"I've left the Sol Kingdom on the vessel Marine provided. Provided I stay on course, the device should be planted within the next hour," the computerized image of Espio explained via the main display of Freedom H.Q.
"Thanks for the update, Espio. Remember, when you get within range of the ship's jammers, all communications will go dark until you plant the synchronizer," replied an inventive yellow fox from the other end.
"Very well, I'll contact you when the task is complete," was the stoic chameleon's response.
Following a quick nod from Miles, as well as a wish of good luck from his fellow Chaotix, Espio hung up, the screen returning to its default state. With this bit of business taken care of, Miles was ready to finalize their plan of attack. One that none had a complaint to give about, aside from one.
"I'd like to once again give my concern over this plan," an arms-crossed Blaze protested, stepping forward out of the assembled group of fighters. "Our children's safety should be the responsibility of my husband and I."
"We've talked about this, Blaze. You and Sonic charging straight for Blaura, Dash, and Sonash is exactly when the Eggmen'll expect. We can't play right into their hands," Miles replied, turning around and stepping away from the terminal.
"Hmph!"
"The best thing you can do to help your kids is to distract the doctors while Tangle, Whisper, the Chaotix, and myself grab them right out from under their noses," Miles reasoned.
Before Blaze could rebuttal, a compassionate hand on her shoulder prompted her to hold her tongue. She didn't need to turn around to know its owner. With a sigh, she stood down.
"Don't worry, Blaze," began Miles, holding an assuring smile. "There's no way I'll let those two maniacs cause any more harm to my niece and nephews. Uncle Miles is on the case!"
"And we may not be any aunts..." an excited lemur cheered, whipping an arm around her wolfy wife before continuing. "But we're on that same boat as Miles. You can count on us!"
"Mhmm," was the hushed hum of Tangle's flustered wife, having been still taken aback by the sudden embrace.
Blaze's eyes scanned the futuristic room. An appreciative smile surfaced as she laid eyes on the brave group of freedom fighters. Some gave her more words of encouragement, while others laughed and conserved among themselves. "Thank you, everyone. I truly am blessed to have such loyal companions."
Tangle smirked in reply. "Hey, don't sweat it, Blaze! Saving babies from two psychopathic doctors who wanna hold them for ransom in exchange for the surrender of an entire kingdom? What else are friends for?!"
With that, Miles strode over to the central console. On the cylindrical structure, he tapped on the panel interface to reveal a map of the Sol Dimension. The group's conversations slowly hushed as, with a few more gestures, the map zoomed in on a blinking red blip atop a vast ocean.
"If my mental math is right, and the ship hasn't moved much, we should see Espio's transmitter signal disappear any minute. Then, it's all up to him. We've just gotta wait." Miles explained.
"How long we talkin'?" asked an eyebrow-raised Sonic, tapping his foot impatiently.
"No way of knowing for sure, but we've got to go with Espio's estimate of about an hour or so," replied Miles, turning to the eager hedgehog. "How's your chest feeling?"
The hedgehog cheered as he pounded his puffed-out chest with his right hand. "Don't you worry about me, buddy! I'm good as new and ready to crack some eggs thanks to you!"
Across the room, a concerned bee's feet lifted off the metal floor as he moved to hover in front of his boss. "Speaking of which, how're your hands, Vector?"
"That ointment you gave me helped a ton!" began the croc, holding up his hands for the paramedic to inspect. Much to Charmy's satisfaction, the green coloration had not yet fully returned, but most signs of a severe burn were gone. "Not back to one hundred percent, but I'll be in fighting form for sure!"
"Awesome! Let me reapply it before we leave as well," replied Charmy.
Vector nodded back, giving an acknowledging grunt.
Needed, last-minute planning continued as morning sunlight poured through the glass dome atop Freedom H.Q.'s main room. Amy, having left and returned with her coffee briefly after, donned a look of uneasiness as she watched Espio's locator marker disappear from the map of the Sol Dimension.
"I'm worried about Espio, are you sure he can handle it?" the pink hedgehog asked, addressing no one in-particular.
"Good ol' Esp'? I'm sure he'll be fine…" Sonic replied with a dismissive hand gesture, prompting the boss of the man in question to chime in.
"I'm with Sonic on this one. Espio's the best spy on Earth, if anyone can get this done, it'll be him!" asserted the confident croc.
XXXX
A powerful electric buzz emanated from the inboard motor of a small, white vessel out on the open sea. Glistening in the morning sunlight along with the ocean water, the craft, titled 'S.F.V. Archerfish' by its paint job on the bow, sped along the open ocean. Atop the wooden deck, the boat's operator peered attentively at a handheld device
laying on the control console. Said individual's purple arms kept the boat on-course, sternly holding the archaic steering wheel.
An electronic beeping noise from the box pierced Espio the Chameleon's laser focus. As the noise persisted, he peered down at the display.
'SIGNAL LOST'
"Hmph. Must be getting close, then…" he muttered. Now, he was completely isolated from his team. It was all up to him.
Luckily, the repurposed fishing vessel's onboard navigation system relied on the planet's magnetic field to pinpoint location, thus rendering the doctors' jamming signal useless against it.
Miles had told Espio that the jammer would likely only work a few kilometers out at most. Judging by the grand size of the ship, seeing it from that far away on these open waters should have been a sinch. Espio narrowed his eyes, using his hand as a visor against the morning sunlight as he peered over the horizon.
Nothing, not a single hint of a vessel in sight, just open water.
"That's odd…" the confused chameleon muttered. A cloaking device? No, Miles had debunked that idea. Maybe the ship simply wasn't as large as Marine's estimates predicted, but also unlikely. Such a large error would be very uncharacteristic of the high-ranking Navy officer. No, something else had to be going on, and without any guess as to what, all Espio was left to do was wait.
As the boat sped on, the probability of the doctors' ship simply being smaller than expected diminished. Now less than half a kilometer out from the coordinates, Espio still spotted no sign of the mammoth vessel.
Shaking his head in defeat, Espio pulled back on the throttle as the boat settled on the X and Y coordinates. "This doesn't make any sense, it couldn't have gone far from this spot since a few hours ago!" he exclaimed, taking another glance around.
Collecting himself, Espio took a deep breath and calmed his frantic mind. Now was no time to panic, now was the time to think. A massive ship with coordinates last known five hours ago. A vessel that size shouldn't be able to move completely out of sight in that time. It wouldn't be fast enough. Then again, these were the Eggmen, anything was possible. He internally scolded himself, realizing that he should've asked Marine for the vessel's speed when she gave them its…
"Design!" Espio epiphanized. Quickly thinking back to the ship's specs, Espio recalled several key features. Its sleek, bullet-like shape; with very few windows, save the giant glass dome on top; The shark-like fins at the top and sides; It all added up!
A sound theory, but lacking a way to confirm it. Thinking to himself once more, Espio realized something else. The Archerfish was a retrofitted fishing vessel! With so little time to prep, Marine didn't have the time to take off any of the standard fishing equipment, including the answer to Espio's prayers.
Tapping a few buttons and flipping a labeled switch on the navigation console, Espio prompted its previously-black screen to light up. With one more gesture, he was let into the app he was looking for.
'Sonar Fishfinder: Online'
The screen turned blue, mimicking the ocean, with a depth scale reaching down to a half-kilometer. Everything looked for the most part, Espio assumed, normal for a fishfinder. Fish displayed on the screen as dots of red, varying in size. Everytime a new ping from the boat was sent out, it would update itself, slowly stretching deeper into the abyss.
Just as Espio suspected, fewer fish showed at the lower levels. However, one thing stood out from everything else, confirming his theory.
A massive blob of red occupied all of the two hundred meter mark and lower. Its boundaries stretched off the screen, escaping the scope of the relatively low-power piece of fishing equipment.
Espio's eyes widened. It was no boat they were dealing with.
"A submarine…"
Espio needed a new plan. Formulating to himself, he placed a hand on his chin. The jamming signal was still in effect, and would be until the device was planted. Leaving to re-enter contact range would waste valuable time, and there's no telling how long the doctors would want to stick around.
He looked across the deck, the only other option would be to complete his mission underwater and make contant right after the synchronizer was ready, but where would he get the necessary equipment?
Asif the universe had answered Espio's question, his eyes fell on a bolted down wooden barrel near the back of the boat. Moving in and inspecting its contents, he realized it was exactly what he needed. A few pairs of fins, as well as two sophisticated-looking helmets that he recognized from his ninja training. A lightweight unit, designed to synthesize air for the user.
Picking up one of the grey metal helmets, Espio peered into himself through the reflection of its glass front.
"Thank God Sonic's not here."
XXXX
The glass and metal prison around Espio's head did a fantastic job negating almost all sounds from the surrounding ocean, leaving the chameleon with only the echo of his breaths to accompany him as he swam toward his destination. In his right hand lied the synchronizer. A palm-sized metal box encased in a plastic diving bag. Espio was near-certain Miles would have the sense to waterproof his device, but the extra precaution was no added trouble regardless.
As he swam downward, Espio began to feel the pressure of the ocean above. He felt his breaths become shallower as his lungs struggled to push against the water. The massive ship below wasn't much further, but he knew he'd have limited time before even his heavily-trained body gave up. Burying any anxiety, he pressed forward.
A few minutes more placed Espio on the doorstep of the sub's massive red hull. Immediately, Espio took note of the lack of security. No outboard cameras, and no visible sonar equipment. Odd at least, worrying at most.
Twisting around and allowing his feet to touch the top of the ship, the now-struggling Espio looked for a safe place to stick the device. Not far away was the main fin, jutting out of the top just like a shark's would. No better spot, he supposed. Lifting off, he swam over.
Espio winced as he went to take a breath. He could've sworn he felt a crack in his ribcage, a surefire sign that he had little time to spare. Bringing the bagged device to his front, he recalled Miles' instructions. His fingers tapped a blue button through the bag, prompting the device to respond via its digital display.
'MAGNETIC SEAL ACTIVATED'
Reaching forward, Espio felt the powerful magnets grab onto the red surface of the fin through the bag, holding the synchronizer firmly in-place.
"Alright… Ngh!" Espio winced. "Now…"
Tapping a green button beside the blue, Espio activated his device. A high-frequency hum pierced the water and increased in pitch as it armed itself.
Espio wanted desperately to just swim back to the surface now, but he knew better. He still had one task to complete. He raised his watch to his face and tapped a button on the side of the helmet with his free hand, linking the two. The watch's small display was tougher to see through the watery distortion, but it would suffice. Swiftly, he dialed Freedom H.Q., praying that the synchronizer had done its job, and the underwater interference wouldn't block his signal as it was relayed back through the Sol Kingdom's interdimensional communications grid.
To Espio's relief, the face of the Freedom Fighters' leader appeared on the watch shortly after.
"Espio? What's happening, and why can I barely see you?" came Amy Rose's surprised voice from the other end, ringing throughout the helmet.
"Amy! Good, listen up, I don't have much time," Espio began, continuing when the pink hedgehog acknowledged his request. "The doctors' ship is more than just a boat, it's a submarine, and quite the deep diver at that."
The faint noise of choking relayed through the comm as Amy lurched forward and placed her coffee off to the side. Taking a moment to swallow right herself, she responded. "A what?!"
"I've managed to complete my mission with the equipment left on Marine's fishing vessel, but this development may require an… Gah!" Espio paused, holding his chest.
"Espio, are you alright? Just how deep did you go?!" exclaimed a concerned Amy from the other end.
"I'm fine! Just get here as soon as you can, I'll try and resurface and avoid detection until then!" Espio watched as Amy whipped around, beckoning to someone further back in the room and having an inaudible conversation with them. Soon, the team leader turned back around.
"Alright, Espio. Hang tight. Backup will be… be there… soo…"
Espio's brow furrowed, as the audio began breaking up, the picture fared no better. He smacked the side of his helmet, along with his wrist, trying to correct the error. "No, no!" he grunted in frustration. Seconds later, the picture faded entirely, accompanied by the sound of static ringing throughout his helmet. A stern line of text blinked across the screen.
'SIGNAL LOST'
Espio prayed it was merely the watch giving into the ocean depths. Either way, he had to retreat now, his time was running out. He tried to console himself as he turned to swim upwards. "Regardless, they got the message."
"And it'll be the last message they'll ever receive!" boomed an all-too-familiar voice through Espio's helmet.
"What?!" Espio frantically glanced down at his watch. An ill-omen-of a symbol now presented itself across the display. The cartoonized face of a near-decades-long adversary.
"Did you and your faction of furry fools really think your plan was going to work?" The voice sneered through the comm.
"Eggman! What the hell is going on here?" demanded the ninja.
"Oh please, allow me," taunted the equally-as-recognizable and annoying voice of Eggman Nega. "We've known all about that little fox's inferior portal technology for some time now, and took the necessary steps to negate it. You puny little boat was detected by our genius thermal scanners before it even got within a kilometer of our beautiful Egg Megalodon!"
"Hmph, you're full of crap! If you really knew about me that far in advance, I'd have been blown out of the water long before this!" fired back the agitated ninja.
"O'contraire, scaled simpleton! If not for us allowing you to pierce our defenses, we'd have never been able to use your puny device to exterminate all your fellow vermine in one go!" jeered Eggman.
"And what's that supposed to… hngh!- mean?" sputtered the depth-sick chameleon.
Eggman's cocky counterpart sneered. "Quite simple, really. But still, please do make sure your puny brain keeps up. Assuming your plan was to portal onto our ship, that device of yours could only be one thing: A synchronizer. Designed to lock onto our internal communications frequencies and relay it to your buddies. Am I wrong?"
"I…" Espio began with a snarl, before cutting himself off at a complete loss for words.
Nega's gloating resumed. "I'll take that as a 'no.' Now then, the only way for a synchronizer of that nature to effectively function is via a direct link to the user, in other words…"
"We'd say it's a backdoor, but you've left the front door wide open for us!" Eggman finished, cutting off his associate.
Espio gasped, his lungs continuing to lose the battle with the intense pressure. "So what? They're way back on Earth, what good could their location possibly do you now?"
"Ah, ah, ah. You misunderstand, lizard. Taking care of your friends will be a far simpler task than that. Why attack them directly when we can just relay false coordinates through their systems?"
"You wha-?" Before Espio could finish, he was cut off by the sound of creaking metal. His eyes darted around, quickly spotting the source of the sound. To either side of Espio, two small metal hatches had slid open, revealing a pair of mechanical arms. The ninja gasped, staring wide-eyed at the new threat. The two-fingered ends of the arms snapped open and closed, ready to subdue their target. "You won't get away with this!"
"We already have. Now, Nega. Where should we send the vermin?" Eggman began, clearly with the intention of Espio overhearing. "Perhaps the bottom of the ocean? The middle of a volcano? Ah, maybe into high orbit!"
Time slowed down, Espio scraped every inch of his mind for a solution. He knew his chances or escape were slim to none, but there had to be a way to stop this. His eyes scanned the surrounding water, eventually falling on the device and lighting up in realization.
"None of the above!" Espio used all the strength he had left to twist around, launching a roundhouse kick at Miles' device.
"What do you think you're doing?!"
Ignoring Nega's voice, Espio drove his strike home, shattering the device and puncturing the bag that held it. "Ha!"
Being slowed by the water, Espio couldn't hope to react as the pair of metal arms shot toward him, firmly grasping his arms. He struggled in vain against their torque as they held him in place, draining the rest of his stamina.
"Oh… you've done it now!" Nega growled as the arms tightened, eliciting a snarl of pain from their prisoner.
"No need to worry, my accomplice. Our plan may have failed, but so has theirs. Besides, now we have an extra hostage!" replied Eggman's sinister tone.
Espio's eyes shot open. He felt a sudden rush of adrenaline surge through his veins. He wasn't about to take capture lying down. "Don't count your Flickies before they're hatched!"
Summoning a burst of energy from within, Espio activated his camouflage and shook himself free, producing small cuts on his arms as he tore away from the metal claws. He winced, but had no time to lick his wounds. The time to make a break for the surface was now.
"A feeble and pointless attempt at escape. Nega, shall we deploy the Great Egg Whites and-"
"Oh, shut up already!" exclaimed Espio, slamming his watch shut, ending the call. His legs continued to pump madly as the pair of fins carried him upwards. To his relief, the pressure slowly began to release its hold on his lungs. Water rushed by, and fish became more abundant. The surface may have been a mere couple hundred meters away, but it looked like thousands.
Just as he began to think the doctors might've given up pursuit, Espio was proven incorrect. He looked toward whence he came in response to the invasive hum of motors filling his ears. One glance was all the incentive he needed to keep swimming.
Behind Espio, not more than fifty meters behind him, surged a pair of shark-like abominations. The sun above shone on their steel bodies, with their glowing red eyes illuminating their yellow and black sockets.
The automatons jetted forward, their menacing tails churning. It didn't take long for the gap to be halved, then halved again.
Espio continued swimming for his life, the front of his mask fogging up. He felt himself gasping for air in the realization that the mask's synthesizers couldn't keep up with the oxygen demand. The surface drew ever-closer, but another glance back told him all he needed to know.
Whether he reached open air or not, a fight was inevitable.
The hum of the metal sharks' engines was almost right on top of him. Cutting his losses, Espio swiveled around in the water to face his pursuers. With his martial arts handicapped, and a fogged field of vision, he knew he stood little to no chance.
In seconds, the sharks were upon him. They reached his level and began menacingly circling him, no different than a real shark circling its prey. Now, their bodies were on full display. Two razor shard rows of teeth; Powerful jets where a shark's fins should be; Torpedo-tube-like openings below their side fins; These things were killing machines. Their white, segmented bodies slithered through the water, seemingly waiting for the perfect opportunity to pounce.
And it came. The shark to Espio's right broke formation, charging him, teeth bared. Espio gasped and darted out of the way, narrowly missing the shark's teeth, but yelping in pain as he the swoosh of the shark's tail connected, forcing the air out of his lungs.
Espio recovered, just in time to dodge an attack from the other shark. However, no amount of speed could have saved him from the subsequent assault from its partner. It surged forward, brandishing its ensemble of razor sharp teeth. The chameleon, deprived of oxygen and half-blind, couldn't help but brace himself.
The expected clamping down of the beast's jaws never came, and instead, Espio found himself surrounded in a blue, glowing, net-like structure. "What?"
Struggling to break free, Espio looked towards the shark still looming over him, presumably having launched the net from its mouth. A sharp pain pierced his right shoulder. Holding back anything past a wince, he pried at the source of the pain, ripping out the culprit. Even through the fogged helmet, he knew a tranquilizer dart when he saw one.
"N… no!"
Espio's camouflage flickered, before failing entirely. His body'd had enough. As a powerful sedative coursed through his veins, the chameleon was left helpless, watching as his aggressors bared down on him.
Blurred vision and nausea came next. His head, the only extremity left still taking commands, darted around, trying to make sense of the fogged and blurred mess around him. The two Great Egg Whites appeared as nothing but blobs of white and yellow, like faint apparitions. With his last few breaths of consciousness, Espio could only hope that what he'd done would be enough.
"I'm…" he began, feeling the last hint of feeling slipping away as the two white blobs moved into position, presumably to carry him back to their lair.
"Sorry…"
XXXX
Red and white shoes pittered along Freedom H.Q.'s metal floor, their two-tailed wearer eagerly sprinting over. "Amy, I got your call over the comm system! What happened?"
A distressed Amy turned away from the now-static-covered main view screen. "I don't know! We were receiving all the frequency data, along with a call from Espio, and both streams suddenly just stopped! You don't think something went wrong, do you? What if those two maniacs found him out?" she rambled.
"Amy, calm down! We can't just go making assumptions like that. For all we know, my synchronizer just stopped working. After all, I did whip it together on the fly," Miles reasoned.
"Miles, this is you we're talking about," the pink hedgehog replied, her hands on her hips.
"Is Espio in trouble?" asked a concerned bee, barging into the room.
"We're not sure, Charmy. Espio's gone radio silent," explained Amy.
"Alright, let's be logical about this," Miles began, a hand on his chin as he strode over to the main terminal. "What was Espio doing right before he disconnected?"
"He didn't seem to be in much distress. He'd gotten to the doctors' ship undetected and planted the synchronizer just fine. The only thing that was really out of place was…" Amy paused, slapping her face as she realized her forgetfulness. "How could I have forgotten? Espio wanted me to relay an important message, something about the Eggmens' ship!"
"What about it?" Miles asked, eyebrow raised.
As the rest of the Freedom Fighters heeded Amy's summon through the H.Q.'s comm system, she took the time to catch Miles up on Espio's findings. Quickly, the old plan was thrown out the window. With Miles' portal technology rendered useless, and Espio out-of-contact. They had little other choice than to take a more old-fashioned approach.
"You want us to what?" a stunned blue monarch stammered at the mention of going underwater in a cramped submarine.
"Look, Sonic. I know you're afraid of the water, but we really don't have a choice here," insisted Miles.
"What? Who said anything about me being afraid? I'm not afraid!" rambled the water-scared hedgehog.
"All these years and Blaze still hasn't taught you to swim," Miles smirked, rolling his eyes in fake disappointment.
"Oh believe me, I tried," stated the blue blur's wife, walking over and squeezing his hand. "Just remember, honey. It's for our kids."
"Yeah, no sweat…" replied the unconfident hedgehog.
Miles began tapping on the central projector's interface as he explained the new plan. "We've still got Espio's last known coordinates. Knowing the doctors, they're gonna try and make a move out of the area now that they know we're onto them," he strategized, pulling up a map of the Sol Dimension on the central console once more, pointing to a blinking red dot. "We're gonna have to move fast if we wanna catch em' before they send us on a wild goose chase again."
"What about when we get there, how're we gonna get in?" asked a skeptical Amy.
"My Whirlpool II has more than enough means for cutting through the hull. The problem'll be getting through the Eggmens' defenses…"
"Defenses?" Sonic grinned nervously. "Not only are we gonna be traveling underwater, but we'll be getting shot at?"
"Well, yeah. You don't think they're just gonna let us waltz onto their fancy battlesub, do you?" questioned the vulpine.
"Heh, I guess not…" replied the anxious hedgehog, scratching his forehead.
"It'll be alright, honey," Blaze insisted with a warm smile, grasping her speedy husband's arm. "If there's anyone we can trust to get us to the doctors safely, it's Miles."
"I… you're right," conceded Sonic. "I don't doubt you at all, little bro."
"Thanks, Sonic. You know I'll try my best to get us there without a scratch!" smiled Miles. "Tangle, Whisper, Vector. Come with me. We've got a plane to prep."
"You got it, boss!" exclaimed the peppy lemur, grabbing her wife by the hand and pulling her forward to meet Miles.
The muscle of Team Chaotix moved to join the group of three, grunting in acknowledgement.
"Fueling and pre-flight shouldn't take long, we should be ready to get underway in about fifteen minutes," stated the genius fox.
Upon finalizing the plan, Miles led his team of helpers out of the room, leaving the two monarchs, Charmy, and Amy.
"So, Sonic. You ready to go swimming?" teased the smug leader of the Freedom Fighters.
The blue blur's eyes widened. "Heh, sure am…"
"Maybe you'd have gotten over your fear if you'd actually paid attention when I tried teaching you," scolded Blaze.
"Oh? Did his lack of focus have anything to do with that bathing suit I helped you pick out when we went shopping together?" Amy teased. Blaze scoffed, her cheeks flushing as she refused to make eye contact with the pink hedgehog.
"Oh, that was you? Excellent choice, Amy!" Sonic smirked.
"See? I told you he'd go crazy for it!"
"Can we please get back on-track here?" the flustered feline interjected.
"Ok, look. You're not made for air. I'm not made for water," attempted Sonic, slinging his arm around her shoulder. "Either way, I'll be fine. I'm not gonna let a little wetness get between me and our kids, deal?" He awaited a response, receiving one in a form of crossed arms and a nod. "Besides, if I end up passing out from fear, you can carry me to the surface!"
"You'd better pray that doesn't happen, because I'm not carrying you," corrected the female monarch.
XXXX
The ambient hums and beep of advanced machinery were the first sounds to greet the waking chameleon's ears. Groaning as his eyes cranked open, he tried to scan his surroundings. A sea of red, yellow, and black slowly clarified, morphing into a sizable room. Electronics whirred and blinked all around, with tools and blueprints lining the crimson, yellow-accented walls. In the center of the room lied a cylindrical console not unlike the one at Freedom H.Q., displaying a map of some sort.
The events leading up to Espio's predicament remained a blur, immediately. He noticed the restraints on his midsection and limbs, as well as the half-cylinder of glass surrounding his body. Perhaps if he kept looking, he'd find something to jog his still-waking brain.
"Well, well, well. Look who decided to wake up."
Suddenly, all memories of the ninja's past exploits came surging back. His eyes flew wide open as the immediately recognizable voice of Eggman invaded his ears. Immediately, he turned to face its source. "Eggman!"
"The one and only," the doctor jeered. "Welcome to the Egg Megalodon, I hope you find your accommodations to your liking."
"Five stars!" mused Espio with a grunt.
"Oh, sarcasm? Are the metal restraints not tight enough? Perhaps I didn't pump you full of enough sedative?" sneered the psychopath in response.
"What do you want, Eggman?" the irritated chameleon scoffed.
"What do I want? Isn't it obvious?" Eggman smirked, preparing to answer his own rhetorical question. "The destruction of Sonic and everything he holds dear, followed by the complete takeover of Earth!"
"Hmph! Haven't the last one and a half decades taught you anything?"
"They sure have! I've got fifteen years worth of plans that I know won't work, meaning that I'm that much closer to the one that will!" the doctor replied.
"Or maybe you're just insane and doomed to fail," jabbed Espio, struggling against his restraints.
Eggman chuckled at the failed attempt. "Insane? That much is obvious, but doomed to fail? I guess we'll just have to see now, won't we?"
"Hmph!"
"And you might as well save your strength, those restraints wouldn't give to your slimy green reptile of a boss let alone you."
"Has our guest finally come to?" interjected the equally-unwelcomed voice of Eggman Nega as he entered the room, the silver and red door sliding shut behind him.
Eggman nodded with a grunt, turning to greet his accomplice. "I was just about to inform him of his status as our honorary extra hostage!"
"Ah, did he enjoy the treatment from our Great Egg Whites?" Nega smirked.
Eggman stepped to the side and beckoned to the restrained Freedom Fighter. "Why don't you ask him yourself?"
"The name's even dumber than usual," taunted Espio. "And that's saying a lot for the two psycopaths that put the word 'egg' in front of all their machines."
Nega's grin only intensified. "Well their dumb names sure didn't stop them from defeating and restraining you in seconds, now did they?"
As spite-filled banter between the chameleon and Nega, Eggman noticed a small microchip in between his counterpart's right middle and index finger. "Is that what I think it is?"
"The regulator chip for the Egg Vanquisher's power systems? The one and only," answered Nega, bolstering the chip. "With this baby installed, controlling the power of all fourteen emeralds will be a sinch!"
An unsettled Espio's eyebrow raised. "Egg Vanquisher?"
"Ah, of course, how rude of us!" Eggman exclaimed, clasping his hands together and striding over to a wall terminal and tapping a few keys. "We haven't even shown our guest what we'll be crushing his fellow freedom fools with!"
With a few more gestures, the ceiling in front of Espio opened up. Out of it descended a view screen suspended on a mechanical arm. Moments later, it flicked on in front of him.
Splayed across the screen was what Espio could only assume was the interior of the Megalodon's hangar. Seemingly large enough to store a dozen Hurricane III's, the room instead housed one sole creation. As his eyes scanned the beast, they widened in shock.
"So, what do you think? Do you like it?" smirked Eggman.
Any possible response eluded the chameleon's mouth. He sat captivated by the sight in front of him.
"I guess I'll take that as a yes!"
XXXX
All Sonic the Hedgehog characters and concepts are owned by SEGA. All original characters, as well as the AU concept as a whole is by Sonicxfan64 on DeviantArt.