Sonic Forces (Revision)

Chapter 11: Danger Approaching

"Hm, what's your verdict?" Espio asked, staying enough away from him so as to not blow the clue away.

Vector put the magnification item down. "It's a strand of hair. Gray to be more exact."

"Hm, do you think it was put there on accident or on purpose?" Espio questioned as he examined the trees around them.

Silver looked down from the top of the tunnel. "Well, whichever way it was, I can help but feel like someone wanted us to be here." The mission was meant to be covert. Get in, get information, and get out. If someone somehow got wind of their plan, then it could spell big trouble. Like Espio said, the base may be abandoned but that didn't meant it was barren of enemies.

Espio looked down, flicking one of his weapons between his fingers as he slightly shifted his foot. "Hm, yes. There weren't many badniks and this deactivated trap is quite alarming."

"Exactly. We need to be careful."

Just as he said that, one of the large trees that the Mystic Jungle is full of began to collapse. Espio threw his shuriken at the tree. The ivory hedgehog didn't hesitate. He threw his hands up and drove the sharp object into the thin trunk. With a thump, the wood landed right in front of their feet.

Charmy lifted up at part of the trunk. "Phew, thanks guys. We would have been flattened for sure." He pulled out Espio's shuriken and handed it back to him. There was no telling how many he had on him but one more probably wouldn't hurt.

"Hey guys, look at this." Vector pointed to the base of the tree. The top of it was flat. Some bits of saw dust still floated around when the crocodile blew on the wood. "This was no accident. We're being followed."

Silver lifted up another part of the tree trunk. Moving his hands along the wood, he shifted a small strand of hair. It was grey too. So that meant-

"Guys, I think we should-!" Before he could finish his statement, he was knocked back. The impact was so great that the dirt beneath him made a large hole where he skidded.

"Silver!" The Chaotix exclaimed as they ran to aid the ivory hedgehog.

The ivory hedgehog rubbed his head, trying to shake off the confusion as he lifted his head up to see what had happened. Floating down in front of him was none other than the crimson villain. Silver motioned for the Chaotix to quit advancing. They did pause. Well, Espio disappeared.

"You're a tough one to find, you know that?" The masked foe stated as he threw down some of his cubes. The locks of his grey hair fell behind him as he touched the mask on his face. Grey hair?

"So it was you!" The ivory hedgehog quickly dodged them as he used his psychic knife. The crimson villain merely dodged it before going in with another attack. Silver went wide-eyed before shooting up. The ground below him seemed to explode as dirt blew into his face. He covered his eyes to avoid being blinded by the dust, a choice the masked villain decided to take advantage of.

By the time Silver had recovered from the burst of earth, the crimson villain was nearly upon him. He barely had time to light his hands with his powers. Right as the two were about to clash again though, a rain of shurikens came down. They shot with such precision that the ivory hedgehog was spared the sharp blades. The crimson villain, however, had to dodge them. He even threw a few back to which Espio uncamouflaged himself and jumped down from a tree.

The purple chameleon looked back as his own weapons nailed into the trunk. "That was close."

Charmy shot in with a bee sting while the villain was distracted. Once the bee moved out of the way, Vector chucked a few rocks at the masked foe. "We got your back Silver!" Vector exclaimed as the rock approached the foe.