hrjsgkdg idk how but i managed to grind this baby out in the middle of december, or what i like to call exam hell. my goal was to get this one out b4 xmas, i just wasn't expecting to do that b4 winter break even started, but lo and behold, here we are !? (i rly need to be studying for a quiz i have tmrw but oh well hah)

uhh ig warning for a little more swearing than usual in this chapter? bc it's tense. everyone is stressed out. absolutely Nobody is vibing in this one. hahaha have fun :)

XVIII.

endure (inˈd(y)o͝or)

[verb]

to hold out against.

They reached the summit of a large, gray crane, long abandoned and dangling over a sea of murky greens and sickly purples gurgling below. As precarious as it seemed, it provided a decent vantage point over most of the surrounding area. Gadget swallowed a thick knot clogging his throat, suddenly feeling a little more jumpy now that he had a better idea of how big the Chemical Plant really was.

Something made a buzzing noise to his side, and he looked down to see the Amy's wrist communicator ringing. She was hasty let go of him so she could answer, immediately averting eye contact and swiveling away from him to study their surroundings.

"Shadow?" she answered, holding her wrist up to her mouth. "What's going on?"

"We found a small outpost that may be of use," he replied. "It'll take us some time to hack into the consoles, but it's bound to contain information. Just hold tight."

"Got it."

She then sat down at the edge of the crane, dangling her feet over the edge and staring off into the distance. Gadget felt anxiety scratch up his chest at the sight of her so close to falling to her doom, but she seemed completely unbothered. Hesitantly, he approached and sat beside her, keeping his knees drawn up to his chin and hugging them close.

An uncomfortable silence slithered between them. He managed the occasional glance her way but felt too awful to maintain it longer than a split second at a time. There was a corporeal sense of revulsion wafting from her and he could hardly stand it.

Not that he blamed her. Really, she had every right to hate him. His own boyfriend was the cause of all their problems, and he had nothing to make up for it. Infinite sparked the war, tortured her friend for months, destroyed their HQ, and now—now he's gone and kidnapped her boyfriend (or at least, he assumed they were dating).

Amy's eyes seemed so bright and beautiful, but when Gadget found himself staring into them longer, the more he noticed how scalding and dark they were—filled with an immeasurably deep grief.

He sighed, biting his lip. "… Uh, look. I'm—I'm really sorry about Knuckles."

Surprisingly enough, that drew her attention to him, but not in the way he'd anticipated. She blinked, as though stirred from her thoughts, and stared at him intensely, indecipherably, almost confusedly. "Oh."

Gadget hugged himself tighter, his gaze falling to the pit of chemicals down below because he couldn't bare to meet her eyes. "I just—Zero was a great guy before all of this, I swear. I mean, if he was always some insane tyrant, I don't think I would've started seeing him in the first place, you know?"

He gritted his teeth together. That—fuck, that sounded bad, why was he so bad at talking?

Sucking in a sharp breath, he nervously continued, anyways. "Um… I—really, I'm so sorry. About Knuckles, everything, I don't know. You don't deserve to go through any of this, and if I'd known how to stop Zero before—before whatever this is, I would've, in a heartbeat. It's just, the Zero I knew would never have hurt so many people like Infinite has. And—I mean, I guess I just hope you don't blame me too… But I also totally get it if you do. I'm not trying to like, guilt you or anything, I just—I—"

A hand gripped his shoulder, and he looked up at Amy, startled. Her eyes were wide and critical and a little teary. "Gadget—"

Her communicator buzzed again. They both faltered, dazed, before she broke their shared gaze and lifted her wrist again to speak into it.

"Hello?"

"It's me," Shadow said. "We got into the terminal. The doctor is eventually planning to ship the emerald out of the north sector of the plant, but it's still here, so we still have time. I don't know when it's planned to leave. Head towards outpost F—we'll meet you there."

Both mobians righted themselves, scanning the horizon of dark structures and half-completed platforms. Gadget squinted, reading along the signs in the distance that were just barely legible.

Eventually he pointed to an area straight ahead, a little to the right. "There. I see an 'F.'"

Amy nodded, and spoke into the comm, "Alright, we found it. See you soon."

Gadget grabbed her hand and in seconds they were soaring through the air again.

He found himself, upon being thrust before Chaos, to be rendered speechless.

It was in pain, that much he could tell. It was trapped in the heart of this large, dark room within a cylindrical cage of electricity, its diameter no wider than five feet. Chaos was plastered to the walls, sloshing around like a raging sea storm reduced to a gigantic glass of water. Each of its roars shook the entire structure, wherever they were. Knuckles still had no clue, just that it was filled with a lot of gray chambers and long, dark corridors.

There were electrodes and wires hooked up to the base of its strange 'test tube,' which ran over to a large, unnatural machine at one side of the room. It was a block of obsidian, with blinking red lights and a rumbling engine; it shimmered in the low lighting unnaturally. He didn't know what the hell it was supposed to be, but it was clearly the source of agony for Chaos.

"Okay," he snarled. "First off, turn that thing the hell off. Don't think you can contain a god in a kennel."

Infinite simply stared with his dark stare, right beside Chaos, perfectly content, his hands held behind his back. He scoffed humorlessly. "That would disrupt our research, I'm afraid. Try again."

Knuckles clenched his fists. "Your research won't matter if Chaos kills us all."

When he looked back up at it, a shimmer of red rippled across its form. Shards of it drifted around in the blue, nearly hidden in how violently its currents flowed in such a small space. The brain membrane that floated closer to the top was sick with clumps of crimson as well, and nasty red veins that bulged from its crevices. Its roar was distorted and wrong.

The tyrant eyed it curiously. "I'm very interested to see the final reaction, once I've fully bonded Chaos with the Ruby's power. Aren't you, echidna?"

"You—" He stomped towards Infinite, a fire in his step and a smoldering heat in his chest, but he stopped himself. The jackal immediately turned to look back at him, danger glinting in his golden eye. Something shifted behind him, and when Knuckles looked over his shoulder he caught sight of Metal lurking in the shadows, looking significantly more upgraded than the last time he saw it.

Knuckles was not bound by anything. If he wanted, he could march right up to Infinite and split his mask into two. He could snap Metal in half like a twig. He could break that twisted machine to bits. He could even track down Eggman, because he knew that bastard was here, somewhere.

But—no, he couldn't. Everything was at risk. He didn't know the extent of the leverage they held over him. He didn't know how to get out of this place, or where it was located. And, surely, he'd be overpowered by both Infinite and Metal—as much as he hated to admit it.

For now, he needed to take advantage of the situation at hand. The others would find him eventually; in the meantime, Knuckles was an inside source. He could gather important intel and make sure Chaos stayed safe until they could figure out a rescue and recovery plan.

Carefully, he crossed his arms. "… Let me speak to it, then."

"And why should I let you do that, hm?"

"Because I'm not stupid," the guardian seethed. He did his best to keep calm and imagine Amy, here, by his side. Reminding him of the very same breathing exercises he taught her, because she liked to be like that, all intelligent and too good for him; he missed that so badly. "Chaos trusts me. I can try to calm it down, at least for a little while. At this rate it's gonna implode."

Infinite looked him up and down, before stepping aside. "Very well."

Knuckles took a deep breath, and approached the crying god. It took no notice to him, too occupied with fruitlessly trying to escape. He sat crisscross right in front of it, only cut off by a thin wall of surging energy that'd probably burn his hand to a crisp if he tried touching it. He held his palm up to it, and looked to Infinite expectantly.

After being cast an agitated glance, the jackal left, and then returned with a bright red power ring. Infinite clipped it onto his wrist.

"It will grant you some immunity to it," he explained, as he backed up again.

Knuckles eyed the ring strangely, and then pressed his palm to the energy. It thrummed against his hand. Tentatively, he pushed more, and his hand phased right through like it was merely a projection. Instantly, his glove was soaked, submerged in Chaos. He blew out a puff of air and closed his eyes, concentrating, just like all his past meditations.

Deep within some distant scene of the Special Zone, which he could only catch a glimpse of if he thought about it hard enough, he could sense Chaos' presence. He pressed against it, asking for entry. For trust. It obliged, reluctantly, and he was subsequently pulled into its raging despair, its all-consuming pain. The agony of being ripped away from the Master Emerald, and tossed around like a toy. The infection of the Phantom Ruby, creeping all over its walls, breaking it down, erasing the peace within. Consuming it.

Please, he called to it. Please, just hold on a little longer. I can help you, I promise, but not now. Not yet. It isn't the right time.

Chaos strained. It flexed against its shackles and howled into the darkness. They were both deeply unnerved by the red that spread across everything like a viral disease, a parasite. They both cowered in its horrible presence, which was ceaseless and lethal.

Knuckles considered, for a moment, what would happen—if it succeeded. If it took over Chaos. How easily it would continue, then, to spread. To swallow the entire world in anarchy and death and nothingness until the world wasn't the world anymore; only ruby.

Tears flowed freely from his eyes, streaks of lightning that burned his paper skin.

He blinked, and Chaos swooped over him like a tidal wave, curling around his limbs to keep him safe, keep him away, but he felt the Ruby embedded in each strand of being that composed Chaos; written into the coding of all the energy in the world. Because that was what Chaos was. It encompassed everything, even in this solitary form it took. Even caged in electricity, it was everywhere, a constant, just as oxygen or gravity was. And the Ruby was spreading. It would continue to do so, until there was nothing more to spread to.

He closed his eyes, feeling the water drip over him, everything turning to red. Everything cold. He was doused in wrath; it soaked him to the bone.

And then he opened his eyes, and there was one more—stronger than him. Stronger than it; them. He watched them, like through an old film, kneel down, and cry. Too strong, too feeble, too tired to carry the burden.

He whispered, "I trust you," and hoped they would listen.

—A hand gripped his shoulder and yanked him back, and Knuckles fell against the cold, hard ground. There was a band of red around his wrist. The room was dark. Chaos thrashed against his cage, not two feet away from him.

Knuckles exhaled. Memories pieced themselves together, and he was back—back in his prison.

Chaos let out a low moan, and its emerald eyes flickered red only fleetingly, before they sunk low and its thrashing relaxed considerably.

"Good job," a new voice commended, and it made him tense up instinctively. Eggman.

Infinite leaned down and snatched the red ring off Knuckles' wrist. The only key to Chaos, stolen. "Yes. We need to be careful not to permit him too much time. Who knows what he'll do."

Eggman nodded, from across the room. "Indeed, I have learned not to place too much faith into these rodents."

"But you are appeased, for now," Infinite continued. Knuckles lingered on the floor, dizzied and his vision blurred, his mind mush from his muddled conversation with Chaos. He closed his eyes, but their piercing, awful voices persisted anyways. He was too weak to cover his ears. "No worries of Chaos breaking out."

"Of course," Eggman said. "No Chaos, no research. No research, no success."

"But if we cannot push its limits, we'll never make progress," Infinite insisted.

"We are making progress. I know what I'm doing, mutt."

"Oh, do you? Because we've been doing a whole lot of fucking around lately, and not a whole lot of work. We've barely introduced the Ruby to it. We haven't seen what it can truly do."

"Do you realize how dangerous that will be? Its influence is already spreading nicely. Giving it more could be detrimental to our plans. We still need to be able to control Chaos."

"Who cares about control when its doing what we want, anyways?! Either way the thing will unleash havoc. The more power, the merrier."

"You don't even know what you're talking about. You've never witnessed Chaos, not like I have. You don't know what it's capable of."

"It's certainly not capable of escaping. Especially now that that meddling echidna has placated it—surely that will slow the Ruby's effect on it significantly."

"I just need some more time to fiddle with the stimulant. It needs to be just right, or else Chaos will be a wild animal. And then its useless to us. Then we have no control."

"Fuck this. Fuck you. I'm—" a bitter gasp of air, "—the echidna is passed out. I'm taking him back to his goddamn cell."

"Fine then. I'll be busy; not like you'd know what that means."

"Don't test me, Ivo."

Claws dug into his shoulders, large and serrated, and he felt himself being dragged along the floor. Chaos grew further and further, and he attempted to get away, but he could hardly move his muscles. Whatever it was that he went through in the Special Zone, his body couldn't handle it. He barely understood what he could remember from it.

Within a few minutes, the dragging ended, and he was roughly thrown forward. The sound of a lock clicked behind him, but he was too exhausted to roll onto his side and look. As soon as he was resealed in his own cell, all white noise instantly fell silent, and the constant hum of energy all around him fled the atmosphere, leaving him all alone. There was next to no Chaos energy in this cell at all, and it was suffocating. They were going to kill him.

He heard Infinite sigh harshly.

"Enjoy your beauty sleep, echidna," he sneered, and his voice was low enough that he seemed to believe he was only truly talking to himself. "I'm not quite done with you yet. And the doctor—I'm almost done with him, the fool. He is unbearable, but once… Once it's ready, he shouldn't be an issue anymore. None of you pests will be."

Then he heard the jackal leave, and as exhausted as Knuckles was, he couldn't fall asleep after that.

He heard the words "Egg Cerberus," and got completely off track.

It was strange, Tails thought, standing not fifteen feet from this massive robot dog that loomed over him—in mythology, the Cerberus was known to have three heads. So why would Eggman design this thing with only one? It was a huge design flaw, in Tails' eyes. Sometimes, he mused, absently, he figured he would make a better villain.

"Tails!"

He blinked, coldness tumbling over him in a sudden, frightening wave. The Cerberus was moving, now, surging towards him and it wasn't the fastest but it was large enough that it would flatten him in two more large strides beneath its titanium paws. And it was stupid, but he froze up, a deer in headlights, with nothing to do but squeeze the tablet in his hands a little tighter and close his eyes.

Something strong wrapped around his torso and he was dragged out of the way, a good several meters out of the dog's trajectory. Whatever had grabbed him continued to hold him, even out of harm's way, a cradle of safety.

He exhaled shakily, regaining himself, and tilted his head up to see who it was: Sonic. His brother's eyes were wide and glossy, staring directly at him, and irritatingly, he kept hugging him protectively. Tails looked at him for a moment, and then shrugged away from his hold.

"Chaos," Sonic breathed, looking even more shaken than Tails probably did. "Are you-? That was close, are you alright?"

He licked his lips, which felt terribly dry. The desert heat, most likely. "Yeah. I'm fine."

Those hard emerald eyes wouldn't leave him. "You sure? That thing is…" The hedgehog finally shifted his gaze to look past Tails, and when he turned to look too, he saw the Cerberus skidding to a halt before it crashed into the opposite end of the coliseum. It was big enough that its motion seemed severely limited by the stadium, which was good; they could use that to their advantage. "That thing is big."

Bunnie was already soaring through the air, sending blasts of blue energy from her robotic arm. They seemed fruitless, though, merely dissolving into stardust once they made contact with the giant mech.

Tails squared his jaw and began twirling his namesakes. Promptly, he swapped out the emerald tracker for his electric Wispon. "It's gotta have a weakness, we just need to figure out what it is."

The Egg Cerberus spun around to face him and Sonic again, from across the coliseum. A large turret sprouted from its back and produced a pillar of flames that crashed against the wall, and it began twirling rapidly, creating a ceiling of fire that blocked them off from Bunnie, who was still further up above. Vector leapt out of the way as it stomped its paw at him for getting too close, and started jogging towards the duo.

"Hey!" he called out. "You two got a plan for this?!"

"Uh, working on it," Tails responded unsurely.

Sonic grinned that dumb, cocky grin he always got, and crouched low to the ground. "I got one: beat the shit outta it!"

The disc of flames up above finally ceased, and the Cerberus jogged closer to the center of the stadium. In unison, Sonic charged forwards as well. The only other objects down in the pit with them were a small array of stone pillars, arranged along the border a little disorderly. Sonic used them to leap into the air and bounce off of for extra momentum.

He homed directly towards the bot's face in a violent sawblade of blue, and nearly made contact, not ten feet away from it, before a transparent red shield materialized around the Egg Cerberus in a massive dome. Sonic collided into it and was thrown back, stumbling to his feet when he hit the ground. He scowled, dusting his shoulders.

Tails clenched his fists and started towards it as well. "Everyone charge! We can overwhelm it!"

He flicked his wrist once he got close enough, and the Wispon in his hand activated, sending out a long whip of crackling gold. It snagged around the Cerberus' ankle—which he suspected only managed to break through the shield because it wasn't really a corporeal whip, being made of pure electricity—and it let out a mighty, metallic howl.

Vector somehow managed to yank one of the pillars from its foundations, making a beeline towards the mutt with it cradled in his arms like a colossal baseball bat. He swung it down, and it didn't quite break through the shield, but definitely did some damage to it. Bunnie attempted some larger blasts which also seemed to fair a bit better, and Sonic continued charging at it head on.

After a few minutes Sonic hopped back to gain some space. "Oh come on. Is this thing invincible? Not a very fair fight if you ask me, Egghead!"

There was no response from the mad doctor, which Tails wasn't particularly surprised by, because he'd probably just wanted to get in those first few lines over the intercom before leaving the Egg Cerberus to deal with them. But then Vector finally smashed his crumbling pillar hard enough against the shield, and the projection of red flickered dangerously.

Sonic wasted no time in seizing the opening. He sped past Tails in a blur and pounced onto Vector's pillar, before leaping through the hole he'd made. Once inside, the hedgehog revved up into a spindash, making for the Cerberus' other front foot that Tails didn't have the Wispon wrapped around. He began digging into its calf and it reacted, grumbling discordantly and recoiling.

But then it lifted its paw and batted Sonic away like he was an insignificant flea. The shield dematerialized and he was sent flying across the stadium before slamming into one of the pillars and falling to the ground.

Tails' heart leapt into his throat. He instantly relinquished the Wispon and bolted over to his brother's side. When he reached him, Sonic was on one knee, his face clearly strained but stuck in a stubborn frown, anyways, as he tried pulling himself to his feet.

Instinctively, he grabbed his arm. "Chaos, you need to be more careful!"

Sonic scoffed half-heartedly, throwing him a tired, way-too-overconfident look. "Yeah, I should say the same to you."

He frowned, a snappy heat bubbling up in his chest. "I'm serious. You're already—hurt enough as it is. Maybe chill out a bit for this fight; we can handle this."

That quickly shifted the mood. Sonic's grin fell, and he pulled his arm away from the kit's grasp, looking mildly offended. "What? Tails, I can handle myself."

"I—" there was a thickness in his throat, rushing up his face and pressing against his eyes; he blinked rapidly and tried to swallow to get it to go away, because now wasn't the time, he shouldn't have been getting into this, "—I know, just—you can get really reckless. I need you to… be more careful."

The speedster smiled again, though it was uncertain. He crossed his arms, cocking his head. "Uh, okay? Listen, bud, don't worry about me. I can handle myself. Plus I've got you, right? You've always got my back."

Tails felt all the air get sucked out of him. A burning sensation pricked the corners of his eyes, and this was so silly, he needed to focus instead of worrying so much, but he just—he couldn't stop thinking, thinking, thinking, about the junkyard and Infinite and not being—not being good enough—

A hand gripped his shoulder. Startled, he jumped a little. Sonic. Sonic was here, in front of him, giving him a strange, concerned look. "Right, buddy?"

The weight of the Wispon pulled down at his hand; sweat clung to his fur, because it was hot out, they were in the desert. Because they were in the middle of a fight, which they really needed to rejoin, right now. Tails inhaled deeply, and with it, all those heavy, thick emotions were shoved back down too; he needed to get it all out eventually, probably, just—now wasn't a good time. He needed to focus right now.

"… Right."

Sonic smiled, looking significantly alleviated, and opened his mouth to say something else before he was cut off by another roar that tore across the coliseum from the Cerberus.

"Hey!" Bunnie shouted, from up above. "Enough chit-chat. Y'all mind lending a hand?!"

"Yep!" the hedgehog replied. "We're on it! Just getting a game plan!"

Although his attention was now completely shifted back to the fight, Tails felt him squeeze his shoulder one last time in reassurance, before blasting off back to the enemy at hand. He wavered, took a deep breath, and followed suit.

They arrived at a small loading bay at the outskirts of the Chemical Plant.

Amy felt some of the pressure leave her chest now that they'd found it, and they'd definitely found it, because she could sense Chaos energy poignantly in the air; wherever the emerald was, it was somewhere in the immediate vicinity. She figured even a non-user would be able to sense it from here.

There were some train tracks that led in from a bridge outside, stopping not fifty feet within the interior of the loading dock platform. A cargo train was parked in the designated area, with about ten or fifteen yellow railroad cars attached to the engine, which was up by the entrance of the dock. There was a control panel beside the tracks which likely operated the train, and there was a multitude of badniks milling around, loading things in and out of the cars; a suspicious congregation was crowded around the caboose, and Amy felt like she could pinpoint the source of the Chaos energy from there as well.

Gadget nudged her shoulder to gain her attention, and when she looked to him, he motioned for her to follow. They slunk through the darkness until reaching a pile of crates, where Shadow and Antoine were hiding.

The ebony hedgehog studied her, then glanced to the same caboose she'd been eyeing. "It must be in there," he muttered, quiet enough to not draw attention.

"How are we supposed to get over there and open it without being detected, though?" she asked. After a few minutes, some of the badniks began to disperse, although two lingered behind, standing guard at its doors.

Antoine narrowed his eyes. "Can't Shadow simply use that trickery he used earlier to break in?"

Amy threw him a look of confusion, so Shadow filled in, "I summoned a very small dose of energy to my hands, so I could pry open a door."

"That's fine, but we need to deal with those without attracting more trouble," Gadget said, gesturing to the Egg Pawns.

Summoning her Piko Hammer, Amy gripped it tight and started forwards. "I've got it."

Concurrently, Antoine drew his blade, and the pair darted towards the robots, smashing and slashing them to pulps, all fairly silently. Amy was admittedly a little prideful; stealth wasn't usually her thing, but she could make do.

Once they signaled to the other two that the coast was clear, Shadow nudged Gadget and they followed suit, using the caboose as cover.

"Alright," the agent began, and his palms began to glow gold with energy. "You two watch the sides—we don't want to get flanked. You," he looked to Gadget, "watch my six. If the emerald really is in here, which I'm sure it is, the car is bound to be made of tough material. This will take time."

With that, the hedgehog began working, pressing his palms to the metal and prying at the edges. The doors were sealed shut, but at least it was reacting to his pressure—they began to redden with heat, hissing as he applied more energy through his hands.

A few minutes drifted by, as Amy stiffly kept watch around the right corner, Antoine around the left. Every now and then, she'd glance over to see Shadow working with a steady concentration etched into his features, and a jittery Gadget with his back to him, Wispon at the ready. That kid… he had a lot of heart, she could tell. And it hurt, because now every time she looked at him her whole being was shaken, always frozen up because she couldn't look at him without seeing Infinite—but that wasn't fair of her, she knew.

None of this was fair, really.

"Shit," came a scalding murmur, and she looked back to Shadow. He withdrew his hands, and she shifted to get a good look at the portion of the car he'd been attempting to break through. It looked warped and parts of it still hummed red, but it was mostly unaffected. "I could get through it eventually, but I'd need a lot more time. We need a faster way; whatever it's made of, it's a lot tougher than a door."

Amy rubbed her temples, and they ached sharply. "Wish you could just whip up a Chaos Blast."

"Not unless you want to alert the whole plant of our presence. And blow the entire train to pieces."

Antoine huffed, looking suspiciously at Gadget, who simply stood and looked to Shadow worriedly and crossed his arms. "What about you? You have a flamethrower, no?"

The wolf opened his mouth, and then closed it, his eyes a little wide. "I—uh. It's not the stealthiest."

"A last resort, then," Shadow concluded.

Amy thought, long and hard. What they hell were they supposed to do? Warp the entire damn train back to Knothole? "What if—"

She had no time to finish, as a blaring, grating noise cut her off. All four startled and looked over to the control panel to meet the pointed finger and screeching alarms set off by an Egg Pawn that had apparently spotted them. Shit.

"Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Int—"

Panic rocketing through her bloodstream, Amy was on the bot in an instant, smashing through it with her hammer, but it was already too late. When she swiveled around she could see more badniks rushing towards them from afar, all across the Chemical Plant. The remaining nearby Egg Pawns that had been tending to the loading dock were losing their minds now, and most of them charged towards her, by the control panel.

She dodged swiftly through most of them, knocking them down and swinging their stubby orange heads off their shoulders like golf balls, but there were so many that error was only bound to occur. Two of them grabbed at her from behind and the hedgehog was caught off guard, spinning round and jabbing her elbows back to try and get them off. They all tumbled into the panel, knocking several switches and buttons in the process. It wasn't until after she finished them off that she realized how much more severely that fucked things up.

When Amy looked back over at the train, she could see Shadow and Gadget on top of the caboose, frantically trying to burn through the roof; Antoine continued slashing through badniks to keep them as far away as possible. But the engine of the train began spitting to life, puffing out steam and shifting its cogs. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

In horror, she looked back down at the panel, but it was an ensemble of meaningless controls which she had no clue in how to decipher, and now the train engine was powering to life and beginning to lurch forwards, Shadow and Gadget still on board and Antoine growing more erratic and stressed as he fended off wave after wave of badniks.

"Shadow!" she screamed, giving up on the panel because she knew she'd only fuck it up more if she tried anything, as she instead vaulted over and sprinted across the platform to the train. "Do something!"

He grit his teeth and launched a few Chaos Spears down at his feet, but it didn't seem to be effective enough. "I can't—fuck, just get on!"

Amy couldn't really function properly right now from being thrown into such a manic state, so she simply obliged, launching herself at the train car and letting them reach down and pull her up. Antoine did the same before the locomotive got enough momentum and took off from the loading dock entirely.

At that point they were all swaying atop the car, the Chemical Plant left behind, and shit, they were really high up, because these train tracks were suspended over a massive canyon that was so deep the bottom was lost in a murky fog. And—And looking ahead, at where the tracks led, Amy's heart dropped to her stomach to see the tracks get abruptly cut off midway through the canyon.

The tracks weren't finished. They were still under construction. The train wasn't supposed to leave that loading dock for quite a while.

And now they were rapidly gaining speed towards a who-knew-how-many-miles-deep drop with no way of stopping.

They could warp away in an instant, yes, because Shadow was here, but then they'd have to leave the emerald sealed in the car behind, and it'd get lost in the wreckage. They needed the emerald, they couldn't—fuck. They were so fucked.

Without wasting another second, Amy began bashing against the roof with her hammer, and Shadow assisted, and Antoine and Gadget simply stared at them both before turning to yet another issue at hand, because of course the buzz bombers were chasing them from up above now, that was exactly what they needed.

Antoine looked at Gadget with a blazing fire in his eyes. "I think now would be the time for that last resort plan!" He then turned back around and began swiping at the buzz bombers that got too close with his sword.

The wolf gaped, and collected himself as much as he could, and nodded unsurely. "Y—Yeah, yes, right, okay. Everyone stand back!"

They did so, as much as they could on the small area of the train car roof, without losing their balance on the steadily accelerating thing that trembled from exertion, because these tracks weren't even finished, and the ones that were, were suspended by the most rickety, frail support beams ever created and towering over a goddamn chasm of doom.

Gadget clicked the trigger on his flamethrower and a plume of red exploded from the nozzle, engulfing a good three-foot diameter of space. He kept at it for fifteen seconds and then stopped to see the progress he made—which was next to none.

"What the hell," he cried.

Shadow clenched his jaw. "Clearly the doctor took… a lot of precautions." He swallowed, then glanced back over at the train tracks ahead. They only had so long before they would reach the end, and the train was only getting faster by the second. "Okay, alright—new plan. We need to stop the train, or at least this car, from falling off."

"Yes!" Gadget exclaimed. "We just break the thing linking this car to the one in front. Who cares about the rest of the train?!"

Amy was already taking initiative, because every passing moment needed to be used to its full potential, and they couldn't stand around and panic more than they already had. She slid down the gap between the caboose and the car in front, balancing a little precariously on the thick steel coupler and using the front of the caboose for support. She began to slam her hammer against it, and reassuringly enough, it made more progress than they'd been making on breaking the actual car open.

Up atop the roof, Shadow was now aiding Antoine in fending off the buzz bombers, because they were relentless in their pursuit.

Gadget racked his brain, because this might've worked, but they needed to do more, they needed to slow down. When he peered down at Amy, he feared she still wouldn't be able to break the coupler in time. He exhaled, because he needed to, because now wasn't the time to freak out. Now wasn't the time to run and hide from his problems.

"Antoine," he called, and the coyote turned to face him. "I need you to help Amy down there. Shadow can take care of himself, right?"

The hedgehog grunted in response, preoccupied with the badniks, so he took that as a yes.

Meanwhile, Antoine did as he was told and stopped to face Gadget briefly. "What about you? What will you do?"

He looked back up ahead. They had maybe another mile or two of tracks, and luckily enough the train was fast, but not fast enough to where they couldn't retain their balance standing on top of it. He had maybe a few minutes before they reached their demise.

There was this—strange, stupid little glimmer of an idea in his head. Not fully thought through or maybe even fully logical, but his boyfriend was a physicist, a crazy, brilliant physicist, and damn it all if he didn't make their dorm into a science lab with all his insane experiments; but it was fun, as much as he chastised him from it, because Zero was always fun, he always brought so much light to any room he stepped in—

"I—I—" Gadget looked down at the flame Wispon in his hand, and up to the engine of the train, several cars away. And when he squeezed his eyes shut he remembered his dream, he remembered the bleeding walls and the Egg Pawns everywhere and Zero, in the center of it all, calling his name, over and over. Stop running, Gadget. Stop running. "I have a plan. Trust me."

And so, Gadget ran.

ashfkjsg knux is still not doin good and infinite is a douche bag! egg cerberus is proving to be more troublesome than the last time that sonic (doesn't) remember! andddd train heist babey :)! hehe next chapter is gonna be wicked

uhh maybe i can get it out sooner than usual too? bc as i said winter break is approaching, which hopefully means i'll have more time to write. lately school has been doing its best to break me, but aasdhsddgh im gonna make it guys i promise !

pls give feedback or maybe a fav/follow, idk, live ur dreams dudes ilu guys