Sonic and the Reaper/Chapter 24: Release the Flames, Reveal the Egg

Before long, the three bikes and dark gas arrived at the land of holes. They skidded into place, and Sonic, wings folded, was the first to leap off, tapping the ground with his foot. Eventually, the hole opened, and this time he was the first to leap into a dive. Amy was soon running down the side of the rock almost ahead of him. Shadow muttered something about birds and love before taking Infera's hand and leaping after them. Silver waited for Mephiles to enter, then reluctantly followed him.
When they reached the core, Blaze was there, apparently asleep on the crystalline surface. Rather than waking her, Mephiles raised his hands and started to motion them around. Immediately, the amythest core carved itself to have a bedlike shape emerge from below Blaze, whose eyes snapped open.
"Woah."
Mephiles shrugged. "I was born here. I live here. If gods can die I'm going to die here. I'm able to do that with ease. Although as I usually reside in stasis, I don't use it often." He sighed. "Well? Are you going to leave with your friends or would you rather I take your place?"
"I guess I'll go with the-" Blaze cut herself off and snapped her head towards Mephiles before shouting, "-wait just about half of your immortal lifetime! Are you saying you're going to leave yourself here and let me go with my friends?" The Soul of Darkness nodded, and Blaze kept staring at him. "But... I thought you wanted Iblis back?"
Mephiles shook his head. "I now know how useful - or otherwise, depending on the vessel - half of Solaris can be when kept inside one's soul. Shadow Android was able to knock back these five with ease, and Sonic and Amy were empowered. Now go."
Blaze stared for a while longer, then turned to Silver, who held out a hand. Blaze smiled and accepted it, and they vanished in the usual blur of energy lines. Shadow, who was still holding Infera's hand, warped them out with Chaos Control. Sonic smiled and turned to Amy.
"Let's head out, shall we?"
Amy smiled and embraced him suddenly. Sonic accepted it, then spread his wings and shot out. When they reached the hole, it didn't seal, so that left them with a problem. Amy, however, was quick to spin both herself and Sonic so that they were capable of climbing with their feet, pushed against each other to keep from falling.
When they reached the top, they found the others waiting imaptiently. Sonic simply hopped on his bike, made sure Amy was behind him, and shot forward. However, this time he parted from the others, headed not for the cave, as he called back to meet him there later, but for the old workshop that hadn't been visited in a long time. When he arrived, he quickly headed for the door, which was closed and locked high-tech.
Amy was confused. "When did this get teched?" she asked.
Sonic smiled. "It's always been like this. Tails programmed it so that the tech would only activate after..." He cut himself off and didn't say anymore. Amy nodded to show she understood, but Sonic just pressed a button next to the door.
"Workshop of Miles Prower." Tails' voice emerged from the preprogrammed speaker above the door. "Please state name and business."
Sonic folded his wings carefully and semi-confusedly. "This is different," he muttered before speaking towards the door. "Sonic the Hedgehog and guest. I've come to collect some blueprints."
The door swung open. "Welcome back, Sonic," Tails' voice said from inside. "You have one new message."
Now Sonic was really confused. "This is strange," he stated to Amy. "He never said anything about a voice recognition system. Nor anything about me being able to recieve messages to this workshop."
"Invalid." Tails' voice boomed suddenly. Sonic realized the workshop was still set for voice-command and turned to the shop.
"Message type?"
"Video message."
Sonic nodded, realized this was pointless, and called out, "Playback."
"Playback activated. Direct your attention to the monitor." Sonic turned to a large computer monitor and looked towards it as Tails' voice said, "Video message from Doctor Ivo Robotnik."
Sonic's eyes widened as Eggman's nearly-forgotten face appeared on the screen. But this time it didn't seem threatening. This time it looked worried, almost fearful.
"Sonic the Hedgehog," Eggman stated, "if you are seeing this, I am most likely dead. Zyx has come to me and threatened to kill me. I managed to break out my old Silver Sonic model and stall him long enough to escape, but I doubt I'll live for much longer. I'm headed to my Hazard Vault to send my deadliest badniks after him, but I'm sending you this in advance."
The blue hedgehog's eyes were locked with Eggman's. Every word seemed crucial.
"I want you to know two things. Both of these are very important. The first is that I've programmed every robot I have ever made to obey your command once I die, and every machine and vehicle to recognize your voice. If you want to gather all of my robots into one place, go to my base lab in Metropolis. You'll find a large remote that will accumulate all of my robots near the base. There will only be two exceptions to obedience. The first is Metal Sonic, for obvious reasons. The second is my Hazard Vault badniks due to instability, although they should still have enough remaining data to not get in your way.
"And I mention getting in your way because of the second notion I am about to make. In my Hazard Vault, as deep as it would appear you can go, is a stack of nine synthetic Chaos Emeralds next to a wall with a three-by-three grid of indents. Place the Synthetic Emeralds into the indents and enter the code 4795452 to open a second, interior vault. In there are two golden armbands. Those are the Bands of Chaos, a powerful relic that will allow two entities to become one upon equip. After you remove them, however, they take a full year to recharge. Either that, or you have to charge them with Chaos Energy.
"Use these gifts wisely, Sonic the Hedgehog."
The image of Eggman froze in place as Tails' voice called, "Repeat message?"
"Negative," Sonic stated. "Hold for command." He turned to Amy, who looked as white as a ghost. "You've seen Eggman recently, haven't you?"
Amy weakly managed to gasp, "I've seen his body. At the entrance to his Hazard Vault."
Sonic nodded. "It's alright. Let's just get to work." He turned to the workshop. "Enter command. Record numeral code in message from Ivo Robotnik, copy to portable audio recorder, and deposit at main entrance." As a second thought he added, "Search voice recognition data - Amy Rose."
In three seconds Tails' voice replied, "Voice recognition data not found."
Sonic nodded. "Add voice recognition data. Record as Amy Rose."
"Voice recognition recording. Please speak your name, Amy."
Amy gulped back her fear at Eggman's message and stated, "Amy Rose."
"Voice recorded. Voice recognition data added."
"Hold for command," Sonic stated before turning to Amy. "Any questions before we head for Metropolis?"
Amy turned to him. "You speak nerd?"Category:Sub-pages