(I do not own Sonic…etc.)

Chapter one: Beginnings….

It was no secret amongst the high ranking officials of the Robotnik Empire that the dictator himself was on a short fuse after the mercenary Sonic captured Chaos, The Empire’s greatest creature and ruined their plans for the destruction of Station Square and the giant G.U.N garrison stationed there. The creature was now sealed inside a block of ice, frozen solid, the three Chaos Emeralds that had given it it’s fantastic power scattered to the winds.

Robotnik was so angry because he knew if Chaos had been given the remaining four emeralds, he would have been invincible. The fact that G.U.N was holding the Empire’s own forces at bay was not helping matters either.

The lightning conquest Robotnik had experienced when he first set out to….unite…all of Mobius under his banner had slackened into a stalemate, and the most insulting thing? G.U.N had been salvaging the shattered remains of his androids and stealing the advanced technology to build advanced fighting machines of their own. As one may expect, Robotnik was never in a good mood these days.

“They’re thieves….” He said between clenched teeth, both fists clenched as they pressed against the control pad of the monitor, upon which their technical readouts gained by the intelligence division of the various different robots G.U.N currently had on the front line. Most of them were large piloted Mech Walkers called Big Foots, armed to the teeth with missile launchers and machine guns. A clear copy of his own Egg Walker design.

The robotic foot soldiers they were using were also obviously copied from his SWAT Bot blue prints. These laser hunters were thinner than his robots, but armed with high intensity lasers rather than automatic machine guns. “How dare they insult me this way!” Robotnik had not left that seat at the monitor for so long he had actually gained a large orange beard and he smelt terrible. His red uniform was unbuckled down the middle and hung almost lifelessly around his shoulders.

Snivley had seen his uncle in better moods that was for certain. He stood to attention beside the entrance to the room, trying not to laugh at the state his proud, arrogant and pigheaded relative was in. Luckily, with most of the face under his large nose hidden beneath a thick canvas yellow scarf he didn’t have to suppress the smug smile. The long hair on the left hand side of his head hanging down over his eye, Snivley watched carefully, waiting patiently for the moment when the dictator would be in a good enough mood to be talk to. For a good half hour he’d been sitting in that chair, talking to himself, brooding over his master plan and how it had all gone disastrously wrong, vaguely aware of his lieutenants presence.

A lot of Robotnik Empire officials were beginning to resent their leader for not only loosing the Chaos emeralds, but also allowing the Egg Carrier; the largest and most powerful ship in the fleet to be destroyed. His supporters fading, Robotnik had descended into a pit of depression and decadence.

“Sir.” Snivley said sharply, choosing a moment when Robotnik looked the slightest it more approachable. His uncle shot a glare back over his shoulder. He wasn’t wearing his glasses, so his black and red eyes were free to stare directly at his nephew with a piercing glance. “Intelligence has reported back on….” He began, but Robotnik silenced him by raising a hand and then holding out the other, palm upward. Snivley hesitated briefly, before reaching into his green and brown Robotnik Empire uniform and withdrawing a small CD-rom disc in a plastic container, which he handed to his uncle without another word. Robotnik studying it for a moment, before nearly tearing the disc out and placing in directly in the computer.

His expression deepened into an angry portrait as the reports, taken by spies amongst G.U.N’s military, flashed up on the large screen. Robotnik’s scowl deepened. He growled angrily. He began skipping through the stolen files, looking for anything that might catch his eye. Snivley didn’t need to be excused, he could see his uncle was in no mood for company. Quickly he retraced his steps and left the room.

As the two large automatic doors shut behind him, Snilvey couldn’t suppress the laughter any more. He’d expected his incompetent Uncle to fail from the beginning. The man was as immature as a three year old and completely unsuited to rule. His precious creature was now in the hands of the Freedom Finger Merc-Scum, beyond his reach.

It was time, while his position was still weakened, to improve Snivley’s own standing in the empire. He already had the secret support of a few of the Generals, but if he wanted to take power from his uncle, he needed some extra muscle power.

Snivley travelled down through the citadel towards one of his private laboratory, hidden deep below the robotisation chambers. Robotropalis, the grand capital of the Empire was a giant maze of factories, giant metal towers and pipes. It was here, in the seat of power of the kingdom of Acorn, that Robotnik first set out on his war of conquest. Overthrowing the previous dynasty in a brutal military Coup, seizing most of the populace and subjecting them in large numbers to the Robotisation process, the Doctor established an Empire that now spread over half of Mobius. Those who were spared quickly converted to the Imperial hierarchy, becoming Robotnik‘s grand council of Generals, each family in charge of a SWAT-bot battalion. For the first five years of the Empire‘s life, they had prospered under their leader making them fiercely loyal, that is until those Governments that held out against their order banded together to form G.U.N, an alliance that had been holding their forces at bay ever since.

Their mercenary squadron, the Freedom Fighters had been the thorn in Robotnik’s side for years, especially their leader; the cocky light footed Sonic the Hedgehog. The dictators had tried time and time again to have him assassinated, but each and every attempt failed. And then Sonic captured Robotnik’s Chaos Creature, the one thing that could have won the Empire complete victory, that nearly unbalanced the dictator’s mind.

Which was precisely what Snivley had been counting on. He reached into his jacket and withdrew his private key card, slicing it down through the locked, opening the chamber. About a year ago, Snivley had lead an attack on a G.U.N stronghold called Prison Island. During the raid, the Imperials had captured an old bio-stasis pod used in the Overland wars by the invaders ten years ago, inside was a Military project, kept in isolation for over fifty years. It was believe to be an Overlander weapon created to help them when their campaign began. Inside it, was a being of such immense power it could topple the Empire and place Snivley on it’s throne in one night.

Naturally, since obtaining it, Snivley had kept it’s existence a top secret from his uncle, until he obtained what he needed to lock it and now he had what he needed. The grey Chaos Emerald sat inside a dampening field, undetectable from any of the cities sensors.

The chamber was a large, oval shaped room with a single pillar stretching down from the centre of the ceiling to the floor, wires and thick pipes encircling it. At the back of the room, it’s base engulfed in similar wires and pipes was the stolen stasis pod. It was a large, egg shaped machine with a clear top revealing a frozen liquid interior, a dark shadow highlighting the middle. The G.U.N logo had all but rusted off the side of it. No Swat bots or Robotasized personnel guarded this room for one very good reason. Snivley simply couldn’t trust them. While they had no free will of their own, anyone with level two security clearance could access their memory files. For this project, Snivley had to work alone and that was what he did for an entire year, readying the equipment for what could be his one and only chance to revive the greatest work of his great grandfather. The equipment was old, and any sudden attempt at re-animation would utterly destroy it, killing the creature inside. The thawing progress had to be slow and steady. But he had reached the point were it was now safe to attempt reanimation.

Reaching the console, a fifty year old computer service appeared on screen, asking for user Data and a password. Snivley already had complete access to all the military files during the raid and already knew the password.

“M..A..R..I..A.” He said absently to himself, before pressing the execute button. There was a dull thud and the machines around him began the lengthy process. The power from the Grey Chaos Emerald, placed inside the pillar in the centre of the room flowed along several conduits and fed itself directly into the heart of the stasis pod, filling it with a soft green glow. Snivley could see the ice inside beginning to slowly dissolve, a wide smile crossed his face.

“Well well well, what do we have here?” The lieutenant spun around to see another of Robotnik’s underlings standing behind him like she had always been there. Alicia was Robotnik’s most favoured lieutenant. During the Coup he had snatched her from her family and trained her to be an unstoppable assassin. “Seems the wart has finally grown a back bone.” Alicia had been a member of the fallen House of Acorn, her father a mobian chipmunk and her mother a squirrel, resulting in her, a hybrid of both. Thin brown fur and dark blue eyes, her head fur a blazing blood red, tied back into a long pony tail behind her. Strangely, a Robotnik Empire uniform flattered her figure quiet well.

“How did you get in here?” Snivley demanded. He knew what this wretch was completely loyal to Robotnik and would not hesitate to turn him in. All he had to do however was to keep her talking long enough for the creature to thaw. A thick grin spread over Alicia’s face and she glanced past Snivley to the stasis pod, bathing the light of a Chaos Emerald.

“If Robotnik finds out about this little plan or yours, robotisation will be the least of your worries.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Snivley began walking backwards defensibly. Alicia levelled her eyebrows.

“Don’t insult me Snivley. I’ve know about your ambitions for years.” Snivley grimaced, knowing that it was unlikely she was lying. Alicia was the head of intelligence division. It was here job to learn all she could to further the Empire’s efforts of expansions, of course she was known to stick her nose into interior affairs often enough. She walked past him, put her hands on her hips and took a good look at the stasis pod. “Of course, I suppose if you cut me in to this little operation, I could keep my mouth shut.” The lieutenant’s eyes widened in stunned amusement. She looked back at him with a smile on her face. “You’re not the only one with ambition you know.”

“How do I know I can trust you?” He asked.

“You can‘t.” She replied promptly. “And I don’t particularly trust you. We have a common goal, it would be in our best interests if we cooperate with one another.” Alicia would slice his head off without even alerting him to her presence if she wanted. Snivley had helped supervise her training so he was already aware of that. What stunned him was that she was even offering this to him. He has thought her Robotnik’s loyal creature.

There was a sudden loud hissing sound caught their attention as a thick wave of steam erupted from a hair line fracture on the side of the pod, filling the chamber with a thick white mist. Snivley spun around to face it, his eyes wide as the top half of the pod swung open on a hinge slamming against the wall behind it. Several layers of coating metal plates pealed itself away like an onion and a geyser of steam erupted into the room. Snivley held his breath for a few seconds as a dark shape with long spikes on it’s back slid into a sit up.

“Just what is…”Alicia began, stepping backwards. The dark shape stood up to it’s full height and a pair of blood red eyes snapped open. Slowly, it’s head turned to look directly at them at their hearts stopped, it’s gaze filled with nothing but hate and malice.

Snivley swallowed hard and approached very slowly.

“S…sh…Shadow.” He began, genuinely terrified. He had not known what form the creature would take. Many possibilities had run through his mind before today but this had not been one of them. The creature’s eyes narrowed and swiftly it leapt down from the top of the pod, landing firmly on two feet in front of them. Slowly the mist around them began to clear and more of the creature’s features were revealed. It was like a mobian hedgehog, with thin black fur over his entire body. Thick red streaks ran over his quills and up and down his legs. A tuft of white fur sprouted out of his chest, hiding his broad shoulders. Apart from a pair of black and gold rings around his wrists, this ‘Shadow’ was completely naked. He was the near spitting image of Sonic, the leader of the mercenary Freedom Fighters.

The black and red hedgehog was silent for a moment, fixing the two of them both with a glare one after the other, a thick smile crossed his lips.

The bell rang with a strangely loud clank and already Koji’s opponent was half way across the ring, a fist drawn back, the roar of the crowd already stinging the bat’s ears. Koji grimaced, flapping his large black wings to push himself to the side in time to avoid a swing. His chestnut brown fur highlighted by the spotlights high above, so bright in fact that it was stinging his eyes. Any normal mobian would have been able to fight without too much difficultly, but being a bat, who weren’t used to excessive amounts of light, all he could see was a white haze.

But that really didn’t matter, bats did not operate by mainly sight. His erect ears were twitching, listening for every sound that wasn‘t being screamed at him by the crowd. There was a heavy foot step from behind him and a delay second of hesitation was all Koji needed to swing his leg around, knocking his opponent, a large mobian badger with bulging muscles over. He grunted loudly as it struck the canvas, the back of his head against the wooden side of the ring.

Koji brushed a few strands of head fur out of the way of his eyes, trying his best to rearrange in it’s middle parting, but ended up with more loose hairs then he started with. His flaxen yellow eyes blinked, still rendered useless by the light. At that moian, the crowd began roaring as his opponent rose from the canvas, making it nearly impossible for him to hear.

“Dad, one-o-clock!” Came the voice from his corner and the bat instinctively swung several punches in that direction, connecting with the jaw line of…something, but at that point it could very well be the referee. Luckily for him, the ref was on the other side of the ring at the time. Before Koji could co-ordinate himself again, someone took hold of the white shirt he was wearing and tossed him across the ring into a corner. The metal bar slamming directly into the soft, sore spot between his shoulder blades and wings.

Someone, somewhere was shouting…foul! But apparently no one was listening. Koji righted himself, wiping a good deal of sweat from his forehead. He could hear him now as he crossed the ring, but the blow in that exact spot had left him slow and sluggish. His limbs wouldn’t move as fast as his brain told them to, their movements were slow and poorly coordinated.

“Come on Okida, you’ve beaten tougher guys than this idiot before!” Shouted another voice from the corner and the bat was reminded of everything that had happened up until this very moment and somehow, he found himself fast again. A moment of precision was all he needed then, to leap at his opponent and using powerful beats from his wings to hovered in the air for a moment, before dropping down head first. To the crowds delight, he had pulled of his signature move, The Vampire Bite. Someone began counting and by the time they reached ten, the badger hadn’t risen. The bell rung and finally the lights dimmed, restoring Koji’s sight as he rose up from his crouch, breathing hard. First he made out the ring, and the black and white object lying a few inches away from the tips of his brown boots. Beyond that were the stands were the fans for both fighters had gathered for the underground match, illegal fighting tournaments on every level but nobody seemed to care.

“That was your third and final test.” A Walrus standing near his corner said as the bat retreated to it, before jolting over the side and landing outside the ring. “Congratulations, you made the team.” He added, outstretching a hand. Koji shook it, using the other hand to reach for a towel to wipe his forehead.

“Dad you were amazing!” Another voice shouted, before a smaller bat ran up. Rikoye Okida was another vampire bat and like all of their children, he had no wings. As they were so large in this breed, they would emerge during puberty. Koji still had the scars from his “summoning”, the vampire ceremony of adulthood. Rikoye was only a year older than cream, with snow white fur and yellow eyes. Like his step father, his hair was set in a middle parting and thin. Bounding after him was a large, scaly winged animal about the size of a cow with large curving goat like horns on the top of it’s head and spikes along it’s back, a set of small wings pressed against it’s back. This was Chary, the Green Ice Dragon. Rikoye had had the misfortune of being the only one around when he hatched, and Dragons being near animalistic and impressionable when they first hatch, Chary got it into his head that Rikoye was his mother. Since then, the two of them had been hear inseparable. As a team they proved to be more trouble then they were worth, the tales of pranks and mess they inspired were almost legendary.

“It’s an honour, truly.” Koji replied, catching his breath. “Although to be honest, I got the impression that Sonic isn’t happy your about recruiting program.” The Walrus, Rotor, the scientist technician for the Freedom Fighter shook his head.

“You’ll have to forgive Sonic, he never approved of any one else joining the group since Johnny died.” Koji stretched his wings out to their full seven foot wing span, until he heard a loud snap and then refolded them. “It’s a little complicated.”

“I’ll just have to earn his trust.” He said calmly. Rotor whistle, shaking his head.

“That’ll be near mission Impossible believe me.” Koji chuckled and reached for his jacket and drape, lying on the floor next to the edge of the ring. The Jacket was brown and sleeveless, made from leather like his boots. Several buttons had come off. His drape was blood red and he wrapped it around his shoulders, gently covering the hideous scars on his back.

“You know dad, I want to sign up too, Can I?“ Rikoye said cheerfully as Charey flipped the bat up onto his back and began plodding alongside them as they made their way to the side entrance from the arena. Koji laughed and ruffled his sons hair, he knew he didn’t like that, but it was fun to watch him squirm.

“I think your mother would tear me a new opening.” He replied, the vague picture flashing up in his mind before he banished it. “So when do I take the Mech pilot test?”

“In a couple of days.” Rotor replied. “The top score is over five hundred and ten.”

“And who scored that?”

“Antoine.” Koji looked up, bewilderment clear on his face. “Yes I know it doesn’t sound likely, given his often baffling cowardice. But despite his faults, he’s one of the best Mech pilots we have.”

“Well did he pass?” A voice asked as they approached the far end of the tunnel and outside into the car park, the street lamps turning off one by one as the early morning light began to emerge, however they were all overshadowed by the presence of a large reptile with large wings towering above them, an adult version of Charey. Dulcy, although the same colour as Chary, was a Fire type. As such, she had red quills running down his back . Dragons were seen so often now in the cities, her large size hardly attracted any attention at all. The Robotnik Empire had been trying to capture Dragons for Robotisation many times, but the flying reptiles had proved elusive creatures.

The mercenary band’s head quarters was a location not even G.U.N knew about, a secluded village miles away from the Capital city called Knothole. Because of it’s realisably small size, the Empire didn’t have an imperial garrison anywhere near it so the settlement provided a perfect strategic advantage. Still, to keep themselves hidden, they mercenaries hide underneath the village is a especially designed base.

With the village itself a short ways inland, what space between it and the ocean had officially become Dragon breeding territory. Already the large females were picking out spots along the coast in which to lay their eggs, scrapping the sand aside with their large concave claws to create the deep ditches as nests. Since hearing about it from Ember, one of the smaller green dragons, nearly every villager went out buying camera’s, wanting to catch the birth of a baby dragon for themselves. They had been warned that the eggs wouldn’t hatch for another year, but that didn’t stop them. A documentary channel wanted to film the event with a live broadcast, but the female dragons became so flustered and embarrassed by the idea and the pushy reporters themselves that Blaze, the largest Dragon to awaken, his scales as black as charcoal and shiny as silver and as large as a twenty story building had to chase off the reports himself. That sort of deterred them from returning.

“With Flying colours.” Rotor replied as the large Dragon lowered his scaled paw, letting the Walrus climb up onto his back, the smaller dragon with it‘s infant bat passenger quickly following. “Coming Koji, I‘d hate for you to miss the look on Sonic‘s face?” The pig called back. The bat shook his head.

“Nah. I’m going to appreciate the wee hours of the morning. I’ll see you at tomorrows briefing.” Koji replied, turning his back and letting a hand trail up. After a few steps, he spread his wings, beat them a few time and then flew up into the sky toward the silhouetted outline of the city. Rotor watched him go, becoming a dot against the faint joining of sunlight and moonlight.

“Ok Dulcy, ready to go.”

Planet Mobius, the very name aptly meaning eternity, rests on a dimensional focal point, making it easy for beings from other realties to jump from their dimension to this one. Usually, these travellers have little reason to stay, using Planet Mobius as a junction to reach other realties. There were however, groups and individuals who wish to use Mobius’ tactical dimension position for their own plans of conquest. To contour act these treats, Mobius has built up a strong military under the rule of Commander and King, Maximilian Acorn. The Kingdom of Acorn had been the defenders for centuries, managing to fend off such invaders like the Drakon and more recently, the Outlander Invasion Force. The might fell however when the Robotnik Empire rose, planning to use Mobius as a home base to launch a massive war of conquest on every reality.

Since the Coup, Robotnik had established many bases over Mobius to strike at any locations and any time he wished. Most of these bases on the eastern side of the world had been dismantled by the military of G.U.N and the Pyramid base in the eastern desert was believed to be one of these, but that was a just a façade.

Robotnik had retracted the base inside the pyramid itself, concealing it from the outside world. It would remain hidden from the Government forces, until it would be too late to do anything about it, or at least that was the plan.

The heat from the blazing desert sun was starting to creep back, replacing the ironically bitterly cold nights. The sands of the desert started to increase in temperature dramatically during the last few minutes, making it nearly impossible to walk on.

Radar swept the barren desert around the pyramid every five minutes, that a tight gap, but do able, a bat with snow white and emerald green eyes watched from her safe preach, a crumbling set of ruins about a mile away from the pyramid itself. A streamlined, black cat suit flattered her figure. On her feet were a pair of knee high white boots with silver heal and pink, heart shaped tips. Her name was Rouge, Rouge the bat.

Just as she thought, this base was still active. Very clever of Robotnik to conceal it here, the last place anyone would think of looking. It was the only one still operating in this region, so this would be where she would start her mission. Spreading her wings, she leapt into the air. She was a fruit bat and her wings weren’t as large as a vampire bats, but they still managed to carry her over the sands. The watch of her wrist was counting down from fifty, when the timer reached zero the radar sweep would pass and pick her up. She would have to move fast, get to the base of the pyramid.

She could see the only entrance to the base was a large set of doors located halfway up the pyramid itself. Then main entrance had been a depo on the left hand side, but this gad been completely destroyed by intensive bombing. This smaller entrance would probably be were she’d encounter intense security features.

Her knowledge of the Empire’s lockdown systems led her to believe that there was a key code. He flipped the device on the left-hand side of her face down. It had a green eyepiece fitted on a thin frame that swung in ninety degrees up or down. This device allowed her to hack her way into nearly any computer system from a distance. The perfect gadget for a Government agent. Rouge had so many professions, spy, jewel thief, treasure hunter, bounty hunter and the like. With her skills, she could lead the life she wanted, often completely outside the law. Which is probably why the Government liked using her for covert operations, she couldn’t be traced to anything. According to any official records, she did not exist.

“So then?” She’d asked their superior when they’d brought her in for another mission. “I’m presuming you didn’t drag me in here to dazzle me with those medals?” She added, sipping from her cup. Her superior was a lizard in a military uniform, several medals pinned to his chest. He looked down briefly at his awards. Under his arm he was carrying a small envelope, which he laid on the table in front of her, removing the contents. Documents and photos poured out.

“About a year ago, our Prison Island facility was infiltrated.” Rouge looked up from the document she was reading.

“That’s impossible isn’t it?” She asked. Prison Island surveyed a duel purpose. One was a military base were the great navy fleet was housed and secondly, terror and Imperial suspects and various other convicts with either serious records or violent tendencies were detained there. The lizard nodded with reluctant agreement.

“Supposedly, yes. We decided that in order to prevent a slip of public moral, it was to kept secret. At first we though that the raid had been unsuccessful and that nothing had been stolen, but recently we have reason to believe that the Robotnik Empire may be in possession of a deadly weapon, held inside Prison Island for over five decades.” Rouge’s emeralds green eyes studied him for any body language that might reveal more. “Your mission is to infiltrate Imperial intelligence and find out what you can.”

It didn’t take Rouge long to get to the base of the pyramid, the sand around her ankles. This was the only blind spot for the radar, from her on she could take as much time as she needed. Although it was probably wise to keep moving quickly anyway, folding her wings back behind her so they aligned flawlessly with her shoulders, she scaled the side of the ancient building. Climbing was another thing she was skilled in, she’d had a lot of practise scaling the walls of banks, museums, Government facilities and similar tall buildings. It left her with a powerful set of legs she knew how to use to the best of their ability.

Reaching the set of metallic doors, hidden only by a light sprinkling of sand, Rouge examined them carefully. A platform lead away from them to a landing platform, used for shuttles on return flights from space colonies no doubt. She tapped the side of them, a loud clank replied. It was one hell of a sturdy and thick door so any thoughts she had of trying to force it open were eliminated. She pressed a button on the device on her eye, it flipped to life instantly. With this, she communicated to the computer systems that controlled the door’s open and shut mechanism. Then, she simply used some gentle persuasion to make it open for her.

Giving off a loud groaning sound, the two halves slid aside, revealing a very large corridor, the floor made of ancient stone but the walls were tainted with Robotnik’s metallic trademark. She was surprised that no security robots where there to welcome her in. Passing it off, Rouge proceeded inside. The only lighting was coming from the obviously modern lights strung in a parallel line on the roof. It seemed strange that these corridors were not filled with laser security systems. Hardly what she had expected. Keeping to the darkness anyway, Rouge made her way deeper and deeper into Robotnik’s base.

(RaR)