Update! Update! Update!
You no longer have to wait
I hope this chapter will make your day.
The next one will be up without (much) delay.
I suck at poem, I know. *facepalm* Well, at least I tried.
Well, editing took less time than I first anticipated. My lecturers have an urgent meeting, so school's out for the day and the best part: NO HOMEWORK. HELL YEAH! That also means more time to edit the next chapter and it should be up by tomorrow or maybe earlier.
About ABCSonicKirbyWarriors' question about what the walls are made of, that's for later. I've got plans, big plans for them for another project I'm working on.
Chapter 6: No Way Out
Inside the Egg Citadel's control room…
Eggman was busy with his attacks on major cities now that his most hated nemesis was trapped inside his inescapable maze. In fact, the mad doctor was so busy that he didn't even pay attention to the computer screen, thus he didn't notice that his files were being copied and downloaded one by one.
Outside the Egg Citadel…
The hacker had almost finished downloading every file and every plan that Eggman had. He looked at the screen of his portable device and studied Protocol NWO-7 carefully. Once he was done, he typed something on his device and smirked.
"So that's how it works. Only one thing left to do." The enigma hunched over and began typing like there was no tomorrow.
Inside the Egg Citadel's maze…
After splitting up with Knuckles, Sonic started to pick up the pace and ran through every passage and corridor he could find. Several times, the hedgehog was forced to slow down by Eggman's robots, but like before, they didn't really post much of a threat. He either used his trademark spin dash attack and rammed through the approaching Egg Pawns or simply tricked the simple-minded robots into destroying each other.
"Strike!" exclaimed Sonic as he crashed into a bunch of Egg Pawns, knocking them all over the place. His celebration didn't last long, however, as he sped off once again and continued to navigate through the maze.
Although the maze was quite simple in design, escaping it was anything but simple. There were a lot of one-way passages that led to another, and all of the seemed to be moving around in circle. Sometimes, the passages would lead to an intersection, and that was all.
After reaching the end of the passage he was running along, Sonic skidded to a stop at another intersection. He sighed in frustration and walked to the middle of the crossroad, debating on which path to take. Suddenly, a beeping noise came from one of the boards, which attracted the cobalt hero's attention. The screen came up and showed Eggman's smirking face.
"Ho ho ho, how are you faring, Sonic?" taunted the scientist.
"Eggman, let us out this instant." demanded Sonic in annoyance. He hated being cooped up in one place for long, and things had indeed gone on for too long for his taste.
"Now where would the fun in that be? Besides, I like to see you run around my little maze like a perfectly well-behaved lab rat."
"I don't have time for your game, Egghead. I have a more important thing I need to do today, so I'll cut you a deal. Let us out right now and we'll let you leave peacefully, or keep us here and we'll eventually find the way out and kick your sorry butt so hard, you won't be able to sit upright for a couple of months. So what's it going to be, Butt-nik?"
"Your offers sound…tempting, but I'll go with neither. I don't know how you and the red mutt managed to get out of your containment cell, but I'm positively sure that you'll never be able to escape my maze. It's designed specifically to keep you and your friends in, a genius feat that only yours truly can accomplish."
Sonic frowned as he listened to the mad doctor gloat. He was really ticked off, and hearing Eggman's taunts didn't really help improve his mood.
"Then consider you've chosen the latter, Eggman. Better get your butt ready for my shoes when I find you." Sonic snarled, but the mad scientist only laughed and looked at his clock.
"Much as I love to stay and chat, I have other pressing matters that require my immediate attention, so I'll just leave you to your own device. Do take your time, Sonic. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a lot of cities to smash, a lot of governments to take down, and a lot of havoc to wreak. Fare badly, rodent."
With that, the screen turned off, and Sonic was left alone to think about his situation, "Man, I really wish Tails were here, he might be able to figure out how we can escape…Tails…" The hedgehog's thoughts trailed off and flashed back to the unfortunate event that had taken place in the morning. "If only I hadn't been so stubborn, we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. If I had said sorry, maybe we'd have gotten out of this place already…"
Sonic stood where he was, completely lost in his thoughts. After a few minutes, the hedgehog shook his head and cleared his mind. "One thing at a time, Sonic. First get out of here and save the day, then get back and apologize to Tails for being a jerk." With that, Sonic chose the right passage and sped off, resuming his search for an exit.
"Man, I really hope Knuckles is having better luck than me." muttered Sonic as he ran along his chosen passage.
Meanwhile…
Contrary to Sonic's hope, Knuckles didn't have any luck at all. The grumpy guardian of the Master Emerald walked around the maze indignantly, smashing all of the robots that were unfortunate and foolish enough to enter the ticked-off guardian's field of vision. Knuckles admitted that those simple-minded robots actually provided him with stress relief and distraction that he desperately yearned for after being trapped for who-knows-how-long.
At some point, the hot-headed guardian tried punching the wall once again to see if they would crumble or at least crack or something. Much to his charging, however, his powerful blow didn't even so much as put a dent on the target. He let out a frustrated sigh and continued on. After a relatively long walk and a lot of smashing, the echidna reached the ever so familiar intersection.
The sight of the intersection before him only worsened Knuckles' already rotten mood. He simply shook his head and randomly chose his passage with "Eeny, meeny, miny, moe". His fist pointed at the passage on the left in the end, so he just went along, not even bothering to think anymore.
Along the way, more idiotic robots tried to get the drop on him, only to get brutally disassembled by the ill-tempered guardian.
"I'm getting really tired of this hellhole." muttered the angry echidna as he walked along his chosen passage. Since Sonic had never made any call, he could safely assume that the hedgehog was experiencing the same problem he was having. He continued to walk, smashing even more robots in the process. Each corridor looked more like a dump after Knuckles passed through.
After what seemed like hours, Knuckles reached a spot he desperately wished he would never see again. In front of him stood the familiar wall with the "X" mark, which made the guardian roar furiously and sat down on the ground with his face in his palm.
"I can't believe this. What the heck is wrong with this stupid place?" Knuckles asked himself as he slammed his fist on the ground, but it didn't even crack.
A few minutes later, Sonic arrived at the same spot. After spotting Knuckles sitting on the ground with a murderous aura oozing out of him, the hedgehog understood the situation and walked up to his friend.
"So, how did it go?" asked Knuckles sarcastically, knowing the answer already.
"Apart from an unproductive conversation with Egghead, nothing." Knuckles only growled after hearing this.
Seeing the frustrated Knuckles made Sonic sigh as well. He was also tired from running around aimlessly, but he didn't allow himself to give up. Sonic had a more important task after this, he was determined to get that task done no matter what.
"I'll just make another run around to see if I can find anything." Sonic said as he walked away from the echidna, who seemed too annoyed by the situation to care. Sonic ran along the passage behind Knuckles and once again reached the intersection. The speedy hedgehog was about to speed off, but he was stopped by a strange beeping noise coming from the electronic board.
"Not that Egghead again" muttered Sonic irritably, "I really, really don't want to see his face right now."
Sonic turned around and looked at the board and saw something written on them. He went closer to get a better look, and saw a series of numbers that made no sense to him whatsoever at first glance.
The message read
20-9-16-19
20-8-5-18-5 9-19 1 13-15-20-9-15-14 19-5-14-19-15-18 15-14 20-8-5 2-15-1-18-4
20-8-5 24-1-12-12-19 13-15-22-5 23-8-5-14 25-15-21 3-18-15-19-19 9-20
12-5-6-20 13-15-22-5-19 18-9-7-8-20
21-16 13-15-22-5-19 4-15-23-14
19-12-9-16 20-8-18-15-21-7-8 20-8-5 3-18-1-3-11-19 23-8-5-14 20-8-5-25 4-15
Needless to say, Sonic was perplexed by the strange message. He thought it was just another one of Eggman's tricks, but his gut feeling told him that someone was trying to give him a hint on how to escape this nightmare maze.
"What in the name of Chaos is this?" asked Sonic in bewilderment.
Despite the initial surprise at the sudden appearance of the message, Sonic stood still, looking at the board tentatively and trying his hardest to decipher the cryptic message. Something inside the hedgehog told him that solving this riddle would be they key to get out of the dreadful maze.
Outside the Egg Citadel, the enigma turned off his device and smiled.
"Hope you get the message, Sonic. That's all I can give you without Eggman knowing" muttered the enigma to himself as he looked at the Egg Citadel from where he was standing.
Until next time, everyone. Thank you for reading. Do review. I love to know your thoughts and opinions.
Also, try cracking the code to kill some time (if you have time to kill that is). It's not difficult at all. In fact, I bet some of you may even be able to figure it out at first glance. However, if you do figure out the answer, please, by all means, keep it to yourself for the sake of the story. The answer will be revealed in the next chapter.