Every Angel Has A Shadow
By SE
Shadow The Hedgehog leaves his world behind crosses through time and space all the way to the EVA verse merging his soul with Shinji Ikari as an infant. Now Shinji battles the angels, struggles to control his powers , piece together his dreams and try to discover who and what he really is
I own nothing
beta read by Popkov
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Chapter 13
"This is entirely your fault!" - Ami shouted as they ran. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her swing the hammer and heard it connect with a crunch. They kept running.
In hindsight, Shinji totally agreed. This was entirely his fault.
"... Another door?" - Ami sounded puzzled.
Indeed, their foray into the mysterious... whatever it was... was once again interrupted. What followed after the vault door was a dark corridor with a high ceiling. The only sources of illumination were Shinji and Ami's flashlights. This didn't always used to be the case, however. A quick inspection revealed the ceiling was actually made up of large panel lights, which would have once upon a time easily lit up every corner.
The door in question was situated some 100 meters in. It was an unassuming set of bare steel freight elevator doors. Beside them was a panel with a screen similar to that at them main entrance that similarly sprang to life as they came close, it's green light washing over them in the dark.
["Username:"]
"Ooh, let me try this one" – Amy cleared her throat and intoned – "Robotnik"
["Username: Robotnik"]
["Username Accepted"]
["Password:"]
"Maria!"
["Password: Maria"]
["Password Accepted"]
["Welcome, Dr Robotnik"]
Shinji rolled his eyes at the victorious grin Ami flashed him.
["Welcome to Project Omega"]
Shinji frowned. Omega. Why did that name sound familiar.
'... Name?'
"Worthless consumer models"
Shinji shook his head. No time to dawdle.
The elevator doors swung open. Ami hesitated. Shinji didn't.
"So, how do we- Hey!"
It was fast, like a pair of jaws snapping together. One moment, open; the next, shut, leaving them trapped. Before they could process what was happening, the opposite wall brightened and revealed itself to be a map of the facility.
"Whoa" – Ami gasped. Even Shinji couldn't help but be impressed.
It was big. Not NERV base big, but close. The sections were numerous and each, it seemed, served their own purpose. A lot of the terminology has gone over both their heads, but a few he could focus on, like...
"... Robotics Prototype Storage Facilities" – Shinji read out loud.
The elevator began moving. The little elevator on the map began moving down the little shaft towards the not-so-little section labeled "Robotics Prototype Storage Facilities". The ride was smooth and surprisingly quiet; you could barely even tell the thing was moving, except for the indicator on the map. It took about 15 minutes for them to reach their destination. When the doors opened they saw...
"... Another corridor" – Shinji couldn't help his exasperation – "Shocking"
He barely stepped out of the elevator when-
"Gah!" - Shinji raised his hand to shield his eyes as a large Panel light sprang to life with a loud pop, brightly illuminating every corner.
The corridor had bare grey walls, and was around 30 meters long, ending in a single steel door. The door itself didn't look at all special, but right above it was a reinforced metal curtain that looked ready to drop at a moment's notice. Shinji's mind offhandedly noted that it looked like a measure to keep something in. And how weird it was.
"Ok, I was not expecting that" – Ami said with a surprising lack of sarcasm as lo and behold the door led to an identical corridor. That ended in the identical manner.
"These people really love their corridors" – Shinji muttered. This got a laugh out of Ami.
An identical corridor later and they have come across something new. Ok, not entirely. It was still a corridor. But this one had a bit of a cone shape to it, with them entering at the narrow end. Sure, there was another door at the end, but this one was a set of double sliding doors, with matching sets on the ends of the side walls. Similar reinforcement measures were applied to all.
As they approached them, the middle doors opened, leading into a small office-like room. Inside they found it had a range of equipment, which somehow looked both very advanced, yet positively ancient. There were a set of 5 screens set up, with one on each side walls and three on the front. The large table that was the width of the room looked like a bunch of keyboards spliced together, yet had no recognizable characters or keys. The entirety of the space below the table was taken up by blocky machines, cables and various playback devices. At least a couple looked suspiciously like VHS players.
"Don't touch-" - Shinji began, just as Ami's finger landed on a large green button.
Immediately the machines and the keyboards lighted up with LEDs of various colors; various sounds began playing; the monitors sprang to life; and, to top it all off, Shinji and Ami distinctly heard the other two sets of doors open, making them turn around and tense up.
With their hears in their throats and their own breathing filling their ears, they waited.
But nothing happened. The machines kept doing their thing, but most of the lights dimmed or gone out; all the sounds stopped, save the occasional soft whirr; the monitors kept showing static. And nothing came through the doors.
The combined exhale of relief would have been heard all the way to the lift.
Shinji silently took charge of exploration. Ami silently decided it was wise.
The approached the doors on their right. But all they saw more bare grey walls. One shared look and nod later, they walked in.
"... Wow"
It. Was. Huge.
The size of a football field, with shelves almost reaching the impossibly high ceiling and illuminated with the same gigantic panel lights - which, in retrospect, were definitely not working at full capacity – the Storage Facility was a sight to behold.
Strangely, it seemed.. empty. Oh sure there were some interesting scraps here and there, some looking suspiciously like actual bona fide humanoid robot parts, but the most stocked thing in here was dust.
But of course, as the map implied, this was only the first of who knows how many facilities located on this lever, and well, they were already here and with nothing better to do, so why not try and explore as much as possible.
That was, at least, what Shinji surmised went through Ami's head. What actually came out of her mouth was "Whoa, this is kinda dull... I wonder what's in the next one!" before she ran off, without so much as a backwards glance at Shinji. Exasperated, he ran after her.
And as he did, he couldn't help but notice something. He wasn't sure, but something was nagging at him. He couldn't tell what, but something was... out of place. In a weird super secret underground storage facility. Shinji mentally sighed.
Ami was already at the far end. As he approached her, Shinji noticed her looking at three large signs. One denoted the Facility 2 to the left, Facility 4 to the right and the Facilities 1 and O ahead.
"This must be facility 3" – Shinji intoned. He frowned – "But is that a 0 or an O?"
"That's definitely an O" – Ami replied – "How strange" – her momentary confusion was replaced with renewed enthusiasm – "Divide and conquer, then?" - she almost flinched at the look Shinji gave her.
Facility 4 gave much the same result as 3. Only when they were approaching the door to 2, did Shinji's mind finally made the connection.
"The tarpaulins"
"What?" - Ami looked at him, puzzled.
"Look around. The tarpaulins. They're everywhere. There's tons of them, scattered all around"
"... Ok..."
"They look like they've been thrown off... whatever they used to cover. Just chucked aside. Like..." - Shinji's brows furrowed – "Like someone left in a hurry, and took everything with them" – he gave Ami a serious look – "I have a bad feeling about this"
"Oh, come on, whoever 'they' are long,-" - she stopped in her tracks, hand poised over the door handle, as Shinji's right hand closed around her mouth, and his left over her wrist. Two things kept her in place. The first was the look in his eye. The second was the sounds. The strange, somewhat muffled, scraping sounds. From the other side of the door.
Then the sounds stopped. Before either of them could react, Shinji and Ami were thrown to the floor as the door flew off its hinges. Ami felt shinji's body cover her mid-fall. Luckily the door, now buckled and bent, flew right over them. They looked over to the open doorway.
At first, nothing but darkness. Then, a flash of a pair of orange lights, and it stepped out. A robot. Around 5 feet tall; color scheme ranging from grey to dark grey; brown eyes; and what looked like some sort of weird fin on its head.
And it was not alone.
No sooner than this one has stepped out into the open, what appeared to be its identical twin stepped out right behind it. And then another one. And another one.
Shinji didn't wait to see how many friends it brought with it. He grabbed Ami, hauled her up and they ran. At first, nothing seemed to be happening. Then, the tell-tale sound of pursuit. To Ami's surprise, Shinji was going towards the door leading to the Facilities 1 and O.
"Where are you going? The exit's the other way!"
"Trust me" – was Shinji's reply as he sped up. Ami struggled to keep up.
The door grew closer, but so did the small robot army that was chasing them. Ami pushed past Shinji, materialized her ears and, mallet in hand, charged the door, blowing it off its hinges. But even that small delay was enough. No sooner were they through than the first of the robots already caught up.
"This is entirely your fault!" - Ami shouted as they ran. Out of the corner of his eye he saw her swing the hammer and heard it connect with a crunch. They kept running.
In hindsight, Shinji totally agreed. This was entirely his fault.
But he had to get to Facility O.
He had to get to Omega.
End Chapter
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End Notes: THE Omega from Sonic Heroes is coming next chapter , I know its been a year since I touched this didn't quite have enough inspiration and I am sorry. But with the recent release of the Nintendo Switch and the game Sonic Mania in development which has garnered some hope for a resurgence for our favorite blue hedgehog, Now I can get on to the other stuff, like say for instance a clue to certain fox with two tails or a guardian echidna. And Gendo and Mistao also Rei finally taking notice of Shinji's biology and maybe clued into the fact that there's something deeper about the boy then it appears. Now next chapter Shinji and Ami will find and activate Omega and discover more as to who built that complex. Thank you popkov for beta reading, please Read and review and be cool.