Chapter 8: Radical Derailment

Eggman was enjoying himself in the train's control room. The train was under his control, of course, and the wonders of autopilot freed Eggman to taunt Sonic over the speaker system.

He knew Sonic had made it back in time to stop him. Nothing ever went right for Eggman. Not for longer than a few minutes, so he took Sonic's return like a champ.

"HEY SONIC, YOU'D BETTER SAVE THE TRAIN BEFORE GOING AFTER THE PRINCESS! WOULDN'T WANT IT TO EXPLODE AND KILL THE PASSENGERS, WOULD YOU?"

Sonic was running through the abandoned mines. He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah I'm sure that's what's going on right now. This totally isn't one of your own trains or something. I can see the Eggman logo sloppily painted onto it. … Wait, he can't hear me from here."

"OHOHOHO! … SHADOW? WHY ARE YOU HERE? DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME!"

Sonic tilted his head, yet kept pace. "Shadow? I don't see him anywhere…"

Sonic began looking around, but a voice threw him off guard.

"HELP ME, SONIC!"

"Ahh, the melodic voice of the princess…" Sonic deadpanned. "Now that I think about it, what's Eggman even doing with this train?"

Sonic then heard another voice in the distance.

"Let's. Get. MOOOOVING!"

Sonic smirked. "Yep, Shadow's definitely here."

Sonic dashed past some crates and leapt onto a conveyor belt. Right as he landed, an old 'friend' landed on the opposite belt.

"THRASHING TIME!" Zazz announced.

Unfortunately for Zazz, he was immediately carried off the belt and flung into the abyss below.

"LOUSY MACHINE!"

"… Did I just hear something? Eh, doesn't matter." Sonic shrugged and resumed chasing the train.


Silver was standing on some platforms.

"AAAAH! This is hard!"

Every time Silver jumped onto another platform, it would sink down. He had tried placing boxes to keep his path available, but had difficulty reaching the higher platform from the lower one.

"The Iblis Trigger's gonna get away and it'll be all my fault! If only Blaze were here, she'd know what to do!"


Omega and Blaze were at the Soleanna café together.

"Look, you seem like a nice robot, but I really need to stop my friend from making a huge mistake. He's a bit… naïve."

"Let me come with you then. As the most powerful robot in the world, and the most powerful cat in the world, we can make wonderful fires together."

Blaze sighed and put her head to the table. At a nearby table, Tails and Knuckles were still observing.

"Knuckles, I miss Sonic."

"Relax, home skillet. We're just getting to the good part!"


"DYNAMITE KICK!" Sonic Man announced.

"AAAH HOW'D YOU GET HERE!" Silver shrieked. Sonic Man kicked Silver toward a plateau nearby.

"Ow…"

"Sonic Man cannot allow you to go any further!" With that, Sonic Man leapt all the way over to the plateau to which he had thrown Silver. "Sonic's life depends on it!"

"But you don't understand! He's the Iblis Trigger!"

"Enough talk! Have at you!"

Silver gulped.


Further along the mines, Shadow pressed a switch in order to put up a laser barrier.

"THE BARRIER'S DOWN! HIT THE BRAKES! HIT THE BRAKES!" Eggman cried over the intercom. The train came to a screeching halt, inches before the lasers. "GREAT! NOW TO SIT HERE FOR FIVE MINUTES, AND DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! … GUESS I'LL SEE WHAT'S TRENDING RIGHT NOW."

"Hey Doctor, your train looks like it could use some renovations!" Shadow proceeded to lob a few Chaos Spears at the train.

"CURSE YOU, SHADOW!"

Sonic dropped down. "Hope I'm not interrupting!"

Elise stuck her head out the window. "Sonic, you came!"

"Not now Elsie, the grownups are talking." Sonic dismissed. "Anyway Shadow, what's going on?"

"It's Elise…" the princess pouted to herself.

Shadow remained focused on his assault. "I have questions, and the doctor is going to give me answers."

Elise was pulled back into the train car, and this time Eggman stuck his head out.

"If I answer your question, will you stop blowing up my train? I put a lot of money into these modifications!"

Sonic tilted his head. "Are you saying you didn't put money into all your other robots?"

"That's the difference, Sonic! This train wasn't meant to fight you! It was a birthday gift! … From myself… But still!"

"You bought yourself a train?" asked the Blue Blur. "Why?"

Eggman sighed. "Sometimes you just need to feel young. You'll understand when you get to my age." The barrier disappeared. "Five minutes already? Hot dog, I'm out!"

Eggman leaned his head back inside and the train went off again. Shadow glared at Sonic.

"Sonic, you could have helped me! Instead, you got him to talk about his midlife crisis!"

Sonic shrugged. "To be fair, he had me very confused."

"Ugh…" Shadow took off after the train. Shrugging once more, Sonic followed along.


Silver began to hover around the abandoned mine, with Sonic Man leaping across various platforms to keep up with him.

"You can't run from Sonic Man forever!"

"I already told you, he's the Iblis Trigger! He's gonna cause the end of the world!"

Silver ran out of energy and landed on a platform. Sonic Man leapt to a nearby conveyor belt. Only it was carrying him in the opposite direction, so he had to resort to running in place.

"And how is Sonic Man supposed to believe that? Sonic's even more cool and blue than this planet!"

"Well it's about to become red and hot!" Silver retorted.

"Like Knuckles? … That came out wrong."

"Look, I came from the future, where everything is a fiery wasteland. One day, this guy I'd never met before told me that Sonic would cause the end of the world, so I need to kill Sonic!"

"You… lie!" Sonic Man was beginning to run out of breath. "Sonic Man needs a breather…" He stopped to catch his breath, but the conveyor belt carried him into the abyss. "WHOOOOOOOOOOA!"


VROOOOOOOOM

Shadow was practically flying through the long path past the mines on his newfound motorcycle. A blue streak briefly flashed along Shadow's right side. Shadow glared.

"Showoff."

Shadow then noticed a chasm up ahead. He steeled his gaze and steered the bike toward one of the acceleration ramps. He soared over the gap, and landed on the train tracks, zooming forward without missing a beat.

Three Eggman robots held up signs. The first two had a '10', the last had a '9.5'.

"Sure wish I had a helmet right now, I could seriously hurt my head if I fell off the bike… Though I just jumped over a canyon, so there are worse dangers. … Come to think of it, why is this obstacle course here?"

Shadow noticed he was now in a field of train tracks with random trains going in opposite directions.

"Ugh, this feels like one of those math problems where different trains leave the station at different times…"

The dark hedgehog drove toward the nearest ramp and flew over the field of trains.

GOOD! GREAT! AWESOME! OUTSTANDING! AMAZING! SWOOD!

After landing, Shadow sped forward. He noticed a white hedgehog hovering slowly in the air, a little ways away.

"That must be Sonic's 'friend'…"

"HE'S CATCHING UP!" Eggman's voice blared over the intercom. "DETACH THE BOMB CARS!"

Shadow smiled to himself. He spoke, though he knew Eggman could not hear him. "Way ahead of you."

Shadow pressed a button that fired a missile at the caboose. It exploded, and debris flew everywhere. Shadow quickly steered away from an incoming piece.

"And while we're at it…" Shadow fired at the next car. It exploded in a similar manner, and Shadow kept it up until only Eggman's car remained.

"NOOOO! MY RADICAL TRAIN! YOU RUIN EVERYTHING, SHADOW!"

Shadow glared. "I've had it with this." He swerved the bike and jumped off, homing in on the last remaining car of Eggman's train.


Eggman was sitting alone in his chair. He sighed. "I wonder if I can still get a refund on this train… Then again, I did steal it."

Shadow crashed through the ceiling, startling Eggman.

"Shadow, how did you- Uh, I mean… I figured my train couldn't hold you off for long!"

"Drop the act. You know why I'm here."

Eggman gained a hopeful expression. "You mean we can go back to being a team?"

"… No. Tell me more about Mephiles."

"Oh…" the wind was taken from Eggman's sail. "I don't know what to say, he wasn't supposed to break out of that staff. Then someone had to fumble it! I told you to catch it when it fell!"

"Well maybe if you weren't shooting at Rouge-"

"If she didn't steal it in the first place-"

"If you didn't even bother with this scheme-"

"Shadow, be real here. We both know I'm going to go through each and every artifact and ancient demon there is to find." Eggman's tone turned wistful. "And then you, or Sonic, or some other animal will come in and foil my plan… if the monster doesn't do it first… and I'll just keep trying… then someday… I'll die."

"I don't have time for this." Shadow said, rolling his eyes. "Could Mephiles possibly have to do with that Solaris Project you and Rouge wanted to talk about?"

"… Shadow, do you think it's too late for me to find a nice girl, settle down-"

"DOCTOR."

"Huh? Oh, the Solaris Project? Yeah, probably… probably…" Eggman stared at a nearby computer screen and began stroking his mustache. "Say, could you bring Mumkhar-"

"Mephiles."

"Mephiles back to me if you find him?"

Shadow shook his head. "I'm not sure if I can trust you."

"Well what about the princess?" Eggman asked. "A few minutes ago, Sonic just ran in, grabbed her, and left. Not even so much as a 'hey eggface'! Could you go sock him one, for your old buddy Eggman?"

"I'm not your buddy."

"This is why you only have two friends, Shadow." Eggman folded his arms. Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"That's still more than you, isn't it?"

"… I don't have to take this! I'm leaving!" Eggman got up and stormed out.

"It's your train, you know." Shadow called.

"I AM AN ADULT, MAKING MY DECISION."


Sonic was carrying Elise through the final part of the mountain path.

"I knew it! You had to return, you had to! I knew you'd return, I knew you had to, you-"

"Stop talking."

A green blast hit Sonic and he tripped, dropping the princess.

"Oof!"

"Waah!"

Silver the Hedgehog floated down, making more UFO noises. "I have you now, Iblis Trigger!"

Sonic rolled his eyes and stood up. "Look, I've seen your future and-"

"You were in my old time period? Lies!" Silver declared. Sonic glared.

"OH! OH I GET IT! Some dweeb comes in and tells you that I end the world, and you believe him without question! But apparently I could never tell the truth! You really should listen to Blaze more."

"Leave Blaze out of this!" shouted Silver. "I know you have a past together! You must've tricked her into helping with some evil plan at one time or something!"

Sonic palmed his face. "You're hopeless."

"IT IS YOU WHO ARE HOPELESS!" Silver indignantly yelled. With his powers, he began to hold Sonic in place. At that time, Eggman came by in his pod and swooped up Elise with his pod's robot arms.

"WOOPWOOPWOOPWOOPWOOP!"

"For crying out loud!" Sonic and Elise said in unison. Sonic turned back to Silver.

"See what you do? Every time I save… er… what's-her-face, you attack me and then Eggman kidnaps her!"

Silver narrowed his eyes. "Enough! It's time for you to die!"

Conk

"Ow!" Silver fell over, rubbing the back of his head. Shadow was present, his foot raised in the air. "You kicked me in the back of the head! Who does that?"

"Hmmph." Shadow had no words. He looked over and saw that Sonic was free from Silver's psychokinetic hold. Sonic gave him a thumbs up.

Silver recovered and was rubbing the back of his head. He got a look at his attacker. "Mephiles, why'd you do that?"

"Well at least someone got his name right…" Shadow spoke under his breath. Sonic cleared his throat.

"Crazy lookalike that's trying to kill me, allow me to introduce to the crazy lookalike that used to try to kill me."

"Sonic…" Shadow spoke through his teeth.

"All right, all right." Sonic looked over at Silver. "Hey I'll play with you some other time." Sonic then ran off.


Close to the forest outside Soleanna, Eggman and Elise were atop the doctor's hover pod. The jet engine was a little too loud, however.

"I would rather die than remain your prisoner!" Elise yelled.

"WHAT?"

"That's right, I said it!"

"WHAT? I CAN'T HEAR YOU!"

Elise sighed. "I SAID I'D RATHER DIE THAN BE YOUR PRISONER!"

"WHY? AM I REALLY THAT UNBEARABLE?"

"YES!"

"HOW RUDE!" Eggman turned away and folded his arms. He stood there for a few moments. "THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU APOLOGIZE!"

Eggman turned around and saw that Elise was gone.

"OH- I mean, Oh…"

Eggman looked and saw Sonic running along the ground, holding Elise again. "I didn't even have her for five minutes! Though I guess that's how I made Amy and Sonic feel earlier…" He pulled out a remote. "Still, this world ain't gonna take itself over!"

The doctor pressed a button, and Egg-Genesis flew out from behind a mountain, good as new.

Sonic stopped running and set Elise down. She ran to hide behind a rock.

Name: Egg-Genesis (Ver. 1.5)

Danger Quotient: 600%

Sonic gave Egg-Genesis a once over. "… Cerberus looked cooler."

"STOP MAKING FUN OF MY ROBOTS!" Eggman shouted over the roar of his pod's jets. He remained far above the impromptu battlefield.

"FRENZY!" the Wisp Announcer called out again. "ROCKET!"

Genesis began to fire missiles at Sonic. Sonic smirked and began to run. He ran all around the clearing, with the missiles pursuing endlessly.

"Heh-heh." Sonic then increased his speed and continued his path. He ran so fast that he was now behind the missiles. He then used homing attacks on each of them to knock them toward Genesis.

"AAAAAAH!" Eggman clasped his hands to his head. "I keep forgetting that homing attacks don't work when your opponent can break the sound barrier!" He pressed another button. "So I'll just aim where he will be!"

"DRILL!"

Genesis fired drill missiles, which burrowed into the ground immediately.

"HAVE FUN PREDICTING WHERE THEY POP UP, SONIC!"

"You know I always have fun, Doc!" Sonic said cheerfully.

"WHAT?" Eggman could not hear Sonic.

Sonic ran up to a nearby cliff and began running up its side.

"What? No! He's not supposed to do that!" Eggman complained. "Mulligan! MULLIGAN!"

When Sonic was high enough, he jumped off and homed in on the top of Genesis's head.

"Hiya! Can't stay for long, though!" Sonic immediately rolled up into his ball form and gathered energy. He leapt up and slammed down on top of Genesis's head.

"Gaaaah! The softest part of Genesis's armor! How did he know? Why is Genesis suddenly so horrible?!"

After crashing into Genesis's head, Sonic kept up his momentum and did it again. And again. And again. Sonic would keep slamming Genesis's head, gaining more height with each bound.

"Aaaaaah! Try everything!" Eggman panicked and pressed as many buttons on his remote as possible.

"FRENZY! DRILL! ROCKET! SPIKES!"

Genesis shook Sonic off, and began firing drills, missiles and darts at the hedgehog.

Sonic donned a smug grin. "Oh Eggman, if you wanted me to finish it off in the coolest way, you should've just said so!"

"WHAT?"

Sonic went out to the perimeter of the makeshift arena and began doing laps. He began to run faster and faster with each lap, with all the ammunition failing to catch up to him from within the perimeter.

Before long, Sonic was going so fast, that he was perpetuating a whirlwind that blew the projectiles off their course and flying up. Genesis was also getting blown around, and even Eggman in his pod was having trouble staying still.

"Ha!"

Sonic picked up speed one last time and the tornado knocked all the missiles upward at Genesis, blowing the robot up. The tornado immediately picked up the debris and sent all of it flying upward Eggman.

(I'm pretty sure that wasn't supposed to work…) Eggman thought to himself. Not a second later, he and his pod are struck by all the debris and he is sent flying into the distance.

"I HATE THAT HEDGEHOOOOOOOOOOOOG!"

Sonic finally stopped running and struck a pose.

S

"That was incredible!"

Elise came out from her hiding spot. "It sure was!"

Sonic gave her a look. "Oh yeah, you're still here. That sure was a gutsy move back there. You know the world will end if you die, right?"

"What was that?"

"Eh never mind, I've still got two or three more levels before I fight Eggman again."

Elise brushed some hair out of her face. "I owe you a lot, Sonic."

"Got that right…" he mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing. Let's just get you back to the castle."


NOW LOADING…


Sonic was carrying Elise through the jungle. Sonic was looking around while running. "I'm pretty sure we were just in the forest outside Soleanna."

"You took a wrong turn again."

"SON OF A HORSE!"

Further ahead, Zazz was creeping the top of his head out from under the water.

(Stinkin' conveyor belt, messing mah plans! After I get that hedgehog, I'm comin' for YEEEEEW, CONVEYOR BELT! Now, where is that rotten-) Sonic ran past, splashing water onto Zazz's face. "YAAAAAAAA!"

Sonic was able to run along the water, because Elise had projected another of her random force fields. "Sonic, did you hear something?"

"No."


Sonic and Elise found themselves beside a glorious lake with flowers blooming on the trees.

"… I really oughta get a map of this kingdom." Sonic said. Since arriving, he had set Elise down and she was frolicking in the blossoms.

"Sonic, have you been to a lot of wonderful places?"

"I went to a Five Guys last week." Sonic shrugged. "… So yeah."

Elise stopped and turned to Sonic. "You're going to leave once you beat Eggman, aren't you?"

"Yeah. No offense, but I'm not really picking up what this kingdom is throwing down. I think it's the town guards. That and the time-traveling assassin." (And you.)

"Eggman's kind of a weird guy, but other than that, I've had fun these past few days."

"… You've spent most of these days in captivity." Sonic started. "We've probably spent… ten minutes together, not counting those times I had to carry you through the levels." He scratched his head. "I am pretty cool, but I'm not seeing the fun in this situation."

"Well it let me be something other than a princess. I could be something else."

Sonic turned his head. "… Like what? A hostage?"

"A normal girl."

Sonic stood there for a few seconds. "… A normal girl. That's what a normal girl is to you. Okay. Okay. .. Okay wow. Wow. … I mean… wow. I figure being a princess isn't that easy all the time, but…" Sonic looked down and rubbed the back of his head. "… This is new. This is definitely a unique conversation I'm having."

"Sonic, when you do leave, please don't forget this place."

(Oh, that's what I'm afraid of… Hm. Wonder where Tails and Knuckles are. Weren't they supposed to follow me to the mines?)


"Have you seen a white hedgehog around here? About… this tall, five quills sticking up top-" Blaze describing Silver to a random citizen was interrupted, however.

"Baby come back. You can blame it all on me." Omega was down on one knee, trying to serenade Blaze with a guitar. Blaze groaned and walked off, though still shadowed by Omega.

Tails and Knuckles were watching from behind a barrel.

"Knuckles, we really need to go help Sonic! I miss him, what if he makes another friend? What if he picks a new deputy and it's still not me?"

"Don't be buggin', Tails!"


Back near the ruins of Eggman's radical train, Silver and Shadow prepared to have their faceoff.

"So wait, are you really Mephiles?"

"For the last time, no. I'm Shadow the Hedgehog."

Shadow got into a stance.

Boss: Shadow the Hedgehog

Danger Quotient: 700%

"And I can't let you kill Sonic." Silver gained a look of determination.

"Oh yeah? Well…" He got into stance too.

Boss: Silver the Hedgehog

Danger Quotient: 100%

"I can't let you not let me kill Sonic!"

Shadow sighed. "You're hopeless."

To be continued.


Author's Notes:

There's no real excuse for why I went so long without updating. The last one did kind of take my motivation away, but I wouldn't say that's the only thing. I just wasn't in the mood in general.

So while Radical Train is the one point where all three hedgehogs' stories intersect, this chapter mostly focuses on Sonic and Shadow's end of things. And we get to see more of Eggman being a sad sack who regrets his life, yet doesn't want to stop what he's doing. I think I've finally figured out my version of Elise- she's as much of an airhead as before, she just doesn't have patience for Eggman. I can understand why.

I was going to include Shadow and Silver's fight in this chapter, but decided that since I'd already given Sonic a lot of focus, I'd keep it on him. Then the other two can have their fight and visit the Aquatic Base without interruption from Sonic's plot. We also get to see more of Zazz and Sonic Man. I don't think we've seen Zazz since Chapter 5.

One thing I can say though, is that I really feel good about Sonic, Shadow, and Eggman's lines in this chapter. I can't say it's my favorite part of the chapter, considering they have the biggest speaking roles of this chapter by far, but I feel like I was able to get back into their rhythm nearly seamlessly.

By the way, if you're interested in reading a more dramatic story, check out my new fic "In Water, Air, and Light". It's a oneshot based on the game Valkyrie Profile. If you're interested in drama or Valkyrie Profile (or both, considering the game), then give it a look. I warn you that it is my first attempt at a drama, with all that implies.