Back to Chapter 46

“You’re probably wondering why I’ve called you all here today,” Sonic said, addressing his friends, “One of the people in this room is the culprit!”

“Sonic, behave,” Sally chastised him.

“Sorry, I’ve always wanted to say that”

Sally crossed her arms, “We’ve actually called this meeting of us for a more important reason than that. Also, we’re not in a room, but that’s beside the point”

Sonic continued as Johnny, Porker, Antoine, Bunnie, Ben, Dulcy, Rotor, Flicky, Joe, Tux and Chirps listened intently, “Yesterday, we were attacked by a robot duplicate of me. Aside from the fact it was devilishly handsome, one thing was very clear: Doctor Robotnik is already back. We don’t know what he’s plotting, but we can be certain he’s plotting something”

“So,” Sally picked up, “Sonic and I decided that this time, we get ahead of Robotnik. He’s already going to be mad that we’ve collectively dealt him two pretty major defeats, plus the destruction of what I assume was supposed to be a trump card in the form of the Sonic Eraser. An angered Robotnik is more likely to lash out. So we need a trump card of our own”

“Namely,” Sonic pressed a button on his Kintobor watch and a 3D hologram of a set of familiar gemstones hung in the air, “the Chaos Emeralds”

Flicky raised a wing, “Where do we get those from?”

“An excellent question,” Sally smiled, “Sonic?”

Sonic gladly took the question, “The Kintobor Computer has been tracking energy signatures matching the locations of the Chaos Emeralds from my last little jaunt across South Island. Basically, I gave Kintobor the locations of the emeralds as I found them and he’s isolated and tracked similar energy readings. From that, we have to assume the six known Chaos Emeralds are somewhere on Mobius as we speak. Somewhere on South Island, as luck would have it. All except one, that is, but we’ll get to that”

“We need to get to the Chaos Emeralds before Robotnik does,” Sally carried on, “If we get hold of them and keep them safe, we can use them in a time of emergency”

“More importantly,” Sonic noted, “if we have the Chaos Emeralds, Robotnik doesn’t. If ever he gets his hands on a full set of these things, there’ll be no stopping him”

Sonic turned off the hologram on his watch.

“So here’s the plan,” Sally stated boldly, “We split into teams and each team will follow an energy signature”

“With respect, ma princesse,” Antoine spoke up, “I must insist on serving as your royal guard”

“I thought you might say something like that, Antoine,” Sally replied, “hence why you’re on my team. Bunnie, you too”

“Sounds good to me, Sally-girl!” Bunnie punched the air.

“And me, I assume, Sally?” N.I.C.O.L.E. piped up.

“Of course, N.I.C.O.L.E., I didn’t forget you,” Sally gave a wry smile.

“Don’t celebrate too soon- we’re the ones taking the emerald not found on Mobius. We’ve located one of the Warps of Confusion and we’ll be heading into the Special Zone. No doubt Feist will have some variety of challenge for us to overcome”

Antoine recoiled a little as he pondered what kind of threat he may have to face. Bunnie placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, “Shucks, sugah-‘twan, y’all just stay by me and we’ll be right fine!”

Antoine found himself oddly calmed by Bunnie’s comments.

“Joe, Tux,” Sonic addressed his former swimming tutors, “We need you guys to navigate the Labyrinth Zone. There’s an emerald located underground somewhere in the maze. You’re the best swimmers so you stand the best chance” He removed his watch as he continued and passed it over to Tux, “Take my Kintobor watch- he’ll be able to advise you based on the latest maps and scans of the Zone available to him, so hopefully you shouldn’t get too lost”

“You may count on us, Sonic,” Tux bowed, accepting the watch.

“I reckon so,” Joe nodded.

Sally turned to the next team, “Dulcy, you and Rotor are assigned to the Marble Zone. It’ll be dangerous but we figured it made the most sense for the dragon to head to the scorching hot ruins”

“Well, I can definitely stand the head!” Dulcy shrugged happily.

“That makes one of us,” Rotor wise-cracked, “Just so long as you don’t crash-land into a lava pool, I think I can handle the Marble Zone”

Dulcy rubbed her chin in an expression of mock thought, “You mean to tell me you don’t want a soothing lava bath?”

“Johnny and Porker,” Sonic continued, “we need you guys to check the wreckage of the Sky Base Zone. It came down pretty hard in the Jungle Zone. No real damage to the Zone itself, fortunately, but there’s a Chaos Emerald energy signature emanating from the wreckage”

“You got it, Sonic,” Johnny gave a thumbs up.

“Johnny, please,” Sonic raised a hand, “don’t try to be cool”

“Sorry”

“I-is the Sky Base safe to explore?” Porker asked, concerned.

“To tell you the truth, Porker,” Sonic shook his head, “it wasn’t particularly safe when it was operational. Just be on the lookout for any surviving defence systems and you’ll be fine”

“Flicky and Chirps,” Sally announced.

“Oh boy oh boy oh girl!” Chirps exclaimed, “I can’t wait to have a grand old adventure with my bestest pal Flicky!”

“Thanks a lot,” Flicky mumbled.

“There’s an energy signature here in the Green Hill Zone. Chances are you two may have the easiest mission, you should be finished pretty quickly”

“Thanks a lot!” Flicky enthused, thankful for the chance to have his sanity largely preserved.

Ben stepped forward, “I guess that leaves you and I, Sonic, right?”

“Right. But I’m afraid it’s not going to be just so straightforward. You and I are going to head into the Scrap Brain Zone, or what’s left of it. We have to assume Robotnik is going to be around somewhere so we need to be careful”

“I appreciate you having me on your team, Sonic,” Ben lowered his head a little, “but I guess that’s ‘cause I’m the only one left, right?”

“Are you kidding me?” Sonic was almost surprised Ben had to ask, “I need you, bud! You’re Uncle Chuck’s apprentice! I need someone with a knowledge of power rings- because Uncle Chuck theorises we might be able to use one to download data from Robotnik’s systems and maybe, if we’re lucky, develop an anti-Roboticizer to undo what Robotnik did to my dad!”

Ben was cheered by this, no longer feeling like the odd one out, “Then I’ll do what I can to help!”

Sonic clapped his hand into Ben’s, “That’s all I can ask, pal!”

Sally raised her arm to get everyone’s attention, “Let’s talk transportation. Dulcy, you can and Rotor can fly to the Marble Zone. Flicky and Chirps, obviously you don’t need transportation. Bunnie, Antoine and I will be travelling via the Warp of Confusion. Ben, if you don’t mind being a little out of breath, I’m sure Sonic will be happy to give you a lift at super speed”

Sonic grinned, “Johnny and Porker, you guys get to travel by Star Post, as charged up by Yours Truly. Just think of the Jungle Zone as you hop into the sparkly special effects and the Star Post will do the rest”

“How about us, guys?” Joe asked.

“Glad you asked”, Sonic smiled, “I’d like you all to meet a friend of mine I met recently”

With a brilliant white flash, the Omni-Viewer blinked into view, electricity-like sparks crackling off him as he did so.

“What a show off…” Flicky rolled his eyes.

“Guys, this is the Omni-Viewer. I didn’t expect to be meeting him again so soon but he showed up last night as Sally and I were making our plans. He said his archives showed he had to be involved in events at this point in time”

“It’s difficult to be late when you’re a time traveller,” Omni-Viewer replied with what looked somewhat like a smirk.

“Alright, everyone. We all have our mission directives. Once we’ve recovered the Chaos Emeralds, we head back here and bring the Chaos Emeralds to Doctor Kintobor’s laboratory. We’ll store them there while away from Robotnik. Now let’s move out!”

On to Chapter 48