Spirit of the Phantom Ruby

Part 18 - Everything's Under Control

"We're in the base!" Rouge whispered into her earbud as she crawled behind Gadget through the vents. "We're locating the diffuser now."

"Good luck!" Sonic replied back as he and the rest of the Resistance battled against the badniks Eggman had sent out against them.

"I know why you're here!" The mad genius roared at them, hysterical with excitement. "You're here for the diffuser!"

"We know what you're planning, Eggman!" Knuckles yelled, punching a robot.

"Ho-ho-ho, do you now?" Eggman cackled viciously. "Did my lovely accomplice Infinite fill you in on the doomsday device?"

"Indeed he did, Egg-head!" Sonic did a homing attack on one of the robots defending Eggman.

The evil doctor stroked his mustache. "Such a shame... If only I had already been finished with it when he was still trapped inside the ruby."

Amy swung her hammer into a robot, sending it flying over towards Eggman's newly-rebuild Eggmobile. He chuckled deviously as a forcefield shot out, deflecting the robot.

"It doesn't matter! You won't be able to get the diffuser back!" He leaned forward excitedly. "All I need now is that angsty jackal and his ruby!"

"Good luck finding them!" Sonic yelled over his shoulder as he smashed into another robot.

"Actually, I already have." Eggman snickered. "It looks like Infinite's been using the ruby recently..."

Tails turned away from the battle in surprise. "What do you mean?"

The doctor squinted down at his monitor, grinning. "From the looks of this, it seems he gave someone else a powerful illusion."

"Shadow!" Sonic called into his earbud. "How's it going over there?"

"It's fine," the dark hedgehog's voice was tense. "How are you guys holding up with Eggman?"

"Shadow, did Infinite use the ruby on you?" Tails asked, concern rising in his voice.

"He did, but I was purposely aggravating him. How do you know this?"

"Eggman can see whenever Infinite uses the ruby!" The young fox replied. "How powerful was the illusion?"

"And just why do you need to know?" His temper suddenly rose for some reason.

"Shadow, calm down." Rouge's pretty voice interluded. "We just want to make sure Infinite's not posing as a threat."

"Everything's under control, and that's all that matters." Shadow's suddenly calm voice still sounded very forced. "Continue on with your mission." He hung up.

"Why do we care so much that Infinite and Shadow got into a quarrel?" Gadget whispered to Rouge as he peered through the vent opening beneath him.

"Because according to Eggman, it was a powerful hallucination, which means he could still be under the influence." Rouge explained behind him.

Outside the base, the battle continued. "Why do I get the feeling that Shadow screwed up somehow?" Knuckles groaned.

Eggman howled with laughter, pounding his fist against the dashboard of the Eggmobile. "I think Infinite got away from your little guard!"

Vector the alligator, caught up with the rest of the Resistance in battle, stomped his foot. "Crap!"

"He's the master of illusion!" His accompanying team member Espio scoffed, looking just as annoyed. "Of course he'd be able to fool Shadow!"

"It's just like that hedgehog not to admit when something's wrong..." Sonic muttered. He leapt off the robot he had been beating and landed on another, giving it several hits. "Without Shadow to protect him, Infinite will be easy to capture!"

Eggman chuckled. "Thank you for telling me." He began typing something into his control panel built into the Eggmobile's dashboard.

"Eggman's sending something after Infinite!" Tails yelled into his earbud in vain. "Shadow, find him!"

Meanwhile, inside the pleasant hum of the factory, Gadget peered down another vent opening.

"I see it!" He whispered over his shoulder.

Rouge clambered over beside him and popped the vent shaft out of place. She set it inside the vent ahead of them and slipped out of the hole, using her wings to land soundlessly on the floor. Gadget fitted his grabbling hook into the corner of the vent opening and silently slid down a rope after her. They looked across the room and saw Tail's machine sitting on its side. Gadget started towards it then stopped, frowning as he saw all the metal bits laying around it.

"We have a problem," he said into his headset. "The machine has been completely disassembled."

They heard Tails curse on the other end and launch into a rant about how many times would he need to rebuild it before they actually completed their mission.

"Why would Eggman pull it apart if he wanted to use it to fuse Infinite back into the ruby?" Rouge kneeled down, fingering one of the gears sitting on the floor.

"Because I needed to see how it worked, so I could build a larger, better one." Eggman's voice suddenly echoed into the room through the loudspeakers in the ceiling. The bat and the wolf immediately tensed, looking around.

"How did he-?" Gadget gasped.

"Don't think I forgot about you, wolf." The doctor's growling voice sent chills down his spine. "I knew the others outside were just a distraction, otherwise they'd have already gotten inside. But believe me when I say you're searching in the wrong place."

"Retreat, you two!" Sonic called to them through the group call. "It's a lost cause!"

Rouge hastily grabbed Gadget by the arm and launched him up to the vent opening, where he grabbed on and climbed inside. She flew up after him and closed the vent behind them.

"Go!" She whispered, and they crawled as quickly as they could down the ventilation shaft.