Leaving an amazed Dr. Eggman to take care of the over enthusiastic Bokkun and two grumbling robots, I set off for the reflex room. I wasn't particularly worried about this Project Shadow, as such, I was just keen to hone up my old skills a little bit before coming face-to-face. You could never have too much physio, right? Plus, I had never been in a real battle with living beings before. Only in the controlled environment of the reflex room, with robots and lazers. My father was too afraid of his prefect project getting damaged by the terrible outside world. To be honest, I had never even been in the outside world before, just stared at it through the portholes in my bedroom. But, as father said, what more could that world give me? I had all I needed in the flying fortress.
The doors to the Reflex Room slid open as I pressed my palm to the genetic code pad.
Computer's electronic voice barked: "Welcome to the Reflex Room, Experiment 193.4. Please state difficulty level code."
"Level code 488 Delta 3." I smiled, crouching, my hands already sliding inside my boots for my guns. "Super Extreme."
Almost at once, a large machine gun slid out of one of the steel panels in the wall, and let loose a spray of bullets at me, but I was already running. The Reflex Room was shaped like a sphere, making it easier to run up the sides, and if you were running fast enough, you couldn't tell which was up and down. Running directly towards the machine gun, I lifted my guns and aimed a single bullet each into the barrel of the beastly machine. It spluttered, and the machine gun was pulled back into the panel.
No sooner than I had skidded to a halt, a lazer fired direct at my back, throwing me face first into the sloped wall. Stumbling up, I grabbed my guns, shoved them back into my boots and popped my nose back into place. The lazer fired again, but I was already running up the wall, crouching into a spin ball, coming in a full circle in the sphere and slicing through the lazer. The panel remained open, and small, angry robots poured into the room, covering over me like a blanket. A buzzing, nipping, angry blanket.
Pinning me to the floor, the angry little buggers started zapping me with tiny little tazers. I growled, attempting to roll around and fling them off me, but being held too tightly. I closed my eyes, trying to calm my anxious mind, ignoring the zaps of the robots and the jerks my body was making. My fists began to clench, and my eyes snapped open, evidently glowing with the familiar green that indicated when my physic powers were in use. The robots began to float upwards, one by one, surrounded by an eerie green haze. I got to my feet, keeping the robots in my thrall. Slowly, I lifted my clenched fist to the air, and unclenched. The result was instantaneous. Each little pest popped to dust, one by one, like an array of bizarre party poppers. After each robot hand been seen to, I let my mind relax, and staggered slightly. Making a note, I walked to the door: practice telekinesis more often.
Suddenly, a loud alarm started wailing around the fortress. I knew that alarm well; it was the intruder alert. Dashing through the sliding doors to the Reflex Room, not even bothering to grab a towel for my sweat, my eyes searched for a location screen on the metallic walls. Locating one, I pulled out the keyboard from an alcove underneath it and logged into the security camera database. I finally caught the camera on alert. It was Camera 15, positioned on the outer corridor 19. The corridor itself was flooded with my father's robots, but ploughing through them like an unstoppable force was a glaring red and ebony hedgehog, dispatching the robots whilst keeping eye contact with Camera 15 at the same time. The noise blaring out of the speakers on the location panel for corridor 19 was unbearable, but somehow the hedgehog's words were clear above the din:
"I am here for the girl." I glared at the panel. He must've been the famous Project Shadow. If he thought he was gonna walk out of the flying fortress with me in his arms, he had another thing coming.
"You'll have to catch me first, faker." I whispered to the control panel, and set out the map plan on the location panel. The 'Ultimate Lifeform' was approximately 20 minutes away from my area of the corridor, so I was safe. My father was supposedly handling the showy banter with the other hedgehog's partner, presumable. Why else would his body heat signal be pacing about the control room like that? Looking back at the hedgehog's signal, I was surprised to find he was then 15 minutes away.
"Hmm…not exactly as planned…" I murmured, tapping the keyboard, logging into my trap database. "But still doable." The hedgehog was moving faster now. Somehow, he knew I was onto him.
I began to hack my father's trap system for corridor 46, my corridor. My father's traps were mainly for show, and generally useless. He liked to play with Sonic the Hedgehog and company, rather than kill them, to my great annoyance. Yet, with a few hours off, I created a few traps of my own that did the job of capturing even the speediest of hedgehogs, all without my father knowing. I had to have a back up plan, right?
Setting the highest speed trap for the corridor and assigning it to Project Shadow's heat signal, I shut down the location panel, put the key board back and sat down in the middle of the corridor to wait for the hedgehog. I had my father's flair for theatrics when it came to defeating people, and the plan I had for the hedgehog was a cinch.
"Five, four, three, two, one…" I murmured under my breath. A dark form with streaks of red skidded round the corner of the corridor, guns in hand. "Showtime." Willing my tear ducts to work, I snivelled into my hands. "Please…" I whined in my most pitiful voice, willing the other hedgehog to be gullible. "Help me. I want to go home."
Project Shadow took a few hesitant steps forward. "Name."
I sniffed again. "I can't remember. The moustache man…he…he did awful things to me…" I started to fake cry into my hands, attempting to hide my sniggering. Was it working?
"Let me help you." The hedgehog's steps moved closer and closer to me, and as I lifted my eyes, I saw his outstretched hand. Taking it, I got up slowly.
"Th-thank you…" I said quietly to my chest, then snapped my head up and grinned evilly, pushing him over. "…For being so freakin' gullible! Computer, now!" A steel ball snapped over Project Shadow, encasing him. I tapped the side, and a panel slid back revealing a pane of bulletproof plastic. The lesser hedgehog's face was astonished.
"Sorry, Shads. There can only be only one Ultimate Lifeform, leaving you…" I pointed to him through the plastic. "…As the faker."