Sonic Apocalypse

Chapter 46 - The Mystery of the Phantom Ruby

Sonic and the others were able to evade any sort of detection as they made their way over to the old base Eggman had used prior to the start of the war. As much as he didn't want to do it, Sonic ran across the huge body of water that stood between the island where the base was located and the nearby jungle, all without a fuss. And since Sonic had to carry Gadget, the only one who couldn't cross the aquatic pathway, his fur was completely soaked as a result.

"Whelp...that happened." sighed Gadget prior to shaking the ocean water off of his fur like a normal dog would, which fluffed up his coat as a result. "Sucks that I don't have super speed like you or Shadow. Or flying abilities like Tails or Silver."

"Yeah, sorry about that." chuckled Sonic as he rubbed the back of his head. "But hey, it beats swimming."

"Yes, I suppose it does." agreed Gadget. "Anyway, is this the right place?"

"Sure is." replied Sonic who had immediately felt traumatized by the sight of the facility. He just stood there silently, staring at it as if it were going to attack him at any given moment.

"You ok, Sonic?" worried Shadow as he took notice of Sonics weary expression.

"Yeah...I'm fine." said Sonic, snapping back to reality. "I'm actually more worried about Gadget. He...lost his best friend here."

"I appreciate the concern, Sonic." said Gadget with an acknowledging nod. "But I'm gonna try my hardest to clear it from my memory. I can't let it drag my will down forever, so let's just head on inside already."

"That's the spirit, bud!" said Sonic in a tone that didn't at all fit the expression he was making just now.  He gave Gadget a pat on the back and the group headed inside of the base.

Much to their surprise, it was completely empty. Not an android or life form of any kind present in the facility. Once Eggman began to expand his Empire and no longer felt the need to use this base, he had simply left if behind, leaving everything the way it was right before he relocated to Metropolis. This was quite fortunate for Sonic and the rest of the gang, as navigating the base become far less troublesome, and Tails could hack into the Eggnet without having to worry about anything that would slow down the progress of his research.

"I'm assuming this is where the Rubys' research took place?" wondered Tails as the group came across a large room filled to the brim with computers and other forms of scientific equipment.

"Yep." confirmed Sonic. "Boy, I remember getting locked up here like it were yesterday. Anyway, Tails, you know what you're doing, right?"

"A gem like the Phantom Ruby is completely foreign to me." said Tails as he hopped onto a nearby chair and spun it over to the labs main computer. "But with the data I had gathered yesterday...paired with the data I'll find here, I just might be able to crack into something."

"Alrighty then, you do your science-y stuff, while Shads, Silver and I will be on the lookout. Gadget'll keep you company. Wait a second--" said Sonic who had just remembered that Silver's vision may still be impaired.

"I can see just fine now." assured Silver, which was a relief for Sonic. "But thank you for the concern."

"No problem, bud." replied Sonic with a friendly smile. "Aight, Tails, we'll leave you to your work while we keep an eye out for any sort of enemies and such, m'kay?"

"Gotcha." acknowledged Tails with a thumbs up.

And with that, Tails had begun his research on whatever information regarding the Phantom Ruby he could possibly scavenge. He started off the process by hacking into the Eggnet, a network containing data files and codes for the many devices and mechanisms Eggman has worked on throughout his career. This was an old base that housed some of Eggman's older equipment, so getting the password correct was no chore at all, fortunately Eggman didn't even bother changing it prior to him leaving this base behind. Tails searched through the long list of folders containing data for something that could be related to the Phantom Ruby but he had to scroll for quite some time before he had came across something substantial.