Z.E.Z. 4000
Chapter One:
USL; Universal Speed Limit
Rouge the Bat spotted the mechanical eyesore amidst the night-blackened forest trees. She flew high above the canopy, but still kept in contact with her partner on the ground. She pressed a button on her headset allowing her to relay her findings to Shadow who was speeding through the trees below.
"Hey, I think I've spotted Eggman's base up ahead, but it looks strange. There aren't any entrances or obvious traps lain about, as usual. It's just a huge dome with his face on it."
Shadow, the Ultimate Lifeform, tapped his earpiece and began speaking, "That's pretty unlike him. I'm guessing none of the others are there either," Shadow surmised.
"Nope. No hedgehogs, foxes, or echidnas in sight. Guess we'll be going solo for this one," his partner replied.
"Alright, keep me updated. We'll rendezvous once we're within a kilometer of the place."
"Copy."
Rouge's eyes darted around the landscape looking for a decent stopping point or a place of entry, but nothing stuck out until she noticed a cliff edge beside a building near the outskirts of Eggman's base. Rouge landed softly and silently then peeked over the cliff edge. She placed a hand on her hip puzzled as to how they should go about this. Shadow slowly approached from behind without alerting Rouge until he was within whispering distance.
"What is this thing?" Shadow whispered looking off the cliff at the sizable metal structure.
Used to the omnipresent feel of the silent hedgehog, Rouge was not startled by his silent entry. She simply pointed to a large air vent at the base of the structure.
"Bingo," she said proudly before flying into the air with an outstretched arm. "Grab on."
Shadow gently took hold of her hand and Rouge glided down the cliff and landed right beside their point of entry. Shadow easily removed the bolted grate before diving straight in, Rouge not far behind. They slid down the vent for what felt like ages until they hit the very bottom making the least noise possible. It was cramped in the vent, so they had to walk on their hands and knees. Because of this, it took them a while to reach anywhere worthy of consideration especially with the forked pathways, and the winding route they had taken. Rouge would speak to Shadow occasionally during their sneaking, but Shadow hushed Rouge and ceased his movements as a grate he had found laid directly above the room that housed none other than Doctor Eggman himself.
"What is it?" Rouge asked impatiently from behind.
Shadow looked behind him and mouthed the name, 'Eggman.'
Rouge nodded in understanding, then Shadow returned his attention to the Doctor. A small robot resembling a flicky walked up to the doctor and pecked one of his legs.
He looked down with his usual scorn and "What is it yolk-bot? Do you have an update on the status of the Ultima egg?"
"Yes, Doctor. The diagnostics requested earlier have been completed on the Ultima Egg's thrusters and no anomalies have been detected. The Ultima Egg is ready to head into orbit."
Take off into orbit? Shadow thought. I didn't notice any rockets or any runways…
Eggman chuckled deviously and walked forward toward what looked like a control panel, "At last, my plan to use the Master Emerald and the seven Chaos Emeralds to lift the Ultima egg into orbit is in its final stages…"
Both Rouge and Shadow caught the weird flaw in the plan's revelation. Shadow currently possessed a chaos emerald, so there was no way Eggman could have all seven, but Shadow realized what he meant in a few short moments.
"... Isn't that right, Shadow?" the doctor continued, pressing a button on the control panel.
Metal bars enclosed the section of the vent Shadow and Rouge were in before detaching from the ceiling and crashing violently to the floor.
Shadow scoffed before attempting to use chaos control to escape the creative prison. Instead of teleporting, though, he was stopped by a harsh electrocution.
Eggman walked up to the cage and placed a triumphant leg on top of it and spoke, "I assume this means you missed the machine I built around the Master Emerald to negate the power of all the lesser emeralds, hm?"
"Negate? What are you talking about?" Shadow said beginning to get annoyed.
"Those pesky emeralds have always been a crippling factor in the failure of my evil plans, so I decided to create a machine which negates their power using the power of the Master Emerald! The Chaos N-Egg-ator!"
"And you think that's enough to keep you safe, huh? I'm offended." Shadow said as he began to pry the metal bars in front of him apart.
Horrified, Eggman and the yolk-bot did not wait until Shadow was free to begin fleeing in the Egg Mobile. He closed the metal door behind him just in time to stop the quick hedgehog that had just escaped. Shadow began banging on the door in frustration as he swore in his mind. He glanced down at his Chaos Emerald noticing that it was dulled nearly to gray. What Eggman said was true.
"So you're just gonna leave me here?!" Rouge asked still inside of the fallen vent.
"What? You can't get out?"
"In case you didn't notice my hips are a tiny bit wider than yours and unfortunately, I can't bend metal bars."
Shadow rolled his eyes and assisted Rouge before returning his attention to the matter at hand.
"We need to find a way out of this room," he said walking towards the control panel, "Because that door is locked tight."
He pushed a few buttons, but none of them did anything. Rouge lightly moved Shadow out of the way and punched in a few commands and within seconds the door was open, "After you," she said.
Shadow rolled his eyes at the smug look that he was receiving from Rouge and sped through the door, his partner flying close behind.
"We should split up," Rouge suggested. "I'm sure you can handle the doctor by yourself, but I'd like to get a bit more info on this place before we take it down."
"Fine," Shadow said indifferently, "You go ahead and do your recon. I have a date with the doctor."
They parted ways then Shadow refocused his attention to the hallway Eggman used to flee. It only took a few moments to catch up. Not realizing that Shadow had caught up with him, Eggman chuckled lightly to himself until he turned around and spotted his enemy a few feet away from him.
"What?! How did you catch up you pesky hedgehog?" he didn't even allow Shadow to answer. "No matter. I'll keep you off my trail with these! Xylo-bots!"
Answering his call, a trio of tall, wiry, white robots seemingly materialized out of nowhere and began their pursuit of the hedgehog. They resembled skeletons with their squared ribcages protecting what looked like a CPU unit, an obvious weak spot. Not intimidated at all, Shadow sent a rocketing kick straight at one of the robot's ribcages and with a melodious chime the robot easily came crashing down until it was an unmoving heap of metal. Although they were lightweight and easy to overpower, Shadow quickly noticed both their speed and their intelligence. He attempted the same kick as earlier, but this time it was easily dodged even at the high speed at which their little battle was occurring. Throw in a few laser beams being fired from the Egg Mobile and Shadow found himself on the ropes.
Shadow noticed an upcoming hallway to his right and he used it elude Eggman and his bots for at least a moment. Turning only bought him a few seconds until the bots and Eggman were on his trail.
Eggman's annoying laugh could be heard behind Shadow, "Ahahaha! The aggressor has turned tail and has begun to flee?! What a taste of irony!"
Shadow didn't respond as he made another lightning-quick turn into a nearby hallway, but this time he was not running anywhere. Eggman and his bot lost sight of the hedgehog. Wary of an ambush, the doctor followed the last sight of Shadow cautiously, but not cautiously enough as the black hedgehog dropped from the ceiling on top of Eggman wrapping his arm around the Doctor's neck until he had lost consciousness. Before Eggman blacked out he fired a series of laser beams randomly in a panic. A few of them hit the Xylo-Bots destroying them and securing his capture.
The Eggmobile floated calmly to the ground holding the unconscious Eggman. With a sigh Shadow hopped off of the Egg Mobile and contacted Rouge, "Rouge, come in. I've subdued the Doctor," Shadow searched Eggman's pockets, conveniently retrieving a keycard, "And I just got a promotion. Over."
"Good timing, I ran into a pretty suspicious door, here and I can't bypass it. Rendezvous here so we can find out what's going on."
With guidance from Rouge, Shadow was able to to make his way over to the door his partner was having difficulty with. Using the keycard he had just retrieved from the Doctor, Shadow opened the door and the scale of what was found behind it was bewildering.
The door only opened to a glass bridge at the top of a room that extended so far down the bottom could not be seen. The room was pure white and the walls were lined with white mechanical equipment in the midst of creating something. The whirring of the machines could be clearly heard from below. The most notable fact was the Master Emerald embedded within the wall across from the door Rouge and Shadow had just entered. Rouge was first to step on the bridge and kneel down to look through the floor and Shadow followed suit dropping Eggman beside him.
"These machines, seem to be powered by the Master Emerald, but how? I thought chaos energy wasn't able to be used in the base," Rouge questioned.
"So did I. Perhaps it's because the N-Egg-at or requires the energy of the Master Emerald to pull off the negation in the first place, and stopping the Master Emerald would stop these machines. In other words, the N-Egg-ator uses the power of the Master Emerald to cut off the energy supply to the rest of the Emeralds within a certain radius," Shadow answered.
"Why just within a certain radius?"
"I assume it's to keep a low profile. If Eggman disabled the Emeralds all at once it would surely raise a few red flags."
"Speaking of red flags, shouldn't Knux have come running if he noticed that thing was missing. Where is he in all of this?"
"I'm not sure, but we shouldn't worry too much about that now. Our main concern is disabling this machine. Fly me down there and we'll see if we can destroy this thing without harming the Master Emerald."
"What about the Doctor? What if he gets up?"
"We'll be able to see him if he does. Besides, once this is done he'll be powerless. Let's get a move on."
Shadow took Rouge's hand before they flew down a few stories it felt to the Master Emerald. There were no stable platforms for Shadow or Rouge to land on. From that small detail, Shadow could tell this huge machine is completely automated. Shadow could also tell that the Emerald itself was encased in some kind of electrical energy. He wouldn't be able to get through. His focus almost instantly shifted to the four rods above, below, and at either side of the Emerald. Those seemed to be emitting the force field.
With his free hand, Shadow pointed to the rod directly above the Master Emerald, "Can you throw me just above that rod? If my reasoning is correct we should be able to free the Master Emerald."
Rouge nodded and began to spin in place until she had enough momentum to throw Shadow to the wall just above the electrical rod. He accelerated and collided with the wall. His momentum allowed him to stick to the wall for a split second and in that split second he confirmed that the Master Emerald was being used to silence the rest of the Chaos Emeralds. He could feel the power of his own Chaos Emerald increase as he drew closer. Now that he was mere meters away from the Master Emerald. His Chaos Emerald shone to nearly full intensity. Shadow used the reservoir of energy now present in the Chaos Emerald to unleash a powerful blast of energy the wall.
"Chaos Blast!"
The shockwave of energy sent him flying back into Rouge's arms. As soon as the blast went off, a white dust was thrown up into the air. Once it cleared, there was very little noticeable damage to the wall, its components, or the rod below.
"Nothing?" Rouge said surprised.
"Perhaps it has to do with the N-Egg-ato—"
Shadow's words were cut off by an electric current stunning Rouge and flowing through him as well. It affected Shadow far less than Rouge who was unconscious and in free fall towards the bottom of this seemingly endless room. Shadow looked upwards as he fell and spotted the Doctor in his Egg Mobile that must have returned to him automatically.
Idiot, Shadow thought to himself as he thought about what to do.
After calling her name a few times and realizing it was futile, Shadow nosedived as quickly as he could towards the bottom of the room. It took fourteen nerve-racking seconds for Shadow to slam feet-first into the bottom of the white room. He recollected himself and extended his arms to catch Rouge. He just barely did so as he had to dodge a laser beam coming from directly beneath his feet first before making the catch.
He had no time to try and wake Rouge as more laser turrets revealed themselves from within the walls of machinery. It didn't take long before they began to fire upon the hedgehog. With Rouge still in his arms, Shadow hopped between the machines on the adjacent walls in an attempt to ascend up and away from the laser fire, but the further up he went, the more turrets appeared. Luckily for him, Rouge began to awake amidst the chaos.
"Shadow?" Rouge asked groggily, wondering why she was in his arms.
"Rouge. Wake up. We need to find a way out of here."
Rouge blinked rapidly trying to wake herself then lifted herself out of Shadows arms careful of the nearby laser beams whose focus had split onto both of the ascending targets. Shadow continued hopping from wall to wall as Rouge flew directly upwards both desperately trying to make it to the bridge at the very top of the room many, many meters above them.
Rouge allowed her focus to slip for just a split second. Unfortunately, this was enough time for a laser beam to hit her in the wing, making it too painful to fly. Like before Shadow noticed this and went dove after Rouge again. She plummeted to the bottom of the room once more. Shadow didn't catch up in time, but Rouge was able to soften her landing slightly using her healthy wing to change her trajectory. Shadow landed near her and covered her with his body bracing for a stream of laser-fire, but it took him a few seconds to realize that the turrets had stopped firing.
"…Why did they stop?" Shadow asked puzzled at their stroke of luck.
"I-I'm not sure…" Rouge responded just as confused.
The turrets that appeared in place of the machines disappeared and the four wall that surrounded them began whirring with the sounds of an assembly line. Shadow followed the line of machines all the way to the end and took a look at the finished product. One Xylo-bot for each wall had appeared fully assembled and the machines that created them were still going.
"Damn we must've triggered a silent alarm or something," Shadow said standing back up.
Rouge, annoyed at herself, found the will to stand up again and stood, back to back with Shadow.
"I fought a couple of these things already," Shadow said. "They're tough and they learn pretty fast, so be careful."
"Copy," Rouge said before her partner went darting after one of the Xylo-bots.
Shadow jumped and tried to easily subdue the bot by kicking its CPU unit clean out of its ribcage, but it easily made the hedgehog miss before punching him square in the chest.
"Shadow!" Rouge exclaimed surprised that the robot so easily overpowered him.
Shadow slid backward before quickly recovering, "And it seems like these things have some sort of collective mind. I kicked one of these things earlier, so it probably saw that coming."
"A collective mind, huh? So we should try to be as unpredictable as possible."
"My thoughts exactly."
Shadow approached the robot as he did before, but this time he slid and swept the robot's legs from under it before quickly recovering and destroying its CPU unit. By the time Shadow had taken care of one, however, another four had appeared as the machines kept going.
Shadow backed up to the center of the room. Rouge had already taken care of two of the bots with her heart bombs, but still another five surrounded them. Shadow gestured for a bomb from Rouge and drew in close to a robot. He dodged the attack that came out from it and stuck it onto the robot. He shoved the robot into another two making all three of them explode, destroying their CPU units. Still, though, another four robots were created from the machines that surrounded them.
It didn't take long before Shadow and Rouge were knee deep in a page-white sea of robots with no available escape. No matter how crowded the room got, the machine continued pumping out more and more Xylo-bots. Shadow realized the futility of fighting back and began to only defend himself against this unending wave of enemies. He wasn't even able to check on Rouge as he placed his arms in front of his face blocking the many blows that came from every direction. He still heard explosions which were reassuring for a while, but eventually, those ceased and Shadow was pinned down, powerless to fight these ruthless robots. Now they just tormented him, kicking him while he was down.
"Had enough?!" said the familiar voice over the intercom. "Xylo-bots. Cease!"
And just like that, they stopped their attack and backed away from the two beaten heroes.
"Hahahahaha! Even the mighty Shadow the Hedgehog can't overpower the Ultima Egg's main defensive system, soon to be offensive system!" Eggman continued.
Shadow pried himself off the ground and stared evilly at the Xylo-bots standing silently, "So that's your plan: To conquer the entire planet using these…"
"Absolutely! None of the Freedom Fighters will be able to overcome this!"
"Well then, since I'm beaten already, Eggman, humor me. How does this machine work?"
"Fine you'll be gone shortly, so I'll let you in on my little secret. In this universe, it is possible to create pure energy from any kind of matter if that matter is accelerated quickly enough, so I simply reversed In layman terms, I use the raw energy of the Master Emerald to essentially print new matter in the form of these Xylo-bots. And because the energy of the Master Emerald is limitless, my robot army will be limitless! Hahahahahah!"
Shadow looked over to Rouge, she was still breathing but looked like she was in bad shape.
"Now that I've told you my secret," Eggman began, "I must get rid of you permanently."
"What? Are you going to kill me? That's dark even for you Doctor," Shadow protested.
"Oh, Chaos, no. I just lock you away, of course. Xylo-bots. Take the hedgehog and the bat to Hangar Eleven."
And to Hangar Eleven they went, but not without a fight from Shadow. The last of his willpower only took a single punch to the gut to snuff out. An elevator was conveniently provided to allow the bots to leave the room and proceed to Hangar Eleven. Hangar Eleven seemed to be filled with what looked like escape pods. Why would there be a need for escape pods if the base was built underground?
Then Shadow remembered something that one of Eggman's robots had mentioned.
That thing, it said something about orbit. Shadow said to himself.
After the robots threw Rouge and Shadow into the escape pods, the doors were sealed and the power supply for the escape pods was removed.
Happily, Eggman walked up to the tiny window on the escape pod door and said to the hedgehog, "That will serve as your cell for now until we can turn you two into robots."
Eggman chuckled and Shadow eyed him as he walked away. The second he was out of sight he tried to activate the center console for the escape pod. He repeatedly pressed the button that looked similar to a power button but, of course, nothing happened. He sat down in one of the six seats in the room. And let out a deep sigh. Shadow's feeling of defeat left him quickly as he thought of a way to escape the pod. He tapped his earpiece and began speaking before plopping down onto one of the seats, "Rouge, are you alright?"
"Rouge," no response.
"Rouge," he said again.
"Rouge, come in, we need to find a way—"
Once again his words were cut off by Rouge who had returned the power to his escape pod. She opened up Shadow's pod and walked in, sly as usual.
"..."
"Before you ask, there was an emergency release lever inside the door. We need to wait until this thing gets into the air before we can use these escape pods and get to safety."
"We're using both?" Shadow asked.
"Yeah. Just in case they noticed we left and captured one of us."
"Good point."
Just as it was mentioned the rumble of thrusters from below could be heard alongside the warning system.
"TAKEOFF SEQUENCE INITIATED. TAKEOFF IN T-MINUS 32 SECONDS...31...30...29...28…"
"Looks like it's about that time. I'll head to my pod. Keep your channel open, so we can communicate," Rouge said before quickly flying into her pod.
For a while, Shadow could only see dirt and rock sliding past the window of the pod as the Ultima Egg began to rise. The rate at which it ascended increased with each passing second. Within a few moments, the surface had been broken so Shadow could see the dawn-lit forest trees fall far beneath him as the Ultima Egg continued to rise. From the sheer amount of dirt, rocks, and trees flying off the hull of the enormous ship, Shadow finally realized how huge the Ultima Egg really was. Shadow had fully realized: Eggman wasn't simply planning on taking over the planet. He wanted to enslave every living thing on the planet and bend them to his will.
Shadow continued staring and tapped his earpiece, receiving Rouge's transmission.
"Shadow...are you seeing this…?
"Yes. We need to put a stop to it, but we can't do it alone. We need the Freedom Fighters."
"We've seen enough. We need to get out of here," Rouge said. "Do you know how to launch the pod?"
"Press the big red button?"
"Press the big red button, on three."
Then, on three, Shadow pressed the big red button before quickly accelerating to Mach 1.
Within a few seconds, they were already a mile away from the Ultima Egg, but they would not escape freely as they thought they would. Now four miles behind them, the Ultima Egg could be seen charging what looked like a laser cannon aimed directly at the puny escape pods.
"Is he trying to kill us?!" Rouge exclaimed.
"Split up!" Shadow said taking the controls that were similar to a plane or jet and hit a hard left hoping the cannon would miss, but Shadow would have no such luck. The laser hit him directly but didn't cause him to burst into a fiery explosion, but instead, he lost all control.
He attempted a shutdown. Failure.
He attempted to use the emergency release. Failure.
He punched the control panel. Failure.
He realized that he had his Emerald, but it was still dull gray. What he hadn't realized that he was accelerating and ascending. Since he wasn't in a seat, this finally occurred to him when he lost his footing and landed on the escape pod door which was now below him. With some difficulty, he reached a seat and buckled himself in. He read the speedometer and it read '999 MPH.' The display began glitching indicating the fact that the number was far below how quickly Shadow was actually traveling.
Since Shadow was used to moving quickly he was able to resist the effects of this high speed but not for much longer. His vision began fading in and out before he had even broken the clouds. The entire time, Rouge had been yelling at him through the communicator hoping for a response, but he could only say her name softly to himself as he lost his strength.
Z.E.Z. 4000~
