III – Familiar Faces
Sonic opened his eyes to the dim light surrounding him, his head pounding. He could see the vague outline of a hedgehog leaning over him, their hand on his shoulder.
"Sonic?" their voice came, but they were a thousand miles away in his head, "Dammit, Sonic, stay with me!"
Sonic opened his eyes again, squinting. The dim light around him offered little detail, but he could make out the form of Shadow standing over him, arms folded and scowling.
"You finally decided to wake up, eh Faker?"
"Shadow," said Sonic, wincing at the pain in his side as he tried to rise from the floor, "What happened? The Emerald –"
"Was a fake," the dark hedgehog said, "and booby-trapped. It got me too. Unlike you I was smart enough to be on level ground when it happened."
Sonic thought of sending a snarky remark back, but the aches he felt all over shifted his focus.
"Where are we?" said Sonic. He looked down at himself to see his body covered in bandages, "Shadow, did you patch me up?"
"No. When I awoke you were like that. Someone fixed you up, and moved us both to this antechamber."
Sonic peered around the room. They were still in the temple; he could see that from the carved stone walls, but in a smaller room than the Emerald chamber. The light glowed dimmer, a couple of crystal sceptres emitting an eerie blue light. A familiar face drifted through Sonic's mind, shocking him alert.
"Oh no," he said, his voice quavering with panic, "Tails is still out there! We need to get moving Shadow, he might be in danger."
"I don't think you'll be going anywhere, hedgehogs," a menacing voice came from across the room.
The rotund form of Dr. Eggman emerged from the shadows, a wide grin shining from beneath his enormous moustache, tinted a glowing blue by the crystal light.
"Your fox friend will be quite safe, for now."
Without saying a word Shadow charged towards the corpulent doctor. Eggman kept his grin, and didn't recoil from Shadow's ferocious surge forward. Seconds later a crackling field of blue lightning enveloped Shadow and hurled him onto his back.
"Oh please," sneered the Doctor, "You really think I would leave you in a room unsupervised, and not put in a force field? What do you take me for?"
Shadow rose to his feet, his face radiating fury at the mad scientist before him.
"Someone who's about to die," Shadow snarled, crimson light surrounding him, mingling with the blue light into an ominous purple, "CHAOS CON-"
The blue lightning struck Shadow again, this time with more ferocity, causing him to bend double. Sonic's heart leapt into his mouth as Shadow writhed in agony.
"I wouldn't try any of your Chaos tricks in here, Shadow," gloated Eggman, "this isn't just any forcefield, you know. It's a Negative Chaos Inversion Field. A masterpiece of my own design, it redirects Chaos energy back on the user tenfold."
"Why don't you just kill us and be done with it?" asked Shadow from the floor where he lay.
"Kill you?" Eggman began to laugh, "Boys, boys, I don't want to do that. Contrary to what you might think, I'm not a monster. I even patched you up, you annoying blue thing. Besides, I need you alive, you two have a starring role in my latest project."
"Whatever you've got planned, we'll stop you," Sonic protested, trying to hide his pain from his enemy.
"Oh I don't think you will, Sonic," said Eggman, a threatening tone undercutting his voice, "you see, I have some special guests I'm dying for you to meet. I'm sure you know them very well, you have so much in common." The Doctor turned towards the darkened reaches of the chamber.
"Boys, you can come on out now."
Two figures emerged from the darkness. Sonic and Shadow both rose to their feet despite their pain. The two hedgehog's mouths hung open in disbelief at who they were looking at.
Either side of Eggman stood a hedgehog. One, bright blue with dazzling green eyes, wore a self-assured smirk across his peach muzzle. The other sported black with red stripes on his upturned spines, a large tuft of white fur on his chest, and a menacing scowl.
"Gentlemen," said Eggman, kneeling down to put one hand on each of the hedgehog's shoulders, "Let me introduce – oh hold on, you know each other already don't you?"
"Impossible!" said Shadow.
"They're us?" Sonic said with confusion.
"You were right to warn us about these fake hedgehogs, Ivo," said the dark hedgehog, sizing Shadow up and down with crimson eyes, "they're nothing if not convincing."
"Who are you calling fake?" Shadow snapped back, "You're the fake around here! We're the genuine article, isn't that right, Sonic?"
Sonic pressed his face as close as he dared to the force field, and stared into the eyes of his mirror image, hoping he might blink. The blue hedgehog remained stoic, and Sonic became irritated by the arrogant smirk the other Sonic wore. Do I really look that smug? Something about those eyes made Sonic feel uneasy. He yielded the gaze and looked towards Shadow.
"Wow," said the other Sonic, "these bozos are so deluded they actually think they're real. Prower must be out of his mind, trying to trick you with these copies."
Sonic's blood boiled at the mention of his friend's name. Sonic span round to face the smug blue doppelganger, his fists clenched so tight he could feel his nails through his gloves.
"You leave him out of this!" Sonic bellowed, "I swear, if you touch one fur on his head, I'll –" Sonic stopped short of saying 'kill.' Not even his anger towards his copy or Eggman could bring him to do that. Sonic also knew a not insignificant portion of his rage turned inward for abandoning Tails to the darkness.
"Slavishly loyal to their master, as you can see," said Eggman, "it's fortunate I managed to contain them before they did any real damage."
"Let me out of this cage and you'll see how much damage I can do, Doctor," said Shadow.
"Give me five minutes in there, Ivo," said the other Shadow, "I want to take them apart, see how they work."
"No.. er, that won't be necessary, Shadow," said Eggman, gesticulating, beads of sweat running down his forehead, "I think they best be kept alive, I mean, online a bit longer, so I can better… um… interrogate them for information on Prower. Yes, that's it. Why don't you two head out and start your mission?"
"As you wish," the two hedgehog copies said in unison. As they walked back towards the darkness, the two captive hedgehogs kept their eyes focused on them.
Hey, from this angle my butt looks pretty good, thought Sonic, wait, technically that's not my butt, or is it? Wait, what am I doing?
"Magnificent, aren't they?" said Eggman, bringing Sonic's focus back, "I must say I have really outdone myself this time, and that's saying something, I'm sure you'll admit."
"What are they, Robotnik?" demanded Shadow.
"Yeah, Egg-head," Sonic joined in, "tell us your evil plan already!"
"Don't tell me what to do, hedgehog," said Eggman, clearing his throat, "Ahem, I shall now reveal my evil plan in all its glory!"
Sonic threw a quizzical look at Shadow.
"I just said that," he whispered.
"You remember Metal Sonic?" Eggman continued, "and his little 'episode' he had a few years back? Well, whilst I was reprograming his AI, I found some residual data. Specifically, the data on Chaos he had copied from a chao and that frog. It took a few years of research to fill in all the gaps in the data, but I finally figured out how to make a robot take on the form of a living being, like Metal Sonic did when he impersonated me."
"They're robots?" said Sonic.
"Don't interrupt me when I'm monologuing," said Eggman, "Yes, they're robots. I created the fake Chaos Emerald, knowing full well at least one of you would show up and try to take it. When you idiots touched it, it didn't just shock you into submission, it copied your entire lifeform data; your DNA, your memories, everything. They don't just look like you; they are you, right down to believing that they are the originals."
"If they're exact copies of us," said Shadow, "then why do they take orders from you?"
"I may have made some slight modifications to their memories, to make them more agreeable. This brings me to the second phase of my brilliant plan. 'Sonic' & 'Shadow' will go back to whatever boring lives you had, waiting for me to activate them. After a day or so, they will have gained the complete trust of your idiot friends. They won't come looking for you, because they'll think the real deal is right there with them."
"There's more to this than just replacing us, surely?" asked Sonic.
"Phase three, I, Dr. Eggman, will publicly announce another world-conquest plot. When 'Sonic' & 'Shadow' show up to stop me, the world will watch dumbstruck as its greatest heroes swear allegiance to me. No-one will dare resist, once they see I have the might of Sonic & Shadow at my command!" Laughing, Eggman took out a small notepad from his coat, "Let's see here, lure Sonic into trap, create evil copy of Sonic… hmm… yes… right, Looks like I covered everything. Any questions?"
"Why are you keeping us alive?" asked Shadow.
"Can we not remind the evil villain that he's forgotten to kill us?" said Sonic.
"I need you alive," said Eggman, "The copies need a reference point to stay stable, otherwise they could morph in totally unpredictable ways. Look," He said, pointing to the corner of the area that the two hedgehogs occupied, where a small metal box stood away from the wall. "I even left you a replicator so you don't starve to death. I'm nothing if not compassionate, I know"
"We will get out of here," said Shadow, glaring "and we will put a stop to this, and to you."
"You won't escape this time, fools," said Eggman, his rotund form slipping back into darkness, "it would take a genius to escape this trap, and look, the only genius in the room is leaving. Goodbye hedgehogs." The doctor's laughter echoed into the darkness, and they heard him no more.
"Damn it!" shouted Shadow, pounding his fist against the force field and not even flinching from the surge of energy. Shadow turned to face Sonic, who sported a wide grin.
"What?" asked Shadow.
"You owe me 50 rings."
~o~
PARSING…
NATURAL LIGHT LEVELS 47.5%. ADJUSTING OPTICS.
REFRESHING ENVIRONMENT ANALYSIS.
10256 SEPARATE OBJECTS DETECTED. DISCARDING 10255 NON-SAPIENT.
SAPIENT LIFEFORM DETECTED. FACIAL RECOGNITION SOFTWARE ACTIVE.
LIFEFORM IDENTIFIED. ACCESSING MASTER DATABASE.
NAME: Tails.
SPECIES: Fox – abnormal mutation.
AGE: 11 years, 7 months, 3 weeks, 1 day, 13 hours, 27 minutes, 6 seconds.
ALIASES: **RESTRICTED INFORMATION**
ACTIVE STATUS: TERMINATION PROHIBITED.
LOADING RELATIONSHIP VARIABLES.
PARSING…
~o~
The clear blue of the evening sky mingled with the fiery orange of the setting sun above the Jungle Ruin Zone, and the trees cast long shadows over the Tornado, where Tails perched on the edge of the cockpit. He checked his watch, eager to escape the overgrown jungle, the depths of the forest almost as dark as the oncoming night, with the ancient temple seeming to grow larger with every passing moment. When he looked up, he saw a figure approaching from the temple, walking slowly through the long grass.
Tails heart began to race, and he leapt from his perch, landing on the soft, damp ground and sprinting towards the approaching figure. He threw his arms around them, pressing his face into their soft fur, letting the warmth of their body flow over him.
"Sonic!" he cried, eyes glistening with tears "I'm so glad you're okay. What happened to you in there?"
The blue hedgehog wrapped his slender arms around the little fox, pulling him closer and nuzzling the top of his head with his snout.
"That place was like a maze," he said, "I must have been going in circles for hours."
"Did you find the source of the Chaos spike?" asked Tails, looking into the smiling face of the hedgehog above him.
"No," said the hedgehog, "I didn't find anything, but I don't care. All that mattered to me was finding you again, to know you were alright."
"I'm glad you're back, Sonic."
"Me too, little buddy. Let's go home."
The two boys strolled back to where the plane waited, a thin peach arm pulling Tails close by the shoulder. The fox leapt into the cockpit, and the hedgehog clambered onto the wings. The engine spluttered and struggled, before roaring into life, fearful birds fleeing the trees from the monstrous clamour. The plane began to rise into the evening sky, and the blue hedgehog turned to take a final look at the temple as it fell away from him.
A black hedgehog stood by the entrance, looking up at him with crimson eyes. The blue hedgehog met his gaze, and they both smiled. The blue hedgehog calling himself Sonic gazed upon the setting sun, lost in thought.
~o~
"Sir? May I trouble you for just a moment?"
Doctor Eggman stood in a darkened room, his face illuminated by the glow of a dozen computer screens, each covered with graphs, readouts and equations. The portly doctor barely glanced at the tiny robot hovering near his feet.
"What is it, Orbot?" said Eggman, "can't you see I'm plotting world domination?"
"Forgive me Sir," said Orbot, tilting his head in fear of the doctor's wrath, "It's just, the copies you made of those hedgehogs, Sir. They seem to be, um... malfunctioning."
"What?" barked Eggman, the little robot cowering before him, "They've only been active for 5 minutes! Explain yourself immediately."
Trembling, Orbot held up a data pad crawling with numbers, shielding his face from Eggman's furious gaze.
"Some of their memories seem to be slightly corrupted," said Orbot, "I've also been examining their higher brain function readings. There seems to be a strong positive emotional response when they er... think about each other. This is the complete opposite to the preliminary data we took from the originals. I hate to draw such an unscientific conclusion to this, but…
"Get to the point, you useless bucket of bolts!"
Orbot imagined his next sentence would be his last.
"I… think they might be in love, Sir."
~o~
