The Fox and the Seedrian: Frontiers
by milesprower06
Chapter Fourteen
Cosmo stepped off of the lift that had brought her down into her husband's workshop, carrying another plate with a stainless steel dome lid. In the control center of the workshop, overlooking the hangar and various other room, sat Chris, focused at a particular console. Curiously, it didn't have the Angel Island holographic map up.
"Afternoon, Chris," Cosmo greeted, announcing her presence. "Anything interesting going on?"
"As a matter of fact, yeah," Chris said, only half turning towards her away from the screen. "Not too long after Sonic, Tails, and Lily descended into the reef, one of our orbital satellites detected an… Irregularity, in Mobius' exosphere."
"What kind of irregularity? Like a portal back to your world?" Cosmo asked as she set the plate down next to the keyboard the young man was tapping away at.
"That's my prevailing theory so far; a wormhole or singularity of some kind; but not necessarily back to my world; it could just as easily be to somewhere else in this galaxy. I'm just keeping an eye on it to see how it develops. If that's correct, and it is a wormhole, the next concern would be what comes out of it, how fast it comes out, and at what angle," Chris explained.
"To be able to intercept it if need be," Cosmo guessed.
"You got it. Depending on the angle, a foreign object could ricochet off of the atmosphere and go careering off into deep space, it could orbit a few times before being slungshot out of orbit. That's most preferable. What worries me are synchronous or downward angles. Whatever comes out could achieve a stable orbit, or it could enter the atmosphere, and be a danger to practically any location depending on how big it is."
The inviting smell of the breakfast Cosmo had brought had now escaped from under the dome and reached his nostrils.
"But that's like step 47, we're on step 1. It could end up being nothing. Only thing I can do at this point is keep an eye on it," Chris told her, as he lifted up the dome and grabbed the fork and knife that were on the tray.
"So they're in the lava reef under the mountain?" Cosmo asked.
"As of late this morning. Figured at the pace they were moving at, it would have been quite early this morning, but according to the trackers, they didn't descend deeper into the mountain out of Sandopolis until nearly 11AM. They must have found something interesting," Chris replied.
"Just as long as they're safe," the seedrian commented.
"Well, it shouldn't be more than another day or so," Chris reassured her. "They've been everywhere on the island by now, except for those floating ruins in the clouds, which don't really exist anymore. So we should have them back in the next couple days."
Cosmo smirked at him.
"Don't go getting my hopes up and have time slow to a crawl for me."
Luckily for Lily and her curiosity, her dad's reservations about the temperatures down in Angel Island's lava reefs had so far been unfounded. The cave started very dark and cramped, but it wasn't more than a quarter of a mile before it opened up considerably. In fact, it was Sonic who was being the most cautious for once.
"Hey BD," the hedgehog began. "Can you keep an eye out for any small rocks with power signatures? We may want to avoid those."
"What do you mean?" Tails asked.
"Eggman had littered this place with exploding bots disguised as small boulders. Raced past quite a few my first time down here, no idea if I missed any," Sonic replied.
"Yeah, BD, what he said," Tails told his drone that was floating several feet in front of them, and the drone gave out an affirmative beep.
As the passage way opened up to wider spaces, Lily noticed wooden bridges crossing some of the gaps, as well as pipes running along the walls, ceilings, and going in and out of both.
"This can't be Eggman's work. No way he'd have enough time to network all these pipes," Lily commented as she pointed her lantern at a set of pipes and snapped a photo with her tablet.
"No, my guess would be Ancient technology. I imagine they had to get power, heat, and water down here somehow, especially if this is some of where they lived before it was an island," Tails commented.
"That would explain all the broken pathways. Bridges that lead to nowhere, or where the path drops straight down. We should be lucky we can still navigate down here," Lily said.
The sizable cavern opened up yet again, and this time, daylight flooded in, from what was, down here, an initially blindingly bright hole in the rocky ceiling. After their eyes adjusted, Lily saw that they must have been in the main volcanic chamber.
"By the Ancients…" Lily said, almost gasping.
"That must be where the Death Egg crashed the first time; lucky it didn't cause the whole mountain to cave in," Tails commented.
Off in the distance, directly underneath the main vent, was the Hidden Palace, with even more afternoon sunlight flooding the chamber. In between where they stood, and what looked like the most accessible way there, were dozens upon dozens of floating rocks, artificial platforms, and pipes snaking their way up the mesa where the structure sat, hundreds of feet below the vent, right in the center of the volcanic crater. 'A mountain within a mountain' wouldn't be an entirely inaccurate way to describe it.
"Certainly looks like we can reach it before dinner. A climb like that should give us quite the appetite," Tails said.
"I wonder if the pipes were meant as a method of preventing eruption," Lily theorized as they continued hiking towards the mesa. "Like, before it was separated from the rest of the continent."
"A sound theory," Tails told her. "It also wouldn't surprise me if everything they built down here could withstand being flooded with magma."
"Even the wooden bridges?" Lily asked her dad, smirking.
"Fair point," Tails admitted.
Sonic had absolutely no trouble hopping from platform to platform, while Tails and Lily made their way more slowly, with the two-tailed fox helping with flying when it was necessary. Sonic didn't leave them completely in the dust, and waited for them at the base of the mesa. Tails took Lily by the wrists, and lifted her over, and landed right next to Sonic at the bottom of the large staircase up to the palace.
"Alright, one more climb, and we should have a good spot for dinner and camping for the night," Tails said.
"And then figuring out what the best exit is," Sonic said.
"It would be a workout, but after a good meal and one of our grapple hooks, I could probably get you two right out of the top vent, if we start from the roof of the palace," Tails offered.
"Dad, even if you can manage to do that, that wouldn't be the easiest climb down the face of the mountain," Lily replied.
"Don't worry," Tails reassured her. "I can remotely fly one of our ships to come to the mouth of the volcano. After that, it's just a short flight down. But we're getting ahead of ourselves; there might be another, more sensible exit. We may have to hike around half the mountain one more time, but it is what it is."
After almost four minutes, their legs beginning to protest, they came to the top of the staircase, and to the entrance of the turquoise stone and metal structure.
"BD, any security concerns?" Tails asked as they came to the large open doorway.
The drone gave out a negative beep, the glow staying green as it continued monitoring the ambient temperature.
Tails looked down at his communicator on his wrist, seeing what BD's rapid binary translated to.
"Minimal power readings coming from the structure, probably because the Master Emerald is on the exterior shrine," Tails commented.
"So you know exactly what BD is saying on your watch? Why not just make him speak?" Sonic asked.
"A vocal processor would increase the power draw considerably, and is largely unnecessary for what we need him to do," Tails countered.
The ambient lighting faded somewhat, as the sun outside the mountain dipped below vent, as well as darkening further as they passed into the cavernous foyer, and the trio flipped their lanterns on again.
"This seems like a good place," Tails said, taking a quick look around the foyer.
"The shrine will be empty, but it's in the center courtyard just out there," Sonic said, pointing to the doorway on the other side of the room.
Lily's attention, however, was drawn to the stone mural framed into the left wall, showing what looked like a flaming Sonic on the right side, facing a large, dark blue, gold, and purple creature on the left, with a shimmering green gem in between the two. The coloring was still vivid, so Lily surmised that the artist had used different colored stones, instead of painting them.
"Is this echidna or ancient?" Lily asked, raising her tablet to take a picture of the mural.
"You'd have to ask Knuckles that one, kiddo," Sonic told her, as he set his pack down and began getting camp set up, as Tails got out the portable stove. The climb had made them quite hungry.
As the mural was the only interesting feature in the foyer, Lily took the opportunity to set her pack down, carrying just her tablet, and going out to the second Master Emerald shrine.
The Chaos Compendium had not been exaggerating; the seven petal-like metal and stone receptacles surrounding the larger crystallized Master Emerald cradle were much, much larger than they would need to be for the Chaos Emeralds; nearly as big as the Master Emerald itself. Three of them were floating in place, in between each of the other four built into the floor around the center cradle for the Master Emerald, with crystal shards sticking up and out of the edges.
"Trust me, Lily," Sonic said, having come up behind her. "It looked a lot better with all of them here, all bright and glowing."
Lily glanced back at Sonic as she continued walking between the receptacles.
"It's just so mysterious…" she said, brushing her fingers lightly against one of the pink-tinted stone petals. "Why just that one time? That mural… This shrine… This palace… Why did it supercharge the Chaos Emeralds for just that one battle? You guys could have used that extra power for plenty of those other close calls."
"Well, I won't pretend to understand the omniscience that seems to be in the Master Emerald, or why the Chaos Emeralds got huge just that once. Maybe it was one of those times where they wouldn't have been enough. As much of a rush as my super form is, whatever these things did to me was another level entirely. Yeah, we've had close calls since then, but it's been enough, and thankfully, something like this hasn't been needed since."
"So… This is it. We've been everywhere on the island, seen everything, except for the sanctuary in the clouds that collapsed years ago… When we started this little trip, I thought that just being here would attune me more, maybe be able to make sense of my repeating dreams… But so far I've just got more questions than answers, not to mention spirits that have now spoken to me in my sleep."
Sonic picked up on the disappointment in the girl's voice.
"Don't let it get to you, kiddo," Sonic encouraged. "When you're dealing with things this old, they are rarely gonna be as straightforward as you'd like them to be. Besides, we've got one more night here, maybe things will make more sense by morning."
Lily gave the hedgehog a smile.
The two of them headed back into the foyer, where Tails was getting dinner ready. As with the pyramid last night, tents weren't necessary, so the campsite consisted of just sleeping pads, sleeping bags, and the lantern in the middle. As Sonic helped Tails prepare dinner, the fox heard his daughter give out a soft sigh as she continued staring at the framed mural in the wall.
"Something wrong, Lil'?" Tails asked.
"I've never felt right about visions of the future. About fate…" Lily began, turning back to her dad and his best friend.
"Because it means ultimately, we're not in control."
Sonic shrugged.
"I wouldn't look into it that deeply, Lily," the hedgehog told her. "I mean, we're here because you kept dreaming of the Master Emerald. Maybe one of the ancients was experiencing the same thing, and they thought it would be important to someone someday."
Lily smiled at them both, coming back to sit down on her sleeping pad.
"Thanks again, by the way. Both of you. Regardless if I find out what's going on tonight, tomorrow, or whenever… Thanks for putting things on hold and coming here with me. It's been an experience, for sure."
"It's been a nice trip down memory lane. I just hope you don't wind up leaving here with more questions than answers," Sonic replied. "Delving into things this old and mysterious generally don't have clear solutions."
"I hope I'm not worrying everyone too much," Lily said.
"Nothing you can do about that," Tails answered as he started to stir the freeze-dried beef stew. "Comes with the territory of being a parent. But to be fair, I'll take something like this over, you know, jump-starting a planet's ecosystem."
Lily smirked at her dad.
"Fair enough."