Author's note:

hello everyone, it's been a while! sorry for not posting in a while. Alot can happen over periods of time such as school and other important real life situations. As I mentioned before, i will upload chapters as soon as i get to them. i hope you all enjoy the next chapter! :)

Chapter 9: Strategizing…

Tails and Amy continue to wait for Sonic, Knuckles, and Sassy. Even then, Rouge has still yet to regain consciousness. The pink hedgehog sighs. "I hope Sonic will be alright," she says with a frown. Tails looks to Amy with a nod to show he agrees.

Just then, Amy and Tails hear something coming. They both got up and noticed something blue in the sky. The two-tailed fox flinches when he recognizes that metal blue figure. "Amy, look out," he shouts! The pink hedgehog and yellow fox quickly were barely able to dodge the figure heading towards them. Amy and Tails glare at the newcomer. The figure looks aa bit like Sonic, but it's more robot feature. "It's Metal Sonic," Tails mumbles a bit quietly. The robot, or Metal Sonic, turns its attention to Tails as it gets ready to charge at him.

Tails flinches for he can't dodge as fast. He was barely able to dodge the last attack. But Tails didn't have to worry; because, Sonic had arrived just in time to kick Metal Sonic away. The blue hedgehog looks to Amy and Tails. "Are you guys okay?" he asks.

Amy shows a big smile while Tails looks to Sonic and nods. "We're fine Sonic, thanks," he says with a smile. The fox watches the blue hedgehog show a thumbs up. Tails then looks to Metal Sonic who looks ready to attack. Just then, he sees someone floating down in a hovercraft. In it, he sees a man with a long moustache and wearing a red outfit. "Sonic look," he says while pointing to the hovercraft while glaring at it!

Sonic and Amy look up to the hovercraft as well and see a familiar human. Sonic lets out a playful smirk. "Back to using Metal again Eggman?" he asks with a cocky expression.

Eggman glares at Sonic as two new robots, one round and red and the other cubed and yellow, float down next to the human. The human then smirked. "Well, he won't be the only one to deal with. As we speak, one of my newest creations is on its way," he says with a dark chuckle.

Sonic eye narrows as his cocky expression remains the same. "Oh, you mean that hunk of junk at the hill? Sorry to disappoint you egghead, but its playtime has just been finished," he says with his hands behind his head a bit.

Eggman shows a shocked expression for a moment, but it quickly changes to a glare. "Then I guess you'll have to deal with Metal Sonic, but with a few upgrades," he states.

As if on que, Metal Sonic charges towards Sonic and attacks him. However, Sonic blocks the robotic hedgehog's attack, but can feel a harsh impact that caused him to stutter and groan. Glaring at the metal imposter, the blue hedgehog starts fighting it. Tails watches Metal Sonic's actions and noticed the robot looks a bit stronger than last time. Could that be the upgrades Eggman was talking about? "Could it be that Metal has a Chaos Emerald?" he questions out of his thoughts. The two-tailed fox quickly pulls out his device and a green gem that looks just like the Master Emerald, but smaller.

Eggman noticed something glowing in Tails's hand. Looking at it carefully. He sees it is one of the gems he's looking for, a Chaos Emerald. The two robots right beside him notice as well. "Are you going to get the emerald boss?" the round robot asks.

Eggman makes a dark smirk as he starts pressing some buttons on his hovercraft as it turns towards Tails and Amy and have a hand-like grabber pop out of the craft. "Of course, that is what I'll do you idiot," he says to the round robot in a whisper.

Tails suddenly noticed Eggman targeting him. Seeing the grabber coming towards him, the two-tailed fox quickly dodges it by flying up a bit. Remembering the small emerald in his hand, Tails puts the gem away as he glares at the human. "You can't get the emerald from me that easily Eggman," he says while remaining in the air.

The human glares at Tails. "We'll just see about that fox boy," Eggman says as he tries to get his hovercraft grabber to grab the fox mobian once again. But of course, it did not work. This only got the human angrier. He then remembers Amy and Rouge. Noticing the bat is unconscious, he tries to grab her.

Apparently, Amy had summoned her hammer and smack the grabber away. "Not so fast Eggman," she says to the human with a glare! She sees the human glare at her, but what she didn't expect is the grabber behind her.

Tails, however, noticed the grabber. "Amy, watch out," he tries to warn her! However, Amy was too late to respond. The pink hedgehog was suddenly snatched by Eggman. She let out a yelp as she accidentally drops her hammer. "Amy," Tails calls out to the pink hedgehog as he tries to fly up to help her!

"I wouldn't come any closer if I were you Tails," Eggman announces with a dark chuckle. The human watches the fox stop at his place. Perhaps he can use this chance to take the Chaos Emerald. "Now, hand over the Chaos Emerald or else you all can say goodbye to the girl," he says with a dark smirk.

Sonic continues to fight Metal Sonic until he hears Tails warning. He looks and sees Amy captured by Eggman. "Amy," he calls out to the pink hedgehog! Before Sonic could go help, the robotic hedgehog tackles the blue hedgehog down to the ground and holds him there. Little did the two hedgehogs know, the band on Sonic's arm started to glow a bit.

Metal Sonic got ready to attack Sonic more, but it was suddenly struck down by something turquoise. The attack was strong enough to knock the metal hedgehog off the blue hedgehog. Sonic noticed the pressure on him had faded and Metal Sonic off to the side a bit. Realizing his chance, the blue hedgehog attacks the robot hedgehog which sends it flying into another section of the woods. Sonic then turned his attention to Eggman as he gets ready to attack him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you Sonic or you can say farewell to the girl," the human states as he starts to squeeze the pink hedgehog a bit.

When Sonic hears Amy whimpering in pain, he stays put while glaring at Eggman. While he and Tails glare at Eggman, Knuckles, Stitch, Kekeionga, and Sassy finally caught up. The moment Sassy sees what's going on, she gasps as she has her hands to her face with complete worry. "Amy," she shouts with worry!

Sonic and Tails turned to the new group and then glares back at Eggman. "Now then, Tails hand over the Chaos Emerald and I will release Amy," he says with a dark smirk.

Kekeionga looked to Sonic and Tails with a surprised expression. They have a Chaos Emeralds, but how? "That's low Eggman," Knuckles says to the human with a glare.

The red robot continues to watch the group with the yellow robot. It's very surprised to see Sonic and his friends make some new friends. It did notice strange star marks on each of the new folks. What could those markings mean? The round robot suddenly noticed something glowing on Sonic's arm. Why does that device look familiar? Perhaps Eggman might know what it is. "Excuse me boss," it tries to get the human's attention.

Eggman ignores the red robot as he glares at Knuckles with a darker smirk. "I'll do what I need to do in order to get the Chaos Emeralds. And once I get all seven, your Master Emerald will be next," he says with a dark chuckle.

Knuckles starts to growl as Stitch and Kekeionga glares at the human. The yellow-blue hedgehog suddenly hears something in one of the bushes. Stitch sees a robotic hedgehog walking out with its head down. "What the?" he says out loud.

Eggman noticed Metal Sonic coming out. "Now Metal, attack them," he shouts while pointing at Sonic and his friends. The group got ready for Metal Sonic to attack, but to their surprise the robotic hedgehog did not move. The human glares at the metal hedgehog. "What are you waiting for? Attack," he shouts again!

Kekeionga watches with a confused expression until she sees little static sparks pop out of Metal Sonic. She makes a tiny gasp for she understands what's going on. Lunaura must have attacked this robotic hedgehog when they weren't in sight. And now, she's somewhere watching in the shadows. "Lunaura," she whispers softly so it won't be heard.

Eggman's glare deepens until he noticed Metal Sonic finally move. However, it moved so it can fall to the ground. This got the human and everyone else surprised. Sonic's attack couldn't have been that strong! Eggman uses his hovercraft to float closer to the metal hedgehog to see what's going. "What is this?" he questions himself as the two other robots float next to him.

While everyone were watching with a confused expression, Lunaura jumps on to the shrine as she places her tail on Rouge. All the electricity that was paralyzing the bat are back to the Pikachu. Once it's done, Lunaura looks to the grabber that is holding Amy as her tail starts to glow. Amy suddenly notices the glow and looks to where it's coming from. When she sees the Pikachu, the pink hedgehog gasps. Quickly, Lunaura strikes at the arm connecting to the grabber. Because of the attack, the arm connecting the grabber was split in half, causing it to release Amy. Meanwhile, Lunaura grabs on to the other half of the arm connected to the hovercraft and climbs.

Amy yelps until she lands on to the ground. This caught everyone's attention and realized the pink hedgehog is free. Sonic was surprised but snapped out of it when he sees Amy standing up and looks to him with a smile. "Sonic," she calls to him with a smile. Sonic flinches a bit as he prepares to get ready for a death grip hug

Before the pink hedgehog could run to the blue hedgehog, Sassy catches Amy in a death grip like hug. "Amy," she says with huge relief while tears are in her eyes! Amy was surprised and chocking a bit from the death grip hug. "Oh, thank stars you're okay," the magenta hedgehog continues while crying a bit!

Amy tries to get out of Sassy's grip and had managed to succeed in doing so. The pink hedgehog glares a bit at the magenta hedgehog while the other showed a look of relief.

Eggman glares at the group but was concerned with how Amy escaped. The human looks to Metal Sonic and noticed some static sparks popping out of it. Those sparks are kind of familiar… It then finally hit him hard. "This can't be," he states with shock. Before Eggman could utter another word, someone climbs on to the hovercraft that it gave him and his two other robots a fright. It's the same creature he saw the other night! The human looks a bit petrified as he stares at the small creature. "I-it's you," he says with a bit of a shaky voice.

Lunaura, once she's on the hovercraft, glares at Eggman as she stands on her back paws and crosses her arms. Noticing the speck of fear on the human, the Pikachu smirks as little mint sparks pop out of her cheeks. This got Eggman to be a bit more frightened. "Uh, hi?" the cubed robot says while waving nervously.

Tails noticed the silence going on with Eggman. He looks up and noticed a small creature with a glowing band on the hovercraft with the human. "Guys look," he says to the group while pointing towards Eggman's hovercraft!

Sonic and his friends look up to the hovercraft and see Eggman and his robots trying to move away from Lunaura. "How did it get up there?" Knuckles asks when he notices the Pikachu.

Eggman suddenly noticed the band on Lunaura's arm! He then gets an idea as he evil smirks. He quickly pulls out a small device as he presses a small yellow button. "Get ready for a taste of your own medicine," he says with a dark chuckle.

Lunaura eye narrows at the mad scientist as she feels something sparking her. She looks to her arm and sees her band zapping out yellow electricity. To Eggman's surprise, the electricity isn't doing anything to the creature. Slowly, that smirk on the human's face starts to fade and changes back to fear. Understanding what Eggman's plan was, Lunaura lets out a squeak-chuckle. "Pika pika pi," she says to the human even though he doesn't understand what she said. The electric sparks on the Pikachu's cheeks start to increase in size.

In the group, Sonic feels something stinging his arm, it's almost like the time Lunaura zapped him. Looking down, he sees the electricity coming out of the band on his arm. The blue hedgehog tries to cover his arm, but the zapping is starting to paralyze him a bit as he falls to his knees. Tails noticed Sonic's pained behavior. "Sonic?" he questions quietly.

Lunaura finally launches some electricity at Eggman and his robots. As the electricity zaps the human and two robots, the hovercraft starts shaking a bit as Eggman drops the small device. When Lunaura stops, the zapping on her arm vanished. "Pika," she mumbles a bit. Feeling the hovercraft shaking, the Pikachu looks around for a place to jump. Seeing the Master Emerald is the closest thing to her, Lunaura jumps off the hovercraft and launches another electric attack at the human.

Eggman starts to feel actual damage than the other times Lunaura launches her electricity at him. He shouts a bit from the pain as he and the two robots hanging on to him start floating away. "GAAAAAAH," the human shouts as he fades into the sky!

Lunaura stops her electric attack when she lands on the Master Emerald. She watches where Eggman flies off to in the sky, but he and his two robots were no longer in sight. The Pikachu sighs as she looks at the band on her arm. Now she knows what that human plans to do with the bands on her and Sonic. So far, it didn't really hurt her. It's just the opposite.

"Hey, get off the Master Emerald now," Lunaura hears Knuckles shout out! The Pikachu looks down to the red echidna and the rest of the group. Sassy and Amy were looking at Lunaura with a shocked expression from her attack at Eggman. Kekeionga and Stitch continue to watch her calmly. Knuckles, on the other hand, is glaring at the Pikachu. In return, she glares back at the male echidna. When she turns to Sonic and Tails, Lunaura noticed the blue hedgehog on his knees while the two-tailed fox is trying to figure out what's wrong. Not only that, Tails would feel a shock from Sonic whenever he gets close.

Lunaura eye narrows in confusion as she finally gets off the Master Emerald. Amy watches the Pikachu jump down, and then she looks to see what the Pikachu is looking at. Now, she noticed Sonic is on his knees. "Sonic?" she calls out to the blue hedgehog with worry.

Without thinking, Amy quickly runs to Sonic to try and see what is wrong. Tails noticed the pink hedgehog next to him and is about to touch the blue hedgehog. "Wait, Amy! Don't touch-"

As Amy puts her hands on Sonic's shoulders, she was welcomed with a zap of electricity. This got the pink hedgehog to flinch as she moves her hands away from the pain. "What was that?" she asks with shock and concern.

"I-I don't know," Tails answers with a confused expression. "Sonic just suddenly collapsed to the ground a bit as his band started glowing. He then started to receive some kind of electric energy since I tried to see what's going on. It was the same reaction when Knuckles tried to wake Rouge up," he added. Tails looks to Knuckles and then sees Stitch and Kekeionga behind him.

Kekeionga noticed Tails's attention is now towards her and Stitch. Shyly, the purple echidna waves to the fox. "Hello there," she says a bit quietly.

Tails is a bit tensed when he noticed Stitch, who is just watching calmly. He then noticed Kekeionga and is surprised to see she really is an echidna like Knuckles! Hearing the female echidna's quiet greeting. Tails silently waves back a bit. He soon remembers the small creature that sent Eggman flying. The two-tailed fox looks to the creature and sees it walking towards him, Sonic, and Amy. He blocks the creature with an uncertainty expression. "I wouldn't get close yet. Sonic isn't in the best position. And if you touch him, you'll get hurt," he says to the small creature.

Lunaura eye narrows at Tails's untrusting action. Then again, she doesn't really blame him. The fox looks like he's just a kid. However, if Tails wants Sonic to get better, he needs to let her through. Hoping the fox can understand what she's doing. Lunaura starts waving around her tail to show the green lightning bolt on it in order to show Tails she can help.

Tails continues to watch the creature as it waves its tail. This got him a bit confused until he sees the creature walking closer. The fox blocks the creature again. "Wait, you don't understand. Sonic is hurt with some kind of electricity. It's best if you don't go any closer," he tries to warn the creature. He watches the creature roll its eyes in annoyance as it waves its tail faster while continuing to get closer. "I'm serious," he says to the creature!

Stitch watches Lunaura's attempt to let Tails know she can help fails. Sighing, he walks to the fox and gently moves Tails away. "Relax, she's here to help," the yellow-blue hedgehog says to the fox.

Tails flinches as he feels Stitch move him away. Hearing the yellow-blue hedgehog, he looks at the creature as it walks to Sonic. But then, Amy stops the creature this time. "Stay back," she warns the creature!

Lunaura eye narrows at Amy's warning. Challenging the pink hedgehog, the Pikachu continues to walk closer to Sonic. She then sees Amy getting closer to her to pick her up. The Pikachu jumps to the other side of the blue hedgehog to avoid the pink hedgehog. Seeing that she's next to Sonic, Lunaura jumps on to his back. Immediately, the electricity on the blue hedgehog start flowing to the Pikachu like a magnet.

Sonic feels the electricity leaving him. Realizing he had his eyes shut from the pain, he slowly opens them with a confused expression. How did the band start zapping him? Could that be Eggman's plan? If so, then why did it stop? The blue hedgehog lifts his head and noticed Tails and Amy continue to give out looks of worry. "Tails? Amy?" he questions quietly as he tries to get up. Unfortunately, Sonic was forced back down by Lunaura, who is on his back to collect the rest of the electricity completely.

"Amazing," Tails says while observing Lunaura absorbing all the electricity. He walks a bit closer and sees the Pikachu completely unharmed from all the electricity she took in. He quickly pulled out his orange device to record and scan Lunaura. "I've never seen a living creature able to absorb electricity," he added.

Sonic continues to lay there as he feels his strength returning to him. He's also confused on how this Pikachu was able to absorb electricity. The other pikachus he's seen were not able to accomplish that task. Once the blue hedgehog finally feels free from the electricity, he quickly got on his feet and took off at the speed of sound.

Lunaura fell on her back the moment Sonic got to his feet and took off. The Pikachu glared where the blue hedgehog left and growls a bit. "Pi pikachu pika," she mumbles as tiny cyan sparks pop out of her cheeks.

Tails was used to Sonic taking off in fast speed. However, he wasn't expecting the Pikachu to growl as static sparks pop out of her cheeks. He looks at his device and noticed it picked up massive electricity forming around the little creature. He looks to the creature with a nervous look; however, Kekeionga beat the young fox to the creature by walking towards her. "Come on Lunaura, now isn't the best time to complain," she says gently to the Pikachu.

Lunaura looks to Kekeionga and noticed the worried and serious expression. The Pikachu takes a deep breath to calm herself and stops her electric sparks. She then noticed Knuckles walking towards her and the purple echidna. "You mentioned that you and your…" he pauses as he looks to Lunaura. The Pikachu eye narrows at the red echidna. "…friend, stopped Rouge from taking the Master Emerald. What exactly did you two do?" he asks.

Kekeionga and Lunaura look at each other. The Pikachu shrugs her shoulders while Kekeionga looks back to Knuckles. "Well, what Lunaura did is just thunder waved your friend. It just paralyzes her until the electricity is gone. My friend already had removed it from her. Your friend will be back to normal in the morning," she replies to the red echidna.

Knuckles looks back to Rouge, who is still unconscious since they arrived. He looks back to Kekeionga as he eye narrows. "It doesn't really explain why she's still unconscious," he says while still looking a bit confused.

Kekeionga mumbled an oh as she shows a bit of guilt. "Well, that part is actually my doing," she admitted. "I placed a hypnotic spell that lets her sleep for the night until morning. I figured you would've taken cared of the rest, but I didn't think she was a friend of yours," she explains.

Knuckles looks to Rouge with a bit of an annoyed look while blushing a bit. "I wouldn't really call us friends. I'd say we're more acquaintances and annoying," he says to Kekeionga.

Lunaura watches the way Knuckles looks at Rouge and the way his muzzle has a bit of red. Lunaura rolls her eyes a bit with a devilish like smirk.

"More like he's got a crush on that jewel thief."

Kekeionga flinches as she looks down to Lunaura who is showing the same expression. The purple echidna looks to Knuckles, but she couldn't tell what his facial expression. She looks back to the Pikachu, who is now looking at her while eye narrowing.

"What? It's what it looks like."

Kekeionga mentally sighs. Lunaura then noticed the band on her arm stopped glowing when Sonic isn't around and looks at it. The band… 'Shit,' the Pikachu mentally curses unaware of Kekeionga looking at her with a confused look! She forgot to make the human remove the band off her. Lunaura starts biting the band in hopes of removing it. But like the previous times, it was unsuccessful. This caused the Pikachu to growl in frustration.

Kekeionga shakes her head at Lunaura's failed attempt to remove the band. She then sees the band on the Pikachu start to glow again. Just then, the purple echidna noticed Sonic returned just as soon as the band started to glow. Kekeionga blinks with surprise; that hedgehog sure is fast.

Sonic, once he returns from running around the island, stretches with a satisfied look. Everyone looks at the blue hedgehog with either a smile or a shocked expression. Lunaura, Kekeionga, and Stitch were the ones with a shocked expression. The blue hedgehog sees the three with a smirk. "Pretty neat right? I'm known as the fastest thing alive," he states with a cocky smirk.

Lunaura now showed an annoyed expression as she rolls her eyes. Stitch also showed an annoyed expression with a sweat drop. "We can see that," he says with a sigh.

Kekeionga looked at the sky as she notices it's still nighttime. Seeing the tired expression on Amy and Tails, along with a still unconscious Rouge, she looks to the group. "Perhaps we should head somewhere for all of us to rest for the time being," she suggests to the group.

Tails, with a small yawn, nods in agreement. "I agree, but the only problem is that my plane can only carry four of us. So, I'll have to make two trips," he says to the group.

Kekeionga smiles to the fox. "Don't worry. With my psychic powers, I can teleport myself and three others to a location Lunaura and I were at earlier and meet up with you," she says. "You'll just have to find us. I can tell you we will be at an area in a forest with a bunch of destroyed robots," she explains to the fox.

Tails looks to Kekeionga with a surprised look. "Destroyed robots? What happened?" he asked curiously.

Kekeionga shrugs to Tails' question. "I don't know," she answers to the fox. She then remembered hearing Lunaura talk about that area and looks to her. The Pikachu looks back to the purple echidna while standing on all fours. Remembering their early conversation, she looks back to Tails. "I think they were a bunch of those human's robots. I think they were after something, but Lunaura had already taken them down," she says to the group.

Sonic whistles as he looks to Lunaura. "All by your lonesome? Man, you sure remind me of Shadow," he states. The Pikachu eye narrows at the hedgehog then looks away. Sonic scratches his head a bit in confusion.

Stitch sighs at Lunaura's behavior, but also because of how much time is already wasted. "Look, we can continue this conversation, but it might be wise to get off this island first," he suggests.

Tails nods until he remembers Rouge. "I think it would be best if I have Rouge in the passenger side of the plane while Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy ride the wings," he suggests.

Stitch flinches as he hears about three of the mobians riding the wings of a plane. 'Is that safe?' he mentally questions while eye narrowing at Sonic and his friends. He looks to Kekeionga, since he knows she heard his thoughts. The purple echidna looks to Stitch with a nervous look as well.

Knuckles thought about going with Sonic and the others; however, he just remembered Eggman plans to steal the Master Emerald. He must be ready when the human returns. "Actually, I'm going to go ahead and stay here," he announces. Kekeionga, Sonic and his friends look to the red echidna with a surprised look. "Eggman might plan to steal the Master Emerald again. I need to be ready to protect it," he explains his reasons.

Sonic smiles as he gives Knuckles a thumbs up. "Alright Knuckles, you take care and good luck," he says to the red echidna. The blue hedgehog as his hand out to Knuckles, who immediately shook it with a smirk.

Knuckles removes his hand from Sonic's as he looks to the group of the newcomers, more to Kekeionga. He smiles to the purple echidna. "It's nice to see more echidnas around," he says to Kekeionga.

Kekeionga smiles to Knuckles and nods. "Likewise," she replies.

"Thanks again for watching the Master Emerald. If you run into trouble, let me know. I'd be happy to lend you a hand," Knuckles says to Kekeionga with a thumbs up.

Kekeionga's smile increased a bit more to Knuckles. Remembering about the next plan, she looks to Stitch, Sassy, and Lunaura. "Guys gather around and grab on to my hand," she says to the three with her hands out.

Lunaura jumps on to Kekeionga's shoulder and hangs on. Stitch and Sassy each took the purple echidna's hand. They all look to Kekeionga as she closes her eyes. The purple echidna starts to emit a pink glow and it spreads to the magenta hedgehog, yellow-blue hedgehog, and white Pikachu. All too soon, Kekeionga, Sassy, Stitch, and Lunaura had vanished from sight.

Amy watched until the group Sassy is with vanishes with her. Sonic and the others watched as well. The blue hedgehog then gathered the unconscious Rouge to his shoulder, unaware of the band on his arm stopped glowing. "Come on, let's go meet up with them," he says to the group as he rushes off to the tornado. Tails and Amy quickly followed as Knuckles watches them.

Unaware to the group, Metal Sonic's eyes had lit up as it regained conscious. The robot then quickly leaves after moments of regaining conscious without making a sound.