Note: Oh no! Eggman is ahead! After attempting to rescue Lil, Rouge and Lilith, Tails was shot, Sonic was thrown into a sewage drain, and Myzak threatened! Now that Eggman has the secret to Ultimate Life, what will be in store for our heroes? Will they survive, or never see the light of day?
Sonic gasped for air. The water was up to his nose now. He sputtered. Why didn't I listen to that Knucklehead anyway? He thought. “Help...” He called. No one replied. The water rushed up to his ears as he took a final breath. Soon, he would be gone. Just like that. The cold feeling turned to numbness. His thoughts wandered until they dissolved. He felt his body go limp...and then he let go of all consciousness. The last of his air left him.
Suddenly, a black figure broke through the water. Bubbles came from the figure's mouth as it swam down to grab the hedgehog. The shadow of a being then hauled Sonic's body up to the surface. When they emerged, the figure cried, “Get me an AED! He's slipping away!”
“Got it, Lil!” Tails nodded. “Shadow!”
“No need to say anymore.” Shadow was already gone when he sinabi this. He came back only a segundo later with the AED in hand. Lil had started mouth-to-mouth CPR. Shadow opened the AED and followed the instructions. Then...SHOCK! Sonic's body was injected with a couple hundred volts of electricity as they turned on the AED. “Live, hedgehog.” Shadow whispered. “Live.” He then noticed Lil's expression; determined, unafraid, in control.
“His pulse is back.” She gritted his teeth. “Let's take the AED off. I'm gonna try mouth-to-mouth again until he can breathe on his own.” They then unhooked the AED to allow Lil to follow procedure. She began to blow deep breaths into Sonic's mouth. On her fourth try, Sonic grabbed the back of her head and wouldn't let go.
He then coughed and pushed her away. “Some halik of life.” He remarked, vomit covering his face and Lil's wet red cammi. He panted hard, and then laid back. “I didn't know you loved me that much...”
“I KNEW you were going to do that,” Lil snapped, wiping herself up with one of Tails' tails, “you conceited hedgehog!”
“What just happened?” asked the clueless Tails.
“I was dead...” Sonic began, still breathing hard, “and then my grabbing reflex awakened and so I grabbed the thing over-top my head and then I barfed in Lil's mouth sa pamamagitan ng mistake. Under different circumstances, it would've been mistaken for romance.”
“That's what happens when you do CPR on a certain blue hedgehog!” Lil hissed. “Do you have gum?” She asked Shadow. He then tossed her a piece with Pagsulat on the wrapper. “'Love Rouge'?” Lil read. “She must be really into you.” And then she popped the thing in her mouth.
“Where's that cursed echidna?” Sonic tried to sit up. “He was right! Eggman really IS playing sa pamamagitan ng different rules!” Then, he added quietly, “I was wrong.”
“Let me sum up the past half-hour for you.” Tails went to his friend. “You see, Myzak just gave Dr. Eggman the manuscript for creating Ultimate Life to attempt to save Lil and I from blowing up. Just in case though, Myzak sent Shadow to save us. We then hacked into Eggman's firewall and got Lilith and Rouge out. We then remembered you and then came to find you. (I used too many 'ands' in that paragraph.)”
“We think Eggman is going to suck the life out of Knuckles.” Shadow added. “You can NOT just create life on its own. You must take one life force from one creature and put in in the experiment in order to create any kind of life at all. Even I wouldn't exist if some creature hadn't of had its life taken.”
***
“What have I done?” Myzak held his head in his hands. Dr. Eggman set up a huge mesa of something. “What have I done?” Myzak repeated. “Forgive me, Knuckles.”
“Can I be of assistance?” Sonic's voice whispered in his ear. “Don't turn around. I just received CPR from your ex, so I'm covered in barf. My own, actually.”
“What are ya'll doin' here, hedgehog?” Myzak whispered back. “Ya'll are gonna get killed!”
“That's the idea, isn't it?” Sonic whispered back. “Listen, when I say, you and Shadow get out of the room. We're going to explode it. Rouge and Lilith are gonna grab Knuckles. Lil and I are going to get Eggman. Teamwork, no?” He chuckled grimly. “Insane, but it's gonna work. Tails hooked Omega up to the system to trigger a bomb. This place is toast!”
“Are you buyin' time talkin'?” Myzak shook his head.
“How'd you guess?” Sonic asked. “I'm just waiting for Lil to...wait, there she is...now...wait a second....okay, RUN!!!”
Myzak jumped up as soon as he heard. He then spun-kicked the mesa over to avoid getting caught. “Yeehaw!” He cried. Suddenly, he was jerked violently and pulled off his feet. The breeze from the speed Shadow was pulling him whipped his face with his hair. Instinct came in. Myzak grabbed the pressure-points on Shadow's arm and squeezed. “Slow down!” the tomcat screamed. “Ya'll are gonna kill me!”
“My apologies,” Shadow snapped. “Myzak, you know why I'm anxious.”
“Knowledge is somethin' that, in large quantities, can kill you.” Myzak looked the black hedgehog right in the eyes. “You want information, right? I guess I can tell you what I know. But on one condition: once I tell you what you want to know, you erase my memory.”
***
Rouge and Lilith jumped onto the large case where Knuckles lay, still unconscious. “We've got to get him out!” Rouge began to fly all about, searching for a loose bolt or something like that. “Try to get in with your knives!” the bat ordered. Lilith started frantically scraping the glass. Nothing. Not even a scratch was left behind. “It's not working?” Rouge asked. Lilith shook her head. “Okay, stand back!” Grabbing a robotic blaster, Rouge put it on auto-destruct. She then placed it on tuktok of the case. “Run!!!” Rouge screamed, jumping into the air.
The case then blew up. Knuckles, who seemed to enjoy napping quite well, awakened, swear words flying from his mouth. “Who the #&$% did that?” He roared. “Eggman's gonna pay #&$% for all the #&$%#&$% he caused!”
“What? No thank you?” Rouge raised an eyebrow. “Come on, Knucklehead! We've got madami business to take care of!”
“What the hell is going on?” Knuckles snapped.
“We'll explain on the way outta here!” Rouge hissed, taking off.
***
“So!” Dr. Eggman hissed. “You think you can just ruin everything don't you, hedgehog!” He began to cock a gun. “It seems that I need to boost security, or have you learned to swim?”
“Boost security.” Sonic nodded. His eyes, straining so they could not reveal Lil, who was sneaking up on Eggman with handcuffs in her hands. “I liked how cold the water was though, before it went up to my waist.” Lil was getting closer. Sonic became frantic not to look at her. “After that, I Nawawala all comfort. Too cold. Ice cold. Freezing. Maybe susunod time, try drowning me in a hot-tub.”
Lil then chose her moment of attack! She sprung out from behind Eggman, wielding the cuffs. But, before anyone could react, the doctor spun around, grabbed the handcuffs and pulled them around Lil's neck like a noose. The black cat began to struggle for breaths. Eggman pulled tighter. Lil began to gag. “Mur...murder...murderer!” She wheezed. Her eyeballs felt like they would pop. Why was Sonic just standing there? Then, she got her answer.
In the exact moment in which Lil had been grabbed sa pamamagitan ng Dr. Eggman, Sonic had kalapati for the gun. CLICK! Sonic held his finger on the trigger. “Let...her...go.” Sonic's voice was unnaturally threatening. Perfectly aimed, the gun stayed motionless in the air.
“Or what?” Eggman taunted, pulling tighter. “It's not like you to kill. You wouldn't.”
“You wouldn't either!” Sonic growled. “You sinabi it yourself, the rules have changed. It's over, Eggman!”
Lil couldn't believe her ears. Would Sonic be reduced to actually shooting Eggman? As dizziness from the lack of oxygen overcame her, she began to plead with herself to find a way to escape. “Rr...rrra...ring!” She gasped, hoping Sonic would hear. Please don't apoy the gun, she desperately thought, you're not that kind of hedgehog!
***
Tails ignited the bomb. “Hope they cleared!” He told Omega. “I sure do hope no one's in there!”
***
Sonic fired the gun. Eggman winced. Big mistake. To Lil's surprise, Sonic had actually put a ring in the bullet-chamber, so when he shot, it landed gracefully in her open hands. Okay, genius hedgehog, Lil thought, still gagging, now what? I can't absorb rings like you can. Then she gripped the ring tightly and rubbed. What good would that do. It wasn't like she could think about anything either. Her hands were numb, so she had decided to try to wake her senses.
Suddenly, the ring grew to about three-times the original size. Lil clasped her hands tightly around it. It burned. She then opened her hands and snapped her eyes shut. A blinding glow from a light orb danced centimeters from her fingertips. An idea came to her. She pressed the ring to the cuffs strangling her. They melted like a welder-torch had come to them. Then...SNAP!
Lil twisted around and pressed the orb to Eggman's chest. Eggman screamed in pain. He crumpled to the ground, unable to breathe. Lil fell too, gasping for air. Sonic jerked her up sa pamamagitan ng her arm and ran. “What the heck did you do to that ring???” He asked as he carried her out of the room.
“I...I (gasp) don't know! It just...it just turned into light!!!” After that, she didn't say anything else. Too tired.
Then, before Sonic expected it, the room behind them blew up. But, Dr. Eggman hadn't been in the room when it happened.
Sonic gasped for air. The water was up to his nose now. He sputtered. Why didn't I listen to that Knucklehead anyway? He thought. “Help...” He called. No one replied. The water rushed up to his ears as he took a final breath. Soon, he would be gone. Just like that. The cold feeling turned to numbness. His thoughts wandered until they dissolved. He felt his body go limp...and then he let go of all consciousness. The last of his air left him.
Suddenly, a black figure broke through the water. Bubbles came from the figure's mouth as it swam down to grab the hedgehog. The shadow of a being then hauled Sonic's body up to the surface. When they emerged, the figure cried, “Get me an AED! He's slipping away!”
“Got it, Lil!” Tails nodded. “Shadow!”
“No need to say anymore.” Shadow was already gone when he sinabi this. He came back only a segundo later with the AED in hand. Lil had started mouth-to-mouth CPR. Shadow opened the AED and followed the instructions. Then...SHOCK! Sonic's body was injected with a couple hundred volts of electricity as they turned on the AED. “Live, hedgehog.” Shadow whispered. “Live.” He then noticed Lil's expression; determined, unafraid, in control.
“His pulse is back.” She gritted his teeth. “Let's take the AED off. I'm gonna try mouth-to-mouth again until he can breathe on his own.” They then unhooked the AED to allow Lil to follow procedure. She began to blow deep breaths into Sonic's mouth. On her fourth try, Sonic grabbed the back of her head and wouldn't let go.
He then coughed and pushed her away. “Some halik of life.” He remarked, vomit covering his face and Lil's wet red cammi. He panted hard, and then laid back. “I didn't know you loved me that much...”
“I KNEW you were going to do that,” Lil snapped, wiping herself up with one of Tails' tails, “you conceited hedgehog!”
“What just happened?” asked the clueless Tails.
“I was dead...” Sonic began, still breathing hard, “and then my grabbing reflex awakened and so I grabbed the thing over-top my head and then I barfed in Lil's mouth sa pamamagitan ng mistake. Under different circumstances, it would've been mistaken for romance.”
“That's what happens when you do CPR on a certain blue hedgehog!” Lil hissed. “Do you have gum?” She asked Shadow. He then tossed her a piece with Pagsulat on the wrapper. “'Love Rouge'?” Lil read. “She must be really into you.” And then she popped the thing in her mouth.
“Where's that cursed echidna?” Sonic tried to sit up. “He was right! Eggman really IS playing sa pamamagitan ng different rules!” Then, he added quietly, “I was wrong.”
“Let me sum up the past half-hour for you.” Tails went to his friend. “You see, Myzak just gave Dr. Eggman the manuscript for creating Ultimate Life to attempt to save Lil and I from blowing up. Just in case though, Myzak sent Shadow to save us. We then hacked into Eggman's firewall and got Lilith and Rouge out. We then remembered you and then came to find you. (I used too many 'ands' in that paragraph.)”
“We think Eggman is going to suck the life out of Knuckles.” Shadow added. “You can NOT just create life on its own. You must take one life force from one creature and put in in the experiment in order to create any kind of life at all. Even I wouldn't exist if some creature hadn't of had its life taken.”
***
“What have I done?” Myzak held his head in his hands. Dr. Eggman set up a huge mesa of something. “What have I done?” Myzak repeated. “Forgive me, Knuckles.”
“Can I be of assistance?” Sonic's voice whispered in his ear. “Don't turn around. I just received CPR from your ex, so I'm covered in barf. My own, actually.”
“What are ya'll doin' here, hedgehog?” Myzak whispered back. “Ya'll are gonna get killed!”
“That's the idea, isn't it?” Sonic whispered back. “Listen, when I say, you and Shadow get out of the room. We're going to explode it. Rouge and Lilith are gonna grab Knuckles. Lil and I are going to get Eggman. Teamwork, no?” He chuckled grimly. “Insane, but it's gonna work. Tails hooked Omega up to the system to trigger a bomb. This place is toast!”
“Are you buyin' time talkin'?” Myzak shook his head.
“How'd you guess?” Sonic asked. “I'm just waiting for Lil to...wait, there she is...now...wait a second....okay, RUN!!!”
Myzak jumped up as soon as he heard. He then spun-kicked the mesa over to avoid getting caught. “Yeehaw!” He cried. Suddenly, he was jerked violently and pulled off his feet. The breeze from the speed Shadow was pulling him whipped his face with his hair. Instinct came in. Myzak grabbed the pressure-points on Shadow's arm and squeezed. “Slow down!” the tomcat screamed. “Ya'll are gonna kill me!”
“My apologies,” Shadow snapped. “Myzak, you know why I'm anxious.”
“Knowledge is somethin' that, in large quantities, can kill you.” Myzak looked the black hedgehog right in the eyes. “You want information, right? I guess I can tell you what I know. But on one condition: once I tell you what you want to know, you erase my memory.”
***
Rouge and Lilith jumped onto the large case where Knuckles lay, still unconscious. “We've got to get him out!” Rouge began to fly all about, searching for a loose bolt or something like that. “Try to get in with your knives!” the bat ordered. Lilith started frantically scraping the glass. Nothing. Not even a scratch was left behind. “It's not working?” Rouge asked. Lilith shook her head. “Okay, stand back!” Grabbing a robotic blaster, Rouge put it on auto-destruct. She then placed it on tuktok of the case. “Run!!!” Rouge screamed, jumping into the air.
The case then blew up. Knuckles, who seemed to enjoy napping quite well, awakened, swear words flying from his mouth. “Who the #&$% did that?” He roared. “Eggman's gonna pay #&$% for all the #&$%#&$% he caused!”
“What? No thank you?” Rouge raised an eyebrow. “Come on, Knucklehead! We've got madami business to take care of!”
“What the hell is going on?” Knuckles snapped.
“We'll explain on the way outta here!” Rouge hissed, taking off.
***
“So!” Dr. Eggman hissed. “You think you can just ruin everything don't you, hedgehog!” He began to cock a gun. “It seems that I need to boost security, or have you learned to swim?”
“Boost security.” Sonic nodded. His eyes, straining so they could not reveal Lil, who was sneaking up on Eggman with handcuffs in her hands. “I liked how cold the water was though, before it went up to my waist.” Lil was getting closer. Sonic became frantic not to look at her. “After that, I Nawawala all comfort. Too cold. Ice cold. Freezing. Maybe susunod time, try drowning me in a hot-tub.”
Lil then chose her moment of attack! She sprung out from behind Eggman, wielding the cuffs. But, before anyone could react, the doctor spun around, grabbed the handcuffs and pulled them around Lil's neck like a noose. The black cat began to struggle for breaths. Eggman pulled tighter. Lil began to gag. “Mur...murder...murderer!” She wheezed. Her eyeballs felt like they would pop. Why was Sonic just standing there? Then, she got her answer.
In the exact moment in which Lil had been grabbed sa pamamagitan ng Dr. Eggman, Sonic had kalapati for the gun. CLICK! Sonic held his finger on the trigger. “Let...her...go.” Sonic's voice was unnaturally threatening. Perfectly aimed, the gun stayed motionless in the air.
“Or what?” Eggman taunted, pulling tighter. “It's not like you to kill. You wouldn't.”
“You wouldn't either!” Sonic growled. “You sinabi it yourself, the rules have changed. It's over, Eggman!”
Lil couldn't believe her ears. Would Sonic be reduced to actually shooting Eggman? As dizziness from the lack of oxygen overcame her, she began to plead with herself to find a way to escape. “Rr...rrra...ring!” She gasped, hoping Sonic would hear. Please don't apoy the gun, she desperately thought, you're not that kind of hedgehog!
***
Tails ignited the bomb. “Hope they cleared!” He told Omega. “I sure do hope no one's in there!”
***
Sonic fired the gun. Eggman winced. Big mistake. To Lil's surprise, Sonic had actually put a ring in the bullet-chamber, so when he shot, it landed gracefully in her open hands. Okay, genius hedgehog, Lil thought, still gagging, now what? I can't absorb rings like you can. Then she gripped the ring tightly and rubbed. What good would that do. It wasn't like she could think about anything either. Her hands were numb, so she had decided to try to wake her senses.
Suddenly, the ring grew to about three-times the original size. Lil clasped her hands tightly around it. It burned. She then opened her hands and snapped her eyes shut. A blinding glow from a light orb danced centimeters from her fingertips. An idea came to her. She pressed the ring to the cuffs strangling her. They melted like a welder-torch had come to them. Then...SNAP!
Lil twisted around and pressed the orb to Eggman's chest. Eggman screamed in pain. He crumpled to the ground, unable to breathe. Lil fell too, gasping for air. Sonic jerked her up sa pamamagitan ng her arm and ran. “What the heck did you do to that ring???” He asked as he carried her out of the room.
“I...I (gasp) don't know! It just...it just turned into light!!!” After that, she didn't say anything else. Too tired.
Then, before Sonic expected it, the room behind them blew up. But, Dr. Eggman hadn't been in the room when it happened.
