Spirit of the Phantom Ruby

Part 22 - It All Comes Back to the Source

The robot seemed to pause yet again and look up at the sky. "He's safe." Then he swiftly swung his foot up in a kick. Sonic evaded it and countered with a punch, which hit home. The robot staggered back.

"Prove it!"

A few of the Resistance members that had stayed gathered around, watching the scuffle.

"Sonic, what are you doing?" Amy groaned miserably, looking up at the storm brewing overhead, her short, pink quills fluttering all over the place from the wind.

Sonic kicked Metal into the ground. "What's the doomsday device supposed to do?"

Metal tilted his head to look up at him, the light of the red bolts of lightning reflecting off the top of his shiny, blue head. "It will wipe out all living matter on the surface of the planet."

Sonic pushed his foot harder into the side of the robot's head. "And how is Eggman going to avoid it?"

Metal grabbed the hedgehog's leg. "I said the surface, not the entire planet."

Sonic jerked his leg out of the machine's grasp and pointed at the base. "So- you'd rather stay up here fighting me than go down there and make sure the doctor's not obliterated along with us?"

The robot paused for a minute and seemed to rethink his life choices. He pushed himself off the ground, and the rocket in his back flared to life, a flame spurting out of his back. The robot zipped past the members of the resistance and into the base. Sonic sprinted after him grimly.

"Sonic, where are you going?" Amy called out.

Sonic waved her off, following the robot. "Don't worry about me, just go help the others!"

He sped after Metal, into the building and down the large corridors, up to a wall that opened, revealing an entryway that led into a massive chamber the width of a football field that dropped down hundreds of feet into absolute darkness. Sonic didn't hesitate to jump down after Metal, going into a complete freefall as he squinted down for a landing. The robot didn't even seem to notice him as he grunted when his feet painfully hit the floor, but the blue hedgehog recovered quickly and ran beside the flying machine, panting. They ran down some dark and long hallway, until a faint glow could be seen up ahead. The robot slowed down and stopped, landing before it. The corridor filled with light as he opened the door. Sonic squinted, until he saw a frantic group of jackals all surrounding a keyboard that sat beneath a large window. Eggman sat in the corner of the relatively small room, tied up and gagged, and his angry eyes widened when he saw Sonic. He began sputtering through his gag, and the jackals turned around.

"Sonic! Thank goodness!" Mathilda grabbed his arm and pulled him forward. The two peered through the window. On the other side was a large room, probably the same size as the chamber the blue hedgehog had fallen down moments before, only it went up instead of down and was glowing brightly, alive with the light that emitted from the mechanical-looking pedestal that sat in the center of the room. The Phantom Ruby floated inside the glass box embedded into it, blazing and glitching as it spun violently, and a single beam of red light shot straight up from the device.

Sonic stared, his green eyes reflecting red from the intense scarlet hue the ruby effused. Random bursts of lightning shot out from the pedestal, but other than the angry sputtering of Eggman, the room was completely silent.

"It's weird how quiet..." Jay began, but his voice was overtaken by Eggman's.

"It's actually very loud out there, this room is just sound-proofed, lightning-proofed, and-!" They turned and saw Metal Sonic had cut him free and ungagged him. "-Phantom-proofed!" Smiling evilly, the doctor took a step forward, only for all the jackals to point their weapons at him.