Invisible Flames

Legal disclaimer:
    Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters copy-righted by Sega and
Archie Publications, Inc. Devochka copy-righted by me.

    Something was after him. He didn't know what, but he was sure it was after
him. His chameleon powers were useless against the thing. No matter where he
went, it was following. And it wanted to kill him.
    Wait! His friends where nearby, he could see them. But a strange metallic
blue hover-unit was next to them. He didn't know why, but he stopped and
watched his friends. They climbed into the unit, and it began hovering away.
    "NO!" he screamed as the hover-unit crashed into a wall and exploded. After
it exploded, his friends were no where to be seen, and a small toy version of
the hover-unit appeared next to the explosion. Carefully, Espio crawled next to
the toy, and touched it. It began playing a child's melody, but slightly slower
than it should be played. Somehow it seemed evil in its tune, the notes each
about one lower on the scale than normal.
    "Espio!" someone yelled," Yo dude! Get, erg, up!" Someone was shaking him
like crazy. Groaning and mumbling, Espio revived from the dream.
    "Hey, come on mon! We have something to show you!" Knuckles practically
picked Espio up.
    Yawning, Espio asked," Wha-? What do you want?"
    "Come on! You have to see what we found!" Charmy exclaimed. Finally, Espio
became fully awake and stretched out. He was aware of the trees and flowers
surrounding him, and the sun shone in the sky like a bright coin.
    "What did you find?" he asked, relieved that it had only been a dream.
    "You'll see." Mighty grabbed him and they all rushed off. Soon they were
near the Chaos Chamber.
    "Just over there!" Charmy yelled in his excitement. They pushed some brush
out of the way, and Espio couldn't believe it. It was a broken down hover-unit.
    "Looks like robots were here earlier, and had an unsuccessful landing."
Mighty jokingly slapped Knuckles on the back. It was a dull gray with a few
dents and some damaged parts, but it was repairable.
    "We're going to fix it up and use it ourselves!" Charmy ambitiously played
with the broken controls.
    "Oh, uh, great." Espio remembered his dream, even though this hover-unit
was a different color and damaged.
    "What's the matter?" Charmy asked.
    "Nothing. Nothing. What are you going to use it for?" Espio asked.
    "Extra protection." Vector replied," Why, something wrong with it dude?"
    "I just had a bad dream. Nothing big." Espio tried to sound confident.
    "I was told that dreams can be a sign of someone's worst fear." Charmy
hovered before him.
    "Oh, that stuff is for the weak!" Mighty waved off Charmy's suggestion.
    "No, I'm fine. It was just a bad dream, that's all." Espio wondered if he
really believed himself.
    "Alright. If you insist." Charmy easily brushed away the subject.
    "So, what do you guys think?" Knuckles asked, gently patting the side of
the unit.
    "Let's go for it!" Mighty shouted.
    "Alright!" Charmy cheered, as Vector encouragingly snapped his fingers.
Only Espio remained silent. He wasn't sure wether or not to agree.
    "Where do we start?" Charmy asked him.
    "Charmy, you're pretty smart. Think you can figure out how to program this
thing?" Knuckles asked.
    "It isn't my specialty, but I can try." Charmy shook his head.
    "Vector, get something to tighten these old bolts. Espio, find something to
run this thing off of. Come on Mighty, let's fix up some of these dents!"
Knuckles hopped through the door, Mighty following. Watching the others begin,
Espio lingered for a moment before sauntering away to fulfill his own task. He
thought he knew who he could ask about a power source. Devochka had visited
Robotropolis a few times to study the alignment and rank the threat, and would
probably know how hover-units worked. At this time of morning, she was usually
in a lake just north of where he was.
    As he traversed, his mind pondered about his dream. What had it meant? Had
it meant anything at all? Maybe he had heard it when the hover-unit crashed and
his mind had just fit it into his dream. While he was thinking, he almost
passed up the lake, but then noticed his surroundings. Just as he thought, she
was swimming peacefully in the lake, and her cat-suit was hanging in a nearby
tree.
    "Devochka?" he stepped about a foot away from the lake.
    Until now, she had completely ignored him," Yes, may I help you?" Swinging
her golden hair over her shoulder, she stared him straight in the eye. He
couldn't help but stutter because this was the first time he had ever seen her
without her suit on.
    "Well, um, uh, you, you studied about, err, hover-crafts and stuff, right?"
he stammered.
    "Yes. What do you want to know about that stuff?" she asked. Quickly, he
explained the hover-craft they had found.
    "Really?" she asked when he was finished," Well, if it's energy you want,
their should be a receiver on top. Fix it up and you'll be using Robotnik's own
energy against him."
    "Well, thanks. Uh, have a nice bath." Espio tried leaving politely.
    Chuckling, she replied as he left," Trust me, I will." Uncertain about
helping the repairs, Espio reluctantly crawled back. The hover-unit was still
dented and smashed up, but looked better than before. He saw the transmitter on
the top and climbed up to fix it. Charmy was still working on the controls,
and Mighty and Knuckles were working together to punch out dents.
    "Where's Vector?" Espio asked, sitting down with his legs strattling the
unit.
    "Vector? Oh, he went to go get some paint and stuff so we can make it look
cool." Mighty told him.
    "I've done all I can do to fix up the controls until it has power." Charmy
announced.
    "Hold on a second, I almost have it." Espio pulled the transmitter
straight," Got it!" Pushing some more buttons, it was still too damaged to
move, but Charmy had turned on the computers.
    A few hours later, Mighty and Knuckles had taken out all the dents and
Charmy had read the program files. Now they were trying to fix tubes on the
bottom so it could hover again. Mighty lifted it up while the other three tried
to straighten and connect all the correct pipes.
    "Hey, dudes!" someone else yelled.
    "Vector?!" Knuckles yelled turning his head in the alligator's direction,
"Do you know how long it has been? It's been hours! Where were you?"
    "Sorry about that. There was a chick in the lake on the way. And I couldn't
find any gray paint, so I just grabbed the closest I could find. It's some kind
of blueish color." Vector tried to explain.
    "Blue?" Espio repeated.
    "Is there an echo around here?" Vector asked.
    "Are you sure there wasn't any gray?" Espio shook head head, unwilling to
use blue.
    "Yep. Only thing we had left. Why? Something the matter?" Vector placed the
bucket of paint on the ground along with four extra paint brushes, dipping his
own in the paint.
    "No, I, I have to check on something. I'll be back in a while." Espio waved
them off and left. He had something to check on, alright, and he was going to
make sure of it.


    Later in the evening, he arrived in Robotropolis. Using his chameleon
powers to camoflouge with his surroundings, he followed some SWATbots into the
main room. Although the SWATbots kept going through the corridors, he stayed in
the room, waiting patiently. Then Robotnik strode in with his chin parallel to
the ground and his cape flapping through the polluted air.
    After sitting in his chair, a few robots very similar to Mecha-Sonic
entered the room and remained stationary.
    "Number one, report on hover unit three two five one." Robotnik demanded.
    "Everything is working as anticipated, emperor." one stepped forward and
droned back.
    "Show me." Robotnik grumbled. The robot pushed some buttons and a
holographic image appeared. It was the Chaotix, all except Espio, painting the
vehicle the strange blue Vector had supplied.
    "Is the virus in place?" Robotnik asked.
    "Virus in place," it repeated to assure him," explosion occures on your
command."
    "Sir!" Snively dashed into the room," Heat sensors detect someone else in
this room!"
    "Number one! Activate heat sensors!" Robotnik bellowed.
    "Activating heat sensors. Presence detected. Awaiting your commands." it
beeped a few times. Espio knew they had spotted him, and darted away. He wasn't
sure what those metallic hedgehogs thought they were, but he wasn't about to
stay and find out up close.
    "Get him!" he heard Robotnik roar the last order as he left. His camoflouge
slowed down the robot's tracking, but it could still sensor him. He ran down a
few corridors until he was sure the robot didn't see him, then reappeared
panting. The jets of the searching robot continued to grow closer while he
frantically looked for an escape. Then someone grabbed him and dragged him
somewhere behind the wall of the corridor, while the other robot passed where
he had just been.
    "Who-?" Espio turned to see another robot hedgehog, but this one was gray
with shaggy eyebrows," Oh no."
    "Don't worry, I'm a good guy. Who are you, I don't believe we've met
before?" the hedgehog asked.
    "Espio. Who are you?" Espio repeated his question.
    "Call me Uncle Chuck." he replied," What are you doing here?"
    "Saving my friends. Look, a bomb is about to explode in their faces,
literally, and I have to save them. I need to get back to the Floating Island,
fast! Can you help me?" he asked desperately.
    "Maybe. Here, take these jets, it'll help you get there. I'll do what I can
here." he handed the chameleon a pair of jets he had recently been ordered to
repair for Robotnik, but was obviously disloyal.
    "Thanks." Espio barked as he strapped the jets onto his shoes, wrapping the
band around twice for security. Pressing a few buttons, he ran through some
more corridors until he was outside, passing a few laser shots on his way.
Bursting off from the ground, Espio flew into the air and soared towards the
Floating Island.
    Just when he thought he had gotten away, about ten minutes later, with the
Floating Island barely fifty yards away, he heard the robot following him.
Unlike himself, the robot knew how to fly and never made any awkward twists and
turns. Only by accident, he dodged the first few laser shots. Twenty more
yards. A laser hit one of his jets, and he rammed the side of the island.
Scrambling to hang on, he kicked off the broken jet and tried using the other
one to help him climb up. Somehow he pulled himself on top, and kicked off the
other jet, dashing away. Still, the robot following, he was worried he wouldn't
make it. Behind him, he heard an order to start the virus once the machine was
used.
    Panting, he ran to where he knew his friends would be. The hover unit would
be working by now and he had to warn them. He heard the unit not far away, and
was certain that he could see it hovering. But it didn't explode. He wanted to
stop and save himself from the explosion that was bound to happened, but he
forced himself to charge towards his friends.
    "Get out!" he shouted at the unit.
    "What?" Mighty opened the door. He didn't have time for this! Espio rushed
by Mighty and shoved him out. The surprised armadillo didn't have a chance to
retaliate. Grabbing Charmy, he crammed Vector out and yanked on Knuckles as he
leapt through the door. Then, the robot hedgehog flew above them and collided
with the unit. Shocked, Espio tried to cover Charmy and get the others to cover
themselves. After a moments hesitation, the hover-craft and robot exploded.
    "Wha-?" Mighty asked, watching the hover-unit they had worked on so hard
explode so easily.
    "Not now!" Espio flattened Mighty's head back into the ground. The unit
finished exploding, hardly scorching the five friends.
    "What's going on here?!" Mighty shouted at Espio.
    "I'll explain later. Right now, I want to go back to bed." he curled up and
was asleep in seconds.