1. Discovery of a Weapon
Rouge the Bat sauntered along the strip of carpet leading to the Presidential Office door. Most people making such a trip either marched in approved military fashion or with quick, nervous strides if they weren't military. Rouge was well aware that some people, who apparently hadn't enough to do, whispered that her 'lack of respect' was because she was dokan and used that a proof that dokan in general held no respect for humans as a species. Rouge wasn't certain how much respect she had for humanity as a species, but she did know that she'd hold the same degree of respect for the dokan President as the human one, and show that respect just as little. She knew her strengths as well as her weaknesses, and since the President had called her, he needed something that neither he nor his usual coterie of soldiers and spies could accomplish. Therefore, she had something he wanted, and she intended to be certain he remembered the fact. The guards outside the door recognized her and showed her right in. He must really want something badly, she thought. Usually he tries to play it as cool as I do, and makes me wait. She suspected that he rather enjoyed their bluff and counter bluff; as any good bargainer knew, the trick was to convince the other person you didn't really need the sale, or the item being sold. Or in this case, she pretended she didn't need the job and associated fee, and he pretended he didn't really need HER services.
This time though, he was seated at his desk, drumming the fingers of one hand agitatedly, while flipping back and forth between two pages of a document in front of him. He had the air of someone hoping that if they looked one more time the bad news would have changed to something better. She hoped it wasn't more Black Comet pieces; Shadow was still unconscious in the hospital after he'd collapsed while tackling the biggest of them, and she certainly couldn't handle anything capable of putting the Ultimate Life-form on his back. The President looked up as she crossed the room. "Agent Rouge, we need your assistance urgently! An ancient weapon, 'Gizoid', which was sealed and misplaced fifty years ago, has been recovered by Dr. Eggman. You can get all the necessary information at the Central Lab." He pulled a small ID card out of a tray and shoved it at her. "You may have free access to the Central Lab with this pass. We're counting on you, Rouge. The safety of the Nation is in your hands."
"Yes sir, Mr. President!" answered the bat, taking the pass automatically. She was surprised by his directness as well as the urgency in the his voice. Whatever this 'Gizoid' was, it must be truly powerful; he seemed to consider it more critical than the remaining Comet-meteorites. Her curiosity getting the better of her, she decided to forgo the usual bargaining and discussion. She'd head straight on to Central Labs and find out why the President was in a lather. But it wouldn't do to let him forget that she was a freelance operative, not a government employee. As she walked out the door, she tossed back over her shoulder the warning, "By the way, don't forget about my reward!" If he replied, she didn't hear.
She strode back up the hall at a heel-thumping pace, now all business. Well, mostly all business. Or maybe, mostly all government business. The Central Lab computers tied in with several government computers that she hadn't had much luck accessing from outside, and there were a few details that she'd like to . . . clarify. Like the finer points of the National Museum's new 'totally secure' security system. Their overconfidence was just begging to be punctured, and she was the bat with the stickpin. Not that she'd actually steal any of the big treasures from the Museum; but for every item on display, there were dozens more in the back, half-forgotten, wholly forgotten, or not even catalogued! If a few of those went missing - well they didn't do anyone any good tucked away in a storage chest; gemstones were intended to, and deserved to be, seen. Even if only by one person. And the major treasures being rearranged or left in the Lost and Found box would focus attention there rather than in the back rooms.
She was jolted out of her planning by a janitor carrying a dustpan full of sweepings. He collided with her, spilling the load of dust and candy wrappers on her trousers and boots. Muttering apologies frantically, he brushed her off and scuttled away. She dusted her legs off again, noting that she now had an extra 'gem' on the rhinestoned heart of her left boot. She pretended not to notice, merely glaring at the janitor's back and muttering under her breath as she exited.
Once out in the street, she took wing, flying directly to the towering skyscraper that held Central City Laboratories. Landing before the entrance, she posed for the security camera. "OK," she announced, "now that I have official approval from my boss I can access the government computer system and gather all kinds of information on various treasures!" She strongly suspected that the extra 'rhinestone' that had been planted on her boot was a bug, but she wasn't certain how well it could pick her up over the traffic in the street. Still, might as well give the eavesdropper a show; she had an image to maintain, after all. And it would help to cover her real thefts, when they found the things she pretended to be interested in stayed right where they were.
When the door slid open she showed her lab pass to the robot inside. A very bored-looking human guard perked up somewhat as she strutted towards him, then more as she intentionally struck a pose that tended to make males' brains drop into their trousers. Not that she had any interest in human men, but she'd noticed that both dokan and human males tended to fixate on 'female' first, and nothing else second. It was supremely useful for her larcenous activities, and for certain of her spying tasks as well. In this instance, though, it was merely amusing to befuddle the poor guy. The guard proved more than willing to show her to a computer alcove, offering to help her get it started. She fluttered her eyelashes and thanked him, laughing inwardly as he fumbled his way to the Security log-in screen. She could have done it faster herself, but it wouldn't have been as much fun. "Let's see," she said finally, after he'd returned to his post. "Information on unlocking the security system on that art gallery . . . . Or maybe I should look up the National Museum first?" She giggled for the benefit of her unseen eavesdropper, her fingers flying across the keys. Not to call up either the gallery or the Museum data, though - she had a mission and that was the top priority. She giggled again, playing her chosen role to the hilt. "This is so exciting! I'm going to have all the information that'll allow me to gain access to all the treasures by the time I'm done here!" She sat back and hit a final key. In a louder voice she said, "Now Mr. Computer, tell me everything!"
To her surprise, she got back an error beep and the message 'Login error . . . This data is currently being accessed by another user.' "What? How can that be?" Temporarily falling out of her charade, she frowned at the screen. She was long accustomed to computer systems, but she hadn't encountered a network before that allowed only one person to access records at a time. Access restricted to one or a few people, yes, but not one-at-a-time. She quickly repeated her initial query, only to get the same message. All the passcodes she knew (including several she wasn't supposed to know) failed to gain her access, although she did determine that no other computers in the building were currently being used. Which meant that someone had broken into the supposedly secure network. "Come on!," she fumed. "This is a government computer system. No one else should have access to it!" Especially since this is one I've tried repeatedly to breach myself without ever succeeding. Muttering to herself, she tried something else: a little trick that Shadow had shown her. "I'll find you! Confirm login username . . . ."
She leaned back in her chair with a snort of disbelief. "Dr. . . . ?" Of all the egotistical, arrogant . . . . Well, who else? The username 'Dr. Eggman' blinked on the screen. She'd expected an alias - she never logged in under her own name - but she doubted anyone would be bold enough to use this name. Except Eggman himself. "Aha! I guess I've got my work cut out for me! Let's see where he's accessing the computer from." This wasn't something the computer itself could do, but accessing the security files revealed a nearby broadcasting point and a few other tricks presented her with a neat satellite image of a bright and shiny spot just across the main highway from the lab. "Hey, that's just right around the corner. I guess I 'd better go pay him a little visit." Remembering her eavesdropper, she slipped a hand into the pouch she wore on her belt, and thumbed on a tiny device. It vibrated slightly, and she knew that it was now distorting the signals from the bug hooked on her boot. This would be a private party. She slipped out of Central Labs without disturbing the guard's nap, and flitted quickly in the direction of the highway. Sure enough, just behind a cluster of crape myrtles she spotted the Eggmobile and its rotund inhabitant. He appeared to be focused on the screen in front of him, so she flew quickly higher, then crossed the road and dropped behind him, listening intently.
"Hmph! I was right! I needed seven Chaos Emeralds and the key word in order to 'Link' with the Gizoid to resurrect it!! Dang it," swore the Doctor, looking up from his screen, "I should've never tossed that thing away!" Suddenly realizing he wasn't alone, he spun the hover pod to face Rouge.
"Hey, Doctor! Long time no see!" Her tone was ironic; actually she'd seen him fairly recently, on the Black Comet when they'd tried (and failed) to face down Black Doom. But at that point they'd been on the same side - as Eggman had pointed out, he could hardly take over the world if there was no world left. Now it sounded as if he was back to his old tricks.
"Rouge?" He blinked at her as if he didn't quite recognize her. Then he returned his gaze to his viewscreen. "Sorry, but I'm quite busy right now."
She snorted. "I'm sure you are, doctor . . . ." She let her voice trail off ambiguously.
He frowned but didn't look up. "What're you babbling about?"
She shrugged. "You know, you're wanted by the government for questioning about a certain item."
He snorted himself, in disgust. "I tossed that piece of junk at the beach already!"
"What?" That was not what she'd expected to hear! "You threw it away?"
"The world's deadliest weapon?" he sneered, sarcasm dripping from the phrase. "What a joke! That worthless thing can't even listen to basic instructions! It's probably making friends with the crabs right about now!"
"With crabs?" The conversation had gotten away from her. This Gizoid thing that scared the president was a major weapon . . . and Eggman had thrown it out? It made no sense!
But Eggman was continuing, "I used the raw data from that robot to build a much better robot. Its name is E-121 Phi!" A dull grey humanoid robot with three 'horns' on its head stepped around the hovering craft and stared at the bat silently.
"What an ugly contraption," said Rouge. In truth, it didn't look like much; dokan sized, bipedal, with bulbous eyes the only features on the head other than the backswept horns.
"These guys are powered by pieces of the Chaos Emeralds. I created Phi by using Emerald shards from the Chaos Emerald I crushed!" He chortled gleefully.
Rouge blinked, several pieces of information clicking into place. "You created this . . ." she said slowly while her mind raced. She'd never heard of anyone smashing Chaos Emeralds, but wondered what effect that might have on Chaos energy; if there was some sort of backlash, the power surge might have been what overwhelmed Shadow.
"And I programmed them to collect all seven Chaos Emeralds!" crowed the scientist. "In no time, I should have seven Chaos Emeralds . . . . Oh, I forgot you're also looking for the Chaos Emeralds. So I must insist that you stay out of the way for a while."
The white bat gave the human a disbelieving look. "Seriously, you don't think that you can stop me, do you Doctor?"
"Hah! You haven't seen the power of my new creation! Go, Phi number one!"
The robot charged forward with unexpected speed. Rouge leaped into the air, kicking forward with her steel-rimmed boots while unfurling her wings and flapping vigorously. She knocked the robot back but had to scramble for more height, as it recovered much faster than she'd expected. The doctor's outdone himself, she thought as she looped around. She got behind the machine and kicked it in the head causing it to stumble forward. It rolled in a manner reminiscent of Sonic or Shadow, and swung back towards her as it came to its feet again. She focused on the join between its head and body, and aimed her next blow at that possible weak point. She was in luck, for the head ripped clear of the negligible neck, and the body collapsed to the ground. A slim shard of yellow light spilled out of the head as it rolled, and she dove for it faster than the Eggmobile's grabber hands could reach it.
"I guess it wasn't as tough as you thought it was. I'll take this Emerald shard!" She waved the crystalline fragment at the Doctor tauntingly.
The human scowled, his brows drawing together above his dark glasses.
Dang," he muttered again. "It looks like I need the original. . ." Looking up at Rouge he growled, "I'll let you go this time, but I won't take it so easy on you the next time you get in my way!" The graspers clamped onto the fallen robot and its head, and the Eggmobile whizzed away.
"Get in your way?" repeated Rouge. Big threat there. Surely he doesn't think I'll give up when that robot's all he can muster. Although the skills were unusually good; certainly better than the construction. On the other hand . . . . She considered what she'd overheard as she arrived. "Hmm," she said to herself as she glided back towards the lab, "It could get awfully complicated if the doctor has already linked himself with the Gizoid first . . . I know he said that he tossed it on the beach, but . . . . Oh well, I'd better find out more about Gizoid at the lab. I can't let the doctor take all the fun for himself."
She forgot that she'd snuck out to track the doctor, and the human guard, waking at an inopportune moment, tried to stop her at the door. "Hey, you!"
Rouge glared daggers at him. How many white dokan bats came in here? Honestly! She waved the pass irritatedly in his direction. "Here's my pass," she snapped. "Now leave me alone."
"My apologies, madam!" He retreated promptly, wisely not offering to help this time. Rouge stalked back to her cubicle. She remembered at the last moment to flip off her bug suppressor, so that the eavesdropper could once again hear clearly.
"OK, now where should I begin?" She took a deep, calming breath and logged into the unit. This time it accepted her password readily enough, and she started a search on the term 'Gizoid'. She closed her eyes while the search ran, tying to figure out why she was suddenly so worried. The doctor's not that much of a problem; he's got plenty of intelligence but very little common sense, and a surplus of ego to cloud the little he's got. Although I don't like the idea of him crushing Chaos Emeralds. I wonder if that's what knocked Shadow down. It never occurred to me that it was possible, but old Knuckles has repaired the Master Emerald several times, so I guess you can do the same to the Chaos Emeralds. I wonder if that'll have an ongoing effect on Shadow's power, or if it'll be temporary. What she knew of Shadow's power was comprised of information she'd learned from Professor Gerald's old notes in the GUN database and from Shadow himself, and neither of them totally understood how the Chaos energy / Chaos Emerald / Ultimate Life-form triangle worked. At the hedgehog's request, she'd handed her (illegal) copies of those papers and files over to him; it was safer than keeping them where she might get caught with them, after all. However, it meant they were no longer available for easy reference.
She cracked an eye open to check the computer screen, but it was still searching. So, I have a boss who's terrified of this weapon - which is apparently a robot - and wants me to find what the doctor's doing with it; an enemy who's decided it's useless and dumped it after duplicating it (not that the duplicate is much of a challenge), and is tracking down Chaos Emeralds to power up said duplicate; the weapon itself which is malfunctioning and at the beach unless someone's found it; someone planting bugs on me for reasons yet to be determined; and a planet that is barely out from under an alien invasion and the threat of residual meteorites. Not to mention the best resource regarding powers and abilities of Chaos Emeralds is unconscious in the hospital. What's a treasure hunter to do?
The computer chirped at her, and she tabled her thoughts, opening her eyes and leaning forward to study the screen. 'Warning! Highly Confidential!' was blazoned across the screen in red boldface type. Below that was the standard government warning about what would happen if unauthorized people read it, or authorized personnel used it in unauthorized means. The bat skipped that part, she'd read it all before, too many times. She scrolled down to the actual information that was considered so desperately secret. 'Battle weapon discovered in ancient ruins ', hmm, I wonder which ones, she thought, 'called Gizoid . . . Technique to acquire all forms of weaponry is based on super-science technology'. That made her sit up, and really wish she knew which ancient ruins the thing had been found in. Super-science technology. Like the stories of the old Babylonians or their neighbors? Most people wrote the tales off as distorted legends of magic, but Rouge had explored some of the ruins - not the Babylonians', their legendary flying island had apparently vanished off the face of the earth; but the ancient gryphon ruins that lay half buried in the mid-eastern deserts - and had seen for herself bits of genuine technology that Dr. Eggman himself might envy. Not to mention some gorgeous bits of jewel-inlaid mosaic and golden statuary. No jewelry, but she'd more than covered the expenses of the trip. She hunted for her place on the screen. It gave some more details about the acquisition process, concluding with, 'This process has no apparent limitations and will continue to loop indefinitely.'
Her turquoise eyes widened. No wonder the President was panicking. This robot, merely by seeing a weapon or fighting move a few times, could replicate it perfectly as a part of its built-in weaponry or its own fighting repertoire respectively - in other words, after watching the old video of the original nuclear tests a few times, this Gizoid could then launch from within itself a nuclear bomb. And all from a dokan-sized robot that looked completely innocuous, if the Doctor's copy was a good example of the original. The government and GUN were definitely going to want this one for themselves. Which begs the question, if we know so much about it, how did it end up in Eggman's hands? "Hmm," she murmured aloud, "very interesting." She read on. 'Endless cycle,' noted the computer, 'Continuing cycle causes overload which can lead to Gizoid going out of control and destroying everything in its vicinity.' Her eyes widened again at the next bit of text. 'A sequel to an experiment created by Professor Gerald, conducted by Dr Kenneth Smithwyck, resulted in the Gizoid's destroying a major portion of the research facility at ARKauai. As a result the records and the weapon itself were sealed by the government. Five years later during inventory of the secure vaults the disappearance of the Gizoid was discovered.'
"Professor Gerald," she mused, "he's Shadow's creator." Remembering her eavesdropper, she added in a louder, gayer tone, "I think I may have hit the jackpot! I'm not all that interested in anything besides jewelry, but . . . this is something else. If I can train the robot to become the ultimate robot thief . . . all the jewelry in the world will be mine! So, where can I find this thing?" She clicked the shift key a few times to simulate typing, but kept reading the information on the screen. Some parts of the story were clearly missing, either deleted entirely or beyond even her current security clearance, but there was enough there to show just how dreadful this weapon could potentially be. She recalled Dr. Eggman's muttering about a 'Link', and located the reference. 'The output of its power is initiated by an external contact, and from that point on, it will only take orders from the one who initiated the contact,' she read. 'This act is called 'establishing a Link.''
"Hmm." She considered what she had. She needed more details; what was here was clearly the bare minimum. Perhaps Shadow had awakened? On the other hand, time would appear to be of the essence. "Since the doctor still doesn't seem to have created a 'Link' with it, I'd better hurry to find it and make it mine," she decided. "If someone else finds it before me, it could get quite complicated." She realized she wasn't quite at the bottom of the page and scrolled down to reveal one more line of text: 'It will, however, take orders from others if permission is given by its original master.' Well that will simplify things. If I get to it first, I can form a 'Link' to be sure no one steals it, and then tell it to obey whomever the President wants me to hand it off to. And if someone beats me to it . . . "I see," she said. "So I can make it mine as long as I get permission from its master. I had better go find this Gizoid now. The doctor said that he tossed it at the beach," she lowered her voice as if she thought someone might be listening, "I should head to Emerald Beach." She logged off and left the lab, murmuring sotto voce about plans for breaking in to the museums. She then 'accidently' stumbled over a metal trash can, taking care to clang her bugged boot into it very loudly. Bending to rub ostentatiously at her foot, she picked the faux rhinestone off and tucked it into the pouch that held the blocking device. Flicking the device on, which she did next, probably caused a rather nasty feedback squeal wherever the eavesdropper was. She hoped they'd been listening closely to her inane mumbling. Serves them right for being so careless, she thought. Of course, she now couldn't go straight to the beach, but mid-week September wasn't a very busy time, and who'd bother an old robot anyway? Besides, if someone linked with it first, well, she could certainly induce a male to tell the robot to listen to her, and she was pretty certain she could talk a female finder around to doing the same. Especially if they didn't really know anything about what they'd found. I need more information before I go after it. For instance: How do I form a 'Link'? Does it need Chaos Emeralds to function at all, or just for full power? How did such a dangerous weapon disappear from a government storehouse and why hasn't it turned up before? The loss of it didn't particularly surprise her, but why would someone steal a weapon and then sit on it for fifty years? Well, forty-five years, give or take. Eggman would have been about 5 or 6 then, so I doubt he's had it all this time. First stop should be to check with Shadow, and see what he knows. Then . . . Well, if he can't tell me anything I guess I'll have to go up to the ARK, and see if I can ferret out any more of Gerald's records. That had been something she'd wanted to do since the recording of his execution and threats had played, but in the aftermath of the second ARK incident she hadn't had a chance, and since then she'd just been too busy. And it hadn't seemed that important anyway.
She placed a quick call to her primary contact, alerting them to the bug and that she'd implied she was heading straight to Emerald Beach, then headed instead to the hospital in hopes of talking to Shadow.