Sonic's hand pushed Shadow down, forcing him to buck, his body squeezed into a very uncomfortable position, hidden in the shadows of a small niche in the arced brick wall on the other side of the warehouse. A risky place to hide, judging from the Mobians appearing not far away from them. Neither one of the creatures they saw appear used a physical passage to the tunnel and with the victory of their discovery came the unsettling conclusion that Sonic and he weren't the only ones to use a force that overcame the limits of a physical world. It gave their opponents another mysterious edge.
A while after they saw the last Mobian appear and their voices died out, they cautiously came out of their hiding place and looked around, awaiting any kind of unexpected events to follow. When nothing came the tension on their muscles decreased and the two of them stretched their arms and legs and straightened their backs. Sonic stepped forward into the broader part of the tunnel and glared around the corner. Before him laid a long, dark tunnel connected with multiple entrances that he guessed would lead to other tunnels. The walls on both ends had sidewalks connected to them and in the middle was sewer water rippling against the higher level of the sidewalks. The filthy air in the place was damp and the curved tunnel's ceiling was wet. One could easily slip here. Sonic had overcome his water phobia for the biggest part and was even taught some of the basics of swimming. Still: he was uncomfortable around water, only he'd learned to just suck it up. When he turned around to face Shadow, he saw his companion opening a map from the contacting device, but only a blank field was displayed on it with merely two markers that indicated their very own position.
“It's useless here.” Shadow mumbled quietly, still not knowing who could be out there.
“I bet we're in lower grounds as well”, he added.
“Wanna check the place out?” Sonic asked?
His partner gave him a nod.
“Let's see how far the main tunnel stretches out.”
Without wasting any more words they dashed from point to point at such high speed they were not noticeable to one's naked eye. Hiding behind the walls of the many horizontal tunnel entrances, they checked again whether the coast was clear and moved on to the next point.
“Bifurcation ahead.” Sonic stated, pointing at a wall.
“Now, should we go le-”
Shadow quickly cupped his hand over Sonic's mouth and pulled him into another tunnel's entrance. His muscles strained when he tried to keep their balanc. He did not want to make any more noise than necessary, but was unnerved that whoever was out there had already taken notice of their presence. Not knowing he was startled by Shadow's sudden move, Sonic waited for the sound of his own blood pumping, resounding in his ears, to mute and then he heard it: footsteps echoed through one of the tunnel's near them. He moved to free himself from Shadow's hold and listened attentively as a thunder of footfalls approached them. Were there really that many out there or was it the echo of the tunnel that replicated the footsteps of fewer man? He was unable to tell.
“Who's there?!”
The footfalls had come to a stop and the flat sound of hands against plastic resounded through the space, followed by a click. A sound any man who'd ever carried weaponry recognized in an instant: removal of a rifle's safety. When only silence remained ,the supposed carrier of the gun caught his breath again.
“You're hearing things, I'm telling you, man! There's nothing here!”
“You sure he didn't follow you?”
“Maybe he followed me into the warehouse, but there's no way he made his way in here!”
“Okay, just making sure. Be more careful next time. You almost brought us in a tricky situation.”
The two man- they figured- continued to walk in their direction. As their voices were drawing near, the tension was building up and the line between being unseen and seen was getting thinner any second.
“Now what?” Shadow whispered.
“That trick.”
Sonic stepped back, swung forward as he stepped in and drew a circle with his right hand and made them vanish from eye sight.
“How many times do I have to say I'M SORRY?!”
“Don't take that tone of voice to me!”
“Then stop annoying me!”
“You need to learn your place.”
After the voices muted in the distant tunnel Sonic snapped his fingers and there they were again.
"Heh!"
The blue blur cocked an arrogant smile, proud that he saved them by performing that awesome new trick Shadow taught him, using his own Chaos Energy.
“We better get going.”
“Let me send out our location's signal first.” Shadow whispered, already pressing the buttons on his device. A tiny light shone out of it, first green and then white, indicating the completion of the location's signal, struck along by a message alert. Touching the panel it opened and having read the text, it decided their next destination. A matter of moments later they were back at the H.Q. of the military.
“Great work, you two!”
The general stated at the duo.
“This is a real breakthrough in our battle against the A.R. and gives us a head start in our upcoming confrontations. This changes everything!” He added.
“We believe the network of tunnels we saw is quite large and we have no idea of the scale, sir.” Sonic said.
“I'm having someone analyze it as we speak, thanks to the signal you sent out earlier.”
“Yes, sir. We do believe though they heard us and therefore might be suspicious.”
“I don't know about that. His pal seemed to think he was simply paranoid.” Shadow verbalized his doubts.
“Any idea what they were doing there?” The general asked them.
“They might use the network to travel. Since it's off the map, they can freely do their business and preparations without anyone's notice.” Sonic said.
“What I don't get is: why hasn't the underground section been checked before?” Shadow wondered out loud.
“It has. Multiple search parties have been investigating the possibilities of an underground network, but up until today no one ever found any clue about it existing.”
“Really? Who did you sent on those missions?” Sonic mocked.
“You didn't believe something was out there either.”
“It's not so much a matter of believing something was there. You know that. And by the way, would you have questioned some underground network of tunnels was there if you didn't see that guy get into the warehouse yourself?”
“Noooo.” the black hedgehog sighed in annoyance.
The attention of all in the room was suddenly drawn to the noise coming out of the general's computer. He touched a panel on his contacting device's screen and a video call popped up on the big screen on the wall.
“Dr., how are things with the analysis of the network?”
“General,” Eggman nodded once. “The analysis is still running. Its' range stretches out far more than we've anticipated. In the mean time, we're running a program on it to search for patterns and hidden-.” The doctor was cut off mid-sentence by relatively young voice coming from behind him.
“There it is! We found it!”
“Of course we did. Let me see.” Eggman pushed Tails aside to take a closer look at the screen.
“Ahum?” the general coughed, drawing back their attention to the screen.
“I'm sorry general. We need some more time to analyze the data further. We'll come back to you later.” The video call was ended by the duo, enthusiastic about the discoveries they were about to make. Sonic and Shadow's eyes shifted to the general as he started to speak again.
“So, I guess we'll come back to it later. Your teammates have rescued many survivors in the mean time. The regional fire brigade has joined us as well. Those injured are taken care of at the hospital in Newport. We have divided teams for patrolling duty tonight and two smaller search parties that'll work through the night in search of any more survivors. The situation's under control for now.”
“Okay.”
“All we can really do now is wait for Miles and the Doctor to get back to us with the results of the analysis to contemplate further strategy. You can either go to the barracks or go home to wait for the outcome, but stay prepared to be called at any time. With several parts of this region being a huge mess, everyone is on taut nerves and chances are they are going to strike again.” The general paused and his gaze turned dull. The atmosphere in the room became heavy, loaded with this negative energy and it dragged everyone down.
“And I believe it will be soon.”
For a second his emotions were conveyed to Sonic and Shadow and the three shared a moment of bitter grief in the realization of what was becoming of the world they fought so hard for to protect.
“Ah, look at us. This isn't over! Don't let it get to you, boys. You're dismissed. ”
“Sir.” the hedgehogs stated at once as they footed out of the room.
“Oh, and eh, you might wanna take a bath.” The old man's voice rang through the hallway from behind the now closed door. Shadow deliberately sniffed at his companion with that stoic face of his.
“We do smell bad”, he concluded and paved the way to one of H.Q.'s bathrooms by holding the door for him. Sonic sarcastically glared at his black pal and pushed him into the bathroom.
“By the way: he keeps doing that!”
Sonic called out in surprise while undoing himself of his military tenue.
“Doing what?”
“Calling us 'boys'.”
“He's just old, Sonic.”
“I can see why you're not offended by that since- oh how old were you again?”
“Hey, don't let it bother you. I mean: with all that chest fur you've got nothing to worry about! And you've already had it for over a year now!” Shadow eyed the blue one's chest, reddening Sonic from both embarrassment and anger. He got a barrel of soap scowled to his head and laughed at him in amusement while Sonic simply grunted: “Honestly, what does she see in you?!”
