Categories > Games > Sonic the Hedgehog > Ultimate Life Forms
Chapter 6 A genius at heart
"How come everybody's on my case today?!" Said the voice that woke him up. A second voice said something in return, but he\she wasn't as loud as the first voice, and he was too tired to make it out.
He didn't try to wake up. He let his consciousness rise slowly.
"Fine I'll apologize the next time we meet. Ya happy?!" The original voice said. Apparently the owner of that voice felt like talking louder than the second voice.
He was waking up now. There was some kind of noise in his head.
The second voice said something that he almost made out, but he missed it.
He strained to hear the next thing that was said.
"enough away yet?" A third voice said.
"Give it another minute." A fourth voice said. "Then we'll toss it in the ocean.
/"Toss what in the ocean?" /He wondered, making an effort to wake up now.
"So, why exactly," He heard the third voice start, but he stopped listening. He had remembered why he had fallen asleep. Something had knocked him unconscious inside of G.U.N. headquarters!
His first urge was to snap awake and attack those around him, but he resisted it. Whoever was here obviously didn't know that he was awake, and he could gain valuable information, about what had happened, after he was knocked out, if he let them continue their conversation.
Shadow cracked one eye open and listened closely, and then the cause for the noise in his head became apparent. He was on a helicopter, and what his sleep fogged mind had taken for a strange noise in his head was the whirl of the helicopter blades.
"us?" The third voice had just finished saying. Shadow tried to spot the owner of the voice, but with his eye cracked the way it was, and his inability to move, do to his desire to stay unnoticed, his vision was limited, and he couldn't see the voice's owner.
He could however see other things, like a lizard with a whip, and hat; standing by the door to the helicopter, and a female squirrel with a sling; standing almost too far to his left for him to see.
"I'm not sure. That didn't make sense to me." The fourth voice said.
Shadow strained his eyes to try, and see who had spoken, but once again, it was in vain.
"So what happened to him anyway?" Asked the squirrel, who Shadow identified as the owner of the second voice.
"Colonel Schmit set a trap for him." The fourth voice said. "He used the Chaos Emerald to lure him into that armory, and set up a sensor on the hazardous materials box that the Emerald was in. When he tripped the sensor he activated a hologram that showed the door closing slowly, and a separate mechanism that closed the door itself, only it closed much faster than the hologram made it appear. When Shadow saw the hologram of the door closing he tried to race under it, and knocked himself out."
/"That's the sneaky Major Schmit that I know... Why do I keep thinking of him as a Major?" /Shadow thought to himself.
"Why couldn't they just lock him in the room?" Asked the lizard, who Shadow identified as the owner of the voice that had awoken him. "Why'd they go to all the trouble of knocking him out?"
"Because," The fourth voice answered. "He could have used the Chaos Emerald to teleport out of the room, once he had gotten it opened. This way he was supposed to be,"
"Hey I think he's awake."
Shadow didn't even try to determine the owner of the last voice. He sat up in an instant, opened his eyes all the way, and tried to determine who the biggest threat was.
The lizard was reaching for his whip, but Shadow knew that he would be able to avoid the weapon easy enough. The female squirrel with the sling seemed to be too shocked to do anything at the moment. There was a rather old looking G.U.N. lieutenant, who was holding some kind of container, and then there was the helicopter's pilot, who Shadow couldn't see because the back of the pilot's seat was in the way. "Look's like the lizard is the biggest threat. He's no match for the Ultimate Life Form though." /Shadow thought /
Shadow attacked the lizard, knocking him flat, as the old lieutenant, and the squirrel reacted. The squirrel reached for a bag that obviously had ammo, for her sling, in it, as the old lieutenant started heading for the door. Shadow spin attacked the squirrel knocking the wind out of her.
Shadow turned his attention to the old lieutenant and the pilot. Shadow couldn't see the pilot very well, but he could see that he was a red Mobian, and he was in the process of unbuckling. The lieutenant, on the other hand, was still headed for the helicopter door. /"He's not jumping, is he?" /Shadow wondered.
Shadow watched the lieutenant, and tried to figure out what he was doing. The lieutenant reached the door, opened it, and moved as if he was going to throw the container overboard; and that's when Shadow recognized it, as the hazardous materials container that the Chaos Emerald was in.
Shadow ran at the lieutenant, grabbed the container, and shoved the man, who had tried to throw away his prize, to the floor.
A fist came out of nowhere straight for Shadow's face, far faster than any humane could move. Shadow held up the hazardous materials container, for a shield, but his enemy's blow crushed it. The blow hit with such force that it knocked Shadow out of the helicopter, and into the open air.
Shadow cursed himself. Once again he had been so focused on his goal that he had forgotten to watch his back.
Shadow looked around himself, and saw that he was falling towards the ocean, but he was in luck. The Chaos Emerald was falling with him. "The blow that knocked me out of the helicopter sure did a number on that hazardous materials container." He thought, as he grabbed the red Chaos Emerald, and shouted, "Chaos control!"
He disappeared from his position over the ocean, and reappeared on the tail of the helicopter.
He heard the passengers and pilot run around for a minute; hopelessly trying to find out where he had went, but he stayed quiet, and after a minute they closed the helicopter door, and then they all continued their journey back to the mainland.
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"So, where we going little buddy?" Sonic asked from his perch on the wing of the Tornado, as the plane flew through the air hundreds of feet above the ground.
It felt good to be out in the open again. To be free, well technically he wasn't free. G.U.N. was going to be coming after him, but to lock him up again they would have to catch him first, and he was up to the challenge. As far as he was concerned this was the life.
"Well, we could head back to the house. I've been working on something in the workshop that I wanna show you. Besides I found something yesterday that we should probably pick up." Tails answered
"And what's that little bro?" Sonic asked.
"A Chaos Emerald." Tails answered, with a big smile.
Sonic was impressed. He knew that Tails was a capable little hero, but he got captured for one day, and in that time Tails had managed to rescue him, and find a Chaos Emerald.
"Cool! We'll head back to your house then." Sonic said.
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/"I am a genius." /Dr. Eggman thought to himself, as he surveyed the change that had come over Chaos. The water creature hadn't grown any bigger, like he had last time, but last time he had gone from zero to two Chaos Emeralds. This time he only went from two to three; however the change was still worth noting. Chaos had gained some new bones that started at his chest, and went down to his feet.
"Now to scan for the next Chaos Emerald."/ /Eggman thought, as he hit a few buttons on his egg-mobile. All the computers that Eggman used where highly advanced, and the ones on his personal transportation were no exception. Almost instantly one of the screens turned into a radar showing him the location of any and all Chaos Emeralds within a fifty miles radius, which was an improvement over Tails' model, which only had a ten miles radius.
/"Hmm looks like there are two in the Mystic Ruins." /He thought, as he hit a few more buttons, once again the screen changed instantly, but this time it switched to an image that was relayed to him by satellite; however the satellite was not Eggman's design, so it took almost thirty seconds to get it into the focus that he wanted.
/"I really need to send up a stealthed satellite that will run faster, but that's a job for another time." /He thought as the image finally came into focus. When he looked at it he realized that he had made a mistake.
/"That's Knuckles looking for the pieces to his Master Emerald. Not a Chaos Emerald. I really need to adjust this thing to recognize the difference between Chaos Emeralds, and the Master Emerald." /He thought as he had the satellite switch to the other signal he had detected. Once again it took longer than he cared for. By the time it had finished he was downright testy.
"It's about time." He muttered aloud, as he examined the image before him. /"That's that black hedgehog. He's got the red Chaos Emerald." /Eggman thought to himself.
"Hmm this complicates things. I could just have Chaos try to take it from him, or I could call in reinforcements from my base." Dr. Eggman thought about the situation, examining the different scenarios up, and down, trying to figure out which one had the largest chance of success. He was finished in five minutes.
/"Brilliant! I truly am a genius at heart." /He thought, as he turned to Chaos, and said aloud. "Come Chaos. Let's go see if Knuckles is as gullible as he used to be.
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One more, Knuckles had to find one more piece of the Master Emerald before he had all of the shards in this area, that he could detect. The problem was the shard seemed to be moving around, and the energy signal it gave off was slightly different than the energy signal that the pieces he already had gave off. Knuckles hoped that this was because it was bigger than the ones he had already gathered. He was about to comb over the next area when Eggman came flying up to him, like they were chums or something.
"Ah hello Knuckles." Eggman said, in that sleazy voice that he had used to trick Knuckles before.
"You must think that I'm dumb, or something." Knuckles said, casually.
"Not at all, my enemy." Eggman said, with a smirk.
/"Well at least he acknowledged that we're enemies." /Knuckles thought to himself, but he didn't let his guard down. He didn't trust Eggman as far as the Dr. could diet. "So then why are you here?" Knuckles asked.
"I know that we are enemies Knuckles, but as the old saying goes. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.'" Eggman said.
"Nice try but you got me with this one before, remember. You tricked me into thinking that Sonic was my enemy, and then we fought so that you could steal his Chaos Emeralds, and my Master Emerald." Knuckles said.
Eggman shook his head, and said. "It's different this time. I don't know if you know but there is this new black, and red hedgehog around; he's already gotten into a fight with Sonic and Tails."
"Yeah. So?" Knuckles asked.
"Sooo..." Eggman said, and by his tone Knuckles knew that he was, finally, about to deliver the punch line. "So, I don't know why, but this new hedgehog is collecting the pieces to the Master Emerald."
"Oh great, another one."/ /Knuckles thought. "Whaat?" He said aloud, with a very suspicious tone.
"Oh drop that tone Knuckles. I'm not telling you this because I want to help you, or anything. I'm telling you this because I've had a little, err run in with this hedgehog, and I don't have the time to try to take him out right now." Eggman said.
"Right, you would know how much trouble a hedgehog can be." Knuckles said, with a chuckle. /"Even so, what he's saying makes sense. I should probably look into it, Incase he's telling the truth this time." /He thought.
"Anyway he should be on the other side of Mystic Ruins if you want to try, and stop him." Eggman said, just before he turned around, and flew off.
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Shadow had run around almost every single rock in the Mystic Ruins, and he still couldn't figure out where the Chaos Emerald was. He wasn't certain that one was here. The energy that the red Chaos Emerald was giving off was different from the last time he had used a Chaos Emerald to detect another. He wasn't sure of the reason for this, but he assumed that all of the Emeralds where slightly different, and didn't pay much attention to it, but since it was different he was having a hard time tracing the signal. More than once he had suspected that someone else had found it before him, and was moving around the Mystic Ruins, as well.
Shadow continued his search. The area was starting to become failure. /"Wasn't there a small pond on the other side of this hill?" /He thought to himself, as he climbed to the top of it. He was thirsty, and the Ultimate Life Form had no qualms about drinking dirty water, besides trying to find cleaner water would take time, and he wasn't going to take his time. He was going to avenge her, avenge Maria, even though it would be the last thing he did.
When he reached the pond he stooped to take a drink, shaking his head to try, and cast out the memory of the dream he had had in the chopper. He had dreamed of her death, and he didn't want to remember it. He wanted to avenge it, but he wished that the memory would stop haunting him. The memory of the sound of the gun, of the look on her, beautiful face, of her hitting the floor. He willed himself to stop thinking about it. It was over, and done with, and as soon as he was finished the rest of humanity would be over, and done with.
"Give me the Emeralds you have. Now!" A gruff voice called.
Shadow looked up, and saw a red Echidna, holding something in his hand that gave off a green glowing light. /"The green Chaos Emerald!" /Shadow thought.
Shadow wasn't going to let this Emerald slip away from him, and he wasn't going to take a chance with this echidna either. He slammed into the red mobian, with a full force spin attack.
The attack knocked the echidna down, but he got up again quickly, and he came at Shadow with a right cross, punch.
Shadow jumped out of the way, bounced back, and tried to hit the echidna with another spin attack, but the echidna was ready for him this time, and he caught Shadow, with his bare hands, he already had put the glowing, green object away, and threw Shadow towards the pond.
/"Ha I'm not afraid of water like Sonic is." /Shadow thought to himself, as he hit the water with a splash.
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Knuckles put his hand over his eyes to protect them from the splash the, dark hedgehog had made.
The, dark hedgehog had surprised him at first, but he had recovered fast enough, and now it looked like he was going to get some more pieces to his Master Emerald.
The, dark hedgehog started to pull himself out of the water. Knuckles went over to see if the he had had enough yet.
"Are you ready to give me the Emerald pieces you have, yet?" Knuckles asked.
The dark hedgehog gave Knuckles a look of pure loathing, and said two words. "Chaos control!"
Nothing happened. The dark hedgehog seemed surprised by this, and his hand went to his pocket. He apparently didn't like what he found, or didn't find, there, because he immediately jumped back in the water.
/"What is he doing?" /Knuckles wondered.
As Knuckles watched, he saw the dark hedgehog start flailing around, like he was being pulled down by a current.
"This pond is too small to have a current this strong." Knuckles thought to himself. Nun of the past few minutes were making sense, and he was becoming, quite confused.
"Bwa ha hah." A voice rang out.
"I know the sound of that laugh."/ /Knuckles muttered to himself, as he turned to face Dr. Eggman.
"I thought that you said that you didn't have the time to take on this hedgehog!" Knuckles yelled to the Dr.
"And I spoke the truth." Eggman said, with a voice that was too smug for Knuckles taste. "I didn't have the time to take him out myself, so I got you to help me."
Knuckles felt like an idiot, and that made him angry. Eggman had lied to him, he should have known, should have suspected, he had originally, but somewhere along the line Eggman had gotten him to lower his guard, and he had played right into the Dr.'s hands.
It was time to throw Eggman a curve ball. Time to do something that the, old egghead wouldn't suspect.
Knuckles jumped in the water.
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"Chaos control!" Shadow shouted, but nothing happened. That was when he realized, to his horror, that he couldn't feel the red Emerald's energy in his pocket. His hand went to his pocket, even as the realization of what had happened hit him. The water; he had dropped it in the water.
He jumped back in the water, not caring for the moment what the echidna thought he was doing. He had to find his Chaos Emerald. He had to get all seven. His plan wouldn't work without all seven.
The water suddenly surged with a current that was much stronger than it had been a moment ago. That was when he realized his mistake. He had jumped in the water! Dr. Eggman had a water creature that assimilated Chaos Emeralds to make itself more powerful, and he had just given it another one!
Shadow tried to swim back to the shore, but he couldn't even tell which way was up, and which way was down, let alone where the shore was.
He picked a direction, and kicked as hard as he could, but the water changed direction, and knocked the wind out of him. He needed air now, but there was nun to be had, and he didn't think that Chaos was going to let him go anytime soon.
He tried again, not even bothering to pick a direction, this time, he just pushed himself, as fast as his oxygen starved body would let him go.
Chaos fought back, and Shadow wasn't sure if he had made any progress or not, he just kept pushing, and pushing, but the water wouldn't break, and he felt light headed.
Something grabbed him. He wasn't sure what it was, and unconsciousness was threatening to overtake him.
Water came in his mouth, and he swallowed it. He needed air! But all he got was more water.
He felt pressure on his stomach, and coughed. He didn't even realize that that meant that he was out of the water. He just coughed, and breathed too disoriented to understand anything, for the moment.
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Eggman watched Knuckles pull the, black, and red hedgehog out of the water, and start to revive him. Knuckles pushed on the, black, and red hedgehog's stomach, and the hedgehog responded by coughing up the water in his lungs.
"Too bad he didn't have to give him CPR. That would have been entertaining to watch." Eggman thought to himself.
He hadn't expected Knuckles to rescue the, dark hedgehog, but it wasn't a problem. Now that Chaos had four Emeralds, that boosted his power, and a pond that gave him a strategic advantage, Eggman was sure that he could take on the two mobians.
"Crush them Chaos!" He shouted.
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To Be Continued
"How come everybody's on my case today?!" Said the voice that woke him up. A second voice said something in return, but he\she wasn't as loud as the first voice, and he was too tired to make it out.
He didn't try to wake up. He let his consciousness rise slowly.
"Fine I'll apologize the next time we meet. Ya happy?!" The original voice said. Apparently the owner of that voice felt like talking louder than the second voice.
He was waking up now. There was some kind of noise in his head.
The second voice said something that he almost made out, but he missed it.
He strained to hear the next thing that was said.
"enough away yet?" A third voice said.
"Give it another minute." A fourth voice said. "Then we'll toss it in the ocean.
/"Toss what in the ocean?" /He wondered, making an effort to wake up now.
"So, why exactly," He heard the third voice start, but he stopped listening. He had remembered why he had fallen asleep. Something had knocked him unconscious inside of G.U.N. headquarters!
His first urge was to snap awake and attack those around him, but he resisted it. Whoever was here obviously didn't know that he was awake, and he could gain valuable information, about what had happened, after he was knocked out, if he let them continue their conversation.
Shadow cracked one eye open and listened closely, and then the cause for the noise in his head became apparent. He was on a helicopter, and what his sleep fogged mind had taken for a strange noise in his head was the whirl of the helicopter blades.
"us?" The third voice had just finished saying. Shadow tried to spot the owner of the voice, but with his eye cracked the way it was, and his inability to move, do to his desire to stay unnoticed, his vision was limited, and he couldn't see the voice's owner.
He could however see other things, like a lizard with a whip, and hat; standing by the door to the helicopter, and a female squirrel with a sling; standing almost too far to his left for him to see.
"I'm not sure. That didn't make sense to me." The fourth voice said.
Shadow strained his eyes to try, and see who had spoken, but once again, it was in vain.
"So what happened to him anyway?" Asked the squirrel, who Shadow identified as the owner of the second voice.
"Colonel Schmit set a trap for him." The fourth voice said. "He used the Chaos Emerald to lure him into that armory, and set up a sensor on the hazardous materials box that the Emerald was in. When he tripped the sensor he activated a hologram that showed the door closing slowly, and a separate mechanism that closed the door itself, only it closed much faster than the hologram made it appear. When Shadow saw the hologram of the door closing he tried to race under it, and knocked himself out."
/"That's the sneaky Major Schmit that I know... Why do I keep thinking of him as a Major?" /Shadow thought to himself.
"Why couldn't they just lock him in the room?" Asked the lizard, who Shadow identified as the owner of the voice that had awoken him. "Why'd they go to all the trouble of knocking him out?"
"Because," The fourth voice answered. "He could have used the Chaos Emerald to teleport out of the room, once he had gotten it opened. This way he was supposed to be,"
"Hey I think he's awake."
Shadow didn't even try to determine the owner of the last voice. He sat up in an instant, opened his eyes all the way, and tried to determine who the biggest threat was.
The lizard was reaching for his whip, but Shadow knew that he would be able to avoid the weapon easy enough. The female squirrel with the sling seemed to be too shocked to do anything at the moment. There was a rather old looking G.U.N. lieutenant, who was holding some kind of container, and then there was the helicopter's pilot, who Shadow couldn't see because the back of the pilot's seat was in the way. "Look's like the lizard is the biggest threat. He's no match for the Ultimate Life Form though." /Shadow thought /
Shadow attacked the lizard, knocking him flat, as the old lieutenant, and the squirrel reacted. The squirrel reached for a bag that obviously had ammo, for her sling, in it, as the old lieutenant started heading for the door. Shadow spin attacked the squirrel knocking the wind out of her.
Shadow turned his attention to the old lieutenant and the pilot. Shadow couldn't see the pilot very well, but he could see that he was a red Mobian, and he was in the process of unbuckling. The lieutenant, on the other hand, was still headed for the helicopter door. /"He's not jumping, is he?" /Shadow wondered.
Shadow watched the lieutenant, and tried to figure out what he was doing. The lieutenant reached the door, opened it, and moved as if he was going to throw the container overboard; and that's when Shadow recognized it, as the hazardous materials container that the Chaos Emerald was in.
Shadow ran at the lieutenant, grabbed the container, and shoved the man, who had tried to throw away his prize, to the floor.
A fist came out of nowhere straight for Shadow's face, far faster than any humane could move. Shadow held up the hazardous materials container, for a shield, but his enemy's blow crushed it. The blow hit with such force that it knocked Shadow out of the helicopter, and into the open air.
Shadow cursed himself. Once again he had been so focused on his goal that he had forgotten to watch his back.
Shadow looked around himself, and saw that he was falling towards the ocean, but he was in luck. The Chaos Emerald was falling with him. "The blow that knocked me out of the helicopter sure did a number on that hazardous materials container." He thought, as he grabbed the red Chaos Emerald, and shouted, "Chaos control!"
He disappeared from his position over the ocean, and reappeared on the tail of the helicopter.
He heard the passengers and pilot run around for a minute; hopelessly trying to find out where he had went, but he stayed quiet, and after a minute they closed the helicopter door, and then they all continued their journey back to the mainland.
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"So, where we going little buddy?" Sonic asked from his perch on the wing of the Tornado, as the plane flew through the air hundreds of feet above the ground.
It felt good to be out in the open again. To be free, well technically he wasn't free. G.U.N. was going to be coming after him, but to lock him up again they would have to catch him first, and he was up to the challenge. As far as he was concerned this was the life.
"Well, we could head back to the house. I've been working on something in the workshop that I wanna show you. Besides I found something yesterday that we should probably pick up." Tails answered
"And what's that little bro?" Sonic asked.
"A Chaos Emerald." Tails answered, with a big smile.
Sonic was impressed. He knew that Tails was a capable little hero, but he got captured for one day, and in that time Tails had managed to rescue him, and find a Chaos Emerald.
"Cool! We'll head back to your house then." Sonic said.
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/"I am a genius." /Dr. Eggman thought to himself, as he surveyed the change that had come over Chaos. The water creature hadn't grown any bigger, like he had last time, but last time he had gone from zero to two Chaos Emeralds. This time he only went from two to three; however the change was still worth noting. Chaos had gained some new bones that started at his chest, and went down to his feet.
"Now to scan for the next Chaos Emerald."/ /Eggman thought, as he hit a few buttons on his egg-mobile. All the computers that Eggman used where highly advanced, and the ones on his personal transportation were no exception. Almost instantly one of the screens turned into a radar showing him the location of any and all Chaos Emeralds within a fifty miles radius, which was an improvement over Tails' model, which only had a ten miles radius.
/"Hmm looks like there are two in the Mystic Ruins." /He thought, as he hit a few more buttons, once again the screen changed instantly, but this time it switched to an image that was relayed to him by satellite; however the satellite was not Eggman's design, so it took almost thirty seconds to get it into the focus that he wanted.
/"I really need to send up a stealthed satellite that will run faster, but that's a job for another time." /He thought as the image finally came into focus. When he looked at it he realized that he had made a mistake.
/"That's Knuckles looking for the pieces to his Master Emerald. Not a Chaos Emerald. I really need to adjust this thing to recognize the difference between Chaos Emeralds, and the Master Emerald." /He thought as he had the satellite switch to the other signal he had detected. Once again it took longer than he cared for. By the time it had finished he was downright testy.
"It's about time." He muttered aloud, as he examined the image before him. /"That's that black hedgehog. He's got the red Chaos Emerald." /Eggman thought to himself.
"Hmm this complicates things. I could just have Chaos try to take it from him, or I could call in reinforcements from my base." Dr. Eggman thought about the situation, examining the different scenarios up, and down, trying to figure out which one had the largest chance of success. He was finished in five minutes.
/"Brilliant! I truly am a genius at heart." /He thought, as he turned to Chaos, and said aloud. "Come Chaos. Let's go see if Knuckles is as gullible as he used to be.
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One more, Knuckles had to find one more piece of the Master Emerald before he had all of the shards in this area, that he could detect. The problem was the shard seemed to be moving around, and the energy signal it gave off was slightly different than the energy signal that the pieces he already had gave off. Knuckles hoped that this was because it was bigger than the ones he had already gathered. He was about to comb over the next area when Eggman came flying up to him, like they were chums or something.
"Ah hello Knuckles." Eggman said, in that sleazy voice that he had used to trick Knuckles before.
"You must think that I'm dumb, or something." Knuckles said, casually.
"Not at all, my enemy." Eggman said, with a smirk.
/"Well at least he acknowledged that we're enemies." /Knuckles thought to himself, but he didn't let his guard down. He didn't trust Eggman as far as the Dr. could diet. "So then why are you here?" Knuckles asked.
"I know that we are enemies Knuckles, but as the old saying goes. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.'" Eggman said.
"Nice try but you got me with this one before, remember. You tricked me into thinking that Sonic was my enemy, and then we fought so that you could steal his Chaos Emeralds, and my Master Emerald." Knuckles said.
Eggman shook his head, and said. "It's different this time. I don't know if you know but there is this new black, and red hedgehog around; he's already gotten into a fight with Sonic and Tails."
"Yeah. So?" Knuckles asked.
"Sooo..." Eggman said, and by his tone Knuckles knew that he was, finally, about to deliver the punch line. "So, I don't know why, but this new hedgehog is collecting the pieces to the Master Emerald."
"Oh great, another one."/ /Knuckles thought. "Whaat?" He said aloud, with a very suspicious tone.
"Oh drop that tone Knuckles. I'm not telling you this because I want to help you, or anything. I'm telling you this because I've had a little, err run in with this hedgehog, and I don't have the time to try to take him out right now." Eggman said.
"Right, you would know how much trouble a hedgehog can be." Knuckles said, with a chuckle. /"Even so, what he's saying makes sense. I should probably look into it, Incase he's telling the truth this time." /He thought.
"Anyway he should be on the other side of Mystic Ruins if you want to try, and stop him." Eggman said, just before he turned around, and flew off.
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Shadow had run around almost every single rock in the Mystic Ruins, and he still couldn't figure out where the Chaos Emerald was. He wasn't certain that one was here. The energy that the red Chaos Emerald was giving off was different from the last time he had used a Chaos Emerald to detect another. He wasn't sure of the reason for this, but he assumed that all of the Emeralds where slightly different, and didn't pay much attention to it, but since it was different he was having a hard time tracing the signal. More than once he had suspected that someone else had found it before him, and was moving around the Mystic Ruins, as well.
Shadow continued his search. The area was starting to become failure. /"Wasn't there a small pond on the other side of this hill?" /He thought to himself, as he climbed to the top of it. He was thirsty, and the Ultimate Life Form had no qualms about drinking dirty water, besides trying to find cleaner water would take time, and he wasn't going to take his time. He was going to avenge her, avenge Maria, even though it would be the last thing he did.
When he reached the pond he stooped to take a drink, shaking his head to try, and cast out the memory of the dream he had had in the chopper. He had dreamed of her death, and he didn't want to remember it. He wanted to avenge it, but he wished that the memory would stop haunting him. The memory of the sound of the gun, of the look on her, beautiful face, of her hitting the floor. He willed himself to stop thinking about it. It was over, and done with, and as soon as he was finished the rest of humanity would be over, and done with.
"Give me the Emeralds you have. Now!" A gruff voice called.
Shadow looked up, and saw a red Echidna, holding something in his hand that gave off a green glowing light. /"The green Chaos Emerald!" /Shadow thought.
Shadow wasn't going to let this Emerald slip away from him, and he wasn't going to take a chance with this echidna either. He slammed into the red mobian, with a full force spin attack.
The attack knocked the echidna down, but he got up again quickly, and he came at Shadow with a right cross, punch.
Shadow jumped out of the way, bounced back, and tried to hit the echidna with another spin attack, but the echidna was ready for him this time, and he caught Shadow, with his bare hands, he already had put the glowing, green object away, and threw Shadow towards the pond.
/"Ha I'm not afraid of water like Sonic is." /Shadow thought to himself, as he hit the water with a splash.
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Knuckles put his hand over his eyes to protect them from the splash the, dark hedgehog had made.
The, dark hedgehog had surprised him at first, but he had recovered fast enough, and now it looked like he was going to get some more pieces to his Master Emerald.
The, dark hedgehog started to pull himself out of the water. Knuckles went over to see if the he had had enough yet.
"Are you ready to give me the Emerald pieces you have, yet?" Knuckles asked.
The dark hedgehog gave Knuckles a look of pure loathing, and said two words. "Chaos control!"
Nothing happened. The dark hedgehog seemed surprised by this, and his hand went to his pocket. He apparently didn't like what he found, or didn't find, there, because he immediately jumped back in the water.
/"What is he doing?" /Knuckles wondered.
As Knuckles watched, he saw the dark hedgehog start flailing around, like he was being pulled down by a current.
"This pond is too small to have a current this strong." Knuckles thought to himself. Nun of the past few minutes were making sense, and he was becoming, quite confused.
"Bwa ha hah." A voice rang out.
"I know the sound of that laugh."/ /Knuckles muttered to himself, as he turned to face Dr. Eggman.
"I thought that you said that you didn't have the time to take on this hedgehog!" Knuckles yelled to the Dr.
"And I spoke the truth." Eggman said, with a voice that was too smug for Knuckles taste. "I didn't have the time to take him out myself, so I got you to help me."
Knuckles felt like an idiot, and that made him angry. Eggman had lied to him, he should have known, should have suspected, he had originally, but somewhere along the line Eggman had gotten him to lower his guard, and he had played right into the Dr.'s hands.
It was time to throw Eggman a curve ball. Time to do something that the, old egghead wouldn't suspect.
Knuckles jumped in the water.
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"Chaos control!" Shadow shouted, but nothing happened. That was when he realized, to his horror, that he couldn't feel the red Emerald's energy in his pocket. His hand went to his pocket, even as the realization of what had happened hit him. The water; he had dropped it in the water.
He jumped back in the water, not caring for the moment what the echidna thought he was doing. He had to find his Chaos Emerald. He had to get all seven. His plan wouldn't work without all seven.
The water suddenly surged with a current that was much stronger than it had been a moment ago. That was when he realized his mistake. He had jumped in the water! Dr. Eggman had a water creature that assimilated Chaos Emeralds to make itself more powerful, and he had just given it another one!
Shadow tried to swim back to the shore, but he couldn't even tell which way was up, and which way was down, let alone where the shore was.
He picked a direction, and kicked as hard as he could, but the water changed direction, and knocked the wind out of him. He needed air now, but there was nun to be had, and he didn't think that Chaos was going to let him go anytime soon.
He tried again, not even bothering to pick a direction, this time, he just pushed himself, as fast as his oxygen starved body would let him go.
Chaos fought back, and Shadow wasn't sure if he had made any progress or not, he just kept pushing, and pushing, but the water wouldn't break, and he felt light headed.
Something grabbed him. He wasn't sure what it was, and unconsciousness was threatening to overtake him.
Water came in his mouth, and he swallowed it. He needed air! But all he got was more water.
He felt pressure on his stomach, and coughed. He didn't even realize that that meant that he was out of the water. He just coughed, and breathed too disoriented to understand anything, for the moment.
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Eggman watched Knuckles pull the, black, and red hedgehog out of the water, and start to revive him. Knuckles pushed on the, black, and red hedgehog's stomach, and the hedgehog responded by coughing up the water in his lungs.
"Too bad he didn't have to give him CPR. That would have been entertaining to watch." Eggman thought to himself.
He hadn't expected Knuckles to rescue the, dark hedgehog, but it wasn't a problem. Now that Chaos had four Emeralds, that boosted his power, and a pond that gave him a strategic advantage, Eggman was sure that he could take on the two mobians.
"Crush them Chaos!" He shouted.
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To Be Continued
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