Watch The Hourglass

… doors close when time is up.

- Omochao; Sonic Adventure 2 –

To Spoil An Experiment

"Hey! Look out!"

Cursing under his breath, Knuckles reacted to Sonic's call just in time. He threw himself to the floor, sliding on his belly for a couple of meters. It was just barely enough for the machine gunner's fire to slice harmlessly through the air above him.

His slide came to a halt directly to another robot's feet; a compared to other models rather small one, humanoid, clumsy-looking, with red armor, called Egg Pawn… The things weren't actually excelling in smartness or combat power, but persistent when given a machine gun - but the echidna didn't give it any time to react to his presence.

Ducked down to avoid being hit, Knuckles moved around the roundish fighting machine and shot upright in its back, carrying the force of the movement bringing him back to his feet into a fierce uppercut that blew the robot's head right off its shoulders. It still kept firing, apparently the head not required for its operation. Knuckles snatched a hold of the bot's left arm, and, ducking down again, swung the machine over his back. Releasing his grip on it, he let it soar through the air until it collided with the merciless concrete of the next wall in its flight path.

The red echidna hardly took the time to watch it terminate its existence in a small fireball; the staccato of anew gunfire caused him to whirl around, ready to jump… somewhere. He relaxed for a second at finding he didn't need to. Sonic struck the robot shooting at him like a cannonball; the force of the impact throwing the Egg Pawn flying a way approaching the one Knuckles' last had taken as well.

A brief nod thanked Sonic for clearing his back and was acknowledged with a grin and a short wave before the hedgehog took off again, bouncing between the remaining wannabe killer machines at a speed that made Knuckles' head spin. Taking out a handful of robots barely touching them as he went, Sonic actually seemed to be enjoying himself. A jump brought the blue hedgehog up into the air and then launching himself at robot after robot without touching the ground anymore. A blur of blue. Knuckles shook his head. Sonic called the move 'homing attack', and Knuckles was damned if he ever understood how the hedgehog did that.

"Whaa!" The high-pitched yelp of the third member of the team pulled Knuckles out of a senseless state of just standing and watching his blue friend work. Spinning around, the echidna's eyes searched Tails.

They found the young fox a second later. Apparently he'd tried jumping a robot from behind, but the machine had fallen on him. Now the two-tailed boy struggled to free himself, his legs and one of his tails caught under the Egg Pawn that was apparently heavier than it looked on first sight. As if unimpressed by its horizontal position, the robot was busily shooting what ammo it had left without seeming to bother taking actual aim at anything.

Knuckles frowned. If Tails wasn't going to be pancaked sooner or later, he was still endangered of being hit by a ricocheting projectile. A look over his shoulder revealed Sonic to be occupied with one of the few robots equipped with laser weapons; the twirl of blue was hopping and rolling between short beams of neon green light.

At least the hedgehog was keeping what was left of the welcome squad busy. Knuckles turned back to Tails. "Hang in there, I'm coming!"

Running and dodging the aimlessly straying projectiles rebouncing off walls or ceiling, the echidna approached the stuck fox. Twisted in a not very comfortable or healthy looking way, Tails had reached out for the robot's right arm and was pulling and yanking on it, trying to keep it from taking aim at Knuckles.

It was clear who would win this wrestling competition, but even if Tails' chances to outpower the robot were roughly guessed very little above zero, his struggles still served as a distraction. Also a combat robot apparently could look only one way. It could shoot in two, anyway.

Another curse slipped through Knuckles' lips and the echidna stumbled, barely avoiding taking a hit. He still had rings, but he didn't feel like wasting them. Chaos knew what would come later…

Finally reaching Tails and his overly close robot, Knuckles slipped to his knees and slammed his spiked fist into the robot's left armpit. Attacking from above would have been an easier and much more promising way, but the force of his punch would crush poor little Tails. Dealt from below, the impulse given to the robot flipped it over and sent it flying a few meters. Tails, still clinging to the other arm, went with it.

"Let go!", Knuckles shouted.

The call finally made it click; double namesakes spinning Tails released the hold on the robot and hovered above it as it landed, shredding the momentum until hitting a wall. The red lights in its optics flickered, but it raised its weapon arm and moved to stand up again.

Only Knuckles diving into it fists first changed its plans.

Standing back on his feet, the red echidna watched Tails touch down at his side, a smile on his face. "Thanks a lot, Knuckles! I had some trouble with that one…"

Knuckles smiled a little. "Don't mention it, kid."

"Hey, guys!" Sonic's call let Knuckles turn around. The blue hedgehog stood in midst of piles of wreckage. "I think there are no more complaints to us entering this wonderful base, what do you think?" Sonic grinned.

"Nope, they're all strangely silent…" Tails giggled. Walking up to the large portal in front of them, the fox' fingers swiftly moved over a numeric panel next to it, granting them entrance now that the guards were taken care of.

Just as expected, Sonic was the first inside. Knuckles followed him and Tails, his eyes sharply gazing around. You never knew what other welcome treats you'd find behind the next corner.

The most outstanding thing about the corridor they'd landed in however was a big computer terminal tucked into the wall to their left. Immediately Tails was at it, cerulean eyes fixed on the multiple, slightly green-tinted screens. He'd made a keyboard pop out of what had looked like plain wall to Knuckles a second later through some act of techno wizardry. The echidna didn't really question it. The same way he channelled the Master Emerald's energies on instinct, Tails used computers and other kind of obscure machinery, be it some he built himself or Eggman's stuff.

"Found anything interesting, little bro?", Sonic queried, his left foot tapping the floor. Knuckles didn't need to ask to know the hedgehog itched to be going again.

Tails shrugged. "Of course there are firewalls and security protocols. I'll have to breach them, first…"

"Of course…", Sonic echoed. "How long's that gonna take ya?"

Another shrug. "It depends on how complex the system is, and on my luck. But I think once I'm in, I can get the system to tell me some details on Eggman's plans with the Emerald… and that could help us stopping him."

"Do we have the time to breach these… whatever they were called?", Knuckles asked, watching meaningless chains of meaningless symbols rush over the screens. Meaningless to him, that was. To the fox it all made perfect sense of course. At least Knuckles hoped that.

Tails shook his head. "I don't know, but I'd like to try. I think it's best the two of you get going on. Find Eggman and his experiment. Try to delay him. I'll catch up with you as soon as I'm done here."

"You'll find us?" Sonic bounced on the balls of his feet.

"Sure." Tails briefly turned back to the others and flashed a smile. "I'll just follow the trail of broken robots you leave."

"Ah." The blue hedgehog chuckled. "Good point. Then we're off." He turned to Knuckles, and the echidna nodded his agreement. "Let's get your Emerald back before Eggy does something stupid with it."

Knuckles gave him another nod and the two took off jogging along the blank, metallic corridor.

In a way, Eggman's bases looked all the same. So far they hadn't found the bright neon lights of self-presentation yet, nor the Eggman-shaped logos everywhere… but Knuckles expected that just to be a matter of time.

Sonic was keeping a pace he knew the echidna could keep as well, and they progressed quickly. Every now and then a robot was unfortunate enough to cross their path and was taken down almost too fast for Knuckles to watch.

If someone had told me yesterday I'd be breaking into Eggman's headquarters… The echidna shook his head, looking between the metal and the red lights all around and smelling the pollution in the air they were forced to breathe. Yesterday… Yesterday morning he'd been sitting on the stairway of the Emerald altar, his hat – a present from Sonic for the solstice they'd celebrated together some time ago - half over his face, and thinking nothing bad at all. In the evening of that day, he'd had the one Chaos Emerald he kept on the island stolen by Eggman. At least, it wasn't the Master Emerald, although Knuckles didn't understand why Eggman would go for just the Chaos Emerald.

His immediate chase after the thief had caused Knuckles to bump into Sonic and Tails who were also on his heels. They'd told him Eggman was about to conduct some sort of experiment to be able to use a great new weapon – so far unknown of – at any place and anytime he wanted. Or that was what Eggman said. Knuckles idly wondered how much more successful his plans would be if he would keep his mouth shut about them.

Without knowing any details, Knuckles had accompanied his friends; common goals and everything. So, now his hat lay on the table back at Tails' workshop in the Mystic Ruins, and Sonic and him were running for Eggman and the Chaos Emerald.

For a reason he couldn't entirely place, the echidna was longing for a reunion with his hat… Yeah, Knuckles really hoped tomorrow would be more like yesterday again.

The gentle, constant whirring of fans, and the occasional beeping notification were the only sounds to be heard. Deep down in his headquarters' center the 'baselord' sat surrounded by computer screens and holograms. It was a secluded, protected sanctuary, without much contact to even the rest of the complex unless specifically asked for, the place to think and work without interruptions or disturbances.

Ivo Robotnik's fingers absentmindedly ran over his moustache; stretching it slightly and twiddling with the hair. His thoughts however were focussed on the datasheet before him. The newest test report of his current project… Well, one of the current projects. A high-intensity laser cannon, its construction based on the blue prints of his grandfather's Eclipse Cannon and two devices of a similar sort he'd built before. Both of these installations had been put up in outer space. The handful of Kelvin in millions of lightyears of cold void around offered a marvellous source for the required cooling mechanisms… And mind you, the multiple generators, tesla coils, capacitors and wiring required a lot of cooling to not exceed their working conditions. Dealing with energies enough to blast their way down to the very planet's core asked for special measures.

Robotnik had still not figured out why that blasted thing of a mind control beam had backfired… Something had gone horribly wrong, but he had no idea what. None of the sheer endless amount of surveillance protocols and dozens of algorithms, solely created for that one purpose, gathered every second on all of his machines' status was able to provide him with an explanation.

He'd scratched it, dumped the event on the mental junkyard of failed plans. He'd accumulated a fair amount of these during the past five years… ever since he started. Robotnik winced at pulling too roughly on his moustache, courtesy of the not pleasant memories. Forcing his hand away from his hair and to the keyboard, he tried his best erasing the past failures from his consideration. He had practice, and apparently also a good amount of talent… He'd gotten forgetting defeat and starting over down to a fine art.

No, for this time, he'd decided to stay away from space travel. Even given the undeniable pros a construction side in outer space had to his purposes – unlimited space, cooling as much as anything could ever need and it came for free, little risk to have that horrid little hedgehog interfere with his plans while still in the making… well, at least less risk than at other places - but there were also cons. Getting the required material up there was a lot of work and needed time and efforts, the lack of gravity in space was a double-edged sword… and getting the weapon into a stable orbit while still being able to attack anywhere on the planet also was a complicated matter.

This time, Robotnik wanted to keep his cannon on the ground. Of course, this also wasn't the most perfect deal; even though it could be considerably smaller, it still wanted to be fed huge amounts of juice, and due to its make-up the prototype was big, heavy, and sensitive. Shifting it around was out of question without getting himself into more trouble; stationary would be the easiest to construct, but not practical for a weapon at all. A large airship, akin to his Egg Carriers would work, but attacking suddenly without anyone being warned by a big, easy to spot and not very fast aircraft was out of question that way.

How to transport something big, heavy and complex quickly over large distances? The answer was simple. Either via teleporters or... wormholes.

Teleporters worked, that was known, but their design was prone to mistakes, and they consumed a lot of energy… He wasn't sure yet if his other idea would consume any less energy, but it brought along the advantage that the device could be constructed as stationary – with all the pros placing it inside his base, with near endless maintenance resources and everything – and only the thing he really wanted to move would be moved.

On the bad side, he'd never actually tried it out before; and the first experiments on a new technology always brought along a certain amount of risk. Still, he'd decided to attempt it. After all, the scientist Robotnik wanted to know how it turned out…

A smile tugged on Ivo's lips and he stood abruptly from his chair. Time to get the experiment going…

Five minutes later, Robotnik entered his main lab; a huge hall full of half-finished machinery. Magnetic flux compressors, ring accumulators and other devices were lined up in several parallel rows of hundreds of meters length. At the very end of it all, the current main project sat tucked on top of an anti-gravity platform, in a perfect horizontal, keeping the sensitive electrics from being influenced even by the slightest movement Mobius' ground might do under the base.

Ivo moved past the machine, up a small stairway and into the observation room. Through the thick, reinforced special glass, capable of withstanding even a short chaos flux, he had a perfect view on his experiment.

Robotnik's fingers gracefully moved over the controls.

Auxiliary ring energy source – ON.

All surveillance systems – ON and NOW RECORDING.

Main power supply – ON.

A short glace down through the glass showed a satisfactory glow at the relevant parts. Robotnik nodded to himself, his hand hovering over the next button.

Insert Chaos Emerald…

…

Activating Chaos Field Stabilizer…

Chaos Emerald inserted.

ALL MODES ENGAGED. Continue? Y _ N?

The smile on Robotnik's face broadened to a grin. "Here we…"

"BEEP BEEP BEEP! ALERT! ALERT! BLUE EMERGENCY IN MAIN LABORATORY! REPEAT! BLUE EMERGENCY IN MAIN LABORATORY! ALERT!"

"What?! This can't be!"

Hands pressing against the glass, Robotnik stared down into his lab. The surveillance computer was right; there was that pesky hedgehog, progressing between the machines, accompanied by that red knucklehead of an echidna, and they were heading straight for his experiment.

"NO! Stop them!" Fingers now rushing over a second keyboard, Robotnik activated the defence protocols. "HA! Take this, pincushion!"