. "You have a suspect?"Hawkins cleared his throat. "We have a few new maids and butlers around the castle lately. Five each after several retired and some passed away. Even that in itself is a bit coincidental."Olly couldn't agree more. A mixture of new recruits and sudden deaths was a bit too strange for her liking."As a fellow Commander, should I order an overview of the staff?" Hawkins asked Shadow.Shadow himself rubbed his chin. "If you believe they're the cause, then do so. However, I wouldn't recommend jumping into it straight away."Drainer. "Yes. Otherwise they would fly from the nest."Hawkins looked at Drainer with a weirded out expression on his face.Bazza leaned on the table. "She means flew the coop."Drainer, remained unhindered by the correction and responded thoroughly."That too..."Olly had a lot to deal on her plate. Abbadonia...Eggman...the mysterious black creature and now suspicions of Elise and the Duke's changes. Perhaps she could focus on one at a time. She wasn't sure. The words of Big White were ambiguous. The problem of another, jousting into her thoughts. She had made her way back to HQ on her own, whist Bazza and Drainer left for home. She flew back with Shadow, and had a word with him about current events in general as they sat in the locker rooms together. He was out for more paperwork that Big Mama was forcing him to do, and a meeting in his office for future events, saying he was heading back to Rouge's club afterward. Olly nodded, understanding her true Commanders words, but ended up being rather disappointed after he left, wanting to press some issues with him, but he was right on Big Mama's rather strict disposal in general. She watched him leave, while she leaned back as she sat down on the bench, laying her back against the high tech lockers, contemplating, with various internal chatter running around her mind as it always did. She squinted as she heard footsteps heading in her direction, before tilting her head, her eyes widening."Hello Olly." Said a voice."Uh..." Said a surprised Olly, who was looking around. "A-Amy?"Amy stood before Olly, standing straight with something in her hands in front of her. She had a small smile on her face. Olly wasn't sure about this. But knew this girl...as the Commanders Girlfriend. She was rather interested on what Amy had in her hands."What have you got there?" Olly asked her.Amy nodded and displayed a deck of cards to her. "These are my tarot cards. I was hoping to do yours."Olly just stared at them. Great. "Don't tell me you have this uncanny need to get answers do you?"Amy blinked, then grinned. "Of course. Don't you?"Olly shrugged. "Sure, why not?"Amy sat down on the bench and gave Olly the cards to shuffle. Doing so, she gave the cards back to Amy who shuffled them herself."Let's do future okay?" Suggested Amy.Olly nodded. "Of course."Amy pulled out three cards and placed them face down in front of Olly. She started with the right card. It had a picture of a human female taming a feral mobian lion."The Strength." Muttered Amy. "You have a lot of courage Ms. Mjöllnir. You're going to go through more hardships than you would expect. However, for it's worth, you will keep your head high throughout and push forward."Olly didn't know what to make of that. In that, as a Captain, you need to embellish and relish the role of leadership, head in strong and make sure that all options are considered and the right decisions are made. But with the fact of the darkened times that were being laid ahead, she knew the situation would get far worse before they could get better. She nodded to Amy to move on the next card. She flipped it, revealing a rather risque image of a nude human woman, pouring water into a pond and onto the Earth, with a large star above her head with six smaller stars."The Star." Said Amy. "You have great potential. A pinnacle of hope and renewal. If I were to make any comment about that I say you have something inside of you that shine brightly for the future."Really? Olly only wanted make some difference to the world itself, to get on with life with adventures but to be seen as a messiah looked more like Sonic's job than hers. He somehow endowed her with electrical powers. Maybe. She couldn't understand it however...she decided that if they did actually stay and it wasn't because of some random blessing from some random god, that she would only use it if it was necessary, honing to her own swatting tactics instead of frying. If Bazza found out, she'd probably make some electricians joke but not really mind, considering she flies anyway, and Drainer has her own special power as well. Olly again nodded to Amy, allowing her to flip the last card, which displayed a woman in robes and a crown sitting down."The High Priestess." Said Amy. "Spiritual...wisdom. Destiny plays part within these. Should you lead your words will not be left unnoticed or unheard."Again, surprising. These added up to something indeed, but for what?"Tell me...Amy..." Said Olly. "What do they mean altogether...for me?"Amy nodded. "War were declared. Each side needs a leader who can bring them into battle not just to lead but to prove themselves capable of such a feat. If the cards are correct, you will command the armies of those willing to die for you. All because you're just such an inspiration from within your words...your heart is full of light and aspirations..."Olly looked down."The heroism that you were...looking for."Olly...to each of their own she guessed. A leader to not two but possible hundreds of thousands. She thought of Big Mama...but Big Mama herself was notoriously egotistical about leadership. She would sleep around and make her mark on what ever she wanted. She thought Olly that in order to get want, you must be prepared to give something in return. Bazza once remarked that she had no shame at all, even after hearing the rumors. Olly couldn't do anything at all...only take in the commands that the Supreme Commander had given her. One of the things that Olly had learned from Big Mama was that everytime...she...well, got what she wanted, she always had this smell about her. She smoked a sweet, cherry cigarette in celebration of her victories in proclamations. It was quite annoying actually. She wouldn't admit it to her superior of course. Other than that, there was no other way one would no. It's pretty much an instant shot to the head or a firing if she was feeling merciful, if anyone talked about it. She over-towered most of the GUN Personnel...that it was considered a blessing if you ever received her side of the bargain. She had no qualms on gender either. Olly remembered the deal between her and the Manager in charge of a prestigious weapons factory. It was safe to say that the Manager most likely devoted all her resources towards GUNs, and got Big Mamas respect with constant updates with new weapons, actually paying the Manager visits instead of paying her. But Big Mama also had other friends...to visit...otherwise if she didn't get her way, she would threaten them with a call from the Mayor of Metropolis. Olly can't remember if Big Mama never got a deal even with the constant push arounds and willing to make due. She guessed she must have execution styled them...but that was only a rumor of course.But despite her...reckless ways, she made GUN into a tit-knit group, ready for her ramblings at any cost. Olly heard the whispers of those who disliked her immensely, but unable to do anything themselves. Those whispers would stop as Olly walked passed them, personnel staring at her, waiting until she was gone. But she would usually hear enough. Olly, to be honest, wasn't ready to lead herself. She was happy with Bazza and Olly and wished for nothing more than to do her job and do it well...as well as keeping the world safe from Eggman and any other vile creature who brings harm. She wandered around, seeing Doc, the blond haired woman from the now defunct GUN Branch wandering about. She was writing down something on a note pad, before walking into a room Olly hadn't been to yet. There were so many struts and places to go in such a huge Branch. She could see Drainer and Bazza tiptoeing, obviously following Doc for some reason."What are you two doing?" Olly asked, wanting clarification.Bazza stopped midstep, then looked at Olly. "I've got a funny feelin' Doc has got secrets. She was with Big Mama earlier and suddenly her hair changed blue!"Olly rose an eyebrow, her hands on her hips. They were in one of the many struts interlinking areas."I suspect a Shapeshifter." Said Drainer.Bazza nodded. "Yup...I tried listening into their conversation, and I heard that there was a room deep within the basements of this Branch, were...well, they call it TD, which I have no idea what that is. Even in technical terms."Olly crossed her arms. "Are you two sure about this?""Of course!" Bazza cried. "She changed form constantly as well!"Olly looked at Drainer. "She's not a Mystiker?"Drainer remained still. "I am getting energy that she might be from the Tetherstorms."Olly's eyes widened. "The Tetherstorms."Bazza chuckled. "So...you wanna follow?"Olly lead her pack, the leader of logic, with her leader of tech and funny gal Bazza, and her leader of energy radar and spiritualistic aspects Drainer, into the never ending struts of up and down hallways and stairs, iron railings within the rustic reds and greens, the hexagonal themed place that the Branch was. Doc transformed into the Blue haired woman that the girls had spoken of, wearing red and a skirt of sorts. The Femme Fatalex were ever so careful in their steps, that eventually that they had gotten to the bottom with Doc in a separate elevator, waiting for about five minutes in Olly's tailing strategies. Once arriving in the basement of all basements, they entered what appeared to be something full of pipes and running energy that Drainer as astounded from. Bazza couldn't figure out the specs though, and instead made jokes about all the fun the plump plumber would have with pipe works. Sneaking through the hexagonal walkways and archways, they reached a new door which had a swipe, revealing automatic sliding doors. Olly grabbed her teammates and bolted inside, hiding behind a large pillar of pipes, staring out at a raised platform with two rectangular glass cases with an orange fluid inside of them. In one with a brown haired boy and the other a red headed girl. Doc looked at a holographic screen which Bazza described as similar to a heart monitor...but the other wavy lines near it she described as mental beating. According to her, it helps determine whether or not there's any brain activity. Olly interpreted as that ten percent of your brain myth. She wouldn't know really, just relying by word of mouth.Doc relayed something along the lines of, 'They're almost ready'. Bazza listened in, but couldn't hear the words alone of whom she had been speaking to. Something made a noise, in which Doc froze and spun around, the Femme Fatalex tucking themselves behind the pole of pipes. Doc became suspicious."Hang on, I'll call you back." Said Doc. She hung up, as her boots were clanking on the metal sheets. The thrill ran through Olly's veins, but she was not letting herself and her team mates get caught. Doc walked down the steps of the hexagon platforms and went behind the pole, her gun aiming at...nothing. Nothing was there. She withdrew her pistol and looked at the glass cases, before exiting the room.Olly, Bazza and Drainer were on the platform beneath, the top one, basking in the shadows and looking up, avoiding being seen. Upon hearing the door shafting open and then closing, Olly gave the go ahead to flip back up top and check out the cases more closely...The boy and girl were asleep in were in actuality a type of tank, but they were encased in the strange orange fluid. Drainer looked at it more closely, while Bazza checked out the screens and checked them out."Hmmm..." Said Bazza. "The human boy appears to code named S.I...the human girl, A.L.S."Olly nodded. "They must be experimenting with them or something..." She said.A high pitched noise echoed throughout the room, with the girls covering their ears."That is on a need to know basis..." Said a familiar voice.Olly looked up. "Grey!"The leather clad skinny Hedgehog descended down, with rise arms wide open as he floated above the tanks."But I can confirm your suspicions about Doc...she is indeed a Mystiker. I hired her...to do some tasks for me..."Olly brought out her Smish Smasher. "What do you want?"Grey cackled. "I want you Agent Mjöllnir, Pet of Big Mama. We have much...to discuss..."Grey flicked his wrists, and suddenly Bazza brought out her Bazooka, and Drainer her twin blades.Olly checked them both."No need to bring out the Hammerdown Protocol Olly..." Said Bazza, monotoned."Energy...important..." Muttered Drainer."What did you do with them?" Olly yelled, rage slightly inflating.Grey shrugged, appearing offended. "Don't worry my little friend...the matter is serious...it...concerns with the intended sacrifice of one Amy Rose."Olly blinked. "Amy Rose hasn't done anything yet. She's still alive. I saw her earlier!"Grey laughed, coughing at the same time. "She told you her secret. A secret she was not going to tell Sonic about until the last minute."Olly glared, rage still rising. "...Of course she did! She made me swear that I was to tell no one! Not Sonic...Not Shadow...just me. She personally trusted me with the information."Grey tilted his head. "So...what did she actually tell you hmmm...?"Olly knew she wanted him to monologue. She was refusing to stand against the odds even if it means he would get Bazza and Drainer to kill her for telling anyone. Actually, she wondered herself how he himself found out. Olly lifted her head."Get stuffed you bag of bones!" She insulted. "You're so good at reading minds, go...go deep into my memories and have a look at what she said. Don't be so lazy!"Grey crossed his arms and grinned. "But...the words of those let me know how good you are at lying...sometimes the interpretation of ones lies tells me how far you will go to protect the truth."Olly rolled her eyes. "Seriously? I call lame!"Grey controlled Bazza to have the Bazooka aimed at Bazooka's torso, while he had Drainer fling at her and attempt to dig her blades into her Captain and leaped out of the way, Bazooka firing her titular weapon, Olly gracefully jumping out of the way and flipping on to the boys tank, squatting slightly."Such truth to be had...if Shadow and Big Mama find out Amy Rose was out to...well, to apprehend the works of evil...perhaps...an associate of mine can gather the data and send it off to them...someone WILL be hunted down." Grey claimed.Olly snuffed. "Ruining my rep? Please...not old at all." She said sarcastically."Shadow garners his own revenge. As will Big Mama...also known as Asmos Rose...I learned of Big Mama's lies since she tried to use her tactics on me to prevent me from going...rogue."Olly lifted her head, interested. "Rogue? Does that mean..."Grey nodded. "Yes...I was once part...of a GUN Team myself. I was...betrayed when we had gotten knowledge of OPERATION: LUCID and were appalled by its intel. We were created for it's duties, to enact the word of our...once...and never gracious Supreme Commander. But...my...associate had gotten hold of the documents...and revealed the truest of horrors inside."Olly lowered her head. "Maybe if you weren't such a curious mobikitten, you would have realized NO ONE WAS ALLOWED TO LOOK AT THEM...THAT'S WHY WE'RE HERE!"Grey sneered at Olly. "It would be nice...to know what...the true purpose of this here operation was...we were...in charge of enacting it. But...the further we got into it, the deeper the despair we had delved into and realized how much of a monster Big Mama really...was. She took the truth a bit...too literally of it's contents. She changed...dramatically. Resulting in the loss of my family...SHE MURDERED MY FAMILY..."Olly stood up straight and was ready to swing her Smish Smasher. She wasn't ready to believe the words of a mad man...not ever. She was loyal to Big Mama...and that's it. Olly was intelligent enough not to read parts of OPERATION: LUCID because she was a stern believer in the 'Need to Know Basis'."Grey...your insanity and hypocrisy is the least of my worries. But if you're going to try and kill me then just do it! Don't just, float around and whine about shit that never happened. I have things to do. Okay?"Olly scolded.Grey glared at her. "Fine." He said in his calm anger tone. "Death shall be part of this...whether we like it or not..."Olly was the first to strike, as she jumped up and attempted to swat Grey with her hammer, instead, Grey teleported away, in his cowardice using Bazza and Drainer against her. She attempted to knock them out as Bazza split her weapon it two and used them as blasters. Drainer tried to slash her, but Olly was too quick for them. She landed on the wall and ran around in circles on the hexagon shaped room. With enough momentum, she jumped off and kicked her associates in the heads, almost knocking them off the rails and into the dark pits below. She grabbed the arms and flung them out of the room, pressing a few buttons on the pad next to the door, trapping her team mates outside."Fight like a Hedgehog!" Said Olly.Grey cackles echoed from the walls, sounding down on the captain. She couldn't feel electricity flowing throughout like it had before. No matter, she only needed her hammer anyways. She listened in, trying to hear the gaspy breath of the invisible weirdo. Getting closer, she gave swing and met with a crunch and hit to the wall, turning the invisibility off and several hackings from his mouth. He teleported again above the tanks and floated down."I...am no fighter...I am a planner...a self-proclaimed manipulator of minds...for I use others in my stead...throwing my weapons at my enemy, as improbable as they may...be..." He gasped.Going into a fighting stance, a hollowing wind spiral down from above, with a black-purple smoke shooting down and landing in front of Grey, his white eyes glaring at Olly."You..." Olly muttered, knowing she met this creature before. She then had a realization."You're the source of the terrorist attacks in Aquatic Capital then aren't you?"Grey clapped. "You're such a smart investigator Agent Mjöllnir...perhaps they should give you a medal."Olly grunted. "No..." She said calmly. "They should...give me a mother fucking statue!"She yelled as she attempted to swat Grey again, only to be met with a giant sword from the black creature spinning forwards, hitting Olly and sending her to the wall and sliding down. She used her hammer and spun it around herself, giving her a slight push up as she jumped back on to the platform."This...is my latest weapon. His name is Mr. Thorn." Grey gasped out, holding his side.Olly looked at Mr. Thorn. She had heard that name spoken by someone else before as well. But couldn't quite place it."It's amazing how much...punishment...the mind will take after it's been torn at...this one took a while but we finally made it happen."Olly sighed. This one was nagging at her like crazy but couldn't place it. She jumped back up and threw several swings at Mr. Thorn, who blocked her with his hand sword. He spun around and chinked with her hammer."How could... you work with such a monster?" Grey queried as he watched Mr. Thorn and Olly fight."Did you know...that it was going to end up like this? She knew...she was told by...well, lets say...an anonymous tipster that sacrificing her own daughter was...the only way to deal with. The...deal would Abbadonia REELING...and unable to cross over...ever..."Olly grunted, trying to flatten the extremely fast creature. She pulled out something unconsciously, surprising Mr. Thorn."Amy Rose...had that Blue Emerald." Mr. Thorn commented.Olly looked at him. "Amy gave it to me. She...told me she would not be needing it anymore." She explaining, placing the comforting thoughts and memories of that particular random day in front.Grey cackled like mad, his genuine insanity spreading across the room. "Now that's what of some, I needed...to hear. Thank you Agent Mjöllnir."Olly glared. Shit...she wasn't supposed to say that. Apparently, it made Mr. Thorn all the more angry."Why would you care?" She snapped. "Amy is the Commanders girlfriend. One finger on her and they would be swarming."Grey looked up. "Hahaha...the Supreme Commanders daughter too don't forget...and the beloved friend of Sonic the Hedgehog...she has a lot...of titles under her belt."
BOOM!
"Don't you mean...DRESS?" Roared Bazza as she burst through with her Bazooka. Drainer joined in on the ruckus as well.Olly felt something warm rubbing her against her neck as she placed her fingers against it. She didn't understand what was going on...her teammates gathered their senses back...and seeing Grey's struggle to control them again. He leaned back and had a brief thought."I should have seen this...Mr. Thorn...quickly!" He barked.Mr. Thorn nodded, using Chaos Control with Grey to flee through a portal. Olly charged forward, before being hauled back by her team mates."Its not worth it..." Said Bazza."Yes..." Agreed Drainer. "Let him go. We must report this to Big Mama immediately..."Puzzling, offending, confusing and impending thoughts rendezvous around her brain. She would tell Big Mama and ask her about Grey the Hedgehog, and why he revolted against GUN. She remembered Agent Strider, and wondered if he was part of the same group as well. She took her associates and sped up to Big Mama's office.Just as well, Big Mama had that cherry smoke scent, which meant she needed someone to do a favour for her. Not that that mattered, she needed to address the issue with Grey."Big Mama." Said Olly.Big Mama's office was adorned in mostly pink and red stuff and random chibi pictures on her computers desktop. "Yes Agent Mjöllnir?"Olly cleared her throat. "Was there an Agent Grey that used to be a part of GUN?"Big Mama, who had her legs on the desk, swirled them around and leaned forward." Maybe. Grey was his official name. But he used to be an Agent by the name of Morpheus...liked to call himself Morpheus the Grey in that regard actually..."Olly nodded. "What can you tell me about him."Big Mama didn't look too happy at Olly, Olly fearing this was a sensitive territory to delve into. But she pressed on with the issue. Wanting to get some doubts out of her system before anything else."What makes you ask?" Big Mama wondered, bringing out a normal, boring cigarette...obviously to cover the cherry smoke smell.Olly bowed her head. "We met him in the sub basement. He's planning with Doc with two human children downstairs in some sort of tank filled with an orange fluid."Big Mama's eyes widened. "What?"Olly proceeded to tell Big Mama on what happened downstairs, including the sacrificial nature of daughter on the excuse that Grey, or Agent Morpheus had told her about. She wanted to know where and when she was planning to do the eventual sacrifice."Amy..." Big Mama muttered. "Hmmm...I knew this had to do with that bitch!"Bazza tilted her head. "What bitch?" She asked.Big Mama groaned in frustration, rubbing her fingers on her scalp. "My fucking mother in law! I hated her...she interfered with my husband since the day we met. Now she fucking has the nerve to FUCK WITH MY OWN DAUGHTER!"Olly sat back a little, but had seen Big Mama act like this before. Especially when it came to concerns with her family."I loved my husband." She sighed with sadness. "I loved him so much...we bore four beautiful children. All leading successful careers. I never got along with Amy though. She hated my last husband so she went to her grandmothers all the time and taught all that hokey pokey shit. I swear, if I see her I will FUCKING MURDER HER!"Olly nodded. "I see. You're speaking of Muriel Rose. She's currently been possessed by Abbadonia as well."Big Mama wore a sniding, evilish, snivilish grin. "Gives me the perfect excuse to blast the bitch."Bazza inteferred. "Supreme Commander, permission to speak?"Big Mama rubbed her forehead. "Speak, Agent Bazooka.""What is the creature that he controls? Is it another agent of Morpheus' team?"Big Mama shook her head. "No...I don't think so. He'll most likely be a new...recruit. But considering the crucial information you have given me about the nature of the terrorists, I'm putting a B.O.L.O to all Branches on Morpheus himself. Don't worry, we'll get the bastard."Olly didn't want to doubt her leader, despite her bipolar personality. But she really wanted to know where the information came from about Amy's eventual plan to sacrifice herself for some reason. Olly was entrusted with it, and never told a single soul about it. She was beginning to wonder if someone had been following her around, listening to her mutters. But for now, all that was needed was a time and place for Amy to arrive at where ever she needed to be. Olly received strange looks from Bazza and Drainer as they went to the lounge. Big Mama mentioned a B.O.L.O on Doc as well, trying to claim the mysterious shape shifter. However, when they went to go retrieve the tanks from the basement, they were gone. Olly suspected that they came back to claim them, somewhat trying to cover something up.It was late...around eleven thirty on a Tuesday night. She wondered whether or not to have a look at Morpheus old data records or not. She could get Milo to do it, what ever happened to him. She stood on top of a building, looking down upon the remnants of the high tech Grand Metropolis. Her thoughts intermingled with Morpheus' words about Mr. Thorn. She had sworn she had heard the name being spoken with before. Suddenly a portal opened up next to her, forcing her to step back and take out her hammer."Tell me..." Said Mr. Thorn as he exited the portal."Tell me where Amy is heading...I don't want her to do this."Olly glared. "Why would you bother? What is so important about Amy?"Mr. Thorn glared. "Must we battle over a simple question?...or do you want Metropolis to be destroyed as well?""A battle sounds a lot more destructive than Big Mamas methods." Olly said sarcastically."Why? Do you want to murder Amy yourself?"Mr. Thorn shook his head. "No. Amy...is special. She needs to be...protected. And I don't even understand what she is sacrificing herself for?"Olly sighed. She admitted to herself she knew the details from previous private discussions like today and swore she would not tell anyone...and would prevent everyone else from knowing about it. Mr. Thorn was a mass murderer and a terrorist. Perhaps she would sweeten the deal to get more information."Very well." Said Olly. "I can tell you where and when she is going."Mr. Thorn withdrew his sword. "Good." He commented."However..." Olly continued. "You must answer this question..."Mr. Thorn straightened out. "Then go."Olly tilted her head at him. "Who are you really?"Mr. Thorn's one big white eye stared at her. "I am someone who can no longer be helped. I've murdered thousands in the name of truth. And truth be told I am...tempted to murder more...I've succumbed to my rage and my sorrow. But...if I could...if I would...upon knowing Amy survived the attack on Central City, it gave me...regret...but...if she plans to kill herself, I feel that there is nothing worthy left in this world in getting the mantle. As the old saying goes, You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. "Olly piqued interest in this. "What mantle?" She queried.Mr. Thorn crossed his arms. "Remember what I told you before...I was searching for a hero. Now tell me where and when now that I have answered your questions. And tell me truthfully...or else another city get's destroyed."Olly knew she shouldn't negotiate with terrorists but this case she had do something. The warmth around her neck reappeared as it made it realize something."She's going to be by the giant tree in the Enchanted Forest...on Friday night around 9:30." She told him...ashamed at herself.Mr. Thorn nodded. "Thank you. At least now we can help prevent disaster from striking. For now, I must go...I knew Grey was wrong about you. I understand now...you are following orders."Olly wanted to chuckle, but didn't want to give the satisfaction in her state."If I was following orders I would have taken you down by now." She said with a serious stoic tone.Mr. Thorn bowed his head. "You still can. Meet me there so we can both save Amy from what will most likely be a terrible fate...now I must ask you a question."Olly leaned on one side. "Speak.""Did Amy ever explain to you why she was going to do it? I understand Abbadonia want's to possess her because she is the next Prophetess...and that Muriel Rose is weakening, therefore she needs a new host until she can accumalate the rest of the artifacts."Olly knew that and knew it well. But unfortunately, she could not speak of the matter either."I suggest she thought it was the only way to ensure her defeat I suppose. I'm sure fate will play it's course..." Olly explained."I see." Said Mr. Thorn, disappointed. "My faith in you has not been misplaced...Olly..."Mr. Thorn quickly disappeared into a portal, with Olly falling to her knees. She only knew one person who called her that...and they weren't female either. The name finally caught up with her as her eyes widened."...No..." She said with shock. "N-no...no...no...DEAR CHAOS NO!"Chaos Dammit...it simply couldn't be. No...it wouldn't...it shouldn't. Now she completely understood his words.The cards...No.No..NO!She fled the scene quickly, running off and contemplating on whether to call Bazza and Drainer...no...she couldn't tell them. Shit. This was really bad. Extremely bad. Horrifically bad.She ran down the lifted and power glowing paths of Metropolis, unable to stop herself. She was the Captain of the Femme Fatalex and she must act maturely...fuck that...this shit got extremely dangerous and horrifying. She kept running...running...and running...She left Metropolis within the next few hours, running to nowhere and everywhere. She unconsciously made her way to the house and slammed the door open. Shit...SHIT!No one was home...except for Neptune, who sat on the couch and watched TV. Oh, sweet...innocent Neptune. She walked over and hugged the Probie, who failed to comply with her sudden need to hug him, but nonetheless hugged her back in response. She sat down with the Agent, with the last remnant of what she knew and had to be done. She was definitely heading down to the Enchanted Forest with him now. Screw Amy's promise, she was going to save her. If not for her then for him. Amy was only the Commanders Girlfriend...now she was beginning to believe in Big Mamas way of thinking. She was going to get yelled at for sure but who cares? Things needed to be done and done fast. And she had until Friday to do so.She knew she couldn't convince Amy not to do it. She was intent on doing what she needed to do so adamantly it wasn't funny. It was like she had gotten this stubborn determination, like Sonic had. And right now she needed to be the hero. The hero of the world. Because...just because it had to be. Fate would play it's part definitely in her case. She was going to let her have it.She knocked her helmet, before she herself heard a knock at the door. Neptune happily jumped up, Olly noticing he had some new power supply instead of the green Chaos Emerald that was once resting inside. Neptune opened it, Olly standing up again upon revelation of who it was."Lag, you're back?" Muttered Olly.Lag and Niche came inside, with smiles on their faces and a large wrapped box in Lag's hands. Olly signed the form, carefully looking between the box and the Letter Bee."Lag." Said Olly. "You wouldn't have happened to see Sonic on your travels have you?"Lag blinked. "I'm just a messenger. I get that from the Hive and I send it out." He said.Olly nodded. "Right..."She checked out the box, only saying Neptune's name and nothing else. Knowing Neptunes intelligence, she had to do it herself."Well, gotta skip back. Cya later!" Said Lag as he waved."Wait!" Olly cried out."What?" Asked Lag, confused.She was crazy, but she needed the company of someone intelligent at the moment. The credibility of her discoveries was left unfounded by most eyes. She couldn't believe what she saw earlier and wanted to shut it away. Her suspicions skeptical to believe at first, as she jumped to conclusions quite quickly. She needed to ensure that she herself was not going insane."Stay for a while. I know this place is...well, not mine...but if you're not busy, maybe we could have a cup of tea?"Olly was downright forcing herself to stay calm, even while she was at Sonic's place for no reason, filtering through his things as if she'd been there forever. But while Tails was alive she would come over to visit, as would a lot of his friends. Niche sat next to Neptune, captivated by his weirdness, as he was too, captivated as he started poking her long ponytails. Lag sat at the table with Olly who finished making some tea as they spoke."So tell me Lag." Said Olly, breaking the ice. "What's it like, being a Letter Bee?"They talked about one another for a while, about their jobs and what not. He could be useful in the long run, considering the messages he had sent. She asked about the card she received the other day. But as he mentioned, he only gets the cards and letters from the Bee Hive. Olly nodded, wondering if she could strike a deal with the Bee. She looked over as Neptune scrambled to open the box, Niche using her claw hands to tear it open, enamoring Neps. It was round and bright, but he seemed to understand what it was. Olly thought it looked like something Bazza would most likely describe. She watched as he removed what ever was in his chest, and placed what was a new one into it and pressed it hard, locking it in. A surge of energy humming through out his suit, the bright light coming out of it was near-enchanting as it made him happy.Olly was glad to have a chat with the young boy and thanked him for the delivering the package for Neptune. She waved him off as he and Niche left, Neptune clapping like mad, then waving goodbye to them both. Olly closed the door and stared at the floor. She was in a state of calm reaction. She worried for a moment with Mr. Thorn that she was going to snap completely, the electrical charges could have come at any point, but they refused to.She looked up, and breathed in...and out. Then wandered upstairs for no particular reason, then to otherwise lay on his bed and stare a the roof, wondering about truths and reconciliations with everyone. She knew Amy's exact words. She held the burden of secrecy and incepting the life of another...another life to take promise for. If she could hold it together, then mentally, and perceptionally, her plan would come into perfect motion once it was enacted. For now, she must do as she was told for the sake of the world.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

She slept on his bed that night, planning to ignore all calls from absolutely everyone to seclude her withered mind from chaotic events. She took her helmet off and placed it on the desk beside the bed. The room was still humble as she reeled herself from the rest of the day to temporarily forget it in the world of dreams...or what ever you called non-seeing and non-believing.Most of Olly's dreams were hollow. She failed to dream in truth, but she wished to dream. Laying in darkness was the reason Olly was awake a lot, unable to relax herself. Drainer would state it was in the drugs that Big Mama had been giving her, but Olly said it was nonsense. She made a few more calls to Sonic, still in complete disbelief in her surprising and non-physically proven suspicions throughout. To whether or not be in denial of that fact, as Milo picked it up from him as well. She tried contacting him, but alas, like with Sonic, there was failure. It worried her, but she had to put it behind her, emotions blinding her missions. She'd built herself for most of her life about the way she would portray herself. It wasn't easy, but eventually she'd find what she'd become and was happy with it, much to her families dismay. She barely spoke with them, distancing herself for their own protection. Her own identity was properly concealed, as was the rules and standards that were also given to Bazza and Drainer. As an Agent, one must be fully dedicated to the cause, written on the terms and conditions and a whole lot of other boring paperwork. She needed this. She needed adventure and thrill to make a difference. Whether it's Eggman, Gods, Demons, terrorist and even the occasional minuscule thief,anything that got her blood pumping. She sensed, however, that the following day was going to be interesting indeed.She woke up to normal sunlight and felt the warmth around her neck as she stroked it. Wednesday...only a few more days until something could be worked out for Amy. She sat up and placed the helmet on her head, ignoring the need to take a shower, despite the fact that Neptune never speaks and wouldn't exploit it, seeing her appearance underneath her suit. Still, she would do it later when she headed back to the Metropolis GUN Branch. She ate something quick and snitched Neptune while she was there. Again, she knew Neptune wouldn't be able to say what had happened with Sonic and Milo, but at least there was some hope involved. Neptune himself was still cheery, filling Olly with a bout of needy optimism. She fled off with him in tow, leading herself with deepened thoughts.Upon arrival, she met with Bazza and Drainer and had casual words with them. She needed proof on her part, and did not reveal her encounter with Mr. Thorn, and instead began asking questions about Morpheus location. To the horror of Olly, they spoke of how they knew of Amy's intentions. Olly's stomach flip flopped, but stood up and refused to show it, somewhat earning the scorn of her team mates."When were you going to tell us this?" Asked Bazza, annoyed beyond belief.Olly felt bad, she stared them both down in confidence."Look, Amy trusted me with this." Olly stated.Bazza nodded with contempt. "Does 'Amy' know that you've spilled your guts?" She said, getting a grossed out body reaction from Drainer. Bazza growled, not feeling really tolerant of Drainer at this moment.Olly sighed. "Amy will understand. In fact, she understands it already when I will tell her in person."Bazza chuckled and crossed her arms. "Hah...yup...what about Commander Shadow? Does he know?"Olly blinked. She hadn't planned on explaining it to Shadow, who would be downright furious. And if Olly's information on a certain dark creature was true, then who was her former interest actually deserved to know it."No." Olly said calmly. If she needed to do anything now, she needed to take control of the situation fast.
"Listen to me...I am your Captain. And as Captain, I will learn and be involved with important duties that extend far beyond what an Agent is capable of. A Captain will withhold information from his or her subordinates because it is not their job to know. Their job is to have faith in their leader and allow them to do the job. So you can either stand there, bitch about how you were left in the dark, and actually delve into the your job description properly. If you really must know, bring it up with Big Mama."Bazza tilted her head, her body language suggesting she was offended.
"Big Mama is nothing but a run around whore who takes no consideration for anybody. Especially her own daughter. In fact, she seems to care more about you than her own daughter! GO FIGURE!"Olly shook her head. "She does care. She was more pissed off over the fact that Amy never told her what she was intending to do. She never told GUN about what her original task was and why she was doing it."Drainer stepped in unsuspectingly. "Amy Rose is a priority for us now. Captain, now that we have this in our heads knowingly, do you not think it is time for us to act like the heroic group we were aiming for and help avoid a larger conflict?"Olly's head lowered, then arose. "We will Drainer. I was planning on something that we could do. However, in order to have this plan work I will need your complete cooperation. Is that clear?"Bazza and Drainer nodded in sync. Olly smiled. "Good. Now since she intends to be visiting the Enchanted Forest on Friday night, I suggest we wait it out until then..."Bazza adjusted her 'ponytails'. "Can we like, know the details of this plan of yours?"Olly chuckled. "I did say I needed your complete cooperation. The time will come when you will be needed. But for now, you both will just have to wait for a while until I reveal the full plan. I need to work out a few kinks for it first."Bazza nodded in understanding. "I gotcha. It's like a tattered sheet...full of holes..."Olly face-palmed.She was now getting her plan into action, not feeling any regret at what she had to do. She kept the secrets to herself as she went into the gym and did a work out, then got called to TR Center by a Intel Officer and fled towards it as soon as possible. Flocking inside, she heard Big Mama barking more and more orders to soldiers and what sounded like another Commander, with Olly wondering which city was being attacked now.She stood loyally next to Big Mamas big black chair as she screamed and shouted to her subordinates, scolding others for minor and major mistakes. Her ash tray was filled with original flavored cigarettes, which meant she wasn't making deals, but was notably frustrated. Olly kept her mouth shut, until Big Mama noticed her presence and turned to her."MeteoTech Premises." Big Mama muttered. "We knew it was a basis for funding Eggmans plans, we've been keeping it in check, not bothering to touch it due to the money it makes for the High Tech Sectors. That Black Creature...""His name is Mr. Thorn." Said Olly."Well, Mr. Thorn has been blowing up some important factories, especially those who construct the hovercars and helper robots. I want you and your girls to head over there immediately. I know you can handle it!"Without hesitation, she ran out and called Bazza and Drainer and pushed forward to the Jetcopter and headed over to MeteoTech Premises.MeteoTech had its own mega-city precinct and dealt with robotics but nowadays has operations to construct low cost hovercars for the general High Tech Sector populace. Mostly cyberpunk but actually quite clean, with neon lights of blue, green and purple flashing everywhere with the general metal a dark violet hue. It was unusually dark, from the black clouds and rain pouring everywhere with the occasional blast of thunder and crack of lightning. Bazza was confident enough to land on one of the lower, surviving towers that weren't sliced in half or encased in flames. Mr. Thorn was one violent cookie to crack. Olly needed a plan to stop him. She couldn't kill him for obvious reasons, but if the moment came when it was inevitable she would have to. Olly also brought Neptune along for the ride, for his own caliber and strengths were near impressive. She non-verbally told them to separate and find Mr. Thorn using finger signals, all of them knowing the cue of intercom contact as soon as they spotted him, for going against him alone was impractical suicide. Bazza flew up and searched through the cities canopy, while Drainer walked around the middle parts of the city, and Neptune searched the sewers as he willing jumped into a pipe. Now left alone, Olly's neck warmed up again, as she looked into clouded sky, letting the rain patter down on her helmet, the drops rolling off it. She made her own path and started leaping from tower and tower, going towards the mainly heavily eradicated parts of the city.She could hear multitudes of explosions, some in a row as they got louder and louder, Olly felt like she was getting close. She stood at the end of a surviving tower and looked over at the mass of flames from down below. Black smoke shot up from the bottom, embalmed in flames as it landed behind Olly herself. The flames dissipated, leaving a creature before her. Olly turned around to get a good look at him."Having fun?" Olly snarked.Mr. Thorn withdrew his demonic hand-sword and glared down at Olly."You shouldn't have come." He told her.Olly's hands flung to her hips. "I know who you are...Sonic..."Mr. Thorn chuckled. "You think I'm worthy of bearing that title anymore Olly? I've learned a lot, experience a lot and have been told a lot of stories over my existence."Olly sighed. "Sonic...stop being so melodramatic! It's not your style!"Sonic sighed. "Oh alright...fine...have it your way..."Olly walked a little bit closer, but too quick as to make sure Sonic didn't get scared off and flee, causing more destruction. She needed to know why he was doing it."This isn't you." She stated.Sonic rubbed his head. "I know. But...I don't feel anything anymore other than anger and sadness. There's no regret."Olly stood firmly. "Because Morpheus is controlling you. You've been brain washed by his machinations. You've got to snap out of it!"Sonic shot his sword out at her, lengthening it towards her chest. But Olly was not afraid at all. With non-violent threats and charismatic words of unbiased treasury, she attempted to bring him back."You're hurt. I get it. I've seen you get torn and torn time and time again. But you need to get back up a lot stronger than that. The Sonic we knew would do that." Olly claimed.Sonic lifted the sword up to her chin. The black coat soon faded into a darkened navy blue, his eyes changed to see his iris from his left eye, but the organic demonic like handle was still grafted into his hand, the edge of the blade, razor sharp."I am not Sonic anymore. I've killed. I've killed too many to stop. GUN will hunt me down. GUN will execute me. So might as well see how far I will go until I get caught or shot at."This was pissing Olly off. This was not Sonic talking at all. But she felt his presence, she knew it was him. Morpheus was doing a damn fine job of manipulating the poor, lost Hedgehog. A jolt of energy rose through her as she felt her hammer change from pure rage as electricity. The Dark Knight of the Wind sneered at her, Olly looking into his pitiful eyes and no seeing one once of innocence, but she gathered from his lies that there was a sense of remorse. Morpheus was going to pay. She brought out her Smish Smasher, which transformed into what she now called the Super Smish Smasher as the electricity snapped around her body.Sonic charged at her first, swiping the sword at her, but she managed to lean back and barely avoid being cut, time seemingly slowing around her. She flipped backwards and shot lighting from the mace at the rogue Hedgehog, who blocked it successfully with the sword. He took a few steps back before speeding up and front flipping, swing the sword about in a circular motion, Olly managing to run up the side of another tower to avoid it. They clanked sword and hammer together, whilst the thunder roared and the rain poured in large bucket loads, but their battle was not not hindered. Sonic got Olly to the edge of the tower, as she leaned back, his sword getting closer and closer. She kicked him back to the other side, smashing a few neon signs. Using the Hammer for weight, she threw it forward to stand up straight. Annoyed, Sonic jumped high into the ear, lengthening his sword by thirty meters, forcing Olly to back flip off the tower as Sonic split it half, explosions happening in sequence as she fell head first. Looking around, she grabbed a nearby pipe and swung around several times with the force she held and threw herself to another building, running along pipes, trying to outrun the explosions behind her. She hid herself behind a wall, watching the gust of fire shoot through the high alleyway. Waiting several seconds, Olly walked back, only to be drop kicked in the chest, sent over the edge, and breaking through a few wall due to the amount of power in his foot. Sore, but not wounded, Olly got back up, sending fork lightning as Sonic jumped inside the abandoned warehouse they were now in. Sonic dodged each shot, Olly used force to slam the bulk of her hammer into his stomach, bursting him through glass and out the other side, forcing him to fall and hold on to the side for dear life. Olly wandered over, and stared down at him."I don't need you dying." Said Olly as she brought him back up.He gave Olly an evil smirk. "How chivalrous of you."Olly chuckled as they went back to whacking sword and hammer at one another. Sonic attempted to slice under feet, but Olly treated it like rope and skipped over, as she threw the hammer at his head, but he bobbed at the right time. She spun her hammer rapidly at the small window of time she was given, shocking Sonic to the high heavens and to the top of the abandoned warehouse, the rain dripping through the hole. Olly wall jumped as she leaped from post to post, then to wall to wall to reach the op herself. Sonic stood up and attempted to slice Olly with a vertical cut, before being blasted by a gigantic white laser and sent flying into the abyss below. Neptune had crawled out of the nearby pipe, static coming from his chest core, impressing Olly. Neptune wandered over and stared at Olly, who didn't question where the blast came from. She thanked the Probie before seeing Sonic speed up from below and swipe Olly, who took Neptune and jumped onto another tower. But Sonic, being Sonic, was too fast and got ahead of them. His sword changed into a Gatling gun, and shot hundreds of bullets at the pair who used graceful acrobatics to dodge the bullets as he made a trail. They stopped at the sound of a huge thump that shook the surface."You gave them the dosage of ordinary bullets...that nice." Said Bazza apathetically, who had floated down onto a taller tower next to the lower one. Olly could see that she had her titular weapon her shoulder. She knelled down and inserted the rocket."BUT I AM ABOUT TO GIVE YOU OVER 9000 CCS OF GET THE FUCK OUT!"She fired the weapon at him, Sonic sneered and muttered something under his breath, however an unknown voice raised over everything else.
DRILL!
Sonic pushed his hand forward as the sword transformed into a drill-like apparatus, bursting the rocket before it got to hit him."You know what Bazza?" Said Sonic, his voice echoy and multilayered with different pitches."SCREW YOU!"Bazza gritted her teeth. "HEY! I'm the only one around here who get's to make bad puns okay?"She split the bazooka apart and started to shoot at him repeatedly with the Baz Guns, Sonic using his skills as a break-dancer to dodge. Olly tried shocking him again, but within his speed he avoid and rolled out of the way, then spindashed to knock Bazza who jumped in time and flapped her 'ponytails' as she floated in the air. Sonic stopped and looked back and shot out the length of his sword once more, Olly ordered Bazza to flee as Sonic rose the gigantic blade, it's shadow covering her body completely. However, a swipe from two smaller blade broke the sword, turning the second half into small, devilish pixels as the piece fell and vanished into thin air before it could hit Bazza. Drainer dropped down and twirled her twin blades around and sheathed le them, then got into a fighting stance. Sonic chuckled, transforming to broken sword into a normal, albeit veiny hand. They exchanged punches and kicks at a very fast paceaving slight afterimages, Sonic commenting she fights just like Knuckles. Drainer said nothing as she tried to kick him from underneath but rose his knees and feet to avoid being hit, instead, hitting her head. Drainer rolled back and resumed the rapid limb whipping to each other. Olly and Bazza carefully observed and walked as they went from punch to kick, and plenty of blocking. Neptune crawled around behind Olly and Bazza and situated himself and aimed at Sonic, shooting a chest blast shot at them, sending them flying. Olly and Bazza's attention went to Neptune, who stumbled over, looking weakened from the attack. Bazza nodded to Olly that she would take care of Probie, Olly herself ran over and jumped off the building onto the other where Sonic and Drainer and fallen, Drainer having absorbed a bulk of the blast and converted it into a giant ball of white energy, standing over a fallen Sonic. Olly wandered over and stomped her foot over his chest."Four against one...isn't quite fair." Sonic whined.Olly tilted her head. "Harden up chump...you've taken on a far lot more than this. I guess this evil streak has made you weak..."Sonic laughed. "Eggman's robots are easy because they're easily broken and are incredibly stupid. Yet, you fight like me...Drainer fights like Knuckles...and Bazza...reminds me of Tails...perhaps maybe the mantle could be transferred to you."Olly stared down at him. "Who cares about the stupid mantle crap Sonic? You spent all these years fighting Robotnik with a smile on your face. The whole world put their faith in you and this is how you repay them?"Sonic snarled. "The world doesn't do squat for itself. It lets itself get in harms way. GUN especially. You're doing more harm than good. I would love to go up to your Supreme Commander and stab her myself."
SLAP!
Sonic rubbed his cheek. "What? When you care so little about your own self-worth? What do you do?"Olly sparked up, the rain getting heavier, her neck getting warmer..."Take others people's consideration! They love and adore you more than you know."Olly felt her neck warming up yet again, confused at why this was happening more frequently now. She watched as Sonic squirmed, holding his head in pain. She looked at Drainer, who still had the big sphere of energy in her hands and ordered her to get rid of it. Drainer nodded, throwing it elsewhere and causing a big explosion. Suddenly, Olly found herself in pain, blood dripping down. Sonic had regrown his sword and stabbed her in the chest. Sonic himself was shocked at what he had done."Oh shit! I'm doing it again!" He screamed.Reality walls broke around her. She knew this pain but for some reason felt really familiar. It struck through her in ways that she once felt before but couldn't place it. Her breath quickened as she tried to comprehend. Existence was darker than her blank dreaming. Nothing out there. Nothing.She heard mutters and whispers echoing and started running within the Plains of Nothingness. Then Pink light faded into her vision, dressed in white robes and wore a small golden crown.Olly looked on. "Who are you?"The woman stared right passed Olly and walked through in fact. The darkness transformed into the Temple of the Prophets. She walked over at sat on her throne, discussing something with her Wisers.Suddenly the large golden doors swung open, Sonic sprinting and skidding to a halt. He looked out of breath, his body splattered with blood and his eyes full of tears."Shizaru...thank goodness I found you." Said Sonic, sounding extremely desperate.Shizaru looked calm and serene and checked through her associates. The tension in the air thickened as the Stupilites walked closer to the rampaging Hedgehog. A simple raise from Shizaru's palm informed them that he was not a threat, but soon tensed up as Sonic power walked over and fell to his knees before the Prophetess and weeped into her lap."It's okay." Said Shizaru. Olly didn't know whether or not she was telling this to Sonic or the Stupilite Guards."I've...done bad things...real bad." Sonic whimpered. "It was me. I murdered them all."Shizaru put her index finger underneath Sonic's chin and forced him to look at her. Olly could only stand and watch it unfold before her."Murdered the Haren?" Said Shizaru. "It was foretold."Sonic shook his head. "What? How come you did nothing about it?"Shizaru stroked his head. "These things happen. The Haren were due to be gotten rid of some point in time."Sonic shot up and walked backwards. "All of you. You know these things would happen and refuse to help." He scrambled, his voice coarse.Shizaru held her emotionless demeanor quite well as she rested her hands in her lap, her Wisers just as stoic as she. Sonic felt over and cupped his eyes and dug his fingernails deep into his scalp. Olly witnessed that he was shaking like mad."The Mantle was never supposed to be handed to a Blue Hedgehog." Said Shizaru."The incident where the Stupilites were forced to flee had nothing to do with you. You only made their situation worse...by deporting the entire race to Christmas Island Prison."Olly remembered reading Sonic's file on how he was born on Christmas Island and suddenly, it now made a lot more sense. Christmas Island had a Detention Center from memory. Sonic freaked out now that he was the reason that doomed their entire race. But Olly wasn't sure whether this was a part in time or part of Sonic's psyche, as Shizaru's words suggested something more obscenely cryptic.Olly heard chains and boots hitting the floor. Morpheus walked in on them, rage building up in her heart but remaining self-contained."Your pathetic kind have been nothing but lies and slander Prophetess." Said Morpheus."This poor Stupilite has been pulled and tugged everywhere and yet, he doesn't understand why."Shizaru stared at Morpheus with utter contempt that was only displayed through her eyes and nothing else."I am only telling truth that needs to be told...Eusapian..."Sonic looked at Morpheus, unsure of Shizaru's word."Do not listen to her Sonic. Together, we shall wipe the world clean of it's messiness and start anew! And finally...we shall defeat Eggman and Abbadonia once and for all!"Olly witnessed Sonic's eternal struggle...to take the word of Shizaru, a respectable figure in her time, or Morpheus, a ghastly bout of white evil. She subconsciously wandered over and rested her hand on Sonic's shoulder, and to her horror, reacted, thinking that this was a vision of the past the entire time. Suddenly, the temple and Morpheus disappeared into thin air, leaving Sonic and Shizaru the only ones left in the darkness.Sonic looked behind him, shocked at seeing Olly. He shot up and scooted back, slouching back and raising his arms to warn her."Stay back! I'm nothing but a monster!" Sonic cried.Olly looked at Shizaru. "Morpheus warped his mind and used his worst fears against him." She explained."The evil that lurks in Sonic's heart is not natural. It is not born it was not grown. It was constructed and twisted...forced into the nooks and crannies of his psyche."Olly straightened out. "I knew it would never have been Sonic's fault. Not ever." She said.Sonic squirmed, his knees wobbling as he tried to stand, but his own self-hatreds only let him curl his back up and fall back on the ground. Olly sighed and rested her hand on his shoulder."Sonic..." Olly muttered.Sonic's eyes bounced from place to place as he avoided eye contact with her. She knew he was so messed up he wasn't sure what to do with himself, but rather, curl up and die in his own mind. Olly was not going to let that happen. She picked him up and pressed him against a blank, invisible wall. She tugged and pulled on his chin and forced him to stare in deeply, despite wearing a helmet, he could sense her eyes scanning and boring in his own. She got rid of the mouth plate, displaying a displeasured look on her face. From his shaking, Olly had enough.
SLAP!
He was deathly still and incredibly palm, minus the red mark on his left cheek."Amy needs to be saved herself. How could she get the mantle if she's going to be in mortal danger hm?" Olly pointed out.Tears ran down Sonic's face. There was something hollow in his look, but she could see the internal sadness and struggle that was never ending. He wasn't the only in there as she could tell, a darkness that lingered that was artificial, ever consuming and battling with his subconscious ever more so. She prayed for his sanity that with what willpower he had left was succeeding and hopefully held on to the mantra that was never giving up and never surrendering."Have faith!"Sonic lowered is head, Olly pressed his chin up to get him to look at her once more, her eyes going from side to side as she looked into both of his eyes one by one."...It's a conflict that's extremely hard...and it hurts..." Sonic sobbed out."I know it must be." Said Olly. "But hold on for that bit longer..."She heard the rain hitting the base of her helmet as she opened up her eyes. The storm hadn't fully run it's course as the drops came from above, the lightning struck between the clouds as thunder boomed into the aftermath. The eeriness from the destroyed city hovered around her as she sat up, pushing herself up, then reeling from the wound she received as she held onto to her chest.Drainer jumped down from another building and crouched down, seeing the blood leaking everywhere and on the pavement. Bazza floated down, carrying Neptune on her back. Olly felt dizzy, as everything went blurry, before passing out.There was a point where Olly found it hard to define reality and what was nothing more than hallucinations. Pain existed when it shouldn't have and pain ceased to be when it was supposed to. She couldn't wrap her head around the fractures and splinters belonging to her perception to the known world, all-knowing she hadn't been everywhere, but everywhere seemed strange and scary, transforming every corner and forcing her to think different of place's she'd been to once before. It reminded her of the changes that been evolving within, the electrical energies brought on by emotional and subconscious cues as well as the people she once knew who dramatically unhinged themselves and were no longer what they once were. Things changed. Life changed. Existence changed. Just as you were getting used to it, it screws with you and forces you to adapt all over again. That was reality at it's worst. Most people feared it and some were extremely angry with it all. Because societal boredom works in mysterious ways, ideas spread about, filtering through hundreds of people before itself is not the same as it was when the first person mentioned it.With Olly, she was in the job that required her to adapt to sudden changes, the ability to think on ones feet was crucial in high octane situations. And the balances and neutral aspects were a definite must, her emotional control had to be high enough for her to make rational and reasonable thoughts and decisions, which both needed to be rapid. She was competent enough to endow these traits. But at the moment, these weren't missions she had to do within a span of a day or week. This was going to be everlasting due to the sheer size of the problem. Nothing was what it used to be, especially with what the world was doing to itself.She woke up in the infirmary, unsure of what day and time it was. No one was in the room, dark, dank with concrete walls, with the pipes on the high roof in their rusty red colours, and a stripe of yellow and black diagonal stripes showed her much the budget went into sanitized hospital rooms. Nonetheless, the green and red hexagonal tech made its way, Olly unable to believe the commercialism in this city...the level of it was staggering from one group alone."Bring her in..." Muttered a voice.Olly was a bit wispy from the Morphine, as life seemed to blur past as she was dragged from one place to another. She realized she still had her helmet on for stupid reasons, to what conscious thought Olly could attain in her mind. She had a new suit pulled on from what she could see was Omega, for some reason. Another conscious thought waltzed in upon the reasons of either such extreme privacy or secrecy. But she couldn't get another thought in there for the life of her. Omega carried her into Big Mamas office. She heard her call to inject the drug into her system, waking the Agent up."It's like synthesized caffeine but a lot stronger." Said Big Mama.Now near-wide awake, Big Mama allowed Omega to stay there and tend to the Agent."Agents Bazooka and Drainer told me what had happened out there." She said."This terrorist is definitely no quitter. Aiming for the high rising areas. But I believe they were looking for something underneath."Olly turned her head to look at her Supreme Commander. "Did we find it?"Big Mama smirked. "Lucky we got to it before they did. We'd sent in a brigade of soldiers lead by Shadow to deal with the problem. I got called by Agent Drainer of the problem at hand. Eventually we dug it out and had it transported in one of our basement pads."Olly nodded. "I see. May I ask what day it is?"Big Mama lit up another cigarette. "Thursday. Don't worry, I had the doctors pump you with some stuff, morphine and a whole lot of crap. They didn't recommend it, but I wanted you up and running in no time flat."Didn't surprise Olly...actually, the only thing she was surprised at was the lack of cherry smoke scented around her."What are your next orders Big Mama?" Olly asked, keen to get back into the action.Big Mama inhaled. "We're just authorizing a few things around here first. We're planning to place a protective generated plasmatic dome around Grand Metropolis. There's no doubt they will eventually come here. Gathering from the statistics, they're targeting key areas around here, since Metropolis is in the middle of the High Tech Sector."Olly nodded. "Very well. Have you warned the other cities?"Big Mama rubbed her forehead with her thumb as she leaned back, encased in the smoky fog."I had a meeting with the other Commanders last night. We've issued a warning for all areas to be on alert. They've put in their protocols to ensure the general populace are safely escorted."Olly looked down. "But here has to be one of the safest places. Did we have any back up cities we can take civilians?"Big Mama inhaled again. "We were going to go Soleanna, but their security is atrocious. I know Hawkins is a great Commander, but they're just a tourist spot mainly. Our options are restricted."Olly tapped her armrest. "How about the EUC Project? I read it was still under construction."Big Mama just fiddled with her cigarette. "I was researching that of course. However, the total population of the entire High Tech Sector is 40 million. There is noway, in the EUC's current state we can fit all of them in there."Olly sighed. "Oh well, we might just have to figure something else then...maybe prep civilians to tell them to take shelter."Big Mama shook her head subtlety. "No...too risky. I say pack the women and children there and rank them from CR Scales, while we stack the men with weapons and make conscription mandatory."Olly rose an eyebrow. "That's a bit much isn't it?"Big Mama dug the cigarette into the over filled ash tray. "With this population, it's incredibly possible! Trust me, every man will have potential for greatness, to bring honor to this land and show the rest of country and the world that those in the High Tech Sector aren't incredibly lazy!"Olly wasn't entirely content with this. Knowing Big Mama, there would be a lot of morality issues involved. Big Mama sat up with a smile on her face, with the revelation of her own doing and plans. She rubbed her hands together."Yes...this will be good! I'll start contacting Mayors and Commanders immediately. Mjöllnir, I want you and your team to head over to Soleanna. I will need Commander Hawkins assistance with this!"Olly was a bit uncomfortable with this plan, but as loyalty binds, she had no choice or say in the matter. She met up with the girls and Neptune and gathered them up. They were more interested in her well-being. After a few snapping words of claiming she was fine, she needed to get them focused on the next task ahead. She could sense her team mates worries from afar. Not needing their immediate concerns, Olly brushed it off as nothing. Jumping into the Jetcopter, Bazza flew them all towards the next location of the historical place that was Soleanna.Bazza landed them on the landing pad, with Commander Hawkins bursting out towards them, almost freaking out with expression on his face. They jumped out in sequence with Olly approaching him first."What is the matter Commander?" Olly asked sternly.Hawkins rubbed his forehead. "Thank goodness you're here! I was about to call Big Mama about this but when Bazza relayed the landing codes to me I was glad I didn't have to!" He cried out, obviously distressed."It's okay." Said Olly. "How can we help?"Hawkins wiped his nose with his sleeve. "Come with me!"He escorted them to the TR Centre in a rush, noticeably panicked, barking at his Intel Officer to put something on the screen. They had installed cameras through the castle for obvious security reasons. But this matter was...strange.It looked like it was in the rounded out throne room, gathering from the cameras position from high position. A wheel chair had fallen over, blood spread across on the throne, with Elise on the floor coddling her fathers head. Olly needed an explanation."Tell me what happened." Said Olly.Hawkins nodded. "This happened so suddenly. Elise had gotten out of her bed in the hospital wing, stole a wheel chair and scooted off to the throne room, gathering by the Doctors accounts. So we kept a close eye on her. We believed she wanted to see her father, prove her independence. For all we knew, it might as well been a publicity stunt, to prove she was still going to be a competent Queen for Soleanna...and boy we were wrong."Olly tilted her head. "Then what happened?"Hawkins rubbed his fingers through his dust brown coloured hair. "So...we were watching, waiting...the guards wouldn't touch her unless she'd fallen off the chair. She never let them push her towards her own father. We knew she was acting strange but what she did next was completely off the charts!"Olly lifted her chin. "She jump off the chair herself?" She assumed.Hawkins was almost hyperventilating. "No!"He barked a few orders to the IO's, shoving a tape into the system and putting screen footage next to the live footage. It portrayed Elise rolling into the chambers, with her father standing up and was looking like he was putting his two cents in. Instead, Elise pulled out a blaster and shoot her father seven times, smoke coming from the charred wounds. She slipped off the chair, with guards coming inwards, instead she each of them and gave warnings to the others to stay back. Olly was astounded."She's gone completely off the rails!" Bazza pointed out."No I believe she's gone off her wheel chair." Said Drainer.Bazza facepalmed, not bothering with Drainers lack of metaphor training."Alright, we'll have a talk with her." Said Olly.They wandered off to the hallways of the Soleanna Castle. Olly took confidence into her stride, needing it for the negotiation on why Elise was acting this way. She thought back to when they talked last. Olly wondered if there was anymore to that story then she was letting on originally. There was certainly doubt in her tone. They got into the entrance of the main chambers as Olly raised her hand and finger to her lips, telling her team mates to be silent as they tip toed. They could hear Elise weeping over the Duke's corpse. Guards were scattered everywhere, their weapons dropped to the ground. Olly raised her hand again, telling her to team to stay where they were whilst she carefully approached Elise."Elise?" Olly called out.Elise' head shot up and spun around. Her eyes were full of hurt, her hair ratted and oily, her face extremely pale, riddled with dirt and her fathers blood. She cradled and rocked his head."Agent Mjöllnir." Elise whispered, her voice coarse. "Pet of Big Mama."She raised her blaster, pointing at Olly, who lifted her hands in a passive motion."Woah, you don't want to do that." Said Olly.Elise scrunched her face. "Why not? I am the Princess of Soleanna! Soon to be Queen!"
Olly nodded. "Okay...I get that. I just want to talk to you."Elise rolled her eyes. "Stop going through those ridiculous negotiation phrases. I did do training with GUN too you know."Olly shrugged it off and kept continuing."Actually, I am curious as to what set this off..." She said.Elise equipped a devilish expression."You think, after living for sixteen plus years, that someone had the decency to actual explain the truth to me."Olly blinked. "What truth may I ask?"Elise looked down at her deceased father. "They think it's funny...they think it's good that I actually don't know about it. At all. I understood why, but it would be nice to be eventually be told."Elise's ramblings reminded her of Sonic's. The sheer insanity that had been met over the course of these past few weeks was remarkably huge. Abbadonia's influence spreads far and wide."So...with those discussions...I ran with it...I made them do the test...but anonymously. I just wanted to know if there was a chance they matched somewhat. I didn't want names, I just wanted percentages at that point. I made them. I got results...and now I see where things lie."Olly crossed her arms. She looked at Elise' hand holding the blaster, she was either shaking from fear or something else entirely."What did Eggman tell you? Really? I understand he'd only been speaking to you while he was imprisoned. Was there something he said?" Olly asked her.Elise gasped, then started giggly as she rocked her fathers corpse back and forth. The corrupted look on the Princess' face was terrifying, Olly swearing to herself that Eggman would pay."Your Highness..."Elise screamed at her, foam coming out of her mouth as she laughed manically. Olly heard Bazza consult in Drainer on how this didn't feel right at all. In Olly's opinion, she wasn't too far from the truth. Eggman had manipulated her in her entirety. No wonder she was told to keep an eye on her. She should have suspected it a lot earlier as she cursed herself for not seeing it.Suddenly they heard a clankering of heels behind them, seeing a familiar maid holding towels."Princess!" The brunette called out.Olly squinted. "Lily?"The Maid ran out and slid down next to the torn over royal and hugged her alongside the Duke."Lily, please get rid of these Agents. I do not need the Secret Keepers here ANY longer!" Elise called out.Lily nodded and looked at the Femme Fatalex, her green eyes staring down at them."Please leave. I can handle this!" Lily cried.Olly shook her head. "I'm sorry Lily, but I'm afraid this is now a Guardian Unit of Nations matter."Lily's expression changed from sad to angry, Olly feeling some sort pull, with Drainer feeling uneased, mentioning a chaotical change in the atmosphere."She's had enough of GUN's lies!" Lily yelled. "You know well enough to stay out of the Royal Families affairs!"She blasted a green sphere towards the four, Neptune shirking, then glaring at Lily and bolting towards the Maid and swiping her, slashing and sending her colliding against the wall. Drainer ran over to pull Neptune back, but he was in a state of rampancy to not know right from wrong."You see?" Said Elise. "Monsters! The lot of you! Can't control your own dogs!"She blasted at Neptune for attacking Lily, only for Bazza to charge and take the blast to her shoulder. Olly's attention zoomed in to her for a moment as the Agent fell to the floor. The rage built up in Olly's body, the electrical charges returning."Princess Elise." Said Olly, rather firmly. "Tell me. What...did...Eggman...say to you?"Elise just cackled like mad, with Lily recovering and throwing a green spectral sphere at Olly, who knocked it back like baseball with her Smish Smasher, hitting the roof and causing a minor rock slide above Lily, who apparated in black smoke and reformed next to Olly, only for Olly herself to snap and trip her, Lily apparated, her smoke charging at Drainer who contained Neptune. Neptune on the otherhand, got out of Drainer's grip, and pulled her away, taking her to the nearest wall, standing in front of the Agent, much to her surprise, and growled at Lily.Lily went back to Elise and started whispering into her ear."Why should I tell them?" Elise cried out. "They should know what it is!"Olly shook her head, she watched Bazza get up and take out her bazooka."I have no idea. Our superiors would have far more secrets than I would actually care about. I'm just an Agent. My position requires me to get the job done and done quickly. We were sent to ensure you were okay and obviously, from our stand point, you're not. But we do know that Eggman had been speaking to you over a certain amount of time. What did he tell you?" Olly said in the most calm way she could. But the way Lily acted out seemed strangely similar to someone else.Elise looked up at Olly with painfully angry eyes, her breath setting her rocking in motion as sweat and blood rolled off her face."You wanna know what he said?" Elise said, with a creepy tone."You REALLLLLY wanna know what he said?"Olly nodded. "I am need in a lot of answers...this would help us help you." She stated with reassurance."Haha..." Laughed Elise. "Of course answers...actually, I would be deeeelighted. LILY!"Lily reapparated beside Elise. "Yes milady?""Lift me up in the wheel chair. Now." Elise ordered.Her maid did what she was told and got Elise into the wheel chair. She was still in her hospital gear, wrapped up in bandages. Elise tapped her fingers on her remaining right hand, while Lily stood loyally behind her beloved Princess."How devilish it is, the secret itself. Brought madness of course. But then, when I gathered it all together, the information Eggman gladly shared with me, it suddenly made a lot more sense than I realized! At first! I didn't believe! But like I mentioned before, I had the tests done, and then I was more a believer than anything! A lot of the odd moments, memories...actions...reactions...my lifes work...piloting...I was disinterested in things of royal moments with having sadistic fun!"Bazza dragged herself next to Olly, holding her right shoulder and twitching slightly."Yeah...she's really lost it." Bazza commented to Olly, who nodded in agreement."I came to respect it...he encouraged me to study it...then...I read the manuals...they were easy to understand...and more sense was made clear."Olly had enough of her tip toeing around. "Elise...what did Eggman tell you?"Elise sniffed."He said...he told me..."They leaned in closer."He informed me..." she whispered.They leaned in further."I know...now...that..."Bazza rolled her eyes."!" Elise screamed at the top of her longs. The words echoed throughout the chambers, surprising guards and servants alike.Olly looked at her fellow Agents, then back to Elise. Olly herself was completely surprised at this revelation. Bazza just stared in awe, while Neptune was tempted to claw the heck out of Lily. Elise tried getting her breath back, as she coughed and wheezed, with Lily rubbed her back and comforting her lady."Lily..." Elise muttered."Yes milady?" Lily spoke back."Lilith is needed send the signal and get me back Metal Sonic and his group of robotic fiends. NOW!"Lily nodded. She aparrated into the black smoke, that Olly now smelled as a remnant of sulfur. She reappeared as a red cloaked woman, sprouting demonic wings and a shooting out horns from her forehead. From the clothes alone she recognized the devlish figure as she floated behind Elise. She rose her hand up into the air, shooting up a yellow spectral sphere into dome roof, blasting a hole in the middle and going up into the air, releasing a fireworks displaying, confusing citizens.Red lights flashed everywhere as they popped out of the walls, sirens blaring off as rumbling was heard. Lily created a portal underneath Elise, sucking her inwards then closing it. Using a series of chants, the room changed into something more hellish with the magma stone walls, lava everywhere...as they stood upon a round platform, hearing screams of unbearable decibels, with Neptune going absolutely mental. Lily summoned demons to her side, like the beasts of Abbadonia's command. Bazza and Drainer coddled onto the rampaging Neptune while Lilith cackled."I am Lilith, the General of Abbadonia's Demon Legions. I help train, recruit, breed them to an extent of within Abbadonia's wishes." Lilith revealed.She sent the swarm of creatures towards the group, Olly giving the go ahead for Neptune let himself loose, in which he pounced into battle, decimating the beasts to pieces with his claws. Bazza flew up into the air and landing on one of the the magma walls, firing off her Bazooka at alarming high rate. Drainer flip flopped everywhere, slashing and dashing through the hordes. Olly let herself get angry and shocked those she could see, her Smish Smasher going into it's super form and splatting each demon she encountered. Drainer dug her blades into one demon, absorbed it's chaotical energies dry, forming the energy into a big fiery ball, then rolled it like a bowling ball into a bunch of randomly mixed demons."NICE!" Called Bazza, firing another shot.Olly yet again jumped around gracefully, thumping down each demon, with a few Crawlfangs and Implix. She stopped as she stood and rose her hammer and her hand, shocking several Legless demons that flew around her, and watched them fall into the lava below. Bazza kept firing, Lilith flew behind her and kicked her behind her head, sending her over, but Bazza recovered by somersaulted forwards and turning around and aiming her bazooka at Lilith who apparated away."You know smoking is bad for your health!" Bazza punned. She heard a single step behind her and fired at at Crawlfang.Neptune meanwhile was still in his rampancy and climbed on top of the wall, releasing the next lazor charge in a row. Bazza smirked."Heh...that Arc Reactor Point 2.0 is pretty sweet!" Bazza commented."Made it yourself?" Olly asked casually, smacking down a group of Mephbones."Yup! Got inspired by a comic book one of my kids likes reading."Drainer grew confused as she stabbed and slashed a Legless. "I thought you had one child?" She queried.Bazza chuckled. "I adopted another in the clan...thought it was appropriate considering he hangs around us all the time."Olly encountered a new type of demon, a giant rune riddled spider of sorts, Lilith cackling it as the newest species, called Arachpain. Bazza called it lame, as Olly splattered it."How sweet...even though he's not your species you still call him family." Olly commented.Bazza laughed. "Yeah. Although I want more kids myself...I just want the little guy to get himself comfortable. He gets enough attention from my biological kid anyway."They were succeeding in this hellish environment, Lilith looking more amused than annoyed that her group was losing. After finishing the hordes, Lilith clapped to congratulate them."Well done heroes!" She said. "You've proven yourselves yet again! Pity it wasn't Sonic as I had hoped, but for the reconciliation of noble deeds, you've awarded yourselves your prize!"At the flick of her fingers, Lilith created portals behind the four of them, sucking them all into nothingness...The amount of times they had all been thrown around like this was scarily increasing, but, Olly had to take it like a Captain should. Placing it as part of the job was a necessity, or else she wouldn't be a captain in the first place. For all the stuff that could be thrown, the dirty, gritty and down right disgusting portions...someone had to deal with it. Olly would be that one Agent.She got up in the darkness. The sky couldn't been seen, instead feeling a very fast wind blowing past her, a black dust stream past everywhere from the shadows, the ground the same black sand. You could barely see a simple meter in front of you, the thickness of this supposed dust storm played well. All Olly could do was walk around, eventually trying to figure out where she was. And how to return back. She could sense, somewhere, that this place was not like any other, no one described such a desolate place, hollowing winds squealing, not really giving any sort of hint besides a really bizarre desert like location. She could walk forever and still not get anywhere. For all the darkness was worth, a hint of light gave way to let her see a parchment, but did not help much, as if it was taunting her, letting her know she was stuck in a dust ridden abyss for all eternity. She walked in one direction, where the wind was heading...but then the wind changed direction, frustrating the Agent slightly, but she carried on like should normally. Her boots dug into the black sands as she struggled to walk about, desperately trying to find a sign of her current location. Where ever Lilith had sent them, she sent them all in the midst of greater pathological fears of the common mobian. For Olly, she could handle the isolation for a while, and see how she would pull for eternity.After hours of walking, Olly was beginning to feel a bit hungry...noticeably. She saw something blue in existence, she recognized it as the back of Amy. Confused, she wandered up to her and tapped her on the shoulder."Uh...Amy, what are you doing here?" She asked.Amy turned around, Olly stepping back as she saw her holding her stomach, as blood started pouring out of it, down her dress. Tears ran down her eyes, but kept a happy smile despite the obvious pain and agony, as if glad to see Olly, who began freaking out, but straightened out.Amy made struggling steps forward, trying to get closer to her, her blood stand hand reaching out to to the Agent."I remember the blade." Said Amy. "It's the source of all problems. She got in...got out. So let me ask you..."Olly wasn't sure what to do. Mentally with the right logic, she would get Drainer to help with this, but in consideration, Amy wasn't even acting right. Olly was trying to understand her own logic with it, but mental blocking prevented her from doing so. She heard Amy's rapid breaths, as they barreled in her ears, driving her made. Amy reached further, more blood pouring everywhere."Do you like the colour Red?"Olly whisked herself away, stepping back slightly, before bumping into something...or someone as she turned around. From the gold clad and the pink fur, it was someone she hadn't seen in a while."Prince Hayden!" Olly called out.The young Prince smiled. "Heh. Never thought to see you here."Olly turned to look at Amy, who had disappeared into the dusty winds.Hayden walked her to a large rock with a cave like crevice, which dug into the underground of the strange sands of blackness. Prince Hayden hallowed underneath here with food supplies, bottled water and blankets. It wasn't clean, but it was cosy enough, most stuff being held with miscellaneous junk that could be found at a local mall. He sat her own down on a blue cushion and threw her bottled water, whilst sitting himself down on a random black plastic stool. Olly upped her mouth plate and sculled nearly half the bottle down. She had a good look at the Prince, who had been missing for weeks. He was filthy, stained with dirt, dust and sand, his quills and spikes greasy, bags under his eyes and his once wonderful cloaked stained and tattered, his gloves riddled with holes."What brings you to this place?" Hayden questioned.Olly placed her bottle down. She explained the situation up and to the point. It was nice seeing him again, albeit she wished it was under better circumstances. She explained how she and her team were battling demons then were sent here through portals."I see." Said Hayden. "Abbadonia up to her old tricks again eh?"Olly waggled her hand. "Eh...well, her General of the Armies...which relates to something I've been meaning to ask you."Hayden nodded and waved his arm. "Ask away."Olly wiped her muzzle on her sleeve. "What happened that day? Sonic said he witnessed, through the Ring of Memories that you were approached by Silver the Hedgehog and Mephiles the Dark...what actually happened? We believe what Sonic said, but when we heard you were still alive, we had to get your side of the story..."Hayden leaned over, rested his head on his hands, spreading his knees whilst he had his elbows on each as he sighed."Possible. Silver is Eusapian apparently. One of the old Hedgehog Family that was once thought extinct. And now we know they're not. But the one you call Silver was not there, only mentioned through the whispers of someone who called himself Grey."Olly nodded. "His real name is Morpheus. Morpheus the Grey."Hayden's eyes widened. "What?"Olly tilted her head, the name tipped off something in Hayden's mind, the look on his face was showing it. "You know Morpheus?"Hayden shot up, and turned around and crossed his arms. "Morpheus was a friend of mine, he was also a servant to us for many years. However, when the fire happened many years ago that killed my father, I learned it was Morpheus fault, who tried to kill my father in a strange retaliation of sorts."Olly needed more info. "Who told you that?"Hayden slicked back his greasy head spikes. "Lily the Maid."It took Olly about five seconds to piece might what of really happened. Olly could stay in denial like she did with Sonic, but with that, there seemed to be a lot of traitors around lately, it became likely that it would have been Lily or...Liliths doing. She manipulated Elise, she began to theorize she had done it to Hayden as well. She had to be wary around the Prince."What else did Lily tell you?" Olly asked. She didn't want to press too far. She already had her suspicions placed, but with her intuition, she skirted around the subject, getting close enough but not placing force on the purpose."Lily took care of me. Morpheus' corpse wasn't found. Hmmm...now that you mentioned it, Grey reminds me of Morpheus. Being one in the same is probable." Hayden implied.Olly took a swig from the bottle. "Anything else odd?"Hayden looked at Olly with a weird expression, as if caught out with her intentions."You implying there's something wrong with my maid?"Olly shook her head, Prince Hayden laughing in response."You GUN and your secrets. You think, that she, actually murdered the Hedgehog who willingly took her in?"Olly nodded. "You must see reason with this milord. How strong was your relationship with Morpheus?"Hayden looked down, stroking his muzzle. He took a deep breath and turned to Olly."We were great friends..."Hayden went on to explain how his father, the last King of the Rosoideae brought in Morpheus in from afar, and grew up with him, with assistance from Lily. Sometimes they would go out and play or hide in the basement, where Morpheus would display his gifts with the junk that was scattered around. Hayden was the only one who knew about his psychic abilities, and due to his friendship with him, he willingly kept the secret from everyone else, including his father. Time came when Morpheus served the royal family well, being their gardener. They would get up to no good, Lily scolding them for their trickster ways. She didn't like the two together, and wished them apart. One day, The Rosoideae King asked for Morpheus presence in the main chamber upstairs, with Lily escorting him. The young Hayden sat by himself, playing around a cyan diamond cut jewel, that had been given to him by one of the other royal families at the time as a treaty gift. Hayden himself was forbidden to head down to the Land Below and as a result, was ignorant of what happened there. The Rosoideae King did not care for the Earth itself, wishing to preserve the last legacies of a once proud kingdom. He was always sad..."Morpheus told me his parents were drug addicts." Hayden continued. "A type of drug, Neuroin, was released. My father said that it must have lead them to commit suicide as they couldn't afford it. How he found his way up to this continent was...fascinating to say the least. Although, it might have been somewhat related to his psychic powers."Olly nodded. "I see. You were close."Hayden sighed. "Yes we were. After the fire, Lily took me to the basement and told me to stay there while she dealt with the flames. She came back a few hours later and informed me that Morpheus had lit the room on fire, closed the doors after she'd escaped and next thing I knew I was the last leader of the Rosoideae, unable to be crowned because the actual crown had been lost.""Forever a Prince." Said Olly, understanding the situation now. Unfortunately this didn't deter the reasons behind Lily, or Liliths involvement."Morpheus was loyal to you and your father wasn't he?" She queried."He was." Hayden replied. "But since that day I took back what I said. The day I was kidnapped he came inside, as Grey and proclaimed that I was no longer useful...and opened up a portal that banished me here..."He walked to the entrance of the cave and opened up the sheet to look outside. Olly followed, wanting to know where they were."This...if I had read my books right, is the Tetherstorms..." He said.Olly's head flung to his. "Wait, here?"Hayden dropped the sheet and walked back. "Yes. The world between worlds...the embodiment of drifting chaos and the mad beasts that rule this land."Hayden rambled on how on some of the books he read, were ancient, but described the Tetherstorms as a location built on chaos, an infinite void that was extremely unpredictable. It dwells in an eternity of blackened dust storms and creatures that had held their domains well and would never listen to outsiders if their lives depended on it. Most were scruff, but a lot had bright coloured eyes on black body's, with glowing stripes. The Prince mentioned most of these beasts feed on chaos itself, and have no need to eat or sleep, but just live out their lives in their clans, actually eating fresh meat that happens to wander by, because, even though they don't need to eat, love the taste of mortal flesh and get it when they can. Hayden mentioned bumping into one of the Carbrutes, tall, furry mixture of ape and man like, barbaric in nature. This one held a hammer, strapped onto his back and wore a robe. These Tetherbeasts had no glowing lines, Hayden reading that they use it to avoid being seen by prey."You remember all of this from reading a book?" Olly asked, astounded by the knowledge of this place."I remember bits and pieces...but when you're desperate, the mind can delve into the most mundane of educational memoirs no?" Hayden joked.He had been there a long time, so he did have time to get the facts straight and make sure he could stay alive as long as possible. Then she noticed, and realized, he had all these supplies that seemingly came out of nowhere. He noted her puzzlement."The Carbrute I bumped it took me back to his Clans Encampment...they threatened to eat me, but I told them who I was...like I mentioned, they never listened to outsides...until I showed the the Cyan Chaos Emerald I held on me."Olly blinked. "Wait what?"Hayden shrugged. "Looks like Morpheus couldn't take this away as a result of our uncanny ability to access hammerspace more than most. You can't force Rosoideaes to reveal what they're hiding...you have to be willing to show it yourself..."Perfect. She had the blue emerald...which meant if they could get Haydens one, they could get hitch hike a portal to get out of here."Where is it now?" She asked, urgent.Hayden rubbed his neck. "Well, as part of a peace offering, I gave it to the Clan Leader. In exchange, they gave me food and water for the time being. If I need any more I said I could head back and doing manual labor. I might be a Prince but you do what you have to in order to survive."Damn, she should have seen this coming. But there was always the chance she could get it back."Do you think you could escort me to the Encampment, I wanna talk with this Clan Leader."She asked.She could see in his expression that Hayden was iffy with the proposal. But her plan was the only way to secure a way out once she finds the other three."I wanna hear everything you know on the Clan Leader." Olly demanded.Hayden obliged. He spoke of the seven foot tall, hairy ape like creature with golden glowing eyes and a scar on his face. From the previous description he added that his personality and approach was very forceful, Hayden showing evidence of a previous injury on his elbow. His orc like teeth supported the snarls of their species, Olly beginning to believe she had a tough fight on her hands."They're also going to be a bit paranoid." Hayden mentioned. "They've gotten word from other clans that there's been something out there in the darkness, snatching their people up and gutting them, and according to this Clan Leader...their guts spilled everywhere."Olly's eyes narrowed in. "Do they know what it was?"Hayden crossed his arms. "It's not one of the other creatures described in the book that's for sure. None of them had swords so to speak."Olly's automatic suspicions that Sonic might be roaming around the Tetherstorms heightened. Whether he was here or not made things worse. She had to be aware, but it was almost made impossible due to the Tetherstorms unpredictable atmosphere. There were a lot of responsibilities on her plate, now that she has Prince Hayden, who didn't have any weapons on him at all, just an empty scabbard. Taking a deep breath, they exited the cave itself, as Olly followed the Prince, checking everywhere and keeping her guard up.They must have walked for hours, The Prince untrudged and focused in his walk. She wondered if all Rosoideaes were like this, determined and admorable. But from the sounds of the past, they were no more than power mungers. Hayden could have been the last, decent Hedgehog to walk the Earth...or Tetherstorm at that point and yet, it was filled with tragedy and sadness. He could have had that royal need to keep going and be strong for the people, the nobility unable to falter. Olly knew within herself, she needed to do the same.Eventually, a small beacon of light emerged from on top of a poorly made twig and branch tower. Most of the area was made with small rocks and twigs, with these, Carbrutes scattered around the place, guarding the Encampment. Hayden approached two of the guards, who wore sash like apparatus with large fangs stuck through them."Greetings Children of the Tether." Said Hayden. "I wish to speak with your Clan Leader. This is a matter of an outsider I have found."They pushed Hayden aside and examined Olly thoroughly, their ape like noses sniffing around her, Olly keeping her bout of anger in check due to their faces close to parts of her body. The guards looked at one another as they spoke in a kind of grunt vocabulary. Checking her out once more, the guards pushed her towards Prince Hayden and allowed the entrance into the Encampment, one of the guards running off elsewhere.The Encampment was mostly barbaric in nature, almost neanderthal with frames of tents made of branches and old bone, the fabric harsh, black and possibly made of a type of animal skin. No fires, except from lights inside some of the tents. The Encampment was fenced off with black rocks that were ten to twenty meters tall. The dust storm circled around the place, like in un the eye of the storm as Olly looked on in wonder. They followed a raised path into the largest tent in the encampment, with a demonic-like skull above the entrance.They approached two guards holding spears. Hayden spoke with them, like he did with the others, with the guard that ran off before coming out of the tent and nodding to the pair. He walked off, letting them through. The inside of the tent itself was spacious and the largest of all the skin-tents they saw in the Encampment. Olly could see the top guy sitting on his chair with two, imperial like guards who were highly decorated with bones and black fabric. The Clan Leader, also called the Chieftain thanks to a brief whisper by Hayden, was endowed in his own black robes, with a bone necklace, his hair styled into a mow hawk, a greying beard as his hand was mounted on a large, ancient looking, hammer that Olly couldn't help but stare at. The Chieftain raised his hand, indicated for them to come closer. The Imperial Guards poked them, ordering them in their grunt language to kneel before their leader. Olly wasn't too keen, even defiant, but one look at Hayden told her not to. Doing so, they both bowed on one knee."Rise." Garbled the Chieftain.Standing up straight, they brought their confidence with them."Speak."Hayden cleared his throat. "Gracious Lord of the Tether, I am here with an Agent of GUN, known as Agent Mjöllnir in the Earth Realm."Olly watched as he his nose twitched, sniffing the scents in the air. His eyes narrowed, his breath horrid by all standards. He held a broken golden goblet in his hand and and placed it on the table next to him and leaned over."What do you want?" He asked, his voice heavy and grungy.Olly lifted her head. "I see the Chaos Emerald that you have in your possession."The Chief laughed, looking at Hayden. "I see your little game here Hedgehog. Bring someone stronger here to beat the jewel out of my hands?"Hayden shook his head. "No sir." He said. "She seeks it because she needs to find her friends."The Chief looked back at Olly. "Seeking...friends...hmmm...folly...the only things you will find here are dust and shadow...but...your scent...you have something about your scent."Olly stood strong, not intimidated. She was so tempted to make a snarky remark, but refrained from doing so, instead, she stared at his hammer."What is that?" She asked him.The Chief stared back at the hammer. "This? This is my weapon...an example of historic control of the land itself. Our domination, our rule...is our ability to claim the weapons the elements give us.""Weapons?" Said Olly. She smiled, intrigued by the primitive hammer, but it looked like it had attachments, kinds of metal, and light with small tribal decorations."What's its name?"The Chieftain lifted the hammer. "Its called Rukt..."Olly nodded. "Nice name."The Chieftain smiled as he caressed it. "It has been passed on for many generations, per the use of the family that wields the stronger hammerspace deposit."Olly blinked."Come again?"The leading Carbrute put his hammer down. "We were the first to discover the possibilities of hammerspace. The Beings of Yesterlife implemented the gift to us originally. The first thing to be created was Rukt, made by our ancestors. And each Chieftain is given it upon the death of the previous."Olly nodded. "I see."Prince Hayden walked forward. "Chieftain, may I ask something?""Ask." The Carbrute leader replied.Hayden straightened himself up more. "Do you know if any other creatures are capable of wielding hammerspace? Most races on our world actually do, but do you know whether they were supposed to receive them?"The Chieftain tried to think. "The stories and legends are of told of the Original One that was supposed to have existed a long time ago. The Original One was born in this realm, but was the first one to jump into the Earth Realm. The myth goes that he had stolen most of the gifts the majority of us had and took them there."Hayden thumbed his lip. "Hmm...I think there was an ancient tablet on that. I don't know where we had gotten it but it must be somewhere on Earth. I'll have to look into it later..."Olly was glad he said that. For all the mystery and wonder they could help decrypt Olly simply didn't have enough time to do so. She needed to think of a way to find the others."Chieftain." Said Olly. "Do you believe you can help us find my team mates?"The Chieftain browed. "Us? Help outsiders? Haha...this Hedgehog was lucky to have made the exchange for the Emerald...hmmm...I tell you what...you have the scent of someone wielding a wicked Hammerspace Deposit..."Hayden raised an eyebrow, surprised. "You can tell that?"The Chieftain chuckled. "Hahaha...we know well enough the extent of someones hammer space ability by their scent alone! Display your weapon!"Hayden and Olly exchanged glances. She could tell Hayden wanted her to do what she was told. She sighed and brought out her Smish Smasher. The Chieftain looked at it thoroughly."Interesting...an outsiders hammer...well...this might or might not turn out well for you." He commented. She withdrew the hammer and stood back a little.The chieftain laid back in his chair. "Tell you what...in exchange for our help to find your...team mates and the Chaos Emerald, I want you to...verse me in combat! Hammer to hammer!"Hayden looked at Olly with wide eyes. "Mjöllnir, you don't have to do this. I will battle."Olly smirked as she leaned on one leg. "Hah. As noble as your intentions are your highness, I think I prefer to have, as Bazza would say, a hammering good time."Hayden nodded slightly. "Very well, Agent Mjöllnir. Here's hoping the spirits support you in battle."Olly swung her Smish Smasher about. "Hell yeah! Who else gets to smash some damned dirty apes?"

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Stuck in a blackened hellish wasteland, in the middle of nowhere in a place destined for death and nothing else. Although it had its funny charm, it was nothing more than an eternal deathtrap. Then again, it was filled to the brim with energy, by Olly's standards along with the words of wisdom by Prince Hayden. It was place that allowed her to think and dig deep into the cracks upon her surface, dwelling on material memories and engraved events successfully stuck into her mind. Back in the old days, as Probationary Agent Hammer, she had been teased by the others, in particular with the favoritism and the glory hounding brought on by Big Mama, the Supreme Commander she'd always trusted. The words etched into the very soul...Approval.She was the black sheep of her family, but, she had taken inspiration from her hero Sonic. As a civilian she would keep an eye on the news for any new endeavor he'd face and often thought of it as a TV Show. Her mother didn't quite like her being attached to it, seeing that for girl of her age to be idolizing a chaotic good person and would prefer her to be someone who took things cleanly, like a lawyer. Someone who would gain rich inheritance. But she didn't live with her mother, only seeing her for lunch on days she was available. For a successful doctor of a sister, a bricklayer brother and another sister of creative intent, the possibilities of becoming a TV Star were immense. Olly otherwise, putting her life on the line was not in the greatest of likes with her mother, who didn't want her daughter taking lives. Since the last lunch, her mother informed that she had forgotten to tell her that she split up with her most recent boyfriend. Knowing her, she would been living with the dissatisfaction with what he gave her. Olly didn't care much for it.Perhaps being stuck inside for most of her life, then seeing Sonic's freedom was what inspired her to become what she was and found a career that could have been rather notable and fun. She wouldn't be stuck indoors or doing mundane tasks. And the thrill, life-risking experiences was what pumped the adrenaline she craved. A simple inspirational pop at some point finally got her realizing that she was previously pursuing was clearly not working for her and decided to make some changes. She doesn't regret making these changes, but in the process something else had changed. She felt it, but she was contemplating whether there was an effect in the success of thrill-seeking that she oh so desired. Her symbol of hope, the caricature of her own existence that was defining purpose in her life. Within the search she would bind herself to a stature of maturity and appropriate front thoughts, abstaining from humiliating acts that she'd only deem so once she looked back to it, regretting it, then going all for the change. Why? Because she had to.The breaking of the chains proceeded the pop in her life. There was something, odd...peculiar...she remained adamant but the curious nature of it was plaguing her thoughts. She shoved it away, as she'd always have these things. She dared not to call them doubts, but they were of a mysterious line, a chink, a clasp...unreadable, unreachable, unseen, unheard. Due to the fact that she did not understand she did not prod herself into further, in case she would get stuck and unable to find her way back. Amy Rose. The blood that ran down her pretty red dress, her uncanny stare smiled at her, holding her stomach, more blood seeped through the stained gloves. Was the unnameable thing trying to contact her? She pushed it aside once more, needing to be focused at all costs. She could do it, however it would leak...and the leaking was getting far worse than she'd initially imagined. She'd consulted in Big Mama for these...hallucinations as Big Mama called it. Maybe, but it would nag at her constantly...like a forgotten memory. Big Mama stuffed her full of drugs that would block these nagging instances. Olly was strong because she was...the drugs helped her restrain it, but otherwise the power of her will alone was built on faith, determination and loyalties.Where she had gotten this from was not at all hard to guess. Witnessing the once honorable Hedgehogs feats, a relative had told her that these were important. Not that Olly was highly religious, faith intertwined with trust and instinct. But faith was a nicer sounding word. Determination was another biggie. Without it, the world would have perished a long time ago.She swung her hammer about in her hand as they wandered to a random coliseum like arena, complete with Carbrute spectators cheering on, their roars almost deafening Prince Hayden walked beside her, spine straight as he strolled. He wondered if she was having second thoughts. Second thoughts never ever crossed her mind during this time. She was out to enjoy herself. And out to win.Settling into the sandy ridges, standing before an overly confident chieftain, Olly knew no fear, despite his stature and general meanness. The crowd cheered and roared, failing in their intimidation of the brave Agent. Hayden sat with them, with his arms crossed with a stern look upon his face."Let's get this over and done with..." Muttered Olly.The battle was over before it started, much to the dismay of the Carbrutes, the surprise of Prince Hayden and the knock out of the unconscious Chieftain. She withdrew her hammer, disappointed that this wasn't a challenge at all. The Imperial Guards picked up and took the Chieftain away. One of the Carbrutes yelled out for her name, Prince Hayden standing up for her, preventing her from speaking."She is Agent Mjöllnir of the Femme Fatalex, gracious warrior of the Earth Realm!" Hayden called out."You know the rules! Defeating the Carbrute Cheiftain means you are in control of the Clan. From whence forth, you will bow down to Agent Mjöllnir!"The crowd looked at one another, taking about a minute for it to sink in. Hayden looked at Olly and nodded at her, much to her own realization of what he was doing. Suddenly they all cheered for Olly, and called out her name in synonymous rants.They headed back to the tent and encountered a recovering battle combatant, tending to his wounds. He looked up at her and sneered. Prince Hayden came forth, reminding the Ex-Chieftain of the long forgotten rules of Clan Usurpation. The Chieftain nodded, and shooed away his doctors and sat up in his chair."You fight valiantly." He praised. "We most honor our ways. I've lead my clan long enough. Welcome Chieftain!"Olly smirked and leaned on one leg. "Thank you. May I ask for you name?"The former Chieftain nodded. "My name is Thork, son of Tartarus." He answered.Olly rubbed her hands together. This was going a lot nicer than she had imagined...It took Prince Hayden to explain the Carbrutes questionable intelligence and told Olly that every resident of the Tetherstorm were born with Tether Knowledge, they weren't so much into the knowledge on how their clans worked. With Thorks words, Hayden went on further to say that Thork had not been opposed since he originally took over the clan a long time ago. Made sense to Olly, in any case.The first orders of business was that Olly made Thork her second-in-command, relaying her orders to her desire. Prince Hayden assisted her in refurbishing the system of the clan itself. With his defeat, She kindly asked him to get the Cyan Emerald for him. He gladly got it out of his robes and handed it over to Olly, who nodded and put it away. He gave her his hammer, but she shook her head and let him keep it. She needs him to be the Vice Chieftain and keep their warriors in check. Nodding, she could see the point Haydens statement, their brains most likely filled rage and honor...their beastial brains unable to filter as quickly. Not mattering, she asked him to send out his warriors to find her team mates. Obliging, Thork got up and left to do so, leaving Olly with Hayden alone in the Chieftains tent."When he gets back, I want to ask him a few questions. " She said. "I heard him mention before about hammerspace..."Hayden nodded. "Indeed. Although, from what I hear, and have read...that this place is hammerspace..."Olly raised an eyebrow. "How can you be so sure?"Hayden shrugged. "I don't know...I'm just telling you what I have heard and read. The ramifications need to taken from those who know it best."Olly put her elbow on the arm rest of the throne as she sat down and pressed her head on her knuckles and tapped her fingers. Hayden moaned on how he never got to do that, considering how he'll never live to be king...then started singing woefully, using the lyrics from a song that originated on a animated movie about lions...suggested he was waiting for years to be King of the Rosoideae race. Olly facepalmed and comically zapped the sad Prince with the tip of her index finger. He snapped out of it and stood up straight, saluting to Olly, who sighed with disbelief.Thork came back, announcing he had sent several search and rescue squads, with Olly pleased with the work. She changed her mind. Turning to Prince Hayden instead and whispered something into his ear. Nodding, Hayden took Thork elsewhere, leaving Olly alone by herself to think.She started thinking about her poor team mates, somewhere lost in this abyss. But then again, they were Agents and were trained to deal with these situations. But she was right to be outright concerned for them, for they were not just associates but friends as well. She felt depressed on not searching for them herself. But she left the task to the experts who owned this realm and thus would have the skills to find them a lot faster than if Olly did it all by herself. She could hear the everlasting wind outside and the fires that were lit inside. Suddenly her neck started warming up again, Olly suspecting something was near as she shot up. She didn't like the Imperial Guards inside, using their resources elsewhere so she could remain in peace. Something whisked up around her, her heart tightening in anticipation. She readied her hammer, scanning the tent for the next sudden movement that wasn't a tent flap whipping about. Hearing footsteps, she spun around, her Smish Smasher in her hands. But nothing was there as she starting walking back, then bumped into something, forcing her to spin around and gasp."Sonic!" Said Olly. "What are you doing here?"Sonic, in his horrific, extremely dark blue it was almost black, solid spectral form had his shoulders slouched over, his white eyes staring Olly down as smoke rose from his spikes. His usually bladed hand was not there, just the disgusting organic remnants of a seemingly corrupted gauntlet. His breathing was irregular and harsh, fogbreath emanating from his mouth."I am warning you to leave Prince Hayden here." He replied. "You can rescue the others, but he has to stay."Olly looked up. At least he wasn't attempting to be melodramatic."Any specific reason why?" Olly questioned.Sonic looked around. "It's too dangerous out there."Olly subconsciously gathered up the pieces, some of them falling into the right places. She had to reassure herself."Morpheus...he's an old friend of Haydens. He sent him here to be protected. Why?"Sonic slunked away. "Morpheus has a plan against Abbadonia that involves Hayden. And here is what is important. The Chieftain you beat up...Thork, has knowledge of the ages guiding the ways of the Tetherstorms. Unfortunately, Abbadonia knows this as well, courtesy of the mole Lilith. We don't need Hayden dying on us right now."Olly walked forward. "Maybe we can help protect him for you..."Sonic shook his head. "No. Morpheus insists that he stays here."Olly was skeptical. "Oooh kay...so you knew we were here?"Sonic looked back at here. "...I watched your battle with Liliths Legions. I informed Morpheus of this and he explained that Lilith was intending to you come here and rescue the Prince and bring him back out. Then possibly capture him with the chance of killing him quite high."Olly tilted her head. "Have you told Hayden this?"Sonic sighed. "Not yet...once our plan gets into action...Hayden will understand...but we need more time to-"Olly knew what was coming next. "Morpheus never fully explained what the plan was did he?"Sonic nervously laughed. "Uh...no..."Olly facepalmed. Honestly, Morpheus was just as bad as GUN when it came to the need to now basis crap. One devils hand for another.A ruffling of the tent flaps forced Sonic to vanish within a split second. Olly knew there was still some good left in him, regardless of what he had done. Time will tell...and with Olly's faith, he would be back to normal eventually. The case as to when was ambigious...but it was going to happen. Hayden came back in with Thork."I have some good news...and some bad news..." Said Thork."Give me the bad news...at least the good news might cheer me up after it." Olly joked.Hayden nodded. "The bad news is that they've been captured by the Harpnoirs..."Olly sat up. "Hmm...okay...give me the good news then."Thork scratched his head. "We found your friends."Olly sighed.Thork explained the all female Harpnoirs, the scavengers of the Tetherstorms. Where the Carbrutes rule, the Harpnoirs were the ravaging, messy flock of flying warrior women, out to snatch and eat any living thing that comes their way. They tend to resort to cannibalism if they have to. They tend to leave carcasses rotting away, covered by the dust and sands and eventually fading into the energies of the land itself. They eventually turn those they eaten into more Harpnoirs, who consume the souls and lay the eggs at some point, earning a disgusting whine from Olly. She ordered Thork to take her there to the nests, which Thork noted that they were extremely dangerous and usually recommend the Chieftain to stay where they were. Olly had none of it, taking hold of the situation herself.Olly noticed Hayden had a fancy new sword for himself but didn't ask about it. They walked across the windy, dusty plains of the forever flattened lands of the Tetherstorms. Thork had brought several of his proudest warriors with him as they rendezvous towards what Thork described as the Harpic Rocks Zone, tall rocks with dead trees sprouting out and hundreds and hundreds of nests. These Harpnoirs were a yellowish tinged black, sporting glowing stripes from both their shoulders, down their chests and abs and down the thighs, their tongues long, talons long and sharp on both their wings and feet, and snake like and their screeches as horrible as a hundred people scratching black boards. Their wings were massive, their feathers having glowing bright yellow spots. Their eyes sneering a unhealthy gold colour, and hair that determined their importance to the flock. Thork noted that if you see any Harpnoir of a different glow colour, that they held rank and often sat up higher on the rocky construct than the rest of their lower tiered brethren. The blue ones were Noir Witches, while the Red ones resorted to using fire power in the form of flamethrowers were Noir Pyros...albeit they usually have masks on and their screeches are muffled as a result. Their leader, the Noir Queen, was a deathly purple, had the longest, albeit dreaded hair, encrusted with scavenged jewelery and gives birth to Pink Harpnoirs known as the Noir Seraphs, protectors and future Noir Queens. Olly was interested, but her concerns dwelled on saving her team mates first.After several hours of roaming, they made it to the Harpic Rocks Zone, and they were just as Thork described. Towering pile of rocks that's height reaches up passed the small amount of light they portrayed, nests are high as they could see...of course that was up a cliff of course, far from offending perpetrators. Olly cursed under her breath, then watched as Hayden reached out his hand, which was in a grabbing position, suddenly blue-white spectral orbs came out of nowhere reaching into his palm. He started muttering something, before they all started to form a staircase from where they then to the edge of the cliff, leaving Olly dumbfounded."Woah..." She said. Hayden nodded."The spirits lie here in this place and have the ability to be reborn...into what they need to be." The Prince explained.This prompted a strange response from Olly."Wait, so you just reincarnated a bunch of dead people into a staircase?"Hayden rolled his eyes. "...No..." He replied. "I told you before, the spirits of my people will not rest until Abbadonia is defeated. They will continue to listen and dedicate themselves to their last piece of Rosoideae. Under the banner, they are in my command in the Realm of near Infinite Possibilities..."Olly just put that as ancient mumbo jumbo and said it was magic...though that was probably what it was. Shrugging it off, they headed up the spiritually made stairs and into the heartland of the Harpnoirs.It was eery, with the occasional squawk sent waving down, They headied the warnings of Thork and snuck around the rocky construct as they law low, seeing several of the long-ranking Harpnoirs flying about. Making it through the dust, they eventually got around the rocky construct itself, and saw a ring of rectangular rocks, with three cages held up in the air with poles, their squarish cages swinging. Several low-rank Harpnoirs surrounded them and spoke with one another whilst Olly and her temp crew snuck up on them."Dah! They'sss make me hungry!" One of them complained."I know...I shall feastsss upon their liversss!" Claimed anotherA third one slapped both of them. "You stupid corgorgsss!" She said."We must waitsss for the Queen...dah! She's coming down real soon..."They licked their lips in sequence. Olly wasn't going to wait any longer, until she got pulled out by Thork."Never get between a Noir Queen and it'ssss..prey..." He explained.Olly grunted. "I'm not going to let them eat my team! What do you suppose we should do then hm?"Prince placed his hand on her shoulder. "Calm down...he knows this place more than we. We should listen to him."Olly was growing impatient, but wanted to know how to get them back. She was going to make a retort to it, but was stopped by a large swoop of purple wings, feathers molting and drifting away with the winds as the Noir Queen made it's appearance. Similar to Thorks description, her wingspan was massive, and she herself was very tall as she pressed her bottom talons in the sands. Her long hair was in hundreds of dreads, the longest reaching towards the back of her knees. She held a makeshift crown, looking like it was stitched together as if to portray herself as the Empress of the Scavengers. Her face, unlike the others, was a near pale lavender, her glowing stripes accompanied by broken glowing lines on both sides. She sniffed them all, with Neptune flailing about the most. Olly could hear Drainer and Bazza trying to calm them him down, with several of the Yellow Harpnoirs using spears and smacking them against his cage to shut him up."Sisterrrrs..." Said the Noir Queen. "We appear to havesss a straggler...but...he doesss not havess flesh to contain...all metal and water..."Olly blinked. Wait? Metal and water? Surely..."Olly..." Said Hayden. "What is Neptune?"Olly looked on, confused. "I have no idea...""DAH!" Cooed one of the Yellows. "I could dosss with a drink no?"The Queen whacked back her warrior. "NO!" She scolded. "I sensssse...the water is...not for drinking...for if you dosss...you will cassst into corpsessss soon enough...""YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Roared Bazza, who rocked her cage about. "You lay a finger on him and..."The Noir Queen turned her attention to the enraged Agent and grinned."You smell...nicccce...perhapsss...you shall becomesss the firssst to sassstify our hunger."Bazza lifted her mouth plate and spat at the leading Harpnoir. "Taste that! Bitch...!"The Queen pulled off one of her feathers and wiped the spit off her face."Feisssty..." She commented, snarling her fangs."Get her outsss of the cage...now..."Neptune kept raggling his cage, Drainer calling out her associates name. But Bazza was not afraid. The Yellows opened up the cage, and at the flick of a claw, a Noir Witch flew down. Bazza burst out, splitting her Bazooka in half into the Baz Guns and shot at the Yellows, who disappated at the blasts, forcing the Queen to screech at her Witches, as the blue Harpnoirs murmured something under theirs breaths, a blue mist covering the Agent and forcing her to sleep, dropping her weapons. One of the surviving Yellows picked up her Baz Guns and examined them."My Queen..." Said the Yellow. "Whatsss shall we dosss with theeeesee?"The Queen snatched the Guns out of her hands. "Theysss treasssure sisssterrr...place it in my nessst..."The Yellow snarled, flying up to the top of the Harpic Rocks with the duo Baz Guns. Bazza, now unconscious, lay on the ground before the two hungry avians. The Witch shuffled beside her."Outsiderrrsss my Queen..." The Witch mocked. "Ssssoooo...foolish..."The Queen cackled. "Dah...wesss shall escorts her to my nessst...she will become quite the treatsss..."The Witch looked at the others. "Whatsss about these?"The Queen grinned. "Help yourself my sisssterrr...the smaller one looksss...tenderrr..."The Witch clasped her top talons together. "Certainly..."She watched as her Queen clasped Bazzas body in her bottom talons and flapped her wings as she headed back to her nest. Now alone with Neptune and Drainer, she opened up her cage and forced her on the ground. She attempted to take off her helmet, before Drainer backlashed and flipped back wards in response, taking out her Blades and spinning them in her hands, whilst staring down the witch.The Witch herself cast a spell, but Drainer absorbed the toxins into her blades, shooting them off towards the Witch, forcing her to fall asleep as a result. Drainers next move was to open Neptunes cage and take him out. Thork gave the ahead to shuffle on over, much to Drainers surprise as she and Neptune went into battle positions, but at the sight of Olly and Prince Hayden, they were relieved."Agent Mjöllnir!" Drainer called out. Neptune came first, and tackle hugged the Captain to the ground as he rubbed his helmet against hers."Well, I'm glad to see you too Neptune..." She said, smirking underneath.Shoving him off and standing back up. Olly was glad Drainer was okay, but informed her that she had seen Bazza being brought up to the Queens Nest. Thork spoke once more about getting in between a Noir Queen and it's prey and how much of a bad idea it was."Don't worry, I'm not gonna let her eat Bazza if it's the last thing I do!"They all climbed the rocks with careful surveillance of their surroundings, watching their steps in consideration. Olly was near puking when the stench of rotten flesh was found in one of the large nests. Keeping their climbs, they wandered up to the top without much trouble, most of the Harpnoirs flying about, too busy eating to notice or were asleep. Some dealt with young. Others just weren't paying attention. According to Thork, the scent of fresh blood often sets them off, with the witches left to deal with insane hungers with a simple to dislodge them from scratching one another, or else they would start eating each other. Wandering on, they eventually got up to the top, the Queens nest the largest of them all, Peering over the twing and junk winding nest fence, The Queen was just about to use her lower talon to tear into Bazzas suit. Olly couldn't stand it. Without delay she jumped into the fray, slamming her talon away from Bazza, the Queens screech almost deafening."HOW...DARE...YOU..." The Noir Queen roared. Olly could see the rage melding in her violet glowing eyes. She attempted to swipe Olly, who dodged out of the way just in time. She grabbed hold of Bazzas body on the way around and threw it to Thork who caught her. The Queen swept up a storm of epic proportions. Olly called out to the others to run off now before it was too late. Flipping backwards to avoid another swipe, The Queen fired razor sharp feathers at Olly, who smacked them about, twirling like a tornado to both dodge and blow them away. She bolted forward, skidded underneath her talon and jumped up into the air, smashing the Queens face, forcing another screech. It went silent for the moment, The Queen touching her cheek and tasting it, then freaked out with another scream as hundreds of Yellows zoomed up and charged at their queen, not caring about any probable logic...they were hungry!However, due to the sheer thickness and amount of the Yellows charging, no Blues or Reds could protect them from their savagery. Seeing Bazzas Baz Guns in the distance, she rolled underneath the Queen and pulled them out from piles of random junk and started shooting at each Yellow who came towards her. Running out of ammo, she withdrew the guns into her hammerspace and brought out the Smish Smasher. Getting off her back, she started slamming each one that came her way. Back-flipping and pounding them, she couldn't believe the sheer amount that were coming through. The Noir Pyros breathed fire upon them, whilst the witches casted spells. Olly ran for her life, striking down any of the Yellows whom she came across. Time slowed down, as Sonic came bursting out of nowhere with his hand sword extending, stabbing the Queen into the chest, and seemingly absorbing the energies of the Queen. In a second click, he pulled it out and let the Yellows have their way. Within a split second, he charged at Olly, pulled her up and out of the slaughter as well as summoning wings on his back, getting rid of the handsword and picking up the rest of the crew, minus Thork and his warriors, who were dead. Neptune jumped on Sonic's back as he picked up Bazzas body, with Drainer grabbing hold of Olly's hand. Flying away, Olly looked back at The Queens screeching grew louder, then grew soft, eventuating into near silence, except for the garbles and rips into her body, her own sisters eating her.Sonic flew them back to the Encampment, Hayden surprised at Sonic's strange appearance. Sonic had to excuse them for a moment, whilst dragging Olly into the Chieftains tent to have a chat.He forced her to sit down, whilst he paced around the tent, thinking hard. Olly tried to thank him, but he brushed it off as nothing more than a crucial saving of needed lives. He needed her to get out of here as soon as possible."Despite you being part of one of my enemies..." Sonic said. "You, Bazza, Drainer and Neptune are the only ones I can trust...and...Chaos forbid Amy's current mentality."Olly rose an eyebrow underneath. "...What's wrong?"Sonic placed his hands on his temples, lowered his head and shook it."I...I dunno...she wanted to read my tarots and I said no...I wanted to know what she was sacrificing herself for...then she told me that she wasn't the one I should be speaking to about that...and refused to leave me until she had done my cards...again..."How...strange. Although she could agree this Amy was acting far weirder than anticipated, especially what she had seen lately. She'd consult Shadow on the matter, but didn't want to see his reaction towards it, knowing it would be...unpleasant."What kind of cards?" Olly wondered.Sonic pulled out three cards and threw them on the floor before Olly, who leaned over to look at them.The Hermit...The Wheel of Fortune...The Hanged Man...the three cards that were displayed before her. Olly couldn't admit to what she knew as she shrugged in her ignorance. She sensed there was a redemptious notion in works for him. The good heart of Sonic was somewhere in deep within the barrage of despair, his head having altercations with his heart."You must leave now." He announced, his wings spreading out."You and the others. I will create the portal, but you must give me the Emeralds you have on you. I need them."Olly tapped her foot. "Morpheus going to use them in some sort of obscure plot is he?"Sonic looked away. "I d...dunno. Look, just give me the Emeralds okay? Don't make me hurt you!"Olly chuckled, obviously knowing Sonic wouldn't dare lay a finger on her in that regard. If his attitude towards her usually was the same in relation to all those who he cares for, he won't do it. Sonic the Hedgehog does not work that way, even if he's on the otherside...or on another side for that matter."It's not funny! Give me them!"Olly walked forward and pressed her hands on his paranoid-tense shoulders. In all his current madness, he needed a proper heart to heart. As she opened up her mouth, a portal warped in on its own, the two looking at one another, non-verbally saying each other did not do that. Light poured out of it, enveloping them both and sending them elsewhere as their consciousness faded...Olly awoke in a beach like paradise, in the middle of some island. It looked and felt real enough, with grass between her synthetic gloved fingers, the air fresh, the sun digging deep through the leather/spandex suit and into the hearth of her body, Olly wondered if this was some sort of place that the Tetherstorm randomly sends people. She stood up from where she was and looked around. Chirping birds and the like. She saw Bazza and Drainer laying around as well, but no Neptune. She tried waking the two up, Bazza still out and slightly injured. Drainer woke up, and theorized that they were on Angel Island from the energy signatures that she was receiving. She picked Bazzas tall body up from the ground as they went to go see if Knuckles was at the shrine.Arriving, they could see Knuckles speaking with a tall green crocodile, who looked distressed. Neptune was over there as well, sitting next to him. He saw the girls and waved to them, then signaled for them to come over as quickly as they can. Knuckles and Vector looked at them as they came around, surprised at their sudden appearance."Woah...what are you guys doin' here?" Vector asked in his Brooklyn accent.Drainer placed Bazzas body in front of the Master Emerald, Vector looking over her."What happened to her?" Knuckles asked, scanning as well."Battle...big battle." Olly replied. She turned to the distressed Vector."She'll be fine. My concern is why you're in tears..."Vector paid his attention back to Olly. "Uh...well...you see...I was just at home with Cream and Gemerl...when Espio called me up to head down to the office, saying his crew had found somethin' interesting in Sakura. Gemerl is usually a pretty good babysitter, and Vanilla was...well, she called me several hours ago and said she was going to be home late...so I was like, okay, no problem. So off I went to go see Espio. He says his Chief had some of his best Ninjas in the Garden of Rosales, and they encountered the Fox God investigatin' the Prophet's Temple."Olly nodded, knowing this Fox God seemed to be appearing a lot more lately."He lead the Ninjas to a plane of sorts. Then said an Agent of GUN would have a set of keys to fly it. Then vanished into thin air."Olly froze. The Fox God was referring to her, and if it weren't for Vector, she would have almost completely forgot about them. She was trying to picture the plane, but her memory failed her. She'd been there several times with her team mates, but usually it was within the limits of the Garden, not in the field itself so she didn't really see any planes or what not. But from Vectors gathering of events, there was something else he was stressing about."So what was wrong? The plane in the middle of ancient ground scare you?" Olly inquired.Vector rubbed his head. "It was afterwards. I told Espio we would have a look into it tomorrow. So I headed off home...but Cream, Cheese and Gemerl weren't there. I searched everywhere! But I couldn't find them!"Vector whelped as Knuckles patted his friends back. "Don't worry, I'm sure Sonic will find them..."Knuckles assured.Olly's heart sank as Knuckles looked at her."By the way, have you heard from that blue hackysack?" He askedOlly shook her head. "No...I haven't." She lied.Although at this point, she might as well be upfront on where she had been."We were busy in another dimension...and..."
BOOOOOOOOM!
All tried to get their balance as the island shook. Bazza had woken up and mistook her current location."Agent Bazooka are you alright?" Asked Drainer as she wandered over to her team mate as Bazza sat on the step, smoke streaming up from the barrel of her weapon."...Yeah...sorry..." She said sadly. She looked at Vector as her back leaned over."I woke up to hear your daughter was possibly kidnapped. I have a child. Therefore, I know the importance!" She announced, punching her fist into the air, then arching over in pain, Bazza forgetting her sore shoulder.Vector huddled on over to assist her, with Neptune confused and staring at Knuckles for some reason. Olly lowered her head as she tried to think. First off, who kidnapped Cream and Co. and secondly, why. She wasn't even sure what day it was either, as the Agent piqued interest into the way time flies inside the Tetherstorms. She looked over to see Bazza shoving Vector off, him yelling at her due to the fact he was only trying to help."Pain is an unavoidable side effect." She claimed. "But it doesn't stop me from my job!"Vector facepalmed. "Bah!" He grunted, standing up. "Have it your way...but don't come cryin' to me when it gets worse."Bazza sneered at him."Look guys..." Said Olly. "We can head back to HQ and speak with Commander Shadow as well as having a meeting..."She turned to Vector. She understood they were rather iffy with working with GUN, but as Private Investigators, they were invaluable."There is a way you can help us..."Bazza grumbled on the way back, due to the fact she had left the Jetcopter in Soleanna. They had to shove themselves in Vectors old and busted hovercar. Bazza insisted he get a one, that was of a new hotness. She even offered Vector to look inside a catalogue and was deliberately pointed out Old and busted, and new hotness of the hovercars. Vector swatted the catalogue away and flew them to Grand Metropolis. Knuckles had offered to keep an eye on things, as well as getting Olly to tell Sonic to call or drop in when he can next time she sees him. Olly obliged, not going to break his promise. But otherwise the flight back was ordinary...mostly less.They arrived back at the Branch, Bazza gone to go patch herself up with the new doctor then headed to the meeting room. Vector had picked up Charmy and Espio along the way, with Charmy adamant that he would help in any way possible. Shrugging, they sat around with Shadow and Omega sitting in the back. Upon Vector asking where Bat girl Rouge was, Shadow said she wasn't well, with Olly full on knowing why she was there, but was glad Shadow kept things to himself. Not really caring, he leaned back, Bazza making a snippy remark about how Vector likes broads."For your information I have a wife who I love very much!" Vector retorted."Good for your wife! She probably married you out of pity!" Bazza barraged."Enough you two!" Olly yelled. She turned to Shadow and explained the situation with Cream and Gemerl. He nodded politely, absorbing the data that was given."This was random..." Said Shadow. "Who do you believe is behind all this?""THOSE TERRORISTS!" Charmy screeched, banging his fists on the table.Olly shook her head. "I doubt it. I mean, they've killed thousands of people in these attacks, and yet, why would they go to all the trouble to kidnap a kid?""Bugger if I know..." Said Vector. "I haven't even told Vanilla yet! She's gonna be so mad at me...""Serves you right..." Said Bazza. "I hope she berates you!""Guys that's enough!" Olly called out.Shadow lifted his head. "I forgot to ask about your expedition to Soleanna earlier. I was told that Big Mama needed all Commanders assistance on a kind of assimilation operation."Olly sighed. She explained what had happened, the situation with Princess Elise had escalated to heightened, new scary levels that surprised Shadow himself."I had no idea." Said Shadow. "I'll have to report that to Big Mama as soon as I can. For now I need Neptune's help."Neptunes head lifted at the sound of his codename and tilted it slightly. Shadow nodded, prompting Neptune to come to his side."I am going to have a word with Neptune for a moment. For the rest of you, meet up with me and Big Mama in about ten minutes."For what ever Shadow needed, he also had Omega help out as well. From what Olly understood and from an assumption for when both Omega and Neptune exited Shadow's office, they had an assignment to deal with. She also thought of Omega not really needing someone else unless it was either Shadow or Rouge or both. She was told E-123 didn't like other robots, seeing them as competition. She then remembered it was mainly Eggman robots so then he didn't care. Actually, Olly had no idea what Neptune was. She placed it all under the GUN Logic 'Need to know basis' and went on to the TR Centre as per order. Shadow and Big Mama soon entered as she had them all stand up straight in front of her big black chair as she sat in it."Okay...so I had gotten the message of Agent Hyperias turning of the other cheek. I got my intel officers to check out Soleanna and it turns out, from satellite footage that she's transformed it within a matter of hours. We don't know the body count, and we don't know if Commander Hawkins or any GUN Operatives survived. Since you mentioned that you agents were there and the consequence of another mole, namely Lilith, I heard a mention of a kind of otherwordly battle...then being sucked into the Tetherstorms. Is this correct?"Olly nodded. "Yes Big Mama. We had gotten into the Tetherstorms...then eventually got out and landed on Angel Island, where we met up with Vector and Knuckles."Big Mama nodded. "I see. That leaves out a few hours. What were you doing in the Tetherstorms?"Olly wasn't sure if she should tell her about Prince Hayden. She would be bamboozled with extreme vocals if she told her that she left him there. Then again, it was better for her to find out now then later."We found Prince Hayden." Said Olly.Shadow turned his head to Olly. "You did?" He asked, desperate.Olly nodded. "Unfortunately it was just his body. I'm guessing he died in the atmosphere. I found the Cyan Chaos Emerald on him we used that combined with the power of another Emerald to make a portal...then Mr. Thorn shows up and steals the Emeralds off me."Big Mama's lip twitched. "Gah...no matter...Mr. Thorn will be hunted and executed accordingly. Don't you worry.""Yes Big Mama." Said Olly, as she felt the stares of everyone in the room."But what about Cream and Gemerl?" Vector cried out. "I need to save them!"Big Mama rolled her eyes. "Yes...we were getting to that. The Rabbit and the Robot. However, they are not our top priorities at the moment. We need to set a nuke to Soleanna and...""WHAT?" They all yelled in sync.Big Mama turned to her intel officers and gave them the nod. On the holograms on the grid, several images and 3D renders implemented themselves on display. It was a thermo image, displaying high temperature areas situated around the castle and town areas."Eggman has a knack for Fast Food versions of building gigantic cities in his image, swarmed with tonnes of his stupid robots to do his bidding. I fear the plantation of the Abbadonia Rose might be destroyed."Bazza was furious at this point, and with Big Mamas last statement almost cracked it completely. Olly could sense the heat from the infuriated mother and the creaming step-father. Olly needed to be the cool headed player as she nodded to Espio, who could sense it just as well."It's too risky. Another Agent gone rogue isn't going to pend well with the Governments. Besides, Soleanna was a hell hole to begin with. Once the radiation is filtered out, we can rebuild it."Big Mama said proudly, which continued to sicken Bazza."We need to rescue to the citizens first. Their lives are our priority first." Said Olly, wanting to calm several parties down.Big Mama tapped her chin, thinking. "Soleanna never had a proper underground piping system like Westopolis and Central City. It's going to be hard to get them out of there. And since we've lost contact with the GUN Branch there, we've almost got no hope of survivors."Out of the corner of Olly's eye, she could see Bazza tensing up worse than ever. Olly feared Bazza was going to absolutely lose it if she didn't do something about it."I'll go find Commander Hawkins first. If Hawkins and Elise were close, we can bet she hasn't killed them yet." Olly suggested.Big Mama brought out a cigarette. "You seem to have the confidence in the weaker aspects of this organization. What do you have in mind Agent?"Olly nodded. Finally with some proactive behavior she could get something done that didn't resort to such drastic measures."We could infiltrate and find out where Hawkins could be imprisoned..." Olly called out.Before Big Mama could reply, one of the Intel Officers called out as a projected screen started flashing in black and yellow repeatedly. She made a subtle hand and head gesture, the Intel Officer sitting back down and answering a call, another large screen displaying someone in a red suit, cast in shadows with Metal Sonic by their side. It wasn't Eggman, for the mystery person was far too skinny to be him. It could only be one person."Princess Elise." Muttered Drainer.The traitorous Princess laughed. Even in the darkness, one could tell her wear was similar to Eggmans. She had a new cybernetic arm covered up by the rather memetic outfit and a pair of new legs covered by knee high heeled boots."Ahh I am glad to have gotten hold of you all." Said Elise, intertwining her fingers."This has gotten far better and been better than I expected. I never realized how much fun this was."Big Mama stood up and stood firmly in front the black table, staring down the daughter of evil."Save it bitch. What happened to operatives?"Elise swirled her head around, cracking her neck. She seemed somewhat mental upon Olly's observation of her accounting body language. Odd, twisted sort of thing. The inflectional and revelations must have warped her mind slightly. Poor girl probably didn't know what she was doing."They're...safe and sound. However, none of them were worthy enough to try out an invention I've been doing..." She said, her tone of voice giving off vibrato, giving Olly the vibe of Elise's current sanity...or lack thereof."I needed a...um...a mobian...unfortunately the ones that I were interested in, weren't quite cooperative in actually being captured...fickle as it may be. So I got the next best person! As well as her little friend!"She nodded to Metal Sonic, who subsequently left and returned holding Cream and Cheese in his hands, both unconscious."CREAM! CHEESE!" Vector yelled."YOU...BITCH." Bazza said, almost to the edge.Elise laughed, annoying the hell out of everyone. "Don't worry, it's more like a present to my father as to say, thanks for helping me. Despite ME not knowing this until just recently, my life has a lot more meaning...and for what better to try and impress my father, is to make a crude invention that will rival his own...maybe even better him somewhat...but don't worry, I will have my lucky rabbits foot soon enough!"BOOOOOOM!Steam rose from the barrel of Bazza's bazooka, destroying part of the massive near theatre hall sized projectors in front of the bridge. All eyes turned to the infuriated Agent, with Vector already barraging her."What the hell are you trying to do, kill us?" He barked."Shut the fuck up Vector!" Cried Bazza, surprising everyone, besides Big Mama who inhaled her cigarette."Bazza..." Olly muttered, trying, but failing to calm her coworker down."No Olly, you listen. You, me and Drainer will go down there okay? I know you want to kick this Cutthroat Bitch's arse as much as I do..." Bazza complied.Olly looked at Big Mama, who didn't seem phased by Bazzas sudden rampage."Go then if you must. Save the rabbit and the thing...but you will have until 9 PM until I nuke the area."Bazza grabbed Olly and Drainer without delay and dragged them out of the TR Centre. Vector had red on his face, with Espio and Charmy following him as he chased the Femme Fatalex to the air pad. Upon arrival at the spare Jetcopter, Vector could see Bazza jumping into the cockpit. He pulled her out and pushed her against the side of the Jetcopter, with friends and associates looking on, but not acting, aware of the wrath that be wrought on any of them."What is with you?" Vector scolded. "This is my step-daughter! You shouldn't have to worry about this as much as I, or my wife do!"Bazza glared down at him. Olly had never seen Bazza so vicious and wallowing in fury before. She gathered she had a kinship with any child, regardless if it was hers or not. She was reminded of how Cream seemed to like Bazzas company, which Bazza took with disbelief, but didn't seem to mind at all, more than happy than to take her under her wing. She was also adopting a kid as well...proving her love can extend far beyond blood. The two continued to bicker with one another, Olly taking in the strength to butt in, regardless if she got whacked by any of them."Guys! If you're going to be angry at least use it against the enemy and not each other. Vector, we could use your teams expertise over there so you all jump in as well." Said Olly, forcing the two apart with her hands. She was glad to get a compromise out of this as well.Bazza whacked Olly's hand away, keeping a close eye on Vector as she swirled around his sarcastic and arrogant vibe, jumping in the cockpit and slamming the door. Vector gave a simple hand gesture to Espio and Charmy as they got in as well. Drainer closed those doors as they prepared themselves to head over to Soleanna...The trip over was silent. Olly pondered in deepened thoughts, much like Big Mama. Vector slunked over with a grudging look on his face, whilst Espio and Charmy looked nervous. Drainer sat contently, in her all generous stoic nature. This time Olly focused on the aspects of the mission. Flying over near the outskirts of Soleanna, they could see how much had changed in such short time. Elise must have been planning this for quite some time, despite Soleanna not having an underground last-resort system due to the kingdoms heritage listed and protected sites. But, as Elise now royalty plus daughter of supervillian, and now delved into despair and possibly insanity, she assumed it would be a combination of sorts. But gathering the signs, the meetings with Eggman in the dungeons and him getting her to talk about herself...it started combine into a neat little package that Eggman must have been planning all along. If it weren't for Bazzas ruthless rush to get in and save Cream and Co., she would have looked at the documents before hand. Not that it would get anywhere, since such records would most likely be elsewhere other than GUN. She turned to Vector, hoping to get the obvious stressing Step-father to place his mind on constructive matters."Vector..." She started. "How deep can you get into finding out the truth behind Elise's conception?"Vector's head lifted, staring normally at Olly. "Hmm...not sure...why do you ask?"Olly nodded. They spoke about how the reasons behind it, and the organizations that might find some answers. Vector mumbled with his team for the moment, before finding the perfect idea."If Elise hasn't changed the castle much, we might be able to get into the library." Said Vector.Espio crossed his arms. "They will have family trees and most likely documents surrounding what you're looking for."Charmy was just darn confused at the word, conception. Unfortunately, Vector had his own straight forward priorities."You guys can do that. We'll look for Cream, Cheese and Gemerl if he's still around. Vanilla adores him like a real son." He suggested.Olly sighed. She wanted to treat this like a serious mission. Abiding by policy was easy, but when it worked with people like Vector, who only had eyes for a single task, it gave some trouble, especially when they're not registered with GUN. It was in her curious mind that wanted to get answers behind. Whether it be files, or either Elise or Eggman's call to speak about it. Although, it would most likely be better with Eggman himself. If they fail to attain the documents, then recapturing Eggman was the way to go. At least Olly made herself think to give herself more options to a solution, to which she was glad for. Now she had to keep an eye out for everyone else, as Captain. However, she knew Vector was leader of the Chaotix, she prayed that the two leaders ideas for saving didn't clash with one another. She conversed with him, giving him the basics of the commanding situation. She was unable to give pause and proper thought towards the very hostile relationship between Vector and Bazza, clashing parent values at that. Olly worded to Vector was attached to Cream herself, saying she is a very kind girl and that Vector should be proud and lucky to have such a step daughter. Vector was brought to tears by that statement alone, Olly apologizing for what she said. Espio and Charmy comforting him, Espio looking at Olly without words, saying to her to not worry about it.It was intriguing to Olly herself, for Vector to have so much love for family. He had the Chameleon and the Bee, who were like younger brothers for him but thus, weren't blood related. She wondered, as such, about the mystics of close relationships, the bond that was shared throughout the Chaotix was extraordinary. And with the rabbits and the robot into the mix, it made it more...mixed and forged a variety of values from different races and aspects. It was like the perfect original flavor with lots of others. That they will continue to act in their closeness as brothers and lovers. It made Olly delve into the matters of her own family that she cared not to divulge in, preferring to eye on the task ahead.Soleanna itself was now a combination of Eggman tech and castles, with Eggmans dirty face logo plastered on every pole and building, with lights everywhere, the sounds of grungy chinking and the cybernetic life that dwelled within, hundreds of robots swarming the streets, still building and searching for hidden residents. They witnessed two of Eggmans hench bots dragging a small human child into the now swallowed in iron, lights and all kinds of metal, castle that was still being worked out. Striking through the clouds, huge iron doors opened up at the Massive Mecha Castle that allowed them to enter with the child itself. Bazza turned the Jetcopter around and settled them in to a high hill in the outskirts...There was a wall that bordered, with checkpoint entrances guarded by high ranked Egg Pawns. At the one they encountered, Espio melded into the environment, going in unseen and knocking out the Egg Pawn Guard with little effort. He pressed a button that slide the huge bolted metal doors opened, allowing the Femme Fatalex and the Chaotix to enter in.The once quite and modest villages had been warped into a dystopia of constructed technologies, Bulldozing robots dozing down old and creaky buildings and putting new, brassy ones in their place, for the Egg Amusment. Vector joked about the Eggmanland that had been constructed during the strange eclipses that happened around the world, with the mysterious monsters that popped out of nowhere. Espio spoke of the intel they received about it, but didn't have to worry about it much, since Sonic had already dealt with it. But to Olly's honesty, she was impressed with the speed of progress that Elise had with terraforming the place to Eggmans liking.Egg Pawns and all kinds of badniks had spread across the terror filled streets, kidnapping, pillaging poor residents homes in order to raze them. Olly indicated that they must be keeping the citizens locked in somewhere. She ordered each of them to follow their own robot who was taking them to be locked up in a has to be there prison. They went their separate ways to find said robots, with Olly eventually finding a robot taking a poor gentleman, literally poor with robes for clothes as his head was lowered, his beard long enough, shorter than a wizards almost. She would like to save him, but for now, she needed him to take her to the prison. Looking around, she tried to remember iconic landmarks for now, putting them in her brain for later in case she needed to. They passed Club Rob'Os, Elise' apparent favorite Soleanan spot, was now transformed as a Badnik Bar, with neon lights everywhere. This, place tiptoed between an Amusement Park and a death trap. What ever Elise's intentions, they weren't going to be pretty.Eventually Olly was lead to the front doors of the castle. She hid behind a fountain with Eggman's Bronze Statue on it, water spouting from his mouth a stereotypically flamboyant position at that. She waited until the doors opened before leaping inside.The initial first hall had red carpets with lots of new paintings on the walls, which that were once a ancient rock were now painted in gold. Olly rolled her eyes. She whisked around more hallways before seeing another set of large iron doors. The robot spoke with another, leaving the citizen with this sit, before heading off elsewhere, Olly forced to hide behind a random box to evade it. She felt a tap on her shoulder. If invisible people were anything to go by, it had to be Espio."Let me handle this." Espio whispered. The robots that guarded the door looked awfully familiar."Why did we have to be here?" Whinged Grounder to Scratch, who picked up the poor citizen."Because the Doctor's Daughter needs us to make sure none of these people escape idiot!" Scratch reiterated.Olly facepalmed. Espio snatched her hand in time as the two dingbots entered the dungeons, leaving the doors unguarded by their own idiotic means. Espio ran off to find the others, Olly explaining to him before he left to escort them here and meet up with her at the entrance, and be careful not to get spotted by Egg Pawns. With that in mind, she continued following the dingbots down several flights of dingy stairs, the poor citizen being dragged, Olly scanning the blood that had resulted from scraping of his shins and knees. Arriving at the dungeons, Olly hid behind a nearby metal crate and watched the two from afar as they typed in a password at the keypad. Olly tried to zoom in and try and see what they were typing. From the lettering, she could remember the sequence clearly and placed in her mind carefully. The next set of sliding doors allowed them in, Olly sneaking in silently. The dungeons were filled with electrical barriers, with several levels of imprisonment. She noted the cameras that were in every corner, keeping an eye on the prisoners. Standing back, Olly got out of the dungeon and found an empty storage room nearby to allow her to contact Bazza and Drainer."I found the dungeons." Olly confirmed. "However, we need someone to find the security room to shut off the cameras. If Espio is in your area, allow him to do it.""Affirmative, Espio is with me right now." Replied Drainer. "We will enact our search. Where is your current location Captain?"Small but important discussions were made as Olly waited for the signal, mentioning that they had disabled the cameras. She had gotten hold of Bazza, who, ironically, was busy with Vector. Charmy had but disappeared, concerning Olly that he had gotten lost. But from Vectors ranting, it was safe to say he was in the vents somewhere, hiding. Ah vents, the worst nightmare of top secret facilities. She waited, until the room darkened a little, as someone paid her a little visit."Hey Sonic." Said Olly.Sonic made himself known to her. "You're wonderin' what brings me here?"Olly nodded as she leaned against the wall, staring down at the dark hedgehog."I managed the squeeze through in parts. You know I'm not the one for perfect stealth." Sonic explained.Olly chuckled. "I know. You're not known for your subtlety..." She joked.Sonic smiled. He was fighting, for there was some rebellious notion in that those sorrowful eyes. On orders from Morpheus maybe to do the job. Who knows? Everything is practically extremely classified nowadays. They stared at each other in brief silence, the tension filling the void between them, until Olly decided to speak."So I'm going to ask you again. Why are you here?" Olly asked.Sonic looked at the door. "I heard Cream, Cheese and Gemerl were imprisoned. You might need some proper firepower in there."This didn't surprise Olly one bit. Despite being a traitor to the cause, she knew him well enough to know that he still cared about his friends regardless of the tearing torment to his mangled spirit. She explained to Sonic what the Femme Fatalex and Team Chaotix were doing and what they were going to do. Sonic plonked along for the ride, offering his assistance, knowing it would probably give them some luck with. The more luck the better according to Olly, but then she pointed out common sense and proper strategy seemed more logical to follow. She'd gotten a call from Drainer that they had knocked out Becoe and Decoe...and that Bazza and Vector spotted Orbot and Cubot with Princess Elise in the main throne room as they dangled with Charmy in one of the vents. Olly ordered them to stay where they are, and not to speak at all and wait for further orders."Yeah Charmy can be chatty..." Said Sonic.Olly shook her head. "No...it's Bazza and Vector I'm more worried about."They exited the storage room and headed for the doors. Olly typed the password on the keypad, allowing them entrance into the dungeons once more. Sonic burst in, with Olly failing to restrain the navy blue blur as he jumped over the metal railings and landed on the bottom. Olly sighed and jumped over herself, falling nearly five story and heading for a bang on the bottom. Standing near the elevator, Sonic had his hands wrapped around both Scratch and Grounders necks as he pressed them against the wall."WHERE ARE THEY?" Sonic yelled, his voice loud, booming, with multiple pitches as she could see the fire in his eyes. The dingbots were so frightened by this that they couldn't say anything. Sonic started to choke Scratch, throwing Grounder on the floor and placing the handsword and extending across Grounder's neck."Please Sonic! I don't wanna die!" Pleaded Grounder as his hands were in a praying position."TELL ME...WHERE THEY ARE...NOW!" Sonic roared. Olly looked around at the frightened prisoners, some huddling in their children, rightfully scared of Sonic."We'll never tell you. Her highness would kill us if we told you!" Scratch cried out.Sonic sneered at them, the look on his smug face was terrifying."Would you rather be deactivated by a harmless disabled girl, or be torn to pieces with excruciating pain that you be begging for death?" Sonic threatened."SHE'S GOT HER! SHE'S GOT HER!" Grounder blurted, crying his eyes out.Scratch facepalmed. "You moron! ERK!"Sonic slammed Scratch to the ground and leaned over Grounder with a piercing stare that Medusa would be envious of."Good...robot...so...you will escort me and this Agent here to the Main Throne Room?" Sonic piqued.Scratch sat up. "Pfff...I'm sure you can get there yourself...ACK!" Said Scratch, before being slammed down by Olly's hammer. "You heard what he said. Or do you both want to be taken down by Sonic and me?" She threatened Scratch.A holographic screen popped up before them all, a shot of Princess Elise on her throne, the tips of her fingers resting against each other."Ah so...there ARE intruders..." She said. "I thought so...I certainly thought so...well, at least I know these three didn't come for a tea party!"The screen moved to show Charmy, Bazza and Vector tied up and sitting the middle of the room, being minded by Metal Sonic. Olly closed her fist."And who's this? A strange dark hedgehog that doesn't seem to be Shadow OR Sonic...I think I have seen you...hmmm..." Elise continued in constant vibrato."No matter...no matter...hee! At least now! I can test out my weapon properly! But...I wouldn't you ALL to miss this awesome show! See? It's such a great word...awesome..."Sonic cut the screen in half in frustration, forcing it to disappear. Olly looked at him, with concern underneath her helmet."I need to contact Drainer and see if they can get down there." Olly said, trying to be more proactive with herself."For now, we need to release the prisoners."Sonic nodded. He picked up Scratch and had a verbal conversation, which forced the robotic chicken to take out a device and press a button, turning off the barriers and letting the citizens go free. Olly, being the good Agent, lead the way."I will escort them out." Said Sonic. He brought out his read Chaos Emerald and displayed it to Olly, who nodded and pulled out her blue one. They did the usual ritual to summon a portal which warped into existence."They need you more than I. You're much braver than I thought you would be." Sonic commented.Olly nodded. "And you're not such a bad person after all..."Sonic looked down, embarrased and blushing slightly. Getting his head up, he gestured her to jump inside the portal, while he rallied up the prisoners to warped them outside...Olly jumped out of the portal and at the front entrance of some golden doors, which had to be at least 10 meters tall at the arc of it. The once pround Solaris insignia was replaced by a red sheet with a golden Eggman logo on it, on both doors. She wanted to make a careful entrance and was found by Espio and Agent Drainer who were up in the vent waving to her. Nodding, she pulled out the suction cups from her bag and put them on, crawling up the wall at high speed.Entering into the vent, they carefully crawled around to one of the near openings, seeing that one of the previous overhanging vents had broken, Olly understanding why the others had gotten captured. The throne room was riddled with mechanical pipes and smoke. Again, like the doors, the Solaris logo was consistently replaced by the Eggman one. Looking over, Elise leaned on her hand as she sat on the throne itself, staring down at the batch of captured creatures and cackling to herself. She then stood up and walked around the trio, her stride cocky, if not over the stop with such sickening sweetness and false innocence."Lesse...ah...so...Crocodile...Bee...I thought the Chaotix had a Chameleon but I see! We have a straggler of a different kind!" She squealed.Vector gritted his teeth as Elise came around to him first, leaning over and pushing his chin up with an index finger."Quite charming. Where are you from?" She asked.Vector chomped at her, which made her laugh. "My, my we have quite the snapper!" Elise said with fake surprise. "We could use you in our death lake! Yes! My invention...I'll make sure you get a good set of nuts and bolts by it!"Vector grew sick of her baby giggles as she wandered around to Charmy."Hmm...A bee...how...gross...I hate bees...but I'm willing to tolerate as long as they keep my mothers flowers blooming..." Elise pertained."Let me go you evil lady!" Charmy yelled, as he struggled to break free.Instead, to his fury, she pressed his nose, his pitchy voice screaming at her as she tried to worm his way out but failed."Leave them alone bitch..."Offended, but nonetheless no longer caring a second after, Elise strolled around to Agent Bazooka."Yes...Agent Bazooka...I looked up your profile on the database. Seems you weren't the first Agent Bazooka on the system..."Olly lifted her head as Espio looked at her."Is that true?" Espio asked, whispering."I...don't know." Olly replied. She kept things to herself, not really wanting to answer properly."But! I will leave that for now...I want you ALL to watch the first test of my magnificent device! I'd based it on some old designs from various technicians and engineers BUT I have perfected it! And Agent Bazooka, I know you're got some major techy mojo, so I need your opinion on it!"Elise said with glee."ORBOT! CUBOT! BRING IT IN!"The two smaller robots dragged in a rectangular device, large and full of random etched lines and detail that had everyone but Bazza confused, a she gasped."Oh no..." She muttered underneath her breath.They pulled it out in front of them, before Elise nodded them to go off and go retrieve something else...in this case, Cream, which made Vector go ballistic at her unconscious body as they pulled it and laid it down on the belt which seemed to go inside the machine itself."What are you doing with her?" Vector called out.Elise giggled. "Well..since she's young...we're not at ANY loss of crucial skills. To be honest, I hate kids. Little, whiny, snot fested runts. They drive me up the wall...especially when you can't buy alchohol until you're 21...I feel sorry for all those with the potentials to party." She said, her words rushed and random vibratos intensifying.Bazza and Vector anger allowed them to simultaniously snap the bonds to them. Vector rushed to save Cream while Bazza burst towards Elise, punching the Princess in the face and sending her smacking against the wall."She's finally snapped. Come on..." Said Olly as she, Drainer and Espio jumped out to tend to the others. They ran to Cream to help her, while Olly stood stunned as she watched Bazooka smashing Elise's face, blood spurting everywhere. Bazza had lost it completely as she pummled Elise's brains into the floor, her heavy grunts noticible, with a lot of splatter on her suit and screams of angered release. She soon finished as Elise stopped moving, Olly wandering over after finally regaining some sense. Olly gasped as she could see Elise' brains all of the floor, an eye ball flinging around and a sore and panting Bazza kneeling before the body. She looked at Olly."I...I couldn't help it..." Bazza whispered.BANG!Bazza looked down, feeling an odd sort of pain in her chest, then realizing her own blood was coming out of a small hole below her collarbone. She took one look at Olly before collapsing on the floor, Olly paying attention to the giggles nearby."I knew it! I knew we needed clones! Daddy wouldn't approve of it, but I said it was for the best...besides...not ALL of it was flesh and bone you know..." Said Elise as she came in from behind one of the pillars with a sniper...with her pitches still ranging rapidly like a mad woman.Vector had looked up and over, seeing Bazzas body on the floor. Drainer took no hesistation in jumping up and attempting to attack Elise, sticking her blades into the body and absorbing the water out of her, sucking her body dry. But alas, this was another clone as Elise' image popped up on a holographic screen."You guys are such suckers! Do you think...do you REALLY believe I would let myself be in your sight? Hah! I'm a pilot god damnit! I doooon't think I have had much experience in close quarters combat...but as Princess I do as much as a I pretty damn well please...oh...and before I go...I've put the self-destruction sequence on...have fun with the challenge! Toodle oo!"Drainer back flipped back onto the ground floor as red lights flashed about and alarms started to scream. Vector looked on in disbelief at Bazzas body. He held Cream in his arms as Drainer picked up Bazza. Vector ran up to Olly and reminded her about Gemerl and Cheese. Damn, if it weren't for him remembering, Olly would have unintentionally left her behind. The castle started shaking as debris started to fall from above, Espio barely dodging a part of the roof, with Charmy pushing him forward to avoid being hit with another. Espio thanked Charmy as they ran out into the Castle Hallway.Olly lead the way for them all, as Egg Pawns threatened to stop them. She brought out her Smish Smasher as Espio and Charmy battled on as well, making a path for Vector and Drainer. Rows upon rows of badniks came swarming in to fight them, Olly noting that this had to be the biggest waste or resources she had ever seen as she pummelled some more random bots, then realized a lot of them were fleeing as well. The castle continued to shake as they sped around hallways, then seeing the exit and bursting out in the streets of the terraformed Soleanna. Then they realized that Soleanna too was rigged to blow, with thousands of robots flocking the place. Olly's deepest fear was not making it out on time. Luckily for them, Gemerl was piloting the Jetcopter, with Olly disregarding the impossible on why Gemerl was even there in the first place. She figured Sonic must have done something about it, as she saw Cheese floating around as well. A voice over the speaker chanted that they had one minute before self-destruction. Gemerl lowered down the jetcopter in its helicopter form as Olly and Espio attacked oncoming robots, whilst Charmy assisted with Drainer and Vector in getting Bazza and Cream on board. Finishing that, Olly and Espio leapt on, with Drainer heading to front with Gemerl and ordering him to fly it up and out, the jetcopter lifting, then making its brief transformation into the jet plane and shooting off in the horizon.Olly held on to the side as she looked outside at Soleanna...
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!
The explosion rocked the jetcopter, forcing everyone to hold on, with Vector dropping Cream by accident, but Charmy managed to zoom in and catch her, bringing the unconscious rabbit in close. Once stability had returned, Charmy held Cream as he sat down on the side, Cheese coming around, worried for her friend. Vector stood back up and cracked his back, then saw Olly taking care of Bazzas wound."Drainer! Get back here!" Yelled Olly.Vector came around and knelt before Bazzas body. Her chest was rising up and down at a snails pace. He checked up on Charmy and Cream, whom Espio was assisting, before looking at Drainer who had come from the cockpit with a med kit."Take...take it...off..." Bazza whispered to Olly. Drainer was in the process of taking out bandages when she and Olly exchanged looks."What's the problem?" Asked Vector. "Can't handle a bullet wound?"Bazza chuckled weakily. "At least I...wasn't the one who made the dent in the vent."Vector rolled his eyes. "Hey, that was NOT intentional..." He pointed out."No..." Said Bazza. "You needed air...then forgetting you were in...a ventalation shaft..."Vector crossed his arms. "You were one who made the stupid joke about me being green with envy...dumb puns..."Bazza began coughing up as her back arched up, knees bending and holding on to her chest as the blood kept pouring out. Drainer gently leaned her back."I blame my late husband..." She wheezed. "He was the previous Agent Bazooka. I took up the role in his honor...including his punny jokes."Drainer wrapped the bandages around Bazzas chest in attempt to stop the bleeding, pressing her palms against the wound."Captain...I'm afraid I need to take off the helmet. I need to check her temperature." Said Drainer.Olly sighed. "Do it..."They watched on as Drainer took off Bazzas helmet, revealing the woman underneath the mask, and making Vector's draw drop to the floor in complete disbelief. She stared at him."Hi Vector..." She said weakly, smiling at him."V-Vanilla?" Vector muttered out, his eyes widening at the sight of his weakened wife.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

You know when you're a monster...when you stand alone on top of the world with nothing left to destroy. Maybe I am not that monster yet maybe I am. I contemplate that every single day. I can stand on top of the world knowing my enemy has been defeated but does that make me the monster of his world? Who knows?

I often sit and wonder, when you walk in the rain and begin to think, whether it's a signal for punishment or blessing. Standing alone, on top of the world...with no one else but yourself. You watch the worst memories because they're always on top of the pile. You float alone in your sky, wings spread, black feathers scattered in a sphere around you, each feather displaying a memory, but the best ones are always next to the bad ones, viewing them on a sunset back drop, a navy winged hedgehog...standing alone, on top of the world.

It still rains...

You can go above those clouds, but that's just cowardice, for hiding from your fears is going above the problem rather than solving it. It rains blood and black feathers, you look at your left hand. The rain nurtures the darkness within, showing you the source of your conflict, that you inflict upon others without reflection of consequences. Head lowered in shame, you are not finished. Forever incomplete...discontent...searching for answers.

Then you realize that You don't know what you've got until it's gone.

TIME BEFORE SOLEANNA SELF-DESTRUCT: 9 HOURS.
Sonic the Hedgehog flew around the Earth hundreds of times to search for Amy, fighting off the agony of extreme remorse, sending off those prisoners to the Tetherstorms to be taken care of by Hayden. Without Morpheus permission or enslavement techniques, he'd managed to give himself some time in avoidance by staying away from GUN. But he was drawn towards Olly, linked to the Captain of the Femme Fatalex.His mind had been mending, molded, altered to the point of random thoughts crossing paths and crashing...it became passive, less emotive than it had once been. Although he knew all too well how to be snarky. It came naturally as a defense mechanism...or a habit. In either case, he realized in this sick, confusing journey of his that he had great difficulty in conveying them. He cried in elitist ways not because of sadness, but of pure confusion. For most of his life he was free to do as he pleased, distant from most of the ordinary slow reality that was society.He dropped himself down in Empire City, on one of the tallest skyscrapers. It was 12 O'clock and he had organized a meeting with Shadow, sending Lag off with one of his letters. He'd grown to like Lag, although his Dingo had a few issues, but Sonic ignored her mostly. He stood on top of a emitter spike and watched over the city. It was grand and vast, much much bigger than Westopolis, Central City and Station Square combined. It became the place of both instant communication and interference, that Sonic could literally hide under the radar, in plain sight.There was the sense of mysticism surrounding his current status. He looked at his hands constantly, unable to understand the decisions he had made recently. At night, he'd scream into the air, scaring rogues to bits. His screams were filled with everything he had, such viciousness and ferocity, his feral behavior that was brought on at night forced him to return to Morpheus to sedate him with psychic mental blocks that broke upon the crack of dawn. What he was and what he was becoming, was in constant limbo. His reality was in limbo. Stuck in the middle of a crossroads, cars beeping at the monstrosity when he all he wanted to do was go down a street, seek comfort. But he was stuck above a hung over street light, tied to it.He heard footsteps behind him and turned around."What time are we expecting my Agents to be coming out of the portal?" Asked Shadow. It was always straight to business with him. No matter. Sonic didn't have the patience at the moment to be dilly dallying."Several hours...I altered it... so they should be arriving safely on Angel Island around four to five PM, give or take."Shadow nodded. "I see. You find Amy anywhere on your travels?"Sonic shook his head. "No...I haven't. That's the weirdest thing. I've been flying everywhere she could possibly be and she's nowhere."Shadow crossed his arms. "I see. I will get others to look into this. How are you holding up?"An unusual question from someone like Shadow, still....it wasn't as if Sonic was against being asked.Sonic sighed. "It's like I've had to go against every moral I ever had. I murdered a Harpy lady, assimilated her wings which probably defeats the purpose of me running in the first place."Shadow chuckled. "Does that mean I get to be the fastest thing alive on foot?"Sonic snickered. "No...but when...and if I'm done with this...I'll get rid of them. I don't want them...they're just too convenient. But...I'm under Morpheus orders so I don't have much of a choice."Shadow nodded. He was disappointed in how someone so bullheaded and stubborn like Sonic to be able to be controlled like that in the first place...it drew on other concerns..."Hmm...how exactly did he get control of you in the first place?"Sonic held his head. "You know the device you were using against me so I had to join GUN whether I liked it or not?"Shadow shrugged. "I had to get you in there one way or another. Some ends justify the means Sonic..."Sonic rolled his eyes. "Anyway, do you still have that on you?"Shadow shook his head. "To be honest I lost that a long time ago. Never bothered to find it since I was guessing Morpheus would have replaced the eye at some point..."Sonic rose an eyebrow, then smirked. "You never lost it. Milo stole it from you."Shadow browed. "What?"Sonic gave Shadow a sympathetically sarcastic look. "He's a tricky bastard. Turned out to be in Morpheus league the entire time. There's another member I can't seem to get hold of. I know they're female as well and Milo keeps contact with her. The device I'd gotten from Tails was to contact her when we needed her, but Milo stole that too."Shadow was absorbing all of this, and theorized Milo was quite the lying thief. He suspected someone was stealing work related gear and technology as he had his techs and engineers complain about it all the time. If it's been Milo, then this could turn interesting."So, it's you, Morpheus, Milo and some random female person in this...terrorist organization. Do you have a true purpose in all of this besides Morpheus' lust for destruction and hatred of Big Mama?" Shadow queried."Milo gave the blackmail device to Morpheus in this regard and kept the contact device to himself. So Morpheus is pretty much using me against my will far worse than I'd imagined. All I know is that I do the job, no questions asked or else they would kill Amy." Sonic answered.Shadow's eyes widened. This made more sense."So they sent you to kill her instead?" Shadow said with a tinge of anger in his voice."N-no! I would never harm Amy." Sonic assured. "They want me to stop her from doing something completely stupid. It's either I stop her from some sacrifice or they kill her."Shadow gritted his teeth, as Sonic frowned."I'm sorry about your girlfriend Shadow. I want to do all I can but I'm failing it. Time's running out and things are getting far worse down the scale." He apologized.Shadow rubbed his face. For once, he could have actually Sonics previously undying optimism right about now."Damn...what the hell Amy...look, don't worry about her...I will see if I can get a hold of her eventually. I want you to focus...where's Morpheus?"Sonic shook his head. Emotional pain struck down his spine and caused him agony, forcing him to lean against a nearby wall and bang against it, tears running down his face. Shadow stood there, staring at him in pity, his wings shot out. Sonic's head slowly turned towards Shadow, with an evil look on his face. His canine teeth shot out, and hissed at Shadow whilst digging his claws into the wall. Shadow didn't appear to be phased as Sonic's face and eyes turned red."Oh...this was the random rage mode that you warned me about...I see..." Shadow said monotone and uncaring."So Morpheus programmed it to happen when ever..."Sonic leapt, bringing out his handsword and trying to slice Shadow who sidestepped, letting the sword hit the ground. Shadow took no hesitation in using Chaos Control and reappearing behind Sonic, kicking him at the back of the head, sending Sonic flying through glass."I think the mayor of Empire City would appreciate it if his City wasn't destroyed by terrorists. Don't make me call the Commander here and get him to send his squads up." Shadow threatened.Sonic jumped back up and flew up into the air. Shadow smirked."I was getting bored sitting behind a desk anyway..." He joked before bringing a sniper rifle out of hammerspace. He watched Sonic fly around in the clouds through the scope as he leaned down and tried getting his aim.Shadow loved the sound of firing weapons as it was one of the few octane things that got his Black Arms blood running. He witnessed Sonic flying around in circles, making a thunder storm in the process. Shadow rolled his eyes and shot Sonic in the leg as he entered the spiraling clouds and disappeared.Shadow withdrew his sniper as the spiral disappeared, the weather returning back to normal. Shadow muttered under his breath that was he disappointed that he couldn't finish the job."I'd say let him be. I believe he has more important things to take care of." Said a purple jester who descended beside Shadow."Why do you always say that NiGHTS?" Shadow wondered.NiGHTS shrugged. "His mind is going through a very complicated process right now. Morpheus is pushing and pulling the poor fellow through absolute hell."Shadow snuffed. "So what's he aiming for then?"NiGHTS crossed arms and tapped a chin. "Seeking his own reality. When a world is molded like this you can't expect to be altered that easily. This was not Morpheus' doing but rather a source of a common problem." NiGHTS explained."I know that..." Said Shadow. "I've got work to do back at base. Anything you want me to track?"NiGHTS crossed their legs. "Hmmm lemme think...just Amy as all. Oh, and you might want to head over to the ARK again at some point."Words that he had never expected to hear as Shadow raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"NiGHTS smiled. "Just a hint...I'd gotten word from our friend...no not that one, another...our larger, fluffy multi-tailed friend."Shadow stared at the floating jester. "Did he find something relating to Abbadonia up there?"NiGHTS made hand gestures "...Kinda...I was informed there was a activating signal there, like a beacon asking for help. Mentioning...years of sending them out but they were very faint so it was hard to get it."Shadow looked down. He wasn't sure what other secrets the ARK had in store. He had gone over many times before and each time he had visited it there was always something new."I'll ask Big Mama for a mission. I don't give a damn worthy enough to give to her. I'll be going."NiGHTS nodded and waved to Shadow as he left the scene. NiGHTS winked to no one before disappearing into sparkles...
SIX HOURS BEFORE SOLEANNA SELF-DESTRUCT.
Sonic reappeared through another portal and flunked out, tumbling around in rough terrain. He put away his wings, and realized by the giant Fox God Statue and the ever growing bush before him that he was in the Garden of Inari. He hadn't planned to come here, but his mood had been affecting his judgment, gathering that he was probably thinking about Tails. He glanced up at the statue and stared at it for ten minutes, clouds going by and the bush rustling about in the wind. The pain from being shot in the leg soon faded, a veiny substance absorbed the bullet without delay or noting. A shadow overcast him."Howdy there Sonic..." Said a familiar voice."Hi Mr. Prower." Sonic replied.Moore came up next to Sonic, wearing a woolen v-neck shirt above his white and red tartan collar one, green pants and brown leather shoes, Sonic watching his two tails swing about freely."Praying for forgiveness?" Moore asked.Sonic sighed and looked down."Forgiveness is a relentless issue for me. Even if I somehow redeemed myself, in the eyes of other, it wouldn't bring back all the lives I've taken."Moore nodded."In the end, if you've acknowledged the fact that you feel...remorse...regret...your heart still exists."Sonic sniffed the air, smelling someone else with Moore, with the old fox realizing he'd forgotten he'd brought someone with him."The boy is awake. The girl is still unconscious." Moore mentioned. Sonic nodded and turned around, seeing a brown haired boy in a white shirt and black pants with a distant look on his face, staring at the Fox God Statue as well. Sonic looked at Moore."I'll have to take him to Morpheus." Sonic announced."But..."Moore chuckled. "When you said you wanted me to take care of two unconscious children that had fallen from the sky in strange cocoons I said yes... With one grandson disappeared and the other missing it's hard to know who's who in this world. You put your faith into me despite being on a side of impossible return."Sonic looked down. "You read the news about Mr. Thorn his work with slaughtering innocent people...there was once trust between me and the rest of the world."Moore smirked. "Except you didn't stain the name of Sonic the Hedgehog. You rejected using that name, and took on another. You're in such a disguise the whole world doesn't need to know that it was you. Sonic is more than a person, but a concept of heroism and a legend of stories with both the young and old. You're protecting an identity by taking on a new persona. Sonic the Hedgehog is not navy, nor does he have wings and a gigantic handsword that slices buildings in half."Sonic rolled his eyes. He will never live that down."You're confiding in us was just like Miles. From all the stories trust was never an issue between us. I knew that you were you. And when you came in desperation and blurted your secret, I knew there had to be a reason for your actions." Moore continued.Sonic turned back to face the statue. "There are no excuses for what I did...and will continue to do."Moore put his hands behind his back. "At least we can trust you for that...now, boy..."The boy stared back at Moore who turned around. Moore gave him a little nod before walking off. He scrunched his hand before walking up to Sonic."Mr. Prower told me what was going on." Said the boy, his voice in the midst of teenagery, bouts of doubt and unsureness but had some solid tones behind it. Sonic suspected fear."For once. I could accept this place. After all this time walking around a blood scorched moon, I believe I found a place where possibilities are endless."Sonic browed, then looked at the boy."Wait, what?"He nodded, then his head fell, his fists all balled up to his sides. "I-I dunno what happened either. He told me that you were protecting me and my friend. I have no idea how I got here or how I ended up in this world...I have...a strange feeling I was brought here to help you."Sonic rested his hand on his hip, put his weight to one side whilst staring at the strange boy."Here to help me? Man, you look familiar. You sure we haven't met before?"The boy blinked. "N-no sir. We haven't. Although I've known you for years. I just didn't know you actually existed."Sonic looked over the boys head, trying to think. He probably played those games he allowed those companies to do. That's probably what it was. This kid sure had some imagination if he believed he was from a weird, blood scorched moon as he called it. He was young, although, human-to-Hedgehog wise he wasn't that much younger. His self-esteem was low judging from the body language."Well...you have links to something we found in MeteoTech's hands. But I'm taking the word of my handler here so..."The boy started shaking from fear. "I-Dunno anything! Last thing I remember before anything was stuck on the moon I swear!"Man this boy likes sticking to that story. Sonic really wasn't sure whether to take it seriously. But he took into consideration for the boys naivete, and let his story slide...for now."Hmm...alright then..." Sonic said, letting it go."Can I ask you something?" The boy asked.Sonic nodded. "Sure."The boy rubbed his neck. "What's with your eye?"Sonic smirked. "Heh...yeah...loooong story. But, the tl;dr version is big fight.""Oh..." The boy responded. "It's just that you look so different from what I have usually seen you as."Sonic shrugged. "Aren't we all?"Shadow returned back to the Metropolis Branch and prepared yet another trip to the ARK. Rouge had come into the complex in her usual wear and sat on Shadow's desk whilst he finished up some paperwork."You know, I've been doing some thinking..." Said Rouge.Shadow grumbled. "Not now Rouge, I've got work to do..." The black Hedgehog said.Rouge glared at her brother. "Hmph! Come on! This is serious business Shadow!"Shadow sighed and rubbed his forehead. Sometimes having an bat for an adoptive sister was tiresome."What then? Did you manage to beat the crap out of Knuckles like you said you would?"Rouge looked away from him, biting her lip, forcing Shadow to lean back in his chair and place his hands behind his head."You didn't tell him...says a lot..." Shadow commented sarcastically.Rouge laid out on Shadow's desk, with Shadow looking away, at some random map."The thing is whether to keep or get rid of it. If I get rid of it, I can continue being a GUN Agent, proficiently and effectively...but then there's the guilt trip of those anti-abortion protesters hanging around those clinics with their pickets. I do eventually want kids but at the moment I'm on a career high and I don't want them to impair on my work if you know what I'm on about."Shadow was an ignorant and mindless about pregnancy that he honestly didn't know nor did he care about the issues surrounding it. He only knew from Maria had told him once, that life should be treasured, including the unborn ones."Have you spoken to your doctor about this? Wait, no...you're too stubborn to let them decide." Shadow mocked.Rouge sneered as she sat up. "Hey! There's no need to get snarky! I'm having a hard time choosing myself!"Shadow sat up and leaned over. "Rouge, I'm not the one you should be talking to about this. I have no knowledge or any experience in this sort of thing. If you need to speak to anyone about it then talk to Agent Bazooka or Big Mama."Rouge laughed. "Bazooka...maybe...but Big Mama? Hah! You must be out of your mind. You know what she's like..."Shadow agreed, after remembering a previous pregnant Agent approaching Big Mama, who immediately forced the Agent to either abort the child to prevent it living in doubt of whether her mother was going to die on the job and leave the kid with out a mother, or fire them. Shadow knew Rouge wasn't going to abide the orders of a psychotic woman.Rouge got off the desk. "I did speak to the doctor. She said give or take a few weeks before putting my foot down, because after a certain point there will be no turning back...I have no idea how the humans do it."Shadow remained apathetic as he stood up. "Hmm...what did she say about going on missions?"Rouge's eyes danced about. "None of the high action ones for now. Only if absolutely necessary. I mean, it's pretty small at this point. If it does happen and the baby decides to miscarriage then I suppose I ''subconsciously'' don't want it."Shadow stared at her; disturbed by how morbid that sounded. "What ever you want. For now, you can come along with me and Omega. I'll see if I can get Neptune along to do your dirty work."Rouge gave an evil smug look on her face. "My dirty work eh? What kind of my dirty work are we talking about here?"Shadow rolled his eyes. "The fighting...obviously."Rouge's look on her face changed to annoyed. "I was being sarcastic..."Shadow checked his clock on the wall, wondering when Olly was going to call him back as he hadn't heard anything from the Femme Fatalex in a while. He explained to Rouge they were heading to the ARK once more to check out a lead. Rouge was only overtly happy to do so.With the sanctions of Olly and Co. who had finally returned from their expedition, Shadow was met with a few surprises of his own. He'd found Neptune however and borrowed him when he could. He tried to get out during the meeting with Big Mama about the Assimilation Operation...what ever that was, he clearly wasn't interested in doing it at all and had to have some excuse not to do it. Meetings bored him to death and he'd prefer to do the field work...where all the action was.After hearing about the situation with Cream and Cheese, especially with the fact of Elise' betrayal was sudden and unsuspecting. The knowledge that Eggman was her father was part of something he himself never bothered to look up because it never came across nor did he care for it. He'd let the Femme Fatalex do their work and get on with, trusting their instincts to get the job done like he'd done before.He'd taken the Sphere of Abyss and used their now secretly functioning portal behind Shadow's desk in his office. He'd gotten Agent Bazooka to assist in building it initially, he then had Milo doing it, then Milo left abruptly due to his own betrayal, which all these sudden shifts in allegiance pissing Shadow off, although with Big Mama, it didn't appear hard to switch. But Shadow had loyalties to bind to. Lucky for Shadow, it was finished. He'd just needed to put the Sphere in a dias like device next to the make-shift portal. But this was not before Shadow pressed a button to slide the wall downwards, revealing the secret Warpgate behind it. It was a lot more GUN décor than the ones in the Garden of Rosales. And this one didn't secrete magical Abbadonia Roses either. Rouge considered this a convenient ass pull, but Shadow claimed that he didn't have permission to get the Sphere until today. Rouge rolled her eyes in response, while Neptune tilted his head and clapped ecstatically.Entering through the device, they'd come out of the secret room and onto the mysterious areas of the ARK. Shadow was tired of flashbacks so he decided not to remember much. They wandered around before Rouge complained about not knowing about what they were looking for."So...what is it?" Asked Rouge.Shadow thumbed his lip. He should have asked what the signal was. He turned to Omega then had an idea."There map consoles situated nearly everywhere in the complex from memory. We find one, then use Omega to locate the signal."Rouge nodded.They ran around for a bit, before coming to one of the consoles that Shadow was talking about. A black screen lit up briefly, before a holographic projection of the ARK came on the screen. Shadow needed Rouge's help with Omega's wiring into the console itself, Rouge fumbling around before a ching sounded. Nodding, Rouge ordered Omega to see if he can can download a map. Omega confirmed it, before scanning. He'd found the source of the beacon, which wasn't too far from where they came. Shadow identified the area with the flashing yellow orb on the hologram and made strange looks at it."Wait a minute...I know that place..." Shadow muttered.Rouge looked at her brother. "Well lets not stand here then!"Disconnecting Omega, Shadow lead the way to the room he had seen before, situated near the portal entrance and a first aid bay. Shadow stopped before a wall in the hallway, the adjacent windows looking out into space. He caressed the wall itself, trying so hard to bring back a memory of this place. He pressed an odd part of the wall, which then shifted upwards, revealing a small silver Computer Terminal. They entered the dark, secret room which wires were connected to the computer underneath. He nodded to Rouge to let her activate it. She pressed a button on the rectangular silver box and let the device warm up.Text came on the screen."Do you have brown hair? Y/N?" It said.Rouge tapped the desk, then looked at Shadow. "So you have no idea what this is?"Shadow shrugged as he walked forward. "No...I suggest we answer the question however."Rouge nodded, pressing N on the keyboard. The text disappeared with another question coming up."Do you have two different coloured eyes? Y/N?"Rouge pointed out the strangeness of the question, but Shadow reiterated her to just respond anyway, so she pressed N once more."Is the Earth the most precious thing in the world?" Y/N?"Rouge browed, weirded out by another unusual one. She typed in Y without Shadow needing to tell her what to do."Stand back"The four looked at one another, before Neptune pushed them all back, right before a portal opened up before them, Shadow confused by it's sudden occurrence. Looking around, he didn't hesitate and jumped into it. The other three followed.Shadow recognized this place as the cyberspace of the ARK, aka ARKINTRA Zone, it used to connect the ship together in it's in own intranet, allowing instant communication and was installed by one of Gerald's sons. They'd landed on an entrance platform, the room they were in filled with translucent electric blue walls with firey red lines everywhere, as if connecting with different places. A screen popped up on cave in front of them, with a neon red and yellow arrow pointing in it's direction. Shadow nodded as the group moved forward, into another room that was filled with neon colours and golden lines everywhere, with moving hexagon platforms and small machines everywhere. Rouge flew up to one of them, curious to their appearance."These look like you Shadow..." Rouge commented. She tilted her head at the Shadow look a like, the black fur was actually a metal of sorts, as the lights reflected off it, the normally red stripes were a glowing yellow, the eyes as well as it held a blaster in its arms. Shadow pounced on over to get a closer look, with Omega tempted to destroy it, as he was getting memories of Eggmans Shadowbots. He'd activated one of his gattling guns, before Neptune gently pressed it down with his hand. Omega looked at the Probie with a dull expression, but giving off the annoyed vibe. Neptune just looked at Omega and shook his head. If Omega were flesh and fur he would have sighed. Instead he lowered his arm and awaited for further orders.Another arrow formed out of data, pointing to their left, a hallway just beyond. Looking down over the ledge, there was nothing between them and the next ledge. Shadow nodded to Rouge in picking up Omega and Neptune and took them to the other side. However Shadow heard screeching noises and looked behind him, seeing his doppelganger change colour slightly, the yellows replaced with grey, zooming its head towards Shadow with darkened sneer. Shadow took this as hostile maneuver and took a stance, Rouge looked over at the black Hedgehog who was about to face off with this impostor. Shadow looked at them."GO!" He yelled.Rouge looked concerned, but then changed to understanding and sureness, placing her promised faith that Shadow would be able to catch up. She lead Omega and Neptune down the hallway whilst Shadow and his doppelganger stared at one another. The grey Shadow shot at the real Shadow who had no trouble using Chaos Control and dodging, punching this one in the face. The faker got up off the ground and threw a Chaos Spear after dropping the blaster, Shadow using his great agility to avoid them, getting behind the faker and kicking him in the back of the head. Shadow picked up the blaster and took aim at it, disintegrating it. Shadow blew the smoke off the blaster, twirled it around his his index finger before putting it away, believing it to be useful.Now with that out of the way, the black hedgehog gave himself ten meters, before skating forward, then jumping on the wall and ran across it to the hallway and eventually caught up with Rouge and the others. The next room was a mainframe full of rotating and circling cybernetic neon lit cubes, with ledges filled with Yellow Shadows. Omega hypothesized these were programs being run by the system, acting like Anti-Virus programs. Rouge agreed with the robot. The Computer Terminal had invited the four inside. Rouge tried to make way with the grey Shadows that pixelated into existence. The Yellow Shadows began shooting at the greys. Omega assisted as he brought out his gattling guns and rotated away. Rouge flew up and above the moving cubes and to the next ledge. Neptune examined the cubes closely and made himself a path of the three wheels of tronic boxes. He leaped on each one, until getting to the next ledge. Shadow did the same, and called Omega to stop goofing around and get his shiny metal ass over. Obliging, Omega carefully jumped on each cube, before getting caught in the cross fire, getting hit by two blaster shots."OMEGA! NO!" Shadow called out in distress.Omega disintegrated into tiny pixels, vanishing in clear sight. Shadow punched the ground in frustration."DAMN IT! That was NOT supposed to happen!" He cried.Rouge's hands were on her mouth as tears ran down her face."Omega..." She muttered through her fingers.Neptune looked over the edge, seeing the nothingness down below, then looking at Shadow and Rouge's emotive expressions. Looking at his hands, Neptune had felt that feeling again...similar to the one he felt about Tails death. He felt...moved...sad...this was a touch of his own personal history and realized it, comparing it to a death before Tails. His goggle green eyes twisted and twisted back out of sync as he stood on the edge and spread his arms wide. Suddenly, pipes formed into existence in the system on the side walls of the rooms mainframe. Cybernetic water came flowing out, Rouge pointing out the impossibilities of this. His hands and six finger claws were held back and twitched as Neptune leaned back and shook slightly. A figure summoned out of the water, Shadow unable to recognize the shape it took. It was, reptillian at best to say the least. Neptune slashed and crossed his arms, the shape extending tentacles and wiping out both Yellow and Grey Shadows, Neptune wiggling himself about, then pushing his hands forward in strain, the water suddenly freezing up. Shaking his head, he turned back to Shadow and Rouge who looked stunned. To their surprise, he pointed upwards to the neon lit arrow located forward. Getting back into it, they continued on.They reached a firewall of sorts, protected by dozens of Yellow Shadows. Shadow himself glared at each one. One moved forward, wearing a suit of light blue, geometrical shoulderpads and a yellow orb in the middle. Rouge and Neptune stood on each side of Shadow who crossed his arms."You answered the beacon." Said the Armored Yellow Shadow. "I am SAI-001, I am in charge of the Marginal Artificial Intelligence of the Ark. You have passed the test she has given you."Shadow had qualms with these fakers as he grabbed the leader and pushed him against the firewall."Please sir, refrain from hostility." It said.Shadow gritted his teeth. "What the hell happened to Omega? I will start listening to you when I find out where Omega went?"SAI-001 looked unphased as Rouge commented on their robotic nature."She will answer all inquiries once the initial coding is activated. Please sir, refrain from hostility." It said."System HP Low. Please sir, final warning. Refrain from hostility."Shadow through the robot faker to the floor and pulled the blaster on it."Who is she? TELL ME?" Shadow roared.SAI-001 only stared at Shadow with an empty, soulless expression."She is the beacons activator. Anti-Virus protection in activation, 3...2..."Shadow pulled back, withdrawing his blaster. SAI-001 got up, and kept staring at Shadow. Rouge stepped forward."She will tell us where Omega went? I mean, he is a robot, solid form...you know..." She explained."She will take inquiries. Data or Solid forms are sent to a disclosed drive for she has the directory for access." Said SAI-001.Rouge had some idea. She might not be at good at technology as Agent Bazooka or Tails, but she had advanced knowledge on computers."She's the Admin then." Rouge theorized."Affirmative." Replied SAI-001. "She needs a rename. She is the default name for the Admin Chip."Rouge nodded, although the default name was a bit silly in her opinion. Shadow crossed his arms."Fine. Let us see this she then hm?" He grunted."Affirmative. Password." SAI-001 announced.Shadow face palmed. "A p...a password?" He complained in disbelief.Rouge rolled her eyes. "Omega might have downloaded it for all we know..." Rouge suggested. Despite the logic not being proven in anyway."Can we have a hint?"Shadow was about to berate Rouge, before SAI-001 opened his mouth."For those who cast it, they are breathers of fine air." He answered.Shadow froze, with his eyes ending up pinned to the ground. Rouge noticed his shock."What's the matter?" Rouge asked.Shadow slowly turned his head to the bat. "It's from a book she used to read to me. It was a book that one of her doctors lended over and she held on to it until the doctor left the colony."Rouge blinked, then began to release. "Oh...wait, are you serious?"Shadow looked away, turning front on to SAI-001."She said, she named it after me. For those who cast it, they are breathers of fine air. They are the standers in the bright sun. For they exist in the world to be. For who are we if we do not cast it?"Rouge held a confused expression on her face. "Oh brother not another flashback."Shadow stood firmly before SAI-001."The casters live in it, for they are with what they know. For brightness or for darkness, depend on the sight of light or the comfort of shadow.""Password accepted. Lowering firewall." Said SAI-001.The group of SAI's moved out of the way as the firewall lowered before them, revealing a large set of purple doors riddled with the lines. They opened, revealing a room of light. Walking through it, they suddenly entered a very dramatic change of environment. Golden butterflies flew everywhere, with white ancient columns surrounding a concrete pavement, with the scape of the background a gorgeous valley in the middle of lush forest enclaved mountains with waterfalls and the river central, the sky clear and the sun fresh, peeking through the columns. There was a sparkle sense going on, the rush of the river nearby soothing to the ear but confusing the heck out of Shadow. Before them brought more absurd anarchonic items, such as dozens of floating monitors with wires attached to them, the wires themselves attaching everywhere, over the concrete pavement and into the forests below as they were on the side of the mountain, the wires also heading towards the door. SAI-001 walked passed them as they saw a golden light surrounded with small blue spheres circling it in a Saturn like fashion, leaving small fading trails as the light sat on some blue, silky cushions on a raised platform on top of steps.SAI-001 stood before it."Admin, Three solids who have clear access to this room. They have responded to the beacon."Silent, SAI-001 bowed his head before standing before the light."Admin's vocoder has not been activated. Please consult the Seven Server Pyres."Shadow facepalmed. Great...more needless puzzles and mystics."Can you ask the 'Admin' about Omega first?"SAI-001 waited as he looked to his side, then back at Shadow."Artillery Agent E-123 'Omega' has been sent to Server Pyre Three. Directions will now be available at all known terminals."Rouge walked forward "She-Admin...if you don't mind...what will these Server Pyres achieve? Is it something to do with the RAM or memory storage?"All Seven Server Pyres all have Memory Banks alongside with two major purposes. Each Pyre has one unique purpose to the ARKS Intranet." SAI-001 replied thoroughly.Rouge nodded. "Uh huh...so if Omega is located in Pyre Three then?""Server Pyre Three deals with Recycle Data. Data that is deleted isn't truly deleted unless a user has let the Admin know of the data in which needs to be terminated." said SAI-001.Rouge looked at Shadow, who was losing his patience. "I see. Well, first off, we'll need to find the Vocoder won't we? Which pyre holds the vocoder?""The Vocoder should be located in the Sound Advocate Drive, Server Pyre One." Affirmed SAI-001.Shadow eye's swung to Rouge's."Simple. We split up. We find Pyres One and Three first. By the way, what's number two? Gotta give Neps here something to do I suppose." Said Rouge.Shadow glared at her. "I'm not leaving you alone..."Rouge laughed. "Shadow, I told you before, I might be pregnant but I'm still perfectly capable. So shut up."Shadow rolled his eyes. "What ever...you probably don't want the kid anyway hanging around..."Rouge snuffed. "I know right?"Turning their attention back to SAI-001 and the...'SheAdmin', Rouge asked the question again."Server Pyre Two is the Graphics, Projection and Imagery Card Drive." SAI-001 answered.Rouge gave Shadow smug looks, which he brushed off with ease."Fine. We'll go. I'll head for the Third Pyre to look for Omega, Rouge you go to the first one and Neptune goes to the second one. Agreed?"Rouge and Neptune nodded in sync. SAI-001 opened up a new portal, throwing them out in the original terminal area. It was going to be a problem considering they had downloaded the map on to Omega. But they ran around anyway to the nearest Terminal. First up was Pyre One, located somewhere on the higher western floors of the ARK. With that note, she flew off. Next was Pyre Two, located on the higher eastern floors. With that in his memory, Neptune ran towards the nearest elevator to that area. With Shadow's turn, his part was in the lower southern floors as he fled back and headed down to the unknown parts of the ever mysterious ARK...Sonic had flown around a while after meeting the kid. He'd asked Moore to look after him for a while and give him a call for any changes with the girl. He'd also received a call from Morpheus to head on over to Soleanna to check up on Elise. Morpheus had given him the intel of the mass transformation that it had undertaken in such a short time. Besides, Eggman could be crawling around there so there was a good chance of finding either him or Abbadonia, or both, if it could be helped. However, much to Sonic's dismay, if he were to find any of them, he wasn't to attack, which Morpheus failed to mention why. But, with much of many burdens on his shoulders, such as when saving the citizens make sure to send them to the Tetherstorms through the portal. That hurt him the most. It hit him pretty damn hard that he would have to kill innocent lives for the sake of growing numbers. But with the pain that he had, he had lied to himself with the gathering of regret, remorse and shame. They were gone. Pain was existent for different reasons, but those emotions that would have made him spin back to the good side were not there, taken away for some reason. Pain was controlling his life and he blamed these lack of emotions for it.He felt half the Hedgehog he used to be...Neptune cluttered about, trying to find this room. He ran around corners, fought off rogue robots and was curious about the Artificial Chaos he encountered, finding them neither friend or foe but rather interesting creatures. He left them alone for a while as he tilted his head, his goggle eyes shifting about, examining new and fascinating technology he'd never seen before. Everything was wonderful in his naïve mind. He approached an Artificial Chaos that floated past, and poked it. It's reaction, not really friendly, scaring the probie slightly. But he continued poking it, before it swiped him. Neptune wasn't well liked apparently, slashing the Artificial Chaos to bits, letting the water splatter everywhere. Neptune's body expression suggested he grew sad afterwords, with his lack of vocals quite depressing. Still, the Probie wandered around the place, searching evermore for the Server Pyre.He came across an outer area. From memory, it was required to go out into this outdoor complex cart system to get into the Server Pyre room. He came across two sets of sliding doors, entering one, and watched it as it slide closed again. He turned around, facing the second set open after the first closed. There was a square grey cart with fence rails and a board of buttons on a stand. Wandering over, he pressed one button, and fell backwards once it started moving. Standing back up again, he could see the beautiful Earth over remnants of the colony. He clasped his fingerclaws together as the Earth reflected in his eyes, the goggles turning around in his excitement and admiration for the ever-blue world. Eventually, he got around to another set of sliding doors, re-entering into the ARK's interior.This place was a lot darker, with few lights to work with as he got deeper. No windows, no nothing but bits of light. He turned on the night vision in his goggles, seeing the ends of a hallway, with mounds of wires piling up everywhere, cables digging into the wall and a boxy device in the middle of it all. Crawling towards it, he sees more shiny buttons for him to press. Doing so turned on several lights in the process, knocking Neptune back as the device spun around, a black crystal rising out of it. Neptune got up and stared in awe as the device moved about, a screen appearing as it displayed the text 'Server Pyre Two Activated' as well as some other stuff he didn't bother to understand. He sensed someone was behind him as light cast over him, fading eventually as he turned around to see blonde haired human girl wearing blue top, skirt and blue slip ons. Her face was cute as she leaned over to run her finger tips over his helmet as she smiled, making Neptune jealous that he can't, only responding by pressing his fingerclaw on her hand, only to go through it entirely and hit his helmet. In his naïve mind, he kept pressing it, but had the same result each time. The girl seemed to laugh except she had no voice, which intrigued Neptune. She straightened up and started to walk away, with hand waves, gesturing to him to follow her, in which he clapped ecstatically and ran towards her, watching her as he walked beside her.Arriving at Soleanna, all Sonic was thinking as to smash the damnation out of this horrid Egg based theme park. He felt compelled to destroy it...destroy all of it. But on orders of Morpheus, he wasn't allowed. Instead he infiltrated the castle, and headed towards the cameras. If there was anything he learned from Olly, it was stealth. He'd infiltrated one of vents and ended up at the security room, meeting up with Orbot and Cubot in the meanwhile, appearing behind them in complete silence.Orbot rested his head on his hand, leaning to his side, asleep, while Cubot was on the verge of sleep himself, as he had a hard time resisting the urge of doing so."I haven't seen the Doctor in a while..." Said Orbot with a sigh."I do hope he's alright."Cubot swirled his head around. "I know! But don't you think his daughters cute?"Orbot gave Cubot a look as if to say, are you mad."Are you mad?" Orbot eventually said. "Wait, you best not respond to that."Sonic rolled his eyes, focusing on the security footage on the monitors, tilting his head when he saw Olly following a plethora of robots. He melted into a pool of black ooze and left the scene.Rouge wandered about, with the her near perfect memory in mind, and flew down many a corridor and hallway down the ARK, searching for this particular pyre. It was clean and not really dusty at all, suggesting maintainance was still being initiated. She lamented how she could get her Clubs do this themselves instead of having calls about relaying more funds to cleaners to get bleach due to stuff she didn't want to know. As well as her jewels collection that she often tended to herself. But she enjoyed that. Cleaning her precious gems had a calming effect on her. She wished she'd brought some along, this pregnancy of hers having their weird effects. She berated herself for being so stupid and careless for allowing it happen. But, she dare not think that, instead blaming and hating Knuckles for everything. She remembered that day she was going to tell Knuckles about it, but uncharacteristically butted out. She'd put into the smoldering flames of horror belonging to what the abomination and freak of nature would look like if she'd allow it to come to full term. She'd made her decision to get rid of it after a few more days thinking about it. Rouge was business and business meant money and money meant jewels. Having a child would place a dent on it, with Big Mama going mental and firing her or forcing her to abort anyway. In the way of her career, Rouge didn't have much choice anyway.Flying around more endless rooms, heading towards what she was looking for she'd come across a sit of sliding doors with a keypad next to it. She pulled out a small hacking device, knowing Rouge didn't know a lot of things, but she was resourceful. Attaching a cable from the device to the keypad, numbers flashed on the screen on the calculator like apparatus. When it came up with the right numbers, the sliding doors opened. She walked in and looked around, another wide open room with no windows but hundreds of cables towards a metallic rectangular block. Seeing several buttons on the block itself, there was a thorough and careful examination. Out of all the visits, this was the first time Rouge had seen these. It reminded her of a book she read once...out of boredom and a suggestion from someone of a place where it keeps changing. It didn't surprise her though. The ARK was full of secrets that weren't meant for just one generation.The buttons failed to give indication of what they were. But Rouge buttoned it down to instinct and pressed one button closest to the top. Suddenly it span around with the black crystal appearing on top, the room lighting up like the sun, before Rouge witnessed the blonde haired girl descending before her."Thanks!" Said the girl, her voice soft and sweet. "Just in time too! I'd escorted your friend back near the Portal Room."Rouge's eyes widened. This was the girl from the picture that Shadow had. This had to be...The girl noticed Rouge's expression and smiled. "Sorry, I'm rude. I'm Maria. Pleased to meet you."Rouge stepped back and blinked. "So you're the one who sent the beacon?" Rouge pointed out.Maria nodded. "Yes. I was stuck inside the system for so long, slowly but surely rendering out and using the ARK expansive network to construct the programs. I'd been taking bits and pieces, but unfortunately because I am restricted in movement, the bandwidth gets taken up very quickly. For now, you need to head back to the Portal Room. I believe Shadow is going to find his friend. Am I correct."Rouge nodded. "Yes. Omega was shot by...a program I presume?"Maria sighed. "Like I said, I am restricted in movement to investigate. Three isn't enough for me to search through the entire intranet or internet in fact. But I can now download a bit more than I used to..."Rouge crossed her arms. "Hm...how many mores Pyres do you need to do so?"Maria looked to her side. "Each Pyre that is activated increases not only my memory, but RAM as well, allowing me to run multiple programs with ease. "Rouge knew what to do then. "So where abouts are the rest of the Pyres? We can activate them for you."Maria shook her head. "I can't. I accidentally placed some map files in the recycling bin, and since that area can't be accessed until Shadow activates the Pyre."Well that goes her original idea. Maria continued looking at her with a distinct smile on her face, creeping Rouge out. She hoped it wouldn't last the entire time they were looking for Pyres. And Maria appeared to be a klutz of sorts...but she'd have to ask Shadow about that later. She turned around to leave, when Maria fizzled in front of her."Wait! Don't go!" Maria interfered.Rouge's eyes lifted. "Something else I can do then?" Rouge asked.Maria brought on her smile again. "I want to know your name."Rouge smirked. "Sure. My name is Rouge. Rouge the Bat."Maria clasped her hands together. "Rouge...that's a pretty name. Nice to meet you."Rouge nodded. "Likewise."With this interesting discussion she headed towards near the Portal Room as directed, and waited for Shadow to contact her...That discussion with Olly was...different. Sonic wasn't entirely sure of himself anymore. He'd rather not bitch and complain however. He wanted pieces to fall into place but unfortunately they'd gone missing. He'd heard the announcement over the speakers and had to get out of there. He'd gotten out of his ooze form as soon as he'd got to the roof of the castle and shot up into the sky, summoning his gigantic black feathery wings. He glided over briefly as he saw a group of people running towards a Jetcopter. He carefully watched them as they jumped in. A small clicking sound some time afterward prompted Sonic to fly higher and away from the explosion that captivated nearly the entire complex. He'd flown away, fast and hard and upon reaching a safe distance stared at the tall flames enveloping everything and prayed for their survival. He'd heard something fly beside him. It was Morpheus with Milo flying the original Jetcopter."What...a mess..." Morpheus commented, hanging out of the side.Sonic flapped there, looking on. "They got out of there. However, I saw Vector carrying one of the Femme Fatalex. I think she's injured."Morpheus breathed through his mask."We will talk about this later...for now...head back to the Tetherstorms...and deal with our new...refugees..."Sonic nodded. "Yes sir..." He said, warping in his own portal and entering through it.Shadow skated around the complex, desperate to find this Pyre. He'd have his own revenge against these damned reflections on himself. How dare they delete Omega. Despite his annoying rampages it was not all of the robot most had witnessed. His vendetta against Dr. Eggman was one of many notable traits. Shadow remembered having discussions with the robot, usually questioning what he will do if he manages to destroy every single last robot that Eggman had made. And predictably, Omega couldn't compute it. Shadow just wished he could express himself using alternate methods, instead of blowing stuff up all the time. Maybe the rumors were right, Shadow has gone soft as his relationship with Amy became well known. Nor did he regret doing it at all. There really was nothing left to discover from his own past as far as he knew. With issues solved he could be free to do as he liked. He could still remember that day as well...for some weird reason. Maybe because it was emotionally memorable.
Another random day in the unlocked lands of what ever. Shadow was busy twirling a random blade around as he waited to escort Amy back home after the meeting with her mother in Grand Metropolis. Amy soon came out of the light blue sliding doors, shuffling through her red bag, then had a look at Shadow.

"I'm surprised you're still here." Said Amy.

Shadow blinked. "Your mother had asked me to escort you since last weeks attack on her prompted her to take precautions. Especially with your protection."

Amy rose an eyebrow. "Pfff...I only needed moms signature on some paperwork. Other than that she doesn't really care. She prefers my sister anyway."

Shadow rested his hand on his waist. "Well I wouldn't really KNOW about favoritism...you know...being an orphan at all."

Amy stared at him. "Oh...how...dramatic." She said with sarcasm. "I'd be shooting bolts before I receive any attention."

Shadow chuckled. "Heh...she'll regret it. You know the old saying, you don't know what you've got until it's gone."

Amy smiled. "That's very thoughtful of you Shadow." She mentioned. She gave him a few stares, tilting with curiosity and unwarranted interest, Shadow confused at her expressive behaviors.

"Something you need?" Shadow asked.

Amy shook her head. "No no...nothing. I better be off then. Gotta go home n' all."

Shadow escorted her back home via a GUN Vehicle. In accordance to the laws of the High Tech Sectors, hovercars weren't allowed outside the perimeters or risk shut down. It was a safety issue mostly. But the High Tech Sector was several hundred kilometers in diameter so it was enough. They'd arrived back at Amy's Apartment back in Central City. Amy kissed Shadow on the cheek, Shadow unphased and stoic as always as she did it. They said brief goodbyes as they parted, Shadow heading back to HQ to speak with Rouge.

Returning back, he'd met up with her, much to her sniggering and goofy look on her face, Shadow demanded to know what was so funny.

"Since when did you wear lipstick on your cheek?" Rouge snickered.

Shadow browed, not understanding what she meant.

"Who was it? Hmmm?" Rouge said, smiling from amusement.

Shadow blinked and touched his cheek, red appearing on his glove. He wiped his cheek with his arms.

"It must have been Amy. I took her home from Metropolis. She had a meeting with her mother."

Shadow replied.

Rouge kept a cheeky grin on her face. "Ahaaa...alright then..."

Shadow rose an eyebrow and crossed his arms. "What is so damn funny?" He asked.

Rouge chuckled. "I see. She's taken quite a shine to you then hm?"

Shadow looked around. He was not going to be teased about some peck on the cheek for his sisters amusement.

"Maybe you should ask her out." Rouge suggested.

Shadow turned his back on her. "Rouge...if you're suspecting this love mumbo jumbo thing then no."

Rouge chuckled. "Oh come on Shadow, it might do you good. She's got a sweet side and I doubt Sonic's going to change his opinion any time soon."

Shadow was skeptical and discovered he may have the same opinion as Sonic. Maybe. He stopped and stared outwards, becoming distant to reality as he remembered words so familiar, the words that made him switch and realize the truth and meaning and the chance for redemption within all means. She reminded him of her. Their sweetness incarnate. Perhaps another for his own sake. To honor what he once had, a second try at protection to make up for his past failures. To put a speedy Hedgehogs rival in perspective, he'd also have something that Sonic wouldn't have.

A girlfriend.

In all accordance to their similarities, Shadow could possess more of the heart of the one he cared about the most. In achieving what he couldn't achieve before and salvaging lone expressions they he daren't not show to Rouge. Besides, Amy had an aura that was inviting and alluring. But for in sense and purposes he knew he shouldn't, but if it could help him learn on how Maria would have turned out in many years time, as well the protection detail.

"If I do...there's going to be many barriers for me to get to her." He told Rouge. Dear chaos, he couldn't believe he just said that. Even Rouge was astounded.

"Shadow I was kidding! I wasn't being serious on the whole ask her out thing! Do you really she's going to stop being obsessed with Sonic?" Rouge burst out.

Shadow looked at her. He knew it was out of character as well as implications, but if he didn't prove himself, then none of it would be worth it. There were the positives and negatives of it all.

"You said it yourself, Sonic won't change his opinion any time soon. It's going to be the biggest taunt ever."

Rouge face palmed. "You have no idea how to treat women do you?" She sighed.

Shadow smirked. "You could teach me. I know this might be hard for you to understand..."

Rouge shook her head. "No no! It's fine. Honestly...even though with me saying it implies I am jealous of you suddenly interested in romance crap and asking someone out."

Shadow turned to her. "Rouge, you've taken care of me all these years. You've taught me well in the field of social standards and how to approach people properly. I know I can be stubborn, filled with revenge sometimes and a bit left of center. I want to branch out and learn more about the world Maria wanted me to save. It's what she would have wanted me to do."

Rouge's hands flung to her hips. "...Amy reminds you of Maria doesn't she?" Rouge implored.

Shadow shrugged. "You wanna act like Maria..."

Rouge laughed. "In comparison to her? I'm no saint. You're like a little brother Shadow, well, like my little brother. But you don't have dirty magazines underneath your bed."

Shadow grinned. "His sister is a bad influence."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Oh ha..ha..ha..."

With that, Shadow had asked Rouge to assist him in wooing Amy...which would inevitebly happen...
He arrived at the Pyre he was looking for in a random room full of wires connecting to it. He pressed a button as it activated, with Maria falling from above, floating in front of the black Hedgehog, much to his surprise."Maria!" Shadow called out.Maria smiled. "Shadow! It's been so long! I am...glad to see you!"Shadow's eyes were kept wide. What was she doing here? This made no sense at all! But he couldn't stop smiling. The blue clothed girl was right before him, staring at his eyes."Maria...how..." Shadow muttered.Maria waggled her index finger. "Now now Shadow, there is time for explanations later. I know your friend is in here somewhere...and I know how you are, straight to business!"It was definitely her. He still couldn't believe it."I had Professor Rosewire put his program on Pyre Zero, which was basically what I'd been living off of. It was the Chaos Drive, allowing for Rosewire's Particle Theorem to work. Incidentally, I had his grand daughter assist me in activating the RPT to function, but she mentioned...bah! You have no time for this! Sorry Shadow..." Said Maria."It's okay." Replied Shadow. "If you can get me to Omegas location, I can draw him out myself."Maria nodded. "Okay then! Let me scan the Recycling Bin for Solids...give me one moment..." She said before fading away. Shadow stood there and tapped his foot, looking around at the instruments supporting the Pyre.Maria reappeared before Shadow. "Okay, that's odd..." She said, browing.Shadow looked at her. "What is?" He asked.Maria rubbed her head. "It says he's been taken out. So he's gotta be around somewhere. I could send out my Anti-Virus programs, but some weird, unrecognizable cookie has nudged itself inside the intranet without my knowledge."Shadow gave a confused look. "A...a cookie?"Maria looked at him, realizing what she said, and laughed nervously."No no no! Not like that!" She said. "It's just a computer term. You know, how I used to go on that desktop all the time..."Shadow used to believe she'd played games on there all the time...she used to have this strange fascination with a game where you'd control families and stuff...apparently allowing for bouts of creativity."I'll send you in there, and then I'll warp in a portal for your friends to jump in to help you." Maria explained.Shadow nodded and walked forward, Maria summoning the portal and then stopping Shadow."Wait!" She cried.Shadow turned his head to her. "What's wrong?" He asked.Maria gulped. "Can you find a file for me? I think it might have disappeared from the Recycling Bin, when it was there before...and I never got contacted to delete it. I need it now actually...I did a clean out since many past scientists, doctors and engineers had some very rude pictures and videos on there."Shadow lowered his head, then looked at her. "Of course. What should I be looking for specifically?"Maria tapped her chin. "Ummm...I remember the file name. I think it was...Chaos Underscore, Regen...I'll come with you!" She announced suddenly, prompting a surprised response from Shadow."Fine...lets go then!"

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sonic had done some crazy things in his life. But none were more worse than what he had done over the past few weeks.He'd damned everyone he'd ever known and loved. And yet, his pain was indistinguishable from any other. It was all the same that he'd forgotten the difference between agony and pleasure. The was no sleep...no rest for the wicked as they would say. He didn't want to complain but he ended up spilling it out quite often, his thoughts entangled with one another, upsetting important signals to his brain. To think so much that it clutters, it was a wonder why his brain hadn't exploded from overexertion. Most of the willpower went towards convincing himself to rebel but the unwarranted condition prevented him from going back. He served Morpheus and Morpheus alone. He tried psyching himself to hear the words of Amy Rose or Olly. Any of those girls would definitely be a huge help to him, even if he didn't know what they would do, but their presence had calmed him.Amy, the girl his heart held on to. For the ways she had been acting strange as of late, didn't deter him the slightest, only growing concerned for her welfare. He couldn't remember to explain himself why this attraction ever occurred. She was a brat, well until a certain point anyway. Perhaps, it was only until Shadow had started dating her that he'd noticed her. What ever it was, it got Sonic stumbled.He needed to go see Olly again. To hear the voice of a noble, independent and sane woman would do wonders for his mental fatigue, the structured and compiled Agent the very shadow of his former self. He had a hard time whether to give the mantle to her or Amy. Either way, she did not fear him or cared for his current form despite knowing who he was in his Mr. Thorn persona. There was this attachment to her, bereft of hostility but of understanding, which Sonic took it as the only positive thing out everything else which became painful to feel. He flew to Grand Metropolis to look for after the work that he did for Morpheus, the dark of the night culminating into the cool, wintry atmosphere.Melting into the air vents, he searched around until seeing Cream sleeping in a bed in the hospital ward. He went over, seeing Olly sitting down on a chair outside in the hallway, staring at the floor. She was a sight for sore eyes.He oozed out, appearing in the shadows. Olly must have heard him as she lifted her head, her legs crossed on the plastic black chair and looking in Sonic's general direction. He reformed and walked towards, withdrawing his wings."What happened?" Sonic asked.Olly sighed. "Cream's unconscious. Her mother's in the intensive care ward."Sonic blinked. "Wha? What happened with Vanilla? Did they get ransacked in their own home or somethin?"Olly lowered her head. "...long story..."Sonic tried not to frown. "I'm willing to hear...I have time..." He said.Olly turned away, Sonic unable to understand why she was avoiding the subject.He heard footsteps from a set of high heeled sandles and slowly walked away, before hearing a gasp and stopping."You..." Said the voice."Asher..." Muttered Olly.The Pink Hedgehog glanced at Sonic, clutching her clipboard."Wait, aren't you the terrorist they're all talking about?" Asher questioned.Sonic felt uneased and started walking backwards, before being stopped by Olly."Sonic wait..." She said.Sonic's glowing eyes pierced down at the Agent. He really didn't want to be identified at this point, really wanting to flee, but somehow couldn't. Asher gasped and had to adjust her glasses."It's okay. He's with me." Olly assured."Sonic..."Sonic lowered his head, not bothering to make eye contact."Asher, this is Mr. Thorn. Please adhere to use that name if you can. Mr. Thorn, this is Dr. Asher Rose."Sonic lifted his head, looking at the pink hedgehog. "Wait, you're Amy's sister?"Asher nodded. She had the look of an older sister and soft, warmth to her, wearing her modern inner city fashionable tops and pants. She was still shocked at the site of Sonic that she tripped over, dropping her notes. Olly face-palmed."Sorry, Asher is a bit clumsy." Said Olly. Olly assisted in picking them up as Asher struggling to sort the papers out again."So, how is she?" Asked Olly.As soon as Asher got herself sorted she again adjusted her glasses and carefully read the papers, before realizing they're upside down and had to adjust them."Ah...Agent Bazooka is still in a critical condition. The bullet is edged in on the top of the lung. It'll be hard to extract." Asher explained.Olly nodded. Sonic now knew who Vector was carrying whilst witnessing them run away from the Soleanna Castle."So what's wrong with Vanilla?" Sonic asked again, needing to know as a friend.Asher exchanges funny looks with Olly, Sonic's eyes pingponging between them, trying to get what was going on."What?" He said.Olly crossed her arms. "Sonic...Vanilla is Bazza..." She announced.Sonic's eyes widened. Vanilla? As in Vanilla the Rabbit? Was he hearing this right?"You're her friend. I thought you deserved to know." Olly said with sadness.Sonic scrunched his fist, forming a black ghastly glow to it, and smashing the wall behind, with huge cracks splintering the concrete, scaring Asher into dropping her glasses. Olly just stood there and pitied him."This was never supposed to reach out on to the surface. She was deep under cover." Olly said calmly.Sonic glared at Olly, jumping forward with pure rage and picking her up via her neck and pushing her up against the wall. Olly was unmoved by this, but with poor Asher frozen in absolute fear, she had to do something."This was out of our control Sonic...there was nothing I could do..." Olly continued.Sonic leaned his face in towards the front frame of her helmet. He growled slightly, spawning and arcing his wings over them both. She could see the emptiness behind the pain in his eyes. He was tempted to tear her apart, but couldn't. He wasn't going to. He couldn't understand why he was so pissed off however. If he was able to stop he would but it wasn't letting on."Besides it was Vanilla's decision to join the Femme Fatalex. Like you, she has two images to maintain. Which one needs more protection from potential criminals and villains?"Sonic's breathing was very loud for one, and slightly shaken. He was possibly frightened at himself if he could tell. He sniffed the air, looking at Asher in the process for a strange odor, Olly also.Asher had the most terrified look on her face, accidentally wetting her pants as she lay on the floor and twitched her knees, face red with embarrassment.Sonic let go of his grip and walked backwards. He fell to his knees and held in his head, his wings sporadically flapping all over the place as he screamed. Olly walked forward and knelt before him, resting her hand on his head.
White walls everywhere as Sonic lifted his head. He sat on a bench, leaning over, his wings arcing, then straightening before he withdrew them. Blossoms fell from the sky like soft, silky pink snow. His dark fur contrasted greatly against the light. Across from him was all, foggy, nothing amongst them in the distance. Sonic caught hold of a snow blossom and caressed it with his finger. The dead silence had returned to haunt him. Olly came running past, unable to figure out where she was, until seeing Sonic staring at her. His attention came across something else as his eyes zoomed next to Olly, forcing the Agent to turn around. She looked at it, before looking at Sonic.

"You're seeing what I'm seeing right?" Asked Olly.

Sonic got off the bench and walked towards Amy, who was standing there in the fog without an expression on her face. She stood straight, wearing the necklace Sonic had given her and was staring into the distance.

"There's a lesser chance of succeeding if we hold secrets to one another." Amy muttered. Sonic ran over to her tried to take her hand, instead, Amy teleported behind Sonic and in front of Olly, looking at her curiously.

"But what tasks do we attain in order to succeed? Trust? Love...maybe. But take into consideration of the everlasting results it has. We need freedom to live." Amy continued.

Olly looked over at Sonic, who was in pure agony as he knelt over again and held his head. His wings sprouted with feathers falling off and circling around him in a sphere.

"We sow those seeds...watch them grow. We know the answers we're looking because we've taken the care in researching them. Turns out we're reseeding the same plant."

Olly heard shuffling footsteps walking towards Sonic. Out of the fog came another Sonic who just stared at him, the pity brought down the miserable navy blur.

"We carry on with what we have. Everything is recycled." Said Amy.

Olly wandered over to Sonic, who reacted to her by pouncing on her, forcing her to the ground.

He pinned her arms down. Olly was desperately searching through his lost soul. She overpowered him with her pure arm strength and pushed him away, not hesitating in pulling out her Smish Smasher and whacking him towards a wall, smashing it and watching it fizzle away.

Sonic didn't bother to get up as he lay there, staring at the white sky, watching the blossoms fall. Olly withdrew her weapon and sat down next to him.

"Something's missing." Said Sonic.

"In my life there's something missing."

Amy and the strange Sonic doppelganger had disappeared, leaving them two alone.

"We always have something missing in our life Sonic. We'd do anything to fill the gap and feel complete. But we usually never do. Our purpose in life is to do just that." Olly commented.

"Even if I'm the one making the gaps?" Sonic wondered.

Olly shook her head from side to side slightly. "That happens. For every construction there's always destruction I guess. I'm not the best philsopher, but it's just a general way of living. You either destroy or create. Maybe even both." She explained.

"I always destroy." Said Sonic. "Destruction on Eggmans part...Destruction on my part. I'm just a lesser of two evils."

Olly chuckled. "You're more like a necessary evil for Eggman. For the most part, Eggman does more of the creation. You're just making his own gaps."

Sonic's head fell to his side as he glanced at her.

"Aim I a bad person then?"

Olly looked down between her feet.

"No..."

They watched the blossoms fall down together in this generic land of non-existence. Olly looked over at Sonic and rested her hand on his arm, only for violent images that painfully flashed into her vision. She heard the screams and felt what he felt for that moment. She glanced at a fallen black feather and picked it up, twirling it in her fingers as she stared at it. Blood...a lot of blood that was spilt under thunderstorms, under rain and under fire. The mutiliations sickened her, as screams from both parties were heard. This was the very pain that he'd felt. The memories burdened within his soul. Nearing numbness, this was what was all of what he had become. He held a hallow stare as his head faced above in the infinite white.

She wanted to help him, she really did. She'd let go of the feather as it continued to inflict mental damage on her. Sonic had his arms, legs and wings spread out wide as he slide flat on the ground. Olly made note that this was his reality...no AF Gas involved, but rather the twisted concepts of a messed up hedgehog. Morpheus was going to pay for what he had done to him, the once pround, eversprinting hedgehog had been warped into a shell of a ghostly spectrum. She wanted to heal, she wanted to take care of him and tell him everything is okay, but within her nature and facing the facts in front of her, she knew she wasn't going to be able anyway.

But she could try.

She leaned over him, rotating her head slightly to make decent eye contact. To her relief he stared back at her. Taking her helmet off might help, but refrained from doing so, despite the temptation.

"I've been meaning to tell you something." She said, her voice comforting.

Sonic didn't respond, but a subtle hint in his expression allowed her to continue.

"I've been speaking with Amy, who says she doesn't want to be disturbed at this point in time. But if I can make the call, I can organize a small meeting with her for you."

Sonic's face lit up for the first time in a while, warming Olly's heart. They had a heart to heart briefly, Olly explaining how she'll make the call later and possibly work with Amy to arrange a meeting place for them both to talk about things. Olly smiled underneath her helmet, glad Sonic was still fighting for something underneath his own shame. If he could persuade her to not do what she was planning to then the world would be alright.
"Agent Mjöllnir!" Cried Asher.Olly had returned to normalcy as Asher described Bazzas status to her. It was like nothing happened. Sonic was definitely a creature of ethereal nature, mysterious at work. His usual escapades involved running and smashing things to a degree. But this warping of reality was becoming more common for him, as if his thoughts and feeling affected the environment around him. She had to make sure he was comfortable with this or else the situation could get worse. Morpheus machinations were inevitable at this point, mentally molesting the broken mind of a once noble mobian. She would pay him his dues eventually. She swore it.For now, she sat with Asher and discussed Agent Bazooka's well-being. Apparently Vector had been sitting in with her, holding her hand the entire time and never leaving her side, with Espio and Charmy occasionally offering their assistance in their friends time of need. It took Vector sometime to get over the shock of his wife being an instrument of battle but it made him proud that he was her husband now and they could properly look after their family. It made Olly think, that all that was needed in life was well-adjusted, well-mixed and well-managed people dedicated themselves with everyone in a subconsciously selected group. This friendship that became entirely familial was riddled with support and gratitude that they had for each other. Perhaps Sonic's need for Amy's presence was similar in that regard, the rapport between with another building and evergrowing, the premise of communication an important factor in such relationships.Sonic had disappeared into the darkness, kneeling before Morpheus who was busy adjusting his gask mask. Their hidden base, cold, dark and gases from slightly cracked pipe filled the room. Morpheus held his makeshift throne. He'd gotten word from Milo that their third associate will be needing assistance in their next assimilating mission."Infiltrate the ARKINTRA Zone and meet up with her...the device you had given us...she used to contact you yes?" Morpheus asked.Sonic nodded, not saying a word."Good...she's in retrieval of a program implemented there..." Morpheus mentioned.Sonic looked up at him. "From the call she said there were others in the LAN looking for the program she sought. Do you want me to terminate them?"Morpheus squinted. "No..." He answered. "I only need you to...take care of her...fight only when necessary..."Sonic bowed. "Yes sir."Although Sonic hated this, it had become intermingled with every other negative emotion. There was restraint and control enforced when Sonic was near. Morpheus protected him from the rest of the world and forced Sonic to see the world from his eyes, forcing inflicting messages into his brain with Morpheus psychic powers. It was one way of control and it was going to be there whether Sonic liked it or not."I'm going to have a word with Amy." Said Sonic, who was quite in the blank onto if he should have said that to him.Morpheus floated in his own sense of smugness, the snake like creature he was."Good...we are being more enthused about this...if you can...""I know, I know..." Sonic butted in.Morpheus cracked his neck. "Do this business with our friend here...until she wants to finally speak to you...then by all means..."Sonic obliged before standing up and turning away."However..." Breathed Morpheus as he got closer, standing right behind Sonic."We still haven't done...our session..."Sonic scrunched his eyes. "Alright..."Shadow, Rouge and Neptune searched around with Maria in the gargantuan enclaves of the ARKINTRA Zone. They'd already met up with viruses intending to harm Maria herself, since she was the link in the chain in the networking parts of the ARK itself. The female AI in between worded out the history of the programming side of herself, and also asking Shadow what had happened to her organic self. Shadow, only remembering bits and pieces, told her how she was shot by a GUN Soldier during the accolades of their downfall. Maria was saddened by the prospect of her templates death. Rouge could see it in Shadow's body language, and the fact that he was walking close and next to the AI Maria, that she was the next best substitute after the Molly incident occurred.Neptune slashed and dashed at eternally oncoming enemies. Since not all the Pyres were activated, Maria could not activate herself to her optimal ability. Getting Omega back was a top priority at the moment. Instead, Shadow examined the atmosphere of Cyber Space, telling Maria the times he'd been in Cyber Space before, gathering her interest somewhat, since it was in her coded desire to expand her knowledge and field to help out anyway she could. Despite not being the real Maria, she still had the same sweet and kind personality that Shadow admired.
THE NEXT DAY...
Sonic stood amongst the dims of the day ahead. Today would be last stand against Amy's questionable solution to a problem. He felt like she was accepting the fact that she was going to become a new vessel for Abbadonia. If Olly had properly set the meeting up with her, then this was going to be his last chance to stop her from doing so. He was waiting for Lag to return with a letter from Olly, since Amy refused to see anyone else beside her or Shadow at this point. He feared for her safety, partially due to the fact that both her sanity and his own were at stake. She didn't deserve this. Not one bit.He stood within her purpose, the darkened ranks of an unknown dungeon, the shallows of near-frozen over hell. But Morpheus liked it that way. The Navy-Blur crawled out of the dungeon and into the dimness of a brown tinged atmosphere, flattened ground of debris and dust-fog. This was the darkness that he was willing to live in, to hide the shame of his anguish. Then he realized how stupidly melodramatic this actually was, taking in Olly's advice. He honestly could do something about his own situation. To be forgiven was not to be expected but to be understood was a crucial point that needed to be addressed to all who knew. He had a few ideas in his head, and ran through them repeatedly.Lag came along with Niche, he thanked the speedy-mail man and his Dingo as they ran off. Within the dusty plains he opened the letter he had been waiting for. He quickly read it, lifted his head up and brought out his wings, flying off towards the allocated location.Their meeting place was lush and nice. A simple curved wooden bridge over the top of a creek, willow trees blanketing it, the cool environment balanced with the rush of the water was perfect for relaxing with a slight blue hue tint. A park, so it seems within their allocation. Sonic could see Amy leaning over the bridge's railings, her eyes watching the streams as if she was aloof with the world. There appeared to be nothing wrong. No happiness, no sadness but in a state of complete calm and neutrality, evidence to be not wanting to be any part of the problem. Sonic slowly got up to her, Amy failing to acknowledge his presence. This was somewhat scaring him, as he was noticing her fading facial expressions of emotions, leading him to believe the once rampaging, obsessive Hedgehog was falling into obscurity, another general normal, average Pink Hedgehog. The picture was all wrong."Amy?" He muttered. Turning her head, she looked at him. She leaned off the rails and glanced. She attempted to get closer, but Sonic's paranoia forced him to take a step back. The genuine care and touch was still existent, the focus was on her distant looks."Sonic..." Amy muttered back. It was a reunion of awkward sorts. Wearing her necklace, she caressed the pendant briefly then let her hands down to her side.Sonic looked down, not wanting to make eye contact. Why was this happening? This was impeccably frustrating for the both of them. When did it get from a friendly relationship to this unnamed tension? It was the death of the light in the world, when darkness became more than just the lack of light, forging beyond into the beliefs of the metaphorical. Within his pain came regret, coming to the surface just in time."Olly told me you wanted to talk to me." She said calmly. The air just got colder as she spoke.Sonic lifted his head, struggling to meet her dull eyes."I wanted a word with you...I know what you're planning to do..." He said in a stern tone.Amy sighed. "I have to do what I have to do. There's no other way."That lit a fire within the hollows of Sonic's spirit. There was discouragement reflecting in those words."What do you mean it's the only way? Why can't you let me handle it?" Sonic roared.Amy glanced back out on the creek. The enchanted environment did nothing to help matters. But it had gotten colder and colder with each passing moment. Whether it was the weather or a reaction to a emotive cue was unknown. Amy had a weird aura about her, disconnected with the rest of the world and confined to a self-made task of unknown proportions."What happened to you Amy? You were so cheery and optimistic and now you've choked up to be some emo bitch?"Amy's eye twitched briefly."Fate stinks. You've got to control your own life here..."Amy turned to face him, the look on her face becoming angry."You're such a damn hypocrite!" Amy scolded.Sonic realized the meaning behind his own words, in truth she was right. He wasn't in control of his own life here and needed to do something about. However, the only way for him to explain it all was...The pair stared each other down with anger in their spirits. Inflamed to the point that next wrong move could spark a cataclysmic battle that no one would win. He really needed her ability to get people together and fight against a common enemy, instead accepting she had to let Abbadonia take control."Amy..." Sonic muttered. Now was the time.He got closer to her and grabbed her hand, much to her dismay. Forcing her to open her palm, he placed something small in it."Uh...what is it?" She asked, staring at it.Sonic was glad to give it to her. "I want you to give this to Olly." He said."It's the Ring of Memories. I was hoping to give it to you, but since you're going through with this possession thing you're going become my enemy. I'm going to get Lag to send a letter to Olly in order to explain the process."Amy glanced at the golden, charcoal stained ring as it balanced about in her hand. Sonic closed her palm with his hand, before standing back, wary that he might start a fight. He could see tears running down her face as she put the ring away. Sonic couldn't do a thing about it as she started weeping. It was obvious that she didn't want to do it. There was the possibility of asking for the circumstances that surrounded her choice."I guess we're both on the edge of reason here huh?" Sonic commented.The temperature rose slightly around them. It was still a pleasant odd sort, early in the morning in the realms of a undisclosed place. It was a Paradise for Ignorants and secrecies, following the trails of a random outland. The scent was almost sweet with the wet rocks and lush, rain-forestry aspects. Early Friday mornings were always odd. Silence filled the one meter distance they had from each other.He felt a little bit of heat through him, before shaking his head, melting into a liquid and disappeared through the cracks of the planked wooden bridge. Amy looked on, scrunching her eyes as tears continued to fall. She pulled out a small white bottle and twisted the lid off, swallowing a whole bunch of blue pills and wiping her mouth after, then had a sense of a relief as she took a deep breath, then kept watch of the creek.It was becoming senseless in the way things were controlled. Everything was becoming unbalanced and zany, no longer having a single say in the motion. Their rampage and destruction grew worse as their actions threatened the world with war. He was the true icon of destruction and had caused far more death than Eggman or any other foe had done before.It was harder now, to meld in with the normal folk. A simple cup of a coffee with a friend, fan or associate became an impossible social barrier for him. He'd planned a few once in a while for general contact. No interviews really, he just needed a generic conversation, the contact made him feel in sync with the world...that was his freedom was still justified. But now, he was bound by a horrific and unquestionable law that threatened those he cared for if he didn't oblige. He didn't know why he thought to give the ring to Olly instead of Amy. He had the trust in the pink hedgehog, however, taking into consideration of her intentions no way he was going to do so. There was the risk of Abbadonia obtaining the ring. Olly was the better choice in his mind. Besides, subjecting Amy to what he wanted others to see was going to have a larger impact. Olly had a saner mind, well constructed and mannered and capable of understanding. Amy on the other hand was not well. Like he was, becoming as unpredictable as the wind.He flew across the world, overseeing the destruction of another city down south. He'd destroyed a few towers here and there while Morpheus gathered up survivors, tricking them into a portal thinking it would lead them to safety. Just like the rest, it would lead them into a darker territory of no return. Morpheus purposely molded Sonic's emotions perfectly to his own, that Sonic had driven himself with what was left of his good will to get someone to stop him. It was the only way. He'd die of course, but if that meant those he cares about living on, it was okay. It brought on his screaming and rage episodes brought on by pain. Again, constructed by Morpheus.The smoke that rose from the flames of the cityscape excited Morpheus as he finished rounding up the survivors. Sonic floated down beside the psychotic hedgehog who used his power to throw cars around in a tornado like fashion, smashing buildings as he pleased. It would have scared Sonic, if he could tell the difference between his emotions at this moment, due to the fact that Morpheus seemed to getting off at the sound and vision of an explosion, the impact impounding everything around him. His laughter sinister and raspy, breathing almost orgasmic in even sickened Sonic to the point of nearly making him throw up. Dusty, dank...the whole world was turning into a wasteland of ash, debris and dust. This was never the destruction Sonic wanted.For the most he'd heard the screams but had been mentally reprogrammed to ignore them. A part of this weakened will fill him with bits of doubt and regret...otherwise they are intermingled with everything else, inflicting unbearable pain. The state of the world reflected his psyche, so it seemed.Morpheus claimed it was Sonic's supposed God, with the insane worshipper tying Sonic's godhood with his very whim and vast manipulations. Sonic didn't believe so. Morpheus, however, was obsessed with the Mr. Thorn persona that he bared, worshipped as not the God of Destruction, he'd left that with Chaos, more like the God of Obliteration. He didn't understand how far the the obsession went until the...well...he wouldn't rather divulge into it again...leaving it to Olly to figure out.Olly had gotten the Ring eventually. She sat in the locker rooms by herself, looking at it and hearing footsteps accordingly. She'd seen Amy standing there, staring at her. Olly was a bit unnerved by it all, but otherwise kept calm throughout. The look on Amy's face was completely stoic. Olly looked around, then stared back."Why would he want to give this to me?" Wondered Olly.Amy shrugged. "Not sure...he did say he was going to send you a letter about it. I'm just here to see the letter."Olly lifted her head up. "You know this is classified information...GUN Matters as such."Amy crossed her legs and put her hands behind her back."Of course. Girls curious though, Sonic placing his trust in you instead of those he knows well. You two close?"Olly froze, before shaking her head. "Sonic was a valuable Agent for the time he was here. Such a shame for what he went through."Amy tilted her head. "But why not me? He's hardly known you for as long as any of us."Olly took a deep breath. "We have to take the probablility that ever since Tails died he was going down hill. It was Tails who usually did all the brainy stuff for Sonic. He was a smart kid."Amy frowned. "That he was. But you have far important duties to take care of."Olly nodded. "I know. Tell me...did you ever do something that you would later regret?"Amy crossed her arms. "I'd like to think not. However...there's always going to be that hint of doubt. I understand what I'm going to do is not in everyone's good will favor...but it has to be done..."Olly could see that. The dedication to the cause was crucial, no matter how ugly it appeared to be."I'm not going to stop you. I made my promise and I intend to keep it."Amy smiled. "It makes me happy. That I'm going to finally contribute something to the world I love and adore."Olly chuckled. "You better hope it pans out the way you intially plan it..."Amy smirked. "Don't worry! I've made the proper adjustments and saw through tweeks and everything. Trust me on this..."Amy left, leaving Olly alone once more. She leaned back on the lockers and let her eyes drift off, before looking at the ring that she had been given. Forcing herself up onto her feet, she went to go visit Big Mama in the TR Centre. As usual, Big Mama kept watch of the situation happening in a distant, other coastal city. She could only watch as the city burned under the heel of Mr. Thorn, that the Supreme Commander was so inundated with rage and frustration that no amount of connections would alleviate the pressure. However, Olly could only see it in her eyes and the fact she was sitting down in her chair and was rubbing her forehead, Olly swearing she witnessed the veins popping out."I'd honestly would rather be in purgatory right now if my damned daughter weren't so close to it!" Big Mama commented."You're going to be there. I don't give ten flying fucks of what the others say, you're going to support Amy and make sure the procedure goes as planned."Olly blinked. "Yes Big Mama. I assume Amy had a word with you?"Big Mama brought out what must have been her fiftieth cigarette or something."Pffff yeah...damned daughter had a reason for what she was doing. I told her to get her head out of her arse to find another method..."Big Mama inhaled, then exhaled. "Alright then. Now scoot! Big Mama's got terrorists to foil!"Olly strolled the HQ waiting for this letter to arrive for her. Shadow was gone so she could no go consult him. She wished to speak with someone. She decided to go visit Vanilla in her room.She went to the flashy white and glowing blue ward, where Vanilla was situated in one of the many rooms. Sliding the door, she entered into the almost blinding white room where Vanilla was awake and talking with Vector, which made Olly happier a bit."Olly!" Vanilla cried out."Hey Van." Said Olly.She turned to Vector, politely nodding to indicate some privacy. Vector may hate GUN, but at at least he respected privacy, albeit not before looking at his wounded wife who asked him to leave and check up on Cream, who was with Gemerl. Olly sat down on the chair after he was gone."I'm real sorry about all this Olly." Said Vanilla, saddenned."Don't stress over it. It wasn't your fault." Olly replied."So what's going to happen tonight?" Vanilla asked.Olly's stomach dropped instantely. Could she not talk about Amy for one minute?"It's okay. It's all planned." Olly assured.Vanilla rose an eyebrow. "Do you want me and Drainer as back up? You know, call us if things get out of hand? You know, like a finger?" She punned.Olly would have guessed Vanilla was on the morphine, but forgot she was normally like this as Bazza."It'll be fine Van. Trust your Captain." Olly said with sincerity."I'm about to do some lone field work. I'm going to have my intercom off for a while. But if you desperately need me..."Vanilla smirked. "I'll use my trusty reverse Intercom device! I co-invented it with Tails in order to hack other devices regardless of transmission range or pitch!"Good old Bazza. Still herself. Not unlike some people."If things get real bad, grab Drainer as well. I need to do this for Amy tonight...and if I'm not there...""She'll kill ya...swat ya with the hammer." Vanilla joked. "But seriously though, be careful."Olly said goodbye to her associate and allowed Vector back inside. Unfortunately Cream was still unconscious, not sure when she was going to wake up. She'd put her faith in Dr. Rose talents to treat them with utmost care. Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to head outside and wait for Lag to arrive.Speaking of the devil, she could see a figure running towards her down the energy-constructed bridge alongside the diving girl. Olly smiled as Lag approached her with the letter."Here you go Agent Mjöllnir!" He said, handing it to her.Olly took the letter and nodded to Lag. "Thank you."She watched Lag straighten out and salute, before fleeing off into the distance. Looking around, she walked to a more secluded area behind a multitude of pipes. It was notable for its secrecy, especially to teenagers with their graffiti. Of course, it was better than looking at the plethora of green and red all the time. Olly really hated how much Grand Metropolis was an eyesore.She sat down on one of the red pipes and opened the letter. Scanning it thoroughly, she looked up with realization of where she had to go. It might be hard to get there, however...due to the distance...and the fact she couldn't fly the jetcopter. She'd have to borrow a pilot.Olly immediately started with the top near the flying pads and checked around for suitable canidates. She saw quite a few, before noticing two orange furred cats in their unusual suits. One cat was of a bulky build and the other skinny with their brushy tails. Olly had see these two many times...they'd come down from Megacat City to assist Big Mama."T-Bone..." Said Olly. "And Razor...such a surprise..."The two cats checked out. "Hey isn't it Agent Mjöllnir? Haven't seen you since the Commander's Ball!" Commented the buff T-Bone, his voice gruff yet still full of spunk."Likewise." Said Olly. "How about you two? Been up to much? How's the missus Razor?"The skinny cat Razor scratched his head. "She's alright. She wasn't really happy with the sudden transfer to Grand Metropolis. I told her I wasn't going to be here too long." He replied, his voice more upbeat and smoother than T-Bones.Olly chuckled. "Yeah...good to see your old bird is still going strong..."T-Bone patted the nose. "Yup...the Turbo Kat's as swanky as ever!"Olly nodded. "Good...because I was going to ask a favour of you both..."Olly knew the purring pair had a certain disregard for the rules and gladly flew Olly over towards her needed location...one of the ground zeros placated. Like all of them, grays and browns flooded everywhere, the sky was forever cloudy and dust riddled the air. She'd jumped out with a parachute and thanked the boys before they flew off. Landing on the ground, dust rose and slowly settled.She was in front of Tails old house. From what the letter had said, she was told to head into the basement of all places and that the door would be open. She walked forward and entered, only enter the dreary silent abode. She walked around, looking for the entrance to the basement. She saw a white door on the right side of the house and opened it. There was a set of wooden stairs that lead spiralling into the darkness. With a lack of fear she walked down. And walked down for a while. It was still dark. Upon the last step it felt more like solid concrete. Taking a few steps forward flashed on many lights on a high, high roof, revealing a massive underground laboratry. So this was where Tails had constructed his many machine and gadget. It made sense with the stairs leading down so low, so the blue metal sheeted roof was at least meters high, and at least the entire room was fifty meters wide in diameter. It was gigantic. The two rows of lights were bright enough to see everything in their blue metal sheeted glory with an abundance of shelves, drawers and stuff hanging from the roof itself. It looked like it'd been used quite often, with charred floors and walls and the like. She took herself to the right side of the room, where there were several subrooms amongst it.She remembered she had the Ring of Memories with her and put it on her right index finger and focused it's energies. She received a surge of energy that flowed throughout, meaning their had to be some powerful activities occuring down here, underneath the house...
Lights were on still, only for Morpheus sitting amongst a horde of benches scattered throughout the lab, leaning over Milo who was building a small device. He looked a bit close for comfort for Milo, who was working hard, but had the creepy Morpheus literally over his shoulder. He soon left, teleporting to one of the doors on the right and knocked on it.

"Where...is he?" Said Morpheus.

"He should be back soon I swear." Said a female, neither hard or soft voice, almost snarky in origin.

Morpheus nodded and floated towards the middle, levitating above the middle desk and crossing his legs. Suddenly, black ooze appeared from above, dribbling itself to the floor and forming into a familiar face in front of Morpheus.

"It is done." Said Sonic, who had a monotone.

"Good...very...very good..." Morpheus commented, his voice coarse and raspy through his gasmask.

The scrawny leather bound white hedgehog patted Sonic on the head, before dragging his finger down his face. He turned to Milo.

"Milo! Leave us!" Morpheus barked, raising his hand.

Milo stopped what he was doing, heading to the door near the one Morpheus was at before. At a flick of a finger, the benches disappeared into the floor. Sonic stood there, with his head down and wings folded, as Morpheus flew around him.

"You're...having those...thoughts again...aren't you?" Said Morpheus, who felt way more creepier than he did just before.

"No sir..." Said Sonic, his tone obviously terrified at this point.

Morpheus rose Sonic's chin with his index finger, leaning forward with his face getting close to Sonic's, his evil, yellow eyes looking into Sonic's with a disturbing lust.

"Your thoughts...fear...fear does not exist...repeat after me...fear...does not...exist..."

Sonic swallowes his pride. "Fear...does not exist..." He said with a dull tone.

WHACK!

Olly could only watch as Morpheus slapped Sonic on the face with the back of his hand.

"Say...say it louder..." Said Morpheus, his head lowering.

"Fear does not exist." Sonic said with a little bit more confidence, albeit more fake as Olly noticed.

WHACK!

"LOUDER!" Yelled Morpheus, this time, he had his fingers wrapped around Sonic's neck.

"FEAR DOES...NOT EXIST!"

Morpheus dropped Sonic to the floor and floated backwards, his arms risen.

"Good...now...time for our exercises..."

As Olly stood away, she felt the aura's of Sonic's emotions change for the worse. Morpheus waved his arms about, Olly hearing a massive crack, Sonic needing to hold his stomach as he fell to the floor.

"This world...needs to be reborn through pain...and you...Mr. Thorn, the God of Obliveration! Will know that pain is an unavoidable side-effect..."

Morpheus moved his arms about before simulating strain with his arms, Olly noticing one of Sonic's wings being torn off, blood scattering everywhere.

"Your power...is endless...you will lead this world into a new era!"

Another snap broke Sonic's right arm. The screams were absolutely pitching and painful to hear as Olly had to witness all of it. Morpheus floated towards Sonic and used his psychic power to push him on to his back. Tears ran down his face. The gaunt hedgehog sat down on Sonic's chest, and began punching him in the face repeatedly, blood splattering everywhere. Sonic's beared gigantic top and bottom fangs from his canines, a deafening roar sounding out, but Morpheus kept thwacking him, breaking his nose and several cheek bones.

"Pain...is experience through all sorts of terrible events! Like this..." Said Morpheus with a sinister sneer. He teleported a safe distance from Sonic and floated away. Suddenly, from the left wall, a spike appeared. Using his telekinesis, he brought over, and directed the pointy end to Sonic's remaining wing, spearing it with more blood splashing out.

"But you...no...you...you can do what you want with pain...You need to be pain incarnate! SO BE PAINFUL! BE MERCILESS AND CRUEL! BRING AGONY TO THOSE WHO DARE OPPOSE US!" Morpheus barked.

Olly watched as Sonic began transforming. His wings grew back, as he asborbed the spike into himself and rose up. His fur grew to a pure black, arms growing in furryness. There was a signanficant curve on his face, his own spiky quills lengthy greatly, his feet forming into a reptillian, almost dragonlike fashion. A long tail formed behind him, his top canines lenghting, his gloves breaking as claws grew from his fingernails.

Morpheus came back punching Sonic in the face more.

"Disappointing...I was expecting...more of an abomination now...we need to work some more..."

He sneered. He used handgestures as well as his mind to torment Sonic more as he shook violently and grew bigger. Four more wings grew from his back as he was forced to go on all fours, his spines lengthing, and green eyes popping out absolutely everywhere. Tentacles grew from random places, teeth, more eyes, more legs...more arms...even more wings. This thing...

And worst of all, was Morpheus extreme screams of esctacy. Olly grew sickened as he put his hands into his pants and vigrously pleasured himself. Olly wanted to vomit so badly.

"Yes...Sonic...YOU ARE MORE BEAUTIFUL THEN I COULD HAVE IMAGINED!" Morpheus screamed, upon nearing his climax.

Chains appeared from every direction, surrounding Sonic and restraining them their tightness. Sonic's roars got worse as ooze grew from the walls. Olly was forced to watch from the stairs as Morpheus kept going. Blood raining from the sprinklers with Morpheus his spare hand to rub it all over. Sonic's form kept growing, eyes now forming from the now living organic walls. Olly could hear thumping sound that was more like a heart, and it was beating rapidly.
"FOR CHAOS SAKE MAKE IT STOP!" Olly screamed herself, throwing off the ring and falling over. Everything went back to normal inside, as Olly needed to vomit badly. She fled upstairs and headed to the toilet, violently vomiting. Silence returned as she hovered her head over the bowl, trying to resolve her normal self and keep contained. What had she just seen needed to be unseen entirely, as she had not expected Morpheus to be extremely explicit as such, being the filthy monster he was. She threw up some more as the imagery came back via memories. Her breathing was heavy as she forced herself to get up and head to the bathroom, dragging her legs along. She placed her helmet on the basin as she washed her face and stared at herself in the mirror. She noted how pale her face, carressing her cheek and checking her eyes. Storming out of the bathroom, she grabbed a glass from the cabinent, filled it with water then downed it with the last of her pills. With the thoughts of that Abbadonia Roses have nothing on disgusting nightmare.She sat down at the table and tried to readjust herself. Sonic had gone through all this, possibly gone through it quite a few times, her trembling thoughts circling the wonders of how Sonic was still alive and the monstrosity that Morpheus had made him out to be. However, she needed to be the capable Agent and with that, she finally gathered up the courage to see it through, as per the letters request.She took the deepest of breaths and placed the ring back on with what courage she bared. It focused on another session, Sonic on the floor before Morpheus, on all fours in tears, his panting and sweating as Morpheus held a chain to his neck, commenting on the wonderful image of the nature of a God. Olly didn't really see Sonic as a God but rather an extremely twisted and warped soul. Morpheus needed to die and needed to die now. But Olly couldn't, despite the hatred she held for him.Morpheus kicked Sonic in the face. This had to be another session, as Olly saw on the wall behind her a calender, a list of sorts, with days crossed off. Above said "Pleasure Sessions."Turning around, a swarm of angry, angry alien dogs were brought in from cages around him. This were just as demonic as Abbadonias, if not near. Sonic was chained to the ground, Olly looking on in absolute horror as the dogs tore Sonic limb from limb. She could do absolutely nothing about it as she stood there, straight. For the lack of expression, her fists did more talking then anything else as her fingers twitched. Morpheus enacted psychic gestures, forcing the dogs away and placing Sonic back together. There was this nagging confusion, displaying that for what Sonic had become, was something cruel and unneeded.She forced the ring off her finger, seeing enough. She heard a gust of wind and the flapping of wings behind her. Turning around, she looked into saddest eyes on the most unemotional face. He stood there, fragile in slight movement. Blood leaked from his bottom lip, as more was smeared all over his body. Withdrawing his wings, he stood there locking eyes within the shielding screen on Olly's helmet. No words were needed, as Olly fully understood his problem.She walked forward, only for Sonic to step back and shake his head. He wanted her to see the truth within his actions, to be told visually of the agony he'd suffered. Tears didn't swell with the near hollowness of the eyesockets, his face incredibly gaunt, like he'd been starved to death. Scars arose from all over his body. Looks like he didn't know what he was either, Olly refuting Morpheus statement about Sonic's supposed Godhood. Another look at the ring was part in succession, before she put it into her bag."The pain was worthwhile." Sonic stated coldly.Olly blinked. "No pain is worthwhile Sonic. Especially not THAT."Sonic looked away. "It was for a good cause. I was willing to used for a purpose.""I call bullshit." Said Olly. "There was no reason for you go through with that. Did you think you deserved such punishment after what you've done?"Sonic sighed. "Of course. I had no choice."Olly tried to stay calm. "You always have a choice Sonic. What the hell were you thinking?"Sonic made attempts to look at her again. "If I did, then I made the right choice."This was becoming quite difficult. "There is no justification in how he's treated you. Come back to GUN, we can treat you better. If it makes you feel any better, we can imprison you. That way, we can keep an eye on you." Olly explained.Sonic shook his head. "I can't. The reputation of Sonic the Hedgehog can't be tarnished or else the world has no faith in heroes. It'll start a train reaction...first there's the breaking of trust, then there's the restless nights wondering when either the world is taken over or destroyed. Earth needs a protector and I haven't finished handing the mantle over."Olly stared down at him. "You and that damn mantle...what the hell are you trying to do?"Sonic's expression failed to change. "I'm trying to make light of those who do the job and do it properly. I want to test you."Test her? What was this? This Sonic was truly broken beyond repair."I want to see if you're worthy of the title. If you can promise me, that you can prevent Amy from getting possessed or hurt this evening then it's yours. All of it. I'll do the promotions. GUN's reputation will skyrocket. Be the new hero this world needs."Olly wanted heroism, but she didn't want to hold the whole world on her shoulders. She was just an Agent as all. A dedicated Agent for her own orders."I don't suppose the World's Hero has to abide by the rules do they?" Olly said sarcastically.Sonic turned his back on her. "You can do as you please. Everyone will still love you regardless...apart from the cops of course.""Wait..." Said, Olly who walked forward"Why are you doing this for Amy?"Sonic looked down, staring at the floor absentminded."Because I love her."Sonic strolled forward, turning into ooze and fading away, leaving the confused Olly standing there, absorbing his meanings. She hated it when he was being dramatic, that it rivaled her major discontent with Morpheus. If he could be snarky, happy once more then it would be entirely worth it. This was the last straw.Sonic headed back to Steampunk City, for he'd gotten word from his young human friend that he needed his help. It was getting onto four o'clock, only several hours were left until the event he called the Senseless Sacrifice. He flew before Moore's place and entered in without delay. However Moore explained that his friend had gone to the Shrine.Wandering over, Sonic could see him sitting before it, his knees up to his chest as the wind breezed through his short brown and messy hair, appearing distant. The bush had somehow transformed into a small tree, which slightly confused but didn't deter him in the slightest. Sonic sat down next to him and crossed his legs."She's...alive..." Said the boy.Sonic looked at him funnily. "Who? Your girlfriend?"The boy blushed. "N-no...the...well, you wouldn't understand..."Sonic tilted his head, curious. "Wait, was this that thing you were talking about?"The boy nodded. "Yeah. I was just talking to your wolf friend, saying that...uh...GUN was it? Had found it and now they have it in their possession."Sonic blinked, how could he have known about it?"Wait a minute..." Said Sonic. "You know what it is?"The boy smiled. "Yeah...it must have been taken from outer space or somethin'...last thing I remember was it floating about aimlessly."So this thing was space debris? This was becoming more interesting than he thought. Despite the cryptic conversation with Olly earlier, he knew what he was doing was right for Amy. This was possibly going to be an excellent part to a plan that needed to be put in motion."So, what does it do?" Sonic asked.The boy rubbed his head. "It does a lot of things. However, only I can control it..."Sonic nodded. They were going to have a long talk over this...Olly headed back to the lockers, had a shower and ended up checking the clock over and over again. She saw Amy had followed her in as she sat on the bench next to her once more."You heard from Shadow?" Amy asked."No." Replied Olly.Amy nodded, frowning. "I haven't seen him all day. I really, really need to talk to him."Olly leaned back, sighing. "I'm sorry, I have no idea where he is. And we need to get prepared for later."Amy frowned, her eyes circling the floor. "I know...It's just that..."Olly looked at her. "Don't worry. I'll tell him for you...that's if I can get in proper contact."Amy looked up at Olly, lighting up, before shooting off the bench. "Thank you. It's much appreciated."Olly smiled. "Don't mention it."She headed up to the top of the building for more proper seclusion from everything, watching the sun set and waiting for her planned pickup. For the first time in a while, she was nervous. She was nervous about what was about to endure for them all, and possibly the worst night of their lives. There was the known to transpire and the unknown to evolve. But if all went according to her plan, then innocent lives would be spared. And it would all be worthwhile.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

It was five PM in the regions of those that contained warped apparitions, or maybe time was irrelevant and it was only a feeling. Said to contain those whom have died, injured or lost everything in this war of confusion and chaos.Abbadonia had not been seen for some time, and yet, the entire adventure still circulated over her very existence. It was the question many had asked. Why was this happening and yet, Abbadonia was still hiding? Many have said, their energy could be focused on these terrorists instead of wasting precious Mobipower on false leads. True, since their forces and numbers were dwindling because of these sudden city raids. Purging life, they were given a name.Or least Big Mama had given them one, however, she was not interested in them for the moment. She held a special target practice with their pictures, before having a meeting with some of her close Branch Commanders. One could imagine the spats and profanity that shot out of that mouth of hers. A lot of the Commanders feared her. Especially Hawkins. Turns out he survived the Battle of Soleanna Castle with a bunch of his soldiers. He'd been knocked out by Elise, presumably because she either cared about him or something else. What ever the reason, Big Mama had no qualms in interrogating him for answers. He had to...per orders of course. She brought on her massive Supreme Commander suit, white and light blue in colour, massive cube like shoulder-pads, her normal clothe-wear consisting of sky blue before knee-length tight skirt, black stockings, a sky blue Commanders jacket with the medals badge on, wearing a cap, tying back her long quills, thick red lipstick and big black high heels. She sat on her chair, conversing on a long table discussion the situation that was about to occur real soon in the Enchanted Forest Zone.She was annoyed Shadow wasn't there, reading his note about the mission to the ARK. She'd scrunched it and angrily threw it at the wall. Agent Drainer was all that was left to serve Big Mama as she pleased. Her normal demeanor prevented her from warring with the Supreme Commander who trashed Shadow's office in a rage. She'd stormed out and headed back to the TR Center and prepared everything.Olly on the other hand still sat atop the GUN Tower, overlooking the sunset, creating a gold glow over Grand Metropolis as neon lights began flicking on as dots and lines thorough the super-tech city. Many thoughts crossed her mind as she mentally prepared herself. She'd pulled a few strings she'd never thought to pull in the first place. She started hearing vibrations and a deep engine sound. Behind her was a giant ship that she immediately recognized. It'd been on Guns list for years. As it flew past, Olly jumped up, and crawled up the ladder that had been dropped for her.She wandered inside. This was more like a literal flying ship, since the room she was escorted to looked more like a boat cabin then anything else. Before her sat a green feathered bird wearing goggles, as she was brought in by a large gray bird and a purple colored bird. The green one sat behind the desk with his arms crossed and bouncing crossed leg. He stared at Olly for the moment."Jet the Hawk if I'm not mistaken?" Said Olly.Jet grinned. "One and only...I was surprised when I got the call that GUN needed some help." He said, his voice deep yet annoying."What's the matter? Too many pilot crashes?"Jet's crew was the perfect cover for going in hot without getting detected as a GUN Proper. She'd planned this perfectly. She offered them one million Mobian Dollars for their work. All they needed to do was follow orders. If they did really well, they could receive a hidden and confiscated treasure from their vaults, in which Jet was only glad to. He'd surprisingly mentioned Sonic, saying he hadn't heard from him in a while for another race. Olly only shrugged. But she changed the subject towards their mission which was extremely crucial to her. This plan had to work.The Babylon Rogues were a rag-tag bunch of notorious thieves and treasure hunters doing a lot for either history or greed. Along side leader Jet was the purple mechanic Wave the Swallow and the gray brute Storm the Albatross. She'd had a private word over the intercom with Drainer, ensuring that Big Mama was being dealt with appropriately. This disconnection from her team mates was out of character according to Agent Bazooka. But Olly knew she had to do it. She'd kept her promise to Amy... and to Sonic...They'd arrived at the southern frontage of the Enchanted Forest Zone, Olly jumping out via parachute and landing at the gates. She'd wave them goodbye and thanked them for their help. She had their intercom number in case trouble would occur. She stood before the gate and stared at it, taking a deep breath as she entered.She heard all the rumors about what happened in the night around this forest. Mysterious things...weird things...strange things. The sun hadn't completely set as she wandered around the mystical wooded environment, surrounded by the tall trees and listening to the wind play with the leaves in the canopy. If it wasn't scary due to the rumors, the forest would be pleasant all day. But, no one really had the nerve to go in at night. But it was this that assisted Olly avoiding others she didn't want involved. Instead, by herself waltzing around in the self-made pathways was when the sun decided to set.Around six o'clock was when the fog came in from all directions and bug noises started to creak, as well as few unidentifiable ones. Suddenly random coloured glowing dots appeared to make shapes on the trees and foliage, with their variety of colours. Olly looked on the grown as in lit up in its green glow, glowing bright where the Agent was standing. It had a vein-like effect . The atmosphere changed to a humble fantasy forest to something more magical. The entire forest lit up in the night, with the sweetest scents that ran up her nose. Was this the fear of the night?She came across a light blue lit river with the willow trees glowing pink. Curious, she felt the tendrils of the willow, examining the beautiful colours. Dragonflies flew about, with their rapid flapping wings glowing in greens and oranges, while jumping from overgrown root to a rock, to low branches to somewhere. The sound of the night was charming, brimming with life and soothing music of nature. There became this, confusion, born from the rumors themselves. For what price there is to keep the priceless sparkling glows, it was most likely a protection measure.Hearing footsteps, she hid behind one of the nearby trees as a figure squatted down beside the river, and washed it's face. She recognized her as Doc in her blonde haired form, wearing a singlet and denim shorts. Her form changed to a near scaling pure blue with neon bright lines coming from above her head on both sides of her face and down her chest to slightly cornering around her legs."I can smell your scent." Said Doc.Olly lowered her head, unsure if she was speaking to her or not."GUN. GUN always have the same damn rotten stench. Come out from behind there."Olly had no choice. She came from behind the tree to stand before Doc. Her head was long and red as she still wore her clothes, but no shoes, as she under steel plates underneath her feet. She put her hair up into a ponytail and looked at Olly. Her eyes were a glowing gold, but her face was Mobian creature of nature. She had green and yellow glowing spiral horn shooting up from her forehead and a brushy red tail."So...you live around here?" Olly asked her.Doc chuckled. "The night life of the Enchanted Forest is not to be trifled with. I co-exist as the Protector of this Sacred Land."Olly rested her hand on her hip. "I see..."With a small conversation, Doc noted her tendencies as a Shapeshifter, also known as a Mystiker from the Tetherstorms brought over by a voice who told her to guard it. But she refused to divulge her true allegiance with anyone, but was rather cautious about the future ahead. She'd brought on the subject inter-winning universes. Olly noted this as a paper she read randomly one day on a notice board. Doc was also the one spoken of in the rumors."I was brought here by the voice. The voice speaks to all in different ways and not necessarily with words." Said Doc. Olly thought her accent was a thick tribal kind, but she could change it alongside her normal transformations. She began examining Olly thoroughly."We also assimilate thoughts and memories of those we touch and keep them for future references."Olly nodded. Knuckles would love this...well, maybe few people since these cultures were still unfounded. Doc had been at unease for a while, using GUN's resources to assist her in finding the truth she needed and made known that she'd found out some rather interesting information, that she'd keep to herself for now, the voice telling her to. Olly checked the time, remembering she had a very important job to do."Listen Doc, it's great catching up with you, but I..." Olly started, before being cut off."I'll come with you! There's a disturbing aura in the air tonight. I need to go investigate it." Said Doc.Turns out as a Mystiker, as well as being from the Tetherstorms, she would obviously detect energies at a far greater extent than most from the normal world. Doc lead them both through trees, Olly couldn't help but staring at the illuminating land. It was so gorgeous.Arriving at the largest tree, it was lit up like it was Christmas, with light blue glowing butterflies everywhere, with Olly swearing she saw a purple one amongst them, as it flew up to her and fluttered about. She attempted to touch it as she rose her hand and poked it with her index finger, the purple butterfly resting on her fingertip for the moment, before a breeze blew by, lifting it off her finger and losing itself into the flock of the light blue ones. There was something...familiar about it that shouldn't place.The design of the Giant Tree was it that it had lines similar to the ones on Doc. A lot of geometric shapes had formed as a bright aura surrounded it, some flashed, some pulsated as branches moved about, the leaves glowing an astounding green themselves. It was breathtaking and such a sight to see that it made Olly happy and glad she was here, nearing tears upon her stare. Trails circled the tree like fairies as Chao played about on top of it. No wonder they love it here!"The Giant Tree acts as a Portal. It's alive in most...I knows all...sees truth in more wonderious and terrifying ways." Doc explained.Olly lifted her head. "There's a old portal under here from memory. You sure it's not using that for that tactic?"Doc chuckled. "I've known about that one for a while. It's underneath because the tree doesn't want anyone using it. Just watch..."As she spoke about it, the bark and the neon lines on the tree swirled about into a spiral, before said portal emerged from it, seemingly melding onto the surface. Olly blinked, not really believing what she was seeing. But this was perfect. Perfect for her plan."Can it activate at will?" Olly asked."Approach the tree itself, it'll take you where you want to go." Doc answered.Olly nodded. Good. All she needed to do was ask one thing of Doc before she finally moved on.She'd gone through the tree successfully, merged with the amber-coloured waterfall that it made, and coming out to the other side. Pure darkness and fear everywhere. The floor were made of a dark, volcano rock riddled with curled runes, in their lava and magma like fashion, the scent of sulfur boiling in the air in its usual fashion as Olly could feel sweat on her back. This was definitely the place. The walls showed themselves as the same colour as the floor, but then fell downwards, revealing actual lava everywhere upon a black to burgundy gradient sky. She walked forward, the platform she was standing on in the shape of an heptagon. Flames danced over the lava as Olly knelt down before the ground, looking at the carved pictures and murals. They'd looked like pure torture to Olly. Standing up, a path formed in the distance, rising from the lava and the sound of locking in place. Olly carefully strolled across this dangerous path way. It was either a small horizon line or stuffed up perceptions that disallowed her to see ten meters in front of her, so she had to be extremely careful where she stepped. Fireballs threatened her as they jumped over and about. A few deep breaths here and there allowed for calm and rational thinking. Suddenly steps shot up, however they were at least three meters tall, forcing Olly into jumping and climbing up them. This went on for several minutes, eventually leading to a floating heptagon platform. Another pathway rose from below, forcing Olly to do tread carefully once more. The path was smaller than before, making her watch her step that much more important. Fire rained from above, Olly forced to take the maze trail that appeared before her. A jump from path to path could prove fatal and if she knew her puzzles well enough she did her best to avoid the most suspicious of small tiles, especially those which were darker than the rest. She tested her theory by stepping on one, proving it as it fell to the lava below. She step over the space and onto the next tile.The maze was long and mentally exhausting, especially with dodging the raining flames, but she'd eventually make it to the third platform. A fire barrier shot around it, with the platform rapidly expanding so fast that Olly barely had enough time to keep herself from falling over. Clanking foot steps were heard. It was Princess Elise."Ah...welcome! You're the first to arrive to see the show! AWESOME!" Elise said in her creepy tone. That suit she wore before greatly resembled her fathers, but she wore a makeshift crown with spikes. Suited her current personality really, as well as a red cloak with Eggman's symbol on it."Come with me! We'll wait for the others to come!"Olly didn't like it one bit as Elise happily strolled about in her utter weirdness. She was...happy in a sense, unlike before. Perhaps a passage of acceptance had been in order. But she was springy, hopping along like she was seven years old. A door formed in the middle of the platform, with Elise opening it, smiling the most creepy of smiles to Olly, who took non-cocky confidence into her stride as she entered. Elise closed the door.The next room was all dark. No fire, no flames or magma...just volcanic black rocks that were flattened and smoothed with their etched runes. Olly entered in between stone stair-like seats, staring beyond what was like a court of sorts, like watching a sports game, but the runes were circled out with several circles. She sat down on the front steps on her right and slouched over, looking at the circles more closely. Seven circles...scrolled down in a dining table like fashion with intermingled red lines with one another. She wondered, what would the ritual involve? Sacrifice for one. She looked up, seeing General Lilith coming out from a portal. They locked eyes, Lilith's overbearing emerald eyes sneering into Olly's screen, piercing through to her own. Olly would sometimes forget she had her helmet on.Lilith summoned Demon Knights, pointing, Gothic designed creatures with great big lances and no faces, their eyes situated on their necks, their black and red cloaks tattered and drifting in a slight breeze. Seven on each side of the room, against the walls. Lilith herself, was different from her red riding hood and maid outfit forms. She was rather, scantly clad. Horns protruded from her forehead, pushing forward then halfway arcing upwards. She had red demon wings sprouting from her back, wearing what looked more like S&M clothing than armor. She was a Succubus. Definitely one.She held a whip in her hand, giving odd smirks to Olly every so often as she strolled, cluttering her hooves on the floor as she walked around. The Agent was extremely tempted to splat her face, but due to the nature she couldn't. She wondered who else was invited to this party of sorts, going over her plan in her head. Lilith snuffed as she could see it in Olly's body language that she was deep in thought, prompting her to question but refrained from doing so."Where's Abbadonia?" Olly asked."She'll be in soon." Answered Lilith.Olly laid back, resting her arms on the step behind her, crossing her legs and staring into space. The wait was painful as she then looked up at the roof. She quickly sat up as she heard a door open and watched as someone arrived from the middle behind of the step seats."Milo..." Olly muttered.Milo took a look at Olly. He was more gaunt than he was before as he wandered over to the opposite side and sat around, whipping out his phone and playing games on it. It concerned her greatly, after what she'd seen in Tails Basement lab earlier. The tension in the air stirred.Lilith left the room, not before she nodded to her Knights and left through a portal. Olly kept staring at Milo who looked more aloof than usual, like he didn't care what was going to happen. Lilith returned, with the three circles on the left side of the court growing their own pits, with three demons arising from them, including Lilith. One was Metal Sonic, of all people...or robots. Olly to theorize in her head what this meant...especially with Metal bearing a cloak and a chain necklace with a pure black pendant. Alongside Metal was Princess Elise who had returned from where ever she came. Was this starting already without the true crowd? No...it wasn't time to act."Oh come on! What is taking him so long?" Elise complained as she crossed her arms in a huff.Lilith rolled her eyes. "Don't be such an impatient brat. Your father has to get her ready...in this state she's too weak to do anything."Olly was tempted to seek out the true meaning of this ritual, with Lilith's eyes kept drifting towards her own. Milo still kept playing his games, which was starting to peeve Olly herself off a bit.Suddenly the door on the other side flung open with three old faces walking out, holding themselves whilst wearing all white simple peasant dresses. The three pink Hedgehogs Olly hadn't seen in forever."The wisers..." Olly whispered to herself. Suddenly her neck was warming up again as she caressed it. Lilith stared at Olly as she did it with a certain snobbed look on her face. Olly could see this out of the corner of her eye and looked down at her boots.All eyes turned to the middle of the stairs as they heard someone stumble through the doors, charging through in a huff and puff, extending then contracting his wings. And dear Chaos, he was angry. In fact, that term was so much of an understatement, with the look on his face full of extreme hatreds and unimaginable negativity. His body emitted strange fluctuations varying from hot and cold. To the belief of true conflict."WHERE IS SHE?" He yelled.Milo sniffed. "Sit down idiot...show hasn't started yet..." He said apathetically.Sonic glared at Milo, before his attention being brought to Lilith, who grinned."Sonic, I'm glad you could make it." She said in a sickeningly sweet tone."But please, sit down. We'll be starting soon."Sonic looked around, appearing unkempt and lost, anxious in tandem. He could see Olly sitting by herself and stormed up to sit next to her. He leaned over and rubbed his head."Where is she?" Asked Sonic to Olly. His eyes screamed desperation. She feared he had another session with Morpheus. There was the need to put her arm over his shoulders and comfort him. But..."She's coming...I assure you." Olly calmly said. She stayed put, not worth taking the risk.Sonic's state was more akin to a withdrawing drug addict with his strange tics and anxious pops. He was shaking violently. Olly felt guilty...for some reason. She looked at Lilith."Can we at least get some water? Surely you have a snack bar." Olly snarked.Lilith chuckled. "By all means. Scratch! Grounder!"Out of the back doors out came the robotic chicken and mole. Lilith commanded them to get bottled water for Sonic. Milo chuckled at the surprising hospitality, the belief in this was going to be one very good show indeed. Olly expected a bloodbath. The two dingbots came around and handed the bottle to Sonic, only for Olly to snatch it and glare at the two from behind her helmet. Despite the cover, it went through to them as they fled back to the doors. Olly gave the bottle to Sonic, who rejected it. Olly persisted in, but he just shook his head."Please Sonic...if he had his way with you, you need fluid intake to deal with the stress and trauma." Olly explained.Sonic sighed. "I just want to see Amy again. I want to help her."Olly smiled. Although you couldn't see it, obviously. "You will...I promise."Sonic took the bottle and swelled it. "You don't know...what I did to help now..."Olly tilted her head. "Is that why you're late?"Sonic's eyes turned red as they looked at Olly. He had smug look that was not Sonic at all. He planned something himself. She prayed that none of his intentions interfered with hers. Better yet, since it was Sonic, it most likely would. He turned his attention away from her and took another swig. She'd only realized he'd gotten uncomfortably close to her, forcing her to shuffle ever so slightly to her right."NiGHTS wasn't the only big purple guy in the entire ordeal." Sonic muttered.Olly looked at him strangely. "Huh?"Sonic dropped his head. "Never mind..."Ten minutes went passed and no one else appeared. The pounding silence brought not a ringing, but a beeping sound to her head, which made the awkwardness a thousand times worse. Her heartbeat elevated to a small degree, otherwise she kept her cool. Elise was being as impatient as ever, ordering the dimbots to get her a glass of Pepsi Max. Milo kept playing his games as Olly went into the back corner to take a call."Where are you?" A voice said.It was Shadow."Where are you?" Olly demanded."I'm on the ARK." He said. "I've...found some interesting things up here. I've looked around, pushed a few buttons. Anyway, is Sonic with you by any chance?"Olly lifted her head. "Yeah...why?""Ok good..." Said Shadow. "Just say the words Echo Uniform One Alpha to him. If he responds with Romeo, say knew the system, but in this case she had no idea what it was being used for. She cursed under her breath at being used when she was still in GUN and yet people still tiptoed around her. It was annoying to a standard. They'd finished the call before Olly slide back next to Sonic."Who was that?" Asked Sonic, who was sneering at Lilith, who appeared to have crossed her arms and looking over in their general direction."Echo Uniform One Alpha." She spat out to him. Sonic looked away for a moment, before his eyes bounced back to her."Romeo?" He muttered.Olly nodded. "Yes."Sonic shuffled himself, leaning over and again and literally twittled his thumbs. You could honestly, like before, mistake him for a drug addict.The opposite doors opened again, this time with Eggman with Bocoe and Decoe carrying Muriel in his arms. Elise scolded her father for taking so long. The other robots swarmed into the room, sitting on the left side, the pairs sitting on different levels after Bocoe and Decoe slowly but carefully rested Muriels weakened body on the back-most circle."Oh good...almost done...now who are we waiting for again?" Asked Elise."Amy..." Lilith, Olly and Sonic said in sync. Olly and Sonic briefly exchanged glances.Eggman wandered around to Olly and Sonic, as Eggman grew curious into Sonic's new condition. It piqued his interest with expressions that surprised a villain such as himself."Word around the block is that you're being more than pest than ever. Can you clarify this for me?" Eggman questioned, with a grin on his face as he stroked his 'stache.Olly glared. "He's not in the mood. Can we just get this over and done with?" Said OllyElise chuckled. "Yeah she's our enemy and she knows what's goin on! Go bitch go!" Elise yelled.Eggman rolled his eyes at his daughters impatience. He looked at Sonic, who grinned."Now who does that remind you of?" Sonic said snarlingly.Eggman straightened out and stood by his daughter, who was closest to the empty circle. Olly believed he wanted to ensure Amy was...restrained through the ordeal. Olly mentally mapped the sequence of the circles. Amy had to stand in the circle closest to the seats, whilst in front of her were two rows of three circles. On the left stood Elise, Lilith and Metal Sonic in that order, the other side, gathering from the coloured necklaces, were Pekas the Yellow, Hera the Blue and Ese the Green in their order. It reminded her of the old Ouija Boards that Amy had once explained to her about...Sonic was busy checking Muriel out. Olly made a thought about how close he was to the one who had started it all. She could see Sonic's fist shaking with rage. She promptly closed her hand over it, trying to calm him down. He took another swig from his bottle. The desperation to see and save Amy was getting worse. Lifting her head, there was a glare coming from Lilith."So Agent." Said Lilith. "Where is Amy?""She's coming." Olly reiterated. Once mentioned before, the tension, had become thicker at each passing moment, with Sonic's condition waring thin that he could explode any minute now. Olly recounted her thoughts several times over...though words had riddled in her mind for ages..."We aren't the ones responsible for the past. But we are the ones responsible for the future."Said Amy.She and Olly sat in the locker-rooms after Olly had finished her workout. Amy sat on the bench dangling her legs and watching the Agent dress herself."That would have to relate to the old saying, history repeats itself. For what ever crimes happened long ago, will happen again." Olly said, spraying herself"There's that." Amy said. "But...in accordance with logic and pathological systems we learn from those before...and we teach the ones after."Olly's head fell. "To those of the future had garnered knowledge of ancient times. And yet, we still don't know everything."Amy smiled and tilted her head. "Like love. Love's been brought from the dawn of time and yet, it never changes."Olly nodded in agreement. "Because love is stubborn."More time went passed, as most grew more restless. Lilith's eyes kept going back and forth from Olly to nowhere. If Amy didn't come any time soon, hell would still break loose regardless if she came or not. Sonic's condition went to one of like being in a trance, struggling to keep his eyes opened, like when they were being drugged on Prison Island, kept into that moldy hellhole.Why wasn't she here yet? Sonic feared she'd changed her mind about the ordeal. Good girl...good girl...stay away, the navy blur will handle it. Olly fumbled around with her hands, a sure sign of oncoming nervousness."Agent! Come here for a moment!" Ordered Eggman.Olly swallowed her pride and walked up to Eggman. "Yes?"Eggman nodded towards Muriels body, which was still laying on her side in a fetal position."Do us a favour. Speak with her. If Amy doesn't come here soon we'll have to find a substitute."Lilith snapped into the conversation."Are you mad Robotnik? If someone absorbs Abbadonia without the necklace they could risk death! Thereby undoing everything!"Eggman chuckled. "A risk means there's still a chance that she's going to possess them anyway. Therefore she can live a meaningful life in absolute destruction!"Elise crossed her arms. "Hah! You iiiiidiots! That group of terrorists are basically doing the job for you? Morons..."Eggman rolled his eyes. "Not now sweety...we don't care what the terrorists do now...Abbadonia will cause more chaos than any of them combined!"Olly obliged to see Muriel on the floor and crossed her legs."Is that you young Agent?" Muriel asked, weak in voice.Olly nodded. "Yes Muriel...it's me...I know it's been a while."Muriel smiled. She was on the verge of death, pale all over and made of nothing but skin and bones."I'm sorry about all this. I wish I didn't have to put my own granddaughter through all this. I wanted...to tell Amy how her father really died..."Olly blinked. "Huh? You mean Big Mama's husband?"Muriel nodded slowly. "Yes...she accused me...of killing..." She muttered, then coughed heavily. "Killing poor poor Roger...I loved my son...I did...in fact, his death was inadvertently caused by Asmos in the first place.."Olly lifted her head. Now this was information she could attain. But why would Big Mama kill her own husband? It made more sense than Muriel murdering him but for what and to what extent?""Asmos...is the worst daughter-in-law. She had multiple affairs with men, trying to get a top position somewhere...and my poor son...I found out before he did...and when he did...he..." Muriel coughed a bit more."He what?" Olly poked.Muriel hacked and wheezed, her fragile body shaking like mad. A small blast from her hand catapulted Olly to the wall, provoking a response from Sonic who shot up. Olly quickly recomposed herself, standing up in the face of adversity."WHERE IS AMY?" Abbadonia screamed. Muriel was gone again.Olly moved forward. "She's coming. Don't worry." She assured, before sitting back down with Sonic, who stared at her.Another hour went by and Amy still hadn't shown up. Sonic grew restless as cans of Pepsi Max grew around Elise, Lilith creating miniature flames from the finger tip of her index and Eggman playing cards with Metal. Meanwhile the Wisers had huddled themselves together out of extreme fear.Olly on the other hand was busy contemplating. She had to explain the truth to them all, no matter how hard. Amy was not likely...was not actually turning up at all. This was the chance to get them while they're here...slow down their escapade. Maybe...if they were lucky."Agent." Said Lilith. "It is getting a bit late now...if Amy does not appear in one solid hour..""YOU'LL KILL ALL OF THEM...DO IT!" Elise screamed.Both Eggman and Lilith rolled their eyes."Anyway, like I was saying..." Lilith continued. "If she doesn't show, let's just say we'll kill the most important people by assassinations...lets say, the Guardian of the Master Emerald..."Sonic's ear perked up. "What? You can't kill Knuckles?"Eggman chuckled and crossed his arms. "I'm sorry warthog, that's the rules!""And maybe a few others..." Said Lilith. "Say, Cream? Cheese? Vanilla? Vector...such a massive list of heroes for us to kill! Their souls would be prized in hell!"Olly stood her ground as Sonic's attention turned towards her. There was rage building inside of him from what she could see and sense. Taking a deep breath, she had to address the issue at hand."She's going to come...I promise an-"Her sentence was cut off from an angry Sonic, who pushed her over to the other side of the wall in his utmost furious manner. He'd swattered her helmet, creating a crack in the screen."YOU AND YOUR FUCKING PROMISES OLLY!" Sonic screamed, his wings spawning from hisback. The feathers that fell off quickly sliced up the Demon Knights in the room. Black tentacles burst out from his back and pierced the walls, firming himself into place as he over-towered Olly. His body grew, becoming spectral and ethereal, his eyes a fiery red, canine teeth becoming elongated as drool dripped out of his mouth. He had her arms pinned down. He put a tentacle into the back of her neck, and attempted to tinker with her head...We aren't but ourselves in conflict Sonic...but we can be who we want to be...No one is the enemy but yourself. See yourself Sonic...break free of that toil and the hold he has over you. There is no reason to hold back and let him run you like a dog. You're not a dog Sonic...Back in the real world, Sonic's back arched up, Eggman frozen from fear, with Lilith taking a stance and shielding everyone in the circle for their justified protection. Sonic was not Sonic anymore...not unless he saw Amy. More tentacles burst from his back knocking the walls down and revealing more lava pits. His power influenced a wide range, from falling flames, and...strangely enough, small, plush Amy dolls. Raining Amy dolls...everywhere...that whispered madness at they melted into the lava. Lilith had to extend the emerald barrier and use telekinesis to ensure everything still went as planned. Milo shot Sonic in the back with a needle, which made him drop everything around him, forcing the arena to drop back in an instant."Sonic you son of the bitch." Milo scolded. He stood up and aimed the weapon at thim."Olly is right. We're nothing but fucking pawns here. I can't do jack shit myself because Morpheus threatened to murder my girlfriend. He's got her under his thumb. He told me, that he would get you to murder her!"Sonic shook his head as he warped back to normal slightly. The enviroment tried getting back to normal itself, but Sonic's major issues drove the process slower than expected. The needles weren't helping as much as Milo thought. He picked up Olly by forming a third arm and grabbing her with spectral black fingers that oozed down her suit. Amy's stood everywhere...all bloody, some missing limbs, and some looking like giant bites had been taken out of them. They stood straight with half drawn eyelids, whispering inconprenisble words, forcing Sonic to become worse in his insanity."WHERE...IS...SHE?" Sonic roared, the entire room was shaking violently as he choked Olly."Sonic..." Olly gargled. She made no attempt get free, feeling as if she was expecting this. Sonic's demonic face, that spawned multiple red eyes absolutely everywhere as Sonic grew bigger in a new abomination form."I'll take Amy's place..." She said. Sonic slammed Olly's body on the ground, as he formed smoke around her body, with flames behind it. His giant demonic head oversaw everything in their as Olly lay there near motionless, reaching a hand out."Amy's not coming...Amy's..." Olly muttered out.In a swift second, the Amy dolls that were falling like rain had transfigured into cards. In Milo's flight near the abomination, there was a strong gust that brought black feathers up into the air, like reversed gravity. Onyx spires shot out of the ground, stabbing the Bloody Amy's who stood there, disintegrating them."I THOUGHT I COULD REACH..." Screamed Sonic. "REACH TO YOU...then..."A small child like Sonic holding himself him came out of nowhere as Olly looked up. She made the attempt to drag herself to touch him, give him comfort."I was told...by...my dad...if I got...scared...he told me to run..." Said the Child Sonic.Olly rested her hand on his knee, only for the child to snap his head up, his eyes burning into her spirit."Sonic...I'm going to do it..." Said Olly as she gathered what she had."I promised Amy...I promised her I would...take her place...""LIES!"Olly forced herself up, and dodged a swipe from Sonic's hand as his arena grew wider. This was truly hell. She snapped a card in that fell from the air and had a glance at it.
The Lovers...
She jumped away as Sonic took another swipe at her. She brought out her Smish Smasher, having enough of this. She brought the hammer up into the air, sparks shooting off it quite rapidly. She took a run up, bring her hammer back, with time slowed down around her, slammed the hammer into Sonic's face, forcing the spectral Abomination back, loosening the makeshift battle ground around her, finding freedom. He laid on the ground, eventually seeing a nearby card, then seeing a projection of Bloody Amy, standing there with the stoic look on her face, blood pouring out from underneath her dress as usual. She appeared...disappointed."Take what you can give and give what you can take." She muttered.As soon as she said that, she was gone. Like Olly, Sonic tried to reach for the nearby card, shaking his arm as he stretched it. He slapped his hand over it and dragged it to himself to look at.
The Fool...
Sonic lay there, trying to decipher it's meaning. If Amy was here, she could explain it for him...until Olly used her electric power to burn the card to a crisp. She wandered over to Sonic, staring at his body, which was constantly changing in form, but his eyes stayed the same."You want this card..." Olly assured, flicking a card onto his chest. He picked it up and had a look at it.
The Magician.
The child Sonic reappeared in a random spot light, slouching and glaring at Olly."What does it mean?" He asked innocently. His child voice didn't fool the proud Agent."Sonic...I did it to protect Amy...if you can wait until it's over, then you and Abbadonia can have a battle together. An epic battle. I'm willing to do it...just..."Sonic finally sat up, and recomposed his body into the navy form he wielded before."I did...it to protect her too." He said.Olly smiled from underneath her helmet. "I know...now come on..."The room returned back to normal, with some of the others confused at the situation. Even Eggman was left scratching his head. Milo on the otherhand. Suddenly heavy footsteps were heard. Amy had finally arrived. She had a stoic look on her face, and her stride was as just. She came up to the circle. Olly looked around, staring at Sonic who was looking at Amy with soft eyes that she hadn't seen in a while. Amy herself paid no attention to Sonic himself, and was ready for what she had to take.Everyone else was either relieved or happy, considering the situation at hand. Olly shouldn't have had any reason to be relieved or happy about it, knowing what was at stake. Sonic was holding onto a card so tightly. But so far all had gone perfectly. This was going to happen. No matter what. If she'd taken anything from Normal-existing Sonic, is that in order to make things happen, you have to make it happen yourself. This was becoming so close she could feel it.Lilith ordered the process to begin. Olly felt Milo's eyes pinned on her as he stopped playing with his phone. Sonic just watched helplessly. He'd taken Olly's word to heart. He was legally insane by this point, but what ever she did bounded his spirit to her and only her, even though was he meant to be bound by his vow to protect Amy. Olly theorized this reality warping ability he had gained was from overexposure to AF, even though Drainer had taken the toxins out of his body. Then again, if he was with Morpheus all this time, it would more than likely explain everything. The circles started to illuminate, with sparkles rising from the runes. Eggman stood by, keeping Amy in check as he had his hands behind his back, making comments to Elise who was finally relieved to get this over and done with."You said you were going to do it..." Sonic pointed out as the rest of the room grew dark."I still am." Said Olly.A small gust brushed upwards as Muriel lifted up, transforming into a small sphere. Amy refused to say a word, instead just staring down her enemy. Eggman himself was, displaced by it all. In fact, if it was from his expression he was disappointed in the way they were acting. He wasn't use to Sonic being a monster and Amy being a sacrificial Lamb. Questioning ones self and motives, but there was a glint that Olly saw that drew a pit in her stomach. Suddenly she felt unnerved by it, retracting for the cause. Her neck warmed up, forcing her to caress it. Amy's necklace lifted up, with Sonic getting impatient once more."There is something wrong here." Sonic noted. For once, he was right. Olly's feeling grew worse.The Wisers disconnected from each other in a snapping movement, straightening out as their eyes glew with their corresponding colours, their arms and legs stretched out. Elise began freaking out as she and others did the same, but eventually succumbed to the rituals power as it rose her as well.Olly swallowed her pride. She knew the plan was wrong. She looked at Amy."The Voice told us...this was going to happen..." She whispered, tears drifting off her face."All Hail the Hero Captain Agent Mjöllnir!"Sonic browed, staring at Olly. "You lied to me..." He whispered to her with a deathly serious tone.Olly shook her head and whispered into his ear. "It wasn't my call. It was Big Mama."Sonic couldn't believe what he was hearing, as he struggled to contain his rage, but was held back from a shot by Milo.Olly turned her attention back to the ritual. Three bursts of light shot out of Muriels chest, one via Metal, one down the middle and the last through Pekas. They arched their backs in unison, with shots fired at one another in an interweaving of laser like shots, before being aimed at Amy. However, time seemed to have slowed down around them, Amy closed her eyes, ready to accept the gift. Olly felt the slight shift in the air as Amy was pushed out of the way at the last second, leaving Eggman to take the full brunt, enveloped in a temporary white glow, then faded into a fiery black figure with glowing amber runes on his body, replacing and merging with his suit with golden eyes. Amy lifted her head and got off the floor.In bated breath comes the child's flower, sowing seeds of chaotic order.This was no longer part of the plan.Olly moved forward and dragged Amy out of the way, leaving her with Sonic. The others came back to their senses upon their greatest surprise. Elise was astounded by what her father had done, however Metal chuckled, while Lilith froze and questioned the trickery of Eggmans actions. However, the doctor soon became mad with power, sprouting wings from his back and laughing manically. Sonic's eyes widened at the realization that this was Eggman's intention all along. Assimilating Abbadonia into himself and becoming the deadliest foe on the planet. For all his failed schemes this was the most debilitating and to his credit, well organized. Eggman barked orders at Metal. However, Sonic wasn't having any of it."EGGMAN!" Sonic roared.The Demon Doctor turned to Sonic with a massive, demonic grin on his face."How do you like it Sonic?" Asked Eggman, his voice echoey with multiple pitched voices."Come to think of it, we aren't so different after all are we?"Sonic shot up, lengthening his handsword. Olly took Amy and moved away, coddling her and watched as Sonic transformed again, spitting out his black wings alongside four arachnid like legs from his back. Eggman laughed his head off, changing the arena into pure darkness. Milo flew to Olly and Amy and carried them as they fell off the disintegrating stairs.Sonic charged at Eggman first, attempting to cut him in half. His screams grew into desperation as Eggman molded a shield with his arm, successfully blocking the swipe. He used his other arm and transformed it into a sword like Sonics and cut one of his wings off, blood spurting everywhere. Amy held on tight staring at the battle before them. Sonic fell down, with Amy detaching herself from Olly who yelled her and reached out, but failing to snatch her hand. She fell down with a smile on her face as she grew white feathery wings and flew towards Sonic, catching him successfully."Absorb my abilities Sonic." Amy muttered to the fallen hero.Sonic's eyes were full of bloodlust, then quickly turned into their former gentle green."What?" He called out to her."Do it...just do as I say...do it for me..." Amy said, tears running down her face and on to Sonic's own."No! I can't! I care about you too much!" Sonic cried."It's okay. I'm just a tool in this mess. It should have been me in the line of fire." Amy sniffed.Sonic gritted his teeth. He could see Eggman firing fireballs at them both. Amy twirled herself around with her back to Eggman, taking the shots to her back as she screamed in pain."AMY!" Sonic screamed. She still had the smile on her face."Looks like you don't have much of a choice...do it Sonic...Agent Mjöllnir will take of everything...I promise..."
SPLAT!
Eggman's handsword had dug its way through Amy's torso and into Sonic's own, prompting a psychotic flash of black and white images through his vision like life flashing by."Order to Chaos Sonic...do it..."Eggman brought them up to him as he plucked them off his handsword, throwing Sonic down, then holding Amy's neck. His eyes of death did not deter Amy in the slightest. His tilted head and psychotic and horrifying smirk proceeded the snapping of her neck, prompting Sonic to emit a piercing cries of her name, more black and white images of his life with her flashing by as he fell down, his feathers of memories detaching off his wing and onto to Amy's corpse. Eggman had no use for it, throwing it down alongside Sonic, who caught it. His tears did nothing to help matters. Instead, he did what she suggested and absorbed her body into his own. His right wing grew back, becoming white. Olly and Milo looked on in horror as rune symbols appeared everywhere as Eggman prepared for his world domination. Sonic shot up from below, his eyes completely red and filled with rage. No mercy was prepared for what he was about to do. Only hatred and disgust at how Eggman could stoop as low as this."KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA"Sonic swiped his handsword at Eggman who clanged it with his own as the fought with one another in the air, Sonic's speed unable to conquer Eggman's surpassing reactive defensive blocks. Eyes grew on Sonic's body as the heat in his body grew. His screams turned into roars. But Eggman was just too powerful for him! Despite his power levels growing, his grief prevented him in making strategic maneuvers."You're pathetic Sonic..." Eggman criticized."You're usually the more combatant one! I'm...displeased with this...you should be doing better."Olly knew those words dug through Sonic's heart with a blade as sharp as his sword."He lives in pain." Said Milo. "However, another loss of a loved one is too much to bear. He's blaming himself for it."Olly shook her head. "It's not his fault..." She stated."We've got to stop him!"Milo scrunched his eyes. "I don't know how! The tranqs I made are useless! Morpheus is gonna be pissed."SLAP!"Don't think about that monster for one second and think of Sonic's situation! I saw what Morpheus did to him!" Olly scolded.Milo frowned. "I know...I can't do anything about it..."Olly looked up. She was going to do something about this...right now.She ordered Milo to fly her up there or else he would get an electric shot. Never-mind he was the one carrying her and preventing her from falling into the endless abyss below."Wait..." Said Milo."What?" Asked Olly.Milo was reminded of something Sonic had told him earlier, prompting Milo to realize what he could so."Sonic has a failsafe...however...there's a certain number sequence that needs to be said in order to enact it." He stated.Olly grew confused. "A failsafe? For what?"Milo pulled out a device and pressed a button."Delta Romeo! Can you read me?""Loud and clear Mike Papa! What's the situation?" Said someone through the static device."One Nine Nine One, I repeat One Nine Nine One!" Milo called out."Roger that Mike Papa! Engaging with the locks now! Delta Romeo out!"Olly gave Milo strange looks. "Milo Prower I get...who's Delta Romeo!"Milo stared down at the battle between Eggman and Sonic. "Someone...now we wait...big fucken Purple Mike comin' through...that's what the Echo Uniform One is...a Purple Mike...They kept watch of the never ending battle between the two darkened creatures before them, with the environment. Sonic grabbed hold of Eggman's arms and pinned the back against a randomly summoned wall and headbutted him until his forehead started bleeding, smashing Eggman in the face with a fist with spikes, splattering blood everywhere. Eggman's mustaches extended and wrapped them around Sonic's throat, choking the Hedgehog. Eggman's hand reached out, fingers expanding as he warped in a floor of spikes, throwing Sonic with his stache tendrils and piercing them through the spikes themselves, a roar of pain almost deafening. Eggman flew towards Sonic as he lay there."This will not be our final, glorious battle together Sonic...if you have the will, you will not lie there in complete shame and bleed to death. You will give me the rest of the artifacts...and our combat shall strike and shake the foundations of the world..." Eggman taunted. He formed a portal and lept into it, disappearing on sight. As soon as he vanished, Milo flew himself and Olly towards Sonic, who had spikes riddled through his torso and limbs. His head dangled off the spike board, as his body turned back to normal.Milo carefully carried Olly over Sonic's body, reaching towards it and with that tried pulling him out. Doing so, a runed floor fizzled into existence as Olly put Sonic on the floor, Milo dropping her and standing before Sonic's bloodied body. The Agent knelt down before his head and caressed his cheek with two fingers. His head wobbled about as he tried to refocus his vision, seeing Olly's helmet lurking over him."It's going to be okay Sonic..." Olly tried to reassure.Sonic's expression eventually faded from confusion back to rage as he shot up and pressed Olly to the floor, transforming back into a monstrous form. His arachnid legs assisted in pinning her back as he bared his sharpened canines, drooling on her face."I SHOULD HAVE NEVER TRUSTED YOU!" Sonic roared."AMY'S DEAD! AND I ONLY HAVE YOU TO BLAME!"Milo fired at Sonic, only for the severely corrupted Hedgehog to stab the two tailed fox in the chest with one of his spider legs. Milo's eyes widened at the unsuspected random attacked, but he should have known better. Taking the spiked leg out, Milo fell to the ground, muttering about being glad about going to see his brother again and finally make peace. Olly called out Milo's name, only for Sonic to swat her head, damaging her helmet more. The pain and anguish had taken hold alongside the rage as he had his free hands, forming one into a small blade. Very slowly, he moved the blade forward towards her chest."Sonic..." Olly muttered."Before you kill me...I want to show you something..."His fury only grew with that statement, but had enough of his old self to hold back and listen to her one last time before she became nothing more than a smear on the floor."You told me everything was going to be okay and this...this was going to help protect her. And now...we've both failed her. We don't deserve to exist here...we're not the heroes we thought we were..." Sonic commented, tears dripping down as he sniffed.Olly chuckled. She had one free hand that was loosened slightly from Sonic's grip as she cleaned the tears from his eyes."It's a habit to save people. I know..." Said Olly, in tears herself."However...in death we realize who we are...in truth our deaths define us...sacrifice being the most noble of all."Sonic's face twitched. It'd culminated in this final defense, this final plea to change things and set things right for the future. For what had happened here tonight, was mostly the fault of many, to Sonic's realization. It made him feel a lot worse...for the pain that he wielded became worse with time. He didn't want it to end like this...no...not at all. For all he did with his friends that he'd come close to, he'd have to abandon absolutely everything. Synthesized from existence, this wouldn't have happened if he'd killed Muriel from the start. He didn't take Shizarus advice, her warnings and abstained from her insane, now logical rants and cryptic conversations. All that was left was a hollow husk filled with black emotions. His heart was completely wrenched.He tried to avoid Amy all his life. Her quest to win his heart and hand in marriage was just a stupid game to him. Stupid, stupid stupid...why couldn't she accept his friendship? That's all he could give to her but she'd failed to understand. The persistence that he brushed off, he'd hoped to Chaos that it was all just a silly, girly phase. He was older now...with the explanation of growing teenage hormones that cried out for more...for something more connected and needed, the oblivious mind not realizing the chemical imbalance within that others would explain through simple peer advice. He needed to mature properly...however failing to undermine the fact of his change and explicit...needs. He was a growing teenager after all...and so was Amy. When he found out she and Shadow were dating, a string was pulled and cut in his heart. But unfortunately he was unable to identify the strings purpose that had caused him slight discomfort this past month alone."We think to ourselves that being alone is not so bad. Further along the track you discover that loneliness is a painful concept because...we die alone..." Said Shizaru who stood behind Sonic."Loneliness is brought by our fear of connecting with people." Said Kikazaru who stood to the left of Sonic."Loneliness is brought by our dislike of connecting with people." Said Mizaru who stood to the right of Sonic.Iwazaru stood behind Olly, wearing a dull expression. She walked through Olly like a ghost, giving decrypt stares to Sonic, placing her hands on his cheeks and kissing him on the nose "Loneliness is brought by our inability to connect with people." Said Olly, as if she was speaking for Iwazaru herself.Sonic arched his back and roared, echoing in the nothingness as his tears flew upwards, breaking into their sparkles then into nothingness."I will help you Sonic...because there is truth to what I had done. I have not lied to you. I did it to protect Amy." Olly assured."What's the point when it still failed..." Sonic sighed.Olly smiled beneath her helmet. She knew what she had to do. It was time...this was the moment she had been waiting for since she'd found out the use for it."Sonic..." Olly whispered.Sonic's red eyes turned white again as they tried to looked through the broken viser on her helmet."I want to show you something..."She took a deep breath, much to Sonic's utter confusion as she placed her hands beside her helmet, lifting it off and placing it on her torso. Sonic's eyes widened as he stared at the girl before him, the white fading into his normal white left eye, and the bionic black and green one. His heart was racing as conflicting emotions were going like wild fire. What had transpired with his vision brought out was a combination of disbelief..."Amy..." He muttered.And relief...Amy smiled. "Yeah...it's me...no tricks-"
BANG!
A purple with green detail arm burst through the black walls from what appeared to be outside the tree. It placed another had on the side as it tore the wall apart bit by bit. A gigantic head with a horn protruding from it's head and another from it's chin, glared at Sonic with bright white eyes. It climbed in, Amy gasping as she realized what the gigantic tall, humanoid creature was."It's that..." She whispered.It had fins pushing out of it's shoulders. The entire creatrure was purple with green, orange and blue detail. It had stared down at Sonic, who grew enraged and transformed himself, his entire height shooting up as the same as the creatures. Amy had to bring out her Smish Smasher in case anything happened."This is...Echo Uniform One..." She said to herself. She spoke underneath her breath, repeating the words Echo One to herself...Sonic roared at Echo One as he sprouted two more black and white wings to his aid. His torso had been stretched out, making him as skinny as Echo's humanoid shape as eyes formed around Sonic's body. His eyes turned red again as he swiped at Echo. Echo responded by bringing up it's hands and successfully blocking it. Sonic managed to kick it in it's shin, tumbling it over, causing a massive earthquake due to it's sheer immense size. Looking behind her, she could see Milo's body. She quickly ran over and checked his pulse. He was still alive, but loosing a lot of blood. She pulled the bag from her bag and grabbed her first aid kit, taking out the bandages and some alchohol and cotton balls. She cleaned the wound, which didn't reach to other side, Amy thanking his luck. He was coming in and out of consciousness as he tried to focus on her frame."Hey...it's you!" Milo said wearily."Yeah it's me. Deal with it..." Amy said snarkily. "Just try and shut up while I patch you up okay?"Milo gave a thumbs up. "Excellent."Echo One had pushed itself off the ground and threw a punch to Sonic, who captured it with his palm and pushed it back, extended a random tentacle emitted from his back and wrapping it around Echo One's body, picking it up. Echo One responded by putting it's hand on Sonic's face and twisting it severely, Sonic roaring in pain, causing Amy discomfort as she bandaged Milo."What exactly is that thing?" Asked Amy, wrenching as Sonic began banging on Echo Ones chest repeatedly with spiked fists.Milo sat up. "That is a creature that was hailed a pinnacle of science of another world, destined for greatness. Sonic's idea was that if he ever was to go rampant like he has, that Echo One would destroy him."Amy gasped. "What? He can't do that! I won't let it!"Milo gently pulled on Amy's arm as she tried to flee. "No! You'll only get yourself killed...Sonic will be worse if he did by accident."Tears ran down her face. "I've got to try!" She cried out, witnessing Sonic's tentacle tightening it's grip on Echo One, forcing blood to spurt out from it's torso. She could taste the blood on her lips, only to release there was a cut on of them as well as blood coming from her mouth and a pain to her left eye. Amy pulled herself away from Milo, who failed to bring her back. She fled to the scene as they both became drenched in blood, Sonic licking his lips. Amy flailed her hammer about as she ran as fast as she could, being a mere ant in their presence."SONIC STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!" Amy yelled. His head turned to her for a split second, their eyes locking together in the moment. Echo One managed to use the distraction to punch him in the head and take advantage, tearing the tentacles off one by one, forcing Sonic to scream and headbutt it, only for Echo to roll them over, Amy jumping out of the way, barely managing to avoid getting hit with Sonic's wings. Echo's hand shot out to Sonic's neck, the other joining it seconds later in their shaking struggle for dominance. Amy stood back up, feeling her neck warming up and taking out the White Necklace she wore underneath her suit and grasped it tightly, silently praying while struggling to stop herself from shedding more tears. Echo kicked Sonic in the chest, sending the corrupted Hedgehog flying to the other side. Amy quickly ducked as Sonic's body flew over her. Checking out Echo One, it strained itself as it stood up, shaking vigorously as it got back up on it's feet. Her eyes directed back to Sonic, who was leaning against the wall, blood everywhere. Echo One automatically patched itself up and walked over to a deteriorated Sonic. Amy had to protect him, stop the fighting herself. This was enough for her stand. She rose her arms and stared down the 200 meter tall purple humanoid monstrosity before her with a determined manner and stance, her necklace glistening in her light."I am pleading to you..." She yelled out. "Stop this! Stop this right now!"Echo One straightened out, lowering it's head. It suddenly squatted down to see Amy eye to eye...or what ever those things in its head were. It laid it's hand out to her, much to the Agents bewilderment as she pressed her lips, preventing an outwards gasp. Echo nodded to her, the language it spoke in body she understood. Milo watched from afar, wanting to know if Amy would take the offer."The true spirit inside is not evil...it's a hero from another world. Two heroes in one world clash due to differing ideals. Their standards, way of life are different. Their needs and wants will not be the same. However...if the hero understands the situation properly they will quell the fighting and offer peace as soon as the opportunity presents itself. Amy's intervention and obvious sacrifical puts her at odds with those around her. Her heroism is idealism...a perfect world for all those to live in. I see why he chose her to give the mantle. There is more optimism set to the fill the worlds population...that she's willing to protect no matter the cost..." Milo commented in the wise words of observational philosophy.He heard static coming from his jeans as he whipped out his intercom device."MIKE PAPA! What is going down there? We're getting weird ass readings...dear Chaos it's astounding!"Milo's eyes were glued to the confusion situation, slowly bring the device to his lips."Delta Romeo...you should see this..."Without words, it was the language of their expressions that explained their feelings on the matter. Amy's arms fell to her sides as a strange wind picked up. The sky formed in black and red clouds. Echo turned it's hand over, and stood up, checking out the strange scenery. Amy turned back to Sonic who continued to lay there, appearing apathetic and motionless. She clicked her heels and bolted towards him, not stopping until she appeared to his face...His body shrank down before she'd gotten there, however he'd risen into the air and summoned his black and white wings, his jet black body back Sonic's normal form. His wings glew in their colours as his feathers fell off, spiralling around them in a twirled pattern of black and white diagonal stripes. Echo placed it's hands underneath Sonic as a translucent sphere melded around. His eyes were closed, then opened at they stared at Echo. Echo took one hand and laid it on the floor for Amy again. Enduring the understanding stare, Amy jumped into it's palm. Echo brought it up next to it's other hand, as the sphere disappeared, his body falling and wings blowing away. His fur turned a little bit more of the blue she knew, but not entirely. She went to his side and held his body in her arms. Turning his head to her with her hand, she caressed his cheek as he opened his eyes. Upon the sight of the pink hedgehog, he smiled. Amy let the waterworks flow as he touched her caring hand with his own, his own tears running down."Amy...I want to thank you..." Sonic coarsed.Amy's happiness was reassured. She pulled out the bottle which contained her medication and threw it away. Sonic didn't bother asking what they were for, he was too weakened to do so. His head turned to it's side as he closed his eyes, prompting Amy to bury her head into his chest."Loyalty still binds." Said NiGHTS, suddenly floating next to a surprised Milo."Even when allegiances change, there's always going to be an attachment to those you've strived alongside with. No matter how dismal, horrible and painfully disconnected you are with the world, there will always be the loyalty to a cause."Milo strained his eyes. "Their loyalty to each other is what saved them...right?"NiGHTS grinned. "Not just loyalty..."
BOOM!
All heads turned to the explosion that had occurred at the entrance Echo had formed. Amy quickly held Sonic in her arms as he lay unconscious."MILO!" Amy cried."Shit it's them...GO NOW! RUN!" Milo yelled out to them. He pulled out his blaster as a cavalade of GUN Soldiers stomped their way, firing away at Echo.Amy stared at Echo. It knew, from the fire in Amy's eyes if they left Milo behind that it meant business. Echo turned around, carefully holding both hedgehogs in one hand, kneeling down in the face of adversity, not to mention a swarm of bullets. Another explosion prevented it from doing so, Echo shielding it's face from the blast. Amy cried out Milo's name again as Echo had no choice but to flee the scene. Amy grumbled on how, despite being a large tree, the interior of this was more expansive than they'd originally thought. In the settled dust, Amy saw her mother in her Supreme Commander garb, standing on top of a GUN Tank, pointing and narrated orders to her subordinates. Even Amy herself knew there was nothing she could do as Echo bolted for their lives, running around, lost in the darkness of what ever and where ever they were.Milo on the other, despite being gravely wounded, took his stance as Big Mama sneered at him with the most devious smirk."Intel Officer Milo Prower. AKA Deceptive Prick..." Big Mama mocked.Milo chuckled. "Sounds like a great code name. I like it!"Still darkness went on for five minutes of running...it's appeared there were as mentioned, lost. As long as they were safe, they were going to be okay. Amy scolded herself for not being able to save Doc or Milo, noting her medication was wearing off fast due to the stress involved. She held Sonic close, his head leaning against her shoulder as they sat in Echo's grip. This was becoming hopeless as the lack of light still reigned upon them all. But none of them gave hope. Not once. Sonic wouldn't want them to.Light finally became clear in the distance, like running towards the exit of a cave. Echo sprinted so damn hard that it became hard to stop it as they came out into a fresh clean, area of notice. It was a city...well-established and organized, not as high tech yet not as old fashioned. Amy sensed from Echo's sudden head movements that it seemed...familiar. She browed and questioned it about this apparent knowing and familiarity. Echo shook it's head with disbelief. Giant hills and mountains surrounded it, creating a small crater for the deep blue sky, despite it being night elsewhere. However, a gigantic serpent burst out from underground, almost like a cross between a centipede and a snake in motion, but it's colour, and symbol on it's forehead, not to mention it's entire facial and skull structure that peaked Amy's interest. It was mostly red and black, with tinges of yellow and a lot of gray and general silver metals. Echo was raring to attack, instead, it tilted it's head to Echo."Well it's about damn time you guys arrived!" It said, sounding familiar.She checked Echo out, before scanning Amy and Sonic, eventually pulling it's head back."Where the heck is Milo?" She asked.Amy frowned, about to open her mouth, before someone else, with a child voice, cut her off."We tried to save him!" He said. Amy's eyes widened. It was Echo. She battered her eyes and cleaned her ears at the simple disbelief that this giant thing could speak after all."Are you an idiot or what?" Said the Serpent. "We send you to do a simple task and you fuck it up? What the hell is with you?"Echo lowered it's head in shame. "I'm-...sorry..." He said with a beaten voice."Shit...now I'll have to go in there...you get your sorry hide through that portal right now mister! Or else your arse is going to be deleted, then recycled for my personal use, got that?" Scolded the serpent."Yes Ma'am...sorry Ma'am." Echo replied, still beaten and confusing the heck out of Amy.The Robotic Serpent grumbled as it headed into the cave in the giant hill. Amy's eyelids dropped at half mask with an annoyed aura. He could have said something earlier! However, a portal warped in at the distance."I'm going to have throw you both in. I'm going to be too big to fit inside that thing." Echo pointed out.Amy grabbed hold of Sonic tightly as Echo punted them through the violet portal. Amy braced herself, tightening her grib further as they catapulted to the other side. They reappeared on the other side, which Amy quickly gathered from a technological and nostalgic hindsight that it was the ARK. Several well known individuals stood before them, appearing at some technological board that sat underneath windows overlooking the Earth."Amy...Sonic..." Muttered Shadow. Neptune stood by Shadow himself, but then moved forward to pick up the fallen Sonic from the ground. Shadow wandered over and took Amy's hand and helped her get up. The two hugged, glad to see each other again. Amy was more stunned than anything as Shadow had his hands on her shoulders."You alright?" He asked. She nodded, tears still running down her face."I'll be fine...just check out Sonic first." Amy explained.Shadow nodded. Maria fizzled in."Shadow? Should we take him to the sick bay?" She asked.Shadow paid his attention to her. "Yes. Neptune, take Rouge with you. Maria...help them."Maria bowed her head before fizzling away, leaving Shadow and Amy to themselves.Shadow took Amy back to his temporary quarters, a simple single bed room with a single overhanging light and a small bedside table, the sheets a green-gray colour. Shadow placed Amy on the side of the bed, with him sitting next to her and placing his arm over her shoulders. She leaned her head on his shoulder whilst he rubbed her arm."Mama's going to be angry with me...I'm in such deep shit..." Amy commented.Shadow started stroking her quills. "Meh...I'm deeper in that...I expect a scolding from her about stealing the Sphere."Amy stared at the gray wall and sighed. She closed her eyes for a few seconds before opening them, then looked at Shadow. She was far too stressed for her own good. She needed her medication to apply the endorphins to her brain. She lifted her head and rested her chin on Shadow's shoulder. The black Hedgehog turned his head, and brushed his lips briefly against hers. He stopped for a moment, before pressing them again, this time a bit harder.Amy slid herself onto the bed as Shadow lay on top of her. They would usually do this after sticky situations such as this. Amy would come home from work, Shadow would come back later, and they would relieve their pressure with making out. Innocent making out as all, to which they both enjoyed as they experimented with their kisses. Shadow started randomly kissing her muzzle to which Amy slightly giggled and moaned to, as she felt Shadow's hand dig into her tight leather pants. Her eyes widened with surprise as she grabbed his hand, stopping him from going too far.Their eyes locked together, Shadow seeming repentent at his actions."I must apologize..." He said his usual stoic tone. Amy smiled."No...it's me...it's just that I still don't feel ready for this sort of thing." She worded out.Shadow nodded. Understanding.A strange sifting scent wafted in the air, in darkened colours, making Amy feel a bit funny. She blinked twice before staring at Shadow. She had this idea in her head, this feeling in her stomach that was appending. There was a block in her mind that...somewhat blocked her inhibitions, but she was unable to sense this herself. Shadow stared at the floor, while a glint sparkled in Amy's eyes.She grabbed his hands and smiled sweetly at him as she rubbed the back of his hand with her thumb."I know...an alternative..." She said, her voice sounding a tad sultry as a result.Shadow rose an eyebrow. "An...alternative?"Amy nodded. Her eyes dropped to watch herself rub her thumbs over his knuckles, then his fingers.Shadow still didn't get it. "So what's this other...way?"Amy rose her shoulders and slowly dragged his hand up to the seams of her leather pants."I know there's a different method to...let's say, dig without a shovel..." She said seductively.Shadow smirked. "I sort of...get what you mean..."She grabbed his hand and took off his gloves with her teeth and spat them on the floor. He got back on top of her, pushing his hand down towards her crutch.As his face got closer to hers, he could seem something...different in her eyes...a sort of a red tinge he could see as lust and quickly made note of it in his head."Come on..." She whispered.Shadow closed his eyes as he kissed her neck as he molded her insides with two fingers, causing her to wreath in pleasure, grasping the bedsheets as her body pulsated with every satisfying motion he applied. He upped the ante, placing her hand on himself as she caressing it gently as they moaned into each others mouths.Somewhere deep in her mind, she knew it was dirty, distasteful to all logic as an Agent and as someone as well-mannered as herself but she couldn't help it, she needed a stress outlet. She wasn't letting him break her but rather setting herself up for the real thing, which she needed it for a precise moment...but even then...the sound of the real thing rested on morals...a switch of innocence. But she was at the age of experimentation...to try what could be tried and know what to like, to dislike, what to approach and what to avoid with caution. But...this wasn't natural and it was scaring her, but she couldn't stop herself as she rubbed him harder and harder, as he kept his molding casual yet brilliant pleasuring, drool coming out of her mouth, her eyes closed tight as her chest burst forward, forced by her arching back as she was getting near her climax. Opening her eyes, they widened further as suddenly saw Sonic's face instead of Shadows, causing her to retreat and hold herself in, closing her eyes and holding in her head..."Amy?" Said Shadow.She reopened her eyes...batting her eyelids several times. She was sitting on the edge of Shadows bed, with Shadow staring at her with concern."So you're going to go see him?" Shadow asked.Amy blinked. "See who?" She queried."You know..." Shadow relayed. "You alright? Want Rouge and Maria to look you over?"Amy looked up...then shook her head. "N-no...I'll be fine. I'll go see how Sonic's doing."What was that dream she had? Something was messing with her head and it had to stop. She thought it might be the medication...or lack of thereof and desperately needed to get some more. She went face paced to the sick bay.She entered in the drowning in white room where Maria and Rouge were speaking with one another as they sat beside Sonic with Neptune playing with a random ball, who was hooked up to all sorts of hospital equipment, hearing the beeps from his heart rate as he laid there, looking peaceful in his sleep. Rouge explained he had a lot of trauma and was unlikely to awaken any time soon. Amy nodded. After asking for some alone time with Sonic, the two happily obliged as they left the room and closed the door. Amy dragged a chair and brought it next to Sonic as she got close to his head. Oh what she could say to him in his time of utmost confusion and mental screw ups. His chest rose and fell as he slept. So peaceful.She grabbed hold of his hand and grasped it, placing her other palm above it. For once, that touching him comforted her more than she expected. It was a sorry status to be in, but as long as he was alive, then the only that mattered was getting well again. His other hand lay on his chest, Amy checking out the nearly forgotten God's Hand that she'd given him. She wondered...with an epiphany, had that been a cause to his problems? She would have to give Shadow that information later and make an investigation into it's true extraordinary power."Things are going to change around here." She said to the unresponsive Sonic. She laid her head down and soon fell asleep on his chest, still holding his hand.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Commander Shadow sat in a dark, empty room, with a tall roof and a single light dangling from the ceiling, a single sheet of a one way mirror adorned on the opposing wall, as he brooded behind a simple black table, an empty chair scuffled outwards. It'd been so quiet that the air conditioning began humming around in his ears. He hated waiting, especially when he was the one getting interrogated. After coming back from the ARK and the situation with Eggman/Abbadonia, they decided to sort through the problem bit by bit. They'd nicknamed the new hybrid Eggadon. It'd gotten worse from here on in, and there was a lot of explaining to do into why it all occurred in the first place. Big Mama was rightly pissed off, Amy's identity revealed to Sonic and a bunch of others, Bazza was injured and all kinds of crazy thrown their way. Big Mama was about to get to the bottom of it.She slammed the door open, then snapped it shut. She high heeled her way to the chair and sat down, smacking a goldenrod folder to the table and opening it up. Bringing out a pen, she didn't make eye contact with the black hedgehog at all. Not that it mattered, he didn't really care. He wanted to get this over and done with so he could get back to work. She was wearing tight brown leather pants, knee high black and belt ridden boots, white singlet and a black jacket, bordering a scorn on her hide. She took out a cigarette to complete the image. Shadow could see her for the manipulative bitch that she was."So...Commander Shadow." Big Mama mellowed. "You mind telling me what happened?"
He'd mentioned the 'borrowing' of the Sphere of Abyss for starters. He'd climbed down into the forbidden vault chambers several dozen meters underground. GUN Security was tight but for his position he was allowed to do so. Harrowing hallways and scan throughs. Most guards knew Shadow and would rather let him through then make attempts to pacify him. Not to mention to probability of getting their arses handed to him, as well the fact he was of a higher rank. There had been a slight breeze as he'd eventually arrived at the large barricaded iron doors protected by solidified guards. He simply showed them his ID as he went inside. The idea he had...the information NiGHTS had given him. What was so darn important that made him return the ARK?
"What prompted you to steal? And where was this intel coming from? Your source as it may?" Big Mama stated as she continued questioning.He would have said classified, but it would have been pretty stupid, especially in front of your superior. So Shadow just mentioned it was from a phone call. If it'd been Big Mama receiving it she would have ordered a search through the phone GPS system to track them down right away. But Shadow's lie had cradled into her mind, allowing him to move on.Shadow walked into the foreboding room, enclosed and full of high tech sealed lockers, hundreds, some of varying sizes as they were sorted neatly in columns that spanned for ages. There was a computer panel hung from a pole as Shadow entered some details into it. It came up with the location of what he was looking for. Acknowledging this, he walked off towards the locker that was around the back, usually where more of the important objects had been sealed. Most of the lockers held evidence, such as wads of cash, Eggman's previous weapons of mass destruction, artifacts unrelated to Abbadonia, historical relics and so forth. There was the joke or rumor that was held that there were actual special containers bearing the protection of the Chaos Emeralds if GUN ever got held of any of the supposed seven."So you were looking for the Sphere I get that. Did you ever return back there later on?" Big Mama queried.Shadow browed. "No. I was on the ARK the entire time. I couldn't have gotten anywhere near the vault."Technically this was true. However, he held the knowledge close that in part he was responsible for the stealing of a super weapon capable of more devastation than Mr. Thorn's ruckus...brought by a particular purple Jester...
"Hello Shadow!" Said NiGHTS as they popped by him, floating about.

"It's you again..." Shadow grumbled as he walked through.

"Looking for something?" NiGHTS asked.

"Yes...and it's none of your concern." Shadow grouched.

NiGHTS floated in front of him, reversing as Shadow walked, and placed hands underneath their chin and rose elbows.

"No need to be offensive...it's that I forgot to mention something I should have told you before."

NiGHTS explained.

"Like what?" Said Shadow, trying to focus on the self-appointed mission at hand.

"I know about the two human children. However, they do not belong here."

Shadow rose an eyebrow. "Mjöllnir already informed me of them. It's transpired to the point that those sources of yours are doing a good job."

NiGHTS grinned and twirled around. "I know they're brilliant! Never have I gotten such the pristine treasured minds of...actually, now that I think about it, the three sources have, ironically, three things in common."

Shadow chuckled. "I know...colour..type...age...but it's to be expected...according to Rouge."

NiGHTS frowned. "Yeah...about that..."
Big Mama gave looks to Shadow, who had his head down in deep thought. He'd stop speaking as Big Mama tapped her black pen on the table and demanded to know what was next. There was a glint in her eyes that desperately wanted more. Shadow just didn't budge.
NiGHTS had asked Shadow about the Sub Level 3 and what was inside. Shadow wasn't sure to tell the mysterious jester about it, but considering how much the purple clown-like creature had helped him so far, he might as well. They wandered over to the back left corner to a sealed door. Shadow typed in a few codes, received a retina scan before the door itself swung open. Wandering inside, they found themselves on a railing platform, overlooking a very deep pole, with a creature standing there, staring them in the face.

"Looks like something of yours?" Shadow joked.

NiGHTS head shook. "No! Of course not! Just because we're both purple!"

Shadow moved over to the podium in the middle, as they were on one side of the railings, the creature on the other, it's large head and entire body stationary.

"There's another on the right. It's red." Shadow explained.

NiGHTS nodded. "I see. Well, I'm gathering this one is the boys."

Shadow looked at NiGHTS strangely. "What makes you say that?"

NiGHTS thumbed their lip and flew over to feel the spike pushing out of its head, remarking it's unusual stature. Flying around it, there was a need to identify it as such.

"Does it have a name?" NiGHTS wondered.

"It's got a designated code number...like everything does down here." Shadow confirmed.

NiGHTS nodded. The jesters head rubbed against this one, trying to make sense of it, before their eyes widened.

"It's alive!" NiGHTS yelped as they jumped back in surprise.

Shadow browed. "It's alive?"

NiGHTS. "Yes I'm sure of it! This creature...this...what ever it is...it's living..."

Shadow was tempted to look into it more, as he delved into the datapad on the podium, bring up holographic projections, a blue print of sorts that he spun around.

"They haven't done anything with it yet. The initial scan was never completed." Shadow read out.

NiGHTS rested hands on it's head, trying to get something from it.

"There are dream waves emitting from it..." NiGHTS commented, as he expresses the weirdness about it.

Shadow rose an eyebrow. "What the hell does that mean?" Said Shadow, as went around the rails to the side of the creature shoulder fin.

NiGHTS floated far from it again. "It means...it's dreaming!"

Shadow stood back. "What? You're saying it's not a robot?"

NiGHTS gulped. "Robots don't have dream waves! There are exceptions but for something this size it's impossible."
"So you violated protocol and went into the OSC-1 (Over-Sized Chamber 1) without permission from me?" Big Mama queried. "What happened to obtaining the Sphere?""I'll get to that." Said Shadow. "I was drawn to...some mystical Chaos Energies that I had to go investigate."Big Mama's eyelids lowered. "Yes...and next thing you're going to tell me is a magical jester forced you to chase it." She said in a monotone voice.Shadow smirked. "Why of course. I would never lie to you Supreme Commander." He said sarcastically.
"So what do you want me to do about it?" Shadow demanded to knows.

NiGHTS just looked at it. "So...it was one of the things found in the debris of MeteoTech?"

Shadow nodded. "Yeah...apparently. I wasn't overlooking when they dug it out. According to statements made by the Femme Fatalex, Morpheus was attempting to take them."

NiGHTS blinked, crossed arms and legs. "Wouldn't surprise me. Morpheus is currently a massive threat to the Dream World. Illumina explicitly stated, however, that we shouldn't kill him yet."

Shadow didn't want to divulge into what ever NiGHTS master wanted or needed. He didn't really care for the misunderstandings of unscrupulous things of such petty value. He knew what was going on here.

"Arrest him if you must...but his death will mean dramatic changes if we're not careful."

Shadow walked away. "Hm...fine. So you still want me to go to the ARK then?"

NiGHTS nodded and floated over to Shadow. "Yes yes! The event at the Enchanted Forest is...according to the Dream Waves, is going to partially...damaging."

Shadow brushed it off. "So...tell me what needs to be done..."
"So you'd gotten the Sphere...then what?" Said Big Mama.Shadow tugged at his gloves. "I'd returned to my office...where I'd carefully constructed a new portal to the ARK."Big Mama nodded with amusement. "It astounds me how you managed to secretly have a functioning warp gate entirely in your office..."Shadow chuckled. "I took some liberty in the space behind the office, mind you."Big Mama rolled her eyes. "Oh I forgot...HQ has a lot of hidden spaces just dying to be discovered..."Shadow furthered explained that after getting the Sphere, he'd gotten Rouge, Omega and Neptune with him, and explained the process as followed by his instructions. They'd arrived at the ARK, addressed the beacon, met some AI, lost Omega..."Artillery Agent Omega...yes...blasted by an AI. How cromulent." Big Mama said.Shadow brushed it off. "He's fine now. We found him eventually...just not in the way we expected..."Big Mama inhaled. "I know he is...he's in recovery still..."
After meeting up with Maria, who explained to them about the Pyres needed to ensure her fluid motion into the ARKINTRA Zone, Rouge and Neptune had already activated their corresponding Server Pyres, with Shadow eventually finding the third. They'd gotten together again, whilst Maria created a portal, which allowed the three to enter the zone itself and find Omega...

Shadow lead the into the cyberfuturistic, glowing and holographic mainframe, searching the scouring recycle bin for their robotic associate. Bits and pieces of junk data lay scattered everywhere, unable to be used or identified without Marias permission. She fizzled in next to them, leading them around the infested place. She made the warning about rogue data as well, as most with either unstable or corrupted. A single touch or if you've foolishly decided to mess with them meant...well, something unmentionable at this point. Knowing Team Dark, they didn't really care. They could look after themselves.

As they wandered, they came across a large pile of random junk data in the form of scrunched white pieces of paper, grabbing Maria's attention in the meanwhile. Using her AI powers, she sorted the junk into a lined grid, each with named text underneath. Her finger pointed to each one, which blew up in size, displaying it more clearly, especially the text. She sorted through them all, and became disappointed when she couldn't find what she was looking for. Moving on, they continued in their rescue of Omega.
"So this Artificial Intelligence..." Big Mama started as she rubbed her chin. "How come no one knew it was on the ARK in the first place?"Shadow looked away. "Maria never told anybody about it. It was her secret project, supposedly. To be honest I didn't know much about it either."
Coming across an open space, there were many, many more piles of junk data. Maria screened them into their grids and analyzed each one. It took her a while, but one of the files took her interest. She had to confirm that it was actually him to begin with. She muttered a few words here and there, before jumping back as a blast nearly hit her.

Shadow snapped his head to the direction of the blast, and jumped in to defend Maria. Before them, a Wolf creature brought Neptunes attention as dabbled his fingerclaws. She had spiky head fur, a long fluffy tail, not to mention wearing a sleeveless pink top, bearing the midrif, navy skirt and pink and navy shoes, her fur gray and white in mixture. Neptune never forgot her. Rouge flew in front as well as Neptune jumped in front of her.

"Neptune get out of the way!" Ordered Shadow. Neptune shook his head.

Shadow facepalmed. "Don't make me shoot you...you know I will."

"Man are all hedgehogs as angsty as this? Dear Chaos they're all the same!" Said the wolf.

"How about we trust your dog for the moment and let me explain myself."
Big Mama rubbed her chin with her finger, curious as to find out who this wolf was and why Neptune was protecting her."I never really knew why he was doing it himself, but it managed to find a decent discussion between us and the wolf's actions." Shadow explained.Big Mama inhaled her cigarette. "So what was the wolf's name?"
"I'm Glitch the Hacker." Said the Wolf. "Guardian of the Cyber Emeralds and the Giga Emerald."

Maria's eyes widened at that name. "Wait, you're not..."

"Save the petty talk and explaining...I'm going to get what I came for! I don't have time for a angsty hedgehog, a bitchy bat, a mute dog and a useless program!" Glitch boasted.

Maria was taken aback, but Shadow wasn't having any of it.

"What are you after anyway?" Rouge butted in, the sound of more emeralds appealing to her.

Glitch tapped her foot. "None of your business! I'm on strict orders here and I prefer to do my job quietly...I hate handling other people..."

She moved forward, only to be blocked by Shadow.

"Idiot! You think I care for your futile efforts? Stupid Hedgehog!" Glitch blasted.

Rouge grew...a bit annoyed.

"Hey don't you dare talk to him like that! He's a Commander and can arrest you for attempted murder!" Rouge called out.

Glitch rose an eyebrow. "I doubt programs like her are valuable...I can appreciate the fact you can see her a living being other than just something you can upload and download and be treated like trash...but otherwise she's still useless! Now out of my way!"

Neptune slashed her down, knocking her back against the wall, much to the other surprise. But Glitch got back up and dusted herself down.

"Haha ELL OH ELL. You make me laugh dog. Despite the fact YOU before tried to protect me...now you see me as the enemy. You might not be as stupid as I thought..." She commented.

Shadow brought out his blaster, as did Rouge. "You can leave now...and we won't have to delete you." The Bat threatened.

"Oh wow...batty...you can talk..." Glitch sneered. She rose her hand and pressed a button, leading a horde of Shadow look-a-alikes that they had recognised from before, making Shadow very pissed off at the realisation of who killed Omega...

Glitch jumped up as Shadow, Rouge and Neptune fought the Glitch-controlled Shadow clones, blasting and weaving about as Maria had found the file she was looking for, grasping it in her hands. Glitch pulled her blaster at the AI, who froze out of fear.

"Come on little girl...I understand who you are and who you're related to..." Glitch said, her voice eerily soft and faked kindness.

Maria shook her head as she held the now golden glowing file close to her chest.

"No! I can't! This is their robot friend! Surely you don't want to seperate them!" Maria cried.

Glitch sighed. "So stupid and naïve...my programming is way better than yours replica. I bet the real Maria would be ashamed."

Maria frowned. "I understand who you are. You're Professor Rosewires granddaughter...aren't you?"

Glitch rolled her eyes. "Yeah so? So my granddaddy was the inventor of the famous theorim. In fact, that makes me twice as great as I am two down from that glorious lineage. I doubt you could get that good in programming."

Maria looked, down, sad. "That was...never my intention. I wanted to help people...that's all...and see Shadow again!"

Glitch checked her blaster. "Pathetic...simply stupid and pathetic. If I were you, I'd give me the file. That way, no more of your precious system is damaged...if not, I'll release a virus...wiping everything inside."

"SHUT UP!"

WHACK!

Rouge had done her famous drill kick into Glitch's face, knocking her senseless as she lay over. Maria didn't smile, but gasped at the violence before her. She didn't know what to do. She'd hadn't been activated for long and already she was subjected to the violence she didn't want to see. How could she make it stop?
"So what did the AI do next?" Asked Big Mama.Shadow twiddled his thumbs. "Maria is a pacifist by nature from what I can remember. She hated fighting. At this point we had no idea how much of her original personality was copied into the AI itself. We still don't know at the moment. But she took advantage over the fact that this was her Zone...and she had the ability to manipulate any way she wished...including non-lethal solutions...however...it was something she never expected herself."
Glitch and Rouge fought one another whilst Shadow and Neptune dealt with the Glitch-Controlled Shadows, Maria held Omega's file very close. It reminded her of Shadow as she delved into the file itself. The heart of the data was...fascinating. It too had personality and promise. It was developed by her cousin so it felt like family. She could see the streams, the amount of bytes that it took up. She wished she could see her beloved cousin again...wondered if he ever had kids...grand kids. It would have been lovely to see him live a full life, after knowing he wanted to aspire to be like their grandfather. Only if her friend didn't seem to dislike Ivo...she dearly wished they could have all gotten along nicely.

But for now...all she could do was prevent more senseless destruction brought on by misunderstandings. She prayed to Omegas file, unconsciously calling forth his recycle, transforming the light into an able-bodied form. It sparkled in Glitch's eyes as she dodged Rouge again, running straightforward into the still-forming Omega and jumping into it. Rouge flew over, pulling Maria out of the way as it grew larger than Omega's normal mass, lengthening, seeing that as the glow faded, that Omega had transformed into a serpentine form with crawling centipede legs that seemed to cling on what ever was near as it floated in the air, the torso multiplying into many segments. It's face, having the eyes of Omega, but it's jaws were as like a robotic wolves, forcing Shadow and Neptune to jump out of the way as it charged at the them.

Maria profusely apologized to Rouge as the latter carried her into the air, Shadow and Neptune weaving and dodging a bit of rolling involved. Shadow wanted to shoot, but knowing Omega was in there, he hesitated.

Rouge was bit unnerved as Maria started getting teary eyed.

"I need to do something! It's my fault!" Said Maria.

"It's not...I understand you were trying to bring Omega back and you did. We just didn't expect this!"
They continued dodged, Neptune attempting to swipe a few times but kept missing as Glitch-Omega dug themselves underground. Maria closed her eyes, muttering something to herself at such a fast pace Rouge had no idea what she was saying. Suddenly a giant box grid surrounded them all, the boxes inside the grides turning white, leaving Rouge stunned for words."Huh...seems awfully clever for a pacifist even in that kind of situation." Big Mama reiterated."So from what you witnessed...Rouge...you said you could see the AI clasping her hands together as if in prayer, then says a series of codes that even you yourself couldn't understand and forged this...box?"Rouge sat behind the desk with her feet up on the table, leaning back."I know computers but I'm not as as good as the code masters like Maria or the bitch. I never had much experience with AI's but I had to admit she was good."
Maria jumped out of Rouge's arms, floating inside the grid box with an angry look on her face. The Glitch Omega kept bumping into the sides, then stared Maria down.

"No...I order you all to stop this! Please! I'm begging you...can't we just talk?"

Surprisingly, it did work, much to both Shadow's and Glitch's reluctance. Glitch jumped out of Omega's body and let him get back to his normal self, much to Shadow's relief and Rouge's happiness that he was back to them. He complained about being a violated.

"Meh...you're weren't the greatest anyway." Glitch cooed.

Maria summoned a table and some chairs and allowed them to at least cooperate. It was a good point, considering this was Maria's homeground. Glitch fiddled with a phone frequently, before whipping back into her skirtpocket.

"So...Glitch the Hacker..." Said Shadow as he paced around.

"What were you planning to do with Omega in that form?"

Glitch slicked her hair back. "That's classified."

Maria stared her down. "You weren't going to using him for evil purposes were you?" She asked.

Glitch twitched her nose. "Depends on the type of evil you're talking about. My employer...as I'll call them, needed me to get something as a weapon for an event that's occurring tonight."

Shadow and Rouge looked at each other. "That wouldn't happen to be at the Enchanted Forest Zone would it?"

Glitch rose an eyebrow. "What's it to you?" She snarled.

Rouge frowned. "We both know what's going to happen. What does your employer get from it?"

Glitch cleaned her ear with her pinky. "Ehh...something about stopping some whiny hedgehog from killing herself...I dunno I didn't get the whole story. All I know is that I needed to collect something..."
"How does that work?" Big Mama wondered, rubbing her chin."What's that?" Said Shadow.Big Mama had gotten off her chair and walked around."You said you detected a beacon from the ARK which had been going for sometime. In accordance to the stories, Maria had slowly been building herself in the course of fifty years or so. Now...Glitch was told that she needed get something from the ARK itself. How could have Glitch known there was something on it in the first place, when you guys had only gotten there a few hours ago?"Shadow nodded. "Glitch was suspicious in herself. She claimed she was in it for the money, but I figure, she's the guardian of cyber spaces version of the Chaos Emeralds. Why would she care about money?"Big Mama inhaled her cigarette. "You prove a good point there yourself. Continue..."Shadow kept his doubt within, but let it slide for now, since she had stopped shooting them. His mind called himself on it, but he ignored it."Let's make a deal then shall we?" Said Rouge.Glitch tilted her head, curious. "A deal eh? I'm up."Rouge nodded. "You help us activate Maria's Server Pyres...and we'll let you borrow Omega for the time being."Glitch grinned, giving a thumbs up. "Deal...""How did that go?" Big Mama questioned. Although she may have understood some part of it."Pretty well actually." Said Rouge."Glitch was a massive help in finding the rest of the Pyres. In fact, she did it in a quarter of the time it took us to find one. I guess she really is a fantastic Cyber Wolf."Big Mama browed. "Cyber Wolf?"Rouge played with her hair. "She's insistent...I wouldn't bother..."
They couldn't thank Glitch enough for finding all the Pyres...Now Maria had complete control of the ARK. The AI felt fantastic and free to and use the ARKs facilities at her leisure.

However it was hard for Shadow to part with Omega, considering all the hard work they had done was to get him back. Glitch had assured that Omega would come out unharmed and he would be returned as soon as she was done with him. For a barking bitch, according to Rouge, she wasn't half bad, Rouge having the notion that she was either always like that, or something had occurred. She appeared forced to do this and jumped at the chance at borrowing Omega for a while. Still, it was a bout of confusion that had to be dealt with for another day.

Shadow approached Omega and assured him that Glitch would take care of him. Omega himself, disputed that, saying HE will take care of HER if Shadow desired. Shadow smirked, mentioning some other time. Omega, wasn't an emotional person, only overtly expressing his anger and rage at Eggman robots. But he'd grown over the years after hanging out with Shadow and Rouge, mainly due to the fact the latter had exclusively criticized him for having a one track mind. In fact, she posed him a challenge and a thought for the ages at that, even if he did destroy Eggman and all his robots, what would he do? All robots needed a purpose or risk being destroyed, hence the recruitment into GUN in the first place. Purpose...so it seemed, ran a robots choice of existence.

Shadow shook his hand as they saluted each other, Rouge coming in as well, shaking his hand too then saluting the Artillery Agent. Glitch, in her own way, thanked the two for their help, and took Omega with her through her own portal and disappeared.

Maria created a portal for them, and let them out in the main room, overlooking the Earth. Shadow contemplated many times, but wanted to know...would it be all worthwhile in the end?
Big Mama let them have a five minute break for now, letting them wander around the lounge for a while. They weren't suspects, as it was a just a review into what happened. Shadow and Rouge were shady characters but weren't completely trustworthy either. But they were loyal to their world. Rouge grabbed a can of solo from the fridge and sat down at the table reading a magazine. Shadow came in soon after, snatching a can of coke and sitting down on the couch, just staring at nothing. More silence."So...when are you going to get that abortion?" Asked Shadow, catching Rouge by surprise."Uh...well..." Said Rouge, who almost choked on her drink.Shadow turned around, putting his arms on the back of the couch."You said it wasn't going to be worth it. Do you want a child in a place where Eggman's gonna be a massive dictator? At least...I don't think kids should be placed in that kind of scenario. Not at least until they're a certain age."Rouge looked away. "Like I said, if it happens it happens...if it doesn't then fine..."Shadow could see the woeful expression on his sisters face. "Rouge...""I said it's fine!" She snapped as she left the room. Shadow sank back into the couch, drinking the rest of his coke. He'd honestly had no idea and hoped Amy could rectify the situation...Rouge ran to the bathroom and washed her face, looking at herself in the eyes. She bore the feel and breath of an expectant. Whether she wanted to know or not, she would have to bare the guilt of what she had done. Bits and pieces from that night lingered on, the way Knuckles touched her, felt her...it was...different from the other guys she'd met before. Usually, these were hook ups...they would just be pleasure and tension outlets for them all...out for a good time as a social one does on weekends. She didn't mind, she didn't care. She owned her clubs and could do as pretty much as she pleases. But this was different. She was not herself. Ever since these attacks occurred she'd struggle to manage her franchise, her image. She'd make the phone calls however, and wouldn't make the attempt to head down there anymore...all because of one dumb red echidna...But why was Knuckles different despite the pair of them off their faces? Rouge's eyes lit up as she realised it'd been his first time. As the memories came swarming back, she remembered, that despite the fact she was the one in control, Knuckles was drunkenly adamant that he'd give it a go himself...messily saying he was a virgin. In actuality, it didn't seem as funny as it sounded. It made more sense than she'd initially gave ten cents to. He'd been on the damn island for majority of his life...of course he would be. He said he wanted to do it right, and with her...only her.She became teary when he worded out that to her...knowing that the tension between them both was..noted to her. But she doubted he would even think that if he was sober...the truth slipping out from the bottleneck. But now...he wouldn't dare think it anyway, forever ignorant of reality and steeping into his own, forever to honor his pledge. His first time was...gentle...caressing. They weren't fucking, to put it bluntly...They were making love...For all their arguing, their disputes and what not, Rouge had this...tiny smidge of affection for him since the original ARK Crisis all that time ago. She'd let him feel around her, and he was so careful, as he feared he might hurt her, but with her out her mind behaviour she comforted him with words to keep doing what he was doing because it felt wonderful. He was sensuous, pressing his lips against hers, their warmth tender. So cliché but it didn't matter to her. He dared to do what most didn't. He held her tight after their event had finished, despite the mad giggling between the pair, as they passed out into the night.That morning she'd heard him scream and run out of the hut they were in, waking her sometime after and realizing what she had done and cursed herself for letting him do this to her. It was irresponsible of her...and she was hurt by his runner. A small bout of hatred grew for him as she vowed to kick his ass afterwards. And after that day she found out she was pregnant, she was devastated. How could of Knuckles been so idiotic as to forget simple protection? She'd always take her pills beforehand and check with her partners as well...but perhaps that night was partly her fault for not checking. The probability of that occurring increased because of her tipsy mind. She heard footsteps rock up inside, seeing who it was through the mirror."Oh, Agent Mjöllnir! What a surprise!" Rouge said unconvincingly."Spare me Rouge..." Said Olly as she stood there, taking her helmet off.Rouge nodded, her face straightening itself out. "I see. How's Sonic?"Amy looked Rouge in the eyes, seeing Rouge's discomfort behind her facade."He's...alright I guess. I had a talk with him...it was nice."Rouge rose an eyebrow. "Despite the fact he's been cryogenically frozen for the past week?"Amy smiled, creeping Rouge out slightly. "I like to think he can hear me. Besides, it does sooth the soul slightly."Rouge nodded. "Uh huh..." She said, turning back to the mirror, taking a deep breath."Pregnancy troubles again I see." Said Amy.Rouge tucked her chin into her chest. "Yeah...I had...enlightening conversation on the ARK with Maria the other day."Amy tilted her head. "Yeah? What about?"
Earlier that week, Rouge was overseeing GUN personnel investigations that were underway. She was wary of the way they handled things, despite them supposedly done with the place for years. Maria fizzled beside her, deciding to join the bat in a half-hearted glow. Maria didn't mind them, it just meant more company. Such the optimist, she was, within her own clarity and self-calm that Rouge believed was part of her programming. She sighed.

"You seem depressed." Said Maria.

Rouge blinked. "Oh...how'd you guess?" She said sarcastically.

Maria smiled. "You should be happy."

Rouge crossed her arms. "Why?"

Maria placed her hands behind her back. "You're alive. And life is wonderful."

Rouge rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah...living life is great...if I had enough jewels..." She said, murmuring that last sentence.

Maria giggled. "You know, I was so happy when my cousin was brought into the world! It made me appreciate the beauty even more...what our grandfather transpired to govern..."

She turned to the window, overlooking the Earth, Rouge followed, leaning on the rails.

"When Ivo was born, my father allowed my uncle to bring his whole family up here. It amazed me how much GUN Space ships had developed over the years...allowing the connection from here to the Earth to be much more closer. But...I couldn't of course...but...seeing little Ivo made me feel great. I remember holding him in my arms and...was sad because I wasn't going to live long enough to have a child myself. It didn't matter. Ivo was still family...so having him was the best substitute...even though I was like, four at the time. I'd developed my disease at an early age so I can barely remember what Earth looks like up close. It's been so long."

Her words skimmed along Rouge's sour heart, guilt riddling in her stomach. She looked at her stomach before looking at her arms, mimicking holding a child.

"Do you have any children Agent Rouge?" Asked a smiling Maria.

Rouge blushed. "Uhhh...no...I don't think I want kids." She replied.

"Why not?" Said Maria. She was such a child, brimming with innocence. Rouge just shrugged.

"They're smelly...cost a lot of money to look after...and are just darn annoying in general with their high pitched squeals."

Maria chuckled. "Oh come on...I know they're going to be some bad things about motherhood. I know...my mother was devastated when she heard the news about my illness...I miss her so much..."

Rouge looked at Maria. She'd survived fifty plus years of inactive loneliness and she wasn't even organic. She would never age, she would never have her first love, her first kiss...alone and trapped above the world she loved so dearly. More guilt hit her like a sack of bricks.

"We would do anything for our children because they are our future. In many years time most become doctors, lawyers. Or in your case, heroes. I'd want my kids to become heroes if they could."

Maria said. Rouge had this feeling that if Maria had the ability to cry she would. Being a hologram was extremely limited.

"Even if I had a kid." Rouge berated. "I wanna still work for GUN...I can't let kids stop me from doing what I love."

Maria chuckled. "You'd have the father become the housewife then...?"

Rouge lifted her head. She couldn't imagine Knuckles being the perfect father.

"I'd say, when looking for a husband, make sure he's loyal...trustworthy and has a passion...that way he can look after the kids."

Rouge shook her head. "Maria...it's been...what, so many years? Value's change and women are a lot more independent then back in your day. We don't depend on husbands but our confidence and value."

Maria browed. "I...don't understand..."

Rouge sighed. "It's okay. I'm just trying to say I don't need a husband...or kids..."
Amy stood next to Rouge, resting her hand on her shoulder."Yes or no?" Said Amy.Rouge held her head. "I still don't know! I...I don't know...her words...her story...they were...bah this isn't me!"Amy looked away. "They do say your hormones go weird when you're pregnant..." She stated.Rouge looked at the basin and broke it with her foot, surprising Amy."A kid will ruin my life! I don't want it! And yet..."Amy kept to herself, but just stared at her. "You're saying Maria convinced you to have this kid because she's not able to? Or what?"Rouge grumbled, her face going red. "There are so many positives in getting rid of it...but something still holds me back from doing so."Amy tilted her head. "Knuckles?"Rouge glared at Amy. "No..." She said angrily.Amy smiled. "You keep telling yourself that...by the way, have you told him yet?"Rouge smashed another basin with her foot. "NO!" She screamed. Amy raised her arms in a passive motion with open palms."Woah easy there Rouge...take a chill pill!" She suggested.Rouge took a deep breath as she slid down the wall. "I better head back to the interrogation room...when is she seeing you?"Amy looked away. "Soon...after you and Shadow."Rouge nodded. "Hmm...expecting a scorn are we?"Amy glanced on, checking herself in the mirror. "More than that..." She said, picking Rouge up from off the floor. Rouge gave herself a little bit more of a prominence than expected. Dusting herself down, she thanked Amy for the talk before heading back to the interrogation room. Amy did what she had to do in the bathroom, then headed back to the chryo chambers...The chryo chambers were on the seventh floor of the complex. As noted, the entire chamber was cold, dreary and brimming with gases to ensure the imprisoned were sealed. Rows of chryo pods lay on a diagonal angle in a long area, the length astounded as you entered. There was a blue hue that surrounded it, wires and pipes everywhere, more doors to seek more pods, the metal floors clanking underneath Amy's boots. She came across a sliding automatic metal door and had to put her eye against the scanner as it identified her on the screen with body schematics and profile picture. Entering into this room was where more of the serious and deadly creatures were held, specifically Sonic. His pod was more like a tube, frozen in the water, his fur still navy, no wings, his head down as his body was in the fetal position, arms crossed and hands pressed against his chest The room was more round and surrounded with security ice weaponry, spikes ready to shoot out at any sign of escape. The ramps that surrounded the tall pipe at the half way mark, as they were more crucial security additions underneath the metal path sheets, a surrounding bridge of sorts with fence rails. Like most of the areas here, it was gloomy, dimly let and very cold with a constant cold gas emitting from the pipes above. Behind the tube held a computer terminal having multiple screens that displayed Sonic's stats, his current state and constant updated readings. As she walked in to the room, there was a platform leading to the tube that branched off the ramps, a simple path that floated there in front of Sonic. She would sit at the end with her legs dangled, placing her helmet beside her and putting her hands in her lap. There were faint beeps in the background going off every so often, but Amy didn't seem to care.He was frozen solid but he at least he was still alive. The practicality of it all was to prevent further disaster. She wanted to help him so badly, to help and get rid of those random bursts. What had happened between him and Morpheus was not the start of it, she suspected. Sonic wouldn't bow down to such pressure regardless, his wits usually finding the way to escape prominent tragedy. Her one sided conversation gave her some comfort and as she had told Rouge before Amy would like to believe that Sonic could hear her words. There was some guilt into not telling Sonic who she was, a warrior in the ranks with an overbearing mother."Truth be told Sonic...mother was never the same after dad died." She said."But if what Muriel told me was true...then I don't think I can stare her in the eye anymore."Immobile...but she would wonder if there was a slight whisper bringing evidence of his consciousness. It was true though. It riddled in her thoughts if her mother had really somehow killed Amy's father. She lifted her head up, knowing her sister was still around. She told Sonic she would be back, and fled off.She stormed the sick bays around the complex, before seeing Asher tending to random GUN Personnel."And remember...stop playing with the rubbers and it won't happen again." Said Asher.The employee nodded, before walking off. Amy headed inside and closed the door, taking off her helmet. Asher sighed and took a sip of her coffee."Heard mom was going to give you a snippet. You seen her yet?" Asher asked.Amy shook her head. "No...I'm not looking forward to it either."Asher nodded, placing her Styrofoam cup on the bench. Asher knew Amy's identity, and knew how harsh her relationship with their mother was and decided to be the better older sister and assist her. Though the real reason why Asher was there was because Asmos ordered her to. Asher wasn't married herself...not anymore, but was well versed in the study in dealing with pregnancy and childbirth. They didn't argue much, rather Asher had taken care of Amy when their father died. Their other siblings however, well looked after, notably between Amy and Asher they knew that they couldn't stand their mother and left immediately afterwards. Amy was the unfavourite due to her idolization of one Sonic the Hedgehog during the original incident with Dr. Eggman. Asher questioned whether she regretted running away after a short outburst with their mother. Amy smiled and said never, or else she wouldn't have met Sonic at all. But then she frowned again, remembering her father."Asher..." Said Amy. "Do you remember mum telling us how dad died..."Asher nodded. "Yes...she said he had cancer...but that wasn't what killed him, she said he died in battle for GUN."Amy's nose twitched. "She lied to us." She said with an eerie tension filled calmness. This brought Asher's attention."Oh? What have you heard?" Asher asked, curious. Albeit always going to unsure of it, knowing her nature.Amy sighed. "I had word with gran...I couldn't work it out properly what she told me, but I gathered from what she was trying to say...""AMY!" Yelled Shadow as he opened the door, scaring poor Asher who knocked her coffee all over herself, prompting a facepalm from both Shadow and Amy."Uhh...hey Commander Shadow. Don't worry! I'll get this cleaned up!" She said nervously.Shadow ignored her, staring at Amy. "The Supreme Commander wants you now."Amy nodded. "Alright, I'll be there in a minute." She confirmed. Shadow nodded and left the scene.Amy turned back to Asher who was busy cleaning herself with a multitude of tissues."Umm...I'm going to busy now...how about dinner tonight at the Proudman restaurant? I'll invite Aceste and Andrew along."Amy smiled. "That would be nice...text me the time later okay?"Asher was a nice sister. However she forgot that she'd divorced from her pyromaniac husband, who seemed to love lighting things up for no reason, especially when he blew up her favourite chair out of love. But admittedly she was a bit of a klutz at times, and usually stammered when stressed out. It wasn't her fault, she shouldn't even be here. She should be at a womens hospital helping deliver babies and aiding mothers. Instead her mother used her doctor expertise here, stuck in this dredging place. Aceste was the older Rose who studied media and Andrew was the bricklayer with one child. However in this day and age he began reading up on more serious building construction for the big bucks. Aceste was the weird one though. She'd use to call up their mother a lot every Friday for a lovely chat, but recently was unable to do so for some strange reason. Possibly devoured in her studies perhaps. Asmos was far from concerned as she became increasingly agitated with her work. Not that it mattered...she'd been like that since their father died.Amy remembered those days, arguing as a child, the screaming and shouting. Asmos remarried, then divorced seven months after Amy had run away, becoming a member of Sonic's crew. They never saw each other again until that day Rouge recruited her. Amy pretended to be a different person, saying she wanted to do more with her life. Asmos insisted that she become a technician, but Amy hardly had any knowledge of that and decided swiftly that she be an Agent like her father had been. Asmos didn't approve due to Amy's lack of focus. Desperate, Amy said she would do anything to become an Agent. Asmos started slipping the pills into her palms and suddenly she became extremely different. She started falling out of that infatuation with Sonic and realized that this was part of the recruiting application. Asmos planned this all along in order to bring her family under her heel like a bunch of loyal soldiers. Amy didn't mind, it allowed her to see what possessive behaviour she attained and how disappointed she was of herself and her Sonic-chasing ways. She'd hooked with Shadow due to Rouge's insistence, as long as it wasn't under the banner of her heroism. Becoming a group, the Femme Fatalex, Asmos grew close to Amy's new persona, treating her more fairly than her normal self. But at least she got respect.Walking into the interrogation room wasn't hard. Amy was confident and knew exactly what she had to say. Sitting up straight in the chair, she let the stories off her tongue as Big Mama absorbed the information, politely nodding along the way. Big Mama didn't seem angry with this, but actually seemed a bit...okay with it, putting Amy off slightly. Her mother was literally insane but in this case...she realized she was rimming with rage on the inside, ever toiling at her. Big Mama nodded repeatedly, before letting Amy go, confusing her completely. She was wondering what was going to happen if it all came crumbling down within.She got the text from Asher saying the time was at seven o'clock. Nodding, she headed off back home, hiding out with Shadow who'd been sitting down and watching TV."Hey you should come with us." Said Amy.Shadow barely budged, his arm slung over the couch as he lazily grunted."Where're we going?" Shadow asked.Amy smiled. "We're going to Proudmans. Asher's invited the family and I think you should come meet them."Shadow rolled his eyes. "I don't do well at social functions."Amy got changed into a cute not too formal black dress with black stockings and high heels, alongside a simple cardigan and large silver sleepers in her ears."It won't be that bad. We'll eat...I'll do most of the talking and if they ask you something, you can answer them to the best of your ability. They'll understand."Shadow's cheek twitched. "Your mothers not coming is she?"Amy shook her head. "No of course not."Shadow reluctantly pressed the off button with remote and dragged himself off the couch. He'd had a buggery of a day being hassled by Big Mama as have most. She forced him to wear a nice white shirt and black pants, before the left for Proudmans...The restaurant was classy enough, entering through the double glass door into a spectacular golden square block theme, with simple waterfalls falling from the glass dome up top, where trees were gathered. Most of it was also blocky beige marble, giving a rather clean smooth look to the place, as it was well lit, but not too bright, with a humble piano softly playing in the background, setting the mood. They met with a waiter, their arms hooked together. The waiter was a human, blond haired male wearing a black tux. Amy mentioned Rose as the waiter lead them both to a long table, with Asher wearing a gray loose sparkling singlet, black tights and burgundy slip on shoes, as well as layers of silver necklaces of many varieties, many bangles and drop garnet earrings, her quills tied up high on her head, wear burgundy eyeshadow. She got up off the chair and kissed Amy on the cheek and hugged her, then shook hands with Shadow and nodded to one another. The table was round and wooden, the chairs a simple block with a back. They chatted amongst themselves, seeing their brother Andrew arrive. The way his head fur was settled was more like Sonic's in a way, but smaller, wearing a white shirt with a grey jacket, black pants and leather shoes. His wife, Anise, was cute, her head fur much longer and curled slightly, wearing admin clothes, stating she'd only just got home from work, in her black jacket, white button shirt, tight short skirt, stockings and black high heels. They explained their son was with a babysitter for the night. After a while, they waited for the final sibling to arrive. Aceste.She soon came in, looking aloof and quite nervous, holding a hand with a human male, surprising the others, especially Amy. Aceste wore a tight emerald dress that rose above the knees, stockings and red high heels, wearing a necklace with a triangle red pendant. Her head fur was weirdly shaped, as the front bang seemed to arc to her nose, whilst the back quills curved around her ears on each side, wearing white clips to support them. Her...date...spiky brown red hair and wearing a simple get up of slacks, leather shoes, white collar shirt and hands in his pockets. Amy tried to pick where she'd seen him before."Aceste you made it!" Asher said with glee.Aceste smiled, bringing over her date, albeit blushing slightly. "Hello guys! I want you to meet my partner...I know it seems odd for a mobian and a human to be dating but if I ever hear any of you say anything..."Her partner rolled his eyes. "Ace it's fine...don't worry..."It wasn't forbidden to have Human/Mobian relationships, but in this day and age it was frowned upon by ignorant racists. There was, those of a group, dedicated to their fear of a mobian appraisal. But majority of people ignored them."I'm Aurion. Kratos Aurion." Said the man, his voice dreamy, reminding Amy of Cam Clarke.But also, peaking her interest of where she'd seen this man before. Shadow seemed to know him as well."I've seen your face around somewhere haven't I?" Shadow asked.Kratos chuckled. "Possibly. I know their mother to be the Supreme Commander of GUN."Shadow smirked. "Yeah she can be a real bitch some times."It was a humble evening, Shadow having a rare steak and wolfing it down, prompting Amy to warn him to slow down or else he'd get hiccups. Amy had gotten a small bit of fish with salad, and the rest with what ever they needed, having a friendly chat with one another. Andrew expressed interest with the city rebuilding efforts and Anise announcing she was pregnant with her second child, six months to be exact. Amy laughed, remembering Rouge's own pregnancy, but a nudge from Shadow suggested he didn't want her talking about it, knowing how much it hurts her to think about it. Nodding Amy teased Shadow about kids and so forth, forcing the black hedgehog to blush slightly. He and Kratos worded with one another, Shadow expressing his need to have a man to Hedgehog word with him, possibly involving Amy as well. Their discussion varied but a single sentence made Amy uncomfortable."So how's Sonic?" Asked Aceste.Amy smiled nervously. "He's okay...I guess as a running hedgehog goes."Kratos and Shadow exchanged looks, as did Asher, who knew the true answer, but didn't want to divulge with the other Rose siblings.Poor Sonic, stuck in a tube. They'd brought his unconscious body back to GUN where Big Mama deemed him too dangerous to live and brought out his execution papers, whereas Amy pleaded to her not to kill, but rather seal him until he could be fixed. Big Mama was skeptical about it, but nonetheless, after a meeting with Shadow went well, convincing her to allow him to stay and study his brainwaves. She hoped, with her previous meetings with NiGHTS that he could be helped, but the Jester hadn't been seen as of late, making her worry about him. In her heart, Sonic could be helped, but at what way was unknown. She made her visit to Bazza and explained everything. Vanilla announced she was going to retire for a while, tending to her family after bearing the guilt of being away from them for far too long periods. Amy was okay with that. However, during that week their suburb was attacked by Eggman and they were forced to flee to the ghetto parts of Metropolis. Amy forced the relocators and coordinators to make them live inside the Grand Metropolis Protection Sphere. Each day, the attacks wouldn't stop for anything, for Eggman was practically invincible at this point, attacking random cities. Amy guessed within six months, that nearly the entire world would be razed...The rest of the night got quieter, but at least Amy got up to date with her fellow siblings going ons and so forth, their lives normal but brimming with their own expectations. She did not harbour hatred due to their mother preferring to smother them instead of Amy's own dreams. Being the youngest might be harder than the usual stereotype of being spoiled. In fact, the oldest was Asher, then Andrew, then Aceste then Amy. Amy faked smiling as the thought of what their grandmother had told her put forward of what their mother had done. Was it the time to announce it? Or...she didn't know.After a lovely dinner and dessert, they said their goodbyes, with Asher having to return home and Andrew and Anise having to go back home themselves. Aceste and Kratos walked the hi-fi streets of Grand Metropolis, watching hovercars fly by. Amy and Aceste talked, while Shadow and Kratos trailed behind."You're Agent Strider aren't you?" Said Shadow.Kratos smiled. "Yeah...pretty much."Shadow nodded. "Hmph...you're laying low." He said sarcastically.Kratos looked at his partner from afar. "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."Shadow crossed his arms. "No comment."Kratos walked slower. "I need to be honest with you Commander."Shadow rose an eyebrow. "Why's that?"Kratos looked down. "I understand that is Agent Mjöllnir in front of us. I always knew the two of you were close...so I did the math."Shadow smirked. "That obvious huh?"Their discussion lead into the night, Shadow finding out crucial information surrounding the Enchanted Forest Incident. Eggman had been seen scouring and toiling in what was thought to be abandoned, but in fact Eggmanland was rebuilt, up and running, much to their surprise and horror. But it was much more demonic than it originally was, seeing ghastly robots and creatures crawling all over it, meaning Eggman was forming an army...a deadly army."From what source is this from?" Shadow wondered.Kratos looked on. "Personal infiltration...we will have to have this discussion another time."It was time for them to part ways as the girls wanted to head off home. Shadow hooked arms with Amy as they took off, waving goodbye to Aceste and Kratos."Shadow..." Said Amy as they walked towards their apartment."Hm?" Shadow grumbled."Was that?"Shadow nodded. "Don't worry, I'll tell you later."Shadow laid awake that night, staring at the roof. Amy was fast asleep, on her side, huddling her knee to her chest. He sensed something was wrong. They'd explained their encounters with Kratos...or Agent Strider. But had been acting different in the past week. She'd been gone for long hours of time if she wasn't inside the Chryo Chambers speaking with Sonic. He sat up, and headed into the kitchen.Grand Metropolis apartments were expensive, but with Big Mamas connections it wasn't hard. The kitchen was a clean white, post-modern with a mixture of sharp and smooth edges, silver kitchenware and kitchen electronics. He took a premade sandwich from the fridge and sat on the couch in his pajamas, looking at the moon dimming down on him.Amy meanwhile dreamed. She was content as she smiled and clutched to the doona. Her dreams were okay, and happy...She was on the Endless Field she desired and had this feeling to run. She wanted to run a lot for some reason, making her dwell in an environment she was keen to control and make for herself. Blue skies, lush grass, hills and out of nowhere obstacles offering her challenges. Mental training for her hyperactive mind. But she felt lonely in these fields. She figured Sonic's mind was locked away as well as his solid body. She could use a partner or a rival in running. Partly, as Sonic originally planned for her to take his place as the hero, she began thinking about it most of the time, as it literally ran through her head. To become what Sonic used to be. Amy knew, that she could never live up to the original but she could at least give it a whirl.But part of the problem was that she was tied down to GUN and most of the time she would be issued orders or wouldn't be able to do half the things Sonic would do due to rules and regulations. She needed to be unbound...free like the wind. Except she was snapped towards career aspirations. Eventually a choice had to be made whether she liked it or not.The next day she visited the Chryo Chambers for her daily chat to Sonic. To her surprise, she could see the brown haired boy before her, staring at the tube. She took off her helmet and sat next to him.He was...not afraid, more of in awe and shock."It's hard to believe he was once a great hero." He said.Amy glared at him. "He's still a great hero...just...on hiatus." She said angrily, then unenthusiastically.The boy tilted his head. "Do you think he'll ever get better?" He asked.Amy sighed. "One day. I assure you. Sonic the Hedgehog doesn't go down without a fight."The boy looked down. "I know...that day when I was in the...well...device..."Amy chuckled. "Yeah...I remember that."He started fidgeting with his fingers. He seemed nervous around people all the time, but all in all he was a genuinely good kid."I was being interviewed by Supreme Commander Rose...she was scary."Amy put her arm over his shoulders."Don't worry about her. She doesn't harm kids such as yourself."He buried his head into his legs. "I told her what happened after we'd parted with you guys..."
The boy was once again standing in front of the Fox God Shrine, trying to find it's meaning. The wind let the leaves of the bush, which had vines around the statue, making him wonder how Grandfather Prower manages it or even if he's tending it properly. It was calming, to say the least. His friend was still in a coma, he himself getting worried she may never wake up. He prayed for her health and safety to the God itself, to heal her and wake her and to ensure she stayed alive. He prayed pretty damn hard every day at sunset where the golden sun met the silver city of Steampunk.

Though the past time he'd been here had been extremely weird, he made well use of it, despite majority of surprises he'd encountered, the monsters he had heard and seen himself. He was half-expecting himself to go into shock or scream like he usually does. But...it was this reality he fit well into and didn't treat him like crap like his last one did. The wondering mind tread the path, picking up questions such as, was he really dead? Or was this all a dream and he was stuck up in that place with a ever decaying head.

He heard wings flap and a large gust of wind descend upon him. It was Sonic. Sonic just stared at the smothered statue and didn't say a word. His eyes narrowed as he withdrew his wings, frightning the boy a little.

"Oh hey..." He welcomed. "How are you today?"

Sonic didn't seem happy with the ever grouchyness in his demeanour.

"I need your help boy...you say you own that thing that was found in MeteoTech?"

The boy blinked. "I think I might. Why?"

Sonic's lip twitched. "I need your help..."

Sonic flew the boy, who held on as hard as he can as the demonic hedgehog soared through the amber skies, brimming through clouds at such a fast pace the boy feared he would fall off from sheer wind speeds. He descended on the GUN Tower in Grand Metropolis, dropping the boy off.

"What are you doing?" The boy asked.

Sonic looked at the door before them. "I'm going to make an entrance. I'm going to do what I was originally assigned to do. Distract."

The boy was confused. "Distract? Why?"

Sonic smirked. "You're going to get that giant robot that's why."

The boy shirked back. "What? You're insane!"

Sonic chuckled at that statement. "I know...can't help it."

He wasn't entirely sure about this as Sonic took out the GUN Guards guarding the upper door, swiftly and deadly as he whacked their heads with two drop kicks, taking their keycards and making the swipe. He hacked his arm into the system, lodging the keypads and successfully opening the door. He motioned to the boy to come over, who looked around in fear and quickly tiptoed to it.

Sonic lead the boy in the darkened areas of the complex. He shot down a flight of emergency stairs, saying he was going to let off the fire alarm. The boy gulped, as Sonic came back up, snatching his arm and miracalously survived flying through narrow corridors whilst whining that Big Mama's massive cutbacks are failing their security. Pushing through to the vaults, where the restricted were held, he brought the boy to the room, who gasped in amazement. Sonic gave him weird looks.

"What? You said this thing was yours...why do you look so surprised?" Sonic asked.

The boy blinked. "It's...just that...well..." He said nervously.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "We don't have time for this. I need you to get inside...but I have no idea how it works."

The boy gulped. "Um...well...there's a thing in the back that comes out. I don't know if there's fresh...umm...you know what? I'll handle it..."

Sonic watched as the boy walked around to the back of the giant robot thing. He looked at his gloves as he heard the boy squeal as he pinched himself, possibly for trying to squeeze into or something. He wished he'd hurry up so he could leave...he had something else to take care of.

DONK!

"Ow..." The boy cried.

Sonic sighed. "Come on I don't have time for this..."

"HANG ON I'M ALMOST THERE!" He yelled.

CLINK...CLINK...CLANG.

He finally done it.

"Now what..." Said the boy after giving a minute to activate and using the robots speaker system.

Sonic smirked. "Yeah...I'm giving Shadow the know how...he'll give you a call." He announced.
Amy rubbed her head. "So Shadow did play a part in the things release. Interesting." Said Amy.The boy nodded. "Yeah...Sonic promised me though not to mention certain things to Big Mama...especially about the part of contacting Shadow. Or even Shadow's name..."Amy nodded. "Uh huh...so you eventually met Glitch?"The boy nodded. "Uhhh yeah...Shadow eventually made the call to me, explaining the details. Sayin' something about giving a signal to punch out some dangerous demon...had no idea what it looked like but he said it was going to be quite vicious...possibly quite horrific looking...I don't know about you but I'd seen a lot weirder...I guess it made me immune after what happened to me."Amy wasn't going to ask, out of fear that she would bring out bad or repressed memories to the surface."You do realize that was Sonic?" Amy pointed out.The boy lowered his head in shame. "I do now..."Amy rolled his eyes. "Shadow told me Glitch hacked into your robots network."The boy nodded. "Yeah. Her image popped up on the screen while I was inside. She reminded me of my friend actually...made me feel right at home."Amy laughed. "That's interesting. So she was relaying orders from Shadow?"The boy looked at Sonic. "Yeah. Why wouldn't he talk to me himself?"Amy crossed her arms. "He didn't want to leave a trail for Big Mama to find...know her own paranoia at place. She really doesn't like Shadow at the moment.""Oh...okay..." He replied. "But...afterwards was...strange."
Echo Uniform One and Omega Glitch made their way towards the escapades, the darkened resonance of the imaginative room. He had been following the centipede serpent robot combo as they swam out into horde of GUN Soldiers. Glitch had seen Milo fighting it off with GUN Soldiers and grew angry, ordering Echo to stay back. She charged forward into the firefight and whacked a few soldiers away, but Big Mama miraculously dodged.

"Oh please...a bug like that can't be swatted by normal means...BRING IN THE BUG SPRAY!"

Big Mama yelled, her arm shooting up.

At command, the tank she stood on emitted a green gas towards the robots, affecting as both Echo and Omega Glitch stopped working and fell. Omega returned back to his original form, with Glitch plopping out, Milo calling out her name.

Getting up, Glitch stared down the barrel of Big Mama's silver glock.

"Deceptive Prick has a Bitch...silly little wolf." Big Mama taunted.

Glitch sighed. "Ugh...it's Cyber Wolf...not wolf..." She corrected.

Big Mama ignored her and had her lackeys arrest Glitch, and take Omega for repairs.
"Yeah she uses that gas often when Eggman's robots decide to intrude Grand Metropolis."Amy explained. "It's supposed to shut something off. I wouldn't know to be truthful on how it works."The boy shrugged. "It's okay. They had a hard time dragging the gigantic thing out of there."Amy looked up. "So...what is it exactly?"The boy smiled. "I've had it for a while. I'm inspired to say that I'm...bonded to it..." He said.Amy nodded. "Bonded...so...from what I heard only you can control it."He grinned. "Yeah...I used to have a problem with it...now I'm okay...now that I know...she's here."Amy gave him strange looks. "It's a she?"The boy's head fell. "Of course she is. I can say with you that I know her gender...Big Mama doesn't need to know."Amy laughed. "So you can keep secrets?"The boy shuffled about. "Your mother might be frightening, but that's nothing compared to what I had experienced previously."Amy rose an eyebrow. "The battle in the Giant Tree?" She theorized.He shook his head. "No...further back. It's a long story...but I'm not even sure if it's true...""Too far back?" Amy suggested.He browed. "It's very complicated...I'm still trying to have a hard time figuring it out myself. But when I finally figure out what's real and what's not. I'll tell you."Amy grinned. "You and me both kid."She got up off the ground, picking up her helmet. "Sorry kiddo, I got move on now. It's nice chatting with ya..." She said. Waving.He nodded, smiling. But then his expression changed as he shot up."Wait!" Said.She stopped. "Hm?"He walked forward. "Your mother invited me to join your group...I dunno why...she just did."Amy's eyes looked up and down at the kid, variably skeptical. "No offense, you don't look like Femme Fatalex material."He shook his head. "She said...she's putting us in a different group now. Agent Drainer's been reassigned."Amy blinked. "What?"This was outrageous. How dare Big Mama reassign them both without notifying her? Someone was going to have it regardless. But most likely Big Mama will have her way. Definitely."She'd given me a code name. Probationary Agent Anchor of the...somethin...oh...Ghosts of Reach."Amy had to let it grow on she supposed, mainly due to her dislike of the name and liking of the name Femme Fatalex. It was a shame...she'd grown attached to her tight knit group and enjoyed the missions they went on. She was curious as to who the third member was. The boy scratched his head."I...I don't know. Big Mama mentioned their name but I sorta forgot." He said with guilt. Amy roughed his hair up."Don't worry about it. I'm sure we'll meet em when Big Mama brings us a mission. Welcome aboard Anchor."

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Another week drifted by...with more reports of Eggadon's assaults on major and minor cities running a muck. Big Mama was heckling Commanders and Chief Commanders in other countries with their situation. She'd left HQ to visit devastated areas and commune with authorities in their corresponding areas. Shadow was left in charge, becoming Acting Chief Commander while she was busy. It was much to the relief of personnel all around, tired of her overbearing behavior. Shadow was strict but at least he wasn't trying to screw his way around. Amy was nitpicking various things, visiting the ghettos of Metropolis with Agent Anchor and Neptune. She'd caught up with Team Chaotix as they set up a Charity to house survivors, wounded and refugees from other places. All around the world this was occurring and this was all they could do.The slums and the ghettos were riddled with gases, was extremely humid and had holographic adverts everywhere on all platforms. Most wore gasmasks due to a sickness brought on by the gases or they became allergic. Everything was scratched, grungey and downright filthy and dirty. Everyone kept an eye on everywhere on the streets on the ground. The poor lived and dwelled in their borrows, barely making a living in their scrounging for food and money. Crime was heard of but never spoken, with gangs patrolling the streets with their old, first model barely floating hovercars, nearly broken down but they made sure they held their control with their guns. Amy would have liked to clean it up, but common sense assured her it was going to cause more harm.She wandered around, helping anyone anyway she could, setting up a charity in the higher stakes in the city which had been moderately successful, mostly obtaining food, water, blankets and necessary accessories. She was well loved by the masses, becoming a near saint according them, sending their prayers. Walking passed a young family toiling away in a humble shop, which was falling apart, the roof tearing, the walls cracked and the floor filthy, dust rambling in the air with a moist feeling throughout. The family were human, skinny and gaunt from a lack of food. She assured that they could help out everyone else whilst helping themselves with their skills, namely the father was a mechanic and mother was fashion designer before the stock took a turn for the worse.Amongst all the charity work, Amy needed help herself...something petty that she didn't bear a value for but all it was, was a sore back. She called it off as stress or overworking...but it made her work all the harder to get what needed to be done sorted out. Her electrical energies were rising and she needed to discharge every so often. Why this was occurring wasn't known at the time. Her sister checked but was unable to diagnose the problem."My question is...how did you even get this in the first place? Our family has no history of this element ability...like, anywhere!" Said Asher.When Amy had finished her work, she had headed back to the Sick Bay after having find an empty alleyway and discharge her energies. It became worse each day with more energy needed to gotten rid of."I don't know..." Amy answered. "Its becoming quite a bother!"Asher grew concerned. "I'm not an expert on this. I'd rather you consult someone of a higher power."Amy laughed. "You'd want me to consult God?"Asher's face turned serious... "Amy please...I didn't mean that. I meant, well, look up someone who might be able to be...well...in good knowledge of electrical currents or something."Amy rose an eyebrow. "I don't have time to search around you know. I have work to do."Asher sighed. "I know that...I fear you might hurt yourself and other people."Amy left the Sick Bay and headed to the top of the building again, looking at her hands. She checked the clock on the building nearby. It'd just hit midday on a Wednesday. This work was hard enough but to deal with this problem was just going to make it more stressful. A prayer for some normalcy was desired, but nonetheless she tried to cope with it. A gust of wind brought up a strange scent, meaning someone was behind her."You cannot live without their help." Said Shizaru.Amy turned around to see her, not understanding her words. "Who?"Shizaru had disappeared before Amy could do anything. The tough Agent grew frustrated when she did this. This was the first time she'd appeared since the incident. She almost fell of the side of the building when red images flashed through her mind, a gigantic beastly creature over-towering a bloody and torn world, roaring at her. She'd caught hold of a bar to force herself back up. Leaning against a nearby wall, she took her breath back, deep in thought as to what this meant. If Eggman becoming some sort of Super Demon Monster wasn't enough, she was being forced with all sorts of crazy dreams. After all this, she would often forget she was supposed to be this kind of Prophet. Maybe these...visions were foretelling her of the future. But they were too horrific to bear so she'd shut them away and get on with her work. She looked at the repairs since Echo Uniform Ones apparent escape from the Over-Sized Vault and smirked.Heading over to the Chryo Chambers, she again did her daily duty with Sonic, staring at his deathly still body. To be honest to herself, she had weird visions back then of his downfall into the utter madness that became Mr. Thorn, but the complications and considerations of this were of weird inceptions, Amy not believing one bit that Sonic would become evil. She held the Ring Of Memories in between her fingers, again deep in thought. Muttering to Sonic, she spoke of the roles they still had to play, and the mysterious visions she'd kept having. Like the one time she...well, embarrassingly kissed him, causing the room to shake. Waking up beside Shadow in terror sweat, she began questioning herself and her emotions. A lack of medication mixing up her insides in a combination of feelings. She loved Shadow...but...she...Why was all of this coming back to haunt her? Asmos forced her to take the medication in order to focus. And focus she did. An oddness had formed from the day she joined. Pure puzzlement from her side that ironically she could never piece together. The acceptance that she had changed from the Sonic-obsessed girl to the true independent...it lead somewhere strange and scary...and at the time misleading her to covered truths of reality. It'd bent for her and around her, the hallucinations, the events. Connection...disconnection...reconnection. She pressed her hand against the tube, as a tear ran down her face.She missed Sonic...she needed to speak with him...needed to hear his voice again. He was her best friend. Well, Cream had fallen into a coma since the incident, leaving Vanilla too distraught for anything, considering Cream was originally unconscious, then fell deeper into a coma some time after. Vanilla tended to her with Gemerl, whom she finally adopted as a member of the Chaotix family. Amy smiled, telling Sonic about it, and claimed it would have made him happy. Amy looked down. Her dangled legs waggled about. The cool air soothed around her fallen quills, taking it into her breath, willing the brave mind within. Be strong for the world for now that Sonic was not there to protect it.Leaving the Chambers, she came across Agent Anchor about to head in to see Sonic himself. They exchanged glances, acknowledging each others presence before walking off. The thought of the third member of their group bounced in her thoughts. Heading to the TR Room, she could see Shadow on the chair, signing off paperwork. Even though Big Mama wasn't there, she still made him do even more paperwork than usual.There wasn't much love lost between them...as per sarcasm, as Shadow ordered her and Anchor to go investigate the Giant Tree in the Enchanted Forest. The third member of their team hadn't been fully dealt with, as due to all the paperwork that they had created. In the light with that retrospect, Amy could see that most of the paperwork was with new recruits, people desperate to save their world. She was proud of them to take up their swords or guns or whatever, and fight for what was left. Instead, he let Neptune join their crew for now.The Swatkats offered their services to the Ghosts and flew them to the Enchanted Forest Entrance. They thanked them, for their hospitality and took the rest by foot. The three walked around in the undisturbed forest, the scenery, the smell, the not yet tainted bounds of the fantasy woods glistened within what was left of the worlds sunlight, with Agent Anchor holding a rifle, wearing his black suit and to break the ice mentioned how he was sweating. Such a human he was.But Amy needed to remain focused despite the lack of medication she was having. It was becoming harder and harder to do so. They trampled over tree roots leaving Anchor in awe of the place. He continued mentioning that this was his first official mission, considering how little training he did beforehand. Amy knew GUN was needing more soldiers...which meant more people dying in that regard for cheap sacrifices to protect the higher ups. It was getting ridiculous. There was nothing in the peaceful land of the forest to note...not much change about.The tree was the same as ever. Still tall, still rambling with Chao on top. Amy gave Anchor a smirk, which scared him slightly."Say Anchor." Said Amy. "How about a race up to the top?"This took Anchor by surprise. "Wha-what are you talking about? I-I'm only a human! I'm not overly as acrobatic or as fast as you guys!"Amy chuckled. "Oh boo hoo Mr. PILOT A GIANT ROBOT!"Anchor lowered his head in shame and started shaking. "L-look...I'm sorry!"Amy wandered over and leaned over, giving him looks."It's either that, or ride on Neptunes back..." She said, giving him an ultimatum.Anchor looked nervous and flustered, then stared at Neptune who seemed more fascinated by the butterflies as he played with them."You want me to ride on him? What the?" Anchor said with confusion.Amy laughed, then signaled to Neptune with a whistle."Hey Neptune! Come here!"Neptune paid attention, then ran over and pushed Anchor on his back, frightening the poor boy.Amy explained briefly about the race, which Neptune gladly accepted. Amy warned him to hold on tight, but he barely gained control on himself as Amy ran off to jump up on the branches, Neptune scrummaging after her as he made giant leaps, Anchor scared out of his wits that he held on to dear life, screaming his head off as they traveled counterclockwise to climb to the top. Neptune stayed closely behind as Amy sped up. You could tell the difference between distance through Anchor's cries. Amy was laughing due to the sheer enjoyment and thrill, not really caring much for anything else at the moment. A leap here, a bound there, she grabbed hold of a branch and swung around it several times, giving momentum and a mighty boost to the next branch. Anchor squealed as he heard a snap, wrapping his scrawny arms around Neptune as he leaped. Amy's laughs were not helping one bit as she giggled within one of her last jumps.They finally reached the top, Neptune letting go of Anchor who collapsed to the ground and tried to regain his breath. Piloting Echo was better than this in his opinion. Amy smirked at the young human as Neptune intermingled with the Chao. Hearing their chirpy voices warmed Amy's heart, and made Anchor smile for the first time in a while as he got back up to his feet."Chao are wondrous creatures." Amy narrated. "They tend to gather where Chaos Energy levels are high. While they eat food like we all do, they can survive on Chaos Energy alone."Anchor walked over, amazed. "Woah..." He said."They seem to like Agent Neptune..."Amy nodded. "Of course...Agent Neptune has a vibe that most ordinary people don't. I'm sure, given time, that you'll have it too..."Anchor looked at her. "Is that why Sonic was so popular?"Amy walked forward. "Sonic's a hero. Heroes carry popularity on their shoulders, alongside responsibility and a whole bunch of important stuff. We've learned so much from him from his heroism alone that he doesn't need to do much other than stop Eggman's plans. It's like a spectacle really."Anchor's eyes widened. "They have that much faith in him?"Amy sat down and crossed her legs. "Yeah...it's essential so that the rest of the world doesn't need to be afraid."Anchor sat down next to her. "Rubs off on them huh?"Amy chuckled. "A lack of fear means calm. Fear equals mass panic...which is a lot worse when you can't think straight."Anchor looked up in the sky. "How do you know all this?"Amy smiled. "I was once naïve like you...a general hedgehog scouring the world, chasing Sonic down to get him to marry me or date me..."Anchor rose an eyebrow. "You were in love with him that much?"Amy blushed, and looked away. "Well...yeah...I look back now and say to myself what was I thinking?"Anchor browed, being rather suspicious of her expressions."Do...you still love him?"Oh great...why was this human boy questioning this of all things? Of course she didn't. Not anymore. She had doubts but refused to acknowledge them, preferring to be in deep denial but even then she didn't realize she was in it."N-no! Can't you see? I'm with Shadow!" She said, standing up and walking towards Neptune.Anchor blinked, confused. "I guess not..." He said, disappointed and looking down, rubbing the back of his neck.Amy turned around. That response sounded a bit vague, his tone suggesting something."What about your friend? The red headed girl?" Amy questioned.Anchor gulped, not sure where this was heading. "What about her?" He muttered, puzzled."Wasn't your statement that you and her were found on some moon together?" Amy asked.Anchor shook his head. "I don't think it was the moon...it was just...barren...white like the moon...but it wasn't...in fact...I barely remember getting here."Amy rolled her eyes, tending to the Chao. She knew she was deflecting her own issues with others, her selflessness covering her true feelings. What she had with Shadow was there and now, no if's or but's about it. She was in love with him and that was that. Even then...her doubts were still buried beneath the denial, which itself was underneath kilometers of confusion.They went on, alluring their mission. The top of the tree was spacious due to the sheer size of the trunk and the even wider canopy. The Chao Garden was the pinnacle of the Giant Tree itself, but it bore a plaque embedded at the back. Headed towards it, Amy leaned over, reading the text on it. It was in Ancient Mobikian, which Amy moaned the fact that they could have used Drainer, but Big Mama had assigned her to Knuckles protection. This was pointless.Amy's ears twitched as Neptune grew edgy. The Chao grew scared as they fled down and into their borrows to hide. Neptune raised his arms in behind Amy and Anchor, who turned around to see large black circular holes opening up on the large branches. Ultra skinny humanoid creatures, with wretched, veiny skin, claws on the ends of their fingers and toes, their spinal cord raised, their heads covered with strange robotic masks, fire lit in the masks eye sockets, with orange spikes pushing from the black helmet with a red extended pointy nose. They crawled on all fours and made gargling noises with drips, syncing with echoing growls.Amy brought out her Smish Smasher. Anchor was too frightened to do anything. He carefully reached for his rifle, switching his arm every few microseconds due to the amount of these creatures crawling their way. He was shaking slightly, sweat rolling off his forehead. Neptune had his clawfingers dangling, a slight bounce in his stance as he glared at them. Amy held her hammer up high as one of them leaped at her. She slammed the hammer down on it's head, it's helmet sent crackling with electricity. She spun the head of the hammer several times as another came by, she swung it sideways, sending it flying off the tree and tumbling down on the branches below. She ran to Anchor's side, who was closing his eyes. She placed her hand on his shoulder, giving him serious looks. But the words spoken by her eyes allowed him to function slightly better.A creature aimed straight for him, both him and Amy rolling out of the way in time. Anchor pressed one leg down and pointed his rifle at the creature as it attempted to slice Amy. The young boy pulled the trigger with bravery, the rounds piercing through the creatures skull, lava blood splattering everywhere. Amy rolled out of the way again to avoid the spillage. Neptune was clawing his way through, when another portal opened underneath him, forcing Amy to grab Anchor's hand and make the descent to save him. Eventually they made it up to Neptune and caught his hand. Looking at both of them, she through Neptune to the side, revealing a rocky wall which his finger claws dug into, slowing his fall and making the marks into the wall. He quickly kicked his feet into the wall, making holes, then managing to catch Amy and Anchor in his hands. Looking upwards into the light, the creatures crawled downwards. Anchor screamed as he shot upwards at random, hitting some but not all. Neptune scanned underneath him, his goggles zooming out and in. He tugged his feet out and let them descend again, Amy unsure of what the Agent was doing, but had he had her confidence.A huge splash succeeded their descent. Amy helped Anchor out of the water onto dry land. It looked like they were in a huge water cave, with a spiky roof which didn't help matters at all. In the distance, darkness and a lot of water. Neptune ran to the side, pointing at the torch nearby. Amy didn't have a lighter on her, but she remembered she had her electrical abilities as she picked up the torch and gave the inside of it a small it, it lit near the entire room, followed by Anchor's loud scream. Amy turned around, only to step back in surprise at the monster behind them.The monster had gigantic jaws, row upon row of razor sharp teeth in its sniveling smelly, mouth, it's eyes nothing but circles of random colours and it's fishy fins all over the place, it's scales shining from the light, with it's own, deceptive light dangling from it's forehead, revealing it's red colouring, almost like dirty ruby's and garnets. Anchor dropped to his knees and screamed, holding his head in and dropping his rifle. Neptune had no fear as he attacked with a single swipe, the roar of the monster notable as a tentacle popped out of the water and grabbing Neptune's leg in the process. Amy ran passed Anchor, calling his name to get him to run if he can't fight. She swatted the creature and kept smashing it with the Smish Smasher, only for Anchor to rise his head."I mustn't run away..." He murmured it, as if familiar with that mantra. He kept whispering it to himself as he gathered some amount of courage, picking up the rifle and began firing away, his cries of bravery shattering the teeth at the same time. It was left undone as another tentacle shot out of the water and wrapped around his leg, picking him. Amy rolled away from a swat, with Neptune expanding his hands and finger claws, slashing the tentacle that held him.Blood spurted everywhere as Neptune fell into the water. The monster held Anchor under the water, attempting to drown him. If it weren't for Amy smacking the tentacle about, and Neptune sprouting out of the water like a dolphin and slashing the tentacle, he would have. Neptune carried Anchor out of the water and on to the surface. Amy sparked, a surge of blue electricity running through her. She climbed up the body using the creatures tendrils and on top, rising her Smish Smasher above her head, and releasing the power of thunder throughout, causing Neptune and Anchor to cower. Sniffing the air, Anchor could have sworn he smelt burnt fish. Amy gracefully jumped off the fish itself, panting as she landed. She was glad to release that ever building energy within. She withdrew the Smish Smasher as the monster sank.Anchor picked up his rifle and checked his rifle, refilling his ammo, then slapping it on his back. Neptune retrieved the fallen torch and held it up, seeing that the caves depths go much deeper than expected.This cave was odd yet, had a feel that reminded Amy of something she'd seen before. Leading the trio, the rest of it was long, spiky roofed and filled with crawling monsters which were dealt with with thumps, bullets and fingerclaws. Whether or not this was part of the mission was unknown, but the point was to keep going until they had found what they ordered to look for.The few hours they spent were repetitive and long winding, filled with the trial of a thousand monsters. Anchor ran out of bullets, having to resort to being the torch bearer whilst Neptune and Amy kept fighting. He was amazed and in awe of their ability to follow through, aghast...he would try if he had a weapon himself. Amy let them have a break and sat down.Anchor stared at the floor, with his legs crossed whilst Amy checked her backpack for food. She gave him some GUN Rations, which weren't tasty but did the job, having important proteins in order to keep moving. Neptune played a game with a nearby roof spike with had water drops falling from the tip, which kept him amused for the while."Do you want my Piko Piko Hammer?" Amy asked Anchor, who lifted his head in response."Huh?" He mumbled.Amy repeated herself. "Do you want to use my other hammer? Since your rifle is kinda useless now."Anchor sighed, wondering why he wasn't issued the standard GUN Blaster."I don't...know...how can I use it? Isn't it heavy?" He asked.Amy took a sip of water from her bottle. "I dunno...been using it so long I guess I got good upper body strength." She said, whipping out the Piko Piko. "It has sentimental value...but it's going to waste anyway...I want someone to use it."Anchor gulped, unnerved by the size of it. "I...I...I...dunno..."Amy rolled her eyes. "You're most coward person I have ever met..."Anchor shook his head and glared at her. "I-I'm not! I have logical concerns about using it! It's...it's not that I'm afraid at all!"Amy chuckled. He was so cute when he argued or yelled at someone. He acted like a spoilt brat as he dug his head in between his knees. Amy continued spinning the hammer around."Come on...try!"Anchor didn't budge, weeping in his lap. Amy frowned and sat next to him, putting her arm around his shoulders."What's wrong? Did I say something?" She said with concern.His shoulders shook as he cried. "It's just like before...burdened without something I never asked for...it's just repeating itself all over again..."Amy browed, confused. "Repeating itself? Like, you've done this once before?"Anchor nodded, then shirked away from her. "You wouldn't understand!"Amy stood back up, then checked on Neptune, who seemed to like the drops hitting his helmet, amused by the sound it makes. She face palmed. Taking away the hammer, she lent her hand to him, who was...confounded by her gesture."It's okay...you don't have to use it." Amy said with comfort, then smiled. "We're here to ensure...what ever happened before...doesn't happen again!"Anchor took her hand and stood up, nodding to her and made thanks. He grabbed hold of the torch once more as Amy tapped Neptune's shoulder.Shadow brooded in his office, still filing and doing paperwork. It was dreary, boring and mentally tiring that he checked the clock, knowing it had been several hours since last contact with the Ghosts. All he had them do was to check the status of the tree and then come back. Surely it wouldn't have been too long to see around one silly tree. He took another sip of his energy drink and went back to business. He was half-tempted to release Sonic and have a race with him. At least it would proof challenging and worth while. Instead he was stuck with recruiting papers. Stupid Eggman! His newest antics included what the terrorists had already started...blowing up major cities, sending many to flock to the next big city or to the country side. Every so often the acting-in-chief would get hourly reports on the situation and the status of the rebuilt Eggmanland.These recruits were average people as well, hungry for vengeance. It would have been much worse if Sonic wasn't there. There was a public announcement that Sonic was unwell and wasn't able to fight until he got better. It'd have to be a pretty sever illness, considering it was entirely Big Mama's call on to and if they release him. Sonic was the best chance against Eggadon and Big Mama was more into preservation than a quick demolition. Shadow figured, as well as many others, that Sonic's solution would have involved getting the Seven Chaos Emeralds and Super Sonicing that bastard to hell and back. It was what he did normally. But now everything had changed. Shadow had the Chaos Emeralds stashed in the vaults that were on Sonic's person.
Sonic sat in his cell, bouncing his foot on his knee. He willing sat in there, accepting what he had done and his eventual fate. Sure, he was a relentless speed demon but at least he had basic laws to stand by and wasn't going to fall without those principles. It was all he head left besides existing, and that wasn't even beneficial. He'd rather be dead.

Amy had come into his cell that day. He had a few hours until his trial. She needed to get his stuff of his person and store it away. As the door opened, Sonic lifted his head and smiled at at her.

"Hey Ames..." He said.

Sonic was semi back to normal. He wasn't ranting...he wasn't angsting. He was just being genuinely happy Sonic...much like how he used to be, forcing Amy not to smile. This was an entirely serious matter.

"Hey Sonic. " She finally replied.

She explained to the blue blur that she needed to take his personal items off him...and that she wielded a scanner to detect anything within his hammerspace. Sonic sighed, but nodded and complied thoroughly, taking out a variety of items, including five chaos Emeralds. Despite his own happy outlook, Amy could sense deep inside his own guilt and displeasure at his previous behaviour. He brought out Muriels' Book and stared at it.

"What's happened to her anyway?" He asked, concerned.

Amy frowned. "We couldn't recover her body...it's in the realm inside the Giant Tree."

The Giant Tree Realm couldn't be controlled by normal means due to it's chaotic nature and could only be molded by those who had deep connections to chaos, IE Demons or otherwise. Amy wanted to put her to rest and to gather some closure, spearheading her future quest to avenge her.

He took out the partially burnt photo of Amy and displayed it to her.

"Were you really going to let Abbadonia take hold of you?" He asked sincerely.

Amy looked away. "My plan was my plan Sonic. You would have the done the exact same thing in my position."

Sonic rose an eyebrow. "Really? Would I let myself be possessed by a crazy demon?"

Amy's face fell. "No...but that really wasn't my plan to begin with."

Sonic crossed his arms, trying to make eye contact with her. "You going to tell me?"

Amy placed all the items into a black box, including the Amberite. Holding it in the palm of her hand. She received a jolt of energy down her spine, taking her by surprise and losing her breath for a split second as she collapsed on Sonic, as random images of a silhouetted creature roared.

Sonic caught her in time, deeply worried. He patted her cheek, whispering her name to wake up. Eventually getting up, the Amberite was left on the floor. She had white, flaring eyes that glared at Sonic as she looked up, creeping him out.

"That...is your half." She whispered, her voice echoing. Sonic browed as Amy got off him. The blue blur stared at her, before picking up the Amberite, his eyes bouncing to it, glimpsing at it in the dim light. Amy went back to normal as she rubbed her head. She blinked at Sonic with confusion.

"I must be sleepy..." She commented. Sonic wanted to put the Amberite in the box, but her words rumbled in his mind. Amy stood up and turned around, staring outwards. Sonic grew annoyed, her body language suggesting she knew more than she let on. He put the Amberite away back into his hammerspace.

"Should be all." He confirmed. Amy turned back and picked up the box, walking off from Sonic's cell. Sonic himself pondered if she was truly alright as his concern grew. There was an internal conflict from what he could see. He'd put faith into the Pink Hedgehog that she would take care of everything after he was put away for good. For how long...he wasn't sure.
"Agent Mjöllnir?"Amy was brought back down to Earth as they walked. They'd reached a cliffside and a gigantic waterfall that fell into the darkness. A scent rose up, Amy trying to identify it correctly. It was like the monster they battled before. Going to the cliff's edge, a change of air was noted as a random bridge came into existence, having a jarring transparency to it. Neptune ran across it, seemingly oblivious and non-caring. Amy and Anchor chased after him."Neptune wait!" Amy called out.They ran through random tunnels, it darkening in as they got further down the track. It became quiet, the echoing drips the only semblance that she was still alive...but sanity had been questioned as whispers sounded out, driving the normal person to madness. Amy brought out her hammer and continuously spun around, checking her surroundings. Whom ever sent them here was possibly doing their job. More whispers and drips...repetitive sounds. Acoustic in nature, dry and moist, crisp and clean...where the heck did Neptune run off to?Speaking of the devil, she bumped into Neptune staring at another plaque. A screech pierced through her ears as light faded. Amy sparked, sizzling in a dim light that flashed in nano seconds. But all that could seen was pure black. Amy wasn't afraid but clearly frustrated and ready to smash whom ever was messing with them. Decadent, darkness had been quite frequent with her lately. Everything seemed cold...shadowy and to her opinion far too cliché. A single spark lit a lamp on the roof, revealing that she was now in the dome of a cave and that Neptune had disappeared, the roof spiked, the walls written in a pink, splashed lettering her name everywhere. Throwing her hammer only smashed parts, causing the roof to fall in and collapse on her, knocking her out.Are we not spared the tame?Failed signs beneath the tree...Behest we not spared the blame?Voices whispered in the blank slate that filled the crumbled organ in her head. She needed to stop screwing with her. Mentally filled walls protected her from falling out of favour of herself. White faded into her vision. For some reason she was now walking around in an unfamiliar hospital, typical nurses and doctors on their routes, checking patients and what not. How she ended up here was anyone's guess. She noticed Cream skipping about happily from hallway to hallway. Amy ran forward to see her, but by the time she arrived, Cream had vanished, much to Amy's dismay.The hospital seemed typical, but everyone seemed to ignore her presence. Skidding as she saw Tails in the distance, sitting on the bench, she sped towards him. The two tailed fox had his hands in his lap, head down in a depressed state of affairs, one tail on each side of his body. Amy knelt down before him, making failed attempts to stare him in the eye."Tails?" She muttered.Tails looked up, as if hearing something. However, he didn't say a word. There was something...horrorfying in his eyes as he'd seen a ghost. Maybe that's what it was to him...and maybe what it was to her.He got up and went into one of the rooms. Amy attempted to follow but was met with a slammed door. Stepping back, she sighed. Breathing in, breathing out...breathing in, breathing out...where was her medication when she needed it?She bumped into someone else as she stepped back further, only to see Bloody Amy standing before her, her eyelids half drawn and entrapping Amy into her sights."You see what needs to be seen." She said in a monotone. Her arms and legs were straight as she barely moved an inch."For the path that's settled...we must realize who we were...who we are...and who we will be."Amy fell through a summoned black portal, landing on a small white circle. White lines drifted everywhere like speeding streamers. Bloody Amy returned but within her demeanor was a freaky smile and friendly visage that Amy seemed to be scared of. She spun around, winking at Amy repeatedly in sequence, speaking the same sentence over and over again."Never fear! Amy Rose is here!"Amy fell to her knees. "I'm...not that girl anymore..." She muttered."Never fear! Amy Rose is here!"She clenched on to her face. "I'm...just Amy...Amy the Hedgehog...""Never fear! Amy Rose is here!"Looking up at her former self, she became disgusted. Someone else popped up near her, someone she recongnized."Cream..." She muttered.Cream seemed apathetic, her eyelids half drawn like Bloody Amy. This was getting dangerously close."When it comes to matters of the heart...yours is quite tender." Said Cream in a monotone.Since when did this all the sudden become emotional? It indeed was getting worse and Amy wanted out."For what it was worth, to glisten like you did...to annoy Mr. Sonic with your frantic pleas." Cream continued.Amy glared. "Look, I just said I'm not that girl anymore. Where is this logic coming from?""Your heart tugged on to the nearest hero. The male figure that left your life and suddenly the hero made the spark in your heart, leading you and running you to nowhere." Said Bloody Amy.Amy shook her head in disbelief. That wasn't true. If it wasn't for Sonic she wouldn't be where she was today. This...was filling her with doubts. Something was up and Amy was going to get to the bottom of it."A dream of a hero...was the love there to begin with? Or was a psychological persuasion?" Said Shadow who stood there, his stance like the others. Amy tripped over as she tried running away, only to come up against her mother."Your compound illusions dearest Amy...you chased nothing but parchment...wasting your life for something that had taken you for granted." Said Asmos, in monotone."GET OUT!" Amy screamed, stumbling backwards, tears rolling down her face."No...I can't face tears...not again!"Asmos lowered her head. "Your uselessness as a child...the others had potential...you...sadly...had nothing. Corroding away, sucking at my teet as a floundering parasite!"Amy brought out her hammer but didn't know what to do with it."Your only purpose was to serve that bitch of a hedgehog you call your grandmother. She took you away from me...because you were such a brat...deluded in your own hopeless fantasy...a world you forged yourself out of nothing but stupid hopes and dreams..."Amy screamed. "NO! You're my mother...! You're supposed to love me...""What's to love? I was forced by my husband to have another child...pressured by that bitch by all means since Muriel never sought to give attention to Asher, Andrew or Aceste. When you were born she was smothering you...there was something...in her eyes...that gave it away..."Amy sobbed in her hands. "No...I love you mother...I did everything for you! I knew...after I heard that you were recruiting Agents...that I could finally earn your respect!"Asmos spat. "That you did. Captain Agent Mjöllnir was the better daughter. She never dwelt on selfish dreams and did her job well and earned my love. To a better point what's the point of Amy existing? You're still a parasite."Amy was cracking hard. She knew this wasn't real and hoped like heck she would wake up some time soon. If Sonic came to save her then she knew she would become far useless than she did before."Please...mother..."Asmos raised her blaster at Amy's forehead. "You're nothing but an abomination to me. Muriel killed her own son..."Amy grew furious with that statement, but couldn't meld it out to look the part. "That...that is not true..."It went all dark again. This madness had gone on long enough. Lingering on the shadows, She stared at her feet, trying to bring what was left of the strength of her psyche and forcing herself to look up and forget about it. None of it was real. She knew that well enough and pushed forward and onwards to progression."Likewise the parasite still exists in this place..." Said a voice, gasping, grafty and echoing."The only parasite here is the demons that exist to tear this place down. I aim to prevent it." Amy said.Morpheus floated down from above, arms raised and laughing hoarsely through his gas mask. Amy should have known it was him, screwing around with her head for his own pleasure. He disgusted her to the core."I know what you did to Sonic...you're not gonna do it to me..." Amy sneered. She roused her fierceness and refused to back down on the challenge."What I did to Sonic was absolutely necessary. It...had fallen into my plan quite...precisely..."Amy's anger began to rise. "Nothing like THAT is ever necessary. What were you hoping to achieve?"Morpheus ran his fingers over his bony chest. "That...is none of your concern. For now...with Sonic gone...it allows me to focus on the parasite...alone..."Amy popped an eyebrow. "So you think I'm the parasite?"Morpheus chuckled. "Heh...if you'd absorbed Abbadonia that day...you might have been...in fact, Eggman helped make the ideal...a lot easier for me to handle...so...grandure..."Amy rolled her eyes, wandering around in displeasure. "You forced to Sonic to kill me...so I wouldn't. You know...there were other methods."Morpheus whipped his arms in a flick. "You were...a pest...the parasite can still be...eradicated. Purged from here..."Amy crossed her arms. "Not gonna happen...see? Unlike Sonic, I intend to keep living regardless of what happens..."Morpheus wheezed. "The strength of one alone...you keep your faith...your innocence and prosperity with others...like...I'm..."A little hedgehog girl appeared by Morpheus as he stood down and placed his hand on her shoulder. Amy immediately recognized iconic hair style, green jumper and orange skirt, with purple and white runners."Your...mind is split into it's own...how should I put it, figments. As a Prophetess, you...have one figment more than anybody...it has no name...but it deals with the supernatural...process...such as...reading the future...or your electrical abilities...it has no name because no one else knows about it...they can't know about it...but I do..."Amy stared at the girl who was nothing more than a facade of her younger self. Dwelt within her conscience, is where it lied."Technically...it shouldn't exist...the Prophets mind couldn't cope with the other instigation of...well, being a Prophet...so it automatically made this unknown figment...alongside the others...you know, memory...reason...emotion...imagination...as well as the rest..."Morpheus coddled the young girl, bringing her close, his head near hers as he whispered into her ear. Static sparked in Amy's ears, forcing her to cover them. "It's...not gonna work...damn you!"She screamed."To exist Amy...or to not exist...are we not of those two?" Asked the younger Amy."We began with a simple task...but we have not yet failed...nor are we close to finishing...you...Sonic...have to solve the power of the mind in order to proceed."Morpheus faded behind the younger Amy and placed his hands and fingers, cradling the air behind her head."Never fear, Amy Rose is here!"Not this again.Something...somewhere, brooded and boiled in spirit, angered in their sixth sense...needed to protect but unable by physical means..."You are needed." Said Gabriel as he stood in front of Sonic's Chamber.Strips of white swirled and straightened around Amy again, with static sparking every so often. The Figment continued to haunt her as Morpheus was messing with it. Amy brought out her hammer as a Jack in the box came out of nowhere, with it tuning itself, then out popped Morpheus' head on a spring, cackling away. Amy swatted it to smithereens before roaring, allowing the echoes fill the empty void. Instead, blood poured out from above from invisible waterfalls. Amy sprinted to nothingness, barely avoiding the wave of red fluid heading her way. She jumped on white circles heading upwards and found a set of wooden double doors and pushed them open...only to see more darkness. Looking around, she carefully treaded, her eyes darting left and right to see where the next surprise was. She tripped over as a large pink head uploaded from below. It was basically a gigantic version of herself, her eyes bloodshot, straining with the horrifying smirk on it's face. Trees began sprouting from her head, eyes bursting into a river of more blood, the tree's roots growing and digging into the eyesockets, the head quickly rotting away into a skull, the trees growing bigger and bigger as Amy dodged the piercing and shooting roots. The sky reformed into a pure white, snow raining down from above. Runes formed on the large tree on the very top of what was left of the skull. Amy couldn't read the runes herself, the amber coloured fluid reading it out in some sort of language..."Mortui estis. Mentem animumque tuum est parasitus..." Amy muttered as she read it, not able to understand it all. Instead, the fluid seemed to fade away as a huge gust of wind blew Amy over, forcing her to hold on to the edge of the skull's eyesocket with one hand. She looked down to see a barrage of spiky rocks and formless monsters. Turning her head, She forced herself back up to the scalp, to see that the blue sky had formed with clouds and the Endless Field of her dreams faded into existance. The tree's text changed into glowing blue lines with some new text written on the trunk."Uates est spes introducere." Amy whispered, squinting at it. Again she had clue what it meant."I don't know what it means either."Amy spun around...a huge smile and a wave of relief crashed down over her as she could see Sonic standing there. She ran over to do so, but at the last minute refrained from doing so."I shouldn't be here." Said Sonic.Amy frowned. "Why not?"Sonic's eyes looked around. "I can't say. I'm just here to set you free from Morpheus. He's an asshole who's done this ten times worse with me. What he's doing now is level one stuff."Amy gulped, but then turned serious and straightened herself out. "Well I'm not letting him do it to me! I promise."Sonic smiled and nodded with confidence. "I know you won't. Now...I think you need to wake up..."Amy's head fell, disappointed. "Can't we just stay here a little longer? I mean...this is the only chance we'll ever speak to each other again."Sonic smiled, waggling his index finger. "Now now Amy...I'm always going to be here when you need me..."Amy's eyes locked with his, unsure of the truth in his statement. "But..."Sonic gave her another look. "Come on...we both know we can't. You have your life to live...now go live it...""Amy? Can you hear me?"After light had flashed before her eyes. The rocks and boulders that she had been buried under were sticking into odd places of her body. She was surprised she was still alive...but she was in enormous pain. She clung on to the voices, calling her name as she whizzed back into consciousness...only barely as she struggled to keep her eyes open. The load on her body lightened slightly, as the voices got louder, her hearing slowly getting back to normal. She waited several minutes until the rocks and boulders had been thrown away, seeing Neptune and Anchor standing in front of her. They leaned in to help pick her up, and hooked their arms underneath her arms."Geez Captain...are you alright?" Asked Anchor, his face full of worry. Amy smiled."Don't worry...I will be..." She said softly.She had a cut on her forehead and her left calf, the only sever injury with a twisted ankle. Neptune's goggles made noises as he adjusted them, giving Amy some hope of sanity and stability in her life.Apparently they heard the commotion and discovered a cave in with the piles of rocks. If it weren't for Neptune's mysterious and superior detection and senses, she would have been left there to die."Did...you find anything? Asked Amy.Anchor blinked. "Uh...sort of...I got lost after Neptune ran off..."Amy nodded. "What is it? Can you show me?"Anchor scratched his head. "Wait, shouldn't we take you back or get you medical attention?"Amy just smirked. "Nah I'll be fine. I'm more interested in what you found."Anchor took a deep breath and went with it, dragging Amy along as he took them down a flight of long stairs, Neptune forced to carry Amy on his back, which he was only happy to oblige. Darkness everywhere and despite it's similarity, it was reality that Amy cared about. These flights were long and distant. They finally reached the bottom. Neptune laid Amy down on a nearby rock as he snatched the torch off Anchor and displayed the nearby bluish tinted, near smooth rock wall, which had writing on it. Anchor repeatedly tapped it, wanting Amy's full attention. Amy forced herself up, hopping towards the wall, with Anchor wanting to assist her and warn her, but was too nerved to take it up. Amy ran her hands over the writings and examined them. Again it was this language...seemed to be ancient Mobikian if memory serves. Oh how she could use Drainer's or Knuckles help. They would be entirely useful right about now.Amy ran her fingers over the random ridges that were spread out across it. She closed her eyes and inhaled the air."The million possibilities that exist...we sensed the energies in ourselves...those that can build their own courage...build their mental cities of light, cleansing the darkness in their weary spirits."Amy heard Shizaru's words and tried to decipher what they meant. Gently rimming the edges of the calming hieroglyphics, a sensual touch belonged behind the wall. Meaning something was there...but what it was had to be alluring, enticing...not something someone could smell, taste, touch, see or hear. It was there of the unknown sorts, just like the Figment of No name. A power had risen up around them that only Amy could detect. Anchor was curious as to what she was up to, Neptune poking his fingerclaw through the holes.The pattern might have been straightened with curved corners, but when it glew it took the shape of the giant tree with hundreds of branches, the leaves turning a bright emerald, rubies representing the apples that grew. As Amy looked closer, the lines that shaped the trunk had a running bright blue glowing fluid, almost vein like in nature and in generic pattern. Whispers into Amy's ear, speaking the ancient language. She needed to be here. This was a Prophets power. A Prophet belongs here...this is their realm and their realm alone. She limped backwards, with Anchor running to her side to help her. Neptune knelt down to the bottom, seeing more hieroglyphics. Bottom up, he crawled around, poking it repeatedly. They were written in a bright yellow.It had to be done by Amy, if this was one portion of her dedicated fate, then she had to announce herself to the wall's protective charms. She pushed Anchor off her and raised her arms and spoke in front of the wall. She had her doubts, but the warmth from the energies of the necklace spoke to her without words or sound but in magical intuition. If they were going to get out of this place alive, she needed to accept a part of her life that was bound for potential...bound for her own destiny."I am the Prophetess of the Rosoideae. I order you to open this door." Amy announced.Anchor cowered behind her, with Neptune back-flipped next to Amy as the room shook, the door rising upwards, surprising Anchor and amusing Neptune. Amy wrapped her arm around Anchor's neck and nodded towards the entrance. Anchor sighed, then inhaled, bringing his strength with him as Neptune crawled onward.This next room was old...very old...almost obsidian in coloured nature but was mostly navy marble and hard rock, blocks lay everywhere, with columns scattered. It wasn't organized, but more of a randomized structure of geometric architecture. A corporeal aura was smothering all of it, a slight smokey tinge that whispered and twirled around the air, a dull scent lingering on, almost...sweet like. Anchor squealed as bright blue lines formed from their end, leading towards the distant room and making their own geometrical lines of great symmetry. Amy nodded to Anchor to move forward , to enter the cube shaped dome up ahead. Shuffling along, Neptune punted himself forward and leaped on the cubes, then landing on something up ahead that made a grunting sound. Hurrying on ahead, they found...Vector of all people...Neptune jumped off as he helped Vector off the ground."What are you doing here?" Asked Amy.Vector rubbed his back, cracking it. "Ugh...it's a long story..."Vector explained that he'd heard voices calling to him whilst he was taking care of his family, with Creams condition unchanged from before. Originally he'd ignored them, until one night he'd been swallowed up by a giant black hole. This sounded suspicious."What were the voices telling you?" Amy questioned.Vector scratched his head. "Grahh..I dunno...somethin' along the lines of...we can heal her...or what ever words they said to me."Amy nodded. Her necklace warmed her neck up again as she looked down at the darkened corridors up ahead. She absently mindedly pointed her finger in that direction without knowing how."I guess...we head down there..." She said bluntly.Vector sighed. "At least it's somewhere...I gotta tell you now, there's somethin' about this place that seems to be very, very strange..."Vector wasn't wrong about that. So far Morpheus appeared to be mentally twisting her then Vector pops up out of nowhere. There was no need to bring anyone else into this...especially Vector.She explained the situation to him, which...to their expectations, weirded him out. Nonetheless Amy persisted in her stubbornness when he queried about her wounds. Nonetheless, they carried on.The next corridor melded into something larger into a hallway of hundreds of columns, coming across a large door way. Neptune attempted clawing at it, but alas, failed. Amy forced Anchor to drag her to it in order to read the hieroglyphics. There was a flag raised in her senses, but it was smaller than the usual ones, lacking in strength. Drawings of monsters riddled over it, but one was a simplified drawing of a crocodile, drawing Vector's attention. It looked primitive but it was there.He began banging on it, repeatedly. Neptune noticed a large imprint in the middle and placed his hand in it. Tilting his head and making bubbly noises, his attention snapped back to Vector and clasped his wrist, causing ire from the big green himself. Neptune pressed Vector's hand against the imprint, causing the entire door to glow and fling open, with Vector falling over in response. Neptune leaped forward, then turned around to the others and clapped ecstatically. Getting back up he checked Amy's and Anchor's faces, confused at their expressions. He himself turned around, and gasped as well.Before them was another long hallway filled with columns. However, behind the columns on the walls were windows looking upon a hush blue sea, with various animals splashing about. Vector looked around, seeing a skeleton that freaked him out dramatically. Neptune ran off, with Amy and Anchor forced to follow him, Vector barely able to keep up himself. Amy felt a shake in the ground, asking Anchor to stop. Dropping the ground, the Pink Hedgehog rested her hands and spread her fingers on the blocky floor, rimming her fingers. She'd definitely felt something. Her mind began weary and strained as she snapped to Vector, who browed in confusion. A spark came from her index finger, Vector wandering over and kneeling down, concerned. He gasped as she clasped her hands on his face, her eyes glowing white, head violently shaking. Suddenly Amy's hands dropped, her body collapsing, with Vector managing to catch her. She slowly opened her eyes."We have to move...like, right now..." She muttered.Vector looked around. "Can somebody PLEASE what the heck is goin' on? I'm going crazy here with this lunacy! Ames...Ames?"Amy tugged on Anchor's pants as he helped her back up, then she turned her head back to Vector."I can tell you everything later...we really have to go..."Vector gulped, then shook his head and took Amy from Anchor and placed her on his back, wrapping her arms around above his shoulders. A giant roar was heard in the distance, with Vector sniffing the air and noting a fishy, disgusting smell. Amy muttered in his ear about a monster approaching. Neptune ran forward, and skidded to a halt as a gush of water burst through the intersection he'd arrived at, then more poured out from left, right, and in front. Neptune raised his hands and spread them out, forming a small green sphere around him, his body glowing and shaking as he fought off the oncoming waves, his fingerclaws spread out. Vector growled as he ran ahead to join in with Neptune with Anchor in tow."Why do I have this feeling we're about to go swimming?" Anchor complained.Amy chuckled. "It's okay. I'm sure Vector and Neptune are excellent swimmers."Anchor took a look at Neptune who was struggling to hold back the waters as they surrounded, clashing with the sphere he had forged. Vector entered the Sphere with Anchor sighing, noting he had no choice than to jump back on his fellow Probie. Neptune let go, as they tucked their heads in, and briefly waited for the water to flow over them.The gush was heavy, but both Neptune and Vector clung on to a column, waiting for the fast tide to weigh down. Eventually it did after several moments, allowing them both to starting swimming upwards like hell in breaststroke motions, leading them in the next hallway. A horrific roared echoed about, making the pair swim faster. Amy was right. Vector followed Neptune, who seemed to know where he was going. They twisted, they turned and at one point had to dive down deeper in avoidance to the fact they couldn't go further with their heads above water. Neptune lead them into tunnels and rising into a new area, reaching onto the ledge of the ground, and dragging themselves out of the water. They checked that each other were okay, before moving on.The spectral scenery hadn't changed much, however more primitive artwork was scribbled on the walls, of great battles so it seemed that Vector could recognize the drawings as Crocodiles. Anchor noted the similarities."Do you think the reason why you were brought here is because of the connections? I thought it would have been rather obvious..." Anchor assumed, getting off Neptune.Vector shrugged. "I wouldn't have a darn clue. I don't really care much for my own history. My ma and pa were generic crocodiles at least...my old man was a plumber and my old lady worked a restaurant."Amy smirked. "You'd rather sneak into everyone else's past..."Vector grumbled. "Hey! I get paid to do that! It's a job!"Amy snickered, whilst Vector shook his head. Another hallway befalled them, trembling through this maze of the unknown...somehow related to Vector's kind. Amy just wanted her ankle to heal so she could do things for herself instead of getting big lugs to carry her. After what she needed for herself she couldn't enact much to her dismay. Crossing more of these windows, the theory that they were in a underwater ruins became much more apparent. Amy meanwhile had this nagging in the back of her mind, trying to tell her that his place had been mentioned before.Otherwise, the prominent focus of her senses took hold of the aura building around the monster that was following them. Had the monster survived the last attack? Who knows? Vector kept sniffing the smell...even Amy couldn't. More ruins appeared in their dashing less-than-expected deterioration, blessed with their own morbid decor, teeth spiking down from above. The design didn't make sense, however, as it transformed into a more brown like colouring with skulls riddled everywhere. In the middle of the blue to brown colour transition, within the gradient was a circle with a symbol that Amy understood. She got Vector to drop her off there. She pulled out the Ring of Memories, out of subconscious habit and balanced herself in the middle of the circle. Wading the others, she placed the ring on her right index finger and closed her eyes to focus.A lot of chatting sprung everywhere, grumbles growls...and there was a lot of heat, suggesting this area had a hotter climate once. Torches were hung on the walls with dozens of crocodiles scattered everywhere. A lot of them were broad shouldered like Vector, however, wearing little clothing for some, but guards that stood by the doors wore squarish golden shoulder pads and tall spears, their helmets a pseudo gold and unusual shape. One Crocodile was greately decorated in a red and green garb and a lot of golden jewelery and eyeliner, one sharp tooth made of a dissonant gold with a small emerald in it, his headdress overbearing his actual head."Prophetess...this warning you relay to us...must we retreat to the surface world?" He asked, his accent rife with middle-eastern thickness."The spirits have spoken to me Pha'orh Sobeka. The Pitlord will hunt those down with the magical artifacts that had been taken from her." Said Shizaru, in her white toga.Sobeka was offended. "Aghast? The wicked spirits have spoken behest the mighty Pitlord's gift? The Shell of Emotions...it is what determines our livelihood and life long mates!"Shizaru bowed her head. "I must implore you. Bury the Shell somewhere dwelling on the surface world. I understand what you and your people thrive on. I assure you your lifestyle will be unhindered."Sobeka huffed and crossed his arms. "To cross the heathens? Upon the surface? It is certainly a death sentence...none of my people will take it!"Shizaru stared at the Pha'orh. "If you shall not many more will fall to the Pitlord's Legions."Sobeka thought for a moment. "You were the one who bared this gift to us! As part of our treaty! Must we break the link the chain of the all-great kingdoms?"Shizaru nodded slowly. "The chain will not be broken...it will be strengthened with the might of the Crocodilos! Within the Garden of Repi'Tilla!"Sobeka growled. "Do not patronize me Rosoideae! The decision has been made. Unless you have some other way of getting rid of the cursed artifact."Shizaru lifted her chin and raised her right arm. "High Honor Guard!"Amy watched as Gabriel came from behind her. "Yes dearest Prophetess?"Shizaru had a forever calm visionary, her stoicness displaying variably well."Take the Shell of Emotions and bury it in a place where lives lack to be." She ordered.Gabriel bowed. "As you wish."Amy took the ring off, earning the disturbing ire from Vector and Anchor, who stared at one another. Opening her eyes, she now bared the knowledge of the ruins and of where they were."Why don't we find somewhere to sit for a while?" Amy suggested.They came across a small room with a fountain and a torch which Amy lit up with a spark from her finger. It wasn't going to be comfortable, but they had no choice but to sit down in the now dark brown floor. It wasn't dirty...as it was slightly dusty. It didn't seem that these ruins have fared better than the blue tinged ruins, or maybe it was already like as such. A lot of crocodile images scattered across the walls, capturing Vector's attention but failing much else. It reminded Amy of the Garden of Rosales, except more reptile in design. The room was closed off from the main areas, giving them a bit of privacy and a place to hide in for a while. Amy checked the time...it was around four thirty PM by her watch, but you couldn't tell from where they were. She leaned back against the wall as Anchor brought out the medkit and bandaged up Amy's wounds. Neptune played watcher, in his own curious eyes. Vector was busy checking out the pictures on the walls and mumbling to himself. They still a bit wet from earlier and hoped to get dry before they get out again."So what is this place?" Wondered Vector. He didn't bother questioning her about using the Ring...mainly because he feared too much of an explanation to handle."It's called the Garden of Repi'Tilla, with House of Crocodillos. Relatives of yours?"Vector chuckled. "Pffff nah...like I said, I don't know my own blood...I'm not even interested in myself at all..."Anchor looked up at Vector as he wrapped a bandage around Amy's ankle."Not even a little?" He said.Vector shrugged. "Nope...the past is the past in my opinion...I just don't see the point of lookin' at stuff that isn't there."Amy exchanged a look. "But as a detective, isn't it part of the work to look into the past?"Vector crossed his arms and sat down on a random rock. "...I guess. But I meant this for me! I couldn't give ten thousand mobians about it..."Amy smirked. Vector was always a funny fellow. She wondered what Vanilla saw in him.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Amy was semi-exhausted as Vector continued carrying her through the hallways of the Garden of Repi'Tilla. No matter how hard her body wanted rest she had to stay awake. It'd gotten cold when she started to hallucinate, even without the Ring of Memories. It didn't make sense to her, considering Crocodiles, from memory, needed heat...or what ever. She never bothered to study biology. Sonic would have chuckled at that. Maybe.She decided to watch her hallucinations for she wasn't doing much else. Crocodiles were rambling around everywhere, hassling and bustling. Looked like they were evacuating. These visions faded in and out with itself and the present, making it hard for Amy to properly identify reality. But for now she allowed it...for it was interesting and entertaining...bringing into the fact that her ankle was still twisted. For if it weren't, she would be rousing the troops, upholding their esteem and sending themselves out of here and back to where they needed to be. But they couldn't have everything...so it seemed.More of these narcissistic etches in wall of the Crocodiles history, covered with stories of old and needed to express their over-the-top heroism. It seemed they had close relationships with the Chameleons of the Garden of Sakura and the hidden...according to what the paintings portrayed, an unknown Bee colony. Had it been fate that brought the Chaotix together? There were Armadillos, Amy bringing about the mentioning of one called Mighty. The mind left to walk its caverns of memories, standing in the spotlight within the darkness, seeing doors pop up left to right, split from invisibility to infinity. Hundreds...thousands of possible memories to choose from. What had brought this up trembled around for ages.Amy thought back to the days where she have discussions with her mother...especially when she had joined GUN...Amy stood in her recruitment uniform, sitting up straight in her chair outside her mothers office, staring outwards to the blank gray wall, and the clock that was near, constantly ticking. She wanted to make her mother proud of the choice she made, regardless of what she disapproved. It'd been a while since she'd even seen her mother. Shadow had dropped her off and told her to call him or Rouge if he was unavailable. It was an odd feeling of sorts, her mind chopping and remixed into different parts. Amy held onto the her folders very tightly, waiting. She ignored the suggestive sounds coming from behind the door, loud thumps, soft moans and groans which Amy blocked out to an extent. Several minutes later the door opened, an older GUN Operative, human, would have been sickening to the general public, but Amy somewhat knew her mothers reputation, gathering from Asher had told her. The operative's chocolate brown hair was ruffled, him tightening and straightening his clothes to a standard neatness required for all personnel. He shuffled along in a stiff stride most people had.
Her mother came out, wearing her short, tight black skirt and white work short sleeved crumpled work top and black jacket, big black boots to match. She nodded her head around the corner, allowing Amy to enter. Amy sat down, looking around her mothers office. To her back, was a green couch and tacky white rug with green detail. Asmos opened her drawer and took out her special packet with strawberry patterns and took out a cigarette and lit it, soon after a sweetened scent enveloped the room.

"So...you've joined GUN hm?" Said Asmos, inhaling.

Amy nodded. "Yes mother. I'm very eager to join you in the family business."

Asmos' cheek twitched. "Really?"

Amy nodded again, smiling. "Yup!"

Asmos snorted and sat up, leaning over. She might look clean enough on the outside but her attitude was more akin to a ladette.

"You're not still obsessed with Sonic are you?" She asked, raising her eyebrow.

Amy gulped. "Um...uhhh.. I...it won't interfere with my work I swear!"

Asmos rolled her eyes and inhaled, exhaling with a sigh. "Amy my dear...this many year obsession can be dealt with a simple developed medication...you won't have to worry about interference."
Amy exited out of that memory and walked amongst the near infinite row of white doors. One door contained the memories of her grandmother. She walked inside, with most of these scattered in hundreds of white feathers raining around her, and falling below in the ever-falling abyss, brushing against her shoulders. She wore her old red dress and boots, on how she visioned her old self. Looking at her hands, a feather fell into her right palm. Closing her eyes, she could see the days of living with her cherishing grandmother, being younger than she was, being taught the ways of the tarot. It was fascinating, enchanting and memorizing. The meanings, the implications. To see ones past, present and future. The knowledge of one through dreams, visions and fortune telling. How exciting it was, to judge someone for what they had done through their lives. Muriel used to coddle her and started making her do it as well.
One fine sunny Sunday afternoon within Muriel's cottage, she was making the stereotypical choc chip cookies that were divine in Amy's case. Amy was busy playing with the cards as Muriel placed the cookies on the cooling rack and sat down on the couch, watching her grand daughter.

"Hey gran..." Said Amy, cute and sweet.

"Yes dear?" Muriel responded.

Amy shuffled the cards together, lending them to Muriel. "Can you read my future?"

Muriel chuckled. "I would...but I believe it would be best if you could do it yourself you know. I can see you've been praciticing a lot."

Amy chuckled and smiled. "I have gran...so I can really see my own future on my own?"

Muriel nodded. "Of course deary. Just keep shuffling the cards until you feel...the vibe...then..."

"Put down three...got it!" Said an enthused young pink Hedgehog.

She shuffled for about ten seconds. Before picking up her first card. She was really excited for this. Usually she would have done her neighbourhood friends, but never had she done herself before.

She flipped the card over as she put on the coffee table.

"The Temper...temper...rance." Said Amy.

Muriel leaned over. "Yes...now...what does that mean?"

Amy squinted as she tried to think real hard. "Uh...It means...um...something to do with...two different things?"

Muriel chuckled. "Yes deary you are...nearly right. It's possible you're going to deal with something that is basically the opposite of you."

Amy clapped. "Wow really? That's so cool!"

She pulled out another card and placed it down, squinting again.
"Hey Ames..."Amy opened up her eyes, seeing another set of large doors. This seemed to have a pattern of directions suggesting something important laid in the room ahead. It held in a geometrical shape of a beehive. Anchor struggled to push the doors open, with Neptune doing so with ease and a certain amount of glee to his character, causing Anchor to sigh with disappointment in himself that Amy could only smile with humor. Within this room was a giant pool of an amber-coloured liquid, with it's glow illuminating it within it's entirety. Neptune crawled over and leaned his over to sniff it, tilting his head in response. A small pathway divided the pool in two, with the shape a generic rectangle in nature, leading in a semicircle dome with a tunnel carved into the cave wall. Anchor noticed the water wasn't rippling and knelt over to touch it."I wouldn't do that if I were you." Warned Vector.Anchor absent-mindedly touched it anyway, an abnormal dip, resembling a mixture of a ripple and a bounce, with a bit dangling off his finger, freaking him out as he hastily crab walked backwards, huddling beneath Vector. Amy asked Vector to drop her down, allowing her to examine the strange liquid properly. Dipping her finger as well, she smelled it, then tasted it, the others yelling in shock."Gah! Amy! You don't know what that is!" Anchor screamed.Amy turned around and smiled. "Of course I do. It's honey."Anchor and Vector looked at one another. "WHAT?" They said in unison.Amy chuckled with a smug expression. "It's that delicious spread made from bees...go on...have a try."Anchor was extremely hesitant to taste it, his trembling annoying Vector who shook him off his leg and wandered over, reluctant to do so himself. Amy didn't seem to be affected by it, so he trusted her and dipped his finger in, licking it slightly with caution."Hey you're right!" Vector announced with relief.Anchor still had a bit left on his index finger and licked it as well, then smiled."Well I'll be..." He commented.Neptune was puzzled by all this, and crawled over to dip and absorb the fluid through his main finger claw. In response to the taste he bounced about, then clapped ecstatically. Amy then browed and became deep in thought."It's strange though..." She said. "Why would a Kingdom of Crocodiles have a Honey Den?"Vector shrugged. "Dunno...maybe 'cause it's so tasty? Haha!"Amy rolled her eyes and tried getting herself up, looking around the Den. Pictures inscribed in sequences that theoretically gave Amy the hint they were more than just for decoration.Pictures of the Bees and Crocodiles working together, bearing a twisting fusion of sorts, most likely the honey. She looked at Anchor and motioned him to come to her."I want you to wear this for me." She said, placing the Ring of Memories into his hand.Anchor blinked. "Uh...w-why?" He asked innocently.Amy smiled. "I would for Vector but his fat, ugly fingers won't be able to fit..."Vector snarled at Amy. "Hey! My fingers are not ugly!"Shaking her head, she rested her palm closing his fist, staring into the young boys eyes."All you do...is put it on and focus...I'd explain further but I'll leave that for another time."Anchor nodded as Amy drew herself away. He gulped, scared and unsure what would happen. He stared at Amy, desperate not for advice but for confidence."Don't be frightened at what you may see. It's just replaying what has already happened in the past."Anchor gulped as he slowly placed the ring on his right middle finger, shaking slightly with the fear of the unknown. Standing up, he looked at Vector, before closing his eyes tight and...somehow channeled his focus to the ring itself. The culmination of uncertainty delayed a proper response, but not by much as he'd opened up his eyes. He could see the entire room lit up with torches, a golden sparking sprinkled throughout, with dozens of bees fluttering about, tending to the honey itself. He could see a Crocodile heading in his direction, being escorted by a highly decorated bee, wearing a small golden crown and a necklace, a brown jacket and black top, with brown leather shoes, having long spiky black hair pointing out of his crown."As you can see Pha'orh...the process is going along...swimmingly..." Said the Bee, his voice below chirpy, more teenagerish than kiddish in tone.Sobeka nodded. "I can see that Prince Apis. I pray for the mermaids forgiveness. The Shell has done more harm than good these past few years. This ailment of yours will ease their pain."Apis agreed. "Yeah however I need one more ingredient..."Sobeka's expression faded. "What will you need? Surely we can get it for you."Apis turned away. "The concoction was founded when you'd recieved the shell itself. It's power, when around happiness, oozes out a special liquid. My Alchemists aren't sure why that is...but they can't make this sort of thing unless you get it right from the source."Sobeka browed. "I'm aware of the Shell's abilities, but the ooze is what kept the Mermaids happy..."Apis frowned. "It's called Lava Blood. Strung from the veins of demons!"Sobeka looked around, paranoid. "Keep your voice down Apis! You don't want to spread fear amongst your people do you?"Apis flapped away. "Listen...the mermaids themselves have a trickle of the blood inside themselves! Whether it's because of the Shell's Effects I don't know."Sobeka grumbled. "Our Kingdoms have been very close young Prince...you are like we are tethered together as such. Do what you must to obtain what we need I fail to care for it!"Apis nodded, zooming off towards the cave in the distant wall in the semi-circle dome. Anchor observed as one of the Bee Workers poured red petals into the honey itself and mixed it together. He leaned over, wanting to pick one of the petals up, however, his hand went through, as he mind forgot this was just an illusion of the past. He witnessed a purple Chameleon standing before the Pha'orh, wearing faded violet ninja robes, and scared the leading Crocodile to near death when he turned around."Dearest of Chaos! Jaxon! Cease your impugning efforts to make me fall without dignity!"Scolded Sobeka, rightfully annoyed and out of breath."I most apologize. Pha'orh." Said Jaxon. "The Village Chief is here to see you."Anchor took the ring off his finger after that, getting an unusual headache in the process, having to hold his head, and was met with a curious Agent's giant helmet who was a little close for comfort."He caught you mumbling to yourself. He was concerned." Amy joked.Anchor shook his head. He thoroughly explained to them what he'd seen..."So...red petals?" Amy reiterated.They sat around in the Den discussing Anchor's sights, which interested Amy greatly. It amused her on how little had changed between then and now, considering the interactions of a Crocodile, Bee and a Chameleon and how it all sounded familiar."So it must be a special remedy consisting of these...petals..." Amy continued. "And honey...""And Lava Blood..." Said Vector.They discussed it further, on where they would head next. The tunnel in the wall was a possible way out. Amy stood up, and discovered her ankle had healed and jumped on the spot, happy.Vector's jaw dropped and Anchor was just confused as always. Neptune clapped ecstatically. Their heads turned towards the tunnel as they heard whispers beyond it, seemingly angry. Amy was eager to check it out as she ran towards it. Neptune went up behind her and grabbed her waist, throwing her up there unexpectedly. Within his own glee, he chucked the others up there as well, then jumped and crawled up the wall. Everyone else looked each other and shrugged, before Neptune started nudging them forward. Amy didn't question Neptune's actions, but nonetheless thanked him for it.The tunnel was...less than comfortably spacious as they crawled within it's parameters. Obviously it was meant for bees, not Hedgehogs, Crocodiles, Humans...and Probationary Agents, although the last could be questioned, since it appeared Neptune was having the time of his life. Amy lead the others as they traversed the darkened caves...Amy stopped as she came across an opening into a new area and raised her arm to warn the others. Shifting forward ever so slightly, it appeared to be more of a recently built underwater lab or what ever it was, with silver-toned metals and high-pressure glass separating them from the open blue seas with long winding dome tunnels. The voices she'd heard appeared to belong to a red cloaked woman with two robots whom she'd hadn't seen in a while."I want you two to find that damn room already. The Honey Den must be found!" She ordered."Yes Mistress!" The two robots said in their cowardice.Amy leaned her head forward. "That's Scratch and Grounder...with General Lilith..." She whispered to the others."Oh great...we're dead." Said Anchor.Amy rolled her eyes. She watched as Lilith walked down the tunnels. They waited until she disappeared, then jumped out, much to the dingbots surprise who raised their hands in mercy. Amy shook her head with disappointment. Neptune slithered his way, glaring at them."Bah! Please don't hurt us!" Scratch squealed."Yeah! We haven't done anything!" Said Grounder.Vector grumbled. "Not yet you haven't!"Amy paced back and forth, swinging her Smish Smasher around, contemplating the robots fates."So...if you want your lives...you better answer a few questions..." She threatened.Scratch and Grounder repeatedly bowed to her. "We swear! We swear! We swear!" They cried repeatedly. Amy grinned."Good...now...where are we?" She asked. Anchor stood beside Vector and observed the interrogation, whilst Neptune crawled around around, ensuring Amy's dominance in the circle.Scratch and Grounder looked at each other and wallowed in fear."Uh...uh...we're in..." Started Scratch."The Sea Scroll Zone!" Finished Grounder.Amy nodded, staring back at Vector and Anchor."Okay...good...now next question...what is General Lilith BAH!"Amy was met with a blast to the back, feeling a massive burn between her shoulder-blades as she splattered across the back wall. Scratch and Grounder huddled together in the corner. Hearing two more slams, Amy turned her head around to see Vector and Anchor knocked out. Neptune made unusual growling noises as he glared at General Lilith, who floated a prepared fire ball in the palm of her hand."I thought I smelled your wretched stench around here." She taunted, her eyes glowing a vibrant green. She stared Neptune down, who didn't seem to budge. She threw the fireball at the Probie before he dodged and attempted to swipe her, only for Lilith to bring out one of her demon wings to block it. He barely managed to clip it, before she withdrew them back into her red cloak. She used her telekinesis to raise him into the air, freaking the poor thing out."Leave him alone you bitch!" Amy screamed. Lilith laughed as she checked the Probie out."Such...unusual composure for a dog. Fascinating how his Chaotical energies are beyond anything I've detected. Then again...I have no interest in dogs..." She said, freezing Neptune completely in a shot of ice, dropping his body to the ground. Amy gasped. She whipped out her Smish Smasher and stared down Lilith."Little Miss Amy Rose." Said Lilith, smirking. "I am not here as your enemy but you treading the crossroads that could lead you there."Amy gritted her teeth. How dare she say that after knocking her friends out cold. One literally."What are you doing here then? Huh?" Amy berated.Lilith chuckled. "I'm here doing my job. If you'd done yours then none of us would be in this mess."Amy raised an eyebrow, confused. "Huh?"Lilith nodded. "Yes...you know what I'm talking about. Because of your failure this world will fall faster than initially imagined."Amy didn't believe her, and charged towards her with her hammer, only for Lilith to rapidly change into her Succubus form and scream, sending a shock wave and sending Amy flying once more. Knocking the Hedgehog out."Such a pity..." Lilith sighed. "She daren't wouldn't let me explain the situation farely. Morons...take them to my chamber...immediately!""Yes Mistress!" They said in unison.The darkness seemed to last several minutes...but during this time she was unable to think, except for letting her thoughts scatter about like mad. Nothing popped up to scare her, no visions of the sort. Just the imminent lack of anything in particular would have scared her had she'd lost her senses of everything. She batted her eyelids several times as she woke up, sight blurry from the attack. She really needed to stop doing this. She had a reputation to maintain.Once she could see clearly she was being held in a small room, decorated in many, many trinkets that Amy could hardly identify but a lot were shiny. A red colour tinged through from a single red light in the corner, from the hard walls and the metal clamps tying her arms and legs down she gathered she hadn't gone too far and was most likely still within the Sea Scroll Zone. She could see Neptune still frozen in the corner, and Anchor to her left and Vector to her right. A single double door slid open on the other side of the room, with Lilith walking inside, Scratch and Grounder holding grey staffs with green floating jewels on the end of the forked staffs, with devilish grins on their faces and the constant chuckle here and there. Ground placed down a simple stool for Lilith to sit on whilst she interrogated Amy."Now we can do this my way..." Said Lilith.Amy growled, Lilith eying Scratch off as to prod Amy with the staff, sending her into great pain as the power of the staff seemed to run unbearable shock like pain throughout her body."Or we can do this...the hard way..."Amy tried getting her breath back, not saying a word as she glared."Baha hahaaaa! I gather, since you're there...stuck...and we're here, with stuff that can really cause pain, you better listen to her!" Scratch cackled."Yeah! Or else!" Said Grounder, pointing to his staff.Lilith rolled her eyes at their pathetic attempts to be devastatingly evil. She brushed it off, and stared at Amy sweetly, transforming her red cloak in the maid outfit, giggling."Maybe this will make you more comfortable..." Lilith said with a wink.Scratch and Grounder looked at her longingly. Amy didn't react in her and kept the expression if not worse than before."Now...where was I before we were rudely interrupted?" She said, her tone sickeningly sugary and stupidly high pitched.Amy persisted in her glaring. Lilith just giggled again."Ah yes...now...what I was trying to say was disappointed in your actions concerning Abbadonia's transference. As a result...like I mentioned, your people are pretty much doomed."The Pink Hedgehog managed to keep on ignoring the devilish woman, her smile disgusting her. Lilith just had Grounder shock her again, forcing Amy to withhold screaming in agony."I also know a lot more about your friend Sonic's eventual fall from grace. The one called Morpheus? He's just much as foe to us as he is to you. Maybe...together...we can destroy him!"Amy felt compelled to open her mouth...but only because now it was appropriate to."I saw it happen with my own eyes...the things that monster did to him...it's unforgivable."Lilith nodded. "To our standards as well...it is prominent to us that what that psychic does is despicable. We torture to our own happiness...not to upsize our sexual fetishes..."Amy chuckled at the irony. "So you say you don't get turned on by your own feats?"Lilith tapped her chin, knowng Amy was right to point out the hypocrisy."No...but...I'm ordered to do as I'm told after all. You see, I'm no longer the General of Abbadonia's Armies...I'm just...a Mistress to the cause now...bearing no real power at all...other just being another snivish servant to the one you call Eggadon."How ironically amusing. This was by far the most interesting information and gossip she'd heard all day."As a Succubbus, our power to woo the enemy to the point they are unable to fight is just a gig. The stereotype is taken out of context...greatly out of context. In fact, the reason you are all still alive is because I have taken a shine to you...mortals...having raised one of you on my own whilst their father died."She had to be talking about Prince Hayden, surely."Besides...I want to give you all a head start...you know, because I'm generous?"Amy was puzzled. "Head start on what?" She wondered.Lilith patted Scratch on the head, as if he were some sort of pet. "The end of the world of course. Eggadon's power is only growing by the day and if you do not have some sort of plan then all will be lost."Amy browed. "What will you do then?"Lilith shrugged, bring Grounder into her bosom and caressing him."Me? I will continue to take care of the mass of Robots that Eggadon has abandoned in favor of the constantly regenerating and constantly multiplying demons that lay within the grasps of the hell-waters."That was surprising. Eggman usually depended on those robots for everything. For him to suddenly not use them anymore was truth and proof that the old Eggman was dead and that Abbadonia had found a successful new host other than the proper Prophet who was supposed to be possessed. However, Lilith then explained how it was a mere fusion of personalities with traits of both Eggman and Abbadonia on portrayal."I know...it's hard work and it's useless. This was not how it was supposed to go at all!" Lilith whined in a girl voice.Amy shook her head and looked away. However, she felt her chin being grasped, as claws slid out of Liliths' fingers as the demoness brought her head a little too close comfort. Amy began sweating with anxiety."It can still all be set right...if the Prophetess decides to take that path...""What path?" Amy said quickly, inherently needed Lilith to step back a few paces. She however, only moved forward"Give me the Prophecy...and I can show you..." Lilith snarled.She dug her finger nails into Amy's scalp, Liliths eyes widened, bloodshot, her lips formed a primal smile as she chuckled manically.She was shocked twice by Scratch and Grounder's staffs. Great. Being tortured when she probably didn't have any information on her persons. And the soreness remained from earlier when she was hit by the rocks. The nerves twinged greatly and the skeleton wanted to burst out of her body from the egregrious pain they were causing. Muscles contracted, the notable strain to her brain giving her a headache. She felt blood run down from her nose and eyes, unbeknowst that it was dripping from her ears as well. In an eyeshot, behind Liliths big, stupidly grinning head, she could see Bloody Amy standing there, with a stone-cold expression, making in audible whispers. Amy didn't know who did it worse...Lilith or Morpheus. Both seemed to take great pleasure in mentally degrading people."WHERE IS THE PROPHECY?" Lilith screamed, transforming into her Succubus form, but this form seemed less...pretty than the ones in the books... giant arching horns, red, veiny wings spread out as far as the eye could see, four arms, an eye where a humans belly button should be, and just eyes in general kept spreading out on the wings, black fingernails lengthening into giant claws, huge fangs that could barely fit in her mouth and three tails that acted as wips, which, in sequence, struck Amy on the face. The Pink Hedgehog felt a power raise within herself that she couldn't recongnize. She blasted a wave of blue electrical energy, Scratch and Grounder being knocked over due to the sheer force of it.Bloody Amy stood there, watching as normal Amy listened to her words."He is not one of mercy. Seek the Avatar on Angel Island for further instructions. To save them all, this is your only hope..."Amy grumbled and gritted her teeth, bursting out incomprehensible words...before yelling out a single name in her agony."SHIZARU!"A flash of light took Amy's mind elsewhere into a golden cavern of sprinkling lights, green pouring water from a silver fountain, constructed of a strange creature with four wings, long spikes. Turning around she could see the rows of previous Prophets before her, including her grandmother Muriel. Running over to her in need of help and guidance, Muriel raised her hand before she could touch her."Amy...the future looks...grim." Muriel said sadly.Amy's face fell. "I know that...but I have no idea what I should do! I'm not the one in charge here!"A spotlight overcast one of the other Prophets. "Warn them. They won't listen but if you persist lives will be spared."The spotlight disappeared and overcast another in the far corner."The Avatar on Angel Island will help you... that is what we see and so should you."Amy shook her head, angry. "I don't see anything! Gran! Please!"Muriel walked up to her granddaughter and smiled. "We can only help out so much...already all the Prophets give their power to you...well, only a portion anyway..."Amy shook her fist. "But...I wanted to be a hero...I could save the world easily...become independent...live my life the way I want to..."Muriel nodded. "You can. Give your heart out to the Spirit of the Prophets. That's what the necklace is for..."Amy held the pendant on her necklace in her hand. It was a gift, but from the mystic words of others it did more. She clasped it in her hand, thinking of Shadow. After that drunken night, she could barely remember what happened. Waking up...with Sonic next to her. What...she couldn't have. Shizaru would have mentioned something. Or not. Who knew with her cryptical antics?Had Sonic given her the necklace? Did she win it? It was screwing with her more and more."I give my heart out...I will...become stronger?" Amy queried.Muriel smiled. "Yes deary. You have come so far and yet, even with this mess it doesn't mean you can't still seek your own future by avoiding a complete catastrophe."Amy gulped, hesitant to act upon. To gain the full power of the Prophers...that will save her and her friends and many more unknown to her. It's what she wanted. And what she was going to do."I...I want that power...please...I'll pay any price in order to save this place!"Shizaru appeared next to Muriel. "Your sacrifice will not go unheeded. You are about to follow a path that is dangerous...but brings clarity and lives with be saved if you succeed."Amy ran over several times just to make herself confident of her decision."Only if you will keep guiding me along the way. Unlike Sonic...I will accept help from people who offer it. No one will be turned away..."Shizaru bowed to her. "Good...I must warn you again...it will be perilous...painful...agonizing but you will push through for the will of the Prophetic Spirit."Amy nodded. "I have to do this...for the world..."Coming out of her mental meeting, she stared Lilith down with new born strength, striking her down with a power bolt, and breaking her bonds with the wall. She smashed down the restraints on her friends, waking them up. A vision already crossed her mind. A small, blue and orange plane that rested outside the Ruins of the Gardens of Rosales. Could it be? She whipped out the keys in her pocket. Vector was the first to awaken, rubbing his head and grumbling. She gripped the keys tight, before rushing over."Vector..." She said, kneeling down before him. "I want to take Anchor and Neptune to the nearby Portal..."Vector was puzzled. How Amy herself knew there was a portal down here was anyones guess. Ignoring that, she shoved the keys into his hands."If you know how to fly a plane or what ever...if you don't...get Anchor to do it..."Vector was still getting his mind reassembling, adjusting to her words."Ames...what are you going to do?" Vector questioning, seeing Lilith trying to get back up.Amy whirled her Smish Smasher about. "I'll catch up. I have some unfinished business to take care of."Vector looked around, seeing Neptune's frozen body in the corner and taking it, alongside the still unconscious Anchor, snatching his body. He watched Amy as Lilith stood up. Amy unconsciously formed a barrier between herself and Vector, then glared at Vector with glowing white eyes."GO!"Vector jumped with fright and fled with Neptune and Anchor, not really knowing where he was heading off or where this Portal was.Lilith on the other hand started laughing as she wiped the blood off her pale white face, transforming into her red riding hood form, her cloak whisking up in the quickened breeze as she twirled to face Amy."You're learning Prophetess...good...good...this is perfect! Haha!" She taunted, flames shooting everywhere. Scratch and Grounder managed to recuperate themselves and stand. Lilith rolled her eyes."Finally...you morons are awake...go to Eggadon. Tell him the good news..." She said, forming a portal underneath the robots, making them disappear.Lilith held a snarl on her face as Amy's stare attempted to pierce her."This game will be fun for us both..." She exclaimed.Amy brushed it off, sending an electrical charge through her Smish Smasher and bolting it to Lilith, who spun out of the way, dodging it. She cast fire balls at the Hedgehog, who jumped and gracefully twirled out of the way, swinging her hammer at the demoness who moved too fast for her eye. With two feet firmly placed on the ground she tried shocking her again, but Lilith's super speed got the better of her as she tripped Amy over, who managed to turn into a roll and forced herself into a fighting stance.Lilith cast a spell, her wrists giving off a bright pink glow. Spikes popped out of the walls repeatedly, Amy by the skin of the teeth barely to avoid the fasting moving metal pikes. She used this spell casting as an opportunity to shock Lilith who recieved the shock, stunning her long enough for Amy to smash her on the head, splatting her lava blood everywhere. She was still conscious but now on her knees."Tell me now...why I shouldn't swat your head off right now?" Amy tested, her eyes still glowing brightly.Lilith just laughed. "Where the Prophets compassion is their only weakness..." She claimed."If you want to be driven off the deep end just like your dear Sonic..."Amy struggled to hold her grip back as her hand shook from anger."It'll be the last living piece of proof that morality dwelled in the hearts of mortals...before they're all torn to shreds in their hunt for survival."Lilith wore a smile from ear to ear that creeped Amy out, giving Lilith the moment to place her hand on her skull, wanting to drain the prophecy from her mind, her voice screaming in her mind the phrase over and over again. Amy shocked her again and yelled at her, swatting her torso."Just shut up and get lost...crawl back to your precious...bitch...I don't have time to waste here..."Amy scolded, fading the barrier and walking away.Lilith dragged herself up the the tunnel that Amy walked down, who tried to focus her powers into where the others had disappeared to."I hate you Hedgehog!" Lilith cried.In time, she eventually found Anchor had awakened, but unfortunately Neptune was still frozen. Anchor had been rambling on about his mother, and how he missed her. Amy looked at the poor probationary Agent, who was extremely fragile. She sighed and turned to Vector, explaining they had to find the portal.They wandered the twisted caverns of the Sea Scroll Zone, looking at the strange, clean, cyber, futuristic aspects of it. Amy during her time as Olly remembered this had been constructed by Eggman in the hope of claiming the Shell of Emotions. She couldn't recall the entire scope of it, mainly fragments. He'd failed somewhat from memory. Both Vector and Anchor grew concerned as she walked in front, not saying a word in her cocky but determined stride, her arms bladed beside her, deep in concentrate thought. Anchor wanted to word this out, but a hand on his shoulder from Vector prevented him from doing so. She suddenly stopped in her tracks, her eyes darting left and right. Something didn't feel good...as she sensed a rush of energy heading towards them. Kneeling down, she touched the ground, channelling. Her head snapped up in surprise."Run..."She bolted forward as deep baritone banging echoed behind them, catching up to rapid smashes on the windows as black, amber eye, medusa haired and serpentine faced creatures whacked their finned fists on them.It was the mermaids...and they weren't happy. Nor were they themselves. Amy detected Lilith in the vacinity, her influence corrupting the poor souls. The three were sprinting as hard as they could, not really knowing where they were going. Amy tried using what powers she gained to find it. The combination of intuition and instinct lead her a new dome area, displaying the portal in all it's glory.She slapped her head, realizing that there was no Sphere to power it. The mermaids got closer as Amy erected a bright spherical barrier around them as the walls began to crack under the pressure. Instinctively yet again, she threw the Red Chaos Emerald she held to Vector, and ordered him to place the Emerald into the middle of the Portal itself. These words that were being spat from her mouth were completely random and unforeseen, even to herself. Vector knew he had no other choice or option as the mermaids threatened to drown them. However, he pointed out that he was a Crocodile...he could survive for a limited time down here. He threw the Emerald to Anchor and got him to do it instead."I...Vector!" Anchor cried out.Amy glared at the Crocodile. "What do you think you're doing?" She yelled, holding her hands up as she generated the protective barrier."I can buy you both some time..." He said, cracking his knuckles. He walked out of the barrier alone as the glass broke, water coming gushing in. Anchor fumbled, watching in horror as Vector smashed the face of one mermaid with his fists. Amy had never seen Vector so brutal as he dug his razor sharp fangs into a arm, lava blood spluttering everywhere. Vector pulled out a jar."I knew about the Remedy..." Vector said, straining as he elbowed a mermaid in the torso."Charmy was given an recipe by his grandmother...who used to work with GUN...GAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Vector roared, as a mermaid bit him on the shoulder."VECTOR!" Amy and Anchor yelled out in sync.Vector managed to smack the living daylights out of the mermaids, but the water that was filling the tunnels was slowing him down. He'd broke the neck of another, slicing it to pour the lava blood in a jar and twisting the lid."I'm done...let's get that portal opened it!" Vector cried out, running back into Amy's barrier.The shield protected them from the rising water, much like what Neptune had done before. The cavalcade of Mermaids desperate for slaughter tried to slashing and bashing their way through, with Amy putting extra strength in protection while Anchor and Vector figured out how they were going to activate the portal with the Emerald. Amy herself wasn't completely sure, claiming it as how Emeralds were used for everything nowadays. It was a shame and a damning inconvenience she didn't have a second Emerald to make their own. But this was all they had and had to make the best of it or else risk certain death.Anchor looked around for something to press, and found a single red button. He held the Emerald in the middle of the Portal, while Vector forcely pressed the button. Blood began running out of her nose, ears eyes and mouth from the mental pressure of defending them. She began hearing whispers, thinking it was from the mermaids but these were more malicious in nature, the mermaids only having high pitched squeals. She bluntly ignored them, screaming outwards to alleviate the pain. She began hallucinating again, as Sonic randomly appeared out of nowhere, walking up to and standing next to Amy, staring at the mermaids with his hands by his sides, his face transfixed on the occurring frantics. This was becoming rather painful, a migraine building up inside that it felt like her brain was splitting in two."Do you like the colour red?" Said Sonic.She turned her head around, seeing that Anchor and Vector couldn't work out how the Emerald was supposed to make the portal work. She could see Neptune's frozen body standing there. What within her intuition could get him to help them? Shaking her head, Neptune shouldn't bare that burden at all, with Amy giving it her all. Her eyes were killing her, feeling that they could explode at any given moment, a shift in the air prompted her to turn her head again. They finally had gotten the portal to work as the Emerald spun around, a green fluid pouring down instead of the usual amber colouring. Vector pushed Anchor through it, and grabbed Neptune's body. He looked at Amy, who's shoulders began shooting out glowing strings, weirding the crocodile out."AMY COME ON!" Vector roared.Amy shifted back so slightly, the water pressure breaking the rest of the glass supporting the tunnels, the immense weight spurted into Amy's barrier. An image of Sonic stood in front of her, staring at her. She knew what he wanted her to do. Vector snatched her hand, forcing her out of her concentration, the water gushed everywhere as they struggled to push through.Amy laid on the ground, staring at the dark roof above her. It looked familiar, but what was bothering her more was something digging into her back. Turning around, her face went red as Anchor had been knocked out briefly from her fall. The Chaos Emerald stopped spinning and dropped, landing in front of Vector who picked it up. Amy got off Anchor, and forced him off the ground as she apologized to the young human. He mumbled incoherently, getting himself together shortly after.Amy knew this place, it's abundance of portals and the dias in the middle only meant that they were in the Transportation Hub...somewhere she hadn't visited in a while. The others followed as they walked up the stairs and left the building.The Garden of Rosales was as sunny as ever, but now from Amy's perspective was a bit conspicuous, unnerving and possibly from past Prophets perspectives, rich in spiritual treasures, as if the Garden was speaking to her in wordless ways. The invitation was tempting but for Amy it was unsure why it needed her. She lead them to the Temple of the Prophets, the remembrance of flash backs courtesy of her predecessors displaying a ghostly sight of a once highly populated place. Sitting on the steps, Anchor grabbed his canteen and sculled it. Amy collapsed and spread her arms, watching the clouds circluate the sky."Vector..." Said Amy."That remedy...what were you trying to use it for?"Vector's attention was focused on poor Neptune."Like I said before, Charmy helped me with it. He said it also brings people out of comas."Anchor's head spun towards him. "Really?" He said with surprise.Vector nodded. "Yeah...it was kinda the reason why I finally signed up for GUN and..."Amy's eyes widened... "WHAT?"She stormed over to the crocodile with anger in her eyes and swatted him with her Smish Smasher."You are such a hypocrite! You swore to me that you would never join! Now you're trapped with her you moron... and..."Vector was in a state of calm, but he was giving a serious vibe along with it."Lemme finish..." He said, spitting out blood. "Anyway, it's not like I had any choice. It was the only way I could help Cream."Amy dropped the hammer to the ground, then to her own knees, agonizing over what and why she overreacted. She knew Vector had a certain dislike of GUN due to undisclosed reasons. His blood boiled even more when Vanilla let out she was part of their special forces or something."It broke my heart when Cream went into that coma. She was devastated...I..."Vector broke into tears, cradling his head into the palms of his hands. Amy's face fell, guilty from her own bout as well as his situation. He really did love Cream as if she was his own daughter. It made Amy miss her own father, and deepened the void in her heart that concerned her step-father. It poured in greately. Amy approached the giant Crocodile and hugged him. Anchor stood there, not sure of anything himself, rather looking down. He wanted love from his own dad after all and his mother died when he was still young. But if any of this, his previous life of where he'd been was far worse than this and appreciated the small cross-generational friend-ship these two had. Only if he'd the same respect with his peers."It's okay Vector...I understand...I...I'm sorry...I love Cream as a sister...which makes you family to me...the only father I have left. You do what you have to do for them. Blood related or not."After the moments of recovering through silence and comfort, they got up with purpose and reason to keep going. Anchor wanted to ask Vector a question, but refrained from doing so, believing himself selfish for it. Amy. Vector broke the hug, quickly reminded of the keys in his persons. Amy stood back, remembering."Oh...yes...the plane!" Said Amy."It should be on the outskirts...which means if we find out a way of the ruins we should see in plain sight!"Vector chuckled. "Heh...Van would have loved that one..."Amy tilted her head, confused. "Loved what?"Vector shrugged, wiping a tear from his face. "You know, the bad puns..."Amy blinked, then laughed. "Oh yeah...haha."Anchor sighed.They'd crossed the main thoroughfare and the courtyard with the giant fountain and upon their surprise the plane Amy was talking about. She wasn't convinced that it existed but...surely enough. It was there, out in the open and looked functional. Anchor nodded, impressed, but Vector and Amy exchanged glances as to their knowledge of the plane, judging from it's design. Approaching it, Amy rimmed her fingers over the sides of it, examining it for it's history. Anchor didn't know what they were so...entranced about, when it was just a plane."So...how did this get here...anyway?" He asked.Amy forgot that Anchor hadn't been around long enough to understand it. But that wasn't a problem..."This...the Tornado 2...Tails...plane." Said Amy.Anchor browed. "Tails? You mean that two-tailed fox that Sonic spoke about?"Amy nodded. It was time to finally get out of this place and report to Shadow...finally. Amy had some experience flying, but didn't trust herself in the Tornados hands, so she let Vector do it instead.Due to the factor that the Tornado only had two seats, two of them had to on the back or the front.Amy offered to stand on the wing, whilst Vector suggested that they strapped Neptunes somewhere. However, they didn't want to risk shattering his body. Whilst shuffling about in the cockpit, Vector found a small black box. Opening it's hatch he found a gold ring inside. Taking it out, it ironically circled around Neptune, giving Vector an idea. He jumped out, and tried pressing against Neptune's head. Amy looked on, curious as to Vector's doing."I figure...the Gold Ring gives a bit of warmth...along with some protection and power boosts...it might help heal em..."The ring vanished into Neptune's suit, making the probie glow a little with a golden emanation. All of a sudden, the tinge of blue that surrounded his body faded away...with a little movement to be had. Neptune moved his head and twinkled his fingerclaws, seeing Amy and tackling the Hedgehog to the ground in playful delight. Amy giggled and smiled, happy to see her friend active and well."Don't thank me Neptune, Vector was the one who saved you." Said Amy.Anchor walked up to Vector, impressed. "Wow...how...?" Said the naive human.Vector chuckled nervously. "Hey, it's common knowledge. You haven't been around long enough to see the power of random golden rings."With that, Neptune jumped into the passenger seat, with Anchor now frozen himself, unable to do anything about. Amy realized the implications and laughed. She jumped up to the middle of the biplanes top wing, whilst Vector jumped into the cockpit. Anchor argued where he was going to sit. Amy rolled her eyes."Did we bring any tape?"Surely enough, there was duct tape in Amy's bag for some reason, as she strapped Anchor to the back of the plane, much to his dismay. He kicked and screamed, calling on health and safety regulations against it. Vector got them into the air without much trouble at all as they he flew them all back to Grand Metropolis.As they returned, they'd had a meeting with Shadow as soon as they'd gotten back. It was true, however, that Vector had indeed joined up and was the fated third member of the Ghosts of Reach.Shadow quickly noted the importance of this new information, and that the Remedy that Vector had explained about prompted him to ask for a meeting with Charmy. Shadow offered him a deal in order to get what he needed. Vector apparently was hesitant, but was willing to do anything for the sake of his wife and step-daughter and became an honorary Agent. It was...interesting to Shadow however about Liliths involvement with taking care of Eggman's surviving left over robots, meaning that Eggman had truly changed and taken it as a point of his evolved ruthlessness. Meanwhile Amy was conflicted about her new feeling relating to the Garden of Rosales and her newfound attachment to it, as a place of protection. Whether to tell Shadow this was unknown, but eventually she would have to tell him.After the meeting Amy and Shadow met in his office. Amy was glad he was asking about well being, explaining she was okay. Okay generically yes, but her mood was so strange she couldn't place a word to it. This had to be part of the Prophets acceptance, that she aliented herself with sudden changes. She became tense from what Shadow sensed, rubbing her arm. He didn't dare question it, as he placed his hands on her hips, pushing her against the wall and pressing his lips against her. She needed this nice touch at the end of a pressured day. However, as much as the kiss was lovely, Amy disconnected straight away as a flash of light crossed her eyes, seeing Sonic standing in the middle of a ruined city. These were intercut with destruction to many cities she could barely recognize anymore. Demons ran rampant, dismembering...devouring...everything and everyone they could, blood splattering everywhere with Eggadon's devilish laughing. Amy fell over, Shadow barely catching her, wearing a look of concern on her face."Everything alright?" He asked.These Prophet powers...she was warned they would cause pain in the meanwhile and she had accepted it. This...was a possible future. A future she must prevent. Her head fell, with Shadow lifting her up and placing her on the couch."I'm sorry...I'm...just...I'm just a bit tired..." Amy replied.Of course...she was exhausted. Physically and mentally. For now, she just wished the world would leave her alone for the moment, for her to recuperate her strength for what ever days laid ahead of her.Anchor huddled himself on a back corner bench near his locker, listening to his mp3 player, holding his knees in as the music took him to another world. He was not unlike Amy in the ranks of his current stamina. He could get something to eat...head back to Moore's house and see if his friend was awake yet. Anchor was thankful that Corrine bought him the MP3 player, since it was supposed to be a birthday gift to Tails. It was a shame that Anchor never met the fox.His thoughts dangled about aimlessly. Despite the hardships, the scariness in general...this place thrived on adventure. If you wanted to for purpose then you would aim for it. There was his connection to EUO which he felt was the only reason they kept him. Sinking deeper into a depression, his knees came in closer. He wished for certainty to his life, a perfect balance of contentment. Witnessing a shadow overcasting him, Anchor lifted his head up, and took out the earphones."Vector..." He muttered.Vector seemed okay, his shoulder now patched up. "You said you wanted to speak to me?"Anchor stood up and nodded frantically. "I don't want to be a bother to you..."Vector crossed his arms. "No you have the right...speak up..."Anchor gulped. "About the Remedy..."Vector raised an eyebrow. "Yeah...what about it?"Anchor became very nervous and feared he was going to be greedy and selfish in his upcoming decisions."Do you think...I can borrow some...?" Anchor asked anxiously.Vector grinned and gave a thumbs up. "Sure. But you don't seem injured..." He said with confusion.Anchor shook his head. "N-no...it's not for me. It's for my friend. She's...unconscious as well. Doesn't want to wake up."Vector nodded. "Alrighty then. I've got no problem with splitting. Heck, I think I've got enough for three people."Anchor smiled, warmth growing on his face. After mixing the ingredients that he finally obtained, Vector gave Anchor a small jar before he left to go see his wife and stepdaughter.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

In Creams ward, Vector held on to his weeping wife as Asher applied the Remedy dosage. The room was warm with the blinds drawn, such little light was giving out by a single overhanging lamp as Cream lay tucked underneath the white sheets, her cute little head resting on the pillow. The sense uncertainty drifted in the air as Vanilla clutched on to Vector with dear life. A few moments went past with inactivity, with Creams chest rising and falling. Vanilla was about to start bawling...but refrained as she saw Cream's finger twitch. The elder rabbit gasped with anticipation, thinking to herself that she might be seeing things. But again, her fingers twitched, her eyelids batting as she turned her head to her parents."Mom? Vector?" Cream croaked. Vanilla let the tears flow...but of unadulterated joy and happiness that her daughter had finally awoken. The trio hugged, not speaking a word, whilst Asher stood from afar and swear she felt something run down her cheek.Things seemed well enough for now. Well, as well as they could be despite the turmoil. Things were being set up for the worst scenarios as the whole world was put on alert on Eggadon's surge through to victory. The major downside was that entire cities were sacrificed for nothing and feared the end result was even more lives lost in this pointless crusade. Supreme Commander Rose had worked with Chief Commanders and Commanders on how to stop this thing as well as the protocols for a potential apocalypse.Entire populations intiated said protocols to their best limits. One of the main benefits of having a repetitive villain was the practicing of enacting these measures by placing entire populations underground. GUN worked various corporations to construct these underground cities throughout the world. Most were unfinished but by standards were at least livable. Citizens who had qualifications in wiring, construction and general creative hands would be used to help finish and perfect these massive bomb-shelter like caves.Another two weeks went by, however considerably, very busy...with the peace not lasting as long as they'd hoped, it'd fallen down hill immensely. Three more cities were lost, the death toll less than usual due to the good preparation but...it didn't make it any less worse than it was. GUN worked around the clock, doing all they could to salvage what was left of Eggadon's assaults. Amy was promoted to Commander of what was left of the Central City/Metropolis Combine after Shadow vanished into thin air. Last they had heard he'd stayed up in the ARK with Rouge, Omega and Maria. Despite the pleas to her mother she had orders to keep control of the situation of the CCN Combine. The barriers protecting Metropolis were weakening as Eggman held his striking tactics at random, leaving a lot of them paranoid.She sighed as she sat in the chair, watching the helpless attempts to save the city with her soldiers getting mowed down by demons. Any day now. So much for things seeming well enough. Wiping her forehead, she worked hard with her Intel Officers to ensure a lesser impact than was needed. After giving a set of instructions, she left the TR Room and retreated into her office. Damn it Shadow...having to leave her in this situation. This Prophecy stuff was worthless...it hadn't helped her one bit. It started making her mad, and her subordinates were on the receiving end of her nerves. She still prayed for guidance but got nothing in return, forcing her to become skeptical.She laid back in the chair staring at the ceiling within her own contemplation and wondered if she could wake Sonic up. He would know what to do and how to do it. She didn't care if he did it on his own. The Chaotix were in hot pursuit for the other Chaos Emeralds. To her concern, Amy didn't want them to do so...since they'd confiscated Sonic's and Milo's Emeralds. Amy held her Blue Emerald and had no idea what Morpheus did with the gray one. Sighing again, she could have sworn they had three of them in their possession. Resting her eyes, the pink hedgehog was desperate for outsider help...Reappearing in the Endless Fields within her dream world, Amy ran all over the place, scouring for NiGHTS where ever they were. Tension was failing to lift, making the infuriating all the while stronger. A single stomp of the foot, she inhaled and exhaled, wanting herself to not get too mad about it, even though she had every right to be."If I lose my cool too often I'll lose the faith of everyone around me..." She said."But how can they have faith when I don't have the support of those I believe in myself..."She tried running again. But...nothing again. Was this supposed to end here? Now? This...didn't feel. It wasn't supposed to be. Abandonment."Hi there!" Said a chirpy voice in a British accent.Or not.Amy turned around. Her expression transformed from surprised, to happy, to angry as she pulled out the Smish Smasher and threatened NiGHTS with it."How come you haven't bothered to see me hm?" Amy scolded.NiGHTS looked nervous. "L-look! Calm d-down Amy! I've been extremely busy!"Amy skepticism was heightened. "Really?"NiGHTS nodded frantically, raising their arms in passive motion."I'm trying to maintain the Dream Wave here...it's been extremely disturbed as of late...which is why I haven't been around as often."Amy crumpled and walked in the opposite direction. Yes...leave her in her time of need."Amy! I'm coming because I can help you!"Amy kept walking, ignoring NiGHTS, who flew forward. "Amy Rose please! I know how to potentially save more lives!"Amy had heard that many times before. Onward she went to nowhere. NiGHTS facepalmed, spinning above her and floating down, widening their arms."Amy...it's about the Garden Rosales. I want to quickly tell you about an idea, then let you make that choice."The stubborn pink one stopped in her tracks and contemplated. What stressed her the most was the timing of all this sudden information, it was like it had been part of some stupid schedule."Fine...let me know if it."Another week went by in a blink of an eye. Too fast in Amy's opinion. But she was willing to listen to NiGHTS. The option of the Garden of Rosales was more fruitful than she once thought. Signs and a variety of signals indicated a plan in the making. She usurped what control she had and started working on a final solution that would aid Mobiankind. But this is where her heroism would shine.First off, she called all the Commanders to utilize their resources, transfixing them towards the Garden of Rosales, which, to Amy's Prophet powers had strengthened Chaos Energy, despite the lack of Chao in the surrounding areas. Perhaps it was just too difficult for them to get to...or the lack of trees and food. It astounded Amy herself at what was going on, with Supreme Commander Rose letting her daughter plot things out on her own whilst she was overseas with more important matters. It'd been hard, with what they had called, the Great Migration to the safety of Rosales. Many had wondered and questioned her theories, but with a single mention of her mother, most back-flipped in their words. But they other worse things to deal with. Demons threatened the safety of the citizens as they were flown out in large numbers, protected by jetcopters. Amy kept an eye on security whilst everything was being carried out, the pressure to minimize panic grinding. Most tech was packed with other cargo and dragged over as well. The only problem was half the resources were being used to keep demons at bay and the barrier alive for as long as possible."How's the transfer coming along O'Brien?" Asked Amy."We're more than halfway Commander. But I'm getting more Eggadon Demons heading in this direction."Amy nodded. "Set Echo out. Get Agent Anchor in there pronto!" Amy ordered.No sooner than later, Echo Uniform One held up the rounding demonic forces, stomping and thwacking their ugly hides. Their shape and form were not too dissimilar to Abbadonia's original armies, but they had a distinct Robotnik touch to them, making them more a monstrosity than before. Anchor screamed as he threw himself at them, buying more time.Amy extruded a strange calmness, wondering if it was the effects of Prophethood. Too much guessing, not enough action in her opinion. She watched the city in flames, but wasn't too depressed or concerned about the matter. Echo swatted them down like fly's in his succession, but unfortunately another swarm of Demons were warped in to keep the assault heavy."Set Echo Uniform Two out there now! I want Probationary Agent Carmine out there on the double!"Again, in a frantic rush, another robot, with near-equal structure to One, Number Two popped out of the ground, making their stance. This one was red in colour, and seemingly had four eyes. It grabbed a progknife from it's shoulderfin and went in to assist Anchor. Together they worked, successfully shielding off the demons from their rampancy. Amy sighed with relief, knowing those two could last a while. And was thankful that Agent Carmine was so eager to join, being out for the majority of the time in a coma. Anchor was only grateful that he could finally wake his friend up, for he was so dependent on her, despite Carmines temper worse than Amy's. Once Amy offered the robot they'd found alongside Anchors, she became hysterical and swiped the offer up. More allies meant more time.She got O'Brien and Smith to take care of things down here whilst she was away briefly, and she was only a pager away if they needed her assistance. For now, she needed to Sonic.Sitting in front of his Chryo Chamber, feeling the vibrations brought on by nearby explosions, she contemplated. To bring Sonic with her or to leave him on her mothers orders. Of course not. She would never leave Sonic behind. She sighed. Pressing her hand on her heart, a deep pit in her stomach formed as Amy looked at his body, wondering if she possibly...maybe...still had feelings for him again. Did they ever leave? Or just hiding. Realizations must have come into place by now."I love Shadow...but...if I love Sonic too it means I have to abandon one of them. I can't love two people...it's not fair on the other one..." She said to herself.Buried. Shoveled in by her mothers medication. Forcing her to drift her feelings elsewhere and ironically falling for another Hedgehog."Heh...you know what Sonic? You remember that one Christmas we had and everyone forced you to stand under the mistletoe with me and you accused me of setting us up?" Amy said, chuckling."To be honest, that was much to my surprise as well. It was mainly Tails idea because he thought it would be funny with the concept of you kissing a girl."She didn't mind it. Back then she was obsessed still, but lowered her antics a little. She'd given him space and more respect after many tiring battles with Eggman. Well, for her it was tiring. Sonic looked like he could go on forever."Did you know that was my first kiss? Funny that. I'd been savoring for you just in case. I'd had some nutter earlier that year following me around like I do with you. I think that was the reason I hardly saw you was because I was avoiding another idiot."It never crossed her mind her attraction with others. But Sonic was never one to dwell on the beauty of people. But rather be entranced on the way the land works with flowers and mountains to smell and traverse respectively."Love is such a fickle concept. Runs our lives. Ran my life for most part. Life I shouldn't have wasted because I knew you could never love me. But I tried. I was inspired by your persistence in your Eggman pursuits to head in strong. But...in the end..."Another explosion nearly shot Amy off the end of the platform in such fright. She pushed herself back up and sat back down. No way near finished."I-I just couldn't. But...even if I just tried to suppress it...it comes crawling back Sonic...I..."Two GUN Personnel rocked into the room."Commander Rose! We need to evacuate quickly! Echo Uniforms One and Two have quickly subdued the demons. However, our signals indicate that a huge force is being warped through at a fast rate." He said.Amy shot up and stared at him with a stern face."How long do we have?" She demanded."We have a half-an-hour window. Which means half the cargo can't be brought out. We're gonna have to leave some behind."Amy nodded. "What about Sonic?"The Personnel looked down. "Unfortunately due to the Supreme Commanders orders we can't. She's demanded you leave now."Amy glared. "No! We can't leave him here! We just can't!"Amy dodged the debris falling from above. Half-an-hour her arse."What the hell was that?" Amy roared. The Personnel grabbed her hand."Commander we really have to go!" He yelled.As they ran off, more debris fell around Sonic's chamber as Amy looked back in sadness, a tear falling from her eye. She had to be strong. Sonic was a tough cookie. She prayed for him dearly.More debris fell everywhere with soldiers and personnel fleeing the scene in hundreds of brought over Jetcopters from across the country. Flying demons shot at several, destroying a few which fell to the ground. Amy grunted."I'll be with you in a minute. I need the status of Echo One and Echo Two." She ordered.Running off, she dodged falling roof tiles and wires, pieces of metal and the like as she ran up the stairs to the tip top. Once there, she watched the guarding Echo One and Echo Two. Beyond the two giant robots was a great big black hole warped, sucking in entire buildings, with One and Two holding onto one another. The winds picked up dramatically, the entire sky a harsh brown, dust riddling the air. They weren't that old those kids...near the same age as Sonic and Amy. She pulled out her hammer. She had to battle this demon, what ever it was.Running forward, she flipped from building from building with fire in her eyes, defying her mothers orders to flee. Using her Smish Smasher, the momentum from the weight allowed her to fly further until she reached Echos. She remembered she had her intercom device in her pocket, flinging it out and pushing it on her ear."Anchor! Carmine!" She roared.Echo One turned to Amy. "Commander Rose!" Anchor said in shock."We either run now, or we face this gargantuan together!" Amy yelled in determination.Anchor was frightened of this fierceness his Commander exhumed."Oh please Commander! Let us deal with it! I haven't had a great big battle since forever!" Complained Carmine.Amy swung her hammer around. She wished she had all the Chaos Emeralds with her. But for now this was all she could do. The black hole made gurgling, mushy and bubble sounds as spiked white claws pushed out, clinging on to the sides of the hole. Amy sensed great, but evil power emanating from it, wretching her heart. This was not for the weak willed at all. Another set of white claws pressed against the sides. The demon was trying to crawl out."Alright. Get your rifles ready! On the count of three I want you two to blast it!" Amy commanded."Roger that!" Anchor and Carmine said in unison.They whipped their giant rifles from behind them, and aimed them deep into the hole.1..2...3!The piercing sounds of the rapid gunfire forced Amy to conceal her ears, bracing herself. Quick paced flashes everywhere, explosions forming and dust rising. Amy was intent to ensure this monster was dealt with quickly. Buying more time was a priority.Jumping to another building allowed Amy to look closer as the dust dissipated. Her eyes widened as the demon was only knocked back slightly. Amy grunted as she raised her Hammer in the air, a strike of lightening shooting down from above, transforming the hammer into it's mythological rocky form. Taking a run back, she sprinted forward, leaping into the air and using gravity to speed up the process of slamming the demon back into it's literal hellhole, with Carmine and Anchor calling out her name as she fell inside.There was a splat heard as she descended into the darkness of the demonic pit, the demons claws clattering about as Amy rolled off it, with more falling to follow. Looking up, the hole looked like it was closing, with Amy content with shocking the creature to death with a sadistic look on her face, the fire burning bright as her eyes turned white, brimming with a surreal glow. Normally, she would expect Sonic to save her in this mess...but not today."DIE!" She screamed. Her entire body shone with light, blinding the demon. In her rage, she persistently splattered it with her hammer, blood bursting out and covering her tight Commander combat suit."DIE!"White blasts piercing out of her back like glass wings, sparkling everywhere. Her screams were grunted as she dodged and weaved the claws of the demon, now known to have an arachnid-like form, with green eyes that splurted with out a purple acid.Reaching the bottom of the pit, they were met with a huge thud, the entirety of the cavern was tinged red from the lava everywhere. Amy could see demons flooding towards her of a large variety, skipping and hopping to destroy the intruder. Amy snarled, her smile unnerving to most of the demons, but a incomprehensible cry echoed from behind them, pushing them on to eliminate the threat. Amy backflipped from the huge demon she was slaughtering, only to be met with New formed Implix who attempted to drag her down via jumping on her and tearing her to shreds. She screamed, sending off a huge wave of electrical energy sending the implix packing, slicing them into an eventual nothing. Eggman Made Crawlfangs scrambled at her, fireballing at her. Amy jumped up, swatting them away. She was met with a smack to the face courtesy of a StumpWing, then crawled on by all things nasty. Screaming, Amy tried using the shock wave again but was prevented from doing so by Mephbones pinning her down, spiking through her arms, sending a flow of pain to her chest that she felt like her heart was going to explode.Her canine teeth lengthened as she burnt brighter, successfully sending off another wave, giving the pink Hedgehog some space to fight. More demons came in her direction, as the glasswings became streamer like strands from her shoulders, lines forming around her. Flipping up, she started spinning herself around in high speeds, sending off a tornado, collecting several demons and throwing them into the lava pits.A thump to the head was brought on by the Implix forced themselves upon her as she fell back to the ground. She bit one of the arms of the little buggers, blood spurting all over her face as she screamed."Commander Rose?" Said Anchor through the Intercom.Amy wasn't worried at this point."GET EVERYONE OUT NOW!" She roared."Oh get over yourself Commander, we're coming down to get you whether you like it or not!" Said Carmine.Amy spun her hammer around, knocking back most of the Implix near her. She then realized in an ephihany she was becoming enraged with bloodlust, her infamous rage showing. Shaking her head, she was thankful no one else was around to see it. And it was for a good cause...she hoped.Amy's next move involved dancing off the head of several Crawlfangs, knocking the heads off of Mephbones and the like. She showed off her graceful acrobatics as she back-flipped in swirls, swinging her hammer around the meanwhile. The caverns echoed again with words Amy failed to understand. Amy's teeth glinted in delight as more hordes of demons barraged in her direction. More fun for her...and let her rage go wild...In a mighty yell in this total blood-lust she splattered, smacked, smashed, smooshed, slathered and all kinds of nasty things her way through them all. Her arm was pierced with a Mephbone's own bone, with Amy facing an infection if she didn't do anything about. She didn't care. She only wanted time."HALF AN HOUR ISN'T UP LADIES!" She taunted.Rocks fell from above, forcing Amy to backflip to avoid it. The rock falls were useful in destroying some Implix and Mephbones. StumpWings threw spikes at Amy, who dodged and knocked some back at the same time. The cave shook violently, with boulders come from above. A huge roar sounded as Amy turned around. Another huge Arachnid Demon had entered from another cave. Amy jumped off onto a nearby ledge as the Arachnid swallowed several others for energy. Amy, who was still glowing and covered in Lava Blood, was still raring to go as she swung her thunder charged hammer. She grinned at the monster, leaned her hand forward, and indicated through the use of a hand gesture...to come and get her.The Arachnid did so as Amy leaped off the ledge to splatter it. Instead she was met with a gaint purple hand grabbing her, and two different feet stomping the demons head, with Lava Blood bursting everywhere. Amy looked up."Anchor!" Amy cried.Echo One nodded as Echo Two came down, wrestling with the Arachnid."Told you we would come down!" Carmine boasted.Amy smirked. "Never doubted you would."As soon as they were done destroying the demons around them, the cave became deathly silent. A nasty cackling traveled the cave walls, scary Anchor slightly. He placed Amy on his Echo One's shoulder and looked around for the source."Cliche villian? No worries!" Carmine said sweetly.Amy watched as something came out of the lava behind them, forcing them to turn around. The figure was rather, bulbous in form, veiny with it's lava blood in and gray as the magma walls. Six large bat like wings protruded from it's back, with all too familiar egg shaped head with a moustache to boot."Well Amy. I want to thank you to testing out my own breed of demon." Said Eggman, his voice in sync with Abbadonia's with several multilayered-toned voices within it.Amy readied her hammer once more. "Save it Eggdouche, What ever plan you're hatching, I'm ready to smash it!"Eggman laughed. "Haha! You sound just like Sonic! Although Sonic was more of a formidable foe and I doubt that you could ever reach his potential!"That drove Amy insane. As much as she loved Sonic, she didn't want to be compared. Amy wanted her own level and standard for herself. No one else."And now that Sonic's gone, you have nothing. This world in the end will become mine. For now, I will leave you three to your own devices as I cave you in. I must leave now...for the Demon Breeding Program has only just started! Only if I could fine more worthy enemies to test them on!"Amy was still furious as she jumped off Echo One's shoulder to swat Eggman with all the electrical energy she had left inside of her, only for Eggman to squint at her, then smacked her down, knocking the Hedgehog cold as Echo Two only managed to catch her."We gotta get her outta here! I think they're almost done up there." Said Anchor."I got the memo before idiot!" Said Carmine. She faced Eggman."One more thing." Said Carmine. "You're nothing compared to what we've faced in the past. I look forward to squashing you in the future."Eggman laughed. "Likewise little runt. Your machines will be perfect for tests!"Eggman made a few wavy hand motions sending rocks falling from above, making a cave in."Alright, let's go!" Said Anchor.The mechas dug their figures into the side of the pit which was getting smaller, forcing them to hurry up in such a haste. Carmine was having trouble considering she had an unconscious Amy in her hands.Laying in the Endless Fields once more, Amy watched the clouds drift by. Noticing she was wearing her old red dress, she sat up and looked around, sighing. Her hands were clean but dirty, her eyes were dry yet wet, and what ever else didn't happen happened. A little paradox for all. All for metaphorical attributes at least...The determination to get through it was what mattered now. If she could lead her armies into battle or learn to shape the world her own way was one of few options left. Eggman was now more ruthless than he'd ever been. These doomsday monsters he finds or robots he constructs all failed him. But fusing with Abbadonia was one of those those twisted things you'd find elsewhere in fictional tales. But this world was going to burn.Where was Sonic in all of this? Frozen because her mother feared his madness. Amy cursed herself for not waking him up in the first place. His problems were not caused by him but were forced by Morpheus and Abbadonia. More names that caused nothing but rage.She...still cared for him. As a friend as she worded it out to no one. There had been no word from Shadow in a while either, which had been stressing her."Perhaps there is more to that story than meets the eye." Said Bloody Amy who stood in front of her.Normal Amy sighed again. "About Shadow and Sonic?"Bloody Amy nodded. "You wonder within this connections, the build up...why is so hard to tell yourself...to convince one that to love another is but a shared bond between two people."That was true. She loved them both. Much to her own dismay these new feelings were just old ones resurfacing...or were they?"In your bested pursuits, you mentioned you want to be like Sonic. Now you want be more than Sonic."Amy gritted her teeth. "Now you refuse to be compared to him." Bloody Amy continued.Why couldn't she be herself? Can't anybody just not talk about Sonic?"You love him. You love Shadow. But now you're questioning about your love for Shadow."Amy lifted her head up. "I love him. Isn't that enough?"Bloody Amy stood there in her nominal stance. "You've questioned this...doubt has clouded your mind onto whether your attraction to Shadow was brought on by your last attempts to persuade Sonic."Amy dug her nails into the ground. She could barely remember it now, becoming a faded memory."You were in your form. Asking Sonic out on a date whilst he was terribly busy. In this event, several people died in a car accident purely because you had delayed him."Suddenly it all came back to her in a flash. She was right. It was night time in Central City. Eggman looking for Chaos Emeralds as usual, with an associate she couldn't quite place. His newest creation was the Egg Shinobi, a quick mecha with several knives, but held a sword that was quite...strange...familiar. Amy was oblivious as Sonic wandered passed."You said you had something important to tell him and he stopped. He listened. He groaned, then heard a smash. Sonic scolded you. He could have saved those people from the Egg Shinobi's horror. Fifty people died that day...""STOP!" Amy cried."You enclosed yourself in your apartment for weeks, not speaking to anybody. You cried. You were selfish. Phone rang. Nobody answered. Fired from your day job. Phone call. Your sister. Asher. Your friend, Cream. Your mother...Asmos. Amidst it all your memories became crumbled but it's still fresh despite it being quite suppressed."Amy fell to the ground, crying."Joined GUN due to Rouge. See Shadow. Reminded of you Sonic. Feelings shift."Amy looked up. "What are you talking about?"Bloody Amy stared her down with no mercy. "You want to hear this. You're doing this yourself because you wanted the doubt to love Shadow. Because you loved Shadow because of his similarities to Sonic. You wanted to seek Sonic in Shadow's embrace."Amy shook her head. Why was this happening? How did she know all this? This dumping of old, rehashed memories was killing her. She had sworn herself to Shadow."Then again you swore yourself to Sonic."Amy looked up, seeing Bloody Amy with the sword in her hand. She could recognize it, but not name it."I'm holding back that information Commander Rose."Said NiGHTS who flew beside Bloody Amy.Amy looked at the jester. "Why? I think I'm legible to look at my own memories!"NiGHTS frowned. "No...it's best you not. You look deep enough there will be things better left unseen."Amy stomped her foot, glaring at NiGHTS."This is unfair! Why are you tampering with my head? This is none of your business! As Prophetess and Commander, I order you to leave my head immediately. Leave me in peace!"NiGHTS reached their hand out to Amy, only for the stubborn Pink Hog to swat it back."I don't need your interference fancy pants."NiGHTS shook their head and tried to make eye contact with her."This...is a dangerous road ahead. I want you to know now...with everything that's occuring. That in the end...either way you put it...it's...going to bleak when you find the truth."Amy played with ignorance as she wandered away, letting imaginary wind dance with her quills, the fake sunshine give warmth. Raising her arms, she fell backwards and let herself fall through nothingness...Amy heard voices as a real wind blew over here. Vision blurry, she tried to place where she was, sitting up. Seeing clouds outside, she was met with a smile from Cream, who ran over and hugged her. Amy wrapped her arms around her rabbit friend. They were inside one of the Jetcopters heading towards the Garden of Rosales. One of the last places they could be protected. Hopefully.Amy groaned as she got up from the stretcher, a bit wobbly from the medication but otherwise fine. According to Vanilla she'd been out for at least several hours, having another hour until they arrive at their destination. Amy perked up. She held on to the side of the door, overlooking the worsening planet below. Behind her were two giant jets holding Echo One and another holding Echo Two. Good. They needed them. Amy was thankful for their help. Walking back, she sat next to Vanilla and waited for the journey ahead."It's going to be different isn't it Amy?" Asked Vanilla."Yeah I would assume so...I don't know whether it's for the better or worse." Amy replied.Vanilla patted her back. "You're doing a good job so far. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise."Amy would like to believe that. She really would. A Commander for not even a month and she's holding the whole world on her shoulders. This must have been what Sonic felt like all the time. But Amy had to be prepared for that burden. It was going to be a very dangerous road ahead, as Amy kept reminding herself. If that combining Logic and Impossibilities, then it had to be done...to protect those she cared about.Doubt had already come. It was inevitable to the point that this hero business wasn't all it was cracked up to be. They needed her however. Sonic was no longer around as Amy wretched with guilt at leaving him behind. Refraining from crying, she eventually evolved herself to become emotionless and determined to get the job done.They arrived an hour later, with Amy scanning the place over. The interference that seemed to stop electronics had disappeared, allowing them to start setting up their new base of operations and survivor/refugee camps. Semi-patrolling the aisle upon aisle of tents and makeshift shacks. Humans and Mobian creature alike, GUN Soldiers doing their rounds to ensure peace, to undo the panic that was brought. Amy could see the tears in their eyes, families huddling each other for comfort. Her sister-in-law had prematurely given birth to a son, naming him Arkhale. Out of all the injured, Asher tried to give them the most attention, but Anise's generous nature allowed Asher to look after the others as well, leaving Andrew to take care of his wife and children.Asmos ordered Amy to see her at the largest tent which overlooked all the others on a slightly high hill bordering the grasslands and the ruins. Mother and daughter discussed the pinnacles of their leading abilities."Well done Amy. Never thought I would say that to you..." Asmos complimented as she stared out her window at the progress happening outside.Amy refused to smile on the grounds that she'd felt differently about her mother than before. She stood loyally, however, beside her."They're getting settled in quite nicely." Asmos continued. "However, I have a new task for you."Asmos sent Amy along with escorts Vector and Espio, trusting them to help her with what her mother needed. Amy carried a small box along with her as they trampled down the main thoroughfare of the Garden of Rosales, gazing at the beauty of the Temple of the Prophets.Her mother had given her a document, saying she had not read it herself, but it had been written by the President to give directly to her. Asmos might be power hungry but she respected those in higher authority. Mostly. Sometimes. But the document provided Amy with instructions to head to the Temple to meet up with a contact. The sun shone down brightly on the Temple. Despite its warm attraction, a spark in her mind gave her unedged feelings.Heading inside, it was still the old same rambling ruins she'd visited many a times before. Eery with a hinted glow from the sunshine, the glittery bugs flew about. Charmy barged in uninvited, knocking Vector over."Watch it buzzbrain!" Vector scolded as he got up."Sorry Vector!" Said Charmy."I wondered where you two had gotten to. What's up?"Espio facepalmed, whilst Amy wasn't really paying much attention to the antics of the Chaotix at this point in time. Suddenly, everything froze. Becoming dead silent. The hue in the environment changed to a deep red, frightening Amy to bits as she turned around. She screamed as she saw the three Chaotix pinned against the wall, large nails pushed into their limbs, blood running out of their wounds and their eyes closed.Amy turned around, only to see a bright light."Do you like the colour red?" Said a unfamiliar voice.Amy felt a sharp pain in her chest...before falling unconscious.