Chapter 61: Exchange
Once Sonny and Miles made it to the docks, they saw Chuck standing nearby. As they approached him, he tossed something at Sonny who immediately caught it. Sonny examined the item and noticed that it was indeed a card. Then he pressed a small button and a holographic image of Eggman emerged from the card.
"Greetings, Sonic the Hedgehog," Eggman's hologram said. "If you want to have the princess back, you'll have to give me the Chaos Emerald that was on her person. The exchange will take place at my base in White Acropolis, and if I don't see you there then I'll destroy New City!
The hologram vanished, and the card exploded in Sonny's hands.
"He's got to be kidding," Chuck said. "He'd destroy New City just to get his hands on one Chaos Emerald?"
"That's Eggman for you," Miles said.
"Then we should get to White Acropolis immediately," Sonny responded.
"But Sonny, it could be a trap," Miles replied. "Besides, how are we supposed to get to White Acropolis? That's several hundred miles north of here and the Tornado 2 is back in Central City."
"Yeah, and even if Miles could get to it the plane's still under repair from all the damage it took during the Black Arms' invasion," Sonny said to himself. Then he looked at Chuck and said, "Do you remember which way Eggman went when he gave you the card?"
"Uh, I think he went in that direction," Chuck said pointing to a side-street that ran along the docks.
"Odd," Miles noted. "That side-street leads right to a cave on the Northeast side of town by the sea-cliffs."
In response, Sonny and Chuck gave Miles dubious looks.
"I looked at the map of New City that was in the hotel lobby," Miles answered.
"Then let's check it out," Sonny said as he ran toward the side-street. "We might find something interesting over there."
###
"Ugh, boys are so frustrating! No offense, Silva," Amelia grumbled over lunch in the hotel restaurant.
"None taken," Silva responded.
"So it just occurred to me that if Elise's father is actually dead, then that means Elise must've paid for our trip," Merlina said.
"Who told you that?" Amelia asked.
Merlina tilted her head slightly. "Miles told us last night after we got back to the hotel. Remember?"
"Oh, yeah," replied Amelia, taking a bite out of the salad she was eating.
"But now that Elise has been kidnapped, who's going to pay for the trip?" Shahra asked out loud.
"That's a good question," Merlina remarked.
"Poor Elise," Maria said as she looked out the window. "I hope she's all right."
"I'm sure The Blue Blur will save her," Merlina said. "After all, he did show up last night."
"Yeah, and with Sonny gone I'm almost starting to believe Elise's theory might be true," Shahra added.
"What theory?" Amelia said looking up from her salad.
"Oh, ah, it's not important," Shahra said as she blushed slightly.
Amelia gave Shahra a penetrating stare. "Does it explain why Elise invited Sonny to come to Soleanna in the first place?"
"Um, maybe," Shahra answered nervously.
Merlina took a sip from her teacup and then said, "Elise theorized that Sonny and The Blue Blur were the same person based on photographic evidence and numerous coincidences where Sonny would be absent when The Blue Blur showed up. She figured bringing Sonny here might also cause The Blue Blur to show up as well, and sure enough he did along with Dr. Robotnik, The Blue Blur's arch-nemesis. Now, Amelia, what have you got to say in Sonny's defense?"
In response, Amelia's cheeks turned beet-red.
"You guys are jerks!" Silva snapped, and took Amelia by the hand as he stood up. "Come on, Amelia, let's go look for Sonny."
As Silva dragged her out of the restaurant, Amelia said nothing in response. Then just as they approached the lobby, they found a Soleanna guard standing near the door. Undeterred, Silva waved his hand before him which caused the doors to close inward which knocked the guard to the floor. Before the guard could get up, Silva and Amelia ran over him and out into the plaza.
"How did you do that?" Amelia said looking back.
"Psychokinesis," Silva answered casually. "I've been able to move things with my mind since I was thirteen years old."
"I see."
###
At the end of the side-street, Sonny Miles and Chuck were surprised to find a bunch of Eggman's robots guarding the cave which was protected by a net of lasers.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sonny said turning to his two friends.
In response, Miles and Chuck nodded as they transformed into Tails and Knuckles respectfully while Sonny changed into Sonic. The three made quick work of the robots, and in a matter of seconds the outside of the cave was littered with robot parts and gun parts. Tails then pressed a button nearby which deactivated the lasers thus allowing him Knuckles and Sonic to enter the cave safely. At the end of it was a device with a circular gateway that showed images of snow and steep cliffs on the other side.
"Amazing," Tails remarked. "This is a trans-spatial gateway that will take us directly to White Acropolis. Eggman must've built this in order to bring his army of robots directly from his base to New City faster."
"So what you're saying is that this thing will transport us to White Acropolis?" When Tails nodded, Sonic said, "Cool!"
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go already!" Knuckles said impatiently.
The three of them stepped through the gate, and soon found themselves in a snowy trackway that was littered with Eggman's robots who immediately shot at them. Fortunately, Sonic was able to knock them over by spinning down the slope in a ball that soon became covered with snow. Tails meanwhile took care of aerial drones by crushing them with his feet as Knuckles punched his way through robots below. At the end of the trackway, they came to a wide snow-covered field with demolished searchlights and a giant gate leading to the side of a cliff. Figuring that was the entrance, the three made their way across the field taking down any robots that came their way.
By the time they reached the gate, it was already opening. The three cautiously stepped through, and found themselves in a long tunneling hallway with lights on either side. There were no robots, so they quickly ran down the hallway and eventually came to a circular chamber.
"You're late, Sonic," Dr. Eggman said from a room above the chamber. "But as long as you have the Chaos Emerald, I'll accept your tardiness."
"Where's the princess?" Sonic demanded.
"Right here," Eggman said, dragging Elise over from an unseen corner.
"Don't give him the Emerald, Sonic!" Elise cried. "It's a—
Before Elise could finish, Eggman covered her mouth with his free hand. "Now, show me the Chaos Emerald."
Sonic hesitated, and then he pulled the Blue Chaos Emerald out from his pants-pocket.
A small pedestal suddenly rose from beneath the floor right in front of Sonic.
"Place the Emerald on that pedestal and then I'll give you the princess," Eggman said.
"Sonic," Tails said.
"I know what I'm doing, Tails," Sonic responded and put the Emerald on the pedestal.
The pedestal sank underneath the floor once more. Then Eggman grinned and pressed a button below him. Immediately, the room became filled with bright-purple light that seemed to magnetize Sonic and the others to where they were standing.
"Did you really think I was going to hold my end of the bargain?" Eggman said tauntingly. "Now I'm going to use you as guinea-pigs for my latest creation, the Solaris prototype. Not only will I have unlimited energy with this device once I collect all the Chaos Emeralds, but I will also be able to control time itself!"
Eggman then pulled down a switch, which sent Sonic Tails and Knuckles flying into the air as they vaporized into beams of light that flickered for a moment before fading completely.
###
"How's the hacking coming along?" Shadow asked Rouge the Bat as they stood in a room with a large computer interface and keyboard.
"I've managed to get in, but most of the files are heavily encrypted," Rouge answered as she typed furiously away. "It'll take a computer-genius to open them."
"So what have you found out?"
"Well, we're approximately 200 years in the future and the building we're standing in is Eggman's base at White Acropolis."
"That's not very helpful, and it doesn't explain the skyscrapers that are around here."
A sudden crashing noise made Shadow and Rouge flinch. They walked over to a ledge nearby and found Sonic Tails and Knuckles lying at the bottom of a round chamber below. Once the three finished groaning, they looked up towards the ledge.
"Rouge? Shadow?" Sonic said looking at each of them.
"Hey," Rouge said waving. "Long time no see, boys."
"Where are we?" Tails asked, rubbing his head.
"You're in Eggman's White Acropolis base 200 years from the present day, assuming that's where you came from," Shadow answered.
"The future?" Knuckles said shaking his head. "So how did you guys get here?"
"It's a bit of a long story," Rouge answered. "But maybe I'll tell you if your two-tailed friend can hack into some heavily encrypted files on this computer we found up here."
"I'm on it!" Tails said as he flew up to the ledge and over to the computer Rouge was talking about. "This should be a synch for me."
While Sonic and Knuckles followed, Tails typed rapidly on the computer as Shadow and Rouge watched.
"Got it!" Tails exclaimed, pulling up several files on the computer-screen. Then his smile suddenly turned into a serious frown. "Oh, man, this is terrible!"
"What is it, Tails?" Sonic asked as he and Knuckles joined Rouge and Shadow.
"According to these files, a terrible monster known as Iblis was released into the world two days after the Festival of the Sun was commenced in Soleanna. That was also the day Elise was captured by Dr. Eggman and killed when his Egg Carrier mysteriously crashed."
"Then we've got to get back to the present as soon as possible!" Sonic said urgently. "Shadow, you can use Chaos Control to travel through time, right?"
"Yes, but I can't do it with just one Chaos Emerald," Shadow said showing Sonic the Green Chaos Emerald. "We'll need at least one more, and we were trying to look for it when you three showed up."
"So it looks like we're going to have to work together in order to pull this off," Sonic said.
Shadow nodded.
"Tails, check your Emerald Detector," Sonic said.
"Right," Tails responded, and looked at the radio-sized device. "It's very faint, but I'm getting a signal to the east of here."
"So let's go!" Rouge said impatiently. "I don't want to be stuck in this smoldering hellhole forever."
To be continued…