Chapter 49- Into the Depths

Sotsu felt the sand crunch under his feet as he stepped next to Generation from out of the silvery jet-plane. The door slid closed and a rush of air kicked up, dislodging and sending up sand behind the two. It slowly rose up and like a silver dragon it soared off into the blue horizon with a bellowing roar.

Sotsu and Generation stood for a few moments to familiarize themselves with their current surroundings. Bleak and desolate sand fields rolled on endlessly in every direction. The blue sky neatly contrasted with the tan colored sand. The sun beat down on the two, but they showed no signs of the heat bothering them.

Sotsu had provisions equipped. Several gallons of water, two bedrolls, and a large pack of canned goods along with a small cooking pan. All the equipment lay stocked inside a dark green pack that strapped tightly to his back along with his Chaos Blade.

"So… this is the desert," Sotsu observed, with a slight smile.

"Yeah. Well I guess we should start; it’s a ways away," Generation stated.

The two began their walk. Talking along the way. The two shared their stories about their times with Robotnik. Generation explained to Sotsu about the villain she had thought to be a friend, named Silverbolt, and how she met Quicksilver, who was a friend of a of a sleeve-ball named Joel. Sotsu enjoyed talking to Generation. She was the first person he felt comfortable about, one major reason is because she wasn’t there to kill him, hired by someone he didn’t know to protect him, and because of the basic fact she was a nice person.

Shortly upon nightfall the temperature cooled to a frigid level. They had not traveled far for the first day. For the most part it was because it had taken three hours to get here after a five-hour delay do to the Antoine misplacing the keys to their jet.

Sotsu walked close to the shivering hedgehog with one arm about here. Sotsu had been used to the extremes of weather, having lived in California his whole life, until the recent that is. Still he did fell a bit chilly and wished he had stuck with the more covering attire he had chosen. Still, he was glad he decided to adorn a full attire, aside from sticking to the previous which was just a trench coat.

Every once in a while a slight draft would kick up a slight blanket of sand that would threaten to blind the two. This didn’t really bother so much as annoy Sotsu, as he would make a thin shadow barrier to block the oncoming salvo. The whole desert didn’t bother the black echidna until an incident with a scorpion. Normally Sotsu would have thought the insect to be cute, but the echidna hadn’t noticed it until it crawled up onto his ankle. If not for Generation being there Sotsu would have ended up shooting his ankle off as he drew a pistol on the thing in panic. From that point on Sotsu had been wearily watching the ground.

It was another few hours, finally the two decided to camp out for the night. Sotsu guessed they had traveled perhaps fifteen miles. He thought that a good thing considering the delays. Though of course Sotsu wasn’t too keen on measuring walking distances. He was usually very indecisive on things. He remembered one time he took two hours trying to decide which car model to purchase, but aside from that it just ended up in his closet half-built.

"Panzer… Dark Rose… go after them and kill them. Stealth and I will be waiting at the base for you. Robotnik wants them dead, and I mean before they reach the base."

A large gray wolf, black longcoat draped over his broad shoulders, stood half covered in the dark. Gleaming from within the phantom blackness was a red eyepiece. Next to him stood a shorter figure. A crimson colored hedgehog holding much resemblance to Amy. In front of the two was their commander, a two-tailed fox of a light brown color, but hardly recognizable due to a large shadow concealing him.

Generation now lay curled up tightly in her bedroll, slowly being taken into sleep. Sotsu looked out over the desert expanse, his eyes taking in what they could. He knew being close to Robotnik’s base that he didn’t want people to enter, no doubt some form of a sentry would be about. The black echidna squinted as he saw a slight gleam of something off in the distance. It had a slight green coloration to it mixed along with the slight hint of pale-white moonlight.

"Night vision lenses? Equipped to what though?" Sotsu asked himself as he stepped out a ways in front of the sleeping hedgehog.

Sotsu’s answer was quickly found as he heard the faint rush of air, something was coming and fast. Sotsu took his body weight backward as he back flipped over the bullet, hitting his HUD active and drawing his pistols he shouted," Gen wake up! We’ve got company!"

He took off in the general direction of the shot at full speed. A telltale trail of sand being shot into the air showed the black echidna’s path as his feet sent him forward and he took in the sights of a slight figure perched atop what seemed to be a small personal air craft device. The gleam was from a glowing green eyepiece that was the only visible object on the silhouette. He seemed to have pointed ears, and a flapping item of attire about him. Sotsu didn’t have time to guess though, his mind had to stay sharp in order for him to be able to tell out when to evade.

The Black Knight heard the clack of Generation’s roller blades speeding behind him. The sky blue hedgehog had her metallic blaster in hand. Sotsu dived to the side as a large round struck where he was, sending a cloud of sand into the air. Sotsu continued his maneuver and righted himself without slowing pace, the readings on his HUD told him he was still a good few dozen meters away. He’d have to attack now.

Sotsu dived to the side as a round whizzed by. When the shell impacted the ground it cast up a large cloud of dust, Sotsu could tell even a decent shadow-field wouldn’t hold against something of that caliber. As the echidna uprighted himself he launched off several shots toward his opponent. The figure seemed to move into a crouch and by doing that alone it seemed all the shots went past him without causing harm. Sotsu picked up another reading in his glasses, it was a little ways behind him and coming in fast.

"Gen, watch out!" was all the Sotsu could say, as another enemy pummeled right into the blue hedgehog sending them both sprawling in the sand.

"Shit!" Sotsu cursed loudly as he ran evading zigzag as several shells dashed about him.

The black echidna could here struggling from a ways behind him, no doubt Gen was having some problems but if Sotsu didn’t take care of the sniper ahead they would no doubt be sitting ducks waiting to get picked off by this dangerous hunter.

A slight and faint flash was seen as a shot came right along Sotsu’s path and headed dead-on toward him. Sotsu’s mind began flashing tactics. With luck Sotsu saw a small piece of sandstone a mere few inches away. The echidna blasted a laser shot into the ground right besides the piece of stone. The laser of course traveled faster then the bullet, and with assistance from Sotsu the stone struck the bullet out of the air and the Black Knight dived to the side as another bullet streaked past.

Generation rolled back tossing the figure off of her. She uprighted herself and drew her pistol on the attacker. A dark pink hedgehog, much to the likes of Amy stood. Generation shook her head in disbelief, she was almost exactly like Amy except for the darker hues that cast her with a gothic like look.

"Who are you? You’re not Amy!" Generation demanded training the barrel on the imposter’s head.

"Of course I’m not! I only follow the mighty Robotnik, you fool! You’re a traitor to our ruler!" a smile darker then the depths of hell crossed her face, sending a cold shudder through Generation’s body, "All traitor’s shall pay for their actions!"

With that the hedgehog lifted her metal-clad, Dark Piko Piko Hammer and charged forward. "Fall for our Master! He shall dominate!" she shouted as she brought the hammer down toward Generation.

Generation leapt back as the hammer came by, but the Amy clone relentlessly pursued, forcing Generation to find other means of combat. The blue hedgehog managed to get inside her opponent’s guard after she sent the hammer on a slight over-cast swipe. Generation threw her shoulder into the other hedgehog’s chest. The two toppled to the sand with a heavy thud, Generation on top struggling to pry the monstrous hammer from the surprisingly strong grip of the twisted clone.

Sotsu was only a few yards away, he could make out the detail of the figure. Sotsu switched to the night vision on his goggles casting everything in an errie green trance. The figure seemed a little on the broad side, the figure’s green lens changed to a deep red. Sotsu lifted his akimbo and the silhouette’s extended looking rifle, seeming nothing more then a black rod, was exchanged quickly for a short stocky weapon. A wolf, wearing a long coat, wielding a sawed-off shotgun stood ready for the Black Knight.

With a mere blink of an eye a buckshot was speeding toward Sotsu. The black echidna gave himself a slight boost of Chaos Energy and evaded between the several pellets as he weaved to and fro with unnatural speed. Sotsu lifted his akimbo level with the wolf and began pulling at the triggers. Panzer merely sidestepped to avoid the first volley then he kicked out with one heavy-booted foot. The blow struck both of Sotsu’s hands knocking the pistols clear away. Sotsu turned reaching for his Chaos Blade, a bright flash erupted fourth from the canine’s eyepiece. Sotsu blocked with his hands over his face, a mistake in this situation. The wolf darted forward as the light still hung in the air for a brief second. He stopped abruptly behind Sotsu, and in a strange fashion he struck out at the ground, at Sotsu’s shadow.

The echidna felt a strong wrench trough his body followed by am agonizing pound to his chest. The wolf once again struck out at the shadow as the light now began to fade. Sotsu felt the wind knocked out of him and the hold over his body felt suffocating. Just as the rest of the light faded out, Sotsu gasped deeply as the fresh air returned to him. At this moment the wolf struck the shotgun out and pulled the trigger, Sotsu fell backwards, the pellets from the buckshot zipped right over his muzzle; as they cleared Sotsu arched his back off the sandy ground and leapt up righting himself now with his Chaos Blade in hand.

Sotsu rounded a long and hard strike to try and slash his opponent across the shoulders; Panzer strafed and leveled his shotgun to block the blow. As sword met gun, Panzer held strong as the weapon barely recoiled from the echidna’s strike.

Without waiting up for Panzer to react Sotsu rounded the blade above his head and struck from the other direction, Panzer backed a few feet and blocked again in much the same fashion. Sotsu took one more step and rounded the blade again, this time though as he watched Panzer ready to block again, he faked the swipe and quickly crouched to try and sweep the wolf from his feet. Panzer leapt the echidna’s leg, as he was in the air, with Sotsu now righting his position, the wolf struck out his firearm but a certain feeling griped his body, preventing him from pulling the trigger. Sotsu took advantage of this, the echidna charged forward sword strong in hand.

Dark Rose thrust her feet upward launching Generation off of her and rolling back a ways. The twisted Amy Rose parody was on her feet with her Dark Piko Piko Hammer posed to strike. Generation rolled back and drew her pistol up, righting her stance as she pushed her legs up while rolling. She popped off round after round at the advancing clone. Dark Rose simply struck her hammer toward the light beams, without slowly a single step. She was a hurricane with a hammer, a hurricane that blew the winds of death onto the foes of the Eggman Empire.

Dark Rose quickly and easily got into striking range and drove her hammer diagonal-down, attempting to slam her wicked weapon into the other hedgehog’s side. Generation stepped back just as the hammer passed in front of her; she shifted her weight to her left leg and slammed her right foot into the clone’s chest, sending her sprawling to the sand, though now with fury driving her.

The light-blue hedgehog backed to gain firing distance between her and the crimson purple demon. As Dark Rose lifted herself to her feet she began to charge forward again, only thing in her mind was Robotnik’s orders to take out the two Freedom Fighters (regardless of Sotsu not technically being one, Robotnik considered him one). The shots flew past her as he evaded about them with an agile grace of a cat, but the power and fury of a lion. Though be unfortunate means she stumbled one step, a blue beam grazed her shoulder leaving dark singed fur. Before another shot could strike her in the chest the clone rolled to the side. She uprighted herself as she followed trough with the motion. With both feet planted firmly on the ground in a deep stance, she drew back her arms with the hammer in both hands, and flung the weapon forward with enough power to break a large boulder into rubble. End over end the dark hammer tumbled.

Sotsu took a few steps forward then lifted both feet off the ground while the wolf still hung in the air. It was a mere heartbeat before Sotsu’s right foot smashed into Panzer’s stomach sending him to the ground. Underneath Sotsu, Panzer struggled to get up, but after realizing he didn’t have much time while the Black Knight was already charging a shadow blast, he instantly took his shotgun firm in hand and pressed the barrel into the echidna’s foot.

Right before the clone pulled the trigger Sotsu shot that foot back, a little too fast though as it sent him off balance. Seeing the echidna in an awkward position Panzer shot himself upward sending the butt of the shotgun into Sotsu’s chin, shortly following that up with a strong and swift kick to the stomach. Sotsu backed away, with the wind knocked out of him. The wolf didn’t let up and he dashed forward, spinning the firearm in his hand and swiping it across. The double barrel meet the ruin-encrypted Chaos Blade, sending bright sparks of Chaos Energy about that dazzled in the black of the night like glowing emeralds of jade.

With a flick of his wrist Panzer drew from his black long coat, a large automatic pistol. In the same motion he pulled the trigger casting off several bullets to the ground, aiming to hit Sotsu’s feet. Sotsu once again backed a few steps, but along doing this he brought his blade hard across the wolf’s chest level. The blade struck the pistol and sent it flying from Panzer’s hand. Following this the echidna slammed the broad side of the sword into the clone’s head, causing him to fall; though Sotsu was far from relaxed when a flying hammer came into his vision, one that was heading toward Generation.

"Dammit," Sotsu scowled under his breath as he took charge toward the hammer, replacing the Chaos Blade on his back.

With Chaos Energy running through him, he quickly closed the distance. The hammer spun end over end toward the sky blue hedgehog with amazing speed, but the black echidna was faster, unfortunately he wasn’t as thoughtful of his actions. With a mere yard between the hammer and Generation, and a yard and a half between Sotsu and the hammer; the echidna dove at the weapon. As the hammer impacted the echidna’s chest he clung to it with all his strength in hope it wouldn’t slip out. Both hammer and echidna were flung to the side and sent tumbling in the sand. After a few seconds Sotsu now lay fairly hurt and worn, the flung hammer laying next to him.

"Sotsu!" Generation gasped out, putting her hands to her mouth and tears pushing forth from her eyes.

"Freeze, you!" Panzer demanded, aiming his pistol toward the shaken hedgehog.

Dark Rose let out a vicious cackle as she began to near the two. She savored the moment, as she slowly took step after step, her pace alone seemed to mock Generation and Sotsu, aside from her harassing laughter.

"Good, good," she began, "Panzer! Tell Rook we’ve got them captured, and we’re now heading back to base!"

As she neared Sotsu, she stooped down and picked up her discarded weapon, then sent a swift kick to the black echidna’s already sore chest. Sotsu moaned and rolled halfway onto his back, he tried to open his eyes slightly, feeling much to weak to do much else.

Panzer pulled free two sets of handcuffs from within his coat and handed them to Dark Rose. The hedgehog-clone took to putting the restraints on the now-captives while her partner took to relaying the message about Sotsu’s and Generation’s capturing into a small radio-set.

From there Sotsu and Generation were force-marched for two days: little water or food were given to them; at night they were knocked unconscious, then woken by vicious blows and hard kickings. By the time they reached the base both were in severally bad condition. Their throats and lips were dry and cracked, both were weary, exhausted, and becoming fairly ill. Eyes bloodshot, clothes torn and worn, hair, a mess. Their pistols were being held by Panzer and Dark Rose held Sotsu’s sword, also their feet-gear had been removed. Their few attempts to escape ended in beatings, it wasn’t long before Sotsu could no longer manage his powers due to exhaustion.

Now before them stood so valiant, a monument of sandstone skin, and metal entrails. Their target, the two were brought to their target, but in horrid condition. Sotsu felt a hard strike to his head, everything went black, the last he heard was the panic-stricken voice of Generation calling his name. He knew, that when he would awaken, he would be inside the base.

Sotsu’s eye-lids slowly slid up. He found himself lying against the wall, in a completely black room. A slight red light faded into the room, spilling a blood-like color on the floor, a completely black floor. There was a deep rumbling that echoed about the room, as if he were in the throat of a giant. The rumbling then subsided to a rattle type slithering sound. Sotsu’s eyes looked about, terror filled his every vein. The light faded in again, seeming to emit from out of one of the black walls.

"Where… am I?" Sotsu cried out, hesitantly.

As if it were waiting for Sotsu to ask, the wall across from him began to slowly liquefy into a thick, and glutinous red substance. The room shook violently as the rumbling sounded. Sotsu shivered, not only from fear, but from the tearing wind that blasted into the room from out of the hole forming into the melting wall.

Sotsu slowly got to his feet, his legs wobbled as if he were just learning to walk. He slowly approached the hole, the goo seeped to his feet. The black echidna looked down at the fluid with curiosity holding on his face for a few moments, then as if a lightning bolt struck him, he shook in great shock.

"Blood," Sotsu whispered to himself.

With tears holding in his eyes he began to wade through the congealed life-fluids. The ripping winds threatened to tear him from his spot as he now neared the edge. As he looked down to see the Dark Legion fortress floating over a red abyss, came into view. It was growing bigger, or rather it seemed that way as it quickly speed upward.

The great fortress flew skyward, seemingly nothing more then a great blur. The place shook with such power it forced Sotsu back and grounded him. Stone, earth and metal; twisted into the dark abomination that is the Dark Legion’s floating fortress lifted off and out of view. Sotsu sat there, now in the dead and eerie silence of the strange room.

Sotsu breathed hard, sweat pushed from his brow, and he starred out of the hole, seeking the black abyss that was the expanse outside, with the slight glowing red tint of the scenery below. A loud metal clang echoed throughout the room, reverberating as if it intended to drill into Sotsu’s mind. Then slowly a single word was drawn out, as the voice of some wrath breathed it with it’s cold, hissing voice, "Melchior".

Sotsu gritted his teeth as once again the sound repeated, with the name, slightly louder and fuller now. The metal boom became slightly faster paced. Sotsu backed himself against the wall, his breathing was rapid, his heart pounded as if the metal clanging where his heartbeat, his underarms dampened with perspiration and his eyes darted about. The chanting now rose to loud shouting, the name "Melchior" pounded at Sotsu’s ears. It seemed as if a hundred voices all exclaimed it in unison.

"Sotsu!" a feminine voice rang out, piecing and shattering the dream and bring Sotsu to.

He bolted upright, being revealed to the metallic surroundings of his containment cell. The whole floor was one giant, flat white surface. Sotsu was familiar to it, it was indeed the same as the psychic zappers back at Robotnik main base. But one question rang in Sotsu’s mind, "Why didn’t he just kill me already?"

Aside from the floor, it was simply a standard jail cell. Outside the cell, from within the metal bars he could see the metal hall lined with cells and psychic containment cells similar to his. Outside the cell stood sentries. The same kind of machine he, Gray and Carmen fought in their last encounter with Robotnik; the ones Sotsu personally called "slasher droids".

"Sotsu! Help!" the black echidna heard from far off, echoing down the endless metal corridors of the complex.

"I’m coming Gen!" Sotsu yelled back as he felt adrenaline rushing throughout his veins.

Weapons or not, Sotsu was getting out. With a short run Sotsu took one foot to the metal beams separating him from freedom, a sickening whine and a metal clang later, Sotsu found himself being assaulted by half a dozen slasher droids.

He charged the first one, keeping in mind he wasn’t able to use any of his psychic abilities. He rolled under a long swipe, bringing himself behind the front and nearest. The one behind that swiped at him, but he did not retreat. He sidestepped the blow, then grappling the machine’s arm, he tossed it into the first one. A quick back flip ensured safety from the small explosion that erupted forth.

A third and fourth machine stood now in front of the enraged echidna, the remaining came quickly from behind. Sotsu charged forward, ducking low under the machine’s attack he jutted a hard punch into the robots front creating a dent. He followed that with another blow, then after one more loud, metallic clang, the machine sparked and fell. The fourth slasher bot was already upon Sotsu as it’s predecessor hit the ground. Sotsu stepped into the horizontal strike, lifting one arm to block and another to grapple the long metal pole that was the droid’s arm. Sotsu quickly jerked and spun right, a loud snap sounded as the robot lost it’s arm. Sotsu lifted the appendage and brought it swiftly down, a loud crunch sounded as the droid’s own arm crushed it.

Sotsu drew his left leg up and back then shot it forward. It found home into the nearest slasher droid that was coming up behind the echidna. The last remaining frontal attacking machine charged forward. Sotsu quickly took to spinning around, swiping low with his right leg and knocking the metal monster down. Before the slasher droid could hit the ground Sotsu spun about again, chambering his arms in an x-shape while lifting his right leg in an arc. Then in one fraction of a second the echidna jammed his bent arms to his sides and smashed his heel into the robot, causing it to rain metal debris around the narrow hall.

Sotsu turned to meet one of the two remaining droids, already attacking unfortunate on his behalf. A three-talon hand ripped across his already tattered shirt, Sotsu cringed as he felt the strike deal a flesh wound.

"Piece of junk!" Sotsu exclaimed as he tossed a return punch at the machine.

A metal thud sounded the fate of the machine as Sotsu’s attack ripped into it’s lower section and disabled it. Sotsu back-flipped in order to avoid an oncoming combo and slashes, with unnatural dexterity he evaded each strike with ease. Then once the robot thrust forward Sotsu sidestepped and grappled the metal arm. His arms tensed as he swung the slasher droid in an arc and sent it to the ground, crushing it into scrap.

Sotsu stood hunched slightly in exhaustion. Amongst him lay the remains of the half dozen slasher droids, gleaming slightly in the artificial light of the metal jail-cell lined, corridor. The only sound was the echidna’s heavy panting, echoing slightly off the dark surfaces. Sotsu tensed slightly at the sound of rapid footfalls, they were coming from the west exit of the hall, the direction Sotsu was facing. Behind him stood another exit, one that was blocked through by a large bulkhead, while in front of him was merely an open exit in which lead to a spiraling stairwell.

The footfalls ended abruptly, the final sound of it echoed up the stairwell and about the hall. Sotsu tried to hold his breath to listen in and hear if the person (or whatever else) might have just gotten smart enough to remain silent. But the Black Knight could not hear anything more then his now more controlled breathing.

Sotsu stood steady for a few more brief moments before the sly hiss of the bulkhead behind him indicated it opening. The echidna turned sharply to see the door reveal a large squad of SWATbots, all ready and set with their aimers trained on the Sotsu. The echidna took flight toward the other exit as red laser blasts flew past him. Despite the actual aim of the SWATbots, their weapon’s shooting consistency was far from fair.

Foot after foot followed quickly, descending the steps. Sotsu couldn’t see how far up the SWATbots were above him since the center pillar of the stairwell hindered his sight; though by listening to the sound itself he could remotely tell. After a few full circles about, the echidna entered into a large, wide rectangular room, lined with pre-activated turrets.

"Great, this’ll be fun," Sotsu grumbled with a slight smirk.

As the turrets all turned toward the single living creature in the perimeter, Sotsu took off with a bright green flash. With his arms struck backward, his dreadlocks flapping vividly behind him, eyes sharp, feet a green and black blur, up turning coils of metal paneling in the floor the echidna sped across the room with a jubilee of laser-fire dancing about him.

As he neared half way through the room, a duo of silver flying helicopter-type robots lowered themselves from the high-beams across the ceiling. The opened a hail of rapid fire at the echidna as they descended upon him. Now with the additional badniks close on his tail Sotsu found himself becoming stressed with exhaustion, but he pushed harder; now nearing the exiting door.

The echidna looked up as he saw something dislodge a metal panel above the door frame of his exit, no sooner the piece of metal dropped with a loud clang to reveal a SWATbot wielding a tower shield of a blue-clear material. The robot dropped down and guarded the exit with the shield covering him for the most part, on the exception of his firing arm extending from the side and the aimer training onto the black echidna.

Sotsu weaved his way around the shots to the best of his ability, though regardless of his dodging it wouldn’t matter if he couldn’t even make it out of the room. Now nearing a mere half-dozen yards he had to think, and fast.

Sotsu took a quick glance behind and eyed the two flying androids. Then in a flash, with one leg extended out he maneuvered a back flip, striking the underside of one of the machine and causing it to erupt into a fireball. Sotsu could hear the squad of SWATbots quickly catching up behind him, he didn’t have much time to get through, so he’d have to act fast and effective. Picking up two propeller blades from the remains of the helicopter robot Sotsu dashed forward, with pure determination in his mind now. Sotsu cartwheeled forward once to evade another shot from the frontal attacking SWATbot. Upon righting himself, but still turning a bit, he pitched one blade toward the other aerial menace, managing to imbed the blade into it and destroy it.

Now still equipped with a single blade, Sotsu charged forward, closing in quickly. Thirty feet, twenty-five, twenty. Bright flashes of the turret muzzles, the streaks of red energy, the blur that is the black echidna and the metallic surroundings. Sotsu shouted loudly as he closed the final yard. Three feet, two feet, one and a half; the echidna lifted leapt forward with a mighty bound, bringing the propeller blade high above him. He drove the metal shard forth and into the barrier, with a sickening crack it shattered and caused the SWATbot to stammer back, stunned slightly. Leaving itself open, Sotsu took the opportunity to quickly take a few steps forward and drive his fists into it, downing the machine with a few strikes.

Sotsu now found himself at the head of a long and thin ramp that looked like a great metal snake. Though judging by various hunks of hydraulics extending from the sides of the curved path, it was probably some form of an irrigation channel. No matter what it was, it was Sotsu’s only way through. With the large squad of SWATbots close behind, he took up down the winding corridor. Up and down, left and right, it winded endlessly as Sotsu dashed down, jumping, ducking, sliding and maneuvering about the hydraulics and protruding machines.

Eventually the hallway ended, into the main water-transferring room. Sotsu now stood at the entry of the wide, square room; the only walkway was a catwalk suspended over a great pit of churning water. On each section of wall extended a spout, from which great amounts of water erupted from and fell into the great depths below. Sotsu slowly and cautiously walked to the middle of the thin metal expanse and eyed about for any badniks or anything of the like. He found none, aside from a few well-placed anti- psychic orbs placed his in each corner of the room.

No sooner as Sotsu took back to walking did a deep rumble shake him almost from off the bridge. Sotsu stopped dead in his tracks, a grave mistake. A sly hiss was heard, two metal clangs sounded as thick bulkheads now blocked both exits. The water below began to bubble furiously as if it were boiling from extreme heat, Sotsu saw no steam though, surely it wasn’t that. Then from within the watery depths, a great silver head emerged. Sotsu recognized it to be the same thing as from the Chemical Plant Zone in Robotnik’s main base in Robotropolis. A horrid and gargantuan silver serpent stretched it’s neck from the water. It’s gears hissed and whined and steam spat from it’s artificial nostrils, clouding it’s two gleaming eyes that glared down at the echidna, as it rose above him.

Today certainly was far from over for the Black Knight.

-Nicholas D. Wolfwood-

Rook, Panzer, Stealth and Dark Rose are all © of Rook Foxfire of TSF

Credit to Rook Foxfire for the submissions of his characters

Word from the author- Sorry for the extreme delay of this chapter, readers. Between fairly difficult family problems, the holidays, recent exams and all I've had, had trouble finding time to write, or at that, write well. This chapter was originally going to be much longer but due to circumstances and convenience I'm holding much of this chapter's material over for the next chapter, which shall be finished within two weeks (no bull). I sincerely apologize, and I can assure you it shall not happen again. So take care all, and God bless ya'.