Chapter Text
Chapter 1
A shiver runs down a blue body, interrupting a form exuding pure confidence. It was just a reaction to the sea of snow that the trio had just escaped from, that’s all it was.
Eggman had been quiet for a while now, far too long than the team was comfortable with. A day spent trudging through sand, oil, and snow, this was the final abandoned base that they wanted to deal with today.
Fur frazzled and scorched by left over booby traps, they were ready to call it quits.
“Are you sure, Sonic?”
Emerald eyes shot down to a ruffled fox kit, worry evident on his face.
“Yeah, I’m certain bud, he’s gotta be in here, I can feel it in my spines.” The blue hero smirked, looking back into the metallic abyss that lay ahead of them.
“You know that’s not what I mean.” Tails responded, eyeing his brother.
Sonic knew.
A sigh escaped his mouth.
“I’m fine Tails, nothing has happened so far, why should now be different?”
“It’s been a long day Blue, let’s do this tomorrow after some rest.” A gruff voice suggests.
Sonic turns to the echidna currently sweeping snow off of his dreads with great white boxing gloves.
“Guys, I swear I’m fine, honest. Let’s just get through this base and we can go, if we’re lucky it won’t take long. Well with me that should happen anyway.” Sonic quipped, rubbing the underside of his nose with a hooked finger.
Tails and Knuckles exchange a look.
Sonic was playing a risky game and Tails knew it. Spending years adventuring with him, Tails could read Sonic like one of his many books, he could tell things about him his older brother didn’t even know.
Sonic was certain it wouldn’t happen, but a small shiver persisted. Something felt wrong in this place, but that was even more reason to investigate, right?
Trepidation in his voice, Tails spoke. “B...but what if it does happen? What if there is something down there and you...you...” Before he could finish, a hand rested upon his shoulder.
“Hey, we have a failsafe, don’t we? We’re already here anyway, it was a pain to get to this place, we might as well check it out. Just this last one okay buddy? “ Sonic smiled warmly at him, his eyes radiating a faux confidence.
It wasn’t going to happen again.
Another glance between the fox and the echidna before Tails nodded.
“promise me you’ll rest after this and let me do your tests.” Blue eyes shining in determination at his brother.
Sonics hand swung to his chest as his posture straightened.
“I promise, Hedgehogs Honour.” He flashed a cheeky wink at his twin tailed friend.
Knuckles stepped forward, now back to his red glory.
“Alright then, if that’s settled, let’s get this over with.”
The corridor was long with aged metal lining every inch of it. All that could be heard was the footprints of the three heroes and the occasional sound of wind howling from the punctured holes in the walls.
Sonic chuckled as he reminisced about said holes, whether they be from well placed spin dashes, or him getting thrown into the wall by some of the stronger egg mechs.
They’d been walking for about fifteen minutes now, the corridor seemingly endless. ‘i suppose when you’re blitzing through bases at the speed of sound, you can easily forget how long Eggheads bases are’ Sonic thought to himself, before another slight shiver spiked him. Just the cold again. Even if we’re not outside and the heating’s on. It’s just the cold...wait a minute.
“It’s warm?” Sonic looked back at his companions, taking a moment to enjoy it.
“Looks like we’re on the right track. Maybe you were right, Eggman could be here!” Tail’s eyes lightened.
“Me? Right? More likely than you think, lil’ bud.” Sonic ruffled the kits head, Tails grumbling in amused annoyance.
“Be on your guard” Knuckles interjected. “if Eggman is here, and knows that we’re here, this place could blow up. If Sonic’s ego doesn’t blow up first.”
Sonic gave a lopsided smile. “har dee har har Knucklehead. You’re just jealous that I can sense things better than you can sense your precious Master Emerald.”
A fanged grin formed on the echidnas face. “it’s amazing that you can sense anything with your massive head shoved up your-“
Tails shot in-between them. “Guys! Look! A door!” Tails ran ahead of them leaving Sonic to self consciously hold his head while Knuckles chuckled to himself.
“My heads not that big, is it?” he mumbled.
Sonic looked to the door that lay in the distance and supressed a shiver that threatened to buckle his knees. Something was off. He wasn’t sure what it was, but as he stared at the metallic door, he could feel it stare back at him. His spines stood ever so slightly on edge.
Being Sonic the Hedgehog, he was used to such a feeling. He lived for the thrill, the heart pumping adventure. He had embarked on a guerilla war against a madman when he was but a child, and he was hard pressed to say it was just heroics. To live life on the razor’s edge, to prove how he was so fast he could outrun deaths scythe. An adrenaline junkie at heart. He looked into the abyss with a grin, and so help it if the abyss blinked.
But this was different.
“Tails, wait!” He immediately cursed himself for how worried he knew he sounded.
Tails turned back, confused. “Are you alright, sonic? What’s up?”
A shaky smile spread on his peach muzzle as he straightened himself up.
“Nothin, bud. Let me go in first and survey. You know I like to put on a show, you guys watch my back alright?”
Blue eyes glanced at purple, the echidna shrugged, as if to say ‘good luck stopping him’.
Tails stepped aside and held out his arm to allow him passage. Sonic noted his eyes following him with dreaded concern.
The hedgehog cricked his neck and cracked his knuckles.
“Okay then, let’s bust this eggman wide open!”
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Amidst the screaming wind, no soul heard the clank of a metallic grate fall to the ground, two bars crushed as though forced in a vice.
The vent was small and compact, but that didn’t matter. There was a job that had to be done.
“Team Dark do you copy? I have gained access to Glaciegg Zone 2.”
Radio static hissed before a sultry voice returned.
“Glaciegg Zone? The man may be a genius with robotics, but boy does he need to work on his names.”
“Hmph.” was the only reply, though the owner didn’t supress a smirk.
“ So Big Blue has gone rogue, huh? I still struggle to believe it.”
Crimson eyes hardened as the invader made his way through the vent.
“The faker hasn’t gone rogue, but something’s...different about him.”
He continued to shift his way in. In his hand was a tiny gadget with a screen, featuring four red dots. Three seemed to have stopped momentarily.
“If I didn’t know any better I’d say you cared about him.”
He hummed. “Caring has nothing to do with it. Sonic wields an extraordinary amount of Chaos Energy within him usually. Something has been tainted, and he knows it.”
“What? He has less of it? I wonder what concern that would be.” The voice mused.
“It’s not that. If anything there’s more than usual. I can feel it just emanating off of him. It’s not natural.”
“And yours is, Mr Ultimate Lifeform?”
Said Ultimate Lifeform growled in response.
“Rouge, he came to me for help. The Fox Boy too. Whatever this new surge of energy in his body is doing to him, it’s enough to warrant that I keep an eye on him, whether it’s to study the fluctuations or possibly control him.”
Rouge chuckled. “Aw so you do care.”
A roll of Shadows eyes was his only response. A notion so powerful, Rouge could feel it.
“If this is serious, Omega and I aren’t far behind. Keep us updated, handsome.”
“Noted, over and out.”
Shadow hung up on his communicator and shuffled forward. Whatever was going on, it wasn’t good. The faker hardly asked him for help. Only when the world at stake was it necessary, but even then Shadow was by his side regardless. The two led separate lives, aside from the occasional race the blue hedgehog forced on him.
He didn’t hate the hedgehog. Annoying? absolutely. A pain in his artificially engineered butt? Without a doubt. But he’d enjoyed his loose companionship. It was nice to have some competition with someone on his level, though he’d never outwardly say it.
But when the two came to him for help, he knew something was up. It was a quick debrief. Sonic had more hot tempered than usual, and even without being told, Shadow could tell that the pure energy in his body had shifted. He was almost glad they found him.
He had been surveying the whole day, so far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but he could sense slight shifts in energy, especially as they continued through the litany of abandoned bases.
Something was wrong, he could feel it.
A black ear twitched.
Below him he could hear slight beeping and whirring. Something was active here? Was Eggman actually here?
A quick look at his gadget showed the three dots were still, they must be talking. Against his better judgement, he followed the sound of the beeping. If there were a trap ahead, it might do the team some good if he disabled it prior.
Finding a grate in the bottom of the vent, he peered down and saw something he couldn’t believe.
He kicked the grate open and fell down with the grace of an acrobat. The room was dimly lit, the light above desperate to stay on, but showed signs of dying.
In front of him laid a robot. Still active, but completely mangled. It’s arm had been torn off and it’s torso gutted, wires still fizzing seemingly dragged out.
A single eye followed the black hedgehog.
“Metal Sonic?” Shadow questioned in disbelief.
He held no sympathy for the murderous robot, but what lay in front of him was far from normal. Eggman’s prized creation, broken and beaten. Had the mad doctor gone on an angry tirade? It was possible, but that would surely be reserved for lesser badniks. But who else?
Shadow had fought this beast of machinery itself. It was no easy battle, despite what he would say. He knew of no one who could destroy this robot and come out unscathed. And yet here it was.
“Who did this to you?”
The question was rhetorical, naturally. Shadow never knew it to speak, not in this form anyway.
Metal’s eye still fixated on him. It made no attempt to move, which put Shadow on edge. Whatever it had faced seemed to have intimidated it somewhat, the robotic beast would fight until it’s last ones and zeroes. But here, it lay, a shell of its former glory.
Shadow frowned, he didn’t like this. Eggman was in this base, and if that weren’t trouble enough, his favourite toy lay in ruins. Either he has created something off the scale, or something else got here first.
Before Shadow could think this through anymore, a gut wrenching scream was heard.