Chapter 5: Problems, Predictions, and a Path
Blaze glared at Eggman, with Cream and Tails standing next to her. Rouge ran up next to the two, as did Knuckles, Storm, and Jet in succession. Eggman now faced a line of seven Mobians, adrenaline from their fights still coursing through their veins. Metal Sonic and Metal Knuckles, both of whom were slightly worn from the battle but still capable of fighting for hours more, had combined their strength to lift the cage Sonic was trapped in. Tails Doll, who had a couple of minor tears in his plush casing, floated idly in front of Eggman. Shadow was nowhere to be seen by either party as they held their ground in a silent but tense standstill.
"Let Sonic go, Eggman!" Blaze growled, stepping forward.
"No," Eggman said, crossing his arms defiantly.
"Sonic!" Tails called out to his captured friend. "Use your Spindash to break through!"
"I can't, Tails! I've already tried!" the blue hedgehog said, putting pressure to the cut on his head. He winced slightly as pain prickled at his nerves.
Blaze grew angrier at the human's refusal to comply. Red flames burst from her clenched fists, burning brightly and fiercely, embodying her anger. "Let him go, or else!"
"Or else... what? Did you really think it was going to be that easy?" Eggman asked sarcastically. After he was through with his taunts, he gave out an evil laugh.
"Or else this, fat man!" The rage on Blaze's face was the last thing that could be seen before she engulfed herself in flames. This action received a gasp from Rouge, Storm, and Jet, whom had never seen her power in use.
The fire-covered cat raced forward towards Eggman, an arm outstretched. Despite the flames obscuring Blaze's vision, she could make out a dark form racing forward to counter her attack. She just managed to grab something off of Eggman's red coat, pulling it off as the figure kicked her back. Blaze grunted as she landed on her back at Knuckles' feet, the fire around her dissipating. She sat up to see Metal Sonic, standing in front of Eggman with his arms outstretched. Metal Knuckles was able to maintain holding Sonic's cage on his own.
If Eggman had noticed that Blaze had snagged something off of him, he didn't express it. Instead, he looked up, past the line of foes, and grinned evilly. Before anybody could turn around to see what he was smiling at, Shadow leaped over them, landing neatly next to the doctor. Under one arm was the Master Emerald, and clutched in both of his hands were six rhombus-shaped gems.
Blaze clenched her fists, hit with the realization that during their fighting, the Sol Emeralds and the Master Emerald had been left in the house, unguarded. Knuckles yelled in wordless frustration and jumped towards Shadow, winding up a punch. Before his spiked fist could make contact with his target, two words met the echidna's ears.
"Chaos Control!"
The Master Emerald responded to the call, emitting a brilliant flash of bright blue light. The next thing Knuckles knew, his punch had landed on the asphalt where Shadow had been. Said hedgehog, Eggman, his robots, the Master Emerald, the Sol Emeralds, and Sonic had all vanished, courtesy of Chaos Control. The echidna growled in frustration again, pounding his fist repeatedly on the street, as though doing so would somehow harm Shadow.
As the others looked around wildly, Blaze clenched her fists even tighter. She blinked in slight surprise as she felt an edge cutting into her fingers when she did so. The cat remembered that she had managed to take something from Eggman, and had never gotten a look at it. She opened her gloved hand, revealing a small, grey computer disc. Perhaps all hope wasn't lost just yet.
Amy stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. The paths that the tears had taken when running down her cheeks were still visible, and her eyes had reddened from crying. She sighed, turned on the faucet, and splashed her face with cold water. She let the droplets run down her face for a few moments before turning off the water and drying off her face with a fluffy orange towel. Then the hedgehog unlocked the bathroom door and walked back down the hall, returning to the main room where she and Wave were being held. Or so she thought.
"Hey, Wave?" Amy called out as she entered the room. There was no answer, as Wave was no longer present. "Stupid bird. She probably ran off. Didn't even take me with her."
Shrugging it off, Amy walked over to the desk, staring at the tarot cards sitting on them. She picked them up, and shuffled the deck as she sat down on one of the beds. After sufficient shuffling, Amy picked the top three cards and laid them face down on the orange blanket. Slowly, she turned the first card over. The image on the card was not one of which definition was clear-- it was a gun. In curiosity, Amy turned over the second card. The tear drop was not an image she was familiar with, either. The pink hedgehog reached for the third card, but hesitated when her fingers touched it.
'I have a bad feeling about this,' Amy thought as she flipped the final card over. Her heart almost stopped, as she felt her blood run cold. A image of the grim reaper was on this card. Its meaning of death was clear, even though Amy had never actually run across this card before.
"No..." Amy whispered, backing away slightly from the cards. "I... I have to be wrong. Maybe I made a mistake."
Before she could contemplate any further, the metal door slid open. A form was tossed in, much like Amy's first entrance into the room, which was quickly followed by the door sliding shut. She gasped and jumped off the bed, rushing over to the unconscious form. Her green eyes widened, not at the large cut running up his back, not at the bruises that could barely be seen amid his black fur, but rather at the familiarity of the form. It was Shadow who was lying crumpled on the floor.
The hangar was filled with the bright flash of Chaos Control. Eggman, Metal Sonic, Tails Doll, Metal Knuckles, Shadow, and the still-captive Sonic appeared when the light subsided. The still-captive hedgehog was jolted slightly when his prison moved forward, floating with the villains as they walked forward. Tails Doll, Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, and Shadow surrounded the prison on all sides as though to subdue Sonic, should he escape.
"What do you want with me, Eggman?" asked Sonic.
"I want you to get out of my way. Keeping you in my sight will help me with that," Eggman replied.
That logic made little sense to Sonic, but he chose to ignore it as they reached the entrance. A jet-black bird in a metal suit was standing guard, armed with throwing knives and a pistol. She smirked when she saw the blue hedgehog.
"I see you've finally captured 'big blue', eh Eggy?" she asked, laughing a bit. Sonic frowned. Her chuckles seemed familiar, but he couldn't quite place where he'd heard it before.
Shadow stepped forward, obviously not sharing her mood. "Just let us enter, swallow!"
The bird threw her arms in the air and rolled her eyes. "A little cranky today, aren't we? Sure thing, bosserino."
She walked over to a panel by the door, pressing a button on it. The large metal door creaked a bit as it opened. Eggman walked in, followed by the robots and the hedgehogs. Sonic took a closer look at the bird as his cage went past her. For a split second, the light blue eyes of the bird locked with Sonic's green eyes. A chill ran down his spine at the icy gaze he had been given. Sonic shook his head to clear his thoughts, then faced forward.
"Say, that was a pretty realistic looking robot you had there, Eggman!" he said.
"Hrmph! Whoever said it was a robot?" Eggman growled, heading down a corridor. Tails Doll, Metal Knuckles, Metal Sonic, and Shadow broke away from the two rivals, heading towards some other room. Where this room was, Sonic didn't get to see, as his floating cage turned a corner, while still behind Eggman.
"It isn't a robot?" Sonic asked, confused.
"No, of course not!" the human answered, chuckling. "It's a experiment. I have to say, she seems to be working quite well."
Silence was all that passed between them as they turned one last corner. The transparent walls of Sonic's prison then vanished. Caught off-guard, the blue hedgehog landed face-first, grunting a bit. Before he could escape, Sonic was pushed into another cell, surrounded by metal bars. As he got to his feet, he noticed another figure walking up next to Eggman.
"Sonic! It's nice to see you once again," Eggman Nega greeted, flashing another false smile.
Sonic smirked, crossing his arms as he leaned forward against the bars. "I wish I could say the same."
"Still as stubborn as ever. You haven't changed a bit," the human said.
Noticing the slight bending of the bars against his weight, Sonic quickly formed a plan in his mind, putting it into action immediately. "Say, you guys wouldn't happen to know where Wave the Swallow is, do you? You see, before I got captured, we were kinda looking for her..."
The two humans exchanged amused looks. They looked identical, just like reflections in a mirror.
"No, we haven't! Jet and Storm must feel so bad," Eggman said, his voice filled with mock-depression.
"Oh... well, I was hoping you'd know." Sonic held in the urge to smirk, forcing himself to frown in disappointment instead. He bit his lip and brought his hands to his eyes, as though he were about to cry. "Y-you think she might be... dead? I-I really don't want to let my b-buddies down, and..." He gave a sniff, refraining from laughing. This was certainly over-the-top for Sonic, and even though he wasn't in control of the situation here, he was still amused by his own actions.
Eggman Nega let out an unconvinced snort. "Your act isn't working."
"Really? Good!" Sonic canned the theatrics, quickly curling up into a Spindash. Despite the fresh wave of pain traveling along his nerves, he rocketed towards the humans, breaking the bars with relative ease. Sonic uncurled and prepared to run down the hall, but was stopped as something made contact with his back. He fell forward as it wrapped around him, grunting in pain for the second time in so many minutes. He rolled over onto his back and looked down to find a dimly glowing, purple goop-like substance wrapped around his upper body. Sonic squirmed to get free, but the more he struggled, the tighter this newest restraint squeezed him.
"It's no use trying to escape," Eggman Nega said. "There is no way you can in that condition!"
Despite his position on the floor, Sonic gave a dry laugh, attempting to annoy his captors. "I'm not in that bad of a condition!"
"You're right. But not for long," Eggman sneered, pulling out an orange and yellow gun that looked almost like a child's water pistol. Sonic raised his eyebrow in confusion.
"What are you talking ab--!" The hedgehog was cut short as Eggman fired the gun at Sonic's left leg. When the white shot made contact, a burning sensation exploded through his leg, accompanied by a loud scream of pain from Sonic. The burning subsided shortly, only to be replaced with an even worse pain. He tried to move his leg, but the pain increased tenfold, rendering the limb useless. Tears appeared at Sonic's tightly shut eyes.
"Wh-what did you do to me?" he hissed in pain.
"You've just had the honor of finding out firsthand what this newest invention of mine can do. Now, if you stay put in that cell and don't talk, I'll give you painkillers. If not, I'll break the other leg," Eggman explained. His counterpart had taken the time to retreat into the darkness.
Sonic knew he was helpless to do anything right now, and an additional broken leg would not help his circumstances any. He clenched his teeth and nodded.
Tails took another look at the small grey disc that Blaze had handed him a few minutes ago. After examining it once more, he placed the disc into the drive on Sonic's computer. Everyone, save for Blaze, was standing around the desk, waiting to see what would happen. The hard drive whirred as it read the disc, and within seconds, the monitor's screen went black. A single white sub-screen containing a map popped up from the black.
Cream, who was standing next to the seat Tails was in, peered at the screen and asked, "What does this mean, Tails?"
"I think it's a map to Dr. Robotnik's base... but why would he put the map in such an easy place to reach?" Tails said, not directing his last question at anyone in particular.
Storm tapped his large index finger on a small brown splotch, at the corner of the map. "What's that thing?"
The two-tailed fox double-clicked where Storm was pointing, zooming in. "Hmm... it looks like mountains to me. What do you think, guys?"
Rouge snatched the mouse out from Tails' hand and double-clicked a few more times, zooming in even further. Then she right-clicked, bringing up a menu. Before anyone could read what was on it, the bat clicked on one of the choices. The two-dimensional map rotated onto its side, now becoming three-dimensional.
"Those aren't mountains. It's an island... probably underwater," Rouge said. "It must be sunken or something. But whatever happened to it, it appears to be right below where Angel Island is floating, or at least in the general vicinity."
"Hey, can you make that any bigger? I think I see something," Jet commanded, from his seat on the edge of the wooden desk.
Tails took the mouse back from Rouge and zoomed in until the island filled the entire screen. He leaned back in the blue swivel chair, giving the hawk more room so he could see better. Jet squinted slightly and brought his face closer to the screen. Giving a small squawk of recognition, he put his index finger on one spot, straightening up from his bent-over position.
"There's a red dot there. I think that might be Eggman's base!" he said.
"You're right!" Tails exclaimed, after looking at where Jet was pointing. He pressed the print button on the keyboard, and the printer came to life immediately. Once the page had finished printing, Tails zoomed out, and then pressed print again.
Knuckles uncrossed his arms and retrieved the two pieces of paper that the printer had expelled. After glancing both papers over for a few seconds with his violet eyes, he shook his head. "You must have really good eyes."
The six Mobians turned around, their attention caught by the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs. Blaze stood at the bottom of the staircase, holding the white Sol Emerald, with a confused expression on her face.
"Why are you all staring at me?" she asked. When nobody answered, she shook her head and walked over to the computer, gently setting down the Sol Emerald on the desk. "I have at least a bit of good news. Since I left one Sol Emerald in my world, we should be able to use this one to find the others, thus leading us to Eggman."
"I could do that just as easily with the Master Emerald," Knuckles said, waving a hand dismissively at the cat. "Besides, Tails found a map on that disc you stole. So technically, we don't need the Sol Emerald."
Blaze put a hand on her hip and pointed a finger at Knuckles. "Let me tell you something. When I was in my room, I noticed that the devices that Tails had made to keep the Sol Emeralds stable were lying on my bed. Do you know what that means? Hm? We could all be dead in a matter of 48 hours if we don't get those machines back on the Sol Emeralds. So don't you go saying we don't need the last one!"
Rouge raised a hand, interrupting Blaze. "And how can you use the Master Emerald to find the Sol Emeralds, anyway?"
Knuckles gritted his teeth in frustration. "You don't get what I mean! I meant that--"
Cream whimpered a bit, not particularly fond of the growing argument. Jet shoved himself off the desk. "Wait a minute. What about Wave?"
This outburst didn't help matters any, as the four began to get into a shouting match. Oblivious to all of the arguing, Tails examined the window some more, eventually coming across a small text file. This opened a new window, containing what looked like either an extremely organized journal or a record of plans.
'It's probably his plans,' Tails thought, starting to read through the file. Before he could scroll down very far, he came across that day's date. His curiosity piqued by the fact that the records had been updated so recently, he began to read.
My plan is working perfectly! Eggman Nega is also here in Mobius, helping me along. Today, we have captured Wave the Swallow and Amy Rose. We are also pleased that--
Tails was unable to read any more, as the hard drive quite literally went out with a bang. The monitor immediately went blank, and smoke began to drift up from the computer tower. This silenced everyone in the room, and there was an awkward silence for a couple of seconds. The fox was frustrated that he hadn't been able to read further, but shrugged it off, turning to face the other occupants in the room.
"Oh, well. I got all the information I wanted anyway. Jet, Storm, I found out that Wave was captured by Dr. Robotnik," Tails began. Then his ears drooped slightly. "Amy was captured, too."
Amy reentered the room, carrying one of the now-dampened towels from the bathroom. She placed the towel on Shadow's forehead and sat down on the edge of the bed, pulling the blankets up to his chin. Earlier, she had cleaned up his wounds and bandaged them with whatever materials she could find in the bathroom. Before she had done that, Amy had tried to wake him up. Much to her disappointment and slight annoyance, Shadow did not stir.
As she sat on the edge of the bed, Amy found herself staring right at him. Four years had passed, but Shadow had not changed in his appearance. He probably hadn't even grown height-wise. He still had the same 16-year-old appearance that he'd had when she first met him, back on Prison Island. She thought back to that time for a moment, remembering the insane plan that Eggman had set into motion then. It seemed like child's play in comparison to whatever he was up to now.
Without warning, Shadow's eyes shot open, staring directly into hers. Amy gasped, turning away as she felt a blush briefly coming over her face. The ebony hedgehog grabbed the towel and removed it from his forehead.
"What am I doing here?" he asked, starting to sit up.
Amy pushed him back onto the bed, her face still scarlet. "Someone threw you in here. You were unconscious and you were hurt. I hope you don't mind that I tended to your wounds."
"Hmph. I don't need your help," Shadow muttered, scowling. He sat up again, intending to stand up, but collapsed just as quickly. His vision swam for only a couple of seconds, but the dizzy feeling that came over him didn't leave as fast. Amy took a moment to smother her anger at his noncompliance.
"I'll ignore the rude comment," she said, reaching for the damp towel. "You should be laying down for at least fifteen minutes, with those wounds. How did you get hurt, anyway?"
Knowing that he was unable to fight back for the time being, Shadow let Amy put the cloth back on his forehead, pursing his lips. "I suppose I should be offering you my thanks by letting you know. But I can't tell you everything. To put it in short words, I was disobeying the person I work for. This is my consequence."
Amy frowned. "Who are you working for? Eggman?"
Shadow nodded. Before Amy could ask why he was working for the doctor, Shadow turned his head, looking towards the other bed. Pointing with his hand, he asked, "What are those?"
Amy looked over where he pointed, and bit her lip. He had noticed the tarot cards. She walked over, picked the three cards up, and then brought them over to Shadow.
"They're tarot cards. They predict the future."
"You seem uncomfortable," Shadow said. If he was concerned in the slightest, his monotone voice sure didn't express it.
Amy looked up at Shadow, who was looking at her, and then returned her gaze to the cards. She set them down on the blankets next to him, showing him the pictures. "Well, the gun and the tear drop... I'm not exactly sure what they mean. But... the grim reaper... that's death. From the looks of it, the gun might mean 'weapons'... and the tear drop, 'sadness'. But cards have many meanings, so that might not be their actual message."
Shadow took this in, and then crossed his arms. "So, what you think that these cards are basically saying... is that someone is going to be shot, they're going to be sad, and then they're going to die?"
Amy couldn't think of a better interpretation at the moment, so she just nodded.
"It's just a game, just a coincidence. There's no way that this will all happen," Shadow said, sounding unconvinced.
"I've predicted the future with tarot cards before, Shadow. It's going to happen," Amy growled, clenching her fists.
