The Pariah Chronicles
Chapter III: Night Terrors
The clanging of their shoes on the steel flooring echoed throughout the metallic corridor as Mighty and Espio ran through the hall to meet up with the rest of the Chaotix. This was all that he could hear, so he guessed that the rest of the corridor had been cleared of resistance while he and the chameleon had their conversation. When the two rounded the last bend, they spotted and ran up to Knuckles who was guarding the group's rear.
"There you guys are!" He relaxed his stance. "We've already finished up with these guys. What took you?"
"We… ah…" Mighty began, but Espio cut him off.
"I wanted to double back and make sure no reinforcements followed us in. There's nothing to worry about"
Knuckles looked sideways at Espio. "Yeah?" His eyes flicked toward Mighty. "You sure you're alright?"
"Yeah, we're cool," he responded. "Just a little nervous, I guess. I mean, this is it. You know?
"I do." The echidna seemed to buy it. "And you're right, this one's for all the marbles. Now come on, we need you two for the next part." He turned, and they jogged deeper back into the corridor. In a matter of seconds the rest of the Chaotix came into view, as well as the Freedom Fighters, and they were all standing in front of a huge, metal double-door. "West hall still secure, Sally," Knuckles said to a female squirrel in front of the freedom fighters.
Suddenly Sonic came zipping around from behind them, and skidded to a stop between the two groups. "East's hall's still clear, Sal'!" His radiant, lime-colored eyes swept over Mighty & Espio. "'Bout time you guys showed up!" He flashed a gleaming smile. "Finally, it's time to stick it to the doc' once and for all!" He punched his open palm.
At this, Princess Sally Acorn, leader of the Freedom Fighters and this operation, turned to the hedgehog and responded, "Hold your horses, mister. We still have no idea what's behind this door."
Sonic crossed his arms and began tapping his foot rapidly on the floor. "Oh, come on, Sal'! It's obvious this is a trap, but this is the only way to go." He walked closer and looked over her shoulder at the hand-held computer she was staring into. "See?" He flashed another cocky grin while pointing at the screen.
Knuckles rolled his eyes at the hedgehog while Sally pushed him back with her finger and said into the computer, "Still nothing at all on the scans, Nicole?"
"Affirmative, Sally," the computer responded. Nicole was the name of the highly advanced sentient A.I. that dwelled in Sally's handheld. She was indispensable to nearly all of their efforts, including powering and regulating the city of New Mobotropolis, home and base of operations for all free Mobians on this continent. "X-ray, infrared, thermal, radar, and electromagnetic scans all still too distorted due to heavy interference coming from this next room."
"So in other words," Knuckles spoke up, "We're flying blind from here on out."
Sonic interjected, "C'mon, just let me go in and start the show already!"
Sally forcefully closed her computer. "No, Sonic!" She jabbed him in the chest with her finger. "You're not invincible! I don't want you getting hurt. Not now. Not when we're so close."
"Well, what're we gonna do then? Wait for the Dark Legion to regroup and force us into a retreat?"
"No." Sally bit her lip and twisted a finger through her hair. "Espio, if we open the door for a few seconds, do you think you could slip in and out to give us an idea what we're dealing with?"
"Of course," he responded, "a few seconds is more than enough."
"Smart move." Knuckles nodded his approval. Espio's ninja training along with his natural chameleon camouflage made him perfect for this type of job.
"And if things get rough," Sonic added, "I'll get ya' outta there nice and quick-like." He gave the chameleon the thumbs up.
"I'll go in, too," Mighty added. "In case you need some muscle to bust out."
Espio nodded as Sally walked over to the small keypad beside the door. She plugged Nicole into it and began to hack the electronic lock. "5 seconds," she said to him. "If you're not back here by then, Sonic and Mighty go in to get you and I shut the door. Got it?"
"Understood." He was standing inches from the door with his eyes focused intently, now holding his favorite golden shuriken.
"Oh, my!" Nicole's electronic voice sounded from the princess's hands. "Sally, a small part of the distortion has disappeared from the next room!"
"What?" she responded as all heads eagerly turned toward her. "Anything useful?"
"There appears to be a short path branching from the side of the large room in front of us."
"Can you tell where it leads?"
"Not completely, but it appears that the path leads to an upper floor that houses a small room containing what looks like a control panel of sorts."
"Hey!" Sonic perked up again. "I'll bet we can use that to fry whatever might be in that big room!"
"Or Eggman's luring us into a trap," Knuckles cut in.
"Oh! The exterior path has vanished again," Nicole suddenly hummed in surprise. "I can't pick it up any longer."
Sally shook her head. "I don't like this, either. It's way too obvious for it not to be a trap," she said, mostly to herself. "However," she addressed the two teams, "it does provide us with more tactical options in case whatever's waiting for us in there is a tough nut to crack. I'll save it for a last resort."
"If whatever's lurking in there has a butt," Sonic flashed his crazy smile again. "We'll kick it. No worries, Sal'."
She sighed, followed by a beep from Nicole. "Espio, the door is unlocked," the squirrel said. "Are you prepared?"
The chameleon was staring at the door again, holding his weapon. A short "Yes," was his only response.
Sally glanced toward Sonic and Mighty.
The armadillo cracked his knuckles. "Rescue team ready and standing by, Sally."
"Oh, yeah! Showtime!" The hedgehog's quills were practically quivering with anticipation.
"Knuckles…"
"You don't need my approval, Princess," Knuckles reassured her. "The Chaotix are my team, but this is your show. It goes without saying, but we trust you. And today, we take orders from you."
Sally smiled for the first time since they had entered the Eggdome before she returned her attention to Nicole. "On my mark, then," she told Espio.
He crouched into a ready position, inches from the door.
The others fell back from the entryway.
"Ready…"
Espio vanished from plain sight as he blended in with his surroundings.
"Set…"
Sonic and Mighty stood by either side of the door, waiting.
"GO!" The large double doors slid into the walls with an electronic hum, and a faint, whistling wind brushed everyone's ears as Espio sprinted into the room.
Mighty could feel his heart racing as time crept agonizingly slowly by. 1 second. 2 seconds. 3 sec…
The silence of the corridor was violently shredded by an ear-piercing howl of pain, echoing monstrously throughout the entire complex.
The blue hedgehog flashed through the door before the accompanying sonic boom even reached the others' ears, with Mighty hot on his heels.
He was instantly met with a horrifying sight. There wasn't something simply waiting for them in this area, but rather the entire room itself was trying to end their short lives. All throughout the rounded deathtrap various metal appendages with dangerous weapons on the ends poked through the floor, walls, and ceiling, culminating in a gargantuan metallic pillar in the center reaching from floor to ceiling. It was made of several segments that spun and darted quickly and freely around a base, each one sprouting its own unique arm with its own deadly purpose. Espio was being crushed by one such extension that ended in a giant clamp.
"HOLEE-" Sonic began, but was cut short and leapt away as a flamethrower suddenly rose from the ground and tried to roast him.
Mighty spun on the spot and shouted frantically out the door they came in, "We're gonna need some help!"
Knuckles ran into the room himself, but was briefly stunned by the utter chaos before him. "Sweet mother of…" He snapped out of it. "Chaotix! Charge!"
"Freedom Fighters, move out!" the princess shouted after him, her own task force now joining in the mayhem.
Mighty turned again just in time to see a chain gun emerge from a near wall. On instinct, he curled into a ball just as the barrel started turning, then blasted off, deflecting numerous bullets with his armored shell before smashing the gun to pieces. To his dismay the broken apparatus retreated into the wall only to be replaced a second later by a chainsaw. A flaming, chainsaw. Eyes wide as dinner plates, "WHOA!" he yelled while frantically jumping back, the spinning chain barely missing his stomach but still managing to singe through a bit of his shirt. The impromptu evasive maneuver had gotten him out of range of the saw, but now he was close enough to be attacked directly by the instrument of death in the center of the room.
"Wah!" a high-pitched cry sounded above the armadillo's ears. "It's got me! HELP!" He looked up to see Charmy stuck to the ceiling, caught in some sort of magnetic net with a nasty-looking drill sticking out of the ceiling poised to bore right through him.
"Hold on, I'm coming!" a booming voice rang out behind the armadillo. He turned to see Knuckles charging in his direction, eyes up on Charmy.
"Knux!" Mighty called to him, crouching down and lowering his hands to the floor, directly under Charmy.
The echidna's sharp eyes snapped onto the armadillo and he instantly understood, vaulting a spike trap that popped out of the floor before leaping at Mighty and landing with one foot on the armadillo's hands.
He flung his arms upward, sending Knuckles careening toward the ceiling where he promptly shredded the net imprisoning Charmy, getting a safe bee-flight back to the ground in return.
Though Charmy had just been rescued, two others were captured and incapacitated just as quickly. Needless to say, they couldn't keep this up forever. Even Sonic was beginning to sweat, for Mighty hadn't seen him doing anything but darting about the entire room from one victim to the next, literally pulling their fur out of harm's way seconds before it was too late. Not a single one of them had managed a successful offensive strike against the structure in the middle of the room, and Mighty figured he'd better try it before things got any worse. The armadillo charged right toward the demonic pillar, leaping a trapdoor and swatting away a swarm of tiny flying sentries along the way. He was but a single jump away from making a direct attack when a section of the pillar spun, revealing a thick metal arm with a massive mallet attached to the end.
"Oh…" Mighty whispered as he skidded to a stop and gazed upward at the gigantic hammer, now raised high and casting its huge shadow over him. A second later it came down on him, five tons of downward force aiming to crack his shell like an egg and flatten him into a pancake. The armadillo closed his eyes, thrust his open hands upward, and gritted his teeth, steeling himself for the inevitable blow that just might do him in. Instead something rammed into his side at about 800 miles per hour, knocking all the wind out of his lungs but saving him the trouble of dealing with that hammer. A split-second later the hammer collided with the metallic floor, creating a shockwave the nearly knocked everyone off their feet. Finally Sonic set him down, far out of reach of the central tower.
"Thanks…" Mighty panted, trying to regain his breath.
"Noprob' gottago," the hedgehog hero slurred together, worried emerald eyes roving about the room just as fast as he could, probably in search of more friends in need of immediate rescue. Then he took off… or at least he attempted to, but didn't get anywhere. "What the?" he asked himself, looking down at his feet.
Glancing over, Mighty could see that some odd, sticky substance had gushed up from the floor underneath Sonic's feet. He had stayed still just long enough for the goo to root his feet to the floor, and he couldn't pull his legs free. Behind the blue hero a panel opened up in the wall, and the barrel of a futuristic-looking gun pointed its muzzle at the pair of them, making a whirring sound as it began to glow red. Mighty jumped to his feet and stood behind Sonic with his armored back to the gun, and tried to unstuck his friend. With his strength the armadillo was able to pull him out easy enough, but not fast enough to avoid the charged laser beam that struck him hard in the back. The armadillo was blasted forward off his feet and dropped Sonic, who quickly curled up and spun through the air at insane speeds to alter his landing point away from the sticky mess and cut the laser gun in two at the same time. Mighty's own landing wasn't as graceful, as his face met the cold steel on the floor. There was a nasty burn mark on the back of his shell, but he was otherwise alright.
Unfortunately that couldn't be said for the rest of his friends at the moment. During the few seconds of Sonic's distraction, Mighty could see that about half of their allies were either captured or otherwise unable to continue fighting their seemingly indomitable foe. The situation was getting desperate, as they hadn't managed to put so much as a scratch on the monstrous pillar as far as Mighty could tell. They were all fighting their hardest, but for every advance, someone would get hurt or caught. But, he noticed at least one of their number was unaccounted for as he scanned the room.
"Hey!" Sonic said while grabbing the next person to go by's shoulder which happened to be Espio, who had thankfully been rescued at some point during the fight. "Where's Sal'?" he shouted to him over the noise of combat.
"I just saw her heading for that passage to the upper floor," the chameleon responded. "Whatever else may be up there, we need it." With that, he ran off to help Vector and Julie-Su with their buzz-saw problem.
In a flash the hedgehog headed toward where the other opening should be, but there was only a thick, heavy, closed metal door in the way.
All of a sudden, a deep and guttural laugh filled the entire battleground: "Ohhhhh, ho ho ho ho!" Doctor Eggman's mocking voice issued from a hundred speakers that had come out of the ceiling. "Having fun with my Spider Spire, Freedom Fighters?"
"Eggman! Get your fat butt out here and fight me like a man, already!" Sonic yelled angrily back at the ceiling while dodging an acid trap at the same time.
"Why the hurry, hedgehog? The fun is only just beginning! Should you make it past my marvelous creation, I'll be waiting for you up ahead. Although, I don't imagine you'll be very pleased to see me if you do."
"Ha!" Sonic taunted back at the ceiling, "I'm always pleased to kick your sorry can around, Eggy. Bring it on!"
"Wah ha ha ha! Wait and see, rodent. Wait and see." With a click, the system turned off and the speakers fell silent. At the same time, Mighty could see one of the wall panels splitting in two and sliding apart, revealing a glass pane. Behind it stood the princess, her hands flying furiously over a control panel in the tiny room.
Sonic's quills visibly drooped. "No… Oh no!"
Mighty turned to Sonic to ask what was going on, but he was gone. The armadillo blinked, and the next thing he knew Sonic was plastered to the other side of the glass, banging his hands on it and yelling at the princess. "Sal', it's a trap! Sally!" Strangely, it looked like she could hear him, but was pointedly ignoring him as she frantically worked the controls.
Mighty was so absorbed in what was going on up there that he failed to notice his shoes being frozen to the floor by a couple of chemical dispensers that crept out of the paneling.
Sonic must have been getting frustrated, because he had resorted to punching at the glass pane and yelling at the top of his lungs. "SAALLLYYY!"
The Princess of Acorn jumped in shock, then flipped a switch before returning to playing with the controls. "Sonic, I know it's a trap," her distressed voice issued from another speaker that had come out of the wall near the window. "That monstrosity can only be de-activated from here." Suddenly she stopped moving, stealing a quick glance at Sonic's face as her finger hovered over a large, previously untouched button.
Sonic's eyes immediately locked onto it and he resumed his incessant pounding. "Sal'… Don't you touch that button, Sally Acorn!"
"Sonic, stop it!" Now she was shouting too. "Look behind you, this is the only way and you know it!"
The hedgehog kept his eyes glued to the princess but Mighty looked around. The situation was even grimmer than before. There was only one Freedom Fighter left in the battle, a young flyer. As for the Chaotix, only Knuckles and Ray were in any shape to avoid capture and continue fighting. Mighty decided to run up and help them, but he finally noticed his feet were firmly rooted to the spot. Try as he might, he just couldn't pull free of the ice that surrounded him. Meanwhile Sonic and Sally were still arguing amongst themselves within his earshot, despite the severity of the situation.
"No!" the blue one yelled while emphatically shaking his head. "We'll get through this! Together! Like always!"
The princess's hand quivered for a moment as she looked at him again, but then she lowered her face back down to the controls so Sonic couldn't see it. "Sonic, listen to me," she said, in a completely different and subdued tone compared to before. "Get down from there, now. After I press this, the Spire will shut down and the last door will open. This room.." she stopped short and almost looked at Sonic's face again, but jerked her head back down before continuing. "This room is going to self-destruct, so you-"
"WHAT?" Sonic shouted, re-doubling his efforts to break through the pane.
Mighty struggled against his bonds. This was getting way out of hand! He had to do something!
"Get down, Sonic," Sally said, still refusing to look at the hedgehog.
"Not gonna happen!" he responded, getting more frantic by the second.
"Mighty, help me!" a new, fear-cracked voice resounded in the armadillo's ears. His head whipped around to see Ray stuck in the same goo that had trapped Sonic earlier.
"Hang on, kid! I gotcha!" Knuckles desperately yelled from the other end of the room, trying to fight his way to the stuck squirrel.
Mighty furiously punched and smashed at the ice surrounding his feet, but to small avail. The stuff just wouldn't break!
"Last warning, Sonic." She placed her palm on the button, but didn't press it.
"Sally, no!" Sonic's voice cracked. "Please, don't do it!"
With one last frenzied jerk, Mighty had managed to free a leg, and frantically began work on the other. He had to get out of this! He had to do something!
Knuckles had almost reached Ray when a floor panel opened up directly in front of him and an over-sized boxing glove sprang up from the hole, catching him in the chin so hard that he was blasted upward into the flying Freedom Fighter and then into the ceiling, sending the two of them back to the ground in an unconscious heap.
"Goodbye…Sonic," the princess muttered.
"NO!" Sonic raved, his knuckles starting leaving bloody marks on the un-scathed window pane from his frenzied strikes. He looked around in a last bit of desperation and spotted the armadillo, the only one on the battlefield still standing. "Mighty!" he called, "I need you!"
"I'm coming!" the panicked armadillo shouted to either Sonic, or Ray, or both, he wasn't sure which. Things were happening way too fast! He gathered up his strength and pounded his freed foot into the floor, denting it a considerable amount and creating a foothold for him to push against. With a deafening crack he finally managed to pull his other leg free of the icy compound.
At that moment a sound tore through the air that drowned out all the others in the armadillo's ears. Ray was screaming in utter terror, enveloped by the shadow of a massive hammer. "MIGHTY!" He cried, closing his eyes and covering his head with his hands.
Mighty was at his breaking point. "I'm sorry Sonic!" he yelled to the hedgehog before making a beeline for Ray. He was scorched, cut, and pummeled by all manner of things on the way, but his strength was peaking and not one of the fiendish traps could stop him now. Mighty screamed in desperation and anger, leaping into the air above Ray and right at the side of the falling hammer, driving his fist into it with such force that the thick mechanical arm that held it up snapped like a twig, the solid metal head dented deeply at the impact zone and the five ton mallet flew clear across the chamber before embedding itself in the opposite wall.
The armadillo landed and ripped Ray from the sticky goo, almost accidentally pulling his arm out of socket in the process. He whipped his head back around to Sonic, but it was too late. The scream of another tortured soul filled the air as Sally finally lifted her head and looked at Sonic's face one last time before silently pressing down on the button.
"NOOO-" Sonic started to yell, but the room exploded violently, blowing out the glass and sending the hedgehog sailing backward among the deadly shards and fire. The monstrous Spider Spire ceased functioning while crooked laughter issued from the ceiling. Princess Sally and Nicole were entirely consumed by flames, save one small, singed scrap of baby-blue fabric that landed on the broken hero's chest moments later.