Chapter 12 - Team Dark
Dear firewaterwarriorKats: Thank you for the support! You took the words out of my mouth there (not literally. That would be not only impossible, but also kinda gross). That's EXACTLY what I'm trying to do with Sonic here. *doesn't push you off a 3 foot fence* Hype for Team Dark! Well, enough of me talking, enjoy this chapter! :D
Well, after far too long, Legacy is back in action! Sorry about the wait. I was really busy and suffering from a bit of writer's block, but don't worry, I'm not giving up on this story.
So, what's happened since I last updated? The biggest one is that I moved house. Crazy, huh? Packing and unpacking and moving and rearranging stuff took up a lot of time, which is the main thing that cut into my writing time. But I'm pretty much done with all of that, so that won't be making things slow anymore. I put a lot of the time I had into working on A Tale Of Origins, which you can read if you like (shameless plugging intensifies). Let's see, what else… got Sonic Boom: Fire & Ice (which is REALLY good, by the way. It's much better than either of its predecessors. If you aren't sure whether to get it or not, I suggest that you give it a chance), completed the main story two days later, got through a storm that cut off my ENTIRE STATE from power, sat down and played through S3&K as Knuckles for the first time, got all the Super Emeralds for the first time, wasted a lot of time on the internet, blah, blah, blah, etc. etc. etc., all that kinda stuff. Nothing really important.
Nobody likes ridiculously long notes, so let's just get on with the story!
"Are we almost there?" Sonic asked after a few minutes of walking.
The commander sighed. "We're approximately halfway. Keep going." The silence returned. After another minute, he spoke again. "As you may or may not know, the blue Chaos Emerald is currently in our possession. Over the past days, Shadow has negotiated with us on numerous occasions, and we have agreed to hand it to your team. Do not let it fall into the wrong hands under any circumstances, and do not let anybody use it who may misuse its power, intentionally or unintentionally."
He looked right at Sonic as he said the last part. The hedgehog picked up on the stare. "What?" he asked defensively. "Oh, I get it. Because I'm turning into a robot-" he held his arm out to emphasise his point - "you think I'm gonna start being evil. Well, you're wrong." He folded his arms and smiled. "Come on, commander guy whose name I forgot. Don't you remember who I am? I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. I don't do evil."
"I never said that," the commander argued. They arrived at a tall military complex made of concrete. It was surrounded by fences topped with barbed wire and had security cameras almost everywhere. "We're here." He walked to the gate, which had a scanner of some sort. Pulling an identity card from his pocket, the commander swiped it in the scanner. A green light lit up on the scanner and the gate opened. He walked through the gate, motioning for the other three to follow.
Shadow, Rouge and Omega were waiting at the doors of the building. "Good evening, Commander Tower," Shadow said with a formal salute. "I see you brought Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles."
"Yes. I will give you all some time to brief each other on your present situation," Tower explained. "Given the time, you may stay overnight if you wish."
"Thank you, Commander," Shadow responded. He turned to his friends. "Come on, you three. Let's go."
xX*Xx
They entered the building. Taking a few turns, they went through a door that led to what looked like a small house connected to the main base. "Here's where Team Dark lives," Shadow explained. "It may not look like much, but it has everything that we need. Anyway, welcome back, Sonic."
"Good to see you again, faker," the blue hedgehog responded.
"How are you all?" Rouge asked. "Have things been going well?"
"It's been great!" Tails answered happily.
The conversation continued. The two teams fired questions at each other. After a while, Omega unexpectedly changed the topic. "SHADOW, ROUGE, YOU OUGHT TO TELL THEM."
"About wha- oh. No, that isn't important," Shadow said.
"IF YOU REFUSE TO RECOUNT THESE EVENTS, I WILL EXPLAIN THEM MYSELF."
Rouge blushed. "Omega, I don't think that you need to say anything about-"
Ignoring Shadow and Rouge's protesting, Omega turned to the other three, saying, "SHADOW AND ROUGE HAVE BEEN GOING OUT FOR TWO YEARS. SHADOW ASKED ROUGE ON A DATE SOME TIME AGO. SHE SAID YES. THEY ARE CURRENTLY DATING."
There was silence. Sonic then clapped enthusiastically. "I didn't think you had it in you, Shadz!"
"Was that a compliment or an insult?" Shadow asked.
Knuckles blinked. "Rouge and Shadow?" he repeated. "I mean, that's great for them. I don't have a problem with that." Noticing his friends' stares, he tried to defend himself. "What? Quit looking at me like that!"
Laughing, Sonic turned back to look at Shadow and Rouge. "Seriously, guys. Congratulations. That's awesome."
Shadow smiled briefly. "Thanks."
xX*Xx
In his underground bunker, Eggman worked restlessly at his computer. He pressed a few keys and opened some programs. A world map appeared in front of the many other windows. In the area representing Westopolis, a red light was flashing. The doctor grinned to himself, knowing exactly where his nemesis was. "Visiting the G.U.N. base, are you?" he asked, ignoring the fact that he knew the answer, and that Sonic couldn't hear him. "Let me see if I can use this. Hmm…" He continued to type things in, and in doing so, expertly manipulating the code within Sonic's body.
"Finally, it's ready," Eggman muttered to himself after ten minutes. "Now, just brush against some kind of core computer asset. Come on, hedgehog, help me out here."
On the other side of the world, the members of the teams were continuing their discussion. "It looked like we were facing certain defeat," Rouge retold dramatically. "The gang had us surrounded. There were at least fifteen members, all armed, and all of them up against Shadow and me. I'm obviously a skilled fighter, and Shadow's powerful, but we definitely couldn't take them all out. I tried to reason with them. I told them that if they let us leave in one piece, we would leave them alone-"
"She told them that if they didn't back off, she'd come to their house at night and take everything they own," Shadow interrupted. "And yes, she still steals, even though she's working for the government. This is Rouge we're talking about here."
"…Shadow, that was unnecessary," Rouge complained. "Continuing, we thought we were done for. The gang members were strong in numbers, and it's not like Shadow could've Chaos Controlled us out of there. We didn't have the Emerald on us. It was too risky. But then, out of nowhere, Omega comes and saves us!"
"Really?" Tails asked excitedly.
"Yep! He came along and picked up at least five of them, throwing them into the ground. Then he started charging up some lasers, which scared the rest of them off. It was an amazing way to end the mission!" Rouge confirmed. "So, we wrapped up the case, arrested those responsible for the mass thievery, and saved the day."
Omega held up one giant, mechanical hand. "I DO NOT CHARGE FOR HIGH FIVES," he said.
"Was that a joke?" Sonic asked. "Wow, this guy is the most awesome robot ever!" He laughed reached his right hand up to high-five Omega.
"Yes!" Eggman shouted victoriously underground. A loading bar appeared on his screen, which filled almost immediately. The new files automatically opened, and he began to scan through the documents.
In Westopolis, Sonic winced, pulling his hand back. "Ow."
"What is it?" Knuckles asked.
"I think it's just static electricity or something. I'm fine."
Eggman continued to read the top-secret files that were now on his computer. "Ooh, this is just wonderful! Very interesting… very interesting indeed. And they have a Chaos Emerald, right here! I'll have to send somebody in to take it, then…" He opened his communications and set up a link. "Extreme Team, are you there?"
There was silence for almost two minutes. Then a tired, irritated voice came. "Dude, it's three AM this side of the world. Ever heard of time zones?"
"You can sleep later. I happen to know that if you get to the G.U.N. base at Westopolis, you can get a Chaos Emerald! All you need to do is fly over there, sneak into the base, hack into their systems to open all the safes, and then just go searching for the right one."
"Ooh, hacking! I can do that," another person jumped in. This one was female. "How much time do we have?"
"Where are you now?"
"We're pretty close to Pumpkin Hill Mountain," the first person said.
"If you get going right now, you'll have a good hour before most people in that time zone would wake up. Less talk, more hacking and stealing."
"Why do you need all three of us goin', though?" a third voice asked. "We only gotta hack something and get this Emerald. That's a one-person job, ain't it?"
"Because you'll probably be fighting, with the luck I've had recently," Eggman responded. "I would usually be able to provide backup, but I don't have enough power to help you with that. If you trip an alarm, there will probably be reinforcements from the military, too. The clock is ticking. Hurry up!"
"Yeah, okay. We'll bring you the Emerald when we're done," the first voice said. With that, he disconnected himself and the other members of the 'Extreme Team' from the call.
xX*Xx
After another ten minutes of Shadow, Rouge and Omega describing their missions stopping illegal trades and threats to the government and such things, Shadow changed the topic. "Back to your side of things, the hell happened to you?" he asked, looking at Sonic.
"That's EXACTLY what I asked," Knuckles butted in.
Sonic facepalmed. "It's the same question every flipping time… whatever. What exactly are you referring to?"
"You already told us about how you came back and a vague recount of what you've done so far. There's only one thing I would logically be talking about right now. Connect the dots," Shadow responded. "What's with the robot look?"
"SCANS SHOW THAT NON-ORGANIC MATERIAL IS AT 32 PERCENT. NON-ORGANIC MATERIAL APPEARS TO BE REPLACING ORGANIC MATERIAL. WITHOUT INTERVENTION, 100 PERCENT WILL BE REACHED WITHIN ONE WEEK," Omega added.
"Th… that's more than I thought it was," Sonic muttered to himself. He shook the feeling off and continued talking. "Well, you know how Eggman used corrupted energy of evilness or something to send me to a dividing by zero error? It's also turning me into, and I quote Knuckles, a 'Metal Sonic'. (Knuckles raised his hands, saying, "Somebody had to say it.") But we're working on it. That's somewhere else the Chaos Emeralds come in handy, because they bring me back to normal a bit. Why that happens, I don't know. But it does, because reasons, so that's nice. There's also the fact that it's spreading really fast, and a tiny issue with Eggman not actually being gone and instead trying to use me to attack my friends sometimes. But that's basically the whole story."
"Oh. That's it?" Shadow asked sarcastically.
"Yeah, pretty much."
Tails looked at the clock. 12:37 AM. "It's getting really late," he said. "Is there somewhere we can get some sleep?"
Rouge jumped to the task. She left the room and came back a second later with some blankets. She threw one over the couch, another on an armchair, put one on the floor as a sort of mattress, and dropped another on top of it. "That should do it!" she announced. "Does that look right to you? This isn't exactly my field of expertise. I'm an incredibly beautiful jewel thief and government spy, not a maid."
"That'll work," Knuckles shrugged. "I call dibs on the sofa."
xX*Xx
Sonic lay awake, long after the rest of his team had gone to sleep. Tails had beaten him to the chair, so he was trying to get some sleep on the floor. It had only been a few hours, and his right arm was already back to the way it had been that morning. The cybernetic enhancements were beginning to creep down along the side of his body, too. At this rate, he wouldn't have much time. What had Omega said? A week. Seven days to reunite his team, collect all of the Chaos Emeralds, discover Eggman's plan, stop it, and get himself back to normal for good. That wasn't much. Sure, the power of the Emeralds would buy him some extra time, but only a few days.
He told himself to stop. He was going to be fine, his friends weren't in any danger, and the world would be safe. Sighing, Sonic rolled over again, trying to get comfortable. This wasn't normal. He didn't usually give it that much thought - it was normal by this point, and after about a year of slowly being changed into someone else, it wasn't really a big deal anymore. Why was he lying awake at two in the morning thinking about it? Okay, so he knew the answer to that. He had fought his friends that day, tried to hurt them, and been unable to stop himself. When you're forced to go into battle with your friends, you don't exactly just shrug it off. He had learnt that immediately the first time it had happened, when he was still with Silver and Blaze. It was hard, knowing that he was fighting the people he fought to protect, but not being able to do anything about it. But it was just something that happened now, and as hard as it was, he had come to accept it. And he usually tried to put a positive spin on the situation. Sometimes, it was pretty useful. His mechanical arm was stronger and more powerful than it had been before, and he wasn't certain, but he was pretty sure that his speed had been slightly enhanced. Things could be worse, really.
While it took some time, fatigue eventually took over. Sonic felt his consciousness slip, and he finally fell asleep.
xX*Xx
The sun had barely begun to peek over the horizon. The G.U.N. base was suddenly overwhelmed by the sound of alarms. Every PA system blared out the same warning siren. Covering his ears, Sonic stood up half-consciously. He rubbed his eyes and tried to force himself to wake up. "It's like five in the morning, what the hell…" he mumbled tiredly.
Team Dark was already alert. Shadow and Rouge ran from the bedroom. "What's happening?" Shadow asked. He went to Omega, who was charging in the corner, and turned the robot on. "Omega, what's going on?"
"SECURITY FOOTAGE SHOWS THREE UNIDENTIFIED CRIMINALS, ALL BIRDS, ALL RIDING SIMILAR HOVERBOARDS OF UNKNOWN ORIGIN, ALL WEARING SUNGLASSES, BREAKING INTO THE VAULT WHERE THE BLUE CHAOS EMERALD IS BEING KEPT," Omega answered. "IT APPEARS THEY HAVE HACKED INTO THE SECURITY SYSTEM TO GET IN WITHOUT SETTING OFF ANY ALARMS OR SECURITY SYSTEMS. THEY TRIPPED AN ALARM WHILE OPENING THE SAFE. RECOMMENDED ACTION IS TO CORNER THEM AND FORCE THEM TO SURRENDER."
Tails gasped. "That sounds like the Babylon Rogues!" he pointed out. "Judging by what we've gone through so far, they're probably working for Eggman!"
"Oh, yeah, you're right," Knuckles agreed. "Let's go, then!"
The heroes ran through corridors and down stairs. The alarms kept blaring the whole time, which at least helped Sonic to wake up. When they reached the vault, their suspicions were confirmed. Three birds, Jet, Wave and Storm, had evidently been trying to break into a safe when they had been caught. They turned around when the team entered. "Well, that's just great," Jet sighed. "Nice hacking, Wave. Really frigging discreet. How could these guys have possibly noticed us?"
"Shut it, Jet," Wave shot back. "This is the military we're talking about. It's a miracle we got this far undetected in the first place."
"Can we fight them or something?" Storm asked. "Beat 'em up, take the Chaos Emerald, give it to the boss, and leave. That's what we should do, right?"
"You are breaking and entering a G.U.N. facility," Shadow said. "You have violated multiple laws, and reinforcements will come to arrest you once we have taken you down."
Rouge sighed. "Do you really have to go over that whole legal thing you're talking about every single time we find somebody we have to get arrested?"
"If we're going to get paid, then yes."
Ignoring Shadow and Rouge, Jet turned to Sonic. "Long time no see, Sonic," he smirked. "It's been a long time since I fought you. This time, I'll show you that I'm the fastest thing on the planet. And I'll have the security footage here to prove it."
"We're having a fight, not a race, bird brain," Sonic pointed out. "But I accept your challenge."
The combatants faced each other. Jet, Wave and Storm, the infamous Babylon Rouges, against Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Team Dark, for possession of the blue Chaos Emerald. It would be an intense battle for sure.
Jet walked forward. Sonic did the same. They stared each other down for a moment, the tension rising. Then the hedgehog made the first move, his fist moving out in a split second to catch his rival by surprise. The bird retaliated with a swift kick.
And within a few seconds, all hell broke loose.
At long last… I finished this. Yay! Shadow's theme song will be 'All Hail Shadow', the original version by Magna-Fi. (The only song that Crush 40 actually didn't make better.) Next chapter, we'll have an epic battle! Who's ready for a big dumb fight scene? Yeah, only two chapters' break, and now everybody's beating each other up again. I hope it'll be awesome. Well, hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did, please leave a review, and tell me what you liked and what I can improve. I will see you all in the next chapter, and have a great day!
BEFORE I FORGET AGAIN. I will translate the code gibberish from chapter 9. That took way too long for me to do, I know. I'M SORRY.
WELL THEN, SONIC. I SEE THAT YOU FOUND A WAY TO BRING YOURSELF BACK TO NORMAL. I HAVE TO SAY, A PART OF ME ADMIRES YOUR DETERMINATION… BUT ANOTHER PART OF ME IS FURIOUS. WHY DO YOU CONTINUE TO OPPOSE ME, EVEN WHEN I AM SLOWLY TAKING OVER YOUR THOUGHTS?! IT DOESN'T HELP MATTERS THAT SNIPER HAD TO GO AND TELL YOU MY PLANS… BUT I SUPPOSE HE DID HELP ME TO GAIN CONTROL OVER YOU MUCH MORE EFFICIENTLY. MOVING ON. YOUR NEW FREEDOM WON'T LAST LONG. AS I SPEAK, MY INFLUENCE IS RETURNING. YOU DON'T HAVE LONG, I MUST ADD. A WEEK IF YOU'RE LUCKY, MORE IF YOU DO WHATEVER YOU JUST DID AGAIN. I WILL TRY TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOU AGAIN SOON. I DOUBT YOU WILL LET ME DO SO FOR LONG. YOU NEVER GAVE UP, EVEN WHEN I WAS SURE TO WIN. BUT THAT WAS A LONG TIME AGO, WHEN ALL THIS WAS MORE OF A GAME THAN ANYTHING. THIS TIME, I WILL NOT BE AS MERCIFUL. THIS TIME, YOU WILL NOT BE SAVED AT THE LAST SECOND BY PURE CHANCE. THIS TIME, WE ARE NOT PLAYING A GAME. THIS TIME… IT'S WAR. AND THIS TIME, I WILL WIN. IF I'M LUCKY, YOU MAY EVEN HELP ME TO DO SO.
