13. Another Battle and Another Dream
Shadow pulled himself out of his fascination and put the gem away; this was one treasure he did not intend to hand over to Rouge. As soon as the bat had caught her breath, he walked up the boardwalk to the painted tower and opened the door in it. Beyond was a dim balcony. Shadow stepped through the door and realized he was back outside, where it was still night. The oblate moon was shifting to an orange color as it dropped towards the horizon, and was far dimmer than the artificial sun inside the tower he'd just stepped out of. The strange, elongated star he'd noticed earlier was barely visible on the horizon. As his eyes adjusted, he could just make out a caged sphere on the stone balustrade that surrounded the balcony. As he approached the railing he heard the faint keen of repulsor lifts approaching. He looked up to see the now-familiar, egg-shaped hovercraft weaving between the peaked roofs towards them.
"What do you think Omega?" he asked as the robot joined him.
The red eyes swung back and forth as the mech ran his internal checks. "Sensors jammed," Omega declared finally. "Real Eggman ID not possible."
Shadow hissed in frustration, but Rouge responded, "We'll just have to find out, won't we?"
The doctor halted his craft a few feet away, beyond the edge of the balcony. "What's the matter, cold feet?" he taunted the trio. "Well then, here I come." His voice dropped about thirty degrees as he finished with, "Get them." A veritable fleet of plane-bots rose over the edge of the balcony.
"No time for messing around," said Shadow. "Let's get ready."
"Okay." Rouge was poised to take wing.
"I am ready," agreed Omega, as his hands disappeared into his wrists and were replaced by gun barrels.
And the attack began. Shadow bounced his way up one side of the planes' formation while Rouge spun and kicked her way through the middle and Omega blasted the far side. The plane-bots were followed by a flight of small bird-shaped jets that dropped a giant from their midst. Omega blasted that one, too, while Rouge decommissioned the circling planes. Next a team of wizard robots rose from below and gave their support to a corps of gold-plated Egg pawns that streamed through another door onto the balcony. When those had been defeated, the cage opened with a clack to free the silver sphere. Shadow kept an eye on Eggman as Rouge touched the polished globe, and saw the hovercraft flip in tandem with his own group. But there was no time to contemplate that, as they dropped into the center of a ring of gold turtles - each with its cannon already aimed at the intruders!
Shadow thrust the hand with the Chaos Emerald forward and yelled "Chaos Control!" Everything froze around him. He looked at the gem in his hand in surprise. How did the Emerald get there? I put it away. And how did I know to do that? He looked back and forth at his companions and made a slight mental adjustment. Whatever he was doing to control time - and surely it's only a local effect? - they were suddenly freed from it. Rouge staggered slightly and looked around in bewilderment, while Omega single-mindedly began blasting the turtles. Rouge blinked and joined in the attack as Shadow started striking the gold-plated reptiles himself. Once they were destroyed, he looked regretfully over at the doctor - who was well out of reach - and ended the time-freeze. More robots were whisked in by more bird-jets, and the battle continued. Not sure how long he could hold time still - or how often he could repeat the maneuver - Shadow opted to fight in the normal fashion until three of the energy-draining purple mages arrived in conjunction with a pair of the armored giants. Then he called upon the Emerald again and permitted his team to fight unopposed. Frozen in time, the robots were crushed like dry leaves. As the seconds began to slip past again, he heard the doctor's howl of outrage; the human might not have caught what happened the first time, but this time he'd seen his robots essentially vanish, going from intact to scrap without even an eye-blink. But now the cage on the edge of their current battlefield opened - to reveal a small cannon. Rouge groaned at the sight.
"Well," Shadow pointed out, "at least this time there's no capsule." He dodged as she aimed a fist at him, and vaulted into the open end of the barrel. BAM! He was sent hurtling through the air in a long arc, tumbling neatly as he landed to finish on his feet. Rouge joined him, tumbling almost as neatly, then Omega crash-landed beside them. The enemy robots began arriving as the E-series robot got back to his feet. Several rounds later, they got a breathing space again, and sure enough, there was another globe gleaming on the arena's rim. The Egg-mobile still circled at a distance, the doctor hurling threats and curses at them. Omega rapped one of his gun barrels against the metal, and again the arena was flipped, this time back to right-side up. And more battle ensued.
"Doctor!" Shadow cried, "Stop this senseless fight!"
"You've underestimated us, haven't you?" Rouge's challenge rang strangely familiar in his ears.
"Activation test unsuccessful...minimal resistance detected," Omega contributed. Deja vu, thought Shadow. The feeling that something has already happened at least once before its current occurrence. Eggman's answer only strengthened the feeling.
"Hmmph, this is only the beginning!" The little pod whittered off as the trio approached the second cannon. This time the moon shone down from above as the three soared towards the next arena, instead of up from below.
Arena is the right word for it, thought the black hedgehog, looking around. They stood on a flat, circular floor, separated by a ditch from the veritable Coliseum of multi-storied arches that ringed it. The hovercraft had set itself in one of the towering archways, as robots appeared out of others. It seemed that this time the doctor was throwing everything he had at them; every single type of robot Shadow had encountered to this point made an appearance. When they'd cleared that gauntlet, streams of Egg pawns were literally thrown at them, cascading down from above. Shadow guessed they'd been fired out of cannons like his team had; at any rate it was simplicity itself to pick them off one at a time. Unfortunately, they also served as a distraction from the final opponents: a giant, two armored giants, and a double helping of wizards. The giants were so big that they jostled each other in their attempts to close with their smaller opponents. Shadow simply called on the Chaos Emerald and shut everything down before the dark wizards had a chance to start draining his team. The rest was simple.
Infuriatingly, Eggman didn't seem particularly bothered by the mass destruction of his metal army. "Don't get so excited boys...those were the easy ones!" He darted off in his little vessel.
Shadow and Rouge sank to the ground in unison. The bat shifted suddenly, and groped in her pocket. Pulling out a small headset she put it on. "Rouge here... yes... no! Where? ...I see... Yes sir, I will sir, at once." She looked at Shadow as she tucked it away again. "The fish fleet is on the move. You ready to finish this?"
Shadow frowned. "What's a fish fleet?"
"Doctor Eggman has a whole armada of gigantic flying ships that are shaped like fish," she reminded him. "My boss is sending a carrier to pick us up, and take us back to the canyon, so I can get my plane." She looked over at the setting moon, then at Omega. "Don't shoot it when it arrives, just wake us up. Got that?"
"Understood," said the robot.
"Good," said Rouge. She looked around a moment, then flitted up and pulled one of the scarlet banners down. Landing next to Shadow, she spread it out on the floor. "Want one? It's not the best fabric for a blanket, but..."
"No thanks," he interrupted her. "I'm fine." He lay down on the stone floor as she rolled herself up in the banner, and went to sleep.
He was awakened by a strange, crackling noise and a harsh smell. He shifted slightly, identifying it as disinfectant, with another, unfamiliar odor mixed in. As he moved, he became aware that he was enclosed somehow. His eyes flew open, and he stared out through a greenish haze and a capsule window at a dozen copies of his own face.
Shadow gasped for breath, distantly aware of the discrepancy between the air he felt flooding his lungs and the fluid he could feel he was immersed in. His immediate attention, though, focused on the twelve Shadows in front of him in two rows. Eleven were in closed capsules, the last, directly in front, was restrained by metal bands on a surgical table, with a capsule open nearby. A large round figure was leaning over the black and red hedgehog on the table, rummaging in its abdominal cavity. Shadow barely had time to register the sight, and the horror it generated, when the figure straightened, raising a fistful of wires from the doppelganger's midsection. The other hand groped below the table and reappeared with a pair of pliers or something similar. Before Doctor Eggman could use the tool, however, he turned sharply and stomped off. Eventually he returned, replaced the wires in the android, and hooked up a tube that pumped in some sort of clear fluid, then disconnected that and closed the black furred skin down the midline. The android was then stood in the capsule, and the capsule was closed and filled with the same green fluid that Shadow himself was floating in. He stared in horror at the twelve capsules in front of him as the doctor wheeled the table away. I wonder how many capsules there are to either side of me? How many 'me's are there? Is this why the Doctor said I had no past to remember? Is this all there is - just a vague recollection of watching other 'me's being created? He gasped for air again and focused on the feeling. Air, not fluid. I'm not here anymore. I am free!
He sat up suddenly, blinking in the early dawn light. Rouge was curled up in her banner a few feet away. A dream, or a memory? The black hedgehog shuddered involuntarily. Omega stood impassively near the edge of the ditch that ringed the arena floor. I wonder if he knows? But Shadow couldn't bring himself to ask. He got slowly to his feet, and a flicker of light drew his gaze. He looked and saw two blinking lights, one red, one green, and as they drew nearer a dark shape between them.
He heard the robot move, and it clumped over to stand next to him. "Vehicle approaching," commented Omega.
"That's probably the ride Rouge called for us," the hedgehog pointed out. "Try not to blow it up, okay?"
"If it is not made by Eggman, there is no need for this unit to destroy it," responded Omega simply. As if that comment answered everything, he moved away again, a grey shape in the pale light.
Shadow continued to watch the approaching plane until he could hear its engines, then he moved over and shook Rouge lightly by the shoulder. She blinked sleepily at him, then her gaze sharpened as her brain woke up all the way. Shadow pointed towards the arriving vehicle as she sat up, and she nodded and got to her feet. By the time the little plane landed, all three were ready to board it.