Chapter 3: Date with the Elusive Rouge
It took a while but I managed to finish chapter 3, continuing the adventure of Joe and his new frosty friend Kold the Artic Fox. What will they find on today's adventure? Read and see!
A few days had passed since Joe and Kold first met each other, the arctic fox had stayed with the DJ with him until his next performance as promised. It was a rather impressive performance he had to admit, but he wasn't expecting what followed afterwards; Since then, Joe would follow him whichever way he traveled. He tried his best to get away from him, but even with his powers the bear wouldn't let him out of his sight.
"Kold! Hey, Kold!" Joe called for the fox as he jumped from tree to tree, following behind as Kold surfed along a trail of ice. "Slow down will ya? At least tell me where we're going in this forest?"
"I'll let you know once we're there… or we can just go our separate ways." The fox suggested.
"You keep using that joke, I'm starting to think you mean it." Joe chuckled.
"I did mean it…" Making a turn along the path he was following, Kold formed a ramp of ice and launched himself into the tree before him. "There it is, just like the map said."
"There what is?" Joe asked as he landed beside the fox. He saw Kold pull out a map to confirm what he was looking for before turning to see for himself that what he was looking for happened to be a large stone fortress, looking closer he could see the all too familiar insignia of Dr. Eggman. "An Eggman base? That's what we were looking for?"
"Yep." Kold responded as he jumped to the ground.
"Okay? But why? Also, how'd you find a map to an Eggman base in the first place?" Joe questioned.
"Treasure hunters always have an information network for these sorts of things." He explained. "This base has been abandoned for a while, but it should hold some treasures that Eggman left behind. Not to mention any weapons that might've been left behind."
"Why do you need weapons though? You can make your own frozen tundra when you feel like it." Joe continued to wonder as he followed Kold towards the base. "Are you planning to sell whatever you can find there?"
"Nope, I'm planning to destroy it all." The fox answered as cold air enveloped his hand. "Even if these places are abandoned by Eggman, that doesn't mean they're not dangerous. I like to go around and destroy them whenever I can."
"Hmm I see, that's quite the righteous thing to do."
"But like I said, there should be plenty of treasure there too. So why not partake along the way?" He grinned as he touched the entrance to the base. The door began to freeze and brittle until it finally crumbled to pieces. "If you're still interested in stalking me then by all means… come on."
"Heh, you could've just said "I'd love your help Joe, you are my best friend!" I still would've said "sure thing!""
"And when did I say we were best friends?"
"Ah! But you never said we weren't friends!"
Kold sighed as they made their way inside of the base. The two walked through the halls of the base, the old decrepitness showed as they saw cobwebs and piles of old broken Badniks. "Sonic sure did a number on this place. I'm surprised it's still standing." Joe mentioned as they continued walking. "I wonder why Eggman never just destroys this stuff himself?"
"It's hard to really stay attached to things you hold no sentimental value to. When he's had plenty of failures and when pretty much everyone can find this place, what would be the point of keeping it?" Kold explained. "Even still, leaving it would be a bad idea, we don't really know what exactly he left here."
"Yeah, there could be older but still usable robots here. Not to mention there's the likelihood of…" Joe's sentence was cut short as he stepped on a floor mechanism, a click could be heard as the walls opened up and revealed several laser cannons. "That…"
The lasers fired off a barrage, but the two quickly began to dodge, jumping from one spot to the next to avoid the crossfire. "Get behind me!" Kold called to the bear as he swung his arm and formed a wall of ice that circled around them. The two. The lasers reflected off the ice, firing back at themselves until they were completely destroyed.
"Whew! Nice save there, Kold." Joe thanked him.
"At least watch your step if you're gonna follow me around." Kold groaned as he began to lower the ice, but through the ice he caught the glimpse of a shadow moving above. "Who's there!?" He swung his hand and fired a spear of ice at the ceiling behind them. The figure stopped in front of the ice just before they were attacked.
"Whoa there… that's quite the magic you pulled there handsome." The figure descended from the air, revealing herself to be a young and beautiful bat. "Fancy meeting another set of treasure hunters on my adventures."
"And who might you be?" Kold questioned.
"Dude! That's Rouge the Bat, a famous treasure hunter and spy! She's one of Sonic's friends!" Joe exclaimed. "It is so cool to meet you! I'm Joe, this Kold… say hi Kold."
"I refuse." He bluntly answered.
"Don't mind him, he's always like that. So what're you doing here?" Joe asked.
"The same as you I believe, searching around for any of Eggman's stash of treasure."
"Oh, well we were doing that. Though frosty here wants to destroy this base." The bear responded. "Maybe we can work together! I'm sure there'd be enough to split between all of us."
"Will you stop discussing things like I'm not here!" Kold growled and pulled Joe to his side. "I didn't even say you and I were partners in the first place, yet here you are asking some stranger to join us and split the treasure!"
"Why not? She isn't a stranger, she's Rouge the Bat! She's way more experienced at treasure hunting than us." Joe explained. "It's only fair to share in the spoils too, so what's the harm?"
"Hate to butt in on your conversation boys, but just to ask… how exactly were you planning to destroy this base anyway?" Rouge asked.
"That's a good question. Any ideas? Kold?"
"It wouldn't be hard to freeze this place completely, though… admittedly it would take time." Kold huffed.
"Well lucky for you two, I think I have just the thing to help in your little plan." Rouge chimed in. "I've snuck into plenty of ol' Egghead's bases, so I have a good idea where the control room might be."
"How does that help us exactly?" Kold questioned.
"If we go there, I can activate the base's self-destruct feature. I'll be sure to give us plenty of time to obtain whatever treasure's here and escape scott free."
"Meaning we'll kill two birds with one explosive stone! Talk about a great idea, what do ya say, Kold?" Joe nudged the fox's arm, annoying him even more until he finally gave in and waved it off. "Well, looks like we have a deal! We're happy to have you on the team, Rouge."
"Then follow me boys, I'll take you right to the control room." Rouge flapped her wings and flew off deeper into the base.
"Aren't you excited, Kold. I mean come on, it's Rouge the Bat we're hanging out with!" Joe whispered excitedly.
"A woman I barely know, who's a treasure hunter and a spy and will probably leave us for dead once she takes the treasure away." Kold bluntly answered. "I'm not as trusting as you, Joe. And I'm making sure to keep her at a frost blade's reach."
"You know you say that, but I'm sure you'll warm up to her." The bear smirked. "It wasn't long ago you said the same to me, and now you keep me at an arm's length."
"Easier to freeze you…"
"Hey!"
Joe quickly rushed after the fox as he skated down the hall on a trail of ice. The two followed right behind Rouge, unaware of the hard footsteps following right behind them. Rouge kept to the air as her ears focused on their surroundings, her heightened hearing allowed her to pinpoint even the most minute sounds close to her allowing her to differentiate between them. It was through this that she could hear the sounds of a computer close by.
"There we go, I've found it." Rouge told as she lead the the others towards what looked to them to be a pile of broken debris that fell against the wall. "Right here is the entrance to Eggman's control room."
"So it's not just a pile of rocks!" Joe smirked as he pulled out his void Wispon. "One shot from Void and we'll have this rubble out of the way in an instant!"
"Easy bear boy, those void Wispons are a tricky tool in closed spaces like this." Rouge explained. "Best let our icy friend handle this one like he did the entrance."
"So you saw that…" Kold sighed as he walked past the bat, he placed his hand on the rubble and focused his power to freeze the debris. Turning the solid stone brittle until it finally crumbled into blocks of ice. It was then that the path to the control room was revealed to them. "Hm, so it was here after all. You are good at your work."
"Honey, I've been doing this for long enough to know my way around. Shall we then?" She led the two once more as Joe looked rather discouraged.
"Why do I feel like I might not be as helpful in this little adventure?" Joe wondered.
"Not like I was expecting much help from you." Kold teased, as they followed the bat inside the two could see the large supercomputer sitting at the center. It's screen and keyboard were full of dust, but it still looked just as usable as it would be brand new. "You said you could activate the self-destruct here, right? But I've heard Eggman keeps things under a password, do you know it, Rouge?"
"Almost everyone knows it, it's usually different ways to say the same thing." Rouge replied, she stepped toward the computer and began typing. "Now let's try… IHATETH TH3DGEHOG!"
"Invalid Password!" The computer answered as the screen turned red at the wrong password given.
"Hm, looks like Egghead switched it up some." Rouge sighed as she tried to think of another password.
"Oh! Oh! Lemme try one!" Joe jumped in as he started typing next. "If I was Eggman I'd definitely use your password. But I think after another defeat I'd change it to…"
The two watched as Joe changed the former password to "IR3ALLYHATETH TH3DGEHOG!", both were unsure something like that would work but to their surprise the screen turned green at its acceptance and opened up to several programs.
"Not bad, looks like you know your bad guys Joe." Rouge complimented.
"I still think that was luck." Kold stated as Rouge began going through the computer's programs.
"Well to be fair, I did have like ten other ideas in mind. I just went with that one as the first!" He chuckled as if it was something anyone would do.
"You really are something, for someone who's supposed to just be a DJ." The fox muttered.
"And there… self-destruct is all set up." Rouge gained their attention as she pointed to the timer on the screen, the self-destruct was ready to be activated with a timer of 10 minutes. "Ten minutes should be more than enough for us to get out of here with the treasure on hand."
"Just ten minutes? Leave it to a pro to go with that short a time." Joe responded.
"Five would've been plenty, but I had to give you newbies a little handicap." She teased as she activated the self-destruct. "Time's counting down boys, now let's go and get that treasure."
"But where do we look? We've barely gone through this base?" Joe questioned.
"Oh don't worry, I've already located it." The bat pointed towards another entryway toward their left. "But we'll have to get through them first."
The two were confused until they too heard the sound of moving metal stepping closer. It was then that a group of Badniks began to enter, it was a small group and easy to handle but they only grew in size as another larger group came from the way they entered. "Uh… you sure you didn't activate any of the Badniks still left here, Rouge?"
"There might've been a possibility of that happening." She admitted.
The Badniks soon began to fire and the three quickly dodged out of the way, their maneuvers were short lived however as the robots that entered behind them had fired directly at their fellow Badniks. The shootout continued as more Badniks appeared from their respective entrances.
"What the heck? Why're they firing at each other!?" Joe exclaimed.
"That doesn't matter right now, we just need to get out of here!" Kold explained.
"We're on the clock boys, so let's make our way towards the treasure!" Rouge flew upwards and began to dive at the Badniks with a spinning drill kick.
The moment she crashed through the robots, Joe grabbed for Kold and fired his grapple wire pulling them out of the room as the Badniks continued firing at each other.
"Looks like they're more focused on each other than us. Talk about luck." The bear grinned.
"Yeah… lucky us…" Kold seemed lost in thought as they followed Rouge deeper into the base. "Rouge, how far are we towards the treasure?"
"Not long… just about… here!" Rouge pointed towards the sealed door in front of them, with a swift kick she broke through and led them inside. But the three looked in surprise as the room was completely empty. "What? This isn't right, I know the treasure was here."
"Maybe Eggman hid it with some kinda cloaking mechanism?" Joe suggested.
"Cloaking treasure? That's about as likely as you activating another trap." Kold responded when a clicking sound came from Joe's direction, the two looked down to see his foot had stepped on another mechanism. "Are you serious right now…?"
"You can not blame me for jinxing it!" Joe argued as the ground under them began to shake and soon it began to open at the center revealing a giant hammer toting super Badnik.
"Well this is great." Rouge responded.
"No sweat, just one Super Badnik! It'll be slow in it's swings, we can take it!" Joe tried to assure them, but the three quickly dodged as the hammer Badniks swung its weapon with a speed much faster than its size could manage. "Okay! I'm starting to think I should stop talking now!"
"First good idea all day-look out!" Kold quickly fired off a spear of ice towards Joe, the bear was still in midair as the ice shot behind him and deflected an incoming laser. Several gun turrets began to appear from the ceiling and fired their bullets. "Keep focused! Watch out for the turret fire!"
The three kept moving about, dodging the bullets in tandem with watching the massive hammer swings from the Super Badnik. It's attacks caused several walls to break apart as the room began to crumble. Rouge flew around in circles, dodging the turret fire while also placing heart shaped bombs onto them. "This'll take care of these pests!" The bombs soon detonated causing each turret to explode on impact.
"Nice one, Rouge! Now we can focus on the big guy!" Joe jumped into the air and swung his lightning Wispon, the crack of his electric whip was powerful enough to break the Badniks hammer in it's very hands. "Kold, now!"
Seeing the opportunity in front of him, Kold summoned a massive pillar of ice beside him and pierced straight through the Badniks body, letting it hang above them in the air.
"Awesome finisher. Kold!" Joe cheered as his Lightning Wisp friend appeared from his Wispon to share in the celebrations. "Great job to you too, Light. Wait a second… Where's Void?"
"Forget that right now, we're on the clock, remember?" Kold reminded them as the room began to shake and crumble. "Those robots took a lot more time than expected, we've gotta get outta here!"
"How fast can we get to the nearest exit!?" Joe exclaimed as the ceiling fell down next to them, revealing a hole to the outside big enough for them to escape. "Well that works!"
Grabbing Kold's hand, Joe quickly shot his grapple wire above them and launched them into the air with Rouge flying quickly behind. The three escaped through the opening and quickly ran as far as they could from as the base began to explode in a fiery blaze. Once the explosions had ended, Kold used his powers to quell the flames.
"I'm surprised, you don't seem the type to worry about the forest, Kold." Rouge surmised.
"It's not like I hold a vendetta against it, I don't want any animals losing their homes either." Kold admitted as he doused the last of the flames. "Best not to leave any evidence for Eggman either."
"Aww, seems your friend was right, you do have a heart behind all that ice." Rouge sighed as she remembered the loss of her treasure. "Guess ol' Egghead took the treasure he stored here and set a trap for whoever would come looking for it. So much for enjoying myself today…"
"Void! There you are!" Joe called to the violet wisp, the two looked as the little alien seemed to be holding something in its mouth. "I was looking all over for you, I thought you had gotten lost in the explosion. What's that you got in your mouth?"
The Void Wisp floated over and spat the contents in its mouth into Joe's hand, revealing a green gemstone that immediately caught Rouge's eye.
"Oh, a starfire! And a rather large one at that!" She beamed. "That's quite the useful Wisp you have there to find this in all of that ruckus."
"Void always did love his shiny things, just wish you didn't worry me so much flying off like that." Joe told his little friend.
"If I remember right, he's a Nega Wisp right?" Kold asked, joining the conversation. "Those Wisps were affected by Eggman and are said to be pretty violent, yet he seems pretty docile."
"They're really not bad, Sonic's had help from them too after all." Looking it over a bit more, Joe decided to hand the gemstone over to Rouge. "Here ya go, Rouge. It's not much, but consider it thanks for joining us on the adventure."
"You two are too much! But I do appreciate it." She smiled, happily taking the gem and flying into the air. "Well boys, I'll be off. Hope to see you again!"
"See ya later, Rouge!" He waved her off, watching the bat fly into the distance until he noticed Kold walking the opposite direction. "Hey! You could at least say goodbye to her, Kold. Don't have to live up to your name all the time."
"Shut it… I was thinking about something." Kold responded. "Those Badniks before… the ones that attacked the others. Didn't they seem strange to you?"
"The fact they attacked each other was definitely strange. Maybe a malfunction?" He wondered.
"Not just that, didn't they have other peculiarities? Come on, think."
"Um…" Joe wondered what the fox meant at first, but then a thought came back to him. "Oh right! The usual Badniks are usually colored orange, but the ones that fired on their own had a reddish color to them."
"Exactly." Kold agreed. "Eggman's always had a color scheme with his robots but the humanoid Badniks like those always had the usual orange color. But not just that, the usual Eggman symbol was different on them."
"Yeah! I thought I saw something different, it looked like a white wave with a grey highlight." Joe described it perfectly from his memory of the event. "So then, if those Badnik's weren't controlled by Eggman…"
"Then someone else is using his machines." Kold finished. "And something tells me they're not friendly…"
As the two continued on their journey, they were unaware of a flying Badnik watching over them from above.
"Hm, such powerful Cryokinetic skills. Not what I expected on my expedition to the good doctor's base. But it's still a wonderful find." Sitting back in his chair, a spectacle wearing platypus watched Joe and Kold from his computer screen. "I wonder how useful he could be in my experiments? I'll have to meet them sometime in the future, I'm sure they can use a visit from Dr. Starline."
We had an adventure and even an ending that'll lead to a confrontation in the future. I hope everyone likes this and looks forward to the next chapter.