Chapter 16: Sky Rail and Hidden Base

NOTE: I REALLY F*cking hate Hidden Base! It's an awful level!

"Shadow, they're in that blue plane, spotted at eleven o'clock." Rouge had contacted Shadow, giving him the whereabouts of Sonic and the gang, as they were currently headed to Eggman's Hidden Base. "Hmph. Copy that. I'm in pursuit," Shadow replied as he dropped down into the Sky Rail.

Sky Rail was essentially the sister location of Pumpkin Hill. It was really the same thing, only with lots of train tracks. Shadow began grinding down a rail at high speeds, crouching to speed up even more. When he reached the end of the rail, Shadow jumped off and did a trick in the air. He then landed on the platform below and approached the Bounce Spinner. "Pathetic excuse for equipment," Shadow said as he began homing attacking the Bounce Spinner, getting him to rise higher. When he reached the platform above, Shadow grabbed onto a portable rocket and launched himself onto a grind rail!

As soon as his Hover Shoes made contact with the downhill rail, Shadow went faster and faster as he constantly hopped from rail to rails. Shockingly, as Shadow tried to switch to another rail, the wind pushed him in the other direction, knocking him off the rail. Shadow began falling down below...until landing on Omochao, who was currently flying to Sky Rail (he's F*CKING everywhere in the game). Omochao flew Shadow onto a small platform with a spring. "Out of my way you ugly tutorial messenger!" Shadow yelled as he ripped Omochao's head from his body and continued his way through the mountainous region.

Eggman had already went into his Hidden Base via the teleporter, and got to work resurrecting the Egg Golem using electrical wires and batteries. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Rise my ancient servant!" Eggman shouted as he watched the Egg Golem raise up. Unfortunately, Egg Golem hadn't taken kind to his new master and tried to chop Eggman in half. Eggman was currently in his mech at this point, so it was the mech that ended up taking damage. "You disrespectful bastard! Don't you know that I am your master?!" Eggman asked with fury, calming down once he saw three panels on Egg Golem. Panels that had ancient writings on them, which made the Egg Golem keep out evil forces. "Looks like I've got a bit of constructing to do..." Eggman whispered to himself as he shot one panel off, getting the Egg Golem to rage and smash the platform.

Eggman quickly jumped to the next and began running in an attempt to get to the Egg Golem's front. He took another shot at the ancient being, and managed to take down another panel. "One more and you'll be under my control!" Egg Golem smashed Eggman with his hand, and tried to throw him into the quicksand below! "No!" Eggman yelled as he began hovering to a rising elevator. He made it onto the platform and shot the Egg Golem's final panel off! "Now you obey ME!" Eggman cheered as he began playing his theme song.

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Sonic and the gang were currently outside of Eggman's Hidden Base. "He's inside that pyramid?" Sonic asked, looking off at the Egyptian structure. "I saw Eggman go inside the pyramid. But more importantly, I saw that bat-girl go inside with him as well," Knuckles said raising his fists in the air. Amy took a good glance at Knuckles and asked, "When did you ever see Eggman enter? I thought you were underground this entire time." Tails interrupted Amy and exclaimed, "I'll go find the exit!" He then took off running in his mech.

When Tails reached the entrance of Hidden Base, he jaw nearly hit the ground. Hidden Base USED to be a simple desert security area, but now it had several traps, small platforms, neon signs that read, "I AM THE E.G.G.M.A.N!*", and even deadly Egg Pawns wearing Arabian clothing. " I guess Eggman really thought this through. It doesn't even look like Sonic can make it through here..."

There was a platform in front of Tails with dynamite attached to it. Tails blew it up and continued through the Hidden Base. A Egg Pawn saw Tails and began firing at him with ridiculous orange and red guns. Tails's mech took very little damage from the pellets, as he jumped down to be confronted with more Egg Pawns. Tails shot the Egg Pawns and used his hover module to "glide" over the ocean of quicksand and onto another square platform.

Knuckles was keeping track of how long Tails was in Hidden Base. So far it had been two minutes. "I bet he's dead. Tails should be dead." Twilight took a look at Knuckles and said, "How could you say something like that?!" Knuckles sighed and leaned back, unaware that he was about to fall into freaking quicksand! "Apparently he's died several times in Sonic's 3rd adventure I heard (Sonic 1, Sonic CD, Sonic 2). Yet magically came back to life, almost as if he were invincible..." Sonic groaned and smacked Knuckles into reality. "Tails only came back to life because I had to CONSTANTLY inject adrenaline and water into his body. With the amount of times he died in Chemical Plant and Wing Fortress, he SHOULD be dead!"

Knuckles began chuckling to himself, until falling into the quicksand! "Sonic!" he screamed, trying desperately to resurface. Sonic took a few seconds to think about before saying, "Okay, YOU girls go save him. It'll make him look pathetic. I'M going with Tails!" Sonic then began running to Tails's location. "Which one of us is supposed to save him first?" Pinkie asked, unaware that it didn't matter who saved Knuckles from drowning.

*Listen to E.G.G.M.A.N., it's the best character theme in the game! It's the only song that makes the word Eggman sound awesome.