Amadeus smiled as they missed him. He jumped up quickly, and hit a Badnik just on the neck, where it was weak, causing it to explode. "Heh..."

Wraith stood up, rubbing the back of his head. "Ugh. I deserved that." he muttered.

The Shellcracker was scuttling towards him, pincers snapping wildly. Wraith waited until it was close, then spun round, embedding his knuckledusters in the crab's metal brain.

The robots joints locked up and it collapsed, sparks showering from the hole inbetween it's eyes.

Wraith turned back to Amadeus, preparing to shout to him to leave and find somewhere safe to hide...and was just in time to see him decapitate a Buzzbomber with a well-placed jab!

"Hey Ama." he called. "You have any fighting experience?"

Amadeus nodded, as he dodged another Badnik. "I travel- there's danger around," he said, hitting down another Buzzbomber.

Wraith shook his head at the fox, grinning. It seemed he'd underestimated both of his new companions! Still, he wasn't complaining. If Amadeus would join the mission too it would make life a whole lot easier!

His attention was caught by the sound of a jet engine in the distance, steadily getting closer. The rest of the Freedom Fighters had heard about the attack, and they were almost here!

He looked up into the sky, trying to locate them, and saw masses of Valkerie badnicks overflying the zone, firing their lazers at anything that moved!

Those would cause a massive problem for the FFs as they approached. He decided to act.

"Jeth, Am, keep them at bay here! I'm going topside!" With that he ran over to the reserch building they had entered before, and, digging his knuckledusters into the masonry, he bgan to climb.

Jeth nodded, Holding off a particularly nasty badnik by chucking other badniks in it's way, using them as shields. Finally remembering something, he dashed at it, then hopped on top of it, using a strong punch to the neck. The badnick exploded, jetting Jeth up a bit, and landing on another.

He reached the top of the building in less than a minute. Pulling himself up, he dusted brick dust off his arms and looked around.

From this height he could see a large section of the city. Robotniks forces were attacking from the east (the direction of Flicky Island, thought Wraith) and looked like they were relying mainly on strength of numbers. There must have been over 5000 Badniks all told! Robotnik wasn't taking any chances!

The Metropolis Zone Army and the Police force were mounting valient defences against the robots, but the sheer number of enemies was taking it's toll. Looking around, Wraith also saw others, civilians apparently, mounting their own defences against the attacking army.

They were brave!

Then he spotted what he was looking for. Over to the west, right on the horizon, the midday sun gleamed off a red, metalic object high in the sky. The thruster that was fitted to the small bi-plane was audible even at this distance, thanks to it's incredible power!

Wraith looked directly up at the blue sky above him, the sun almost blotted out by wave after wave of robots.

"Time to dance." he growled, and jumped up at the lowest of the Valkeryies as it blasted past, reaching out to find a handhold...

Jeth did the same thing he'd done to the last robot, taking out the neck and using the resulting blast to jump to the next badnik. He continued this, until he took out the neck of a fairly large badnick. The resulting blast catapulted him higher than expected. Jeth, not missing a chance, grabbed hold of a low flying Valkerie, and started beating on that.

Wraith's arm was almost pulled from it's socket at the sudden acceleration, but he gritted his teeth and held on. He had managed to hook his hand into one of the two air intakes on the Valkeryie's side, that fueled it's twin jet engines. Tightening his grip, he swung himself upwards, landing on top of the delta-winged, vaguely bird-like robot with a thud. He quickly located and grabbed the lip of the air intake on the other side of the body, securing himself on the robot's back.

And just in time! The Valkeryie, noticing Wraith's assault, began to loop and roll, trying to shake him off.

Wraith gripped as hard as he could and held on for dear life, trying to stop his stomach rebelling at the incredible G-forces he was speeding through.

Ok...this wasn't such a good idea...

Jeth managed to hurt the badnik enough to make it hard for the valkerie to fly much longer. He hopped off, landing onanother large badnik.

"One after another... how many are there?"

Amadeus was doing fairly well fighting the Badniks- he mostly just made them crash into walls and stuff, although doing this he'd been grazed a few times. "I hope this doesn't take long..."

Wraith was losing control of his stomach.

The Valkeryie, being metal, could pull of some radiculous stunts that could potentially harm a flesh creature, and by now, Wraith felt like he'd been put in a massive vice and streached in 5 different directions at once!

He knew that if it didn't stop soon it would kill him. But as he looked at the wildly spinning ground, he decided he couldn't let go. Even if he was the right way up to start gliding, he would be traveling too fast to stop himself before he hit the floor or a building. Plus he didn't think he had the strength to glide after the wild ride.

The Badnik pulled sharply up from a massive dive and Wraith was pressed against it's shiny back. He tried to wriggle upwards to re-enforce his grip on the robot, but his foot slipped, hitting one of the Valkeryie's rear flaps. The robot was thrown into a sudden spin, and Wraith nearly lost his grip altogether! But, trying desperately to stay awake from the crushing Gs, he reached out with his other foot and kicked the left flap.

The spin inneadiately evened out, and suddenly Wraith was struck with an idea...

Jeth hopped off the large badnik. It seemed quite well armored. He had nothing to break that with. He dodged a swinging fist, and backed away a bit.

"This thing is one big-" He didn't finish, probably because of the other large fist that impacted on him, knocking him a good distance away.

"Yeah... not my... day..." he said. He got up, feeling a little less than perky. His entire right side hurt. Gritting his teeth, he continued to dodge the swinging fists.

"YEEEEEEEEEEEEE-HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

After accidentally influencing the Badnik's direction of flight before, Wraith had started to experiment, and had found that he could force the robot to go in any direction he wanted, simply by forcing the flaps above it's engines to move. Using this descovery he had forced the Badnik to level out and stay there, while he recovered his sences. Then, he stood up on the Valkeryie's back and began to opperate the flaps with his right foot, his left foot out in front towards the Badnik's nose...

...and began to surf! Arms out to balance, he began to use the Valkeryie as a surf board, jabbing at one of the flaps whenever he wanted to turn around!

"This is too cool!!!" he thought, staring down at the cityscape below him. He forced the Badnik round in a wide left arc, leaning over to keep his balance. Now he wasn't going to die, but he wasn't exactly doing much to destroy the hoards of robots that were...his train of thought was interrupted as he spotted what looked like a small control panel on the robot's back, just in front of his left foot. Curious, he decided to try pressing one or two of the buttons, opting for the biggest one first. He jabbed at it with his left foot.

With a loud <FAZZZAKKK> the Valkeryie's lazer blasted forward from just below it's nose, blasting a large hole in the street below.

Wraith almost lost his footing in suprise! He quickly stomped on the flaps, pulling the robot up from it's slight nose-dive, and stared open-mouthed at the large smouldering hole in the street as he flew past. Then, slowly, his face creased into an excited, almost hysterical grin.

"Okay Badniks! It's butt whooping time!!!"

(OOC: lol Guys, feel free to lengthen your posts and go a little crazy like I've done^^ I don't want to hog the limelight here. Feel free to put in some mad ideas yourself )

Jeth shook off most of the pain. He noticed that Wraith was having fun messing with a badnik that he'd been able to manipulate somehow. Jeth looked at the armored foe ahead of him. This was going to be tough.

Or was it?

Jeth smiled, and rushed at the giant badnik. As he reached the body, he kept going. He passed through the badnik's armor as if he were a shadow. Inside, wires were everywhere. Jeth began to tear at some of them.

A few moments and some careful shooting later, Wraith had managed to take out a sizable chunk of the airborne attack force, using his improvised hoverboard's lazer. Some of the other Badniks had seen the plight of their fellow, and had commenced trying to blast him from the robot's back, but he kept on his toes, and managed to avoid their attacks. If ever any of the others got too close for him to use the lazer, he would simply manuver alongside them and smash them with his fists.

By now the bi-plane on the horizon had got much closer, and Wraith decided to go check in. He swung the Valkeryie around and jabbed another of the buttons on the control pannel (He had descovered their uses during the battle) grabbing hold once again of the Badnik's air scoops to hang on.

With a roar the Badnik's afterburners blasted into life, and they went screaming across the sky at top speed! Wraith waited until he was roughly level with the plane, then cut the turbo and swung round in a wide arc, pulling alongside the red aircraft.

A crossbow bold shot past him, grazing his right shoulder! "Hey!"

"Wraith!" exclaimed Amy, shocked. "How on Mobius did you...?"

Wraith grinned. "Cool eh? Tell you later. Where are the rest?" he asked, noticing that Amy and Tails were the only two in the bi-plane.

"They're following as quick as they can. There wasn't room for all of us in here. They should be arriving any moment."

Tails looked out at the scenes of carnage ahead of them. "Man this is gonna be tough."

"We have help." replied Wraith. "I've found a couple of ace guys that want to help me save Sonic and Knux, and even some of the locals are fighting the Badniks too!"

"The army and police seem to have the south of the city under control." muttered Amy, thinking. "Wraith, we'll secure the city center. You and your friends take the northern section, ok?"

Wraith nodded. "Gotcha." With that he grabbed his hand-holds and jabbed the turbo button again, and the Valkeryie roared off the way it had come. Glancing back, he saw Tails set the auto-pilot on the plane, then the fox and Amy jumped out, parachuting down into the Metropolis Zone Central Square.

Jeth smiled. He was literallypushing the badnik's buttons. He got bored eventually, and took a huge bunch of wiring and cut through them. He got out of the badnik, and got out of the area as the thing exploded.

Wraith was reluctant to give up his pet Badnik, but he knew the army could take care of the rest of the flying robots. He guided the Valkeryie back to the area where Jeth and Amadeus had been, and soon saw them single handedly eliminating a large column of Badniks one after another!

He put the Valkeryie into a steep dive, then jabbed the turbo button, jumping off as he did so. The robot rocketed forward, slamming into the street with a WHUMPH. Wraith glided down to the floor and called to the other two.

"Hey guys. The Freedom Fighters are here, and there aren't many Badniks left. We have to go protect the north of the city. Follow me."

"Good, I was getting a bit bored." Jeth said, following Wraith. He was still bruised a bit from the hit from the large badnik, but it wasn't bugging him much now.

In the control room on Flicky Island, Robotnik was getting angry. He was constantly jabbing buttons on the control panel and roaring commands into the microphone, his face getting redder and redder.

"Ground division 2, move in! Division 4, cover them! Someone take out that army tank! Air division 5, come about to your left and attack the...NO YOU FOOLS I SAID LEFT NOT RIGHT! WHAT THE BLAZES HAS HAPPENED TO YOUR DIRECTIONAL SYSTEMS??? THAT'S IT, EVERYONE'S GOING IN THE INCINNERATOR WHEN YOU GET BACK!!!"

His attention was caught by a small red plane on one of the screens, overflying the city. "ARGH!" he shouted. "That's all we need!"

A number of the screens showed others, civilians, standing and fighting the robot army too! "Curse them!" the Doctor roared, focusing the main screen on two foxes, one white, one black, who were in the process of obliterating an entire land division! "It looks like those furry fools have been recruiting!"

Suddenly his eye caught another figure entering the frame, and he stared in shock. The figure was an Echidna, maroon in colour, with copper coloured armour and...a copper coloured implant on his head...

Robotnik froze the frame and expanded it to fill all the TV screens on the wall, zooming in on the figure. "Could it be...?" he muttered, then he began to laugh. "Oh this is priceless!" he exclaimed. "This is just fantastic! If those old Echidna legends are true...!"

The attack on Metropolis forgotten, Robotnik jumped from his seat and ran out of the room. "I must do some research." he was muttering to himself. "But if this is what I think it is, it could be my biggest turn of luck in years!" Skipping with glee, he ran off down the hallway to his archive room.

The trio made their way to the northern districts, fighting all the way. The batles seemed to get easier when, for some reason, the Badniks seemed to lose co-ordination between their groups. Eventually the last robot was smashed, and they turned to face each other, bruised, battered, but victorious.

"Nice one guys!" grinned Wraith. "Thanks for your help!"

Jeth had managed to take a few more hits, but they didn;t seem to bug him too badly.

"That wasn't so bad... for the three of us." Jeth said. He sat against a nearby wall, letting himself rest a bit.

"I'll say! You guys have some real skills!" Wraith sat down next to Jeth, resting up himself. Further down the street he saw the rest of the Freedom Fighters coming towards them, cheering and grinning. "If we put on a show like that in the special zone we should have no trouble rescuing Sonic and Knux."

He stood up again as the rest of the FFs arrived. After congratulations all round on the battle, Wraith introduced Jeth and Amadeus to the rest of the team.

(OOC: the rest of the FFs are NPCs, so feel free to do what you like with them. As I said it's mainly set in the Fleetway universe, but other aspects are welcome, so if you want to use characters that weren't in StC, like Sally Acorn or Rotor, go right ahead.^^)

Jeth didn't really pay attention to most of the FFs. He wasn't always a social person, but considering his background as a thief, it was a bit understandable.

((OOC: I really have no ides who any of the FFs are >_< ))

(OOC: ROFL you never read any of the Archie or Fleetway comix?)

((Can't say I have. The only thing I know about the comics/cartoons is the history of the metal sonics.))

character: darth riddick
gender: male
age: 25
existence: hedgehog
family: sonic
fur:red
eyes: black
weapons: 1 red light saber,2 laser guns,1 dagger and a bat
clothing: black vest,black long coat,grey trousers and green sneakers
accesories; black visioned goggles and a bottom half of the darth vader mask.

Please dont just jump into an RP like this,

especially one that has been going on for such a long time and is well established.

Consider reading the RP, seeing what setting it is beforehand and then PMing the RP starter to see whether people can still enter.

But dont disrupt the RP like you have with just a character profile.

(OOC: Don't worry too much Cj, we need more characters anyway, but it's true some RPG starters wouldn't be too happy about an entrance like that. Good to remember those points for future referance...

Hey there Darth man you read the story so far and up-to-date? Feel free to go IC when you're ready, and welcome to the story^^

And Code, you know Amy and Tails right? We'll just use them for now then. Maybe include the others later if we can and want to.)

IC:
"Good to see you're all doing ok!" exclaimed Amy, relieved. "How are you coming on the Special Zone front?"

"We've found a scientist that seems to know something, but our investigation was interrupted by the attack." replied Wraith wryly. "We'll have to go get him again."

Amy nodded in approval. "Okay." she agreed. "We'll help everyone clear up here. Keep me posted."

"Will do." Wraith turned to Amadeus and Jeth. "Let's go guys."

((OOC: Yes, I know Amy and Tails, having played every sonic game that's come out so far.))

"Right behind you, Wraith." Jeth said, following Wraith. As he passed a downed badnik, he kicked it's head for fun.

It didn't take very long for them to reach the Reserch District again, and on the way they began to laugh and joke about the battle they had just fought.

Then they reached the street they had been in before, the one with all the Government Reserch labs.

"Oh sugar!" exclaimed Wraith in shock.

Most of the buildings along the road had been reduced to smoking piles of rubble, some of them still on fire. The area had been his hard in their absence! The skyscraper that they had met Doctor Meilnholt in had been decapitated, the top 30 or so floors now lying as wreakage in the middle of the road!

"This is bad! We have to find out where Meilnholt is!" Wraith set off towards what remained of the building, the others in hot persuit.

(OOC: lol take over for a bit Code, I'll follow your cues. My next major plot point is some way off and I'm too tired to think of connectives atm >< Up to you if Meilnholt survived, and how soon we hit the Special Zone. Feel free to make it fast if you want to introduce your new character.)

((OOC: if you say so.))

Jeth looked at the surrounding destruction. Finding the doctor was his first objective. So far, Zero energy was the only thing they knew about that could possibly get them to the special zone.

"Wraith, Amadeus, We need to find the doctor. If he's gone... We'll have some problems, like getting to special zone at all." He said. Getting to the building, the three went inside. Jeth started taking the stiars to where the doctor's office was.

You're right..." muttered Wraith, half to himself. "If this guy is dead that's all we need. The only other way would be through Robotnik's Chaos transporter, and that would mean infiltrating his base. Not a healthy option."

Jeth opened the door to the office. The place looked to be in rough shape.

"Hm... He better be alive." Jeth said, starting to look. He tripped over something. Looking back, he found a leg. Pulling on the leg, he dragged an unconscious dr. Meilnholt out. Jeth immediately checked for pulse.

"He's alive, though he might need some time to wake..."

Wraith glanced around at the lab, all the windows blown out, and the equipment smashed. Then his eyes came to rest on a sink in the far corner.

"I'll get some water." he said, moving over to it The taps actually worked, despite the state of the building, and Wraith filled a cup and brought it over.

Jeth propped Dr. Meilnolt against the wall.

"Good, he doesn't seem to have any big injuries..." He commented.

"I just hope that whatever it was that could get us to Special Zone survived, as well."

Amadeus couldn't help but wonder exactly what he was getting into. He didn't mind whatever- better than just wandering pointlessly- but all the same, he needed to know. "Just out of interest," he asked Jeth. "Why is it that we need to go there, exactly?"

"Two reasons. One is a certain speedy blue hedgehog, the other is a certain guardian of Angel Isle." Jeth replied. Suddenly, his fur stood on end, as he felt something strange. The feeling passed, but Jeth's fur still stood.

Amadeus noticed Jeth's fur stick up a little. "You okay?" he asked, thinking. This must be really big...

What was that? Jeth thought. He sniffed for a scent. Nothing, besides those he knew were in the room.

"I-I'm fine..." Jeth said.

Wraith ws staring at the fox, one eyebrow raised. "If you think..."

Once again he was interrupted mid-sentence by Dr. Meilnholt, although this time unintentionally, as the Doctor let out a long, low moan.

"I think he's coming round!"

"Good." Jeth replied. He stood, and gave another glance around the room. Maybe he was just a bit paranoid.

Meilnholt woke, looking a bit dazed. He'd probably been hit over the head or something.

"Doctor, you okay?" Jeth asked.

The doctor nodded slightly.

"Is that Zero energy thing still working?"

Meilnholt jumped up, and went to the machine.

"Nothing too bad... minor structure damage at worst. It should still work." He said.

"I must record this experimant!" exclaimed Meilnholt excitedly. "If it works it will prove so many of my theorys..." he dissapeared into a storage room, still chattering away to himself. Wraith took the opertunity to speak to the others.

"Guys, I should warn you what we're getting into. The Special Zone is a dangerous place! It's crazy, loads of platforms and pathways floating around in space, colliding with one another and so on. The entire area is charged with chaos energy, which is why when the Chaos Emeralds are lost they gravitate there, and to top it off, Robotnik has a strong prescence there from his Egg Fortress!" He looked at his two companions in turn. "It's gonna be really tough. You both put on an impressive show in that badnik attack, but I won't blame either of you if you want to back out now."

Meilnholt returned, his arms loaded with recording equipment of various types. He was still muttering away to himself, seemingly in his own little world. Wraith ignored him as he awaited his friends' verdict...

"I've always liked to explore. I'm not backing out now." Jeth said. His fur spiked again as he felt that odd feeling again, but he did nothing to show suprise or the like.

(OOC: lol Amadeus forgotten about us again? Am, we'll pretend you said ok so you're still in the story. Come back to us man! lol)

Wraith nodded aprovingly, admiring their bravery not for the first time. Meilnholt seemed to have finally finished all his preperations, and was bringing a large machine on the far wall to life.

"You nearly ready doc?" Wraith called to him.

The Scientist nodded vigerously and grinned a wide, toothy grin. "In a few moments" he proclaimed, "either all my Zero Energy theories will be proven, or everyone in this room will be killed by a Zero explosion! What a fantastic, momentus day!"

Wraith winced. "I'd settle for the theories proven part myself." he replied. "Let's just get this show on the road."

Meilnholt once again nodded vigerously, wringing his hands in excitement. Then he reached out and placed his hand on the control pannel of the big machine. "Stand back!" he called as he flicked a switch...

The feeling that Jeth had intensified more when the machine started up. It was really an odd feeling. He tried to ignore it. A flash of light stunned Jeth, and without warning, the special zone replaced the lab. Jeth took a look around, taking in how odd the zone was.

OOC: Sorry guys!
IC: "Wierd... Or at least, it is to us..." said Amadeus, in awe at his surroundings. "This is all incredible, really."

Wraith looked around grimly. He hated the special zone.

They had been fortunate enough to materialise on one of the asteroids floating randomly through the zone, so they weren't floatig freely in space. Wierd shapes and colours floated everywhere, all moving in different directions. In the distance on his left Wraith could see one of those tube-like pathways that Sonic had had to navigate shortly after he met Tails, and up in the aire abover them he spotted one of those mini-worlds with red and blue spheres on them.

The place was completely psychadelic, and he was already beginning to get a headache!

His musings were (once again) interrupted by Meilnholt. The Doctor was holding a small radio-control device, and he was jumping up ad down in enthusiasm.

"I was right! I was right! It works!" Suddenly a light on his control began to flash. "Ooer, the machine's overheating!" he exclaimed. "Well farewell people! Here you are in the Special Zone as ordered. Take care." he opperated the controls and winked out of existance.

Wraith clenched his teeth. The Doctor hadn't even given him time to make arraingements to get back! Now they were trapped here same as Sonic and Knuckles!

He considered for a moment and decided not to bother bringing it to the attention of his companions. The first thing was to find Sonic and Knux. They could worry about getting back out later.

"You ready guys?" he asked dryly. He wasn't looking forward to navigating the Special Zone.

He jumped off the asteroid, making careful aim for another one nearby, up in the air. As soon as he jumped the asteroid's gravity dropped him, and he began to float freely in the void, zooming towars the next asteroid. He brought his feet forward and landed on the rock's underside, gravity gripping him again. Then he aimed for the next rock he saw. He had gotten used to this on previous Special Zone visits, and could bounce from surface to surface very quickly. Eventually he landed in one of the long tube-like constructions and began to run down it, glancing back to check the others were still with him.

Jeth growled. "That fool didn't say how to get back. I guess we'll have to find our own way." He followed across the asteroids, landing next to Wraith. The tube structure was certainly odd, especially the small black thing he saw in it. It suddenly dawned on him just what it was.

"what is a MINE doing here?" he said.

((OOC: I'm assuming the tube is the Sonic 2 special stage.))

(OOC: Yup lol the special zone is home to all the Sonic special stages. That's why it's so insane in there.)

"Robotnik." replied Wraith simply. "He gets everywhere, even here. He has a large prescence in this zone thanks to his Egg Fortress."

"So where do we start looking for Sonic and Knuckles?" Jeth looked up at one of the mini-worlds. He looked elsewhere, ad saw a bunch of floating orbs, which seemed to be made of energy.

"I'll look over there." He said, pointing at the orbs.

"It may not be a good idea to split up. We could so easily get lost ourselves." Wraith cocked his head, thinking. "If I know Sonic, he'll be looking for his own way back to Mobius, and probably the best bet for that would be Robotnik's Chaos Transporter in his Egg Fortress."

Amadeus blinked in suprise. "Wouldn't that be dangerous?"

"Of course, but Sonic wouldn't be bothered about that. Knux would, but he'd go along with it because he knows there's no other way."

"It's always Robotnik!" Jeth muttered to himself. "He deserves a good kicking..."

"I agree entirely." growled Wraith. "To the Egg Fortress it is!" He paused for a second, looking round, then continued: "Which is actually in the direction of those energy balls anyway. Come on!"