This is a quick story I made for Team Explosive members JaketheHedgehog, Fly the Fox and BulletFrancisco. A story which also features four of my characters, Derek, Luke and John from the Freedom Fighters band, and Ryan Weever, Shadow's co-developer from the Project, whose profiles can be acessed in my user page, if you feel like checking it out. Hope I got their personalities right, guys. Also, hope you enjoy it.
Mobius
Around 12:00 PM
Derek, Luke and John, the three members of the Freedom Fighters band, were lost in the Mobian woods, carrying their instruments along with them. Derek's guitar "Supremacy" and Luke's bass "Melee and Effort" were both strapped to their backs as usual, while John's drum kit "Brain Blast" was inside a case he was carrying on his right hand. They had an Instant Portal Device with them, but they weren't going to use it, simply because of their reason to be there in the first place.
Derek received a call from Sonic, telling them to meet him at the woods near the village, to show them a good spot for a future show. However, they were walking for around 50 minutes already, and neither Sonic OR the spot could be seen. Plus, they said there were to meet Shadow at the spot, but the black hedgehog was nowhere to be seen either.
"Is this going to take too long???" asked John. "We've been walking for hours, and there's no signs of Shadow or Sonic!!"
"Don't be such a whiner!" said Luke. "50 minutes passed since we came into Mobius!! We haven't been walking for that long!!"
"Luke, John's got a point..." said Derek. "It looks like an eternity!! Didn't Sonic tell us the spot was easy to find?? Heck, he even gave us the coordinates!! What the heck's the deal, then???"
John looked around the woods and began to nervously fiddle with his glasses' frame.
"Come to think of it, have you noticed there isn't anyone here??" he asked. "You'd think that a world such as Mobius would have more than just a few inhabitants!"
"Yeah, good point..." answered Derek. "We only know Sonic and the guys because of the video games, but what about the rest of them??? Is there any other Mobians out there aside from the dudes we saw in Sonic SatAM??"
"Let's think of that later!!" interrupted Luke. "Look over there!!"
They finally spotted a clearing in the forest, where a small figure stood in the middle. Derek recognized the form as that of a Mobian hedgehog's.
"Could it be??" asked John.
"Let's find out!!!!" said Derek.
They began running towards the clearing as fast as they could, the weight of their instruments not enough to slow them down. Once they got there, they finally got a better sight of the figure standing there. However...
"What the heck!?!?" they said in unison.
It was only a cardboard cutout of Shadow.
"A cardboard cutout???" asked Luke. "Did we just get punk'd??"
Suddenly, a net quickly erupted from beneath them and raised them above the ground, trapping the trio inside. A voice was heard afterwards:
"HOHOHOHOHOHOHO!!! And they said I didn't know how to use the internet!!!"
The nefarious Dr. Eggman appeared floating on his Egg Mobile, his henchmen along with him.
"Because I have the bratty teenagers--"
"Caught in the web, I know!!" interrupted Derek "Seriously, dude, GET SOME NEW JOKES!!!!"
"He's right, doctor..." said Decoe. "That joke has been used a lot!"
"SILENCE!!" commanded Eggman. "All joking aside, you fell for my brilliant trap!!!"
"What do you want with us, you megalomaniac jerk!?!?" said John.
"I recently discovered that your instruments have a potent sound capacity capable of taking down entire armies!!" explained the doctor. "With the right potency, it can devastate a whole CITY!!! So I decided to capture you and force you to play that loud music of yours through my new Sound Amplification System, or Egg-S.A.S., to threaten the major cities of Earth to surrender to me, or be DEVASTATED entirely!!!"
"What makes you think we're gonna play to YOU!?" said John.
"It's not like you have a choice, kiddos!!" said Cubot.
A few Egg Fighters appeared, carrying three cages with captives inside. Captives that made the band members gasp.
"SHADOW!!" shouted Derek.
"KNUCKLES!!" shouted Luke.
"TAILS!!" shouted John.
The cages were laid to the floor. The trio seemed weak or at least incapacitated, probably due to Eggman's trickery.
"When we get outta here, I'm gonna rock you all the way to MARS!!!" said Luke.
"No, you're not!" said Eggman. "Unless you play for me!!"
"NEVER!" answered John.
Eggman snapped his finger, and his robots answered by drawing stun guns, which they pointed at the Mobians.
"Any other objection??" asked the doctor, a huge grin on his face.
"CHAOS BLADE!"
Suddenly, one of the robots was blasted away by what seemed to be a Chaos Energy sword.
"What was that!?!?!?" asked a startled Orbot.
Another blast was heard near the area. When the band members looked at the sound's starting point, they saw a strange image for Mobius standards: a Bullet Bill attacking the robots.
"Err... Is Mobius a neighbor of the Mushroom Kingdom??" asked John.
Out of the woods, three figures jumped out into the clearing, assuming some sort of battle stance usually seen in Sonic Heroes. To the band members, it was a REALLY strange sight.
The first seemed to be a flying squirrel with reddish-brown fur and wearing a blue jacket and shoes, who the Bullet Bill apparently recognized and flew towards, staying by his side. The second seemed to be a red version of Tails with blue eyes and holding a fireball on each hand. Last but DEFINITELY not least, there was a yellowish-green version of Shadow with blue shoes and without his Inhibitor Rings.
"Are we in the Twilight Zone??" asked a dumbfounded John. "Or is my heterochromia giving me daltonism?? Cause I swear I'm seeing a red Tails down there!"
"I would agree, but I'm seeing it, too!" said Derek. "Along with a green Shadow...!"
Eggman, however, didn't seem phased by it. In fact, it made him angrier.
"So, you came for your master, didn't you, kid!" he said.
The green hedgehog finally spoke.
"I told you before, Eggman!!" he said. "All who defy Shadow will answer to me!!"
Suddenly, another army of robots appeared, but these robots were similar to the British Coldstream guards, and in front of them stood a man with spiked-blond hair, expensive business suit, and carrying a cane with a golden ornament on top. A man that everyone recognized.
"It's that Ryan Weever guy!!" shouted the red fox.
"Eggman!" said Weever. "Clearly, you don't even know how to deal with mere pests! Thankfully, I have an army armed and ready to exterminate these fools with extreme prejudice!"
"This is getting out of hand, Jake!" said the squirrel.
"I know...!" said the hedgehog.
He made an energy blade on his hand and threw it at the net, causing the band to fall to the ground. They quickly got up and began preparing their instruments.
"Err, kids?" asked Jake. "This isn't the time or place for a show! We gotta get out--"
"Quickly!!" said Eggman. "Stop that guitarist!!!!"
Three Egg Fighters ran towards Derek, and just when the team was about to take action, the robots suddenly began floating in the air at the very moment the boy began playing his guitar. He made a quick solo and ended with a power chord, sending the robots flying to the ground.
The band approached the team and prepared.
"First we take them down, then we get to know each other!" said Luke. "Quick name summary, though!"
"Name's Fly!" said the fox.
"Francisco!" said the squirrel.
"Jake!" said the hedgehog.
"I'm Luke Jones!" said the bassist.
"John Sullivan!" said the drummer.
"Derek Hetfield!" said the guitarist.
Both scientists ordered their robots to attack. The band quickly began playing "I Am All of Me" as the team began attacking the robots. The Egg Fighters were tough, but Jake took them all out with an attack called "Chaos Barrage", which surrounded him with energy swords on stand-by. Fly threw a whole bunch of fireballs on the Coldstream Robots, melting their neural interfaces on the spot. Francisco and his Bullet Bill named "Bullet" lunged at the robots, blowing them up with single touches. All of this while the music the band played paralyzed the enemies and sent them flying away.
Once they were all down, Derek smirked at the doctors.
"Any other objection, Egghead??" he asked.
Eggman immediately flew away in fear as Ryan began being enveloping himself in black smoke.
"This is not the end, Team Explosive!!!" said Ryan. "And I CAN'T believe I just said that name!!!!"
He vanished in the spot. Jake wasted no time and threw his Chaos Blades at the cages, releasing the captive Mobians and then putting his Inhibitor Rings back on.
"About time!" said Knuckles. "Thanks for getting us out!"
"No sweat, Knux!" said Luke. "All in a day's show!"
"Speaking of show..." said Derek. "Who ARE you guys?? Team, err..."
Jake, Francisco and Fly assumed an awesome team stance.
"Team Explosive!!!" they said in unison.
Shadow rolled his eyes, but kept his grin.
"And you are...?" asked Fly.
The band also assumed a cool team pose.
"The Freedom Fighters!!!" they said.
"Wow, you all did great!!" said Tails. "That collaboration took 'em down in no time!!"
"I gotta admit, you guys can sure make some noise!" said Jake.
"And you sure look like Shadow a lot..." answered Derek. "What's the deal??"
"Let's just say that being the Ultimate Apprentice has its advantages..." said the hedgehog.
"Apprentice??" asked the guitarist. "Oh, so THAT's what Eggman meant with 'master'!! I never knew Shadow had an apprentice, and I'm a big fan!"
"A fan?" asked Francisco.
"We are all fans of the Sonic the Hedgehog game franchise, which features all of his friends in it!" said John. "So we made a band to play the game's songs! Derek's the guitarist and a fan of Shadow, I'm the drummer and a fan of Tails, and Luke's the bassist and a fan of Knuckles!"
"Are we in these games??" asked Fly.
"Well..." said Luke. "Gain some more fame, and you might get a game, too!!"
"Say, you have those instruments with ya..." said Francisco, petting Bullet. "Ya think you could make a show??"
"Oh, that's right!!" said the bassist. "Eggman lured us here with a show promise!!"
Shadow and Jake looked at each other.
"Whaddya say??" asked Jake.
"Well, they're pretty good..." answered Shadow. "And I guess some music would be nice to make up for all of this..."
"Yeah, make some noise!!" said Fly.
"Noise??" asked John in mock anger. "We make art, man!!"
"Okay, but after this, there's a lot we need to talk about!!" said Derek.
They all nodded and sat down on the grass as John hit his drumsticks together.
"Alright, guys, let's rock one out for Team Explosive!!" he said. "ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR!"