Age of Darkness
Chapter V
Just an Ordinary Hedgehog
The six Crystals were added to the Cannon. "Now what, Doctor?" Rouge asked as she and I stared at the genius typing away on the computer. "Kaboom," Eggman said back. The Eclipse Cannon was activated. After I left the hallway and wandered through the endless labyrinth of hallways and rooms, I went down a long and winding staircase for a long time, finally reaching the bottom. I was at an outer hallway and there were windows. That was not my goal though. I went into a different room not far from the edge that had a window in view of the colony's nose and waited. The colony was still covered by the rock shield that was used to conceal it years ago. The nose started glowing green and a bolt of fire flew into the rocky covering. Rouge found me and watched also. "What is he doing?" She asked. I remained silent. The obstruction was shattered and many fragments were sent into the bleak vacuum of space. The nose of the colony opened into four parts and they spread apart like they were hinged to the colony. "Kaboom," I repeated. That is what Eggman said, anyways.
A screen in the room turned on and Egghead's face was on it. "Greetings, people of the world. My name is doctor Eggman. I am the most glorious scientific mind in history. I will be your new ruler. The Eggman Empire is born!" "I presume he sent the signal all around the world," I realized. "What? Why?" Rouge asked me, her pretty blue-green eyes lit up. "Eggman wants to rule the world. We are helping him," I answered simply.
A skinny spire was between the four sections of the nose, and the end of the spire seemed to catch on fire as it burned with an unearthly green color. "Doctor Eggman is going to fire the cannon," I explained. A bulge of green fire collected at the end of the spire, and green fire was gathering on it from the four sections. Soon enough, a large ball of hot green fired off of the cannon, and the bulge narrowly missed the Earth. No! Not the Moon! I swore under my breath. The solid face of the Moon was struck, and a titanic explosion seemed to rip under the Moon's surface, sending pieces of the moon into space. The Moon was now a moon with a giant hole on its side ripped in pieces, a jumbled jigsaw puzzle. Under the fragments, the core of the Moon glowed red.
I stared at the bleak hallways of metal and wires before me. The control room was now a hub of activity for my team. I am glad the scaffolding has rails, for the sake of safety. It is a very long way down... I found out when we just returned to the colony. I had found several coins that Sonic had dropped. As Egghead was checking on one of his bases, I believe it was in Egypt, Rouge and I waited. I filled up on steak and potatoes - real potatoes I would like to point out. Thank God for the cryogenic freezer! Food stored here thirty years ago is the same as it was then.
As we waited, I pulled two pennies, a nickel, and a quarter out of my pocket. "What are you doing?" Rouge asked. I stared down at the abyss below. "You will see," I answered. I dropped a penny, then the second penny. "Why are you throwing money down the pit?" My eyes narrowed. "Because money is power. Power is something man should have never found. Besides, I want to find out how deep this pit is," I finished. I lowered my head over the hole and listened. I waited. "That is a pretty deep hole, I would say," Rouge decided. I threw a nickel. "That hole is at least one hundred meters deep," I said. "Why don't you use customary measurement?" Rouge asked quietly.
"Good question. Customary is nothing more than a plethora of incredibly annoying and useless fractions. It is impractical. For example, I would take more time converting fractions into their equivalents. Seven eights, five eights, three quarters, fifteen sixteenths, twelve inches in a foot, three feet in a yard, five thousand two hundred eighty feet in a mile. Sixteen fluid ounces in a cup, two cups in a pint, two pints in a quart, four quarts in a gallon. So on and so on. Metric is one fraction; ten. Everything in metric uses ten. Metric uses values of ten and values divisible by ten. I wish America used metric instead. That would mean no more seven eights of an inch. No more fumbling for a calculator. Just count up the zeros." I shook my head.
I dropped a quarter. Nothing happened. "That is no pit, that is an abyss," I stated. Out of nowhere, I picked up an anvil and threw it over the edge. "See if this three kilogram anvil does anything." "How did you..." Rouge stared at me with large eyes. "Get the anvil? I do not know, ask the author!" Rouge watched the darkness with me. Waiting for one minute, I concluded that nothing happened. I walked over to the terminal and waited. A distant thud was heard far below the room. "That pit is one kilometer deep. I feel safer on the metal floor." An alarm blared. Red lights lit up and I looked at the computer screen. I chuckled at the screen. The screen said, "No anvils allowed in the abyss!" "Oops. I hope I did not break too much," I said as I rolled my eyes.
I left the control room and Rouge behind. I wandered away from her and found a room that was once a bedroom. Time to sleep, I thought to myself. I closed the door of the room and flopped onto the bed. I closed my eyes and the darkness lulled me to rest... Three hours later I opened my crimson eyes. I saw a faint reflection of the outside light under my nose. "What is this?" I slowly poked the reflection with my finger. POP! I jumped. The reflection under my nose disappeared and a small drop of moisture was on my finger. Great, a sleeping bubble. I guess I snore really loud too! I got up and went back to the control room which was many hallways and levels away. Doctor Eggman was there and he was on the computer, looking at a map of the ARK. "Shadow! Where have you been!?" Last time, Rouge asked me where I was. Now, Egghead was asking where I was, and he sounded angry. "Ultimate life needs to sleep too, you know," I replied as I rubbed my eyes. "Oh," was his response. His snarl vanished and he returned his eyes to the screen. "Where is Rouge?" I asked, noticing she was absent. "Sonic and his friends showed up. They got a rocket from my base and are boarding right now." "Okay, no problem," I said nonchalantly. "Shadow, they are here to stop us. And they have the final Chaos Crystal." My eyes widened. "So? That is good." Egghead pointed at the screen. Among the map, there were two signals.
"One of the Crystals is a decoy. If I have time to examine both of the crystals, I can figure out which one is the phony. Where is Rouge?" I asked again. "She is out fighting some echidna. The echidna is guardian of the Master Emerald." The screen lit up. An electronic female voice gave warning. "Intruder! Intruder!" A camera view appeared. I saw three people. Sonic was there. The gold fox was there. The young pink hedgehog was there with them. Sonic and Tails left the girl behind. "They are just going to leave her there?" My eyes widened. "It appears so," Doctor Eggman said. "I am going to capture her and hold her hostage." "That is pretty underhanded," I said with surprise. "I do not care! If it stops Sonic and Tails, I will do it!" Eggman's face turned red as he yelled. "The Moon will return to its previous state," I said in warning. "I like the Moon. I wish you shot a smaller scale blast at a remote part of Earth. Even the prospect of massive explosions from space would be enough to subdue them," I commented. "I do things big, Shadow," Doctor Eggman replied. "The Moon will be as it was..." I said again as we waited. "Or what!?" Eggman said angrily as he turned around. I stared at him with anger burning in my eyes. "Okay, Shadow! I get your point," he said as we watched the screen again.
I just waited at the control room. Rouge is fine, and Doctor Eggman has captured the girl. Maybe I should check on them, I thought as I left the room and locked it behind a solid door of steel. I hate this colony. Now it is dark and dim, because Eggman cannot get it fully operational. The levels at the core of the colony are pitch-black. I brought the Chaos Ruby with me to light the way in darkness. I soon noticed that I was at the edge of the core. I pushed a door open and beyond me was the rift between the core and the rest of the colony. Egghead and the girl are in a level below me. I crossed a metal bridge over the rift and wandered down a stairwell to find the Doctor. Only the hallways where people were had been illuminated, so I was still in darkness. My shoes clanked against the metal of the stairs and I soon stopped part of the way down. A door was in front of me, beside the stairs. The door was labeled "Level 152A." "This is the place," I said quietly as I opened the door and left the stairs behind. The core was in a quadrant of its own. The levels of the core had letter "E" to go with it. I was on level 152, quadrant A. Even the quadrants of each level are huge. As I remembered how small I was, I felt alone. The colony had five quadrants, including the core, four thousand levels, and was thirty kilometers across. Now that I know the quadrant and level, I still need to know the sector and hallway... and room. L152A-S8-37 is my goal.
I turned my hover shoes off. My own legs might be rusty if I become lazy. The floor was lit a faint red as I continued running down a seemingly endless hallway of bleak metal. Sector Eight. I was in Sector Two. I kept on running at what was for me a comfortable pace. As I neared Sector Seven, I realized my Ruby was not the only light in the darkness. I stopped and turned left to follow a light. I could see numerous pipes, cables, and panels of the abandoned colony in the hall. The light grew brighter, and I could see the colors of the objects on the wall around me. A sign was on the wall showed me where I was: Sector 8. I found Egghead and the young girl in a minute. They stood in a bleak room of steel and glass. We were at the colony's edge, and the fragmented pieces of the Moon were in view just behind the Earth. "Shadow, what are you doing here?" The young girl asked. "Be quiet, Amy." Amy? That is her name? Hmm... Eggman spoke up again. "What are you doing, Shadow?" I remained quiet as I glanced at Amy. "Doctor, you know what I asked of you before. Follow it again. Do me a favor," I said. Doctor Eggman nodded, and turned to his hostage. "Do not hurt her," I said as I departed. Amy was watching me with awe in her eyes. I paused for an instant as I noticed her. She is surprised. She looks glad. Why? I do not want a child to suffer for the wretchedness of adults. I disappeared into a cloak of darkness again...
Half an hour passed since I saw Amy and the Doctor. I waited in silence in a dark room. Light from the shattered Moon was my only company. I hid in a room not far from the others; I wanted to see what was happening from a distance. I heard the colony shudder and a missile shot out of the colony. What is going on here? I peered at the missile. Sonic is in there! Egghead hates Sonic. I guess this is his end... The missile shrank in distance. A small white light glowed in the black of space and a fireball was left in its place. I heard a muffled scream from a nearby room. It was Amy. The scream was quiet where I stood, but it must have been loud where the others were. "Sonic!! No!!" I heard a faint sob. I feel bad. I can't believe he died... He pushed my buttons a lot, but he was just trying to stop... me. I looked at the dimming red cloud of smoke as it dissipated. "I guess you were just an ordinary hedgehog after all. Goodbye, Sonic."