Chapter 12: Trouble Beckons
Knuckles' feet rose off the ground while Sonic held his arm tight. The wind nipped at the echidna's face and the speed pulled at his cheeks. Closing his eyes did not stop the sand from sneaking into his eyes. His whole body ached at Sonic's relentless speed.
"Stop already!" He shrieked. However, Sonic did not reply, his eyes fixed forward. Knuckles' stomach twisted as Sonic dodged left and right in an attempt to catch up to Dice. Despite the current of air thrashing his ears, Sonic heard nothing except a mute feeling of hopelessness.
To Sonic's surprise, Dice was much faster than he remembered. She quickly became a dot on the horizon and the hedgehog's heart skipped a beat, thinking that he might lose her. In desperation, he quickened his pace. His blue ears whipped back in the wind as he cut through the thick air. The aero-dynamics of the hedgehog's figure was reduced immensely by Knuckles. Sonic felt his left side drag behind, making it difficult to maintain speed. He angrily squinted his eyes, pretending to see a shorter distance between himself and his prey. The scenery eluded his fixated eyes. Sonic was exhausted from seeing or even thinking about the ruins. All that mattered to him now was to catch Dice.
"Sonic," The echidna moaned, but again there was no response. He struggled to tilt his skull up. Dirt pelted his eyes, while Knuckles stared into Sonic's. They were glued in place. An icy appearance glazed over them. The ghostly pupils concerned Knuckles. Never had he witnessed Sonic so resolute. Usually, the hedgehog was nonchalant and easy going no matter how serious a situation became. Now, Sonic appeared to have a new persona. However, his thoughts quickly shattered when Sonic sped up again. Knuckles groaned at the pain squeezing his fur. "Sonic!" He screamed, breaking the hedgehog's trail of thought.
Turning his head, Sonic distinguished new scratches on his friend's face from flying rocks. Blood trickled down the echidna's forehead and seeped into his eyes. Gasping, Sonic halted his feet, sliding to a stop. "Sorry about that," he replied at last, releasing Knuckles' wrist. A black silhouette of a hand crawled on the echidna's arm. Knuckles quickly rubbed it, trying to ease the awakened pain.
"Dice is only going to the base. Relax. It isn't far from here," Knuckles grimaced in annoyance. "Have some patience for once."
"Come on, Knuckles! Who do you think you're talking to?" He joked, attempting to allow the echidna to forget the hedgehog's earlier behavior.
"We are about two minutes away; there is no hurry." Knuckles commenced walking forward, as Sonic followed. "So don't ever grab me again, k?"
"Hehe, right." Sonic sheepishly smiled.
"Why did you lie to Dice earlier anyway?"
"Oh, uh," Sonic frowned. "I don't care if you trust her or if it wasn't her fault. The fact remains: she is the sole cause of an apocalypse. Even if she is temporarily on our side, Dice could easily work for Eggman again right? Well, if Eggman gets word that I am alive then obviously he will order her to take me down... Of course, I am not afraid or anything like that... but if she is suddenly evil again, nothing is going to stop her from annihilating this whole universe!"
"Being a little melodramatic, eh? I wouldn't say the whole universe. Though, wouldn't saying you are a spy be just as bad as admitting that you're Sonic?"
"Oh yeah, huh?" He replied, embarrassingly shaking his head. "I couldn't think of anything else at the time."
"Right," Knuckles rolled his eyes.
"Hey, I haven't seen any Eggman signs or logos around here. How come? What happened to the whole 'Eggman Empire' thing?" Sonic pondered, as the duo approached a valley with a humongous base resting inside. A steel plated edifice rose deep into the sky with hangers and other small buildings surrounding it. "See? What happened to his whole megalomaniac obsessions with his name all over everything? I don't see his ugly face on the building."
"I am not sure. I haven't exactly seen him for the past year. Though, think about it. If he dominates all these countless worlds, then why would he waste his time here? After all, this is the only world with rebels and the only one he ordered Dice to destroy to this degree."
"How do you know that?"
"Shadow told me," Knuckles replied, and then began to glide down to the base. Sonic ran beside him and stopped at the unlocked entrance. "That's kind of odd. Since when are the doors open?" Sonic shrugged and sauntered inside the darkness with Knuckles behind.
"Hey, where do you think Dice went?"
"To find Shadow, so I am betting she went to the control room where all the cameras are."
"And where would the control room be?"
"Dunno," Knuckles sighed. "Around."
After many blind turns, Sonic and Knuckles continued through the base, completely lost. The pitch black hallway beckoned the duo to enter deeper. Darkness clutched them relentlessly, as if pulling them deep into a bottomless pit. Despite the ominous shadows, Sonic and Knuckles nonchalantly continued forward, listening to the clanking noises of their feet against the cold steel ground. It echoed down the hall, but stopped abruptly. Knuckles smiled, figuring that they were close to something. He, as well as Sonic, cautiously stepped towards the end of the dark hall. Both nervously pushed their hands forward, anxious to feel a wall or better yet, a light switch.
However, Sonic found neither. A wet, cold sensation seeped through Sonic's gloves and onto his fingertips. He slowly pressed his palms across the surface. Some condensation rested on the cylindrical object. The hedgehog figured he found a glass container of some sort. Kneeling, Sonic caressed the foundation of the object, feeling a cold breeze elevate out the icy, metal pedestal. Suddenly, the lights above flickered on. A brilliant blue luminosity enveloped the room. Sonic gazed in front of him to see a body floating in a glass container filled with a creamy liquid. Gasping, he fell back, seeing rows upon rows of glass cases. A wave of disgust flooded his face. He clutched his chest, panting in surprise.
"What are those things?" He turned his head to see Knuckles standing next to a metal lever with a sign posted above it stating 'Main Power.'
"I have no idea." Knuckles inspected them, covering his mouth with one glove, while the other stroked the crystal glass. All the figures in the cases were faceless and slightly translucent. However, each appeared different. The liquid color varied from murky to clear with an array of colors. Not to mention, each body was built differently. Some with spikes, others with tails or wings.
Approaching a computer panel with dozens of glowing buttons, Knuckles and Sonic switched glances. Both of them lightly pressed each button, in curiosity. Lights shot out from beneath each capsule after Sonic pressed several controls simultaneously. A nervous smile came from the hedgehog in fear of the thousands of bodies awakening.
Meanwhile, Knuckles pulled several levels, switching on a blue screen. Glowing black letters began to type themselves on the computer. It read, 'Accessing data... Loading.'
"Ha! Nice work Knux!" Sonic smiled and knocked fists with Knuckles. They, both, patiently gazed at the screen, until a diagram of a human body appeared. Underneath it letters wrote, 'Experimentation of Project Chaos.' Knuckles and Sonic nervously gazed at each other. Suddenly the computer beeped and switched to another screen, with only text.
'Journal Entry 001: After realizing that the chaos blade is of no use to me until the child ages, I must begin this experiment to make myself more powerful. The stone tablets predicted that this child could annihilate worlds at a time, but I have not seen even a glimmer of evil in her. She appears untainted and naïve. Not to mention, she has trouble holding the blade. She is useless to me. There must be a way to gain control of this blade faster or without—' the screen began but began to flicker and dim.
Before the entry could finish, the computer jumped ahead, revealing dozens of diagrams and video clips. The videos were filled with static and hard to for Sonic to see. However, he and Knuckles made out several scenes. In one, the hundreds of glass containers were filled with water. Then, a metallic arm dropped different chemicals into each canister, changing their color. The computer blinked and skipped forward again, showing a growth of the organisms. At first they appeared like blobs of mush but soon expanded into the figures, which Sonic and Knuckles encountered minutes earlier.
The echidna's and hedgehog's mouth dropped gazing at the computer. Diagrams of the master and chaos emeralds flickered translucently over a picture of one organism from the glass containers. The color in the chaos emeralds faded, while a similar shade slowly filled inside the outline of the organism's diagram. Letters on the bottom blinked quickly, 'Administering Chaos Element.' Sonic covered his mouth and gasped. The screen flickered yet again.
'Journal Entry 063: This project has taken longer than expected. It is probably ready for real 'human' testing. However, it may not be safe yet. Besides, she has already grown to an acceptable age and shows surprising loyalty. Not to mention speed, agility, strength, and intelligence. Her abilities appear endless. I believe I will send her on a mission soon, but will continue my research. Though the chaos' power seems strong in her, maybe it would help to use her as a test subject befor—' the screen suddenly flashed white and ceased the transmission.
"Oh come on!" Sonic yelled and smashed his fist onto the controls. "Start up already!" Knuckles anxiously smiled and began to help Sonic with the controls. However, none of the buttons would turn on the computer. Infuriated, Knuckles punched hard on the panel. Sparks flew upwards as the wiring from inside revealed itself. Laughing, Sonic added, "Smooth, very smooth." The echidna sighed uneasily.
The glass containers suddenly rose, releasing the icy liquids, which quickly evaporated. All of the figures slowly dropped and rested on top of their pedestals. Knuckles and Sonic panted nervously, sprinting to one of the experiments. "Hey, it looks like that creature we fought when we first met Tikal... You know, Chaos!" Sonic gasped.
Suddenly, the creature twitched and rose to its feet. The transparent figure saw Sonic. It screeched loudly, making Knuckles' and Sonic's ears throb. All of the experiments stood up and approached them. They were quickly surrounded.
"Oh, shit," Knuckles and Sonic nervously whispered in unison.
A/N: Hey everybody! Thanks for reading yet another chapter! Wow, this chapter took me a long time to type. I really had to force my fingers on the keyboard. Like I said before, I have thought pretty far into the story, and I kind of wanted to write a different chapter before this one... but then it wouldn't be in chronological order now would it? Anyway, although I don't really like this chapter, at least it is done! Oh, and sorry it was shorter than my usual chapters. I usually try between 2,000 and 2,500 words per chapter but this one barely made 1,700. Oh, well.
This author's note might get long, so bare with me. I am really sorry I took so long to post this chapter. With this whole "getting my story deleted," I had to go back and re-edit everything to make sure I didn't go overboard with the swearing. I only kept them there if I felt the literally had to be there. (Like when Tails was angry at Knuckles). Anyway, if one of you easily offended readers are considering re-deleting this for its language content, then e-mail me first so I can change it. Ok?
When I re-edited stuff however, I noticed quite a bit of the paragraphs/sentences I wrote were missing. Probably because I edited them on the "Quickedit/Preview" part of the document manager. Anyway, my point is, there are many different changes to the previous chapters and I hope they are not worse than before. I hope.
As for the next chapter, I am not sure when I will post it. Sure, it is labor day weekend, but I haven't even begun typing any of it, so I honestly can't say when it will be finished, considering how I usually obsessively edit things (though I realized I made several spelling errors in previous chapters, after I posted them...hehe, oops). I'll try to post it soon and make it extra long....of course, the amount of reviews I receive are a giant factor to the speed of my typing (hint, hint).
Lastly, as for the very first author's note in chapter 1, I was inaccurate. The Allies were not the ones who deleted my story, so for jumping the gun like an arrogant idiotic pinhead, I apologize to them. Also, I recieved two e-mails from members of the Allies concerning the truths about their organization. I realize this author's note is growing longer and longer by each word so I am just going to re-direct you guys to Blue Dragon X's bio. I think it basically describes their purpose in a civl manner. However, I know that there are rumors concerning the Allies (especially since I believed one and started another), and Blue Dragon X requested that I help stop them. So, although I personally do not agree with their actions of deletion, you deserve the truth about them. So yeah, go to his bio section...