Alright, I have an excuse! Well, I always have an excuse but...alright, I don't really have an excuse. You see, I got Pokemon SoulSilver the other day and...yeah, woke up on Thursday with a thought something akin to, "Holy Crud, I have fanfiction to write!" So, yeah, that's all. And in reply to a review from Sonic109, I haveno idea when the next chapter will come out, as I don't have deadlines for them. I don't think I could keep any deadlines I make, so to those who actually have them and keep them, You're amazing, I salute you. You're better than me. Well, technically speaking, most authors on here are better than me, deadlines or no. Anyway, I actually had this a bit longer, but halfway through what would have been the end of this chapter and is now the middle of Chapter 12 I realized I had to move some stuff over to Chapter 12 or it would be, like, poof, it's done. It was a tough decision to scrap all that work, but in the end, I'd rather have 2 chapters of consistant length than one long and one short chapter. Alright, I try to say something a little bit different than just "Review!" every time, but....Review!
Eggman blinked awake from sleep, wondering what on earth could have woken him up. Glancing around his personal quarters, he saw nothing out of place….from the clock near his bed, it was a little past midnight, so simply sleeping too long was out ruled….then what was it that was different? He couldn't hear anything-oh. That was it.
Walking out of the room where a bank of monitors stood for convenience, he glanced at the monitor that showed where Sonic's "bed" was. Yes. That was it. The hedgehog had finally fallen silent. His head was bowed, so it was impossible to tell if he was asleep or not, but not a single sound escaped his lips. It was the silence of him finally stopping after the constant cries that had awoken the doctor.
For a moment, he considered getting him up just for the heck of it, and then dismissed it. He didn't feel like torturing the hedgehog this morning, most likely because he was still tired himself. With a shrug, he turned to leave and go back to bed, but one last idea hit him.
Turning back to the monitors, he held down a button for the speaker and said, "You could have stopped this, you know."
Perhaps it was the imperfect quality of the monitors, perhaps the low lighting in the room he was in, but when Sonic raised his head, Eggman noticed some suspicious streaks running down his cheeks. He didn't wait to see what the hedgehog would say, simply left the monitors and returned to his bedroom. Soon, silence reined throughout the entire base again. Well, almost silence…
It was almost midnight before Cream plucked up the courage to stick her head out the entrance of the cave, shivering in the cold. For a minute, she glanced back and forth, searching for any sign of movement, before slowly climbing out and walking over to where the wreckage of the Tornado stood, clinging to Cheese. Glancing at it, she tried to determine if any part of it could fly. Tails had fixed it many times before, but she had a feeling by glancing at the burned skeleton that there was no more hope for the poor plane.
"Now what are we going to do, Cheese?"
"Chao, Chao..."
Gazing into the wreckage, Cream caught sight of a familiar object, burnt but miraculously still whole even after its trip down the roof. Cream started.
"Is that…?"
Without waiting to complete her sentence she pulled herself over a bar and quickly ran over to where the object was.
"It is! Cheese, it's Tails' toolbox! Oh, can you believe our luck? Maybe Tails can do something!"
She grasped the toolbox by the handle and pulled, standing up only to come face to face with a robot less than a foot away.
Cream's breath caught somewhere in her throat. The robot did nothing. Cream began to shake as she waited for it to send a blow that would end her life. The robot still made no sound. It was then that she realized something was odd about this robot. Its eyes were cold and dead, and they didn't glow like the other models she had seen. She realized what this meant, and relaxed a bit. The robot was deactivated. Carefully, she reached up and moved it aside. It bent without resistance, flopping over like a rag doll.
Looking a little more closely, Cream saw there were actually more of the robots all over, the same color as the wreck, making it hard to see them unless one knew they were there. And all of them were deactivated. How odd. She thought to herself. It looks like they were in the middle of a job. Why would they all just switch off like that?
She shook her head, unable to find the answer, and skirted around the side of the building where she had seen Tails fall over.
"A bit funny, isn't it, that there hasn't been any alarms or anything?" she whispered to Cheese. "Maybe our luck is starting to turn."
"Chao. Chao chao." Came the reply back.
Carefully, the duo made their way across, where a familiar lump of yellow fur lay in a heap under the roof. In less than a second, Cream was there, shaking him awake and telling him of her discoveries. Tails was silent until she was finished. Then…
"Alright. I think I have an idea. Eggman is a genius, there's no way he'd be stupid enough to set up a base in the harshest place on the planet without some way to save his skin if something goes wrong. So all we have to do is find his getaway and take it ourselves once we find Sonic, and then we'll be safe."
Cream nodded and spoke. "That sounds like a plan, but there's just one thing. How do we find Sonic?"
Tails got a determined look on his face again. "I have a plan for that too."
Unknown to Cream, there were actually alarms in the outside of the base. A camera located in a cave formed by snow near the wreckage of the tornado, several heat sensors located all over the side of the building, and a pressure sensor all along the area between the buildings. Despite all this, not a sound came from any one of the multiple computers running this state-of-the-art security system, and Eggman remained completely unaware of the danger building under his bulbous nose the whole night through.
He was already preoccupied preparing a new activity for Sonic, for once in his life choosing to skip breakfast in favor of putting last minute touches on the surprise for him. A mistake, as it turned out.
When he finally came in to awaken Sonic, the hedgehog didn't say a word, simply followed Eggman obediently through the halls into yet another room.
Finally when they had reached their destination, Eggman spoke. "Well, here we are. I do hope you're feeling well enough to take this little test I've prepared for you."
A flicker of life sparked in the hedgehog's eyes. "A test, huh? Well, I'm more than happy to show off for you. Just don't be too surprised when I break your toys."
Eggman matched his competitive tone. "Oh, I wouldn't get cocky, Sonic. But I'm glad to hear you're feeling up to this. You see, my friend has been dying to see you again."
As he said this, he slowly retreated backwards until he had stepped into a different room, the wall made of some sort of thick glass that allowed for an excellent view, but Sonic doubted he could break it if he needed to. The hedgehog suspiciously watched him go, ready for any tricks. Once the door had sealed and Eggman was sure he was safe, he pointed at something behind Sonic's shoulder.
Sonic followed the finger and grimaced, getting into a battle stance. "Metal." Was all he said.
Sonic's robotic duplicate stood a few feet away, red eyes glowing evilly. "Sonic the Hedgehog." Came the complicated series of beeps and clicks that could only loosely be called language.
"So now we know each other's names. How've you been? Still sore over the last beating I gave you?"
"Not nearly as bad as I hear you have been." If it was possible for a robot without a mouth to smirk, Metal Sonic was now. "How are Tails and Cream?"
Sonic growled lowly at the mention of his friends now lost to him. With his eyes locked on Metal, he leapt forward at the same instant his metallic double activated his main engine. The two clashed in midair, and the battle began.
Tails worked frantically in Eggman's workshop, ignoring the weapons of mass destruction that lined the walls. The three of them had been lucky enough to find an open air duct and wasted no time in sneaking in, positive an alarm was to be tripped at any moment; their luck had held, and they made it safely to the room in one piece.
Tails had to admit, it was a bit uncomfortable working in Eggman's lab. An inventor himself, he knew exactly how he would feel if someone used his lab without permission. Nevertheless, desperate times called for desperate measures. If Sonic had any hope, it would be with Tails and whatever Tails could come up with. Cream and Cheese had gone, looking for a bank of security monitors with which they could track Sonic and prepare an escape route.
Suddenly Tails heard Cream cry out from the next room, "Tails! Come here! I found something!"
Tails dropped his project and hurried into the room. Cream looked up from a computer she appeared to be reading from. "Tails, I found the monitors but they're all offline. But come here and look at this!"
Tails growled in frustration. "It must be a security thing! We'll never-!"
"Tails, just look at this!"
Tails was surprised. Cream had actually interrupted someone on purpose. This must be important. He glanced over her shoulder and gaped at what he read.
"This must be his journal."
"It is! Oh, and look what he's keeping records of! Mr. Sonic's imprisonment!"
"There's nothing but page after page of what he's done and planning to do… and him theorizing about the best way to break him…" Tails said with a shudder, simultaneously recoiling in horror and scrolling with the mouse to read more. "Look at this! He's starving him, He's….whipped him and poured saltwater on the cuts…He's left him out in the cold so long…..he's even eaten right in front of him…"
"Stop, oh, stop! I'm gonna get nightmares!"
"Sonic been having a nightmare all this time- a real one. This is awful."
"It gets worse! Look what's lined up for today!" she pointed a shaking finger at the line of text for today.
After taking forever completing repairs, Metal Sonic is finally operational again. And yet, I feel the need to send him into battle already. I do believe it would make for a nice match. The poor boy is so overwhelmed thinking his dear friends are gone he'll be no match for Metal Sonic's cold logic. I do believe it would be sufficient for today, but in the unlikely event he wins the fight, I think I will proceed with yesterday's agenda and perform surgery while he is fully conscious. I believe it would be best to gag him first, as the screams could trip me up a bit…
"Stop…" Cream whispered, her face pale with imagining the kind of horrors that awaited her best friend. "Stop…"
Tails stopped, visibly shaken as well. "This…this is awful. A complete nightmare. Can you imagine, if I hadn't given Sonic that ring…If I hadn't figured out how to track him….if we never found him and he stayed here… my word, we've gotta get him away from here. And how dare he! Using our supposed deaths as a way to hurt Sonic even more! It says here he was screaming all night long! Rrrg! Eggman, you've crossed the line now! Cream, I'm almost done. See if you can find what room they're in so we can get Sonic and help him, now!"
Cream nodded. "Right!"
Hang on, Sonic. We're coming for you.
