Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog is copyrighted to Yuji Naka, Sonic Team, and Sega. The only thing(s) I claim ownership to are my OC/fancharacters to appear in this story.
Chapter 3: Under their Noses
"Alright, so how do we go about sealing this thing?" Sonic inquired, leaning against the base of the temple's core.
"Simple. I'll handle that." Shelton said, reaching behind him and, to Sonic's surprise, removing the silver Chaos Emerald from his person.
"Whoa! You got a Chaos Emerald!" Sonic exclaimed, eyeing the mythical gem.
"That's what it's called? I found da thing lyin' around somewhere. It wasn't near anymore important," Shelton explained, "I just decided to pick it up; it helped in sealin' the other temple."
"How do you seal it, and how did you figure out?" Sonic asked curiously as he eyed around the Core Room. Based on his various interactions with Shelton since escaping Ryu and Negative, the blue hedgehog could conjecture Shelton was not a person who could look at something as complex as this core and know what to do right off the bat.
"Trial 'n' error, my man!" Shelton announced proudly, holding a thumbs-up with a large grin on his face. Sonic only shrugged his shoulders. He guessed that was all a normal person like himself or Shelton could do in a place like this without prior knowledge. He imagined Shelton running around in circles, climbing up walls, and removing various slabs out of the way in comical attempts at figuring out what to do. The fifteen-year-old hedgehog laughed quietly at the thought.
"As for your other question…" Shelton outstretched the hand that held the emerald. "Like so."
The silver Chaos Emerald levitated out of Shelton's hand and positioned itself above the core of the Ancient Temple. The mythical gem illuminated brightly, and the core reacted to it. The writings attached to the core magically removed themselves from the statue and swirled around the green core. The power of the Chaos Emerald made the core sink into the ground as the outer dials rotated to certain spots, the writings on them glowing the color of the emerald: silver and white.
Pretty soon, the reaction ceased as the Chaos Emerald floated back to Shelton's hand. "And that's all she wrote," he announced, pocketing the emerald again.
With the temple on the verge of returning back to its resting place in the earth, it had to reward the two proud and brave heroes for their troubles. In the back of the core room, a door of pure light materialized and opened up, pouring the radiance of the outside world in the room. "That must be our ticket out of here," Sonic stated, walking to the opened door.
"Yep. Let's bounce." Shelton followed the blue hedgehog into the magical door.
The door returned the two to the land right in front of the Greco-Roman temple. Once they were safely outside, a tremor shook the area. "Wh-Whoa! The heck's going on?!" Sonic shouted, placing a hand on the ground to add to his balance.
"Watch and be amazed!" Shelton instructed, doing the same action while pointing at the temple. In addition to the earthquake, a volatile tremor added to the upheaval as the temple began its steady descent into the ground. Dust and sediment flared into the air as the earthen area was stretched to accommodate the temple going back to its resting place. The pillars on the temple shook in conjunction with the ground, rattling the temple itself. Soon enough, the whole structure disappeared into the ground as the calamity ceased with nothing left in its wake.
"Whoa. That was pretty cool," Sonic remarked.
"Yeah, it disappears after sealing…I just…dunno what all this means," Shelton muttered contemplatively.
"I know just the little guy who could possibly solve our troubles." Sonic declared.
Shelton looked at the fifteen-year-old hedgehog curiously, "Who?"
Sonic swiped under his noise as he announced proudly, "My good buddy Tails! He's your guy if you wanna know this kind of stuff." His emerald eyes turned and gazed at the blue and white sky, "…Hm. Looks like we have enough time to run over there if we go at high speeds."
"I don't think that'll be necessary," Shelton said.
Sonic looked at the taller male incredulously, "I thought you loved running?"
Shelton rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "It's not that! It's just I don't wanna leave my homies behind. They got business in this stuff, too!"
"Oh!" Sonic exclaimed in understanding, "Why didn't you just say so? Where are they?"
On cue, the sounds of a plane whooshing toward them pierced through the quiet environment. "Here one of 'em comes!" Shelton announced, turning to the source of the sound along with Sonic. They could see a fighter jet plane shaped like a pterodactyl. Its colorations consisted of light slate grey and dark red.
"Hey, Shelly! Ya took care 'a' business?" A voice rang over somewhere on Shelton's person. He pulled back some of the brown hair over his ear to reveal a communicator and replied, "You know it, Inv! You right on schedule, too! My boy and I need a ride!"
"Lemme park this thing, then!" The plane eventually came to a stop right above the two speedsters and slowly made its descent toward them.
All the while, Sonic marveled the design of the plane. "Whoa. And I thought Tails' plane was big," he commented.
The front capsule where the cockpit was opened up and, to Sonic's surprise, a robot came out, supposedly being this Inv person Shelton had mentioned. Inv's mechanical body was predominantly of dark red and light slate grey colors. His feet were angled tracks covered by dark red armor in the shape of right triangles. His black, metal legs were quite skinny, covered by dark red leg armor with pointy knee caps outlined in white. A silver rim acted as Inv's waist, and more dark red armor pantomimed the pelvis, which the legs were connected to.
Inv's torso was considerably bulkier than his arms and legs and chiseled to resemble the human torso, but there was a small hump in the back. It resembled the front of a typical tractor unit truck—the "headlights" positioned where pectoral muscles would have been, and the insulator unit placed right where his abs would have been. His abs were a dim grey, and the headlights were glassy and outlined by a dim grey metal. Black, blocky shoulder blades protected the ball sockets that connected his arms to the torso. His arms were designed similarly to his legs: skinny with dark red, bell-sleeve-like armor. Inv's left hand was a large metallic gauntlet while his right hand was a curved, scissor-like claw connected to a single hinge. Inv's head was box-shaped, his set of jaws light slate grey while the rest of his head was dark red. His eyes, resembling oval-framed lenses, were colored purple-raspberry.
"Hey, Inv, meet Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog," Shelton introduced the fifteen-year-old speedster to the robotic character.
"Hey! Yer that blue hedgehog that keeps on savin' th' world. I know you!" Inv exclaimed, making a smirk plaster onto Sonic's face.
"Well, I don't mean to brag but, yeah, that's me!" A thing Sonic noticed about Inv quickly was that he sounded nothing like robots he had met before. He talked like a human! Plus, he moved like a human too. Whoever created Inv had to be highly advanced.
"Ha. So ya'll need a ride, don'tcha? Hop on, then!" Inv said.
"Yo, Sonic, you might wanna give Inv directions to yo boy," Shelton recommended as he jumped onto one of the wings of the plane and then into one of the passenger seats.
"Hey, Inv!" Sonic yelled to the robotic character as he did the same thing, "Your destination is a placed called Tails' Workshop. It's located in the Mystic Ruins some miles outside Central City. I'll direct you if you have problems!"
As Inv started up the pterodactyl-shaped plane again for flight, he replied to Sonic, "If ya say so! Just sit tight an' I'll get ya there in a jiffy! My Z-Ptera ain't failed me yet!"
"Hopefully you can get this jalopy there fast!" Sonic shouted, preparing for flight as the Z-Ptera hovered in the air.
"JALOPY?!" Inv exclaimed.
"Oh, God," Shelton groaned under his breath.
"You better hold on to ya britches, hedgehog! This vehicle comes only in two functions: fast and 'WHOO! Th' hell was that!?'"
And judging by the sudden acceleration, Inv opted for the second function.
The Imperial Skyline finally exited the warp-hole, and its owners weren't all that impressed with the outcome of a previous endeavor.
"Damn that Shelton and that blue hedgehog!" Negative shouted irefully as he slammed his fists onto the large keyboard, "They had to get in the way!" Ryu, meanwhile, only sat in his chair nonchalantly, letting his companion vent out his frustrations.
Suddenly, the alarms went off in the room, putting a stop to their actions—or in Ryu's case, a lack thereof. "What now?" Negative growled as he typed on the keyboard and something appeared on the view screen: a salvo of missiles heading their way. "WHAT THE—?" The Imperial Skyline shook tumultuously as some of the missiles impacted against it.
"Who is responsible?" Ryu questioned, maintain his universal calm.
"I'm trying to figure that out!" Negative yelled in response, "I need to put the battleship into assault mode for counterattacks!"
As Negative did that, Ryu went to the other, smaller keyboard and punched in some commands. On its screen, it displayed a cloudy, crimson sky above a large hellishly red establishment. From it, the sky-patrol sentries were unleashing waves of missiles and laser fire unto the Imperial Skyline. But the thing that gave this place away the most was the sign located at the "entrance": Eggmanland. Ryu balked, "Th-This is…"
"CEASE YOUR FIRE! STOP NOW! STOP, YOU PIECES OF JUNK!"
The outraged voice echoed through the sky and ground as the Eggmanland sentinels suddenly stopped attacking. "Damn it, just when I was about to fight back!" Negative growled as he slammed his fist onto the keyboard again.
Ryu walked over to the human-bat hybrid and questioned, "Negative, have you no idea where we are?"
Negative looked at him and replied, "No. Why?"
"Incoming message," the computer voice announced to the two.
"Open it," Ryu demanded.
Upon the voice command, the computer automatically opened the message and played it. On-screen, a portly man dressed in red and black appeared on the screen, "Ho ho ho! Well, long time no see, Ryu and Negative!"
"Doctor Robotnik?!" Negative shouted in shock. His long-time acquaintance was the one responsible for nearly devastating his battleship? How ironic.
"Likewise. How long has it been since we last seen each other?" Ryu asked in a friendly manner, adding an uncharacteristic smile.
"Negative, nobody calls me that anymore…" Eggman said lamentably and then bluntly addressed Ryu, "And, I lost count of the months since our last meeting."
Ryu's smile quickly turned into a frown as he stated sternly, "Then what do they call you nowadays, Robotnik? Forgive us for our ignorance."
"I am now known as Doctor Eggman, the illustrious and super genius and soon-to-be emperor of Eggmanland!" The evil doctor megalomaniacally declared.
Negative was instantly put into a fit of uncontrolled laughter, "What the hell, Robotnik? What kind of stupidity is a name like 'Eggman?!'"
"Quit you're laughing, you rat with wings!" Eggman shouted outrageously, "What is so funny about that?!"
"It sounds retarded!" Negative responded through his laughter, brutal and honest, eliciting a vicious growl from Eggman.
"Negative, enough." Ryu suddenly spoke, stern and menacing as ever, and Negative died down in his hysterics. The swordsman casted a prolonged, intent look to the evil genius on-screen and drawled, "Let us in. We'll talk about things when we're face-to-face."
"Why, certainly! Just park your battleship at the hangar a mile northwest of the entrance, and I'll meet you there!" Eggman directed, and the transmission was broken.
"Negative. Do it," Ryu ordered.
"Don't rush me," Negative retorted, shooting a glare at him.
The Imperial Skyline descended to a halt within the confines of Eggmanland. Underneath it, Ryu and Negative dropped from the teleportation beam and landed on the hard steel floor of a bunker within the fortress.
Within the bunker were a vast multitude of robots and machines, ranging from roboticized animals to soldiers that resembled their creator himself. They were all working to prep the area for the arrival of Ryu and Negative…even though they already did.
"I see Robotnik has quite the array of machinery," Negative said, eyeing at the various automatons.
Just then, a red ball rolled up to them before revealing itself to be small, round-headed robot with slit light blue eyes and mouth. "Ah. I wasn't aware that Eggman was acquainted with people such as yourselves."
"…" Negative and Ryu stared unblinkingly at the eccentric contraption.
"My name is SA-55, or Cubot, as I prefer to be called. I am one of Eggman's Badniks, as he calls them," Cubot said as he clasped his hands together. While he sounded like a prim and proper gentlemen, his way of speaking was excessively lax and, in their eyes, disrespectful.
"Why you miserable little ants!" An irate voice suddenly shouted. The majority of the Badniks frantically jumped in fear, for they knew the area in question was not status quo. Too bad they could not increase their progress because Doctor Julian Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik entered the bunker with a dissatisfied scowl on his face. "Oh great, they're here, and this place is atrocious! I am severely disappointed in you hunks of metal!" The Badniks cowered in fear because their master would potentially revert them to scrap metal in the chop shop located elsewhere in the fortress.
"But, Eggman," Cubot said, turning around to his approaching creator, "You expected us to clean a place big enough to accommodate a battleship in less than five minutes. They are not that efficient. Not to mention, if these two were your friends, I'm sure they wouldn't care."
"Did I ask you?!" Eggman bellowed. Negative snickered mercilessly, finding it humorous that the creation was giving constructive criticism to the creator. Ryu, however, saw the other side of the spectrum—one that pleased him when he saw how much his old friend has regressed.
"Well, I—" Cubot spoke but was silenced when he was violently kicked into a wall, "Ow." The red and black robot groaned monotonously as he slowly slid into a trashcan.
Ryu dropped his leg to the ground and faced the many shocked Badniks in the room. "All right. It seems your creator is displeased at the progress. I am telling you know to increase your pace twentyfold or else you will face punishment by my blade." To emphasize his demands, he unsheathed his nodaichi. The sharp, glistening blade contrasted comparatively well with the dark atmosphere of the bunker. The Badniks only stared thoughtlessly, wordlessly, and motionlessly, for Eggman never imposed such authority on them previously, so they were unaccustomed to someone else doing just that.
"…Hmph. Allow me to give a demonstration of my wrath." Ryu said, swinging his nodaichi. It release two air waves of energy that ripped through several Egg Pawns and Egg Fighters, causing explosions that rocked the area and struck fear into the processing units of Eggman's robots. "Get to work unless you want to share the same fate as your misfortunate brethren," Ryu stated, still in his universally calm voice as he sheathed his sword. This time, the Badniks—fueled by fear—zipped off in different directions to do their given tasks.
"Ivo, that," Ryu said as he turned to the portly scientist, "is how you command subservient creatures; with an iron fist and every intention to carry out threats."
Eggman only stared at the swordsman, with bewilderment, indifference, or amazement was anyone's guess, because he donned an expressionless face.
"Now, because I respect you, Robotnik, I will never refer to you as 'Eggman' because it is such a ridiculous name," Ryu stated sternly, "How it came about is beyond me."
"You can blame Sonic and his furry friends. I suppose the name just stuck since no one called me by my old name anymore," Eggman explained.
"Then think of this as a fresh new start, Ivo," Ryu offered, "It seems Sonic no longer fears you. Well, we shall use that laxness to bring about an untimely wave of destruction that will happen so quickly and unexpectedly it will give the rat a heart attack."
Now that Eggman thought about it, Sonic and his friends seemed to think lesser and lesser of his so-called, all-powerful plans and, ultimately, himself. The failures were so constant that they were almost routine, like Sonic going on jogs around Central City. Well, enough was enough.
"I must commend you," Eggman finally spoke, "You're exactly as I remember you,"
"And I will admit your engineering skills have improved, Robotnik," Negative took the opportunity to say something since Ryu and Robotnik had been doing all the talking.
Eggman smirked boastfully, "But of course! I am Doctor Egg-uh, I mean, Doctor Julian Ivo Robotnik, the world's greatest scientist! I have a reputation to maintain if I want this glorious Eggmanland—gah! Robotnik Empire—to expand to all corners of the Earth."
"It's a start," Ryu admitted unpleasantly.
"Come on, Robotnik, we have much to discuss," Negative brought forth, "Let us go to your quarters."
Eggman led everyone back to his station, the main control room of Eggmanland, or rather, the Robotnik Empire. It was located in the heart of the entire area, situated at the topmost section of the highest tower. The room was relatively wide with nothing but white coloring the entire place. It was bright, but the whiteness of the quarter helped with such. The sole window in front of them stretched from wall-to-wall and was tinted blue because it doubled as a transparent computer screen.
Negative decided to situate himself in one of the white seats while Ryu approached the interactive screen. "Robotnik. Are you familiar with the legend of Rhlor?" Ryu inquired the scientist as he typed onto the keyboard.
"I have to say I am not. This is the first time I've heard about…Rhlor?" Eggman replied, sitting in his seat as well. He didn't quite catch the name Ryu just mentioned.
"You pronounced it wrong," Negative pointed out, sinking into his seat, "It's pronounced ri-lawr."
"Anyway, Rhlor is a legendary, ancient, godlike entity that was worshipped by some clans about twenty millennium ago," Ryu explained, the screen displaying ancient depictions and tables on the subject of the apparent god.
"But the thing that gave Rhlor his fame is the fact that he was nicknamed the God of Wishes," Negative added in, crossing his arms. "A simple prayer to him fulfills the heart's innermost desires."
"Sounds like my kind of god," Eggman remarked in an interested tone.
"However, you will notice the problem when you think about it," Ryu spoke again, changing the images on the screen to that of what appeared to be ancient illustrations of a calamitous battle with the symbol for Rhlor among the turmoil, "Many of the prayers Rhlor received contradicted each other, and the clans worshipping it became avaricious."
"So they killed each other." Eggman stated matter-of-factly.
"You guessed it." Negative confirmed, "However, some sympathized with Rhlor for the abuse it suffered because of the greedy clansmen. These certain people wished for the God of Wishes to be sealed away. So, now, Rhlor is an almost nonexistent word in our current vocabulary."
"So, what's the point?" Eggman demanded impatiently.
"Patience, my friend," Ryu stated as more images appeared, ones of differently-structured temples, "The method in which Rhlor was sealed away is almost like a game in our modern time. These ancient structures, called Sacred Temples, or Ancient Temples depending on context, are the locks that bind Rhlor to its sealed state. At first, however, only three Sacred Temples are set to stay in the known world, and they appear in a period of every 1,000 years until this is stopped. In addition, the remaining Sacred Temples only crop up when conflicting factions are involved in this rather interesting game. One 'team,' if you will, is the sealers, whose objective is to return the temples back into the ground. The objective of the opposing 'team,' the activators, is, obviously, activation of the Sacred Temples' inner power to release Rhlor."
"So far, we've only activated one Sacred Temple," Negative said, "But we purposefully refrained from sealing any more, even though I hate losing period, or the idea of losing itself, to allow a certain someone to get the chance to seal some first."
"Let me guess who that is," Eggman interrupted, "Is it that blowhard Shelton Shallow?" Negative nodded sourly, causing the doctor to sneer in disgust.
"But Shelton isn't aware that he has worked in accordance to our plan," Ryu said optimistically, "When he first became privy to our actions, we assumed a sort of ploy to make sure we would get to the point we are now."
"Even though I hate letting that cockroach best me," Negative grumbled irefully, "And Sonic only makes it worse!"
Eggman slammed a clenched fist onto the armrest of his chair, "Uch! I should've known that blasted pincushion would get involved…"
"Rhlor is an all-knowing God of Wishes; he knows what alignment a sealer of a temple is affiliated with. With Shelton and Sonic sealing two of the three Sacred Temples, and Negative and me activating the one Temple needed to start it off, the ancient game involving these temples is underway. The remaining Sacred Temples have risen in other parts of the land. Now, it is up to us three to activate more Sacred Temples than Shelton and his gang will seal in order to win."
"Knowing him, Sonic's lapdogs will be informed about this in no time…" Eggman muttered speculatively.
"Too bad the information Shelton has isn't enough," Ryu said, calming the nerves of the human doctor somewhat.
"This game works in accordance to the wills of the greedy clansmen that battled for exclusivity to Rhlor and the sympathetic people that wanted Rhlor's safety," Negative explicated, "If we win, Rhlor will be reawakened and we can pray upon him for whatever plots we want fulfilled. He'll grant them provided our three wishes don't inherently contradict each other and create conflict. But, if Shelton, Sonic, and the others win, Rhlor will stay sealed for another 1,000 years. This is our only chance."
"Hold up a minute," Eggman interrupted, "I believe you mentioned that The Sacred Temples are the locks? What on Earth are the keys to these locks?"
Ryu smirked as more images popped up, "The Chaos Emeralds. These mystical gems have been around since the days of the Knuckles Clan. Naturally, other ancient societies wanted to have these things involved in their culture somehow. When exposed to the Cores of the Sacred Temples, depending on the desire of the person, the temples themselves will be sealed away or unlocked."
"Ho ho ho! I like that prospect!" Eggman cheered excitedly, "I happen to be in possession of two Chaos Emeralds!"
Negative smirked as he announced, "Excellent. So are we. That will make things easier."
Eggman rose enthusiastically from his seat, "What are we waiting for? I'll go start pinpointing the locations of the Sacred Temples. Let's hurry up and win this game!"
"Hold on, Ivo." Ryu stopped the doctor from leaving.
"What is it?" Eggman asked, turning back to him.
"There is one last thing about the Sacred Temples that is very important," Ryu said seriously, "Will is an important facet concerning these temples, inside and out."
"Will?" Eggman echoed the word confusedly, scratching his bald head.
Negative responded, "This concept of "will" is key to our victory, especially if our little speedsters decided to impede. Let them meander lackadaisically inside a Sacred Temple with their minds thinking what they want. They will soon regret when the Temple decides to enact upon what they are thinking."
"Ha!" Eggman laughed mockingly, "With my and your mechanical know-how, yours and Ryu's swordsmanship, and my and Ryu's strategic ability, we will win this game quicker than Sonic and Shelton can run!"
With that said, Negative and Eggman shared smirks and chuckled sinisterly. Ryu maintained his ever-serious demeanor as one thought crossed his mind.
Let the games begin.