Chapter Text
10 minutes ago
Nine smirked to himself as he slipped his hand through the cuff, and released his other. He'd loosened the screws - which had held the cuffs closed - with his canine teeth. Now, he set his sights on the two eggforcers standing in front of him.
Scanning the giant pieces of metal, Nine quickly identified where the wires were hidden. The only problem was that if he tried to disable one, the other would surely notice. However, risks needed to be taken if he wanted to get out of here.
Fortunately, the eggforcers had terrible designs and the panel came loose easily once he had a grip. He quickly dismantled the robots, throwing the wires he had grabbed to the ground. He wiped off his shoulder, before pressing a button hidden under his glove.
When Nine has originally began constructing his metal tails, he didn't have his hidden base, and had lost the pieces multiple times. So he'd placed a device in each part that sent out a frequency no one would be able to heat without special equipment. Then he'd made a counter part that could pick up on that frequency and would vibrate whenever it was pointed in the same direction as his stuff.
Which is what led Nine to be standing over a spot on the floor, where the receiver refused to stop vibrating. He turned off the receiver and knelt down to examine the floor beneath him, before knocking on the floor. "Hollow, about an inch thick, just as I thought."
At first, Nine checked the control panel to see if it would open the compartment. While doing that, he disable the Council's security and alarms, which made his escape plan easier. After that, he looked to see if there was a hidden control panel, which yielded no results.
None looked at the shards -which were in the same room as the hidden compartment - and narrowed his eyes. There was the possibility that the energy from the shards was keeping the compartment closed. Which only worked if there were wires under the floor that connected to the closed space.
"Only way for it to open, would be if I removed the shards." Nine thought out loud, eyeing the floating shards. However, if he tried carrying the shards, their energy could react violently if wrongly held together, making them a live bomb.
Nine looked around him, before spotting gray-greenish containers at the far end of the room. He quickly walked over and grabbed three of them, before emptying them of their contents. Since the containers could float, he easily brought them over to the shards and placed them inside.
As Nine suspected, the energy from the shards had been keeping the compartment closed, as he placed the shards in the containers. He quickly gathered his stuff, and put his mechanical appendages back on, fastening it around his waist. Now all that was left to do was contact Sonic, and help him defeat Chaos Sonic.
Suddenly, a tremor ran through the building, almost throwing Nine off balance. "Fuck, the fabric of time is ripping, I need to get out of here." He knew that if the Council was as smart as they claimed, they would try to turn off the portals.
Nine wasn't going to stick around for that.
"Sonic, you there?" Nine asked into his communicator, as he started making his get away.
Sonic responded almost immediately. "Nine, buddy, you good?"
"Yes, i'm fine, but what about Chaos Sonic?" Nine questioned, as he sat atop the floating containers. Practically allowing him to fly down the stairs without much trouble.
"Already taken care of, so now were are on our way." Nine pause at Sonic's words, it shouldn't have been possible for them to destroy Chaos Sonic! "Sonic, are you positive he's been destroyed?"
"100%!"
Nine frowned, but he decided to let the matter go for now. "Alright, I'll be exiting the bottom of the Yolk soon, meet me there."
* * *
Now
Shadow eyed Nine cautiously, as they moved through the void. He had used chaos control to make a quick escape, after he and Sonic met up with Nine. After that, he'd checked the containers to make sure the two-tailed fox had grabbed all the shards.
Which Nine had, the New Yolk, Boscage Maze, and No Place - taken while Shadow had been healing Sonic - shards were all accounted for. However, that was where he stopped trusting the variant, that Sonic treated way too much like Tails. Especially since they had only three shards, but there was one more world beside Green Hill.
Shadow had quickly located each portal, - by picking up on the energy they gave off - and knew Sonic was leading them toward Green Hill. While there was the possibility that Sonic didn't know about the 5th portal, Nine certainly did. He saw the way the fox continuously glanced in its direction, but never mentioned anything about getting its shard.
While Shadow could say something, he'd rather have a concrete answer, then go off his own assumptions. "Always make sure you have all the info, before you take action," was something Rouge constantly told him. While she mostly applied it to her unique line of work, it could be used for his current mission.
"Causing trouble now would be counter productive, even if it ends up being true." Shadow thought, as the Green Hill gateway slowly came into view. He entered the portal first, as soon as they reached the yellow passageway.
Since Shadow went first, it was his job to make sure that everyone - along with the shards- made it safely. Once that was done, he quickly took in where he was, the same stretch of beach where the phantoms of Sonic's friends sat. He watched Nine pause, before walking over to the ghost-like version of Tails.
"This is supposed to be me?" Nine muttered, but Shadow heard the sneer in the fox's voice. "Pathetic."
"Nine, welcome to Green Hill!" Sonic announced, unaware of what had just happened. "It'll look better when you restore it, then I'll give you a proper tour."
Shadow watched Nine carefully, waiting to see how the fox would respond. "Right, so where do I have to put the shards back together." Nine asked, not even so much as blinking in surprise or shock, as Sonic's statement.
"He's used to it at this point." Shadow noted to himself, narrowing his eyes. However, Sonic just smiled, and began leading Nine in the direction of the cave.
When they got there, Shadow chose to remain outside and guard the entrance, while listening in to Nine and Sonic's conversation. "It's like a blueprint, for where each shard needs to go." Nine said, in a slightly awestruck voice, as he heard the sound of metal hitting rock.
"I'll need to be incredibly precise while doing this." Nine continued, trailing off slightly at the end. "One small mistake, and the probability of saving your home disappears."
Shadow heard Sonic's breath hitch, before he said anything. "You can still do it though, right?" Sonic's voice cracked slightly, his tone filled with worry, and a little bit of fear.
"I can still do it, yes, you just need to give me time." Nine said after a beat of silence. "Which means when the Council shows, you'll need to distract them."
Sonic inhaled sharply. "I thought that we'd left undetected."
"And we did, but the Council can still track energy signatures." Nine explained, almost sounding like it should have been obvious. "They'll likely travel through the void, and should be showing up here soon."
Almost as if being summoned, a rip in the dull sky appeared, and the Council's ship came through. Shadow turned and locked down into the cavern, as he sent a warning to Sonic and Nine about the unfolding situation. "Speak of the devil, and he shall appear."
Quickly, Sonic joined him at the entrance, looking at the rift in the sky. "Common Shads, lets get going." Sonic announced, as he prepared to take off.
"No." Shadow stated sharply.
"Why not, we need to keep the Council away from Nine!" Sonic exclaimed, before realization crossed his face. "You still don't trust him, even after he got the shards."
"I trusted him to get the shards and get out." Shadow confirmed, crossing his arms over his chest. "That was where the extent of my trust ended."
Sonic shook his head, before running a hand down his face. "We don't have time for this, we need to stall the council."
"You need to stop the Council." Shadow corrected.
"Why is it so hard for you to trust him, he's just like Tails!" Sonic practically yelled, shoving Shadow.
"That's where you're wrong, you're letting your personal loyalties cloud your judgment." Shadow responded harshly, pointing a finger at Sonic.
A low growl - a warning - came from Sonic, before he spoke again. "Fine, play babysitter, I'll take care of it myself." With that, Sonic zoomed off, leaving Shadow with an unexplainable ache in his chest.
Shadow shook his head, and jumped down into the cavern, where Nine was working. The blue eyed fox barely gave Shadow a glance, before continuing to consider the placement of a shard. "He'll need your help, you do realize that, right?"
Shadow narrowed his eyes, wondering if this was an attempt at getting rid of him. "Sonic can handle it himself."
"The Council is going to try anything to get the shards back, which will mean they will try to capture Sonic." Nine scoffed halfheartedly, before lowering his voice slightly. "I'm sure by now you've realized that Sonic has prism energy inside of him."
Shadow had noticed, he had quickly figured that the devices on Sonic's gloves and shoes were meant to regulate that energy, like his own inhibitor rings. "Again, Sonic can handle it, he's faced tougher odds." He pressed, ignoring the growing feeling of concern.
"The Council will try to get the prism energy from Sonic." Nine continues, seemingly unbothered. "They'll extract it from him, if it doesn't kill him, they will do it themselves, or they will torture him."
"MARIA!"
"Fine, but the second you do something I don't approve of, you're dead." Shadow growled, chaos energy crackling in his hand. "Do you understand?"
"Yes."
Shadow activated his air shoes, and raced out of the cave, leaving a suddenly bust of air behind. Where the ebony hedgehog had stood, chaos energy electrified the air, before fading away in a matter of seconds. Nine would be damned if he didn't admit that it had sent a shiver down his spine.