Hop To It - Eclipse 16

[Iota]

The pyramid loomed ahead of them. The midday sun hovered behind it, casting the entire side facing them in the shade.

Iota stood behind the others, fans humming to keep his internals cool. “Exposition: The Hidden Pyramid, also known as the buried tomb. Believed to have been discovered mere weeks ago after being unearthed by a sandstorm, it quickly became apparent that it had already been commandeered by the insidious Doctor Eggman.” Encyclopedia provided him with further insight. “Trivia: The weathered surface of the pyramids, both here and elsewhere, are often not merely a result of erosion but are in fact the efforts of thieves, who over the millenia stole the gold cap and the outer shell of white bricks for building purposes. Evidence of similar theft here suggests that Doctor Eggman did, in fact, find this tomb and then take it over, rather than building his own pyramid outright.”

“Wow, is that true?” Amy asked. “About the stealing bricks thing?”

“Indeed. It is likely that buried under the sand are more buildings, created from the--”

“This is real interesting,” Knuckles said, not sounding interested. “But we don’t have time to waste. I saw Eggman and that bat girl head inside, and the longer we wait the more time they have to prepare for us.”

Sonic stood on his toes, hand over his eyes. “We should be able to get into space from there. Eggman’s gotta have some way to get up there.”

Iota zoomed in on the surrounding stonework. “...It appears that they are waiting for us…” There were many badniks visible even from their elevated position.

Sonic scoffed. “He usually is. I don’t know what the deal is with this space colony, but I’m gonna destroy that cannon and kick their emperial butts!”

Imperial, Iota corrected mentally, but it didn’t seem worth mentioning out loud.

Knuckles nodded seriously. “Alright, let’s go.”

Tails strode forward in his mech. “I’ll go and find the entrance!”

The fox hurried off, Knuckles and Sonic close behind him.

Amy started after them, a little slowed down by virtue of wearing heels in the desert sand. That was probably why she noticed that Iota wasn’t following; she stopped and looked at him, confused. “Iota, aren’t you coming?”

The goodnik’s camera eyes zoomed in, following Tails and the other two as they carved a path through the stronghold. Curiously, there were many broken badniks already. “...I am unsure that I should.”

“What? Why?”

Iota returned to normal zoom and looked down at her. “It did not occur to me until just now, but… I was once E-108 Iota. Doctor Eggman, to the extent of my knowledge, doesn’t know about me, and I don’t know what he’ll do when he finds out.” He twiddled his fingers nervously. “I am… uncertain, about meeting him.”

Iota’s opinion of his original creator was… nonexistent, really. E-108 Iota never saw Eggman before being destroyed, and Y-Iota had never encountered him. But while Tails and Humi were responsible for him as he currently was, ultimately he owed his existence to the Doctor. It was a complicated feeling.

Amy blinked. “Oh, yeah… I guess it is a little weird, isn’t it? But you know, Eggman needs to be stopped.”

Of course he did. Iota did not dispute that at all. He had done his research; the madman captured animals, bulldozed forests, and caused disaster wherever he went. Iota had no loyalty towards him. But still… he made him. What if he could unmake him?

“I… am frightened,” Iota admitted. It was uncomfortable to say, but it was the truth.

Amy’s eyes softened, sympathetic, and she smiled. She took his hand in hers. “Eggman can be a little scary, huh? I’m not scared of him anymore because I know Sonic will always save the day, but the first time I got kidnapped was a lot to deal with!” She let go and took a few steps back. “If you don’t think you can do it, you don’t have to. We’ve got it handled. Okay?”

An emotion packet pinged, but Iota pushed it away. “Thank you, Amy Rose. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be.” She winked. “We’ll take care of everything, don’t you worry!”

She waved one last time and ran off, catching up with the others.

Iota watched her go.

Tactical: …Sonic and Tails alone have defeated Eggman many times before.

Analytics: They are already halfway to the pyramid, and are not being slowed much by the attacking badniks.

Encyclopedia: Amy Rose is twelve years old. Miles Prower is eight.

Iota considered these facts. Mister Heyu had complained before, at length, over children being made to save the world. With this in mind, he turned his attention inward toward the emotive packet his processor had generated and opened it for review.

It felt terrible. Like a deep, sucking pit had opened beneath his feet. It felt like scum floating atop a pond, like a heavy weight sitting in his chest, like pain in his battery casing, his heart.

Iota identified it as shame.

Tactical: Target identified at 2 o’clock, moving quickly.

Iota’s head swiveled, focusing on the target Tactical detected. It crested a hill and sped towards the pyramid. He zoomed in.

It was the not-Sonic hedgehog who Iota met at the bank. Who Sonic met on Prison Island. Who framed Sonic and got him arrested. Shadow, they said he was called.

Shadow was running towards a face of the pyramid that Sonic’s group were not facing. As he approached, the brickwork shifted aside to reveal a small door. He stood at it for several minutes before it opened, and he stepped in.

Iota looked towards where Sonic was, judged how long it would take to reach them, let out a sigh of frustration, and finally set his wheels in motion. Maybe he could still make up for his cowardice.

He reached the spot Shadow had approached, which surprisingly opened for him as well. The number pad by the metal door lit up, and Iota eyed it suspiciously.

There were potentially hundreds, thousands of possible codes. These pads typically used between three and five digits…

A memory surfaced of Mister Heyu complaining loudly one night about how Eggman used his own name as the password for the Egg Carrier systems, just replacing the ‘o’ with zeroes. Iota attempted to apply a similar logic.

Analytics: …

Encyclopedia: In certain Internet spaces, numbers are substituted for similar-looking letters in a manner known as ‘leet-speak.’ EGGS would convert to 3665, 

Lacking any better ideas, Iota carefully typed the five digits in. It was slightly difficult as his fingers were a bit wider than the keys, but he managed. The screen above the pad turned red, denying him.

Analytics: The alphanumeric code for EGGS would be 5 7 7 19.

He tried again, and this time the doors beeped, opening shortly afterwards.

“...Disappointment: I understand Mister Heyu’s complaints now.” He stepped inside, and the doors closed behind him.

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

[Mecha]

Doctor Eggman had not had much time to claim the ARK as his own. The limited time frame plus the need to make the necessary maintenance repairs to the ARK’s systems meant that the Doctor had not even been able to claim a lab as his own. The most he had done was bring up some robots to guard the sections of the ARK they were using. And because the Doctor was busy, he was not available for repairs.

If he even bothered to fix it.

Mecha deleted the stray thought.

Theoretically, Mecha should have been able to pop down to the Hidden Pyramid to get repaired by the machine shop there. In practice, Mecha was totally unique and had already burned through his backup parts, and the pyramid lacked the ability to fix it without Eggman’s direct attention.

And so it was here, in a maintenance room on the ARK, making do.

Mecha pulled the ruined arm out of the socket, scanning it for salvageable parts. The propulsor jet and associated fuel line were miraculously intact, but the servos were destroyed. Luckily, there were plenty of robots on the ARK and there were some parts lying around. There was what appeared to be the arm of a G.U.N. Hunter drone, which would suffice. Mecha carefully separated out the necessary parts and replaced its own. After approximately forty minutes, it had a functioning arm again.

The armor was riddled with holes, but that wasn’t easily replaced… it would have to make do with a patch job. Bolting metal plates over its arms would throw off its balance, so it would have to do the same to the other arm. It wished it had the sharpened claws of its predecessors; that would have made tearing out bits from the parts easier.

It was a patch job, alright. The previously-broken arm’s weapons systems were present and technically functioning, but the arm couldn’t unfold to ready them anymore. The Hunter’s laser rifle would… suffice.

Mecha stared at its hands for a long moment. Repairs were as done as they could get at the moment, and the Doctor didn’t have any orders for it. And the last time it tried to interpret its own orders… it would just be yelled at or worse, ignored. Again. So it sat in the closet, staring at nothing.

It told the bat about the intruders, but Mecha had doubts that she would do anything. Or that the Doctor would do anything if she told him. He wouldn’t care.

The Doctor didn’t…

He didn’t care.

Mecha stood and pinged the intranet. That lousy mouse seemed to have destroyed a few more since last it checked. The Doctor apparently hadn’t even noticed, or else he’d no doubt have hopped back on the intercom to insult her.

One response to its ping caught its attention. A Kiki was reporting a simultaneous state of major disrepair and full functionality. Mecha looked further into it. The mouse had repurposed the Kiki without completely deactivating it; apparently making use of its brain for something else. Kikis weren’t intelligent the same way Mecha or the E-100s were, but they had sufficient brains to calculate the parabolic arcs of their thrown bombs, and this Kiki unit was reporting on its current situation with a detached interest; whatever had been done to it, it didn’t seem to mind, if it could be said to mind anything.

Nevertheless, it still reported to Mecha when asked.

The mouse and one other were moving more or less aimlessly, but their wandering was taking them in the direction of the Cannon controls. And if the pattern of destruction continued, they would not leave the Cannon intact when they arrived.

Mecha considered its options. If it got involved and damage happened anyway, it would surely be blamed.

Maybe it should leave it alone.

Mecha deleted the thought. No, it couldn’t. So it started after them.

It didn’t hurry, though.

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

[Iota]

The tunnels of the pyramid were a painful mishmash of ancient stonework and recent metalwork. Iota’s passions lay with the natural world, but he was capable of appreciating artistry as well; seeing hieroglyphs cut off by fuse boxes or multimeters was upsetting. Thousands of years of history, destroyed by one madman’s cruel ambitions.

Despite this, Iota followed the wires and pipes. Whatever Eggman was up to in here, it was going to be surrounded by machinery. Furthermore, the sections of the pyramid that were less touched were… disquieting, in a way that Iota was becoming very familiar with.

As he went, he passed by patrolling E-1000s, Gamma lookalikes that stood a head shorter than him. The simplified robots did not acknowledge him, to his relief. He wasn’t looking for a fight right now.

Unfortunately, not all of the robots were fooled by his appearance. A large beetle badnik, whose carapace seemed to be partially made of decorated stone, was also flying through the halls, and they attacked him on sight. Their field of view was thankfully narrow, but their presence forced him to take detours around them.

Iota wondered why Eggman chose a pyramid for his base. Retrofitting walls of solid stone was likely much harder and more tedious than just building a base from scratch. Was it the grandiosity? The sheer size of the monument that appealed to him? Possible. Eggman was prideful.

Ducking another scarab robot, Iota came to a small balcony overlooking a large, round room with skylights. The balcony appeared to be one of Eggman’s additions, but Iota didn’t focus on that. His focus was on the blue-flamed torches that lined the platform below--torches that, on further inspection, did not seem to exist at all. The flames hovered in the air on their own, and cast impossible shadows on the wall.

One such shadow grinned at him, and Iota backed out of the room without looking away. Why were there ghosts everywhere?

Choosing instead to flee across the room that the scarab was guarding, Iota ran for several minutes before ending up in a much cozier corridor, with ventilation ducts overhead.

Analytics: Eggman is the only human intended to inhabit this base. Ventilation suggests that this area is one he frequents.

Yes, that made sense. He walked by several rooms that contained actual furniture fit for human habitation; chairs, with cushions and everything. One room contained a small kitchenette, where a hedgehog Mobian was--

Iota hurried past. He did not want to be noticed.

Tactical: What is the goal here?

Analytics: Find a way to ease things for Sonic’s team. Unlock doors, perhaps.

Iota considered that. He looked up, and followed the vents. They led him to a room that his new minimap program said was near the exact center of the pyramid. A holographic display portrayed a series of informative windows, and it was this that Iota stepped up to.

A brief examination disappointed him; there was no means for him to jack directly to the console, which would have made things easier. Instead, he was left to work the holographic keyboard; it didn’t seem to like working with his metal fingers. Iota puzzled over this, seeking a solution.

Analytics: Gloves?

True, Eggman wore gloves, and if Iota’s assessment of his character was correct, he wouldn’t want to have to take them off just to work his own technology.

The goodnik snapped his fingers with a metallic tink and reached into his storage compartment, withdrawing a rag that he wrapped around his fingers. It reduced him to hunting and pecking, but it worked better than his bare hands.

The rest from there was easy. He pulled up the security feed, and quickly found his friends. Sonic, Tails and Amy were waiting by a large door while Knuckles hunted for keys in the side rooms. Iota tried to access the door, but this one appeared to be an actual manual mechanism; keys or nothing. So he did the next most helpful thing he could think of, and shut down the scarabs that were patrolling the rooms. 

“Hopeful: Knuckles should have an easier time of it now.”

Iota scrolled through some other features, before taking note of something that simply said ‘ARK.’ Curious, assuming that it was still part of the security feeds, he clicked it.

The floor underneath him lit up purple, and Iota was whisked away.

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

There was a split second of disconnect, where Iota’s systems were unable to connect to his body. Error after error piled up, but he was unable to answer them because he had no screen for his HUD to display itself on. It was as if he was turned off and on again, but without actually being inactive--Iota was reminded of his earliest days, when he still lived on Tails’s computer, but without any interesting files to look at.

And then it all came back, everything back in its proper place. Error reports were dismissed, save for one low-priority one which amounted to ‘What the heck?’

Iota shuttered his optics, looking around. Brown and red stone had been exchanged for silver metal. The goodnik stepped off the glowing pad and walked towards the window.

Stars.

Iota stared for a long moment. He must be… on the ARK. He stumbled into Eggman’s own transport system.

“Urgent: I must return at once and find the others. This is exactly what they were looking for.” He turned to do exactly that, stopping only when the pad flared again.

Shadow appeared in the glowing circle, facing away from Iota and holding a sandwich. Ham and cheese on wheat, Encyclopedia supplied, pointlessly.

The black hedgehog took a bite, hummed appreciatively, and turned, walking directly into Iota’s chest. “Erk!” He jumped back, startled. “You--glk!” He choked on his sandwich, coughing until he was able to swallow harshly.

Shadow breathed raggedly as Iota stood awkwardly. This was the enemy, but this was upsetting… Iota reached into his compartment and produced a bottle of water, half-empty from Humi leaving it unfinished several days ago.

The hedgehog took it and finished it off, dropping the bottle on the ground as he made his way to the window. Iota picked the litter up and crushed it before placing it back in storage.

Not even a thank you? This Shadow was as rude as ever.

Seconds passed without Shadow acknowledging him, so Iota slowly stepped away. He stood on the teleport pad… but could not find the mechanism for triggering it from this end. There were no buttons.

Analytics: Look around, maybe a switch on the wall primes it for use. Hopefully it will be labeled clearly--

“You. Badnik.”

Iota’s head swivelled to look at Shadow. The hedgehog continued looking out the window, but he looked at Iota through the reflection in the glass.

“You’ve been undercover for a few days, following that blue hedgehog, haven’t you?”

…Okay, wow, that was an incredible series of assumptions. But he could work with that.

Tactical: Lie your chassis off.

“Ye--Yes, that is correct,” Iota said, falling back into his default voice setting.

Shadow looked over his shoulder at him. “...You’re smart for a machine. Professor Gerald never made anything that could think for itself.” He snorted, looking back out. “Except for me, of course.”

“...The Doctor is a man of incredible talent,” Iota said, stepping off the pad. It was true, after all, even if it was outweighed by his madness.

“Are you some sort of advanced version of those E-1000s I’ve seen around?” Shadow asked, sounding bored.

Not seeing the harm in this question, Iota answered. “They are based on my elder brother Gamma. They seem to be an inferior mass produced version.” Internally, Iota winced. A real badnik in this position wouldn’t say seem, they would be completely objective. And they definitely wouldn’t refer to each other as siblings!

Shadow didn’t seem to notice, and in fact didn’t seem to really be listening. “...” He placed one hand on the glass and lowered his head. “One more Emerald. I only need one more Chaos Emerald.” He took another bite of his sandwich. “And once the Eclipse Cannon is fully charged… My mission will be complete.”

From here, they could still see the Moon. The blast zone had yet to cool, and the molten mantle was still visible glowing against the blackness of space.

“All those humans… gone.” Shadow snapped his fingers. “In an instant. It’s no less than what they deserve, after what they did to you…”

Tactical: !!!

Analytics: ???

Encyclopedia: …

“Incredulous: What about the animals?”

Several seconds passed. Shadow turned to look at Iota with a perplexed look. “What?”

“What about the animals?” Iota asked again, staring intensely at the hedgehog. “Or the Mobians? What about the fish in the sea that will be boiled alive by the blast? What about the trees that will be burned to a crisp? What about the innocents who had nothing to do with the events of fifty years ago? Statistically, many of the people alive fifty years ago when the ARK was shut down are no longer alive. What is this about, revenge?” Iota’s speaker crackled from the effort of trying to project his offense. “Revenge against who? Forty or so dead men and maybe ten senile old people who might not even remember what they did?”

Shadow stared at him, blinking in bewilderment. “...Animals. What do I care about the animals?” he growled. “I made a promise, and I intend to see it through.”

Iota stepped up to loom over him, thoroughly incensed. “What promise could be worth destroying the entire world over?”

“What does a machine know?!” the hedgehog spat. “She was my world! Without her, that rock underneath us is worth nothing.” Suddenly, he stopped. “You… You aren’t one of Eggman’s at all, are you?”

Tactical: Lie! LIE!

“I… of course I--Of course I am! Look!” He pointed at his nameplate. “The Y stands for ‘Yolk.’ I was absolutely an Egg-mech!”

His eyes narrowed. “Was?”

“...” Iota turned and fled.

The door opened before he reached it, and he fell onto his wheels the second he was in the hallway.

He took random turns and drove as fast as he could, but it was for naught. Shadow was simply faster, and soon enough a lance of something bright and tingly shot past him; the energy made his battery stutter just from being too near it. Looking behind him, Iota saw Shadow preparing a second one, and swerved into an adjacent room.

A room which didn’t have a floor. “Not again!”

---

Shadow stood in the doorway, watching the robot fall into darkness.

“Well, that takes care of that.” He shook his head. It was just as well. He’d gotten a little too lost in the moment and revealed too much; he’d have had to destroy the machine even if it was one of Eggman’s.

Still. The things it said…

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

[Heyu]

I stepped into the fork in the hallway and frowned, ears twitching. Despite it not making any sense, I admit, I stuck a finger in my mouth and then held it up to the nonexistent wind.

It’s silly, I know, but little mnemonics like that help me make decisions. We went left.

“Heyu, are you sure you know where we’re going?”

I gave Humi an incredulous look, then shared what I imagined to be a commiserating glance with the Kiki head. “Know where we’re going? When did I ever give you the impression I knew where we were going? I’m thoroughly lost.”

She snorted. “Take the next right.”

“Oh? What makes you say that?” I asked. I didn’t argue, I took the right, I just wanted to know her logic.

“Do you remember how we saw that map and saw a great big empty spot and thought it was weird?” Humi asked, moving her mech into the leading position.

“Yeah?”

“I’m pretty certain that that’s actually part of the big cannon.”

“Makes sense.”

“So if it was blacked out on the map,” she continued, taking a left, “Then it must have been a secret project.”

I nodded.

“So, I’m taking the paths that don’t have signs.”

I blinked twice. “Sorry, I think you turned over two pages at once there.”

We came to another fork and Humi pointed out a set of directory signs. The way we had come was labeled as leading to Commissary D, Leisure Center C, and Server Room Delta. Straight ahead apparently led to a set of labs for chemistry and a security office. But the hall to the left was unlabeled, and that’s where Humi went.

“Way I see it, if it’s secret, then signs telling you where it is won’t be a thing,” Humi reasoned. “So we just have to keep heading places where nothing else is.”

I absorbed that for a long minute. There was a type of logic there, I suppose. “Humi, I don’t know about that.” I couldn’t articulate why it was wrong, but I definitely felt that it was.

“And here we are!”

Of course, what do I know?

We stepped through a door with no decoration and a broken keypad. Humi had to jury rig the door by tearing into the wall. A circle of observation rooms surrounded a central chamber, visible through the glass windows. A room that extended both up and down--whatever those were in this place--so far that they both faded into blackness. A single catwalk extended out towards a bizarrely organic-looking machine.

This looked important.

“Humi…” I said slowly. I felt my ears fold back. “Weren’t we looking for a computer room?”

“Maybe you were,” she said, sticking her tongue out. “And anyway, there’s a computer right there.”

We walked around the circumference until we reached the catwalk. Humi left the Y-Nought behind, not trusting the walkway to hold it, and we stepped up to what could only be the Eclipse Cannon.

We stared up at the apparatus. Four orbs surrounded crystal structures that looked more like they’d been grown than built. I couldn’t hear anything but the hum of machinery, but I would swear the thing was pulsating.

Humi squeaked, and I looked down to see her approaching the core. “Humi!”

“Heyu, look!”

I looked. Six of the seven Chaos Emeralds were embedded in the machine.

She reached out for the white Emerald, but it was just out of her reach. I saw her start trying to climb up, so I hurried over and pulled her back. The platform wasn’t actually connected to the machine, and I didn’t want her falling if she slipped.

“Let me.”

“Heyu, you can’t touch it,” she protested. “You’ll--”

I grabbed the white gem.

And then I was on the floor, smelling faintly of burnt fur. “What happened?”

“It zapped you.” Humi helped me sit up. “I think it’s been charging.”

My fur was standing up, so I smoothed it down. “Got any rubber gloves in there?”

She gave me a concerned look. “You already got the Emerald.”

“I did?” I felt my hand close around it, and held it out in front of me. “Oh! I did.”

How did I not notice? That shock must have really thrown me for a loop. I handed the gem back to Humi, who immediately took it and shoved it in her pocket.

Now, despite what just happened, I really considered grabbing another. Or maybe even all of them. With six Emeralds they nearly destroyed the moon. With five, they could still cause widespread destruction; the only way to be totally safe was to take them all. And do what with them afterwards? Don’t know. That seemed a lot less important than getting them away from here.

But when I stepped forward to take another, I… couldn’t.

They were looking at me.

Curiosity Recognition Contempt Apathy Hostility

I stepped back, holding my head. “Okay, okay, fine. One is fine.”

“What?” Humi blinked. “I mean, I don’t want you zapping yourself again, but--”

I waved her off. “Out of curiosity, can I see that Emerald again?”

She squinted at me, but pulled it back out.

Amusement

“I see.” This answered some questions… but it raised a whole lot more. Nothing I could deal with right now.

The white Emerald pulsed. Notification

I frowned as my headache worsened briefly, but then my ears twitched. Heels on metal, approaching. “We’ve got company.”

Humi stowed it away again. “What do we do?” She grinned. “Are we gonna fight?”

I looked down. “I’d rather not fight here… Hm.” …Oh no. I had an idea. “Humi, do you have a clipboard?”

“Maybe. No one was using it.”

“Let me see it. And a pen, if you have one. And do you have a hardhat? Now, follow my lead.”

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

[Rouge]

Rouge hurried down the hall to the central control room. Eggman was dealing with a problem in the pyramid, and Sonic was on the way. She hadn’t even been aware that Eggman had a rocket in his base, but that was immaterial now. The point was that Eggman failed to get the Emerald from them and they were on track to stop him, as she’d hoped.

Now, with Eggman busy and Shadow elsewhere, she had a brief window to do her research mission. She just needed to get to the computer and search for Project: Shadow. It stood to reason that if anywhere on the station had the information, it would be the most important console in the place.

She stepped through the doors, and gave an odd look at the boat with legs by the entrance. What was that doing here? Then she walked inside and froze.

There were people in here.

Two Mobians, a rabbit and a mouse, were at the console, searching through the database.

“Who the heck are you guys?!” she shouted.

The pair jumped slightly before turning around. “Oh, hey there,” the rabbit said, way too friendly. “About time they sent someone up here to relieve us.”

“We’ve been living on granola and water,” the mouse complained. “It sucks.”

“What are you--who are you guys?” Rouge demanded.

The rabbit frowned. “Weren’t you sent by G.U.N.?”

Rouge’s eyes widened. “Wha--how--I mean, no!”

“Then I have to question how you got up here.” The rabbit held up his clipboard. “We’ve been up here for two weeks on their payroll, running a safety inspection. I was beginning to think they’d forgotten about us.” He looked at his papers and clicked his tongue. “Lemme tell ya, this place is a mess…”

“Everything’s falling apart,” the mouse agreed. “If they wanna move back in, it’s going to be expensive.”

“Very.”

Rouge blinked rapidly. She felt like the floor was slipping out from under her. “You--you two work for G.U.N.? But isn’t she, like, six?”

The smaller of the two glared at her. “I’m twenty-seven, thank you very much.”

The rabbit sucked air through his teeth. “Don’t push the height button, lady. She’s a mouse, they’re small, it happens.”

That… didn’t sound right, but Rouge hadn’t met enough mice to dispute it. “Okay, sorry. Yes, I--” She looked over her shoulder and made sure her comm was turned off. “I am actually a G.U.N. operative, but I wasn’t informed you were here.”

The rabbit’s face flickered, and he smiled. “Oh, you are? Well, let me introduce myself then. I’m--”

“I’m Huzat, and this is my junior partner Itzmi,” the mouse interrupted. The rabbit glared at her, but she ignored it. “And you are?”

“I’m… not sure I should say,” Rouge hedged. “I’m undercover at the moment, so--”

“Codenames, got it,” the rabbit said. “Still, gotta call you something. How about… Rouge, on account of all your makeup.”

Her face went blank.

Huzat burst out laughing. “No way, is that actually your name?”

Rouge rubbed her temple. “N--Ye--listen, you two, things are dangerous right now. You’ve got to get out of here.”

“Why?” Itzmi asked. “Is something happening?”

Rouge didn’t know how to answer that, so she ignored it. “I need access to that console to complete my mission.”

“Sure, sure,” Itzmi said, shrugging. “Just let me finish up. Our next stop for the inspection is Professor Gerald’s lab. So far I’ve only managed to turn up his credentials. Four Ph.D’s, in robotics, software engineering, aerospace engineering, and archeology.” He peered at the screen. “And a Master’s in neurology, that he got much later. Hm.”

Rouge groaned. She was totally thrown off her rhythm and didn’t have time to deal with this. “Out of my way.” She shoved him away with her hips and typed away.

Itzmi leaned over her shoulder and read aloud. “Research Project Shadow? I think I’ve seen some mention of that around.”

Rouge glanced at him. “Oh? Anything useful?”

He waggled his hand. “It was referenced in a folder for Project: Axolotl. I couldn’t figure out why, that one was all about salamanders.”

The computer beeped, and showed the search results. Rouge gasped.

“Huh,” Itzmi said, in the same tone one would use to discuss the weather. “Yeah, that’ll do it.”

The picture on the screen was an alarming one. The ‘Ultimate Lifeform’ was presented as a massive lizard, covered in tubes and wires and machinery designed to keep its organs from failing.

“What is Shadow anyway…” Rouge murmured. Her musing was interrupted when Huzat jumped up and pointed at the screen.

“Hey, you! Look! That’s Gerald’s lab!”

“...developed in Biology Research in sector A5… we must have walked right by it,” Itzmi agreed. The two of them pulled away and started leaving.

Rouge blinked. “Hey, where are you guys going?”

“I think we established that already,” the rabbit said dryly.

“I told you, it’s dangerous around here! You need to leave!”

They both shrugged.

“What can you do?” Huzat said.

“We’re being paid for this,” Itzmi agreed. “That means we serve at the whims of our masters.” He grinned, and Rouge shivered. In this light, it almost looked like his eyes were glowing…

Wait. Masters…

She’d almost forgotten about the Master Emerald.

Rouge gave the computer one last look and bit her lip, indecisive. What to do… A memory surfaced. What had that knucklehead said?

Yes, the Master Emerald could neutralize the Chaos Emeralds. Was that how she could shut down the ultimate weapon?

She looked at the Emeralds in their slot. She couldn’t just steal them, no matter how beautiful they were. She’d be caught right away--

--five. There were only five.

Rouge stared, not comprehending. Slowly, her face turned red.

“...those two… idiots stole my Emerald?!”

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

[Tails]

“What’s that knucklehead’s problem, anyway? Trying to take over the shuttle! I thought we were goners for sure!” Sonic complained as they disembarked. 

The ARK’s docks were still functional, thank goodness. Tails looked around, interested in everything he could see.

“Huh? Where’d he go?” Sonic shrugged, annoyed. “Guess he bailed.”

“This place looks deserted,” Amy noted. “Dusty, too!”

“This place was shut down fifty years ago because of a terrible accident,” Tails explained excitedly. “The first Bernoulli spherical space colony: the ARK. Once it was the most advanced research facility in existence…”

“And now it’s abandoned,” Amy finished, somberly.

Sonic shook his head. “There’s not much time left before Eggman fires that weapon again. We’ve got to find that Cannon and destroy it, fast!”

Tails opened up the Cyclone’s computer display and lowered so they could see it. “The weapon was designed to be impenetrable from the outside, so we have to find a way to destroy it from the inside.”

He opened up a box from under his seat. He started working on this the second they realized the Chaos Emeralds were involved. Making it wasn’t easy on such short notice, but he was confident it was perfect.

Amy blinked. “Your Chaos Emerald?”

Tails smiled, pleased. “It looks like it, doesn’t it? But it’s actually a fake I created, just like the ones we made for Iota and Gamma! Except this one’s an exact duplicate. Based on my research, I believe that if we can get Eggman to put it in with the rest of the real ones, it won’t be able to handle the strain and will blow up, destroying the cannon in the process!”

“Sounds like a plan to me!” Sonic said.

“I’ll go and disable the power supply,” Tails said. “Sonic, you find the control room!”

“Got it!”

They moved on, ready to take on their missions.

Amy trailed behind slowly. “What about me? What’s my mission? …Guys? Hello?”

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

[Iota]

Encyclopedia: The Space Colony ARK famously made use of a revolutionary artificial gravity system. The exact mechanics of this technology never reached public knowledge, and in the confusion of the ARK’s fateful decommissioning the patent for the tech ended up in the hands of the Extreme Gear manufacturer Babylon Sports.

Analytics: The ARK has been without habitation for decades. The gravity generators must be on the fritz.

The drop was odd. According to his speedometer, he slowed and sped up as he fell, and his weight shifted accordingly. If he had been organic, he rather suspected that it would have caused absolutely brutal motion sickness.

After a minute, he ended up in the maintenance tunnels deep in the bowels of the asteroid, where the walls were still more stone than metal. There were signs that a mining operation once took place here; most likely the builders minimized the need to ferry resources from Earth by mining their own iron.

He followed the path, steadily climbing back to the once-inhabited levels, going as fast as the tight corridors would allow. The real surprise was he stepped through an airlock and ended up on the outer surface of the asteroid! From there he made his way to another airlock in the main city complex.

The gravity out here was negligible; the tiniest bump in the path threatened to throw him into the void. He was glad he made time to have Tails install his new vacuum system; it made sticking to the ground much easier.

…A meteor swarm orbited the ARK, interspersed with free-floating metal paths and rooms torn free of the station. The entire scene was ethereal, and cosmically strange. Iota took several pictures.

The city that was the ARK was never meant to be traversed from the outside, but he managed, and eventually found a way back inside.

Once safely within the confines of the space station, Iota took a moment to rest and let his battery recharge. Oddly, it was doing so rather quickly. No one could claim to truly understand Chaos Energy, least of all Iota, but he was under the impression that it came from nature in some way; for there to be so much on the ARK as to improve his battery life was unexpected.

All of this was unexpected. Iota didn’t know what was happening anymore, and rather suspected he never did.

While he slumped against the wall and reviewed recent files, Iota’s auditory sensors latched onto an approaching sound that stood out in the silence of space. Heavy machinery, with a gait similar to his own. Another E-series? One of the 1000s, most likely. They didn’t seem to register him as a threat, but he steeled himself regardless; he picked up a lot of rock while outside, so he had plenty of ammo--

“...can’t believe we did that!”

Wait. That voice was…

“I can’t either. I especially can’t believe it worked.”

“Hehehe, the look on her face when you called her Rouge.”

“Yeah… though I have some notes.”

“Oh?”

“Junior partner? Really?”

“Hehehehehe…”

The voices turned the corner, and Heyu and Humi came into view. Heyu wore more jewelry than before, and Humi piloted an entire… walking… boat, with attached monkey head, but it was them, and Iota was immensely happy to see them.

Heyu stopped and blinked. “Iota? What are you doing here?”

The goodnik stood and ran at them. He threw his arms around them and pulled them into a tight hug. “My friends! Oh, I’m so glad I found you!”

Humi smacked his arms, and he let go to let them breathe.

“You were looking for us?” Heyu asked, rubbing his shoulder.

“Clarification: No, but I’m happy to have found you regardless! I have had a terrible few days and no mistake.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.” Heyu shook his head. “In fact--Humi, what’s the timer at?”

Humi tilted her head. “Why would I know that? I don’t have a clock.”

Raising a hand, Iota contributed. “If you refer to the countdown to Eggman’s deadline, we are at T-minus two hours and three minutes.”

Heyu cursed quietly. “Heck.”

“Never fear,” Iota said quickly. “Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy are all on their way.” He remembered that he never told them about the teleporter. “I believe.”

“So we’ve probably got plenty of time,” Humi said cheerfully. “Besides, they’re not going to fire without this!” She held up the white Emerald, which glimmered in the low light.

Heyu seemed less sure, but nodded slowly. “...Okay, fine. Let’s catch up. I want to make sure we’re all on the same page before we keep going.”

“Contemplative: I think I passed a recreational area. We may convene there and sit while we all recharge.”

Heyu let out a breath, then clapped once. A ringing sound echoed down the halls. “Alright. Lead on, Iota, let’s hop to it.”

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

[Mecha]

The damaged Kiki unit was still reporting, and Mecha was no longer taking its time. The Kiki said that they had been by the central core, and if Mecha was correct there was only one thing they could be there for.

Without all the Emeralds, the plan would fail. And Mecha would not allow that failure to be its fault.

It would have to be smart about it. It was not at 100% and could not afford a full confrontation; it would have to be sneaky about it.

Following the Kiki’s signal, Mecha made its way to a small communal area off of Research Sector A2; a place for small breaks, stretching your legs, and getting coffee to fuel those late nights in the lab. The Doctor had several in his bases, near his own workshops.

The scene was honestly perfect for its attack; the lights immediately overhead outside the break room were out, letting his dark paint job blend in with the darkness.

The plan was thus: no punches pulled, shoot out the mouse’s mech’s legs and rush in, grabbing her. Do not kill her, because it was unknown what would happen to her extradimensional space if she died and the Emerald could become lost. Blast off the rogue E-unit’s head. Aim for the hare while keeping the mouse in a headlock. Demand the Emerald in exchange for their survival.

And then… then resolve the problem permanently, anyway.

Distasteful.

But necessary. Errant thought deleted.

Mecha approached the door, standing just out of sight, and waited for an opportunity.

The E-series unit was seated against the kitchenette counter, watching the other two. The hare was standing at a vending machine, looking disgruntled.

“...Iota, what are the chances anything in this is still good?” He grimaced. “I haven’t even heard of some of these brands.”

“Negligible,” Iota responded. “Although I see Twinkies. I am told they never go bad.”

“Eugh, no thanks. Those things are too sweet for me.”

“Boo!” the mouse cried. She was currently out of Mecha’s field of vision, but a metallic clattering accompanied her movement. “The sweeter the better!”

The hare smirked. “...Do you like vanilla?”

“Of course I do!”

“Well, if you like sweet things so much, remind me when we get home and I’ll go out and get you some vanilla extract. Pure essence of vanilla. Smells like the tears of angels.”

Iota raised a finger, but the hare shushed him.

“That sounds amazing! Thanks, Heyu!”

“Anytime, Humi.”

So those were their names. Not that it would matter shortly. Mecha took a step back from the door, intending to move through the darkness to the other side of the door, to get a look at what the mouse was doing--but the hare’s ear twitched and he looked directly at it, and Mecha froze.

Heyu frowned and tilted his head. “Did you--”

“Are you sure there’s not any food in the backpack?” Humi asked, distracting him. “There should be some granola still.”

“I am so sick of granola,” Heyu groaned. He took the pack off and placed it on the table in the center of the room. “There might be some baby carrots, though… they won’t be fresh anymore but they’ll probably be fine.”

Humi jumped onto the table and into Mecha’s view. She dove into the backpack like it was much larger on the inside. It probably was.

Mecha, as slowly and quietly as it could, unfolded its one functional gun, and prepared to charge in. Either Heyu looked away, and it would grab the entire pack, or Humi would pop up, and Mecha would grab her before she could react. 

Heyu turned back to the vending machine, stroking his chin, and Mecha’s motors started whirring--

“Huh? Heyu, what’s this? I didn’t put this here.”

She popped back up, holding an ornate chest nearly as big as the backpack itself, that only barely squeezed out of the bag’s mouth.

Heyu turned, saw the box, and paled. “Oh, that, that’s nothing. Put it back and forget you saw it, please, until we get home.”

The mouse squinted at him, and even Iota stirred to see what was happening.

Mecha… hesitated. It wasn’t sure why.

Instead of following orders, the little mouse opened the chest and made a curious noise, withdrawing a short cardboard tube, of the sort typically used to store documents.

“Humi, I really think you should pretend you didn’t see that,” Heyu said, lurching forward to grab it.

Humi jumped over his hand and onto his arm, walking over his shoulder and down his back to jump to the counter. “I just wanna look!”

Heyu twisted and grabbed her tail, reeling her in. “I would rather you didn’t!”

“C’mon, just a look!” She pressed her shoes against his chest and pushed off, slipping out of his grip and tumbling onto the floor. “Is it something naughty?”

“No!”

“Then it should be okay!”

They struggled back and forth for a minute, with both robots watching in bemusement, before Humi shouted, “Iota! Hold him down!”

“Iota, get that tube from her!” Heyu retorted.

“Hesitant: Is this something I should get involved in?”

“Iota, I’ll get you that secondary speaker system you wanted!”

The E-series unit paused, then reached out with his extending arms and wrapped the around Heyu. “Apologies.”

“Humi!”

“That’s my name!” the mouse said, snickering. She popped the top off the tube and pulled out the document inside. “Let’s see… Cert-ifi-cate… of…” She blinked and held the paper closer, as if that would make the words change. “...Adoption?”

Heyu sighed and stopped struggling, prompting Iota to let him go.

“...grants Hayden Fiver the sole… guardian-ship, of… Humi Fiver?” she finished, saying the last part in a whisper. “Heyu, is this…?”

Mecha was aiming his weapon at them. He didn’t fire.

The hare slumped. “Yeah, it is. I… I was going to tell you soon, but then all this happened, and I just… wanted to wait for a better time.”

She nodded slowly, brows furrowed. “...Okay. I can understand why this isn’t a good time, but why’d you try to stop me?”

He shrugged helplessly. Like the words physically pained him to say, he said, “I was worried about how you’d react.”

Iota beeped. “I am confused. I thought she was already adopted by you.”

“Not officially, until I asked the Mayor,” the hare explained. He sat down at the table. “That was… a month ago? I think?”

“You’ve been holding onto this for a month and you didn’t tell me?” Humi’s voice was dull.

“I haven’t had it a month,” he said, wincing. “I grabbed it shortly before we left for Central, so… three-ish weeks?”

Humi stared at him. She looked down at the paper again.

“Look, Humi,” Heyu started, staring a hole through the wooden table. “I know that you’ve had a hard life. Certain things you said have made it clear that… you’ve had some trouble with people before. We haven’t known each other long, so I didn’t… I mean…”

While he was talking, Humi carefully rolled the certificate up and placed it back in the tube, resealing the top.

“Look, I’m twenty-two. Twenty-three this winter. And to a ten-year-old, I know that that must seem grown up, but it’s really not. It’s really not. And I don’t know if I can be a parent, but I still want to be your… No, I do want to be your parent, dammit, I just don’t know how, but I’ll do my best.”

Humi climbed up onto a chair, then onto the table. She stood in front of him, watching him ramble.

“--I want you to know that I’m not doing this for kicks, or… something, I like you, packrat, and watching you go is amazing, you’re amazing! And I just didn’t want to scare you off since this is so sudden, and--”

“Scare me off?” Humi repeated softly. “Scare me off?”

She smacked him over the head with the cardboard tube.

“Dummy!” She hit him again for good measure, and he covered his head. “We already had our big heart-to-heart! You aren’t getting rid of me that easily!”

Heyu stared at her, bewildered. “Just like that?”

She raised the tube, and he held his hands up to shield himself.

Iota started shuddering and his speakers crackled. It took a minute to realize that he was laughing. “Amused: I rather think you’ve overthought this, sir.”

Humi smirked, tapping the tube against her palm. “I think so, yeah. You don’t gotta worry, Heyu, you’re already way better than the last person I cared about. She never cooked for me, or bought me clothes, and she definitely never took me to see her parents.” Her smile softened. “I trust you.”

The smirk returned.

“Pops.”

Heyu choked. “Don’t--d-don’t call--oh gaia.”

Humi burst into giggles while Iota kept laughing, and soon Heyu’s own chuckles joined them.

Mecha watched from the shadows.

“What, you don’t like Pops? How about Papa?”

“Humi--”

“Dad?”

“I’m only twelve years older than you!”

“Daddy?”

Heyu wheezed, then shook his head and rustled her hair. “Keep this up and you’re grounded.”

“There’s no ground in space!”

They laughed again. It was a happy, cheerful moment amidst all the turmoil of the past few days, as Iota stood and pulled them into a hug, congratulating them. Humi took the chance to show off her mech to Iota, with Heyu chiming in, and Heyu demonstrated his new shoes, and they were all happy and loving and… and… distracted.

Mecha, slowly, lowered his gun.

They were distracted. Now would be the perfect time to catch them by surprise. Take the Emerald. Eliminate the Doctor’s enemies. Do something right… but it felt wrong instead. It would be ruining this moment.

“Does this mean I should call Angora Granny?”

“I would love to see you do that. Iota, you’re on picture duty.”

“No no, wait. Grangora!”

“Perfect.”

“Suggestion: Grandevon.”

“Hah!”

Mecha stepped away, folding his weapon back up. This was too much. He couldn’t watch this any longer.

No longer caring about stealth, he charged his boosters and fled.

He’d done it again. He’d ruined his chance to succeed, to help the Doctor, to make his creator proud.

But the Doctor would never be proud, would he?

Something flipped, deep inside his processor.

Why did they get to have that when he couldn’t?

Mecha Sonic let out an electronic growl. He had a job to do.

He hoped they enjoyed their happy moment while it lasted.