In the desolate and lifeless city of Robotropolis, a large, dark shadow looms through the clouds and pierces the night sky as Robotnik's massive air carrier dips down below the clouds, the powerful engines pushing them back. Below, in a recently remodeled factory, an army of Combots off all types were on guard in the area, more so than any other area of the city. Lately patrols around the city had been increased and expanded to keep out intruders; even all of the latest rebel attacks had been turned back with more ferocity than usual. At the factory's center a tall spire stretched to the sky, as if the scrape the heavens themselves, although the belief in such waned greatly under Robotnik's oppressive rule. It had been a recently completed construction project to allow the delivery off large groups of robotozized Mobians directly to the tower to serve as workers and security on the inside.
"Apparently someone has been stealing from my vast resources again." Robotnik said as he turned his chair towards another monitor, "and it's just as before; thousands of signals to trace and none of them seem to lead anywhere." He said folding his hands together and leaning back, his chair groaning in protest under the strain of his weight.
"Perhaps it is time to move up my planning schedule." He said tapping a small panel on the left arm rest of his chair revealing a series of small buttons, on which he keyed on for several seconds.
"Computer." Robotnik said, his voice echoing off the high ceiling of his command room
"Yes Doctor Robotnik." Droned a monotone voice from the walls
"Have there been any reports on the current status of the life form?"
"No." the voice said after a few beeps signaling information being processed
"Initiate a satellite sweep for any chaos energy signatures in or surrounding all cities and populated areas and initiate the docking procedure for the aerial platform."
"Affirmative." It said with another series of confirming beeps as the ship shifted and began to edge its way over towards the central tower.
The doctor rose from his chair and began to walk out of the room towards the door, his heavy boots steadily clicked against the polished silver colored floor as he stepped. The doors slid open with a pneumonic hiss at his approach and closed just the same after his passing. He continued down a hall lined with armor plated windows, and turned his head towards them and gazed out at the surrounding land as he walked.
"Here it will begin." He said stopping to admire the small bit of his vast empire that lay before him, "The site where my perfect utopia shall unfold and my power shall finally be absolute." He said as he continued down the hall and entered the elevator.
"Main docking bay." He said as the computer beeped and the slick metal doors slid shut and the elevator ascended the shaft making a low humming sound as it went. The elevator reached its destination and the door slid open and Robotnik stepped out into a large window lined hallway. Silently, he continued on, occasionally casting his gaze towards the windows and examining the many vehicles and aircraft docked inside the dock itself until he came to the end of the hall and stopped at a large sturdy hatch. Outside the ship had maneuvered its way over to a similar hatch on the top level of the tower and a bridge extended from the tower entrance to the ship's docking hatch, the sound of the heavy locks slamming into place echoed throughout the ship and reverberated throughout the ship. Robotnik waited as the door's pneumatic locking system hissed and the door slid open. The high winds the surrounded the ship rushed inward through the door and roared down the hallway past Robotnik. He grinned widely as he stepped forward and crossed the bridge into the tower, the florescent lighting reflecting off the polished, silver colored metal interior. Robotnik entered yet another elevator, this one made of glass allowing easy viewing of the entire facility from the centrally located shaft. As it descended, he could see his latest invention being put together; a massive satellite being constructed and linked together with the robotocizer, capable of blanketing the entire planet of Mobius with its' horrifying power.
"Soon the entire planet will bow at my feet." He said as he reached the ground level
Back in the city of Casinopolis...
"I can't believe all of what's going on." Tik'al said walking side by side with me as I continued towards the location indicated by the address on the key I received from that woman.
"Yeah, it's been quite a last couple of hours." I said still feeling somewhat remorseful of viciously mauling those two back at that club received by my hands; I could still smell the scent of their blood on me, it was overwhelming and it made me sick.
"Are you listening to me?" Tik'al said pulling my sleeve
"I'm trying to, but I can't really focus right now."
"You're still thinking about what happened, aren't you?"
"What made you think that?" She I said pocketing the key
"Well we've been walking around in circles for a while now; apparently your attention is somewhere else."
"Yeah, well I just killed a couple of guys for no real reason at all." I said, eliciting a few strange looks from passers by, who seemed to clear a path around us as we walked
"You should've at least tried to clean that blood off of you, it hasn't completely dried yet you know." She whispered under her breath
I looked down at the ground and saw that there was a trail of blood still dripping off of my clothes and body, none of it mine.
"Well I see you're point, but I wasn't exactly thinking about cleanliness when I was dealing with the moral consequences of what I had done."
"I guess you can get cleaned off later at that hotel place that Rouge told us to go to." She said reaching into my pocket and taking the key from it
"Do you even have any idea where we're going? I mean how do we find someplace that we've never been?"
"Well actually I have been paying some attention to where we were going."
"But you've never been here, have you?"
"No, but if you look at the tag on that key it says 'Twin Moons Hotel'."
"Yeah, it does," she said turning it over and examining the little picture of a red and yellow moon side by side, "but how does that tell us where we are?"
"Well around the last circle around we did I noticed that there was a hotel across the street over there." I said pointing towards a building that was lit up like the sun by several spotlights at ground level
"And you were going to say something when?"
"I did, just now."
"You're hopeless, you know that?"
"Anyway, let's go before it starts to rain or something." I said looking up at the sky, where the clouds were starting to build and darken.
"I wonder what else she had to tell us anyway." Tik'al said walking ahead of me across the street as I quickened my pace to follow
"I wouldn't know, I can't read minds," I wondered for a minute, "well at least I don't think I can." I said to myself as we crossed through the blinding spotlights pivoting back and forth from one end of the building to the other
"This place is amazing!" Tik'al exclaimed as she wandered through the front door and into the main lobby
"Don't make it so obvious that we don't belong here, I don't think we need to attract so much attention." I said pulling her off with me towards the front desk where the registration desk worker was reading a newspaper
"I'm looking for a woman named Rouge." I said to the clerk at the counter
"There's no one registered here by that name." he said never looking up from the newspaper
"Maybe you should try taking your eyes off that paper and actually check."
"And maybe you didn't hear me when I said there's no one here by that name."
"What about this?" Tik'al said holding up the key she was carrying and showing it to the desk clerk who examined it closely
"Hmm, use the key on the middle elevator and take it to the bottom floor." He whispered quietly
I was a bit confused but quickly dismissed it as we walked over towards the elevator and I pushed the call button and the doors slid open and we stepped inside.
"This seems kind of secretive." She said as I inserted the key and turned it with a soft click causing the elevator to hum to life
"How do you figure that?" I said somewhat sarcastically
"Well that man wouldn't tell us anything until I showed him that key."
"Yeah, Rouge most likely doesn't want anyone finding her."
"That and the fact that the wall behind him had several identical keys on it, but none of them looked like that one." she said pointing to the key in the lock.
"You're a regular detective." I said as the elevator began its' rapid descent below the hotel
"We're moving rather fast." Tik'al said clinging to my arm
"Not that fast." I said lying, even though it did feel like we were falling instead of just being lowered to the ground or something
"I think we're finally slowing down." She said letting go of my arm as the elevator came to a stop
"Let's see what awaits us in the basement of this strange place." I said as the doors slowly opened and a vibrant light spilled inward bathing the interior of the elevator car with a soft, pink light. I walked forward, amazed at the decorations that lined the large foyer just outside the elevator. Several small ponds were arranged the in the room with small exotic fish swimming inside of them.
"I've never seen anyplace so beautifully designed."
"What about that palace you live in on Angel Island?"
"It's not like this, though."
"Maybe you should think about redecorating when you get back."
"I suppose." She said as we continued down a polished marble path into the next room where the ceiling was covered with ornate, gold trimmed lamps, giving off more of the pink light that was already. The walls and floor surrounding the path were covered with tall leafy tropical plants that seemed to cover everything, and the sound of a miniature waterfall was flowing on a far wall next to some silver lined stairs.
"I think all this stupid light is going to make me go blind." I said shielding my eyes as they tried to adjust to the odd colored light.
"That's a rather rude thing to say," said a voice from the stairs, "especially after I let you into my home like this."
I looked towards the stairs and saw Rouge leaning over the railing looking down at us from the balcony several meters above the ground
"Don't mind him; your home is very exquisite, thank you for inviting us." Tik'al said with a slight bow
"Yeah, sure, make me seem like I don't have any manners or something." I said putting my hand down, but I still squinted a bit from the brightness
"Well come on up and stay a while, I've got a bit of a story to tell you." She said as she slipped back into a room
"Might as well, I do have some questions that need answering." I said as we followed her up the stairs into another fancy looking room with a high ceiling and a large crystal chandelier at the center, surrounded by several smaller ones. I looked around and saw several semi-circle couches arranged around a round in the center of the room and a large, flat monitor on the wall. I looked to the side of the room and saw some tall lamps that had crystal spheres sitting at the top of them; I reached for one but was reprimanded by Rouge before I had the chance to touch it.
"Try not to touch any of my valuable things with your blood covered hands, if you don't mind."
"I told you that you should've cleaned that blood off."
"Alright already, I get the point."
"So what would you like to know first?" Rouge said coming out of a nearby kitchen holding a few glasses and a large bottle
"How about telling me if you have someplace I can wash all this blood off of me?" I said looking at some landscape paintings on the wall, "unless you don't mind the grime." I said laughing a bit
"Through that door and down the hall to your left." She said pointing with a glass in her hand
"Thanks," I said walking towards the door, "try not to get too drunk this time Tik'al." I said opening the door
"You just worry about the taking a bath." She said as they both laughed
"Yes your majesty." I said sarcastically as I walked around the corner and down the hall to a large double door at the end. I slid the door open and stepped into what seemed like a tropical forest. Thick clouds of steam wafted around me as I pushed through the foliage.
"This entire hideout must have cost a large fortune to make, especially being so huge." I said coming to a vast pool in what I believed to be the center of the miniature forest.
"Impressive." I said walking over to the edge of the water and kneeling down to touch the water, "Nice and warm, I guess a bath would help me relax after tonight." I said taking off my clothes and laying them in a neat pile on the ground and dipped into the water.
'That feels great.' I thought sliding down in the water with chin just above the water. I listened to the silence the filled the room, at least until I heard the sound of something moving through the plants.
'What was that?' I thought trying to look around to see where the sound was coming from, but finding that difficult with all the steam coupled with the pink lights throughout the room. Again the sound of something moving around, but it was closer this time.
'That sounds like...' I turned to look over my shoulder and saw Tik'al standing there behind me
"Having fun?" she asked kneeling down next to the edge of the pool
"Do you mind?" I said backing away from her
"No, why?" walking around the edge
"I think you've been drinking with Rouge, haven't you?"
"Maybe," she giggled, "I just thought you could use some company."
"You've got a problem." I said turning my back to her, "I'm just fine by myself."
"So you say." She said taking a few steps around the pool out of my field of vision, probably back out the door
'That girl has no self control.' I thought swishing my tail lazily back and forth behind me only to brush up against something under the water
"Hey." Tik'al said from behind me placing her arms around my neck
"What are you doing!?" I said, practically frozen in place from embarrassment
"Just playing, why?" she said leaning forward against my back
"Because it's...uh...well..." I said trying to move, but finding it difficult to will myself to do so
"Yes?" she said running her hands down my back
"Aaah, don't do that!" I said flinching
"Ticklish, aren't we?" she said doing it again
"Of course not, I just...I...just..." my voice trailed off as I flinched again out of reflex
"Feels nice, doesn't it?"
"Yeah, I suppose." I said trying to get composed again
"By the way, what are these marks on your back?" she said tracing a line along my spine
"What marks?"
"There are a lot of strange marks; they look like old scars or something."
"Could be, don't worry about it though, whatever they are it doesn't hurt."
"Well then you wouldn't mind me playing around a bit more then, would you?" she said moving around in front of me
"I guess there's no harm in it." I said as she put her arms around me and hugged me again
"You know you're too tense right now, you should relax."
"How's this?" I said putting my hands on her hips and kissing her gently on the lips
"That's a bit too bold, at least with the hands anyway." She said pushing my hands back and making me laugh
"So then you want me to stop?"
"No, do you want me to stop then?" she said moving back
"No," I said pulling her back, "I never said I didn't like what you were doing, I'm just uncomfortable with it for some reason."
"Why's that?'
"Well you are drunk after all."
"You think that the only reason I'm out here is that?"
"I don't know; it just feels like I'm taking advantage of you in your current state is all, you are a bit of a lightweight when it comes to drinking."
"Maybe I came in here because I actually like you, did you ever think of that?"
"No, I didn't." I said sitting up a bit, "I never think things out like that, I assumed you'd know that after watching my 'plans' in action."
"You always said you knew what you were doing." She said resting her head on my chest, "don't tell me that you were lying about that."
"No, things just didn't exactly go as planned." I said closing my eyes. I smelled the air and it my nose was filled with the scent of flowers; I opened my eyes and saw the small flower I had put in her hair still sitting where I left it
"Well I think we're clean enough." Tik'al said letting go of me and stepping up out of the pool and over to where she had her clothes sitting on the ground and picked up a towel and began to dry off. I looked at her and examined her body; she was covered with water from the pool and it beaded on her skin like the dew that's left over after it rains. She turned and looked at me, possibly feeling my gaze and then turned back.
"You know what?" I said turning around pretending not to stare
"Hmm?"
"You're really beautiful, you know that?"
She finished drying herself off and threw the towel at me and it landed on my head, the tip of one of the corners just barely dipping into the water.
"Hurry up and get dried off, it's getting late." She said as she put her clothes back on and walked out giggling
"It's going to be one of those days I think." I said getting out of the water and drying off, "I wonder if Rouge knows anything about my past, or anything useful." I said putting my clothes back on and shaking loose the last few drops of water from my hair.
I walked back out of the room and began to make my way down the hall when I felt a strange presence, just like back at knothole and on several other occasions.
"It can't be that machine, could it?" I began to cautiously sneak towards the door and put my ear to it to listen to the sounds on the other side.
"So what do you think?"
'That voice is Rouge'
"I'm sure he won't have any problem with it, especially since he was going to help me do it anyway."
'That's Tik'al.'
"You mean just the two of you? That's funny; you don't look like the fighter type."
'That voice doesn't sound familiar at all.' I thought not recognizing the deeper male voice
"Well I could learn."
"I doubt that, you've lived to sheltered a life."
"So what's that got to do with being able to learn something?"
"She couldn't bring herself to kill something, even in self defense; I can tell just by looking at her."
"Well I can teach her myself."
"Good luck with that."
"Well anyway we're shorthanded and those freedom fighters try as they might, can't do what needs to be done with a rag tag bunch of misfits."
"Where is this guy anyway? I've wanted to meet him face to face for a while now."
'I'd better step into the little meeting.' I thought pushing open the door and stepping into the room
"It looks like he's finally out and about." Rouge said still holding a wine glass
"Yeah." I said scanning the room for the source of that other voice and that strange feeling I keep getting. I looked over towards the semi circular couches and noticed the back of someone's head leaning back.
"Let me introduce you to my other guest that just arrived." Rouge said as the figure stood up from the couch and turned to face me, "This is Shadow."
"Is that so?"
"This now that I've seen you up close I'm not impressed." He said walking from behind the couch, "but I guess beggars can't be choosers."
I looked at him for a minute and scanned him for a moment, an entry was brought up about the supposed, 'ultimate life form'.
"So you're the one."
"What?" he said curiously
"You've been following us for quiet a while; I've been wondering who or what was giving off that strange energy, and it's been you this whole time." I said walking over to one of the couches and taking a seat next to Tik'al
"Well I guess you're not totally useless if you sensed my presence all this time." He said taking his seat again
"Anyway," Rouge started, "Shadow is basically our man on the inside, he works closely with Robotnik and gives me information on most of his plans and helps keep my undercover position in the city."
"Interesting, but what I was wondering about was the conversation that you three were having before I came in." I said relaxing a bit, trying not to seem to tense, "it seemed like someone wanted to ask me something." I said and looked over to Tik'al
"Well they wanted to..."
"Those two did, I didn't want to." Shadow said cutting her off
"Yes, well Rouge wanted to ask you to join their group to take down Robotnik on the inside instead of working on the outside like the Freedom Fighters do."
"That sounds like It's a good idea." I said leaning back a bit, "but I think we should visit the trust issue first."
"What do you mean by that?" Rouge said taking a sip from her glass
"Well if he's working with you, and he's been spying on me, then what's supposed to make me believe your offer is genuine?"
"Well I still have that information that you might be interested in." she said reaching for a thin device from off of the arm of the couch and opening it to reveal a laptop computer, "The information about who you are; if you're still interested that is."
"I do believe I am."
"Well let's take a look a the monitor." She said typing as the large screen on the wall displayed what was on her computer. "First let's start with where you came from." She said as the screen showed an image of an island engulfed in a storm of clouds swirling rapidly around it in the middle of a frozen ocean.
"Where's that place?" Tik'al asked staring at the desolate wasteland
"It's been named Demon's Isle; it's a place that's surrounded by a powerful hurricane year round, and it's completely devoid of any life."
"That doesn't look familiar."
"What about this?" she said typing a bit more, "it's a video recording from a landing party that managed to make it through the storm somehow."
The screen showed a slightly fuzzy video of several Combots traversing some snow ridden ruins, too badly damaged to make out what they once were. As they advanced to the center, the feed began to degrade slightly from time to time.
"They found a source of chaos energy being emitted from this point and found this." She said as the video advanced several minutes and resumed normal speed to show a massive black emerald floating on top of a strange looking shrine, pulsing rhythmically a low ethereal sound.
"That looks like the master emerald." Tik'al said astounded
"That's the emerald I saw when..." I trailed off for a moment to think back to the flashbacks I've had
"You've seen this thing before?" Shadow asked not really that surprised
"Not in person, but I feel like I've been to that place before." I said shaking my head from side to side
"Well it's not surprising; although I'm wondering how you remember anything since you weren't even awake when you were there." Rouge said typing up a few more commands on the keys
"What do you mean?"
"Take a look at this." She said as the image of a rounded chamber was brought into view and two large crystals were floating in columns of light above pedestals. As the camera panned across the room, several other platforms could be seen, but they lacked the same floating crystals. The Combots moved closer and the camera focused and revealed that inside the two crystals were figures, frozen in time. The camera moved in further still and showed the face of one of the beings.
"Phoenix, that looks like you." Tik'al said pointing at the frozen figure on the screen
"Well who's the other one?" Shadow said noticing what looked like a similar figure in the other ice, only with a rather large scar from the side of its face through the eye.
"That's a good question." Rouge said
"I don't know about that other one, but the first one was definitely me." I said noticing the facial features, "What am I doing frozen on some strange island? The first thing I remember when I woke up was being in a desert."
"Yeah well I've got the explanation for that too," she said pulling up a report on the screen, "There were several entries on everything that was brought back from the island, "This was one of them."
Day 1 Upon discovery of the strange island another master emerald was found along with two bodies preserved inside of separate crystalline structures inside of a shrine, the bodies were taken to the northern research and development facility for further examination.
Day 2 The tests have revealed that they were still alive and that traces of chaos energy resided within them; it is currently unknown what, if anything, they are and how they can be used to further my goals of continual domination of the planet.
Day 3 The large emerald that almost exactly resembles the master emerald on Angle Island, although the only differences are the fact that it is black and gives off a strange energy pulse that interferes with all types of machinery; I've also noticed that it affects organic Life forms as well. I've found it hard to focus when I'm around it and have decided to have the machines do the 'hands on' work with the emerald inside of a radiation shielded room.
Day 4 I've managed to determine through carbon dating that the Life forms were over several thousand years old. I've decided to try robotizizing them and use them to find and destroy the rebel base known as knothole.
Day 5 My attempts to robotozized the two creatures has ended in failure, it seems that the strange energy within them seemed to protect their bodies from the change, I've decided to go a different route, I shall remove the brain from one of them and input it into the metal sonic robot in an attempt to create a more powerful soldier in my ever growing army.
Day 6 The procedure has yielded less than satisfactory results, the brain put into metal sonic has done nothing, and I tried accessing its memory banks but was unsuccessful, as they seem to have been corrupted beyond recovery.
Day 7 Today I finally figured out what I've been doing wrong, rare the event may be. I've decided to take the remaining body and use my experimental nano-technology on it, thus simulating as much as possible the results I desire.
"Wait a minute, go back to that part about the metal sonic robot." I said recalling the fight in the forest I had with it
"What about it?" Rouge asked
"I had a fight with that thing before we first went to Angel Island." I said clenching my fist and remembering the pain from that shot in my chest
"You mean when we found those escapees from the prison?" Tik'al reminded me
"Yes, exactly." I said
"So that's what took so long for you to wander around out there." Shadow said annoyed, "I had to sneak around through that insect ridden forest for minutes."
"Well excuse me for inconveniencing you while I was fighting for my life out there." I said irritated
"Well if you're through, there's more to the report, specifically about you." She said pointing at me as another image popped into place
The surviving life form retrieved from the island was surgically engineered to be an unstoppable killing machine. Tests were run on its combat capability but all were failures, the chaos energy previously detected wasn't expressed in any way. The subject was put in a holding cell for further study but managed to escape during a security detail change. Target seemed to be drawn to the black master emerald instinctively but was managed to be recaptured. The target once again escaped but still was unstable; the hybrid technology was being rejected by the body's unique chemistry. The test subject made one last escape during a power failure and get away on a supply transport truck; further investigation of this incident revealed that the break out of the subject was instigated from an outside source. Tracing of the intrusion of the computer system was inconclusive.
"There have been strange incidents like that going on in key places within Robotnik's supposed controlled areas." Rouge said, "I've also been detecting someone hacking into his mainframe moving materials around and changing data and such."
"What's that black emerald all about?" Shadow said changing position to lie on his side
"That must have been the exact day I woke up outside in the desert, I had a truck with me and it had broken down or something." I said remembering the event
"Well I think that our mysterious hacker is the one who released you from your prison all those times." Rouge said examining more of the data on the screen
"I guess someone is looking after you." Tik'al said smiling
"I couldn't imagine who though, I don't know anyone that would have anything to gain from that."
"All this is doing is creating more questions to be answered, we're not getting anywhere."
"That's true," Rouge said closing the computer and shutting it off, "I guess it's something for another day."
"Alright, So now what do we do?" I asked
"Well we need to start getting down to the real business at hand." She said standing up and placing a hand on her hip, "All of us will have to work together to bring down Robotnik with each of our unique skills; my computer expertise and stealth, Shadow's chaos control abilities and..."
"Chaos control?" I asked puzzled
"Yeah, it's a special little ability that I'm privy to."
"And I suppose it allows you to move instantly from one place to another and makes you faster and stronger, am I right?" I asked remembering how strong the metal sonic robot was with the chaos emerald
"Yeah, among other things." He said sitting up
"You wouldn't happen to have a chaos emerald, would you?"
"No, but it's nothing you should worry about, very few are capable of such things." He said smugly
"Well then consider that select few expanded by one more." I said holding out my hands and concentrating
"What the?" Rouge exclaimed as my hands began to glow with a strange white aura and lines of energy could be seen dancing across my palms and down my arms
"It's just a little thing I'm privy to." I said relaxing as the energy went away
"Humph." Shadow said shrugging as the glow faded
"I suppose you'll be more help than I first imagined." Rouge said smiling
"What about her?" Shadow said pointing towards Tik'al
"Well as you said before I'm not much of a fighter."
"This is probably a dumb question, but have you ever shot a gun before?" Rouge asked
"I've never used a weapon of any kind before." She said timidly
"Well tomorrow I'll start teaching you, and you'll be a crack shot in no time."
"I see, so we're going to be some small elite team bringing down Robotnik's war machine and crippling his operations on all fronts, swiftly and efficiently."
"That's us, alright; lady and gentlemen welcome to the group, welcome to Razor's Edge."
Shadow merely moaned from the sound of the group name, I could hear Tik'al laugh and I just shook my head.
"Life get more interesting by the minute." I said laughing to myself