Shadows of the Future
Chapter Three
Discovery
(Explanations, rating, and disclaimers can be found at the beginning of Chapter One)
Electra stretched luxuriously and sank down for a rest in the soft desert sand. What most would consider too hot and bright she considered downright homey. The desert hedgehog smiled. Life in Knothole Village was nice enough--and, unlike her brother, she didn't mind living among people--but sometimes it was even nicer to get out from under all those trees.
She sighed. She'd searched most of the ruins of Sandopolis, and had discovered nothing pertaining to the Master Emerald or the Island's sickness. But she HAD found much that was interesting about the ruins themselves and the culture that had built them. The scientist in her--she was studying archaeology in college--was fascinated by them, and she wished she had more time to study the ruins at length. From what little she could tell, the great pyramids and obelisks of stone had definitely NOT been built by Knuckles' people. Instead, they had been built by some kind of...reptillian?...people. But a kind she had never seen before. Who had they been? What had happened to them? She guessed she'd never know. According to Knuckles, the ruins of Sandopolis had been ancient by the time the echidnas had first moved to that section of Mobius--thousands of years before they magically yanked their homeland into the sky to become "The Floating Island." And THAT had been over 300 years ago...
Electra lost her train of thought as she felt something...pulling...at her legs. She leapt up in alarm, or tried to leap anyway, thinking that there weren't supposed to be any dangerous life-forms here--Sandopolis had been practically deserted for centuries! But something was indeed pulling her.
She looked around frantically to see what it was, for now her entire lower body was being slowly dragged into the sand. It seemed she was being dragged in by the sand ITSELF!
Quicksand? thought Electra in disbelief. She didn't believe it. Quicksand needed WATER to form, and this climate was as dry as dry could be. Maybe it was something IN the sand, a creature perhaps?
Still, the fact remained that she was sinking--and sinking fast! Electra tried to remember what one was supposed to do in a situation like this. Struggling would just make it worse. There was nothing solid nearby to hold onto as leverage, and no other people in range to help her...
Finally, in desperation, she let loose with a mild electrical charge--the ability she got her name from--and was quite shocked (no pun intended) at the result.
The sand, or the something-in-the-sand, flinched violently and THREW her backwards out of itself.
Electra careened through the air until she hit the ground, banging her back against the bottom wall of one of the great pyramids. She must have tripped some kind of lever, because she found herself falling INTO the pyramid through a heretofore-hidden trap door.
She shook her head and tried to get her bearings, but before she could clamber back outside again, a heavy stone block THUNKED into place and she was stuck underground.
With lots of deadly traps.
With no light, and her power now drained. It would be several hours before her natural electrical charge built itself back up to anything even vaguely apporoaching a useful amount. But, being a member of a nocturnal species, she could see in the dark a little. She waited for her eyes to adjust as much as they were going to and then started moving through the dim shadows that represented walls, pillars, statues, and other things. These pyramids always had more than one way out, she reflected. After all, she'd just barely been studying them. She had only to find it.
As she passed carefully through the still, dead forms, her feet making a quiet pad-pad-pad sound on the sandstone floor, she became aware of the fact that one of the shadows was...moving.
Right towards her.
She froze, hoping that the shadow would loose track of her if it couldn't see her.
It didn't. It kept coming, and coming...
Shaking, Electra fumbled around in her backpack for one of the Power Rings she always took with her on a journey. Whatever was coming, she wanted to have at least a small measure of protection.
Closer, closer...
"HI, ELECTRA!!!" yelled a familiar high-pitched voice. "Isn't this place just like so totally LAME? I mean, like, all of the guys are DEAD, ya know, and their idea of fashion is white bandages from head to toe..."
"JOLT!" Electra cut the small purple squirrel off in mid-sentence. She felt like both sighing with relief AND strangling her friend at the same time. Instead, she yelled, "What are YOU doing here?!"
"That's not any way to talk to a person who has a...FLASHLIGHT!" giggled Jolt, flashing it directly into Electra's eyes for a second, "AND who knows the way out!"
"What way out?" demanded Electra, still annoyed as to how Jolt had gotten there when she was HARDLY an adventurer. "And why did you follow me? You were TOLD not to."
"Not really." grinned Jolt, now that Electra could see her facial expressions. "Knuckles didn't INVITE us, true, but we were never specifically TOLD to stay back in Knothole."
Electra folded her arms across her chest. "You know PERFECTLY well what Princess Sally meant--wait...we? Us? Who else is with you?"
Jolt looked a bit uncomfortable. "No-one is with ME...but Tails went off to help Bunnie and Amy tagged along after Sonic."
"And you LET them?!" exclaimed Electra. "You're the oldest--you should have told them not to! They're going to get themselves killed!"
"Ah, come on, Electra, they're both pretty tough...Tails can fly and Amy has that hammer--oh, look, is that a door over there? I'll bet that's part of the way out..." she quickly ducked down the corridor.
Still fuming, Electra followed her.
* * *
"WHAT?!!!" demanded Electra after a few hours of walking about randomly in the maze.
"I said, the way out is on top of the pyramid!" said Jolt, ducking out of the way of the yellow hedgehog's wrath. "I--I just ASSUMED there were some stairs, or ladders, or something around here somewhere..."
"Well, how did YOU get in?" said Electra.
"I--I just--you know...ran down the walls."
Electra sighed. Damn squirrel special abilities...
"In case you haven't noticed, I can't climb walls, fly, or anything like that, so how do you suppose I get up there?"
"We'll just like, you know...have ta find another way..." Jolt trailed off. "Oh, look, there's a cork in that ledge above us. I wonder what's behind it. Water, maybe? I'm SO thirsty!"
Electra suddenly had a very bad feeling about this. "WAIT, Jolt, don't pull that cork out, this is a sealed room..."
But it was too late. Jolt had leapt up and grabbed the cork with her long fluffy tail, opening a gap in the ledge. Instead of water, however...SAND was pouring in.
"You IDIOT!" yelled Electra, dashing out of the way of the flow to keep from getting buried. It just kept coming...and coming...and COMING..."Don't you know there are traps all over this place?"
But as she scrambled frantically to keep on top of the rising dune, she noticed something...the sand was, indeed, taking the two of them up towards the roof!
"Jolt, you're only half an idiot," she amended. "I take back some of the nasty things I've said about you. This could be our way out!"
Then she realised--at the rate the sand was rising, she would be smothered and smashed against the ceiling--unless some way was found to open that roof entrance--and QUICK!
"That is, if it doesn't kill us first! Jolt! Climb up ahead and see if you can find a trap door--a lever--a switch--ANYthing!"
Jolt just took off without a word, too scared to be sarcastic for once in her life.
The ceiling was only 20 feet away now. It was starting to get stuffy, because the pyramid's air was now mostly taken up with sand. And Electra felt the dreaded hand of her claustrophobia--a problem she was too embarrassed about to tell anybody--begin to close in on her throat. I will NOT give in to it, she told herself. I will NOT.
15 feet away. "Jolt!" she yelled, sounding a bit more frantic than she'd like. "How are you doing up there?"
"I found this big heavy lever thing--but I don't know what it'll do if I push it..."
"PUSH IT!!" yelled Electra. "There's almost no WAY it could make things worse at THIS point!"
10 feet.
"Okay," said Jolt. She began to push on the lever, leaning against it with all her might. Whoever had built this place, they obviously hadn't built it with squirrels in mind--it was far too large and heavy for her. Then again, Jolt NEVER did anything more strenuous than flick out her credit card, if she could help it.
7 feet. Electra was now just below Jolt . "You know, maybe you should work out sometime."
"Oh, and get all SWEATY?!" Jolt tossed her perfectly-coiffed hair back over her shoulder. "I DON'T think so."
5 feet. Electra was now so close to the unyielding stone slab ceiling that she could practically count the bumps in it had she been so inclined. She could also reach the lever. Desperately, she added her own strength to that of her friend.
There was a loud CLICK, and then a heavy grating noise. The stone ceiling split in two and began to pull apart, showing the daylight above. So slowly, though!
3 feet--they had to squat down.
2 feet--they had to LAY down.
1 foot--the lever was now buried beneath the dune.
Electra felt the stone scraping her back, and then...
they were outside.
The ceiling pulled back JUST in time, and the sand-dune pushed them back onto the surface of Sandopolis.
And everything went dead silent.
For a second.
"OOOOOWWWWWWWW, my eeeeeyeeessss..." whined Jolt as the super-bright desert sun hit her after several hours in almost complete darkness. "Like I cannot BELIEVE I forgot to pack my sunglasses, fer shur!"
The sun was hurting Electra's eyes, too, but she didn't care. "Let's report back to Knuckles," she said, hitching up her backpack. "I'm DONE with this place. There's nothing here, anyway."
* * *
"Come ON, Amy, let's go back to the Palace. I keep telling you, there's nothing here!" exclaimed Sonic, attempting to reclaim his arm from the little pink hedgehog.
"Just one more tunnel, please, Sonic," she begged, dragging him off down a side-gallery. "This is my first real adventure, ever, and I don't want it to end YET! Besides, it's important. We have to find out what's wrong with the Island!"
"But what makes you so sure it's down here?" asked Sonic, following along behind her whether he wanted to or not. This particular section of Lava Reef was walled with beautiful, delicate blue crystal instead of brown rocks, but it was still just as stiflingly hot, poisonous, and deadly. He stepped over a pile of rocks, barely avoiding a lava pool, and noticed something--the blue crystal had changed to blue marble tiles.
"Amy!" he grabbed the hedgehog by her shoulder and whispered in her ear, "We're underneath the Hidden Palace! I'm sure of it! But I've never been in THIS room before..."
"Maybe the entrance just now opened up. You know there are lots of little earthquakes down here."
"Could be." Sonic whispered. "By the way, why are we whispering?"
"Beats me", Amy whispered back. They travelled down the tunnel, bent nearly double, as it was mostly caved in still. What had once been a grand hallway, if the carvings and velvet carpet were any indication, was now collapsed and broken to almost nothing.
Then they finally reached an opening where they could stand upright.
And gasped.
"Oh, my, gods," Sonic said aloud. "What is THAT?!"
"I don't know," said Amy, her eyes round with awe, "but whatever it is, Knuckles should DEFINITELY know about it."
* * *
"Well, to sum up," said Knuckles, his hands on his hips, "Vector found a lot of muck but no clues in Hydrocity. Bunnie was almost killed by a transporter failure in the Sky Sanctuary. Charmy was almost eaten by a giant dragonfly in Marble Gardens, and when he tried to escape by jumping into a giant Gold Ring he found out that the Chaos Emerald that was supposed to be there was missing! Electra found some kind of dangerous life form in Sandopolis, Mighty was almost killed by an unseasonable avalanche in the Ice Cap Zone. I've already searched the Mushroom Hills and this palace while you were all gone. That takes care of everybody but two people: Espio, who is so ill from that poison he's unconscious and can't TELL us what he found in Angel Island, but I'll bet it wasn't anything good. And ironically, the other person who hasn't reported in yet is Sonic, who prides himself on his speed! I wonder what's keeping--"
Just then, the door to the room slammed open, banging back against the tapestried wall. Charmy winced. A spiky figure flew into the room. Knuckles sighed in relief. Ah, good, Sonic was finally back--wait, this spiky person was PINK, not blue! What the--
"Come quick!" panted Amy Rose, completely out of breath. "Sonic and I found something underneath the Palace, and it looks important! Hurry!"
Electra shook her head. "Oh, great, now there's THREE of you kids," she groaned, indicating Tails and Jolt, who were now lounging on a couch and munching on mint candy. "Who's next, Pip the Bat?"
Amy blinked. "No, the last time I saw her she was going to Robotropolis."
As jaws around the room dropped in shock, she amended, "Just kidding!" and dodged behind a pillar.
Knuckles stroked his chin thoughtfuly. "If it really is that big of a thing, that Sonic and you have found, then we should go look at it." He looked around the group of animals scattered around the room and made his decision. "But I don't want to leave the Master Emerald unguarded...Chaotix, you guys stay here and take care of things while I'm gone."
"Righto, old chap," said Charmy in his cultured accent, tipping his tiny old-fashioned pilot's cap.
"Yeah, sure," grunted Mighty.
"Whatever da man sez," replied Vector, turning the tape over in his Walkman.
Espio, of course, didn't say anything.
"Bunnie, I'd ask you along, but since you're the only person here who has any medical knowledge, and with Espio the way he is..."
"Oh, don't you worry about a thang, Reddy-deah," said Bunnie, "this lil' ol rabbit has had moah then ENOUGH ay-adventuh foah one day. Ah'll make suah youah lil' parple friend pulls through, don't you worry yoah spahny head about thayat!"
Knuckles smiled and clapped her on the shoulder. Then, without another word, he, Electra, Jolt, and Tails followed Amy Rose out the door.
* * *
The five finally broke free of the stifling tunnels--Electra having more than a bit of trouble with them--to find a very impatient Sonic standing in the doorway of a huge chamber. He was tapping his foot and looking at his watch--a futile gesture since the heat had gotten to the works and stopped it hours ago.
"About TIME you got here!" he snapped irritably. "Amy and I found...something you may be interested in." And with that, he stepped out of the way to let the others pass through the door ahead of him.
Knuckles gasped, as he was the first one into the room, and the others followed suit.
They were in an absolutely ENOURMOUS chamber, easily the size of the entire Marble Gardens ruins. This room was so far down into the Island that pieces of the sky it rested on could be seen through natural holes in the floor. The six creatures crept in cautiously, afraid that the slightest clumsiness might cause them to plunge straight out. Although the walls were made of marble tile, carefully polished, and the air temperature was cool and moderate, the sounds of the magma rivers of Lava Reef could be heard gurgling just outside the walls. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the room were covered with mosaics and symbols written in the ancient Echidna dialect, from the days back when they had lived down on Mobius among the other races.
But none of this was what got everyone's attention.
It was..the Thing.
On the floor, in fact, COVERING the entire floor of this vast chamber except for a thin walkway circling it, ws a gigantic, glowing, rounded yellow/white object. It was buried half-in/half-out of the floor, pulsating and thrumming loudly, an almost hypnotic tone, looking like nothing so much as the egg of some unspeakably huge bird.
"Is it...is it alive?" wondered Amy, her eyes wide.
"No", said Knuckles distractedly. "It's some kind of machinery, I can tell. But what it does I don't know. One thing I CAN tell you--this chamber is DIRECTLY beneath the Master Emerald Chamber. I know. I can feel it." He was preoccupied with reading the symbols on the wall, and was circling the room to follow their story.
Even though she couldn't understand them, Electra, ever the archaeologist, followed along behind him and copied the symbols down in her notebook.
Therefore, she was the only one who noticed the look of pure pain, sadness, and horror that flickered briefly across Knuckles' face.
It was gone as soon as it had come, but the cause was obvious--he could understand the symbols. And what they said did NOT please him. Not one tiny bit.
"Knuckles?" she began timidly, "Are you--"
"DON'T TOUCH THAT!!" he ignored her and whirled about to point at Sonic, whose curiosity had indeed been about to get the best of him, as one gloved hand was only inches away from the surface of the gleaming dome. He yanked his hand back sheepishly and stuck it behind his back."
"Well, like, this is boring!" declared Jolt, leaning back against the wall and preening her lavendar-striped hair. "Like, how are we supposed to know what that thing is unless we DO something to it?"
"But if it's been hidden this long, even from Knux, who knows this Island like nobody's business," began Tails, who was hovering cautiously over the dome in order to get an aerial view, "then maybe it was hidden on PURPOSE. Because it's really dangerous."
"Or really valuable," pondered Sonic, waggling his eyebrows.
Knuckles shook his head. "You're wrong, all of you. The only thing we need to worry about is whether this thing is what's draining the Master Emerald or not, and if so, how do we stop it?"
Sonic tossed back his head and snorted derisively. "And how do you suppose we do THAT, Spike-Fist?"
Before Knuckles could answer, there came a great rumbling from outside the chamber. The room began to heat up, and a portion of the wall started glowing red-hot.
Knuckles' eyes went wide. "It's the volcano! It's going to erupt! But I don't know what set it off--it hasn't erupted in years!"
"That doesn't do us much good now!" yelled Electra, backing away from the melting wall. "How do you propose we get out of here?"
"I don't know!" yelped Knuckles in pure panic as that portion of the wall caved in completely and a thin stream of deadly hot lava started pooling onto the floor.
Panicked, the six animals carefully backed away from the lava-stream as it began, gradually, to circle the walkway, praying that it would stop and cool off before it covered the entire floor.
But it didn't. It just kept coming and coming, until the group was huddled on a tiny clump of stone floor with the lava closing in on them from all sides. Electra put Jolt on her shoulders, Knuckles lifted up Amy and Tails sat on Sonic's shoulders, but it did no good. The lava was STILL coming closer.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sonic looked sideways at Knuckles.
He sighed. "Yes, we'll have to risk jumping up on that dome," he answered. "I just hope it doesn't kill us..."
The three older animals linked hands. "On your mark," said Sonic, "Get set...JUMP!"
They all hit the dome at the same time.
There was a brilliant, overpowering flash of light, a huge BOOM sound, a strange tingling feeling--
and all six of them were gone.
* * *
"Whoah, did you feel THAT?!" exclaimed Vector, as a massive shockwave hit the Hidden Palace. Chandeliers rocked and a few even shattered on the floor. Furniture overturned and rubble fell down from the ceiling. It was all Bunnie could do to keep the still-unconscious Espio from falling off the couch. Mighty tucked himself into his shell on reflex, and even Charmy was knocked straight out of the air, slammed into a wall as if by a giant, invisible flyswatter.
"You all right?" asked Vector, helping the battered little bee to his feet. Charmy nodded once, grimly, although he was quite obviously hurt. One of his wings was hanging at a funny angle and he was gritting his teeth not to cry out. He set about straightening himself out as if nothing had happened.
"I DO wish we knew what they were DOING down there..." pondered Mighty.