never thought i'd be back on this account
but anyway cringe culture is dead and all that, blah blah blah, whatever
respectfully, I never saw myself writing for this fandom, but fate's a fickle thing, isn't it?
anywho, I need to clarify a thing or two bc the continuity of this thing is really funky and probably won't make sense unless I say something
- again, did not expect to be doing this and part of the reason for that is I have never played an actual sonic game before. half of the continuity of this fic is based on the little pieces of information i have from cultural osmosis and the odd bits of research I did to satisfy my personal curiosities, and the other half is based on snapcube's sonic real time fandubs bc they are my comfort videos and i have a problem. when in doubt, assume that i am going to be referencing the fandub bc i am way more familiar with that than any other piece of sonic media
- as a result, everyone is probably way ooc! they say fuck a lot! sonic is gay! (actually no fuck you that's canon) i would say I'm sorry if this is unreadable to some of you, but honestly, I'm writing this for myself. i had a cool idea that i wanted to develop and now we're here.
- oh and i'm kinda a fucking freak, so i visualized and wrote the characters as like, human with like designs i made and shit. it works a little better for the story and i like it better, but keep that in mind if that annoys you
uh, so i hope you enjoy whatever the fuck this is
Day 1: All According to Plan
"Absolutely not!" Shadow's voice cut through the mission briefing. The focus of the eight kids was diverted towards him. He glared at Sonic, eye to eye with him. "We're not sending you on some sort of suicide mission just because you have a hero complex!"
Sonic turned to face his darker counterpart, mirroring his glare. In truth, he hadn't expected to receive opposition to his plan, least of all from Shadow. "I don't have a hero complex, and even if I did, that's not what this is about!" Sonic protested, "Our mission is to save those animals, so most of our manpower should be directed there! We just need someone to distract Eggman, and I'm great at that, so-"
"What if Metal Sonic's there?" Shadow interrupted, "Or you can't figure out how to dismantle the machine? Or Eggman has a trick up his sleeve that you aren't prepared for?" At the lack of a response, he continued. "This is Eggman's home terrain. We don't know what to expect. Going alone is idiotic."
"So, just go with him," Knuckles said with a shrug. At the bewildered expression of the two boys, he added, "That way he's not alone."
"I'm going with you too," Tails piped up, pushing his way to the front of the meager crowd. "Shadow's right. Eggman'll likely have a machine for his evil plan. While you guys do the distracting, I'll dismantle it."
This really wasn't going the way Sonic had wanted it to. In a perfect world, this would be a simple mission. Grab the animals and get as far away from Eggman as possible.
But the revelation that Eggman had taken the animals to a previously unknown island base of his kind of wrecked the simplicity. It became increasingly clear that this was not one of Eggman's evil deeds of the week. This was a plan, meticulously crafted to draw them to the island.
The whole thing made Sonic uneasy. No longer was fighting Eggman an uncomplicated, easy chore. It used to be just him and Tails, but now there were more people to take care of, more people to protect. The doctor's plans, as much as it pained him to admit, were getting harder and harder to beat. The last time Eggman had carried out one of his plans, Sonic had died. He couldn't let anything like that happen to his friends.
Which was why he had suggested he face Eggman alone.
But before he could come up with a believable excuse, Rouge beat him to the punch. "So, it's settled then. Sonic, Shadow, and Tails will raid the main base. Blaze, Silver, and Elise," She glanced over at the trio, "You'll take the North Holding Facility, and Knuckles, Amy, and I'll take the South. We'll all meet up at the main base when we're done." She paused. "Everyone good?"
Blaze, Silver, Elise, Amy, and Knuckles voiced their affirmations. Sonic was vaguely aware of the stares of Shadow and Tails on him. After a moment of hesitation, he answered.
"Perfect."
As expected, it was suspiciously easy to break into the main base. It wasn't like it was completely defenseless. Sonic and Shadow still had to dash their way through quite a few of Eggman's robots and Tails had disabled the few security measures they had stumbled upon. But it was nothing compared to the extensive obstacles they would usually have to contend with, especially for a base as large as this one.
Sonic panted as he came out of a spin dash. Despite the relative ease of this raid, it was starting to get frustrating. They would be stopped every few minutes by another door that Tails would have to hack into, at which point more of Eggman's badniks would pour out to give the impression of security. The odd rhythm of making progress, then stopping to wait for the door was starting to get on Sonic's nerves. At this point, it seemed as if Eggman's evil plan was to annoy them to death.
Behind him, Shadow destroyed the last of this round of enemies. On the wall, Tails was still working with a set of wires, muttering to himself as he did so. Sonic had no doubt the younger boy was as annoyed as he was, frustration written on his brow. He watched as his brother fiddled with the wires for a few more seconds before speaking up, "Hey, buddy. How goes it?"
"How do you think?" Tails replied through gritted teeth. He pulled on one of the wires and swore. Sonic put his hand on his back and Tails sighed. "The past few doors have been connected. I was trying to see if I could open this entire hallway, so we wouldn't have to keep stopping, but the wiring's all wonky. This could take a bit."
"Is there any security in the vents?" Shadow asked suddenly.
Tails turned to him, surprised. "Um, no. Not from what I can tell."
Shadow nodded. "Why don't Sonic and I take the vents while you work on the doors? We'll still be moving forward instead of just waiting around."
"Alright. I'll catch up with you guys once I'm done."
Sonic looked back to his younger brother. "You sure you'll be fine?"
Tails gave a small smile. "It'll just be a few minutes. I'm not completely helpless, you know."
"I know," Sonic said with a chuckle.
"Sonic." Shadow stood next to the vent, the cover pushed onto the ground.
"Right," Sonic said, turning back to Tails, "I'll see you in a minute." After a moment of hesitation, he walked over to the vent. "After you." Shadow narrowed his eyes at him slightly before clambering into the wall. With a slight salute to Tails, Sonic followed his friend into the ventilation system.
The ventilation system was, unsurprisingly, rather cramped for the two fifteen-year-olds. Sonic was immediately overwhelmed by the excess of dust and the lack of light, but continued forward, aided by the sound of Shadow ahead of him. All at once, it felt as though he couldn't breathe. He closed his eyes and let out a shuddering breath. He had to get his mind on something, anything else if he were to make it out of this vent.
His thoughts drifted to the boy crawling a few feet ahead of him. The same boy who had forced himself into this situation, who had suggested he and Tails come along, and who had been the one to open the vent. Instantly, his initial panic was overcome by a quick burst of anger.
He crawled a little faster until he was right behind the other boy. "What was your problem?"
Shadow turned his head slightly at the sound of Sonic's voice. "What are you talking about?"
"During the mission briefing. What was your problem?"
Shadow scoffed. "I feel like I spelled out my problem pretty clearly. It seemed foolish to let you go solo in a mission that didn't require it."
"I know what I'm doing!" Sonic said, using all of his self-control to keep his voice at a whisper, "I'm not helpless!"
"I didn't say you were helpless. I said you were stupid."
Sonic couldn't help but let his annoyance creep into his voice. "Really gettin' on my nerves, Shads."
"I exist to please," Shadow deadpanned.
Sonic was about to make a retort when his hands hit the heel of Shadow's shoes. Shadow had stopped crawling. "What?"
"I think the vents end here."
"Shit, really?" Sonic's previous panic came flooding back to him. "Is there an exit at least?"
"Yeah. Hold on." Shadow pulled his legs forward towards the wall and kicked. Within seconds, he pushed the grate out and crawled into the light. A moment later, he offered his hand to Sonic, who took it gladly.
They were in a hallway, much like they had been before. But this time, neither door on either side was opened. "Look's like Tails hasn't finished yet."
A few seconds later, both doors opened and Tails dashed towards the two. "There! The rest of the doors should be opened now!" He looked between the two. "Is everything alright?"
"Great," Sonic said, walking towards the now open door, "Let's get this over with."
"How're we doing?" Blaze asked as she returned to the now liberated North Holding Facility.
Silver and Elise exited the facility, ushering out a few animals in front of them. At the sight of Blaze, Silver waved. "We've almost got everyone out." He stopped. "This might be a new record."
"It's so odd, though," Elise said with a frown, "Not even an alarm went off when we broke the cages open." She trailed off. "It's almost likeā¦"
Blaze finished the thought before Elise could. "He wanted us to come here." She paused before turning to Silver. "Get the rest of them to the docks. We need to find Sonic, Shadow, and Tails."
With no more doors obstructing their path, it took the trio no time at all to reach the central room of Eggman's base. At the sight of the many screens positioned throughout the room, Shadow chucked and said, "Ah, the computer room."
Sonic's attention was not focused on the excess of screens, but rather on the massive machine in the center of the room. It was much sleeker, more elegant than the usual bulkiness of Eggman's designs. Purple light emitted from the cracks in between the chrome plates. "Tails," he called, "What the hell is this?"
"I dunno," Tails said, gawking at the behemoth before him, "I've never seen anything like it before." His tails whirled behind him, lifting him into the air to get a better look. He looked back down at his brother. "This looks way more complex than Eggman's other machines."
Shadow walked next to Sonic, now fixated on the machine as well. "Do you feel that?"
"Yeah," Sonic said as Tails landed beside him, "Chaos energy."
"Whatever it is," Tails said, "It doesn't look very stable. I don't think it should be emitting that much light."
"What could it do?" Shadow whispered.
"A whole lot, Shadow," a voice from behind them said, breaking them out of their stupor, "A whole fucking lot!" The trio turned towards the sound, only to see the creator of the machine himself.
"Eggman!" Tails cried, taking a step back. The doctor in question was seated in one of his walking machines. At the cry from the young boy, a devious smile crossed his face.
"Eggman," Sonic said as he moved into a defensive position, "You're gettin' better at this! We only made it to your central room before you found us!"
The doctor smirked. "Would've been quicker, but I took some time to grab some friends!" He threw his arms back and let out an evil laugh as tens of badniks entered the room from behind him.
The three backed up until they could feel the cold metal of Eggman's machine behind them. Shadow leaned over to Sonic. "Still mad I came with you?" he asked flatly.
"I'm starting to warm up to it."
The robots surrounded them and the two speedsters sped into action. Sonic immediately took out two badniks with a spin dash, bouncing one off of the other. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see a flash of orange disappear behind Eggman's machine. Tails was obviously making good on his promise to dismantle it. At least it would keep him out of the way of the many waves of badniks.
Shadow had drawn a crowd of robots to him and was currently working on their destruction, bouncing between them and the wall. As much as Sonic hated to be wrong, he would admit that Eggman's army of robots was a lot easier to handle with a second fighter. The force that had seemed intimidating mere minutes ago was dwindling.
Sonic jumped on yet another badnik to destroy it and turned to the evil doctor, who was now positioned next to his machine. The teen faced the doctor and gave a toothy grin. "C'mon, Egghead, is that all ya got? At this rate, we'll be done kicking your ass in enough time to be home for dinner!"
He could see Eggman's eyebrows go further down with frustration, but his quip did not have the intended effect of turning the doctor beet red with anger. Instead, he chortled and said, "Hmm. I don't think you're gonna do shit." One of the arms of his robo-walker reached down behind the machine. "Not while I have your little sidekick!"
The arm lifted into the air, revealing Tails, within the clutches of the robot hand. His legs and tails swung desperately as he tried to wriggle free from its grip. "Lemme go!"
"Tails!" Shadow called as he realized the predicament.
The blood drained from Sonic's face. "Let him go, Eggman!" His jovial tone had been stripped clean, leaving only barely contained anger.
Eggman didn't seem to care about the change in tone. "You gonna fucking listen to me now? Can I fucking speak?"
Sonic felt the urge to interrupt with some sort of irritating comment, but with Tails in peril, he pushed it away. The doctor waited, almost egging him on, but the teen kept his mouth shut. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Did you think I was dumb? Did you think I was fucking dumb, Sonic? Did you think I didn't notice you and your fucking friends dropping on my island? Did you think I didn't expect that? You've gotten sloppy, Sonic. You've gotten fucking predictable, and this time, I came prepared." As he spoke, he fiddled with the control panel in front of him. Puffs of air started to emit from the mysterious machine and an electronic noise filled the room. Whatever it was, it was powering up.
"Good luck outrunning me now, Sonic," Eggman chortled, "Because when my machine takes you and your friends' powers, I'll be unstoppable!"
As far as Rouge, Knuckles, and Amy knew, everything had gone to plan.
The three had been successful in getting all of the imprisoned animals to the docks to be loaded onto ships back to their homes. They had immediately entered the tunnel connecting the South Holding Facility to the main base. The plan had gone off without a hitch. No issues, no problems, no setbacks.
That was, until two walls came down, trapping the team in that tunnel.
"What?" Amy asked, confused. All three of them looked around at the makeshift prison.
Rouge examined the door closest to her. This was not some mere security measure that had dropped, but a heavy, strong door.
A door meant to keep them in.
"I think," Rouge said, "Eggman knows we're here."
"What do we do?" Shadow whispered to Sonic as the evil doctor basked in his supposed victory. Tails was still in his grip but had ceased in his fruitless attempts to escape.
Sonic barely registered the question. His focus was on a loose panel from Eggman's machine, right under the doctor's robotic walker, likely where he had pulled Tails from. A loose plan began to form in Sonic's head, strung together by desperation and a lack of time. In the back of his mind, Tails' warning about the instability of the machine rang out, but he pushed it away. He was running out of time.
"On my signal," he said quietly, "Run as fast as you can."
"What?" Shadow asked, confusion apparent in his voice. He followed Sonic's gaze to the panel and his eyes widened. "Wait, Sonic!"
But it was too late. The Blue Blur had already taken off. He jumped onto the panel, pushing it into the machine and boosting him into the air. He curled into a ball, slicing through the walker's arm, which lost its grip on Tails. Sonic came out of his spin dash and hurtled toward the ground, landing just in time to catch his brother.
An unnatural, loud noise sounded from the machine, which was now bursting with the intense purple light. "No, no, no!" Eggman cried. The doctor scrambled from his robo-walker and out of the room. As soon as he did, an alarm rang out and the doors to the room began to lower.
Sonic's eyes widened as he realized what was happening. "Shadow, run!" He shouted as he began to run towards the closing doors, Tails still in his arms.
No sooner had they reached the door when the machine exploded.
Sonic instinctively held Tails as close to him as he could, attempting to shield him from the explosion. He felt his feet lose grip of the ground as he was lifted into the air. He lost grip of Tails and a second later, felt the soft dirt of the ground outside.
He vaguely registered how much everything ached. A sharp ringing in his ear seemed to increase in intensity as he attempted to open his eyes. It was as though his entire body was fighting for unconsciousness, but he fought a little harder. His vision was blurry, unfocused, but a few feet in front of him, he could make out the messy, orange-yellow hair of his younger brother. Tails didn't seem to be moving and his face was covered by his arms, haphazardly placed in front of him. But instead of the familiar oranges and browns of his usual attire, his arm was covered in something... silver?
But before Sonic could compute this information, he succumbed to the unconsciousness his head so desperately craved.
i would beg you to comment, but it's two am, time is meaningless, and I'm not even sure if ppl are gonna read this
