"Doctor Maxis hasn't learned of the development yet."
"Of course, you wouldn't think I would spoil the surprise?"
"Well, we do agree on this at least."
"Yes, that we need weapons constructed from 115 as a countermeasure against the zombies."
"I heart fully agree, and since Gersch had disappeared making me the director at this facility, I will have unlimited access to the element."
"Yes, so you will give me your design?"
"The Thunder gun, yes. I have the plans here; I just need you to build it, doctor."
"Ah, it looks marvellous, but why such a boring name?"
"Should I have named it the Wonderwaffe DG-3?"
"Never mind Yuri, I will have it created."
"Good, and I will work on my VR-11, it may be a life-saving device if I can perfect it."
"A weapon that can turn the dead back into the living… sounds interesting."
"Imagine the horror I could stop with it, but only with my hard work can it come to reality."
"Perhaps, haven't you noticed that Maxis has been… edgy?"
"Why shouldn't he? Not like I see the man as much, being here at Ascension. This Old Russian cosmodrome is complex, but it's very inspiring to see how advanced they were at the time."
"I'm just wondering if he told you anything, there's so much secrecy, even if I do keep so much myself."
"I wouldn't worry Edward, with that Five he's told me about; everything is going to turn out alright."
"Oh, I'm not worried. I'm only wondering when the time will come for this to end, and how it will affect the world…"
"I'll keep in contact Edward, now I have to get back to work on the mechanism…"
Station Grid
"Ding!" the elevator sounded as it opened.
The group backed into it as only a few zombies remained in the lobby. The brainless monsters screamed as they grabbed Richtofhen by his coat, letting the doctor stab it in the eye as jabbed even more with the knife into its neck as he felt the warm blood spurt onto his neck.
"Yes, yes it's warm! It's warm and it's on my neck!" He shouted with joy, throwing the corpse to the ground as Knuckles pulled on into the elevator with Sonic and Tails following inside. The doors closed as the image of the bloody corpses left their sight.
"Hell, if you're going to do that, do it in a corner or something, Richtofhen." Knuckles muttered to the crazy fox.
"I thought we'd be dead at the speed this elevator was coming." Tails said. "At least we'll have soon time to get that power on."
"Yes friends, we must find the power. After that, we must arm ourselves before we make our way forward." Edward told them as he shuffled around the small interior of the elevator.
"Where are we going to get weapons?" Sonic asked, as he pushed slightly as the doctor was cramping him.
"Silly Hedgehog, surely you know that we're in a military base, where wouldn't there be weapons?" Edward stated.
"Not in the lobby." Tails said, rolling his eyes.
They continued to bicker as the elevator stopped at their next destination. The doors opened as the heard the familiar 'ding' and followed by a voice.
"Welcome to floor three: Amory."
"I wonder if the power rooms on this floor, only one way to find out." Sonic said as he jumped over the railing in front of them onto the floor below.
The room was largely spread, with a railing circling the room below. Down there was hundreds of racks of weapons and military vehicles in need of repair. There were two doors located down there, one that had a lightning bolt in chalk written over it, and another that read 'help' on it.
"This doesn't seem spooky at all." Tails said sarcastically. "But I think we could take one of those G.U.N vehicles out of here."
"I don't think so, my furry little friend." Edward said, as he pointed at the broken vehicles. "There all damaged, and unless we have an engineer to repair them, their useless."
Knuckles could only manage a small chuckle as Tails couldn't handle keeping a smile from crossing his face.
"What? What is so funny?" The doctor asked curiously. He wasn't certain what they found so funny, but he wanted to find out why.
"I really didn't believe you knew so little of us Doc." Knuckles stated, letting the doctor know of the Kitsunes mechanical expertise. "Tails has been repairing and engineering his own machines for years, I don't think this is going to be a real problem."
"Well to be fair, I'll need a blueprint of the vehicle before I can work on it, but that shouldn't be hard to find in here." Tails acknowledged.
"Great, more stuff we need to get, how… extraordinary." Richtofhen exaggerated.
They walked down the stairs of the railing and onto the ground floor. They noticed Sonic fiddling with a small pad in front of the door with the lightning bolt on it.
Sonic kicked the pad, frustrated with the results he'd been getting as the group approached him from behind.
"So, little rat, did you find anything?" Edward asked of Sonic, who glared at the doctor as he answered.
"Yeah, the power is just in this room, but it's a locked door." He stated. "This little pad here requires a password for unlocking it, and I have no idea what it is."
"Don't worry Sonic; I'm sure I can hack into it." Tails said as he neared the pad, before being shoved away by Richtofhen.
"No need, I have the password." He told Tails as he entered the numbers onto the tiny computers pad.
Password required.
Password Entry: F.E.A.R
Validating…
Confirmed: Access granted.
The red light that was on the door turned green as it opened up, revealing the mass of generators and circuits running throughout the entire room. Little fences hanged up that prevented anyone form touching the machines to avoid electrical shocks.
"How did you know the password?" Sonic asked with suspicion.
"I thought you would have had your priorities straight, instead of questioning me, but I was wrong." Edward bitterly replied. "Now, let's hurry this up, I have a short timeframe for my plan."
Ignoring his blabbering, they all ran into the power room as they carefully avoided all the dangling wires and sparks flying around until they reached the handle controlling the power. Next to the switch was a dead body, burned to death from the looks of it.
"Looks like someone was still alive before the power went out… its fresh." Tails examined before backing away from the body.
Richtofhen grabbed the power switch, pulling it down as sparks flew from the switchbox and the generators started to spur to life. Electricity jumped from one node to another as power returned to the base, lighting up the darkened areas of the base as a voice confirmed the restoration.
"All power has been restored, checking for bio-signatures…"
As that was said, a red light spread all around, even getting into the power room as it scanned the four of them where they stood and the red light dispersed.
"Life forms detected. Confirmed as: Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles Prower, Knuckles the Echidna, and Doctor Edward Richtofhen."
"So the machine knows who we are… what next?" Richtofhen asked out loud, not sure even who he was asking.
"Unknown life detected. Radiation signatures detected. Survivors, please evacuate the base immediately."
"We cannot, for we must secure some weapons and proclaim a mode of transportation, demon voice!" Edward shouted out.
"Uh Doc? It's just a machine, it won't respond to us like that." Sonic pointed out.
They jogged out of the room, seeing an obligation to investigate the 'help' room across from the power room. Running through some broken parts of military equipment, they reached the door as Knuckles tore it off from its wielded hinges.
Inside they found an assortment of assault weapons and ammunition boxes lying across the entire room. The group found themselves anxious to test their efficiency.
"I sure as hell don't have any love for zombies, so let's send them all back there." Knuckles muttered as he picked up a Spas-12 shotgun. "A gun like this has to be good."
"Stupid Echidna, that will kill them too fast. Something slower would be more preferable…" Richtofhen insulted him.
"Yeah, for you that is. I just want them to die."
"I don't know much about guns, so which one would be good?" Sonic asked as he looked around at the mess of firearms.
"For you, a light weapon would be good." Richtofhen suggested. "Maybe this MP5K would work for you."
Sonic grabbed the submachine gun as Edward tossed it over to him. He examined the light weight of the gun and the tiny sights on the top, fiddling with safety lock as he began looking for another weapon.
"This one looks fine." Tails said as he picked up a Scar-H and looked through the sights. "Seems light enough for me."
"You sound so eager, my little friend." Edward noticed in the kits voice. "Maybe we can both soak ourselves in the remains of there-"
"Not now Richtofhen, not now." Sonic interrupted.
"Very well, I will have too… oh, and what is this?" Edward exclaimed as he picked up a familiar looking SMG off the ground. "An MP40, so deadly and painful. This will rip the flesh form their bones and still be alive to see it!"
"I'm no expert, but why would G.U.N keep such an out of date gun in their armoury?" Tails asked. "You find those more in a museum nowadays."
"And why so much ammo for it? Do they plan to fight a war with world war two weapons?" Knuckles began to wonder.
"Who cares comrades? We have what we need, so let's be on our way." Edward said.
"There are so many guns, but barely any ammo for them…" Sonic said as he searched through the piles on the ground. "I can only find more for the M9 you gave us."
"Then take as much of it as you can along with the weapons you have taken." Edward exclaimed. "Hurry up; I don't have all day to wait for you fools."
Sonic gathered almost all of the M9 magazines he could find and sorted them among his friends and Richtofhen, reloading the pistol as they switched to their primary weapon and walked out of the help room.
Tails ran forward as he looked at one of the BTR's, examining it as he tried to determine how to fix it.
"I don't know, if I had the blueprints I could figure out what we need…" Tails mumbled as Sonic approached him from behind.
"So we need to find that and then we can leave?"
"Precisely." Tails answered.
Sonic and Knuckles went up to the elevator as Edward stayed behind with Tails to find out if he can repair it beforehand, much to Sonic's dismay.
Sonic pressed one of the buttons labeled with a two, shifting as the elevator closed its doors and ascended. A few moments of silence as Knuckles stood silent and Sonic coughed quietly until the doors opened and a ding ringed from the elevator before a voice was heard again.
"Welcome to floor two: Intelligence center."
"Hope we can find something detailed about that BTR, or we're dead if we stay here too long." Sonic muttered to his red friend.
"Do you notice how these zombies are a little different from those you hear about?" Knuckles asked Sonic. "They come in large numbers and disappear for a little bit, like in the lobby they just stopped coming for a bit…"
"You think they could be… planning?" Sonic suggested.
"How can zombies plan things? That sounds really stupid." Knuckles argued with Sonic's statement as they walked out of the elevator and into the center of G.U.N's surveillance around the city.
Sonic walked around as he looked at one of the computer screens scattered around that showed the fountain in the middle of the city. In the image he saw Shadow for sure, but some purple weasel followed him with what he was sure to be Amy he was carrying.
"Hey, Amy's alive! Knuckles, come check this out, I want to make sure I'm not just seeing this!" He motioned for the Echidna to come over.
"Well that does look like her, and that is Shadow… who's the other guy?" Knuckles asked.
"Heck if I know."
They continued to search around as they stumbled across numerous documents, most of them talking about random garbage. They kept searching around, on the computers, the papers beside them; even waste baskets and drawers for anything containing blueprints of a BTR.
"How hard is it to find the plans for a military constructed armoured vehicle?" Knuckles shouted out. "They hide this shit harder than kryptonite."
"Found something!" Sonic shouted back as he grabbed a paper sealed inside a thick leather folder. "Hope this is what we want."
He opened up the folder and found a strange symbol stamped at the top. The symbol looked like that of a fist holding an atom, something that Sonic remembered from Tails saying. Inside the atom was the numbers "935".
"This isn't any blueprints, but is sure is something else…" Sonic said as he began to read the contents of the document within.
This whole project was necessary. Every sacrifice was absolute in order to protect what we have gained and have established. We needed those foolish Doctors to believe that they were developing the future of the world, when they were developing a gateway to-
"It gets all messed up here… I can't read a bit of this until further on." Sonic mumbled as he read further in.
-xis is already dead. After his foolish brother, we learned of the effect the bodies had gotten from the radiation. At Geisteskranken, we'd hoped to avoid the same mistake by leaving armed guards within the former prison of the facility. After the Doctor told of his subject, we believed that there was no need to take worry, but we still needed visual confirmation to be sure. That was when I went in, and I sent Richtofhen to the asylum by the doctor's request.
How long it's been after my visit to Geisteskranken, I do not care to count. Why the outbreak continued from there, I do not care to understand why. When we're all dead, I would hardly care about such trivial things.
If you're reading my notes, know that you're reading a classified document, and any G.U.N official will deny the existence of this parchment. Our involvement in the 115 Project is secret, and we will keep it that way till the grave.
Sonic gently put the paper down, looking around as he felt a little dry in his mouth.
"I guess that means they did it." Knuckles bluntly pointed out. "Is that the proof you always needed Sonic?"
"I never expected them to actually do something like this…" He mumbled to himself. "I can't… it's just so…"
He kept walking around before tripping on a loose cord and fell flat on his face. He smacked the ground hard as he moaned a little before lifting himself up.
While he pushed his body form his hands, he heard a wobble as he looked down. He saw a large piece of blue parchment on the ground, showing a diagram of a familiar design and immediately grabbed at as he rushed for the elevator, calling Knuckles as he did.
"I think this is the blueprint." Sonic suggested as he held onto it. "Cause it sure is blue and it defiantly has print."
Meanwhile…
"So Miles…" Edward talked to the two tailed fox. "Has the rat ever talked to you about the circle of life?"
"You mean Sonic?" Tails questioned, knowing quite well he meant Sonic. "If you mean by how you grow and live a full life until you finally part, than yeah."
"That's it? He never told you of some… pleasurable things along the way?" Richtofhen asked with a smile.
"What do you mean?" Tails asked, being puzzled by the strange fox's questions.
"Has he ever talked to you about… the birds and the-"
"Oh no, he hasn't told me about," Tails took a moment to make sure no one else was around. "-sex"
"Hm, it's funny that I get a different expression from others when I ask them these kinds of questions." Edward seemed disappointed.
"You're actually disappointed that I didn't freak out?" Miles asked with a hint of his curiosity mixed in. "Why is that?"
"You're a smart child, yet so… laid back."
"I probably get that from Sonic, although I don't think he likes you." Tails informed the Doctor.
"That doesn't matter, for as long as I have the lotion, I will never have to rub the hose again." Edward blurted. "Or else it scrubs the grass again."
"What does that mean?"
"Does everything need to have a meaning?" Richtofhen retorted. "There's not as many secrets as you think, maybe some that are noted and given hints towards, but not all that I say or anyone else says has a meaning for something else."
"Uh…" Tails stuttered as he didn't know how to answer back. "I was just-"
"Shh! Do you hear that?" Richtofhen said as he covered Tails mouth and listened. He heard tiny moans and screams coming from vents and he let out of squeal of joy. "My minions are back! How fun it is that they come running to their demise!"
Tails grabbed Edwards hand and tarred it away from his mouth as he gasped for air.
"Oh sorry, I forgot that you need to breath, I'm so use to the zombies not needing to when I stab them."
Just then, the air vents all around them burst open, revealing a new creature that was quite different in appearance to that of the other zombies. With its unusually grey skin and its huge teeth protruding from its mouth, the zombie moaned as a drop of green saliva hit the floor and steam emitted from it.
"Edward, you wouldn't happen to know what the heck that thing is, would you?" Tails asked as he eyed the creature with a hint of fear in his eye.
"I do not remember experimenting with such a creation, maybe it's a creation that Maxis kept away from me…" He said, slipping out his former friend's name.
One of the creatures opened its mouth wide as it tried to tackle Richtofhen, only managing to cling onto his chest as it struggled to get closer to the foxes face, green fluid drawing closer to the foxes muzzle as he held it back at the teeth.
The elevator opened up as Sonic and Knuckles saw one of the creatures in front of the elevator, receiving a punch from Knuckles as it flew over the railing and onto the floor below, lying still a few moments before exploding into a cloud of yellow gas.
"Damn, that smells awful!" Knuckles complained as he noticed the doctor struggling with the creature as Tails aimed his rifle at it, trying not to hit him as he waited.
"Ugh, you smell like a swine, ugly one!" Edward insulted the creature as he finally managed to throw it onto the ground and stabbed his knife into its chest, then picking up his MP40 and shooting it repeatedly.
After he saw it scream and stop moving, he grabbed the knife and pulled it out of the monsters chest, finding himself surprised as it exploded into a yellow veil as he coughed and felt his eyes water from a burning that consumed him.
"Ahh, mein eyes! Mein eyes!" He shouted as an angry frown developed onto his face, eyes watering as he fired multiple shots out at a group of the disgusting creatures.
Their heads burst as the bullets punctured there large heads, releasing more of the toxic gas as Edward backed away from it, nearly puking at the extremely terrible smell. Tails shot a few bullets at the creatures as they crawled on all fours, killing two before another dropped from a ceiling vent and in front of him.
Knuckles came down just in time as he grabbed the creature by its arm and threw it against one of the vehicle's, grabbing his shotgun as he fired at it twice, severing both its arms as it leaked the putrid gas as well.
"What the hell are they releasing?" Knuckles asked as he watched more of them continuing to pour out of the vents.
"I don't know; just don't stay in the gas!" Richtofhen shouted as he blindly shot out, reloading as he cursed at the insufferable demons around him.
As Sonic was still on the railing, another huge headed creature charged at him, receiving a kick from the hedgehog's foot as it spinned and bite onto the metal bar, burning away into its mouth as it dissolved within seconds.
Jumping over the rail and onto the floor below, Sonic raced over to Tails as he shoved the blueprints in his face while facing back at the incoming fiends.
"This is it! There's not much that we need from the looks of it, just three different components!" He shouted out as he dropped the paper onto the floor after memorizing it.
"Alright Tails, let's just deal with these freak-bags before we work on that." Sonic shouted back as he stomped a creatures head in and jumping back to avoid the gas.
More and more of the zombies kept coming until a sudden veil of fog started to roll inside the base, covering the area with a blanket of mist as the zombies seemed to just disappear.
"Where the hell did they go?" Knuckles shouted his question.
"I don't know, but I sure can't see anything with this fog." Sonic replied back as held his hand above his eyes as he tried to see through the mist.
"I think something's coming…" Tails muttered as he listened to a low growl coming from somewhere. He kept listening as the growl turned into a snarl as he heard metal clinging as feet constantly moved around above them.
Sonic and Knuckles heard the noise too, as they raised their guns up to the railing above and back down towards the metal stairs as they saw something walking out of the fog on all fours. Richtofhen finally wiped his eyes clean as he looked over at the creature, shouting out as he shot at it.
"I don't like killing dogs."
The dog exploded into a mess of red and yellow blood as another jumped from the railing above and ran towards the heroic hedgehog, toppling onto the floor as Knuckles pumped his shotgun into its stomach and felt the blood fly onto his chest.
This time, they all heard a voice call out as whispering was heard. A collection of electricity appeared in front of Tails as the voice called out demonically.
"Fetch me their SOULS!"
"The Devils dogs? No match for the U.S Marines, Oh-rah."
"Maybe I can put out the flames if I piss on them… heh heh… I wouldn't want to risk losing my unmentionable."
"Demon dogs… I will vanquish them!"
"Fluffy, is that you?"