War for Mobius

Chapter 24

Knuckles and Sonic stand before an empty container in the hanger bay of the base hidden beneath the ancient temple.

"So," the hedgehog taps his foot impatiently, "Where are the Emeralds?"

"They only reveal themselves to those who can pass their challenge," Knuckles explains.

"How does that work?" Sonic scratches his ear.

"Well…," the guardians ponders the answer for a moment, "They just sort of do! That's just how they work!"

"That's…really stupid," the freedom fighter shrugs. He pauses and thinks about this for a moment, "Wait a moment, how come you didn't mention this before?"

"I assumed you knew since you came looking for the Chaos Emeralds," the red echidna shrugs.

"I didn't even know how many there were!" the hedgehog groans.

"Robotnik figured it out," Knuckles grumbles, "I'm sure I can figure it out."

"Greeaaaat," Sonic mutters sarcastically, "But that still leaves us at square one. Where on Mobius are they?"

"I can show you, but I must warn you, the challenge will not be easy," the guardian cautions, "Many of the few who've tried, have never been heard from again."

"Robo-butt did it, it can't be that hard."

Bullets tear through the air above Rotor's head. He instinctively drops to the ground and rolls behind the nearest tree.

"Bunnie you okay?" he calls out to his companion.

"No," she replies, "But I ain't hurt."

The hefty walrus knows she's referring to Antoine's untimely demise. Both of them couldn't help but blame themselves for leaving the coyote alone.

But he knows he can't let that cloud his judgment now.

"Did you see where the shots came from?"

"I missed it," she answers, "But I bet I can draw them out."

Rotor gulps, "How?"

There isn't a reply.

For what seems like eternity, Rotor sits waiting for anything to happen. Suddenly another burst of bullets ring through the air.

Swallowing hard he peeks out from cover.

Overlanders fire into the trees nearby. Their backs are turned to the walrus.

Taking a deep breath he crawls closer. Millions of questions race through his mind. What are they doing here? What was he going to do when he reached them? Where'd Bunnie go? She didn't get hit did she?

As if to answer his thoughts, Bunnie leaps from the trees, tackling one of the Overlanders. Rotor jumps to his feet and charges the other. The soldier turns and fires at the walrus.

But the bullets seem to fly at him very slowly. The whole world in fact seems to slow down. Rotor ducks under the shots, which graze by his head, tearing off his yellow cap.

Using the momentum of his charge, Rotor takes a swing at the Overlander. His fist connects with the GUN Soldier's stomach.

Pain throbs in Rotor's hand.

Though the move was right and he hit his mark, there wasn't enough force in the blow to do anything but knock the Overlander back a step.

Rotor looks up at the Soldier who brings his rifle around like a club to strike back.

Suddenly Bunnie leaps to the rescue, smashing her cybernetic foot into the Overlander's helmet. The blow dazes the man as Rotor sweeps his feet, tripping him up.

With both soldiers down, the two Mobians quickly flee the confrontation.

"Where'd those bozos come from?" the cyborg asks.

"No idea," Rotor replies. Instinctively he reaches for his cap only to be reminded that it is no longer there. He curses under his breath.

"Could have been your head, hun," Bunnie reminds him.

The walrus sighs, "True enough."

"So even though the crate is empty, you're telling me that the emeralds are in there?" Sonic's eye twitches as he asks Knuckles.

The guardians groans and rubs his bandaged hand over his face, "Yes! For the last freaking time, the emeralds won't reveal themselves to you until you've proven yourself worthy!"

"I still think that sounds really stupid," the hedgehog shrugs, "How does that even work?"

Knuckles just glares daggers at him, "Just. Grab. For. The. Emeralds."

"Fine," the blue blur shrugs and reaches for the imaginary emeralds.

"May the servers find us worthy," the echidna whispers.

Sonic is about to ask what he means when a bright light rises from the crate. Faster than he can imagine the light swallows the room.

The next thing he knows he's falling rapidly.

The ground meets his face.

With the taste of blood in his mouth, Sonic pushes himself from the ground and looks around, "Uh…I see a whole lot of red and blue spheres…"

"Yes," Knuckles's voice comes from behind him, "That's all I see as well."

The hedgehog looks up, "That and the rainbow covered fish."

"What are you…" Knuckles also looks up, "What on Mobius?"

"Wow…" Sonic murmurs.

The two watch the flying rainbow fish for a while wondering what to do.

"So…what's the challenge?" the blue blur finally asks.

"Truly I don't know," the guardian replies, "Fight to the death perhaps?"

"Yeah, sure," Sonic rolls his eyes.

Again they sit there for what seems like an eternity before Sonic jumps to his feet impatiently enraged.

"It has to have something to do with the red and blue spheres!" he grumbles as he stomps over to one. The echidna follows him.

Sonic leans in towards the red orb.

"Other than the color," Knuckles shrugs, "It appears to be a large sphere like the blue ones."

"Hmmm," the Freedom Fighter rubs under his nose in thought, "Maybe."

"There's no maybe to it. It's a large red sphere," the guardian sighs.

"Yeah, but it can't be it," the hedgehog sighs, "If it is a challenge, there has to be a gimmick or trick for us to figure out."

The echidna shakes his head and approaches one of the blue orbs, "Maybe we're supposed to break them?"

The hedgehog reaches and taps the red orb. A sudden blast of energy knocks him back from it. He crashes into Knuckles and they both tumble onto the blue one, absorbing it….

…and keep going…

"Can you stop?" the echidna asks.

Sonic shakes his head, "Nope, you?"

"Nope."

"So the red ones are dangerous and the blue ones start us moving…" Sonic scratches the side of his head.

Knuckles reaches out and touches another blue orb. As he does he absorbs the sphere and his speed increases.

"That's weird," he scratches his chin, "I can't control my speed either."

"This is kind of fun," Sonic grins sheepishly as he absorbs two more blue spheres, "Bet I can absorb them faster than you."

"Are you crazy?!" Knuckles dodges a red orb, "If you are sent flying just for touching a red sphere without moving, imagine if you touched it at high speeds! You'd be crushed!"

There is a moment of silence between the two before the echidna adds, "Besides, I could easily collect more than you."

"Challenge accepted!" And the race is on.

Bunnie slows to allow Rotor a chance to catch up. Ever since they picked up that accursed gem all it seems they can do is run.

A fat lot of good the blasted thing had done for them this far.

She glances over to her companion, "You okay?"

"Yeah," the purple walrus wheezes, "Just fine."

"Need a break?"

"We can't afford to," but even so Rotor comes to a pause, "Okay, but just a short one."

The rabbit gives him a knowing smile as he leans against a tree for support.

While he rests, Bunnie begins stretching. Though her mechanical limbs didn't really need to stretch, it was a habit she had picked up long ago, and it still felt good to do. Plus it allowed her to check to see if her cybernetic parts were functioning properly.

For example, for some reason she could not lift her robotic arm up at the shoulder. Like the inner mechanisms were broken.

"Hey Rote, can you take a look at my arm?"

"Sure," Rotor pushes himself from the tree and walks over to her.

"Yikes," he says as he looks the robotic appendage over, "Looks like you took a bullet. Likely from one of those overlanders."

"I didn't even notice," Bunnie admits.

"Doesn't surprise me," the walrus sighs, "While the technology does allow you to feel, it isn't really perfect. If it's damaged again…"

"I know Rote," she interrupts, "You've told me of this before."

"Sorry," Rotor blushes.

They sit awkwardly for a moment.

"It wasn't your fault you know" Bunnie whispers.

"Well you probably got hit when you saved me…"

"I meant about 'Twan," she explains.

"Oh," Rotor scratches the back of his neck, "You and Antione were pretty close."

"Yeah. We've known each other since before the coup," the rabbit brushes a tear from her eye.

"We're you and him…" the walrus scratches his chin trying to make it as unawkward as he can, "an Item?"

Bunnie cocks her head to one side and looks at him, "No. 'Twan and I went out once, but he always had his eye on Sal."

"Ah," Rotor reaches for his cap, again forgetting he lost it earlier, "That's why you and Johnny Hooked up."

"…maybe," the cyborg sighs, "But we broke up."

Rotor hadn't expected that, "W-wait what? When?"

"Before this mission," she shakes her head, "It wasn't really working out anyways. We were more just friends than a couple."

"Sorry I brought it up," the pudgier mobian tries to change the subject, "We best get moving."

"What about you, Rote?"

"Huh?"

Bunnie playfully pokes his shoulder, "Your love life, dummy. You brought up mine, only fair you return the favor."

"I…uh…well truthfully I've never really hooked up with anyone before," he admits.

"Depressing," Bunnie shrugs, "Anyone you had your eyes on?"

Before he can answer, the sound of more gunfire fills the air.

"That's our cue," she sighs, "Ya ready?"

"Yeah," Rotor nods, "Let's do it to it!"

"This is all your fault!" Knuckles roars as he speeds by Sonic who is travelling in the opposite direction.

"Me!?" The hedgehog protests, "You could have just said no!"

"That wouldn't have stopped you!" the guardian counters.

"True," Sonic admits, "I would have probably kept pestering you till you gave in."

"See what I mean!"

The keep rapidly whizzing around avoiding the red orbs, with many narrow misses. The race had started off rather easy. However as their speed increased so did the number of red spheres. Soon they were everywhere and Knuckles and Sonic where moving at such high speeds it was nigh impossible to avoid them.

But they've managed for now….

The blue blur barely leaps over another sphere, "Hey, you should never give into peer pressure!"

"There is nothing you can say that'll excuse you from the blame!" the echidna hollers at him.

"I'm sure I can think of something," Sonic shrugs, "Just gimme a minute."

"We'll be lucky to survive another minute!" Knuckles turns quickly to dodge another red orb.

"Well excuuuuuuse me Mr. Negative," the hedgehog rolls his eyes. As he does, he spots something, "Oh hey, we missed one."

"What are you talking about?"

Sonic changes direction, "There, we missed a blue one."

"Good! One of us could have been even more out of control," the guardian grumbles.

"Dibs!" Sonic calls out squeezing between two more red orbs.

"WHAT!?" Knuckles begins to chase after him, but the blue blur already had quite the lead.

"The blue orbs are the key to this challenge," Sonic calls back, "And I'm going to face it, head on!"

"You're crazy!"

"The Hedgehog reaches his hand out and his fingers barely tap the blue sphere…

The world goes white.

The Cold metal floor of the container rushes up to meet Sonic's face. The impact leaves the hedgehog dazed.

"Blue, you okay?" he hears Knuckles call out. Sonic pushes himself out of the crate, tipping it over. Six gems tumble out with him.

The guardian and the freedom fighter stare at them for a moment.

"Six…" the echidna whispers.

"Chaos Emeralds." The hedgehog finishes.

They both scoop one up in their hands.

Sonic turns to Knuckles, "Okay, it's not that stupid."