Chapter Text
It was a fairly slow day in Tails' workshop.
Boring.
Said fox was taking a small break between working on a big project meanwhile his older brother Sonic had taken to sitting in the corner of the room, laying haphazardly on a chair and staring blankly at the off-white ceiling. Although it was completely bare and devoid of any actual patterns, Tails could only assume that the hedgehog was in fact tracing the faint imperfections on the ceiling back and forth with his eyes, waiting for something around him to catch his attention instead if his slowly moving dead gaze told him anything. The azure might've been physically in the room with him, but he was by no means present.
"|Sonic gets bored so, so easily...|" Tails mentally mused to himself, remembering his older brother's need for mental stimulation once again. "|That's the problem with having high-speed mental processing, isn't it? Anything that isn't breakneck fast must seem so slow to him. I'm surprised he hasn't left by now to do something else...He must really be bored then.|"
Tails was bored too, but at least it probably wasn't anywhere near as brain-numbing as it was for the hedgehog. No, he was bored the normal amount. All he was stuck with was tweaking the code on his Miles Electric to occupy his mind — which at times could be a little bit of a pain, sure. May as well do something smaller-scale though after Sonic told him to 'chillax and give your hard-working head a break'. The two-tailed fox still wanted to do something in the meantime, just not something that would rob him of his sleep again. Not only would he feel dreadful after yet another all-nighter, Sonic would pull his best impression of a mildly-annoyed parent and scold him for it.
The young boy sighed as he turned back to his workbench and went back to touching up his code, namesakes swishing in concentration.
The clock ticked on a few hundred times and Sonic was still sprawled in his seat, boredom tainting his soul. Gods, he was really just considering going back to sleep until later at this point. At least that would be doing something and perhaps he'd wake up with an actual idea of what to do today.
The ceiling was the most interesting part of the room for a good while now with all of its divots and grooves from sources unknown.
Really, where did those scuff marks come from...?
Oh yeah, the faint marks on the ceiling were from an older Tails invention where it warped the gravity of the immediate area, kind of like when trying to harness an Ark of the Cosmos. In that case, it was this room. A lot of stuff in the room hit the ceiling before gravity was returned to normal. It took ages to tidy that mess.
Huh. How long had it been since then? About a year or so?
Sonic even got bored enough to try and connect said marks together in some crude constellation.
There...wasn't much result in that.
...Unless a lopsided fish was considered a good result.
. . .
Ugh.
Instead, he tiredly glanced over to Tails. The fox was busy as ever doing whatever on his Miles Electric as he quietly hummed a song. Sonic knew that he couldn't necessarily stop him from building — because that's just unfair, that's like telling himself not to run as free as wind — but he didn't want him to end up working himself to the bone either. No project was worth that, he'd say. He wondered what he was doing instead.
. . .
. . .
"Hey Tails."
Said fox immediately jolted in surprise, no doubt not expecting him to speak any time soon. "Ah— yeah, Sonic?"
"What're you doin'?"
"Well, uhh...You know how I start tweaking things when I get bored?" Tails began.
Sonic only hummed in response.
"I'm basically updating some bits of code for my M.E. you see. I always want it to run as smooth as it can. Since I created my own operating system for it, I know how to fix it best!"
"Y'know, it is pretty impressive you know how to do that," mentioned Sonic offhandedly.
"When you find enough tutorials online, you can do almost anything you want!" Tails chuckled, "not to mention it's harder for our resident rotten egg to crack since the code is built from scratch. He has his own, so why not make my own? FoxScript! Named after Python...sorta. Sounds less self-centred in name than just naming it after myself again."
The blue hedgehog shrugged in response. "Fair enough. Can't have Eggy sticking his 'stache in our business now can we?"
"Speaking of Eggman's code, I've managed to make a pretty solid breakthrough in getting past his EggNet Firewall from the outside again. It's usually pretty airtight, but the security occasionally thins out from time-to-time when you find unintentional exploits in the updates. He's only human, even if he's a crazy-skilled evil genius."
"I...see..."
Sonic narrowed his eyes. Tails was about to go on a tech tangent, wasn't he?
"If you get past the firewall, you gain access to a whole bunch of information: basic daily to-do lists, Badnik blueprints, all the way up to some top-secret schemes still in the making! Searching for info client-side can be difficult because his code is only barely compatible with TailsOS and........So............You see, when it comes to..................."
His attention span timed out.
He loved his best buddy and really wanted to hear him out for a minute to relieve his interminable boredom, but Gaia does he talk a lot of technobabble he was not anywhere near smart enough to understand without simplification. The fox may as well have been speaking in Wisp. Sonic kept forgetting that asking Tails one simple thing about his technology could spiral on and on forever. He was unable to find it within his heart to tell him to stop, so he ended up zoning out once more as words filtered through one ear and out of the other without being processed whatsoever.
If Tails noticed at any point, he didn't pull him up on it.
All the hedgehog heard at this point was white noise in place of technical jargon...
. . .
. . .
. . .
Until, something popped out to him. His ears unconsciously swivelled a little in response.
"...........I think it's sorta weird how that signal just kinda...exists there. What do you think, Sonic?"
What???
Oh Chaos, he must've really lost track of that one-sided conversation. Oof, how was he gonna explain that without saying 'sorry buddy, I got bored to tears listening to you just then' to him?
Tails was looking at him expectantly. Ohhhh no, he asked a question didn't he...?
Shoot...
Sonic spoke before thinking, hating the sudden, awkward silence.
"Uuhh, so...what was that last thing you were saying...? I don't think...I heard that...? Swear, I heard some of it."
Tails processed that half put-together set of sentences and looked up from his Miles Electric and simply sighed good-naturedly. 'It's Sonic,' he told himself.
"Sonic...just say you zoned out. I'm not offended."
"N-No, I didn't! I just...!" Sonic deflated, a defeated look on his face, "...I zoned out."
"Gotcha. In fact, I'd be surprised if you were listening the whole time. I really did go on for a while there and...I know how you are when you're mentally on another plane of existence," said Tails. "I'll start again. Not an issue. It'll get my thoughts in a better order anyway."
Sonic turned his focus onto Tails for real this time. "So...?"
"Basically, I picked up this weird signal of Chaos Energy in one of Eggman's abandoned facilities a few days ago during one of my hacks into the extended EggNet," Tails explained. "I'm not exactly sure how long it's been there before I've ever checked it out...But of course, we kinda have to cover our bases and make sure Eggman isn't plotting anything extra under our noses. The last thing we need is a side-scheme we didn't know about coming to bite us. Hopefully, it's just a weird reading from a broken sensor, but you can never be too careful."
The previously soul-crushingly bored hedgehog sat up. Now that's something unexpected. Something weird going on in an old Eggman base?
"Interesting~" Sonic smirked. He was certainly all ears now. "Anything else you know about it, bud?"
"Not too much. I haven't actually seen what's causing the reading. Most of the cameras are dead, and the ones that I've seen don't show anything out of the ordinary. Might be just the bad feed though. They're really static-heavy. The energy spikes are really strange regardless...At first I thought that the signal could've been a Chaos Emerald that landed around there after the last scattering, but the wavelength is all wrong. Completely. Nothing I've seen so far had ever given off a reading like that. Not to mention, it seems to move a little around the area sometimes?"
"Weird. Last I checked, the emeralds don't move on their own all too much unless they're being used. And what did you say? It has the wrong wavelength?"
"Mm-hm. All seven emeralds and the Master Emerald all give off similar wavelengths of energy; that's part of how they all connect with one another. Although, Chaos Energy doesn't only exist within the emeralds. They're just the main definite sources we know of. 'Chaos' is pretty much analogous — comparable — to life signs as you know already. Without its presence, there's no life. It's why healthy wild Chao tend gather wherever natural Chaos is at its peak and form Chao Gardens," Tails explained. "Strangely, this Chaos signature is not only definitely not an emerald — I checked — but it actually seems to absorb energy sometimes instead of expelling it like some energy black hole."
"Ooh, you've definitely caught my interest now. I wonder what that is."
"My guess: maybe some weird attempt at creating some sort of rechargeable Chaos battery that may or may not be an abandoned prototype. Eggman has made artificial energy sources before. I've tried it myself and did come up with a fake yellow Chaos Emerald which I now use to power the Tornado's boosters. It's by no means as good as the real thing and can only power machines at barely even half the efficiency, but it does the job when we don't have the real thing on hand. And it saves on fuel too."
"I see."
"This anomaly is curious and I wanna investigate it further. It's not often you find something that absorbs energy like that. I have so many questions about it. What causes this object or something to sometimes emit energy, and other times absorb it? Is it a regulator? Does it need to regulate itself? What is its purpose?"
"Say, I got an idea." Sonic got to his feet. "Wouldn't it be cool if we went and checked the base out and get a closer look at...whatever it is? It might answer your burning questions if you're there in person, bud."
"I'm...unsure. If it absorbs Chaos, we need to know if it discriminates between the Chaos that resides in living beings and natural environmental Chaos. If it really is an energy sink and doesn't discriminate, it could be trouble for living beings. Sorta like the effects of nuclear energy but reversed. Instead of blasting you with radiation, it takes important energy from your body."
"Maybe that's why it's an abandoned project. If we're working with that assumption, at least."
"Maybe..." Tails swished his namesakes in thought. "I'll tell you what, if we're gonna go to check it out of boredom, we should camp out near the area for about a day or two and see how we feel. If we don't feel greatly affected within the proximity, it most likely just absorbs environmental background energy and we'll be safe to go inside."
"A camping trip and urban exploration? Count me in!" Sonic celebrated as he pumped his fists in the air. Finally, something to do today! "Where're we headed?"
"These readings come from an old, defunct Eggman base two and a half hours from here that's now completely overrun by the forest it was built in the centre of."
"Haha, Nature fighting back. Just how I like it!" Sonic barked a laugh.
"It also used to be a back-up Badnik factory in the Empire War, especially while you were up on that secret six-month space 'vacay'. Still upset about that whole ordeal, I'll always say it. Since then, the whole place has been on the lowest power setting it can be and is pretty much disconnected to the rest of the operational bases."
"Will Eggman know if we pull up to one of his old bases?"
"I don't know, to be frank. It would depend on if he has anything to hide there, which he might. Eggman usually doesn't like it when we go snooping anywhere in his business — abandoned facility or not." Tails shrugged. "To be completely sure he doesn't immediately know, I'll hack into the base's systems when we get there and block it from giving out any new data to his main servers. That means if any cameras or sensors are still operational, Eggman wouldn't see or hear anything from them even if they clearly recorded us. That way, if he did decide to check for some reason, he'd probably think it's just an error in the old systems. Even better that the cameras are already corrupted. That way, we should be completely invisible to his systems for a good few hours since the place would be on low alert. That's more than enough time to find what we're looking for — and maybe we find extra goodies while we're there too!"
"Alright! Just what I wanted to hear!" Sonic exclaimed. "When do we leave?"
"Right now if nobody needs us for the next two days."
To prove he wasn't being sarcastic or hyperbolic, the fox already began to pack away his Miles Electric to bring with him.
"Hey, hey, let a guy pack first!"
"Ha, so...we leave as soon as we're done packing! Gives us something to do with our day! I'll send a message through the network and let everyone know we'll be gone for a short while so they aren't left hanging," Tails assured. "Also, don't forget to pack a flashlight and bring your wrist communicator with you. I hear abandoned places can get pretty dark and hard to navigate."
"What gave you that idea?" Answered Sonic, giving a sarcastic, witty response despite not needing to.
Tails grinned.
"Just a hunch."
"Woohoo! Let's go! Sonic and Tails Camping Trip!"
The hedgehog and fox hopped off the Tornado after eventually reaching their destination. Thankfully for them, the Sun was willing to stick around for another hour or two so they had adequate time to scout out the location.
"So, this is the place?"
"Yep!" Tails nodded. "This is pretty much as close as we can park the Tornado without causing a possible disturbance in the field with the False Emerald in the cockpit. We aren't going too far, just enough to be in the radius of effect to test if we'll be alright to go further towards it."
"Alright. This forest is dense, but I think I can barely see the top of the base from here." Said Sonic as he squinted up towards the sky.
And right Sonic was. Through the thick treeline was the top of a fairly big structure — absolutely yet another Eggman mega-fort, no doubt. It was standard at this point for the mad scientist to construct vast multi-purpose facilities that intentionally towered above the surrounding landscapes.
...Something about...ego, probably.
No, it was most definitely about ego.
The human loved bulldozing massive swathes of land and hollowing out mountains to build his locations. He always left a scar of his presence on Mobius' soil.
"Big, isn't it? I could tell based on the map's scaling. Though I'm pretty sure the majority of this base is deep underground if the map is also correct."
"Yeah, I was wondering where the rest of the size was if it used to be a factory. Eggman's gotta be compensating for somethin', honestly." Sonic snickered.
"Sonic!" Tails exclaimed, half-outraged. The older brother snorted.
"Sorry, but it's true. Why else would you need places like this all over the world? Over half of these places are abandoned by now 'cause he just got bored of 'em! Ol' Eggy just likes marking his territory in places he hasn't even been in years to scare people away."
"Well. I suppose that's sorta true..." Tails nervously scratched the back of his head. "Aaand, I think we're in a good spot."
The two came to a stop in a small clearing. The area was nice and flat, the grass short enough to sit in and manage putting a tent up without too much difficulty. All in all, it really was a good spot.
"Oh, nice. How far is the base from here?"
"About five minutes, I think. We're at a good distance. If we get affected by anything, we'd know in a few hours."
Sonic had a something to ask, just to know despite how unnerving the thought was. "Question. What happens when you...lose Chaos?"
"Hmm. Depends on how much and how fast. Tolerance differs from person to person, but small amounts at a time I suppose would leave you feeling a little drowsy? Nothing too serious. Recovering from that wouldn't be too long. Large amounts at a time, and it's a shock to the system. You might even pass out until you recover enough of it. Thinking about it, it's kinda like losing blood. The symptoms are similar too. You can afford to lose more Chaos Energy over blood though. Doesn't mean you should."
"Yeah, makes sense. If I use Super form too long, I get pretty winded. It doesn't hit until I'm out of transformation, and when I am, it hits like a brick. Thankfully picking up a few rings restores some of that energy.
"It's weird how rings both give you energy and are used as currency in Mobian Culture now that I'm thinking about it."
"Makes more sense over whatever the hell the humans are doing. Like, come on. The paper stuff with numbers written on 'em? What's the difference between the ones that have 'one' written on 'em over 'ten'? It's arbitrary! And the actual value can be different place to place."
"Number one, it's not actually paper; number two, rings are usually universal currency in commercial spaces but are much more uncommon where mobians aren't. Humans just have their own ways of doing things. Not much I can say there." Tails shrugged. "Random tangent about Mobian versus Human currency aside, this seems like a perfect place to set up camp for the night."
"For the night?" The azure raised an eyebrow. "But...we just got here."
"Remember what I said? About checking if we'll be okay to go further?"
"Okay but what about for the rest of the day?"
Tails paused.
"...Huh. That I didn't think through. Whoops."
Sonic groaned. He hoped that didn't mean what he thought it did.
"You mean to tell me you went through all of the logistics of making sure we don't get the literal life sucked out of us, but you didn't think to bring any entertainment while we wait for the result?"
"Nnnnope."
"Tails, I love you kid, but sometimes your mind jumps too far ahead." The hedgehog flopped into the grass. "Ughhh! Will there be any salvation from my boredom?!"
"Uhh...you can try and get a new high-score on that game I made for the M.E. if you want."
Unfortunately, Sonic was trapped in a state of boredom the rest of the day. He went damn near stir-crazy, but he could only really run in circles to stay in the perimeter of the building for the time being until Tails gave the all-clear.
That would definitely not come tonight.
Fast forward until the end of the day, Sonic and Tails began to try and find their own entertainment in the forest as they set up camp just before nightfall. Eventually, they lit a campfire and were having a blast retelling fond memories to each other.
"Chaos, remember when Knuckles went on his first camping trip with us?" Asked Tails.
"I sure do. That knucklehead apparently loves cremating marshmallows instead of toasting them like a normal person. I tried, that doesn't even taste good. It tastes like burned sugar. They probably make marshmallows like that in Hell. Now that's what I call a sin."
The two-tailed fox immediately burst out laughing. "You said that to him too!"
"And he didn't even care! Evil! Should never be allowed near marshmallows ever again! The echidna has no taste receptors!"
"Knuckles can be a weird guy sometimes."
"That's what happens when you grow up guarding an entire floating island by yourself."
"And you're not weird for growing up kicking evil genius butt and taking me with you?"
"I...Okay, but...Oh shut up, don't defend Knuckles' burnt marshmallow eating!"
"I'm not! I'm simply pointing out a flaw in your reasoning," the fox stated with a matter-of-fact tone, "besides, you're criticising Knuckles when all you've eaten all week are chili-cheese dogs. You both have weird eating habits sometimes."
Sonic fake gasped.
"You dare?!"
"I dare."
"The dishonour! Such travesty! Not even my own brother wishes to stand in my defence? What am I to do?"
"Cry about it."
Tails smiled with such false innocence. It would've been adorable if the circumstances were different, but Sonic could see the mocking look twinkling in those blue eyes.
"Anyway, don't you eat like...far too many mints? You're being a hypocrite."
The twinkle faded.
"Hey, I eat a perfectly reasonable amount of mints!" Responded Tails, scandalised.
"Tell that to my nose. At least they smell good, if not a little strong and make my eyes water," Sonic returned. "Haha, anyway, how'd you think tomorrow's gonna go, kid?"
"So far nothing feels odd, so I'm gonna hazard a guess and say that we should be fine to go inside if it's the same tomorrow."
"Awesome. We should hit the hay now so tomorrow comes faster."
"You know that's not how it works."
"It does now. From my perspective. Come on, you should go to bed too. Don't wanna wake up tired."
"You're not gonna shut up about it so fine, I'll go to sleep. Even though it's like nine."
"And nine should be your normal bedtime if you don't wanna burn out, so let's go. I'll put the fire out."
Sonic put Tails to bed before he went back around to extinguish the already small fire. There was a pretty interesting day ahead of them if they were going to check out an old Eggman base. Maybe they find something cool to take home.
-
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Deep within the heart of the long-abandoned facility, something shifted.
Something was on the outside — it could sense the presence of life not too far away. It hissed with anger, understanding what this meant.
Intruders.
And they were far too close, even on the outside, if they could be felt at all.
This territory is taken.
Go.
Away.