Team Sonic slowly walked down the dark tunnel, their gear and flashlights lighting up the path they were currently following. Tails taking the lead, was concentrating on his Miles Electric, trying to determine where they were in the dark maze. Sonic walked beside him with a bored expression, mumbling about how slow they were going. Behind them, Amy was excitedly chattering away about the history of the tunnel system they were exploring, theorizing where it could lead to and what archeological discoveries they might find. Knuckles wandered behind her, oohing and aahing with wide eyes at Amy's theories, and lastly, guarding the rear was Shadow. The newest addition to Team Sonic, he kept his eyes and ears alert to anything suspicious that may try to attack them from behind.
"Oh, oh, oh! What if this is a secret transport tunnel that is spread all over the island? Think about it! It could lead to areas outside the island! Whole new underground sites holding perfectly preserved pieces of history just waiting to be discovered!"
"Like treasure? Oh! I could finally get a rug to go with my lamp!" Knuckles exclaimed, "Wait, where there's treasure, there's also pirates. I don't have a sword with me!" Amy rolled her eyes, "Ugh! Knuckles, there are no pirates."
"Yeah, pirates are never found in hundreds of years old underground tunnels. So there's no need to worry about that. Besides, pirates are found in ships on the ocean, usually around areas with small islands to bury their treasure...after they've massacred the locals, of course." Tails interjected while keeping his eyes on the handheld. "Treasure? Hmmm, I hadn't thought about that. Think of all the chili dogs I could buy!" Sonic mussed.
"Wait! Pirates are on islands?" Knuckles flailed his arms wildly, "We live on an island! As soon as we find this treasure, we gotta get rid of it." Amy sighed. Here we go again. She thought. The pink hedgehog tried to redirect her friend's focus on why they were here in the first place. "Guys, there is no treasure! The only treasure we're going to find is history. No gems, no rings, no pirates."
"The pink one is right. This tunnel could be just a complicated sewer system for all we know." Shadow mumbled. Everyone besides Shadow stopped and shuttered, saying a collective "Eeeewwww!"
"Honestly, do we have to have these kinds of conversations every time I bring you all to a newly discovered archeological site?!" Amy whined, to which everyone gave her a look saying, 'do you need to ask?' "Ugh, fine. Just lead the way, please, Tails."
"Yeah, the faster we find wherever this leads to, the faster I can get back to beating Faker in another race." Sonic boasted.
"Oh, please, Faker. The last two races I've beaten you at, you acted like a pathetic child."
"Hey, I only lost those two times cause you cheated!"
"Oh, how?"
"The first time you tripped me," Sonic counted on his gloves, "and the second time, when I was just a few seconds from reaching the finish line, you freaked and teleported to the end."
"That's ridiculous. You know I never cheat. It just sounds like your making excuses for your poor attempts to beat me. No one can beat the Ultimate Lifeform."
"Being the 'ultimate' in everything must mean you're the ultimate loser," Sonic smirked. He loved teasing his rival, "It also means being the ultimate winner, and being a winner is everything." Shadow countered, "Yeah, well..." Sonic grumbled; not being able to come up with a good response, he quickly walked further ahead.
"Wait, Sonic, don't go too far. We don't know where any of these tunnels leads to-"
"Tails, it's fine. I'm just gonna scout ahead and stretch my legs. No need to worry, little bro, I'll be back in a Sonic second." Waving off, the blue blur dashed ahead, turning around the corner leaving a blue streak behind. Tails sighed, "Great."
"Well, what did you expect? The guy can't stand hanging around someplace for more than 30 minutes unless he's asleep." Amy rolled her eyes again. "Eh, give the faker some credit. He's getting better. This time he lasted 40 minutes before running off." Shadow chuckled.
Sonic speed through the dark tunnel, quills whipping behind him. "Man, it feels good to run! I don't know how everyone can stand there doing nothing for more than a few seconds. Wait, what was that?!" Sonic dug his heels to the ground, making an abrupt stop. He backed up a few steps to see a door on the left side...right in the middle of nowhere?
Up till this point, Sonic and his team hadn't seen anything along the tunnel walls, no doors, no vents, no windows, nothing. And now here was a seemingly out of place metal door caked in dust and dirt. He looked down the long tunnel; there was nothing else besides this mysterious door. "Huh, Cool! Maybe this leads to the end of the road. Now, how to open it?" Dusting it off as much as possible, Sonic found the handle; with a grunt, he pulled the rusted door open to reveal not an exit but a large room. "Well, so much for that." He grumbled.
It turns out Amy was correct about one thing, the door not being open in centuries left everything inside perfectly preserved, as if the room was used only yesterday. Papers covered in the language of the ancients were scattered all along the tile floor. The left and right sides of the walls had slightly dusty computer screens and control panels. Wires poked out underneath, leading up and connecting to a giant glass tube at the end of the room, the door wide open. "Huh, weird." The blue blur shrugged; he picked up some of the papers from the floor. "Wonder if Amy or Tails can translate what's written here? I sure can't make it out; just looks like a bunch of squiggles to me."
Laying the papers on a panel, he looked around the room, trying to recall everything Amy had explained to him about the ancients and thought of what purpose this room possibly could have served. Maybe it really was an old transport tunnel, and this place was the security room? But then what's with the giant glass tube? Sonic stepped up to the tube, looking inside, "Yeah, I definitely can't make any of this out." he scratched the back of his head, "Maybe...?" The last step clicked as he walked into the chamber. The glass door quickly closed and locked behind him. The darkened computer screens came to life, and buttons on the control panels lit up like Christmas lights.
"What the?!" Sonic turned back, hitting the door with his nose, "Ouch!" he nasally whined, "The heck!" Placing his hands out, he found there was a door now blocking his way out. "Hmmm." He hummed, curling his hands. He repeatedly punched the glass door; it didn't budge. He huffed, eyebrows raised. "Ok, you asked for this." Curling up into a ball, he reeved up, spinning around the tube using his deadly quills to cut himself out. He stopped a few seconds later to admire his work only to gasp in shock that it didn't work either, he looked around the tube, and there wasn't a single scratch. "Oh no." he whispered, "Gotta get help."
"GUYS! HEY, OVER HERE! HELP!" He yelled, hoping they were nearby. Ears perked, listening for a reply; he jumped as something above him creaked and groaned, the machine coming fully to life. He slowly looked up as the machine whirred, bright lights above flashing on blinding him, "Aagh!" he moaned, rubbing his eyes. This is not good. This is so not good. He was regretting ever opening that weird door into this weird room; panic rising, he screamed again for help.
Tail's sensitive ears twitched; he looked up from the handheld, "Did you guys hear that?"
"Hear what? I don't hear anything?" Knuckles said, digging his pinky into a hidden ear hole behind his locks.
"Quiet!" Shadow growled. The group stayed silent for a few moments before hearing a soft echo, "There! It's coming from up ahead where Sonic went." Tails pointed.
"Bet Faker got himself into some more trouble, come on!" Shadow commanded, skating ahead on his rocket shoes following the increasing volume of Sonic's screams. The group quickly arrived at the room gasping at the scene; lights all around were flashing like mad, papers flew wildly in the air as the machine's fans had just kicked up, Sonic was screaming and pounding on the glass doors with a panicked expression, desperately trying to get out.
"WHAT THE HELL! Don't just stand there. Come on!" Tails yelled, snapping the group into action. Tails and Amy ran to the control panels trying to stop the system, while Shadow and Knuckles rushed to the chamber to get their blue brother out.
"Stand back!" Shadow warned. Sonic did so, ears pulled back, shielding himself from the soon to be broken glass as Shadow and Knuckles pounded on the tube with all their might, but it still wouldn't break. The whirring noise above him grew louder, "This isn't working." Shadow stopped backing up. "Tell me you've got something over there, fox!" he yelled over the machine.
"We're trying, but we can't find anything!"
"Well, find it faster cause something's about to happen!"
"Can't you use a Chaos blast or something?!" Amy screamed.
"If I do that, the whole place will blow!" he growled.
Suddenly the machine made a high-pitched hiss. Dark fuchsia steam poured into the glass chamber, holding Sonic hostage; his eyes widened in fear. "GUYS!" He was hyperventilating; this couldn't be happening. He was going to die in an underground tunnel by some weird deadly pink gas. Sonic knew he was going to die one day. He just always thought it would be in a blaze of glory or by one of Eggman's robots. "GUYS!... Guys!...guys...g-gys..." he slurred, slouching suddenly, feeling tired, so tired and weak.
Everything was blurring. His eyelids drooped as he saw the rest of his team scurrying over and violently pounding on the tube, screaming his name. The sides of this vision darkened as he leaned back against the tube, his friend's screams were growing muffled, his legs began to feel like jello giving way beneath him. A feeling of peace washed over as the pink gas wrapped around him like a warm blanket. Everything grew more muffled and fuzzy; he felt calm, relaxed. He softly smiles as he passed out, collapsing into the fuchsia gas.
"SOOOOONIIIC!" Tails wailed.