Twigs and branches crumbled beneath their feet as Silver and the Chaotix navigated the forest floor. The psychokinetic hedgehog flew a little above them, pulling back brush and bramble so they could continue forward without a face full of leaves.
Once they had made their way to a clearing, Silver landed on the ground next to Espio. The chameleon seemed to be handling this well considering the condition he had returned with on their last mission. Still, it was so soon. "Hey, you sure you're feeling alright for this?" Silver asked the chameleon.
Espio looked back at the ivory hedgehog. Although he couldn't deny how bruised he still was, there was nothing to immediately worry about. "Don't worry about me. I'm feeling better after the nurse, Blossom, healed me up." The purple chameleon reassured. He made a few quick glances around their surroundings. At least they hadn't been spotted yet. "Besides, I'm more concerned about you."
"Me? Oh, right, because I'm a target for that jackal." Silver sighed and crossed his arms. With Tails and the younger Sonic returning came news about Eggman. Apparently, he was the next target. Made sense. He was a time traveler. Without him being an active member of the Resistance, nothing in his future would change. That was also why is annoyed him being stuck at the base for a little over a week. At least Knuckles realized his purpose for even being in the past and sent him out. Sending the Chaotix with him wasn't a bad idea either. Silver did worry for their safety if they were to get into a fight. "Well, you don't have to worry about me either. This guy is pretty tough, and you guys already got hurt trying to hold him off for me and Wendy. Besides, I've fought the guy a couple times before and I-"
"Barely got out alive." Espio finished. He looked up ahead. Vector and Charmy seemed to be talking about the area. The bee wanted to explore while the crocodile went against it. "Like it or not, we're all in this together. If one is a target, all of us are."
Silver looked down. Espio was right. Last time, he nearly collapsed after straining his powers so much. The time before that...he didn't want to think about it. "Hey Espio? Thanks for having my back on this one. Vector and Charmy too."
"My pleasure."
Up ahead, the tow Chaotix had stopped at a split in the path. One side led to an open slope that presumably went down towards the base. The other was a short tunnel. It was difficult to see past either. Quite honestly, both even seemed to look the exact same.
"Hm, which way do ya think is quicker?" Vector asked, looking back and forth between the split.
Charmy flew right in front of him. "Maybe I could go in ahead and-"
"No way! Too much can happen. This base may be down, but some bots still hang around."
Espio touched the ground of the slope and paused for a moment before doing the same with walls of the tunnel. He briefly glanced up before pointing toward the underground passage. "This way. Stay vigilant though. The enemy could come out from anywhere."
The four headed through the tunnel, careful to check if any traps existed before moving forward. Espio did find some, however, they were strangely deactivated. Once they exited the tunnel, the chameleon had found a lever right outside the opening.
"Doesn't seem like anyone was here." Charmy flew around, mostly staring at the lever.
Vector grabbed out a fingerprint duster. It was them that he noticed his gloves. "Ya know, I forget sometimes that we all wear gloves." He put it away before joining Charmy in investigating the lever.
As he quickly moved around the long stick, the bee finds something. "Hey! Look at this!" Pulling out a thin string, the bee held it up.
"Let me see that." Vector held his hand out. The bee placed the strand on his large glove as the crocodile grabbed out a magnifying glass to inspect it.
"Hm, what's your verdict?" Espio asked, staying enough away from him so as to not blow the clue away.
Vector put the magnification item down. "It's a strand of hair. Gray to be more exact."
"Hm, do you think it was put there on accident or on purpose?" Espio questioned as he examined the trees around them.
Silver looked down from the top of the tunnel. "Well, whichever way it was, I can help but feel like someone wanted us to be here." The mission was meant to be covert. Get in, get information, and get out. If someone somehow got wind of their plan, then it could spell big trouble. Like Espio said, the base may be abandoned but that didn't meant it was barren of enemies.
Espio looked down, flicking one of his weapons between his fingers as he slightly shifted his foot. "Hm, yes. There weren't many badniks and this deactivated trap is quite alarming."
"Exactly. We need to be careful."
Just as he said that, one of the large trees that the Mystic Jungle is full of began to collapse. Espio threw his shuriken at the tree. The ivory hedgehog didn't hesitate. He threw his hands up and drove the sharp object into the thin trunk. With a thump, the wood landed right in front of their feet.
Charmy lifted up at part of the trunk. "Phew, thanks guys. We would have been flattened for sure." He pulled out Espio's shuriken and handed it back to him. There was no telling how many he had on him but one more probably wouldn't hurt.
"Hey guys, look at this." Vector pointed to the base of the tree. The top of it was flat. Some bits of saw dust still floated around when the crocodile blew on the wood. "This was no accident. We're being followed."
Silver lifted up another part of the tree trunk. Moving his hands along the wood, he shifted a small strand of hair. It was grey too. So that meant-
"Guys, I think we should-!" Before he could finish his statement, he was knocked back. The impact was so great that the dirt beneath him made a large hole where he skidded.
"Silver!" The Chaotix exclaimed as they ran to aid the ivory hedgehog.
The ivory hedgehog rubbed his head, trying to shake off the confusion as he lifted his head up to see what had happened. Floating down in front of him was none other than the crimson villain. Silver motioned for the Chaotix to quit advancing. They did pause. Well, Espio disappeared.
"You're a tough one to find, you know that?" The masked foe stated as he threw down some of his cubes. The locks of his grey hair fell behind him as he touched the mask on his face. Grey hair?
"So it was you!" The ivory hedgehog quickly dodged them as he used his psychic knife. The crimson villain merely dodged it before going in with another attack. Silver went wide-eyed before shooting up. The ground below him seemed to explode as dirt blew into his face. He covered his eyes to avoid being blinded by the dust, a choice the masked villain decided to take advantage of.
By the time Silver had recovered from the burst of earth, the crimson villain was nearly upon him. He barely had time to light his hands with his powers. Right as the two were about to clash again though, a rain of shurikens came down. They shot with such precision that the ivory hedgehog was spared the sharp blades. The crimson villain, however, had to dodge them. He even threw a few back to which Espio uncamouflaged himself and jumped down from a tree.
The purple chameleon looked back as his own weapons nailed into the trunk. "That was close."
Charmy shot in with a bee sting while the villain was distracted. Once the bee moved out of the way, Vector chucked a few rocks at the masked foe. "We got your back Silver!" Vector exclaimed as the rock approached the foe.
The ivory hedgehog gave a nod of appreciation. This gave Silver enough time to move out of the line of fire. He bolted behind the crimson villain to deal a blow but was stopped before he was even able to think. The jackal threw the rock back at him, causing the ivory hedgehog to go a little off course. He grabbed Silver's arms and pushed him down, already aiming to attack him while he was on the ground.
Jumping on top of him, the Chaotix attempted to bring the foe down. At that point, anger was boiling as the crimson villain glowed a bright red. "Enough!" With a bright red flash, he pushed the Chaotix off him. "You three have been a pain long enough." He lifted both of his hands up as two blocks of red cubes pushed from the ground. Slapping his hands together caused the blocks to collide.
As the bright red flash disappeared, Silver quickly looked around. Nothing appeared to be different. On the other hand, the Chaotix seemed to be evading something. The ivory hedgehog balled his fists and pointed at the foe. "What did you do?!"
Instead of answering him right away, the crimson villain made a quick mental note. "Interesting. You've developed a resistance against my powers. No matter." He disappeared behind the brush. "Any wall can be broken."
Silver glanced around, looking at the Chaotix every so often to make sure they were alright. The downside to not seeing the illusions was that he could help anyone who was susceptible to the tricks. Despite that, it would have been foolish if he hadn't blocked his mind from the illusions. His last battle with the foe showed him that.
Once he heard the slightest of sounds, the ivory hedgehog quickly veered to the side, grabbing out a large pole from the glowing structures below to throw at the villain. When he looked around for his target though, no one was there. All he saw was that rock again. He had been duped. A little too late though as the foe went from behind and knocked him down.
Despite still being in the illusion, the Chaotix attempted to intervene. They were pushed back by dangerous objects though. Whether it was spikes, wrecking balls, enemies, or other was unknown, but they seemed to be struggling to get to the crimson foe.
"Hey, lay off our friend!" Charmy suddenly charged forward before Vector or Espio could stop him. The bee had his stinger out, poised to strike. The crimson foe didn't seem to notice though. Something else would take care of the bee.
"Charmy! Look out!" Vector exclaimed, pointing in front of the bee.
Charmy's eyes went wide as he tried to stop himself. Luckily Espio was able to use one of his weapons and a rope to pull him back. "Thanks, those spikes could have really done some damage."
Just as the three were about to continue, they were suddenly boxed in. "What is this?!" Vector exclaimed as he pounded on a wall.
"You're nothing but a distraction. Now, this hedgehog and I have unfinished business to attend to." The crimson villain stated.
Although the ivory hedgehog tried to stop him, the crimson villain had his own tricks. When Silver's hands began to glow, the masked foe placed a type of special cuff on his wrists. Once they were on him, a sharp surge of energy pierced the ivory hedgehog's palms. "W-what is this?!" He exclaimed as the energy surge died down.
"A safety precaution." The crimson villain grabbed him before looking back at the Chaotix, who were doing whatever they could to escape the invisible box he had trapped them in. His yellow eye darted back to Silver, who was now attempting to use combat to escape his grip. "Tsk, tsk. You never learn. Now come, the fun is just beginning."
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Sonic and Wendy crept down from the Egyptian tunnel and into the factory. Robots were everywhere, patrolling the area. The azure hedgehog went behind a bin of robotic parts, the brown wolf not far behind.
"What exactly is this place?" Wendy asked as she gazed at the metallic madness encasing the room. It looked like a robot factory, but she never thought a factory like that needed so many guards. She could count ten and she wasn't even looking at the main area!
"Nothing good, I'll tell you that much." Sonic explained, not even looking back at her as he watched one of the patrols. The azure hedgehog tapped his foot on the ground and looked at his arm which, for once, actually had a watch on it. After what felt like an eternity, he motioned to Wendy to start moving along the bins. "Stay down and stay quiet." Wendy nodded to him.
Both ducked, making sure both ears and quills were tucked neatly below the top of the robotic parts. As they continued though, Wendy's tail became a problem. Sonic constantly pushed it out of the way, spitting fur onto the ground each time. "Do you mind?"
Wendy sighed as she stopped to look at him. "Well, it either goes in your face or it goes up where everyone can see. Pick one." Sonic sighed and motioned for her to continue as the tail whacked him in the face again.
Tension was high but they finally made it to the edge of the room. There was an opening leading out to the other areas of the pyramid. Once they reached the end of the bins, Wendy began to head toward the door. "And you were worried." She stated as she reached the wall.
Sonic didn't follow. Looking back, she saw him give a face palm and point. Next to her was one of the guard bots. "Intruder alert! Intruder alert!" Sirens began to blaze as more and more of the guards were alerted to their location.
The azure hedgehog jumped out and pushed Wendy into the other room as the other guards approached. "So much for stealth." He commented, getting up from the ground and running toward the wall to close the door. The army of robots came in so hard that they began to bulge the door a bit.
Wendy rolled her eyes. "Says the guy who went out of his way to destroy a bajillion robots on the way here." Her little red wisp, who had floated onto her head, crossed his arms and gave a nod.
Sonic sighed. "Let's just move before we're overrun." He bolted down the hallway in a streak of blue light, leaving Wendy in the dust.
"Oh, come on! Again!" The brown wolf exclaimed, stomping her foot on the ground before chasing after him. "Wait up!"
The room wasn't exactly a room but a hallway. There were so many search lights and alert triggers that Wendy wasn't even sure how she was going to get past...or even how Sonic got past and was still out of sight. Right when she was beginning to lose hope of actually navigating through the area, her red wisp flew up and pointed something out. The ceiling was full of pipes. Pipes with just enough room for a rope to squeeze around.
Throwing her arm back, Wendy tossed her wispon's energy whip. The lightning rope swung around one of the many pipes. Before continuing, the brown wolf tugged with all her might to make sure the pipe was steady. Even her wisp gave her the all clear. She moved back and began to retract the whip as she jumped up and over a section of the security. Again, she pulled the whip back and tossed it onto another pipe. After a few more swings, she found herself on solid ground.
"That was awesome!" She exclaimed, her red wisp doing a loop in agreement. "Alright, let's go find Sonic." The two headed off down the hallway. Hopefully he wouldn't be too much farther away, right?
By the time she caught up to the azure hedgehog, Wendy had to hunch over and grip her knees for support. "Will...you...stop...doing...that...please...?" She huffed. When Sonic didn't respond, she was about to make another snarky remark. That was, until she saw what he was looking at.
Cells adorned the walls of the back room. Nearly all of the shielded cages had some type of prisoner in them. Many of them had Resistance uniforms on, especially leaders with their special hats. The others were just regular citizens. That wasn't the worst part though. The worst was what had Sonic's full attention.
Screens. Multiple of them were stuck on the outer wall of each cell, playing a video that seemed to turn some of the Mobians to madness. Betrayal, guilt, blame, torture; it was all there. A slight gasp left Sonic's lips as his legs began to shake. He glanced over at the cell. It wasn't just a video or recording there for show. The Mobian in the cell mimicked the one on the screen. The pose, the pleading, the sorrow; it was almost too much.
Once Wendy entered the room, her red wisp abandoned her head and flew over toward Sonic, nestling against his face. The brown wolf came up behind him. Her ears went down as she saw the scene. "Who would do such a thing?" She softly questioned once she saw the screens. Even the shy ivory wisp in her wispon had popped out to see what the fuss was about. He did immediately pop back into the safety of the device though.
Sonic's hands scrunched into fists. His eyes squeezed shut as he walked away from the screen, leaving the red wisp floating alone in the air next to Wendy. "We have our mission."
Ears perking up a pit, Wendy looked back at him. "But we can't just leave them here."
The azure hedgehog stopped. "They've been put through unimaginable things Wendy, worse than you can imagine." He opened his palm and gazed at it. "If we take them with us, they'll have to carry that horror with them for the rest of their lives." He closed his hand into a fist yet again.
The brown wolf looked down. "Isn't there anything we could do for them? Anything that doesn't involve just leaving them?"
Putting his hand down, the azure hedgehog sighed. If only he could answer that question. He hated being so negative, but the reality of living in...that for who knew how long may very well break them. No one should have to go through that. Not again. With a deep sigh, he began heading past the prison cells. "Let's keep going."
The red wisp flew over to Wendy's shoulder and gave out a sigh. "I know little guy. I'm sure we'll find some way to help them." Giving one last sorrowful glance at the room, she followed Sonic into the next.
Gears were everywhere. On the wall, on the ceiling; in fact, the floor they were standing on happened to be a gear too. Well, a bunch of gears to be exact. Sonic glanced at the device on his wrist Tails had given him and opened up a file. Shooting out from the device was a little hologram. After comparing the notes with the scene, Sonic turned the device off. "This is the place. Time to shut this factory down." He pulled out a small file from inside his watch. As Sonic took another step forward though, the door behind them slammed shut.
Wendy instinctly turned around and grabbed onto the door with both hands. She pushed and pulled even slashed with her lightning wisp, but nothing broke through. "The door, it won't budge!" She exclaimed.
Sonic examined the room. There were quite a few boxes everywhere as well as a computer system just out of reach. He had that file with a bomb virus that Tails had made. All he had to do was upload it to the computer and the place would explode in a matter of minutes. The issue was, with the door closed, there would be no way of getting out. Plus, without Wendy's burst wispon, getting over to the computer was a whole other story.
Bzzt! Bzzt!
The sound of static buzzed through the ears of the hedgehog and wolf, turning their attention to the wall beside them. Once the static cleared, the sight of an unpleasant face came up.
"Eggman!" Sonic exclaimed, standing in a defensive stance as if he were ready to slam himself into the computerized device.
"Hohohoho! So, I see you survived the Death Egg. I was getting worried we wouldn't be able to dance this little dance anymore." The maniacal doctor stated, his glasses glistening behind his large nose.
Coming behind Sonic, Wendy pulled out her lightning wispon. "What do you want?!" She exclaimed, threatening to blast the grin right off the evil doctor's face. Even her red wisp seemed relatively angry as he lit up one of his arms with bright orange flames and shook it menacingly.
The doctor leaned into the device so far that only one eye was visible for a time. "Sonic, I didn't know you had a girlfriend. I thought that Amy girl would get together with you." He motioned toward Wendy, twirling his mustache.
Sonic and Wendy exchanged looks, both clearly embarrassed by the assumption. "Whatever gave you that idea?" The blue hedgehog exclaimed. "Not to mention, have you seen how clingy Amy is? She barely even knows boundaries!"
"Hm, maybe so. No matter though. You two get front row seats in witnessing my new marvelous creation!" Just as quickly as he said that, a new foe entered the room.
Due to the figure's shape, it was clearly feminine. Spiky hair almost like diamonds ran down her back and covered the top of her face like bangs. Even the tips of her tail, if it could even be called that, had the same design. A pattern ran along the front of her body where her outfit was so torn up that neither the hedgehog nor the wolf could distinguish shirt from pants. The eyes appeared soulless, missing any glistening of light from them with their snake-like pupils. Lastly, and most prominently, was the strange glow coming from her neck.
Sonic glanced back at the screen. "What did you-?"
"Uh, uh, uh, Sonic. I don't have to tell you anything. Besides, you might not live long enough to tell." The screen went black as the mad doctor disappeared from view.
"Eggman! Get back here you coward!" Sonic shouted, turning around completely to face the screen. Something lightly tapped his shoulder. "What is it?" He snapped at Wendy.
The brown wolf pointed back at the figure Eggman had mentioned. The figure held out her hand, forming a black knife with a silver blade. She turned towards the two with cold yellow eyes as she pushed them back with a shockwave.
"S-sonic, what s-should we do?" Wendy asked, holding up her shaking wispon as her red wisp hid behind her hair.
The azure hedgehog gave another glance at the screen, then back at the figure before hopping up. His eyes seemed to glow with determination as he tightened his fists. "We fight."
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To be continued...—————————