Blue

Chapter 15

IRIS

"Look out!" Sonic shouted. He was next to me in an instant, scooped me up, and leaped away from an explosion. A robot had targeted me with a missile. Knuckles punched the robot and it fell. Sonic looked at me with worry in his eyes. "You alright?" He asked. He set me back down.

"Yeah. Thanks." I said.

"Stay focused, Iris." Shadow hissed in my mind. I sensed a bit of anger from him when he glanced at Sonic.

"Can we get out of here before these robots overrun us?" Knuckles asked harshly and he ripped an arm off of a robot.

Shadow spun into a ball and hit the wall above the open door. The concrete and metal collapsed on the open door. "Let's go." Shadow said dryly.

"Thanks for almost crushing me, rings." Knuckles growled. There was a staircase that went up to the next floor.

"Do you feel all that cosmic energy?" Shadow asked me as we started up the stairs.

"Feels like enough to wipe out the city." I replied.

"Three times." He added.

"Let's just find it and get it away from Eggman." I said. We jogged up the stairs so Knuckles could keep up. We reached the top which must have been the control room. The roof was a yellow glass dome. In the center was a large dome on the floor with cosmic energy inside. Eggman was typing away on a terminal but froze when he saw us. I felt rage surge through Shadow next to me as he took a step towards the man.

"Hold it, rodents!" Eggman demanded, "If I press this button, it will ignite the cosmic energy- Sonic?! I thought you blew yourself up!"

"If you blow up that energy, you'll blow up yourself!" Shadow snapped.

Eggman grinned, "Care to test that theory?"

"Don't, Shadow." I warned. I didn't like how confident he was. pressed another button and a metal door closed behind us, covering the stairs. Another folded around the dome so the only light was the cosmic energy.

"Since I'm highly outnumbered, I'll be leaving." Eggman said. He took a step back and into a hole in the floor. He was gone and we were stuck.

"Coward." Knuckles grumbled.

"Let's just get out of here. We got back the cosmic energy." I said as I approached the dome and placed a hand on the glass. It was the most amount I had felt ever since Shadowbot.

"I don't like how easily Eggman gave up the energy." Shadow said in my head as he walked around to where Eggman had disappeared into the floor.

"He was outmatched." I responded.

"No fight. No robots. Something is wrong." He stated.

"Eggie?" Said a voice from the terminal. It sounded like Rouge. "Eggie? Where are you? Respond."

"Rouge? Is that you?" I asked.

"Iris? What are you doing there?" She asked.

"We were stopping Eggman." I answered. Sonic and Knuckles stood around to listen as well. "Why are you talking to Eggman?" I asked.

"I uh- undercover work. Yeah. I wanted to warn Eggie to get his trust. You infiltrated his empire all by yourself?" She asked.

"Well, no. Shadow, Knuckles, and Sonic are here too." I responded.

"Sonic? That's interesting- Oh! Wait! You all have to get out of there now! The G.U.N. is sending a nuclear warhead right on top of Eggman's base!" She exclaimed.