Chapter 6: Memories of the ARK
Dr. Robotnik had just finished repairing Metal Sonic. He was now enjoying a nice double cheeseburger. Just then something on the computer screen caught his attention.
After looking at the data, the doctor smirked.
"What's so funny Master Robotnik." Metal Sonic asked.
"Sonic and Tails have used the transporter to board the space colony ARK." Robotnik explained. "Originally, I expected them to search the pyramid base's computer for information on what I was up to, only to have the base self-destruct." He then took another bite of his cheeseburger. "Instead they went to the ARK. Since we aren't at that location, Sonic and Tails are going on a wild goose chase."
"I see." Metal Sonic nodded. "By the way, do you plan to robotize that cat anytime soon?"
"Yes." Robotnik answered. "As a matter of fact, I think I'll do it right now." He then gobbled down the rest of the double cheese burger.
Both Robotnik and Metal Sonic left the control room of his new base. After walking down a few halls, they came to the containment area.
Here lots of small animals were locked in cages. They were mostly birds, rats, and hamsters. However, Robotnik had no interest in robotizing any of those critters yet. He had his eyes set on one specific creature he intended to robotize.
At the center of the room, Mittens was locked in a golden cage.
Robotnik opened the cage and grabbed the cat by the scruff of its neck. The evil duo left the room, walked down another hall, and entered the robotizer chamber.
At the center of the room was the robotizer, a machine capable of turning organic life forms into badniks, robots made for war.
"Mecha, get the robotizer ready." Robotnik instructed. "Be sure to set it on full power."
"I take it your going to make it into a super badnik." Metal Sonic walked to a control panel, he then began pushing some buttons. "I haven't seen those in a while."
"Since cat's have SPECIAL powers, I've decided they are worthy of becoming super badniks instead of the regular badniks." Robotnik explained. "If this one turns out to be a success, I will robotize more. The G.U.N. army won't stand a chance against my robotic cats. The world will be wine within days. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha."
"Uh, I hate to interrupt your dramatic moment, but the robotizer is ready." Metal Sonic informed him.
"Very well." Robotnik said. "Get ready to be robotized, kitty." With those words he threw the cat into the robotizer.
"ROWR!" Mittens screamed as he was hurled through the air, into the robotizer.
At first nothing happened for a few minutes, then the robotizer began to rumble.
"That's odd." Robotnik said. "I don't recall seeing it do that before."
Just then, the computer screen on the control panel started flashing five red words.
Warning. Overload. Request shutdown immediately.
"What's going on sir." Metal Sonic asked.
The robotizer began to whine. Yellow sparks began to erupt from it.
"Mecha." Robotnik said. "Turn the robotizer off. NOW!"
Metal Sonic pushed a button on the control panel that was labeled Shutdown.
The whining stopped. Smoke began to pour out of the robotizer. Robotnik opened up the exit hatch.
"Impossible." Robotnik gasped.
"Does not compute." Metal Sonic shook his head in disbelief.
Out stepped Mittens looking perfectly normal, not robotized at all.
"Meow." Mittens purred.
"Wipe that smirk off your face kitty." Robotnik growled as he picked Mittens up again. "I'll have you robotized, just you wait." He then turned to face Metal Sonic. "Mecha, I'm going to study the cat some more to find out why it wasn't robotized. In the mean time, I want you to fix up that robotizer."
"Yes sir." Metal Sonic replied. If he had been organic, he would have sighed for he was not pleased to be the janitor for the day.
--
Sonic had been running on the maintenance walkways that hung below space colony ARK. He had to hurry, the cannon could fire at any moment. He then spin dashed two guard robots knocking them of the walkway.
There was an elevator shaft near Sonic's location. Just as Sonic was about to pass it, the two twin doors at the bottom of the shaft slid open. Out stepped the black hedgehog himself, Shadow.
"Figures you'd show up." Sonic sighed. "I'm kinda busy right now, how about we postpone this for later."
"What's wrong?" Shadow asked. "Afraid you'll get your butt whooped?"
"No." Sonic began to walk away. "I got a date with the Eclipse Cannon tonight, so I cant afford to be late."
"Figures you want to stop the doctors plans." Shadow began to follow Sonic. "I wonder how you escaped that capsule that exploded in space."
"What can I say, I die hard." Sonic shrugged. "You actually saved me you know." He then held the fake emerald in his left hand.
"I see you mastered chaos control using a fake emerald." Shadow smiled. "A fake emerald that belongs to a faker such as yourself. I'm afraid your date is going to have to wait though."
"Oh no it isn't." Sonic gritted his teeth in anger. "Too many people are counting on me, I won't fail them."
As tempting as it was to attack Shadow, he knew it would be a waste of time. Instead, he started to run in the direction of the Eclipse Cannon.
Shadow followed, his jet like skates allowed him to catch up with ease.
"So you think you can save them then." Shadow smirked. "Who do you think you are faker? A super hero wannabe?"
"No." Sonic shook his head. "Just a guy that likes adventures. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog."
The duo began to increase their speed.
"Well Sonic, your adventuring days are coming to an end." Shadow said.
"Naw, I don't think I've had enough adventures yet." Sonic flashed his trademark grin to annoy Shadow. "Still, I guess we could run and fight at the same time. Bring it on Shadow."
Shadows eyes narrowed. "By the time this battle is over, I'll show you the true power of chaos control."
--
"Sonic, wake up!" Tails shook Sonic by the arm.
Sonic's eyes slowly opened. "Ugh, what happened?"
"The teleporter ended up having you materialize upside down." Tails explained. "You hit your head against the floor and blacked out. I had to wake you up."
"I see." Sonic then observed his surroundings, the floor was made of solid glass and steel. "We must be in one of the labs on the space colony ARK."
"I already recognize this area." Tails nodded. "I fought Eggman here once. Speaking of which, I wonder where he is."
"I'm not sure myself." Sonic admitted. "We should probably head to the central control room, perhaps we may be able to use the computers there to help locate him."
"Sounds good to me." Tails nodded in agreement. "Before we go though, how about we take a quick look out the window. You can see our home planet from here."
"Very well." Sonic walked up to the window and gazed at the view. He could see the blue and green planet Earth. He could see the stars and constellations. Then he saw something that nearly made his heart stop, the moon.
Or what was left of it. Half of the moon was gone. It's orange core could be seen.
The moon had been the first target Dr. Robotnik wanted to test the Eclipse Cannon on. The blast fired by the cannon blew up half of the moon. Now the Eclipse Cannon was destroyed and the government decided to rebuild the moon. So far he could see they got about a fourth of it done..
Still, the memory made Sonic shudder whenever he thought about it. He then turned to face Tails.
"Let's get going." He said, doing his best to smile.
The duo left the lab and began walking down the hallways. The whole place was a maze. It was easy for anyone to get lost.
Luckily, Sonic and Tails had already visited this place before, so they already knew the main routes of this place.
A pair of humanoid robots appeared into view. Their armor was black and white. Each had a laser rifle wielded into their left arms.
"Laser Hunters!" Sonic shouted. "Let's take them out fast."
The first Laser Hunter fired a yellow laser at Sonic. The blue hedgehog jumped over it and spindashed into the robot deactivating it.
Tails tripped the other Laser Hunter using his twin tails, then kicked it's head in deactivating it. The duo then gave each other a high five.
"There's probably more of them in the ARK." Tails cautioned. "Let's keep our eyes open."
"I guess they haven't reprogrammed the robots yet." Sonic said. "Say Tails, once we get to the control room, do you think you can try reprogramming those robots?"
"I'll try." Tails shrugged. "The control room should be on the 30th floor. We should be approaching an elevator soon."
--
Scanning location…
Location confirmed;
Self-unit is at space Colony Ark;
Coordinate X-Y-Z.
Review session begin;
Loading…
Self unit has followed Sonic and Tails to Space Colony ARK. Part of ground facility.
Review session end;
What they could be up to session begin;
To explore the ARK. Probability low.
To search for Master Robotnik. Probability high.
What they could be up to session end.
Solution;
Search and delete Sonic and Tails…
--
Sonic and Tails walked through the halls, any Laser Hunter that got in their path was destroyed. Eventually they came to an elevator. They used it to get to the 30th floor. After wandering through more halls they finally entered a very odd room.
It was large, and was decorated with mirrors of all sizes. It used to be a laboratory where scientists did experiments with lights and lasers. Now it was abandoned.
"What is this place?" Tails asked.
"I'm not sure Tails." Sonic shrugged "Let's just head to the control room."
The duo exited the room by a door on the other side. After walking down a few more halls the duo finally entered a gigantic room.
It was about the size of a football stadium. A very long walkway connected to a circular platform that appeared to be hovering in midair. At the center of the platform was the ARK's main computer.
The duo walked across the walkway and stepped onto the platform.
"This place brings back memories." Sonic said eyeing a machine that had seven holes in it.
The machine was a generator that needed the seven chaos emeralds to power up the Eclipse Cannon several floors below. With the cannon gone, the machine was now useless.
Sonic could still remember the fate of the cannon.
--
Flash back…
Both Sonic and Shadow were racing down the walkway while fighting each other at the same time.
Each attempting to blast each other with chaos attacks.
Shadow attempted to skewer Sonic apart by launching bolts of golden energy from his palms.
Sonic, using the power of the fake emerald, summoned wind based attacks in an attempt to blow Shadow off the walkway.
Both were able to avoid each others attacks so far.
"Okay, I know Eggman wants to use the cannon to takeover the world." Sonic growled as he evaded another chaos spear launched from his rival. "But what's the deal with you. Why are you so hell bent on seeing that cannon fire."
"Vengeance." Shadow coldly replied.
"Care to elaborate?" Sonic asked.
"I hate them." Shadow snarled, his calm appearance beginning to fade. "I hate them all, the people of that accursed planet. That includes you too." He then launched another chaos spear at Sonic.
Boy, he sure looks ticked off. All this time I thought Shadow was just plain evil and sadistic. Perhaps he just had a rough past.
"You're cynical today." Sonic dodged the attack. "Why do you hate them?" Sonic asked a bit curious. "What did they do to you."
"They ruined my life." Shadow growled. "They slaughtered the people I loved. A young hedgehog like yourself could never understand."
"Your wrong Shadow." Sonic disagreed. "I too had witness Eggman kill some people I cared about too. For awhile, I thought all humans where evil until I visited Station Square. It was then I learned that most humans are just nice people."
"Your speeches bore me to death, hedgehog." Shadow launched another chaos spear. "You misunderstand the whole situation. It isn't humans I hate, it is the people of Earth. That includes humans. They shall now pay with their lives."
Uh oh, he looks like he's gone mad from his past. I'm almost at the cannon though, I'll have to focus on destroying it first before dealing with Shadow.
"DIE!" Shadow screamed launching more chaos spears at him. "Die you pathetic excuse for a faker. Die with your doomed planet."
Yep, he's definitely gone completely mad now. Cmon, hedgehog just a few more seconds.
He then vaulted off the walkway onto a maintenance platform next to the cannon.
Yes, made it. Now to figure out where to insert the fake emerald.
Before he could do so he ducked just in time to avoid a punch from Shadow then jumped back to avoid a kick.
"Ha. Thought you could lose me." Shadow grinned, eyes filled with madness, hatred, and a lust for blood. "As I said before, your date is going to have to wait."
"Shadow stop." Sonic tried to reason with him. "This fight won't accomplish anything."
"Wrong again Sonic." Shadow launched another chaos spear, which Sonic barely evaded. "It will accomplish the destruction of your planet."
"Destroying Earth won't bring back your loved ones." Sonic disagreed. This caused Shadow to pause for a moment
"You're absolutely correct." Shadow said. "No matter what I do, she will never come back to life. Therefore neither will they. Once Earth is destroyed, I will fire the cannon again at the moon. Once that is done, I will continue to fire the cannon at every single last planet in the galaxy. Every form of life shall be wiped from existence. Ha ha ha."
"SONIC WIND!" Sonic summoned a strong gust of wind that knocked Shadow of the platform.
Shadow then teleported back onto the platform and kicked Sonic in the left arm with his rocket skate leaving a scorch mark.
Sonic clutched his arm in pain. This gave Shadow the opportunity to grab Sonic by the throat and start squeezing.
To make a long story short, Shadow was choking Sonic.
"Goodbye faker." Shadow hissed. "You and your planet sh- ARRRGH!"
Shadow released Sonic and clutched his chest which bore a scorch mark to match Sonic's.
"The fake emerald causes the energy in the regular chaos emeralds to reverse and blow up." Sonic explained, holding the fake emerald. "It appears you are full of chaos energy just like the emeralds. That's why it affected you. Heh, I guess I found something that actually works on you."
"Shut up!" Shadow screamed in rage. "I refuse to be beaten by a faker."
He tried to kick Sonic but the blue hedgehog blocked it with the fake emerald. This caused Shadow's rocket skate to short circuit. Sonic then slammed the fake emerald into Shadow's knee, burning away the fur and skin.
As Shadow clutched his knee, Sonic punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground.
"Game over Shadow." Sonic spat. "I won. You won't be blowing up Earth or anybody else. It's back to jail for you."
Just then the platform began to shake. The cannon was now begging to charge up. The charge was causing vibrations in the maintenance area where Sonic and Shadow were.
The force of the vibrations was so intense, that it caused the supports holding the platform in place to break. This caused the platform to tilt. Both Sonic and Shadow began to slide to the edge of the tilted platform.
Sonic managed to grab onto a steel beam that stuck out of the platform. Shadow slid past him.
Then Shadow felt something catch his hand.
Shadow looked up and saw that Sonic was holding his hand, attempting to pull him up. Sonic's eyes weren't full of hatred, they were full of pity.
"Let go of me faker!" Shadow snarled as he tried to wiggle his way from Sonic's grasp.
"No!" Sonic begged. "Shadow don't let go."
But Shadow broke free and fell off the platform. Sonic didn't have much time to think about this though. The cannon was close to being charged.
Crud, it's about to fire. The only thing I can do now is throw the fake emerald into the cannon's gun barrel. If that doesn't work, I'll be vaporized along with the planet.
He then threw the emerald with all his might into the cannons gun barrel.
Just when he thought he failed, the cannon exploded.
End of Flash back…
--
"Any luck yet Tails?" Sonic asked.
"Aha. I detect two life forms at the ARK's core." Tails proudly announced. "It could be them."
"But Mecha is a robot, not a life form." Sonic said.
"It could be the cat." Tails shrugged. "We should probably check it out. Oh and by the way, I was able to use the ARK's computer to deactivate the robots."
"Awesome job Tails." Sonic complimented. "Let's get going then."
The duo then left the control room. Down a few halls, through the mirror chamber, and down a few more halls.
Just as they approached the elevator, its twin doors slid open. The scarab bot they met in the pyramid hovered out.
"No way!" Sonic exclaimed. "I thought we already beat that bug."
"We probably only succeeded in knocking it out." Tails said. "I have an idea though."
"What?" Sonic asked.
"Target acquired. Initiating attack mode." The robot droned.
"RUN!" Tails replied loudly.
The duo ran away from the scarab bot, just in time as several pink lasers scorched the floor.
--
It had been thirty minutes since Sonic and Tails left to go search for Eggman. Amy was bored, so she was flipping through the TV channels. Nothing good was on. She used the remote to turn the TV off, then looked in the direction of the couch.
Monica was still unconscious.
Sighing, she began pacing back and forth across the room.
Well this sucks! The moment I finally get to see Sonic again is the moment I have to watch over sleeping beauty. I wonder if Sonic's still obsessed with that crazy search for Shadow. He sure has been obsessed with it ever since the ARK incident.
She sighed again.
I guess I can't really blame him though. Even though Shadow started out as a bad guy, he eventually had a change of heart. I should know, I was there when it happened.
--
Flash back…
"Ooh, I hate when they leave me behind." Amy grumbled as she walked down the halls of the ARK.
Every once in awhile, the ARK would rumble. This didn't surprise Amy one bit, she already knew the ARK was on a collision course towards Earth. Sonic and the others were working together to prevent it.
I sure hope they succeed in doing so.
Finally, she arrived at the lab where Tails and Eggman once fought. The lab was the best place to view the Earth and stars.
Incase they failed, she decided to look upon it one last time.
As she entered the lab though, her heart instantly stopped.
Looking out the observation window was Shadow.
Impossible. I thought he died when the cannon was destroyed. I guess he used chaos control to save himself.
The pink hedgehog stood still in fear. However, the black hedgehog didn't seem to notice her.
He sure looks like he's in his own world. I wonder what he is thinking about. Probably about his old life back on the ARK and his times with Maria.
Amy had recently found out a lot of information about the ARK when Eggman showed her Professor Gerald's diary.
50 years ago, a terrible accident occurred on the ARK. The accident almost ended up in a disaster that would have affected Earth as well. The disaster was barely prevented. The president at the time sent the military to kill all the scientists so the accident wouldn't happen again.
What followed next was complete genocide. The military not only gunned down the scientists, but the people that happened to be living there as well.
Among those people was Maria, Gerald's granddaughter. She was like a sister to Shadow.
After the genocide, Gerald Robotnik was arrested while Shadow was frozen into hibernation.
The Professor had been driven mad by this. Before he was arrested, he managed to program the computer to crash the ARK into Earth once all seven chaos emeralds were collected. Eventually, Gerald was executed.
However, 50 years later. Dr. Robotnik, Gerald's grandson, released Shadow from hibernation. As a reward, Shadow introduced him to the Eclipse Cannon.
"Which is the reason the ARK is falling." Amy mused.
If Shadow noticed Amy, he didn't show it.
I really need to stop whining. Everybody is trying their best to help out. I must do the same.
She then walked up to Shadow.
"Shadow, we need you." Amy said. "Please help us stop the ARK from falling."
"Everything is going according to plan." Shadow replied flatly not turning to face her. "Soon, the ARK will fall and my misery will come to an end."
"Misery?" Amy asked. "Are you referring to the time when the military stormed the ARK?"
"Yes." Shadow replied. "How did you find out about that?"
"Eggman showed us your creator's diary." Amy answered. "I believe his name was Gerald Robotnik."
"Then there is nothing more to explain." Shadow said. "It is as the Professor announced on his recording, feel my loss and despair."
There was silence for a few minutes.
"Shadow, I know some people may fight over the most trivial things." Amy admitted.. "Others may be selfish like the Professor said. But most of them are basically nice and innocent."
"Don't bother in lecturing me about good and evil." Shadow yawned. "I just recently ran that argument to the ground with Sonic."
"So you're going to let them die? Is that it?" Amy demanded. "Where's the fairness in that?"
"Where's the fairness in the life I got?" Shadow flatly asked. "It was destroyed fifty years ago. Everyone I learned to love was killed, even the one I really cared about."
Just then Amy realized something. "You mean…Maria?"
Shadow turned to face her for the first time since she entered the room, and hurled a chaos spear at her. Amy squeaked and ducked out of the way as it tore the door off it's hinges.
"Don't…ever…say…her name…again." Shadow bared his teeth, his eyes were beginning to spasm.
"You loved her didn't you?" Amy asked softly.
"She was like a sister to me." Shadow answered flatly.
"When you lost her, you lost your whole family." Amy spoke as she realized Shadow's tragedy. "It shattered your whole life."
Shadow didn't reply.
"I may not have lived 50 years ago, but I do know one thing for sure." Amy continued. "She'd probably want you to give them a chance to be happy."
Shadow lowered his head.
"By stopping the ARK from falling you'll be giving a lot of innocent people like Maria a chance to be happy." Amy said.
At this point Shadow remembered something.
"You're right." Shadow whispered. A tear streamed down his face. "She would have wanted me to give them a chance to be happy."
"Oh?" Amy asked.
"50 years ago, I promised her I'd give them a chance to be happy." Shadow explained. "But my rage and hatred blinded me to that very fact. Eventually this led me to forget the promise until you showed up. Thank you." He then paused for a second. "So, you were saying something about needing my assistance."
"Yes." Amy smiled, glad to have helped Shadow remember his promise. "Sonic and the other's are attempting to access the ARK's core."
"No problem." Shadow smiled for the first time. "I can just teleport there. CHAOS CONTROL!"
He then vanished from sight.
End of Flashback
--
"And he finally fulfilled his promise in the end." Amy mused. She then noticed Monica beginning to wake up. "Oh, you're awake. For awhile I wasn't sure if you'd wake up."
"Amy?" Monica asked. "How did I get here?"
"It's a long story." Amy said. "I'll tell it to you if you promise not to faint."
"Okay." Monica nodded. "First, I'm trying to remember what happened. Last thing I remember was…OH NO, MITTENS!"
"Oh no, please don't faint." Amy begged.
Monica didn't faint, but after what was going to happen that very moment, Amy would wish she did faint.
--
The scarab bot chased Sonic and Tails down the hall firing lasers.
"Man, that robot is persistent." Sonic said. "Yikes, incoming lasers!"
The duo increased their speed to avoid more lasers.
"No kidding." Tails replied. "We'll have to lure it into a bigger room before we can fight it. Attacking it in closed space is suicidal."
The duo finally entered the mirror chamber.
"Okay, we have more space." Sonic said. "Quick, lock the door so we can discuss our battle plan."
Tails pushed a button on the wall and the door closed and locked in place.
The scarab bot on the other side began to analyze the situation.
Obstacle Alert;
Door blocking path;
Reason for door shutting session begin;
Loading…
1)It malfunctioned. Probability low.
2)It closed to prevent Sonic and Tails from being deleted. Probability high.
Reason session end;
Scanning door…
Scan complete;
Door is made of steel;
Solution;
Delete Door.
--
On the other side of the door Sonic and Tails were discussing their plan.
"Do you have anything we could throw at it?" Sonic asked.
"No." Tails shook his head. "I left all my stuff at the Tornado and I don't see any rocks around here."
Just then a loud laser blast could be heard on the other side of the door.
"Uh oh." Sonic groaned. "Looks like our robotic friend is trying to blast it's way in. We need to think up a plan before it busts down the door."
"Ah ha, I got it." Tails snapped his fingers. "Lasers are made of light, light can be reflected by mirrors."
"So?" Sonic asked.
Another laser blast could be heard from the other side of the door.
"My point is, we could use the mirrors to reflect the lasers back at the robot." Tails explained. "If we could set up the mirrors properly it could work."
The door was starting to glow bright red.
"Okay, let's do it then." Sonic nodded in agreement. The duo began arranging the mirrors into certain positions.
When they were done, the door melted away and the scarab bot entered the room..
It saw Sonic standing in front of it.
"Nya nya, you cant hit me." Sonic taunted.
The scarab bot fired it's deadly lasers at Sonic.
Sonic jumped out of the way, behind him was a large mirror.
The lasers bounced of the mirror and headed back to the unfortunate robot. The lasers hit the scarab bot in multiple areas.
As the scarab bot tried to regain it's balance, Sonic spindashed it's engine on the underside sending it crashing to the ground once more.
Sonic and Tails gave each other a high five.
"Now that we took care of that guy, lets head to the core." Sonic flashed his trademark grin.
"You just read my mind Sonic." Tails smiled. "Let's find Eggman and rescue the cat."
The duo left the mirror chamber, unaware that the scarab bot was still alive, still bent on deleting Sonic and Tails.