Hop To It - Eclipse 10

[Shadow]

Doctor Eggman was causing a distraction while Rouge snuck into the prison base to find the Chaos Emeralds. From the chatter going on on their communication line, there were unexpected complications on both fronts, but they were handling it.

Shadow did not currently have anything to do. His job was to sneak into the armory to plant the explosive that would destroy the island once they were done, but that had taken him mere minutes. Now, he was back in the jungle, killing time. He’d never seen so much green before. Before, his exposure to plants had been test specimens and the carefully cultivated farm modules on the ARK. The wild was only ever a concept before. They’d always wanted to see it, and now that he was here--

Well. It was almost a shame it was all going up in flames soon. But it would be worth it once he was done.

The communicator hissed, and Shadow held it up closer to his ear.

“This is Rouge. I’ve got a small problem…”

Rouge. Shadow didn’t know what to make of Rouge. Eggman, he understood; he was like Gerald in a lot of ways, especially during the last days… But Rouge was a mystery to him. He was still getting used to the idea of encountering animal people like himself, but more than that she was a personality he didn’t know how to handle.

“I can’t believe that I’m trapped inside this locked safe with a Chaos Emerald! I guess I won’t be able to call myself a treasure hunter anymore.”

Rouge was trapped? And the bomb was set to go off in ten minutes. How unfortunate. And she had the Chaos Emerald! Useless. Couldn’t she escape?

Well, tough. The Emeralds were borderline indestructible. Once the base was destroyed he’d easily be able to retrieve it without G.U.N. interference. If Rouge wasn’t able to get to safety, it was her own fault.

…

Nine minutes and forty seconds now. He would have to really push himself to get to her and then back to the pickup point before the bomb went off. It would take a lot of effort to save her. Almost more than was worth it.

But he could save her. And if he could save someone… If he actually could…

Shadow groaned. “Ah, shoot… Troublemaker!” He turned and ran.

He was on the other side of the island, which meant he couldn’t afford to tarry, and a sudden cloudburst made navigating through the rain… annoying. As Shadow went, part of him noted the wooden torches and constructed platforms. Was this island inhabited before G.U.N. came along? He couldn’t imagine the ugly industrial military would be responsible for the tribal aesthetic. Knowing G.U.N., they probably wiped out the natives when they moved in. One more reason to return the favor to them…

“Hey!”

Shadow skidded to a halt, twisting to find the source of the voice. And it was… someone he knew.

“That blue hedgehog again, of all places…”

The other hedgehog glared at him. “I’ve found you, faker!”

Faker? Faker? Shadow was almost certain he had seniority here. “Faker? I think you’re the fake hedgehog around here.” He smirked. “You’re not even good enough to be my fake.” Comparing himself to Shadow? It is to laugh.

“I’ll make you eat those words!” The blue hedgehog jumped at him.

Shadow met the attack with one of his own. Something about this guy… something about him… really ticked him off. He couldn’t quite figure it out. Was it that overconfident smile? The unkempt, windswept quills? The audacity of copying so much of Shadow’s… everything? The energy inside him roiled as they clashed. Just standing next to this faker made him angry.

For some reason, he thought of his early education with Professor Gerald. Something to do with magnets, and how like poles would repel each other.

Whatever it was, his annoying doppelganger was fast, and he didn’t need air shoes to do it. But while Shadow might have needed a little more energy than he expected to dodge attacks, he was also stronger overall. When he hit the other hedgehog, he could tell it hurt.

They clashed once more, and the impact threw them both away. They faced each other, panting, and Shadow wiped a bit of perspiration from his face. “So… Your name was… Sonic, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” he agreed, grinning. “And you must be the guy dragging my name through the mud!” Sonic leaned out of his combat stance, taking a relaxed posture that Shadow could only interpret as an insult. “And since you know my name, it’s only fair you tell me yours.”

Shadow’s eyes narrowed. Before he could respond, however, his walkie-talkie hissed.

“Shadow!” Eggman shouted. “What are you doing? Hurry and get back here right now before the island blows up with you on it!”

Sonic’s eyes widened. “Blows up?!”

Shadow cursed himself. He forgot about Rouge!

There was no time to waste. There was less than no time!

Not wasting any further time on Sonic, Shadow turned and fled towards the prison. He wasn’t going to fail this time!

The jungle vanished around him, replaced with gunmetal gray. He streaked through the facility at speeds even he had a hard time comprehending, using his sixth sense to find the Emerald--and through it, Rouge.

He broke through the door with a boom. Rouge jumped, shocked by the sudden entrance.

“Wha--Shadow!”

“You have the Emeralds?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said, holding them both up, “But how did you--”

There wasn’t time. Shadow grabbed Rouge and the Emeralds. He took one in hand. “Chaos… Control!”

The world turned white, and they both fell onto grass next to Eggman, who barked in surprise.

“There you two are! Cutting it close, don’t you think?!”

“No time. Take us back,” Shadow commanded.

The Doctor grumbled, but acquiesced. The Eggwalker’s legs folded up as it began to float away, and Shadow jumped onto it, still holding Rouge.

They flew away, and the island erupted around them.

Shadow allowed himself to relax, just slightly, as Prison Island was destroyed. G.U.N. lost, horrifically, and he certainly enjoyed watching it happen. But more importantly…

Rouge wriggled out of his grip, taking a seat on the Egg Mobile next to him. She looked a little shaken, like she was just realizing what had almost happened to her.

But it didn’t happen, because he didn’t let it. He saved her.

Shadow closed his eyes and took the ride back to the desert in contented silence.

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

[Heyu]

The ARK, for all that it had gone fifty years without any kind of maintenance, was looking pretty good. Sure, there were some spots of rust, dents here and there, scuff marks from footsteps long past, but nothing that looked recent. It was almost like it was frozen in time at the moment it was abandoned. All in all, it was in remarkably good shape.

“Heh,” I snickered to myself.

Humi looked up at me. “Hm?”

“RemARKably good shape.”

“What?”

“Nevermind.”

Neither of us were paying much attention to the space station though, since for all that it was still a phenomenal work of engineering, nothing inside could beat the view on the outside.

When we teleported in we ended up on a bridge of some sort; that is, a room with a bunch of dials and buttons that looked important. Without any way to know what they were for, I decided it was best to leave it alone. The ARK, I forget the term for what it was, but it was essentially a disk of metal several kilometers across, sandwiched between two hemispheres of rock. Captured asteroids pounded into the correct shape to make the whole thing look like a walnut from the outside, if I remembered correctly. The fact that the Space Colony ARK was built within a single lifetime astounds me still.

It wasn’t even a very long walk out of the bridge that we found a hallway on the circumference of the colony, and the view was just…

“It’s really pretty…” Humi said, hushed.

“It is.” The Earth spun gently below us. The ARK’s current position was above the solar terminator--the place where twilight is happening. To one side we could see the continents and ocean, and on the other city lights illuminated the surface. The moon was peeking out from behind the globe. And oh god, the stars.

“I wonder if this is what a religious experience feels like,” I said idly. I tore my eyes off the universe to look at my small slice of it, and blinked at the way Humi was shaking. “You okay, packrat? Humi?”

“...This is… really high up, isn’t it?” She sounded so small.

I clicked my tongue. “Don’t worry, I gotcha.” I hauled her up into my arms and walked away from the window. “You know--” being in orbit means that we’re constantly falling and missing the Earth, I started saying, before realizing that that probably wouldn’t help. “--the ARK has been flying for fifty years without anyone even on board. It’s not going to fall any time soon.”

“Are you sure?”

“Positive. But let’s explore a little further in, shall we?” I took the first turn that led deeper into the station. The ARK was mostly undecorated. Very utilitarian, not a single inch wasted… at least, not near the edge. But as we walked deeper into the complex, things got a little more comfortable. I suppose with more distance from the vacuum of space, the former residents were able to get more comfortable.

“Hey, a map.”

I paused, following Humi’s pointing finger. I almost missed it because it was faded heavily, but the word MAP was still emblazoned readably at the top.

“...Huh,” I said, squinting at it. “I guess it’s not a disk after all. Humi, do you--ah, thank you.”

Humi pulled out a flashlight for us and lit the map. I hadn’t realized how dark it was until that moment, but anyway. It turned out the ARK was much bigger than I thought, extending deep into the stony asteroid rather than just sitting between them. Just one, it seemed, the other hemisphere wasn’t portrayed.

“Let’s see… We are here…” I put a finger on the map, and traced a path. “...and the residential areas are over here…”

“There’s a lot of unused space,” Humi noted. “Look, the core of the meteor--”

“Asteroid.”

“--is totally untouched. If I were the one building this place, I’d carve out the center first because it’d be the safest place to build.”

I tilted my head, nodding. “It’s odd, certainly. It’s a very regularly-shaped space they’ve ignored, too… maybe a structural thing?”

“Maybe.”

We kept walking. Despite the craziness of the current situation, I was feeling pretty good about things. For the moment, we were far away from anything that could hurt us, I had Humi back, she was in my arms… And the view had been lovely. The faint hum of machinery was soothing, too…

“Heyu?”

I shook myself. “Huh?”

“You started listing,” Humi pointed out, and I realized I’d drifted pretty close to the wall.

“Oh. Sorry.” I corrected myself and kept going. I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for; I guess I was playing the tourist right now. I… already didn’t remember what direction I picked. Did North and South even matter here? Probably not.

Something crinkled underfoot, and I paused. I took a step back, and we both looked at a crumpled sheet of paper with a boot print on it. Not mine from just now, it had the wrong pattern. I picked it up and turned it over.

A childish, but rather well-done portrait of a young blonde girl stared back at us. Blue eyes, blue dress. Human. There was a paw print done in paint in one corner.

“...” Humi pulled one of her gloves off and pressed her hand against the print; hers was smaller, but not by much, and it was the same shape.

“There must have been a Mobian on board at some point,” I said. “A young one, too.” Most Mobians wore gloves, but sometimes you saw young ones without them, especially if they were in the middle of a growth spurt. It was just easier to wait until their growth slowed down instead of buying a new pair every month.

I turned it back over to look at the boot print. Then I folded the drawing up and tucked it into one of my pouches. That done, I looked around and settled on one door in particular.

Yawning, I pushed it open and we took in the room. It was about the size of my old apartment, with an on-suite bathroom and kitchen. Two beds. It was decorated for a child… but only barely. Humi squirmed until I dropped her, and she immediately scampered towards an abandoned toy chest.

She pulled out a power drill. “Look at this!”

I blinked rapidly. “...Why is there a drill in the toy chest?”

“There’s lots of stuff like that in here,” she said, pulling out a wrench next. She frowned and pulled her own wrench out of her pocket. “These are quality tools, too.” Humi looked in the chest again and gasped. She dove in and came back up holding something that was almost, but not quite, a shoe.

It was the right shape, and it was hollow, but it had no padding or laces or anything, just some elastic straps. It couldn’t be called a sandal because it covered the toes. More like a slipper. And it was also covered in loose wires and what appeared to be a miniaturized air pump. Lots of holes on the bottom.

“It almost looks like an Air Shoe…” Humi mused. Then she blinked and gently set the contraption aside and fished around in one of her pockets. “I almost forgot!”

“Hm?” I sat down on one of the beds. I winced, and pulled a black quill out from under my tail. “Huh.”

“Just before Mecha Sonic grabbed me, Mrs. Angie took me to the Extreme Gear shop.”

“Oh right. That seems so long ago.” I leaned back and folded my arms across my stomach. “Hard to believe that was… uh, yesterday.” My eyes were so heavy.

Uh oh. I think I relaxed a little too much…

“And I decided,” Humi said from very far away, “that since you’ve done so much for me, I should do something for you too, so I spent some rings and got you… Heyu?”

My eyes closed, and I couldn’t make myself open them again.

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

[Humi]

Humi hurried over when Heyu didn’t respond. “Heyu?”

“...zzzzz…”

“Wow.” Humi huffed. She knew he was tired, but couldn’t he have waited until after she gave him her gift?

Oh well. She set the Air Shoes next to him so he’d see them once he woke up. Then, Humi thought better of it and just attached them to his shoes herself. The Grind Shoe mod snapped into place magnetically, then with a soft pop and a glow they were applied.

That was so cool. Once this was over, she needed to take a pair apart to figure out how they worked.

…

Humi turned to look at the Not Quite Air Shoe, but ultimately dismissed it. It looked way too incomplete… like something Humi would build if she was pressed for time, actually.

She climbed up on the other bed and settled in. And waited.

And waited.

…and waited…

…She wasn’t sleepy. She slept last night already! Not for very long, but enough! But Heyu really needed a nap.

…It suddenly sank in for Humi that she was on a space station that had once been run by mad scientists. Who knew what kind of stuff was around? And the Y-Nought needed plenty of upgrades if she wanted it to stop falling apart.

Humi grinned.

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

[Amy]

“Sonic, can you tilt starboard for a few minutes?”

“Sure thing, buddy!” Sonic’s hands hovered over the controls, and his smile slipped. “Uh…”

“To the right. Lean to the right.”

“I knew that.” Sonic turned the steering wheel, and the Cyclone tilted right. He flipped a switch that adjusted the wing flaps so it kept flying straight instead of turning. “That good?”

“Perfect! Hold it like that!”

“Tails, can’t you wait until we’re on the ground before you make repairs to the plane?” Amy asked plaintively.

“It’s fine,” Tails insisted, carefully adjusting a bolt in the wing strut. “And I have to do it now because once we get to Central City we’re going to be on the run again. The Cyclone needs to be at 100% right away!”

Something went clunk inside the machine.

“What was that?!” Amy yelped.

“Sounds like the T-cog just slipped,” Tails murmured. “Amy, can you scooch?”

“No!”

Tails tsked and climbed into the passenger seat, practically into Amy’s lap. She spluttered as his tails fluttered in her face before he detached something and crawled into the inner mechanisms of the plane. 

“Tails!” she shouted, spitting fur.

“Relax, Ames, Tails knows what he’s doing,” Sonic assured her. Though she didn’t miss the way he looked over his shoulder at where Tails disappeared to. “Hey, Tails, can I level out now?”

Came the muffled reply, “Yeah, that’s fine!”

Amy let out a sigh of relief as the plane righted itself. Casting about for any distraction, she said, “Sonic, I didn’t know you could fly a plane.”

Sonic laughed. “Didn’t you know? The Tornado was my plane to begin with!”

“Really?” Amy asked, surprised. “I always figured Tails found it crashed somewhere and fixed it up.”

“He did! I was the one who crashed it.”

For a few tense seconds, the only sound was the rushing wind and Tails tinkering inside the plane.

“Not because I was bad at flying it,” Sonic suddenly added. “The engine stalled mid-flight. I was just lucky I was over an island when it happened.”

“Oh,” Amy said, exhaling. “...Speaking of the engine--”

“I got it!” Tails called, and the engine started back up. Amy hadn’t even noticed when it stopped. He popped back up and clicked something into place. “I’ve done all I can for now. We might have to find some parts when we land, but it should be up to snuff now.” His ears fell. “I’m afraid I won’t be able to install that missile launcher I… borrowed, until then.”

“Oh no. Anyway,” Amy said, pushing his tails out of her face again. “Can you get off me?”

“Oh, sorry.”

“Why are we heading back to Central City anyway?” Amy asked. “All three of us are wanted now, wouldn’t it be better to stay away from civilization for a while?”

“If that was the only problem, yeah,” Sonic said, gripping the controls tightly. “But Eggman is up to something, and that fake hedgehog gives me the creeps. We gotta be ready for when they make their move.”

Amy nodded reluctantly. Being a criminal wasn’t really on her bingo card, but… well, maybe she should have thought the whole rescuing Sonic thing through a bit more. “Do we have anywhere to stay?”

“My lab in Emerald Town isn’t far from Central,” Tails suggested. “But, it’s probably surrounded by now…” He hummed. “Maybe we can find Heyu and Humi. They’re supposed to be in Central City right now.”

“Actually, I ran into Heyu in the desert,” Amy said. “He helped me sneak onto the island!”

Tails blinked. “That doesn’t sound like something he would do.”

“I know, right?”

“So… they’re not in the city, then.” Tails couldn’t hide his disappointment at that.

“Aw, don’t worry Tails, there’ll be time to see them after all this,” Amy promised. “I bet Humi’s just as eager to see you again, too.”

“You think?”

“Probably won’t have to wait that long,” Sonic said, amused. “I may not know her too well, but that girl’s got spunk. I bet she won’t be far behind us. But anyway,” he continued, “We’ll figure something out. Hey, I can see the shore from here. Tails, you want to take over? I don’t know how to land this thing.”

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

[G.U.N.]

Captain Bart “Buster” Bunker tapped his fingers against his chair, agitated.

Sonic was in custody for less than twelve hours before escaping, aided by Miles Prower and Amy Rose. Now, literal children were wanted by the law. Sonic was already pushing it as a teenager, but Prower? According to his sources Prower was eight.

And now he was looking at a mockup for a wanted poster calling for him to be turned in dead or alive.

Even if Julie hadn’t already brought his attention to this fishy business, Buster would still be second-guessing himself over a child being on the most-wanted list. Some cynical part of him, the part that had been created by his years of military service, suggested that Prower’s loyalty to Sonic could be the hedgehog taking advantage of an impressionable youth… but he couldn’t make himself actually believe it.

And all of that was totally ignoring the fact that Doctor Eggman had attacked and destroyed Prison Island. Punji was apoplectic.

“That rat bastard! That freak of nature! How dare he!”

“Yes, Spike, I know. I was there.” Evacuations were a nightmare; so much equipment left behind in order to save more lives. Not to mention the prisoners. Soldiers were naturally prioritized, so not all the prisoners made it out. That was going to be a public relations nightmare no matter how they spun it; some people would question why they bothered saving the criminals at all while the other half would blame them for not being able to save them all.

“I’m going to beat him black and blue!” Punji shouted over the phone. “He’s making a fool of me, Bunker; I spend weeks assaulting his base, and when I finally leave for lack of drones, he shows up and takes the island out all on his lonesome? That, that… absolute… unbalanced breakfast!”

Buster snorted, though he had the wherewithal to cover the receiver first. “Spike, calm down. Remember your blood pressure.”

“Hmph.” Punji took a moment to catch his breath. When he next spoke, he was still seething, but at least he was quiet. “Do you need backup, Bunker? I can get Palisade on the line, she’s taken the least hits of any of us. ‘Course, the way things are going, we might need to dig into the big stuff…”

Buster sighed. “Thanks, but I’ll get in touch myself. You enjoy your leave while you still have the chance. I’ve got the feeling we’ll all be on call the next few days.”

“Roger. Let me know if anything else comes up. I need to find a new secretary, mine seems to have run off…”

“That wasn’t your secretary, that was--”

Punji hung up before Buster could finish, and he sighed. He dropped the phone and let it hang by its cord.

Currently, Captain Bunker and his men were crammed onto one of the larger outlying ships that had been surrounding Prison Island. It was one of two vessels that had survived the attack, and the other was a tugboat.

Eggman’s attack was a complete, unprecedented disaster. Bunker’s men all made it out, but they were running on next to no equipment and few supplies. Almost all of their drones were scrapped. Suffice to say that Buster’s division would be benched for the foreseeable future.

Still, there was one thing that came of all this. Sonic was seen escaping imprisonment, yes, but at the same time, there were witnesses among his platoon that gave an interesting report: a second hedgehog, black and red, running through the complex. One who seemed to know where he was going in a G.U.N. base.

It answered a few questions, and raised a few more, but Bunker had hope. Maybe, somehow, this whole thing was a huge misunderstanding.

“Corporal Canal, patch me in to Captain Palisade. I’ve got news she needs to hear.”

“Yes, Captain…” Canal reached for the comms, only to pause with her hands in the air. “Oh. Incoming transmission, sir. Marked urgent.”

Bunker’s lip twitched. “Play it, then.”

“Yessir.”

“...personnel, Sonic has escaped and destroyed Prison Island with the aid of Doctor Eggman. Lethal force is now authorized. Repeat: Attention all personnel, Sonic has escaped Prison Island with the aid of Doctor Eggman. Lethal force is now authorized. Repeat:...”

Bunker gaped. “What the hell? Corporal, what’s the source of that message?!”

Canal leaned into her screen. “It’s… direct from Central Command. On order of Major Citadel, sir.”

Buster’s eye twitched. “Get me Palisade right the hell now!”