Chaos Race Part 5: Red Written by: Adrian Tymes and Alessandro Sanasi [Legal disclaimer: This story is based on characters created by SEGA and Archie Comic Publications, Inc., and Commander Packbell by David Pistone. Permission is granted to freely distribute this story, so long as: a: no recompense of financial value is received or given by the person who distributes the story, and b: the distributed copy is identical to the story as originally authored. In other words, don't sell it, and don't alter it. Copyright (c) 1996, all rights reserved, et cetera.] ****** Sally raced to the edge of Robotropolis with Amy in tow, toward the area where they expected to find the red Chaos Emerald. As she ran, she secured the purple Chaos Emerald with a strap on the inside of her vest. "Nicole, can you locate the emerald yet?" "AFFIRMATIVE, SALLY. ACCORDING TO MY SENSOR READINGS, THE EMERALD HAS LANDED SOMEWHERE IN THE FORBIDDEN ZONE." "Forbidden Zone? That doesn't sound so good," Amy interrupted. "Why is it called that?" The squirrel finished positioning the gem, snapped the strap shut, and gestured with her free hand. "Because this place is full of bad magics. No one knows why, but long ago, several mages staked out their own territories in here, and altered the land to conform to their wishes. Mobotropolis was founded, in part, by refugees from this place. Those who cast the spells made everything they saw do as they wanted. For the others, however, it was intolerable at times." "Kinda like what Robotnik did with his roboticizer?" "I guess it was. I never thought of it that way before. There are paths between the zones, if you know which landmarks to follow." Sally stopped and pointed to a faintly glowing line on the ground. "This must be where it starts. The zone's borders were marked for all time by its magic." "Wait, there's a sign." Amy pointed to a wooden plank, which had long since fallen from its rotted post. "I can't read it." "Let me." Sally's minicomputer was in her hand before Amy could blink. "Nicole: translate." "WORKING...WARNING: FILES FOR THIS LANGUAGE INCOMPLETE. TRANSLATION WILL BE OF INFERIOR QUALITY." "Incomplete files?" Amy regarded Nicole quizically. "I thought it had complete files on everything it was programmed with." Sally grimaced. "It usually does. But some of the ancient languages are so old that the knowledge was partially lost over the time. Nicole, give us your 'inferior' translation." "'YOU ARE ENTERING A ZONE OF JUSTICE. YOU MIGHT HARM YOURSELF.'" "Huh." Amy pondered for a few seconds. "That doesn't sound like a warm welcome." Sally looked around, seeing ruins and orange, cracked dirt all around. "We'll find out soon enough, I guess. Right now, let's get what we came for. Hold on." She picked up Amy and took off. Nearby, a creature stepped from the shadows. "So, the thieves have arrived. But I will get back what is rightfully mine!" It glanced after the females, then sped away. ****** The duo followed Nicole's directions to an ancient structure. Most of the building had deteriorated over time, leaving only the exterior walls intact. Even those walls were in poor shape; the only remaining decoration was an engraving of some scales over the main doorway. Whatever its function had once been, the edifice's interior now served only as a container for a jumble of tall weeds. "I don't get it. The emerald crashed right here." Sally puzzled over an emerald-shaped hole in the ground. "Packbell's robots aren't here yet, so who could have taken it?" "Packbell isn't coming, I'm afraid. Hehehehehe," a snivelling voice sounded from behind them, making them turn around. Hidden in the shadows at the far corner of the building were five SWATbots and a cloaked figure, standing in front of a hoverbot. They moved into the light as the pair turned. "That voice...who are you?" Sally yelled across the field while putting her computer back on its boot sheath. "Has it really been that long, Princess? Then allow me to introduce myself again. I am Snively..." The figure tossed aside its cloak with a flourish, revealing the face of Robotnik's lackey. "...the Great!" Sally and Amy gasped in unison. "But you're dead," Sally protested. "Rumors of my demise have been exaggerated, for all our sakes. You got to focus on Packbell, Packbell got to focus on you, and I got to crawl around a city I helped create, hiding for my very life!" Snively's voice had picked up a tone of hatred that only Robotnik's had had. "Oh, yes, we all came off the better." Sally folded her arms. "And just what part of Mobitropolis did you build?" "Only its demise. I was talking about Robotropolis. With Robotnik gone, that should have been MY city. But nooo...Packbell's AI had to malfunction, forcing me to play dead." "Malfunction? Looks like he just took over." "He was supposed to be subservient to me, not just to Robotnik. He never did follow my orders, though, unless I convinced him of my reasons." "Gee," Amy giggled, "that doesn't sound like a robot. Mr. Packbell must be a person." Snively frowned. "Enough of this. I'm here for the emerald. I'd rather take you alive for roboticization, but if I have to destroy such potentially useful workerbots..." Snively sighed. "...so be it. Now hand it over!" "But we don't have the red emerald." "I can see that, you fools. I'm talking about the one you've already 'liberated'." Sally drew her vest tighter, protectively guarding the purple gem inside. "The Chaos Emeralds are no good apart." "That's not your concern, princess. And since you don't seem willing to give me what I want..." Snively snapped his fingers. "SWATbot KP7672, step forward!" One of the SWATbots stepped out of the group and aimed its laser at Sally. "I've upgraded this robot's circuitry." Snively grinned evilly. "If you move, it will fire, and it will hit you with its first shot. You may be able to run almost as fast as Sonic now, but even he can't outrun a laser beam. There is nothing you can do except let me take the gem." "We'll just see about that." Sally dashed to the side, but the SWATbot fired before she could budge more than an inch. The last thing she saw before darkness consumed her was a beam of white light, which hit her directly between the eyes. ****** "Yo, Red, I'm back. It's time to go." The red Chaos Emerald rose into the air, circled for a bit, then flew towards its caller. "I will not give you up, Red. And Purple shall also leave this place with us." He sighed. "I never thought she would stoop to this, but the years, they have changed her." The gem stumbled in its flight, then sent a note of distress to its master. "What? Purple be in trouble?" He clenched his fists, baring the spiked knuckles for which the Chaos Emeralds' guardian was named. ****** Amy could only stare in horror as Sally collapsed. At the same moment, the firing robot's head exploded. "Wha-" Snively backpedalled to avoid the falling robot body. "Seems like Packbell doesn't build SWATbots as well as I did." He looked at the heap of scrap metal. "What are you trying to do, Snively, insult us?" Amy shouted defiantly, "If you're going to stop us, the least you could do would be to scrap your defective 'bots." She reached for her weapon, but stopped when the remaining SWATbots all trained their lasers on her. "Do it and fry, hedgehog," Snively sneered as he stepped towards Sally's limp body. "I'll take that emerald..." "No you won't!" A red blur dashed in, seemingly from nowhere, and headed straight for Snively. "Knuckles!" Amy shouted with joy. Knuckles' fist was positioned as a battering ram, and his lead him directly to Snively and the SWATbots. Snively could not get out of Knuckles' way, so he ducked. Fortunately for him, Knuckles tripped over Snively, slamming the echnida to the ground. At the same moment, an unseen force knocked Snively down. Knuckles quickly got up. "Ha! Didn't feel a thing." He turned around, and knelt by the would-be dictator. "Hey, ain't you s'posed to be dead, mon? Don' worry, Knuckles'll fix that." He raised his arm, then brought it down like a jackhammer. Knuckles' eyes rolled up, and his body toppled over unconcious. ****** In all the confusion, Amy had managed to grab Nicole, which had slipped from Sally's boot as she fell. Something was wrong here, and she had to find an explanation for this. "Nicole, do you have any information about a 'Zone of Justice'?" "USER UNKNOWN. PLEASE STATE IDENTITY." "Huh? Oh, yeah, I guess I haven't spoken to you before. I am Amy Rose, but you can just call me Amy." "SEARCHING...RECORD FOUND." A miniature hologram of Amy appeared above Nicole. "NAME: AMY ROSE. STATUS: FREEDOM FIGHTER. ALIAS: ROSY THE RASCAL." "'Rascal'?" Amy blushed. "Sonic told you, didn't he?" "AFFIRMATIVE. SONIC HEDGEHOG CREATED FILE ON AMY ROSE. IDENTITY CONFIRMED. SECURITY PERMISSIONS ALLOW UNRESTRICTED USE OF THIS DEVICE." "Good. Now, do you have any information for me?" "AFFIRMATIVE, AMY. ACCORDING TO THE LEGENDS, THE MAGES WHO CREATED THIS ZONE MADE IT TO BE A PLACE OF PEACE, WHERE NO ONE COULD BE WRONGED." "A zone of peace, huh?" Amy thought out loud. "And a sign that you might harm yourself..." There was only one way to find out. Turning to the SWATbots, she yelled, "Hey, SWATbots, now that your leader's out of it, why don't you just put down your guns?" "YOU ARE NOT AUTHORIZED TO GIVE ORDERS, FREEDOM FIGHTER." Amy took a deep breath. "Ok, you asked for it." In a flash, Amy pulled out her arrow gun and pointed it at the closest SWATbot, ready to shoot. She was hit by several laser blasts, followed by some nearby explosions. The pink hedgehog opened her eyes again. She was not hurt. But the SWATbots were all lying on the ground, totally destroyed. "Phew. Thought so." Amy sighed, looking at the smoking remains of the robots. Snively tried to get to his feet, but slipped and fell down again. "You haven't seen the last of me," he announced with a weak voice. "Hoverbot, initiate evacuation protocol!" The hoverbot extended a claw from a recessed compartment, accelerated, picked up Snively as it passed, and sped off. Amy smirked as she walked over to the red emerald, which had followed Knuckles like a stray puppy. She reached out to take it, only to have Knuckles' hand snap up and grab her wrist. "Don' even tink about it." Knuckles sat up, rubbing his head. "Mon, what happened? I feel like I punched myself." "You did. That's what the Justice Zone's magic is: if you hurt anyone else, you just wind up hurting yourself. When you tripped, Snively was knocked out. When the SWATbots fired, they damaged themselves." "Then what happened to Sally?" "She thought she was dead. I guess she fainted from shock." "She may be after I get through with her. Nobody steals my emeralds and gets away with it." "What are you talking about? We didn't steal any emeralds." "Oh, yeah?" Knuckles turned Sally over, letting her vest fall open to show the purple gem. "Then what's that doing there?" "We were trying to get the emeralds back to the Floating Island." "Oh." He was temporarily nonplussed, but soon recovered. "Forget it. I'll get the gems back by myself. If it hadn't been for you, the Chaos Emeralds never would've left my island. I don't need you to keep messing things up." Knuckles sighed as he checked Sally for damage. "Should've known she'd never steal." "You two know each other?" "Kind of. She spent a summer on my island, once." Finding no injury, Knuckles removed the emerald from Sally's vest, touched it to the red one, and watched them hover together as if attached by a steel rod. He knelt to pick up Sally. "C'mon, this zone gives me the creeps." ****** Sally abruptly started crying as soon as Knuckles carried across the border. "Nooo...S-sonic, I never got a chance to say goodbye..." Her eyelids were shut tight, and nothing below her mouth visibly moved. "One of us should wake her up." Knuckles placed his hand under Sally's head. "Salllly...c'mon, princess, you don' wanna sleep forever." "Huh?" Sally's eyes fluttered open. "Knuckles? Wha...what happened?" "Well, you -" Knuckles' statement was cut off when Sally liplocked him. Amy looked back just in time to see this. "One summer?" Knuckles, unable to speak and unwilling to move his head, gave Amy one thumb up. Amy's fury was plainly visible. "First she tried to have Sonic all to herself, and now Sonic isn't even the only one she was after! How could she? How long's she known Sonic? A month?" Amy stormed off. Sally broke off too late to see Amy. "Who was that?" "Some crazy girl. Why'd you kiss me?" "I'm never going to see Sonic again, but you're here. I guess it was fate..." "What, did Sonic leave you?" "We're dead..." "No, we're not." Knuckles grinned. "You only tink you be dead." Sally gasped, and looked around. "You...but I...how could I have survived that?" "You be tougher than you think. So, what were you doing with my emerald?" Sally patted her vest where she had hidden the purple gem, then saw the object of her search floating behind Knuckles. "I was trying to get it back to you." "That'd be much faster if I came along, no?" "We thought Packbell had already taken you out, with his missles." "Ha! Ain' no robot gonna get the better o' me! 'Specially not the Tinker Toy In Chief. C'mon, let's get the other emeralds." Sally reached to her boot. "Ok, just - WHAT?!?" She stared in near shock at her empty boot sheath. "Omigod, where's Nicole?" "That computer o' yours? I saw Amy walking off wit' it." "I can't find the emeralds without her. Which way did Amy go?" Knuckles pointed, and quickly lifted Sally from the ground to prevent her from giving chase. "Why's Amy so 'portent?" "Not Amy, Nicole. She's got a map of the Chaos Emeralds' crash sites." "You be 'ferring to yo' computer as a 'she'?" Knuckles shook his head. "C'mon, I'm taking you home. Blue and Yellow are already on their way back to the Floating Island. Amy's gonna get Pink, and..." He massaged his forehead. "I can't sense Green or Grey." "How do you know Amy will beat Packbell to the Pink emerald? And how will she get it back in time? She can't run as fast as we can." Knuckles grinned. "'Cause I already trashed the 'bots that were headed for it. Trust me, girl, Amy's gonna do just fine. With all the magic in the Forbidden Zone, she may even beat us back to Knothole." "That's why we've got to stop her. She could stumble into something dangerous, and..." Sally struggled against Knuckles' grasp, but could do nothing. "Don' worry. From what I've seen of her, she'll be alright." Knuckles sped off for Knothole, still carrying Sally.