Congrats, all. This chapter means that this fic has the exact same number of chapters as Crosswise (my other major Sonic story).
This is also my most popular story - judging from the reviews an' all - but you're not here to listen to me talk about that. You're here for the fic.
Thus, the fic:
(Disclaimer: Chiwizard only owns the stuff she invented)
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The path that lead to the Colony Control Room was exactly how Shadow had pictured it. All the correct turns and lifts were in place and working perfectly. There was a definite sensation of some of the walls not being solid, and other objects blinked in and out of existence when the hedgehogs weren't directly looking at them, but otherwise things seemed almost…normal.
It was too good to be true.
"Hey, I remember this part," Sonic exclaimed after one turn, "It's a huge total straightaway here, right?"
"That's right," Shadow replied, glancing over his shoulder.
"That means we can run straight the rest of the way!" the blue hedgehog laughed, "Last one there is a slow hedgehog!"
"Sonic, that is the most ridiculous…" Shadow hesitated when he saw Sonic was actually trotting ahead and getting away, "…Hey! Wait for me!"
He had just started to skate when something ripped through the floor plating behind them. Not to either of their surprises, that something was pitch-black in color and oozed unpleasantly.
And if they'd kept to their previous pace, both hedgehogs would have been standing right where there was no more floor now.
"See, my ideas are GOOD ideas," Sonic grinned, before barreling down the corridor at high speed, paced immediately by the black Ultimate Life Form.
…
Sonic and Shadow weren't the only ones in the mass race towards the control room.
Elsewhere, Tails had come up with a similar idea as Shadow's - of using the colony's controls to flush out the big black monster - and was making his way there.
And ahead of even the running pair of hedgehogs, Knuckles and Raven were almost to their destination.
But right at the control room, the ARK began to seriously change.
The walls, floor, and ceiling, instead of being the usual metal, seemed to be almost gauzy…it was shimmering and translucent.
The corridors curved in sudden random directions, twisting and turning in an amazing labyrinth.
Everything had a sudden pearly sheen, and it was all delicate and smooth and slippery to the touch.
It was exactly like being inside a huge, beautiful brain.
Which, as far as the Fount of Light was concerned, was what the control room was.
…
"Way freaky, way TOO freaky, I REALLY don't like freaky," Sonic was half-muttering, half-chanting to himself as he and Shadow ran/slid down the freakiest bit of freakishness they'd all gotten to enjoy yet.
At least the Evil-Boogerlizard monster had gotten separated from them at a sudden and completely unexpected fork in their road. But whatever was going on, they couldn't stop to check things out, or even go back the way they'd come.
Sonic knew it for a fact because he had tried. Shadow, what with having absolutely no traction, hadn't, but the evidence was clear.
But maybe it didn't really matter. Everyone was going to end up in the same place, anyway - all paths lead to the control room, or whatever-it-was that the Fount of Light was using the control room as.
'Like what, an ice-hockey rink?' Sonic thought to himself, 'Heck, I should probably be glad we're not underwater, at least…'
"How long is this stupid tunnel of slipping-ness gonna go on for?" he whined.
Shadow sent him a glance, and it was partially sympathetic…but clearly the black one's tolerance was starting to run rather low.
And Sonic didn't blame him one bit. All this mess, what with Shadow's psychotic older brother, the even-more-psychotic-evil-booger-thingy living inside Shadow's psychotic older brother, and this WAY-too-freaky-dimension they were stuck in…
"It's time to speed this thing up," Sonic thought out loud, before curling up into a ball and starting to spin super-fast. And the walls flashed by, faster and faster - NOW he was getting somewhere!
A blur, off to the side, showed that Shadow was taking his lead. Rainbows were nice and all, but whatever impossibly-freaky-yet-probably-utterly-crucial-thing that was waiting for them needed to be gotten past A.S.A.P. Especially for the sake of Sonic's sanity.
Almost as if the Fount of Light had been waiting for them to start hurrying, the tunnel twisted inwards, directly towards the central control room, and sloped almost straight down. Then it was a bouncy and skiddy ride to the doors of the control room - the only thing in this part of the ARK that looked like it was supposed to be part of the ARK.
The inside looked almost exactly as it should, too - there was more floor space and all, but the Fount of Light might have been expecting its incoming guests.
What those guests did NOT expect was what was waiting for them.
After all, brain is a delicate, irreplaceable thing. And it IS defended by its antibodies.