Once I teleported back to the base, I was immediately met by the doctor who must have still watched our fight somehow, even without the presence of his earlier drones, because he was chortling about how the ‘blue rat’ had finally got what was coming to him and how much he’d enjoyed watching me turn the ‘red imbecile’ into a football. However, Lard-gut shut up pretty quickly once it became obvious to him that I. Was. Not. In. The. Mood.
Without saying a word to him, I handed him the latest data stick and headed directly back to my room and immediately collapsed in bed, not even bothering to remove my gear. I had been totally exhausted, more than exhausted, by the greatest use (overuse) of my internal Chaos reserves in my life (and without the aid of an Emerald) and then a long distance teleport immediately afterwards (even though that at least had been with the assistance of an Emerald). I didn’t wake until more than a day afterwards, and, for the next two days following, I didn’t do much more than eat, sleep, and use the facilities. When I finally recovered enough that I felt like a living hedgehog again, I decided I was done.
I just had to be done…with all of this. I wasn’t going to play around anymore….I wasn’t going to waste time anymore ‘enjoying’ myself while raiding the G.U.N. bases and doing far more than I really ‘needed’ to do (as incredibly satisfying as I had found it to be)….I didn’t want to have to face Sonic or his friends again….It…just hurt too much what I had done to them…..The look I received from Amy…what she had thought I had done....How I had begun to feel when I'd 'forgotten' for a moment and how close I'd come then to just maybe thinking….
No, I was just going to get this done, even if it wasn’t going to be ‘fun’ anymore and even if I had to involve the doctor far more than I had been comfortable with previously (even if some pretty strict ‘rules’, and probably threats, were going to be included with that).
This was the only way I could be sure that Dr. Gerald’s and Maria’s memories, their legacies, could properly be honored the way they deserved, and I’d finally do what needed to be done. What I knew nearly from the moment I’d fully awoken on Prison Island had to be done….No matter what it cost…or who might stand in my way.
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This was probably the least ‘satisfying’ raid of my life (which, to be fair, had only included three prior ones, not counting training exercises). Other than the hatch covering a maintenance tunnel (the damage to which was intentionally hard to notice), the G.U.N. base was disgustingly intact. Though I hadn’t previously chosen to make use of them, I had ample stealth skills from my training and the ability to teleport (though that ability had some limits, which meant that it wasn’t quite as easy as just teleporting into the base and grabbing what I wanted, but it wasn’t that far off).
I don’t know if Rouge really knew just how close she’d come to the truth when she described my earlier raids as ‘venting’, because, in fact, that was a lot of what it actually was. I hadn’t actually needed to break their machines, trash their facilities, and terrify their agents to get what I came for…but, oh, how I’d wanted to….But, I was done with that now.
Quietly…‘peacefully’...I waited for the data to finish downloading…with almost certainly no one in the base even aware of my presence, probably now and until long after I’d left (if ever). Again, it was almost…wrong. That those who had caused Dr. Gerald and Maria to suffer so much…or if not the exact same ones, those who had carried on their same legacy, the same mission, the same evil….I had actually looked into it….The G.U.N. of this present day wasn’t so very far from the G.U.N. of my own time.
Maybe they hadn’t done anything quite as bad…but it was very clear to me that the same corruption was still there…and I didn’t think it would take very much for them to one day repeat their past acts, and possibly worse, if they could somehow manage it. Though, honestly, I don’t think I could imagine anything worse than what they had already done….I’m not sure that there could be.
Ugh, it took a lot of self-control, nearly more than I had, to wait for the download to finish. Once it did, I retrieved my data stick and took one last disappointed look around me at the disturbingly intact G.U.N. base and whispered (‘whispered’!!) “Chaos control!”
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Then, I was back at the Egg Carrier, and that was it. I had the fourth activation code, and I knew if everything went well, the doctor would likely be returning soon with the fifth.
I’d given him very clear instructions on what he was and wasn’t allowed to do in order to obtain it, and I was confident he’d follow them (or else). So, it seemed very soon that my, ‘our’, mission would be complete, and we’d finally have everything we needed. The encryption wasn’t even an issue anymore. As I’d suspected, he’d been able to deal with it, even without my help. In fact, he’d cracked the encryption during the course of my recently forced rest….Let me tell you, it had not been pleasant to see his gleeful and overly self-satisfied expression about that once I’d finally stumbled out of my room, just barely returned to the land of the living.
As a result of all this though, possibly, we would have accomplished our final raids without Sonic and his friends even knowing about them (though I suspected at least Tails and probably Rouge might catch on quickly). The only reason this had or at least would likely work out the way I wanted it to was because, based on my prior actions, no one was likely to believe that I would do such a thing, that I was even capable of it (and to be honest, I nearly wasn’t, and even now I was somewhat surprised that I had managed to do this without my usual, oh so satisfying, ‘venting’). It was only because of what had so recently happened on that island with Sonic and his friends that I could even come close to doing so.
Oh, look, there was Dr. Tubby now. The doctor set down on the carrier in one of his, I guess you could call it, ‘signature’ Egg Mobiles (But, seriously again, psychosis much?). From his fat grin (on his equally expanded face), I didn’t really have to ask how successful he was, though there was something I needed to know, maybe two things.
“Did anyone notice you?”
His grin retreated for a moment in an obvious display of ‘hurt’ feelings.
“Why, Shade, do you even need to ask? How could such plebeians possibly detect someone with my obviously superior intellect and unparalleled inventive skill when I decide, admittedly rarely, to accomplish my goals unseen?”
My subsequent expression and very clearly raised eyebrow apparently didn’t show him that I was substantially impressed, and, eventually, he started grumbling and told me what I wanted to hear.
“....Fine, as if I really needed to say it, no, no one noticed. My perfectly designed stealth drones made it in and out of their base with the necessary data entirely undetected…and no G.U.N. agent got so much as a little ‘boo-boo’....Just like you wanted.”
I think he could tell from my grimace just how much I had wanted that but it was what I had asked for…firmly. I couldn’t really complain that he had apparently done what I had requested of him….In fact, given that with his help we could now finally finish what we needed to do:
“...Thank you.”
He stared back at me in some obvious shock, probably because he could tell I actually meant it, with none of the usual snark or derogatory undertones I normally included in nearly every exchange I had with him. Just when it seemed his surprise had gone on for too long, he shook himself a bit and replied awkwardly:
“Hmm…well, you’re welcome….”
I think I had a bit of a surprise myself because I could tell he seemed to be just as genuine in his reply as I had been….We sort of both stood there awkwardly before I decided our little ‘moment’ had gone on long enough.
“....We don’t really have time to waste, particularly if Sonic or his friends figure out what we’ve just done.”
The doctor’s eyes widened in disgust, our earlier awkwardness now entirely forgotten.
“As if any of them were capable of detecting my flawless….”
I cut in, not really ready to stomach more of his near constant flow of self-aggrandizement.
“Yeah, I don’t care….Whether or not your or my raid was ‘flawless’, I doubt we can keep them fooled for long, not with Tails and probably Rouge keeping an eye on things….We need to finish this….You have a means of getting us to the station, right?”
Despite now having all the necessary activation codes (and my Chaos Emerald), I still needed to actually get to the ARK Station, which, given that it was in space, wasn’t necessarily the easiest of goals to accomplish and not something I wanted to risk via my teleportation abilities….Even at my best, that would probably be much too far, or at least far too risky. Again, he looked highly affronted at my insinuation that he might not be capable of the task I had requested. But I didn’t care about his (extremely overinflated) ego, just his results.
“Of course I can do something as simple as that. I already have the necessary means of transportation docked in hangar fourteen, and, with the data we have collected, bypassing the station’s security should be as simple as stealing candy from an infant. We can even proceed immediately if you wish.”
I gave his smug face an annoyed look but my response this time probably wasn’t one that surprised him.
“Then let’s go….It’s time to finish this….To do what Dr. Gerald…and Maria need us to do.”
For a moment, all his smugness and (crazed) superiority left his face, and, with complete seriousness, he nodded.
“Indeed.”
We both headed in the direction of hangar fourteen after that, not saying another word, for really nothing further needed to be said. Though, I tried to ignore the way he almost seemed…sad…when he looked at me on the way there.