Sonic Apocalypse

Chapter 19 - A Captive Hedgehog

Sonic had stumbled upon a structure that had been built onto the side of a mountain which had peaked his curiosity. He had wondered many things to himself upon making this discovery; "Could this be one of Eggman's facilities? If so, is it abandoned? This loser has gone through so many bases that I've lost count! Maybe there's some sort of civilization on this remote island after all. Well, whatever it is, it's better to be safe than sorry. Besides, Eggman's forces are ripping Mobius piece by piece at this very moment, and he is yet to be found. He's got to be inside of this building, he's just gotta!"

So Sonic very quietly and very carefully made his way into the mysterious facility, hoping that he had stumbled upon Eggman's base. Sonic crouched behind a wall as two robotic guards walked by. One stopped and turned towards Sonic and stared in that direction for a few seconds, then proceeded to walk away after not noticing anything.

Sonic brushed the sweat of his fur, "Phew! Thought they had me caught," he whispered, "but at least now I know for sure that this is Eggman's base. Either that or there's another madman out there building deadly robots. But I gotta go found him, find out just what the hell's he's been up to, and how."

Sonic sneakily tip toed throughout the base for a long time until he started to hear an oh so familiar voice, the voice of Sonic's longtime arch rival, and the architect behind Mobius's destruction, Dr. Eggman. Sonic currently couldn't make out what he was saying, so he leaned closer until Sonic could make out his dialogue. He viewed Eggman from a balcony looking over the laboratory that housed the research for the recently discovered Phantom Ruby.

"That's definitely Eggman," Sonic whispered, "and he seems to be looking at a gemstone of some sort...but it's not a Chaos Emerald. What the hell is that?"

Sonic leaned in for a closer look as Dr. Starline entered the room to converse with Eggman about the Ruby.

"Wait a sec, who is that? Another dork working for Eggman?"

"Any progress?" asked Starline regarding the Phantom Ruby's research.

"I still haven't pin pointed what type of power it's capable of," replied Eggman, "but there's one thing for certain: this stone is gonna give that futile rebellion no chance to see any sort of victory. Speaking of which, how is my conquest coming? I've been too busy researching this damn thing all day that I haven't had the time to witness the beautiful destruction of this planet."

"The Alliance is pretty occupied with our strongest forces sir", snickered Starline, "soon, they will tire as our numbers increase, they will be overwhelmed sir, they will die, sir." Starline struck a menacing smile.

Sonic slowly sat down and began to think heavily about what Starline had just said. "This is my fault," he had whispered, "I just knew this would wind up happening. I gotta finish Eggman and this Starline guy before things get worse."

Eggman looked over and squinted towards Sonic's direction, which confused Starline.

"Is something the matter, sir?" asked Starline.

"We're not alone," snarled Eggman, "and I know just who decided to show up."

Sonic grew increasingly angry and began to grit his teeth. He tried to jump off of the balcony overlooking Eggman but he was grabbed by Rough and Tumble from behind. Tumble grabbed a hold of Sonic and judo chopped him in the neck, rendering Sonic unconscious immediately on impact.

Tails was flying across the vast ocean for the past few hours and seemed to be lost, as he hadn't found any sort of land in quite some time.

"I've been flying back and forth across the damn ocean for hours at this point," whined Tails, "and my scanners aren't picking up any sort of readings." Tails punched his radar in frustration and impatience, "Where the fuck am I?!"