Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Sonic Adventure 2: The ARK Incident ❯ 1. Day One--Iron Gate ( Chapter 1 )

Disclaimer: Don't own the characters or the plot. I'm just inserting random tidbits and swearing. Yay, swearing. Everything else copyrighted to Sega and Sonic Team.

 

 

Eggman should have been a poet.

 

Really, he should have, he mused. The alarm sounded like a beautiful symphony to his ears. He shifted the controls on his newest baby, the Egg Walker. It stomped forward. He eased up on the gearshift, and the Walker stopped as he listened to the metallic voice over the loudspeaker.

 

“Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Security breach at Gate Three! Intruder has been located in the north quadrant, and is moving in the direction of the underground base! All units prepare to engage: basic emergency battle formations. Standard battle formations initiated.”

 

The large door slammed shut in front of him. Mildly annoyed, Eggman jammed his thumb into the button atop his shift. The door promptly exploded inward in a beautiful shower of fire.

 

I need to remember these for the future sometime. After the world is mine, everyone will read my words.

 

“Locate and stop the intruder from reaching the security area!”

 

Grinning widely, lowering his goggles over his glasses, and letting his itchy trigger finger go, Dr. Eggman laughed. The robots before him exploded in a shower of sparks and parts.

 

“This is not a drill! Repeat: This is not a drill!”

 

He rather enjoyed the sound his Walker made as they crunched on the broken metal. He stopped at the shaft.

 

“That was all too easy,” he snickered. “Now, let's take a look at what my grandfather was working on: A top secret military weapon! The military shut down the research because they feared it!”

 

The Walker's legs bent, then launched the doctor upward at an alarming rate, dropping him down the shaft. His mustache lifted, and his nose twitched in an urge to sneeze.

 

He landed with a crash, his head jerking, the wind forced from his lungs. Taking a few minutes to clear his dizzied head, he re-secured his goggles over his eyes and lifted the defense armor on his precious baby. Giving its outer shell a brief pat, he pressed onward.

 

Sentry robots drifted forward, and if emotion could've shown on their faces, Eggman had a feeling it would be a look stupid shock at seeing a middle-aged man in a machine drop down a twenty-foot lift shaft, appearing from the sky like a being cast out of Paradise. The annoying voice shattered his thoughts.

 

“Intruder alert!! Assume level one defense formation!!”

 

“As if they didn't get it the first time,” Eggman muttered, urging his Walker forward, destroying the robots in front of him. Entering the next room, robots crashed down from the ceiling. Startled, Eggman's hands slammed into his control panel, opening numerous hidden weapons. With a curse he fired, stashing his “surprises” away and reminding himself to take his heart pills later.

 

Don't ignore the doctor's orders. Another lesson learned. Hey, who said you couldn't teach an old dog new tricks?

 

Pressing forward, he reached another hallway, which was promptly blocked by a large door, from which a painted number one glared at him. Backing up a bit, Eggman peered closely at the door. Tugging on his mustache, he looked to his console. “Scan that.”

 

“The door, Lord Eggman?”

 

“Yes, you damn imbecile!! Get to it!! I've got the military coming after me!”

 

“One moment, sir.”

 

Eggman fidgeted in his plush seat, listening, half-paranoid, for the stomp that would signify robots. He was definitely more confident moving forward than waiting like a sitting duck, alarms blazing, the world flashing red. “Hurry up!” he snapped, resisting the urge to hit it.

 

“You will be able to pass by destroying the four panels on each corner.” A small holographic diagram of the door popped up, the four corners flashing green.

 

“Good. In the meantime, bring up a map to the Security Hold, including my current position. Take into account I will be in constant motion too,” he added as an afterthought. Gripping the gears and grinning, he fired, and the door exploded inward.

 

“Level One security door breach!!” the loudspeaker woman shouted. Eggman rolled his eyes as he continued to lay waste to GUN's pitiful defense system. “Emergency formation! Intercept intruder!”

 

“There will be an elevator platform up ahead,” his console beeped. “In an emergency situation, the shaft to the door will open only if all security robots are disarmed.”

 

“Well then, I hope `annihilated' counts as `disarmed',” the mad doctor quipped after an especially loud explosion.

 

“I'm sure it will, sir.”

 

“I wasn't talking to you! Shut up and navigate!”

 

“Very good, sir,” the console replied absentmindedly, having limited responses.

 

Eggman moved the Egg Walker onto the platform, and again fidgeted as chain-link sides sprung up and the platform jerked, then began a gradual descent. His paranoia had no time to kick in, however, when he noticed security cameras and robots simply begging to be shot. “That's very kind of you, Commander,” Eggman cackled, amusing himself by seeing how many he could take out at once.

 

All too soon, the platform stopped and the walkway stretched out to meet it. Eggman blew through the door—a minor inconvenience, and went on his merry way.

 

Hallways stretched out in front of him like a maze. Not wasting any time, he looked at the holographic map and moved, destroying anything that so much twitched at him. He found the second door slamming in his face ten minutes later, but a few good blasts to the panels solved that problem.

 

“Level two security door breach!! Level two security door breach!!”

 

“Slowly but surely,” he murmured, wondering how long it'd been since he'd arrived on this godforsaken island. A few hours, certainly, but it felt like days. He was jerked out of his thoughts as a flying circuit board sliced the side of his face. “Damn it!” he hissed, clapping a gloved hand to the cut. “Oh damn it all,” he swore again, “I've got blood on my new white gloves!”

 

“I'm afraid that's the least of your worries, sir. Sensors detect multiple robots in the room ahead.”

 

“Shut up and navigate, you piece of junk! One has to be concerned about the niceties in life sometimes!” Irritated, he stomped forward and was greeted by a room full of guns. “Out of my way!!”

 

Anger soon turned to childish glee as Eggman again moved onward, his cut ignored, bloodstained gloves gripping the controls tightly. It was here Eggman was in his ultimate element. There was no way he could run out of ammunition, and the robots simply crumpled before him like paper dolls. Laughter built up in his gut, and in time, was let known to the compound as he wove his way around the military labyrinth, destroying anything in his way.

 

“Level three security door breach!! Intruder has breached sections three through eight! Get him!”

 

“She's actually starting to sound worried now,” Eggman cackled. “It's about damn time they stopped underestimating me,” he continued as swarms of robots moved in. Relentlessly, he charged through them, raising his defense shields so as not to be hit by a ricochet or a stray circuit board, like the last time.

 

He dropped down to a rather fragile-looking catwalk. The Walker ran as fast as it could, looking for all the world like some prehistoric creature spawned from a junkyard. The ends of the catwalk snapped, and Eggman slammed his fist into a panel, causing the hoverjets to boost him into the air and let him finish the final few feet to a secure walkway. “Too close,” he growled. “You have to wonder if they did that on purpose—and I don't want a history lesson!” he barked at the console.

 

“Sir?”

 

“How much farther,” was the snapped response. The mad doctor felt rather foolish, arguing with his mechanically retarded AI.

 

“Approaching the fourth door, sir.”

 

“Excellent.”

 

A sickening crunch accompanied this door, as well as the familiar blazing alarm in his ear. Yes, now she was definitely panicking.

 

“Level four security door breach!!!”

 

“All this to protect my grandfather's project,” Eggman mused. “It's no match for me, but certainly, if a regular human tried to get past here, they'dve been gunned down long before this. What is it, I wonder?”

 

The controls were heated, and the levels would become dangerous soon if Eggman didn't stop the Walker for a rest. Regardless, robots flew as a missile scattered them and the Walker stomped ahead. There was a brief period of relief on another elevator, but it was cut short by the swarms of GUN beetles swarming at him from above.

 

“How much farther?” he asked the computer, eyeing the beetles as they grew closer. “Hurry up, damn you!”

 

“Just past the elevator shaft is the final door. There are then two rooms and precisely three hallways before the door of the Security Hold.”

 

“How far down is the next level?”

“Approximately one minute and forty-three seconds.”

 

One minute and forty-three seconds too late, Eggman knew. The robots were almost on his head, and the lasers attached to them were warming up. There was no way the Walker could tilt up.

 

With a sudden grin, Eggman yanked open a compartment on the side, pulled out a large hand laser, aiming for a robot in the center. “Always think ahead,” he mocked, letting a beam fly. He raced onto the walkway, desperately trying to avoid the burning pieces of scrap that rained upon him.

 

BOOM

 

“Level five security door breach!!” the woman's voice screamed—much louder than usual—filled with panic and fear. “Switch to emergency defense mode! Lock down final security door!!”

 

“You said that was the last one,” Eggman accused.

 

“Sensors did not pick up any more doors, Lord Eggman.”

 

“Whatever,” Eggman mumbled. The last room he dropped into found him facing at least fifty gun barrels. And with one button, they were all gone. Laughing, he took the lift to a hallway and turned right.

 

“The final stretch,” he hissed, seeing the blinking light of his destination just beyond a hallway. He passed under a platform, wondering briefly what it was for, but paying it no real mind. As soon as the Egg Walker stepped one giant foot in the metal corridor, the entire place went into lockdown, doors literally zooming shut. “Scan, you lying piece of shit, and just see that I don't disassemble you for this!!”

 

“No weaknesses detected, sir.”

 

This time, Eggman didn't restrain himself. His fist connected with the panel, and the map sputtered and died. Not like he needed it anymore; the damn useless AI had done all it was required to. “I did not come this far to be stopped by a set of doors!!” he roared, infuriated. Angrily, he pressed the button atop the shift, and found himself nearly crushed underneath the walker.

 

Well. That certainly could've gone better.

 

Slowly, he managed to crawl out and inspect his baby through a haze. Nothing was damaged…the defense shields were broken, but they could be recharged and worse came to worse, he could fix the part easily. It was just overturned. Shaking his aching head, Eggman shoved the Walker upright with much huffing and puffing. Slumping against it, his brain raced through possible scenarios, eliminating them as quickly as he thought of them.

 

His eyes rested on the platform above. Curiously, he took the lift up, and gave a grin at what he saw. They simply left missiles lying around? The panel next to it buzzed, the screen flickering. Cracking his knuckles, the Doctor set to work.

 

Orders to go off when motion detected, eh? he thought as the words came up. We'll have to change that. Quickly and easily, he reset the missile to fire when released, then inspected it. It was more powerful than the ones he was limited to in his Walker, but he wasn't quite sure if it could blow down the doors.

 

“One way to find out,” he murmured. He was so close, he could taste the blue hedgehog's defeat beyond this corridor. He reached into his jacket and pulled out his Chaos Emerald, watching it gleam in the flashing light. He tucked it back in, readjusted his goggles, and pressed the button.

 

With a flare, the missile shot forward, right through the doors. Ripped through them like butter. With a gleeful and maniacal laugh, Eggman scrambled down from the platform and nearly vaulted into his mech, pushing the Walker forward as fast as it would go.

 

Reaching into another compartment, he pulled out a small device, smacking it on the large door and activating it. It took seconds to hack and activate the correct code. The panel on the door beeped twice, then was silent. It then began a repeated, monotonous beeping that joined in with the wailing alarm and flashing red lights. The door creaked open, and cool air washed over Eggman.

 

His hands trembling in excitement, the Doctor shifted the Walker forward into the room ahead, giving a soft “oh-ho!” at the panel before him. “So this is the military's top-secret weapon?” he mused, looking at the deep pit below him. “It's a lot smaller than I expected.” Stretching his long arm out, he punched a few keys and read the screen. “Hmm… `enter user data'…ahhh…enter password. Password is MA-RI-A. Maria.” Procuring the silver Emerald from his jacket again, he looked at it. “Now all I have to do is place the Chaos Emerald into this console.”

 

And so he did, listening to the soft click and the whirring of the machine. Too eager to simply wait, Eggman jumped the walker into the pit, watching as smoke poured from the opening in front of him. The air was cool, and the doctor found himself shivering, but whether it was from excitement or the temperature, he didn't know.

 

A loud clacking sound ground against his ears, and a pillar covered in wires rose above him slowly, more white smoke pouring out, engulfing him. When the haze cleared, there was a shadow on the ceiling, shown only by the single light coming from the pillar.

 

With a nauseous feeling in his stomach, Eggman realized the shadow was all too familiar.

 

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.- .-

 

END NOTES:

 

Whew! At first I wasn't sure how to portray going through Iron Gate, but I kept going and let it type itself, and I must say I'm proud of the result. But I realized this is gonna take longer than I expected, typing out each stage o.o

 

Why they need a huge pillar to seal a five-foot hedgehog is beyond me…that's one question my brain couldn't come up with an answer for.

 

No, Eggman's cute little console navigation wasn't in the game, but I thought it added some humor and brought out more of Eggman's quirky personality. Let's face it, Eggman wouldn't just jump into GUN without knowing his way around, and I doubt they have maps on their system, even if Eggy hacked into it. You might see it again later on the ARK. Maybe.