Metropolis Downfall (Pt. 5: The Climatic Reactor)
"That explains why Grendor is injured; crafty creatures aren't they." Sonic stated as he watched the medically trained aliens scurry across the large Sharpscale, removing torn scales and placing a whitish cream against the purplish bruises. The black alien hissed slightly as they applied the cream and pulled at his scales. He truly didn't enjoy the feeling but understood the necessity of it; however, he didn't have to say a word for Sonic to understand that he was quite uncomfortable.
"Hey, watch what you're doing; I hear one more sound of pain coming from Grendor because of what you're doing and I'll skin you alive." the blue hedgehog smirked as he noticed some of the medics look at each other in slight worry, a few had even gasped in response, as they continued their work at a more easygoing pace, attempting to not uneasy the Sharpscale in anyway. The blue hedgehog walked up to Grendor, scratching at the soft scales beneath the black creature's frills. Grendor purred in satisfaction, forgetting the group of Sharpscales that plucked away at his injured scales.
"You ok." Grendor bobbed his head slightly in answer, pistachio green eyes that were hiding behind black eyelids peered down at the small mobian below.
"Yeah, I feel fine now. Can we go for a walk?" Sonic frowned at the statement.
"Sorry Grendor, but no."
"Please, tevreden." The Sharpscale pleaded, pistachio eyes looking down at the blue hedgehog with puppy dog eyes, yet the action went unfazed by the mobian.
"I said no; it's important that you rest Grendor, and I am needed here at the moment." The black alien snorted, but simply rested his head on his upper hands.
"Fine." He purred as the hedgehog scratched beneath his frills once more, his tail swishing behind him passionately. Sonic grinned as he watch the reptile's eyes hid under black eyelids before stepping away in a manner as he let the creature sleep once more. He looked around, noticing that Krogatro was currently gaining medical attention a few meters away from where he stood, the bottom portion of his tail flattened, most likely the work of that pink hedgehog's hammer.
His eyes widened slightly, ears twitching at the sound of nearby yelling, and turned to where Egrend and Racko were standing. He sighed at the sight and shook his head in disappointment. The orange Sharpscale was currently throwing a tantrum, yelling out several things and his kind's own language, while the creature's younger brother laughed at his immature actions.
"Ugh, dam deze stomme computer en hun imbecile scheppers." Egrend grumbled angrily as he smacked the keyboard in clear annoyance. His tail swished back in forth like an irritated cat ready to strike at anything whether it was friend or foe. Racko continued to laugh, yellow eyes closing at the sound of the Sharpscale's outburst.
"Would anybody wish to inform me of the predicament here?" Sonic stated as he neared the two. The red alien wiped his eyes, his chuckling lowering into a snicker as he looked at the hedgehog.
"Egrend is throwing a tantrum because those humans installed some type of virus that restarted the download process, and now it's up to nearly three-fourths of the hour."
"Even I have to admit that was clever, and there's no way to bypass it." The hedgehog cocked an eyebrow at the statement.
"So you're saying the data won't be ready until 45 minutes later." Both aliens nodded, "And what am I supposed to do 'til then." Racko shrugged.
"I don't know keep your little pet company." the red Sharpscale snickered before silencing himself at the sound of the mobian growling.
"Don't call him a pet, understood." Racko slowly shook his head as Sonic turned around and slowly made his way to the entrance of the computer room, "I'm going to see if I could locate the escapees."
"No way, I'm sending out a search team to track them-"
"So what," the blue hedgehog turned to face the alien, "so they could be captured along with Addanc's group. He was one of Scazer's top five corporals and he was most likely captured. What's the possibility that they won't be caught?" Racko growled at the comment, but knew that he was right. Addanc was Scazer's senior corporals, and, more importantly, Racko's best second in charge. It took a lot of strength, cunning, and strategy to beat him, and if that group of heroes were capable of catching him then he couldn't exactly trust the likelihood of any of his search parties not being caught.
"Fine, but when you see them-." Sonic rolled his eyes as he headed toward the door.
"Report back to you, yeah, yeah, stop pestering me about that." the mobian responded as he exited the room.
(With Heroes)
"Well, that's the last of them." Knuckles stated as he stood up from his kneeling position, studying the handiwork that lay before him, literally.
After nearly half an hour of the Sharpscale Grendor and Krogatro's retreat, the remaining Sharpscales were force to surrender. All but one Sharpscale were passed out either from slight exhaustion or by a hit to the head by the crocodile, echidna, or hedgehogs. Knuckles and Vector had torn away at some of the walls of the base to wrap the metal around the two large Sharpscales while the rest wrapped bundles of ropes around the smaller ones. Addanc growled at the action, his scales irritated as the rope brushed along them uncomfortably. The purple creature was forced to surrender when Shadow had kicked his gun out of his hands and forced him into a chokehold, all his other comrades already dealt with seconds prior to the event.
"Alright then, since we have that done, we got a few questions for you alien." The purple crocodile-like being smirked at the statement, even if he was defeated doesn't make him a sore-loser.
"Well, since it would humor you, go right along. I'm not in any way capable of stopping you of doing so anyway." Addanc replied with a quick toothy grin. The humans shivered slightly as they noticed that all the teeth shown together at the same time made them resemble those of a shark.
"What do you mean by Grendor being Sonic's 'pet'?" Rouge asked with a cocked eyebrow. Many eyes rose in confusion as they heard the being chuckle at the question.
"Well, not exactly pet, most of the Sharpscales joke about that mutated goof-up being the hedgehog's pet because of the odd connection they have. I believe you are aware of the three year difference in the age that you thought he was and his true age. Well we had our own small bits of experimentations and tests between him and the black Sharpscale."
"What experimentations?"
"Basically Grendor was about the same size as me before he had his DNA genetically mutated to accommodate the hedgehog's experimented blood, which tripled his size and gave him different abilities that can only be accomplished alongside Scazer's 'weapon'; well, as far as we know."
"And what type of ability is that alien?" One of the G.U.N. soldiers stated, gun still aimed at him in caution as Addanc rolled his eyes at the human's behavior before chuckling slightly.
"Well why should I tell you and ruin the surprise, you have to find out for yourself. That is, if he doesn't kill you for harming Grendor."
"Alright then," Shadow stated, having no other questions to ask Addanc that would seem of complete importance at the moment, "Vector, you and your group stay with the G.U.N. soldiers and make sure they don't escape. Everyone else, we're going to try to stop Racko from getting that data on the Climatic Reactor." The Sharpscale laughed as they walked toward the door that led out the room and back into the main corridor.
"It's your funeral, I'll be looking for your remains when Sonic gets through with you; ouch, hey watch it mammal." Orange eyes glanced to the side as they watch one of the scientists stand up, holding up a pint of blood that was most likely taken from him.
"What extraordinary blood you have here Mr. Addanc." Addanc looked at the human in slight worry for both his own safety and the scientist's own mental state.
"Uh, thank you I guess."
Maybe I should've let that blue hedgehog shred me to pieces.
(With Sonic)
"Man, why does this place have to be so confusing," Sonic thought as he studied the corridor he was currently traveling through, "Either all these hallways are the same, or I'm going in one freaking circle." The blue hedgehog could really use one of those pterodactyl-like messengers that could help him navigate to at least the room that the secret entrance leads into; even Racko's bloodhound-like nose would've come in handy for tracking the escapees in order to even know if they're still in the lab.
Thinking about the escapees, the anger that the blue hedgehog had when he saw the injured Grendor barrel himself into the room was beginning to die down, just as the annoyance of the other Sharpscales gradually grew, the only thing that kept him aligned to their cause was the 'promise' of telling him his purpose set by Professor Lewis. He had told Racko specifically to leave Grendor at the Sharpscales ship that still orbited the planet. He had told Racko that having prisoners would only cause the Sharpscales trouble. The ignorant red Sharpscale, however, would not listen to his small bits of advice and now look at where they were; they were stuck in a base with little chance of getting any reinforcements to get here on time without the threat of causing a cave-in if the prisoners were to find them.
Sighing slightly from boredom, the blue hedgehog leaned against the cold metal wall of the corridor. Green eyes hid beneath blue eyelids as he felt something push up against his mind.
"What's wrong Grendor." Sometimes the blue hedgehog had to appreciate the ability the two shared that allowed them to communicate telepathically.
"I'm hungry." Grendor's whine echoed throughout the mammal's head.
And these were the times that he cursed the day he ever discovered the ability.
"What, you were fed just before we got here nearly an forty-five minutes ago. Don't tell me…" He could practically feel the Sharpscale's stomach growl as it echoed in his head, proving the aliens point.
"Could you get me something to eat, maybe one of those pizza things those humans were talking about."
"No, when we are done with this mission then you can have something to eat."
"Please."
"Grendor, I got something impor-" Blue ears twitched as he stopped in mid-thought. He recognized the sound to be angry shouting echoing down the hall, angry echidna shouting, "Got to go, tell Racko I just found the prisoners, or don't, I don't really care." Before the black alien could replied Sonic severed the telepathic link, green eyes snapping opening as blue ears rotated slightly to concentrate on the enraged yelling, added with several other voices that tried to calm the echidna.
"How in Chaos are we going to find them; there's like a million different pathways in here!" Blue ears picked up Knuckles yelling, followed by a 'Piko' sound, from the pink hedgehog no doubt with that irritating hammer. He walked toward the sound, relying on his ears to guide him to their location.
"Keep that up and they'll most likely find us instead." Amy stated.
"Pinky's right, Knucklehead, we have to stay quiet so we don't-"
"-get caught," Majority of the group got into a fighting stance, with the exemption of a red echidna as he quickly stood up, rubbing against his sorehead, as the blue hedgehog stepped out from one of the several hallways that led into the large room, "because you were doing such a good job of that anyways."
"Alright, either Amy hit me too hard in the head, or Sonic's actually being sarcastic." The red echidna wobbled slightly as he tried to shake the dizziness that enveloped him.
"What do you want Sonic?" Shadow stated as the hedgehog responded with a mischievous smirk.
"Well, you see, Racko doesn't want you interfering with the mission," a blue air ball formed in the palm of his right hand, "and I'm not exactly fond with you hurting Grendor." Before any could speak the blue orb was thrown toward them, forcing the group to dodge to the side to avoid the explosion and the pieces of metal that flew in the after-effect.
"So that big guy actually was that Grendor fellow."
"A normal Sharpscale are more prone to be blood-lusted and aching for a fight, except for people like Grendor and Egrend; though, I can see why you would target him," the blue hedgehog threw another air ball at the group, "biggest guy in the room is typically a bigger threat."
"Yeah, unless you have some mutated hedgehog who's trying to kill you." Knuckles stated sarcastically causing the hedgehog to let out a small chuckle, leaning against the doorframe and lazily causing the air around his out-held hand to twist and turn as a blue aura appeared.
"Do you really believe you'll still be alive if I was trying to kill you?" the blue hedgehog stood up straight, the air around his hand condensing into what was similar to a small cannon, radiating a blue glow as the hedgehog admired his newest way of manipulated the air, "No, only a fool would get rid of possible allies, especially when you get something useful out of it."
"So you're taking the offer." Shadow asked.
"Of course, and with the possible end-of-the-world-as-you-know-it should entice you to get the info as quickly as you can. Racko stated that Scazer plan to have this world transformed and conquered in a few days, which should be plenty of time for you to retrieve the data from Christmas Island." He aimed the cannon at the group, causing majority of them to widen their eyes in slight fear.
"Then why are you pointing a cannon at us?" Tails stated as his tail twirled in preparation to fly as he saw a blue glow appear at the opening of the cannon.
The mutated creature simply led a sly grin cross his peach muzzle as a blue orb grew from the air cannon's opening, giving an odd shadow on the hedgehog's face from the dim lighting of the room.
"It would be a terrible thing to not try out a new trick."
That's when he fired the cannon.
The group jumped to side once more as the orb shot out when a loud booming sound similar to that made when either the blue or black hedgehog broke the sound barrier. The impact with the ground was nearly louder, causing the place to shake slightly, debris flying out from the large that now occupied a large amount of the room.
"Anybody else wishing they got guard duty with the Chaotix." Rouge stated as she flew up into the air.
(With the Chaotix)
"Man, wouldn't want to be there right now." Vector stated as another loud booming sound echoed throughout the lab. Addanc chuckled slightly as they walked down the corridors, the G.U.N. soldiers leading them to a secret exit used in case of an emergency.
And with the other possibly being the location of where the battle was coming from, this counted good enough for an emergency for practically all of them.
"Hi, at least when you guys are enslaved you'll be able to recall the tales of those idiots and their inevitable demise by our weapon of destruct-Ow!" the alien winced as he felt one of the soldiers jabbed the butt of his gun into his scaly head, "What was that for?"
"Keep quiet lizard breathe, we are authorized by the Commander to bring you to his headquarters for interrogation." Addanc sneered at the soldier's tone, talking to him as he was something as worthless as their own species.
"And what of my comrades?" he nearly spat at the human, eyes narrowed as he attempted to do as much to annoy the group without causing too much trouble for him in the near future.
"Our scientists shall be performing tests and observing your kind in order to understand you."
"Have you ever thought about asking politely?" Addanc turned his head to face the crocodile, which was currently having a bit of trouble holding back a snicker along with the bee.
"Yeah, and while we're at it we'll ask Scazer to politely leave our planet." Vector stated, pure mockery echoing in his tone.
"Watch it croc, you and that chameleon could've had a pleasant life in the Sharpscalean Empire."
"With a bunch of freaks like you, I'll pass."
(With Racko)
"What is that idiot doing?" Racko muttered angrily as he noticed the room slightly shake from each booming sound, "He'll possibly tear the base down."
"Well brother, you did not say that he could not engage the enemy." Egrend stated as he searched through other bits of data in the lab's database as he waited for the info on the Climatic Reactor to finish downloading. Racko growled as he glared at his older brother before walking toward Grendor, the sores practically fading away against his black scales.
"Grendor, tell that inconsiderate rodent to get his tail back here." Grendor cocked his head in confusion.
"What's a rodent, and why do you want its tail." Racko groaned as he face-palmed.
"Seriously, all this experimenting and we couldn't give this dude intelligence."
"Just tell Sonic get back here."
"But Sonic's busy-"
"I don't care if he's busy," the large alien flinched at the red ones outburst, "just tell him to get back here right now."
(Back with Sonic)
The blue hedgehog had jumped to the side as Shadow tossed a Chaos Spear toward him, which he countered by aiming the air cannon in his direction and firing it in smaller, rapid blasts.
"Sonic." He nearly stumbled to the ground as he landed, Grendor's voice echoing in his head once more.
"Grendor, not right now." He ducked a spiked fist before giving a few punches to the echidna's chest, forcing him back a few feet.
"But Racko says that you need to get back here right now, and he seems quite serious about it." Sonic let a low growl out and, to the others surprise, transformed the air cannon that wrapped around his hand into a large glowing blue ball.
"Fine." Sonic tossed the ball up to the ceiling, which stuck to it almost as if it was sticky.
"Sorry to have to leave so soon, but I'll leave you a choice. You can either try to stop us, or you can save the people in that hospital above. Think fast, that air bomb goes off in approximately two minutes and will take out everything in a five mile radius." Before any could answer, Sonic had rushed down the hallway.
"Alright, what just happened?" Knuckles asked, confused at the whole situation.
"Doesn't matter, we got to get those people out of there. We'll just have to make sure to get those emeralds, and Knuckles, you've got some data to search.
(With Racko)
"I'm here, is the data ready." Sonic stated as he entered the room.
"Yep, we're ready to go."
"Alright then; Grendor dig us an exit."