Eggman's Base: Shadowheist

[Leedzie]

As the light from the Chaos Emeralds faded, Shadow blinked his eyes open and looked around. And looked again. And blinked again, this time in surprise. "...Well. I suppose this would be a prime example of irony."

The hybrid hedgehog carefully stored the six jewels in his possession into his malletspace, gazing repeatedly in each direction of the corridor. If nothing else, it pleased him to arrive in an uncompromising position for once. More than anything, however, he was perplexed; why would Eggman have left out a second emerald in their negotiations? Especially considering that he had bargained for double the loan in return. Why wouldn't he have confessed to having two emeralds if it would have netted him four?

The details don't matter. I have more important business than Eggman's psyche. Shadow focused his attention on the familiar energy signature of the final Chaos Emerald, and began traversing the maze of corridors in pursuit.

[Topaz Mutiny]

There was movement within the darkness of a small room. A red light appeared, its source from within the depths of a red stone, powering the metallix it was connected to.

The Tails Doll had detected a sudden aura, like seeing the wavelengths of an exploding star. The aura matched that of the Chaos Emerald the doll had (sort of) in its possession, but far more powerful. It quickly deduced that one or more emeralds had suddenly appeared in the base. The how or why to this conclusion were missing variables.

Since the base's alarms did not go off, this meant an investigation with the Tails Doll's own person was in order. Making sure that the unconcious prisoner with the emerald was safely contained within the capture droid, the Tails Doll drifted out of the room in search of the tantalizing energy field.

[Leedzie]

While he had a vague familiarity with Eggman's base (he'd been in it enough times, after all), Shadow couldn't shake an uneasy feeling as he continued to patrol the halls. I just know I'm going to run into some sort of drone that's going to sound all the alarms on me. If Eggman thinks I'm trying to infiltrate his base behind his back, I may never get that photo back...

Speak of the devil. Literally.

The hybridhog couldn't help recoiling sharply as he laid eyes on... ... Actually what WAS that? A doll? A robot? An android? ... Actually it looked like a Tails stalker's fetish toy. Shadow's features distorted through a number of expressions, and eventually settled on simply being creeped out. At least it didn't seem to be interpreting him as a threat...

[Topaz Mutiny]

The Tails Doll's visage lacked expression, as usual. It had stopped in its tracks as it encountered Shadow, taking in the black hedgehog's form with its souless-looking eyes. This organism appeared to be the source of the large amounts of chaos energy. The hedgehog didn't register in any of its personal files, and yet the creature had not triggered any alarms.

Searching through the terrabytes of information it had gathered while trapped in the depths of Final Egg, it found within several milliseconds some vague articles. Some sort of form of ultimate life with a codename of Shadow.

Regardless of its origins, this life form apparrently had another emerald, or perhaps several. Eggman would be pleased if the Tails Doll aquired them. The floating meanace was cautious however, as unlike the mongoose it had captured earlier, this hedgehog appeared powerful, if the surge of chaos energy had been any indication.

So for now, the Tails Doll observed its curious subject. It was highly likely that the hedgehog had come for the emerald in the base, considering the aura had been moving relatively towards where the Tails Doll had hidden it.

[Leedzie]

"... ... ... ..." Well, the weird... Tails... thing... had yet to prove hostile, other than creeping the ever-loving Chaos out of him. In lieu of actually interacting with it, Shadow simply stepped around the stuffed beast and continued down the corridor.

Quickly.

[Topaz Mutiny]

And the Ultimate Lifeform seemed set on its destination. The Tails Doll followed, using shortcuts when available and keeping tabs on the hedgehog. The chances were increasingly likely that the emerald here would be stolen, and not used for a purpose beneficial to Eggman.

The Tails Doll seemed to be everywhere. Most of the time it fell behind Shadow, but occassionaly the hedgehog was astride him from another corridor, and the most recent time the Tails Doll had encountered the hedgehog in front of his path. And the Tails Doll was always staring.

~Always staring~

[Leedzie]

The hedgehog's brow furrowed uncomfortably. He didn't exactly feel threatened by this thing, but... Somehow he didn't feel safe, either.

WALKING FASTER NOW.

[Lans]

"Intruder alert..."


Silver said to himself as he watched the image on the screen. His sensors had been alerted by a sudden surge of chaos energy, and he immediatly used the base's security cameras to see what had caused it. The answer, of course, was Shadow the Hedgehog. Based on past history data, there was a high percentage that his presence hear was intended to be harmful. He immediatly activated the communications system to contact the Doctor...only to find that he was currently unreachable for unknown reasons.

"Unable to recieve orders for situation, reverting to standard procedures: Seach out and Detain." Disengaging from the console he'd been using, he turned and ignited his heel jets, shiooting out of the room and out into the halls.

[Topaz Mutiny]

*IS STILL FREAKING THERE*

...

The hedgehog seemed disturbed by the Tails Doll's prescence, though undeterred. The Tails Doll was deciding this situation was becoming less favorable the longer it went on. The shard on its head glowed in reaction to its quick thinking as it ran through ideas of how to stop this hedgehog.

[Leedzie]

(1 = still trying to ignore, 2 = PUNT)
[dice=2]

*FACIAL TWITCH*

Without warning Shadow turned and attempted to dropkick the twisted toy.

[dice=6][rand=70176390475794798641029061838404062325563742173136196513220961275]

[Topaz Mutiny]

[dice=6]

Shadow would find however, to his horror, he had kicked at nothing but a displacetion of air. Having anticipated being lashed out at, the Tails Doll dodged the kick with ghostly timing, seeming to have disappeared.

The truth however, was that the gliding demonic plush toy had slithered under Shadow's legs, reappearing mere inches away from the back of the chimera's head. This would soon become the front once the hedgehog turned around.

And still giving Shadow his unending stare.[rand=817874129801230214607993949045217708921662914274430631337000212333]

[Leedzie]

Shadow pissed down his leg whirled around with incredulous eyes, his mouth agape. ". . . What ARE you?!" he finally managed to sputter.

[Lans]

At that moment, there was a rushing sound from a nearby intersection...


As Silver came rocketing around a corner behind the hedgehog, skidding a little and acutally acending the far wall a little before he corrected and came shooting directly at Shadow.

"Combat mode engaged, electroclaw setting: heavy stun," he said as his hands morphed to said electroclaws and he stabbed one at Shadow's back.

[dice=6][rand=12134152318717245510522966611264214882205061137751400275313275428]

[Leedzie]

[dice=6]

Easily sidestepping the rather obvious attack, the ultimate lifeform resumed his usual glower when turning his attention to the robot. "I'm not looking for any trouble!!" he hollered. "And I JUST finished speaking with Eggman before I arrived! I'm not your enemy this time!!"

Shadow paused then, and glanced around. Where had that freaky doll gone?![rand=7766073164907737857545696796321157767159193860979160018923262444]

[Lans]

Silver skidded to a stop, spinning around to stop in a semi-crouch facing Shadow.

"The Doctor is out of contact, thus I am unable to confirm your statement. Protocol dictates that you must be captured and detained until futher information can be acessed."

And then he resumed his attack. He charged at Shadow, but before reaching him, leapt into the air, firing a electro-ball down at him.

[dice=6][rand=6265691550028438157140757519505962489762915310260236552922857094294]

[Leedzie]

[dice=6]

Although he'd evaded capture, the electric fireball managed to strike Shadow's right shoulder. Luckily he was already missing fur there anyway, so no new nakedness. But that did leave exposed skin to burn. Ow. The hybrid grunted and gripped his wound to ease away the pain; an injury this small wasn't worth dropping his few precious rings.

"I don't have time to play games with you," Shadow growled, firing up his skates and barreling off toward the Chaos energy. "And where the HELL did that damn fourth dollbot go?!"[rand=4555209094978286457725684118703471620380002398459414243492860746776]

[Topaz Mutiny]

RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU.

Planning to impede Shadow's flight, the Tails Doll jumped out of an adjacent hallway, ambushing the fleeing chimera with... a hug.

TO THE FACE. [dice=6][rand=5674129533809293363789623990328577856114590218906629235665135]

[Leedzie]

[dice=6]

"GAHHH!!"[/size] *cue blind skating with a side of flailing*[rand=34408277303406828220593607175646657366790992673624255073449562403]

[Lans]

Silver landed and again pivoted around and rushed after him, pushing the throttle on his jets to full. This unfortunatly affected him manuverability to small degree, but enough that it slowed down his pursuit through the halls that he wasn't able to immediatly catch up with Shadow.

[Leedzie]

(Yeeaaah we're not using dice here because none of us expect Shadow's luck to improve anytime soon XD)


"CHAOS... BLAST!!![/b]" Despite not being visible at the moment, Shadow's six Chaos Emeralds each emitted a blinding light, and erupted with a shockwave of pure energy. The two assailants were tossed off his body in opposite directions, allowing the chimera to finally sigh in relief. This was by far one of the most bizarre battles he'd ever tripped over. Which really is saying a lot, when you think about it.

"Chh, freaks..." Resuming his focus on the reason he'd come to the Chaos-forsaken base at all, Shadow was surprised to find that he'd apparently arrived at his destination. ... Which appeared to be a broom closet. The hybrid arched an unimpressed eyebrow. If Eggman was seriously hiding Chaos Emeralds in a maintenance nook, his respect for the doctor was about to be seriously compromised.

Which was why finding a capture droid was both logical yet unexpected. Shadow blinked. "...Well, that certainly explains things." Placing his hands on his hips, the chimera carefully inspected the cage's occupant. Whoever she was, she was unconscious. At least I'm getting ONE of these things without a fight, Shadow smugly thought to himself as he removed the green gem from the mongoose's malletspace and added it to the collective.

He paused and glanced at the two bots (well, at least one was a bot) that he'd just thrown off a moment before. "... Generally speaking, anyway."

[Topaz Mutiny]

To be quite honest, despite the doll's precalculations, it had NOT been expecting a surge of firey wrath to explode forth from his hedgehog captive. Due to his extreme proximity, the Tails Doll was smacked forcefully into a nearby wall.

And, despite his insulation from such energy, the blast was great enough to overload the creepy Tails replica's circuits, forcing the doll to regretfully shut down until his circuits restabalized.

[Lans]

Silver had smashed into the wall hard, causing a brief interruption of his systems. He quickly rebooted and was back on his feet a few seconds later. "Combat level increasing to level 2: possible major physical injury of the subject acceptable. Heavy knuckle engaged."

High right arm shifted from electroclaw to a large gauntleted fist that looked more like a battering ram. Blasting forward, he swung the new weapon at Shadow's head.
[dice=6][rand=015853661954120746884050709324315144703524060516687048420328856617]

[Leedzie]

[dice=6]

With his hand still gripped around his seventh prize, Shadow's ears perked up at a presence to his back right, and instinctively initiated the corollary effect of Chaos Control: his perception of time and space dramatically heightened, making the world around him appear to move at a fraction of its regular speed. Now able to turn and spot Silver's attack with plenty of time to spare, the hedgehog leapt aside and rolled to his feet.

This is going to go nowhere, he mentally grumbled as time and space resumed its usual perceptive pace. Time to make my exit, and finally take care of business. Shadow retrieved the rest of the Chaos Emeralds from their resting place. "CHAOS..."[rand=51308938243608878573772844650491688225633266077809009300556666389]

[Lans]

However Silver quickly stopped, turned and, with unexpected grace, threw a jet propeled kick at Shadow's gut.

[dice=6][rand=937526804222118618742733306439223666016096328134609143138747327373]

[Leedzie]

[dice=6]

"...CONTROOF!!" And in a brilliant blast of light, hog and bot disappeared into thin air.[rand=33567642639518234152585928427937538212900306956525629437341860584]

[Topaz Mutiny]

As the Tails Doll rebooted, it managed to catch the fading light of Shadow's Chaos OOF Control. Once it gained full functionality, it noticed that not only was the life form missing, but the Silver Sonic unit had disappeared, and any traces of the emerald's energy was completely gone.

"..."

The Tails Doll mulled over its situation. Not only did it fail to aquire any new emeralds, it had obviously just lost the one it had to that mysterious black hedgehog. Now it just had a seemingly useless prisoner.

He did not want this failure to be reported to Eggman after just having been released. It was not... appropriate.

Suddenly, a curious thought ran through his mind. Did Eggman even have to know this event occurred? There was a large liability in the form of Silver Sonic, however the Tails Doll was sure a line of logic would keep the metallix from reporting the incident. And no one would ever know.

Its gaze turned to the yellow lump inside the capture droid. No use for this organic then, and Eggman would have no reason to believe her if they ever came into contact again. Ordering the capture droid to take a boat and dump the girl on the Emerald Coast shore then shut down in Final Egg, the Tails Doll floated off to the matinence bay for repairs. If his model still looked off afterwards, it could be explained by his long stay at the Final Egg base.

Behind the floating menace, the capture droid did as it was ordered, and went to drop the girl off at Emerald Coast.