Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognized characters or gameplay patterns within this fanfiction. Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, Eggman, Blaze, and all related characters of such are owned by SEGA. All original character's are owned by me.
Exception 5.4
Tails wasn't the strongest sapient around, and he knew it. But still, trying to heft a two hundred pound boar with tusks bigger than his hand was not easy at the best of times. He was struggling, and he knew it. On the other hand, Spark was still staring at him, in what he assumed was a good sign but probably not, given his and Blaze's current luck.
"Are you going to help?" he tried to ask after a moment. His tails were doing what they can to help, but he wasn't the strongest of sapients. Knuckles could probably do this one-handed, but again, he wasn't Knuckles.
"I...yes," Spark said after a moment. She acted as if she wasn't sure if she was going to or not, before she went behind him and slowly lifted up the boar's rear end. "When you asked me to give you my crossbow, I thought you meant to shoot at me."
Tails chuckled. "No, I know better than that. Enough warning, it's easy to dodge those things," Tails said, thinking back when he was younger. The Aquatic Ruins zone was full of holes in the ground from all the dart and arrow traps Eggman had left for them, and only one had grazed Sonic at best. Not for the last time, he missed the rings, and the safety they granted him.
"Yes, I was going to tell you it would have been pointless. I can move faster than a bolt," Spark said, trying to sound matter of fact, but in her tone was a sense of pride and arrogance. Tails smelled it on her easily, overcoming even the scent of the boar on his back. He almost felt like pointing out his best friend is often called "The fastest thing alive", but he wasn't sure if he wanted to pop that bubble of pride she had. Something told him that she had worked for it, and put in a lot more effort than he'd thought.
"Ah. No, more useful as a distraction, especially for this," Tails answered. There was the bolt sticking out of the boar's leg, right in its knee. Tails wasn't the best at using weapons, having always preferred technology of some other kind. But on the other hand, he could certainly aim something as simple as a crossbow.
Even when dealing with Emerl that one time, he'd made it a point to fight smarter, not harder. Emerl had learned to apply it and a bunch of other techniques from his friends. It was not fun fighting a fully powered Emerl after that.
They wandered back in silence, Spark fully anticipating Tails to know where he was going. The hunting ground that she'd taken him to wasn't that far from the village, if his directions were accurate. And his nose was a lot better now that he wasn't surrounded by desert, nymphs, or rocs.
He could find his own scent readily enough, and Spark's mixed in told him exactly which direction to go into. How they had found a boar so soon though, especially if this was a hunting ground known for it, Tails wasn't sure. "For an elementalist, you don't use it much. How do you get it stronger?" Spark asked suddenly. "Most elementalists use their ability constantly. Like your friend does."
"Oh. I didn't know I was one until a couple of weeks ago," Tails answered. "Blaze thought it was a possibility, but as she was training me to hunt it..."
"You awakened then? You only just recently learned to hunt and use your ability? And you're strong enough to channel lightning in a room where no one could?"
There was an odd scent that Tails got, but he wasn't sure what it was. It was a mix of flowers and a few other things mixed in, but Tails looked around and didn't see anything unusual. "Yeah...but I can cheat, for the lightning thing. Comes from having two tails."
"Along with the ability of flight."
"Yeah, along with that."
"No wonder Katia was so - to have found you. With your ability to channel, the flight...- or not, however -, you are a treasure trove for us," Spark murmured.
Him? A treasure trove? His mind flashed back to West Island, being teased and ostracized by the others on the island for having his two tails. And now, it was a positive thing? Granted, he'd always thought of them as positive, seeing as how he could use them to fly. That was after Sonic had essentially taken him under his wing though. He wasn't going to think about the before-Sonic times.
Tails maintained his quiet for most of the walk. He wasn't sure what Spark was thinking, and he wasn't the type to ask. She was keeping her side up easy enough, and it made him wonder how much she could lift. She was, honestly, probably stronger than he was.
Then again, Blaze was too, so maybe that wasn't nearly as unusual as he felt it should have been. The forest's scent slowly shifted as they got closer to that of other sapients. At first tens and dozens, and then shifted to hundreds as they went. "How many...how many are in your village?" Tails asked suddenly. He'd forgotten the word for 'sapients', if he'd known it at all.
"A little over four hundred," Spark answered instantly. "Most of us are -, with the elementalists being the main hunters," she continued.
Tails blinked. Farmer? Had to be the word he missed. He hated not being able to understand sapients perfectly. He knew that he shouldn't really expect anything else, it takes a long time to learn a language, but he was doing pretty well so far. Far better than he thought he should have been, honestly. Once the gates were in sight, Tails felt Spark suddenly drop her side. He felt it weigh down on his back, but he'd come far enough that he'd be able to carry it the rest of the way...assuming it wasn't far.
Or he didn't have to carry it for long. The gates were open, a couple of other guards standing out front. "Spark. Exception -" they said in unison. "The hunt was successful?" one asked.
"It was," Spark said succinctly. She casually pushed him forward as she walked ahead of him, a slight sway to her hips that Tails was sure hadn't been there when they'd left.
Tails hefted the boar on top of his back, and tried to start walking casually behind her, only to have to crouch down. One of the guards seemed to take pity as they helped lift up the backside where Spark had been helping.
"She is to make to the elders. This is to go to the - ," the guard said, saying more newer words. Tails sighed, but grinned his thanks as the guard seemed intent on helping him carry it. "Good catch is in need, it seems. You can barely hold it."
"Heavier than it looks."
"Much more -. Good eating," The guard said quietly. He led Tails to a new hut, far off in the corner of the village closest to the gates. There was a hint of smoke to the air around it, and Tails felt his mouth watering as he smelled cooking meat. There were a few sapients, and a young rabbit looked up at the incoming meat.
"We've got a big one!" he shouted, running out. He tried to help carry the boar, but Tails barely felt his help as he directed Tails to a small cart. A large bear and crocodile came out of the hut a moment later, and with four hands took the boar off his hands.
"Good -. Go to the meeting hall, that's probably where you need to be now," said the bear, pointing in the general direction.
Tails nodded, his face dripping with sweat, as he turned to head there. "Thanks for the help," he said to the guard. The guard barely nodded his acceptance before he went back to the gates.
The path back to the meeting hall was surprisingly quick, and yet seemed to take longer than anything Tails could think of. Children were playing in the middle of the dirt street, barefoot as they kicked around a pine cone covered in leaves and brush. The smell of bread infiltrated into the air as he passed another small hut, this time with a large fire roaring outside.
Everyone seemed to be doing something, he noticed. Whether it was out in the fields that he'd passed ages ago, harvesting vegetables or fruit, or was making scraps of wood for fires, the entire village was in full swing, he noticed. Was it like this all the time, or was it just this time of year?
The meeting hall was empty as he walked in, exception being Spark and the four elders. They were discussing something in low breaths, that Tails could barely hear. His ears flicked as he tried harder, his feet silent through the soft dirt.
"-worthy? You think so, Spark?" Water was asking. "And what makes you want it so? More -?" he asked. "Or is this another plan of yours?"
"It is a plan, but it will work. Abilities we don't have, but could."
"I agree with Water," Earth said sullenly, his voice low and deep. Tails didn't need to strain to hear him. "We should try it. If - makes its - known, then we should -," he finished.
Lightning looked up at him as he crossed a seemingly invisible line. "Welcome, Exception. With Spark's -, we have - you to be Exception. You shall live here, in the village, for such time as necessary."
"What about Blaze? Is she back yet?" Tails asked, looking back. He didn't smell her in the air, but that wasn't unusual. Blaze's smell was that of ash and dust, and there was plenty of that already.
"Your friend is not back yet. Katia is with her, and not back either. Should one return without the other..." Lightning proclaimed, standing up grandiosely.
"Living conditions," Water said quietly, interrupting Lightning. The panther turned to look, before he nodded and sat back down. "Due to the - of being Exception, you will be watched. Spark has already - herself to be your watcher. Do you have - with this -?" he asked.
Tails blinked, before he shook his head. Why did Water have to use so many words he was unfamiliar with? It was like playing Mad Libs with a Sonic who forgot what an adjective was and instead replaced it with 'running'. It was why Tails refused to play with him anymore.
Still, he thought he meant that he would be staying with Spark? For at least the future, until Blaze could figure out a way out. He needed to master the language before he could begin thinking of his own way out.
"Very well. Exception, you shall stay with Spark for the known -," Earth stated simply. He was right, it seemed. Tails blinked as that unusual scent made itself known to him again, and he noticed a few of the elders casually glancing around as if trying not to make note of it.
Katia came in a few moments later, out of breath. "The Exception passed my test. And more, too!" she muttered as she came closer. There was a slight cut on her stomach, through the dress she wore, and Tails noticed that Spark got a sickening smirk on her face.
"Katia?" Water asked. "What happened?"
"She got an -. Fastest I've ever seen, too. Just came up and took it out. Then we got - by a -," she said quietly. Tails looked for the faces of widened eyes from the elders, knowing that whatever it was that Katia had said, it wasn't good.
Blaze came in a moment later, a small fire disappearing from around her head. She looked completely okay, as if whatever had happened was just another day for her. "- and done," she said quietly.
"You alright?" Tails asked quietly. Blaze's ears flicked in his direction, and he saw a quiet smirk. Yes, she was alright.
"I'll tell you later," she murmured, just loud enough that his ears could pick it up. Fire's ears flicked forward too, and he thought he could see Lightning's do it too. And both Katia and Spark. Maybe most of them could hear her, now that he thought about it. He wasn't the only one with good hearing...
"And the -? It's not -?" Fire asked hesitantly. Katia shook her head.
"No, no, it's - fine," Katia answered. Fire seemed to relax and fell back into her seat. Blaze rolled her eyes. He looked at her questioningly, and she gave him a glance.
"They're asking if I burned down the forest."
Admittedly, Tails knew from the other forest fires that Blaze has done exactly that in the past. Not as bad a question as it seems...
-Side B-
"I don't always start forest fires. We've ran through more forests that I haven't done that to than I have," Blaze murmured under her breath. Spark was taking Tails to her own home, and Katia had been forced to take care of her, or at least provide her with something.
The vixen's ears pricked back. "It can be a legitimate fear with some flame callers, especially the ones as strong as you," Katia explained. Blaze shrugged. She knew she was one of the stronger ones, at least on her own world, but here, she hadn't even seen a sign of another pyrokinetic yet.
"Stupid Spark, taking the actual channeler-" Katia muttered under her own breath. Blaze sighed out a laugh. It seems that everywhere there was a hint of jealousy here. But how to handle it? Should she try to stop it, or should she try to use it?
"You live alone?" Blaze asked as Katia brought her into a small portion of the village, surrounded by wooden gates. The ambient temperature rose by a few noticeable degrees, and the dirt was suddenly hot and dry. As if it had been near fires all day. "You separate out the elementalists?" she asked.
"I do live alone, and yes we do. We spent most of the day in the earth section, as they have the most of us. My parents were flame callers, so despite my being a channeler, I still live with the other callers."
Being a kinetic, Blaze knew, was more than a matter of just genetics. There was more than a hint of luck to it, and there was no guarantee that a kid born to two parents of kinetics got something in the middle or the same. She'd heard stories, way back when, of pyrokinetics and terrakinetics getting an aquakinetic as a kid. She knew that wasn't Marine, but she believed it.
Marine's parents weren't kinetics. That must've been a really hard time raising her...no wonder she was on an island basically on her own.
There were others around, seemingly at a bunch of fires. A few were doing some cooking, and looked and smelled divine, and a few others were...smithing? She gave it another glance, and saw what looked like a squirrel pumping some fire into a furnace. "You know how to smith?" Blaze asked.
"Huh? Oh," Katia said as she followed Blaze's line of sight. "Yeah, but it's just the flame callers. No one really but them knows how to use them, except for the spears."
It's a tool, Blaze thought, you use them for other things, not fighting or hunting. She tried to get a glance at the mold he was pouring some molten metal into, but didn't get a good look. The squirrel looked up and saw her trying to get a look, before he grinned and showed her. She wondered if she could get Tails to show them a thing or two.
A rake. He was single forging a rake. Blaze nodded and looked to the vegetable gardens, as it seemed each side had to take care of their own food. Each one had been raked clean of various leaves and grasses, leaving the dirt bare and patchy as small vines died gently into it. The end of a harvest season.
"And here's mine," Katia said, sealing Blaze's thoughts away. She looked up, and saw the smallish circle hut, same as all the others. This one had a small rune on the front that Blaze had to think about. It looked like a bunch of jagged points, like a snowflake except much longer and more continuous.
Otherwise it looked about the same. There were a few areas where windows could be, and it looked to be made of clay and sticks loosely cobbled together. The door was held together by twine to act as hinges.
Blaze wasn't impressed, but then again she'd seen what she and Tails could build if they put their minds to it. "What does the symbol mean?" she hesitated to ask. She could speak the language, but as far as she knew there was no written equivalent.
"Means lightning channeler. I'm surprised you can speak it so fluently but not know what it looks like," Katia said gently. She pushed open the door with barely a glance back, and Blaze prepared herself for disappointment.
She was glad she did. The floor was bare dirt, and the walls and sides had some sticks poking inwards. The bed had been made with mostly sticks and leaves, like what Tails' attempts had been when he'd first started, and there was a small table and a few chairs made from carved wood.
The table and chairs were about the only thing that actually looked decent. "I know it's not much. As elementalists, we need to prove we're capable of holding our own much faster. Which means we usually have to build our own huts when we're kids. I'm not due to get a new one unless I get a mate, and together we build one."
That explained much, Blaze privately thought. "It's not bad. You forgot a floor," she said. She lined up the two chairs in her head, and as long as she didn't roll diagonal in her sleep she should be able to not fall.
Or she could go and get the blanket from Tails and sleep on the floor. What did it need to shrink again? Water and heat? And they had that in spades, now.
There weren't any cupboards hanging, but rather on a makeshift counter were dividers. In each one a set of plates or sets of cups were around. There was no hearth, Blaze noticed, and knew it would probably get chilled in the coming winter. Already there was a slight chill coming in from the makeshift hole in the wall that acted as a window. It did have a small curtain to attempt to keep it out, but Blaze could tell it wouldn't help.
"You don't get cold here?" she asked. While the flame callers section was warmer than she'd thought due to the nature of working with fire all the time, she knew it had to get cold at night.
Katia shrugged. "It's not bad," she defended herself. She pulled a thick long hair from her arm and dropped it in front of Blaze. "And I have a winter cover. I'm not one of those wimpy couriers!" she finished.
Couriers...that was water. Carrier was earth, caller was fire, and channeler was lightning. She had to make note of that. Probably was going to be important.
"It'd probably be easier if you had a hearth, or a spot for a fire," Blaze said. She gave another glance to Katia, and felt a cold wind enter the hut through the open windows. The neighbors, ten feet away or so, had their windows open before a young boy hedgehog reached out to close them.
"I'm not a caller. I wouldn't be able to make use of it," Katia defended her younger selves' choices. Blaze shrugged as she looked out the other window, hoping to see some way to close it. There wasn't any, it seemed. Younger Katia had forgotten that part. "You're a caller. If you need warmth, make it yourself," Katia accused.
Blaze sighed. She pointed to one of the chairs, "Sit. It seems we have a lot to discuss, including your jealousy."
"I don't know that word."
"Envy?"
"You speak strange words."
"Anger at surrounding events that you wanted to have happen but instead happened to Spark and now you're taking that out on me?" Blaze decided to say. It was hard to describe emotions especially when she didn't know all the words.
Turns out that the primal cat tongue had some words that these sapients didn't. Languages were getting weirder by the day, and she wondered how only luck had seen how much they'd gotten by now.
"I'm not angry," Katia said. The red-furred vixen turned a bit more red in her face as she looked down and away from Blaze.
"Right. And you wanted Tails here, not me."
"It's not fair!" Katia exploded suddenly. "I found you, I should have my pick, not that dumb resnon! Now she's going to mate with him, and I'll be left alone..." she said, her ears drooping low. Blaze thought she might've spotted small collections of water in her eyes. Was she seriously crying? She didn't even know Tails.
The cat sighed. "She's not going to mate with him. For one, Tails has more sense than that. Trust in him, more than anything. He's a technophile-"
"A...technophile?" Katia murmured, and Blaze winced as she realized it was in common. Of course she'd swap at the most inopportune time.
"Means he enjoys...working with technology. That tablet thing that made those designs we showed you? That's a kind of technology," Blaze kept up, interspersing her words with common. It was the most freely spoken language in the Sol Empire, and thus it had the most amount of advantageous words for this.
"And Spark...is not a technology?"
"No, she's a sapient. Tails probably will look over her, but he has sense. He's not going to mate with her after one day," Blaze said. Considering Spark was his own age, maybe younger now that she thought about it, and considering how alone he'd felt before, honestly if Spark offered Blaze wouldn't blame Tails if he did take her up on it. She'd judge him, but she wouldn't blame him.
That would make her entire point moot to bring it up, so she stayed silent and hoped Katia wouldn't figure it out.
"And technology and sapient are not same?"
Blaze sighed, "No, they aren't. Technology isn't alive, it's just a thing that anybody can use."
"So there's still a chance? For me?" Katia said, her eyes full of hope and dreams as she tried to stare into Blaze's.
"Always a chance. But he needs friendship first. Be his friend. Don't think of him as a future mate for the sole purpose of having a mate," Blaze explained.
Why was she forcing herself to explain this kind of thing? And why was this backwards!? She was only twenty one, unless her birthday had passed already, so why were so many of them looking up to her as if she knew what she was doing? She was the Guardian of the Sol Emeralds. Relationships weren't her thing!
Katia sighed, a soft smile on her face as she rolled back onto the bed. "I still have time!" she said softly.
Blaze held her head in her hands, ignoring the dried blood on them. She need to wash soon. "Is there a place I can wash off? River, or lake, or something?" she asked.
"Why would you want to? Blood is good to have on hands, lets everyone know you're a hunter and can fend for yourself."
Oh Sol, how was she going to explain this? Germ theory and all that? Flora would know how, but apparently the hedgehog hasn't been doing much and..."How come the witch is in the earth section? Wouldn't she be out with the others?" Blaze asked.
"The witch? The witch is the witch. Despite her lack of elementalism, the position grants some offers of safety. One of those is the witch's hut. It's a generational building, like the meeting hall."
Ah. So the hut had been made before they decided to make everything forbidden. That would explain it. Blaze nodded as if that made sense to her. "Where is that washing place?"
Katia rolled her eyes, but answered anyways. "In the courier's place. Just go straight from here and make a right. I led you here, I have no need to lead you elsewhere," Katia said.
Blaze sighed but made her way out. She wasn't under unofficial house arrest then, it seemed. The fire caller's area was warm, and even with the cold wind slowly blowing through the place it was replaced by an ambient heat. Had Katia actually made her place colder than the outside? It was possible, but considering how little insulation had been used...Tails had gone on and on about the insulation back at their house.
She sighed again as she the other sapients trying to get a look at her, some more obvious than others. The kids in the area would stop playing and watch her as she walked past, heading towards the water area. Even here, she knew, she would be an outcast. An Exception. She only hoped that Tails would be alright, and she made a mental note that after she washed she'd find the lightning section and...what, talk to him? Warn him that Spark probably had intentions for him, or at least Katia did. Of course, he probably already knew that.
When had her life become this strange? It was probably when the Warp Zone had activated, trapping her in a world not her own. She felt for the internal fires of her home world, and she relaxed at feeling the individual flames of the Sol Emeralds still.
She walked forward with her head held high, the Guardian of the Sol Emeralds and the Sol Empire. She was, and will forever be, Blaze the Cat.
-Interlude-
Sonic sped alongside the coast of Adabat. Of course Eggman's base would be alongside the ocean. He knew that Sonic's major weakness was that he couldn't swim, although he thought he had also disproved that by being able to run on water at will.
Knuckles had contacted him a few days ago to tell him of Marine's entry into their world, and now Amy and Cream were showing the denizen of the Sol Empire around their world. Apparently the Empire's capital had nothing on Station Square.
Not that Sonic was all that surprised. Blaze's world, at least what he had covered during his time there ages ago, seemed mostly water-based. Ships were needed everywhere, but that was a small portion of an entire world. He didn't think he ever visited the capital, if he had to be honest.
However, he was still hunting Eggman down, and he thought he was pretty close. His shoes pounded against the sand, flinging dirt up as he passed by. Eggman's base was well hidden, but Sonic had a feeling he was getting pretty close. Eggman's robots had yet to show up, but that didn't mean much. The doctor had a habit of shutting everything down between schemes, and oftentimes it seemed as if he was gone for good just before showing up again.
He rounded a corner sharply, drifting around the sand right as he saw it. A small gap shutting slowly, with the small glint of blue metal on the other side. He smirked. Found it.
The door shut before he got there, hidden behind the rocks of a small cove. The water beat against the rocks around him, occasionally flooding near his feet as it rushed to and from. He eyes it for a moment or two. "Hiding, Eggman? Didn't take you for that kind of coward," he called out.
"Is it cowardice when your nemesis comes and knocks on your front door? What do you want, hedgehog? I haven't done anything yet!" Eggman's voice sounded around him.
"I might have believed that nothing was here until you started talking Eggman. Come on out."
Eggman's voice turned sour, "I already knew you knew where I was, hedgehog. I've been tracking you for the last week."
Last week? He'd been near Holoska then, slowly turning south towards the jungles of Adabat. That was a few hundred mile radius that Eggman had made solely for tracking him. That was impressive...and technology that Sonic wanted his hands on. If Eggman could use it to track Sonic, he could use it to track Tails or Blaze.
"I'm not here to hunt you down. I need your help," Sonic said softly. He hated admitting it, but Eggman was the best when it came to dealing with inter-dimensional technology. Even GUN and Tails, good as they were, had nothing on the madman.
"My help? The great Sonic the Hedgehog needs my help? Whatever is it that you need my help...or what is it that requires you to ask for my help? Perhaps...you haven't yet rescued your foxy friend?"
"He's not in the Special Zone, Eggman. I checked, in many different times and places."
"So you did go up to Little Planet..." Eggman's voice said. "I can't help you then."
"Eggman!" Sonic shouted, spinning up and spindashing into where he knew the door was. It sounded with a loud crack. "I know you can! You owe it to Tails, if nothing else!"
"I owe him nothing, hedgehog! I owe you nothing! If anything, I am well within my rights to try to kill you now! After all, you are trespassing!"
"You know that only matters when you're there legally, Eggman, right? I know you're not, because Adabat doesn't sell rights on its beaches."
"He's not wrong, boss," a third voice called, the high pitched voice of the sarcastic orb bot, Orbot. Sonic hoped that the third of the trio, a cube bot conveniently named Cubot, wasn't there. Cubot was known for...being only slightly more insane than Eggman himself.
"You're not helping," Eggman answered. "Fine, hedgehog. If you can make it through my maze of inconveniently placed death traps! I may help you."
"So it's labyrinth zone," Sonic answered as the door finally smashed out of the way. He ducked to the right as a spiked ball made of metal rolled out where he was, crashing into the rocks and water with a loud crash. "Definitely the Labyrinth zone."
"It's not the Labyrinth Zone! That was a natural habitat of South Island, and had nothing to do with me at all."
"Eggman, it had your face everywhere and led straight into Scrap Brain. And there was that hidden switch that went back into it in the middle of the zone."
Sonic jumped around a bunch of spikes that jut out instantly, and he smirked as much as he didn't want to. He grabbed a few rings hanging around, jumping over the pit that was inconveniently placed over a pit of acid. "Definitely Scrap Brain, at least."
"I consider it more of a Scrap Brain and Metropolis, honestly. A bit of Death Egg, here and there," Eggman said conversationally. "I took a few hints from the ARK when designing this place, too."
"I'm surprised you didn't use the Egg Carrier," Sonic answered. He had made it through another spike filled hallway, but now had a bunch of platforms floating over orange acid. Energy acid, if he was remembering right. When did Eggman start using plasma as a serious power source?
Tails was only starting to experiment with the stuff! And even then, he only knew that it was dangerous, if only because the fox made sure to kick him out before he started any major experiments. "Didn't I!?" Eggman yelled suddenly as the room twisted, the floating platforms now showing their bottom, with the acid falling down and coating them as it fell. "Hahaha! Get through this one, hedghog!"
"K."
Sonic walked back a few feet before he revved up, shooting over the entire gap and boosting the rest of the way through and over. "Hedgehog, you were supposed to melt on the platforms. I even had a little sprite for your death flag on it."
"Eggman, I have rings."
"You seem to forget that a lot boss," Orbot's voice rang out. Sonic rolled his eyes, right before he lost all of his rings as another spike ball shot through at near mach speed. He shook his head and grabbed a few that had shot out, just as he looked ahead of him. A long hallway, with nowhere to dodge, with a cannon on the other side.
It looked more like a rail gun than a cannon though. Sonic sighed. "Eggman, test of speed. Against me. Think?"
"This was actually aimed more for the echidna than for you," Eggman explained as the rail gun fired again. Now that he knew what he was looking for, he jumped over it and ran on the walls, jumping on the sides whenever he felt his momentum slip.
The cannon seemed unable to go up or turn up, and Sonic slipped through when it wasn't firing, destroying the magnetic edges as he went through it. The cannon exploded into hundreds of bits, sending him forward alongside another hallway into a larger room.
"Eggman, this base cannot be that big."
"Maybe I just added wormholes so it's bigger than you think!"
"Or it could be that this is the second to final room before he finds the control center," Orbot piped up.
"Don't tell him that!" Eggman's voice shouted. Sonic rolled his eyes. The room was divided into two different paths, one with a bunch of roller logs that looked like they twisted back and forth, and the other...was a treadmill.
Sonic blinked. Did Eggman seriously think that a treadmill was going to beat him? Without a second's thought, he hopped on it and started running. It roared to life, keeping him trapped almost right in the center. "Ha! Foolish choice, hedgehog! It doesn't matter how fast you run, that treadmill is capable of keeping even Metal Sonic in its tracks!"
Sonic rolled his eyes again before he turned around and started running backwards, not even trying as the treadmill kept up with his speed. "Alright then, let's put this through its paces!" he smirked. He waited a few moments, testing it out to see if it could keep up. It kept up easily enough, so he turned back around, running forward like normal. He grinned, and he hoped that Eggman was watching and getting that subtle sinking feeling in his chest.
He hit that light stride, the one that he knew so well, putting more power into his legs. He pulled his arms in tight, and called upon that power he kept hidden, a storm buried deep within his heart.
In an instant the treadmill burned, smoke emanating from its sides as Sonic was stretching on the far side. "That was fun, Eggman. Next time, try harder," Sonic said. He rounded the doorway to the next room, and wasn't surprised when he saw Metal Sonic in front of him, bars dropping down from the ceiling keeping him in the same room.
On the other side he saw Eggman laughing maniacally besides a control panel. Cubot nowhere to be seen, the red Orbot was next to him, looking bored and lazy. "Did you honestly think you would get this far without fighting Metal!?" the madman laughed.
"No," Sonic said, raising his wrist. A small watch glistened in the head of the lights, and Eggman's smile dwindled. Metal Sonic's eyes peered straight towards it, and if his eyes could widen Sonic was sure they would have.
He pushed a button on it, and the bars dropped back down, and Metal slumped down. The lights flickered and shut off, Orbot curling up into a ball right before the pulse hit. "Tails always is a genius, isn't he?" Sonic said as he calmly walked towards Eggman.
The emergency lights flickered on, a dull red filling the base. "An EMP, hedgehog? I suppose you considered it cheating so you never used it in the past?" Eggman asked as he pressed another few buttons, the console lighting up. Orbot came out of his shell, staring at the incoming hedgehog.
That was, incidentally, exactly Sonic's reasoning as to why Tails shouldn't have used it, except as a last ditch effort. Sonic simply had too much fun dealing with Eggman, and as deadly as he was, Sonic knew he didn't have as much to fear as many others. He said none of this, though, as Eggman pushed more buttons. He made it past the robot, almost into the room with Eggman in it as Metal Sonic rebooted, shaking himself off as if he had been dunked in water. "Metal! Get him!" Eggman commanded.
"I can reach out from here, Eggman," Sonic said as he rounded the console. "I can reach you before Metal reaches me," he said. He stopped, staring straight into Eggman's eyes. "Now, help me get Tails back. That's all I'm asking for."
Eggman had swiveled his chair to look at him. "And that's it, I suppose? And you think that after this, you're just going to let me go? I know you better than that, hedgehog."
"I tracked down your base and got all the way inside. I could have done this at any time, Eggman, but most of the time I don't see why. You're not a threat, right now. Not to the world at large. But also right now, you're a threat to Tails not making it back," Sonic explained.
Eggman leaned back, staring back thoughtfully. Sonic continued, "If you're worried about me turning you in, I won't. Not for this, not if you help out. Don't, and I'll call you in."
"Blackmail, Sonic?" Eggman said softly. "I didn't think you had it in you. But I suppose we all have to adjust our expectations. I don't know what you expect me to do, Sonic."
"We have an inter-dimensional generator. But Tails didn't finish the blueprints, and none of us can make heads or tails of it. But you...you're just as smart as Tails is. If anyone can figure it out, it's you."
"He did come close, didn't he? Orbot, download files EX-001 through fifty two, and follow up with activation code Nine Ex Delta Two. Metal, come with me," Eggman said, lifting himself up to his full height, nearly two of Sonic's standing on each shoulder.
"You have a deal then, hedgehog. I will help you until Tails comes back," he said with a tone of finality. Orbot's eyes dimmed as the base started to shut down.
"What were all those codes?" Sonic asked, his eyes narrowing.
"Why do you think you never found any of my other bases, hedgehog? I wipe them off of the face of the earth. All the material is moved back into place, and no one will know I was here," Eggman said, hitting another button in the wall. The wall slid open, revealing his old Egg Walker from years past. It had a small section built on, perfect for Metal Sonic's size. "Now, I believe the fox has his base in the Mystic Ruins?"
"House. It's his house."
"Shame. All geniuses must have bases, not houses."
So...who saw that one coming? Tails and Blaze have a seemingly restful moment, and Sonic forcibly recruits Eggman. There is nothing that can possibly go wrong.
Not entirely thrilled with either Katia or Spark here, but they are, unfortunately, necessary evils.
Also, this is the final chapter of Exception. Next chapter, the start of the sixth arc; Expendable. Until next time!