Sonic Apocalypse

Chapter 42 - Imprisoned

Following their upsetting defeat at the hands of Infinite, Knuckles, Amy, Big, Cream and the Rogue's were placed in a small and cramped penitentiary as they awaited orders from Eggman. The orders being a decision on whether or not they'd become slaves who would partake in countless hours of labour under the Empire, or if they'd become one of Eggman's personal prisoners, much like Sonic. The personal prisoners would be people who have peeved Eggman so much to the point where he would want to see them brutally tortured, the ones who would become slaves mean next to nothing to Eggman, and therefore can just work for him, seeing as they're just disposable and hardly even a threat anyway.

"Whelp...this sucks." complained Jet as he kicked a nearby can.

"And to think that we came so close to actually getting somewhere." groaned Amy. "Only to get our asses beat by...whatever that thing was. What was that thing?"

"How are we supposed to know?" asked Knuckles sarcastically. "We've never seen anything like it before, and I know for a damn fact that it's still out there wrecking havoc."

"The real question is how we beat him." wondered Cream. "These guys all have a weakness of some sort, and if we can figure that out, we have a chance in besting him."

"That's wishful thinking, Cream." said Wave who rested her elbow on the cell door bars with her hand underneath her chin.

"Yeah, how are we supposed to figure out its weakness?" asked Storm in a condescending manner.

"Sorry, I was just saying." apologized Cream, since she still quite young, she didn't think as clearly and realistically as the others did. "But we gotta do something!"

"Do what?" snarked Knuckles. "We're all locked up with heavy security outside, there's no way we're getting out."

"I don't think it's a good idea to keep talking about things like...escaping either." warned Storm. "Cause, y'know, there are guards out there who can hear us."

"Ah, they're just stupid machines after all." chuckled Knuckles. "They probably can't even process our dialogue."

"Do not underestimate a good machine, my guy." replied Storm.

"Ha, good machines he says." mocked Knuckles.

"Well Knuckles, since you wanna boast so much, y'mind telling us what your plans for eacaping are?" inquired Jet in a snarky, mocking manner.

"Well I got nothing right now." replied Knuckles after a few seconds of silence, causing everyone in the room to groan sarcastically in unison. "Right now guys, I said right now. But trust me, one of us will think of something eventually."

"I'm too damn tired to fight right now." said Wave as she plopped right down on the wooden bench in her cell. "So why don't we just give it a day or two, m'kay?"

"We don't have a day or two." snapped Jet. "Eggman could enlist us in some sort of labour force or some shit like that, that...or perhaps...executed?"

"Oh...you're right." said Knuckles who now felt way more motivated to think of an escape plan. "We gotta move quickly."

Meanwhile, Eggman headed down to his underground chamber to "check up" on Sonic, unbeknownst to Starline's current schemes. He opened the gate, slowly stepped down the hard steel steps with a massive, menacing grin on his face, one he just couldn't help himself from having. He then peered over to "Sonics" limp, unconscious body, his smirk growing bigger and bigger in the process.

"Salutations Sonic, are you aware of the current circumstances surrounding your friends?" asked Eggman in a pretentiously evil way. "Oh, that's right! Half of them are upstairs, captured in my cold, cramped prison, and it's up to me whether or not they go out and put some hard work into the ever growing Eggmanland, or if they'll share the same fate as you. Helplessly captured, endlessly tortured, with no way of escaping. Hope continues to fade my dear friend, as Infinite and my army grows stronger, those cowardly friends of yours who're hiding from me will be captured soon as well. Pretty soon, you all will be mine, and only then will any chance of a victory for you miserable pseudo heroes be cast asunder completely. Isn't that just lovely?"

Eggman turned and walked away from Sonic to turn his attention to the machine he uses to trigger the many torture methods that he's been using on Sonic all this time. But before he did so, he waited for Sonic to answer his sarcastic question.

"Sonic...I said isn't that lovely?" asked Eggman after waiting nearly an entire minute for an answer. "Huh, that's peculiar, you're really not yourself today. Usually, I'd receive a cocky retort of some sort but I guess today's not that sort of day. Or is it?"

Eggman waited several more seconds for Sonic to answer back but alas, there was no response. With all the waiting and sitting in silence, everybody in the room, besides Eggman of course, began to feel pretty awkward.

"Uh, sir, why do you want Sonic to respond so badly?" inquired Metal Sonic.

"Because I want to see how much willpower he has left in him." responded Eggman quickly. "So I can wipe it all away. Now...say something!"

Of course, Sonic didn't show any sign of responding. This angered Eggman so much that he hastily enabled his machine to send more of those electirc bolts through Sonics body. But since this was just a clone created by the Phantom Ruby, no screams or signs of pain was shown. But shortly after Eggman activated the machine, Sonic began shooting reddish smoke from his body, which eventually led to a complete disappearance of Sonics body. Eggman, understandably, was in complete shock.

"What?! What in the hell just happened? He just...vanished."

Eggman then quickly realized what was going on as Metal Sonic nervously watched him come to terms with reality, as much as he didn't want Eggman to.

"Oh, gee! How silly of me!" said Eggman as he facepalmed himself. "Infinite's working to conspire against me. He created a clone of Sonic and took the real one off somewhere, how clever but foolish at the same time. But wait, Infinite is fully convinced that I'm the one who gave him his powers, so he couldn't possibly want to usurp me. That leads me to make all but one conclusion..."

"Eggman!" called out Starline as he was heading down the flight of stairs. "I've been meaning to speak to you!"

"Oh, have you now?" sarcastically asked Eggman, as he just discovered Starline's plan to overthrow him.

"Yeah, it's about..." Starline was cut off when he noticed that Sonics clone was missing and that Eggman sat in his chair, arms crossed and giving him a dirty look. "Oh shit."

"Where is he?" asked Eggman, trying desperately to keep a calm demeanor.

"Uh...who?" said Starline, trying to act as if he did nothing wrong, which obviously isn't gonna work.

"Dammit Starline!" shouted Eggman as he grabbed Starline by the collar of his vest and slammed his back against the wall. "You know very well who I mean! Now tell me where you're keeping Sonic or I swear, I will rip that foul bill right off of your traitorous face!"

"Okay! Okay...if you let me go, I will bring you straight to him." whimpered Starline, shaking hard as if he were out in the cold.

"You'd better." said Eggman menacingly. "But before we leave, tell me why you're trying to overthrow me. Why you're trying to stage this mutiny."

"Mutiny? Sir, I would never!" panicked Starline who was stuttering uncontrollably at this point. "I merely borrowed Sonics physical body for a project I've been planning, a weapon...to help aid you in your war efforts. And trust me, you're gonna love it!"

"So why didn't you let me know about it beforehand?" wondered Eggman, clearly seeing right through Starline's transparent lies.

"Well I assumed that you wouldn't want me to have Sonic at all." responded Starline who's seemed to have calmed down a bit. "Also, I wanted it to be a surprise!" He then laughed nervously in a way that was so fake and disingenuous that anyone could've told it was not a legit laugh.

"Very well." replied Eggman. "Just take me to him already."

"Yes sir." said Starline as he opened up a portal to his laboratory. "Step right in."

"He is such a liar." Eggman thought to himself. "A surprise? Are you serious? God, even his excuses are pathetic. The only reason why I'm even going along with these lies of his is so I can get him on my good side, that way when I strike back, it'll hit him ten times as hard. And what made him possibly think that he would've gotten away with this little scheme of his too? But no matter, its just yet another folly to add to his long, long list. Except this one...just may cost him his life."