The signal monitor was a bulky, rectangular box that was heavy enough to need two hands for support. One of the other soldiers carefully fine-tuned the knobs for the best reading while Silver peered at it curiously. She offered him a wane smile. "The signal's still strong."
"That's good, isn't it?" he asked.
Gordon stalked up beside them. "Perhaps."
Beneath his worn grey coat Silver suddenly realised that the General was wearing thick, rubber-lined armour. Slung over his shoulder was a dull looking rifle that Silver stared at in fascination. The weapons had seen little use over the last century, being pointless against Iblis and no longer in mass production, but all the soldiers on the expedition were carrying them. It made Silver uneasy.
"We need to move. There's no telling how deep underground the source may be. Silver, you take the lead. We'll cover you."
"Right." Somehow, he didn't find the knowledge of guns at his back comforting, but it did make sense for him to go first. He was the lightest, and had the reflexes needed to save himself from a trip into the lava should the ground suddenly give way.
The air inside the volcano was scalding. One of the soldiers coughed quietly into his hand as the acrid smoke reached his lungs, but most of them were too acclimatized to it to notice. During Iblis's most active days, the whole city smelled of burning rubber, and the sky rained soot.
Silver set a quick pace, moving across uneven rock and steaming fissures with intrinsic grace. His shoes were capped with a soft, synthetic metal that would endure the worst of the heat without melting, and the rest of his attire was equally fireproofed although the wristbands of his gloves were heating up uncomfortably. On his own he would have levitated himself instead for more speed, but he had to be mindful of the humans. Dressed in their armour, carrying their heavy weapons, they were strained already. The stifling atmosphere must be making it nearly unbearable for them.
Only Gordon was keeping his composure, urging his men on with quiet, curt directions. He caught Silver's eye and tilted his head subtly towards the walls, pointing out what Silver had noticed but the rest of the soldiers had probably missed in their distraction. They were being watched.
But not approached. Eyes followed them from the indigo shadows, gauging their potential as a meal. Rocks echoing in the tunnel seemed to hint that at least one creature was stalking them, though whether it would attack was less certain. The group stayed close together for protection – a well ingrained instinct. There was no opportunity for an attack to break their formation.
Silver thought they were going to make it until their steady downward path began to shrink until it was a mere ledge against the wall that descended into a deep shaft in a steep downward spiral. They would have to go in single file, spreading out the group and leaving them far more exposed than anyone liked. Silver took his time to explore the first stretch of the path, making sure it was firm enough to hold his weight while the rest of the group took a break, drinking thirstily from their canteens. Gordon had taken responsibility for the signal monitor, and from the expression on his face he didn't like what it was telling him.
"The source must be right below us," he told the hedgehog when Silver returned to the top. "Under other circumstances I would prefer to find another way down, but we need all the time we can get. This route will be fastest."
The alternative was spending a night out in the city or, worse, the volcano itself. Both of those would be dangerous in their own right. "Just be careful. I think the path is safe, but you're heavier than me."
"I'm less worried about the ground," Gordon began, eyes sliding back down the tunnel, "than I am about the company we might have."
Silver thought of the bat-like creatures who had liked to nest in the towering buildings of Crisis City and nodded grimly. A flying enemy in the shaft would be problematic. "I'll do my best to keep them off us."
"No point in waiting then," Gordon said, and whistled softly through his teeth. The soldiers immediately straightened their gear with only a minimum of grumbling. Silver was always impressed by their professionalism.
"Stay in the centre of the group," Gordon told him, slinging the signal monitor over his shoulder as he began the treacherous descent.
The pace was excruciatingly slow, made worse because Silver's senses were stretched to their limits in preparation for the attack he was sure would come. The eerie, howling noise of wind blowing up through the shaft made his fur stand on end, and every time someone knocked a pebble loose he tensed as the echoes made it seem like a much larger rock slide. He didn't like that Gordon was going first, especially once they passed the limits of what Silver had explored. He was the man they could least afford to lose.
Far above them came an unearthly screech. One of the soldiers wobbled dangerously on the edge but Silver gave him a brief psychic push back in the right direction that probably went unnoticed. Everyone's attention was focused above, as two fire red shapes started to drop swiftly down the shaft.
"Here they come," murmured a female soldier, levelling her gun, but Silver reacted faster. Reaching out with his mind, he gripped one of the creatures firmly and knocked it furiously into its companion. The two of them spiralled crazily into one of the walls, thankfully on the opposite side because their impact sent a rain of rocks tumbling down the shaft. The noise was incredible, and Silver's nearly missed a second sound beneath it; a deeper, closer rumble that, bewilderingly, came from behind instead of in front.
"There's something in the walls," he yelled, a little too late as one of the thick, burrowing worms appeared almost directly above them. Someone yelled in surprise, and another started firing.
Silver yelped and covered his sensitive ears in pain. In close quarters, with every sound reverberating in the shaft, the gunfire was deafening. It splintered his concentration, making it impossible for him to bring his powers to bear as more worms began tearing their way out of the rock. He crouched, hoping to at least stay out of the way as the soldiers did their work, and because his attention wasn't focused above he was the only one who saw that the vibrations from the tunnelling creatures had weakened the ledge. The stone beneath Gordon's feet was starting to crumble.
"General!" he called, but amidst the sound of battle his voice was lost. He scrambled hurriedly to get around the other soldiers but he wasn't fast enough to race gravity. The path disintegrated, and Gordon started to fall.
"No!"
He didn't stop to think before he jumped out into the abyss. Everything seemed to be running in slow motion until he swore he could hear each individual bullet in the numerous bursts of gunfire and at the height of his jump he seemed to hang almost motionless in the air…and then time seemed to turn and suddenly he was falling fast enough to make it difficult to draw breath in the rushing air, but it wasn't quite fast enough to catch up to Gordon who was heavier and falling faster.
With a grunt of effort Silver concentrated his powers to push himself downward. It was a harrowing endeavour because he didn't know when the shaft would end, and as they fell into the earth everything grew darker. He could only see himself, with ripples of green psychic energy making his fur gleam in the darkness, and the small light beacon affixed to Gordon's shoulder to mark his target.
With one final burst he propelled himself into Gordon, scrabbling to grip the human's torso and at the same time envelop them in a bubble to try and slow their fall. Gravity pulled at them unpleasantly, and he heard Gordon hiss at the abrupt change in velocity. Silver's arms and mind felt the strain of trying to hold the human simultaneously, and he wasted most of his energy just easing them to a more controllable speed. There was no way he could raise them both back up again, and it seemed the path they'd been following had eroded away this far down the shaft. Feeling out blindly and desperately with his powers, he ran up against a hard surface not too far below them with considerable relief.
"We're almost at the bottom," he panted, loosening his powers slightly to speed their descent a little as he aligned them right side up again. He wouldn't be able to support them both for much longer.
"My men-"
"We'll have to find a way back up," Silver told him. "Watch your feet."
Gordon would reach the bottom first, and Silver was careful to make sure the General was being planted on solid ground before allowing himself to drop the remaining two feet with a sigh. He sat down before his legs gave out on him, but kept a thread of his power active to keep the light glowing around his gloves.
It was pitch black; unnaturally so. Gordon took a torch from his coat and turned it on, but the beam seemed to be overpowered by the thick darkness. It barely illuminated the ground in front of them, let alone anything else.
"We'll have to feel our way out," Gordon said briskly, keeping whatever concerns he had well hidden. Silver wanted to reassure him, but was distracted by a strange whistling noise that he couldn't place until something heavy landed and exploded close enough to shower him with sharp fragments of stone. He cried out in pain, and then surprise as Gordon took his arm and began dragging him along.
"Move!" the General urged. "Debris from the battle."
Silver hadn't thought he could use his powers again so quickly, but the adrenaline spike was effective, as well as the knowledge that he could be crushed from above without ever seeing the danger. He threw up a wall of energy and winced when it was immediately assaulted by falling rubble and what felt suspiciously like the softer body of a worm. Or the remains of one. He could smell the vile scent of its molten blood and tried not to gag.
"There's another tunnel here," Gordon said, shoving Silver inside before entering himself. Silver could feel the tips of his quills touching the ceiling, which meant it must have been a tight fit for a human. He dropped his shield, cringing at the sounds of an avalanche from the shaft. He couldn't see, but he could feel the solid weight of the rocks closing the tunnel behind them.
"I guess we can't go back now."
Gordon nudged him forward. "Then let's get moving."
Silver could walk nearly upright, but Gordon had to shuffle along on his knees. Metal armour grated noisily against the rock, and Silver sincerely hoped that the worms didn't travel this far down. They hunted by vibration, and Gordon was making enough of it. Thankfully, it seemed the tunnel wasn't as long as he'd started to fear.
"I can see light ahead," Silver announced, quickening his pace.
Gordon whispered harshly, "Wait for me."
It made sense that Silver should check it out first. He could use his powers to push back any threat and give Gordon time to get out before they got trapped in the tunnel. There were no creatures waiting, however, and the tunnel widened out into a much larger cavern. For a moment he felt like he couldn't breathe, and the dim light he thought he'd seen seemed to flicker. The darkness, thick and cloying, seemed to close in around him, squeezing the air from his lungs, but when he blinked the illusion seemed to vanish. The walls were dully lit with heat, indicating a nearby lava flow, but there was another light source in the room that was much stronger, and completely out of place inside the volcano.
What is that?
"Silver," Gordon growled lowly, finally dragging himself out from the tight space, but the young hedgehog seemed to have forgotten the possible danger in favour of examining the strange centrepiece of the large cabin.
It was a box, except not the right shape, though it was still geometrical. Sort of triangular, and very obviously man-made. The base was solid metal, but the top was some kind of cage-like mesh. Multiple layers of protective shielding protected the strange artefact, but he could still see through it and inside was…
Shadow!
He stared, having never expected to see the black hedgehog again. Shadow had lived two hundred years in the past, so how was he here? Time travel? But more importantly, Shadow was obviously in trouble. His eyes were closed but there was a tension in his expression that suggested pain, and rather than being protected in the box he seemed to be trapped inside it. His arms and legs were both pinned down with thick manacles, and there was some kind of helmet around his head that looked like it served no pleasant purpose. Experimentally, he tugged at the first layer of mesh. It was cool to the touch at first, but flared warningly the longer he held it until he was forced to let go or have his gloves be singed.
"Silver!"
Gordon's booming voice made him jump. The General only used that particular tone when he was calling unruly recruits into line, and Silver had never been on the wrong end of it before. He stared with wide eyes.
"What do you think you're doing?" Gordon snapped, standing tall and glowering down at the young hedgehog.
Silver pointed at the cage meaningfully. "This is-!"
"It's dangerous, that's what it is. I would have thought you'd have a little more common sense than to go near it."
Silver shrank on himself slightly, feeling chastened. "But-"
"We need to destroy it," Gordon said, looking briefly to his weapon before deciding it wouldn't be enough to do the job. "Can you use your telekinesis to push it into the lava?"
Silver stared, aghast. "No!"
Gordon didn't seem to notice his distress, and heard only the answer. "Of course, you should rest after saving us from the fall. Harrison has the charges. We'll need to find the rest of the group and come back."
"But there's someone inside it!"
Gordon looked at him stoically, then took a cautious step towards the cage and peering inside it. He pulled back, facing away from Silver. "I know it looks like a hedgehog but it's not, Silver. That thing in there is a weapon. A mistake made by the military that they were always too afraid to destroy for fear of awakening it. They hoped that hiding it underground would be enough, but when I received the signal I knew we had to come and destroy it for good. We don't need another Iblis…we could not survive it. Do you understand?"
"…Yes." Silver glanced helplessly at the cage. Shadow lay still as if already dead, never knowing his fate was being discussed.
"Then come." Gordon began to walk, heading for another barely visible tunnel across the cavern. "The quicker this is done the better."
Silver followed him slowly, with every step away from the cage feeling heavier and harder. He knew all about impossible decisions. The suffering of few for the sake of many. One life pitted against the world, and the future. He'd already been forced to make that choice.
But he had been wrong.
"Silver?"
Gordon had entered the new passageway. This one looked as though it might lead upward, leading them back to the higher tunnels where hopefully they could reunite with the group. Silver looked at him apologetically, palms glowing with green light. "I'm sorry."
The ceiling of the passage collapsed at his direction. Gordon yelled in surprise, leaping away, but before he was blocked behind Silver's carefully controlled cave-in, Silver saw the expression on his face. Betrayal.
"I'm sorry," he repeated to empty air, but he was only sorry that Gordon didn't know what Silver had learned. Shadow had taught him about choices, and about not believing everything you were told. Silver was going to make sure he had all the facts before he consigned Shadow to the lava.
And if it was the wrong decision, if this was somehow not the Shadow he knew, then he would accept the consequences of his actions and do as Gordon had wanted. As long as Shadow didn't have a Chaos Emerald – not likely given the circumstances – then Silver should be able to deal with him.
The first problem would be getting the cage open. Silver spent ten minutes circling it like a hawk, prodding it this way and that searching for any kind of opening mechanism but every surface was flat and unyielding. Like it had been made with no intention of ever being opened. The thought made Silver frown, and he determinedly banished Gordon's warnings from his mind.
He would have to rip it open by force then, if he ever wanted his answers. He focused on the first layer of mesh, eyes narrowed to slits as green light flashed in his vision. Reaching out with telekinetic hands he pulled. The metal groaned softly, like the protest of a heavy sleeper being pulled from wakefulness, but it did not break and after a minute of straining Silver had to let it go. The moment he did he collapsed rather suddenly, landing painfully on his tail in a rather undignified sprawl. It had been a long while since he'd come up against something that didn't yield against his powers. He huffed indignantly, forcing himself back to his feet. Blaze never let him get away with slacking off.
"Maybe this won't be so easy," he murmured to himself, trying to be reassured by the sound of his own voice. Perhaps it was paranoia after locking Gordon out so crudely but it felt like he wasn't alone in the cavern. Silver trusted those instincts, but at the same time he didn't think it was more of the creatures out there in the dark. It felt…different.
It's probably just Shadow, he chided himself. The black hedgehog certainly made for eerie companionship. Sealed in a box that might as well have been a coffin, not moving or, it seemed, even breathing, he might as well have been a corpse. Silver had seen a few people killed in his short life and it had never been easy.
None of those thoughts were helping his dilemma with the box. He wondered briefly what it was made from. Time had left it dull and tarnished, and the inside of the volcano had smeared it with soot, but there were no flaws or weakness in the metal. It must have been something the military developed. Highly advanced, nearly impenetrable…The engineers in Rebirth City would have loved to examine it, but Silver couldn't take it back there and he doubted they would have any kind of tools to help him break into it.
He wasn't at his best, but he knew it would take more than himself to get the cage open. At the same time he couldn't try anything that might hurt Shadow in the process, which dismissed the idea of using the lava to try and melt the metal, or throwing the cage around in hopes of denting it. No, he needed more power and a good amount of luck.
What he really needed was the Chaos Emeralds.
He didn't keep those with him though. They were hidden safely, their existence unknown to anyone but himself. Using them might have made the rebuilding of Rebirth City that much faster, but he hadn't wanted to see them used for such a mundane purpose. Not when the warmth of Blaze's hands could still be felt, imprinted on their surface after her sacrifice. He barely wanted to touch them himself, but surely she would understand.
He had no doubt that Gordon would first reunite with the rest of the team, and then return to do as he'd threatened. Silver couldn't afford to leave the cage behind. As inconvenient as it was he could have to bring it with him out of the Volcano. Sighing at the prospect, he wrapped his power around the cage again, and this time simply directed it to lift. It was heavy, surprisingly so for its size, but Blaze had made him practice with boulders and cars. He could manage it long enough to get to the Chaos Emeralds.
He put his hand to the side of the cage and looked inside once more, but Shadow remained still and unresponsive despite the movement.
"Don't worry, Shadow," Silver told him, cementing his own determination. "I'll get you out of there."
Shadow made no sign that he had heard, but Silver had not expected otherwise.
