((>< I'm so sorry I didn't start this on Sunday. I fell asleep before I could post, hoping to just rest meh eyes. Then meh mom came in a turned off meh comp, so i lost teh post on meh clipboard, and it took me FOREVER to figure out where I'd written it down before I'm so sorry, guys. But, what's done is done. No use crying over spilt milk))

A crow managed to find a small branch to land on after its long flight across the wasteland that was once Mobius. Where the flowers had once blossomed and houses had stood tall, there only lay the sadness of survivors where even weeds refused to grow. Even the sky above this land was gray, and the only shred of hope existed below the surface.

Whispers filled the room in the underground shelter where many fled to after the attack on their homes. A whistle cleared the voices as the person in front called for order amoung the rebels. All heads turned to their blue hero.

"I know you're all worried." Sonic began. "But you need to stay calm."

"But what of our homes?! And what are we to do next?!" A voice screamed from the back of the crowd.

"You're homes were destroyed along most of Mobius." Sonic replied. "AS to what we do next..." he trailed off as Knuckles took center stage.

"We're going to find a way to defeat Eggman and stop him from doing anymore damage." He said.

"Right." Sonic added. "And we can't do it alone. Rouge says Robotnik's next plan is big, bad, and really dangerous. We're gonna need some help this time guys."

"WHat?" Another voice shouted. "DOn't get me wrong I hate Eggman as much as the next guy but do you really think we can handle this?"

"You can if you think you can." Sonic told them, winking as he often did.

"But all suvillians will be transported to a different part of the facility, a safer part where you can rest until we can rebuild." Knuckles assured them.

"If you think you're up to helping us out, stay here with us to board the huge ship that Tails built so we can launch as soon as possible. And no worries, my little buddy's an expert pilot!" Sonic told them. "Now, begin slowly and clamly exiting to the--" Before he could finish his sentence, most of the people ran to the doors that would bring them to the last safe place. Only a few people were left standing in the dust.

"Is this everyone who's comin'?" Sonic asked, baffled at the result.

"We'd better hurry and get to the ship," Knuckles said. "Tails and the others are waiting."

((Have fun...))

Vector was looking around and was in a bit of a bad mood that so many people would not want to volunteer. "Hmmm... these people have no backbone" he retorted.

Not too far away, Cream and her mother, Vanilla, were standing by. Cream got a little frightened by Vector and wanted to be lifted up. Vanilla assured her, "It's alright, honey."

A small and very young groundhog named Pexxus was among the very small group of people that stayed behind to help Sonic and his friends. Pexxus was crying, as because of all the commotion from the attacks on the planet, his parents ended up being killed. He had no other place to go... his father was a great boxer, and as a parting gift, as he layed on the ground, dying, he left his boxing gloves to little Pexxus' care. They fit him rather loosely... he'd have to grow in to them. Still, he'd cherish them, as they are the only thing left of his parents...

Charmy buzzed next to Vector and wagged his finger. "Don't be so rude, Vector! Not everyone is brave and strong like us!" He struck a pose of false courage and Espio grunted as he turned his head away.

Samantha looked around to see who else had stayed, but before she was able to recognize anyone, she herad a sob from behind her. She quickly turned around to see Pexxus crying his eyes out. The hedgehog gasped and ran up to him, coming to her knees once next to him.

"What's wrong, little guy?"

Pexxus tried to wipe away a few tears. "I... I lost more than just my home... I have nobody left..."

Vector began to think, then after a few seconds nodded his head and started laughing, "You're right, Charmy! Nobody's as brave, or as handsome, or as intelligent as the Chaotix Detective Agency!" He struck a weird pose and held on to some Japanese fans with a $ sign on each one... he was still laughing...

Amongst the ruins of the destroyed homes, a pair of eyes flickered. A pair of eyes unlike any other, deep-purple, like the color of the early dawn. The eyes flickered and seemed to close, and the opened again. The owner of those eyes lifted a piece of rubbish, and started searching about. He saw what he was looking for, and crawled over to the object. It was a hand. A hand of an old man, the one that took care of this guy before he died. Now, the old one was buried under a rock, dead as a doornail, his fingers curled around the handle of a strange-looking object.

The shape slowly stood up, and looked around. It was a cat, a cat made entirely of what looked like shifting metal. Swirling "waves" of metal encased his entire form and took a definite shape. His eyes closed, and then opened up again, as his entire body took on a realistic look. He looked around once more, and started to dig, crawling in a definite direction. He spat out some of the dust that was settling, and looked around again, seeing a metallic box that he crawled to. Crawling up to this box, he shifted the gigantic rock off of it, and opened the box, looking inside.

Just like he thought, here was his entire outfit. He dressed in the outfit, giving himself a cyber-warrior look, and looked around. No one. No one alive, that is. Bodies could be seen, buried under rocks, dead. The figure growled menacingly.

He saw what happened... He saw the giant egg floating in the sky... He saw the beam of light that shot out of the egg... He saw the beam spread, like waves in a sea... He saw the waves level this entire surface, destroying everything in it's path... And he knew that he must hunt for the one who had control over the egg.

He turned around once more, and came up to the old man, who was barely visible under the rock. The guy kneeled down beside the old man's hand, and grasped it. It was cold, lifeless, wrinkled. The metallic-looking guy lowered his head, and a tear drop fell out of his right eye. He then slowly stood up, and put on the last accessory of the suit: a type of linear goggles, like the ones Cyclops from XMen wore.

"Whoever did this... You would wish you never were born... You killed so many, destroyed lives just because you wanted something from us... You killed my father, because you wanted something that should never have been yours... Whoever you are, I will hunt you down and kill you, even if it the last thing I do. I will make sure you will suffer, like you made others suffer... I... Heh, I'm ranting now... Useless..."

The man picked up a piece of steel framing, and crushed it with his left hand.

"You would wish you were this piece of steel, whoever you are... Because when I get to you, the fate of this piece of steel would seem merciful to what I am going to do to you."

With those words, the shape looked around, and ran off, jumping on the rocks, seeking any other living being that must have survived this destruction...

Samantha put her hand on his shoulder. He didn't have to say anything more. "I'm sorry. I know what's it's like to lose everything." She did...but he was still so young. She forced a smile on her face. "Don't worry, ya got me now." She stood up and put her hand on her waist. "That's right, from now on, we'll take on this world together." She put her hand down for him to take. "Whadda say, little guy?"

Espio grabbed the chain around Vector's neck and pulled his face down to his own. "Don't let your ego get in the way for your mission." He told him.

Pexxus sniffed, and slowly nodded, "Alr... alright. Sure." He forced a half-smile, himself. It was nice that someone would offer him some company after what had happened... but he knew nothing could ever fill the void in his heart...

Vector sweatdropped as he let himself loose from Espio. He adjusted his chain and said, "Hmph! So serious all the time. But, I suppose you're right. If we flaunt our greatness too much, we might get distracted."

"Or we might get bored!" Charmy teased. Espio sighed and rolled his eyes.


"Good." Samantha laughed. "First things first; what's your name, kiddo?"

Mina the Mongoose could easily have been a civilian. She had never fought Robotnik before, and had recently been saved by Sonic himself from a badnik. But, even though shehad no experience, she decided to try to stay and help any way she could. If these guys can fight Robotnik, then I probably can, too. But it'll help if I can find someone strong to help me at first, I suppose. she thought.

Hearing Vector bragging, she headed over towards the Chaotix and introduced herself nervously. "Hi, I'm Mina the Mongoose!" she said.

(( I'm not going to introduce Arkie, as I'm leaving tommorrow... :cry: Someone can take Mina, whoever wants her, when I leave, but since Arkie's an OC.... u_u; ))

In a secret underground base located near the location of sonic and crew four pods opened. Four beings were awakened having been asleep for about 51 years. One was red,the other was blue, yet another was gold, and the last was multicolored/ The red one, the leader stood up. His name was Flare the leader of the Legion of Shadows.
"Wheres the Doc?" he asked.
"How are we suppose to know Flare?" said the eldest Freeze.
"Aww bothe of you shut your traps." Jolt retorted.
"Why does it matter?"said the youngest Shift.
"Quiet Ill find out why were...."
An alarm went off interupting Flare. The voice was a machine recorded message.
"MY dear Legion of Shadows. Listen well for your assignment. You know your purpose: to find and eliminate the one who took down Shadow. This is his profile
NAme:Sonic the hedgehog
powers: super speed
Apperance: (A picture of a blue hedgehog came up on screen.)
You know your mission now go eliminate that being."
"Well well well lets go guys suit up!" Flare said.
The legion of Shadows than put on their watches which were Dna scanners and could track Dna. only probelm was that their was no Dna to track with.
'"LETS GO!!! MOVE OUT!!!"

Knuckles sighed and leaned against the wall, his eyes observing all the poor, now-homeless creatures around him. Eggman had to pay for this. This time he had crossed the line between annoying evildoer and downright psychopath. Too many had lost their homes, and even more had lost their lives. The echidna made up his mind, this time, he was going to give it his all and take Eggman down once and for all. He looked over at Sonic but said nothing. His eyes passed the blue hedgehog and settled on a place nearby where the Chaotix Detective Agency and a small yellow groundhog stood. He shook his head, but said nothing to them either. The destruction was horrible, and for now they would just have to wait.

----

Far away from the destroyed homes on the land, far away from the gloomy moods and low spirits, the aquatic community of the planet had gathered for a meeting. Everyone in Deep Sea Zone was gathered about at the community ground, here to hear from the leader of their town, Sumo the Whale.

“It that’s Eggman!” One of the fish shouted. “He’s trouble! Always dumping stuff in our home! He uses the ocean like a giant toilet!”

“Yeah, and its only gotten worse lately!” Another of the aquatic dwellers voiced his discomfort with Eggman and the surface world.

“Well, what do you suggest we do?” Sumo asked, wriggling his huge nose as he asked the question. “Eggman has always been defeated by Sonic the Hedgehog on the surface. Never before have we taken interest in surface affairs.”

“No, but never before has Eggman taken an interest in us.” A edged voice spoke. Suddenly all the chatter died down as a lean blue shark swam into the group. There were hushed whispers and pointed fins at him; for he was a legend to the bottom world.

“Fin, you have something to say on this issue?” Sumo asked him.

“Yeah, you betcha.” Fin the Shark, champion of the seas, replied. “Eggman’s winning the war on the surface, and if he wins that, who do you think his next target is? Us. We have to fight him now, before he takes his fight to the seas. We have to stop ‘em while he’s still on land.”

“How? None of us can survive on land.” Sumo pointed out.

“Naw. That ain’t true neither, Big S.” Fin shook his head and grinned, showing off his many dangerous teeth. “That old witch Squid who lives in the sunken ship worked her magic on me; made me so I can survive on land. Even turned my flipper into somethin’ called feet.” Fin showed off by waving his legs around. The fish ‘ooed’ and ‘ahhhed’.

“You’ll really go up on land and fight Eggman?” Sumo asked him.

“Sure. Why not? How tough can land be?”

That had been the scene three hours ago, when Fin the Shark had meet with Sumo and the rest of Deep Sea Zone. Now, looking back, he felt like a bonehead (although being a shark he actually had no bones, ironically enough.) Fin was now on land, looking for the place where Sonic could be found. All he did find was destruction. He passed by a house and found a pair of slain animals that he could not recognize, but he got down on his knees and bowed his head in their memory.

“Don’t you land critters worry none, Fin’s here now, I’ll take care o’ all this.” Fin reassured the dead critters. He continued his walk towards the secret hideout of the surface dwellers (the magical squid had told him where to find them; she was a witch and knew these things) when he finally arrived. Shrugging, Fin looked underneath the tree and saw the trapdoor that led to the underground shelter. He tapped on the lid with his gloved hand. The shelter was sealed from the inside, so someone would have to let him in.

“Yo. Is Sonic the Hedgehog down there?” Fin called, not even sure if anyone could hear him underground. “I’m here to help y’all fight Eggman. C’mon, open up ya?”

((I’ll introduce F.R.O.S.T. later. ^^))

Pexxus responded, "Pexxus... Pexxus the Groundhog."

Vector saw Mina come up to them and greet them. He responded, "Oh, hey, babe. I'm Vector, this is Charmy, and this is Espio. We're part of the Chaotix Detective Agency. For the right price, we'll solve any case!"

"Uhh, nice to meet you!" said Mina friendly-ly. "So, um, are we going to leave right away to fight Robotnik or are we gonna be here for a while?" she asked nervously.

Amy sat saddly watching all the creature who had lost their homes speak to eachother. Many had lost a great deal in these last few days, many lives were taken and many families broken.

The small pink hedgehog stared down at her dress messing with the rim. She couldnt stand to look at them all everyone was so frightened. She couldnt help but glance towards her hero Sonic, who was attempting to calm everyone down.

Another figure caught her jade eyes, a little cream colored rabbit clinging onto her mother. Amy decided to walk over to her and her mother to see how they were doing. She waved calmly to Cream.

"How are you Cream?" She looked up to Vanilla "Hi Miss. Rabbit, how are you all holding up?"

____________________________

Jade stood there listening to the blue hedgehog known as Sonic's words. With every sentance the pink fox was getting angrier and angrier. "This isnt fair.....I cant believe everything is gone.....everything destroyed...." Jade tried to calm herself but couldnt. She began sobbing, the hot tears running down her white muzzle.

"Jade calm yourself" Another fox, this time purple appeared behing Jade. She was not crying, but she had a solem expression upon her face.

"Kyla? Where did you co-

"I was up father in the crowd, I was listening to Sonic's words"

"Sonic's word? Oh thats great! We have to trust him?!?" Jade yelled to her friend "He let this allready happen!! Our family has perished!!" Jade continued to cry.

Kyla walked over to her Jade. "Please stop crying and have some faith, it is no one's fault except for Eggman, he brought this upon Mobius...."

Vanilla nodded to Amy, "I'm doing fine, thank you, dear. But I'm concerned more for the others than for myself..."

"I know how you feel....How could this all happen? Its really terrible..." Amy bent down to Cream's level and pulled out two small pink pieces of candy from her pocket.

"Its for you and Cheese" She stated kindly. Looking back up at Vanilla she smiled hopefully "Dont worry... Sonic will figure out how to fix everything, he always does."

Cheese appeared from behind Cream and made happy noises, "Chao! Chao! Chao!" Vanilla nodded to what Amy said, and Cream took the candy and shared it with Cheese. She said, "Thanks, Amy... this candy's yummy!"

Amy smiled at Cream, happy the little rabbit and chao were smiling. "No problem Cream, glad you like it."

"Guess they can't hear me down there." Fin concluded after a long time of waiting for an answer. Now he had a problem. How did he get into the shelter? He did not know how to get in, and if he tried to force his way in he could be mistaken for one of Robotnik's troops and attacked. Fin sighed and slumped down on a nearby fallen tree to think about this.

That's when he heard a strange sound. Fin ducked down behind the fallen tree as he noticed a blue robot walking over the crumpled grass. It seemed to be moving in a strange way, and every now and then its head would tilt to the side. Fin growled, it looked like one of Eggman's robots!

The robot, F.R.O.S.T. model-series 123007 robot stumbled forward, beeping every now and then. It arrived at the entrance to the underground shelter and it tilted its head again. Fin watched from behind the tree.

"Analasis complete . . . lifeforms detected below . . . positive spectrum analasis . . . Master is below." F.R.O.S.T. declared. It attempted to open the door to the underground, but it could not. It tried to force its way through, but all that resulted in was thunderously loud banging that echoed through the shelter below. "Master must allow F.R.O.S.T. inside. Master must be found!" The robot declared insanely.

"Whoa..." Fin sweatdropped behind the log.

Sonic finally heard all the commotion going on above them and decided to open the lid over the shelter. He stuck his head out to the surface and saw a shark walking on land, no doubt.

"Hey!" He called. "What're you doing over here?"

--

"Well, I'm Samantha, Samantha the hedgehog." She told Pexxus. "But you can call me Sam." She trailed off when she began looking around for who else was here. No one she knew had stayed behind. She then turned her head to Sonic as he lifted the lid of the shelter to climb through. "WHat're you nuts?!" She shouted. "Who know who could be up there?!"

--

"DOn't worry, Miss Rabbit!" Charmy sang. "We'll take care of EVERYTHING! And soon Mobius will be BACK TO NORMAL!"

Fin looked over and spotted Sonic, and for a moment he forgot about the weird blue robot. He smirked, showing off his many sharp teeth. Sonic the Hedgehog. They said he could run faster than anything alive, but he had a weakness when it came to aquatics. How ironic, since Fin could swim faster than anything alive, but he could barely walk on these weird new legs of his.

"I came lookin' for Sonic the Hedgehog, and I take it that's you." Fin had never before met Sonic, but he had seen his face before. The old witch squid in the sunken ship had showed him what Sonic looked like. "The aquatic community of Deep Sea Zone sent me to help out against Eggman. Figured you could use all the extra muscle you could get against the guy."

"Master!" F.R.O.S.T. jumped down in front of Sonic suddenly, interrupting the moment. F.R.O.S.T.'s head turned to the side and a series of beeps and hisses escaped him, before he began speaking words again.

"F.R.O.S.T. Model 123007 reporting for duty. What is your request, Master Sonic?" It asked.

If Fin had an eyebrow, it would have raised. "Friend of yours, Sonic?"

"I don't think we've ever met." Sonic replied to Fin's question. "And you came to the right place. If you're really after Eggman, you're welcome to join us in the underground shelter we have here." He looked the F.R.O.S.T and raised his eyebrow. "You can come to, I guess."

Fin was uneasy around the robot, since he had always heard that Eggman created robots. Shrugging, he nodded to Sonic and headed over to the entrance to the underground shelter.

"Well . . . I'll do whatever you need to take care of Eggman, you have my word." Fin nodded. "Happy to help."

F.R.O.S.T. let out a beep. "Master wishes us to come along? We shall obey." F.R.O.S.T., who apparently had a gollum-complex and reffered to himself as two people, also followed Sonic into the underground.

Knuckles, meanwhile, remained deep in thought down below. He was wondering about a lot of things. With the world in such disarray, how safe was the Master Emerald? Part of him felt bad for being here, and not doing his duty as a guardian; but he owed an even greater duty to Sonic and the others, so he would stay right here and fight Eggman, and he'd just have to hope Angel Island was safe.

(Whoa! Sorry I'm so late *head + desk*)

Rouge stood tall, arms crossed and eyes closed. 'Could Eggman go any lower?' She opened one eyes to see two unfamiliar faces. One of an aquatic creature, and one of a robot.

(x_x)

Kyla looked around in the group hoping to find somewhere quiet she could talk to Jade. The pink fox was still sobbing, Kyla couldnt blame her, she had been through much in the few days, her whole back was killed....

"Come on Jade, lets go..." Kyla took her best friend by the arm and pulled her to the water's edge. Sitting her there she spoke again. "Calm down" Appariently Jade wasnt listening.

"Look out there..." Jade pointed sadly to the water. "He's gonna take that over next.... then what?"

"Then we'll fight.... We all will get back what we lost..." Kyla said hopefully.

"I cant get what I lost.....everything is gone " Jade continued to look out to the water sighing deeply.
___________________________________

"Vanilla, do you know where Sonic is?" Amy asked looking around "Im want to see how he is doing..." The pink hedgehog sighed "He must be so stressed.."

The metallic shape stopped, and took a breather. Or, well... He just stopped, looking around. This place seemed vaguely familiar... Hmm... He dug around in his memory, accessing different memory files, when he found something strange... First, his codename, and the decorative numbering that was supposed to be on his armor. He immediately shifter his body to accomodate such settings. Now, a red X slashed across his chest plate and both gauntlets, The number 666 on each shoulder pad, and the label X13 under the X on his chestplate and on each greave.

The second file he accessed was that... Of someone that looked like an egg transformed into a human. He opened the transmission file, and a recording played. A recording of one 'Dr. Robotnik'.

"Good morning, X13. I hope you like your current position, for it will not stay long as so. Sonic and his bunch of worthless friends have tried my patience for too long. I will have to elminate them at all cost. I hope you read this transmission, and foorgive me for what I am about to do. I hope your old man does not get hurt too much. See you in action, X13."

With that the transmission winked out.

And "X13" lapsed into thought...

"So that's what happened," he finally said, "Dr. Eggman was forced to fire and destroy because of the interference of that hedgehog... I have to find him. And when I find him, he will wish that he had never been found."

With those words, X13 jumped off in the direction of what looked like a small group standing in front of a large aircrafty-looking thing. His eyes instantly magnified the group, and he saw his target... A blue hedgehog. Nodding quetly to himself, he jumped off the rock he was onn, and sped off, heading straight for the group, or to be more specific, straight at the blue hedgehog.

Vanilla nodded at Charmy. Vector added, "Yes, ma'am, you see, we have everything under control, and you can rest assured I won't let my team fail in our mission..." Vanilla giggled a bit. Then Vector continued, "Say, when are we gonna get going on the mission, anyway?" He glanced over at Sonic, direction the question at him, as Sonic was peering out of the shelter.

Pexxus walked around a bit, taking some steps backwards. He accidentally bumped into Cream.

"Oh... excuse me..."

"That's okay." replied Cream. "I never saw you before... who are you?"

"Oh... my name's Pexxus..."

"Hi. My name is Cream. And this is my mommy."

"Hi..."

Vanilla gave a reassuring smile to the small groundhog and said, "Don't worry, child, Sonic will get us out of this. You, too, right, Vector?"

Vector sweatdropped a bit, "Huh? Oh, oh, ya! Of course!" He was a bit nervous after Vanilla had addressed him personally about the matter, rather than Chaotix as a collective group.

"What is this stuff Freeze?" Flare asked.
"I dont know but for miles around death,destruction,lost,its like you can feel it."
"Alright Shadow must have been here."
"Shadow cant burn stuff Flare."
"Oh yeah thats me." He said as a flame erupted off his glove.Freeze instantly froze it solid on his arm.
"Right and I can freeze it."
"Hey guys." Jolt hollered."Found it!"
The group had been traveling for about an hour looking for Sonic.They decided to split up Jolt and Shift go one way,freeze and Flare go another.
'So now what?'
"We wait. But Shift will turn into a Falcon and track them sending us Radio signals of the groups where abouts." Shift nodded and turned into a Falcon speeding off the ground.

(Ill be gone on vacation for a few days. Be back Saturday. just remember wherever you go, theyll be close behind. Please dont discover them that quick. You can be like and Vector thought he saw something red dart between the bushes or something. Yeah Shift is a Falcon but a normal falcon like in their case so like a giant Falcon would do. Yeah hes blue.Later.)

Smiling to Pexxus and the others she made her way through the crowd in hopes to find her hero. Looking through the crowd she tried to spot any sign of blue....So far no luck... 'Sonic where are are you' She thought

(I'm sooooo not supposed to be RPin' at work... but data entry is such a boring job I needed a break. XD)

Miles away from where Sonic and the others had gathered underground, was the infamous Impaler Island. In the middle of that island was a fortress, an ancient relic of another time. That fortress was ominous and black, the ivy grew in thickets on the walls and the rose garden was like a gigantic maze. In the midst of that fortress, in the very center room, sat a regal white bat on in his leather chair. He looked around the room at several art cases.

There were famous paintings, priceless urns, suits of armor, swords, coats of arms, and other fancy things. A golden goblet sat behind a shiny glass case, and an old velvet pillow contained several ancient coins. The bat looked at all he owned, and he sighed. There was a majestic case right in the middle with a golden plaque that read "Chaos Emerald", but that case was empty.

Vlad the Bat hated seeing that empty case. He had aquired that Chaos Emerald fair and square . . . actually he'd got it from a shady business deal, and he was fairly sure it was stolen to begin with, but that was beside the point. Someone had swiped his Emerald, and Vlad did not like that.

The thief, his butler, had already been caught and punished. Alas, the Emerald was already sold to someone named "Eggman". Vlad had begun researching this Eggman, and he learned a lot. Apparently, Eggman was Dr. Ivo Robotnik, whom Vlad had heard of. He had heard of Sonic too, though being rich and arrogant, he never associated himself with either one of them.

Now, though, Vlad had reason too. He wanted his Chaos Emerald back, so he would find this Eggman and take it from him. From the sounds of things, Sonic was a pro at fighting Eggman, so perhaps he should enlist Sonic's aid? Yes, Vlad would do that.

The Bat stood and walked to the roof of his infamous fortress, then he spread his wings and flew off in the direction of Sonic's hideout. He had aquired the location from a less-than-credible source, and he hoped it paid off.

-----

Meanwhile, Knuckles was still on his own in the hideout when he saw Amy pushing her way through the crowd. The only familiar face he'd seen since Sonic took off to do God-only-knows-what. Knuckles approached her.

"Ames, you seen Sonic?" He asked, knowing she kept close tabs on the blue hedgehog. Knuckles had to find Sonic and discuss their next move. These people all looked up to Sonic, they believed he would save them... Knuckles, who knew Sonic very, very well, believed that too.

"I wish" Amy stated simply "He dissapeared after talking to the crowd." She pointed to the waters edge "I think he went that way though." Some bear back up onto her boot squishing her foot. "OUCH!" She yelped pushing on its huge back. "Rude much?!?" Amy really wasnt in the mood for this right now.

Knuckles sighed and shook his head, causing his deadlock-like quills to shake around his face.

"Things are pretty crazy." He noted as the bear stepped on Amy's foot. Knuckles knew things were only going to get worse before they got better, but he did believe they would get better. Eggman had never been this ruthless before, but they had always managed to beat him in the past, and he believed they could beat him again.

"I'm goin' to look for Sonic, if you see him, tell 'em I'm lookin' for him, alright?" Knuckles said, then he waded off, pushing his way through the crowd.

X13 lost his target. The blue hedgehog labeled Sonic has disappeared somewhere into the crowd. He tried to re-scan for the guy, but to no avail. But he found a new target, out of which he would probably extract the needed information. It was a red Echidna, running through the crowd, apparantly seeking something. X13 zipped forward silently, waiting until this red echidna moved out of the crowd, and when he did...

But the echidna seemed a bit too resilient in the crowd, and was really busy searching for someone. There was no chance of an attack: the crowd would go insane if they saw him pummeling the crap out of someone. So he decided to look for another target. He searched in his head for a file, and found a wanted list of the entire group with picture. Scanning through them, he committed them to active memory: Sonic, Knuckles, Tails, Amy, Rouge, the Chaotix crew and several others that were either unimportant or civilians.

He scanned for a closest target out of the crowd, one that was either close tothe edge or not in the chaos at all. And he saw one: a girl that looked like she had some info. He zipped off, heading straight for the girl, gathering speed. He knew this one would give him answers. He just had to do enough damage...

Rouge had kept low near the back of the hideout, but when the crowd came pushing through, she decided that she'd better move up to find Sonic and see what they were planning next. After all, she really wanted to stop Eggman as much as they did. She began pushing through, not really caring how rude it was when she collided shoulders with someone else.

"Ouch, hey watch where I'm -" She took a second glance at who it was. "Knucklehead?"

Once again someone collided with Knuckles, and his annoyance was starting to rise. Sonic needed to show up soon and restore order to the massive group of panicking creatures. He started to walk away, until he heard a familiar female voice call him 'Knucklehead', a nickname reserved for him by Rouge the Bat.

Knuckles turned and sure enough, it was Rouge who had almost knocked him over. "Yeah, hey Rouge." He said quietly as he tried to avoid being knocked over by a large bull who looked half-drunk and was running around complaining about Eggman with some bad language in a big voice. Knuckles pushed past the bull and found himself, once again, next to Rouge.

"This is crazy..." He muttered, running a hand through his quills.

"Tell me about it, where is that hedgehog when you need him?" Rouge complained, and finally did something she should've done in the first place. She spread her wings, causing a cloud of dust to come up and flew up, slighty so that she could at least catch a glimpse of Sonic. She looked around countlessly, until she rolled her eyes.

"Found him." She mock saluted at Knuckles and flew only a few inches above the civilians. "See ya later Knucklehead!" Rouge called out, leaving him and a few others in her dust.

"Hey wait, Rouge!"

Knuckles coughed. Dang it, she always had to do that. The least she could have done was volunteered to deliver a message to Sonic, but did she do that? Nooooo. That bat was a right pain in the rear, and always after their encounters Knuckles often wondered if she was worth the hassel. Though usually he concluded that she was.

"Well, I can't very well follow her." Knuckles complained to no one, and then an thought struck him. He damn well could follow her! Knuckles wondered why he hadn't thought of that before?

He pushed his way to the far wall and impaled his fist into the wall, then he punched his other one into it, and began to scale the wall using his namesake knuckles. When he was high above the crowd, near the ceiling, Knuckles jumped off and used his quills to glide over the crowd, following Rouge. Unfortunately, Knuckles was too busy looking for Sonic to notice the drunk bull from earlier, and he smashed right into the poor fellows backside, resulting in him hitting the ground.

"Ouch." Knuckles complained, rubbing his sore head. The bull cursed him out, and the echidna sighed and decided to leave flying to the birds (or in this case, bats)

X13 ran forward, and jumped, heading straight for the girl's back. He landed right behind her, grabbing her around the throat, his eyes on fire deep inside.

"Where is Sonic the Hedgehog?"

All the while, thoughts ran through Lith's head. He was thinking of whether he chose the right target... But it was the right one. Even if Dr. Ivo Robotnik has done the damage, the crazy doctor that was bent on world domination has ordered Lith's "father" to build the X13 model. And Sonic... He had a fault in this. If he didn't stand against Eggman on every front, Robotnik would not have to resort to such extreme measures.

It all was too much for his still-simple mind, so Lith took the easier course: Find and destroy one of the problems.

Pulling her poor smushed foot away from some very rude bear Amy sat down on a rock and sighed. "This really isnt my day..." Who was she kidding...this wasnt anyone's day. The little pink hedgehog stood up onto the rock and glanced around looking over many of the heads. She easily spotted Rouge who was taking flight.

'No fair' she thought 'I wish I could fly...Then I could find my Sonikku'

((Sorry bout bein' late, all. I'd stayed up all night yesterday and had to go to work with meh mom. THEN I had to hang out with meh friend from NC, so after all that, I fell asleep and didn't wake up until 2:00AM))

Sonic rushed through the crowd of frantic animals until he reached where Knuckles had made his crash-landing.

"You alright?" He asked, trying not to laugh.