Chapter Text
Sonic felt it before he had any chance of seeing or hearing anything, like crackling electrostaticity brushing against his quills in quick and brief tugs.
“Sonic, watch out! The readings on the magnetic polarity have gone completely crazy! If that particle field gets any more unstable—” Tails' voice on his communicator was drowned amidst an overpowering white noise, followed by the small device abruptly shutting off.
The alarms bathed the new Egg City in violent red, a loud beeping piercing through the night loudly enough to overpower the droning sound of the factories. Badniks, from Buzz Bomber to Egg Fighters, all in various states of completion, fell down upon them as they streamed in directly from the assembly lines.
Sonic had felt the shock against his back before the floor distorted beneath his feet, peeling off the ground and lifting the blue hedgehog along with it. Yet all he could focus on was the scene in front of him, that seemingly played out in an agonizingly slow motion.
Knuckles had driven his white gloved fist inside an Egg Pawn, plowing through the robot until he himself was nearly exiting its other side. Taking out one whilst being surrounded by ten more still intact.
Amy stood under the rain of metal, trying to shield the freed critters, her Piko Piko Hammer held high to deflect a Runner's bombs, a war cry frozen on her face.
Tails hovered high above, panicking with his communicator held against his face, yet only looking down at Sonic with a look of horror as if he knew what was about to happen next.
Rouge balanced herself against a pipe near the young fox, her wings flared out and her pose stuck mid-leap to strike the badnik below her with a kick.
Omega had disappeared somewhere between the waves of metal parts and smoke.
The only one that seemed to be moving anywhere near normal speed was Shadow. He whipped around towards Sonic, kicking himself off of a downed Caterkiller with a nasty scowl permeating his face. His momentum flew him across the platform, claws out to grasp at Sonic's ankle.
Sonic was flung backwards, now staring at the collapsing form of the power generator Tails had warned him about. Its outer shell made of 5 ft thick titanium steel caved inwards like wet paper machée. Underneath revealed the gaping maw of what could've very well been a black hole, strings of light fading into it and becoming blinding.
Before it could swallow his vision entirely, he was yanked back sharply by his leg, preventing the hole from engulfing him, even as his face teetered right near its event horizon.
Shadow grunted in exertion, one hand digging into Sonic's fur, nearly cutting off all of his blood flow, and the black hedgehog held onto the edge of the platform. With all his force, he fought against the inescapable pull trying to eat itself.
“One of these days, you'll be the end of us all, Sonic!” he shouted angrily.
Sonic couldn't answer him, his blood pooling in his brain and having lost all sense of his surroundings.
Shadow suddenly cried out. Between the metal rain, a Buzz Bomber's presence had been hidden, striking a lucky shot on Shadow's extended arm, before it itself was sucked into the strange white hole. Vibrant emerald green blood flew off alongside it, sipping out abnormally from Shadow's wound and splattering across Sonic.
The blue hedgehog’s ankle turned cold all of a sudden, as the one person's grasp that had prevented him from doing so earlier had slipped from the unexpected pain. With it all, he felt himself fall and fall.
“No—!” he screamed out, but his breath was stolen from him mid-word, falling and falling into the light as well.
His vision segmented into strings, as did the sounds and the smells and his very thoughts.
Sonic's last recognisable sight was his friends' frozen faces in time, blissfully unaware of the tear in reality that had caved in faster than the speed of light.
I hope they'll be okay, were the last words that accompanied his departing consciousness.
Amy exited the crashed space shuttle with a long, irritated sigh. This sort of thing always seemed to happen to her: giant robots, death machines, world domination schemes, you name it.
Robotnik had really outdone himself this time, and yet she had been so sure that he'd never top the Chaos incident from only a few months ago.
Now they had a giant space laser and a countdown to the world ending on their hands instead.
With a sharp tug, she managed to pull Knuckles out of the wreckage. Luckily, thanks to how thick-headed he was, he’d come out of his terrible piloting experience with only a few scratches. This had been an arduous trip, but one way or another they had made it onboard the space colony.
Unfortunately, life had its own unfathomable supply of lemons, this particular batch coming in the form of an odd hiss and pop sound in the air behind them. This was only her third time hearing that particular noise, yet ever since the first, it was seared into her mind.
She turned, barely in time to catch the blurr attacking them out of the corner of her eye. With a kick to her guts, she was sent flying into the wall.
Amy clawed at the hand squeezing her by her throat, staring down furiously at her enemy.
It was that jet-black hedgehog again. It always was. Him and those stupid red highlights of his had been an utter pain in the ass to Amy and her friends ever since he had shown up in Station Square, Chaos Emerald in hand; An ally of Dr. Robotnik. She had no idea what the mad doctor could've possibly fed him to have them working together.
Knuckles tried charging the stranger once he had shaken himself out of the crash induced stupor, but the ebony hedgehog was much, much faster. With a twist, he flung Amy into Knuckles, causing both of them to cry out upon collision.
But more importantly, the case containing the Chaos Emerald slipped out of her echidna friend’s hand, skidding across the floor and coming neatly to a stop with a thud against the metal rim of the ebony hedgehog's shoes.
“No!” Amy cried out, flailing off of Knuckles with her hammer in hand, but it was already too late, the other hedgehog was gone.
“Damn it,” Knuckles cursed behind her.
Quickly, she tapped on her communicator, opening a call with their base down on the surface.
“Tails, come in, we have an issue!”
A grainy picture of the crafty little fox appeared, already alert. “Wh—What's wrong?”
“We lost the Chaos Emerald you gave us, that black hedgehog took it.”
“Oh— Oh. Uhm. It— It's okay!” Tails tried to encourage, though he did not sound entirely okay himself. “He must've mistaken the fake's wavelength for the real deal. That— That's good, it means it works! But you should be careful, the fake should still be unstable. I'm not sure what would happen if he tried using it like he did with the real ones. Remember the plan: We need that fake Chaos Emerald to come into contact with the cannon before it tries to fire. Somewhere like the railgun's barrel or the laser amplifier chamber should work. The point is that the fake comes into direct contact with the energy released by the six real Emeralds they have, to cancel them out. I'll let Rouge know. She might be able to steal the fake back from under their noses.”
“Thanks, Tails.”
“N-No worries! Good luck! I'll keep an eye out on the energy readings.”
The communicator cut off.
Cracking his namesakes together, Knuckles looked back at her. “We should get going then. This place seems pretty big, it could take a while to reconvene with Rouge.”
Amy hummed, in thought. As long as the ebony hedgehog didn't use that Chaos Control power on the fake Chaos Emerald, then he was probably bringing them somewhere to power the cannon, wasn't he?
If that was the case... Doesn't this mean they had already won?
Knuckles hadn't waited for her answer however, already darting down the corridor and she rushed after him.
Unfortunately, “being big” wasn't the only issue with the space colony, as it was also riddled with odd architecture and deadly robots. They didn't seem to be Robotnik tech, and they were giving the two heroes more trouble than it was worth.
Eventually, they crossed some laboratories-looking clusters of rooms.
A silhouette made Amy stop dead in her tracks.
That hedgehog!
She raised her hammer to attack, but was abruptly stopped by Knuckles’ fists holding her arm back.
“Look, that's not him,” he said.
Amy blinked and took a better look at the scene.
They were surrounded by large glass capsules, long and heavy cables snaking around them both on the floors and the walls. The inside of the vats were for the most part empty, though some of them were filled with a translucent liquid that nearly seemed to glow, including the one she had seen the hedgehog in. The singular inhabited capsule in the middle of the room was surrounded by worryingly sharp tools, some of which Amy recognised to be used by surgeons.
And inside: a bright cobalt blue hedgehog.
He was standing upright, but otherwise seemed unconscious; the occasional bubble of air escaping his lips was the only suggestion he was still alive.
Amy stood down and lowered her hammer.
“Take a head start, I'll let this poor soul out.”
Knuckles opened his mouth, but seemed to think twice before saying anything. They had been in enough arguments over this in the past for him to understand that she wasn't backing up on saving a stranger's life. “Be quick,” was all he settled on, running back out to the maze of corridors.
Readying herself, Amy took a swing at the prison glass.
Sonic's arrival back to the world of consciousness was anything but gentle.
There was a deafeningly loud crash followed by the harsh painful contact with a cold hard surface. His lungs heaved, vomiting salty ocean water. His limbs shook in panic, as he did not remember drowning.
Something warm and dry found itself around him, chasing the cold and the tremors out.
"It's okay, you're safe now," someone said. The sound was crystal clear, so clear in fact that it nearly freaked Sonic's muddled mind out more than if it had been muffled.
“We saved you from that evil doctor, he can't bring you harm anymore.”
Though his eyelids weighed heavily, Sonic slowly pried them open, wincing at the harsh artificial light that filtered through. Unlike his ears, which captured every sound down to the very heartbeats of the person holding him so tenderly, his vision was fuzzy and unfocused. They struggled to adjust to the colors floating before him, as if only figuring out how to see for the first time in ages.
Weakly, he looked up, a pink blob surrounding him.
“...Amy?” he croaked out past the saline taste on his tongue.
“I'll bring you somewhere safe, we'll be able to escape this place together, don't worry.”
It was undeniably her voice, soft and caring as always. He felt himself being moved around unto her back, his head slouching over her shoulders.
There was a loud clatter next to them of metal falling onto metal, as a vent was kicked in, followed by the quiet flapping of wings.
“Hon, what are you doing? We're not exactly going on a leisurely stroll here.”
“Rouge? I thought Tails updated you on the plan.”
“He did, but I'm not going to be able to steal that Emerald without a distraction, sweetie. You're lucky I found you first.”
“Knuckles' already ahead, but I need to make sure this guy is safe first. I think he may have been one of the resistance members that went M.I.A. during the Chaos incident. Who knows what the doctor has done to him since then, we can't leave anyone behind.”
“We need you on the front lines, hon.”
“It's okay, I believe in Knuckles' and your abilities. I'll be right over once I've made sure he's safe.”
“Do you realize how low my chances are against mister mystery out there? You'd have better chances fighting him.”
“Then let's switch. Bring him to an escape pod and join us back once he's safe.”
“That wasn't the plan.”
“Don't worry, if you believe it, Knuckles and I should be able to hold him back long enough.”
Sonic's mind was spinning uncomfortably and he felt slightly nauseous. What was going on? Where were they? Did something bad happen after the explosion? Why couldn't he remember anything that happened afterwards?
“... You're not backing down, are you?”
“We have to save people, Rouge.”
The thief sighed audibly and prolonged. “... Fine. I'll take care of blue here, but you better still be in one piece when I come back, you hear?”
“Don't worry, I will.”
Sonic was jostled around once more, and he nearly felt his stomach lurch, but it was utterly empty and nothing but unpleasant acid made its way up.
“Rouge...?” he mumbled as he was passed to white arms dressed in black.
“I've got you big boy. Think you can walk?”
Sonic hummed, slipping his shoes under him. His knees were weak and his muscles still numb, but he seemed to be regaining more strength with each breath of none-salted air he took.
He tried taking a step, but stumbled useless against Rouge. “M'not sure.”
“Here, hold on. You'll regain your strength.” She slinked an arm under his shoulder and across his back, holding him up despite his shaking legs.
“Good luck,” said Amy.
“You too, hon.”
Their friend's steps receded to somewhere far away. Giving a few blinks, Sonic's eyes gradually started to focus, seeing her pink form disappearing into the gray corridors.
“You're lucky we were around, sweetheart,” Rouge said as she started helping him along the opposite direction. “This place won't be around for much longer.”
“Where are we...?”
“The space colony ARK, blue, we're in space.”
Sonic couldn't believe his ears.
His thought reeled back as they passed by a window filled with stars, and beneath them: Mobius, in all its blue glory. Sonic stumbled out of Rouge's grasp and clutched the window's rim, looking down at his home just as he had done countless times before.
“No way…”
The Central Control Room was not an ideal space for a fight. Not when it was built in the middle of a gaping hole, but that fact mattered little to Shadow. As the Ultimate Lifeform, making a battlefield out of any environment was child's play.
He punched the red echidna right across the face, seeing his crimson colored blood pour out of his nose like a fountain and making him stagger back, dangerously close to the edge of the walkway connecting the entrance to the computer.
Smirking, Shadow twisted back in the air and landed on the raised platform of the console once more. Behind him the glistening glow of the seven Chaos Emeralds, neatly tucked in their appropriate sockets, outlined his silhouette. He could feel their nearly infinite powers thrum beneath in the main reactor, feeding the ARK's systems and spreading out like beating veins… Considering the prototype slumbering down below, it was not an inapt comparison.
The echidna wiped off the blood from his nose roughly, but didn't attempt another mindless charge attack, clearly having caught on to Shadow's superior fighting capabilities.
It was intriguing. Shadow had seen the echidna before from afar, alongside those of the "resistance" that gave Dr. Robotnik some trouble. Even 50 years ago, the echidna race had been considered long extinct, yet here was one, struggling in a vain fight.
Eyes darting around in an obvious telegraph, the echidna crouched low and Shadow tsked at his opponent's measly skills.
Then came the arrival of the pink hedgehog. She darted down the corridor leading into the Central Control Room only to be barred entrance by the echidna.
“Don't. We're toast against this guy,” he said, spitting blood to emphasize the message.
The pink hedgehog was mildly more interesting to Shadow. Out of the resistance members, she was the only one he had properly met before. Whilst it looked like she could handle coordinating a fight, she was quick to jump to conclusions and had insisted on pitying him like he was but a mere lost child in need of affection. How condescending, Shadow hated it.
She had stopped in her tracks and glanced back at the Emeralds. “Maybe we should—”
Her words were cut short as the distinct sound of a particularly noisy machine made its way down the corridor. Clearly distressed at the idea of being caught in a two-pronged attack, Miss Pink put her back against the echidna's to fill in each other’s blind spots. While she was weaker than her red teammate in terms of pure strength, she clearly had a better mind for strategies.
“Wait, Shadow—” Dr. Robotnik yelled when he turned the corner into view, sitting inside his red and gray Eggwalker. He quickly stopped, his eyes snapping unto the two blocking the entrance. "Get out of the way, you damn rodents!"
Pink raised her hammer and stood in a fighting stance. “You're the one who's plans are going to fail, Robotnik!”
She swung at the vehicle's legs, connecting heavily against its reinforced frame.
Shadow crossed his arms, not interested in joining the fray.
“You little…” Robotnik grumbled, arming the mini-gun attached to the machine's cockpit. “You fools have no idea what you're risking yourselves into. This isn't a toy you're playing with!”
Pink dove under the gun fire, finding herself beneath the Eggwalker and taking another strike at it, this time managing to destabilize it considerably.
“I'll take care of this, you watch the other, Knuckles!” she yelled back at her teammate.
“Uh—” he tried to start, only to get interrupted by the doctor yelling again.
“Shadow, remove that Chaos Emerald right this instance! It's a fake, that bat has the real one. Obviously they want us to leave it in there when the cannon comes back online, we don't know what it'll—”
He could not finish his sentence however, as Shadow had thrown a Chaos Spear right amidst his words. It pierced the Eggwalker, leaving behind a sparking hole in its chassis, inches away from where Robotnik sat.
Eyes wide in surprise, the two resistance fighters looked back at the perpetrator.
“Fake?” Shadow growled, lowering his glowing hand. “That is inconsequential.”
Indeed it would not be. If it could trick even him, whose sole existence revolves around manipulating Chaos energy, then it should not matter to the end results.
“What are you—?” the doctor spluttered as he scrambled out of the remains of his vehicle.
“Your plan comes to an end here, doctor. I've never had any intentions of working for the likes of you. The professor was right, people are selfish beings only looking to advance their own agenda. Whether that Chaos Emerald is a fake or not will not make a difference, soon all will end, and my promise will be kept.”
Maria, the world will pay for what it has done to you. Your wish shall finally come true, after all this time. All I can say is that I am sorry for taking so long to grant it.
He stepped in front of the console, pressing a button which revealed a large red countdown on one of the floating holograms.
- 00:00:30.00
“Is this under orders from my grandfather?! You traitor, you better stop now before you doom us all!”
- 00:00:23.38
Robotnik tried taking a step towards Shadow, but Pink blocked his way with the threat of her hammer. “You're not going anywhere!”
- 00:00:14.18
"You fools...!"
- 00:00:12.87
“Amy... I'm not sure…” hesitated the echidna.
- 00:00:10.30
“It's no use,” spat Shadow, “none of you can stop this now. There's no way to save anyone, so give up.”
It was too late. No matter the resurging doubts that Shadow had worked so hard to bury down to the far corners of his mind.
-00:00:00.33
“STOP—!”
- 00:00:00.00