Chapter Text
Espio crawled silently across the iron ceiling, taking in details of anything the doctor might pull out. He went closer to the screen, it seemed to be written in a code, one that Espio could – inconveniently and surprisingly – not understand.
He peered down at the doctor's desk, and he was leaning on a few papers containing sketches. They were meticulously designed and contained tons of labels.
Espio thought, 'This must be something huge, something worth keeping hidden until the sudden surprise and attack...'
"Alright, that professor's plans must not go to waste. All I need is to put them under my control completely, no way out, quickest option."
Espio kept looking at the papers, intending to get a firm enough image in his head so he could copy it down.
The Doctor stood up and left the room, a metal door slamming behind him. Espio leapt down from the ceiling and to the floor, still hidden within his invisibility.
He scanned the numerous pages of 'concept art', some diagrams seemed much older and less refined than the others. "What could it mean, all this code and..."
His talking trailed off, reading the labels on the diagrams:
Made of Iron and Steel, for strength'
'If Mobian has abilities, they are to be enhanced for use in forces with the other Badniks'
'Note: Make factions when the forces get big and the land takeovers get bigger!'
Espio grinned, holding back a laugh. He considered just taking them for the Resistance to irritate the evil Doctor. He was about to until he saw the metal door swiftly open, re-revealing Dr. Eggman. Espio quickly and quietly scaled back up a wall and back onto the ceiling.
"Have I moved these?"
'He almost found you. Such shoddy hiding.' Espio furrowed his eyebrows, having nearly alerted Eggman to the presence.
"Eh, don't remember." Eggman went back to typing and sketching. He didn't seem to stop for another hour, thus Espio thought that he had enough evidence of a plan already.
Eggman reached for a small microphone, "Metal! Check up on Subject A-M! Ask how he's doing!"
This piqued Espio's interest, waiting for any doors to open instead of leaving straight away.
Espio climbed along the walls and ceiling, scanning the areas for Metal. Once he found the robot, he began to follow him.
Knuckles paced near the huge screen displaying the different members' locations. Some of them were talking amongst themselves, theorising what Eggman was plotting to do.
"Could it be another huge robot?" Rouge asked, lifting a hand.
Knuckles put his hands on his temples, "Too predictable, and too lazy! He'll be planning something new, I'm sure."
"But what?" Rouge looked away.
"Exactly." He continued to pace, occasionally glancing at the huge display screen. It showed Espio slowly traversing through Eggman's main lair.
Rouge clicked a finger, "Maybe he's going to recruit another god-like entity imprisoned in a gem to destroy us all?"
Knuckles chuckled (ain't no way), "Seems a bit 'out there', especially nowadays!"
Rouge changed the topic slightly, "I saw Ray today," she looked outside.
Knuckles stopped his pace and looked at her, intrigued, "Oh yeah? How is he?"
She furrowed her brows, "Still sad about Mighty. If someone close to me vanished without a single trace I would be like that, honestly." She flew to the other side of the room using her dark-purple wings, tapping on a keyboard.
"What 'you doing?" The echidna moved towards her.
"Sending something to Shadow. I'll get his current updated location while I'm at it." She spoke again. Once it was sent, Shadow's location appeared on the smaller screen in front again.
"He seems to be approaching The Metropolis." Knuckles read the word onscreen, where the hedgehog was.
The bat woman hummed, she went away from the keyboard and back to watching Espio's tracking device. "He seems to be doing well. Just going along with gathering stuff for us."
She sat down on top of a crate, a leg over the other.
"As he always does." Knuckles smiled, thinking about Espio.
In Tails' place, Wave sat on the floor by the fox. The purple Swallow was awaiting him to complete a series of conceptual sketches and annotations. "You really had to come up with something now?"
"Yeah, it's important to get every idea down in case the time comes to it."
"Funny."
Tails dropped the pencil, "And, done!"
Wave stood up in anticipation, and Tails unveiled his latest sheet, "What d' you think?"
She peered closer to it, humming, "A jet-powered plane?"
"Exactly! It's like The Tornado but more renewable! The plane's turbines power the engine, and the engine powers the turbines!"
"Sounds funky," Wave took the paper, "So you'll just spin the turbine around a buncha times and it gets powered up?" She moved the paper closer to her, tilting it in numerous ways.
Tails nodded, looking further at some other unrelated sketches. Wave threw the paper to the side and watched Tails.
"I personally think that we should kill that Doctor guy. It would honestly be so much easy! I can't believe nobody's even tried it at all." Wave folded her arms.
"Believe me, at least two people have tried." Tails grinned, bearing teeth.
Wave looked at Tails, "Hmm... I'm sure that ninja guy has tried at least three times. I hear some death threats slipping out from him on the communications sometimes."
Tails chuckled, "You're very correct, Wave!"
Wave smiled to herself. "Y' think I should get going back to Jet and Storm now?"
"Wait!" Tails frantically rummaged through papers, trying to get something, "I wanted to show you an improved Extreme Gear..!"
He yanked a sketch of a new and improved Extreme Gear board, now similarly designed to the Rogues, with agility and fluidity in mind.
"Much better than whatever the heck you came up with last time, Fox boy! Just remember that you don't have to try to impress me all the time." The Swallow turned around and began to leave.
"Bye Wave!"
(End of part)