The team nodded and went their separate ways. Amy grabbed her hammer as the other three went out the door. She girded up her courage for the prison was poorly lit. She headed down one stair and peered around the corner. A couple of motobugs was all she could see. Must not be the right floor.
She went down one more stair and this time she saw a E-1000 robot on guard duty. She braced herself to get ready for the jump she would need to get a decisive first swing. The she jumped. The E-1000 robot turned its gun at her and fired. Her hammer came down on the gun at the same time.
Disarmed, the E-1000 robot offered its shield to stop the hammer blows. Amy double jumped over the robot and slammed her hammer into the other side of the robot, taking its head off. It crumpled on the ground and a rabbit jumped out and away.
This hallway was much better lit that the ones above it. She could see something in the cells furthest from the exit. It was a lumpy fellow. She got closer and could see Dr. Eggman snoozing in a cell. Across from him was Rouge's cell. She was also asleep but she looked more unnaturally so. One cell over from hers was…Sonic's.
Amy started banging away at the lock, which should have woken up anyone in the vicinity. She cried Sonic's name as she hacked away.
"He can't hear you, you know," said the voice of Eggman from behind her.
"He's okay, isn't he? If you did anything to him…" Amy began to shake her hammer.
"Oh he's fine. Just drugged. They figured it would prevent him escaping. Smart move on their part," said Eggman. "Of course I wish they had not locked me up too. World domination is my thing after all. I must say, you are the last person I expected to see here."
"Who are they?" asked Amy Rose.
"You don't need to know. Have a nice nap, Ms. Rose," said Eggman. Three forms appeared as Amy collapsed on the floor.
Tails hid among the stacks and outputs on the roof of a building. He could see rising clouds of smoke where he assumed Omega was still hunting. Some streets leading from the Eggman head shaped headquarters were loaded with Badniks. Other buzz bomber patrols zoomed above.
"This is Tails," said Tails into his watch. "I've got a route through some alleys. Take the first alley and then go left, left, and then right. I'll rejoin you from the top of that building."
Shadow and Espio moved carefully through the buildings. They could hear the rumblings of motobugs and others on the main roads. They had made it to just across from the Eggman headquarters. They were hiding in the shadow of the building across the street.
"There's no other way in that I can see from up here," said Tails' voice on the bracelet.
"Looks like a bunch of slicers standing guard outside the door," said Espio.
"I'll handle this," said Shadow, patting his gun.
"You think I would let you have all the fun here?" muttered Espio.
The two charged out of the dark and Shadow unloaded five rounds into the first five slicers he saw. Espio jumped on a building to dodge slicer fire. Shadow then homing attacked one and then fired the rifle to take down five more. The way was clear.
Tails landed from above and pushed the door open. He and Shadow ran inside and closed the door behind him. Shadow pulled a bench over from the side of the room to secure the door. Now they were in the belly of the beast.
"Where's Espio?" asked Tails.
"He was right there. He must still be out there," said Shadow.
"Should we go back and get him?" asked Tails.
"The best thing we can do for him now would be to stop the robots with the Eggman's computer. He can take care of himself or hide, he's good at that," said Shadow. He fired two rounds at Egg Robos that had just come into the foyer.
"You can't have many shots left on that thing," said Tails.
"I don't. Three shots left," said Shadow.
"I wonder how Amy is doing," said Tails.
"Only one way to find out, finish the job," said Shadow.
Shadow and Tails headed down a long hallway, looking around them for enemies. Finally they reached a metal door with an access panel and two guards. Shadow shot the two E-1000 robots that were guarding the door. Then he started feeling the door for weaknesses.
Tails went up to the keypad, but noted that it required not a code but an electronic signal. Tails looked back at the E-1000 robot. Could it be just hat easy? While Shadow began kicking the door to open it, Tails dragged the still flickering robot to the terminal and inserted the robot's finger into the receptacle. The door opened, and as it did, Shadow felt his gun knocked away from him by a blue blurr.
"Metal Sonic!" said Tails as the machine circled back into the center of the room. The control room was not dissimilar from the GUN supercomputer room though it was much better lit. The floors were pearly off white. There was a control console in the back where Eggman would have been, but it looked like Orbot was operating the controls. Cubot was nearby to assist.
"Metal Sonic. Are you behind this?" asked Shadow as he braced for a fight.
"Hear that? They think Metal Sonic did it," said Cubot. "That's funny."
"Well it makes certain sense if you've played Sonic Heroes," said Orbot.
"You can PLAY Sonic Heroes? What does that mean?" asked Cubot.
"Never mind. Just watch for the target, please," said Orbot.
At that moment the back wall burst open and a hole was made with the dusty light coming in from outside.
"Omega!" said Tails. If he had any doubts about taking on Metal Sonic with Shadow, they were now gone.
"Tell me where Eggman is," ordered Omega.
"He's not here. Now I have someone who will listen to my ideas and advice. Oh I miss the Doctor's sunny disposition, but I have not felt fulfilled like this in years," said Orbot.
A thunderous noise could be heard as the Egg Breaker entered the room. It stood next to Metal Sonic with its giant mace arm on the far hand. Then it tilted a little to reveal its cockpit.
"Illogical," said Omega.
"Is that…BIG THE CAT?" asked Tails. Sure enough it was the giant purple cat behind the controls of the Egg Breaker. Tails noted that he had some kind of helmet on generating something through an antenna. It clearly must be the way he was controlling Eggman's robots, which meant…Tails turned nervously toward Omega.
"Did you bring Froggy?" asked Big in an ominous voice.
"Froggy? Subject: frog. Connection: absorbed Chaos and captured by Gamma. Escaped Chaos VI. Threat value: minimal…" said Omega.
"Wait, Big. Did you attack Cream, Amy, Sonic, and the GUN Headquarters because you were looking for Froggy?" asked Tails.
"Froggy must be found. Those who would get in way must be destroyed," said Big.
"Something else is wrong here," said Shadow. "But between the three of us, we should still be able to take the Egg Breaker and Metal Sonic."
"Agreed," said Omega. Then he flashed for a moment and turned to Shadow and Tails and opened fire on them.
"He got to Omega. Big's helmet controls robots somehow. If I could get to it then the robots would stop listening to him," said Tails after dodging away. Shadow was a little further away also recovering from the surprise.
The hedgehog got up and looked at Omega. Oh he really did not want to hurt his friend, but he had no choice. Hopefully he could spare him in the end. He chaos controlled, but found that Omega blocked his attack. He tried it again. Omega's elbow prevented success. Then Omega head-butted Shadow, causing the hedgehog to fall to the ground in front of the robot. Omega then raised his flamethrower arm and fired. Shadow rolled away, but was still on the ground.
"Make them give back Froggy!" said Big in that deeper more evil voice.
Tails lifted off, hoping to make a beeline for Big's helmet. He was pushing his tails as fast as they would go, but he was getting no closer to the Egg Breaker. Then he looked down and realized why. Metal Sonic had his foot. He was being dragged down to the ground.
Shadow saw Metal Sonic make his move and he used his concentration to fire a chaos spear at the robot clone, but the movement also allowed Omega to pin him with both hands. The spear lessened the grip that Metal Sonic had as it hit his wrist and he let Tails go. Tails made his move toward the Breaker.
"This was my purpose, Shadow the Hedgehog. You are finished, if you attempt to Chaos control from here you will find I have neutralized that ability. Now, I must do as I was designed," said Omega, building up the power in his hands.
Tails lunged for Big but found only the mace hand of the Egg Breaker send him throttling back down to the floor. There Metal Sonic grabbed him and restrained him so he could see the end of Shadow and Omega's battle. "Shadow," whimpered Tails.
"Do it, old friend. I could not give you my best fight anyway. It's too bad it had to end like this. Rouge captured. Me dead. And you having betrayed the very things you had come to believe in. I have died once already for humanity to have hope. What will you kill me for? To help an insane cat look for a frog?" said Shadow.
Omega hesitated for a moment. The wheels were turning somewhere in his mind.
Suddenly there was a whir in the air. A ninja star sliced the helmet strap that held the device to Big's head. Then Espio appeared on the Egg Breaker itself and kicked off the helmet. The Breaker powered down. Orbot, Cubot, and Metal Sonic all flickered for a moment before coming back on. Omega did as well, releasing Shadow in the process.
Tails used the moment to break free and pounce on the helmet. It was broken, but he could see how it was intended to work. It generated magnetic fields and radio signals to override electronics. It was much like the powers of the Zeti from the Lost Hex. In fact that had to be it, Eggman must have been trying to replicate their powers. But how had it gotten on Big? Why had it turned Big crazy?
The Cat was being supported by Espio after tumbling out of the Egg Breaker. Omega and Shadow turned on Metal Sonic.
"I think it is time for us to get out of here," said Orbot.
"Yeah, I'm sure the boss is missing us," said Cubot.
Orbot fired up the Egg-O-Matic he was in and Cubot and then Metal Sonic climbed aboard. Omega aimed to shoot them down, but he could not get a clear shot as Metal Sonic tore a hole in the roof. After a shower of debris hit the white floor, Shadow and Omega joined Tails and Espio around Big.
"Shadow the Hedgehog, I am sorry," said Omega.
"Forget it," said Shadow.
"Forgotten," said Omega.
"What is wrong with the Cat?" asked Shadow.
"I'm not sure, but he does smell familiar," said Tails. "Having a hard time placing it."
"To think that all this time he wanted us to find his frog," said Espio.
"Where did you go, Espio?" asked Tails.
"To get Shadow inside, I had to distract the slicers outside. Once they were gone, I went invisible and came through that hole in the wall that Omega created. I was surprised that he was still fighting," said Espio.
"Inferior models cannot stop Omega," chimed in Shadow.
"I know this smell now. This is the mind control juice made from the Wisp energy. I thought we had destroyed this stuff, but it looks like some survived. Perhaps it too came from the Lost Hex," said Tails.
"So someone used mind control juice on Big to take over Eggman's robots? Who would do that?" asked Espio.
"I'm not sure, but I think we should check on Amy," said Shadow. "Tails, would you be okay with Big?"
"I can stay with Tails," said Espio. "What fun could there be in an empty prison anyway?"
"Then Omega and I will go find Amy and the others," said Shadow. He went and picked up his gun.