I woke up the next morning, lying down on Silver. That's when I felt it...

"He's here!" Clare got in my face.

"Yeah I can tell. Where is he?" I got up and woke Silver.

"Like hell I know! He's probably right behind those doors!" Clare moved away from the doors, worried that he could bust through any moment. It felt like he was too. The darkness, the power. It almost made me afraid to open it.

I inched closer and quickly opened the doors... Nothing but the sun in my eyes.

"We're fine." I looked at Clare as Silver walked next to me and looked at the sky.

"On your way out for today?" Carl was walking towards us with his milk bucket.

"Yeah, gotta find someone and take them out, if possible. It should stop your problem with the creatures." Carl smiled when I said that

"Well good, I'm glad! Ye' better get goin' then!" Carl's country accent kicked in.

"I would, except I have no clue where he his." Then I realized.

"But, I think I know someone who does... MAYBE." I thought about if he would know for sure.

"Eggman always had a knack for ultimate power. He would definitely be the guy." Carl's expression changed.

"I hope you're right about that..." He walked off into his barn, mumbling something.

What the heck?

"Carl, you okay?" I followed him into the barn.

"Yeah, just go, ye' better find this person of yours." He waved me off as he began milking his cow. He sounded a little angry... I better leave him alone.

I exited the barn before Clare started a game of 20 questions.

"How are we gonna find this... EGGMAN? Who is Eggman? Is he a good guy?" Clare flew by my side and kept spitting out more questions.

"I always keep track of that Egghead, and luckily he's not too far. No, Eggman is not a good guy, but at the same time, he's not THAT bad either, despite almost taking over the planet a few months back." I grabbed Clare and put her in my sword sheath.

"Ready, Silver?" I pat his head gently as I set my GPS for the Egg Carrier's location. Silver extended his wings as I climbed on, and with a few flaps of his big wings, we were already sky high.

"What's this Egg Carrier thing?" Clare yelled over the blowing wind.

"Actually, this is his SECOND Egg Carrier, the first one went down in the ocean. The second one is more sleek and much smaller. Still deadly though!" I kept a close eye out for the Carrier.

"What does it look like?" As soon as she asked, I spotted it out of the corner of my eye.

"Like THAT." The Carrier was massive. It looked just like it did when I saw it last time. As I examined it closely, I saw a small flash come from the hull.

"SILVER TURN LEFT, NOW!" Silver barely dodged cannon fire from the Carrier.

"What was that?!" Clare couldn't see since she was stuck in the sheath.

"Eggman put his Carrier on defense mode, he must have something he's not supposed to!"

The Carrier shot another round at us before Silver dodged it again. Silver pushed further into the Carriers airspace with a few more flaps. Some time later, we were close enough to the point where I could use my tails on the way down.

"Silver, I'll be back. Try not to get hit!" Silver squawked in reply as I leapt off Silvers back.

I was free falling for what felt like a full minute. Once I was close enough, I used my flight ability to glide down into the airstrip.

That's when the Alarms blared.

My helmet counted four guns trained on me, but they weren't firing for some reason. That's when I made a run for the main entrance, hopefully. When I made it to the door, I heard a faint, slow boom behind me. I turned around and saw the artillery slowly coming out of the guns barrels, aiming towards the spot I was originally at.

Super speed kicked in just in time...

I turned back towards the door and broke through with a couple punches. That's when everything went back to normal speed. Robots of all shapes and sizes blocked my way.

"Uh oh, do you need me?" Clare was itching for action. But luckily I had a couple years of experience with this.

"Nope, I have it ALL under control. I have one thing I need to do before I find Egghead. And luckily the main cannon control is nearby." A holographic map of the Egg Carrier popped up on my visor. It showed that the control center was right under me.

"How strong am I really?" I charged my fist up for a big blow, and slammed down on the ground, breaking the floor into a million pieces with little to no effort.

Once the dust cleared, two familiar robots came into view.

"Cubot and Orbot. Well well well." I walked closer towards the computer while they moved back.

"Oh boy, it's him! Don't hurt us!" Cubot cowered in fear. I pushed him aside and leaned on the computers keyboard. The computer required a password, which Orbot and Cubot could have.

"Tell me what the password is, now!" I could've hacked it, but I didn't have the patience or the time to bother. Not while Arthas walks on the face of Mobius.

"W-Why should we?!" Orbot yelled at me, trying to seem tough. I walked closer and crouched down in front of them.

"Because if you don't, I will personally shove both of you into the scrapper, rebuild you, and do it again! Not to mention, the whole entire universe depends on just me, my sword, and my bird, whose currently trying to dodge your awful aiming skills. So tell me the password, or I'll shove you so far up Eggman's as-."

"Okay okay! It's E-G-G!" Cubot interrupted me.

I instantly turned around and typed 'EGG' into the tab. Of course, what else would it be? Once I turned off the main cannon control, I turned to ask the two clumsy robots where Eggman was located.

They were gone. I should've known. I leapt back up to the floor above me only to see Silver right beside the hole.

"Oh hey buddy!" I pet him before scanning the map for possible locations where Eggman might be. After searching for a couple seconds, the map pinged a couple meters away.

Bingo.

Before I even stepped a foot, titanium reinforced bulkhead doors blocked my path. Great. No time to hack it, time to go use the aggressive approach.

"Okay, test number two!" I charged my fist up once more, and punched a hole right through the center of the door with what seemed like no effort.

"That's impossible..." I was shocked. I grabbed hold of the hole and tore the door like it was paper.

Only a couple more.

Silver followed close behind as I kept breaking down bulkhead doors one by one.

I broke one more, and tore the door to shreds, and stopped. Silver backed up slowly, and Clare's crystal turned red.

"Metal." It was Metal Sonic, guarding the last door. Metal charged up for a punch and hit me in the cheek.

That tickled.

Metal Sonic knew what was about to happen. He stepped back slowly, anticipating for MY fist.

"My turn." I didn't charge my fist this time, no powers, all physical.

One blow to the head, and Metal was done for. I didn't even recognize him anymore.

"What a waste of resources!" Silver sniffed the hunk of metal and looked back at me. One look at the door, and I knew this would be a great test.

"Oh great, Tungsten. Probably the most durable type of solid metal in the PLANET. This will be a breeze."

I inhaled slowly, charging my fist up one more time. Then exhaled, putting all my energy into the blow.

The door broke into two pieces, sending both half's flying.

Holy shit...

Eggman was cowering in the middle, stepping back each time I took a step forward. It was a big room. To my right there was a main control station for the Egg Carrier. To my left?

"The Chaos Emeralds? No wonder you're on lock down." There were only 4 in a laser containment field. Besides that, I didn't care what Eggman had. All I wanted was for Eggman to not be afraid, despite all his wrong doings.

"W-What do you want?!" Eggman took one more step back before tripping over himself.

"Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you. I need you to locate someone for me." Eggman seemed to lighten up a bit and stood to his feet.

"I- I see... Who is it exactly you're looking for my little friend?" Eggman's attitude changed, he seemed to be a little more calm now.

Good. Hopefully I'll walk out of here with no problem.

"Has your scanners picked up any weird anomalies in the past 12 - 24 hours?" I crossed my arms as Clare managed to escape my sheath. Eggman fumbled with his mustache as he thought.

"Besides you, I don't think so?" He walked back and forth for a moment. Then he stopped.

"My sensors DID indicate a rather strange weather pattern though. A blizzard it seems like. And it's only July!" Eggman ran to his computer as I closely followed.

The blizzard might be Arthas, since the last time I saw him was on that different planet, and it was almost below freezing.

"That might be what I'm looking for!" I stood next to him as he typed away on the keyboard. Clare was floating on his other side.

"Says here it formed less than 3 hours ago, is that good enough?" He looked at both of us for a reply. I thought for a moment.

"Yeah, it is, thank you Ivo." I pat his elbow to show how appreciative I was.

"Ivo? How did you know my middle name?" I turned to him and smiled behind my helmet.

"Who ARE you? Eggman became really interested in me all of a sudden. He pulled out a scanner from a drawer and walked around me, getting measurements.

"You're energy level is more than my counter can even read!" He thought for a moment and put the gadget on the red chaos emerald. Then he rounded the others up and measured them together, and looked at me. "Interesting..."

"What? Am I weak against the chaos emeralds?" I joked, worried what the answer might be.

"No. You're mor-." He looked up at me, dropped his tool, and backed up. Clare and Silver we're backing up too. I turned around, and there he was, tapping his foot, crossing his arms. Along with Amy and Knuckles.

"S-Sonic!?" Eggman ducked behind me like I was a shield.

For the love of the universe. I don't have time for this.

END OF CHAPTER SIXTEEN, THE GUARDIAN