Author's Note: No, this doesn't mean my other story is dead. I just got bored working on nothing but that, so I made this to get my creativity flowing again and take a break from said other story. Anyway, enjoy.
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks had just arrived on Dr. Eggman's offshore fortress.
However, this time was quite different from most. Here, they hadn't come to break up some nefarious plot of his. In fact, the one threatened in this scenario was none other than Dr. Eggman himself.
Apparently, based on the brief message the five of them had received, there was a strange glitch affecting a good portion of his robots, causing them to attack either him, each other, or just whatever was nearest to them at the time. While he'd managed to subdue a few of them, he had made it clear that, even with an uncorrupted Metal Sonic at his side, it wasn't something he could finish without help. Based on who he sent it to, it was also obvious who he wanted help from.
Sonic laid out the attack plan. "Sticks and Knuckles, go left, take out all the big, slow ones. Tails, Amy, go right, take the faster ones. That leaves me with center stage to deal with everything else."
All four responded with brief nods, then charged into the hallways, attacking the robots nearest to them, and making every effort to dodge the projectiles and lasers being fired at them.
Sonic barreled down the center hall at a pace near his top speed, with the resulting ripple effect knocking over many of the robots on its own. However, the larger ones remained standing, being too heavy to be knocked over by a simple gust of wind. Sonic turned around at the end of the hall, preparing to face them as they charged towards him.
Sonic began a homing attack chain, hitting one robot after another and causing each to crumple into a mess of smoking metal and gears upon contact. Some fired lasers at him, others fired bullets, still more threw vases, paintings, and even furniture in an attempt to knock him out of the sky. Sonic ignored them all, concentrating only on the next robot in line as he continued his chain.
Once he had hit the last robot, he stopped for a second, examining his handiwork. The room which had once been filled with attack robots now looked like it housed a conga line of heated metal, bolts, nuts, screws, and various other internal mechanisms. Thankfully, while there were isolated plumes of smoke rising from the wreckage, none of them seemed hot enough to ignite anything.
"Old Egghead sure needs to work on the exteriors of these things," he mumbled under his breath as he made his way deeper into the fortress.
In the next hallway down, he ran into Dr. Eggman, quite literally. They had been running in opposite directions, with Sonic trying to create as much open space as possible and Eggman fleeing from a group of a half dozen rather large and tough-looking robots. It took a second, but after the jarring collision, the two of them both stood up and regained their bearings.
"Good, you're here," Eggman said. "I actually wasn't expecting you to come. You know, with the whole 'constantly trying to take over the world and destroy you and your friends' thing I've been carrying on for so long. I wouldn't have been surprised if I was just left here to burn."
"Egghead, the only reason I'm here is because Tails made me come. Know that this doesn't change my feelings about you."
Eggman rolled his eyes. "Same goes for me."
A bit farther up the hall, Metal Sonic had been covering Eggman's retreat, but he was outnumbered and being forced to give ground at an alarming rate. As he retreated closer and closer to the two other figures, the two of them prepared to give it everything they had.
Metal Sonic made a final stand only a few meters away, even knocking over one of the robots in the process. However, the remaining five proved too much for him, and he retreated behind Sonic and Eggman, both who sprang towards the nearest robot at that moment.
Sonic felt his homing attack connect with a robot, although it was too large to be knocked over that easily. Eggman grabbed what looked to be a chunk of metal on the floor and threw it at the same robot. It bounced off its metallic head, not even leaving a dent on the smooth surface.
Sonic kept at it, concentrating on subduing the one robot while merely avoiding the attacks of the other four, which Eggman and Metal Sonic kept busy the best they could.
Finally, after what felt like a thousand homing attacks, the first robot finally stopped moving, swaying in place for a second before toppling with a mighty crash that caused a vibration to run through the floor. The silence afterward only lasted a few seconds before something in the robot exploded, causing it to catch fire. The flames caused the carpet on the floor to start to smolder, but nothing else seemed to be affected.
Sonic was a bit nervous. "Eggman, is this place fireproof?"
"Relax. This place is almost everything-proof. I say almost because you can break in on a regular basis." He trailed off. "How do I make this place hedgehog-proof…"
"Snap out of it, Egghead! Those four robots aren't going anywhere, and we still have to get rid of them!" With that, Sonic launched another homing attack at the next robot, and Eggman picked a piece of the fallen robot and charged another one.
Slowly, painfully, they eventually narrowed it down to one robot. It didn't even try to stand and fight, instead opting to try to escape, running at top speed toward the other end of the hall.
Sonic chuckled to himself, allowing the robot to get a few seconds worth of head start, but even with that, he easily caught up to it, homing in on it again and again, trying to knock it down for good.
Soon, that robot's look matched the others, in that they were all piles of smoldering metal, wires, and other internal parts probably destined for the ever-increasing scrap heap to be reprocessed into new creations.
Sonic smiled. "That was too easy."
He then contacted the others. "How are you guys doing with the robots?"
Tails replied with "They're all just parts now. I don't see any in the other halls."
Knuckles added "Ditto."
Eggman had been wandering around the scrap heaps while this was happening, examining the leftover parts and being careful to avoid the singed carpet. Most of them were useless now, but all the heads could be repaired and added on to other robots. Therefore, he began to collect them.
However, he only found five of them, and he couldn't find the sixth anywhere. Then, the realization of what had happened occurred to him.
"Uhh, Sonic? I think we missed one."
Sonic was miffed that his victory celebration would have to wait, but he still had to solve this problem. "Which one?"
"There was one we never fought, the one that Metal Sonic supposedly took out before they got to us. It must have gotten out of here unnoticed somehow. We have to find it."
Sonic jogged down the hallway, heading deeper into the fortress. Eggman and Metal Sonic followed in his wake.
It didn't take long to find it. It was in a room off of a side hallway. This room was fairly small (at least, by Eggman standards) and was roughly the size and shape of a standard track. However, there were pits, spikes, moving platforms, and other nasty-looking traps in the room, which would have caused any normal track athlete to withdraw from their competition.
Sonic was simultaneously impressed and confused. "I don't remember seeing this room before. What is this?"
"I used to train Metal Sonic here. To have him be able to capture you, I needed him to be able to survive all the things that you can."
They then ceased talking, and ran towards the room, but stopped right at the entrance.
Sonic could sense, based on Eggman' tactics, that there was something fishy about this. "Wait a second. It's not trying to fight us, it's as far across the room as possible, this room doesn't exactly look safe… this looks like a trap."
Eggman was having none of it. "That doesn't mean we shouldn't destroy it. I'll just have Metal Sonic wait outside, so he can alert the others if this is, in fact, a trap."
Metal Sonic obeyed quickly, leaning against the wall right beside the door, as Eggman and Sonic ran into the room.
They covered the distance between them and the robot in a short span, avoiding the chasms, spikes, and other traps as they neared the robot. It didn't even turn to face them before Sonic landed his first hit.
This robot seemed poorly made by comparison to the other five, disintegrating in seconds under the strain of Sonic's attacks. As it collapsed, just as the others had done, the two of them stopped attacking, and wiped the sweat off their faces.
Sonic began jogging towards the entrance to the room. "It was nice being here, Egghead, but I gotta go find the others. The problem should be taken care of, just send another message if it happens again."
He was halfway to the door when it happened.
As Sonic prepared to go through the exit door, it slammed shut somehow. Sonic paid no mind to it, simply preparing to just burst through it. He was expecting to be seeing the four others in five minutes.
What he was not expecting was to bounce off the door, as if there was a force field preventing him from leaving. He careened back onto the track-like structure, nearly falling into a pit before slowing to a stop.
To Sonic's surprise, the door hadn't even been dented. He began to panic a little, not wanting to be trapped in this room with Eggman for any longer than necessary. He then walked over to the door and tried to just open it normally. It wouldn't move, even a fraction of an inch, in any direction.
"I should have known this was another rotten, no-good scheme of Eggman's…" he muttered under his breath.
Then, reality slapped him in the face. Eggman clearly hadn't set this up, unless part of the plan was to be trapped in the room with him. He was acting just as surprised, and it didn't look like he had any idea that this was going to happen, either.
He decided to contact the others. "Just a message for you guys: Me and Eggman are trapped is some type of training room in a side hallway. If you're not occupied, we need help opening the door. It locked on us."
Tails replied in a second. "Don't worry, we're on our way!" Then the voice cut out.
When he turned around, Eggman was right behind him. "Look, I know what you're thinking. But I had nothing to do with this."
Sonic had no real option other than to believe him, but there was one problem with his statement. If he wasn't behind it, then who or what was?
(-)
Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks had all arrived at the entrance, which was now closed. Metal Sonic had intercepted them while they were searching for the door, and had since directed them to the proper one, which was helpful.
The door didn't seem like anything special by Eggman standards, but then Tails noticed the keypad next to it. He groaned. This undoubtedly meant the door had a password.
Metal Sonic shrugged. "I have tried the password upwards of fifteen times. I am certain it was correct, yet nothing happened."
Amy wanted more proof than just that. "So, what is this password? I just want to try it, for further proof."
Metal Sonic saw there wasn't another option, so he caved. "The password for this door is 2-3-0-6-9-1. It signifies the day that Doctor Eggman and Sonic first met in combat, and the day that Doctor Eggman swore revenge on him.
Tails walked over and punched in the six-digit code. However, when he tried to open the door after doing so, nothing happened when he pulled it or pushed it.
Knuckles walked up to the door, signaling for Tails to step aside. "Leave it to me. I can handle a stupid door."
He threw all his weight into pushing it. Nothing. He tried pulling it. Still nothing. He put the password in again, then tried pulling and pushing the door a second time. There was still no changes, no matter what he did.
After a few cycles of this, he gave up, and began to go into a rage. "DOOR, THIS ISN'T OVER! I WILL NOT STOP TRYING UNTIL-"
Sticks clamped a hand over Knuckles' mouth, muffling his shouts. "Calm down, whack job. We can handle this later. But for now, it's the door one, Knuckles zero."
Metal Sonic tried to reassure the others, in his own, awkward way. "Do not worry. We will figure out how to open this door eventually."
Amy was ready. "I just hope that 'eventually' comes soon."
(-)
Sonic was going bonkers.
Even though it had only been ten minutes, he was going nuts being cooped up in an enclosed area with only Eggman for company. Eggman seemed to be feeling the same sentiment, as he paced back and forth across the room.
Tails buzzed in. "Sonic, we can't figure out how to open this door. Even Metal Sonic has no idea what we're supposed to do at this point. We could probably break through the wall eventually if we kept hitting it, but even if we started now, that would take hours."
Sonic felt his spirits sink a bit after hearing the news. "I'll be fine. Take your time, don't kill yourselves trying to get me out of here."
The communication stopped then, as Sonic slumped against a far wall, putting as much distance between him and Eggman as possible.
The room was silent for only a few minutes, but it felt like hours had passed for both of them when the noises started.
The two of them scanned the room, searching for their sources. All of them sounded metallic, like it came from a computer. Creaking, buzzing, the unmistakable hum of static, and scraping sounds were occurring, and neither of them knew where they were coming from.
After a few minutes of this, Sonic had had enough. He began venting his frustrations loudly, saying "Eggman! Where the heck is this noise coming from? And can you shut it off?"
Eggman scratched his head. "I'm just as confused as you are. I have no idea where these sounds are coming from, either."
As if to answer this question, they heard a sudden screeching noise, and they were able to pinpoint the source this time. It came from a machine on the ceiling that looked like a giant metal rope. It was extending, causing the rectangular device attached to it to lower towards the ground.
When it had completed its descent, the rope swiveled around so that its rectangular attachment was facing the door. Sonic took a nervous step to the side, trying to be as far away from this sinister device as possible.
Then, the rectangular device flared to life with a fresh burst of static. However, it didn't seem interested in attacking them. In fact, it seemed more like a television screen than a weapon. Sonic, wanting to test this, covered the distance between him and the door so that the screen was directly facing him.
For a few seconds, it only displayed a blank white screen. However, this was not to last, as Eggman- a younger Eggman, judging by the smaller mustache, thinner appearance, and lack of Badniks behind him- strode into view.
Sonic glared at Eggman. "You said this wasn't a trap! You're on whatever just swung down from the ceiling, probably about to advertise that this is a trap! You dirty liar!"
Eggman was puzzled. He began to walk towards Sonic, trying to figure out what he had just said.
The Eggman on screen began to speak. "Metal Sonic, welcome to the training room."
As soon as those words were finished, Eggman had walked all the way to Sonic, and was staring at the monitor as well, mouth agape.
"I thought I lost this footage. I didn't know it was here." As soon as he said it, Eggman was putting the pieces together. Then, something clicked.
He began speaking. "This was how I got Metal Sonic used to all the things that you faced. I'd lock us both in the room, and we wouldn't leave until we got whatever trap we were testing out cleared. That's why metal Sonic is almost identical to you." He paused for breath, then continued. "I made this video for the first time that it happened, just so we could deal with basic traps.
"Why 'we'? You're not Metal Sonic."
"I initially used a controller to control him, so his artificial intelligence could get used to all the traps. He was the first robot I ever made that was fully independent. I used the video playing now to remind me how to work the controller."
The Eggman on the screen resumed talking. "Since you're playing this video, I'm going to assume its our first time here. So, the rules are simple: the door will unlock when you finish the challenges. Until then, you're stuck here. But for now, all you have to do is complete three laps of the track without taking damage."
Sonic nodded. "Three laps… that sounds easy enough."
"It was meant to be easy. Again, this was for the first time I ever tested Metal Sonic."
Then, the Eggman in the room grew silent, so that his copy on the screen would be heard. "To start, use the right joystick to move."
Sonic smirked. "You had such bad memory that you thought you might forget how to make your most prized creation move? That's pathetic, even for you."
As he said that, he entered the track, beginning to cross the smooth surface. It seemed really easy for the time being, as this section of the track was entirely devoid of obstacles to face.
Eggman, staring at the screen at his younger self, noticed that the screen had frozen. The video was over. However, the audio hadn't cut out. This was evidenced by the next statement, which occurred after Sonic had covered about fifty meters and encountered his first obstacle, which was a moving platform.
The voice from the video filled the room again. "Make sure not to fall off the track. Falling off a track like this will be hazardous to your safety anywhere else."
Sonic, unable to contain himself, burst out laughing. "Seriously? Who doesn't know that falling into a deep pit might just be a bad idea?"
The moving platforms were easy enough to deal with. He just waited for it to touch the piece of track he was standing on, then walked on, walking off when it touched the other side.
As he neared the next obstacle, which was two stacks of metal boxes, the audio turned on again. "Press the A button to jump. While jumping, you are invincible, although this will only stun enemies and not destroy them. You will need to jump over the crates."
"Gee, I wonder why I'm supposed to do that?" Sonic choked out through his laughter, before hopping the two sets of crates and beginning the first curve.
He was halfway around when it happened. A sudden buzzing sound occurred, then a beam of electricity shot out at the end of the curve, creating a beam crossing the track. Others followed, creating a net of electricity that blocked Sonic from moving forward. A few feet behind him, the same thing happened. With the electricity in front of and behind him, and a gaping pit in the middle, Sonic was trapped.
Then, a hole opened up in the wall about twenty feet in front of him, and three robots- standard Badniks, nothing special- crawled out of it and started advancing towards Sonic.
Then came more audio. "Press the X button to use a homing attack. This can be done both in the air and on the ground. This will either destroy or deal damage to most enemies."
Sonic's only thought about that was "Well, no surprise there. It's probably going to tell me obvious things every single time I get to something."
The robots in front of Sonic looked old, like they hadn't been used in years. All it took was a single homing attack to destroy each of them. When that was done, the electric gate in front of him dissipated, although the one behind remained.
The next obstacle, halfway down the next straightaway, was a protrusion from the ceiling, leaving only about a two-foot gap between the bottom of it and the floor. Sure enough, as Sonic got close, the audio chimed in again.
"Press the B button to crouch. Moving while in a crouch allows you to crawl through spaces too small to fit through while standing up."
Sonic already knew what he had to do, so he paid no attention to the voice. He just crawled through the tiny gap, his back scraping the top of it.
Yet again, the audio spoke up once he exited the gap. "Press B while crouching to stand up. Since you're not in that gap anymore, it is safe to stand up."
"Thanks, Captain Obvious!" Sonic shouted across the room, even though he knew the monitor couldn't hear him. The monitor telling him every little thing he needed to do had ceased to be funny and was starting to become grating.
When he neared the next curve, more electric gates appeared, in roughly the same position relative to him as the last ones. Another hole appeared in the wall, and another robot rolled out of it. This one seemed to be made almost entirely of spikes, and they didn't look like they were just for show.
The audio, of course, started up again. "If you press B while running, you can start a Spin Dash. Some enemies are immune to everything but the spin dash, and it can knock down large enemies. You can also use it to fit through small gaps. To stop it, either jump or-"
"SHUT UP!" Sonic screamed, as the audio droned on. He'd had enough of this, and just wanted this unpleasant experience to be over with as quickly as possible. He did what it had said though, and Spin Dashed into the enemy, causing it to be destroyed. At that moment, the electric gates vanished, and he moved onward.
He was able to move until halfway around the curve, where the track had disintegrated into about a dozen platforms, assorted seemingly at random.
The audio piped up one last time. "That's all you need to know for right now. The obstacles will get more difficult each lap after this. Therefore, you'll be able to practice what I taught you, and get good at it! I'll be back for next session.
Then the audio went blissfully silent for the last time as Sonic cleared the platforms, seething. He was sick of that audio, and was glad it finally had shut up.
As Sonic passed by Eggman, he came to a stop, asking him "Seriously? You really needed to create a guide that spelled out every single step you had to take in order to get Metal Sonic working? And you somehow have a 300 IQ? That's suspect…"
Eggman wasn't pleased. "I don't know how long ago I made the audio. Plus, you should focus less on mocking my intelligence and more on finishing what it wants so we can get out of here!"
Sonic moved on. "Alright, point taken."
Sure enough, the obstacles were harder the second time around. The platforms were smaller, there were more enemies to destroy, the electric gates left him with less room to maneuver, and the jumping and crawling segments were harder. Still, it wasn't too bad, even though he nearly missed one of the platforms covering the last stretch, as he was rushing through it, not even caring about accuracy, just trying to finish as fast as possible.
He passed by Eggman a second time, commenting about everything. "Considering this was supposed to be the first time you ever tried to use Metal Sonic, that was really hard."
Eggman just smirked at him. "Well, now you understand why I needed to spell out everything, don't you?"
Sonic just shrugged, beginning his third and final lap.
He didn't understand, even afterward, why the third lap was so brutal. It seemed far too hard for it to just be a basic training run. He would have to jump across platforms barely any larger than he was, which would lead to a wave of a dozen or more small enemies mixed with a few large ones, which would be followed by jumping a wall so high that he'd have to grab the top and pull himself up, adding to a dozen other equally difficult challenges, which he had to complete without making any mistakes, as there hadn't been any rings on the track.
At an excruciating rate, he slogged forward. It took fifteen long minutes of clearing trial after trial before he finally made it to the last bend.
This last trial was a nightmare. It was at least a fifty-foot gap between him and the exit, with four miniscule platforms as the only method of traversing it. The platform would have been small enough on their own, but a Badnik immune to everything but Spin Dashes was on each one, and Spin Dashing on a platform this small would likely be fatal. On top of that, he would have to jump from each platform to get to the next, and there were several spiked balls, swinging like pendulums, which he would also have to dodge.
Sonic gritted his teeth. He had come this far, he wasn't going to screw up here. He hopped the gap between the first platform, and it started.
The Badnik sensed him and moved toward him. Sonic hopped it, then immediately ducked to avoid a spiked ball. As soon as that was over, he jumped to the next one, narrowly missing that Badnik as he landed. It charged, he sidestepped. Before it could charge again, he was already on the next one.
This Badnik was larger, there was barely enough room to fit the two of them. As it made a move, Sonic vaulted over him, clearing him by a few inches, but overshooting. He landed on the very edge of the platform, struggling to keep his balance, as the next spiked ball neared. He managed to fall flat on his back, thankfully on the platform. The ball missed him by inches, but it hit the Badnik with him, sending it falling into the pit below.
He got up, and made the last jump. The Badnik on this platform had already been knocked off, but there were three spiked balls he'd have to dodge this time.
This was profoundly easier with no enemies with him. He hopped the first one, sidestepped the second, and ducked under the third, and then made the final jump, finishing his third lap.
The audio, suddenly, blared to life. "Congratulations! You have completed the first training exercise."
Sonic made a face. "More like completed a round-trip ride to hell and back."
The audio kept speaking. "Your rank is S. "
Sonic was next to Eggman. "Egghead? What the heck does 'S' mean?"
He answered quickly. "We used a rating system to determine how well we did each time. it went S, A, B, C, D. Here, S stands for Super."
The audio spoke one last time. "The door is opening. You may now leave."
On cue, the door swung open towards them. Knuckles stuck his face in the opening.
He gave a triumphant shout. "SEE? I TOLD YOU I WOULDN'T LOSE TO A DOOR!"
Amy brought him back to reality. "Knuckles? It opened itself, you didn't do anything." He groaned in response.
She then turned to Sonic. "What went on in there? The door took forever to open!"
Sonic groaned. "I don't want to talk about it."