Chapter Text
“Alright. Knuckles you take the middle. Tails and Stone, you can go right and Eggman, you're with me on the left.” That sounded like a good plan. Which isn't a surprise, of course. Seeing as he is a master tactician and possibly, the wisest hedgehog in the universe. Sonic’s ear twitched when Eggman began to speak.
“By all means. We could us-”
“No.” Knuckle’s voice cut through Robotnik's like butter.
“What do you mean, ‘no’?” There’s no way Knuckles, the big mean red boulder punching machine. Is actually afraid of ghosts. Sonic can excuse Casper because that film was quite scary. But this is real life, not some movie.
“I won’t do it.” Knuckles shook his head and Sonic knew it would be futile to try to change his mind. Because Knuckles was one stubborn alien. But at the same time, he was too. Sonic stole a glance at Eggman and his lackey at speeds they couldn’t see. Despite the fact that they’re his nemesis, he didn’t want to embarrass himself as team leader of the newly created team; Team Sonic. And arguing with Knuckles, who was being very insubordinate, was definitely hurting his cred as a leader.
Luckily, he is pretty good at getting people and echednias… and he supposes foxes too, to do what he wants. “Ghosts aren’t real, okay? Now stop being a wuss and just go.”
Eggman cut right after he was done talking. The human’s voice was slightly elevated and perhaps one could detect annoyance, as it bounced around in the abandoned base. “Now that that’s out of the way. We need to find my precious, sweet, innocent babies.” Sonic very much wanted to get this show on the road, but he was too bothered by what Eggman just said.
“Wait-wait-wait.” He held his gloved hands out as he spoke. “Innocent? Your drones literally tried to blow us up. And they blew up Commander Walters!” He may not have liked the gun commander. After all, he did put him in a cage and a heads up about how Shadow can teleport would have been nice. But that doesn’t mean Sonic wished death on Walters.
“An unfortunate bug. Don't worry rodent, next time they won't miss.” That really got under his fur. Sonic’s quills rustled a little and his gloved hands flexed. He hated Eggman. He really did. The mad doctor almost ruined his life multiple times. And here he was, teaming up with him. He could just… kill him. It's not like Eggman or his lackey could stop him. Because for as long as he lives, the mad doctor would always be a threat to his family.
Sonic’s quills bristled and chaos energy crackled through his fur before it stopped. He unclenched his hands and took a step. That wasn't who he was. Eggman wasn't even doing anything right now so it would just be murder. “Whatever you say, doc.” Sonic turned back to the 3 pathways. “Enough playing around. Let's get this over with so I don't have to look…” Sonic scrunched up his nose, “Or smell you anymore.”
Eggman took a couple of steps forward, followed by himself, Tails and Stone. “Kick a man when he's down. I'm not the least bit surprised.” He was not going to fall for the bait. He wasn't. Sonic’s eyes narrowed and he looked back up at Eggman. His mouth opened and some choice words on the tip of his tongue. Then his words died when he saw that Knuckes was still behind them and had his red arms crossed and was looking away.
Sonic his pointer finger up towards Eggman. “One second eggs for brain.” he paused for a second to cringe at what he just said before he addressed Knuckes. “Dude. Ghost aren't real. Now let's get this over with.” Knuckes just ‘hmmph’ and turned his nose up. . Sonic pinched the bridge of his nose. “What are you so afraid of anyways? Can’t you just punch the ghost with your giant muscles?”
Knuckles put his hands on his hips,”You are correct hedgehog; my muscles are giant. However, they are useless against the spirits roaming the halls of this cursed place.”
“Dude… You’re literally just making stuff up. This place isn’t cursed…” Sonic looked around. It was a little bit creepy, sure. The crumpled ruins from… something littered the floor. Grass and other plants took over. It was sorta eerily silent when no one was speaking. And the three tunnels infront of them looked like bottomless pits. The inky darkness seemingly has no end. “I mean,” Sonic shrugged, “It’s a little bit creepy but there is-” He was cut off by a terrible shrieking. Like a demon in a movie that was being sent back to hell.
Admittedly, he didn’t have the most manly reaction as he himself shrieked. Knuckles put his fist up in a crazed manor and shouted something about ‘never take me alive’. Tails jumped into Stone’s arms and even Eggman seemed a little spooked. They all kinda subconsciously moved into a circle. Sonic’s heart raced more than normally. Surely… Surely that wasn’t a ghost. He shouldn’t have even entertained the idea. But Knuckles’s propaganda was working overtime on him. His ears twitched towards the middle tunnel, something was coming. The soft flapping of something was the only indicator he got before something shot out of the darkness like a bat out… It was a bat.
Eggman straightened up, “It’s just a bat. A little bit cliche but relatively harmless.” Sonic straightened out too, completely on his own autonomy, and not because Eggman did it first. “Now,” Robotnik had a sick humorless smile on his face as he addressed him and Knuckles. “Can we please get started? I must be reunited with my babies.” Sonic despised the fact that he agreed with the doctor. Not about being reunited with his ‘babies’, no, that was weird. Sonic wanted to Get. This. Over. With!
“You are a fool, Robotnik,” Knuckles started and Sonic already knew he would not like where this was going. “The beast was clearly startled by something sinister lurking in the shadows.”
“Hmm. It was probably disturbed by something big red and dumb.”
Sonic was going to defend Knuckles. Even if the echidna was grating on his nerves a little with all the ghost talk. Knuckles was still his bro and he gotta stand up for his bros. He didn’t get the chance to as Robotnik's insult flew right over Knuckle's red furry head. “A sinister and mighty foe indeed.”
“Space porcupine,” A more smooth and less clinically insane voice spoke from his right. Sonic turned to see Stone still… holding Tails? He couldn’t really question or berate Tails for fraternizing with the enemy when the doctor’s somewhat normal henchman continued. “The Doctor is talking about you.”
Knuckles glared up at Eggman and something between a growl and a ‘hmph’ left his throat as he lifted up his arm and made a… fist at Eggman? Then his giant hand covered glove opened up, the middle big part, not his thumb.
Sonic tilted his head as confusion overtook him. Is that a gang sign? Is Knuckles throwing up gang signs!?! He really had no clue what Knuckles was trying to do. Evidently, the doctor didn’t know either.
“Uhm… What are you doing, rodent?” There was a slow pause as if Knuckles was contemplating something. His brows furrowed before he dropped his hand.
“Curse my lack of articulated fingers.” Sonic lingered a little on that but Robotnik didn’t care.
“Now that that’s out of your system, echidna,” There was a slight sneer to Eggman’s tone, as he looked down on Knuckles. “Can we please, continue.”
“The Doctor is right, naturally." Sonic rolled his eyes. Sure, Stone was right. They did need to get on with this but he didn’t need Eggman’s lackey glazing him.
“Hey dude,” Sonic looked up at Stone who… still holding Tails and tapped at his nose, “You got a little something here.” Sonic smirked a little as Stone shot him a tight smile.
“Real mature.”
“I don’t see anything,” Tails, who was still being held, looked at Stone’s nose and bless his little fox heart, he thought that he meant there was actually something there. “Hold on, I do see- Oh wait. It was just a shadow. False alarm.” Tails let out a nervous chuckle.
“Get down from there and come over here next to your team,” Sonic demanded. Though, he shouldn’t have had too. They are definitely going to be doing some training when they get back to stop another humiliating operation like this one from happening again. He has Knuckles going on about ghosts and Tails just being a double agent. It took longer than what Sonic would have wanted but Tails did fly out of the humans arm and made his way over to him and Knuckles. “Now Knuckles,” Sonic addressed the scaredy cat, “You have nothing to worry about. The biggest threat here is probably tetanus. So just don’t cut yourself on anything and you’ll be a-okay.” Sonic winked and shot Knuckles a thumbs up.
“Fine,” Thank goodness, he really didn’t know what overcame the echidna, “I’ll go with Robotnik and you can go by yourself.”
“What? No way dude, this place is super-” Creepy is what Sonic was going to say but he couldn’t say that cause then he’ll be a hypocrite. Which he still is even if he doesn’t say it, but he’s fine with being one as long as he isn’t called out on it. “I mean, I need to keep an eye on Eggman.”
“Ahh. That sounds like a solution to me,” Eggman clapped and smiled. “I think I would like to be with the red one. It’s nice having a simple conversation every now and then.” Sonic clenched his fist. This was not going how he planned. They should all be in their tunnel by now, getting to the bottom of everything but no. Knuckles had to make a big stink about ‘ghost’. And now he has to be all alone. Which he’s perfectly fine with, Sonic doesn’t believe in ghosts. He’s not scared of them…
Sonic bit his lip as he looked at the middle tunnel. Butterflies started to fly around his stomach which was just dumb. He wasn’t even thinking about ghosts before Knuckles opened his big dumb mouth. And he shouldn’t be afraid to walk down a dark creepy abandoned tunnel at his bug age.
“That would be wise, hedgehog. I can keep a much closer eye on the Doctor than you ever could. And if he tries anything I will snap his spine into two just as easily as I could snap a twig,” Knuckles began to laugh deep echoing chuckles and Sonic… and Eggman… And Stone… and even Tails became a little disturbed by it. “Ah yes. I’m picturing it now,” Knuckles looked up at the doctor, “You begging for mercy after I thwarted your puny attempt to betray me. My massive and muscular hand would come up and I would only have to,” Knuckles did a flick with his thumb and well, he only had two fingers,”And you would be crushed like an insignificant insect."
“On second thought. I think I would like to go with the hedgehog. We really do need some bonding time.” Eggman took a couple of steps away from Knuckles and Sonic didn’t blame him one bit.
“Do what you must but I will not go by myself. I will not become a snack to the ghost. Do you have any idea how tender and juicy my meat is? I will stand no chance once the word spreads among the spirits." Sonic had to clear up two things but he would tackle the more egregious one first.
“Dude, don’t talk about your meat like that. Also, you’re not gonna get eaten by ghosts or spirits or whatever else you're thinking of.” Knuckles kinda smiled at him and put a hand on his hip and Sonic knew he was about to hear one of the dumbest things of his life.
“So you admit ghosts are real?” Sonic brought his hands to grab at his quills and pull down before he spoke else he might say something quite rude.
“No, I did not. I don’t know what part of what I just said implied that I think ghosts are real.” The world faded out as Sonic’s frustration about the whole thing grew. He was going to strangle Knuckles. How? He doesn’t know, but he’ll think of something.
“Don’t get upset with me, hedgehog. You’re the one that said ghosts wouldn’t eat me, not that they weren’t real.”
“He has you there hedgehog.”
“What?!” Sonic’s eyes widened and snapped up towards Eggman, “No he doesn’t. Tails, tell Knuckles that ghosts aren’t real.” Sonic crossed his arms and waited for the logical reply that he knew the tow tailed genius would give.
“There’s no scientific proof that ghost exist,” Tails piped up from behind him and Sonic was going to exclaim ‘finally’ someone with some common sense. However, something in Tail’s voice gave Sonic pause, like there was about to be a but, “Although… A couple nights ago, I heard something that I’ve never heard before and it-it didn’t sound like it came from this world.” Sonic wanted to fuss about how he was just betrayed. But what Tails just said did ring a bell with him. Only, he knows what was the cause of the sound.
“You heard that too fox? I thought for sure that we were going to be destroyed. That some… vile beast was digging its way out of the deepest pits of hell to come devour us,” Knuckles looked and sounded so solemn. “What about you hedgehog, did you hear it as well?” This is where things got a little awkward in Sonic’s opinion. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked away.
“I can say for sure that that certainly was not a ghost or demon or whatever you two heard.”
“But Sonic-” Tails started but Knuckles’ booming voice overtook him.
“I don't know how you could say that! It sounded like a pig being butchered!” Knuckles threw his hands around and his voice echoed all throughout the empty base. “I was prepared to battle a foe far stronger and terrifying than anything I had to face in the great gladiator arena.” Sonic got distracted but it wasn’t really his fault. Okay, it was his fault but Knuckles should have known better then to mention Gladiator. Which was one of his favorite movies, and not just because he filmed some promotional videos for its sequel.
“‘Are you not entertained?'" He held his hands up in the classic pose. Of course, the true meaning of the movie and its message flew right over his blue quilly head, since he was too distracted by the aura farming and action scenes.
Knuckles looked down at him with a raised brow, “No I am not. I do not know why you would ask that.” Sonic would have brought his hand to his forehead but he was expecting that response so he didn’t feel any annoyance at all at Knuckles not getting his quote.
“I was- You know what? I don’t know why I asked you that either.” He didn’t really want to explain movie quotes with Knuckles every time he did. It ended up with Knuckles threatening him with a ‘movie’ quote. Such as, ‘I will kill you.’ Which Sonic supposes that that is used often in movies, but Knuckles could be a little more creative.
Tails piped up from besides Knuckles. “Wait. Did you really not hear whatever it was a couple nights ago? Because like, how? It was really scary.” It was definitely scary alright but not for the reasons that Tails and Knuckles thought of. And what is Tails, a child? Well, Sonic does suppose that the fox is a child, but still. Scary is when you’re all alone in the woods at night in your cave and some mystery- probably a monster- sound comes from the pitch black of the night. Not when you’re lying in a comfy bed in a safe house. But that’s enough trauma dumping,
“Well you can relax. It wasn’t a ghost, it was me,” What Sonic thought would be assuring, it was quite the opposite. Tails’ hands flew to his mouth, his eyes wide with shock. Knuckles had a little less class and his mouth just hung open. “Yeah… Well let’s go ahead and-”
“But that’s impossible,” Knuckles found his voice and it boomed throughout the base, “How could- what even- What did you do?” Sonic found a large hand in his face as Knuckles cast an accusationel… hand? The problems of not having mittens.
“Well let’s just say,” Sonic held up his hands in defense, “That when google tells you to not eat some ranch that’s been sitting out for an unknown time. You should probably listen.” There was silence for a second. Probably because nobody knew what to say to that.
“B-But Sonic, I told you not to eat that ranch.” Sonic addressed Tails with a raised brow.
“I know, but I needed a second opinion. Cause i really needed something to dip my fries in.” Tails’s brows furrowed in confusion for a second before he shook his head.
“But if google and myself told you not to eat it and did anyways, why did you even ask?” The foxes fur kinda poofed out a little like it does when Sonic annoys him on purpose.
“Chill out bro, it’s all in the past no- What do you two think you’re doing?” Out of the corner of his eyes. Stone and Eggman began to creep away. Robotnik turned on his heels with a smile so sardonic that Sonic was sure even Knuckles knew that the doctor was being sarcastic.
“My apologies, rodent. We should just stand there and listen to you recount your inability to listen to those smarter than you, or perhaps listen to you children argue about ghost. Instead of doing the important thing and finding my drones!” Sonic just kinda looked up at Eggman with his lips pushed to the side. Sure, the man had some valid points and he even agreed with him about getting to the important stuff. And honestly, why would Eggman listen to him? He is technically wayyyy younger than the humans. And he did kinda have a hard head that always came back to bite him. The ranch was just one of countless examples. But at the same time, Eggman was a terrorist who had tried to murder him a couple of times. So Sonic will forgive himself for not caring about his drones.
—-
Shadow’s steel shoe tapped in an increasingly fast pace against the ground. He’s been hiding around this corner for far too long. The professor said that the intruders would split up and he would be able to take them down one by one. But so far there's been no splitting up and no taking down. He knows there are people there, he’s heard yelling echo down the tunnel. His patience has grown too thin and is about to snap. Shadow is about to just forget the professor and take matters into his own hands.
—
“Fine,” Sonic turned to Knuckles, “What works for you? Because I am not letting Eggman out of my sight.” Of course, Sonic will have to ignore the fact that he just turned away from Eggman to look at Knuckles but hopefully no one will call him out.
“Hmm,” Knuckles brought his hand to his chin and Sonic struggled to not smile cause he already knows he’s about to hear something crazy. “How about you can go with Robotnik and I will go with the goat milker. Tails will just have to go by himself.” That was diabicol, Sonic loved it.
Tails gasped in shock and sputtered a little before, “Knuckles! No-”
“I love that idea, Knux. Say champ, you up for it?” Sonic ruffled the fur on the top of Tail’s head. Only for Tails to swat his lovingly affectionate hands away.
“No way! I’m not going by myself!... And not because of ghosts or anything silly but because… uhm- but because of uhm… But because of Shadow!”
“Dude, you can’t even see your own shadow. It’s too dark in here.” Honestly, it’s hard to believe that Tails is such a genius sometimes when he says such silly things sometimes. And Sonic knows that all this talk about ghosts is spooky but come in, Tails really needs to lock in.
“What? Nooo. Not my shadow; Shadow.” Ohhhhh. Sonic gets it now. Now he feels silly.
“You mean the hedgehog that’s yay high,” Sonic held his hand just under his forehead. He didn’t get to mention it because they were battling, (a battle not beatdown), but he did notice that he was taller than the much more angry hedgehog. He'll have to remember to bring that up next time he sees him.”has red highlights, not as attractive as me, and oh, very very angry?”
Tails smiled up at him, “That’s the one.”
“I thought he was much better looking than you, and much more formidable." Sonic could have gone without Knuckles’s much unneeded backstabbing.
“No he wasn’t better looki- nevermind. Why would he even be a problem anyways?” As far as Sonic is concerned, after he knocked Shadow out on top of that tower, (Sonic tricked himself into believing that they both got knocked out but Shadow got lucky and woke up first.) Shadow would just go away and not be a problem. Which was probably wishful thinking now that he thought about it. Tails just looked at him. From behind him, Stone began to talk.
“I believe what-”
“Sorry to interrupt your second line of dialogue," Eggman shook his head back and forth lightly like he was debating something, "Actually, not really. But I’ll explain it to the hedgehog since I have infinitely more experience dealing with stupid people than you,” That was certainly rude. Eggman shouldn't have interrupted Stone like that. He also shouldn't have called him stupid. That was a low blow and Robotnik is lucky that he’s a semi honorable hedgehog cause he’s at the perfect height to give the doctor a much crueler and harder low blow. “You see hedgehog… and echidna. If whoever set Shadow free also took my drones. And if that person is here, then it makes sense for Shadow to be here too. Since they’re undoubtedly working together.” Hmm. Sonic guesses that tracks, but there was one thing that no one was accounting for. Him.
“Pssh. I hope Shadow is here. I’ll teach him a lesson he won’t forget.” That sounded a little more ominous than what Sonic was going for. He wanted to just imply that he would kick Shadow’s ass, not like… chop an arm off or something.
“What are you talking about Sonic? Did Shadow hit you so hard that you forgot what happened earlier? Do you have a concussion?!” Sonic held out his hands to calm Tails down.
“I appreciate the concern but what you failed to realize was that I let Shadow win. I could have easily beaten him if I wanted to. And no, I don’t have a concussion.”
“Cause you have to have a brain to be able to be concussed.” Eggman let out some stupid laughter and held his hand out and Stone high fived it back. Sonic sees how it is. He’s not gonna spare the henchman anymore than he would spare Robotnik from now on.
“Har har. Real funny,” Sonic put a hand on his hip and stared at the two humans with a judging brow raised before he addressed Tails. “My plan, which is something that I meant to do and is not just suddenly being thought of now. Is that I would let Shadow think that he won so he would lead us to his base of operations. Which he has so there.”
“But,” One of Tail’s big orange ears flickered, “If you just stopped him back in Tokyo then this entire thing could be avoided and we wouldn’t even be here.” Perhaps that was true.
“Yeah well… What if Shadow had nukes, hmm? What would you do then? Do you want him to nuke… Argennnn-tina?” Tails just blinked up at him.
“Why would he nuke Argentina?”
“I don’t know, do I look like Shadow?”
“Hmm, perhaps,” Knuckles brought his hand to his chin and rubbed it, “If you were in a dark room and if whomever was looking at you is blind the-”
“If they were blind they couldn’t see me,” Sonic shook his head. That wasn’t important. Literally the past… who knows how long wasn’t important. “Listen guys,” Sonic took a couple of steps forward and turned to face his followers. As a leader it was important to lead… Sonic was pretty sure Sunny D or Sun something said that. “We need to focus. Let’s just all go together tunnel by tunnel. No ghosts, no monsters, no nothing alright?” The group kinda looked past him and took a collective step back. Probably because his words were so powerful that it got them to physically move. Tails’s hand rose, probably to ask a question but Sonic was way ahead of him, “And don’t you worry about Shadow, alright. Like I said before, I totally let him win so don’t worry. In fact, I could probably beat him up with one hand behind my back and also blindfolded.” And maybe even his shoe laces tied up too but Sonic didn’t include that.
“Hedgehog-” Sonic held up a hand to silence Knuckles.
“It’s okay, Knuckles. You don’t have to say anything. We will also have the tactical advantage too, as Shadow and his co-conspirator will have no clue that we’re here and ready to kick their ass. Pardon my language,” Sonic nodded towards Tails since the fox looked like he wanted to tell him something, probably complain about his ‘language’ but he’s heard way worse come from Tom and Maddie. Of course, everytime he brings that up he just gets in more trouble, but that’s not important now. “So let’s just go ahead and get this over. We’ll stop Shadow and be back home and toasting smores before we know it. I mean, we’ll probably have to start a new fire but it’ll be okay and uhm,” Sonic waved at the human duo, “You two aren’t invited; I would say I'm sorry but you did try to kill us so I'm not really.”
‘That’s fine hedgehog, but uhm… you might want to take a glance behind you.” Why would he do that? Sure he would have to turn around to actually lead his team into the base, but there should be no reason for turning around now unless- Uh-oh.
His blue ears folded down a little. He brought up his hands in defense and tried to project confidence in his voice, “Not to be cliche, but he’s standing behind me, isn’t he?” He got some nods. “It would have been nice if someone told me.” Sonic didn’t wait for his teams response as he turned to face what was behind him. Though, as he was turning, he did think that it was awfully polite of Shadow to wait for him to face him before attacking. Of course, if Shadow had attacked him from behind -pause- he would just go on and on about how Shadow had to sneak attack him to win. But surely Shadow didn’t think about that, right?
Soon enough the red striped hedgehog entered his vision, and Sonic hated to admit it but he was low-key aura farming. Shadow’s arms were crossed and despite being shorter than Sonic, Shadow was looking down on him. Which doesn’t make any sense in Sonic’s opinion. “I found you! Shadow…” Okay, it was more like Shadow found him but since he took credit first, Sonic will take that as his win. Although, it was feeling like less and less of a win with each second that passed.