A/N: M'kay, excuse time. I am a few months late. I am well aware of that. It pained me, but I could do nothing about it. School's slowing me down, and other stuff... That, and I couldn't figure out how to properly continue this story until a little while ago.
Now, I would just like to say this - "I am not a person to abandon/discontinue my stories, I am just a terrible updater."
That sums up everything, I believe. I will never give up on my stories, I hate those kind of writers.
Okay, okay, when I say this, I mean it – I will update better now! I just needed to struggle through this chapter. I think I got a lot to build off of, now. The only reason I'm actually struggling is not because I didn't think this story through. I just decided to add a lot more chapters instead of making it a shorter story, and I just don't, or rather, didn't know how to do so properly... until now.
Now, this chapter may feel like a filler, pointless chapter, but I assure you all, it's not. Everything in this chapter has a point. I swear, it does. With my horrible updating, though, this chapter may be forgotten, and my point may need to be reminded when the time comes, but nothing here is pointless. Honest.
Also, lastly, I would like to thank my reviewers! Your guys' reviews mean a lot to me, and I truly, utterly mean it! Special thanks goes to Lyris-Leeton for sticking with this story for so long! I'm really, truly, utterly thankful for that! That, and your reviews are some of the best I've ever gotten! :)
Sonic watched Eggman suspiciously, eyeing him over as the human's finger fumbled lazily around some small gadgets that lay on a table in one of his designing rooms, his precious machinery seemingly carelessly scattered about.
Sonic didn't comment on this, though. Right now, all he wanted to do was to watch and make sure that his enemy wasn't doing anything too funny.
"It should be here," he heard Eggman mutter under his breath, causing Sonic to narrow his eyes in slight interest.
"What should be here?" Sonic asked, keeping his voice to a bored tone.
"Nothing of your concern…" Eggman snapped, not looking up from his desk.
After a short while, though, Eggman let out a small sound of defeat, seemingly torn about something that the hedgehog was sure to soon learn about.
"Maybe I placed it somewhere else," Eggman told himself quietly, causing Sonic to hold back a snort. He was taking so long, and Sonic just about had no patience! There were people to save, enemies to defeat… Too many things to just stand here and wait!
"Eggman, we don't have all day."
Sonic was ultimately ignored.
Seeing as Eggman was heading out of the room without saying anything, Sonic stopped leaning against one of the walls and moved to follow Eggman, his expression still impatient.
"Where are you heading?"
Eggman's head turned to shoot a glare at the blue hedgehog.
"Nosey today, aren't we?" he mused.
That was all he said. It then grew quiet once more. It grew tense. It grew uncomfortable.
Sonic's gaze snapped around, observing the metal walls of Eggman's base. While he was here, it was good to memorize the place inside-out for future use, right? The hedgehog believed so… It was better than doing nothing, anyway, he figured.
Still... it wasn't quite right to be thinking of the future just yet. Not with current problems at hand, anyway.
The two stopped in front of a door which soon opened as Eggman typed in the password.
Sonic, deciding to be a good 'hog, turned his head so that he wouldn't give into the temptation of memorizing the doctor's password. He could just break the door if he needed to get through, anyway, so what was the point? It'd be boring to use the password to destroy the base later on. Why not smash through the doors and have some fun?
"It should be in here."
"What should?" Sonic tried to keep his voice sounding disinterested and bored, but a bit of annoyance found its way in his tone, no matter how hard he tried to fight it.
Ignoring Sonic once more, Eggman just smirked before he walked inside. He then began to look around. Sonic followed closely behind.
The room was large, filled with numerous robots. Not even 'numerous' – there was an outstanding amount! Many different creations, most unique in their own way... Too bad most – if not all – of these machines would be trashed before they were even activated.
"It's not here!" Sonic heard Eggman cry out in annoyance. He then watched as the human sighed and hesitantly moved to face Sonic.
"Need help?" Sonic asked calmly, his lips twitching upwards in amusement.
Eggman only growled in response.
A few moments of silence came around, then…
Eggman gave in, and explained, defeated, "I'm looking for a small device, about the size of your palm. It's mostly metal, but it's got a distinct glowing center meant to do... stuff."
"Stuff," Sonic repeated, scoffing. He then nodded his head half-heartedly and replied, "Sure, I'll help look for this... 'thing'. But this better not be a trap!"
Eggman pursed his lips together, though he said nothing, obviously biting back a witty response. They both knew this wasn't the time to bicker.
Sighing, Sonic turned around and began to scavenge around, fully alert for a gadget matching Eggman's very, very brief description.
He pushed around crates and boxes and robots and much more. This was like a robot warehouse, and Sonic grumbled upon realizing how hopeless this was. "This is going to take forever…"
Narrowing his eyes, Sonic struggled to push one very heavy crate over to the side so that he could see the items placed on the shelf behind it.
As he did, though, his shoe stepped in a strange, gooey substance, causing him to grimace as some of it splashed about and dampened his leg.
"Darn it," he cursed quietly, stepping away from the crate. He then scanned the shelves. Nothing. Perfect.
Turning away, Sonic bent down to wipe away some of the slimy liquid from his shoe when he stopped.
...what was that?
The small, small drops of liquid... they were purple. They also seemed to slowly wrap itself around the shoe, almost as if they were carefully placing themselves tight on his footwear so that they wouldn't fall.
Water didn't do that. Liquid didn't do that.
Sonic blinked, confused.
"Have you found anything yet?"
Sonic looked up, blinking once more. "Uhm, no, not yet..."
Sonic then quickly shook his head and hurriedly rubbed off the odd liquid from his shoes and leg before moving to search somewhere else.
He heard footsteps approach, but he ignored them as he scanned through yet another shelf, wondering to himself why Eggman lacked so much in organization.
"Huh? What's this?"
Sonic reluctantly looked over his shoulder at Eggman, wondering what the fuss was about.
"What is it?"
"One of my machines... I could've sworn I had another right here," He pointed to an empty spot on the shelf he, Sonic, just looked through. "But… N-nevermind. Carry on."
Sonic's eyes narrowed slightly before he looked back at the shelves.
"Oh, wait, I... Actually, no, false alarm."
The hedgehog sighed quietly to himself, giving into self-pity.
.
. . .
.
"Where were you?" Tails asked, genuinely confused as he looked up from another one of his newer projects.
"Eggman's gonna help us." Sonic reported, slumping tiredly onto one of the chairs nearby.
"Huh? Eggman?" Tails placed his tools down and stared at Sonic wide-eyed. "Isn't this a trap?" he yelped.
Sonic gave his friend a reassuring look as he leaned further into the cushions. "No, I don't think so. Not this time. I spent the whole day there, and he did nothing. He let me go without a second thought."
Tails frowned and gave Sonic an indifferent look. "It's Eggman, he's always got a trick up his sleeve!"
Sonic nodded his head slowly in agreement as he crossed his arms over his chest. "That's why we gotta keep an eye on him. That's all."
He then paused before adding, "Besides, he could have a trick up his sleeve... it just doesn't have to be for us."
Tails gave Sonic a hesitant look before slowly nodding his head and half-heartedly agreeing, "Yeah, I guess so..."
Seeing that his little brother still had doubts, Sonic decided to point out, "This thing is obviously much more... 'serious' than Egg-head could ever be, so it can't be him... and what if this 'creature' decides to do something drastic? It may ruin Eggman's 'plans', and Eggman wouldn't take too kindly to that."
Tails' expression softened as he nodded his head, "Yeah, that would make a lot of sense, I guess," He then paused before adding, "And having Eggman on our side couldn't hurt. He could see things in ways we couldn't, he can help aid us in battle..."
Sonic nodded his head slowly and finished, "-And it's not like this is new. Remember up on the ARK? He helped us there!"
Tails' face changed, expression-wise, as he heard those words, which confused Sonic. Why-
... oh. Shadow. He was a large part of that.
… Knuckles, too.
"Maybe he can also help us find them; who knows?"
Tails gave Sonic a hopeful look. "I hope so. Maybe he can give us a few more clues, at least. We need to find Knuckles and Team Dark. Who knows what kind of danger they could be in?"
"Team Dark?" Sonic repeated, confused.
Tails looked down, his ears dropping down to his skull.
"Yeah... they're..." Tails tried to find the right word, and with the time he was taking, he noticed that Sonic was just getting more concerned. The fox let out a sigh. "G.U.N. thinks they're dead – they seemed to have just disappeared without leaving any traces while on a mission... and the place they were staying at was destroyed..."
"But G.U.N. doesn't know for sure?" Sonic asked, frowning.
Tails shook his head and confirmed, "No, they don't – which is why I want to find out the truth." His expression grew strangely stern as he added, "I can't just sit back and watch my friends get hurt!"
Sonic's expression softened as he heard this. It sounded like something he'd say... Tails was becoming a lot like him without knowing it.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Tails asked, "What's that?"
Sonic followed his 'brother's' gaze.
"Oh," Sonic uttered, confused as to how he left some of the purple goo Tails was referring to on his shoe. "I dunno. I stepped in it over at Eggman's base. It's not the most pleasant-feeling goo to step in."
"...Eggman's base?" Tails murmured in thought.
"Yeah," Sonic explained, "It was over where one of Eggman's machines was stolen. This thing acted like it had a mind of its own!"
Immediately intrigued, Tails asked, "Mind if I do some tests on it?"
Sonic simply smiled a bit, shrugged, and exclaimed, "Be my guest!"
As Sonic wiped off the remaining bits of the odd liquid while making a face, Tails prepared something to put it in.
As he closed the lid shut to keep the purple substance sealed, Tails couldn't help but frown.
This... this 'thing' made him feel funny... It was as if this thing was... something familiar. It bothered the child to no end, and he couldn't help but look up at his hero, silently wondering if he, too, felt this.
His eyes met with Sonic's for only a moment before the hedgehog's eyes suddenly hardened as they moved to look down and the special container though the fox held.
"M... Meph..." the hedgehog suddenly tried out, his eyes narrowed in concentration as if he was trying to remember something.
"What?" Tails asked, confused.
As if snapped out of a trance, Sonic just quickly shook his head. "N-nothing..."
It was an obvious lie, but Tails didn't question Sonic.
Instead, he offered Sonic a warm smile, and he got a smile in return. It wasn't warm, though. It was seemingly forced as Sonic's gaze nervously fluttered about, as if he just remembered something he'd rather not.
Sonic was finally able to look at Tails once more and tried to give him a small smirk.
Even so, there was just one main issue that kept replaying in his mind.
'Meph... "Mephiles"... "Solaris"...' Sonic then blinked, gaining a startled expression which he couldn't hide, no matter how hard he tried.
'Elise...!?'