Back to the Base

"What?!" Amy exclaimed, and her jaw almost hit the ground. "What did you just say?!"

"You heard me, it's true!" Knuckles burst out. "And I have some business with the responsible one!" He smacked his fists together and his face darkened; he looked kind of evil.

"Uh… you're creeping me out, Knuckles…" Tails stammered slowly.

But Knuckles wasn't listening. "Where is So…" he trailed off to stare at something behind them.

Amy turned around and saw Sonic come out of the main door; his usual smile on his lips like always. "Sorry, natural causes," he sniggered. "Huh?" He stopped when he noticed Knuckles. "Hey, Knux! What's up, you look kind of edgy. Something happened?"

A chill went through Amy's body and she swallowed as she turned around to see the echidna's reaction; Knuckles face had turned deep red, and she almost thought that he was having a heart failure as he started trembling at the sight of the blue hedgehog. "THERE YOU ARE YOU LITTLE BITCH!" he roared and darted up to Sonic in a flash, pushing him up against the wall.

"Ah—Sonic!" Amy exclaimed, but before she could rush to his aid, Tails and Cream grabbed her and held her back. "Knuckles, get your hands off—"

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING LAST NIGHT, SONIC?!" Knuckles roared straight into Sonic's face, and there were only a few centimeters interval between the two. "I TOLD YOU TO WATCH THE MASTER EMERALD WHILE I WAS GONE, DIDN'T I?! I TOLD YOU TO WATCH IT! WHY THE HELL WEREN'T YOU THERE?!"

To Amy's amazement, Sonic kept his casual expression; he didn't seem that affected by Knuckles' outburst, even though he was breathing harshly straight into his face. Sonic seemed to be recalling that event, and after a while he suddenly blinked as if he remembered; "Oh yeah, that," he said and innocently looked upwards. "I forgot."

Knuckles seemed to have stopped breathing, and this time Amy really thought that he was having a heart failure; he just glared into Sonic's face, eyes wide, empty face expression and pupils the size of two dots. He was really creeping her out now.

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"Sonic…" Tails began warningly, but he didn't make it far before Knuckles spoke, very quietly:

"You…" he said, still staring into nothing. "You forg…." The next moment, he exploded: "HOW THE HELL CAN YOU FORGET SUCH A THING, YOU SIMPLEMINDED BRAINWASHED BLUEBERRYHEAD?! ARE YOU FAHKING KIDDING ME?! HOW FREAKIN' BRAINPOPPED CAN YOU POSSIBLY GET?!" He was banging Sonic against the wall now.

"Calm down, Knuckles, we can just take it back," Sonic said as he let the furious maniac slam him over and over again against the wooden house. "It's alr—"

"IT IS NOT ALRIGHT, SONIC!"

"Knuckles, calm down!" Tails exclaimed in horror. "You're scaring Cream and Cheese! And you're breaking my house!"

"Mr. Knuckles, please stop," Cream stammered from behind Tails' back. "Sonic didn't mean to—"

At that moment, Amy broke free from Tails' grasp and launched herself at Knuckles; "Get away from Sonic, Knuckles! I know he's an idiot sometimes, but no one except me is allowed to have that kind of physical connection with him!" Amy claimed loudly and pulled Knuckles away from the blue hedgehog. "Just calm down!" she said irritably as Knuckles tried to break free; "I promise you we'll get the Master Emerald back, Knuckles! We'll help you, so take it easy!"

That seemed to have reached Knuckles' ears, and after a while he actually stopped struggling. "Good," Amy let out a relieved sigh and let go of him.

"Fine," Knuckles muttered. "But if something happens to the Master Emerald," he added with a dangerous tone towards Sonic, "then I'll readjust your face so badly that not even Amy will chase after you anymore."

Amy's eyebrow twitched.

"That's got to be pretty bad," Tails muttered.

"Tails!"

"Sorry."

Amy sighed. "Well, at least we know who stole it," she said optimistically.

"We do?" everyone but Knuckles' said simultaneously.

"Yeah, Big told us that he'd seen Shadow collect the Chaos Emeralds," Knuckles said. "And he said that he was going after the Master Emerald too."

"So it was Shadow after all, huh," Tails frowned and crossed his arms. "I so wonder why…"

Sonic shrugged. "Maybe Rouge has shared her obsession with jewels with him?" he suggested.

Cream laughed, but she was the only one who did. "That's really not funny, Sonic," Tails sighed. "This is serious."

"It's been a long time since I saw that sneaky bat," Knuckles remarked. "Wonder where she is…"

"What, you miss her?" Amy teased.

"Shut up," Knuckles snapped. "Why the hell would I miss someone who only wants to steal my Master Emerald?"

Amy shrugged. "Well, she is good-looking… in a modern-fashioned kind of way. And by the way, the Master Emerald is not yours," she added. "Even though you're addicted to it."

Tails chuckled. "Yeah, I almost think that we'll have to accept the fact that the Master Emerald is the only one for Knuckles," he said jokingly.

"We're getting off topic," Knuckles said irritably. "We need to focus on getting the Master Emerald back now, and beat the crap out of Shadow. I mean, who knows what he might be doing to it…"

That only sent disturbing images to Amy's brain. But yeah, Knuckles was right; whatever Shadow was up to, stealing the Master Emerald was to cross the limit, and she was pretty sure that they should stop him now.

"And Sonic's idea to take it easy and wait really worked out just freaking great," Knuckles snapped sarcastically.

"Let it go, Knuckles," Tails said. "We don't have time for minor issues like that."

As Tails and Knuckles quarreled, a thought struck Amy; "But if we're gonna stop Shadow, we need to get to him, right?" she said. "And we have no idea where he might be."

Everyone fell silent and looked at her; seemed as if they hadn't thought about that yet. "But we could split up and look for clues," Amy continued hastily, when she feared that she might have crushed everyone's hopes. "Yeah, that's what we do; we split up and ask people if they've seen Shadow, or where they last saw a Chaos Emerald and stuff like that."

After a while, Tails nodded. "I agree, that's a good plan," he said, and soon the others approved too. "Someone can go to the Chaotix'—"

"No thanks," the rest instantly protested, and Tails was left blinking on the spot. "Uh, alright," he said hesitantly. "I guess I'll have to go there myself, then…"

"I can come with you if you want to," Cream offered. "And I'm sure that Mom wants to come too… Vector enjoys her company, and that might mean that he'll tell us more if we take Mom along."

"That's really smart, Cream," Tails said with an impressed smile. "Yeah; me, Cream, Cheese and Vanilla will go to the Chaotix; they are detectives after all, so they might be able to help us. The rest of you should go anywhere where you suspect to find any clues," he continued.

Knuckles nodded. "I'll go back to Angel Island," he said. "Might still be some clues there."

Tails nodded. "That's a good idea. What about you, Sonic?" he asked.

"I'll just run around our planet and ask as many people as possible," Sonic replied with a confident smile and jumped over the railing.

Amy acted quickly; "Hey, Sonic, I can go—"

"See ya!" And before Amy was able to follow him, he was gone.

"But I wanted to go with you," Amy said disappointedly as she watched the blue hedgehog disappear out of view. "Why does he always have to do things by himself?"

"That's just who he is," Tails said gently. "And to be honest, he'll probably do the job faster by himself."

"Hey! Are you saying that I would slow him down?!"

"Wha… N-no, that's not what I me—"

"Quit the blabbering you two, and let's just get going already!" Knuckles interrupted impatiently. "I'm off."

Tails turned to him and nodded hastily. "S-sure… see ya…"

Knuckles left, and Amy was left with Tails, Cream and Cheese. "We should probably be going too," Tails said carefully. "Will you be alright, Amy?"

"Of course I will," Amy snorted. "I'll just look around where we might find clues, like you said. You two should get going, and we'll catch up later." She smiled at them over her shoulder.

"Sure," Tails and Cream returned her smile. "See you later, then."

"Bye."

And as Tails and Cream set off, Amy was left alone on the wooden porch. With a short sigh, she sank down on the sofa and thought about where she would go. Think, Amy, think… where would be the best place to get information on Shadow? She counted on her fingers all the places she could think of, but it was only the last one that was able to convince her; although she'd rather not go back to that place again: Eggman's base.

Amy swallowed; it was definitely the place that she ought to go to. If she was careful, she might be able to get enough information without even being noticed. But, Amy reminded herself, it would still take at least two days to get there; she didn't have that much time. Unless…

An excellent idea suddenly struck Amy and she got to her feet; of course! Big could help her! Yeah, Big can help me to get there, with that odd – though awesome – jumping ability of his, Amy thought excitedly as she ran down the doorstep and away from the house.

Now then, if I want to find Big, she thought smartly, then I'll need to find Froggy first. She was already counting with the fact that Froggy had escaped from his ungraceful owner. And what do frogs like more than anything, if not water?

So Amy checked on all the nearby ponds which she knew of, and she was lucky; in the third one that she checked, she hit the jackpot: Froggy was swimming in the water. Or at least she thought that it was Froggy, but he was the only frog around, so it was hard to tell… Nonetheless, she waded into the muddy water and managed to snatch up Froggy; usually she didn't like it when she got all dirty, but since her friends depended on her, it was totally worth it.

She got out of the pond and started walking around, calling Big's name, and it didn't take long for him to find her; in just a few ten minutes, he came running towards her with heavy steps, beaming with joy. "Rosey!" he exclaimed in his low-pitched voice as he approached her. "Rosey found Froggy again!"

Amy smiled and handed him the wriggling frog; "I'm glad you found me," she said to the big purple cat as he lovingly cuddled with his little green friend. "I wonder if you, please, can do me a favor again?" she asked sweetly. "I need you to take me somewhere."

To her relief, Big nodded immediately. "Sure," he beamed at her. "Where does Rosey want to go?" he asked as Amy grabbed onto his thick fur.

"A few miles that way," she replied and pointed eastwards. "Do you think you can do it?"

"Of course," Big assured her, and the next moment they were off.

"Thanks, Big," Amy said as she hopped down on the ground; this time she didn't get as freaked out as last time, and she was able to stand on her own feet directly after the trip. "I promise I'll repay you someday."

"Rosey has already repayed Big," the friendly cat replied. "She has found Froggy several times for him now. But she must be careful now," he added as he looked out over the landscape and towards the big base in front of them; even Big must've realized that this place was not safe. "Big's whiskers tell Big that this place is dangerous."

Amy nodded with a smile. "I know, but I have to be here. Thanks again," she widened her smile and waved him off as he took off up towards the clouds again.

"Bye!" She could hear him call from above before he quickly shrunk into a small dot and then completely disappeared out of sight.

And Amy, who was now all by herself in Eggman's big base, took a deep, lasting breath to dig up her courage, and then marched down the slope towards the large building with resolute steps; she wouldn't fail her friends; she would get the information that she came for, no matter what the cost.

It was really easy to promise yourself something like that when you're in a safe place… but once you get inside the dangerous place, Amy almost regretted that she came here in the first place; and just to make everything worse, this time the surveillance cameras caught her on tape, and the alarm's mechanic voice repeated: "Intruder alert! Intruder alert!"

Amy cursed mentally as she sprinted through the corridors; she had to find a hiding spot, quick! Amy reached a door and tried to jerk it open; locked.

"Shit!" Amy ran up to another door and tried the same this; no luck. And with the panic and paranoia rising inside her, Amy sprinted all over the base as fast as she could, until she finally – thank god – found a door that wasn't locked, and she almost flew inside the room and slammed the door behind her, before she locked it and barricaded it with as much furniture and boxes and – whatever she could find – as she could move, before she pressed her fist into her mouth to shut herself up and listened to the footsteps outside.

Amy's heart hammered in her chest; she closed her eyes and pleaded and prayed to all the Gods and supernatural powers above as she waited. And the guards passed her.

With a relieved sigh, Amy leaned her forehead against the door for a few seconds before she pulled herself together and turned around; just to find a person standing by the opposite wall, that almost caused the poor pink hedgehog to scream, but she managed to stop herself.

Amy shut her eyes and prepared herself for the disaster…. The disaster which didn't occur. Amy carefully opened one eye to peek at the person, and to her surprise she saw that it was only a photo; a very large photo, the size of a normal person, but still only a photo.

"Really? I got freaked out because of a freakin' picture…?" Amy had to give herself a mental lecture. Then she gazed back at the picture to examine it closer; in the foreground there was a pretty human girl with long blonde hair, a blue dress and kind, beautiful blue eyes. Normally it would be difficult for Amy to judge a person's personality and nature just by a picture, but this girl really looked like a very friendly person; sweet and fragile.

Amy wondered who she was, and she wondered even more why Eggman would keep a photo of a cute girl like this in his base? He couldn't possibly be one of those filthy pedophiles or something alike…? No, wrong thoughts, wrong thoughts, Amy hastily shook her head and erased those thoughts before she looked around at the rest of the room: It was fairly large with not much furniture – maybe because they were all currently blocking the entrance – and the atmosphere would probably have been very gloomy, if it wasn't for the few pictures and photo's in the room.

Except the large one, there was one on a small table; it was the blonde girl again, happily smiling at the camera, and the frame was carefully and scrupulously decorated with small, pretty pink, red, yellow and blue flowers; the one who put them there seemed to have taken very well care of them, and had probably replaced them a lot of times. Would Eggman do that? No…

But maybe this girl was a relative or something? Amy really wanted to know now, and just as if called upon, she suddenly discovered another photo hanging on the wall, and this one caused Amy to drop her jaw in realization: It was the girl again, but this time she was accompanied by an exact copy of Eggman, only that he looked twice as old, and with a grey moustache and a white laboratory overall that of a doctor's: Gerald Robotnik.

Amy gazed at the photo as she recalled the memories; she had actually seen Robotnik on tape back in Chris' world, when he had decided to destroy the planet Earth to avenge his granddaughter Maria…

Maria. Amy gazed at the girls on the photos: They were all Maria. Maria Robotnik; Gerald Robotnik's beloved granddaughter and Shadow's only friend back at the Space Colony ARK; the girl whom he risked his life for… It must be her. Then, this was Shadow's room?

Amy's guess was confirmed when she observed the last photo, where Maria was seen happily embracing Shadow from behind, and Shadow was actually smirking.

Amy couldn't help but to feel depressed; this poor innocent girl was killed by G.U.N just because she was related to the Project Shadow. Project Shadow… the Ultimate Lifeform. Amy crossed her arms and forced herself to think; Maria was killed and Shadow was consumed by hatred, grief and vengeance; he wanted to avenge his late friend, but instead he ended up saving the world because he realized that that was what Maria truly wanted. So, he wouldn't possibly be up to something like destroying nor desolating the world, would he? But then, what did he need the Chaos Emeralds and the Master Emerald for? If only…

"I see you've invaded my base, girley."

Amy spun around, although she didn't need to see the face to realize who had just spoken. The fear returned and grasped her frightened heart as she looked up at the fat doctor whom she really didn't want to meet right now: Eggman.

If some of you might've wondered, Big's unique powers were inspired by Totoro :) But maybe some of you already suspected as much? xD