Ruby Hallucinations

Red Hot

"Now THAT was a close call!" Emily says as the trio finds themselves inside a volcano. The flying submarine intended to take them there but a series of lasers fired from deep within the volcano managed to shoot it down, forcing the trio to escape before the submarine crashed into the ground and exploded.

"Wait... So we're in a volcano... Right?" Devin asks. "What if it suddenly erupts? We'd get fried to a crisp!"

"While there is flowing magma, this volcano seems to be dormant. Otherwise Eggman probably wouldn't have had a means of transportation to here." Emily replies. "Let's go, and try not to burn yourselves." She adds as the trio makes their way around the volcano. Not even this natural superweapon was safe from Eggman as a trio of flying worm robots emerge. They have spikes lining their bellies and flames shooting out of their backs, and the only part that isn't well protected is their head, a weakness Emily quickly exploits as she shoots the robots there, quickly dealing with them. With the imminent threat gone the trio continues deeper into the volcano when Cheyenne trips over something.

"Oof!" Cheyenne shouts as she falls and just avoids smashing her face into the rocks before getting back up. She's tripped over a fairly large rock that just seems out of place, and she steps on it a few times to see if she can get any reaction out of it. A pair of eyes slowly emerge from underneath the rock and stare at Cheyenne, who's still stepping on it, and Emily suddenly pulls her back as the robot's eyes go wide. The robot then explodes with such force that had Emily not pulled Cheyenne back, the latter would have had her leg blown clean off! "Now that was close!"

"No joke!" Emily says. "Now let's keep on moving. I'm pretty sure Eggman's somewhere around here." And with that the trio continues on. The trio then finds out that there's a dead end, or so it seems as they find pickaxes off to the side.

"Couldn't I just punch my way through this?" Devin asks as he walks up to the rock wall and punches it, only for him to nearly break his hand. "Or maybe not... Ow!" He shouts as he shakes his hand in pain.

"I think that's what these are for." Emily chuckles as she and Cheyenne grab a pickaxe and start wailing away at the wall with them. Little by little the girls chip away at the wall until finally one good strike from Emily sends the whole wall crashing down, revealing a series of platforms that they step onto. "It looks like this was the result of a cave-in. Whatever's behind this wall, I'm pretty sure it isn't functioning anymore. Not even the hardiest of robots could withstand such high temperatures, for this long let alone." Unfortunately Emily is proved wrong as the trio feels powerful vibrations and the wall behind them caves in again. Finally the source of the vibrations emerges- a mining robot with heavy armor and four pneumatic drills that strike the ground with enormous force.

"How are we going to get past that thing?!" Devin shouts over the near deafening sound that is the robot making short work of the rocks under one of the platforms. That's when the robot drills too far and it gets blasted by hot lava, forcing it to retreat. The vibrations are felt once more and the trio dodges out of the way as the robot dives down from above and starts mining the platform they were once on. Again it drills too far and gets another blast of hot lava, and Emily notices something.

"The armor's weakening!" Emily says. "Maybe if it gets hit with enough lava, the armor will fall off!" Emily's theory gets proved as the robot repeats the same process, and third time's a charm as the armor gets shredded by the lava and falls off, leaving the robot vulnerable! "Now!"

"Right!" Devin and Cheyenne shout as the couple charges at the robot and goes to town on it, battering it with whatever they have, and it's not long before the robot explodes! With the threat dealt with the trio heads down to see some sort of elevator. "Well, guess we have to head down."

"No other choice." Emily chuckles as the trio takes the elevator down.