Chapter 4: Nega's Revenge
Safe and sound in his secret undersea fortress, Dr. Eggman Nega wasted no time setting in motion his grand revenge against his enemies.
The undersea fortress was in reality a hijacked GUE space station converted to a stationary marine environment. It was a backup hideout, installed in case Nega's main base of operations was discovered somehow. That was exactly what'd happened. Not long ago those pests Silver and Blaze stormed Nega's pyramid base along with a squad of GUE agents, including Shadow the Hedgehog. Somehow those vermin had not only learned about the existence of the secret pyramid base, but also the layout of it - as they cunningly cut off Eggman Nega's attempt to flee through his functional time portal located elsewhere in the pyramid.
The week spent in prison had given Eggman Nega plenty of time to plot his revenge. Villainous schemes that he'd set aside before were now to be put into full operation. He wouldn't hold back when it came to showing the world what happened to those who dared to oppose the greatest scientific genius of all time!
Apart from painting over all of the GUE insignias with the grinning Eggman Nega logo, and redesigning the exterior of the station to fit the rough sea bed, Nega had made few changes to the GUE space station. There were really only two things the villainous scientist needed for a suitable hideout: A lab and a factory. The station, now an undersea fortress, provided both.
Eggman Nega was going to put into action two of the most nefarious plans he'd ever thought up. First, he was going to secure the service the Ultimate Life-Form. Second, he was going to finish the prototype for the Nega Replicoid; a robot so powerful Nega had first decided not to use it for fear that he wouldn't be able to control it once it lived up to its full potential. For the sake of ensuring the destruction of GUE and those wretched furry heroes, any risk was worth taking.
Sitting at the massive command console in the control room of his undersea base, Nega finished downloading the rest of the necessary data from his online safe space. The key to making Shadow the Hedgehog his slave was remarkably compact. The sound file was only half a megabyte large, but provided Nega's encoding was accurate, it would effectively render the Ultimate Life-Form a slave to his will.
-
Silver and Blaze were still civilians, no matter how many times they worked together with GUE, but being friends with the leader of the global military had its benefits. To be allowed access to the strategy meeting of the GUE top brass, the two needed only ask. Truth be told, they would probably have been invited anyway, given that they'd become experts in dealing with criminals like Eggman Nega.
Conquest the Bat arrived at the meeting last. As always in official matters, she wore her Commander uniform. Conquest wasn't the first animaloid to hold the post, but she was the first to have such a challenging figure to trap in a gender-neutral uniform. The tailors had long since given up. Only two adjectives were necessary to provide more than enough detail: Tight and low-cut. As mentioned before, the woman would pass for Rouge the Bat's twin if she ever decided to apply excessive amounts of make-up. Surprisingly, Conquest was by no means the flirtatious type - she did, however, know to take advantage that the majority of the GUE top-ranking members were men. Old men.
Conquest's second-in-command was General Deni, whose name was forgotten by most. He didn't wear a name tag, but was easily identifiable as the loudest and most arrogant idiot in the vicinity, though he'd certainly prefer that you recognise him as the one with the largest amount of stars. He and the Commander had grown to despise each other. Conquest's attitude, however, had softened considerably after the General was horribly murdered by a Metal Sonic copy in an alternate timeline.
"So what do we know?" Conquest asked her friends and officers.
"Eggman Nega headed due West towards the ocean border then disappeared," said an interchangeable officer, looking over the notes handed to him. "Satellite scans suggest that Nega has flooded the entire outer coast line with scan displacement generators. By the time we're able to clean up this mess and get a clear shot, he'll be long gone."
"Maybe Nega's got an island or an underwater base out there?" Silver suggested.
"Don't be stupid!" the General barked. "That tub of lard is on the run! Our troops cleared out his first base, and that pyramid was his back-up, you be sure of it. Guy's probably just looking for some rock to hide under now!"
Conquest the Bat very pointedly did not voice the fact that the General had opposed the plan to attack Nega's pyramid every step of the way. What she did say was "If he's spent the resources to make sure he'd be able to cover his escape, then he must have somewhere to run to. We should send GUE scout subs into the area."
"Sure," said the General, and then more in character added "and while you're at it, why not send your skunk boyfriend along to sniff out Nega with his special powers?"
"Hedgehog," said Shadow.
"Skunk, hedgehog, same deal," said the General dismissively, immediatelly gaining yet another helping of hatred from every animaloid in the room. Conquest had tried to have General Deni court-martialled more than once, but every time the attempt had led to nothing more than a waste of time and money, and a self-satisfied gloat from the General. The guy went far, but never so far that his own elite team of military lawyers couldn't twist the truth well enough to leave him smell of roses in any court.
Silver caught the brief spark of flame from Blaze's direction, even though it couldn't have lasted more than a fraction of a second. One never had to wonder about the emotional state of a pyrokinetic. There was a reason why Blaze kept herself so cold and reserved most of the time.
Not long after that a lieutenant interrupted the meeting, saying there was an urgent phone call. Conquest naturally dismissed it, but when the young officer explained that the caller identified himself as Dr Eggman Nega, she immediatelly accepted it.
"Actually," the lieutenant said, "he says he's calling for Shadow the Hedgehog."
"What?" said Conquest.
"Huh," said Shadow.
"Send the call through on speaker. I assume you've already started the trace engine?" said the Commander.
"Yes, ma'am. Of course."
There was no mistaking the voice, a minute later.
"Shadow the Hedgehog, the Ultimate Life-Form, greatest creation of Professor Gerald Robotnik," said Nega, speaking like he was listing up a series of achievements. "You were created for the purpose of becoming a stepping stone on the way to true immortality, the key to curing Professor Gerald's beloved granddaughter of her terminal illness. But your purpose was altered twice by the very man who created you. First, he made you his champion to upset the evil plans of the alien Black Arms and save Earth. But secondly, the Gerald turned insane by grief and failure made you the means to strike revenge against humankind by destroying Earth..."
"I know my history," said Shadow without emotion.
"Of course you do. But don't you wonder how Gerald managed to reprogram your mind to make you his evil pawn by the end? How he altered your memories into false motivations for destruction? How he gave you the knowledge to enact his evil plan fifty years after his death?"
"It doesn't matter. My past has no power over me now."
"Muahahaaahaaa!! You really believe that, don't you, Shadow? Let me to prove you wrong!!"
The last part of the transmission was a painfully loud screeching noise like the scratching of an ant through the biggest loudspeaker in existence. Everyone in the room immediatelly covered their ears and let out a cry of shock and pain. Shadow himself reacted the same at first, but then simply stood motionless until the noise ended.
Conquest cursed and slammed her fist into the table. "We'll not be mocked by that renegade scientist! Lieutenant, tell me we got a clean trace of that call!"
"S-sorry ma'am. The signal trace rebounded back to this location. Unless he's hiding under the table, we missed him."
There was a humorous moment as everyone in the room resisted the urge to take a quick peek under the long rectangular table they were seated around.
"Shadow, are you alright?" Conquest asked her lover with concern in her voice that she should know the General would use against her later.
"C-c-c-c..." Shadow stuttered quietly.
"Whassamatter now!?" the General burst out. He'd obviously nearly suffered a heart-attack when that painfully loud noise blasted through the room.
Shadow looked up. The look of hostility on his face was unpleasantly natural to him, almost as dangerously foreboding as the red glow emanating from his body.
"CHAOS BLAST!!" Shadow shouted as he relasead the violent chaos shockwave in every direction.
The table and surrounding furniture was turned into splinters, and the assembled GUE brass were thrown into the walls like rag dolls. Silver instinctively wrapped himself in psycho-kinetic energy to withstand the blast, at the same time grabbing Blaze and Conquest with his power to keep them safe. As ominous smoke rose around him, Shadow turned his back to his friends and allies and stormed out of the room. Sounds of screams and explosions suggested that he dealt similarly with any GUE members that stood in his way.
Silver didn't put down Blaze and Conquest until Shadow was gone. It was cowardly, but he knew he had no realistic chance of defeating Shadow in an all-out battle, and besides he didn't want to hurt the black hedgehog if he was somehow being controlled against his will by Nega or something.
"What just happened?" Blaze asked.
"Nega did something to Shadow. We've got to stop him before it's too late," said Conquest, surprising Silver who expected her to worry more about challenging her boyfriend in real combat.
His recent adventures had had an impact on Silver the Hedgehog. He didn't respond with "But...how?" or anything like that, but instead stopped up and thought rationally about the problem. It didn't take him long to see the obvious solution. "Chaos Control," he said. "If I can freeze Shadow using Chaos Control we can capture him to find out what's wrong without having to hurt him."
"Good plan," said Blaze, "but your Chaos Control ability is nothing compared to Shadow's. You'll need to use a Chaos Emerald. Maybe two... There's no one in the world more experienced than Shadow when it comes to using Chaos Control."
"Right," said Silver. "You go get your Emerald, and I'll get mine. Commander, can you have your agents track Shadow in the meantime, so we'll know where to find him when we're ready?"
"I'll go after him myself," said Conquest with impenetrable determination.
"Don't try to fight him," said Blaze.
"Don't worry, I'm not crazy..."
The General was back on his feet, swaying slightly. "That traitor! That terrorist! Send everything after the damn skunk! Navy! Army!! Air force!!! Space fo-EIGH!!"
Conquest rubbed her fist after sending the blowhard back to dream land. "Sergeant Terkal," she called into the communicator on her wrist. "Get up here on the double!"
"I'll try to keep Shadow from hurting anyone," she said. "Terkal can make sure that idiot doesn't cause even more trouble from our end. You two hurry and get those Chaos Emeralds so we can stop Shadow before he does something we'll all regret. Then...we'll make Eggman Nega pay for this!"
-
Nega's villainous laughter echoed against the reinforced walls of his undersea fortress.
-
End of Chapter 4.
