Chapter Text
It was eerily quiet as Sonic was quietly making his way through the dark corridor with only his communicator as a light source, his ears twitching as he tried to pick up any sounds that might relate to a way out or something.
It had been nearly an hour since he was separated from his two friends, Tails and Knuckles, due to the main floor breaking beneath them. He knew that Knuckles can take care of himself but he's more worried about his little brother Tails. Even though the fox was smart and can take care of himself, Sonic couldn't help but feel like something.....unsettling about the large base and his instincts were never wrong.
Looking down at the communicator, he could see that it wasn't connected to anything but did have the basic functions and anything else that was added to it before they had entered the base, which wasn't much but it was enough for Sonic since Tails managed to add a map of the place. He could see that he's in floor four of the underground building which made him slightly annoyed and worried, annoyed about how far he was to the entrance of the building and worried about his two friends being in a completely different area.
Letting out a soft sigh, Sonic continued walking while splitting his attention between the communicator and the path before him. Suddenly he stopped when he quickly picked up the sound of quiet footsteps, it was barely there but Sonic managed to hear up and speed up his walking even though he was tempted to run but didn't want to risk getting caught by whoever he was listening to. After getting there at a certain, estimating how close he was to the sound and used the small flashlight to see what was in front of him only to be caught off guard by two things.
One, before him was Doctor Eggman whom looked a bit worse for wear with his clothes being ripped and dirtied as well as a bit bloodied, which made Sonic worried, followed by minor cuts on him, the major one being a long yet thin cut on the doctor's side with a mixture of dry and wet blood seeping from it.
Two, the same Doctor Eggman was pointing a lazar type gun at him and was staring down at him with aggressive so intense that almost caused Sonic to step back but stood straight, not letting it bother him.
"Hey Egghead, not who I was expecting to fi-"
"Not another step Hedgehog!"
Sonic instantly stopped mid step at the aggressive tone in Eggman's tone causing the quills to sharpen a bit at the tone and tensing up. "Wha-"
"Show me that you're the real Sonic!"
"W-Wha...how?" Sonic asked him, taken by complete surprise by the unusual question but knew that he had to do something to somehow 'prove' that he's the real Sonic unless he want to get shot.
"Make a cut on yourself now!"
His ears flickered backwards at the sudden demand but decided that it was doable. His eyes flickered down at the ground, looking for some sort of object, sharp enough to do the job before swiftly picking it off from the ground while placing the communicator at the same time and stood back up. Then he held up his arm, showing the back of his forearm and, without hesitation, made a thin cut diagonally on the back of his forearm and not being able to stop a hiss of pain slipping passed his lips even though he had prepared himself before looking at Eggman for some sort of response.
The Doctor was staring at his arm for a few minutes like he was expecting something to happen before his expression soon changed and soon lowered the gun. "How and why are you here, Sonic?" Eggman asked, or demanded, the blue hedgehog, his tone shifted from aggressive to a mixture of curiosity and wariness.
"What did you do?" Sonic, instead, asked his own question, his expression completely serious. When the Doctor didn't answer, Sonic soon started glaring at him "What. Did. You. Do" the blue hedgehog asked once again as his quills started raising up and sharpening.
Eggman was silent for a few moments and before Sonic could repeat himself with a little more force, the human soon starts to explain on how he found a strange scepter which was giving off some strange energy which caused the doctor to decide to take it back to his newest lair to study it and find a way to harness the energy for his newest plan for taking over the world. The human then explained on how during his study, he found out that the energy within the scepter was....sentimental almost like an AI, which had triggered his curiosity and caused him to start experimenting with the sentiment scepter which became the biggest mistake he ever done. During the experiment, Eggman attempted to at least transfer the energy into the main computer as a way to study the coding better only for the monitor to start glitching out before the screen started displaying ones and zeros for a few seconds before it exploded.
"...and I was lucky enough to be far away from the blast" Eggman added with an annoyed grunt making Sonic's ear twitch a bit, "Then how did you get those injuries?" Sonic suddenly asked. The question made Eggman tense up and was silent for a minute before speaking again, "After the explosion, I managed to catch a glimpse of a ball of electricity in front of the broken monitor before it changed shape....." Eggman slowly trailed off which caught Sonic off guard when he noticed his expression change for a split second.
"Changed into what?" Sonic asked the Doctor only for him to look down at him with a slight horrified expression.
"Did you show up alone?"
Xxxxxxx
"I think I should be on the right path towards the power grid" Tails mutters to himself as he was softly walking through the hallway, his fur was slightly standing upwards due to how ruined the hallway was. The only light source he has was the small flashlight from his communicator which could only show so much of what was ahead of him. His mind kept wandering back to both Sonic and Knuckles, hoping that they're alright and hoping that they'll be reunited soon.
After stopping at a corner, Tails was starting to look over the corner when he suddenly felt a shiver go down his spine which caused his fur to stand up and his two tails slightly curls around himself in defense. 'What's going on?' Tails could only asked himself as he tried to figure out why his instincts are acting up in a fight-or-flight situation and he was too caught up in his head that he didn't notice a shadowy figure behind up and reach out to him.
"GAH!" Tails let out a loud yelp when he felt a hand on his shoulder, causing him to spin around and instinctively bared his teeth while swinging his hand out in a clawing motion as a defense mechanism.
"Woah!"
His wrist was soon grabbed by Sonic, whom looked just as surprised as Tails was before the fox's expression turned into relief. "Sonic!" Tails exclaimed in a low but happy voice as he reached forwards and pulled Sonic into a hug, glad to see him safe and sound as the blue hedgehog returned the hug for only a few seconds before pulling away and gripping his shoulders, looking down at him with a worried expression.
"Did you get hurt? Where's Knuckles? Did you find a way to get out of here?" Sonic asking question after question as he was looking over the young fox for any injuries which made Tails a bit dizzy due to the rapid questions before quickly gripping onto Sonic's forearms, stopping his questions. "I'm fine Sonic, no broken bones or anything. And I got separated from Knuckles during that fall and no, I haven't found a way out though I think that if I can manage to turn on the power, I can get the door open" Tails answered each question with a smile causing Sonic to sigh out in relief before pulling away.
"Great! Lets go then, the faster we get the power on, the faster we can get out of here" Sonic pointed it out with a grin causing Tails to grin back before his ear twitched a bit, "What happened to your communicator?" the fox asked after noticing it missing. "Oh um....I kinda dropped it during the fall and it broke" Sonic nervously explained while slightly scratching the side of his head with his finger. Slightly smiling at the other, Tails simply patted his arm "Its okay, you'll just follow behind me okay?" the fox said as he held out his communicator, the flashlight providing enough light before turning around to start walking. Though Tails didn't notice how his fur was still standing up nor the way Sonic's expression changed along with a slight smirk on his muzzle.
Xxxxxx
'I'm not alone' Knuckles thought as he was tensed up with his hands ready for anything as he was focusing on the chaotic energy around him as well as the sound.
He had been walking ever since he got separated from the other two and had been using the communicator that Tails had given him as a way to not get lost until he felt something change in the air making him tense up and alert.
Suddenly his instincts yelled at him causing him to spin around and swung his fist at the figure behind him, causing the shadowy figure to jump out of the way with a familiar yelp.
"Hey! Its me!" Sonic cried out in surprise as he jumped backwards as Knuckles raised his fists again as he was staring down at the blue hedgehog, his expression not changing. Nervously smiles, Sonic straighten himself and raised his hands in a surrendering motion, "Come on buddy, its me okay?" Sonic tried to reassure the red echidna, but it didn't even budge him as he simply tightens his fists.
"Who are you?" Knuckles instead asked, almost demanded, making Sonic blink a bit, "Are you joking or something or maybe you hit your he-"
"No use lying, I know you aren't Sonic so who are you" Knuckles interrupted him with a slight sneer causing Sonic's nervous expression to fade away before lowering his arms as well as his head, shadowing his eyes.
"Mm....guess you aren't a knucklehead then" Sonic simply said with a slight smirk, revealing sharp teeth, "Maybe you'll make this more fun for me until that fox boy turn o̴n̷ ̶t̵h̵e̷ ̶p̵o̸w̸e̵r̴ ̷w̴h̸i̶c̵h̷ ̴w̵i̷l̸l̵ ả̶̧̘̮̋͘͜l̶̢̢̯̫̍̾l̴̪̳͇̍o̶͉͎͎̠͐͂́ẘ̸̳̲̝ ̷̣͉̗̅̽̇͝m̷̼̦͒̓̄ẹ̴̤̉̂̔̒ ̸̜̙̎͊t̸̛̯̞̓͋o̷̟̾̂͝͠ ̵̜̂̾l̴̰̟̿̈͜e̷̟͕̖̊͌ā̴͙̺̖̠v̶̛̍͠ͅĕ̵͈͉̀̈́͠" 'Sonic' stated as his emerald green eyes slowly bled into bright blood red eyes and his voice becoming deeper and more distorted.