„X, LOOK OUT!“

“Take this, X!!”

The blue robot called X gasped when he saw the plasma shot coming his way. He moved aside and winced when the blast tore a good chunk of rocks out of the cliff he had been standing next to.

The purple-armored robot in front of him took aim. “Next time, I won’t miss!”

A third robot in red armor, covered by red plating, came running, his feet creating clouds of dust in the dry, sandy ground. “Forgot about me, Vile?” he yelled as he leapt and slashed with his green energy saber.

The bounty hunter called Vile grunted as he activated his back jets and hovered out of Zero’s reach. “Pathetic…” he grumbled. “Why are you even helping him, Zero? Is X so weak that he can’t even fight by himself?”

“I’ll show you just how weak I am, Vile!” X shouted while charging up his X-Buster. Releasing his shot, he managed to hit Vile in the chest, throwing the Maverick back a bit… but it wasn’t enough to make him lose his footing.

“Good,” Vile commented. “But not good enough.” With these words, he knelt down and released an energy sphere that wandered along the floor towards X.

X gasped as he jumped into the air, firing his Buster a couple of times. Vile rolled sidewards to dodge and fired his shoulder cannon. It flew right underneath X’s legs as he jumped… and hit the energy sphere that Vile had just released.

Almost instantly, X was engulfed in a bright flash as the plasma energy within the sphere was released.

Vile could almost feel the air draft as Zero’s blade slashed past his face. “Feeling unusually aggressive today, Zero?” he asked calmly as he reached out to grab the pony-tailed Maverick Hunter’s arm, trying to wrestle his sword out of his grasp.

“Shut up and malfunction!” Zero grumbled as he tried to pull his arm free. Making a fist with his left hand, he pulled it back to smack Vile in the face.

“Sorry, no can do,” Vile stated. A hatch close to his hip opened, and he pulled a small, pill-shaped object from it. He ducked underneath Zero’s punch and put the object on his breast plate.

“What’s this?” Zero muttered.

“Careful, Zero!” X shouted as he appeared out of nowhere. Vile’s head jerked around as he saw how X was charging another shot while he was running at them. Activating his thrusters, he jumped away from them and away from the charged shot X fired at him.

X arrived next to his friend and pulled the pill-shaped thing from his body. “That’s a magnetic mine, Zero! Look out!” And he hurled the mine away from them as far as he could.

The mine landed in the middle between the two Maverick Hunters and the bounty hunter. Just a moment later, it blew up in an spectacular explosion.

At the same time, the floor underneath their feet began to crumble.

“What the…?” X gasped.

Vile narrowed his eyes, hidden behind his visor. “Looks like there’s a hollow space underneath us,” he murmured. “Too bad… for the two of you!” And he once again started his back jets, planning to just fly away.

“Oh no, not this time, Vile!” Zero shouted. Putting his saber away, he took aim with his own Z-Buster. His shot hit Vile in the back just as he wanted to fly away.

Vile grunted when his jets began to malfunction in a shower of sparks. His flight path became erratic, until the jets deactivated themselves, and he fell down as well. “Curse you, Maverick Hunters…”

“This is gonna be a long fall, X!” Zero grumbled as they plummeted down into the deep shaft that had opened beneath their feet. All around them, rubble was falling as well. X blasted a few pieces that almost hit him on the head. He gasped, however, when a huge boulder threatened to crush them both.

“YA!” Zero cried as he cut the boulder in half with his saber. The two friends smirked at each other, but the danger was not over yet.

After who knew for how long, they were able to see the end of the shaft. Both Maverick Hunters landed on the metal floor of some old, long forgotten underground facility that the explosion had uncovered. Even more rocks and boulders came crushing down.

“Let’s move it, X!” Zero shouted and gestured at an opening in the wall. X ran after them, and they entered a dark corridor, while behind them, the door was blocked by tons of rubble.

Finally, they were able to stop and catch their breath. “Whew…” X panted. “That was a close call.” He looked towards the blocked exit. “What do you think happened to Vile?”

“Maybe he got buried underneath all those rocks,” Zero grunted. “But we’re not that lucky… where are we, anyways?”

“Dunno?” X stood up and looked around. “Some sort of abandoned facility? Looks like nobody has been here for years.”

“Well, no sense just standing here. Maybe HQ can tell us where we are, and maybe guide us to another exit… Alia? Alia, come in! This is Zero! X and I are trapped… Alia, can you read me?”

“No good?” X asked.

Zero shook his head. “We’re too deep underground. The damn rocks block every signal.”

“Maybe should try to contact one of the other teams,” X suggested and switched his own communicator on. “Hello, Axl?”

“Don’t bother, X,” Zero said. “Axl and his team were headed in the opposite direction of the headquarters. You think we can reach him if we can’t even contact Alia?”

“Hmm, you got a point there,” X nodded. “So I guess we find out where that corridor’s leading, huh?”

And together, they started walking.

It was so dark that they barely couldn’t see each other, so they activated the new flashlights Douglas had installed into their shoulders. The corridor was leading straight ahead, with just a bit of rubble and old trash lying here and there.

After a while, X spoke up: “Say, Zero… those energy signatures Signas sent us here for… you think they might be down here as well?”

“Only if they also crashed through the floor,” Zero commented. “Remember, Alia said that they were moving through space and then entered the atmosphere. So they were either robots, sattelites… or maybe even meteors.”

“If they’re meteors, how would you explain the high energy readings?” X wondered.

His buddy shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe some sort of unknown mineral from space. All I know is that it split up after entering the atmosphere and headed into seven different directions. One of the parts came to a stop in this desert, and Signas sent us to check it out.”

“Hey, I know that,” X said. “No need to repeat our commander’s orders. I was just surprised at Vile’s appearance.”

“You wanna know what I think? I don’t think he’s here for the same reason as us. He was just looking for a fight and just happened to saw us heading into the desert. Heh, you’d think after all those years, he’d lose that stupid animosity he’s feeling for you.”

“I’m surprised he managed to survive yet AGAIN!” X groaned.

“You’re surprised? Neither working for Sigma nor for Dr. Doppler has given that idiot enough sense to finally give it up. That guy has more lives than a cat.”

X grinned. “Well, he’s not the only one,” he smirked, playfully punching his friend’s shoulder.

“Aw, knock it off,” Zero grumbled. X laughed.

Soon enough, they reached a door. Next to it, there was a slight discoloration of the wall.

“Looks like some sort of company emblem,” Zero commented. “But it’s covered with dirt…”

“Allow me,” X said, aiming his buster at the dirty wall. And then, a couple of shimmering bubbles were coming forth. Upon contact with the wall, they popped, washing the dirt away with the water they contained.

Zero smirked. “I wonder what Bubble Crab would say if he knew you’d be using his weapon to do some house-cleaning.”

X wiped the remaining dirt aside, then he whistled. “Would you look at that… Gate Recycling, Inc.! This must be one of the many companies Gate had founded before he became a Maverick…”

“Recycling… you think this is the company where Metal Shark Player worked?”

“Would surprise me if it wasn’t so,” X said. “Let’s take a look…” And they entered the door.

Zero tried a light switch, but it did not work. “No power,” he said. “Can’t say I’m surprised after all these years…”

X let his light wander through the room. He gasped when he realized what the light was showing him.

“Would you look at that, Zero?” he murmured. “Countless Reploid models… all of them retired and out of order. Had Metal Shark Player planned to reactivate all of them?”

“I recognize that one,” Zero said, pointing at the body of a female Reploid. “She was created to serve the mayor as a secretary… and over there, that ant Reploid was a guard at the museum. Were they all brought here after their death… by Gate?”

“Metal Shark Player always loved to tinker with the DNA of other Reploids,” X said. “Neither he nor Gate minded the fact that it’s illegal to recreate Reploid DNA.”

“I came back to life a couple of times…” Zero murmured. “Does that know I’m illegal, too?”

X had no answer to that. He began to walk along the retired Reploid bodies and looked at them more closely.

Zero searched another corner of the room. A small pebble fell down, and he aimed his light at the ceiling. His eyes narrowed when he saw the small hole. It wasn’t very big, it had approximately the same diameter as an Energy Pellet.

Zero searched the ground underneath the hole… and smiled when he saw something lying on the floor. Something bright and sparkly. He raised his arm and smiled when he read the energy meter. “Bingo! Looks like this is the energy source we’ve been looking for.”

He picked it up and studied it carefully. “Looks like some sort of gem… an orange gem… well, whatever it is, now it’s ours.”

X was still looking at the immobile robot bodies. He looked at the feral face of a panther Reploid… the antlers of a deer that somehow resembled Flame Stag… the sleek body of a fox Reploid… the feelers of a moth… and a purple helmet with a big shoulder cannon mounted next to it.

X was so surprised that he almost didn’t react when the huge plasma ball was flying his way. He ducked away just in time, and the shot hit the wall behind him.

“You’re slipping, X,” the Maverick commented as he stepped forth.

“Vile!” Zero snarled. He took a firm hold with his left hand, while the other hand reactivated his saber.

“Shall we continue?” Vile asked while aiming his buster at them. “Not much space down here, though… let’s make some room!” And he fired a grenade into a pile of limp Reploid bodies, scattering their remains throughout the room.

“Have you no respect for dead Reploids?” X grumbled through clenched teeth.

Vile shrugged while kicking the head of a male, humanoid Reploid into a corner. “They’re all the same in death… as will you, when I’m through with you, X!” And he released a series of quick shots.

Zero deflected them all with his saber and jumped up into the air, while X returned fire. Vile took the shots and threw a grenade into the air. “Here, catch!”

Zero grimaced and shielded his face, not being able to dodge the explosive anymore. The blast threw him through half of the room, into another pile of Reploid corpses.

“Time to show you my newest toy, X!” Vile said. His arm turned around, his buster twisting around, until it was replaced with something that resembled an automatic machine gun of old times. “Say hello to my little friend!” Vile seemed to grin behind his visor.

And then he began to fire. Small, but lethal laser beams were rapidly coming out of the gun, with a fire rate far higher than anything that X had ever seen before in battle.

“The automatic Laser Splasher 4000,” Vile commented, never ceasing firing once. “The newest weapon on the black market… how d’you like it?”

X winced while he was battered with shots. He tried to fire back, but he couldn’t hit Vile nearly as much as he was hit. “N-need to… switch weapons…” he grunted.

Vile lowered his weapon for a moment. He enjoyed the view of seeing X lying in front of him, seemingly helpless.

His visor flashed as he took aim again. “This… is the end, X!”

But then something happened that neither of the three could have anticipated. The whole room began to rumble, and even more pebbles fell down from the ceiling, as they could hear a roaring noise that slowly grew louder and louder… as if something was approaching them.

“What the heck is going on?” Vile grumbled. X used the chance to fire a charged shot, and Vile quickly jumped behind a few crates.

Zero shook his head and stood up from the ground. He then looked at the power meter on his arm… and his eyes widened. “The energy readings… they’re off-scale! Whatever is coming at us, must have an immense energy source within.”

“Where is it coming from?” X wanted to know.

Zero aimed his arm at the ceiling. “From up there… TAKE COVER!”

And they dove to the floor, just before something came crashing through the ceiling with an enormous blast, showering the whole room with rocky shards and energy sparks.

When X and Zero looked up again, they saw something hovering in front of them, slightly above the floor.

It was a robot… but was it a Reploid? It definitely looked like a humanoid animal… a porcupine? Or a hedgehog? Its metallic, blue hide was shimmering in the light of the energy field that was dancing around the strange robot’s body.

“It… is here…” it said in a deep voice. “I feel… its power…”

His gaze fell upon Zero. A pair of blood red sensors lit up in his expressionless face. “You!”

“Who are you?” Zero asked. He was cautious. That robot didn’t look too friendly. “What do you want?”

The robotic hedgehog held out his hand… which looked like a crooked, metal claw. “Give me… the Chaos Emerald!”

X blinked. “The… what?”

Zero frowned. “I’m sorry, but our order was to bring this gem to our headquarters. Maybe we can give it to you after we analyzed it… I don’t know. That’s up to the commander!”

The strange robot landed on the floor. “Give it to me… or be destroyed!”

Vile looked out of his hiding place. “Hey, you! I don’t know who you are… but this is my battle, got it? You can do to Zero whatever you want… but if you touch X, I’ll turn you into scrap! He’s mine!”

The hedgehog slowly turned his head. His hand twisted and turned, transforming into a gun that was twice as big as his arm had previously been. “Do not interfere!”

Vile narrowed his eyes. “Make me…”

“Affirmative!”

And then Vile found himself flying through the air, as an energy blast hit him, one that was so big that it destroyed the crates he had been hiding behind and shook his body around helplessly.

Vile groaned. His body twitched, and he tried to get up. But then, his head fell back with a grunt.

The stranger aimed his cannon at Zero. “Obstacle destroyed! Secondary target acquired…”

Zero gritted his teeth. “Damn, why does it always have to be the hard way…?”

“Fire!”

Zero leapt at the wall and barely managed to somersault over the huge energy blast that reduced yet another pile of Reploid bodies into pieces of scrap. X did not waste any more time and opened fire. He resented fighting, but he could not watch while someone was trying to kill his best friend.

“Eat plasma, you jerk!” he yelled.

His shots did not seem to have any effect. The robot merely seemed to be annoyed. “New obstacle detected… you, too, will be destroyed!” A bundle of four small missiles suddenly came out of a hidden portion of his body… and they were all aimed at X.

X ran for his life as he fired at the missiles. He managed to destroy two and dodge underneath another one. But the fourth…

“AAAAAAAHH!” X shouted as the explosion pushed him against the wall. He pressed his hand against his left arm. “Damn, that nearly tore it off…”

Zero leapt to his feet, ready to attack the hedgehog robot with his saber… when suddenly, he heard something.

‘Quick… get me a body…’

Zero frowned. “What?” He stared down at the gemstone in his hand.

The emerald had begun to pulsate in a bright light. ‘There’s no time… if you want me to help… put me in a body…’

“Since when can jewels talk?” Zero murmured.

“Second missile launch initiated,” the attacker stated.

X winced. This was going to be ugly…

Suddenly, the hedgehog winced when a shot hit the back of his head. He slowly turned around his head.

Vile was standing behind him, both his buster arm and shoulder cannon aimed at the hedgehog. “I warned you, didn’t I?”

“Vile…” X muttered.

“Don’t you get any ideas, X!” Vile shouted. “I only saved you so I can destroy you myself!”

“Annoying insect…” the stranger grumbled. “Be gone!”

But this time, Vile was prepared. He dove to the ground as the massive laser blast flew at him, rolled into a crouching position and fired a big plasma ball from his shoulder cannon. And then another one. And another one.

Every time Vile’s shot hit the strange robot, he was pushed back a bit. “Power output not sufficient…” he said. “Switch to power level two!”

X’s eyes widened. “What?”

The energy readings nearly made the gauge pop apart when the hedgehog robot surrounded himself with an even bigger energy field. A sudden shockwave pushed both Vile and X backwards, while the robot began to glow in a golden light.

“Emerald reserves tapped,” he stated. “Eliminate all!”

“I…impossible…” Vile grunted. “This power…”

“E-even Sigma… wasn’t able to do this…” X mumbled.

In that moment, Zero put the orange gem into the core of a retired Reploid body. It was the fox body X had seen before.

The fox’s eyes lit up. “Booting up CPU,” a soft voice said. “Emerald power source working… activating body functions!”

The fox slowly stood up. He had bright orange, almost golden body armor, even though he was very sleek. When he was standing, a fan of nine tails spread behind his body.

He cupped his hands… and Zero saw how electrical energy was built up in his palms. With a loud yell, the fox shot a lance of electricity at the hedgehog robot.

While Vile’s shots had only pushed him back a bit and X’s normal buster shots had been uneffective, this attack pierced the hedgehog’s defenses completely and made him twitch.

“Aaaarrrrggh…” he growled. “This pain… who… WHO DARES?”

“Emerald signature attuned,” the fox said. “Deactivation of power level two!”

And suddenly, the golden glow that surrounded the hedgehog was gone. He turned back to his regular, blue color. He gazed at his new opponent. “YOU.”

The fox stared into the other robot’s face. “Leave, Metal Sonic! Leave this place… before I do something I’m going to regret!”

For a while, both robots looked at each other. The hedgehog didn’t budge an inch, while the fox’s tails were waving behind him. X, Zero and Vile found themselves unable to say anything.

Finally, the robot called ‘Metal Sonic’ hovered up into the air. “Today, you live,” he said. “I will return for the Chaos Emerald… some other time!”

And with another burst of power, he crashed back through the ceiling, leaving the other four robots behind.

Vile smirked. “Finally, he’s gone… now back to business…”

He winced, however, when both Zero and the fox stepped in front of X. Zero smirked. “You were saying?”

Vile shook with rage. “Well… as that hedgehog said… I’ll be back… some other time!” And he turned around and ran out of the room.

“Vile! Stop!” X shouted. But the fox raised his hand. “Let him be. He’s the least of your problems.”

X then stared up at the robot who might have just saved them all. “Who… are you?” He looked at Zero. “Zero, who is that?” he asked again.

Zero shrugged. “I dunno. All I know is that this is one of the old, retired Reploid bodies… all I did was putting that gemstone in its core…”

“That emerald… contained my soul,” the fox said. X and Zero looked up at him. Standing up, he was bigger than either of them.

“Your… soul?” X asked.

“That’s right,” the fox nodded. “I don’t know for how long it was trapped inside that emerald. At least now I have a body that I can move… thanks to you!” He smiled at Zero.

“Okay, now in plain language: Who are you?”

“Oh, sorry, I forgot to introduce myself,” the fox chuckled. “Sorry ‘bout this… I’m Miles! Miles Prower. But you can call me Tails.”