9A/N: Well, then… I've been putting this off for quite some time. Just to clarify about the title of the last chapter, as I'm sure a lot of you were confused. The title of Chapter 3 in the game is called Egghunt, which made me think of Easter… so there ya have it.
Chapter 8: Breaking Down and Messing Up
The young rabbit had been positively jumping for joy when her friends came into view holding the still frightened Cheese. Once they were within twenty feet of her, Cream rushed over and embraced her pet Chao. Amy beamed at them, but Knuckles only tapped his foot. The younger Mobian looked up at Amy gratefully, her eyes starting to well up with tears again.
"Thank you so much, Amy…" she said through the streams of happiness. "I don't know what I would've done without you here to help."
"You know you can always count on me," replied the pink hedgehog with a warm smile. "I just can't stand to see you sad, Cream."
"This is very touching, but we should probably get going," Knuckles grumbled. "We've got other things to attend to." Cream looked at him with intent knowing.
"You guys are saving the world again, aren't you?" she asked. The two older sapients tried to hide it from their expressions, but an impossible grin was stuck on the rabbit's face. "I knew it! Can I help, pleeeeease?" Hardly any time had passed before Knuckles had shaken his head with much vigor.
"No. We're not putting a child's life in danger." The girls were at his throat at once.
"Knuckles, Cream has helped us a lot of times before!" shouted Amy. "Remember the Egg Emperor?" The crimson Guardian scratched his chin at this. "Not to mention when she helped to calm Emerl down."
"Okay, you've made your point…" the echidna grumbled. "Fine, she can come with us."
"Yaaaaaaay!"
XXX
"So where do we start looking…?" mused Rouge, not particularly caring to include Big in her wonderings. The bat had been standing outside Tails' workshop for over an hour now, waiting for Big to finish eating a large fried fish that he had brought along (apparently) from his hut in the Mystic Ruins.
"Why not check somewhere that Eggman used to be?" said enormous feline suggested as he tossed the last bit of meat into his mouth and wiped the crumbs on his belt. The bat was about to comment harshly when she realized that Big had actually contributed something intelligent to the situation. She looked up at him and grinned.
"You're not as dumb as you look, big boy," she said bitter-sweetly. Big let out an abashed guffaw.
"Aw, shucks, you don't mean that…" Rouge proceeded to roll her eyes.
"No. No I don't. Now, I think we would pick up something if there was an active Robotnik device around the workshop," continued the GUN agent. "There's one more of his bases in Central City, so let's head west and see what we can find."
"Okay!" agreed the violet behemoth. Rouge began walking quickly toward where they had put the pipes in place and looked up. She could see the spot where Sonic had emerged after running through the attic of a shop, and spread her wings.
"Big, you stay here and…" Rouge had to pause at this point, unsure of what exactly to have the cat do. After several minutes of pondering, the bat decided on, "Just stay here." Of course, Big was only too happy to oblige as Rouge took flight and soared to the rooftops. As she found a pile of broken machinery, she decided that this must be the place. Rouge's ears twitched as something stirred inside a door nearby, and she almost let out a scream of echolocation when a stumbling SWATbot emerged. It was much alike to the other SWATbots they had seen, but the device representing its head was a bit bigger. "Bingo…" Rouge hissed, preparing to kick a Ridley-sized hole in the robot. It seemed unwilling to attack, however.
"Soft creature…" it said with a crackle. "It seems that my…" Another buzz from its processor. "programming has been lost."
"And that's my problem because…?" asked the bat, tapping her booted toes.
"Request assistance with…" Crack. "programming information." Rouge sighed at this, deciding that it wasn't worth her time to try and waste any time with the malfunctioning machine.
"You're one of Eggman's robots," replied she. "The Doc has programmed you to obliterate Sonic and his friends, of which I am but one." Something clicked inside the SWATbot, and if such creations could look happy, this one certainly would.
"Many thanks, soft creature…" it sputtered. "Must…" Buzz. "Complete… mission." The drone stumbled forward, and Rouge took its head off with a clean kick. Once dislodged, it was clearly recognizable as one of the machines they were searching for.
"Score," cooed the bat, scooping up the device and flying back to Big. He gave a shout of joy as he spotted the thing in Rouge's hands. "So… any more bright ideas, Big?" The cat shook his head, and then his eyes lit up a bit.
"Can we go visit my friend in southern Central City?" Big inquired. Rouge huffed in annoyance, but her feline companion wasn't about to give in. "He always gives people free cups of coffee." This made the agent look at him with interest, being that GUN was not too generous with the wonderful caffeinated drink.
"All right, let's go…"
XXX
Knuckles, Amy, and Cream were returning to Central City when they were stopped by a beeping sound from the echidna's glove. He pressed the spot where the sound had issued, and Rouge's voice came through.
"Knuckles, we need you to get something while you're in Green Hill Zone," she announced.
"What is it, thief?" The sound of the bat had not done much in helping Knuckles' mood, and a random fetch quest wouldn't be any better.
"This guy in Central City's got an Eggman device, but he won't hand it over without his precious stapler…" muttered Rouge. "Some creep named Sal swindled it out of him, and now he expects us to get it back." The Guardian rolled his eyes and sighed.
"Oh, c'mon, Mr. Knuckles!" Cream cheered. "I thought doing heroic things was part of what made life fun!" Amy looked down at her rabbit friend and smiled.
"We'll even let you beat the guy up," chimed in the sakura rodent enticingly. Knuckles cracked his namesakes from inside his mittens and grinned.
"All right, Rouge," he consented. "I'll take care of this weirdo. It'll be nice to let out some more frustration."
"Great!" crackled the voice of the bat. "The guy says that Sal was last seen on the southern beaches of Green Hill, and he's human, so it should be a piece of cake." Without a reply, Knuckles disconnected the transmission and started tromping down the beach in search of his newest punching bag.
"Hey, wait for us!" shouted Amy, taking Cream's arm and running after the crimson echidna. By the time they had caught up, Knuckles was gripping the collar of a greasy-looking man with curly hair that was pulled back in a ponytail. A pair of glasses sat on the stranger's nose, allowing violet Guardian's orbs to stare daggers directly into his victim's eyes.
"I told you, my name's James, not Sal!" rasped the man, but this only made his pursuer more irritated.
"Yeah, and I'm Mama Luigi," grumbled the echidna. "I don't know why you pawned off a Robotnik machine for a stapler, but I do know how off-the-record salesmen like you work. Now hand it over." Knuckles shook the man vigorously, causing a shiny red object to tumble out of his coat pocket. Amy caught sight of it in time to dive in an attempt to retrieve it, and she came up holding the red stapler proudly.
"Not Sal, eh?" she asked pointedly. The Guardian grinned wickedly and brought a fist back.
"All right, all right!" the sleazy human pleaded. "I made the trade 'cause that tech's hot. They're sayin' Eggman's back, and I don't want any of his stuff on me when he attacks again. Now, can I go?" Knuckles' grin grew just the tiniest bit wider, his incisors glinting in the sunlight.
"Yeah, get lost," he growled. In the next instant, he was turning in circles, causing Sal's jacket to whip around in the artificial wind. Knuckles let go, and the man went sailing into the shallow waters of Emerald Beach. The red-haired boy that had been following the group of Mobians since the scorpion incident cheered. This did not go on for long before a rotund man with dark hair and glasses approached, looking worried and irritated.
"Josh, where have you been?" slurred the man. "Your mother and I have been worried sick!" His voice was loud and coarse, but his statement was obviously true."
"I've been safe!" the boy exclaimed. "Knuckles and Amy saved me." The man, apparently Josh's father, looked at the Sapients, his expression changing almost immediately.
"Well, I'll be damned!" he boomed. "I'm sure Josh was in good hands, then. The name's Patrick Moore, by the way." Knuckles and Amy exchanged confused glances.
"Well… we really have to go, so it was nice meeting you," replied Amy. Before Patrick Moore could reply, the trio dashed off toward the bridge leading into the city.
XXX
Rouge leaned against the wall of the little shop in Central City, half-listening to the conversation between Big and the shopkeeper. He was a lanky man with a mellow voice and medium brown hair. They talked about the fishing around Emerald Coast as of late, the kinds of bait one should use near Station Square, and the adventures Big experienced while the other Mobians were fighting Robotnik and Chaos.
"You actually had to fight Chaos 6?" the shopkeeper asked. "That is clownin'!" The bat was about to exercise her animal instincts on him if she heard one more instance of the words "clownin'", "cold", or "fire". Thankfully, the palaver was interrupted by the entry of Knuckles, Amy, and Cream.
"We brought your stapler…" grumbled Knuckles, tossing the device between his mittened hands. "Where's the Eggman machine?" With a look of almost alarmed realization, the shopkeeper got up and retrieved the strange piece of junk from behind the counter. He held it out, and the echidna practically threw the red stapler at its owner. "One more down. That makes what, two?"
"Three!" Big exclaimed.
"Congratulations, you finally learned how to count…" replied the Guardian sardonically. Rouge shook her head and held up the third contraption.
"Robotnik must really be cracked, because he attached this to a SWATbot's head," she informed him. "It forgot what it was, but that just made it so much easier…"
"Guess we're just waiting on Sonic and Tails, huh?" asked Amy, getting a bit dreamy at the mention of the azure speedster. Everyone shot her strange looks, and she cleared her throat. "Well, maybe we should wait by Tails' workshop. They're bound to go there when they're done searching the Ruins, right?" Several furry heads nodded, and the Mobians trooped out of the shop.
Sorry that took forever… Crap happens, y'know? Oh, well. At least it's up. I'll be finishing up Egghunt next chapter, so be ready!