Act II: Surveillance Sanctuary
Amy Rose watched the clock, as if it would fail her today, now that she had a meeting right after work. She was hardly productive that day, eager to see her old friend, but her boss would be getting pissed if she didn't make some progress today. The boss of the casino she worked in, Mammoth Mogul had emerged from his office for his round at the end of the day. He was a colossal man- it was in his name after all- and his intimidating presence could be felt throughout the office. Of course, he'd always been very kind in all her interactions with him, and few employees could name a time in which he'd truly lost his temper. Regardless, he had an air of power, an aura of danger, and it was clear why he never traveled with a bodyguard.
"Ms. Rose, how's payroll coming?" he asked, approaching her from behind.
"Um, it's coming! Sorry, I uh, had some computer problems that took me a few hours to fix today!"
His gentle smile turned stern, and he asked, "Will it be done by the end of the day?"
"Of course!" Amy replied, hoping her lie would fix itself.
"I see. Well, I'm leaving a little early today. My… weekly obligations are a bit more pressing this week." Every week Mogul left a few hours early on at least one of the days. No one knew why, but he was a busy man, with a lot going on. He surely had his reasons. "So, if you don't get it done today, I wouldn't be signing off on it until tomorrow morning anyway."
That was a freebie. He bid her farewell and departed, putting on an exquisite white coat, putting his short hat on, and exiting the office. She'd be all clear. She pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and sent a text to the friend she was meeting with. 'I'll be there a minute late, but don't leave. I WILL be there.' she texted.
A few moments went by, and she heard back, 'Ur killin me Ames! Fine, but if were caught im kickin ur ass.' She rolled her eyes and tucked her phone away, wrapping up as much of payroll as she could before she clocked out.
o o o
Amy arrived at the G.U.N. surveillance office, where her old friend Ray the flying squirrel was waiting by the door to let her in. "Come on, just about everyone's gone, but that doesn't mean you're supposed to be where I'm gonna take you," he whispered, ushering her through the security checkpoint. She got visitor access, and the two continued into the next area. "Hey buddy!" Ray called, to the lone security guard blocking Ray's workplace. "I uh… was hopin' to show this girl where the magic happens," Ray said with a wink. Amy suppressed a roll of her eyes, at this point used to their old routine. Instead she giggled, and wrapped an arm around her friend, who she was incidentally taller than.
The security guard cocked an eye in disbelief, but grinned at his coworker. "Alright, just keep it down. You know this shit is classified." The guard left, but not without giving a thumbs up to his buddy who was totally about to score.
The two Mobians entered the office, and when the door shut, Amy began feigning vomiting noises. "I can't believe that was the best trick we could ever think up."
"It worked! Back then and now!" Ray replied, logging into his computer.
"Still, if that guy sees me outside of here he's gonna think I'm some kinda… tramp!"
"If it means that much to you, I'll tell him nothing happened, we're going steady."
"I feel like that's worse."
"Hey man, I'm helpin' you out here."
"Oh, hush, you know I'm teasing. How ya been, Ray?"
He paused, pulling up the city wide camera viewer. "Oh, ya know, fine I guess. Chaotix went out of business, so I'm stuck here being a G.U.N. grunt."
"You really changed teams, huh?"
"This was just supposed to be a resource for us to use, but, here I am! Working a real job now!"
"I'm sorry. Money can't be too bad though?"
"Oh are you kidding me? I tell ya, gimme another year here, I could steal that bat babe from Knuckles no problem!" The two burst out laughing at the absurdity of Ray's financial plans.
"That wouldn't be too hard, from what I hear, that never materialized."
"For real? Not even back then?"
"Nah, Knux only has only ever had one love."
"That stupid rock… Ya know, if he wasn't so obsessed the Chaotix mighta been able to stick together?"
Amy didn't respond to that. She didn't know how. "Sorry things didn't go well," she said, after a moment of contemplating her response. "Anyway, uh… that museum break in."
"Right. I got the footage today and I hate to tell you that you mighta wasted your time coming here, but really Amy, there's nothing the security cam footage can say about what happened during the break in." With a few button presses, he had the collection of museum camera feeds on screen. They all flickered to static at once, and a few moments later, the roof was gone, the exhibit was in ruins, and the Emerald was gone.
"Damn it. What could have done this?" Amy asked, stomping her foot.
"G.U.N. doesn't know what to make of it. Lotta people think it was an inside job. What would normal people have to gain from a Chaos Emerald, ya know? Speakin' of Rouge, she got a lotta pressure over this, she and Shad."
"No, for real?"
"Yeah. See, I know Rouge couldn't have done it, way too noisy for her, plus she coulda killed someone with demolishing the place like that. Shadow, this would be his M.O., but he's got an Emerald, he doesn't need another. Plus if he did, he would just warp in, take it, warp out, and deal with the consequences of getting caught on camera. I mean, that's what I figure at least. It's hard for anyone to talk to them lately."
"That sucks… Sonic thinks it's Badniks."
"Ha! Yeah right. Egghead's long gone. My theory? Probably just some treasure hunter or wealth seeker. This thing's gonna be back in our hands in no time."
"Well, we can hope... You said there was nothing during the break in?" Amy asked, returning her attention to the screens.
"Glad you caught that. Early theories were some sort of roof entry and departure, but no one knew how they could have blown it up, entered, exited, and not been seen. That was a part of the mystery here for sure, until we went lower. Sewer system has cameras too, and guess what was offline before, during, and after the break in?" He switches to the sewer cam, and his story checks out.
"What about after? Like, after these came back online? All of them? Did some more turn off?"
"Correct. They move kinda erratically, but the cameras turn off in clusters."
"So something was moving through the tunnels, and cameras would turn off within a radius around it."
"More or less."
"What about right now? Are any cameras off right now?"
"Well, we've been checking all day, but I can check again…" He pulled out the current cameras and began flicking through. Each screen change was another kick to the anticipation of finding a failing camera.
Clik. Rats scurrying.
Clik. Sludge pouring into the trail of sewer water.
Clik. An odd, buzzing echo through the sewers.
Clik. Static.
"Holy shit that's it." Amy whispered. Ray held that display on screen, opened a new window, and switched to another nearby. Static.
"Another one…" He continued, opening panels and testing for static, slowly building a circle of windows on the large display. Suddenly, the westernmost screens turned back on.
"Go to the east, go to the east!" Amy shouted. Ray opened up one that was working just moments before, and it was off. "It's moving. Whatever's down there is moving, right now."
"I gotta call this in," Ray said, reaching for the phone.
"Hang on!" Amy said, grabbing his hand. "Just… let me call Sonic first." Ray sighed, and held off. She pulled out her phone, and dialed Sonic.
"Hey Ames, what's-"
"Where are you and Tails living?" she asked, interrupting.
"What?"
"Answer now! There's no time! Where do you guys live?"
"Uh, we're in an apartment in Station Square these days…"
"Good, I'm on my way. Print out a map- a big map of Station Square, then print out one of the sewer plans. A little one of that too. Send me your address. I'll be there in a minute."
"Okay, sure, see you soo-" she hung up, and turned to Ray.
"Amy, I can't let you guys get involved," Ray said, shaking his head.
"Ray, please, what can a squad of soldiers that have to get together do in those tiny ass sewers that Sonic can't do?"
"Amy-"
"Come on, you know we have more experience with Chaos Emeralds than nearly all of G.U.N. Ray, let us do this, please!"
"This is urgent, G.U.N. needs to handle this."
"That thing is in the sewers now, and G.U.N. will take too long. Give us some time, please!"
Ray hesitated, staring at the shifting placement of static. "Okay, fine, get over there and call me. I'll help you."
"Thanks Ray, you're the best!"
"Shut up, go! We don't have a lot of time!"
o o o
It was only a short drive in Ray's truck. He was nice enough to lend his G.U.N. vehicle, only one of the several rules he'd broken that day, which allowed Amy to drive with sirens blaring. Another minute and she was pounding on Sonic and Tails' door. Tails opened it, and Amy charged in. "God, you know I'm coming and you don't leave it unlocked?" she asked, pulling up Ray to call on her phone.
"Amy slow down!" Tails said, falling backwards as she stormed past him.
"Whoa, what's going on?" Sonic asked, putting two hands up to stop her.
"I'll explain in a minute, where are the maps?"
"Right here," Sonic said, pointing at the two large maps on the living room floor.
"Good. Ray, you there?" she asked, looking into the video call that had connected.
"Yes, it's moving north now."
"What is!?" Sonic cried.
"Look, the security footage went out at the museum, right? Well, it turns out the sewer security was out at the same time. And it was following the thief, more cameras turning off wherever it went. Right now, it's moving through the sewers, and we have a lock on its… general location. Now help me figure out where it is…"
"Amy, that's incredible!" Tails exclaimed, grabbing a marker. "Here, we can mark the cameras like this!"
Ray called out a camera location, which Amy located on the map of the sewers. Tails circled it, and began lining it up with the map of Station Square.
"Yeah, but, how did you get access to the security system?" Sonic asked.
"Ray works with G.U.N. He let me into their surveillance system."
"Woah, you got G.U.N. in on this!?"
"Just Ray! And he's not going to call G.U.N.-"
"At least right now!" Ray interrupted, before calling out another camera.
"- so you need to get down there and start looking for this thing!"
It took a second for the pieces to all click in Sonic's head, but when they did, he grabbed the smaller map of the sewers and walked towards the door. "Got it. Tails, call me so you guys can keep me posted!"
"Sonic, it's the sewers!" Tails called. Rushing to his workbench, he began rummaging through small devices, before withdrawing two small earpieces. "Put this in, it'll work even if your phone has no connection." He then grabbed a flashlight and threw that, adding, "Here! Might be dark down there too!"
"Thanks!" Sonic said, catching the gear, putting the earpiece in, and giving a thumbs up. He dashed out of the door, headed for a manhole cover behind the apartment complex.
o o o
Sonic descended down the ladder, making sure he landed on the dry-ish walkway, and not the filthy water. "Ugh… Not gonna be running on any of that. The splash might kill me!"
"You shouldn't have to! The walkways should take you through just fine. Apparently there are some barricades between sections, but they've been destroyed thanks to whatever's moving through down there. You'll just sorta have to… swing around a brick wall to get between them." Tails explained.
"Sorry, what?" Sonic asked. He didn't need to though, as he found the roadblocks Tails was talking about. The pathway was blocked by a sturdy brick wall, and between the walkways was a torn up chain link fence. Planting one foot beside the wall, he swung his leg around, connecting to the other side, and pulled his body around the block. "Gonna have to take this slow… Alright Tails, I entered behind our apartment, where to next?"
"You should be… okay, I got your location. Now, if you go north for a while, you should find a large, four way intersection, you wanna go west."
"Gotcha… I'll uh, try to stay dry! Oh jeez, that came out of a rat, didn't it?"
o o o
Tails marked another camera, then lined it up with its placement on the city. Something about this route seemed familiar to him.
"So, you uh… You're living in the city now?" Amy asked.
"Huh? Oh, yeah! Mystic Ruins was a bit too far from my work."
"Sonic mentioned it! Chaos energy, that's wild! That's what the Tornado ran on all that time, right?"
"Yeah, that's what inspired me to do it." He muted himself, and turned Sonic down to give Amy his attention. "I was working on it and realized there was a lot of runoff energy I was wasting. Like, over 99%! It was nice, cuz it meant it would always work, but… I could use it for something else."
"Amazing. I'm happy you were able to accomplish that!"
"Thanks! I hate not being in my old workshop, but it feeds two, so I really can't complain."
"Feeds two?"
"Well, ya know, Sonic doesn't work!" Tails laughed, but even Ray over the phone could hear the discomfort in the fox's voice.
"Oh, geez… He didn't mention it when we met up, I guess I just assumed…"
"Nah. But that's alright! He hangs out here, I get my work done, get to hang out with my best friend… It's just like old times."
"Tails…"
"... Yeah, Amy?"
"Let's all hang out after Sonic bags this guy."
She couldn't see Tails' face. He was happy she couldn't, or she'd notice the water forming around his eyes. "I'd like that a lot." Doing his best to casually wipe the water away, he turned to her, hugged her, and whispered, "I've missed you. And Knuckles. And Cream. And hell, even Shadow."
"I've missed you too, Tails," Amy whispered back. They broke the hug, and got back to work. "So… who do you think is behind this?"
"No idea. Sonic has his theory but…"
"But Eggman's dead. Yeah, I know. You think it's possible?"
"Can… Can you promise not to mention this to anyone?" Tails asked, after a moment of hesitation.
"Of course!" Amy replied, with a hint of concern in her voice.
"Look… After Eggman was… after he died… I got contacted by the people who found his body. It landed on South Island, and... I verified it."
"Tails, oh my God." Amy whispered. Ray had grown silent.
"Sonic doesn't know. He was shaken up enough after that final fight, I didn't know what would happen seeing… the body. But Eggman's dead."
"Uh…" Ray spoke up, finally, breaking the approaching silence. "I got another spot."
"Give it to me."
"This one's camera F23."
"F23, that's under Spring Street and 5th… Spring Street… It's moving north… It's moving north towards the industrial district. Amy, you're seeing that too, right?"
"Looks like it."
"Shit. Shit! I should have guessed!" Tails shouted, kicking the table.
"What!?" Amy asked, standing up in shock.
"Sonic! Sonic, do you hear me?" Tails shouted, unmuting the microphone.
"Wh- * - Tai- * - 're- * - king u- *" The connection dropped.
"Shit. Whatever's turning off the cameras must be affecting the comms device. Amy, come on, I need you to drive, I have to make a call. Ray?"
"Call G.U.N.?" Ray asked from the phone.
"Absolutely not. I'll handle it."
"Guys! I have a job here!"
"Don't worry about it! Whoever you call isn't gonna do anything! Amy, come on!" he shouted, grabbing her by the wrist and taking off for the door.
o o o
"What? Tails, you're breaking up! Tails?" Sonic asked into his headset. He could barely focus with that damn thing in though, with the screeching feedback in his ear. He yanked it out and pocketed it, hoping that would relieve his ears. After a moment of readjusting, he realized something: some of that noise he was hearing wasn't coming from the earpiece. From further down the tunnel, he could hear the soft sound of buzzing echo through the sewer. "Well, looks like I don't need them and their G.U.N. surveillance crap. Looks like I'm takin' this thief down on my own!" He took off, a bit faster now that he had a destination in mind.
After several minutes of following the buzzing, he began hearing new noises. Gunshots. Explosions. Screams. Roaring fire. It seemed his target had found its destination as well… He eventually found a hole torn through the roof of the tunnel, with a beam of light flashing down from it. Not sure what he was about to find, he leapt up, emerging from the hole in what looked to be a power plant.
It was a massacre in there. Every worker was torn apart, full of holes, some split clean in half, others… in worse condition. Sonic was staggered at the sight of the carnage, but powered through, advancing into the next room. More bodies, some crushed into walls, others impaled on machines, and more full of holes. He could hear screaming coming from the next room, and even more gunshots. A flash of green came from the next room, and the scream ended. Sonic slowly, cautiously peered into the next room.
More bodies, with only one standing. It stood next to the largest machine in the building, the Chaos Emerald power source. Sonic had seen the machine before, not in person, but in Tails' blueprints that had littered the house when this place was still in its design phase. Behind the reinforced wall that had been blown apart, rested the purple Chaos Emerald, placed on top of a machine that connected to the rest of the building and beyond. Standing before the Emerald was his robotic doppelganger, Metal Sonic, who had the stolen green Emerald placed in his chest.
"Ladies and gentlemen, our museum bandit." Sonic whispered, before jumping into the room, entering a spin dash when he hit the ground, and blasting at Metal. In a flash, Metal had turned around and caught Sonic with one hand.
"Inefficient." It said, squeezing down, cutting off Sonic's spinning. It drew back and threw him, launching his body into the far wall. It turned around to grab the Emerald, but it was gone.
"Thanks for the wind up there, gear head!" Sonic shouted, trying to brush off the immense pain from slamming into a wall. But he had grabbed the Emerald! Although, that just made him a target…
Metal Sonic was raised by his jets, resting just a few inches above the ground. Then, he was flying at Sonic, attacking with blinding speed. Sonic jumped out of the way, narrowly dodging the robotic fist that had been put through the sturdy wall of the power plant.
"You got some upgrades! That's… horrific!" Sonic said, faking a smile. "Oh Chaos I'm so dead," he squeaked to himself. Metal Sonic removed his fist from the wall, and outstretched two arms at Sonic. "What's this, some kinda zombie pose? Makes sense, after all your boss is a zombie at best now! And in a minute, you'll be taken care of too! So why don't you tell me how you came back to life, and I'll make it quick? Or, you can come flying over here and get ready for the Sonic Wind of your artificial life?"
Sonic was feeling a little confident at this point. When two turrets popped up on Metal Sonic's hands, this wavered a bit. When further turrets popped out of his body, his confidence vanished. He took off, not letting Metal shoot first. A barrage of bullets followed him, easily filling the room with lead. Sonic ducked out of another barrage of rounds, and dove into the Chaos Emerald containment room.
"Shit. Okay, okay, this is okay, I can do this." As Sonic was trying to prep himself, Metal emerged from around the corner, every turret in Sonic's direction. "Shit!" He kicked off the wall, bouncing back out of the room and past Metal's assault.
Metal continued its advance, applying further pressure to its fleshbag counterpart. "Does this guy not give up!?" Sonic shouted, circling the room to avoid the blasts. He hadn't noticed, but Metal had been slowly preparing its jets. Just as Sonic turned back around another corner, Metal launched itself at Sonic, cutting him off and slamming him against the wall.
"You will surrender your Emerald." It stated, as though it were fact.
"Not likely, pal." Sonic forced out, although he definitely had something broken in his upper body.
"It is decided." Sonic glanced down, and realized the Emerald in Metal's chest was glowing.
"Wh- what are you…" Sonic began, as his eyes widened. At this range, there was no way he could survive a full on attack.
The attack was interrupted by a blast of green from behind Metal, allowing Sonic to break out of Metal's grasp. Sonic fell to the ground, landing next to Metal. The two looked up to see Shadow and Omega, the former wielding the red Chaos Emerald, and the latter his entire arsenal of turrets, missile launchers, laser cannons, and flamethrowers.
"We got a call that you might need some help! Figures you'd need me to come and pick up after your mess," Shadow taunted, stepping into the room.
"I'm not even mad. You're the best, and worst person to show up right now." Sonic replied with a laugh.
"EGGMAN'S ROBOTS DETECTED. COMBAT ENGAGE." Omega boomed, simultaneously cocking every weapon in his loadout.
