Hedgehog In The Mousetrap

From the center of the base, Metal Sonic wirelessly accessed the surveillance cameras of the base. It allowed him to watch his enemies arrive without having to bother to move from his position yet. Apparently, the hedgehog and his companions had found the entrance easily and were now following the long track down to the main parts of Aquatic Base.

His optics not leaving the screen and still watching the enemies like a hawk hovering over its prey, he opened a detailed map of the base from his memory, laying out the way he would leave open for the trio to take that would eventually lead them to a room was various little generators. They were leftovers of the base's previous owners, of no use to him and not required for the base's operation. But with the robots he had sent down there, those useless generators, together with the bomb conveniently placed at a sensitive spot of one specimen, would serve as an ideal distraction. All he had to do was waiting for the hedgehog to stand in the right position. His allies would be distracted and capturing his dreaded nemesis would be easy.

Metal Sonic reached for the gun on the table next to him. As tempting as it might be, he didn't strive to get into any confrontation with his biological copy. His personal desires to beat him into a bloody pulp had to stand back for the greater plan. In the end, the result wouldn't be much of a difference. He would get rid of Sonic for good, and the way he'd planned out now was quick and fail-proof.

One claw holding the gun, the robot pulled out a dart, turning it over in front of his optics. The thin glass tube of the tiny arrow was filled to the brim with a cocktail of substances with strong tranquilizing effects on biological creatures. After studying his worst opponent for a very long time, Metal Sonic had worked out all unique traits about the hedgehog's anatomy, and one of those traits was the fast working of his metabolism. Metal Sonic had calculated his arch-enemy's body would consume the drugs much quicker than most other creatures, leading his systems to react even stronger to them. It pleased Metal to know that if the hedgehog would ever awaken from the sedation, he would be feeling very miserable for a considerable length of time. But, as his plans went, it would not come to this, for Sonic would not leave this base again.

Metal Sonic returned his attention to the cameras. The intruders were a good way down towards the set trap. Most satisfactory. The robots shouldered the gun and threw just a short look at the Master Emerald. When he was done with Sonic, he wouldn't need the gem anymore. He would allow the enemies to find it and take it back to the floating island. For him, that was the best way to quickly get them out of the base again. Without knowing it, all three were working right into his hands.


Sonic held his head tipped backwards as he walked, staring at a large number of round… things. They were about the size of a football, consisted of some sort of silvery metal stuff… and they floated. This was already the second room they passed that had the ball things and still Sonic could only stare at them. Tails had touched one in the first room, although mostly on accident at first, and it had turned out the balls were a little like bubbles, light and cool to the touch, but apparently harmless. And you could home-attack them. What was somewhat useless, but funny and interesting.

Next to the hedgehog, Tails was busy talking Knuckles' non-visible ears off in his attempts explaining what the balls were and how they worked or what they could probably be good for. From all Sonic perceived, the echidna still found the things anything but suspicious and didn't give a damn what they were in detail. All Knuckles cared about was getting a hold of the Master Emerald. Not that anything about this situation really surprised Sonic.

The hedgehog returned his attention to the floating balls again. Something about them… heck, something about this whole place was giving him deja-vú. In a weird kind of sense he was sure he'd seen this stuff before. The high round rooms, the corridors, the floaty balls. Something about them rang bells in his head, but he couldn't get a grip on it. There was something about them, but this was as close as he got to it.

He's made a comment about it already, but Knuckles didn't seem to care, busy trying to locate the Master Emerald's direction, and Tails thought that they'd been to so many places that looked somehow like this (all of Eggman's bases, Space Colony Ark…) that it wasn't too surprising Sonic felt that way. The blue hedgehog shrugged. Maybe Tails had a point.

After all, something about this place and the way it felt remotely familiar had taken away most of the nervousness, and wondering about the balls and other things he saw occupied him enough to help shove the fear of being crushed under an ocean full of water in some mental corner where it wasn't effecting him too much.

And the ball thingies were funny. Sonic poked one that was in reach that gently bubbled out of its position, collided with another one, causing both of them to bounce off each other and float into several others. Sonic grinned. He liked the balls. He wanted one of those for home. It'd be fun chasing it all around. He made a comment about it, but Knuckles downright ignored him and Tails just smiled.

The hedgehog's contemplations on taking one of the things with him when they left again were interrupted when they got out of the bubble room and into another large dome. Like in the others of its kind, three new paths generated from here and Sonic was beginning to wonder just how big this underwater base was. And if they hadn't already gotten lost in it.

As a clear difference to earlier domes, this new one wasn't empty though. In the middle of it there was a group of what looked like gas canisters to Sonic, large yellow things, connected to some sort of machine that gave out a soft, deep humming. It was the first piece of actual machinery they'd found.

"This looks like some sort of generator," Tails said, slowly walking up to examine it more closely.

"Is it important we look at it?", Knuckles asked, irritation obvious in his tone again. "The Master Emerald is somewhere nearby."

"We're close finally?" Sonic eyed the echidna.

Knuckles nodded. "A little closer and it's gonna burn my nerves…"

The hedgehog frowned. "And that's good?" It sounded kind of painful to Sonic...

"Yes?" Now Knuckles looked surprised.

Sonic shrugged. "If you say so."

"Uh, guys?", Tails interrupted the awkward conversation. "I'm afraid I got some bad news…"

"Like what, little bro?" A second later, after looking around, Sonic could have spared his breath. "Robots!"

"They must be here to guard the Master," Knuckles remarked, his amethyst eye narrowing. "I won't let them stand in my way!"

Sonic exchanged a glance with Tails when the echidna readily threw himself at the nearest group of machines. Usually it was Sonic who jumped first before looking around… but it was Emerald searching time and Sonic idly noticed that Knuckles had to leave his brains at home when on a quest for the thing. Or all this energy he said was burning around here made him high. Or something like that.

Forcing himself to try being more thoughtful for once than his red friend, Sonic took in their opponents. No idea how they'd managed to appear all over the room without anyone noticing. But that was one thing most bots were uncomfortably good at. Appearing out of nowhere and opening fire at you. Which was pretty much what they were doing.

Jumping out of the way of a handful of tiny rockets and grabbing Tails by the arm as he went, Sonic made for closer to the generator thing. Hopefully the robots considered in sensitive and didn't shoot at it. Having gained a few important seconds, the hedgehog cast a look around. There were about thirty or forty Egg Pawns, a common type that came in many variations, a few other smaller models with rocket launchers, one of them just about to get its head ripped off by a red echidna angry about the delay it and its companions caused with his Emerald search, as well as six giant robots with large hammers. Aside of their dark blue color instead of the usual reddish tones and the hammer instead of a gun or laser weapon, this type looked a lot like the others… just that it was four times larger and very tough to kill.

Sonic frowned a little. Getting rid of the bots would take precious time… "Tails? Do you think you know where we came from?"

"Yes, sure." The two-tailed fox nodded. "Why?"

"We've been really running a zigzag course on our way here. If we find the Emerald and Eggman or someone turns up with more robots, we better get outta here quick." He shot another look at Knuckles. "He wouldn't want to risk the Emerald in a fight."

Tails nodded again. "It's his mission this time, I guess. So you want me to find a quicker exit? You'll be okay on your own?"

Sonic grinned. "Sure. They're just a bunch of robots. It'll be fun!"

Tails laughed. "Whatever you say. I'll be back with the plan for the best way outta here before you're finished with those guys. Wanna bet?"

"You're on." Sonic gave his brother a thumbs-up, turned around and took a dash for the first best robots near to him. He jumped into the air when he was almost in reach of them, spinning into a spiky ball and homing in on the first in line.

With Sonic and Knuckles tearing through their formation from two sides the death toll among the machines was rapidly increasing. Sonic took out one of the giant bots by running around it at high speeds until it became confused enough to fall over in a futile attempt to hit him with its hammer. The few seconds it lay on the ground struggling were enough for Sonic to jump high over it and bound down on its head heavily.

Sonic simply ran over some of the smaller bots, the protective shield of wind and maybe chaos energy making the collision harmless for him but not so for the robots that were catapulted into some of their own kind, increasing Sonic's non-accounted-for score. He home attacked a few more machines, easily dodging their laser fire and found with a quick look around that Knuckles was doing equally awesome and had already taken down two of the giants.

That was until some of the remaining robots suddenly turned suicidal and started firing at the generator instead of the attackers. Sonic brought down a few of them, but the yellow canister things showed deep dents and sparks danced over the machine.

"Not good…", Sonic nervously mumbled to himself and in an act of clever gut instinct and long-time experience with situations like this one turned away from the dying generator. "Look out, Knux! This thing's gonna go boom!", he shouted, jumping over the fallen body of a giant robot in his way.

He didn't get a chance to look what Knuckles was doing. An enormous bang sounded from behind and the shockwave caught him still in midair, barreling him forwards like a spiked cannonball. His stiffened his quills, pointing outwards like blades and shivering softly under the strain, protected most of his body from harm; just his left side, unfortunately pointing in the direction of the blow and not properly shielded by his spikes, all of a sudden felt as if a hundred of needles was being driven into his shoulder and side by the force of the explosion. Sonic knew he'd cried out, but the sound of pain was short-lived when he collided with a hard wall. The impact knocked the wind out of him and he dropped down, his body half uncurling as it went limp.

His head was pounding, his shoulder stung and the blue hedgehog thought he felt warm blood ooze into his fur. He forced his eyes open when he found he'd squeezed them shut at some point and crawled up until he sat with his back against the wall, trying to regain his bearings. The wall was metal, possibly the only thing separating him from the vast ocean, but it was cool in his back. For a moment Sonic relaxed against it, deliberately taking slow breaths, trying to wash a bit of the adrenaline out of his systems.

He was slowly beginning to get a grip on himself when he felt a short sting on the side of his neck. He reached out for it, but his hand never got to feel it. A weird, numb feeling was spreading from his neck, Sonic felt like he was suddenly sitting on a spinning plate, then the room tilted to the side and a dark fog fell over it. He was unconscious before he even understood what was going on.


Knuckles was in the middle of a punch when the explosion went off. He heard Sonic scream a warning and turned his head towards the hedgehog's voice, his right fist not stopping its way directly into the robot's metal visage.

The clanking sound when the bot fell over almost coincided with the flash of bright light from one of the things Tails had called generators. Knuckles shielded his eyes with his arm and although he was on the other side of a rather large room, the shockwave that hit him a second later made him tumble several meters backwards until he tripped over the remains of a broken robot and fell ungracefully onto his tail.

Squinting through a light haze, Knuckles could only sit and watch a ball of blue being shot through half of the room by the force of the explosion, through an open door into a corridor and out of sight. "Sonic!"

The echidna scrambled to his feet and was about to dash for the door to check if his friend was okay, but three of the large hammer wielding robots still remained and didn't seem bothered by the explosion much. Of course, Knuckles mused acidly, there were definite upsides to weighing a hundred times as much as Sonic or himself. What sent a Mobian flying was probably a mere breeze for a giant robot…

Knuckles jumped to the side and shook off his pondering when the robot nearest to him swung its hammer. It crashed into the ground only a meter to Knuckles' left, shaking the floor enough to make it difficult for the echidna to remain on his feet. He ground his teeth. "Get outta my way!"

Spiked fists raised, he charged forwards. Two long steps brought him close enough to the robot and he jumped upwards, striking one tightly clenched fist at its hammer arm. He hit right onto the elbow, causing a satisfactory twist in the arm and the hammer dropped to the ground. Now it was more obstacle than weapon to the robot. A dead weight restraining it, and Knuckles knew that. He planned on taking advantage of it.

Another light-footed jump brought the echidna even closer to the robot. He timed his steps and set his right foot onto the robot's knee, using it as a step to hurl himself upwards. With his hands on the robot's shoulder, it took only a second for the guardian to crouch next to the machine's head. He knew from experience it was the most sensitive part and raised his right hand, bringing it down onto the metal skull in one of the mightiest punches he could master.

The result was just as expected and very satisfactory for Knuckles. Sparks flew from where he's punched a remarkable dent into the robot's head, the combat machine swayed back and forth as if drunk, then dropped forwards like a felled tree and hit the floor face first. Knuckles jumped off its shoulders before it met the ground, launching himself at the next robots.

If their programming allowed them to actually understand what had happened to their companion, Knuckles didn't know, but the remaining two seemed intend on staying together. Oh well. Knuckles approached them from the front, moving quickly and not in a straight line. It was a tactic he'd adopted from Sonic, not that he'd ever admit something like that. But moving fast and in a somewhat random pattern apparently made it hard for most robots to aim at you, or even understand what you were up to.

When the two hammer bots caught up on Knuckles' plan, he was already in the midst of them, standing on the small space between the towering machines. There was another thing Knuckles knew about the giant hammer robots. Striking a small opponent directly to their feet wasn't what they were good at. The hammer was only good at a range of more than two meters away from the robot; if you stood directly on their toes, they had no real way to harm you.

Knowing that and feeling relatively safe, Knuckles started his destructive work on the first robot, trusting in the second one not to blow its hammer at him to avoid hitting its buddy. He seemed to be right on that. Hopping around between the robot's feet, he scored punch after punch until his spiked namesakes tore through the armour and punctured the interior of the machine. He quickly withdrew his hand when tiny bolts of lightening danced around the hole he'd made. The giant robot swayed and threatened to fall onto him, but Knuckles gave it a hard push that upset its balance completely and caused it to fall onto its back with an ear-shattering boom.

Knuckles was about to turn around and handle the last robot when a feeling he'd never felt before shot through his body and he stood frozen. Deep in the back of his mind, the Master Emerald had cried out, an energy surge so piercing it caused Knuckles' entire body to quiver. He gasped. "No…" Truth was, he had no idea what was happening to the Emerald. But it was bad.

He shook himself. He had to get to the Master. Quickly. Still gasping, the guardian bounded over the fallen robot, too concentrated to be aware that the sudden movement had most likely saved his life when the robot behind him brought its hammer down onto where a second ago the red echidna had been standing. But with Knuckles gone, it only shook the ground and the machine was left staring after the opponent it had meant to smash. It wasn't fast enough to follow quickly, and the dead body of its fallen companion blocked the way.

Knuckles didn't waste a single thought on the robot anymore. He dashed towards the door at the far end of the room. The one Sonic had been flying through, too. The echidna rushed into the corridor, finding it angled a ninety degree just ten meters from the door. Knuckles continued onwards. "Sonic!?"

He didn't get any replies. The corridor was empty. Knuckles briefly examined the wall. There were a few red stains on it that could be blood, but Sonic wasn't around. If he could run off, he'd be fine, Knuckles reasoned, and he had to get to the Master Emerald. The energy patters it gave out felt crazy.

Breaking into a run again, Knuckles ventured deeper into the base. Suddenly he knew exactly where to go.