Chapter 14
Misdirection
Frozen Peak
"You sure that this is the way?" Sonic asked Silver as they hiked up the side of the mountain, shielding his eyes from the snow and the wind.
"This is where they guy told me to go," Silver said, clutching his body to keep himself warm.
Following his departure from Windmill Village, Sonic had met up with Silver, who told him that he had received information from a mysterious contact to come to Frozen Peak because there was an Eggman base there that could prove useful when they were finding intel on Eggmna's current movements.
"I mean, this seems a little sketchy," Silver said. "Random guy appears, tells me about an Eggman base, and then vanishes, but…"
"Nah, it's cool," Sonic said. "It matches up with what Tails experienced the other day. And right now we need any lead we can get." They approached the base, and saw that it was currently being cleaned out.
"Yo!" Sonic said, dropping his voice to a whisper as they took cover behind a tree trunk. "Look up ahead!"
"Looks like they are clearing out the base…" Silver said, eyeing the Badniks, which included a Snowy (A large bipedal Badnik based off of a polar bear) and two Motobugs, the latter having cargo crates strapped to their backs, were moving cargo through what seemed to be the same portal that Sonic saw warp away Rough and Tumble.
"And it looks like my lead was right," Silver said, smirking at Sonic.
"Uh-huh," Sonic said, sarcastically, fingering the trunk. "So when does this blow up in our faces?" He eyed the caravan for a few more minutes before leaping out from behind the tree trunk. "Seems like they are trying to get rid of evidence," he said. "Let's hit 'em fast before-" With inexplicable comic timing, there was a massive gust of wind which knocked both him and Silver to the ground. Sonic pulled his head out of the snow to see that Metal Sonic had returned, and he was fully repaired as well.
"Oh, hey Metal," Sonic said, greeting his rival. "Looks like you're fully repaired, huh?" Metal Sonic just regarded him coldly, like the silent machine he was. He just grabbed Silver's foot and spun him around until he let him go, sending him flying off into the distance, leaving just him behind.
"So, who fixed you up?" Sonic demanded, racing to meet Metal in a one-on-one battle. "Eggman, or Tinker?" He punched Metal in the face, and the robot retaliated by slicing off several small furs. "Oh, right," he realized, smoothing out the spot. "You can't talk as plain old vanilla Metal Sonic." Metal then sent a kick at him, forcing Sonic to execute a backflip. "Was that the real reason you went back to being Neo Metal Sonic?" he asked. He landed beside Metal, smiling like always. "So you could do more than "beep-boop"? Because this is a major downgrade." He swerved around Metal as he tried to swipe at him. "I mean, if the doc didn't want you getting distracted by battle banter, it didn't really work." Metal Sonic was suddenly wrapped in a cyan aurora as Silver reappeared beside Sonic. "Nice catch, Silver," he said, giving him a thumbs up. "You okay?" Silver just nodded at him. "I'll hold Metal," he said. "You go into the base and-" Suddenly, one of those localized wormholes reappeared again and warped Metal Sonic away in a flash. It reappeared on the mountain top near the opening of the base, where a platypus stood, a gem of sorts in his glove.
"Gentlemen," he said, as Metal stood obediently by his side.
"What the…" Silver said, recognizing the guy. "That's the guy! He's my informant!"
"Looks like he's controlling that wormhole," Sonic said, looking at the gem on his glove. "The same kind that grabbed Rough and Tumble." He turned to the mysterious person. "All right! I've got a bunch of questions, and I'm willing to bet you're the answer to a lot of them!"
"Very astute," the figure said, bowing a little. "I am Doctor Starline, and I am indeed the one behind your present concerns."
"And why is that?" Sonic asked.
"I wanted to meet you-experience you-for myself," Starline said, grinning widely. Then, he launched into some sort of speech of sorts. "The Blue Blur! Hero across time and space! The only being alive to be able to stand up to the overwhelming might and brilliance of Dr. Eggman through sheer skill alone!" He showed them the gem. "Can I measure up?" he asked himself. "Can I complete my objective with you in my way? Everything about this encounter has been constructed. To be the ultimate test of our abilities and power!"
"He did not sound this creepy or crazy when I talked to him!" Silver commented.
"At least you're giving me straight answers," Sonic said. "I'll assume you busted Rough and Tumble out of jail with your sky-holes. So tell me this: What did you do with Mr. Tinker?"
"That pale shadow of the doctor no longer exists," Starline said. "I've seen to it that Dr. Eggman has been restored!"
X
Dr. Eggman's secret laboratory
"Hmmmm…" Dr. Eggman said, looking at the infected Ricky in the display case. "The Metal Virus's progression is steady, but slow." He paced around the room. "A self-recurring army is a nice idea, but it won't spread far at this rate. Total saturation work's fine, but there's no way I can soak the whole planet in my Metal Virus. I wonder if repeated exposure would accelerate things…" The Ricky inside the case became frightened when Eggman lowered the infected Pocky via a fishing rod. "Boop!" Eggman said, cheerfully, as the Ricky let out screams of pain. "Mwa-ha-ha-ha! Boop! Boop! Boop!" When he finished, the last remaining unaffected areas on the Ricky were completely covered in the Metal Virus. The eyes turned red like a robot. "Eureka!" Eggman cried. "The greater the exposure, the more rapid the effect! A mob of my infected minions will be able to convert new victims in no time!" He ditched the Pocky in the tank and tossed the fishing rod aside. "All I need to do is administer the Metal Virus in a few locations, and the rest will take care of itself!" He sat at a computer monitor and turned its screen so that it was facing him. He typed at a few files rapidly. "Which means everything fits neatly into phase two of my brilliant-!" The door opened and in came Rough and Tumble, both of them clean after their last encounter.
"Eggman! We're tired of waiting!" Rough said, striding up to the doctor, impatience in his voice.
"…ah, yes," Eggman said, regarding him. "You're still here."
"The deal was we helped get you back and you help us waste Sonic!" Rough yelled at Eggman.
"Your last set of weapons weren't good enough," Tumble said, pointing out one of Eggman's weaknesses, was that he sometimes over-or underlooked his creations, sometimes over-building, other times, underbuilding. The doctor frowned from beneath his mustache as Tumble continued. "We want what you owe us, and we want it now." Eggman sighed, and then glanced at the Pocky and the Ricky still trapped inside the container, and smiled wickedly.
"You're in luck!" he said. "My latest weapons just got out of beta!"
X
Frozen Peak
"Difficult to get traction in the deep snow, isn't it?" Starline asked Sonic as he charged at him and Metal Sonic. "If only you had a turbine instead of legs," Starline said, as Metal revved up his jet engine and charged at them.
"Sonic! Move! I'll get him!" Silver cried, as Sonic was tackled into a tree by Metal. However, Sonic was kicked up to Silver, who grabbed his left foot.
"He's too fast for you to focus on!" he said, rubbing his belly.
"Then I won't grab him!" Silver said. He then surrounded Metal in a cyan aura and flung him off into the distance.
"Haha! Nice!" Sonic called.
"That was a high quality piece of Eggman technology!" Starline snapped as the two hedgehogs dived toward him.
"And it comes with a complimentary high-quality butt kicking!" Sonic said, smiling. But just before they hit him, he reached out with his glove containing the gem stone, and created a portal so that they ended up hitting a mound of snow. Sonic tried to Spin Dash him while Silver pulled himself out of the snow, but Starline casually yawned and generated another portal that caused Sonic to fall off the cliffside far away from the base.
"Oh no!" Silver cired, jumping after Sonic. Starline just shut the portal behind him as Metal came back and landed beside him.
"Welcome back," Starline said, smiling. "We're almost done here."
X
Meanwhile, Silver had caught up to Sonic and had arrested his descent with his psychokinetic powers. "Gotcha!" he cried.
"Whew! Thanks!" Sonic said. Silver deposited him on the cliffside.
"You're welcome," he said, "but, where are we now?"
"Going by the slope of the peak, it looks like we're on the opposite side of the mountain. He must have scouted out the whole mountain beforehand." He began to run. "Grab on. I'll get us back there."
"Wouldn't it be faster if I flew us over?" Silver suggested. Then he got an idea. He used his psychokinesis powers and held onto Sonic, feeling the cold wind whip him around as Sonic ran at at least twice the speed of sound. "Nope!" he said, smiling. "This is faster! Much faster!"
X
Meanwhile, Starline had opened a portal to Eggman's secret base as Metal Sonic looked on. "Is everything set up?" he asked Metal. He let out a series of affirmative beeps. "Excellent," Starline said. "Thank you for keeping the Badnik caravan safe. You go first. I'll give them one last second to catch up. He looked on as Metal entered the portal. "…no?" he said to himself, looking out. "How disappointing." He was then tackled to the ground by Sonic with a Spin Dash to the chest.
"Miss me?" Sonic said, glaring at Starline.
"Haha! How-?!" Starline said, shocked. "You were-"
"My name is 'Sonic.' I'm made of 'goes fast.' Eggman details. Spill 'em."
"Everything's been secured in the vault!" Starline called to Silver. "Straight to the back wall! Access code 2-6-6-2!"
"I've got it!" Silver said, taking off. "You just keep him down!" Sonic turned back to Starline.
"I want to hear it from you, fanboy," he said. "Where is Eggman? What are you two planning?"
"E-Eggman isn't here!" Starline said. "He's planning something breathtaking!" He then grinned slyly. "And I'm planting explosives inside a vault, then giving your friend the detonation code." Sonic let go of Starline and ran towards the vault.
"Silver! WAIT!" he shouted. Once he was inside, there was a massive explosion that consumed the mountainside base. Starline looked back at the smoke for a few seconds. Then he broke into a cheer. "Woo-hoo-hoo!" he cried. "I did it!" He looked at the portal which was still open. "I can't believe it was that easy! How spectacular! I hope the doctor saw that!" Suddenly, he was yanked through the portal by Eggman, who slammed him against the case containing the Pocky and Ricky.
"HOW DARE YOU!" he screamed.
"B-but he's gone now!" Starline reassured him. "He can't get in the way of your plans!"
"The hedgehog is mine to destroy!" Eggman yelled. "It's not the job of some upstart like you! I could carpet bomb him any day! That's not enough-that's NOT THE POINT! I have to beat him! I have to prove that I'm superior! There's a right and a wrong way to vanquish your life-long nemesis and you did it very, very wrong!"
"I'm sorry, sir!" Starline said, sweating profusely.
Eggman just threw Starline to the ground. "You should be! Don't let it happen again!"
"I…can't…?" Starline said, nursing his jaw. Eggman went over to a video monitor and rewound the footage following the base explosion.
"Lucky for you," he said, "Sonic is too tenacious to die because of your barbarism." On screen, it was revealed that Sonic had survived thanks to Silver projecting a shield around them.
"Wow," Sonic said. "Way to go, Silver."
"Th-that's two…you…owe me," Silver said weakly before falling over.
"SILVER!" screamed Sonic. Eggman turned to Starline.
"What was all that you unloaded anyway?" he asked. " I haven't used that base in years. Everything in there was obsolete junk."
"Not to me," Starline said, hoping to get on Eggman's good side again. "They're treasured collectibles of your legacy."
"Pfft, fine," Eggman said. "So how long did you like your first taste of battling that insufferable rodent?"
"The experience has put a lot of things into a new perspective, sir," Srtarline said.
X
Later-Restoration HQ
"…and the next thing I knew I was waking up here," Silver said weakly. "I guess Sonic brought me back?" After he had passed out, Sonic had taken him to the newly established Restoration HQ, which was built out of the former Resistance HQ, except having a large airfield behind it to access its shuttles, and it required a lot of personnel to handle a lot of things at once.
"Yup," Sonic said, handing by Silver's bed, while Amy looked on nervously. "I still owe you one, though."
"Thank you for saving Sonic," Amy said, smiling. "Now rest me know if you need anything."
"I'll be fine," Silver said, smiling back. "Just a little-urgh-dizzy…" Sonic and Amy then exited the medical wing, leaving Silver alone for a while.
"No sign of this Starline guy?" she asked Sonic once they were out of earshot.
"Nope," Sonic said. "His wormhole-portal-thingy was gone by the time we left."
"This is bad," Amy said, twiddling her fingers together. "Eggman is back, he's gathering allies, and we have no idea what his plan is. The world has barely begun rebuilding after his last attack. If he were to strike again so soon, it could be devastating." She opened a small computer on the desk in the control center. "We can't let that happen again!" she said.
"Yeah, but where do we start?" Sonic asked her. "We barely began to search all his bases and labs when we were looking for Neo. He could be in any of those now, or in ones we didn't even find."
"Right," Amy said, typing away at the computer. "So instead of wasting our time looking for where he is, we'll go somewhere we know he isn't! We'll tap into his network from one of his old unguarded bases." She pointed to a small section of the map. Sonic recognized the location as Echo Mine, one of the small victories the Resistance scored after his disappearance during the Eggman Empire War.
"We sure will," Sonic said, holding his hand out to Amy. "Let's go!"
"Really?" Amy said, blushing hard. "But I have so much work here to do here, and-"
"It's your plan," Sonic said, taking her hand, "so you've got dibs. Call it a 'working vacation.'"
"All right!" Amy said. Sonic then scooped her up bridal style and raced out of Restoration HQ.
"Sorry Eggman," he said, "but it's game over for you!"
Next time: Dangers in the Dark!