Meanwhile...
You stand in your empty room still dumbfounded by Sonic and Shadow's presentation. Plan B? And you weren't allowed to know what it was... So was it a test of reflex? Adaptability? Hard to say without knowing more about Chaos energy and how it worked. You meander back to your bed and lay down stiffly. Nagging questions of what Eggman was up to still plagued your thoughts, the random plant in the middle of nowhere going to show how stealthy he could be if he really wanted to drop off the grid. It seemed like that factory was maximum levels of classified, the only records of it's existence likely contained to it's internal records. Out of all the facilities you and your team had hit nothing was as heavily coveted as that one was.
And if Shadow hadn't showed up... Who knows what would've become of you...
Hours pass as you think yourself in circles, theorizing and reviewing everything you could in the hopes something new could be found but to no avail. Morning comes in an instant as you're really not sure when you fell asleep, the exhaustion in your body weighing heavily despite your time stuck at the hospital. Apparently while most of the physical ailments had passed the mental ones were still very present. You knew you had a nightmare as well but upon waking up you couldn't begin to comprehend what it was about. Only a sense of fear remained in your chest as the light of the sun illuminates the shades.
You rub your eyes, looking around your room you notice a box that had been sitting beside the TV apparently the whole time. Standing up you shake your head, to miss that after being up all night.. Had to be be losing your touch if it took this long to notice it there..
Picking it up it felt lightweight, shaking it a few times something small clattered around inside. You grip the lid as your gaze squints down, gently opening it up to find a small folded piece of paper sitting inside with a sky blue candy.
'Hi East!
We're all super excited to see you on your feet again!
Hope that you like the mint, it's one of my favorites.
We should go grab more Chuck's when you're feeling better,
don't forget to take it easy though!
-Tails'
You smile down at the note, taking the mint and unwrapping it before popping it in your mouth. It was soft, almost like eating a cloud as it dissolved on your tongue. It had a slight grit to it which was uncomfortable at first but that too melted away as a gentle sweet mint danced on your tongue.
Then a knock at the door...
You squint your eyes as you creep over...
"Just open the door (y/a), it's us." Shadow spoke clearly already annoyed.
You creak the door open, looking over the two hedgehogs that were waiting. "So are you going to tell me what this 'Plan B' business is now?"
Shadow walks in, Sonic following behind and shooting finger guns at you.
"It's a test, a multistage test." Shadow pulls a Chaos Emerald out of nowhere, leveling his off hand at you.
Sonic limbers up a little bit, a smirk on his face, "Plan B is a multistage aerobic capacity test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues." He laughs to himself, "Nah just kidding, but man have you ever done one of those things? They're rough after a while!"
You ignore Sonic and look at Shadow apprehensively, "Whoa whoa hold on, you're not planning on blowing up my room are you? We can do these tests elsewhere."
Sonic chuckles, "East you're a silly one! Of course Shadow's not gonna blow up the room!"
"It would take more power than what I'm channeling-" His hand begins glowing with energy as you jump back.
"Hey! Seriously, I will put you in the dirt if you plan on doing something stupid, hedgehog!" You instinctively begin controlling your breath, your focus narrowing.
Shadow scoffs, "Come here and stop being dramatic. If I wanted to hurt you rest assured you'd be hurting already."
Sonic nudges Shadow's arm, "Shadow, remember that whole 'being nice' thing I keep telling you about? East has already fought us a bunch, I'm sure the whole glowing hands thing isn't making things better for the test either."
Shadow sighs to himself, "Come here please, so that we can get this started."
You look between both of them inching a little closer but still on guard. "Will you at least tell me what you're doing?"
He shakes his head, "This has to be as natural as it can be, I'll tell you after its done."
Of course it does...
You roll your eyes and move closer till you're an arm's reach away.
Suddenly you feel waves of dizziness, your muscles tense all over your body as pressure seemed to be building. You could feel your limbs twisting into knots while at the same time almost unraveling at the seams.
Then a surge of energy, almost like it was when you were at the facility. But unlike last time it wasn't overwhelming, it felt more like you had gotten hyped up on caffeine and adrenaline. You look down at your hands that glowed a faint red aura, flexing your fingers a few times as the energy seemed to even out. The pains in your body disappeared as a smirk crept onto your face.
"How do you feel?" Shadow lowers his hand.
You look at him with a quiet satisfaction, "I feel like I'm at my peak, and my body doesn't hurt even a little.. I feel great."
"Interesting.." His eyes scan over your body. "You were glowing a blue last time, the standard color for a chaos boost is in fact red then. You must have absorbed a gross excess of energy to have moved past this state."
Sonic taps his foot to the side, getting more and more antsy, "Can we move onto the next part yet?"
Shadow holds a hand up to him as he continues addressing you, "Now i want you to imagine a weapon in your hand, one that you could throw."
You nod, closing your eyes as you try to project an image of your knives in either hand. It was easy to imagine, those weapons the most familiar to you. The energy crackling through your body seemed like it was trying to make your wishes come true, bouts of power focusing into your hands but nothing beyond that before you feel Shadow pat your shoulder.
"Alright, enough. You can't fabricate weapons it seems." He watches your hands as the energy flows back through the rest of your body and evens out. "Your chaos type is closer to an enhancer rather than Sonic's null. Chances are you won't be able to use chaos powers beyond this, but you wont need anything better with the skills you already possess."
You open your mouth to inquire further before Sonic zips beside you, "Alright great we did it! Now let's move onto the next part right? Don't want to waste all that energy talking in a room right?"
Shadow looks to the other with a frown, "Not everyone is as fast as you Sonic, you can stand to wait."
He points at you, "Look at them! They've already got the whole 'control' part down! Besides I don't think standing here and talking is going to make them understand the concept anywho. You're literally trying to explain CHAOS logically. It's wild and crazy, the only way to learn is by doing."
Shadow tisks his tongue, "Very well... I'll forego explanations till after our exercise is finished."
You shake your head, "Now let's not get carried away, last time this energy tore me apart. I don't really want to do that again. You can explain now."
Shadow readies the Chaos Emerald, "The purpose of this first test was to see how you would naturally respond to chaos energy, unfortunately this next part must be explained after you've had a taste of using this power. If you have a problem with that take it up with Sonic for swaying me."
You glare at the blue hedgehog, whom shrugs in response.
Light envelopes the three of you as Shadow induces a Chaos Control.
You blink your eyes rapidly as the light fades, the scenery coming into focus as your body warbled in time and space. The stink of industry oozed in from every side as an alarm began blaring. Scores of mechs move toward your position as you're now able to see you're on a deck of some sort, several flying vehicles all docked and awaiting deployment.
Sonic claps a few times, "Woo! I'm glad we decided to save this place for later! You two ready to smash some heads?"
Shadow rolls his eyes, "Remember why we're here Sonic, don't overdo it."
You look around at the robots, grabbing idly for a knife that wasn't there. "What are we doing in the middle of a facility!?"
Mech march to the platform, the wide metal plated floors clanging loudly as wind seemed to howl through the space. Bay doors open to reveal droves of flying mechs of all shapes and sizes as their weapons charge up with a sharp ringing. Before long the quick response left the three of you surrounded.
You could feel the ground rumbling beneath your feet with a nauseating sway. It felt almost like walking through turbulence... almost like you were already in the air...
The two hedgehogs spin dash in opposing directions, immediately pinballing between the robots leaving a trail of broken parts in their wake. Only a small portion of the mechs seem to care about giving chase, most of them instead keeping their attention focused on you as they readied their cannons.
'Oh crap-'
You don't even realize that you're already in the thick of it as you jump up and dodge out of the way of a barrage. They looked slow, the shots seeming to whiz by you progressively slower as your focus heightened even further.
It was just like the last time... but it felt more like you were in full control...
Your eyes scan the sea of mech as you look for an angle of approach. There was no way you all came here for no reason, right? Even Sonic said they decided to 'save this place for later' so there had to be a reason why you were here. Unless this was another chaos powered facility... In which case all you'd need to do is wreck house, right?
You vanish in midair, the mechs pausing their barrage as they looked around. The beeping of their scanners fill the air noise before they begin popping like balloons. You strike a fist into their centers, the shock waves sending a concussive force resounding through their metal exteriors as it tears them apart from the inside. You dash through the droves delivering powerful blow after blow. You go to strike with your injured arm, impacting a mech and pushing it back as a massive dent cratered into it's surface. Even with chaos power fueling you it seemed that this arm still wasn't as strong as your other...
The robots take the moment of apprehension to take aim and fire on you. You grit your teeth, attempting to cartwheel backward and dodge the shots but to no avail A few shots barely scrape past your limbs but there were too many shots, multiple of them impacting your body and throwing you around as they made contact.
You squeeze your eyes shut as you feel gunfire hit your back, your legs, arm, head, everything.
...
but it didn't hurt..
-in fact it seemed like the shots were pinging off instead of penetrating your skin. Looking down at yourself you could see that the aura had thickened, similar to how it looked when you tried to conjure a knife except across your entire body. You push yourself up to full height as the barrage continues, the shots continuing to have no effect, some actually reflecting into other mechs and causing explosions.
A chuckle escapes your lips as you rear down before bursting forward as you rip through their ranks. Along the way the mech swing sharp blades at you, blast more and more as you elected to dodge a few strikes aimed at your head but letting many of the others hit you without a care in the world. This was actually getting to be a little fun before Shadow teleports in beside you.
"Reckless. Were you listening earlier when I said you would still take damage in this state? The more you take faster the energy drains." He kicks away several robots as he skates beside you.
Several explosions ring out in front of you, several scrap parts flying as a small tornado has formed within the facility, tossing the mechs all over the place. You squint your eyes as Sonic also dashes up beside you.
"Hey slowpoke! Man, for being hyped up on chaos power you're really taking your time huh? We already found the core to the airship!"
You raise your brows, "Is that what this is? A test to see how fast I am? I didn't need chaos energy to prove that, you should've spoken plainly about it."
The two hedgehogs spin dash in front of you, clearing out a mass of mechs as you sped through.
"Wrong." Shadow skates in front of you, "We threw you into the thick of it to see what you would do, how you would react while being charged with power. The outcome is we now know you're a short range fighter, otherwise you would have already made projectiles and blown us out of the sky."
He teleports beside you, "In terms of speed you're too slow to be of any use. We can run circles around you."
Sonic chuckles, "Oh c'mon Shadow! Let's have a little race anyways! First one to the core's the winner!"
You look between both of them, "If I wanted to speed through here I could, but neither of you mentioned-"
Sonic shouts over you, "3, 2, 1, GO!"
The hedgehogs zip away in an instant, immediately gaining ample ground as you see streaks of blue and red ripping through the machines.
"I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE THE CORE IS!"
You look on annoyed, gritting your teeth. This was so childish.. Juvenile...
. . .
'-but I know I can beat them.'
Your breathing steadies as your mind shifts, you would have to hunt for the core while also trying to get to it before them. That meant you had to not only be faster, but cunning as well. Read the signs quickly and react as you saw fit.
Fine.
Your foot plants firmly into the ground before you burst forward, a shock wave blasting the mechs on the deck away. The interior of the facility whizzes by much faster than you were ready for as you struggle to maintain control of your direction, narrowly avoiding smacking into walls and doors as your pursuit raged on.
Your eyes scan over your surroundings as fast as they can.
The flow of the robots; the density of their ranks; was the core here? No. What about if I try the opposite direction?
Yes! Closer! Getting closer..
Take a right here?
WALL!
Weird hallway- no.. This is a security seal..
More robots..
You rip through effortlessly, the veil surrounding your body turning you into a sharp knife cutting through anything that dared to touch you at such high speeds. You squint your eyes toward the end of the long hallway, two familiar blurs visible as they continued deeper in and bumped into each other. Who knew Shadow actually enjoyed racing?
You smirk to yourself as you wait for a moment, waiting for them to clash again before getting down on all fours and charging between them with a smug smile. In that split second you catch a glimpse of both of their surprised faces before they quickly shifted into game mode. As you continue further in the hallway begins opening up into a large atrium. There seemed to be a computer array elevated high above in the center of the room along with a dense concentration of mechs that immediately begin blasting at you with bad intentions.
It was different this time, they were shooting predicatively and actually managing to land a few shots on you despite the fact that you were certainly already invisible to their sensors. But this was the Doctor, and he had plenty of experience combating Sonic's speed, there was no way he wouldn't have come up with counter measures. You dodge and wave through the shots with your eyes locked onto the core but unable to get enough of an opening to begin to get up there.
Sonic and Shadow burst into your peripheral vision, and while the rest of the world seemed to be moving in slow motion they were going at a normal speed. You knew they were both fast but to be able to keep this much pace with not only your Phase technique but also with the Chaos Emerald boosting your abilities? It was shocking to say the least.
Shadow jumps up as his rocket boots fire, Sonic following suit as they lock hands and spin in the air before the blue hedgehog is thrown further up, raining down onto the mechs above as Shadow skates around the perimeter, firing several volleys of energy at the surrounding forces. You can feel yourself slowing down as you watch them, your surroundings stating to pick up their pace again before you try to re-focus.
Sonic spin dashes through lines of robots, knocking them off the catwalks that were woven around the core like spider webs. They fall and clang loudly against the steel floor, Shadow zipping around to them and throwing them up at the core before unleashing a barrage of projectiles again, the explosions weakening the catwalks as several more mech fell. You could see Sonic spinning around the space, his speed only increasing as he gained more and more momentum from the long straightaways. He jumps and bounces off the wall as Shadow moved into position, Sonic's body connecting with Shadow's shoes before they fired him in the opposite direction with even more speed.
Shadow vanishes in an instant before reappearing across the room and catapulting Sonic again and again before the entire space was woven with Sonic's blue afterimage.
It was amazing to watch them work together, the chaos energy leaving your body as your adrenaline began to wear down. The room shook violently as you came back to a regular speed while the two hedgehogs continued their assault. It was almost like a laser light show, the flashes of Shadow's Chaos Control mixing with Sonic's glowing blue blurs as they seemed to burst all around the space in a concussive chain. You watch with your mouth ajar as the core gets torn apart in an instant, the platform housing it looking as though it got shaved away by a cheese grater from all directions. As it is erased you can see the hedgehogs land back on base level in a flash, Sonic giving Shadow a thumbs up with a grin as they both speed toward you.
"This place will be going down shortly, it's time we leave." Shadow pulls out his Chaos emerald, "I hope you've learned something, (y/a)."
You don't have time to speak as light engulfs the three of you. But one thing was certain in your mind now: If that's how fast they truly were and you needed to match that for the plan to be a success... there was no way you could keep up...