Author's note: My most sincerest thanks to E-Rank and Noonui for their continued support and feedback! Can't tell you how much I appreciate it. I don't know about other authors, but my writing tends to ebb and flow when it comes to finalizing thoughts (and leans more towards ebb, with only random bursts of creativity) ... and, well, boy did it decide to flow these past few days 0.o
Chapter 7: Into the Maelstrom
"Eureka!"
Sonic snorted awake with a jolt, forgot his feet were propped over an armrest, and somehow fell backwards onto the metal floor with a solid thunk.
From an upside-down perspective, he noted a neutral-faced Shadow staring at him, before the darker hedgehog walked up to a cringing Tails.
"Er, sorry Sonic," the fox apologized, then smiled widely. "I just always wanted to say that!"
Trying with as much grace as he could muster, Sonic hauled himself to his feet, and mentally stopped his hands before they could rub his smarting backside. An odd crunch beneath his shoe made him reflexively pull away with dread, before he remembered that remnants of junk food spoils were scattered all over the floor.
He breathed out a sigh of relief. Way better than Eggman having a bug problem.
Nonchalantly wandering over, he watched as his sidekick pulled off the last remaining wiring and showed the two hedgehogs what looked like an orange Chaos Emerald.
"It's got most of the properties of the yellow," Tails explained without being questioned, "but with the red's power source, so I guess it's a mix?" Sonic carefully grasped the gem, instantly feeling its lighter weight.
"I couldn't use my usual moissanite that's more durable, since the material wasn't available," the kit added, reaching around to pull the electrodes off the red Chaos Emerald. "So I had to use glass."
"Glass?" Sonic asked incredulously. "Isn't that … breakable?"
"Well, I chemically strengthened it," Tails offered, "but … yeah. Don't chuck it like a football and it should be fine."
"Yippee."
Tails' enthusiasm soured pretty quickly at the sarcasm, and he abruptly stopped what he was doing to snatch the fake emerald out of Sonic's hands. The hero gave his own annoyed tsk at his sidekick, before the latter handed the jewel over to Shadow.
"Here. What do you think?"
Shadow wobbled the orange replica in his palm, studying it intently. Switching it to his other hand, he let out a small grunt. "Yes," he finally answered, "this will work."
Sonic rolled his eyes but did not respond. Crossing his arms, he watched in his peripheral vision as Shadow handed the weird bauble back to Tails. The fox then brought it to Eggman's control station, gently setting it down to finish undoing the wiring still attached to the real emerald.
"All right, let's see if we can't use the residual energy signature here," Tails swapped the red Chaos Emerald with the orange one, "to find out where Eggman teleported to."
Connecting those same electrodes to the fake, Tails began typing on the adjacent keyboard, a whole new slew of characters and numbers appearing on the semi-transparent screen above. Sonic stole a glance at Shadow, noticing that he had stiffly crossed his arms, as well, red eyes narrowing as he watched.
But his rival wasn't looking at the screen. Following his gaze, Sonic's own eyes widened at the pulsing reddish glow coming from the fake emerald, growing with each command typed out.
"Er, Tails—"
With a final click, the screen shifted to what appeared to be a digital map of the world. A sonar-like line swiped over the image, the movements following in succession to the rhythmic glowing of the orange jewel.
Instead of zeroing in, however, the image shrunk farther, and the sonar pulse expanded.
After a couple more sweeps, a ping echoed. Sonic's ears twitched at the sound, his head tilting as he studied the map that was still showing the planet in its entirety.
"Hold on, something's not right," Tails said, as the sound of the beep played again, a similar pulse of light showing up in the corner of the screen.
In space.
"Um," Sonic started.
"That can't be right," Tails said more frustratingly. As he went back to typing, the map disappeared briefly so more nonsense words could take its place.
"Where is he?" Shadow pushed.
The holographic projection transitioned to the map again, moving faster this time. More weird sonar lines briefly flitted over the planet, before a concurrent ping and pulse of light showed in that same corner of the screen.
Tails let out a long sigh. "I don't get it. According to this, Eggman is on the ARK."
"That is impossible."
"I'm aware of that," Tails instantly rebutted Shadow's comment. "But … that's where the energy signature went to."
"How can Eggy teleport with a fake Chaos Emerald to a spaceship?!" Sonic shook his head. "Kiddo, that creamsicle of an emerald might be better off as a snack than a tracker."
His sidekick whirled to face him, looking like Sonic had just kicked him in the teeth. "First of all, the ARK is a space station. Secondly, this is not the first emerald I've made!"
Holding up his hands in a placating gesture, Sonic nodded (somewhat) understandably. "No offense meant, li'l bro. But you mixed energies to make this emerald, right? Maybe it doesn't work that way."
The more neutral tone of Sonic's reasoning seemed to help some, as Tails' tails deflated from their don't-mess-with-me bristling. They did threateningly lash about, though, as he tried to calmly explain, "I know what I'm doing. This is where the energy went."
"What about another rocket?" Shadow spoke up.
Tails shook his head. "No. I combed the entire database, and even thawed the cold logs from over the past year. He hasn't made another spaceship."
"Thawed? What?"
"Old data is compressed. He decompressed it," Shadow answered for Tails. Sonic blinked at him.
"So you're a computer nerd, too?"
That earned him two sets of glares. Worth it. Purposefully ignoring them both, Sonic's hands went to his waist in thought, his foot tapping against the alloy floor. "Fine. Okay. Let's say Eggman is on the ARK. Now explain to me how we're going to get there."
Tails poignantly stared at the red Chaos Emerald, before turning to Shadow.
This time, Sonic's eyes were the ones that narrowed. Before he could swiftly ixnay the idea, his doppelganger (surprisingly) beat him to it. "I am unable to use Chaos Control to get us there."
"Wait; I thought you—"
"It is not strong enough," Shadow interrupted bluntly. "I would need at least three for that distance."
Sonic scoffed. "Yeah, well, considering these things are a hot commodity right now, I don't think that's happening."
"Then I guess our only other option is G.U.N.," Tails conceded unenthusiastically.
"While they may have the resources, they do not have a functional spaceship built," Shadow countered.
"How would you know?" Sonic asked with an arched brow.
"I know."
"Forthcoming as always, Shads," Sonic grumbled. Shadow did not reply. Tails had started typing again, doing who knows what, while Sonic's rival seemed to be having a silent stare-down with the fake Chaos Emerald.
"Tails, what are—"
"Hold on, Sonic. I want to rerun some tests, to make sure I'm not missing anything." Clicking and clacking filled the void, with the fox muttering, "I know the properties are the same. I wonder if he combined the power source with something else..?"
The hero cleared his throat, attention diverting back to Shadow. "So ... sounds like you work for G.U.N. just to keep tabs on them."
Shadow seemed really interested in that fake trinket, and did not acknowledge Sonic's comment.
"Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer?"
Nothing. Not even a twitch.
"Heh, get it?"
The silence was painful.
"It's from—who am I kidding. Do you even watch TV?"
One would not think that a living being could outlast an inanimate object in a staring contest. They obviously had never met Shadow trying to ignore someone. Ultimately giving up, Sonic left his two companions to their own devices, and languidly jogged up to the giant window again, surveying the empty hangar that used to house a spaceship. He let out a low hum, thinking. Turning to see Tails still at the computer, he couldn't help but notice the ugly orange emerald pulsing quietly.
Taunting him.
The pure red one next to it seemed calmer, at least.
His sidekick looked determined as he presumably rechecked his data three times over.
And Shadow ... well, was being Shadow.
With another zip to the workstation, Sonic loudly clapped his hands together, smirking to himself as both Mobians finally flinched from the sudden noise. Focusing on the shorter of the two, he proposed, "Well, bud, how about it? We gonna believe that Ring Pop of yours and have you build us a rocket?"
His recommendation apparently appalled his kid brother. "What? No!" His arms went up into the air, Sonic belatedly realizing he'd opened a can of worms. "That could take weeks!" His hands pulled on his ears irritatingly. "Or months, even, with the amount of planning that goes into that, and we can't wait that long." Pacing was added to the mix. "And all that's contingent on G.U.N. being agreeable to the plan, since all we have are a load of scraps here, at best. And if Shadow's right and G.U.N. doesn't have a ship to—um, borrow—that would mean we'd have to divulge about the missing Chaos Emeralds, never mind the broken Master Emerald, which you know they'd have a field day with! And if they get their hands on this fake one—"
"I get it, I get it," Sonic interrupted, stepping in front of the kit to cut off his frantic pacing. "We can't build a spaceship, we can't tell G.U.N. So, now what?"
A heavy whine of machinery echoed in the distance, before the lights flickered.
"Uh, what was that?" Sonic hesitantly asked, scanning the area. His eyes fell on the projection screen, where the map had been replaced with a lot of dancing horizontal lines. The distortion was irregular, and yet the orange Chaos Emerald seemed to be pulsing along with the odd frequency of the static. "Unhook that thing!" he barked to Tails, pointing at it.
The fox was warily inspecting his surroundings, but hurriedly pulled off the electrodes when he saw the emerald's reaction to whatever was happening. Just as he grabbed it and the red emerald off the console, the lights completely shut off.
The only faint glow came from the Chaos Emeralds in the fox's arms, albeit half-smothered with how tight he was currently hugging them.
"Eh. Well, uh, so … now what?" Sonic repeated with a lot less gusto.
An ominous howl reverberated from the large hallway beyond the control room.
"Stopsayingthat!" Tails squeaked, his voice high enough to potentially crack his new glass gem.
"There is something here," Shadow stated the obvious with a low growl. It was hard to be sure with only the red-orange glow of the emeralds, but Sonic swore his rival's quills had raised with tension.
"Tails," Sonic whispered, "can I borrow the light on that thing?" The fox gave the hero a mildly panicked expression, but dutifully offered the red Chaos Emerald to him.
Sonic shook his head. "No, the Miles Electric." Panic gave way to confusion and Tails glanced at his computer. Fumbling slightly, he nevertheless picked up the tablet from its resting spot on the desk and handed it to the hedgehog.
Throwing the attached strap over his head, Sonic immediately started feeling the edging on it. "How did you turn on that really bright light from earlier?"
"The beacon?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded, and the fox hugged the emeralds with one arm long enough to reach over and flip a very well-hidden switch on the side. With a tiny whir, the familiar antenna with a bright blinking yellow light came out of the chassis.
"Awesome!" Sonic murmured excitedly. "All right. Stay close and let's check this out." He ignored the general whimper that came from Tails at this statement, opting to hold his newly acquired tablet with the light facing out like a sword in front of the trio. For once, Shadow seemed at least agreeable to the plan, mainly because he hadn't voiced a complaint, nor zoomed ahead and left the other two in the dust.
The night was still young, of course.
Sonic reached the entryway to Eggman's command center, the giant hallway especially foreboding in the sheer blackness. Being so far underground—and with no backup power to be had, apparently—even the bright light on Tails' Miles Electric was swallowed up mere feet ahead.
Taking a steady breath, Sonic slinked around the corner, listening intently for indications of an intruder. Well, another intruder. Tails was practically on his heels, with Shadow to the left of both of them.
At the far length of the passage, where another T-intersection crossed, a faint white-blue glow wafted past with a low groan.
The sound his sidekick made couldn't even be classified as a yip. It sounded like a shriek inside of a vacuum. "Whatwasthat," he barely spit out in a shrill whisper.
"Erm," Sonic said, and couldn't bring himself to say ghosts out loud. Instead he followed up with, "I'll go take care of it, you guys stay here."
"Sonic, wait—!"
He zoomed ahead, Miles Electric held like a weapon, hoping beyond hope that it was enough light to shrink the ghastly creatures, or at least weaken them and give him an advantage in battle.
The edge of the hall came up fast, and Sonic skidded to the right, preparing himself to attack.
Nothing but darkness greeted him.
He blinked, straining to see beyond where the beacon illuminated, and in return only received another pitiful wail. Ears twitching, he waited and—sure enough—another wisp of more white-blue fog wandered far along the edge of the new corridor.
He growled, revving in place to chase it.
The sudden shot of a laser painfully grazing his ear from behind changed his priorities instantly.
Throwing himself to the ground, Sonic somersaulted and flipped to find a dozen more E-1000s coming from the other path.
"Way uncool, ghosts!" he hollered, dropping the Miles Electric to the floor to buzzsaw through at least half of the onslaught.
More laser shots ricocheted off the narrow tunnel from the remaining E-1000s standing upright, and Sonic barely had time to perform a fast loop-de-loop to avoid them all. More explosions erupted, shrapnel flying each way, and as he landed he saw Shadow assisting in taking down the remaining enemies.
Out of the corner of his eye, another blob whizzed past, howling as if it were in agony. Sonic whirled and almost chased after it, before realizing Tails' computer was on the floor in the opposite direction. Zipping up to collect it, the fox caught up to the other two at the intersection, panting and still holding both red and orange emeralds.
"It's trying to trap us," Sonic said, placing the strap of the Miles Electric on his shoulder.
There was another loud clinking sound, followed by more wails. Sonic let out an annoyed grunt, searching for the source. He glimpsed at his companions, noticing that neither looked characteristically ready.
Tails' fur was standing on end to the point of staticky, and Shadow seemed positively confused.
"Guys..?"
Shadow returned his stare briefly. "I am feeling negative energy."
"Yeah, well, there's a fake Chaos Emerald next to you, right?" Sonic leveled back. He turned towards his sidekick, who he was pretty sure was a heartbeat away from becoming petrified. "Come on, bud, you got this."
Snapping out of his daze, the fox swallowed heavily and nodded. His death grip on his sole sources of light weren't going anywhere anytime soon.
Then the facility's security alarm started blaring.
"What the—I thought the power was out?!" Sonic yelled above the chaos.
Tails' ears became pinned down on his head to protect them from the accosting horn. "Something triggered it!" he shouted in response. "I can override it!"
"Wait!" Sonic grabbed the fox's shoulder before he could bolt towards the command center. "This feels like a trap."
"Agreed," Shadow responded, already standing defensively. "Incoming," he warned, indicating the end of the hallway farthest from them. More E-1000s came charging through with perfect timing, firing lasers and forcing the three to dodge in the limited space.
Tails fell back into the perpendicular junction, while both Sonic and Shadow used their speed to bounce off the corridor's walls.
Neither hedgehog wasted any time in using that momentum to barrel into the shooting robots. Sonic uncurled after his seventh decimation, peering up just as the alarm abruptly ended. Shadow was next to him, finishing off a robot by quite literally yanking its head off.
Sonic winced, but raced over to the command room when he realized why the alarm had stopped. "Tails!" he called out, zooming after him.
"Hold on!" The fox was at the controls again, furiously typing. The emeralds lay unmanned on the console itself, wobbling unsteadily from the slanted desk.
"Don't run off, bud!" the hero exclaimed, slamming on the brakes next to his sidekick. "Like I said, they're trying to—"
A loud bang reverberated throughout the maze of tunnels. Without warning, the corridor's junction was closed off with a heavy, fortified wall.
"—split us up," Sonic finished regretfully. He rammed himself into the door, then repeated the process when he only got a scuff for his actions. "Shadow!" he yelled out, banging on the metal with his fists.
Muffled explosions from the other side of the barrier told Sonic that more reinforcements had made their way into the fray. He growled out, unable to do anything from this side of the room.
"Tails—"
"I know, I know, I'm working on it!" he answered before the demand could be made. "Someone is controlling the security system remotely, but there's also this really weird interference that has certain systems malfunctioning…" the fox's voice trailed, his focus returning to the task at hand.
Sonic tried to buzzsaw his way through the blockade again, before trying a few spots along the wall, searching for any weak points. The crashes in the hallway beyond seemed even louder and more frequent than seconds before.
"Ugh, come on!" he frustratingly hit the steel barricade, fuming with impatience. An idle thought came to mind, and he zeroed in on the red Chaos Emerald.
"Maybe…"
Before the idea could be spoken, however, the door slid open.
"Yes! Rock on, Tails!"
"Uh," the fox replied, staring wonderingly at the controls. The screen above was still only showing distorted horizontal lines. "That wasn't me."
Beyond the doorway, it was rather apparent that reinforcements had attacked, but the dilapidated remains of robots also told Sonic that he'd missed out on all the fun. Shadow came into view a second later, stepping over a few chunks of sparking debris.
"Ever heard of sharing, Shads?"
His rival let out a huff, one that could have possibly been classified as a chuckle in his emo language. Sonic smiled cheekily at him. "Any more ghouls?"
"I am not sure that is what those were," Shadow debated. As if to retort his statement, more moans erupted from down the tunnel.
Tails grabbed both emeralds and headed towards the group. His steps slowed as he searched around, before scowling at his brother. "Sonic, where's the Miles Electric?"
The hero hissed in response. "Oh, snap—be back in a Sonic second!" He darted passed Shadow and through the warzone that had rudely happened without his presence. Making his way to the T-intersection again, he glanced along the floor for the telltale yellow contraption.
"Weird, I would have sworn I dropped it here when those bots showed up," he mumbled, scouting in the darkness. Another low groan echoed, and a flash of hazy light lit up the corner of the next junction.
Sonic's quills tingled.
"That felt like—"
"Chaos Control," Shadow finished, suddenly next to him. Both hedgehogs ran the length of the passageway and practically leapt around the corner.
Across the floor lay the Miles Electric, its beacon silently flashing a more subdued yellow. The area beyond was pitch black and empty. Sonic took a slow step forward, bending down to pick up the abandoned computer.
One fierce wail erupted, followed by a yelp. Sonic's eyes widened as he looked past Shadow.
"Tails!"
"Son—!"
The holler was abruptly cut off, even as the hero teleported to the control room in less than a blink. Tails was nowhere in sight, and neither were the two emeralds.
With a buzz, the lights flickered back on.
One arduously long hour had passed. And while Shadow at least somewhat understood Sonic's new mood, he certainly didn't condone it.
The first few minutes after the fox's disappearance started with a lot of repeated calls of his name, followed by scouring every crevice and corner of the majority of the facility. With the alarm no longer sounding, it seemed as if most of the sentries were back to standard protocol, and thus far easier to take out.
By the ninth run-in of relatively docile robots (and the obvious lack of getting anywhere, besides some much-needed stress relief), Shadow eventually suggested checking the camera footage, which Sonic heartily latched onto. Returning to the antechamber, the black hedgehog fumbled his way through the network, pulling up the more recent recordings. While he certainly had a grasp on technology, he was no child prodigy.
Thankfully, Tails' earlier break into the system still seemed to be online, including the station's camera footage, so no further hacking was necessary.
Additionally, Eggman's gear wasn't so cheap to exclude thermal imaging. When the lights had gone off, the backup system kicked in and allowed for continual recording in night vision. The two hedgehogs watched the feed as their past selves made their way into the passageway beyond Eggman's throne room. A quick fast-forward later, and Tails was at the controls to turn off the siren.
When he hit play again, Sonic reappeared and the doorway sealed off. Another tap on the console sped up the film to the barricade lifting, with Sonic zooming away to retrieve the tablet.
Shadow could barely be seen through the doorway, but disappeared a moment later when he had sensed Chaos Control. On the feed, Tails was hurriedly following their trail.
He reached the corridor with an unsteady skid, just in time to stumble in surprise from being grabbed. Convenient interference warped the footage immediately afterwards, before the perpetrator could be made out. A second later and the image steadied itself, but Tails was no longer visible on the screen.
Past Sonic reappeared instantly, zipping across the room frantically. The scene turned bright white, as if a flash had occurred, then faded back to normal as the lights blinked on once again. It took a moment to register that it had been the recording's night vision clicking off as the power in the facility turned back on.
Whatever had happened to Eggman, had also happened to Tails. It had been the same type of image distortion; the same flash of light.
Since the video recap, Sonic had been oddly mum, his sole fixation on that computer of the kid's. Shadow had broached the subject of leaving at one point, which was sharply shut down. The blue hedgehog had been repetitively phoning the fox through his communicator and—when that did not work—he had resorted to trying to locate the fox via GPS.
The presumption, of course, was that Tails was on the ARK, since that's where the other energy signature had supposedly transferred to. Without the child's fake Chaos Emerald, though, nothing was certain.
And if that was the case, then it would also explain why Sonic was unable to pinpoint the fox's current location through standard GPS.
Regardless, without the real Chaos Emerald, Shadow felt like he was back to square one.
And the normally energetic, irritating blue hedgehog was subdued and fixated with somehow finding his team member through that portable computer that he very clearly did not know how to operate.
Something had to give.
"Sonic."
"What, Shadow." He didn't even bother looking up.
"Tails is not here."
"No kidding."
"The recording suggests Chaos Control, like Eggman."
Sonic sighed. "I know, I get it. You think he's on the ARK." His concentration did not waver.
"Yes."
More silence followed. After a few clicks, Sonic switched to his wrist communicator. "Tails, you read?" He got nothing but static in return.
"Sonic."
"WHAT, SHADOW."
The black hedgehog's fists tightened irritably. "We need to leave."
"Not without Tails!" The faker finally made eye contact.
"He. Is. Not. Here," Shadow reiterated through clenched teeth.
"Don't you think I know that?!"
"You're wasting our time—"
Shadow cut himself off, only because he'd managed to hit a nerve and was suddenly face-to-face with a seething Sonic. "Tails is no one's waste of time, got it?"
He didn't respond, but he did not back down, either. After a few tense seconds, Sonic's frustrations were abruptly redirected, and he stepped away.
"I knew it was a trap," he defeatedly said. The computer was still in one of his hands, and he brought it up to study the screen. "I shouldn't have left. I—" his voice faded, but the hand gripping the tablet's handle was angrily wringing it.
Sonic's focus was glued to the screen, but his eyes were distant. Shadow remained silent, waiting.
His momentary patience was not in vain. With a heavy sigh, Sonic regained enough composure to ask, "What are we supposed to do?" His free hand went to his muzzle, rubbing between his eyes tiredly. "If he's in space, along with Knuckles, Rouge, Eggman … how are we supposed to get there?"
When Sonic pulled his gaze up, Shadow felt himself look away uncomfortably. The faker's expression was eerily familiar and—for a fleeting second—it was no longer the hero of Mobius standing there.
"Shadow, you know what to do."
He blinked, and blue eyes filled his vision. The voice he heard was soft, with a sweet smile. Pure in essence, but adept at hiding the pain.
"I believe in you."
"Shadow?"
Reality forcefully returned, the annoying blue hedgehog coming back into view. He was waving a hand in front of him, and frowned expectantly when Shadow made eye contact again.
The Ultimate Lifeform took a slow breath, trying to regather his senses. And his mind, as well, considering what he was about to suggest.
"Chaos Control."
"What?" Sonic's stare floundered, before he sarcastically laughed. "Dude, be a little more creative, please. We have zero emeralds. Nada. Zip. We don't even have that stupid orange one."
"No," Shadow both agreed and argued. "There is one."
Even in the real world, those blue eyes still penetrated every part of his being. They smiled knowingly at him.
Before Sonic could even form a syllable, Shadow answered for him.
"The Master Emerald."