Egg Base T, Lab
Eggman was putting the finishing touches on his latest masterpiece, smiling malevolently. After he finished screwing some components into place, he held it up and looked at it in all its glory.
Eggman had created a specially designed suit of armor for Tangle. It was in the classic Eggman Empire colors, and was designed for both protection and utility. It was specially designed to be extremely flexible, no different than that lemur's jumpsuit, but with strong enough protection that even Sonic would have trouble spin dashing through it.
The true brilliance was in the belt however. There, you could place up to four separate Chaos Emeralds. The belt was interlinked with the helmet, made in a knight style per the lemur's request, where the helmet would have a hud that the lemur would control with her thoughts. When she thought about it, one out of the four Chaos Emeralds would be self propelled into the lemur's hands, by a bit of genius robotic maneuvering in the belt. Small enough to not be a nuisance, but strong enough to deliver straight to the lemur's hands! Truly, genius!
Eggman thought back to the lemur. When he first recruited her, he was hoping for maybe some cannon fodder, perhaps a psychological weapon against those Diamond Cutter pests and perhaps even Sonic himself. He never would have expected just how useful the lemur would be. She was a shockingly obedient soldier, as long as he gave her some stimuli, and her expertise with the Chaos Emeralds' differing powers was something impressive. Eggman once overheard some villagers call her his new Infinite, and he had to admit they might have been right.
And the Subject, who Eggman had finally come around to calling her by her proper name, was also very useful. Alcurine was not nearly as loyal as Tangle was, which is why Eggman wasn't making her a suit like this, but was still a very effective pawn nonetheless. Her apparent martial arts were very useful. Unlike Tangle, who seemed to catch on to almost all the emeralds quickly, Alcurine seemed to be stuck on the blue one specifically. While not quite as versatile as the lemur, Alcurine was quite fearsome with the cloning abilities of the Blue Emerald. And her experimentation with the power! In one of the combat scenarios he tested her with, she made a clone inside of the fake Sonic dummy.
She was very proud of that trick. And Eggman gave her the props she deserved for such a deliciously macabre use.
Sage appeared next to Eggman, apparently doing the rounds with everyone in the base. Eggman smiled upon seeing her. "Ah Sage! Can you bring Tangle to the training room? Tell her I have the suit ready." He said jovially. Sage just nodded with her neutral expression, before disappearing. Eggman grabbed the suit of armor, holding it with care, and walked out to the training room.
After walking for a couple of minutes, (and stopping to pick up the Red, Green, and Yellow Chaos Emeralds on the way) he arrived at the training room, specially designed for training simulations against the Rodent and his friends.
Eggman walked in, and he saw that Tangle was currently using the training room to fight…
How ironic. It seems she's practicing against herself. Eggman thought with a grin. He left that setting in to try to intimidate Tangle, but instead she turned it into an opportunity to clean up the worst of her own imperfections. Eggman had to give credit where it was due, that had been clever.
Tangle was currently using the White Chaos Emerald to beat up her more heroic dummy, before finally tearing the head off the dummy with a very well placed phantom wave of energy. Eggman looked at the White Chaos Emerald in her hand. While Tangle was certainly versatile, she did have a clear favorite emerald. Tangle was just laughing crazily at the sight of the demolished dummy, before finally noticing Eggman in the view box. She cheerfully waved at him.
Eggman just rolled his eyes and held up the suit, which brought stars to the lemur's eyes. She quickly sped over, roughly grabbing the suit out of Eggman's hands, just staring at it with awe.
Eggman gave her an indulgent smile. "Go on, put it on. After you do, I've got a training scenario for you to try it with." he said with a fake smile.
All the good things about her aside, she could be extremely annoying to deal with on a daily basis. Her high energy never failed to get on Eggman's nerves, and she certainly lacked respect for him. Still though, let no one ever tell you Eggman didn't respect utility and loyalty above all else.
Tangle quickly put on the armor, which turned out to be a completely perfect fit. She stood there, checking herself out and testing the movement. Eggman gave her another smile, this one genuine at the seeing of his genius.
"Perfect. To give you the basic run down, that helmet and this suit connects with your thoughts. That belt is designed to hold up to four Chaos Emeralds of your choosing, and when connected to your thoughts, the emeralds can be quickly pushed into your hands. You'll have to be a bit specific, such as 'Red Chaos Emerald in hand', but otherwise it's perfect for quickly swapping out emeralds for a variety of powers!" Eggman said with a malevolent grin.
Tangle's body language briefly looked excited, before she paused. "Wait, I thought that I couldn't use several emeralds at once?" She asked, the confusion evident in her tone.
Eggman just sighed. "And I still say you shouldn't. However, quickly switching between the emeralds, as long as you let just a moment of deactivated power pass, should be harmless. The energy that fills your body dissipates after the emerald finishes its use, meaning there is no danger of chaos energy overload that way. As to bad mixings, the power also disappears, meaning that mixing powers is highly unlikely. Still wouldn't try it with the Purple Chaos Emerald though." He said, grumbling a bit.
Tangle went back to be excited, before jumping into the training room again. "Ready when you are, boss!" She said excitedly, her voice distorted through the helmet. Eggman just rolled his eyes. "You forgot the emeralds." he said bluntly.
Yes, extremely annoying to deal with.
Suddenly, red lights and alarms started blaring. Eggman quickly looked around in rage. They weren't supposed to find us! He angrily thought. But no matter, he would make those fools pay for invading his base again.
He turned back to Tangle, who was looking around confused, before giving her a grin. "Well well, looks like we're going from regular straight to field testing. Come collect the emeralds, and prepare for battle." He said cheerfully. Tangle paused, before she took off her helmet, a dark grin on her face.
Eggman turned away, pulling up his communicator. "Alcurine! Status report." He said loudly.
The communicator crackled for just a moment before Alcurine answered. "Boss, they brought the whole calvary this time." She said in a mild tone. "All the Neo Diamond Cutters are here, along with Amy Rose, Knuckles the echidna, Miles Prower, Blaze the cat, and that time traveller you warned us about. Oh and of course, Sonic." She said, starting to sound a bit excited.
Eggman briefly paused. That was far more than what he was expecting, frankly. But then a lightbulb went off in his head.
Seems it's time I introduced the pests to my new and improved Morality Cube. He thought, a malevolent grin starting to show on his face. He began to laugh. Oh yes! I can't wait to see who else will get turned!
Outside Egg Base T
For the second time in two weeks, Whisper was once again outside of an Egg base, firing lasers at oncoming badniks. Thankfully, after the tearful meetings, she was able to repair her wispon with Tails's and Belle's help. She spared a moment to look around at the very hectic battlefield.
Blaze was shooting fire at any oncoming badnik, sometimes paired with Silver's telekinesis to keep them stable for the fire blasts. Sonic was speeding around, spin dashing into every badnik he could get to. Tails was using a kind of arm cannon to defend Amy's back, who was using her hammer to decent effect. Knuckles was paired with Lanolin, who was using her wispon to hit large groups while Knuckles targeted the more tough but singular enemies. Whisper couldn't currently see Mimic, but every once in a while, she would see an egg pawn stab another in the back, before quickly slinking away.
All in all, Whisper knew that Eggman had his work cut out for him to keep them all away. Despite the pure carnage the group was causing, Whisper still couldn't but help to feel suspicious.
Where was Alcurine? Where was Tangle? Why hasn't Eggman been trying to use his Morality Ray? She kept thinking, all while firing. Suddenly, some kind of knight walked out of the front gates of the egg base, staring at the group silently. Whisper looked through her scope, trying to see what the thing was. It was islander shaped, and it had a belt that seemed to be holding…
Shit.
Whisper quickly brought up her communicator. "Attention, new hostile entity on the field, unknown what it is. It has four separate Chaos Emeralds, I repeat it has four Chaos Emeralds." She quickly said.
She heard back signs of confirmation from nearly every member, before Silver suddenly piped in. "Wait, Chaos Emeralds on its belt? Does it look like a knight or something?" He said, obviously panicked. Whisper confirmed that it did indeed look kind of like a medieval knight. Silver cursed.
"No! Not them! Not now!" He said very loudly. Whisper brought her scope over to Silver, who looked extremely panicked. "Silver…? What are we dealing with here?" Sonic asked over the comms, to which Silver replied, "Ok, I know I told you that the future I came back from was controlled by the Eggman Empire. What I didn't mention was one of the Eggman Empire's lieutenants during that time was a sort of knight who used the Chaos Emeralds to help Eggman subjugate resistance cells. In the future, the resistance of my time called them the Chaos Knight, and they were definitely the most dangerous of Eggman's soldiers." Silver said, amping up his telekinetic attacks.
Whisper just gave a sigh of dismay, while Knuckles shouted at Silver over the comms. "Now you tell us that!?" He said angrily. Silver stuttered, "Knuckles, my time is 200 years into the future! I didn't think the Knight would even be alive yet! Eggman was somehow still alive, I admit, but I didn't think the Knight would've been now!" He said loudly.
Whisper caught onto something he said. "Wait, alive? The Chaos Knight is an actual person in armor and not some kind of robot?" She asked quietly, turning her scope back to the Knight, who seemed to be watching all the destruction calmly.
Silver responded back, a bit out of breath "Yeah. One of the resistance members I got to know said they got a lucky shot off and managed to gauge the helmet of the Knight. They say they clearly saw fur underneath, although they couldn't get a good look before being thrown out of the battlefield by some kind of large furry rope." He said.
Whisper froze. Being thrown away by a large furry rope?
Before she could think any farther, the Knight finally stepped onto the battlefield. Most of the group was busy with badniks, but Knuckles and Lanolin had just finished off another group and decided to rush the Knight. The Knight just turned to look over at the two, before seeming to chuckle. Suddenly, the Green Chaos Emerald was pushed into the Knight's hands.
Suddenly, the Knight seemed to glow green, before several large vines erupted out of the ground and latched onto Knuckles. He tried struggling, but whatever those vines were, they were supernaturally tough. The Knight also seemed to take care to make it so Knuckles couldn't get any leverage to use his strength.
Lanolin levied her wispon at the Knight, preparing to take a shot. Before she could though, another vine erupted from the ground and latched onto Lanolin's wispon, pulling it to face toward the ground. Lanolin tried struggling the wispon out of the vine, but once again the vine seemed to be supernaturally tough.
Whisper looked back over the Knight and saw the green glow surrounding them flicker out. She levied her wispon to hit the knight directly in the chest, knowing she wasn't going to miss. Suddenly, some kind of miniature metal hand popped out and grabbed the Green Chaos Emerald, bringing it back to the belt, where it seemed to latch itself securely. This time, the Red Chaos Emerald was put into the Knights hands.
Whisper didn't give the Knight a chance to do whatever it was planning, as she immediately fired her stun shot at the Knight. Whisper saw that she got a clear hit, resulting in the Knight being thrown back. Whisper was a bit worried though, as the Knight immediately got back up as if they were never shot, before turning Whisper's way.
Suddenly, a stream of concentrated fire seemed to blast her way, and she had to quickly roll away from her ledge lest she get badly burned. The problem with this, is that now Whisper had exposed herself to the egg pawns, which immediately attempted to attack her. She quickly switched her wispon's mode from sniper to fire, trying to keep herself alive long enough to get into a better position.
After burning away several egg pawns near her, Whisper was able to escape the dangerous position and decided that sticking in the back wouldn't work anymore. She changed her wispon from Flame to Hammer, and started smashing against any egg pawns she could see.
After Whisper got a short reprieve, she turned back to the Knight, who seemed to be toying with Knuckles, always nimbly dodging him whenever he tried to hit them. After doing this for a few minutes, the Knight eventually seemed to get bored and just straight up punched Knuckles. While it didn't do much to the echidna, he still toppled backward in pain and more prevalent, confusion. This gave enough time for the Knight to get the Yellow Chaos Emerald in their hand.
Uh oh. Whisper thought.
"CHAOS CONTROL!" said a heavily distorted voice from the Knight. A yellow glow surrounded them.
Suddenly, the knight looked like they were speeding even faster than Sonic, wailing on Knuckles before speeding over to Lanolin, grabbing her and tossing her into a tree. Whisper could only start to react before she felt herself get wrapped up, where then she was also thrown into the nearest tree.
Whisper hit the tree, gasping in pain. Despite the perception about the Knight, Whisper knew that to the Knight, time was slowed down. To everyone else? The Knight was currently the fastest moving thing on the battlefield. Which the Knight then demonstrated by hitting sonic in a run-by attack.
Suddenly, the yellow glow flickered out, before the Knight was surrounded by a different cyan glow. Whisper felt her eyes widen. Were they really about to get defeated by a single combatant? Strangely though, the Knight seemed to actually struggle in place. Then Whisper remembered.
They don't have the Cyan Chaos Emerald yet.
"It's no use!" Silver shouted, before lifting and throwing the Knight back into the Egg base. Whisper couldn't see them, but she sure could hear the crash that emanated from them hitting the ground.
Whisper prepared for the counterattack, but strangely one never came. The Knight never came back out. By the time Whisper was sure the Knight wasn't coming back out, the final egg pawn was destroyed by a well placed fire burst by Blaze, leaving the outside utterly empty of anything but scrap.
Whisper sighed, slowly getting back on her feet.
That was a painful experience. Whisper thought to herself. And a tad humiliating. We were almost defeated by a single fighter.
Whisper wasn't feeling all that great about the Knight at the moment. She wondered who they were, although Whisper had a sneaking suspicion she knew exactly who was under that mask.
The rest of the group cluttered together, looking each other over for injuries. Silver was heaving for breath, having exhausted so much mental energy for all the telekinesis he had to do. Blaze was currently holding one of the Sol Emeralds, looking like she was using it to draw energy from. Knuckles looked to especially be in pain, and Lanolin wasn't looking that much better. Sonic was rubbing his arm with a grimace, and the rest of the group seemed to be fine.
Suddenly, Whisper felt a chill on her back, and immediately pushed Tails. Tails went sprawling, just narrowly avoiding a purple-green laser shot. The group immediately turned to the source, and saw Alcurine standing on top of a floating platform, which seemed to hold a turret and was covered so that Whisper wouldn't be able to get a clear shot on Alcurine.
Alcurine smiled a smug grin. "Welcome guests! Sadly, Egg base T is closed today, so you will have to come later. Until you leave though, we welcome you to enjoy the Complimentary Morality Swaps!" She said cheerfully.
Another shot started immediately charging to fire.