Chapter 11: Raiders of the Lost Emerald (Part 2):
As the door slowly shut behind them, the same octopus that had been spying on them appeared. Without a word or noise, it climbed into an air-vent cover just outside the massive door. Before long, the trio wound up inside a fairly large circular room with a dome-shaped ceiling. The walls were full of windows that provided a view into the fish tanks, and a few glass panels on the ceiling had nothing but bright magma on the other side, giving the room an ominous orange glow.
"So that's how he managed to build this place under here!" Tyco said in awe as he eyed the ceiling, "He must've made it out of something lava-resistant!"
"That's the beauty of technology, isn't it?" A voice asked over a loudspeaker, prompting the heroes to look around apprehensively.
"Who said that?" Junior asked.
There was no answer. Before anyone could say anything else, a round vent-cover appeared in the wall just below the ceiling. Out of it slid a medium-sized robotic octopus with a crimson exterior, a head the size of a car, and a pair of interconnected, glowing yellow eyes with a short, tube-shaped extension just below them. It scuttled down the wall before arriving on the floor just across from the trio. It halted in place as it stood on all eight of its arms.
"Oh... kay?" Tyco asked.
"Well! Looks like Eggman sent us a welcoming party!" Junior jeered, casually stepping closer to the robot, "D'awww! And he even gave us refreshments! I fucking love octopus dumplings!"
"Fools!" The unknown voice called again, prompting the trio to enter a fighting stance, and simultaneously causing Junior to flinch a little.
Everyone watched in silence as the lights in the octopus' eyes shut off, revealing them to simply be a translucent yellow glass dome. With a hissing sound, said dome rose upwards to reveal none other than Dr. Eggman himself... or more accurately, a reincarnation of him. This version looked virtually identical to the original doctor, but had a considerably younger-looking face, and a full head of brunette hair.
"Well, well, well! So it was you meddlers who exposed my base and destroyed my guardian! And now you're trying to overthrow me as the sole voice of government here?!" Eggman snarled, before he suddenly took notice of Junior, "... Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up! Blue fur? Gelled up spines? Green eyes? Red sneakers? ... It's... it's actually true!"
"What is?" Tyco asked.
"That... that hedgehog! He's the same one who thwarted my ancestor! The same one I heard legends of while I was discovering my destiny to follow in the great doctor's footsteps! And now he's here to hunt me down too!" Eggman freaked out.
"Haha! Not quite!" Junior chuckled arrogantly, "That hedgehog is my father! My name is Sonic Jr.! I guess you could say that a reincarnation of a villain is about to get utterly scrambled by a reincarnation of a hero!"
"Well I guess that explains how you were able to get through all my traps so easily." Eggman replied, "... Including that whale back there. That one actually impressed me."
"Wait! What whale?!" Jade asked angrily.
Wordlessly, Eggman pulled out a remote and pressed the single button on it, causing the circular, central portion of the floor to rise up, revealing a cylindrical tank where the albino whale was trapped. This time, however, she was attached to the lid of the tank via several wires that were emitting the same purple glow as her eye-piece.
"When I was taking over this country, you wouldn't be able to comprehend the amount of legends I read about the place! This rather unique specimen you see here was one of many!" Eggman explained, "She has the ability to control all the sea creatures in these waters with her soothing whale-songs, and I figured I could use it to my advantage! Unfortunately, I still have yet to completely harness the ability, hence why I'm roboticizing all the sea-life in the area until I do!"
"Well with your little 'experiments', all you're doing is causing a crash in the seafood industry and limiting the options for the citizens even further!" Jade countered.
"Hah! You think I care about that shit?! We dictators don't have time to worry about the petty needs of the equally petty civilians!" Eggman replied with a cackle as he sent the whale's tank back into the floor.
Right as the tank was completely submerged again, Tyco shot a fireball directly at Eggman's exposed head, though this was quickly blocked as he closed his cockpit once more, also proceeding to activate the eye-lights again.
"I've heard just about enough of your evil bullshit!" Tyco said, "Agreed?!"
"Yeah!" Junior and Jade replied in unison as all three heroes entered a fighting stance.
"Very well, then! I guess it's finally time to prove that I am the better Eggman!" Eggman declared.
Before anything else could be done, a set of eight small, circular panels in the floor opened up and several tentacle-shaped scraps of metal rose out of the holes. The octopus-shaped robot levitated off the ground and inserted each arm into one of the extensions, resulting in a much larger robot overall. Immediately after its transformation, the mech immediately hurried into the fray and began using its tentacles to swat and jab at the heroes, who proceeded to run around sporadically to make themselves harder targets. In the midst of running, Tyco proceeded to launch a series of fireballs, only for them to be swatted away effortlessly. Junior managed to dodge a few attacks by running around them, eventually leading to three of the tentacles getting tangled up. He ran along the resulting braid of metal and homing-attacked the robot right in its eye. Though it didn't leave a scratch, it was enough to send it reeling back a considerable distance until it bumped into the wall and fell onto its side.
"Guys! There it is!" Jade announced, pointing to a glass compartment hidden on the mech's underside, "There's the emerald!"
She and Tyco didn't hesitate to make a beeline for it, though the robot got up rather quickly, forcing them to abruptly retreat. However, though Junior and Tyco managed to run away, Jade was once again grabbed by one of the tentacles.
"Gah! Not again!" She yelled as Eggman cackled from inside his cockpit, "Wait! I got it!"
Without saying another word, Jade closed her eyes and allowed her body to become enveloped in a bright red aura. Eggman paid no attention to this as he busied himself swatting at her partners. He only noticed what was going on when Jade said:
"Chaos... BLAST!"
A blinding red explosion suddenly occurred, destroying the arm that held Jade captive, as well as three others. The mech as a whole was sent reeling once again, though this time it caught itself. Jade broke her fall with a few cartwheels and rejoined her friends. Before anything else could happen, Junior began to run rapid circles around their adversary (who tried in vain to hit him with its tentacles) until he picked up enough speed to create a blue whirlwind, which lifted the mech off the ground and carried it around the room in mid-air for a spell before suddenly dying down. With the robot falling helplessly toward the floor, Junior proceeded to aim his foot downwards at its cockpit, though once again, he only bounced off. The mech still fell onto the ground once more, though this time it managed to snatch Junior out of the air and throw him harshly towards the floor, hard enough to send him right through it.
"JUNIOR!" Jade yelled in alarm.
"YEAH, WHAT SHE SAID!" Tyco exclaimed, before the two were forced to turn around at the sound of the mech approaching.
"Heh heh heh! Looks like the tide has turned in my favor!" Eggman gloated, "Let's see how you two will fare without your precious team leader!"
Without warning, the octopus mech slapped one of its four remaining tentacles against the floor, with Jade and Tyco running off in opposite directions in order to dodge it. Seeing how he could only go after one at a time, Eggman steered his mech in the same direction as Jade. He eventually cornered her against a wall and began to try and snag her again, though she was quick to dodge every attack. She attempted to hit the mech back with several kicks and chops, though each of her attacks was blocked. Tyco used this to his advantage as he snuck up behind the robotic octopus, using his telekinesis to grab one of its tentacles and tug on it, for he knew that the mech would become more vulnerable the less arms it had. The mech struggled against his grip, simultaneously swatting away a chaos lance that Jade had fired at it, causing it to create yet another hole in the ground.
Meanwhile down below the arena, Junior came to and realized that he was in a hidden chamber beneath the floor. He could hear his comrades fighting Eggman just above him, though he momentarily tuned this out as he spotted a massive water tank in the floor he was standing on, where the possessed whale was swimming around after being released earlier. Upon spotting the hedgehog, the whale let out a chirp of rage and rammed into the glass panel on top, shattering it and splashing the surrounding floor a little. Junior cautiously stepped back as she poked her head above the surface. Just when he thought she was about to lunge at him, he retaliated with a homing-attack, effectively destroying the mind-controlling eye-piece and neutralizing her. As a testament to this, her whale-calls turned from fury to grace and tranquility. This whale-call caused the arena above to shake due to the reverberations of the noise.
"Wh-Wha?! Wh-What's going on down there?!" Eggman asked, before he was taken by surprise as a swift screw-kick from Jade sent his mech flying into the wall.
Tyco once again latched onto one of the tentacles with his telekinesis and attempted to tug on it. However, the mech proved to be too strong and proceeded to drag him haphazardly around the room until he had no choice but to let go. He managed to break his fall before regrouping with Jade.
"Damn it! I can't seem to get a good enough grip on those tentacles!" He told her.
"Well... maybe you'll need some extra weight on your end." Jade suggested, before she was startled by a mechanical noise.
The two watched as the mech stood upright once more and readied the cannon just below its eyes.
"See if you can dodge this, you little fuckers!" Eggman jeered as he pressed a button on his control panel.
The cannon let loose a massive ball of shiny black ink into the air, which exploded, splattering all over most of the floor and even halfway up the walls. Tyco managed to prevent any from splashing onto himself or Jade thanks to his telekinesis, however. Unfazed by the attack, Jade swiftly leapt forwards and aimed a screw-kick right at the mech, though the massive robot suddenly pixelated and split into thousands of glowing fragments, resulting in her simply flying through him with no consequences (though she did end up skidding a little upon landing). Suddenly, all the pixels clumped together and lowered themselves into the ink, merging themselves with the substance in the process, and proceeding to move around haphazardly as a black lump. The robot roamed around for a spell before it re-materialized on the wall.
"Wait! What the fuck?!" Jade asked in shock, "How did he even do that?!"
"I dunno, but whatever the hell it was, it was treason!" Tyco replied, shooting a fireball at his foe.
The robot expectedly dodged the projectile by pixelating itself, though this time, Tyco used his telekinesis to hold all of the pixels in place. He scattered them all over the arena and proceeded to use fireballs to destroy some of the fragments individually, with Jade assisting him with several martial-arts combos. Within a few more seconds, however, the mech re-materialized, though this time it looked considerably damaged, as did its owner, who now looked somewhat disheveled.
"Wait! What the fuck?!" Eggman groaned.
"If you're allowed to do something that off-the-wall, then damn it, why shouldn't we be?!" Tyco asked cockily.
Eggman rolled his eyes and continued to use the mech's merging ability to dodge the attacks, now able to avoid them much more quickly due to part of its metallic body having been shed. At this point, neither Jade nor Tyco were able to land a hit on him, and only ended up repeatedly slipping on the ink.
"Crap! How are we supposed to do this now?!" Jade asked worriedly, "... Oof!"
Bot she and Tyco grunted as their enemy suddenly resurfaced nearby and sent them sliding along the ground with a slap from one of its four remaining tentacles. The mech didn't hesitate to pursue the two, not so much chasing them as he was trying to ram them. Tyco managed to use the ink below his feet to his advantage and slid under the robot. He quickly counterattacked by grabbing one of the tentacles with his telekinesis, though this time, he activated his Steel Sneakers in order to weigh himself down, and it proved to be a very good strategy. The mech struggled to break free, and could not fight back due to its three remaining tentacles already being occupied as they attempted to hit Jade. Meanwhile, down below the floor, Junior had mounted himself on top of the now freed legendary whale, positioning himself just behind her blowhole.
"Alright, now!" He announced.
Obediently, the whale plunged to the bottom of her tank in order to build an adequate amount of upward momentum. When she breached the surface, she leapt high into the air until she was just short of hitting the ceiling. Promptly, Junior revved up a spin-dash and jumped vertically off of her back, rupturing a hole in the ceiling from his own strength alone. Without warning, Jade, Tyco, and Eggman all watched as a blue blur rammed straight into the octopus mech's underside, resulting in a sound that resembled a shattering piece of glass, which was somewhat muffled by the sound of the robot being sent reeling into the wall from the force of this attack. Before Junior could land on the ground, the whale proceeded to spout a voluminous amount of water out of her blowhole, which removed the ink from the floor (which then drained out of the new hole) and partially short-circuited the mech. Jade and Tyco could only watch as Junior adopted a cocky smirk and activated his Steel Sneakers, before performing a few front-flips and aiming both of his feet right at the head of the robotic octopus. He hit his target perfectly, shattering the glass that was covering the cockpit and forcing the Eggmobile out of its robotic shell, which immediately shut down after the connection was cut off.
"Wh-wh-WHOAH!" Eggman yelled as he was sent spinning along the floor.
He ended up crashing into the wall and forcefully ejected from his pod. Junior, meanwhile, was finally able to land on the ground by his cohorts, holding up the green Chaos Emerald proudly.
"Nice work, Junior!" Jade praised him, "Heh! It almost makes up for that tsunami you caused not too long ago!"
"Yeah, what she said!" Tyco added as he stomped over towards the incapacitated doctor.
Junior and Jade followed him towards the wall as Eggman suddenly stood up. The sight of the three heroes approaching him immediately freaked him out, and he bolted for his Eggmobile. However, Tyco used his telekinesis to lift the flying pod out of his reach, while Junior boosted into him, effectively knocking him back into the wall. He quickly sped over and held him against the wall by his neck.
"Ngh! Please! D-don't hurt me!" Eggman moaned.
"Give it up, fatass! I'm afraid you've lost!" Junior replied harshly, "Now tell me: where are the other Chaos Emeralds?!"
"How should I know?! I only got my hands on one of them!" Eggman retorted, "Of course, I was planning to hunt them down eventually, but I prefer to bide my time!"
"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Junior replied, tightening his grip and balling his free hand into a fist, "I know you're behind this! The other six Chaos Emeralds were all stolen and are each being kept on a different continent! And each continent was taken over around the same time, with all the conquerors operating under the name 'Eggman'! Now, WHERE ARE THEY?!"
"Damn traitor." Tyco whispered into Jade's ear.
"I... I swear! Honest to... God! I'm not... oog... responsible! Those guys must... eecchh... be... impostors!" Eggman replied through his choking, "P-P-Please... d-don't... k-k-kill me... !"
Junior rolled his eyes and harshly threw the doctor into his Eggmobile, which was still being levitated thanks to Tyco.
"Alright, gang! It looks as though this guy won't be of any use! Care to do the honors?!" Junior asked.
"Right on!" Jade replied, immediately flip-kicking the Eggmobile up towards the ceiling as Eggman screamed in fear and helplessness.
Tyco caught the pod in his telekinesis once more and pulled it in close, before using his free hand to summon some flames which immediately coated the entire vehicle. Eggman screamed in agony as he was tossed upwards again.
"Chaos... LANCE!" Jade exclaimed, firing an energy projectile up at the flaming pod.
The impact resulted in an explosion that shattered the Eggmobile to countless chunks and sent the doctor falling down to the ground, blackened and all but unconscious. Before any of the heroes could follow up with any more attacks, however, they noticed one of the massive fragments of the Eggmobile collide with the glass panelling on the ceiling, effectively shattering it and causing some of the molten lava to fill up the room.
"Oh shit! Now what are we supposed to do?!" Tyco asked in alarm.
"Heh heh heh! What a bunch of dumbasses!" Eggman chuckled sinisterly, "Looks like you three have nowhere to run now! You may have been able to stop me, but it looks as though you've trapped all of us in here as well! Hope you like it hot, 'cuz that's all you'll be feeling in just a few moments! Nyah ha ha ha ha ha ha!"
Before anything else could be said, the whale suddenly created another whole in the floor. She let out a whale-call of encouragement as she slapped the water in her tank hurriedly.
"I think she knows the way out!" Jade said.
"Well what other options do we even have?! Let's get the fuck outta here!" Junior replied, immediately mounting the whale once more.
Jade and Tyco followed suit and the whale proceeded to swim down to the bottom of her tank at full speed, using the sound-waves from a whale-call to shatter the glass and escape into the complicated waterways that snaked their way around the hidden base. Eggman hurried over to the hole after them, barely managing to jump in and swim in pursuit as the magma completely flooded the room and turned into a solid rock barrier as soon as it touched the water. Inside what remained of the room, the lava eventually became so voluminous that it destroyed the entirety of it. More than likely, it could only be a matter of time before it would destroy the entire temple as well.
The trio continued to ride piggyback on the whale as she swam towards the exit with unwavering determination. Eggman was swimming a few yards behind, though they paid no mind to this. Even further back, the rapidly hardening lava was following them, preventing them from turning back even if they wanted to. As the whale continued to navigate the ruins, she let out a series of whale songs, alerting every sea creature in the vicinity (only the ones who hadn't been roboticized yet) and causing their eyes to glow purple as they were possessed by her hypnotic melody. Eventually, the whale leapt out of the water, exiting the same tank that had contained the key to the arena where the octopus mech had been fought. Now the heroes recognized the main hall. Tyco did not hesitate to use his telekinesis to guide the whale over to the passage that led out of the temple. Eggman managed to climb out of the tank himself and stopped to look around with a forlorn look on his face as he watched his secret headquarters collapse.
"My... m-m-my... p-precious b-b-b-base!" He sniffled, before a large chunk of the fortress fell and nearly crushed him.
This prompted the doctor to hurry after the heroes and dive after them into the same tunnel. With a few head-butts, the whale managed to destroy the stone door and escape into the ocean, which was now glistening under a gorgeous sunset. She was followed out by a gigantic school of sea creatures that she had rescued, alongside Eggman. Right after the latter barely escaped the temple, a massive underwater avalanche occurred, permanently destroying his base from within and sealing up the cave that it once occupied with a pile of immovable boulders. Junior, Tyco, and Jade had already gotten off of the whale and popped up at the surface. Tyco let out a loud dog-whistle, summoning the Tornado-2, which the trio didn't hesitate to board. As the plane lifted up into the sky, they could see an expansive cloud of rubble and dust that had been stirred up underwater from the tremor. Looking up a bit more, they could also see that Christmas Island's volcano had completely caved in on itself due to a lack of support from the temple below it, which had always kept it upright. As a result, it left nothing behind but a massive expanse of black, rocky ground.
"Welp, that's one emerald down!" Junior said excitedly, "Just six more to go, and the world will be saved before we know it!"
"Great going, team!" Jade replied.
"Yeah, what she... !" Tyco replied, before he heard someone sputtering saltwater down below, "Haha! Look who it is!"
Dr. Eggman popped back up at the surface, clearly out of breath as he treaded water.
"Heh! I survived! I honestly didn't think that would be possible!" He gloated, "But it doesn't matter! I'll find another power-source, and the Genesis Isles will be mine once again... !"
His voice trailed off as the legendary whale suddenly breached the ocean's surface right next to him, jostling him around in the resulting waves. The whale performed a triple backflip a good thirty feet into the air and sang once more. Suddenly, a school of oceanic white-tip sharks popped up right around the marooned doctor and proceeded to latch their powerful jaws onto different parts of his body.
"GAH! YEOWCH! HEY! GET OFF ME, YOU LITTLE... ! NNNNOOOOOOOOO!" Eggman shouted in excruciating pain as the sharks dragged him under, playing tug-of-war with his body and forming a massive cloud of blood that disrupted the coastal waters.
"Well it looks like we won't be seeing him anymore!" Junior said cheekily.
The whale finally made her landing in the water and popped her head back up, letting out whale-calls of gratitude and waving a flipper at the trio.
"Thanks for the help, madame! And sorry for all that body-shaming from earlier!" Junior called down to her.
"So long!" Jade called back.
"Yeah, what she said!" Tyco called back as well.
The whale continued to wave until her entirely body suddenly tensed up. The heroes could see a massive cloud of blood surrounding her body as she groaned loudly in discomfort before quickly disappearing beneath the surface.
"Heh! I guess she was on her period after all!" Tyco chuckled, "See? It doesn't hurt to believe in oceanic legends, now does it?"
"I guess not." Jade replied.
"Alright, team! Without further ado, I suggest we hurry onward to the next emerald!" Junior announced.
With that, the group buckled in and flew off towards their next destination.
Meanwhile, down on a lone rock just off the coast of Christmas Island, an unknown being stood, staring observantly at the trio as they left the now free country. He was a purple weasel with a V-shaped tail and a single sharp front tooth sticking out of his mouth, clad in a coffee-colored belt and a matching Indiana Jones-esque hat. As he was silently watching them leave, he suddenly felt a vibration, pulling out a walkie-talkie in response.
"Yo, Nack!" A squawky voice asked from the other end, "Status update!"
"For the last time, my name is Fang! Got it?! F-A-N-G! Fang!" Fang replied irritatedly.
"Yeah, well as long as I'm calling the shots, I'll call you whatever the hell I want!" The unknown recipient replied, "Anyways, the damn status update if you don't mind?!"
"I was too late, boss. Some unknown band of heroes beat me to it." Fang replied.
"Gah! Are you sure you're the A-list treasure hunter you claim to be?!" The recipient asked impatiently.
"Trust me, birdie. I won't let those goody two-shoes' get their mitts on more than one emerald." Fang replied calmly, "There are still six of them up for grabs. If I can get at least two relatively soon, we'll be one step ahead. You and your squad will be entering that interstellar race before you know it."
"If you say so." The recipient replied, "Now hop to it, or I'll hunt you down and turn you into a hat."
"Got it." Fang replied, hanging up.
