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Location: Spagonia
Year: 2014
"Mighty, there's something I need to show you," Ray said as he led the red armadillo into a room. Metal Sonic had been dismantled all over the table.
"What's wrong?" Mighty asked. He looked at the dismantled parts. "Whoa, what happened here?" Ray pointed to the head of Metal Sonic.
"I've taken him apart and searched for his power source." He held up a battery. "I swore this was it, but look. He's still on." He pointed at Metal Sonic's eyes. There was still code scrolling left to right in them.
"Well if that was the battery then he couldn't possibly still be on," Mighty told him. Ray shook his head.
"No no, you don't get it. Check this out." Ray opened up Metal Sonic's body, to which to Mighty's surprise, had an electric reaction occurring between the circuits. The wires were also damaged with slight burns and rips.
"How is that possible without the battery?" Mighty asked. "Are you sure that's the battery?" Ray nodded.
"This is the battery alright. But I am at a loss of words for how he is being powered. I cannot explain why the circuits are active without a power source. Even more, I don't understand how those wires are still stable." Ray placed the battery back inside and screwed up the compartment. "There were some pieces of glass inside of him. I think I managed to get most of it out though."
"Has he said anything since you've taken him apart?" Mighty asked. Ray shook his head.
"Not a single word." He took down some notes. "Have you reviewed the audio from the plane?"
"I was in the middle of it before you got me," Mighty told him. "I'm having the boys organize the footage from the base as well. There might be something on camera we might have missed."
"Well if it makes you feel any better," Ray pulled up the crime scenes pictures on the computer and held up Metal Sonic's dismantled arm. "We got a match for the attacks."
"So it is Metal Sonic," Mighty said glaring at the robot.
"But I don't think this is his own doing," Ray explained. "From what I've gathered up he seems to be controlled by something else. I just haven't gotten that far to explain whom or what it could be though."
"Maybe that's where those electric reactions are coming from." He looked at Ray's notes. "Have you managed to gather any data in his memory?"
"I've received some footage, but a majority of it cut off for some reason. From what I can see, after a final battle with Sonic, he had been deactivated for a few years. His camera then somehow got reactivated, and by the looks of it, he was in the middle of the jungle. Then the rest of it turns to static and for a few brief seconds you have some of the crime scenes he caused. Then it goes to us at the base and that's it."
"And there was no one in the jungle that could have possibly reactivated him?" Mighty asked. Ray shook his head.
"There is nobody caught on camera."
"No audio?"
"Nope."
Mighty covered his face and let out a deep sigh. "This is a mess." He rubbed the back of his neck. "This seems to be more frustrating than it should be. I mean we got the evidence that it was Metal Sonic causing the terrorist attacks, but we have no idea whom activated him or how he's even able to stay powered on without a battery or plug inside of him. He's practically powered with black magic."
"I'll see what else I can find out, but let HQ know that we somewhat solved this case."
"Somewhat? There's no such thing. You either solve a case or you don't." He banged his fist on the table. "This cannot be happening. If we don't figure out where his source of control is from soon then there's no doubt these attacks are going to happen again. Lives are at stake here." Mighty sighed and rubbed his eyes. "Okay, I'm going to leave you to find out anything else you can. I'm going to review the audio from the plane and see if maybe I caught anything that can help us."
"Don't stress about this too much Mighty," Ray told him. "We both knew what we were going to face with these jobs. We're the best of the best. Don't let one mystery case take that away from you. We're going to solve this one way or another. We always do." Mighty looked at him and frowned.
"I just don't want any more lives put in danger. I'm determined to solve this as soon as possible."
"And we will." Ray put his hand on his best friend's back. "I promise." Mighty smiled.
"Alright buddy," He said. "You do whatever you need to do, and I'll finish reviewing the audio and footage on the plane. You find anything; you let me know right away."
"Aye aye."
Mighty pat Ray's back and made his way out of the room. When he got back to the main room, he stopped when he noticed both Rouges waiting by the elevator.
"Where are you ladies off too?" He asked. Rouge quickly got in front of Future Rouge.
"We're just going back outside for a breather. I'll be right back," She said. Mighty smirked at her.
"Okay but don't be too long," He said, before winking at her. "I'll be kinda lonely." Rouge rolled her eyes. His flirting attempts got worse by the minute. Once the elevator arrived, both bats went inside and made their way out of the building. Rouge led Future Rouge into an alleyway.
"What's wrong?" She asked. Future Rouge was starting to fade away.
"Well...I guess my job is done now," She told her. "You're back on track to a good life, meaning the future where I come from no longer exists."
"But I thought you were going to show me two possibilities that would benefit me in the future. This was one. What was the other?" Future Rouge smiled.
"Eh...you have a talent for being a designer," She said. "Either way, I know I've done what I was supposed to do, and I know things are going to work out from this point forward. That is," She pointed at Rouge, "if you stop stealing things."
"Don't worry," Rouge told her with a smile. "That's all behind me." She hugged her future self. "This may be weird, but I'm gonna miss you. You really helped me out a lot."
"Well it's not like you'll never see me again," Future Rouge told her. "Just look in the mirror. I am YOU after all." They both giggled. Future Rouge was less than five seconds away from vanishing.
"Goodbye Rouge," Rouge said waving to her Future self. Future Rouge waved back.
"I wish you the best!" She then disappeared into thin air, leaving Rouge all by herself. She took a few moments of silence as she thought about her past, the present, and her future.
"Wow," a voice startled her and she quickly turned around. "You weren't kidding when you said she was from the future."
"Mighty," Rouge put her hands on her hips. "Have you been spying on me this entire time? Don't you know that's rude?" Mighty walked over to her.
"Hey I got a little worried," He told her. "I wanted to double check on you and make sure you were okay." Rouge sighed.
"I'm fine," She looked up at him. "Do you have any assignments for me?" Mighty smiled.
"Well, that all depends," He led her back inside. "Work-wise I think we have everything covered, but..." They went inside the elevator. "Otherwise, I think I'm gonna go with what Ray said earlier and bring up a possible date." Rouge crossed her arms.
"You're pretty terrible at this ya know that?" She asked him. Mighty chuckled.
"I'm trying as hard as I can here!" He said with a grin. "Come on, at least give me some credit on all the effort!" Rouge thought about it for a moment.
"Hmm..." She then smiled. "Alright. I'll take you up on that date. Maybe you're game will be better." They walked inside the main room.
"Mighty, there's something we need to show you," Bean said interrupting the two. He led the way back to Fang and Bark who were on one of the computers.
"What's up boys?" He asked.
"We seemed to have overlooked some odd trail back at the base," Fang told him. He clicked on some of the pictures and zoomed in.
"What is that?" Rouge asked.
"It looks like shattered shards of glass or something," Bark said. "They're all leading right to Metal Sonic."
"Hmm...They might be traces from his crime attempts," Mighty added. "Ray's got the evidence that confirms Metal Sonic to be behind the terrorist attacks."
"It might be," Fang looked at Mighty. "Will we be returning to the base anytime soon?"
"I've already called HQ to send agents over there as soon as possible," Mighty crossed his arms. "There had to be someone there with Metal Sonic."
"Did you get anything from the plane?" Bean asked.
Mighty walked over to his computer. "Nothing yet. I'm still reviewing the audio." He put on his headphones and resumed where he left off.
"Did you guys find anything else out of the ordinary?" Rouge asked. The three shook their heads.
"Nothing yet," Fang told her. "There's nothing but piles of junk. It's hard to tell the difference between what's useful and what's completely useless."
"Maybe we should just wait until those other agents investigated the base and see if they can find anything," Bean suggested. "Otherwise we can't really pick apart anything suspicious."
"Those shards though," Fang rubbed his chin. "I honestly believe we would have remembered seeing them when we were there."
"They look like pieces of a broken mirror," Rouge pointed out. "But it's probably nothing. Like Mighty said, they might just be pieces from one of the crime scenes."
"Guys..." Mighty took off his headphones. "You guys might wanna listen to this."
"What is it?" Bean asked. Mighty unplugged the headphones and turned up the volume on the computer. He replayed the audio recording.
"Mighty: Ray! Ray! What's going on?!
Ray: I can't control it! I can't call for help Mighty and the plane is failing on us!
Mighty: Is it a mechanical problem in the plane?! Are the engines alright?!
Ray: Everything is fine but there seems to be a strong interference of some kind! The radar went ballistic and then everything just started to fail!
?: My shards will be the death of this damn world."
"That's disturbing..." Rouge said. Mighty looked at the boys.
"So you were right," He told them. "Those shards are some kind of clue." He checked for messages on the computer. "According to HQ, they recovered the radar data from the plane for us." He clicked on the tracker file. "And there it is. That's the energy Ray caught; right around the time of the recording."
"So Metal Sonic, glass shards, and an unknown source of energy," Rouge thought for a moment. "Hmm…I can't put any of those things together."
"Ray found some glass in Metal Sonic as well. He's gotta fix up Metal Sonic and see if he has any useful information for us," Mighty stood up. "He should. He is responsible for the attacks after all." He looked at the boys. "Save those files and have them printed out for me. I still need to look at the surveillance footage of the plane. Hopefully this mystery terrorist was captured on video."
Everyone resumed where they left off on their work, but that cold whispering voice continued to run through Mighty's mind. "My shards will be the death of this damn world."
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