Chapter Four
Sector Sanctum
Eggman's newest base was like none other, built on mountains that towered miles above the highest Westopolis skyscraper. The tall metal walls around it were just as impressive, making it look like a prison surrounded by a sea of clouds. Heavy rain and fog decreased visibility, requiring certain mechas to be upgraded with heat and motion sensors. Most of those same mechas were constructed with long, scythe-like arms, allowing them to scale the rocky cliffs without risk of falling off.
There were also some new security modifications, primarily relating to that of the cameo-equipped tank robots, which created deep tracks in the soft dirt as they moved in designated areas. Any local wildlife had been scared away partly because of the spotlights and partly because numerous birds of prey had been shot down by mechas with machine-guns attached to their arms.
Small pod-like sensors stalked everything that moved; even a large truck carrying mecha parts formed by the same evil mastermind who built the base. The pods swarmed the truck like insects to honey, scanning its flat surface for life forms. Once they finished, they floated away, seeming to have noticed a squirrel in the premises.
The vehicle continued moving, the sensors having been unable to detect the government agent hidden beneath it. Shadow watched as Eggman's machinery marched past him, completely unaware of his presence. It wasn't usually his style to quietly sneak in, and he wouldn't be at all if the robots hadn't blown up the pass leading up to the base - while he was still on it.
It was obvious the doctor was taking no chances this time.
The truck passed through the inner courtyard gate, immediately being searched by another hoard of scanners. After that, it was allowed inside the base itself. The vehicle stopped moving, having entered the loading bay. Shadow took the opportunity to crawl out from underneath the truck, and hunched down behind several steel crates.
He quickly observed his surroundings. The bay was large; nearly the size of an underground parking lot. It also seemed to double as a factory, where several half-constructed mechas stood on conveyer belts, being assembled as they moved onward. Once constructed, they were lined up against the wall, waiting to be activated. A few robots marched back and forth, guarding the manufacturing foundation of the madman's army.
Shadow smirked as he found something to blow up.
In the very center of the factory was a generator, which most likely supplied immediate power for the entire system. There was probably a backup, but blowing up something that important would do something, right?
The doctor won't be happy about this, the dark hedgehog thought as a satisfied smile stretched across his face.
He held his palms about an inch away from each other, and started channeling chaos energy from his hands. A small green aura appeared, filling up the space in-between the gloves. When he couldn't make it any stronger, he fired it at the electric generator, watching it make contact in a fractured second.
The explosion was large enough to incinerate everything in the mini-factory's range, leaving nothing but melted rubber and scorched mechas, including the inactive ones. The air within the blast radius turned to black smoke as scanner bots and cameras turned their attention to the destroyed factory. By that time, Shadow was already gone.
The black hedgehog sped down a hallway, instantly crushing every mecha and security drone that got in his way.
He didn't have time to worry about being stealthy. Not anymore.
The doctor had better show himself soon. This mission is starting to bore me, the agent thought.
After some searching, he entered a room that was quite different compared to the others. The entire ceiling was a single light panel, not only that, but it was extremely high up. Maybe fifteen feet. The walls were the same, each illuminating the room with equal intensity. Shadow looked down, noticing that the floor was stranger still. Millions of tiny squares divided up the space equally, the lines of each shape blending into the next, like some kind of grid.
The door slammed shut from behind him. Shadow looked behind himself, only to see nothing out of the ordinary.
"Confused?" asked a voice from behind him.
Once more the crimson-streaked animal turned his head. Eggman, the human whose very form would baffle any anthropology specialist, sat in his floating pod. His mouth formed into a wide smile, one that obviously meant he was feeling self-satisfied.
Shadow was instinctively suspicious. Eggman always used his machine as an escape vehicle, or make-shift weapon. So then why wasn't it attached to any machinery?
"Not likely," the hedgehog replied.
The doctor smiled at this.
"You seem intent on staying. Perhaps you wouldn't mind a little... entertainment," Eggman said, his smile broadening.
He typed something on the keyboard in his floating pod, opening the bottom of the machine. A long chain extended out, the end of it attached to a claw-like arm. It looked somewhat like a claw machine.
Shadow crossed his arms, unimpressed.
As if to indicate he wasn't done yet, Eggman keyed in another command, and the room started to change. The entire room seemed to waver, as if the walls were stretching and distorting themselves. The light blared intensely as Shadow began to get a headache. He shut his eyes, unable to take the earsplitting pain.
Then he opened his eyes again.
Where am I...? was all he could manage to think.
Concrete buildings towered overhead, so high up that they seemed to pierce the black sky above. The street that Shadow stood on was cracked and broken. Rubble and overturned cars were scattered everywhere in such a random pattern that the hedgehog standing the middle of all this was almost forced to recognize it.
This is... Central City... when Black Doom was... But... how?
His thoughts must have been written on his face; Eggman was certainly pleased.
"You..." Shadow said, having trouble finding the right words. "You're tampering with chaos energy, aren't you?"
"I knew you wouldn't be confused for too long," the evil scientist replied. "But I don't have time to explain it to the likes of you."
Shadow growled. "If you're not going to tell me, then just shut up!"
"If you insist..." Eggman said, his pod charging forward, claw outstretched.
...
A blurry haze of purple light flickered on, growing in intensity before fading to black. The illumination lit up once more, and faded away, faster this time. On and off, the foggy light repeated this process over and over, faster and faster until it pulsated, resembling a steady beat; similar to the beat of a heart.
Like the steady throb of the heart of a cobalt hedgehog nearby it.
Sonic slowly came to, lifting up his head to see machines and equipment surrounding him in a well-structured fashion. The air was fresh and sterile, which was surprising at first. The only response he gave to the flashing screens and bright lights was a confused blink. Struggling to his feet, the mammal glanced around in silence, recalling the events that led him there.
So... I ran after Robo Knuckles and fell...The headache-induced hedgehog glanced around. ...into one of Eggman's labs?
Vibrant white light shone from the ceiling, forcing the mammal under its gaze to hold his gloved hand over his eyes, giving his eyes time to adjust to the slightly intense lighting. The floor and walls were polished and smooth, giving obvious proof that the lower sections of the base were well-maintained, unlike the floor above. But how the base remained in use after its creator left it was a mystery.
Sonic's ears perked up as he heard a familiar voice start talking.
"...aos abilities allow a 'Controller' to distort time and space. This is also known-"
"Eggman!" the blue mammal shouted, whipping around to the source of the sound.
It was then that he realized it was just one of the monitors - which had somehow turned on -was playing a recording of Eggman giving some kind of scientific lecture. Several computer models were shown next to graphs and data displays that boggled Sonic's mind just from the sight of them.
"...the Space-Time Disruption Theory. When chaos power is utilized by an organic Controller, maximum potential instantly increases, theoretically permitting an infinite developmental process. When this occurs-"
Sonic yawned, and probably would have fallen asleep right there on the floor if he hadn't heard a strange sound coming from behind him. Turning around, the hedgehog immediately smiled at the sight of a group of mechanical wasps buzzing forward in a swarm formation.
Each had a pair of synthetic wings powerful enough to levitate their small bodies in the air, much like the robot bees Eggman used to make. Crimson eyes flashed intensely as long, segmented limbs extended outward in anticipation of attacking their prey. At the bottom of the thorax was an extensive stinger, which glowed red-hot from internal heating.
Nice... Sonic thought, leisurely stretching as a mecha hurtled itself toward him. Kinda' like the Buzzer mech.
The hedgehog abruptly leapt upward, rolling into a ball as he came back down, reducing the first mecha into shrapnel.
The recoding of Eggman continued to rant as Sonic went for another wasp robot. "...an aura of ..."
Three of the metal insects activated small booster rockets behind their wings, firing themselves like bullets at their target, only to miss and lodge themselves into the wall.
"...surrounding a Controller, which energy is immediately drawn from when utilizing chaos abilities. All artificial chaos field attempts have ..."
Sonic jumped onto a wasp, crushing its head with his foot before kicking off of it to rocket himself into the three wasps on the wall. Each wasp was spin-dashed with ease; the mechas were like darts stuck to a target board.
"...failed to remain sustained unless a similar aura of bio-electric origins is present – or even exists. According to theory..."
Sonic clapped dust off his hands as he examined his handiwork. Wrecked robot parts were everywhere, randomly scattered throughout the once-clean laboratory. The hedgehog sighed as his adrenaline level slowly dropped, and Eggman's voice rang through the lab once more.
The screen from which the recording was playing shifted from the doctor himself to a data display on his right, which presented two charts. The first was labeled in green, and had a DNA strand next to it. The second was red, and a duplicate of the other strand was placed adjacent.
Sonic's brow furrowed as he tried to pay attention to the egg-shaped human's rambling.
"...ields of artificial formation are only practical if genetically copied from organisms which already possess them. For this process to take place, a DNA sample must be recovered and placed into an inorganic frame, or mechanical unit. Once this process is complete, the unit will be able to adapt and change individually, even if several of the same model are created. This information supports the Theory of Chaos Manipulation, which states that an embodied..."
Sonic walked away, unable to stand listening to more of the egomaniacal doctor's speech.
But then, he noticed a familiar purple gemstone. The chaos emerald was suspended in the air, hovering in place over a pedestal of some kind. It wasn't even protected by glass. Sonic was about to reach out to grab it, when he noticed wires leading from the metal pedestal to a machine to the side. Walking over to it, the animal realized that the emerald had been powering this machine alone.
What was with that?
Sonic looked inside a thick window in the side of the machine, wondering what it was for. Inside, he saw what looked like a miniature version of Westopolis next to a similarly sized Green Hill Zone. Strangely, nothing was happening. But then, quite suddenly, a purple mass expanded outward from the middle of the city, and a second in the center of Green Hill until everything was consumed in what looked like some kind of slow-moving explosion. Once the purple faded, the entire replica had changed.
Both models seemed to have warped together into a twisted version of the two. Buildings congealed into the checkered rock of Green Hill. Gray and white clouds perversely mixed, forming chalky brown vapor that looked like smog. Plants grew from apartment windows and the city's sewer system had surfaced, leaving a pale brown river that joined to one of once pure, crystal-blue water.
What... the... heck? Sonic was disturbed, and prompted into deep thought. What does this mean?
He glanced back at the jewel to which the machine was connected to.
If the emerald is powering this thing... then that means that the purple... thing has something to do with chaos energy. But... I still don't get it.
As Sonic stood there, everything reversed itself, and the process started again.
It just keeps going. Maybe... maybe this is some kind of test! That way you can see the results over and over again.
The hedgehog decided to take that chaos emerald before anything else happened. Surprisingly, when he reached for it, he wasn't electrocuted or anything like that. Eggman had to be being careless. There was no way he would just let him take something as important as that.
Something doesn't feel right, Sonic pondered. Oh well. I'll just come back later with Tails. He'll know what's going on.
As the hedgehog left to search for a way out, he didn't see a pair of green eyes watching him. Robo Knuckles came out from his hiding place, looking disapprovingly at the inferior wasp mechas he had sent after the hedgehog. Although they failed to defeat their enemy, they served their intended purpose: keeping him distracted. And Robo Knuckles had served his purpose just the same.
Keeping the weapon safe.
...
Metal Sonic stared at the computer screen, waiting as the seconds counted down to arrival. Every once in a while the screen would disappear, replaced by mere static before returning again, then repeating the pattern in such a routine way that it seemed almost like a procedure. And every time the mechas eyes stayed trained on the timer.
Five minutes. Only three-hundred more seconds before he could focus on something important. Not just these... thoughts. Something deep inside was bothering him.
He knew what it was. There was no denying it.
It was the emotions he had developed from his chaos field.
Creating a machine, a lifeless object, and programming it was only a scratch on the surface of what he was capable of. A machine that could think was nothing next to a machine that could feel. True, inorganic materials could be used to create mechas, but they could only be used as tools. Nothing more. But could something that is not living, nor even dead, become equal to an organism? More than something that could only comply to a task-maker's will?
It was difficult to comprehend, even for Metal Sonic.
He could remember, years ago, when his creator had copied that hedgehog's DNA, and used it to form his ultimate creation. The perfected copy. Metal didn't just look like Sonic, he was him. They were the same. Yet, so different.
But chaos powers made them even more similar still. By copying enough data, he became capable of fusing an organic chaos field to himself. Now, just like any other being with chaos distortion abilities, he had an aura to draw energy from. It also allowed him to fuse himself with his creator's airbase and become the Metal Overlord.
But for Metal, it had come at a price. The price he had to pay was the retaining of emotion. Even the procession of such sentiment made him feel weaker, slower. But he knew that if he could learn to master emotion, it would be to his benefit.
Amy had proved very useful to him so far. As he taught her how to talk, Metal studied her emotions. His chao, Neon, was teaching her how to spell multisyllabic words. She was learning surprisingly fast. So fast, in fact, that he was worried she might remember who he was. That would make things complicated.
The screen flashed back on for barely an instant, but he still managed to read the countdown.
Two-hundred and forty seconds.
Metropolis. That was where he was going. Everything he could possibly need was there: reprogrammable robots, oil refineries, a maze of unused buildings, weapons, and... machinery. Metal needed that most of all, and Metropolis had all kinds of machines. He could do anything with such a multitude of steel and circuits.
And he knew exactly what he wanted to do.
One-hundred and eighty seconds.
It was strange. On one hand, he hated the very thought of having emotions. To be more like his nemesis. But then again, he did like to relish some of the feelings the emotion brought. Like the thought of killing the hedgehog he so closely resembled. Too closely.
One-hundred and twenty seconds.
Metal did find it amusing to just imagine the pain and suffering his enemies would endure. His creator too, he wanted dead. They would all die.
Sixty seconds.
He was so close. So close to starting something that would ruin all of their lives.
Thirty seconds.
He wanted revenge.
Ten seconds.
And he was going to have it.
Yeah, I know. This is the shortest chapter yet.
Not only was this chapter extremely short, but I have no information to give on chapter four. All of the facts for this chapter contain spoilers, so I can't give you any of those. Not that they really apply anymore, considering how much the story has changed.
All I can say is that the old story was half-over at this point. Although... the old version doesn't seem to have much relevance anymore. Maybe I'll give you some more facts once we get to a later chapter. I have nothing else to say here.