FicWad

Chapter 5 Aboard the Ark

Shadow ran threw the rooms, and corridors of Gun's headquarters, Prison Island. Avoiding being seen by G.U.N. personnel had been harder than he had originally thought it would be, but that was okay. Almost everyone that he had seen was still running around like a chicken with its head cut off. /"Perhaps Colonel Schmit is loosing his touch." /he thought to himself.

He turned a corner, and saw two short figures walking down the hall with their backs turned to him. He ran back to the concealment of the hall he had just vacated, and then risked a quick glance at the two. What he saw nearly made his jaw drop. It was the two tailed fox, along with another hedgehog, only this one was pink. Perhaps she was the one that Sonic had called Amy.

The two reached the end of the hallway, looked left, then right, and headed right.

He was tempted to go after them for a moment, but the feeling past; replaced with the hatred, and resolve that he had been nurturing to help him complete his mission.

"I will avenge you soon, Maria." He whispered to himself.

He waited a few more seconds for the two Mobians to get farther down the hall, and then he skated forward, at a very high speed, taking the left route where the other two had taken the right route.

He was going to find that Chaos Emerald, and nothing was going to stop him.

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"Colonel Schmit." the head computer officer called, saluting as he did so.

"What is it?" Schmit asked, barely able to keep his voice under control. Nothing was getting better, and he was still trying to come up with a way to contact the entire base, and get back in control before the Equality Force escaped with their member that they had obviously come for. And what about Tails and Shadow, had they arrived yet? Were they on their way? He had no way of knowing. Except that the Equality Force would probably try to get their attack to coincide with Tails' attack, and judging from high quality job that they had done so far he doubted that they had missed a bet when it came to timing the attack.

"We've isolated the virus, and should have it deleted any time in the next ten minutes." the head computer officer said.

"Good." Schmit said, resisting the urge to tell him to make it shorter. His men were doing the best job that they could, and it was time for him to get back to his job.

"Sergeant Mitchell, Sergeant Rhodes, Lieutenant Hawkings, Sergeant Erickson." He called.

"Yes sir." Came the answer from all parts of the room, as the men, who had just been called, stopped what they were doing, and gave him their attention.

"I have just been informed that we will regain control of the mainframe sometime in the next ten minutes. I want you men to head throughout the base, and make sure everyone knows it. Tell them that we will send recognition signal Bravo Charlie when the virus has been erased.'

'Rhodes you will make sure everyone on the East side of the base gets the message," Schmit said, making eye contact with Rhodes to make sure he was understood. Then he turned his attention to Erickson, and said, "Erickson, you will make sure of the same in the South end of the base.

'Hawkings," Schmit called as his scanned the room for the rather old Lieutenant, but he didn't find him. "Where is Hawkings?" Schmit asked no one in particular.

The three Sergeants looked around, and not seeing the old man said, simultaneously. "Don't know sir."

Schmit did not need this right now; one of his men disappearing in the middle of a highly critical situation, just like on the Ark. Schmit paused, as he remembered the young Sergeant who had assisted the prisoners in their escape.

Then something in Schmit's mind clicked. The young Sergeant! The Sergeant who had been the second of many dominos of disaster to fall.

"Sir?" Mitchell asked, when Schmit didn't say anything for a few moments.

Schmit brought his mind back to the present. He needed to give these men their assignments, and then get on this new, or rather old problem.

"Mitchell, you will see to it that the West side of the base is informed, and see to it that someone informs the captain of the Iron Gate. Dismissed.'

'Colonel Sanderson," Schmit called, silently cursing his luck.

"Yes sir?" said the Colonel, as he stepped forward, and saluted.

"You are in charge until I get back." Then he turned to two of the rooms six guards, and said. "You two come with me." And with that he strode out of the room.

He had to get to Sonic's cell before Hawkings did.

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Tails peeped inside the office, and to his surprise saw two of Gun's personnel lying on the floor, unconscious, next to the office's desk. "I wonder what happened to them." Tails said aloud to himself. But, apparently Amy thought that he was talking to her.

"Dose it really matter?" She asked, far louder than he felt comfortable with.

He was tempted to tell her to shoosh, but knowing her she would probably yell at him, and since that was exactly what he was trying to avoid he kept quiet.

Tails sat himself behind the computer at the desk, and tried to find Sonic's cell number. He was worried that he wouldn't be able to find it before Amy started complaining again, but he found the number, and a map to the cell, quite easily; surprisingly easy in fact.

"G.U.N. should have better security than this." /Tails thought to himself. "Something's wrong, this has all been way too easy."/

"I'm coming Sonic!" Amy practically yelled.

Tails jumped. He had been thinking so hard he had forgotten she was here. He turned to see what she was doing just in time to see her running out the door hammer raised high.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid."/ /He thought to himself. "I should have known better than to let Amy read over my shoulder."

"No, Amy, don't." He called as loud as he dared, but she didn't listen. By the time he had gotten to the hall he couldn't tell which way she had gone. But that became the least of his worries when he heard footsteps heading rapidly in his direction. He had already walked a few feet down the hall, and didn't think that he could make it back to the office without being seen, or heard. So he ran for the next closest door, a janitor's closet, and hid inside. Once inside he put his ear to the door, hoping that his mad dash had been quick, and quiet enough to go unnoticed.

He heard some men run into the hall that he had just vacated, hold a barely audible conversation, and then move on. He breathed a sigh of relief, and allowed himself to lean against the door a few moments, to regain his composure.

"Don't freak out." A voice whispered from behind him.

Despite what the voice said, he jumped, and spun around to see the owner of the voice.

"Easy, easy. You need to relax," Said a green lizard.

Tails looked the lizard up, and down, with surprised and weary eyes. He was wearing an Indiana Jones style hat, and a black belt with a gold buckle with a whip attached to its left side, and a pouch attached to its right side.

/"What could he possibly be doing here?" /Tails wondered. He had only seen other humans in the base, so far, and it was highly unusual for a human military organization to hire mobians.

"Who are you?" Tails asked when he finally found his voice.

"I am Lizard, and this is Andra." Lizard said, gesturing to a squirrel that Tails hadn't noticed before.

Tails jumped again. This closet seemed to be full of surprises.

Tails gave Andra a quick once over. She carried a cloth bag around her left shoulder and a sling in her right hand.

"What are you two doing here?" Tails finally asked.

"We're here for several reasons. One of which is to help you." Lizard said, with a slight smile.

It took a moment for what Lizard said to sink in. "What do you mean 'help me'?"

"Well for starters we blew up the radar dishes so that you could fly your plane in."

Tails just stared at the lizard with a confused expression for a moment, and then finally said. "You did that?"

"Right. We also put a virus into their security system, and another one into their backup computers." Lizard said with a smile.

Tails felt flabbergasted, but the events of the past fifteen minutes were finally starting to make sense

"And the two guys unconscious in the office down the hall?" Tails asked, his face beginning to twitch with a smile of his own.

"That was us." Andra said.

Tails let his smile spread across his face. "So how did you know that we would be going into that office?" he asked.

"Well actually we didn't." Lizard said. "We went in there to hack into the cell records, and find out where they are holding a friend of ours."

"Did you notice how easy it was to bring up the cell information?" Tails asked, remembering how it had been far too easy to hack.

"Yes, but that isn't due to any sloppy work on Gun's part. One of the things that the virus was designed to do was make it easy to access any and all cell block information." Andra said.

"Ah." Tails said, another piece of the puzzle falling into place. "So you're here to break out a friend of yours?"

"Yes, but, as I said, that's not the only reason that we're here." Said Lizard. "We had planned this mission for almost a week from now, but we all decided to move it to today, when we heard about Sonic. That way we would be able to distract G.U.N. from you, and likewise you would end up distracting G.U.N. from us. We also downloaded a bunch of random information off of the computer we hacked in a somewhat feeble attempt to find out why they attacked us, and what they plan to do next."

"Pleased to meet you." Tails said, as he extended his arm, but as he did something Lizard had said caught up with him. "Wait a minute. 'we all' there's more of you?"

"Of course there's more little dude." Lizard said, as he took Tails' hand and gave it a firm shake. "Do you think that only two people could break into G.U.N. and be this efficient about it?"

"Now Lizard." Andra said. "He's only a kid, and he and Sonic usually do things quite well, and there are only two of them."

"I'm not a kid." Tails said indignantly.

"You're absolutely right." Andra said. "Please accept my apology."

Tails felt taken aback. As far back as he could remember people had treated him as if he were a little kid, even though he was capable of so much. Before now the only person who had ever treated him with any kind of respect at all was Sonic. And now he had just received an apology from someone who he had never met!

"Ah thank you." Was all Tails could think of to say.

"Sound's like the hall is clear." Lizard said.

It took Tails brain a second to catch up with Lizards sudden shift to a new conversation.

"He always changes the subject when he thinks he's going to have to apologize, or something." Andra whispered to Tails

Tails smiled, as he gave Lizard a sidewise glance; trying to see if he had heard her. Judging from the uncomfortable expression of his face he assumed yes.

Lizard opened the closet door, and peeked out, looking left, and then right. "Look's clear." He whispered.

Lizard exited cautiously followed closely by Andra, and Tails, who closed the closet door behind them, which seemed to be so loud that he thought it, was a wonder that the whole base hadn't heard it, but he knew why. Being a fox his hearing was better than most humans, and anything that made the slightest noise was magnified two or three times by his jumpy nerves. So they were probably okay.

Suddenly, quickly, and with military precision every single door along the hallway, except the closet that Tails, Lizard, and Andra had just exited, opened up, revealing the G.U.N. guards who had hidden behind them.

Apparently Tails mad dash hadn't gone as unnoticed as he had thought.

Tails jumped to the side, as G.U.N. opened fire. Thinking fast, he spin attacked one of the doors, slamming it into the arm of the guard, who had been using it for cover. The guard's weapon fell to the floor, and Tails kicked it away.

The sound of another slamming door caught Tails attention, and he turned just in time to see Lizard's whip uncurl from the door knob of another door, he had used his whip to grab the door, and slam it against the guard who had been trying to use the door for cover.

A loud cracking sound split the air, and Tails looked, and saw one of the guards crumple to the flow, knocked unconscious by one of Andra's rocks.

Tails hadn't stayed motionless while he checked on his two new allies. He had fought many robots before and even gone head to head with Eggman. Although He was beaten by Eggman, he had learned from the experience, and he knew better than to stand still in the middle of a crossfire.

Once the angle was right to hit a second door he launched himself at it in a spin attack. The guard must have seen him coming, because he attempted to jump out of the doorway a split second before Tails had launched his attack, and instead slamming the door into the guard's arms, he slammed the door into the guard's gut. Tails bounced off of the door, and used his momentum to slam into the door across the hall.

"Look out!" He heard Lizard yell. Tails turned around, and saw the guard, whose gut had been slammed, pointing his weapon at him. Tails jumped away, using his tails like a propeller to add distance to it. Then Tails turned, and went straight for his opponent. The guard had been trying to shoot in front of Tails, and didn't have time adjust his aim before Tails knocked him back into the room, behind the door that he had used as cover.

"Come on!" Tails heard Andra yell. He looked up, and saw that all of the guards were incapacitated for the moment, and Lizard, and Andra where sprinting away.

Tails reached the intersection just before them. When they headed right he started to follow, but Lizard turned pointed down the left hallway, and said. "Sonic's that way, our friend's this way." And with that they parted.

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Shadow found it. He had finally found it. After all his searching, while constantly having to dodge Gun's annoying patrols, he had found it.

He stepped into the armory, alert for any traps or safeguards that Schmit might have left to guard the Chaos Emerald, but he didn't think there was any. Schmit had had it brought here for safe keeping, not bait.

The Chaos Emerald gave off a red glow, threw a hazardous material box's window. He attempted to open the box, but found that it was locked. Shadow pulled, yanked, and pushed, but all his efforts proved in vain. He threw the box down in frustration, but it still did not open.

Then it occurred to him where he was. Shadow set down the box, and went to survey the armories shelves looking for an explosive big enough to open the box, but small enough not to put himself in any danger.

Suddenly the sound of metal hitting metal, split threw the air. He looked up as red lights started flashing, and a computerized voice called out, "Intruder in armory three. Intruder in armory three." As the armory doors began to close.

He hissed threw his teeth, grabbed the hazardous materials container, and ran for the door.

The door was closing quite rapidly, but he was moving so fast he knew he'd make it with half a foot too spare.

Then just as he reached the door frame, something knocked him out.

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Wall, bars, wall, wall with bed, wall, bars, wall, wall with bed; Sonic ran around the perimeter of his cell, ready to go nuts. He needed to get out of here. He needed to run in wide open spaces. But unfortunately wide open spaces were one thing his cell lacked. So he had tried running in his cell. At first he tried running back, and forth, but the constant about faces made him dizzy. Then he had tried running up one wall across the ceiling, and down the other wall in a continuous, rectangle looptyloop. But that had made the blood rush to his head, which of course made him dizzy. So he had had to settle for running the perimeter of his cell, which was making him a little dizzy.

As he ran the dream that he had had last night kept coming to his mind. He tried to ignore it, but locked up in a cell with nothing to do; he couldn't find the will power to make it go away. So he tried concentrating on his running, but that was making the dizziness seem worse than it already was. He was getting closer, and closer to missing a turn, and crashing into his wall, or bars, or bed. After a while, he didn't know how long, he finally stopped, and sat on his bed. The room didn't spin, but it felt a little wobbly.

He hadn't been sitting very long, when he heard the door, to the cellblock, open. "It's about time." Sonic muttered, as he stood up, to see who was coming in, and why. An old man, probably in his seventies, stepped into the room. Sonic looked behind him, but he didn't see anybody else. That puzzled Sonic. Shouldn't there be a few guards with this guy? Sonic looked the old man over for any indication as to why he was here. He was alone, which ruled out bring in another prisoner, and, sadly, his empty hands showed that he had not come to bring Sonic breakfast.

Sonic decided to be the one to ask the first question. "What do you want?"

"To get you out of here." The old man said, as he took a card out of his pocket, and swiped it through the lock on Sonic's cell, which opened in response.

Sonic stared at the old man confused. "Does this mean that I'm free to go?" he asked.

"No." the old man answered. "Colonel Schmit hasn't signed an order for your release, but you need to get out of here."

"Then why are you letting me go?" Sonic asked as he stepped out of his cell.

The old man sighed, and said, "Because you're the only one who can stop Shadow."

"What?" Sonic asked.

His days were getting weirder and weirder; a water monsters, getting arrested, the crazy black hedgehog, his weird dream, Eggman coming back, actually Eggman's reappearance wasn't all that weird, and now a mysterious rouge officer, who was helping him escape.

The old man looked like he was about to say something, but he was interrupted.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" A new voice said, from the door to the cell block.

Sonic looked, and saw Colonel Schmit, and two guards blocking the door way. If the conditions had been different, Sonic probably could get past them easy enough, but that would mean abandoning the old man, who had let him out, and Sonic wasn't about to abandon a someone who had just helped him.

As Sonic mind raced for a way to escape Colonel Schmit continued. "What are you doing down here Lieutenant Hawkings?" Colonel Schmit paused, gave the old man a knowing smile, and said. "Or should I say Sergeant Mulligan?" Sonic's expression turned to one of confusion, as he turned to see the old man's reaction to this, his mind still racing threw different escape scenarios.

The old man sighed, and said. "You'd probably remember me better by that name."

"Which is undoubtedly why you changed it." Schmit said, seeming to enjoy this conversation very much.

Sonic looked at him, and wanted nothing more than to wipe that smile right off of his face, with a spin attack, but he wasn't absolutely certain that one of the guard's wouldn't get off a quick shot, and although he was sure he'd be fine, he couldn't say the same thing about Hawking\Mulligan.

"You know fifty years hasn't changed your tactics much." Colonel Schmit continued.

"Hhiiiyyyaaaaa!" Screamed a voice, from out in the hallway. The voice that Sonic had least suspected to hear in this place, the one voice that could invoke fear on his heart, the voice of Amy Rose.

Schmit and his two guards turned to see what was happening, but before they had even completed the turn Amy's hammer hit Schmit in the arm, knocking him into the guard on his left, and sending the two of them flying into the wall. The other guard tried to bring his gun to bear on Amy, but she was faster than he was, and she knocked him into the other wall.

Amy looked up at Hawkings\Mulligan, and Sonic thought that she was going to whop him good too. So he called out. "Amy no. He's a friend." The anger drained from her face, almost instantly; replaced with a joy, and giddiness that made Sonic cringe.

"Sonic!" she shouted, as she jumped forward to give him one of her crushing bear hugs. Sonic was going to let her enjoy this one a little longer than usual, since she had come to rescue him and all, but then he remembered that they weren't the only ones in the room, and he became thoroughly embarrassed.

"Amy let me go." He wheezed out.

"Okay." She said; then turned to Hawkings\Mulligan, and asked Sonic. "Who is he anyway?"

"Well," Sonic said, as he remembered the short but confusing conversation the old man had had with Colonel Schmit. "I'm not quite sure."

Sonic and Amy turned to look at Hawkings\Mulligan expectantly, and waited for him to shed some light on the situation.

"I'm sorry, but we don't have time for long explanations. However I will say this. Sonic, you have got to stop Shadow. I don't know what's at stake, but I do know that the stakes are high.

Sonic sighed. He had been hoping with Schmit down for the count Hawkings\Mulligan would be more inclined to give him more information than just that. But he wasn't, and they couldn't take him with them so he just nodded, and said, "Alright." then ran out the door, with Amy.

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Schmit awoke on a wheeled stretcher headed for the infirmary. His brain felt fogy. He looked at medics pushing his stretcher, and lights on the ceiling, trying to remember what had happened. When he did he jerked in an attempt to sit up, which sent a sharp pain up his arm.

One of the medics grabbed him, and pushed him back down. "You need to rest," the medic said simply.

Now that the fog was gone Schmit could feel an intense pain coming up his right arm. He looked down, and saw that it was in a cast.

"She broke my arm!" /where the thoughts that came to his mind. "I'll show her. I'll, now's not the time for this."/

"Someone get me Colonel Sanderson." He shouted, but the medics ignored him.

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Red lights flashed, alarms blazed, and he ran. He ran next to her. He ran much slower than he could go, so as not to leave her behind.

They ran together towards the escape pods, as Dr. Gerald had directed. But they would be okay they where together, and that was all that mattered.

They reached the escape pods, and stopped as Maria looked over the controls.

"Okay, get in, while I set these up Shadow." She said, as she started pushing buttons, and a few of the escape pods hatches popped.

Shadow shook his head, and said, "I won't leave you."

She stopped working the controls, and looked at him pleadingly, with her beautiful blue eyes. "Please," She whispered. "Just go."

A few moments later he found himself inside one of the escape pods with the hatch closed.

He watched Maria closely every moment feeling like an eternity waiting for her to finish, and enter the escape pod on his left.

BANG! A shot rang out.

Maria fell on the controls. Shadow felt his heart explode. "No not her. Please God not her."

She looked up from the control board, and made eye contact with him. Her eyes seemed to be pleading with him. Her lips moved. He strained to hear what she said.

"Don't let them,"

The rest was cut off by his escape pod jettisoning into space.