Throw It All Away

Suspicion

  When I arrived at the base, which was hidden inside of a pyramid, the Doctor was just entering the control room. Judging by how he looked, things did not go as planned, but I decided not to ask, since he would probably let me know in due time.

  The Doctor stormed past me straight to the computer, where he began pulling up various files. A few moments later, the screen flashed with an incoming call from Rouge, which was answered immediately.

  "Hi Doctor, how's it going?" she asked.

  He replied curtly. "They escaped."

  "What?! What do you mean they escaped?"

  "They stole one of my rockets and are on their way to the ARK." he explained, obviously annoyed.

  "That's OK. I'll go after them myself." Rouge said in a cocksure tone. "So then, can you tell me the password for the space colony control?"

  "M-A-R-I-A. Maria." the Doctor emphasized.

  I swore I heard Rouge giggle before communications were cut, increasing my distrust in her. Why did she need access to the space colony control, anyway? The Doctor didn't seem to care, though, as he began searching through files again. 

  I watched as the time slowly decreased. Two hours until cannon fire. One and a half hours. One. The Doctor pulled up a security camera to check how things were going on the ARK, and was greeted by a video of Sonic and his crew standing in one of the halls.

  "Wasn't Rouge supposed to stop them?"

  "What's Rouge up to, anyway?" the Doctor voiced my question as he pulled up another tab on the screen. "This is strange. It's showing energy readings from two separate Chaos Emeralds!"

  "Two?" I questioned inwardly. "With six already in the Eclipse Cannon, that would mean..."

  The Doctor chuckled as he stroked his mustache. "Do they really think they can trick me with a fake Emerald?"

  "So, something happened to distract Rouge, and Sonic is formulating some kind of plan." I began walking towards the exit. "Nothing can be allowed to stop the plan from proceeding!"

  "Wait, Shadow!" I was stopped by the Doctor. "I'm the one who should be telling them the end is near, not you!"

  I paused and thought about his words, then silently agreed.

  "Now is the time to end this long drawn-out battle, and mark myself a place in history as the ultimate genius!" he announced as he climbed into his machine. "If something happens to me, I'm counting on you to finish the job."

  He then stepped onto the transporter and was warped into space, leaving me, yet again, alone. I watched as the teleportation field wore off, then turned my attention to the screen that the Doctor had left. It was a map of the space colony, but it was focused on a certain room where two Chaos Emeralds were detected.

  "That must be quite the fake Emerald if it can trick the scanners." I mused, then started exploring the computer. "While I'm here, I might as well find out how the government is getting information about us."

  After some searching, I discovered a file had been opened about an hour ago with the name "Project Shadow". All the data had been copied and sent to the government, and something told me it wasn't the Doctor who did it.

  "So there is a spy!"

  An open window caught my attention, and I pulled it up. It seemed to be a video taken a few minutes ago in the central control room on the ARK. I watched as Sonic entered the room and walked up to the Eclipse Cannon, holding a Chaos Emerald. He was talking to someone on his watch, and was about to put the Emerald into the machine when he froze. Sonic then started yelling at his watch before rushing from the room.

  "Something's going on up there." I concluded, then checked the time. "A little less than half an hour, huh? Guess I should be heading up around now anyway."

  I pressed a button on the control panel, activating the teleporter, then stepped inside the circle. The Doctor must not have perfected the transporter, because I soon found myself floating in space a few feet away from the ARK. I grabbed onto the side of the station to prevent myself from floating away, then teleported to the inside.

  Now in one of the many hallways, I started walking. Commotion down the hall caught my attention, and I made my way over to an open door. Checking inside, I found that Sonic was slowly approaching the Doctor, holding the Chaos Emerald I had seen with him in the video. As soon as he reached the middle of the room, however, a capsule fell on top of him, trapping him.

  I backed away from the door and started down the hall again, confident that the Doctor knew what he was doing. As I continued walking, the lights in the hall suddenly turned red. I froze and looked around, then closed my eyes. When I looked again, the hallway was normal, causing my sudden increase in heart rate to calm down. 

  Looking ahead to see how far the hallway went, and finding it much longer than I would have liked, I frowned and thought, "I can't deal with this."

  I quickly teleported to the research lab, avoiding a long walk, then casually looked out of the window, wondering if Sonic would be able to escape the capsule. He'd have to be quite the hedgehog to do so, but, from my experiences with him, he could possibly do it.

  My peripherals saw the capsule get ejected from the ARK, then I watched as it plummeted towards earth. It was a familiar scene for me, but I pushed away my thoughts of the past. I spotted Sonic inside, but only for a second, since the capsule was suddenly surrounded in a blinding light, then it exploded.

  "I guess he was just a regular hedgehog after all." I said to myself as I turned away from the window, knowing there was nothing more to see.