Chapter 3: In the Shadows

Amy swallowed carefully and forced a smile, but her attempt fell flat, as Vanilla's frown did not falter.

"What happened to your window, Amy?" she asked again.

"It broke," Amy replied.

"What happened to it?"

Amy suppressed a sigh and tried not to let her guilt show on her face.

"A flicky flew into it," she lied.

"A flicky?" Vanilla asked.

The rabbit stepped to one side and held out her hand, indicating the gilded cage in the corner of her living room. Amy looked over at it, seeing there the flicky Cream had rescued the previous summer. She had found it alone as a chick, with a leg missing and a broken wing, and taken it in and nursed it back to health: but it was both so paralysed and so tame, it was clear it would never survive in the wild, and so Cream had kept it as a pet.

"Yep," Amy said, turning her attention back to Vanilla. "One of those."

"Was it a robotic flicky?" Vanilla asked.

"Um..."

"Amy, you know I have some reservations about your neighbours," Vanilla began.

"Missus Lupin means well," Amy quickly replied.

"I wasn't talking about dear old Missus Lupin," Vanilla quietly replied. "I was talking about those awful boys on the ground floor."

Amy paused as memories of the night before played in her mind. She was still concerned that Rough and Tumble had keys for her apartment, but this was one day, at least, when she wouldn't have to worry about them entering her apartment in her absence to cause trouble, since she had left Metal Sonic there. His battery charge was almost entirely depleted, and he was on standby mode, propped up in one corner of her living room, but he was there nonetheless, and the brothers were well aware of what he was capable of, and so were unlikely to want to bother him.

"They're not so bad," Amy lied. "And they pretty much keep to themselves. And they're not invited to the party – they don't even know I'm having a party – and they sleep most of the day, and I'm two floors above them. It'll be fine!"

"Did one of those boys break your window, Amy?" Vanilla asked, in that motherly, admonishing way she did sometimes.

"No, of course not!" Amy quickly replied. "I told you, a flicky flew into it!"

"Amy, flickies are small–"

"This was a really big flicky!"

"Where is it?"

"Where's what?"

"The flicky? It must at the very least be badly hurt if it broke your window."

"It died."

Vanilla touched a hand to her mouth and Amy felt the sting of guilt.

"I buried it," she quickly added. "Kindly... And, um... Anyway, I was thinking I'll put something up at my window from now on. It must have seen the reflection of the sky in the glass, and thought it could just fly right through."

"That's a good idea," Vanilla said, nodding her head. "And I have just the thing for you. Wait here."

Amy sighed in relief as Vanilla left the room. In her absence, Amy made her way over to the flicky in the cage, watching it hop about on the floor of the cage, pecking at the sand there.

"Do you ever get lonely in there, little guy?" she asked. "It must be pretty lonely for you. All your friends went off and left you behind, and they don't even bother to keep in touch with you. They don't care that you're all alone, in a cage, with a trash man and a mean old lady and two trash neighbours and nobody normal to talk to, and feeling useless because you're all alone in your little cage while they're all off having fun."

Amy snivelled and hung her head.

"Gees Amy, we do give the bird attention and we play with him, we're not mean to him!"

Amy turned around, finding Vector standing in the doorway, looking over at her critically. When he noticed she was crying, his expression softened a little.

"Are you okay there, Amy?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she lied, wiping away a tear that had escaped one of her eyes. "I just... I miss Sonic. And I wish I knew where he was and what he was doing. And... What if he doesn't make it back in time for Cream's party?"

"Come on, Amy, you know Sonic is never late!" Vector said cheerfully.

"What are you talking about?" Amy grumbled. "He's late all the time!"

"But he always get there just when we need him most!"

"I guess..."

Amy watched Cream's pet flicky hop its way up the many perches inside its cage, finding its way to a little mirror hanging from a chain. It began chatting to its reflection and she found herself smiling.

"Lucky little guy," she said. "He doesn't have a thing to worry about. It must be great being a flicky."

Amy turned her attention back to Vector and smiled.

"Thanks for getting me a new window," she said. "It seems pretty cheap though – and I know you're not the type to give me a discount – so where exactly did you get it?"

"Police auctions," Vector plainly replied. "You should give them a try – you'd be amazed what you can get!"

Amy nodded and followed Vector outside, where Big was already waiting for her, with the replacement window Vector had managed to procure for her.

"Amy, before you go, take this," Vanilla said, hurrying over to her with an armful of what looked like sticks. "You can hang it at your window, to stop the flickies flying into it."

She opened out her arms and held up the item she had brought, and, as it fell into shape, Amy made a small "oh" sound.

"A wooden wind-chime!" she said, accepting the offer from Vanilla. "How lovely!"

She gave it a little shake, the hanging pipes all playing their gentle tune.

"I love it!" she said.

"Yeah, that should keep away those flickies for sure..."

Amy frowned at Vector's words, finding his tone oddly sarcastic. As she looked over at him, she saw him pulling a face off to one side. He turned back to her and and his face neutralised, but she had clearly seen the look on his face: not that she could blame him. Or Vanilla. They were both quite right to be suspicious about her story about how her window had been broken, and they were both perfectly entitled to feel concerned about Amy hosting Cream's party at her apartment under the circumstances. Big loaded the window into the back of his car and Amy said her goodbyes to Vector and Vanilla before sitting in next to Big.

"Thanks for this, Big, you're a good friend," she said as he drove off.

"I don't mind, Amy," Big replied. "Froggy likes to go for a drive sometimes."

Amy nodded, looking back over her shoulder at the backseat area, where Froggy had been when Big had arrived. She gulped quietly and looked about, but quickly realised that Big's characteristically slippy friend had, once again, disappeared. She decided against telling him – the two of them always managed to find each other again anyway – and turned back with a smile. Instead of thinking any more about the missing frog, Amy began trying to concoct a suitable cover story to tell Big to explain why Metal Sonic was in her apartment. She couldn't remember if Big had noticed Metal hanging around before or not: it was not like the robot's presence was a new occurrence. Cream and Tails had certainly noticed Metal sitting in the tree outside of Amy's apartment – so much so, neither of them had commented on it the last time they had visited her. But, although she could remember Big visiting her since Metal had started showing up, try as she might, she couldn't remember him ever commenting on it. Which didn't necessarily mean he hadn't noticed the robot, as Big wasn't always the kind to openly comment on things.

As they parked outside Amy's apartment block, she peered up at her broken window apprehensively, silently hoping that she would not go in to find Metal had raided her bin. She had wanted to ask Vanilla for any organic waste she had in the house, but, given how suspicious Vanilla had been about her broken window, and with Vector acting a little odd too, she hadn't felt able too. She got out the car and moved around to the back, where Big helped her lift the replacement window out of the back of the car. They placed it down, leaning it against the bins, and Amy waited for Big to lock his car: but instead, much to her chagrin, he noticed that Froggy was missing.

"Froggy?" he called, leaning into the driver's side of his car and peering around the interior. "Froggy!"

"Big, I'll help you find him once we've finished fitting the window," Amy offered.

"Froggy!" Big called out.

His car rocked a little as he took one last frantic look around it, before backing out and turning around, cupping his hands to his mouth and shouting out for his little friend.

"Big, I'll help you find him later," Amy said again, putting a hand on his arm. "Please?"

Big ignored her entirely, looking about himself one more time before walking away.

"Big?" Amy called out. "Big!"

She looked down at the replacement window, sitting against the bins, already knowing it would be a struggle to carry it up three flights of stairs alone and also not wanting to risk accidentally damaging it en route. She pointed at it and turned to call after Big, who, despite still just sauntering away from her, was suddenly almost out of sight. She let out a long groan and slumped over, turning back to the window and trying to judge her chance of getting it all the way up to her apartment without any of her neighbours appearing, or her accidentally dropping it at any point. As she was deciding, one of the residents of the block of apartments opposite her own approached, opening the lid of one of the bins and dropping in a bag. He nodded a greeting to Amy, who forced a smile and said hello in return: though her attention was focused more on the contents of the partially see-through bag he had just deposited. She waited until he had returned back into his building before darting around the other side of the bins and opening one up, fishing out his bag. She opened it up and picked out the potato peelings and orange skins she had noticed within it, before tying it up and dropping it back in. As she gathered up her finds and thought about giving them to Metal, it occurred to her that she could ask him to help her carry up her replacement window.

Feeling a new lease of hope, Amy grabbed up all the fruit and vegetable waste and hurried inside, scaling the stairs and entering her apartment. She found Metal exactly where she had left him – slouched in a corner of her living room, powered down – and moved over to him, kneeling down at his side.

"Um, hey?" she said, waving a hand in front of his face.

When he didn't respond, she placed down the fuel she had brought for him, before moving her hands towards his face.

"Okay, let's see, how do we do this..." she muttered.

She remembered that Metal had been able to open his head by holding onto his nose, and so she tried the same tactic, wrapping one hand around his nose, and pushing upwards. When his entire body started to move, she placed her other hand on his chest and pushed him back down. Only after several seconds of straining at the limits of her strength did she finally hear the click of the catch releasing, and his head lifted up. She then had to use both hands to lift it back, finding it much heavier than she expected it to be. She pushed it all the way back against the wall before gathering up the scraps from the floor and dropping them into his body. She then slammed his head back down into place, pushing it a few times to be sure it was secured there, before sitting back onto her heels and watching him expectantly.

After several seconds, when nothing happened, Amy began fumbling around Metal's body and head for any sort of switch or button to activate him. As she was poking both sets of fingers around inside his chest cavity, she heard a small buzzing sound and his eyes suddenly snapped to life, his hands grabbing her wrists. She yelped in alarm, and, for the entire time she could hear that whirring sound inside of Metal's body as it ground up the fuel she had provided, he held onto her and they stared at each other. When the pinging sound alerted them the processing was done, he released her a little roughly, pushing her hands away as he released them. She scrambled back, rising to her feet as he likewise stood up. He turned his head to the couch and his eyes glowed.

"I need your help with something," Amy told him.

Metal started stalking towards the couch, his eyes fixed onto it as though he had not even heard Amy's words.

"Downstairs," she added. "I need your help to carry something up here. Please? I got you more fuel, you kinda owe me!"

Metal stopped short, his hands clawed in the air, hovering over Amy's couch.

"If you're going to stay here and eat everyone's rubbish, the least you can do is help me out!" she said, putting her hands on her hips and hardening her look.

Metal turned his head to her, looking at her for a long moment before turning back to the couch. His hands relaxed a little, but Amy couldn't help but notice the way one of his hands formed into a loose, pointing finger. She frowned at the couch, before realising that he was probably pointing at it to reference how he had helped her carry up the boxes of party supplies the day before, as he had placed them all onto the couch.

"Yes, you did carry all those boxes for my yesterday," she told him, taking hold of his nearest arm in both of her hands. "And now I need your help with something else – but this time, I don't want you to put it on the couch when we get it up here, okay?"

Metal looked at her, before more definitely forming his hand into a pointed finger and purposefully looking at her couch.

"I don't know what you're problem is, just come and help me with the new window!" Amy snapped at him. "You broke it in the first place, the least you can do is help me fix it!"

Metal glared at the couch for a long moment before she was able to move him, as he allowed her to drag him out of the apartment. She made a point of keeping her keys with her, even though she did also leave her apartment door open, lest Missus Lupin appear and lock her out again. Metal clunked after her as she descended the stairs, and she kept her hold of him until she was outside, whereupon she immediately released him, her eyes doubling in size as they locked onto a pair of equally surprised eyes staring back at her.

"What are you lookin' at?"

Amy narrowed her eyes.

"Are you stealing my window, Tumble?" she demanded.

"No," Tumble gruffly replied.

Amy raised her eyebrows and folded her arms over her chest as Tumble awkwardly shifted the window in his arms.

"What exactly were you going to do with it, hmm?" she pressed. "It's not even the same size as any of the windows in your apartment!"

"I was gonna use it," he muttered. "It was sitting by the trash, it didn't belong to nobody, what's your problem?"

"It's mine, I left it there to get help carrying it upstairs, and you're a lousy thief, that's my problem!" Amy argued.

"If it's really yours, why did you leave it dumped by the trash?" Tumble countered.

"Because I just took it out the car and..."

Amy's voice trailed off as she looked over at Big's car, which was still in the same position Big had abandoned it in: parked in one of the visitor parking spaces, the driver's door flung wide open. However, she found herself looking at Rough, sitting in the driver's seat, staring back at her with wide eyes, and an open mouth, and a set of bared cables in each of his hands.

"Are you trying to hot-wire Big's car?" Amy roared.

"No," he answered.

"I can see the cables in your hands, you idiot!" Amy shouted back.

"I was just checking it was okay," Rough lied.

He released the cables, and, after some rustling, he stepped out of the car. Amy seethed as he joined his brother, a shopping bag in one hand.

"That's mine too!" she yelled, pointing at the bag in his hand.

"Oh yeah?" Rough asked, opening out the bag and pulling out a preloaded silicone applicator gun. "What're you gonna do with this gizmo, huh?"

"It's some sort of wispon weapon," Tumble commented.

"No it is not!" Amy snapped.

"Well if it's not a weapon, what do you use it for?" Rough asked, twisting the gun around in the air and poking it upwards.

"I hate both of you so much," Amy grumbled.

As she paused to consider whether she should beat some sense into the brothers and risk breaking the window, Metal acted at her side, grabbing the bag in Rough's hand with one hand, and slamming his head into the side of the metal bins with his other hand. Rough made a small whimper before slumping to the ground. Metal retrieved the gun he dropped and turned to Tumble, who was glaring at him with bared teeth. Metal turned the gun upwards, so that the pointed tip of the applicator was pointing up, and then rammed it up one of Tumble's nostrils. The skunk wailed and dropped the window, which Metal effortlessly caught with one hand, retrieving the gun with the other. Amy then leapt forwards, ramming a shoulder into Tumble's gut, sending him crashing into the bins alongside his brother. She turned to tell Metal they should leave, but found him already flying up towards her window, carrying her window and the bag of items needed to install it.

"Wait up, Metal!" she called, running back inside her building and racing up the stairs, two steps at a time.

By the time she had reached her living room, Metal had already torn off the plastic bags she had been covering the gap with, and started work removing the old window-frame.

"Oh," Amy said. "Well, thanks."

She hovered over him as he cut out the old window and eased the new one into place, sealing it on the inside before opening the window next to it and flying out to seal it from the other side. He flew back in and struck that pose he did when he was pleased with himself, with his chest pushed out.

"I don't think we could have done that without you, Metal," Amy admitted. "Big and I wouldn't have been able to seal it from the outside without a very, very big ladder."

Metal tapped the side of his face in a way Amy had seen him do a few times before. She frowned and he repeated his action. The side of his face he was tapping was the opposite side his battery level display was on, so she was unsure what he was referencing. When he tapped at his face more persistently, she noticed he appeared to be tapping near the bolt on his cheek that held the lower panel of his face in place.

"I don't get it," she admitted, shrugging her shoulders.

He made a frazzled buzzing sound and tapped at the bolt on his cheek again. Squinting at it, Amy noticed that it looked a little rusty. He then grabbed up the newspaper from the small table by the wall, turning it over to the back page and tapping a finger against a small comic strip there. Amy took the paper from him, frowning down at it. The comic strip he was indicating was about about a hero character who had helped another character carrying heavy items. In the last panel, the hero was getting a kiss on the cheek from the woman he had helped. Amy was not very familiar with the characters, but she remembered that the woman was called Olive Oil.

"Oh, now I get it!" she brightened. "And I have just the thing!"

Metal struck his proud pose again as Amy darted over to her kitchen sink, opening up the cupboard under it and retrieving the small spray can she had there.

"Here you go!" she said.

Metal made a small whistle sound as she aimed the can at him, and, as she sprayed oil over the bolt on his cheek, he made a loud, static-laced whine. She stopped after a couple of squirts, smiling at him expectantly.

"Is that better?" she asked.

He made a series of low whines and whistles and Amy cheerfully returned the can of oil back to its storage place. She then moved back into the living room, moving to sit on her couch, which faced her window, so that she could admire the repair work Metal had just done. As she started to sit down, she found her rear-end sitting something solid long before she expected it to.

"Hello, Amy."

Amy shrieked and leapt away from the couch, glaring back at it as a watery image slowly took form, revealing that Espio was curled up there.

"Espio!" she wailed. "What are you doing? Why are you hiding on my couch? And... How long have you been there?"

"Vector asked me to keep an eye on you," Espio casually replied as he stood up from the couch. "When you called him about the window, he was suspicious about why your window had broken. He thought you were lying about it, trying to hide some sort of trouble you were in. And he was right: why is Metal Sonic in your apartment, Amy?"

Amy glanced back and forth between Metal and Espio, her mind racing through several distressing ideas before settling onto one.

"You were there," she said slowly, eying Espio suspiciously. "You were there when I picked up the window! Vector was looking at you when he was pulling that face!"

"Yes," Espio plainly replied. "I let myself into your apartment with a key Cream had. And it's just as well I did. Eggman has been missing for some time, why is his most prized creation here with you?"

Amy looked at Metal for a long moment, watching the oil drip down his cheek where she had sprayed it.

"I don't know," she eventually answered, turning back to Espio. "He just... Started showing up here."

"Not just here," Espio said. "He's been spotted hanging around Tails's workshop, Vector has seen him hanging around his place and all of us on Team Chaotix have seen him loitering outside our headquarters at some point or another. I was hopeful he was wandering aimlessly because Eggman is dead."

Amy froze.

"Our lives would all be a lot less complicated if it were true," Espio plainly told her.

"You don't really think Eggman might be...?" Amy asked.

"I don't know," Espio admitted. "But presumably Sonic would know, since he went looking for him. What sort of progress is he making?"

Amy sighed.

"I wouldn't know," she said sadly. "He hasn't exactly kept in touch."

"Knuckles told us they're not sure they're on the right track," Espio said. "But I wondered if maybe Sonic knew more than he was sharing with his team."

"Wait, when did you speak to Knuckles?" Amy asked.

"He calls us twice a day to check in."

Amy's face fell.

"Sonic hasn't been calling you?" Espio asked.

Amy shook her head.

"Then perhaps he does have something to hide," Espio mused. "Why else would he avoid talking to you? He likely doesn't want to have the information coaxed out of him. This is bad."

"How bad?" Amy asked.

"Charmy has been tracking the coordinates of the locations Knuckles has been calling us from," Espio replied. "And it appears they are out in the desert."

"The desert? Why would Eggman go out there? Is one of his bases out there?"

"No. There's nothing out there. The only thing that might be out there is something that is just a rumour. Beyond the hills, in the basin valley, there is rumoured to be an old military facility, from hundreds of years ago. Concrete bunkers that extend underground. The place has never been touched, but there was a rumour going around that it's where Doctor Crick fled to after the lunacy of his research came to light."

"Doctor Crick? I've never heard of him. Who is he?"

"He was a key research scientist in the Mobian Genome Project. They're primary objective was researching disease, and how different people suffer differently, to find cures, to find prevention measures, to identify if people are genetically predisposed to certain illnesses. But Crick was insane. He was a genius, and he contributed and pioneered some projects that continue to save lives to this day: but that wasn't his main passion. Team Chaotix are familiar with him through government agents and members of the Mobian Genome Project – several of their senior officers have approached us over the years, looking to hire my services as a stealth agent. They wanted me to find Crick and assassinate him."

"Assassinate him? Isn't that a bit extreme? Didn't you say he cured diseases?"

"He did. But that wasn't what he wanted to do. Nobody knows for sure, but the general idea is that the projects he wanted to progress were nefarious and dangerous. Most dismissed it as the outrageous claims of a man gone mad with his own genius: but the very fact that Eggman disappeared when Crick was confirmed as dead makes me think Eggman has found Crick's secret laboratory and is intending to use his research, to make it a reality, whatever horror that may be."

"That sounds terrifying."

"I had to know for myself if Metal Sonic was here. He looks rundown. He's been hanging around for weeks. Eggman wouldn't just abandon him. Either Eggman has met his fate, or he turned loose all his previous work in order to relocate to Crick's old lair and continue the old man's work. I'm hoping for the former."

"I don't want to see Eggman die, but if what you're saying is true, then that's definitely the better explanation for Metal being here than Eggman bringing to life some mad scientist's work."

"If anything changes, call us. I should get going."

"Wait, I'll drive you back. Big left his car here, he went looking for Froggy, and... I kinda think if I don't take Big's car back to his place, it won't be here by tomorrow morning."

Espio frowned but Amy shook her head.

"I'll explain on the way," she said, starting for the door.

After a short pause, Espio followed her. Back down at Big's car, Amy was relieved to see that Rough and Tumble had disappeared, but, as she got into the car, she looked up at her newly repaired window, where she spotted Metal, still standing in the middle of the room where she had left him. She found it curious that he had gravitated towards her and her friends in Eggman's absence – it wasn't really like him to want to befriend them, and yet, in his own strange way, he certainly seemed to be trying to do just that. She wondered what he would do if Eggman really was dead – but her mind quickly moved on to the problem that if Eggman had died pursuing Doctor Crick's research, did that mean Sonic would now be in danger retracing his footsteps?


"Pfft, and Tails thought he was gonna get here first!" Knuckles said, waving a hand in the air as he started down the slope towards the valley basin below.

Sonic hesitated to follow him, something about the unusual floor of the valley not sitting well with him. It looked like a mound of concrete that had mostly been consumed by time – almost entirely obscured from vision beneath moss and crawling weeds – but, even from the top of the hillside, he could see flashes of something through the vegetation. When he noticed that Knuckles was putting some serious distance between them, he hurried on, rejoining his friend halfway down the hillside.

"I think I'm gonna be shaking sand outta my quills for a month!" Sonic complained, shaking his head to demonstrate his point.

"Don't shake it onto me, I still got sand all over me too!" Knuckles complained, shirking away from Sonic and holding up an arm between them.

"Hey, what do you reckon that is down there?" Sonic asked, ignoring Knuckles's complaints.

"I dunno," Knuckles replied. "Just looks like something really old that nobody uses any more."

Sonic nodded, but, as they drew closer to their goal, he realised that the little hints of something he had spotted from higher up on the hillside were in fact messages, painted onto the concrete. He and Knuckles stopped by the nearest one, and together they began ripping away the vines growing over it, gradually uncovering it.

"Gees, looks like someone doesn't want us here," Sonic commented as the text came fully into view.

""Away with you"," Knuckles read aloud. "Maybe just somebody who wants their privacy?"

Sonic moved around the concrete mound to the next visible message, brushing away dirt and pulling back vegetation to uncover it.

""They are not us"," he read aloud. ""But we are not them". Huh, this is shaping up to be a fun time..."

""It doesn't matter how many or how far"," Knuckles read from another message further around from Sonic. ""Perfection is an illusion" – what does all of this even mean?"

Sonic shook his head.

"I dunno, but one thing I do know is whatever this place is, it's important to old Eggface," he said.

"How do you know?" Knuckles asked.

"Because he left one of his calling cards right here."

Sonic crouched down and picked up the object by his foot, standing up again and holding it out towards Knuckles. Knuckles craned his neck to peer over at it, but he hardly needed to: it was a broken piece of a robot with Eggman's logo on it, and the metal was clean, the broken edges still razor sharp.

"He got here ahead of us, but only just," Sonic concluded.

"But why here?" Knuckles asked. "What even is this place?"

"Only one way to find out!" Sonic said, moving over to a small square hatch.

He hauled it open and hesitated, and Knuckles paused at his side, watching him expectantly.

"What's the matter, Sonic?" the echidna asked smugly. "Not getting scared, are you?"

"No," Sonic replied. "I'm just wondering how Eggman fitted through here."

He pointed down at the steep, descending concrete stairway, surrounded by closely packed concrete walls.

"Or maybe he didn't," Sonic mused. "Maybe this is a trap."

"So what now?" Knuckles asked.

"Eggman's never built a trap that can hold me yet," Sonic cheerfully replied, before leaping through the hatch, landing partway down the concrete staircase. "Come on down, Knux! But it kinda stinks in here."

Knuckles started down the steps, shortly making a noise of disgust.

"I did warn you!" Sonic called back up to him.

"I didn't think it would be this bad!" Knuckles replied in a strained voice.

Sonic leapt down the last few steps, landing on a concrete floor that was slightly uneven. One side of it was slightly lower than the rest of the walkway, and there was a line of water sitting there, cloudy and tinged brown, and it appeared to be adding to the overall stench of the place. As Knuckles landed beside him, Sonic cupped a hand over his nose and mouth.

"That smell is making my eyes water, what is it?" he groaned.

"I dunno, but it's stronger this way," Knuckles replied, pointing to his right. "Do we follow it?"

Sonic shrugged.

"Eggman doesn't usually smell this bad, but whatever he's up to probably does," he concluded. "Let's go."

They started jogging down the dark corridor, their surroundings getting darker as they moved further from the still open hatchway they had entered through. Eventually, they were forced to slow down and feel for the walls to guide themselves forward, around corners, in total darkness. Sonic noticed that, as he moved, occasionally he or Knuckles would step onto something hard that was otherwise out of place on the floor. It felt like tree roots, but Sonic thought no more of it until they started to move into an illuminated area, rounding a corner into a corridor that was lit by a line of square lamps hanging by the roof.

"Oh shit!"

Knuckles stumbled into Sonic's back before stopping, but the jumbled noise of surprise he made was no less extreme than Sonic's reaction had been at what lay in the corridor ahead of them.

"What happened here?" Knuckles asked.

"I dunno, but at least now we know where the smell is coming from," Sonic replied.

They were facing down a long corridor, which was plain concrete on the roof, walls and floor: but most of the floor was obscured from sight, buried beneath dirty smears and an array of corpses, all in various stages of decay.

"Should we wait for Tails and Shadow to get here?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic snorted and slapped a hand against Knuckles's chest.

"Now who's scared, huh?" he scoffed. "Come on, let's keep moving."

They moved down the corridor, but didn't get far before stopping again. Sonic crouched down and picked up what looked like a very recently deceased ricky.

"What the hell is that thing?" Knuckles asked, leaning down and peering over his shoulder.

Although it looked like a ricky, it wasn't quite the same little squirrel the typical ricky was.

"I don't know dude, but I'm getting a bad feeling about this place," Sonic replied, turning over the ricky to reveal its face.

Knuckles recoiled with a noise of alarm, but Sonic held fast, looking down at the unexpected face looking back up at him with cloudy, dead eyes.

"This is messed up," he muttered.


Next Chapter: After dropping off Espio, Amy picks up some things to help Metal, before seeking out Big. After another encounter with her ridiculous neighbours, she thinks she has something else again that might help Metal, and as she sets about helping him, she notices a few things about him that she never had before. Meanwhile, Tails and Shadow arrive at the secret laboratory, and they are horrified to learn that the rumours about Doctor Crick were not only true, but the reality is in fact much worse. Chapter 4: In a Kerfuffle