The factory was dark. It needed no lights – the R.O.B.s, like their Director, had thermal and x-ray vision. It did have lots of flickering machines and metal panels and silently trundling robots and vertical corridors. With the powerful rockets embedded in their bases, the R.O.B.s could hover several metres into the air before their propulsion systems needed time to cool. Sonic and Shadow were not so lucky.
Shadow pointed out several times that the Chaos Emeralds would allow him to defy gravity effortlessly, and the shining golden hue would go unnoticed by the workers who (he assumed) used some technique other than light vision to find their way about. Sonic retorted that light or no light, they were trying to blend in. Then he made several attempts to jump up a vertical shaft before deciding that there was probably nothing worthwhile up there anyway.
On they plodded, their footsteps on the metal floors the only sound that registered over the soft humming of the robot workers and the machines they wordlessly operated. Finding their way in the dark by the LEDs on the R.O.B.s and the computer screens, the two hedgehogs bumped into pretty much everything, including walls, robots, each other and, on one occasion, an open flagon of oil that voided its contents over several important-looking computer units. They stumbled quickly away from the scene and hoped no one would notice.
"Sonic," said the darkness with the voice of Shadow some plodding later, "take a look at these."
Sonic stopped just short of the wall he was heading for. Even in the dark, he had a tendency to move at a ridiculous pace, and therefore slid directly into the metal surface. Picking himself up, he circumvented a R.O.B. holding a bundle of wiring and joined Shadow in front of a monitor.
The black hedgehog was looking at two dossiers, just visible in the half-light. The ominous headings were just "Project Z" and "Project Ω". Sonic picked up the one on Project Z and thumbed through it, bending down in front of the monitor to see better.
"This is useless!" he said. "Lots of technical instructions and computer language! Sorry, but I don't speak nerd."
"Fortunately, I did a bit of studying in my time," said Shadow, poring over the Project Ω dossier. "That one you're looking at is clearly a set of instructions for Project Z, the cloning programme. This one is for another project, and from the size of the file an even bigger one."
"So you know what they're saying?"
Shadow continued to flick through the pages of Dossier Ω with a discerning eye.
"No," he said finally. "Dense as fuck. All I know is that Ridley's in charge of the factory, and this project's all about the huge-ass funnels on top of the factory and lots of computing and pages of calculations about 'SubSpace concentration', whatever that means."
Sonic sighed. "Guess they wouldn't leave crucial documents here for the R.O.B.s to peer at. So all we know is…"
He stopped speaking suddenly. This was because Shadow's glove was clamped over his mouth. As Sonic prepared to thrust it away with vigour, he heard a single metallic noise. It was quiet, as if the creator had been trying to suppress it.
"Someone else is here," hissed Shadow. "Someone with boots, not jets."
There was another boot-step, even quieter this time but not inaudible.
"When I get to three, we run," whispered Shadow.
"How come when you get to three?" replied Sonic in kind. "I'm the one who's saving the planet here. I'll do the countdown."
Shadow rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever. Anything that doesn't get us killed."
Sonic peered into the murk. From behind a row of computers, a soft blue glow cast a dim light on the room.
"Okay," whispered Sonic. "One…"
"Three!"
The bark from Shadow galvanised Sonic into involuntary action. This turned out to be a good thing, for as he dashed off a ball of blue light impacted with the spot he had been standing in, causing a shockwave that ruffled the hedgehogs' fur.
"Security?" Sonic suggested.
"Of course not," sighed Shadow, skating ahead. "It was the R.O.B.s. With lasers from their eyes."
Sonic instinctively ducked as he approached an R.O.B., whose eyes were glowing red. It was another good call for Sonic's subconscious, as a glowing pink laser erupted from them and streaked just over his head, singeing a stray spike.
"But I also think it's security," said Shadow, regretting his sarcastic suggestion.
It soon became clear that when their eyes glowed red, the R.O.B.s were the security, or at least its first wave. No longer innocent factory workers attending to their duty, the robots came after their quarry with in full effect. Besides lasers from their eyes, they made vicious swipes with their arms and hovered above Sonic and Shadow, attempting to scorch the intruders with blasts from their jets.
Despite the disadvantages of sheer numbers and hindered vision, the hedgehogs were much nippier on their feet than their slow and ponderous pursuers, and had they been the only threat the duo would have found the entire exercise laughable (or in Shadow's case sarcastic comment-able). The real threat came from the attacker with feet, whoever it might be. There were salvos of blue energy pellets as well as the larger balls that had nearly struck Sonic earlier, and when they ceded it was only to make room for missiles. The quickly moving explosives homed in on their targets, often missing by the smallest margins and ploughing into several million coins' worth of valuable computer equipment, obliterating it instantly.
"Who d'you think it is?" yelled Sonic above the gunfire.
"Given that the Director's called Ridley, my guess is on a Project Z clone of his nemesis."
"Of course!" Sonic spun in mid-air as a missile scraped past. "And who is that?"
Shadow growled in exasperation as he stopped time, grabbed a missile from the air and hurled it back at its source. Had he read nothing about the planet? "Samus Aran, the bounty hunter! Family killed by Ridley, took him and his Space Pirates out time and time again, settled in Port Town? Remember?"
"Oh yeah, him!" said Sonic as he dashed between two R.O.B.s, making them shoot each other. "And… who's Ridley?"
Shadow had had enough. He had had enough of fumbling around, making his way clumsily between psychotic robots. He had had enough of the person in the dark, sniping at them. He had had enough of the confusing layout of the factory, all corridors leading to nowhere and indistinguishable rooms of computers. Most of all, he had had enough of his cocky and incredibly thick rival.
"HAAAAAAH!"
The room was briefly lit up, and just for a second Sonic saw what looked like an orange robot, humanoid with enormous shoulder pads and a cannon where its left hand should be. Then it was dark again, but Super Shadow was glowing brightly.
"Let's ditch this place," said Shadow. "Grab onto me."
Sonic shook his head, then jumped to avoid a R.O.B. laser. "You fly, I'll follow."
"Sonic…"
"I'm not using them!"
Shadow emitted a long, exasperated "Hmph!" before shooting skywards. Trapped on the ground between the rows of IT equipment, the hedgehogs had not realised the true extent of the room. It went up quite a way, and by his glow Shadow could see long transparent pipes snaking through the empty space. As lasers bounced harmlessly off his shiny fur, he flew up to the pipes with something approaching interest.
The pipe walls were very thick. Clearly, what was inside needed to be preserved carefully. From his own light, Shadow could see a purple liquid – no, a gas – well, some sort of fluid occupying the pipes. He could not even see whether it was flowing or not, but presumed that it was being transported through the factory. Most interesting of all, when he got close to the pipes he could detect the purple energy that the factory was radiating in such large quantities.
"Shadow, I can't see you!"
Utterly dependent on his aid. Shadow left the pipes of purple and flew back down towards the brawl below.
"Chaos Blast!"
Shadow's creator had gifted him with the use of many powerful "Chaos" attacks when in possession of the Emeralds, and like the good Captain he had a fondness for the unnecessary announcing of these prior to execution. "Chaos Bounce" was not one of these attacks. "Chaos Blast" was, however, and manifested as a large red ball of light that slammed into a cluster of R.O.B.s and rained metal down upon the landscape.
"Very nice Shadow!" yelled Sonic from the darkness. "But I'm actually trying to get out of the fight!"
"Chaos Control!"
As everyone else slowed almost to a standstill in what Sonic called "the cheapest fighting technique known to beastkind", Super Shadow took some time out to try and find an exit. The room was large and dark, but Shadow circumvented this by rapidly firing off half a dozen Chaos Blasts that ignited the metal walls and lit the halls up like an arsonist's Wintermas tree. After that, the large door marked "Director's Office (BE QUIET)" was easy to find.
"Good news," said Shadow, hovering between Sonic and the orange-suited reprobate. "I've found Head Office. But you'll need my help to get there."
"I don't need your help!" said Sonic, apparently oblivious to the fact that Shadow's back was currently absorbing several missiles meant for him. "I'll get there myself!"
"Oh will you?" said Shadow, and pointed up.
The door was a large iron shutter that looked impregnable even without being twenty metres above the ground. Sonic gaped, recovering just in time to punch an oncoming R.O.B. in the lamps.
"If it makes you feel any better," said Shadow, "think of it as using the enemies' weapons against them."
That did put a more positive spin on matters. Plus, Samus Aran's clone was bearing down on him rather fast, arm cannon extended in what was a decidedly unfriendly manner.
"Let's do this!" Sonic cried, leaping upwards.
Shadow caught his rival and swung him out of the way of a blue ball of death. He gave Samus a Chaos Blast to keep the bounty hunter busy, but he simply retracted his suit into a small orange ball and rolled out of the way. He lined up a few more shots, but Shadow was already streaking upwards, carrying Sonic like one might carry an old coat when the sun comes out. Another Chaos Blast saw the door burst off its hinges, and just like that they were out of the big dark room filled with computers and into another big dark room filled with computers.
The computers in here seemed to be more organised. They were all arranged along the left wall, along with a massive monitor that faintly lit up the room, a desk and a giant winged shape perched in front of the desk, glowering at the hedgehogs and clutching its head.
"My door!" it squawked. "My bloody door!"
Partially visible from the monitor's glare, Sonic could still recognise the unmistakable evil in front of him, despite his ignorance of Nintendo's celebrities. The massive curved claws, the rows of dagger-shaped teeth, the shining eyes… On Nintendo, if you were a villain you tended to look like one, and Ridley was no exception.
"Hey you!" yelled Sonic.
Ridley turned, his long tail swishing through the air in a manner suggesting that if you got in the way it would cut you up real nice, and flapped his wings. They had not quite recovered from the Combo Cannon, but they worked well enough to get the enormous pterosaur airborne. He flew away into the darkness, still squawking angrily about his door.
"'Hey you,'" mimicked Shadow. "What was that supposed to accomplish? Don't answer that: there is no answer to that. Let's just get him."
"Look," said Sonic calmly, "I know you'd rather go in and Chaos Blast the walls to within an inch of their lives, but can we please try a more stealthy approach? Look! There's light through there, where he went, and a door we can reach from the floor. So please disable the Emeralds for a bit."
Shadow scowled, but in a flash the Emeralds were in his hands and his fur was black again.
"Fine," he said. "The stealthy approach it…"
As the arm cannon came down on his head and he slipped swiftly into unconsciousness, Shadow's last thought was what a stupid idea that had been.
o o o
"Ow!"
Sonic was jolted into wakefulness by a jolt to the knee. It came from the arm cannon of Samus Aran, whose shining blue eyes looked out at the hedgehog from behind a green visor. He proceeded to fire another small blue shot at the legs of Shadow, who came to with a similar noise of pain and annoyance.
"Awake at last, are we?" said a sneering nasal voice.
Sonic attempted to run, knowing full well that it was no use. He could feel the chain binding his wrists tightly to the railing. Focusing on the situation, he could make out Shadow across the room in a similar predicament. He awaited his rival's abuse impatiently, and was slightly surprised when none was forthcoming.
"You took a tumble there," said the voice. "My pet's arm cannon could have shattered your delicate hedgehog skulls."
How did he get up to the door? Sonic thought, before noticing Samus' jet boots and cursing in his head. Behind the hunter, his eyes glittering ever more brightly (with… was that anger?), Ridley squatted vulture-like, eyes glittering in kind. Behind him, there was some sort of large screen, not lit up like every other one but dull and grey-green. Black shapes played across its surface, too distant and flickery for Sonic's recovering brain to make out. There was a gentle red light illuminating the cavernous room from below. Sonic deduced that the platform they stood on was surrounded by lava, but he was only moderately warm. Quite a drop, then.
"So I suppose you think that this is the part where I reveal my evil plan, and then you break free at the last moment and stop me?" said Ridley.
The thought had crossed Sonic's mind. To be a villain, a true villain, one needs an ego the size of a small planetoid, which was frequently the cause of one's eventual and inevitable downfall.
"Well tough luck! Even if I hadn't deprived you of your shoes…"
Sonic looked at his semi-prehensile feet for the first time in ages. He had always worn those trainers, even in the shower or in bed. They had been through so much together. He had even had rockets strapped to the soles to propel him to Nintendo in the first pace. Despite their many holes, he felt naked without them. Hell, he was naked without them.
"…and any weapons you might have hidden in them…"
Sonic was so glad Shadow had the Chaos Emeralds were hidden in Shadow's fur. Wait. No he wasn't. Fake emeralds bad. Stop thinking like that. Don't need them.
"…and thus prevented you from using your super speed against me…" Ridley paused for effect, then spoilt it by clutching at his head. "Argh! Migraine! I can't do this. Sammy, run the presentation."
Samus removed a small chip from his oversized breastplate and inserted it into his arm cannon, which he then pointed towards the screen. The cannon shot out neither lasers nor explosives, but instead projected an image of a posing Ridley onto the screen. Meanwhile the real Ridley hunched himself up and put his hands over his ear holes.
"Greetings, pathetic creature or creatures!" gloated Ridley's image. "This presentation has been put together to save me the effort of having to talk to such simple lifeforms as yourselves. I'm sure you already know who I am…"
"Not a clue!" yelled Sonic.
"Sonic," hissed Shadow across the room, "antagonising the purple dragon who has us chained up is not the best move!"
But Ridley was not listening. He was busy helping himself to some tablets. Meanwhile Samus continued to project the presentation with body language that fell under the heading "bored beyond belief".
"…lucky enough to learn what it is you're dealing with before you die!" crowed the projection. "So allow me to give you a rundown of just what's going on here in the Omega Factory."
Sonic could not believe his luck. Was Ridley really that stupid?
"Haha! Fooled you! You thought I was going to tell you everything?"
No, just incredibly vain.
"WRONG! You'll never know what we're doing here! Suffice to say, it involves the substance SubSpace, and a process that will destroy your world forever!"
SubSpace… That term seemed to be everywhere these days. Wario had called them "SubSpace" keys, and then Shadow had read the word in the report. What did it mean, and what did it do?
The projection was still talking. "…an incredible substance, capable of bestowing mighty powers upon those fit to receive it. For the rest of the world, it means nothing but ruin and misery! SubSpace will…"
Despite the distinct possibility of his imminent death, Sonic found the presentation and gloating therein remarkably boring. He longed to move, to run, to do something. He stared across at Shadow from beneath half-closed eyelids and followed Shadow's puzzled eyes, not to the projection but to the screen behind it.
It was displaying a small purple blob that had just entered from the left. The blob was buffeted to and fro by unseen forces before it dropped to the ground, still heaving. Then it rose, slowly, a head with a large nose emerging from the mire, black not purple. The head was followed by arms, a torso and legs, until a crude representation of a man stood inside the screen, dark and completely flat. Then he made his way across the screen, in a peculiar frame-by-frame movement, leapt upwards towards the right and was gone.
And now another blob emerged from the left, also vibrating frantically, as the whole process started again. Such shapes had been displayed on the screen the entire time, forming men who jittered across the screen and left for pastures new. Who were they? And were the purple blobs SubSpace?
Sonic zoned back in. "…the heart of the factory: the Flatzone. Behind me, SubSpace is processed into figures that go to do the bidding of the League of Villains Extraordinaire, future rulers of this galaxy! What is that bidding, you ask?"
Sonic remained silent.
"Hah! Wouldn't you like to know?"
Sonic got the distinct feeling that Ridley didn't either. He returned to watching the little black men. There was a large pipe on the right of the "Flatzone", where the men left: where did they go after that? Who knew? Actually, given Shadow's energy tracing skills, Sonic had a fair idea. "Joined by a sort of channel..."
"Hey, stupid! The blue one! In the face!"
It stung with the fury of a hundred robotic wasps. When Sonic had finished his yell of pain, he saw Ridley sneering at him and Samus with arm cannon primed, ready to shoot lasers instead of images.
"My presentation not interesting you, Sonic?" growled Ridley. "Rather watch the pipes, would you? Or perhaps we should dispense with the formalities and I'll just kill you now!"
"Oh for the love of the Gods!"
Seven patches in Shadow's fur glowed different colours. His chains separated into their component links and hurled themselves at Ridley, who ineffectually tried to swat them away with his claws. They pinged off his forehead, no doubt doing nothing to improve his perpetual migraine. Ridley swore vehemently and clutched at his temples.
"You're a worse villain than Robotnik!" said Shadow. "Giving us a presentation, telling us everything you know when you evidently know nothing anyway! Face it, dino breath, you're just a glorified peon!"
Sonic thought briefly about Shadow's previous statement concerning the wisdom of antagonising Ridley, before dismissing it from his mind in favour of concentrating on the unfolding situation. Samus was blasting missiles at the escaping Shadow, who was skidding just off the floor, fur still black but Emeralds orbiting around him like an angry solar system. Ridley seemed to be trying to keep his head from falling apart, emitting energy blasts from his maw indiscriminately. Shadow's paw swooped down and picked up his trainers, followed by Sonic's, while its partner stopped a missile in mid-air with a Chaos Blast.
Sonic's trainers came flying over to Sonic. Looking down, he saw that one of them had something red and shiny inside.
"Save me your moral dilemmas, Sonic!" yelled Shadow, peppering the beleaguered Samus clone with lightning bolts. "Free yourself and give me a hand!"
It was wrong to use these devils' artefacts, but it was more wrong to let Shadow fight alone. Sonic closed his eyes, letting the humming from the red Emerald synchronise with his pulse, and exhaled deeply…
…and with a clang the links shot off every which way, allowing him to re-don his trainers. Hello, buddies. I've missed you.
"Samus, you useless lump of space junk," yelled Ridley, "get those stones! I don't know what they are, but I want them!"
Shadow gave a contemptuous smirk as the six Emeralds he held hovered about his head. Closing his eyes, he let time slow to a crawl and energy flow from the hovering stones into his body. Sonic caught up with him just as he opened his eyes, rainbow coloured now, and stared at Ridley with fists clenched and energy humming around him.
"CHAOS…"
There was a sharp crack as one Emerald was torn out of the sky and towards Samus' charging beam. Shadow was hit in the back of the head by the shock and fell to the floor, the Emeralds doing the same. Ridley cackled manically as Samus' cannon sucked up the remaining five Emeralds, while Sonic bent down beside Shadow.
"You okay, buddy?"
"Never better," said Shadow, rubbing the back of his head. "And I ain't your buddy."
"It's okay, Shadow," said Sonic, cradling his red Emerald, "we still have one."
Samus could barely keep his gun still. It shook and wobbled and sparked with six colours of energy.
"How is this okay?" asked Shadow.
"Well done, Samus!" said Ridley, stretching his wings in triumph. "Looks like you have some use other than clubbing defenceless hedgehogs. Now, obey your master and finish them off!"
The blue points of light beneath the visor flicked briefly in Ridley's direction and back again. The cannon was wobbling all over the place now, sending sparks everywhere and with a ball of blue energy, now almost as big as Samus himself, on the end. The bounty hunter just about managed to steady it in the direction of the hedgehogs; as Sonic jumped up, pulling Shadow up with him, he just had time to think that there was no way they could dodge a blast that size from this range before it fired.
It emerged not as a blue ball, but as a concentrated beam of blue light as tall as Samus, making his entire suit shake dangerously. It was slower than Sonic had thought it would be but equally unstoppable, and it pushed across the battlefield with a single target.
Ridley.
It was probably a mistake. The gun was shaking all over the place before the beam was fired – it could have hit anyone, or shot off into space or something, and surely it was just chance that it happened to focus its energy on Ridley, trapping him screaming and writhing. Sonic and Shadow watched in shock as the beam continued to flow outwards from the cannon. Other things flowed outwards too: first one, then two more Chaos Emeralds were expelled forcibly from the barrel and, carried along by the torrent of blue death, found themselves being propelled down Ridley's screaming mouth. One last emerald also made it into the beam as it died, and bounced off Ridley's chest before the dragon fell with a crash, dangerously close to the edge of the platform. Sonic had rushed over and reclaimed the fallen jewel before Samus' suit, smashed into its component pieces by the sheer amount of energy it had exuded, could fall off his body.
And what a body.
"Oh," said Sonic, after a moment of staring. "So that's why his breastplate was so large!"
Or rather, her breastplate. Standing where the orange robot had been was a six-foot-plus woman in tight blue Lycra, which showed off the bountiful curves her nonetheless slender body possessed in abundance. Her hair, flowing and naturally blonde, fell over a sharp face of milky white skin. There was no denying it: she was gorgeous.
"You didn't know Samus was a woman?" yelled Shadow.
Her shiny blue eyes fixed on Sonic and she drew a small black gun from its holster. She may have been gorgeous, but she was also trying to kill them, and Sonic was no praying mantis. He leapt into the air and hurled an Emerald over her head towards Shadow, whose Chaos techniques were more useful than Sonic's in a pinch.
"Catch!"
He would have done, but the opportunity was denied him. The gun shot up and a lasso of yellow energy caught the passing gem, bringing it down and into Samus' arms, together with the two that already resided there.
"Oops," said Sonic.
Samus glowed yellow for a second, and then Shadow was whisked off his feet towards her. If he had been expecting a tango, he was sorely disappointed: when he reached the bounty hunter, he was enveloped in crackling yellow energy that sucked him in and spat him out like a disgruntled vacuum cleaner. Sonic rushed in, single remaining Emerald in tow, but even when on fire his fist bounced off the restored orange suit with a clang and a noise of pain. He remembered his first day on Nintendo bitterly as Samus' arm cannon hummed into life again.
"KAHAHAHAA!"
The humming died away, shamed into non-existence by the manic laughter. Ridley was awake, and yellow light was radiating from within his chest. As it continued to do so, his purple skin hardened, changing from scales into something that looked much more like armour plating.
"My headache!" he roared. "It's gone! Oh, it's gone, gone with my pathetic organic body! Those stones, those wonderful stones!"
His body was now entirely covered in the metallic armour, his wings replaced by bat-like yellow sheets. His eyes glowed an insane yellow.
"Are they miracle aspirins or something, 'cause DAMN that shit tastes good! But you've got more, haven't you? Where are they?"
Samus resumed charging her weapon, her blue eyes flickery beneath the green visor. She had forgotten about the hedgehogs' existence now, and her cannon was focused on the metal dragon. Ridley gave a screech of anger.
"Oh, now I remember!" he cawed. "Your blaster! Even when cloned, I can't trust you, can I?"
He opened his mouth and a column of yellow lifted Samus into the air, the three remaining Emeralds scattered across the platform. Ridley gave a cry of triumph and spent precious moments wondering which of the gems to go for first. Having made his choice, he launched himself into the air and dived at the empty spot where the Emerald had been before Sonic swept in to pick it up. Bringing himself to an awkward stop with a hoot of dismay, he looked around in time to see Shadow reclaiming the second dropped Emerald. Samus, barely able to sit up, lashed out with her right arm; a blue beam of some sort emerged, snatching up the remaining green Emerald and retrieving it.
"Stop this foolishness!" yelled Ridley. "The stones are mine!"
While the hedgehogs watched from one "corner" of the circular platform, looking at Ridley with hunted eyes, the beast bore down on his own soldier, half-lying on the floor. As he drew close to her, she charged up a ball of energy that exploded harmlessly against the dragon's chest. He plucked the Emerald off the floor and looked at her with disdain.
"You always were a thorn in my side, Samus," he said. "Can't even be a good servant."
The missile exploded in his face. Snarling, Ridley swept his tail around, catching Samus' leg and hurling her into the air, off the platform and down to a fiery grave. A gentle purple mist floated up from below.
"Chaos Control!"
Ridley's clawing at the eyes and thrashing of the tail slowed slightly as Shadow, his white Emerald glowing, dodged into the gaps and grabbed the green Emerald from the beast's claws. With time flowing normally, Shadow landed near Sonic.
"Cheesy teamwork moment?" he suggested sorrowfully.
The hedgehogs held their four Emeralds high. Sonic began to spin on the spot, first slowly, then faster and faster, then faster yet and charged with electricity. Shadow's eyes lit up as he took his stand behind Sonic and drew his fist back.
"Fore!"
There was a mighty crash as Sonic, by the virtue of Shadow's Emerald-ed up fist, was sent flying towards the rapidly blinking Ridley. He sliced through the air with an almost audible tearing sound, surrounded by four Chaos Emeralds. Ridley opened his eyes just as Sonic approached, followed by his mouth.
He was probably attempting to fire off a powerful beam of destruction, which would have failed anyway because it would have been using three Emeralds to Sonic's four. We will never know for sure, because Sonic collided with the reptile's jaws (if Ridley could still be called a reptile) long before any energy had a chance to erupt. This was good. The fact that the Chaos Emeralds did not stop there and continued on down Ridley's throat was not.
"Oh Gods!" said Sonic, rolling away from the scene.
Ridley recovered and stood quietly for a moment, licking his metal lips with a long black tongue.
"When this is all written down," said Shadow, "this will be the point at which they will say it all went to hell."
Then it all went to hell. Ridley shrieked at a pitch that startled bats for miles around and produced his powerful beam of destruction, too late and towards the ceiling, knocking a massive hole in the roof. Sonic span quickly to the other side of the platform, sweat drenching his blue-furred brow and the noise of falling metal and wailing pterodactyl aggravating his cochleas. When he reached Shadow, standing near the entrance walkway, they watched together as Ridley flapped awkwardly and gave inhuman yells that would have impressed the Ultimate Chimera, all the time voiding energy from his gullet.
"That's one hell of a case of food poisoning," said Shadow quietly.
The "vomiting" was clearly doing nothing to improve the burning pain within. The yellow glow was clearly visible through the monster's chest armour. Ridley was flying in circles now, shooting energy beams well above the duo's heads. Finally he stopped in mid-air, hovered there awkwardly and, with a forlorn look at his former captives, emitted the Emeralds with a tearing sound from his chest, rocketing off in the opposite direction and smashing hard into and through the Flatzone. Then, silence.
"Pick them up!" yelled Shadow.
They dashed into the centre of the room, footfalls suddenly audible again, to collect the eight gems. Sonic looked at the eighth, a cyan gem attached to a golden key, with a smug smile. Mission accomplished. Then he looked back at Ridley, and the smile vanished from his face.
"Shadow…"
The blobs continued to enter the screen from the left, but before they could become men they were sucked out through the cracks resulting from Ridley's collision. Now a thick purple fog was emerging from the shattered Flatzone, coming towards them rather too quickly to be friendly.
"We need to get out of here!" yelled Shadow.
Sonic looked forlornly at the Chaos Emeralds. Copies of a thing destroyed for the good of the entire galaxy, made to broker a deal with villains. But could not even the most evil things be turned to good with a little effort? He sighed, flashed yellow and felt the power surging through him. It felt a bit like being drunk, only without the lack of co-ordination and with the power of flight.
"Get on then," he said, clutching the key.
o o o
How would a sensible person have behaved, being chased out of the Omega Factory by a malevolent purple mass and gifted with the power of supersonic flight?
It might have flown directly upwards, out of the holes Ridley had made, thus avoiding having to navigate through the already unstable structure entirely. Or it might have gone back the way it came, only flying over the rows of IT equipment rather than through them, making for an escape without needing to wend its way through R.O.B.s and computer systems.
Sonic was stuck right in Hero Mode, which sticks the middle finger up at the sensible approach in favour of spectacle and additional gratuitous peril. He went back the exact same way they had come, and was forced to dodge the panicking R.O.B.s and computer systems because although he was Super Sonic and had flight and invincibility powers, he had a distinctly non-Super Shadow clinging onto his spines for dear life. Thus did they wend their way through the identical looking rows of expensive equipment, avoiding the sea of robots who seemed to have had much the same idea about the purple mist as they had, as well as the rain of debris caused by Ridley's upset stomach and the resulting structural damage to the building. In the dark and the confusion, one corridor looked much like any other.
"Sonic," said Shadow, "I think you should know that there were pipes carrying SubSpace up in the ceiling as well."
Sonic did not need to be told what that meant: pipes being broken by bits of falling building, emitting more purple mist from above.
"What's it doing?" he asked Shadow.
Shadow squinted into the mist, still distant enough but getting closer. "It seems to be freezing the R.O.B.s."
"In ice?"
"No, in time."
For once, his voice was completely void of sarcasm. When the poor robots were consumed by the mysterious substance, they froze instantly. What was more peculiar was the glittering golden effect around their feet when they froze, like a trophy base.
"It's almost like it turns them into figurines…" said Shadow thoughtfully.
"Great," said Sonic. "Let's pipe it through the planet and we can collect the whole set!"
There was light at the end of the tunnel. As SubSpace came at Sonic from all angles, he glimpsed rays of hope from under a door and shot towards it, slamming through the metal shutter in a manner that possibly should have been accompanied by a shout of "OH YEAH!" but was not. As he streaked through the reception and out onto the mountaintop, he had a chance to glimpse sideways at the decapitated R.O.B. 380,113, its MA cut cruelly short by the stealth of the now deceased Samus clone. He gave a sigh in its memory as he flew away.
"Sonic, it's stopped."
Sonic turned in mid-air and touched down on the summit, shedding his Chaos power. The snow crunched beneath his and Shadow's feet. Ten metres away, the SubSpace had expanded to cover the entire factory, forming a shining purple ball around it, and then halted. Like the R.O.B.s, the factory appeared to have a massive round golden base, just visible through the purple. The two stood for a while, shivering and gasping for breath, looking at the stopped factory.
"Poor old 381,002," said Sonic. "It'll never learn how our minds work."
"380,113," said Shadow semi-automatically.
So, this was SubSpace. The substance that would help the LOVE take over the world, yet if Ridley was believed could confer amazing powers upon those fit to receive them. A thick purple fog, glimmering in the early morning sun, which turned all it touched into frozen trophies. Or maybe not all. Also very similar to what was left behind when the clones died. Marth, Ness, Samus: they had all become this same purple mist. And what about the Flatzone and its flat black men? What happened to them?
"Sonic."
Sonic looked up, and there they were: a procession of simple figures, strolling across the sunny sky in their frame-by-frame way, walking southeast upon their journey. They were still emerging from the factory, but sporadically, less regularly now that Ridley had been launched face-first into their creation process. This was the channel joining the large purple splodges on the map.
"What do you think this means?" asked Shadow, his face wrinkled with curiosity. "SubSpace, flat men, the Day of Reckoning, the keys oh Gods you do still have the key, don't you?"
Sonic extended a hand containing a glowing item.
"That's a Chaos Emerald."
Sonic searched frantically in his fur pockets, spilling the Emeralds out onto the crisp snow, until he pulled out the key and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank heavens," said Shadow, sighing in kind.
"I thought you said you were just along for the ride, Shadow," said Sonic. "You weren't interested in the outcome, remember."
Shadow flushed. "Yes, well, seeing as I've come all the way here and defied the orders of the people who sent me I figure I may as well see it through to the end."
Sonic nodded with a grim smile. Not like you care about anyone, eh? Oh no, not you. I won't tell them I saw a teardrop on your face when we flew past 380-bot if you don't.
"Don't know about you," he said instead, "but I'm freezing. Let's follow the flat people; see where they go." He lifted a foot and waggled it in the direction of "down".
Shadow looked at him with a sad expression. "Please don't…"
"C'mon, Shadow! Step."
"No."
"It."
"NO!"
"UP!"
He was off down the mountain in an instant, leaving Shadow to pick up the Emeralds and shake his head forlornly at his companion, still too proud to use the gems to track the flat men. But then, that was Sonic for you. Two legs attached to a motor engine, controlled by a head full of empty and a heart full of himself. The most headstrong hedgehog one could ever hope to meet, always ready to hurl himself into a new situation however dangerous it might be for the hope of doing some good, getting some fame. And where had it got him?
Shadow scooped up the last Emerald and activated the septet, chasing Sonic down the mountain in yellow glowing style with one eye fixed on the black procession in the clouds, marching to their final destination.
It had made him a hero, beloved by all. It just wasn't fair.
8
1 And thus was all peaceful in the Final Destination for a while. 2 The Master Hand looked out over the world and created some things; the Crazy Hand looked out over the world and destroyed some things; and both moderated the progress of the world with minimum involvement.
3 Then one (Nintendo) day did the Crazy Hand approach its partner with a degree of agitation not seen since the villains had stopped entering. And the Master Hand did inquire what was wrong. 4 So did the Crazy Hand say, "Blah bloo bleurgh blyurgh." And this meant nothing to the Master Hand, who gave its partner a warning poke. 5 And the Crazy Hand continued: "There is a being in the Final Destination." 6 And the Master Hand did give it another poke, saying, "That's even crazier than your silly noises! Apart from us, no being has entered the Final Destination since the gates were shut." 7 But the Crazy Hand would not be dissuaded, and tugged at its partner, saying, "Come and see."
8 So did the Master Hand come and see the being, which had taken the form of a cyan man. And it had opened the Gate of Souls, and was dashing towards it. But when it was not so far away, it would seem to be repelled, cringing from the light of the outside and hiding its face.
9 And the Master Hand said, "It appears I have misjudged you. I shall go and see what it wants." 10 And the Crazy Hand did say, "Be careful, partner. I have a bad feeling about this creature. Papaah." 11 But the Master Hand did reply, "You are as mad as a barrel of rabid otters." And it did approach the being.
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