Shadow: The Origin Of A Legend

Chapter 44

Sonic crashes straight through the robot, curled in a Spin-dash, and lands in a crouch right in front of the door. Behind him, his red echidna friend knocks off a separate machine's head with a swift, clean uppercut, using his momentum to vault up and step on the machine, crunching the rest of its body below his boot. The halls are riddled with Robotnik's creations, all swarming towards them, eager to attack, eager to lose their lives. Fortunately, that is the last of them--or, so the team assumes. They don't have any idea, but nothing Robotnik's ever thrown at them has actually been worrying, so he's not exactly the most concerning thing on their minds right now. What they want to know is, how did he harness the Master Emerald's power from so far away?

"Hey, Sonic," Tails begins, looking down at his tablet, "something about this just doesn't add up." He looks worried, rubbing his chin thoughtfully with his brows drawn together and his cute little mouth forming an upside-down v.

"What do you mean, buddy?" Sonic chirps, standing up straight and peering down, over his brother's shoulder.

"Well, this base was abandoned ages ago," the orange fox frowns, "so why are there all these robots? And why would the energy beam be directed here?"

"Dunno," Knuckles growls, butting in, as per usual, "but since we've destroyed everything here we might want to find out where Eggman is. He's gotta be on this base somewhere, right?" He swings his arms, stretching. "I'm gonna punch his face," striking a macho pose, the cherry-red echidna drops into a fighting stance, glaring determinedly, "in the face."

"Uh, Knux, I don't think that's..." The azure hedgehog scratches his head, looking a bit apprehensive, as if he knows saying this might not be the smartest move. "That doesn't make any sense, bro."

"Sure it does!" Knuckles protests, looking offended.

"That's not important right now," their younger friend sighs, interrupting them before they can start bantering, his twin tails twitching in agitation. "We need to get to the main room of this building, which should be just down this hall, a few floors up." He squints at his tablet, inspecting a 3-D map of the Sky Fortress. "Yeah, we're gonna have to take the elevators down that way." He points straight ahead down the corridor.

"What're we waiting for?" Sonic grins cheerfully, turning on a dime and starting to run down the hall. His slightly slower friends follow as quickly as they can, trying to keep up with the blue blur. Fortunately, they catch up to him at the elevators, where he is tapping a foot impatiently, waiting for the lift to get there. "Why are these things so slow?"

"Well, these were specially built by Robotnik to withstand the weight of his robots," Tails reminds his speedy blue friend, "so they're probably a lot bulkier than average elevators and therefore slower." The azure hedgehog sighs, lifting his arms above his head and stretching them with a yawn, looking bored. Before the sapphire speedster could do anything stupid, like he normally does when bored, the light above the elevator lit up, with a DING!

"Awright!" Sonic cheers, bouncing up and down as the doors open, but to their surprise the elevator was already occupied.

"Well, hey, doll," a familiar white bat croons, one hand on her hip, the other resting on her thigh in her usual pose. "Fancy seeing you here!" She winks.

"Rouge!" The sapphire hedgehog grins, cheerful, hopping into the elevator and holding out one hand in a fist. She returns his smile, thumping his fist with hers, as he continues, "What brings you here?"

"Probably the same as you three," she answers as Tails and Knuckles step into the elevator as well; the door glides shut behind them, and she leans back against the wall, crossing her arms. "I saw the beam of light and headed over here, but it looks like this place redirects it to somewhere else--I was curious as to whether or not there was anything of value here."