1x05: Meeting at the Base

Previously on Desperate Hedgehogs...

Amy and Rouge continued to stay stuck in the little prison cell. But they had actually discovered by the end that they were in Doctor Eggman's other base in the desert, despite the assumption that it was buried under the sand in a sand storm 3 years ago.

Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles reach the desert to look for Eggman, but something seems to be off about the trio, and Knuckles seemed to be getting an idea of what it could be.

Shadow found a Chaos Emerald along with Omega, and is now returning to the base to give it to Eggman, in hopes that he gets some answers. But will observing Cream crying about Amy change Amy and Rouge's fate?

Silver discovered the truth about the hospital, nearly being poisoned in a weak attempt. How will he try to convince Espio and Charmy that they must leave the hospital? And where exactly is Vector?

Silver knew he was used to hearing shocking things, but he still did not expect to hear his new friends, Espio and Charmy, to actually even consider staying in this evil trap disguised as a hospital. Silver had to convince them somehow that that was the wrong decision. More importantly, they were supposed to be helping him on a mission.

Espio and Charmy looked like they meant every word they had just said, which just amazed Silver even more. Why would anyone ever want to live in a hospital forever? More imporantly, what makes them think they can even do that?

"What do you mean you wanna stay here forever?" Silver asked very angerily.

Espio suddenly stopped meditating, too bothered by Silver's suddenly loud voice. He got off the bed and walked a little bit closer to Silver, and this time spoke with his eyes open. "Your loud voice is unecessary. Please be gone and let me get back to my meditating."

Silver didn't care what Espio said, he was going to get it through their thick heads that this hospital is not what it seems. "No, I've never heard anything more ridiculous in my life! Why would you even think of staying at a hospital forever? Not only would it cost you tons of money, but also, you're around tons of patients everyday that are literally dying. And what makes you even think you can do that?!"

Espio sighed, thinking Silver was being pretty ignorant. He then replied though by saying, "The ideas of staying here forever occured to me and Charmy after that treated us and fully recovered us. This hospital is like paradise Silver. If we were to stay out there, we would've lost our house within' weeks. The nurse even said we could stay here forever free of charge."

Silver shook his head in disgust, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Don't you think that's odd? Why would a hospital ever let you stay here forever, free of charge at that?! And do you guys even know what happened to Vector?! Does that NOT arouse any type of suspicion?"

Charmy suddenly paused his video game, and flew up to Espio's side, looking like he had something to say about what Silver had just said. "I don't care where Vector is, he's a jerk anyway," Charmy said. "Always treating me like I'm some six year old, but I'm alot older now!"

Espio was sick of this conversation, so he decided to say, "Silver, if you don't leave now, we will call hospital security and force you to leave."

Silver couldn't believe his ears. These two had a job to do, and it was to help him find Eggman. And they couldn't do that if they were stuck in a hospital. Blah, who needs them anyway? Silver will just go find the doctor himself. So Silver was about to exit the room, actually thinking he at least did not have to pay them. But suddenly, the alarm began to sound. And red lights were flashing everywhere.

"EMERGENCY! PATIENT 103 MISSING!"

Uh oh, that was the number on his door, looks like they found out he had escaped.

The desert was as hot as ever. No one in their right mind would ever make their home here. Well, except Eggman of course, who has a base right under it that was at least five years old. But it wasn't used for five years ever since he was trapped in prison, but he was back, and started to get the base back into shape one month ago.

But recently, a black hedgehog was awakened, and he immediately came to the doctor's base to help in his operations. Dr. Eggman never seemed too shocked that Shadow came, as if he expected Shadow to come to him. Shadow doesn't know why he knew he had to come to the doctor, but with nowhere else to really go to, he's forced to basically just do what the doctor says to see if it gets him anywhere. Shadow is very hesitant on trusting anyone at the moment.

He and Omega were walking in the desert, getting back to Eggman's base to turn the emerald in to him. Yes, they had found a Chaos Emerald, which will fulfill Eggman's request. They both didn't know exactly what Eggman was up to, but if the Chaos Emeralds are involved, it was obviously going to be something big.

"We should be very close to the base," Shadow said.

The two continued walking in the desert, the sand slowly seeping into Shadow's shoes when he began to sink into the sand. Shadow could go fast, but he wasn't in the mood to leave Omega behind. He thought it was a better idea to stay with Omega, incase he ran into any trouble. Omega was holding the Chaos Emerald after all. But it was inside his steel armor body.

Shadow suddenly heard something though that was ahead of them. There wasn't supposed to be anyone in this area, except underground of course where the base was. But no, someone was here on top of the base. And Shadow knew this base could not be discovered.

"Stop," Shadow said as he held Omega back. "Omega, someone is there. Can you zoom in and see who it is?"

Omega nodded, and changed to goggle mode. He began to zoom in to what was ahead of him. He kept zooming in more and more, until finally, he saw three figures looking around the area. "Subjects are named, Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna," Omega reported.

Shadow somehow knew that hedgehog wasn't going to be out of his life forever. But it was already so soon that they could've encountered each other again. He knew Eggman did not want anyone snooping around, and knowing that hedgehog was already snooping in the Mystic Ruins base, Shadow knew it was not gonna be good if Sonic found his way into the doctor's real base.

"Omega, we need to contact Dr. Eggman NOW," Shadow said sternly.

Omega nodded and quickly changed his right hand into a speaker of some sorts. A few seconds later, Eggman voice could be heard, who said, "Shadow, Omega, what is it?"

"Master, there seems to be a few unwanted intruders above the base," said Shadow. "Omega says they're Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles Prower, and Knuckles the Echidna."

"Blah," Eggman said in annoyance. "Use the other entrance that's further away from them, I'll take care of those pesky rats! By the way, have you two retrieved the Chaos Emerald?"

Shadow nodded, then said, "Yes, we have."

"Good good," Eggman said in his devil like manner.

In another area in the desert, three people were beginning their search to find Dr. Eggman. Two of them were asked to take him back to prison by the president, while the other was looking for the Master Emerald. Yep, they were none other then Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles.

They all suddenly split up, but were still pretty close to each other at the same time. Though as time would progress, they got further and further away from each other. They wanted to find any traces of the base they were inside of five years ago when Eggman was that close to blowing up the planet with that monstrosity called the Eclipse Cannon. But thankfully, the weapon is locked away in the Ark, heavily guarded by many machines. It was unfortunately too large to destroy, that only a weapon as large as it can destroy it. But then, what could they do with the new weapon then?

Sonic was the fastest out of the three, looking around everywhere for any kind of sign that could lead the three into the base. They knew that the base was somewhere here. The question was where, and if it was still accessible. He was running and running, not really looking where he was going, until he bumped into Tails, as they both fell to the ground.

"Ow...," Tails moaned.

Sonic got up and dusted the dust that on him off. He reached out to Tails as a gesture for Tails to grab Sonic's hand so he can pull him up. But Tails ignored the gesture and just got up himself. Sonic was a bit put off by Tails sudden independence. But he sighed and just tried to get over it. "Hey, sorry buddy," Sonic said.

"It's fine," Tails said, as he was about to keep moving.

But Sonic wasn't done with Tails yet, as he ran up to him and walked along with him. Sonic then asked, "So Tails, what's up?"

"Nothing," Tails said.

Sonic was a bit annoyed by Tails' rudeness, but he wasn't going to start drama anytime soon. He was just going to try and ease the sudden tension there was. "Okay then," he said.

The two just kept walking around in silent. They both didn't know where Knuckles was, but they know if they wanted to contact him, they could get back to the Tornado 3 and wait for him up there. It's been awhile now and so far, there was nothing. Not a symbol, not a hole, nothing but hills of sand.

But, that wasn't the case for long, as all so suddenly, the wind speeds seemed to increase are seconds passed. And more and more of the sand seem to be flying along with the wind.

"Ugh, is it another sand storm?" asked Sonic. "It's getting worst." Sonic was having a hard time navigating through nearly sand storm like weather now, but he was able to manage it. Tails however wasn't as strong and he began screaming as the sand storm began to carry him.

"Tails!"

"Sonic, help!"

Sonic ran up to Tails and grabbed onto his feet, but the storm only carried the both of them, as Sonic could not drag down Tails. The storm got worst, to the point where all they could see was sand, with have of it crashing into their eyes. There was too much sand to do anything, all they could do was just let the winds take them to wherever they were headed.

Still stuck in the prison cell, at least they had finally found out where they were. Amy and Rouge finally discovered that this was the old Eggman base thought to had been buried in the sand. They thought of how stupid it was that none of the familiar surroundings made them realize this. They had to find Eggman's well known head symbol to discover this.

"Oh my gosh, this means we're in the desert!" Amy said.

"So THIS is where Eggman is," Rouge said. "Looks like the president is going to have to pay me with some more jewels," Rouge said happily.

Amy was yet agin annoyed by Rouge. Gosh, she had to get out of here now to retain a more stable mind. She was certainly on the edge of absolute insanity. "We've just found out that we're inside EGGMAN'S base, and all you can think about is your precious jewels."

"Hey honey, why don't you stop judging me and maybe judge yourself for a change?" Rouge asked. "Anyway, if the doctor comes here, I know him, I can maybe sweet talk him into letting us out. I've tricked him before after all."

Amy laughed a bit at Rouge's comment, thinking of how ridiculous her plan sounded. "Hah, I'm sure he didn't forget the fact that you were a GUN aganet," she said. Eggman was a very smart person, with an IQ of 300. Amy was pretty sure Eggman would not fall for Rouge's stupid plan, as the doctor could only be tricked once until he learns from his mistakes and never makes it again.

Rouge smiled. "Well maybe the doctor has the hots for me."

"Okay, I can't listen to any more of this!"

Rouge laughed at how easy it was to raise the temper of Amy. She felt like it was a beautiful ability. But then again, Amy did kind of have a temper. "Oh hush down, I'm only kidding."

Suddenly though, the girls heard footsteps coming closer to their cage.

"Someone's coming!" Amy said.

The two waited for the figure to arrive at their cell. Amy was expecting Shadow, as he was the only one that seemed to ever come here. She'd be surprised if it wasn't, as maybe Eggman wouldn't want them to figure out this was his base. But the girls already figured it out, maybe it could be an advantage to them whenever Shadow came.

However, their possible advantage was proven to be false, when instead of the black hedgehog they were ever so shocked to see everytime, it was the villian that they were even more shocked to see. With his red coat made just to fit his belly, it was definitely doctor...

"Eggman!" they both exclaimed.

Eggman faced the cage with a grin on his face, and then E-123 Omega slowly followed the doctor behind him.

"Hello ladies, I guess you know where we are now!" Eggman said, following that comment with quite the evil laugh.

The hospital colors suddenly went from white to red. The red light was pretty bright, and the sound was irritatingly loud. Why did they have this much trouble over a missing patient? This just engulfed Silver's suspicions even more, as he was running looking for an exit, leaving behind Espio and Charmy.

He didn't know why he had felt bad leaving them there. He shouldn't feel any obligation to make sure they are safe. Nevertheless, Silver himself was in the most trouble. He didn't know what they would do if they caught him. Maybe inject him with that poison again? Or something even worst. Silver didn't want to think about it, so he just kept running.

"How am I going to get out of here?" Silver asked. "This place is huge! If I take the front door, I'll surely be noticed. If they were willing to poison me, what else are they capable of?"

Silver wondered if he could jump out of a window, but most of the rooms didn't have windows. Infact, he couldn't remember seeing a single window, as strange as it sounded. Not even the main floor had a window, and the door wasn't transparant. So really, Silver didn't feel like he saw any signs of outside civilization during his entire stay.

All of a sudden however, Silver heard something coming closer and closer to him. He kept on running, but the sound just got louder and it felt like it was getting even closer. Silver finally stopped and turned around, and saw that it was a bullet. Silver had great powers though, and stopped the bullet with his telekinesis.

"What in the world..."

Silver looked ahead and saw the one who shot the bullet was actually some blue like robot. It kind of looked like a hedgehog, but it was much taller and more strong looking then most hedgehogs. And behind it, were a few more robots that looked exactly like it.

Silver was astonished. Why were there robots in a hospital? And why were they trying to actually KILL the missing patient. He wish Espio and Charmy saw this, maybe it would've knocked some sense into their skulls.

Silver threw the bullet and destroyed the robot that threw it. But the other robots began to blast towards Silver, and Silver was forced to use some more of his powers and began flying away, which was much faster then running. His legs were a bit wiped out at this point, but it was good that his powers were coming back.

Silver was much faster flying, almost reaching the speed of the light, which was what the infamous Sonic the Hedgehog could do. The hallways seemed endless though, as when he reached the end of one, there was another one on the left or right. The robots just kept on his tail, he couldn't lose them in such a narrow hallway.

As Silver flew, he tried to throw some stuff he came by back at the robots. It was difficult to basically throw blindly, but it did eventually stop some robots. He looked behind for a bit for a better view, and kept throwing more items at the robots, until they were all eventually down.

Silver was happy about how easy it was to get rid of the robots. His powers definitely were there for him. When Silver turned his head back to the front though, he sees a wall in front of him. He tries to slow down, but he can't as the laws of physics simply wouldn't let him. He was about to make a very deadly crash.

However, there was no crash. Because, it wasn't really a wall, as Silver fell right through the holographic image.

Inside the desert base of Dr. Eggman, there was a black hedgehog named Shadow who was walking with a Chaos Emerald in his hands. Omega was asked to go with Dr. Eggman to assist him in something. He didn't know what it was, but he didn't much care. So Omega gave Shadow the emerald, and now he was gonna have to put it back himself.

"I wonder if I'm going the right way," Shadow said.

Shadow thought this base was huge, as the instructions Omega gave him to get to the vault were a tad bit confusing. But Shadow thought he was going the right way. Well, he hoped he was. If he was going the wrong way, he might be lost in this base for a long time. He was not going to get lost in what he'd basically call his home, for now.

Just what exactly did Dr. Eggman want with these emeralds anyway? Shadow could feel the large amounts of energy coming from the Chaos Emerald. Whatever, as long as he got some answers to his questions, he would be fine.

He wondered what he was going to do to those two girls that he saved while he walked. It seemed pretty useless to keep them alive. Why not get rid of them and be done with them since they weren't going to answer any of his questions? Besides, he couldn't reach their deal and let them go, Dr. Eggman had strict orders not to. The last thing Shadow wanted to do right now was upset what could be the source of his answers.

But there always was the possibility of being tricked. This man did seem familiar, but is there more to him then he remembers? He somehow feels....connected to Dr. Eggman, and he didn't know why. Did he spend alot of time with him before all this? Was he his best friend? Shadow didn't know, and it upset him.

"I think this is it," Shadow said.

Yes, it was it. Shadow finally reached the heavily protected vault room. He entered through the door, with two robots guarding the room side by side at the door.

The room seemed kind of small, but it seemed specifically designed to house Chaos Emeralds, as the space in front of him fit a Chaos Emerald perfectly. Shadow immediately inserted the Chaos Emerald. The Chaos Emerald seeps inside, his task was complete.

"Two Chaos Emeralds now stored in Chaos Emerald vault," the computer said.

"Huh?" asked Shadow.

There were two emeralds now. Did Dr. Eggman get his hands of another emerald while he and Omega were hunting for one. He was sure it wasn't a big deal, he would go and ask the doctor, he probably found it not too long ago. Shadow exits the room and heads for the doctor.

The sand storm was major. It was strange though, because Tails did look at the forecast and saw that nothing was said about a major sand storm in this area. Then again, who would take their time to really be accurate about their forecasts in an area not many people go to? Still, it was a forecast, it should've been accurate enough to predict something like this.

Sonic and Tails kept flying around in the sand storm. They weren't aware of where Knuckles had gone off to, but they were pretty sure he was caught in the same storm. The question was where they would all end up after the storm.

Tails was worried about his Tornado 3. He made it pretty strong, but he was worried it would get dmanaged in this sand storm a bit. Who knows how much longer this storm was going to last? Obviously though, it wasn't the main thing on Tails' mind. The main thing on his mind was actually his own life.

Sonic was with Tails, as they held each other's hands as hard as they could. They thought maybe together, they could try to fight the storm. But it seemed useless. The storm felt like a tornado of sand, and they were basically useless in trying to fight it. Not even Sonic's speed could get them out of this, as he had to reach the ground first in order to make use of his speed.

"Just hang on!" Sonic shouted, fighting the loud noises called wind.

They both kept on screaming that felt pretty endless. Will this storm calm down fast? Sonic and Tails hoped so, as they slowly got so caught up in the storm, that they eventually got exhausted, and drifted into a sleep as the storm continued to carry them.

Later on, the two were lying down at an unfamiliar place. It was pretty dark, and there was alot of sand on the ground. It was a strange place to find, but something about it will seem familiar to them.

Sonic slowly opened his, and sees his surroundings. It was too dark to really see anything, but he definitely saw they were no longer outside. He sits up, and tries to get all the sand out of his head. He looks to the right of him, and sees Tails right next to him.

"Hey Tails, wake up," Sonic said.

"Ugh," Tails moaned.

Tails got up himself, and noticed that they were no longer outside where the sand storm was raging at its worst. He was still a little dizzy from the storm, but he knocked that feeling out once he got the sand out of his head.

"Where are we?" Tails asked.

"I don't know," Sonic said. "But I have a feeling it might be just the place we were looking for."

Sonic was pretty sure that this was Eggman's base. If Eggman wasn't here, it'd make sense there were no lights on in this room. It would mean that this base really wasn't inhabited for five years. But then again, it was a huge place, Eggman could be somewhere around here.

"H-hey, where's Knuckles?" Tails asked.

Sonic and Tails looked around, and realized they were all alone, with a familiar red echidna out of their sight.

"I don't know...," Sonic said.

It turns out Amy and Rouge didn't really have to figure out where they were, because Eggman had decided to come visit them and tell them himself that they were in his base. But Amy and Rouge did also figure out this was the base buried by a sand storm 3 years ago.

"You could say so doc," Rouge said with a smile.

"Eggman, you let us go right now or I'm gonna pound your head!" Amy shouted in anger.

Eggman let out another evil laugh. He was obviously having fun seeing Amy being as desperate as she is. "Oh, you two are just lovely prisoners," Eggman said. "Rouge, the backstabber working for the president. And Amy, the annoying idiot that follows her hero around like an insect."

"What?!" Amy cried in anger. "Now you listen to me you fathead, once Sonic comes and gets me out of this prison, you're going to be sorry!" Amy didn't like seeing Eggman's face one bit. It's just all the destruction he had caused and how he always seems to treat her like a pinata that pisses her off. She wasn't what she was five years ago, she was nearing eighteen. But these old people she hated before are bringing back her habits of acting pretty childish.

"Well Amy, it doesn't seem like you've changed a bit, that's kind of sad," Eggman said.

"You didn't really change either," Amy said.

Rouge sighed at how Amy's words weren't helping the situation at all. Rouge could get she hated the guy but come on, that's not going to get her anywhere. "So doc, what do ya want?" Rouge asked. "Why did you decide to come clean about this place now?"

Eggman smiled, and then said, "I actually have something that I'm going to need you girls for. The reason that I've kept you alive is now about to be revealed."

"Well whatever it is, we're not going to do it!" Amy said. The last thing Amy wanted to do was help an evil dictator. If Eggman thought he was going to make her do anything, then he had another thing coming.

"Oh, I don't think you really have a choice you little brat," Eggman said. "You're my prisoners. So as prisoners, you're going to have to do what I say. But don't worry, you won't have to do a thing for this. Infact, you could fall asleep if you wanted to throughout all of this."

"What could you possibly be referring to doctor?" Rouge asked.

"Mm hm hm hm," Eggman quietly said. "Omega, take them away!"

"What?" Amy and Rouge both asked in shock simultaneously.

Omega nodded, and slowly opened the cage and grabbed hold of both Amy and Rouge. Both of them tried to get out of Omega's huge hands, but they could not, as this robot was alot stronger then alot of previous Eggman creations. It didn't even look like a bandik, it looked like GUN and Eggman came together to create this super weapon. They both struggled, but their efforts were proven futile, as Amy and Rouge got further and further from their cage.

In the main computer room, there was this huge computer there to fit in what seemed like a pretty huge room full of all sorts of inventions. Eggman spent the most time in this room, working on whatever devilious scheme he had in his head. While Omega took Amy and Rouge to wherever they were headed, Eggman went back to this main room, and sat at the chair in front of the giant monitor.

But he wouldn't be staring at the screen for long, as the strange black hedgehog Shadow suddenly entered the room, who was ready to get a few questions answered from the doctor himself.

"My my, if it isn't Shadow," Eggman said. "I assume that nothing went wrong with putting the Chaos Emerald where it belonged."

Shadow shook his head, and then said, "No, there was no trouble. The Chaos Emerald is now safe. But...master, why was there a Chaos Emerald already in there?"

Eggman grinned from hearing what Shadow had to say. "Wow Shadow, that wasn't the first question I was expecting from you! I'll be glad to tell you.

"You see Shadow, when I escaped the prison, I knew I had to get somewhere fast. The first place that came into my mind was this place of course, as the Mystic Ruins one was out in the open. Little did I know that the base was buried by a sand storm. But that was even better! Not only did I have a pre-made base, but it was also hidden from civilization! So all I really had to do was find it.

"However, I wasn't about to go and search for eternity in a desert. So instead, I found a little shack in the country to stay at and work on something that'll find my base in no time. And that my friend, is how Omega was built. But there was something missing that would've made my greatest robot creation complete. That's when I went and found a Chaos Emerald. And after powering Omega with that, he was an unstoppable force and we found my base just like that!

"So, anything else you would like to ask?"

Shadow thought of the millions of questions he had. Like what he was doing in that capsule back in the Mystic Ruins. Why he somehow knew to come to this base? When Eggman saw him it was as if Eggman had expected him to come. Just what did Eggman know about him?

"I...," Shadow began to say.

"I FOUND YOU!" shouted an unfamiliar voice.

Eggman and Shadow turned to where the voice was coming from, and they saw a white hedgehog who looked very angry, ready to slaughter the both of them at sight. It was Silver the Hedgehog, how did he get from the hospital to here?

"Who are you?" Shadow asked.

"I'm Silver the Hedgehog," Silver said.

"Oh, it's you," Eggman said. "How in the world did you escape my trap anyway? It's full proof to keep idiots like you inside forever!"

Silver suddenly figured out that the hospital was nothing but a trap, and it seemed like Eggman was the one responsible for it all. Silver's eyes were raging with anger, as if there was fire inside of them. He felt like he knew exactly what was going on, and he didn't like it.

"You're going to pay for what you had done you monster!" Silver shouted.

"What in the world are you talking about?" Eggman asked. "Excuse me if I found it rude you were snooping around in a place you were not supposed to snoop in in the first place! You should be lucky that I teleported you into my virtual reality trap instead of letting you rot in my Mystic Ruins base right after the bomb detonated. You weren't a bad guinea pig though, the problem was you escaped it. I don't know who you are and what you want with me, but you certainly aren't going to stand in my way!"

Silver was absolutely disgusted, as it seemed like he felt that this Eggman person should know exactly who he was. He didn't like liars, and he was ready to let his rage out and kill the egg shaped human right there.

"Don't play dumb with me you creep!" Silver shouted. "I've finally found you after a long search across time zones and universes! It ends today..........Eggman NEGA, the IBLIS TRIGGER!"

What will happen to Amy and Rouge? What is Omega going to be doing with the two? And what will happen once Sonic and Tails get into the action in the desert base? And where has Knuckles wounded up? What exactly is the true story to Shadow's return, and what exactly does Eggman know about it? And why has Silver called Dr. Eggman Eggman Nega, the Iblis Trigger? All of this, on the next episode of Desperate Hedgehogs!