Blood is Thicker chapter 6 (or whatever) Unhealing Wounds

Amy leaned back against the wall, slowly sliding down it and into a sitting position, her knees drawn against her chest. She let out a small sigh, mostly of irritation. Was she EVER going to get out of this place? Had anyone noticed she was gone? What if they took a day or two to notice? What then..? She slammed her fists down on the floor, her eyes tearing up. "Come and save me!" she cried at nothing.

"Well well-- Amy Rose..."

Amy's eyes darted up to see an eggshaped figure dressed mostly in red and black. Despite his eggshaped body, his limbs were thin, and he had loosely crossed his arms over his chest. "I suppose Metal Sonic had no difficulty capturing YOU, now did he?" A thin smirk crossed his face beneath his large moustache.

Amy scrambled into a standing position. "LET ME OUT OF HERE!" she demanded.

Eggman laughed. "I think not, my dear girl. What better bait for a hero than someone to save, ne? Besides, Sonic has a little surprise waiting for him when he gets here... If he and his two-tailed friend survived their plane crash!"

"YOU'RE HORRIBLE!" Amy shouted.

"Am I? Well thank you. I hope you have a lovely time on board my ship. I'll be seeing you!" And Eggman walked out.

"Ohhh.." Amy whimpered, sinking to her knees. "...I hope they're okay..!"

"Can you fix it?" Sonic asked, looking over Tails' shoulder as the fox worked. Tails scratched the back of his neck. "Well that lazer completely blew out my engine!" he said, inspecting what remained of the crushed in front end of the Tornado 2. "The back end is totally fine... but I need to redo the whole front, and get a new engine for this." He sighed a little.

Sonic crossed his arms. "How long do you think that would take?" he asked impatiently. "We have Eggman to deal with!"

Tails rested his cheek against his hand, thinking. "...I don't know. Maybe a week if I work for long days." He offered a weak smile. "At least there haven't been any world domination threats yet," he added somewhat brightly.

"True." Sonic responded. "But we have Eggman, and that messed up Metal Sonic thing to worry about right?"

"...not to mention Amy."

"Exactly. I can stand all this sitting around when there's an adventure waiting." He tapped his red and white sneaker on the floor.

Tails nodded once. "Alright. I'll stay here and work on the Tornado 2!"

The Egg Fortress. Massive, it loomed in the sky like a black cloud, dark and forbidding. Such a place could only be made by one person: Doctor Eggman. It's a wonder how much one could accomplish with an I.Q. of three-hundred and an army of machines to do your bidding. None the less, this massive flying structure had been erected in a period of six days.

Up atop it in the uppermost room, looking out his window at the stormy skies around him sat Eggman in a big black chair. He was grinning with satisfaction at how things were going. At a rate like this, the world could possibly be his this time. Sonic and Tails had no way up because of Silver Metal Sonic, and Amy would continue to serve as bait for them. All was going smoothly-- for now. In such a situation, it was best to stay alert. No sense in failing when he was getting so far.

"We'll see how much you can do now, Sonic," Eggman jeered, although the silence was his only reply. "I'll get you this time, and I WILL win."

A dutiful and serious-faced figure sat stiffly on the stone stairs leading up to the alter of the Master Emerald. The Chaos Emeralds were not his concern, and he hadn't seen them in awhile. Well, except one.

In his large gloved hand, Knuckles clutched the blue Chaos Emerald. He didn't know why, but something gave him the impulse to make sure that for the time being, nothing happened to it. Trouble was brewing itself in the skies. Silent as always, Knuckles shifted his position slightly, crossing his right leg over his left. The wind whipped his dread-lock like quills back, and whistled soundly through the area, but the echidna guardian payed no heed.

As long as things were peaceful, it was fine. All that mattered was the Emerald.

"Knuckles!" a familiar, somewhat nasal sounding voice called.

Knuckles turned his head. Sonic stood not ten feet away to the side, grinning cheekily with his hands on his hips.

"Whatcha doin', knucklehead?" he asked somewhat teasingly. Knuckles rose to a standing position. "I don't have time to play around with you, Sonic! Why are you here?"

Sonic merely stood grinning, returning the stare the echidna gave him.

Knuckles looked around swiftly. No sign of the Tornado, no sign of Tails. This was peculiar. "Didn't you guys crash the other day? What are you after now?"

The image of Sonic flickered, and Knuckles' eyes widened in realisation that it was all it was. An image. It flickered more, and turned semi-transparent before blinking out. "What the!?"

TINK

SMASH

With an angered snarl, Knuckles spun around entirely, dropping his Chaos Emerald to the ground just in time to see that odly rendered version of Metal Sonic blast the Master Emerald apart with a lazer shot. Knuckles threw several attacks at the machine in vain as it jetted off into the sky.

With a bitter and annoyed sigh, he looked around at the visable shards of green everywhere. "...not again..." He took no notice to why Eggman's robot would possibly want the Emerald destroyed.