Across the Rift (SNT X Rookie/Gizmo)

Chapter 12: Impulsive Hedgehogs

At Tails' workshop, Tails and SNT are talking about Rookie's Dimension while Sonic listens. "My counterpart really did well upgrading your watch SNT." Tails said tinkering with it. "Sounds like this other you is just as smart as the original!" Sonic complimented. Tails smiled. "Thanks Sonic." Sonic leaned against the wall while looking at Tails' progress. "So when do ya think I can get one of those? I'd love to have a brand new place to explore." "Oh I've already planned the schematics for everyone else's watches. Each one is going to have a different design so we can tell them apart." Tails said. "Does that mean mine's going to look different now?" SNT asked Tails. "Nah. I like the design I made for it." "But it just looks like an ordinary communicator." "Exactly! Subtle, but you can still tell it has more functions than the usual one." Tails hands SNT her watch back. SNT puts on the watch. "Should I go get my communicator for you Tails?" Sonic asked pointing towards the door. "You don't have to Sonic. The communicators have gotten outdated. SNT has the latest version." "But it still functions perfectly fine?" "Oh please that old thing? Trust me these ones are much better." Tails fiddled with SNT's watch.
A hologram appeared of Tails' workshop. Sonic and SNT looked in amazement. "With these ones, your now able to see a map to everywhere you've gone. But it can't tell you where you are when you go to new places. You'll have to manually map that out." Tails said. "Sounds like an adventure to me! When do you think you'll have mine done buddy?" Sonic asked. "Shouldn't take long. Except if you want the Dimension hopping capabilities." Tails calculated. Sonic groaned. "I'll have it done before you know it!" SNT turned off the hologram. "Now that we have all that settled, SNT would like to go on a date with me?" Sonic blushed slightly. "You do have to map out this whole island manually. You two can have an adventure date!" Tails backed Sonic up. "I'm flattered but I'm going to have to decline." Sonic was devastated. "But why!" He shouted. "Because I just see you as my friend, and I'm already dating someone." The room was silent as awkwardness filled the room. Tails decided to change the subject before Sonic says something stupid. "Let's raid Eggman's base!" He blurted the first thing that came to his mind. Sonic and SNT stared at Tails in confusion. "I uh.. need new robot parts." Tails said shyly. "An excuse to fight Egghead, count me in!" Sonic quipped. "I don't think that's a good idea. Besides, we're in the middle of something right now." SNT said. "Don't worry about it SNT I'm over it!" Sonic brushed it off. "Really? That's good! I would still like to be your friend." "Really? I didn't expect you to move on so quickly Sonic. You've had a crush on her s-" Sonic put his hand in front of Tails. "I'll tell you later pal." He mumbled "Shadow told me he was going to Eggman's base to get his Chaos Emerald back. He said Eggman took it in an ambush." SNT informed the two. "Sounds like we better beat him to it!" Sonic grinned.

Sonic, Tails, and SNT arrive at Eggman's base. A tall tower with security cameras all over. However, there were blinds spots all around. The three stood in front off Eggman's front door. "Let's sneak in through the-" SNT was cut off by Sonic busting down the big metal door and charging in. Tails followed along. Eggman's security system activated and a bunch of robots stormed the room. Sonic and Tails started destroying them as more robots flooded the room. Sonic noticed SNT wasn't inside the base. "SNT cmon! You're gonna miss out on all the fun!" "Something seems off about this." SNT waited for something to happen while Sonic and Tails continued battling. "Trying to get my Chaos Emerald Shadow?" Eggman's voice was broadcasted through a speaker. "Shadow?" SNT questioned. She saw Shadow destroying robots looking irritated. None of them even noticed Shadow was there at all. "I'll let them distract Eggman while get the Emerald." She flew towards the roof.
Sonic and Tails finally noticed Shadow.
"Shadow? When did you get here?" Sonic asked before spin dashing at a group of Eggpawns. Shadow chucked a Motobug towards Sonic. "Ahh!" Sonic dodged the attack. "Hey!" "I was here first. I didn't plan to make myself known until you three blew my cover!" Shadow slowly walked towards Sonic and Tails. Tails chuckled nervously. "Speaking of which, where is SNT?" Shadow asked before punching another Motobug. Sonic looked at the front entrance to see she was missing. "She must've gone to the second floor. Oh! Well now that she's gone I can tell Tails how I'm gonna win her back!" Shadow charged at Sonic. "No you won't! She's clearly into me more!" Shadow started punching. "Uh guys? Now's not the time to fight each other." Tails said. He started flying and pulled out a laser gun before started firing at the Badniks. Shadow threw Sonic at Tails. Sonic crashed into Tails and the two hit a wall. Sonic and Tails were disoriented while Badniks surrounded the two. Shadow destroyed all of the Eggbots in one quick flash. "Seeing as how you have to win her back." Shadow grinned. "I'm going to ask SNT out on a date."
Shadow walked away towards the staircase leading to the next room before Sonic ran towards him. "I won't let you!" Shadow block Sonic's attack. "She's going to reject you anyways! I'm saving you the trouble of getting rejected." Sonic kicked his leg up. Shadow dodged and tripped Sonic. Sonic dodged Shadow's incoming punch. Sonic stood back up. "What makes you think I would believe that!" Shadow shouted. Tails started to make his way towards the two before Shadow kicked him away. "She's dating someone Shadow!"
SNT was at the roof and saw a skylight. She tried to break through it but it didn't break. It kept bending before pushing her hand back causing her to accidentally punch herself. "Plexiglass." She mumbled angrily. "There must be another way to get in here." She looked around the base to see if there was any entrances made. SNT noticed that the blinds spots around Eggman's base had signs showing security cameras were in those spots before something happened to them. She followed the trail while avoiding detection. She found an open window on the third floor with smoke coming out of it. She hopped inside and saw what was causing the smoke. It was a security robot that would've alerted Eggman of SNT's presence if Shadow didn't already destroy it. "Huh. This lab hasn't change one bit. Except it's missing something. I could've sworn there was a robot copy of Sonic discarded here." She looked around to see if she missed it. She shrugged. "Must've scrapped it. Now how do I map this area?" She opened up the holographic map and it slowly started showing the room she was in. SNT went upstairs towards the control room while mapping out Eggman's base just in case. When she reached the control room, she quickly hid out of sight from Eggman. "Ohohoho! Those fools have no idea that there's a trap waiting for them! As soon as they walk up those stairs, they'll be goners!" Eggman gloated to himself. SNT saw Eggman's finger hovering over a flashing red button. The button was connected to a bunch of wires that went outside the room. SNT was standing right next to them. "Now what was it that Tails said about deactivating traps?" SNT tried to remember what he said. She then recalled it. "Right! Snap all the wires! The trap can't work if the connection's gone."
She swiped her tails and cut all of the wires. She looked back into the room to see the button stopped flashing red. Eggman was too invested watching Sonic and Shadow bicker to notice it. SNT started looking for Shadow's Chaos Emerald. Running around the metal hallways, mapping more of the base, she looked through different rooms until she found the Chaos Emerald. It was encased in a glass cover and there were six empty glass cases around it. She entered the room before a security camera spotted her. "SNT! Thought you could hide from me!" Eggman spoke through the camera. "Eep!" SNT punched the glass case, grabbed the Chaos Emerald and went in front of the security camera making a silly face before destroying it. She bolted out of the room and headed towards the lab and hopped out the window. Eggman was furious by her escape. "Time to bring out the big guns!"
Shadow was devastated. "You're lying!" "He's not. I mean I thought it was obvious? Why else would she be so invested to help me make cross-dimensional travel?" Tails said "I don't know? Cause she's as smart as you and wanted to help." Sonic said. "Well I wouldn't call her that smart." Tails commented. "Who is she dating?" Shadow asked. Sonic looked at him and noticed Shadow was furious. "Woah Shadow calm down bud!" Sonic walked towards him slowly. "Tell me! Or I'll find them myself!" Shadow yelled. "We can still win her back fair and square, there's no need to do anything rash." Sonic walked closer to Shadow. "And how do we do that!?" Shadow yelled. Tails looked back to see if Eggman could hear them. He saw the stairs open up revealing a spike pit. "Nice try Eggman." The two-tailed fox laughed to himself. "We just gotta show her that we're better than them." Sonic waved his hand, dismissing Shadow's concerns. Sonic turned his attention to Tails. "Tails you know who they are right?" Tails knew it was best not to get involved in this. "I have no idea Sonic." He shrugged his shoulders.
SNT flew down at the entrance. Everyone looked at the door. "Let's get out of here!" She waved the Chaos Emerald in her hand. They all ran out of the base as Eggman sent out two robots. Tails looked up and recognized them. "Guys, we've got a big fight ahead of us." Sonic and Shadow looked above them before dodging an attack. SNT looked to see who they were up against. She saw the missing metal robot in the lab and an exact replica of Shadow. "Wait? Two Shadows?" She asked. "It's a Shadow Android. A robot made by Eggman that has the exact same skill set as the real one." Tails explained. The two hedgehogs started battling their robot doubles. "Metal Sonic! Done disobeying your master?" Sonic teased. Metal Sonic gave an angry expression and slashed its claws towards Sonic. Sonic spindashed and hit Metal Sonic back. "Seems like Omega missed one android." Shadow and his robot counterpart kicked at the same time, blocking each other's attack. "I'll finish the job for it then." The android replied. "I'll help Sonic, you help Shadow!" SNT told Tails. "What! Why do I have to help Shadow!" "Because I can't tell him and the robot apart." She went to help Sonic. Tails sighed. "As if getting hit by Shadow once wasn't bad enough." He flew to assist Shadow.
Sonic and Metal Sonic had their hands clashing, trying to push the other. SNT interrupted and kicked Metal Sonic. "SNT! Here to watch me win?" "I'm here to help." Metal Sonic got back up. It held a Chaos Emerald in front of the two and put it in its chest. SNT looked in her bag to see if she still had her two Chaos Emeralds, She did. SNT grabbed the two Emeralds and looked at Sonic. "It's fine. I can g-" She was cut off by Metal knocking her away. SNT was barely able to keep the Emeralds from flying out of her hand. "How dare you!" Sonic turned to Metal Sonic and went to hit him. Metal Sonic dodged and punched Sonic. It then grabbed Sonic by his neck.
Shadow and the Shadow Android were fighting in the air, while Tails watched to see which one was the real Shadow. Shadow was knocked back and Tails caught him. Tails flew to attack the other Shadow before he shouted "Wrong one!" And put his hands in front of his face. Tails stopped before the other Shadow hit him to the ground with both fists. "Idiot!" The other Shadow said. Shadow went to hit the other Shadow. He missed his attack and Tails warned of an incoming attack. Shadow dodged in time. The robot double looked over at Metal Sonic and went to assist. Tails grabbed Shadow's hands and flew him towards the robot double. "I can use my air shoes Y'know." Shadow commented. "Right. It's just you and Sonic fight the same way so. Great minds think alike you know?" Tails let go of Shadow. "Thanks." Shadow mundanely said. He flew to the android. The android turned around and went into a defensive position. Shadow started rapidly punching the android, trying to break its guard. "Now what makes you think you can defeat the ultimate lifeform?" The Shadow Android said. The Android was suddenly shut off and fell to the ground. Tails was behind the Android and shut it off. He was holding a usb looking device. "Overrides the electronics." He explained to Shadow. The two of them flew down and stood in front of the disabled Shadow Android. "More Eggtech to disassemble. This is going to be fun! I can't wait to-" Shadow took off an inhibitor ring off of his hand and punched the Androids head. The whole body shattered into a million pieces and Tails was blown back. "What was that for!" Tails sat up. "Taking out my anger." Shadow put his inhibitor ring back on.
SNT ran towards Metal Sonic and swiped her tails. Metal Sonic let go of Sonic. Sonic used a homing attack and SNT did the same. Metal Sonic slashed towards the two. "Let's finish off this hunk of junk!" Sonic said to SNT. SNT opened her bag and gave one Chaos Emerald to Sonic. They both curled up into a ball and spindashed towards Metal Sonic. Metal Sonic caught SNT but couldn't stop Sonic and got sent back. SNT then used a homing attack to deal the finishing blow. Metal Sonic's eyes flashed a little bit before turning off. "Hah! Eggman's greatest creation? More like Eggman's greatest piece of garbage!" Sonic kicked Metal Sonic away. Shadow and Tails rejoined the two of them. Shadow held out his hand. SNT gave him her Chaos Emerald. "Wait Metal Sonic had a Chaos Emerald!" Sonic facepalmed. The four of them looked over to see Metal Sonic get rushed back into Eggman's base by two Eggpawns. Shadow sighed. "We'll get them another time. We already got what we came for." "So SNT? How did we look?" Sonic put his arm around Shadow, and Shadow was a little annoyed by that. "You two fought well like you always have." S said. "Yes! I told you Shadow! Don't doubt my plan!" Sonic grabbed Shadow's hand and forced a fist bump. "Now let's celebrate with some chili dogs! Last one there's a rotten egg!" Sonic bolted off. "I'm good." Shadow started walking away. "What's the matter? Too slow." SNT teased. "Heh. Oh yeah?" Shadow turned back at SNT. He readied himself to run. "Race ya." He ran towards the same direction as Sonic and SNT followed. "Ugh Sonic. You're making a fool of yourself if you actually think your plan is working." Tails thought to himself before joining the rest of them in the race.