Hey, guys! So, I was told that I needed to make things a little more exciting. It IS a little hard to capture the adrenaline rush that running full tilt through a Sonic stage gives you, though, then again, Modern Sonic hasn't made his move yet. Don't worry, though. That'll be next chapter. Yeah, based on that, you can probably tell what this one's gonna be about. There's gonna be a bit of a twist to this one though, so yeah. Enjoy the chapter!
Following Amy, the experiments found themselves in the cockpit, where the other Resistance members were waiting for them. Knuckles looked impatient for something, Charmy was buzzing around, Espio appeared to be meditating, and Vector was doing who-knows-what. Silver walked over to where Knuckles was, and Amy stood by the door.
"So, what's the plan?" Stitch asked.
"We have a spy infiltrating Eggman's ranks," Espio said. "We are waiting to hear back from her."
"So…" Summer stared at him blankly. "You have no plan, then. That's stupid…"
Everyone paused at Summer's words. Then, right as everyone turned to glare at him, they heard a voice belonging to a young woman come through on the radio.
"Knuckles! Can you hear me?"
"Rouge!" Knuckles realized, sighing in relief. "It's about time! How's Sonic doing?"
The voice, identified as Rouge, sighed. "He's been better. They're getting ready to banish him into space."
Everyone froze.
…Wait, what!?
"Hold on!" Stitch shouted. "They're getting ready to do that NOW!?"
"You can't be serious!" Silver yelled in agreement.
"T-T-That's b-bad…" Lady Kuroko spoke her agreement in a tiny, nervous voice.
"Eggman's been keeping Sonic alive this whole time," Rouge explained. "He's been waiting to show him his completed empire before banishing him."
"So, keeping him alive, rubbing his victory in his face, and then killing him…" Aurora said, an uncharacteristic hint of anger leaking into her voice.
"That's low, even for Eggman," Knuckles growled.
"Eggman got wind of our rescue plan and is moving forward with his plan ahead of schedule. The clock is ticking, boss," Rouge added.
"But we don't even know where he's being held captive!" Amy complained, pressing her face into her palms.
"Yes, we do!" Rouge shot back. "Eggman's rebuilt the Death Egg. That's where he's keeping Sonic."
Summer raised an eyebrow.
"Death Egg?" He said, incredulously. "Did he run out of names, or does he like himself too much?"
"My money's on both," Shadow (598) shrugged. "Or maybe he just likes eggs?"
"Whatever, I don't really care…"
"What I would like to know is how you were found out," Slang said, narrowing her eyes.
"W-W-We t-tore apart t-t-that ch-chemical plant…" Lady Kuroko hung her head guiltily. "T-That's p-probably…
"The Death Egg?" Vector asked with wide eyes, ignoring them. "Oh, man, that's not good."
Angel spoke up, rubbing her temples in exasperation.
"Okay, let me get this straight. We're invading what I'm assuming is a heavily fortified orbital fortress, looking for someone in an unspecified location in said fortress, and doing it all really, really fast, right?"
"Pretty much," Silver said, shrugging.
"Oh, that sounds fun…" Slang rolled her eyes. "I'm sure this is gonna play out exactly as you intend it to."
"Well, we're not here to have fun," Knuckles said, either ignoring or missing Slang's sarcasm. "We're here on a mission. Now, let's go get Sonic!"
Several minutes later, the Resistance's shuttle landed aboard what appeared to be the Death Egg's launch bay. Almost as soon as they had left the ship, the group split up. Various members went rushing down the Death Egg's various corridors, looking for any trace of Sonic.
In what direction they had gone was random, with Stitch and Angel choosing one pathway, Aurora and Amy going down another, etc. Some members had opted to go as groups, such as Team Chaotix (Vector, Espio, and Charmy), while others (Silver, Rouge, etc.) had opted to go alone.
Two members, however, hadn't chosen a direction, and were instead still standing idly by near the shuttle. Summer was reading a magazine, while Lady was looking around at her surroundings, nervously fidgeting as she did so.
The Death Egg was huge. That was something that had been obvious from the moment they'd laid eyes on it. Their objective, the one the other members were calling Sonic, was somewhere aboard, but no one knew where.
Lady Kuroko wanted to help track him down. She felt utterly useless in this situation, and she hated it. At the same time, however, being a nervous wreck, she could not bring herself to say anything about it, let alone do anything. And so, she was still at the ship, looking at the one path that no one had taken.
Summer, on the other hand, well, he just didn't give a damn. He was lazy and apathetic about the entire thing, with the only reason he was here being the threat Amy had given him, as well as the idea of having to deal with countless robots by himself. The idea of it just seemed like too much work. That wasn't to say that he particularly enjoyed being here, however. The Death Egg had a distinctly unsettling atmosphere that even he was picking up, and it made it hard for him to concentrate on his magazine.
After a few minutes of this, he sighed, looking up from his magazine and at Lady Kuroko.
"This is annoying…" He said, putting down the magazine. "We'll be stuck here longer if we don't do anything, but it's too much of a bother to do anything."
"W-Well, m-m-maybe we should…" Lady trailed off. She was a hairs breadth away from vocalizing her thoughts.
"Yes?"
"Maybe w-w-we s-should help…?" She managed to get out after what felt like an eternity. "W-We're part o-of this, t-too… I-I mean… H-Having him b-b-banished into s-space would be b-bad, r-r-right…?"
Summer sighed, allowing himself to float in mid-air. The only way he'd be willing to get up and move was if this got him off of this floating death trap sooner. And, for once, it seemed that Lady Kuroko wanted to take some kind of initiative. Lazy and apathetic as he was, she was still 'ohana, after all.
"What a pain…" He groaned, before looking at her. "Alright, Lady Kuroko. I guess it's playtime."
"P-Playtime…?" Lady asked nervously, tilting her head. She then began to chuckle darkly. A dark misty aura began to emanate from her, as the lights in the surrounding area began to dim. Her body began to contort in unnatural ways; her limbs began to pop out of place, her head hung loose, as if she'd broken her neck. She hunched forward, landing on all fours. "I like that. I like playtime."
In a surge of dark energy, her body melted into the shadows, before darting off at high speed down a path no one else had taken. Summer yawned, before lazily floating after her.
Naturally, there were a series of robots waiting for them. Lady raised her head out of the shadows. She stared blankly at them.
"I shall devour you…" She said, her voice an emotionless, raspy whisper, before she lunged. The robots attempted to fire at her, with little success as rather than hit her, their shots harmlessly phased through her. Lady charged into one of the robots, phasing into it as she did so. The Egg Pawn contorted wildly for a few seconds before exploding. At blinding speed, Lady charged into the next one, followed by the rest of the group, leaving behind only scrap metal.
Meanwhile, Summer lazily floated behind her, casting a disinterested glance at the destruction the black experiment left in her wake.
Lady leapt back into the shadows, eventually coming to a steep downwards incline. As she raced down it, Knuckles came through on the comm link.
"Listen up, you two!" He said. "Our other forces are busy dealing with enemies. It looks like you two took the best route. It's up to you to save Sonic now. Find him!"
"Great," Summer sighed. "Looks like it's on us, then…"
Lady Kuroko paid neither of them any mind, instead charging down the path as a black shadow. She took a sharp turn that lead her to a group of dash panels, which then launched her into the air and onto another platform.
As Lady recovered from the momentary surprise of being launched into the air, Summer noticed the golden rings hovering along their path. He decided to pay them no mind, instead continuing to lazily float after his sister.
Having recovered, Lady Kuroko continued forward, emerging from the shadows to move over a pitfall. Seeing a horde of badniks waiting for her, she began to laugh maniacally, before emitting a blood-curdling scream. Her jaw distended and the robots were forcibly pulled towards her. She phased into the frontmost one, causing it to detonate, taking out its comrades in the process.
"Well… Someone's enthusiastic…" Amy sounded more than a little creeped out.
"Apologies…" Aurora said. "She just gets… a little excited, sometimes…"
"Excited!?" Charmy almost yelled. "Do you HEAR that laughter!? She sounds like some kinda ax psycho!"
"Well, glad she's on our side, then," Silver responded, a tone of uncertainty in his voice. "She IS on our side, right?"
"Ih," Stitch said. "She's 'ohana after all."
Emerging once more, she was sent down the next incline by the force of the explosion, and after another sharp turn, was launched off of another, single dash panel directly in the center of the pathway. This one launched her onto a platform covered in Rings. Lady attempted to ignore them, only for them to suddenly go flying towards her before disappearing. She felt a surge of energy with each Ring she touched.
Now cackling, she charged forwards, easily clearing the next pitfall that separated the platform she had been on and the rest of the path.
Summer raised an eyebrow. That was unusual.
"The hell are these things?" He asked.
"Huh? What?" Knuckles sounded confused. "Oh, you mean the Rings?"
"I've been meaning to ask that myself, actually," Stitch agreed. "What ARE they, exactly?"
"Well, no one really knows where they come from," Amy admitted. "But they DO contain something we call 'Ring Energy'. Ring Energy can be used to charge a person's powers, and it can also protect you from harm, so collecting them isn't a bad idea."
"Really?" Shadow (598) asked, sounding surprised.
"They protect against damage…" Aurora sounded thoughtful.
"You guys aren't from here, are you?" Vector asked. "I mean, they're all over the planet. It's kinda hard to miss!"
"We'll explain later," Angel said. Stitch said nothing, but one could hear the sound of someone charging headfirst into a large number of Rings over the comm link.
Ignoring the conversation, Lady went charging into yet another dash panel, she was sent clear through the air at incredible speed, landing on a pathway with six Buzz Bombers waiting for her.
"You…" She croaked, before leaping with surprising speed into the air, leaping into the first one. The robot spastically flailed around, firing shots in all directions, striking the other Buzz Bombers. Summer, who had just floated up from one of the lower routes, noticed a shot coming towards him. He held out his paw, and the energy shot stopped dead in its tracks.
"Aim at the robots, not me," He yawned.
The original Buzz Bomber exploded, with a black shadow leaping from it back onto the path.
Lady Kuroko, hunched over, gave him with an empty stare. Summer sighed, pointing forward at the path ahead.
With a wild screech (Which probably made everyone on the comm link flinch) Lady Kuroko went charging forward, down a winding path that took her to a lower level. Summer, being too lazy to bother with such things, instead opted to float down the gap in front of the corkscrewing path.
"The prisoners are being held in a kind of internment facility," Rouge noted. "Sonic is probably there, too. Security is tight, so stay in your toes."
"Great, more work…" Summer snapped, before sighing. "Whatevs… Let's just get this over with…"
Lady, again ignoring him, darted forward with reckless abandon, charging over a pitfall, and rapidly possessing, then destroying, another small group of Egg Pawns in her path. Behind the Egg Pawns, there was a large wall, which for most people would have been insurmountable.
The Demon family was not 'most people'.
Fading back into her shadow, Lady effortlessly flew up the side of the wall, while Summer slowly floated up after her.
"Nothing in this room, either," Silver reported.
"Man!" Vector shouted. "We're still trying to fight our way out! They've got us pinned down!"
"There's a lot of robots down this way!" Angel yelled, a note of exertion in her voice.
"Whatever's down here, they REALLY don't want us to find it!" Stitch observed.
Lady resumed her rampage, charging forward on the path and up another wall, decidedly ignoring the elevator that activated below her.
"Ugh… Wouldn't it have been easier to take the elevator?" Summer asked, tiredly.
Lady didn't respond, choosing instead to launch herself at a nearby group of Buzz Bombers, with predictable results. As she darted up another wall, Summer took a glance at the surrounding area. Countless empty cells littered the walls of the chamber they were in. He raised an eyebrow.
"Looks like this place was used up until recently," Vector noted, voicing his thoughts.
"So many of these cells… How many people has he kept locked up…!?" Aurora asked, once again sounding uncharacteristically angry, even if only slightly. It seemed this 'Eggman' had a knack for inspiring the worst in people.
"I cannot say," Espio said. "Though I can only assume the numbers to be many."
"Hold on, the cells are empty?" Angel asked. "If they were used until recently, then either the prisoners were moved, or…"
She trailed off, the silent implication dawning on everyone listening. After a few seconds, Silver finally broke the silence.
"That's one more thing Eggman will answer for…!" He declared, sounding like he was speaking through gritted teeth.
The next wall led directly into the ceiling, meaning there was no choice but to take the elevator. Lady emerged next to Summer, holding her head at an odd angle, her eyes wide, and with her fingers in her mouth. For the moment, she seemed semi-stable. That is until the elevator very quickly took the two experiments down, through a large collection of Rings, to a slightly lower level.
Giggling madly, Lady Kuroko rushed forward, once more fuelled by Ring Energy, darting once again into a nearby Badnik horde of both Buzz Bombers and Egg Pawns, quickly tearing through them via possession.
As she went to turn a corner, sirens began blaring as a red light began to flicker on and off, illuminating the halls with an eerie red light.
"Uh-oh. They're on high-alert now," Rouge said.
"I sense Sonic's presence… He's close!" Espio declared. Lady sped up as a response, blasting down the halls at much greater speed than before. A new Badnik, an Aero-Chaser, flew directly in front of her, aiming a pair of laser blasters at her.
"You…" Lady gave it a demented stare. The robot fired on her, only for the attack to phase right through her.
With a violent screech, Lady leapt up and into the Aero-Chaser, causing it to contort and leading it to crash into the ground. Lady emerged from the wreckage unharmed, before continuing to blast down the halls, with Summer slowly following behind her.
As Lady Kuroko tore through the internment facility, Stitch and Angel were blasting down another series of halls. They had gone a very different route than anyone else had, leading deeper into the Death Egg than any other. After a few quiet minutes of running, Angel looked around and came screeching to a halt.
"Hey, Stitchie?"
"Huh?" Stitch asked, noticing that she had stopped before coming to a halt himself. "What's the matter?"
"Where are we, exactly? I think we got a little too far from the rest of the group," Angel responded. Stitch looked around for a moment, before shrugging and began walking down the hall. "H-Hey, where do you think you're going!?"
"I dunno where we're at," Stitch casually admitted. "But I memorized the path that we took, so finding our way back shouldn't be too hard."
"So why aren't we going back?" Angel gave him her best angry expression, which came off as poutier looking than anything else. Stitch began laughing a little. "Why are you laughing? I'm trying to be angry here."
"Well, first off, I'm kind of an engineering nut, so I just HAVE to get a look at what makes this place tick," Stitch admitted, before grinning. "Second thing, you're adorable when you're angry."
Feeling her face heat up, Angel walked up to him and playfully hit him in the shoulder.
"Okay, stop it. I'm seriously trying to be mad at you. We've got a rescue mission to get back to, and you're trying to be a science geek," She said, trying (and failing) to fight the small smile she was making.
Stitch just grinned in response before back turning around and continuing on his way.
"Knuckles said that Kuro and Summer were on the best route, so they've probably found him or are about to by now. Anyway, 'Death Egg', huh? Sounds to me like he was ripping off an old sci-fi movie," He said, that grin never once leaving his face. Angel responded before she could stop herself.
"Honestly, if he was trying to sound threatening, he probably should have started with something other than 'Death'. That's way too clichéd nowadays."
"Tell me about it. There's a whole lot of synonyms he could have used for 'death'. Heck, he could've gone a different route altogether. You know, 'Egg Station', or 'Orbital Egg', or something, you know?" Stitch said, noticing that the hallway seemed to lead into a larger chamber. He magnified his vision to see what was ahead. "…Woah."
"Huh? What is it?" Angel asked, now looking worried. "Is it something dangerous?"
"Doesn't look like it…" Stitch's vision went back to normal. "But I think it might be important. Let's go!"
He took off before Angel could say anything. The pink experiment sighed in light annoyance before running after him.
After about a minute or two of running, Stitch stopped at the end of the hall. Angel, having expected him to continue running, wound up running into his back, sending her backwards onto the floor.
"Oooow…" She groaned, rubbing her head. "Hey! Warn me before… you…"
She trailed off as she got back up and got an eyeful of what Stitch was seeing.
A massive chamber, easily as large as several city blocks greeted them. Although the sheer size of the chamber was surprising, to say the least, the most interesting thing in front of them was the massive sphere at the center of the room. Several large metallic rings circled it, and it had a pattern of purple lights illuminating its surface. If Angel had to guess, it was easily as large as a Kaiju from the Japanese movies that she and the others had seen before.
The thing was also producing a constant humming noise that reverberated around the room, instantly cluing anyone around them what it was. Still, Angel, in a state of shock, had to ask.
"Stitchie, what is that?"
Stitch responded almost absentmindedly. "If I had to guess, we're at the center of the Death Egg. That's its core and power generator."
He began walking towards it, almost mesmerized as he stared at it intently.
"If we destroy it…" He began. "We'd probably bring this station out of commission. Just like that, Eggman would lose a major weapon."
His antennae and quills had extended as he spoke. Angel understood what this meant and quickly ran up to him, grabbing his arm. Stitch quickly snapped out of his trance and turned to her.
"Later, okay?" She said, adding a somewhat forceful tone to her voice. "I don't think it'd benefit us right now to destroy it with all of us on it, right?"
Stitch blinked, before sighing in resignation.
"Okay, okay…" He said, his ears drooping. "Can I at least take a quick look at it, so we can destroy it later?"
Angel shrugged. "Just make it quick, please. We're a ways away from where we're supposed to be, so we should probably get back as soon as possi-"
"Gaba!?" Stitch shouted suddenly. He had begun scouring the base of the core almost the moment Angel had opened her mouth, and he saw something that gave him pause.
"Huh? What is it?" Angel asked, wondering he was surprised about.
"You might wanna get a look at this…" Stitch said, quietly. Puzzled, Angel walked over to where he was, and stopped cold when she saw what he was staring at.
A violet gemstone was sticking out of the core.
A violet gemstone, with a European diamond cut.
It was identical to the stones they had seen before this fiasco began. The stone was embedded in what appeared to be a slot specially made to house it. An ethereal glow was emanating from it, dying its surroundings with a faint violet hue.
"T-That's one of the…" Angel stammered slightly. Stitch nodded.
"That's one of the stones we saw earlier, when we got dumped here," He said. Both of them stared at the stone for a few minutes, not sure what to do or say.
That came to an end when Knuckles came through on the comm link.
"Hey, rookies. Where are you guys? We lost track of you a little while ago."
A tick mark appeared on Stitch's forehead.
"For the love of-! WE'RE NOT ROOKIES!" He roared back. Angel covered her ears from the outburst and had the sneaking suspicion that everyone else did as well. As she uncovered her ears, she swore she saw the stone glow slightly brighter.
"…Touchy, much?" Shadow eventually spoke up, groaning. This was followed by Amy's voice, which sounded slightly shaken.
"Um… Anyway, could you give us some intel on your position?"
"We're in what we think is the Death Egg's core," Angel said, noticing that Stitch was still fuming slightly. She began rubbing his shoulder to calm him down.
"Wait, really!?" Vector asked, sounding dumbfounded. "That means you could blow the thing!"
"Stitch said that as well," Angel admitted. "But let's be real here: blowing it up, with all of us on it? That's NOT a good idea."
"She's got a point, you guys," Amy said. Finally calm enough to think rationally, Stitch finally spoke up.
"Blowing it up's out of the question, for now anyway, but I think we can disrupt its energy supply a little bit; force it to run at less than maximum power," He eyed the violet gemstone. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he was thinking. He placed his paw on the gem's surface, mischief glimmering in his eyes.
"Oh? And how will you do that?" Espio asked, sounding intrigued.
"Like THIS!" Stitch tore the gemstone out of place.
The results were immediate: the Death Egg shook violently as the lights flickered, plunging everyone into darkness momentarily before coming back online, albeit slightly dimmer than before. Angel was a little shaken. Stitch seemed pleased with himself, however, grinning slightly at his spoils.
"Woah!" Aurora said, sounding like she'd been knocked off-balance. "What did you just do?"
"Great, little brother. Could have warned us before you did that," Summer sighed, once more sounding lightly annoyed. No word from Lady Kuroko, who was probably still on a rampage.
"Just tore this weird stone out of place," Stitch said, still eying the purple stone in his hands. Now that he was holding it, he felt it pulling at him slightly, as if it were trying to lead him somewhere. It also made a very faint noise, akin to a constant humming noise. It would be too quiet for human ears to detect, but was unable to escape his.
"Wait, a weird stone?" Knuckles suddenly asked. "Is it green, blue, light blue, red, purple, white, or yellow?"
Stitch and Angel both raised an eyebrow at that.
"It's purple. Why?" Angel asked.
"That must be a Chaos Emerald!" Charmy shouted. Stitch and Angel both grit their teeth. That bee, although he meant well, had a really grating voice. Then, it hit them what he'd said.
"Wait, Chaos Emerald?" Angel asked.
"Aren't emeralds supposed to be green?" Stitch asked.
"Okay, look, we really don't have time for this, so just grab that emerald and get moving," Knuckles said, sounding irritated.
Stitch and Angel looked at each other and shrugged, before Stitch extended one of his extra arms, grabbed the emerald with it, and then retracted it, effectively tucking the gem away. Angel looked at him expectantly, glancing at his antennae and quills. He quickly retracted those as well.
"You said you remembered the way, right?" Angel asked him. Stitch simply gave her a confident grin.
"Of course I do!" He said, turning around and taking off in the direction where they came from, with Angel in hot pursuit.
...Lady Kuroko is nuts. I admit it, I haven't really written creepy characters like her ever, so this was a bit of a learning experience for me. Still, I think she fits the Prison Hall level pretty well, especially with the level's music talking about having intense anxiety.
And Stitch has a Chaos Emerald! Oh, if only he knew how to use it. Then he'd REALLY make it live up to its name, haha.
Before I go, I think you guys know what's coming next. R&R, and I'll see you guys next time!