Working title: "My Infatuation with Incorporating a Video Game Within a Video Game Within a Fanfiction Has Led Me to Create This More Than Five Years Later"
"Hey, you! I know you can hear me! You're captain of Squad Jackal, aren't you?!"
A dark figure swiftly navigated the similarly dark landscape, hopping across several tilted pillars as if possessing alarming skills as a ninja. Clearly this was business as usual for the figure, his hair brushed behind him as he traversed the precariously narrow stone platforms like a ninja warrior plowing through a four-stage obstacle course on a remote mountain in Japan.
It was a routine assignment: stop the one raiding their base in the Mystic Jungle. He and his band of mercenaries had scattered the area, their aggressive approach to bringing the intruder to justice. There was no time for, or sense in, questioning motives. Besides, they had their target outnumbered. It would have taken an uncanny abundance of swift moves, fight skills, and intuition on the intruder's part to evade them.
I spoke too soon, didn't I?
"Your squad was useless!" an agitated voice spat through the figure's wireless communication device. "Go clean up their mess already!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm on it..." Just hearing the seemingly endless round of shouting was enough to give him a headache. It didn't matter very much, for he had located his target: a black hedgehog — no, the black hedgehog. The one said to have uncanny abilities with a set of emeralds that weren't really emeralds. The one who worked for the government — the same government he had every right to begrudge.
The one known simply as Shadow. No problem.
"You destroyed my squad..." he said more or less to himself, with a tone so deep that his target could never have heard him even if he had used a megaphone. Also, even if the rest of his squad had failed so badly to subdue the trespasser, he was sure they weren't actually dead. As dark as the hedgehog's nature seemed, he would surely have reserved his destructive ways for the robots. There would not be blood. Just lots and lots of shorted circuits.
The rest of his squad didn't matter at this point either. The mercenary had the hedgehog right where he wanted him.
"I'll show you why they call me the ultimate mercenary..."
Without further hesitation, the figure bolted towards the unsuspecting hedgehog, who appeared to pay no mind to having a target on his back, his empty gaze fixated nowhere in particular. As he got close enough, the attacker wound up his dominant right hand for a hard uppercut and waited until he was right in front of his target to unleash it. Suddenly, the hedgehog vanished into thin air, because he can suddenly do that now, catching the mysterious figure off guard enough to make him stumble after totally whiffing his punch, allowing the hedgehog to reappear within striking distance and land a punch of his own on the now helpless attacker. Having thus turned the tables, the hedgehog continued to relentlessly beat up on the assailant, teleporting over and over to wherever he was and striking him repeatedly, culminating in a roundhouse kick that sent the perp flying backwards and crashing into a wall, briefly knocking the wind out of him.
Seeing that he had confidently neutralized the only threat within a ten-meter radius, the hedgehog shuffled towards his would-be attacker in a cat-and-mouse-like manner. The figure was clearly reeling now as he helplessly shook in fear, his marked set of differently-colored eyes barely visible as he waited for his vision to somehow uncloud itself, his favored left hand guarding his sharp white muzzle, his collar threatening to come loose, his distinct dreadlocks a frenzied mess, his tail halfway crooked as if broken. An unsightly appearance to behold for sure. Shadow recognized him as the commander of the Jackal Squad, but what did he care? He had already disposed of an unspeakable number of Mobian jackals up to this point, and if this one was wise, this would be the last time they would meet.
"If I ever see your pathetic face again... you're going straight to hell!"
This unfinished business taken care of, the hedgehog turned away, fixing his gaze at an open area, and vanished for good. Soon thereafter, the stupefied mercenary, still shaken up from the beating he had just taken, finally came to his senses and glanced out in the open. Seeing no potential threat around him, he jumped onto his feet and proceeded forward a few paces, striking a half-menacing, half-exhausted pose at a point approximate to where the hedgehog had struck him to send him flying back into the wall behind him.
There was no need to wait. The intruder had already fled the place.
"You..." he was breathing heavily now, "you hit like a bitch..."
He tried to dig up a handful of dirt below him, but failed. Nonetheless, he held up a clenched fist before letting it drop just as quickly.
"Show yourself at once...!"
A slight sigh of relief overtook this jackal when nobody answered him, for he himself was aware that he was barely standing up straight as he had called out for the onyx-furred assailant.
The communication device on his wrist vibrated twice. "Hey you! Have you caught Shadow yet?!" It was the snarky voice from before blaring through to him, sounding more agitated than ever.
"He got away, Doctor," the jackal sighed, the empty tone in his voice telling of humiliation. "What happened to the rest of my squad?"
"What?!" the annoying voice laughed. "What kind of a question is that?!"
"I'm just curious," he raised his voice higher and higher as his device was spewing more and more attempts to interrupt from the other end of the call, "I'm not getting any response from the other squad members after I... came into contact with... him..."
"Oh never mind that! Just meet me back in my base at once! I have something very important to show you..."
The jackal growled in disgust. "Give me a minute, will ya?"
"Let's have it, Doctor. What's this big important thing you want to show me and why should I care to know, anyway?"
"I'm very glad you asked, my little jackal friend!" It was the cheesy male voice from before, coming from the center of the room, sitting there a luxury swivel chair fit for a king — or, evil scientist with a knack for imprisoning woodland creatures whose IQ happened to be supposedly greater than his weight. The chair magically swiveled around in the style of Dr. Evil to reveal said scientist, astonishingly round from the torso up, sporting metallic goggles, a crimson metallic jacket, round sunglasses, and a trademark handlebar mustache.
The one known only as Dr. Eggman.
"My my, you look weak. What happened to you?!"
"Don't call me that again," the jackal sighed angrily. "You of all people should know exactly what happened — I picked a fight with a godmodder."
"Now hold up just a minute. What's a godmodder?"
"I don't know!" the jackal suddenly yelled in a frenzy. "Now where are the other squad members?!"
"Listen here, jackal..." Eggman interrupted in a menacing tone before presenting to him a peculiar, triangular prism-shaped stone glowing blood red that emitted a strange, similarly-colored mist. "It's finally good to go."
"It's a stone, Doctor," the jackal muttered, lightly shaking his head. "You didn't make it," knowing, of course, that Dr. Eggman had indeed made it, since stones weren't known for making inter-dimensional noises. "Any particular reason why you didn't let me wield it ten minutes ago? It might have come in real handy going up against that... gutless intruder..." The jackal snarled at the mention of Shadow.
"It wasn't ready yet. You know how I was building an assload of prototypes in order to recreate it?" The jackal rolled his contrasting-colored eyes, no longer caring to listen to another one of Eggman's stereotypical monologues. "Well, a good chunk of them were defective. They could only record the DNA of the one who triggered them..."
"Give me the Phantom Ruby," the mercenary growled. "Whatever that hedgehog was doing in our base, I intend to hunt him down. He's going to pay big time..."
The mad scientist thought for a moment, calling upon his uncanny ability to read into his minions... assuming, of course, that he had such an ability.
"I mean, he's gone now," the doctor finally countered, shrugging. "Who knows where he could be at this point?"
The jackal was now boiling with a passion. "You let the rest of my squad go to waste, and now you're going to sit on your butt while the hedgehog gets away?! I will not stand for this!" He unsheathed his katana, directing it towards the mustachioed doctor. "Give me the Phantom Ruby at once!"
"Look, dude," as if making an effort to get the jackal to chill his ass out, "you're making a big mistake."
The instant he had said these words, the jackal charged at him, lunging his sword out as far as he could.
"Take this!"
It would be the last time he ever shouted these words.
Grasping the completed ruby in his weaker right hand, the fat man calmly waved several fingers on his other hand towards the unsuspecting mercenary, immobilizing him and causing his sword to fall flat on the metallic floor, his grimaced face from his failed attack also frozen solid. The jackal was now floating in mid-air — well, more like Eggman was keeping him afloat for his own entertainment. Then, spotting an abandoned capsule a few paces to the side, its glass door wide open, he gestured his controlling left hand towards the pod, causing his target to float swiftly in that direction, until he was right in front of it. Then the doctor made several more obscure hand movements until the paralyzed floating figure was completely within the capsule. Keeping firm control of his target, he jumped out of his throne and casually shuffled towards the open pod, eyeing the fazed mercenary fiercely. Finally he went off on his little jackal friend.
You think this is just a game
I intend to make known my name
No matter what stands in my way
No matter the price I must pay
This is the world we live in
I'll do whatever it takes to win
I'll use anything from wit to trickery
When I'm through, Sonic will be history!
"Woah..." the doctor interjected, surprised by his own sudden freestyle, "I don't know where that came from..."
"So, you want the Phantom Ruby, I see..."
Eggman was casually tossing the peculiar glowing gem softly into the air as he continued his monologuing charade. At least he actually caught it every single time.
"Well, fine... you can have it..."
The evil scientist dug into a random pocket somewhere on his metallic coat and pulled out a slightly larger gem, this one glowing brighter than the one he had just used. The original Phantom Ruby.
"But that's ok, because I'll make sure you don't step out of line..."
Snickering a little, he held the smaller, experimental gem up to his experiment's bust. It stuck there like a magnet.
Soon enough, he would ensure it was there to stay.