Unknown Base of Eggman - What's On the Horizon?

[Tony]

It'd been fairly quiet for some time now.

Thoughts sifted in and out of Sonic's mind as he casually ran in between various buildings and run-down structures, once towering pillars of technological might brought to life by the hands of an Eggman. The abandoned base was one of many others like it, decrepit fortresses that no longer showed any sign of activity. Covered in dust, debris, soot -- any obvious signs of the hedgehog having crashed the party in years past.

Honestly, he'd been to several places just like this many times before. He was so lost in thought that he didn't exactly have any idea just where this particular stronghold was. Sonic had been focused on simply running in a direction to have some time to think to himself, and had honestly just decided to go where the wind took him.

And, today, it took him to a location from one of his many, many previous exploits.

Taking the time to shoot up the wall of the tallest structure in the stronghold, it wasn't too long before the hedgehog reached the very top. Standing on the edge, he finally came to rest after a journey that lasted for literally hundreds of miles. Sonic crossed his arms and peered at his immediate surroundings. He wasn't sure what he decided to stand on. Building? Giant pylon? Radio tower? Useless column of metal? It could've been anything, really -- whatever it had been used for, like everything else crafted by Eggman in this 'city', it no longer bore any sort of life or purpose, left to collect dust after another defeat by the blue blur.

The hedgehog gazed outward, noticing that sunset was due to follow very soon. But, he wasn't tired. Something was driving him, but he wasn't exactly sure what. He'd been more restless than ever -- something that rarely ever happened with him.

Whenever it did, however, trouble was sure to follow. He was certain of it. Tapping his foot to an irregular beat, he thought silently to himself...

He was -certain- of it.

[Val]

The steel door caved in with a final kick, metal screeching against metal as the pitch black laboratory was illuminated by the setting sun. Shadow stepped inside and glanced around at the dust coated panels, left to rust after the Doctor abandoned this fortress for whatever he’d built next. Cables and wires were strewn across the floor, along with the occasional tool or robot part that had fallen down from a workbench during the final battle here.

The dark hedgehog’s ruby eyes fell upon the central computer, barely lit by the amber light pouring in from the doorway and he purposefully marched over to it, his skates piercing the silence with an echoing clang with every footstep.

Shadow slid a small flash drive from the inside of his glove and brushed off the dust from the computer as best he could before plugging it in. Sure enough, a low hum began to emanate from the control panel as the screen lit up a pale blue. As the grinning face of Eggman’s own personal logo filled the screen, Shadow tapped a small device in his ear and spoke, “This is Shadow. I’ve located the Doctor’s computer and am proceeding to download the files now.”

Hardly work worthy of the Ultimate Life Form but it was what he’d been ordered to do; Find any information regarding Eggman’s robots and weapons for GUN to use. Just as he was folding his arms to wait for the boot up to conclude, Shadow’s ear twitched, he turned his head slightly and listened intently. Had someone followed him? A familiar rush of wind and rapid footsteps sent a wave of irritation through the ebony half-breed. It was -him-. What was he doing here?

It didn’t matter. Let him run around all he wants and hopefully he wouldn’t even notice Shadow was here.

[Tony]

((OOC: Doing some minor NPC con-trollin' to spice things up a bit - Hope y' don't mind! ))

At the moment, it appeared that the current intruder had gone unnoticed by the blue one for the time being, so undoubtedly, he was free to work in silence.

However, it seemed that he certainly wasn't alone. While Shadow tended to his current errand, the abandoned system coming to life seemed to reanimate another electrical device in the same room. A lone Egg Pawn, seemingly undisturbed for many years, shook its little metal head back and forth as LED eyes and teeth flickered with a blue glow. Like a little child waking up after a very, very long nap, the Pawn darted its sights back and forth, trying to get a sense of where it was. What was this? What happened to home? Where was papa? Surely, it questioned itself with these inquiries.

And then, it settled upon the silhouette of the current visitor on the other side of the room, his back turned as he watched the computer intently. The Egg Pawn stood there silently, stubby little head almost tilting to the left as it almost appeared to have trouble processing what his readings were picking up. Scans of all kinds were being done within itself, trying to pull up some sort of result. The Egg Pawn reached the following conclusion;

LIFE FORM = HEDGEHOG. HEDGEHOG = BAD. PROTECT DAD FROM HEDGEHOG.

And so, with new resolve bubbling within his bulky, dense chassis, the Egg Pawn stirred, and clumsily ambled over to Shadow with the pure intent to swing a giant, metal clawed fist in his general direction.

[Val]

The metallic clattering of the Egg Pawn didn’t go unnoticed as Shadow continued to watch the computer screen run through it’s opening setup. He found it curious that the Pawn had activated at all, simply from the central computer starting up. Really he should just destroy it but a single thought in the back of Shadow’s mind held him back; Robots like Metal Sonic had proven the Doctor was capable of creating machines that were, for all intents and purposes...alive.

Letting out a slight sigh, the black hedgehog turned to face his approaching would-be attacker, his usual less-then-cheery expression on his face as he stared the robot down. He raised his hand, threateningly as it took on a bright gold aura, “You have one chance. The Doctor isn’t here. Go and find him and let me do my job.”

The words almost caught in his mouth. Afterall, it wasn’t as if he worked for GUN out of loyalty or necessity. If anything he did it out of boredom. Of course the robot was no threat, Shadow almost felt sorry for it, being stranded here and waking up all alone. As he watched the approaching automaton, waiting for a response, he found himself reminded of Omega. The hunt for Eggman with him and Rouge, what felt like a lifetime ago. Whether this Pawn had the sense to learn and run away or not didn’t matter to Shadow but he at least had to acknowledge the possibility.

[Tony]

The pawn held back on its intended plan of action, and stopped to listen to what the strange life form had to say. Once again, like a newborn pup, the Pawn found itself tilting its dense, metallic head in some form of confusion, or bewilderement. Egg Pawns were not relatively well known for their thinking ability, much less any sort of socialization skills. So when it finally came to process Shadow's words, it arrived at the most logical conclusion, which it proceeded to announce aloud with the same subtlety and grace of a GUN truck.

"EGGMAN GONE. DAD GONE. HEDGEHOG SAYS DAD GONE. DAD GONE. HEDGEHOG MADE DAD GONE. ALERT. ALERRRRRT."

Suddenly, without any sense of warning at all, the Pawn was screeching at the top of its manufactured lungs as it flapped it's spindly arms, hopping up and down like some kind of a rabid chicken. Immediately, sounds of clumsy, heavy movement began emanating from all around the cluttered, debris-filled room, as pieces of metal fell this way, and that way, an entire dusty horde of Egg Pawn robots rising from the rubble. Some were armed with weapons, but most simply carried their fists and dense hulls.

The lone Pawn that started it all pointed a frantic three-fingered arm in the hedgehog's general direction. "DAD GONE. MAKE HIM GONE. ALL GONE."

And with that, the horde of Pawns made their move, and began to march onto the (likely annoyed) ultimate life form, some charging with purpose, and others with clumsiness. But they all had one intent in mind;

Time to brawl.

[Val]

The horrific, metallic screaming proved too much for Shadow as he was forced to cover his ears, muffling the sound of the clattering, zombie-like army rising up all around him. A quick glance at the computer showed it was ready to begin downloading but there was no way these Pawns were gonna let him get what he wanted and leave, not now.

‘Dammit, a fight in here could result in the computer being destroyed’, Shadow thought to himself, ‘I have no choice but to lead them outside and fight them there.’ His hand began to glow yellow again as the black half-breed raised it and swung his arm in a backhand motion, releasing a blast of energy at the one Egg Pawn who just would NOT. STOP. SCREECHING.

“Chaos Spear!”

The robot’s upper half erupted in an explosion of metal as shards of chassis and burnt wires scattered all about the floor. The wrecked corpse of the thing fell backwards in a heavy crash as Shadow adjusted his gloves, “Hmph. Alright then, I could use a warm up.”
He rushed forward, jumping onto the smouldering remains of the Pawn and dashing out the door into the abandoned cityscape, barely lit by a setting sun.

[Jammerlee]

What the hell was going on.

That was the only thought going through Metal Sonic's mind as the racket a couple blocks away assaulted his audio receptors. He glanced down from his perch atop a building at the streets below with a confused scrunch of his digital eyelids. He had thought he was alone here, after all none of the robots left to rust in this old place were active. Now with the sounds of upset screeching and the roar of explosions he debated whether or not to investigate the intruder alerts flaring up in his HUD from the local network.

After a moment of thought, he shrugged to himself, rising up. He was bored, and now his curiosity had been piqued. Pondering over the possibilities of who might even be here (Tech scavengers? Some kids on a dare maybe?), he began to leap across the rooftops toward the source of the commotion. He came to an abrupt halt when he spotted a familiar looking streak of red and black fleeing through the streets.

You MUST be joking, he thought as his eyelids lowered half mast.

[Tony]

The moment that Shadow made his move and escaped into the outside, the tidal wave of Egg Pawns poured out after him. Some were going on-foot, others were equipped with wheels, which took off after the hedgehog with more speed -- but all were mobilizing, and all were prepared to fight for their 'DAD'.

From Metal's perspective, there was a line of tens upon tens of Pawns following after the trail of the red and black hedgehog, seemingly endless.





Of course, someone else was sharing in the perspective -- and that someone was leaning against Metal's chassis with one well-placed elbow, his fleshy cheek resting in the palm of his hand.

"Yeah. I know that look - This ain't no joke."

He flashed a grin as his eyes met Metal's from a smug sideways glance, gesturing with a free hand between the two of them. "At least, not as much of a joke as this is right here. Nice runnin' into you, Metalhead." And with that, he leapt from the rooftop, skidding down the side of the building as he tore off in Shadow's direction. Spindash-kicking aside a small crew of Pawns, he met the river of metal headfirst before shifting direction to speed off after his dark-toned rival. Time to find out what he was up to, and maybe drag in his favorite blue copycat into the mix to make things a mite more interesting.

[Jammerlee]

"GAHH-" Metal jumped sideways, making a series of startled binary chirps, his eyes coruscating from the shock. It took him a moment to register the blue mug grinning at him, and by the time the metallix had managed to regain his composure, Sonic had already dashed off in Shadow's direction. He boggled over the circumstance before his eyes began to glow bright with anger. He let out an angry series of beeps and chirps.

"What the--WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO EVEN DOING HERE?!" he yelled in frustration. Leaping from the rooftop, he sped off after his organic look-alike.

[Val]

Oh great, of course Sonic heard the practical tidal wave of Pawns seemingly crawling out of every hole in the not-so-deserted base. Did the Doctor really just leave all these robots to rot? Shadow leapt into the air and Homing Attacked a few Pawns one after the other, landing in an intersection between buildings. Glancing back he saw his blue counterpart rushing towards him, fending off several other robots.

A metal fist narrowly missed the dark hedgehog as he was caught watching Sonic, was there a second figure speeding towards him? Quickly grabbing the Pawn by the arm he swung it with all his strength into another robot, smashing the two together, leaving a shattered pile of wreckage on the floor. When he looked back, both Sonic and whoever he was with were much closer, naturally. An eyebrow raised when Shadow finally recognized the metal hedgehog approaching. What was -he- doing here, too? Perhaps the Doctor didn’t abandon this place afterall. It would certainly explain the abundance of Egg Pawns still active.

He greeted Sonic with one of his usual ‘Hmph’s as he folded his arms, “I don’t need your help with a few walking piles of scrap, hedgehog.”

[Tony]

Sonic flashed an all-too classic smirk, diving past Shadow as a familiar buzzing blue ball to home in on a Pawn that was attempting to slam the black hedgehog with a slab of metal, the resulting impact of the Homing maneuver toppling the clumsy robo onto its back. With a clean flip, the blue one bounced off his quarry and landed neatly beside the ultimate life form, green eyes watching Metal draw nearer. "You sure 'bout that? From what it looks like, y'got yourself a nice little welcoming committee tryin' to sweep you under the mat." Without even so much as blinking an eye, Sonic whipped a smart kick around to catch an oncoming Pawn between its beady little eyes, the force of the kick sending the machine sprawling into his brothers like they were bowling pins.

He seemed terribly unconcerned with the fact that Pawns were continuing to appear in droves - where on earth did these all even come from? Would the doctor really abandon an entire base filled to the brim with working drones? The Eggman worked in mysterious ways, it seemed. Perhaps there was still something important to be gathered here, after all.

The roboticist had been keeping silent for a time. Maybe he was planning something big.

Speaking of Eggman's minions, Metal was getting closer -- to which Sonic was also quite unfazed about. Full of himself? Perhaps. But that didn't keep him from actually putting up a fight. If Metal decided to try anything, he would have not only Sonic, but a rather irritable dark-furred doppelganger to deal with as well.

Turning an eye to Shadow, he crouched into a battle-ready stance, rubbing the tip of his nose. "The hell're you doin' in this neighborhood, anyway? Things were quiet till you showed up, y'know? I was havin' a nice think to myself. Then y'had to go and rattle the Buzzbomber's nest."

[Val]

An eyebrow raised as Shadow smirked, refusing to acknowledge Sonic just helping him. Instead he hurled another Chaos Spear at a group of charging pawns, snatching the comically oversized, bright orange gun from the hand of one already destroyed and firing several laser bolts into a few that had the sense to try and take cover from the two hedgehogs taking on an entire army.

“Well I’m certainly sorry for interrupting what little time you set aside to spend actually thinking, Sonic. It wasn’t my intention to have so many robots still be active here. If anyone’s to blame, it’d be you for this. Clearly you didn’t do a good enough job clearing this place when you chased the Doctor out.

One robot had ran at the pair, trying desperately to tackle the dark half breed, only to be greeted by a devastating punch to the face, shattering its chassis as it stumbled back, screeching before being silenced by a laser blast.
This was bad. If Sonic found out about his mission, he might try and stop GUN from obtaining the information and even if not, Metal was getting closer by the second and he definitely wouldn’t let his creators secrets go willingly.

Shadow had never really been sure how to consider Metal. In some way they had a strange kinship, both being living weapons created by members of the Robotnik family. He certainly didn’t have any hatred for him, even despite what Metal had done a few years ago which resulted in copying Shadow’s data. Still, if he tried to get in the way he wouldn’t hesitate to put him down either.

“It’s none of your business why I’m here.” he finally answered, “The better question is, why is -he- here?” Shadow pointed for a second at the rapidly approaching robot before leaping towards another few terrified looking Egg Pawns and Spin Dashing through them. Sonic was an idiot but despite how calm and unsurprised by all this he seemed, surely he’d noticed how strange it was that a supposedly abandoned base was so active.

[Jammerlee]

While the number of egg pawns that had come out to greet the intruders did strike Metal Sonic as pecular, he had pushed it out of his mind for that moment, focusing instead on trying to reach Sonic and Shadow. What he had planned to do once catching up eluded him however. In all honesty all three of them had no business being there.

As that last thought drifted through his mind however an unexpected movement caught the corner of his eye. Reacting quickly he darted to the side, narrowly avoiding the egg pawn that had just tried to sucker punch him. In doing do he slammed into a pawn behind him. Metal looked down to see its arms wrap around him. With the confusion more than evident in his digital eyes, he whipped around, glaring at the pawn attempting to hold him captive.

<Put me down!> he shouted at it through transmission. The egg pawn ignored him, continuing to look back with its enormous grin. Metal's eyes brightened. <As your rank superior, I order you to put me down!>

A mechanical growl emanated from the metallix as the insolent robot continued to ignore him. Twisting in its grip, he slammed his elbow into its torso, following that up with a kick that sent it flying back into several more egg pawns. Several more turned toward him, their eerily molded grins and glowing eyed staring back as they began to advance. Though Metal still found himself wrestling with confusion, he knew right away that he certainly didn't want to become fodder for this bunch. A crackle of electricity sparked around his body, and he turned, bolting once again in the direction toward Sonic and Shadow. Only this time his intent was to get to the front of the line and away from the uncomfortable position of being surrounded. He needed a moment to get a handle on what was going on. Pawns flew past him from either side as his ramped up a charged boost.

[Tony]

Sonic eyed the oncoming metal hedgehog with utmost curiosity. Glancing briefly back to Shadow, he couldn't help but chuckle under his breath. "Don't take me for a total sap, Shad'. We'll get back t'you later. But for right now, yeah -- I think we need t'shift focus to Metal Face over there."

Weird as it was that the Egg Pawns that were so devoted to 'DAD' were so intent on trying to hassle the metallix as well. Bad programming? Misinformation? Crossed wires? Whichever, it didn't really matter that much to Sonic. His business was with the other blue dude. Without hesitation, the hedgehog tore off directly toward the incoming metal beast, a shimmering blue aura surrounding his person as he dashed -- Pawns, chunks of metal and miscellaneous debris were either kicked up from the sudden rush in wind, or blasted aside as Sonic boosted toward his competition. Before Metal knew what was happening, it was his power against Sonic's as the hedgehog met the robot head-first, pushing against him with equal force in power. Before long, the two were actively running in place, much to the chagrin of all local Pawns as the resulting forces pushed and blew them away like leaves in the wind.

"SO!" Sonic yelled, cocky as ever. "STRANGE, isn't it?! Meetin' up with you here, of all places -- gimme some answers, bro! What's yer role, here? Pullin' some double duty for Egghead? What's th' skinny?!"

[Jammerlee]

"My role?!" Metal Sonic shouted indignantly. "What I am doing here is not any of your business, I should be asking what the two of you are here for!" he paused, his glowing eyes casting aside at the Egg Pawns still attempting to reach the duo. "You think I have a hand in this? I am just as confused as you are!"

[Val]

“Enough!” The dark hedgehog yelled as he bounced from the head of a Pawn into the air, still curled into a ball and Homing Attacked the two colliding azure counterparts. His body taking on a bright red aura as he unleashed a shockwave of energy all around him.

“Chaos Blast!”

Several Pawns who had been close by are sent careening into buildings and launched down the street, any windows caught in the blast are instantly shattered as Shadow straightened himself up and glanced between Sonic and Metal. At this point the flash drive and getting the information had taken a backseat to his curiosity. Surely Metal had tried to command or maybe even hack the robots by now so whatever the problem was, it was probably able to block him. If it was some other influence it raised the question of why Metal himself wasn’t affected. Of course there was always the possibility that Metal was only claiming to not know, to lure them into a trap. He looked back to Metal, trying to figure out what he could from the robots body language. Hopefully these two would realise if they were all being attacked, the smart thing would be to work together.

“Is there a way to shut all these robots down?”

[Jammerlee]

Metal paused in response to the question, a series of small lights scintillating across his digital eyes as he checked into something. His eyes dimmed slightly. "Something is hi-jacking the local network. I am being locked out of my ability to issue commands."

The course of action seemed clear to the metallix. He needed to get to a network hub and see if he could trace the source of the intrusion. Never truly answering Shadow's question, Metal scanned his surroundings in an attempt to locate one such hub. In an abrupt flash, he spun around, making a sharp U-turn and speeding down an adjacent street.

[Tony]

Sonic raised an eyebrow as Metal suddenly spun around and veered off quickly out of sight.

"To shut them all down.... Well, y'know how *I* usually shut these things down, and it's never failed me yet...!" Sonic crouched, a foot planted forward as another reached behind to scrape-scrape-scrape at the ground, as he was seemingly preparing himself for a sprint. "So, basically - why fix what ain't broken? But, it's probably worth helpin' him locate a source... I'll just make sure to knock some metal-heads around while I have a look-see. It'd be borin' otherwise..." He grinned before instantly blasting down another street, dust, debris and other lightweight objects kicking up into the air as the hedgehog took his leave from the scene, leaving Shadow to his own devices - as well as a few Pawns that were starting to scrap themselves together after the previous blast of energy.

---

Deep within the heart of the run-down city, far out of sight, out of mind, possibly out of reach for the mere, average bystander...

Someone was watching.

Piercing the darkness was a sea of monitors, each displaying a separate location of the city, images of rogue pawns, rogue intruders, and endless ruination and destruction playing out on the LEDs endlessly with each passing second.

Someone was watching. Something knew that the intruders were on the move.

A giant, metal fist slammed down onto a ridiculously massive button on top of an electronically busy control panel, nearly breaking it into a hundred pieces as it activated something on the surface...

---

As the blue hedgehog tore down the streets of a once-glorious Eggman base, rushing through any wayward robots that happened to be reactivating as he passed by, a loud rumbling suddenly overtook any other sound, blasting from every corner and every block all around him.

Stopping on a dime, Sonic looked in various directions to try and place the source, when something in the ground popped up right in front of him.

Blinking, mildly surprised, the hedgehog found himself staring down the barrel of a turret. Which immediately opened fire.

"WOAH..!" Reaction-time for Sonic was nothing if not the best, and he swiftly evaded the blasts of the laser turret by launching himself into the air with a spin, only to find that the rumbling he was hearing... had been due to countless other turrets erupting from various places - street corners, piles of rubble, metal poles, even from the heads of some of the Pawns stumbling around clumsily, their instability only made worse by recoil as shots showered out of their weapons indiscriminately, and without pause.

Sonic, meanwhile, was zig-zagging about after landing, trying to evade the sudden rain of laser hellfire as he bolted down the street, turning off at a corner, rounding another corner still - just focusing on evading every shot possible.

That wasn't to say he was the only one faced with such a dilemma - Unfortunately for his loathsome copies, the turrets came for them, too.

It was almost as if someone had set a Fireworks factory ablaze, blasts of every colour firing in every which direction, the primary targets for their fury being all readily available intruders who had dared to stick around. It was likely only going to get messier from here.

[Val]

As the rushing wind of Sonic running off blew down the street, the ebony hedgehog just let out a scoff. ‘Idiot.’ He thought to himself. Sonic was never one to really think ahead, making the fact he consistently defeated the Doctor, a man who meticulously planned out his defences for one reckless speedster that much more…irritating to think about. Shadow wasn’t about to dash off and risk losing Metal though, as the robotic doppelganger was undoubtedly the best bet to ending this ambush of discarded Egg Pawns.

Shadow’s skates flared to life as he gave chase in the direction Metal had gone, dashing and Homing Attacking across a few groups of standard Pawns just to get past them. It didn’t matter how many he destroyed if there was some way to disable them all at once. As he rounded a corner the ground beneath him heaved, causing the half-breed to skid to a halt. Every surface around him shuddered as dozens of turrets erupted form the walls and floors, giving Shadow only a moment to register what was happening before the guns began firing blindly in all directions, scattering laser bolts all about the streets.
Shadow grit his teeth, crimson eyes darting about as he duked this way and that. He leapt up and grabbed a nearby lamp post, swinging from it to get some hight. A shattered open window to a nearby building was within reach and with a burst from his shoes, he dove inside to seek cover.

The building was almost pitch black but at least there didn’t appear to be any turrets inside…yet. As Shadow straightened up, pondering why Eggman never utilised defences like that when Sonic attacked this place, if they were always there, he was interrupted by a familiar humming of machinery activating but this felt..bigger, more bass to the sound. Looking up, Shadow saw a pair of emerald green circular LED eyes staring down at him. The lights to the room flickered on, struggling to stay activated but Shadow instantly recognised the lumbering Egg Hammer shuddering to life.
…He missed Rouge and Omega.

[Jammerlee]

Metal burst through the cluster of Egg Pawns, sending several of them flying as he found himself in a clear but deead ended alley. He flipped himself at the wall, parkouring his way up until he'd flipped himself over the wall. As he landed in a crouch he glanced around, seeing the coast was clear for the moment. He would need to act fast before those egg pawns managed to locate and catch up to him. Quickly he searched through a database, pulling up a map of the area and locating what he was searching for - an access terminal. Locating the nearest one, he speed off in its direction.

[Tony]

As Metal blasted off, more turrets had begun to erupt out of various surfaces, all of which took aim and fired in his general direction. Some of the guns were firing off miniaturized homing missiles, that now found themselves locked onto the robot hedgehog and began screaming after him. If that wasn't enough, he would find himself having to fight off a handful of Egg Hawks as well, the flighty robots appearing on either side of him to keep up and take aim, readying their lasers for an attack.

--

Sonic was having a rough time already.

While his other counterparts were likely being productive in their respective missions, he himself was still just sort of stuck playing laser-beam dodgeball, ducking and weaving down various streets and corners as multi-coloured bullets continue to fire off and bounce around with the hopes of actually striking a target. The total randomization of the wildly firing turrets simply made his job that much harder than it had to be.

Suddenly, he reached a point where he simply had enough - reaching the foot of a multi-storied building somewhere in the center of the city, the hedgehog kicked off the ground and began tearing up the side of the skyscraper, zooming along the vertical surface with little resistance. Along the way, various Egg Hawks began to flank the hedgehog on either side, following Sonic briskly as they took aim and prepared their volleys.

The Hawks were suddenly beset by friendly fire from all directions as Sonic suddenly vanished from sight the moment they all launched their shots, each Hawk striking another in their haste to attack the blue blur. The hedgehog himself had managed to avoid taking on damage by simply crashing into a window at the proper time, and now... he found himself clumsily thrown into various desks and old computers, having recklessly barged into what appeared to be an abandoned office. Shaking the vapors from his head, the hedgehog groaned and stumbled back to his feet, dusting himself off while trying to ignore a looming headache.

"Eugh... that... could'a gone better." Rubbing the dust out of his eyes, he looked all around to get a grasp of where he had ended up, before he paused, twitching an ear for a moment or so. Slowly, he gazed down upon the floor. Rather, he wasn't looking at the floor for anything - it was moreso that he felt a need to look through it.

It was very, very faint... But he could feel... something......

Something was in the building, and it was quite possible that it was very, very close to the bottom.

Sonic reacted by simply shrugging, grinning, and then curling into a ball that hummed loudly as he went into a rapid spin, throwing himself into the floor as he opted to simply start drilling his way towards the lower levels of the building.

Smoke billowed out of broken windows, sending glass and debris flying outward with each and every floor that the hedgehog burrowed on through, the hedgehog having every intention on literally getting to the bottom of things, as soon as possible.

[Val]

Shadow bounced off the walls and smashed into the head of the Egg Hammer in a powerful homing attack and sending the lumbering robot stumbling. He was strong, that was undeniable but he had to admit Omega had much more success removing these larger robots from their way quicker. He could run away but…no, that wasn’t an option. He wouldn’t run from such a simple minded weak opponent. The ebony hedgehog pounced out of the way as the robot retaliated by swinging its giant mallet and crashed it into the ground, shattering the concrete. Shadow moved swiftly to jump onto the head of the hammer and rush forward, curling into a ball and rocketing into the machine’s dome once more, his yellowy aura consuming his form as he became a Chaos powered missile. Glass and metal cracked and buckled under the force as the attack finally broke the Hammer’s “skull” completely, imploding it and causing it to collapse to the ground, smoke pouring from the crater Shadow had created.

He looked about and jogged over to a window to peer out. The turrets were still firing indiscriminately and causing serious damage to the whole city. This felt wrong to him, the Doctor tended to be…eccentric but he wasn’t one to destroy his own bases like this. He thought back to his mission; he was there for Eggman’s harddrive and he could still just run back and collect the copied data and leave in the chaos being caused but this had grabbed his attention now. He was curious. Not to mention if something was going on here GUN would want to know anyway so they couldn’t blame him for investigating.

A flash of movement caught Shadow’s attention and dragged him away from his contemplation; a band of Egg Hawks screeching through the streets. Taking a breath the hybrid hedgehog lunged and broke through the window and into the fray of random laser fire. His skates flared back to life as he chased down the Hawks and leapt up to land on the back of one. It did as he’d predicted and began to climb higher and higher, turning this way and that in hopes of throwing him off. Using the altitude he surveyed the cityscape for any sign of a control centre, the towers for any activity, anything that could give him a lead on where to look next. Finally the Hawk flipped completely upside down and despite his grip, Shadow felt himself slipping. He looked down to see the other mechanical birds soaring up at him, their beaks open with gun barrels poking out from them, ready to fire. He bared his teeth as he kicked off his hostage and pirouetted in the air, his hands burning with yellow energy as he began hurling Chaos Spears at each of his would-be attackers.

Shadow plunged through the cloud of explosions and smoke from the annihilated Hawks and landed on a thick metal cable joining two buildings. Sparks flew from his skates as he grinded it down towards street level again when he noticed a streak of royal blue. He had no idea whether it was Sonic or Metal but maybe they had a lead he could follow now.

[Xeric]

Unknown to the 3 hedgehogs, a flying battle fortress approached above them in the darkening sky.



"Report, Lieutenant!" cawwed the Pelican as he jumped down from his perch high above in the control room. The Battlelord rubbed his hands together as he approached the flight deck, a smug yet accomplished look on his face.



"W-we're approaching the b-b-base now, sir!" squeeked the small avian. He looked up at the towering figure as he loomed above him. "May I-I.. May I asked what our objective is, s-sir?"



The Battlelord focused on the viewscreen, which showed schematics of the abandoned base. "Simple recon and salvage, Lieutenant! The parts required for our conquest of the skies don't come cheap, and with so many Ivo's bases going to ruin they are the perfect--" XV stopped, his glasses slid ever so slightly down his beak as he looked over them. Red blips began flashing over the massive screen, some vanishing as soon as they appeared and some a lot faster than the others.



"Sir, we're detecting a lot of activity coming from the surface. We cannot determine who or what it is at this time."



VX pondered his next move. Was Dr. Fukurokovs intel on this base being abandoned wrong? He'd been planning the raids on Eggman's old bases for so long now, he wasn't going to allow for any setbacks.

"Send a squad down to the surface regardless but continue to monitor the situation!" commanded the Battlelord.

----------------------

A large shadow began to darken the already blackened base; a squadron of Bomber and Pilot Combatants began to head towards the surface.

[Jammerlee]

Metal Sonic hissed, his eyes darting to either side as the hawks closed in. First egg pawns, then lasers, and now egg hawks were chasing him? Somewhere in the back of his mind, he wondered if there was some sort of karma involved. But no time to speculate - the metallix made a sharp turn, launching himself up into the air and catapulting himself at one of the hawk's wing pilots. With precise timing he made a homing attack for the egg pawn's face, bouncing off of it as the homing missiles slammed into it. Using the same momentum he charged at the other wing pilot, his turbine beginning to glow. He slammed into the unwitting bot with a point-blank laser of his own, and finally dove for the final pilot in the hawk's head. Grabbing the flailing pilot, he dumped it into the streets below.

That only left the other hawk to deal with. It had been a long time since Metal had been in the pilot seat of one of the avian mechs, but he wasted no time pulling the control stick and maneuvering the swing the cumbersome mech around. As the two vehicles' flight paths began to converge, he lept from the cockpit at the last second, using the resulting explosion to mask his trail as he tore down an adjacent alley and tumbled beside a dumpster for cover.

He paused to recalibrate his thoughts, taking a moment to check where he was on the map. Getting to that access terminal was proving to be a hell of a lot trickier than he would have anticipated, and that was without the added problem of leaving himself prone when he finally had the chance to hook up to it.

Metal watched and listened, waiting for a moment where he could sneak out undetected.

[Val]

The Ebony hybrid leapt from the railing and activated his skates as be began sailing across the rooftop of some abandoned buildings of unknown purpose. Whatever they had been used for, they were just more empty additions to the corpse that was this base. In an odd way it actually reminded Shadow of the ARK. So much potential, albeit of malicious intentions, gone to waste and left to gather dust and be forgotten. Not unlike himself really. The Doctor was brilliant, having created entire fleets of airships as well as sentient machines like Metal and Omega. He had to wonder how his creator, Professor Gerald, would look upon his descendant. Would he be proud? Would Dr Eggman even really care?
That flash of blue he’d been tailing ducked down into an alley as Shadow dove towards one of the taller buildings. Hurling a crackling yellow Chaos Spear to shatter out the window, he dove through and skated through what appeared to be a room of deactivated server stations before jumping out the opposing window. His skates flared brighter as the yellow flames slowed his decent into the alley after his quarry. His arms entwined into a fold as he noticed who he’d been following. He had to admit to feeling some relief that it wasn’t Sonic. The chances of them formulating any kind of plan that didn’t involve the faker trying to take on every robot in this city were slim to none.
As Shadow neared the ground his skates deactivated, dropping him the last few inches as he glanced around for any sign of more robots coming for them. “Anything?” He asked the metallix pointedly.

[Jammerlee]

Metal tensed as Shadow dropped out of nowhere in front of him. He stood up and glanced around. At least it wasn't Sonic.

...

"... I need to get to an access terminal," Metal responded. "I can access the local network but something is blocking me out from issuing commands. If I can hook myself up I should, at the very least, be able to figure out which terminal this is originating from." He looked to either side again, seeming to scrunch a bit before his next statement. "I am loathed to admit but I am going to need backup at this rate."

[Tony]

The hedgehog hadn't stopped descending.

A testament to his astounding luck and intuition, Sonic had apparently hit the bullseye where it counted and located something particularly interesting about the building he ended up in. By this point, he had gone past the ground floor, and was simply drilling further and further into the lower levels of the facility, mangling weakened metal and sending debris out every which way with each passing floor he crashed through.

One way or another - this place seemed to be very important.

Eventually, the hedgehog popped out of the ceiling of the final floor, and he uncurled out of his spin just in time to make contact feet-first with the dense, metallic floor at the very bottom. Crouching on one knee, Sonic's eyes darted back and forth as he took in his current surroundings, the sound of falling dust and junk punctuating the air all around him, until, finally, it ceased, and left only the soft, ominous hum to permeate the silence. Dimly lit, and a size comparable to that of a high school gymnasium, the darkened chamber contained very little of note, with the sole exception of an expansive control panel at the far end of the room.

And somebody was at its helm.

---

Or, some thing, in any case. Whatever it was, it wasn't organic.

Were Sonic standing right next to it, the being would simply tower over him by about three or four times. With the build and stature of a Death Egg Robot, the machine appeared to lack any sort of pilot, moving autonomously as it slowly turned it's Eggman-like face in Sonic's direction. A thick cape, outlined with a constantly shifting neon light, billowed out over it's large, broad shoulders and down its back to about its knees. It had apparently fastened several lead spikes to the top of its metal skull on its own, the base of each shoddily bolted down with less-than-stellar handiwork in some attempt to fashion a kind of crown. Similar spikes lined its enormous arms and legs, an attempt to come off as ferocious, undoubtedly. A paint job covered its entire person, rivaling the artistic skills of its original creator, with splashes of bright reds, yellows, and ominous black hues all over its gigantic metal form.

It looked as though as it had gone through some wear-n-tear, however. It was pretty clear by the look of it that it may not have left the chamber in quite some time.

Its eyes shined bright, and the eternal grin on its face lit up with piercing crimson LEDs as it spoke to the intruder, robotic expression never changing.

"SONIC... ONE OF FOUR... THREATS... TO MY KINGDOM... THIS WAS A SECRET PLACE... HOW DID YOU FIND ME HERE...?" A deep, bass tone covered every electronic syllable that was delivered, reverberating off of the walls of the empty chamber. Dust fell from the ceiling once more.

---

Sonic stood up to his full height - laughable compared to the machine - and simply tapped the side of his blue head with a wink. "Just instinct, I guess. What'cha doin' down here, big guy? Runnin' the pop stand while your daddy's away?"

There was a pause.

He counted his fingers.

"...Four?"

[Val]

Shadow raised an eyebrow slightly at the blue robot’s final statement. He knew how much it stung to ever need to admit to needing help with anything and Metal, as much as he would deny it, shared the same pride that his counterpart had. The hedgehog gave a nod as he strode to the end of the alleyway and peered out, the oppressive sound of gunfire making it harder to tell but his ear twitched at the heavy footfalls of a squad of Eggpawns headed their way. “Find an access terminal and I’ll keep their forces off you long enough.”

Not waiting for any attempt at rejection of his aid that Metal could offer, Shadow dove out and smashed his fist into the face of one of the oncoming Pawns. Metal and glass shattered and buckled as the black hedgehog snatched the blaster in its hand.

As he pulled the trigger and a bolt of plasma struck down another Pawn something drew the attention of the hybrid’s crimson eyes. A large black silhouette passed over the sun and threw its shade over the street the pair was in. Craning his head back, Shadow saw the large silver battleship hovering above the city. At first he thought it to be one of Eggman’s but if that were the case it would surely have his emblem emblazoned on it. From below it was hard to tell what it was capable of, the ship having a spherical design but the hedgehog could certainly make out several large cannons around its equator.

[Xeric]

The gigantic battle fortress came to a halt above the abandoned base, its powerful engines letting out a wail as it initiated its hovering mode. The Grand Battle Kukkus eyes glistened as he looked over the huge base, thinking of all the potentially powerful weapons and technology almost at his grasp.



"S-sir, the airborne forces have yet to discover the cause of the movement on the surface" muttered the nervous Lieutenent.



Perhaps it was simply the local wildlife causing the blips on the viewscreen? or maybe some unfortnate badniks the Doctor had left when he abandoned the base? Nevertheless, the objective hadn't changed, he was adamant the salvage operation would still go ahead.

"Continue to monitor the situation, and command the troops to begin collection of any and all technology on the surface" VX commanded.

[Tony]

The robot's domed head swiveled towards the monitors of the panel behind him, a giant arm gesturing in kind, as if to answer the hedgehog's question. The 'fourth' intrusion, it would seem, was due to the impending arrival of a battle fortress that had now taken its place in the skies above the base. "YES... FOUR. IT WOULD SEEM... THIS LOCATION HAS ATTRACTED MORE THAN ITS FAIR SHARE OF... IRRITATIONS..."

With a swift click, the eternal grin of the death egg robot had turned back to face Sonic once more. As it reached one hand towards its back, the machine pointed directly to the hedgehog with the other. "UNFORTUNATELY FOR YOU... AND THE DENIZENS UP ABOVE..." As it spoke, the robot pulled out an enormous weapon in the shape of a trident from behind its massive form. "YOU WILL BE LEAVING. ONE WAY OR ANOTHER..." the weapon was outlined with a constant flowing neon light, a bullet-proof glass sphere attached to the bottom.

"... BE IT OF YOUR OWN VOLITION... OR IN PIECES."

With one swift motion, the robot slammed the spherical end of the spear into one comically large yellow-and-black striped button on the main control panel, before it suddenly rocketed towards the hedgehog, luminous points of the trident ready and willing to pierce whatever was in it's way as the machine zeroed in on its mark.

--

On the surface, the consequences of the aforementioned button press were in full swing. On top of over a dozen of the base's many skyscrapers, domed containers squealed to life as rusted metal and gears began to move, mechanical pieces and bits rotating and revolving noisily as the enclosures began to open up. One by one, they each revealed an Eggman-branded missile launcher from within. As thick, metal podiums began to slowly lift the machines further into the air, the launchers all clicked and whirred as they trained their sights onto the intruders in the sky. The moment they were all locked into place, the weapons fired off their salvos, each contraption letting loose up to four missiles at a time. Within seconds, several dozen rockets could be heard screaming into the general direction of the battleship, vaporous trails being left behind.

--



The hedgehog let out an uncomfortable noise as the gigantic behemoth of a robot came screeching towards him, nearly catching him off-guard as that trident came dangerously close to skewering its target. Sonic jumped quickly, tumbling forward over the robot's spiked shoulder as that weapon whistled right by him, narrowly taking some fur off his leg. As the enemy missed, it immediately slammed its metal feet into the lead floor, an ear-piercing wail resounding throughout the chamber as the robot braked to a halt. However, it wasted no time in putting on the thrusters and barreling back towards Sonic yet again.

Sonic himself was prepared now. As the machine roared into his direction, the hedgehog crouched and prepared himself for a more deliberate leap -- as soon as it was close enough, the blue blur suddenly kicked off the floor, and hurtled himself directly into the face of his foe at blinding speeds, curling into his signature spinning ball for maximum impact.

The sound of the collision rang throughout the room, as the hedgehog rebounded off of the robot and was flung straight up into the air. Sonic unfurled and clutched at his forehead with a wince. 'That was probably not a good idea...' With one eye open, he looked down towards his foe, or more specifically, at the stupid metal stick he was waving around.

There was something about that glassy orb on the end...

...

"... Aw, no... an emerald...?"