As the saying goes, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. Seven's plans tended to work flawlessly until those critical moments — usually the moments when he had to fall back to fisticuffs with enemies, rather than baiting them into making mistakes and bumbling into hazards.

In this case, Seven, disrupted, irked, and maybe a little overly-resentful toward Jam, had wheeled out with a pair of machine pistols from inside his coat and let rip with fully automatic fire. He had only gotten a short blurt of gunfire out before he actually got clobbered from the side by Geoff. Yes, it was successful.

It seemed as though the strike went through some sort of previously-invisible field surrounding the boy, which pulsed and revealed its form as a sphere on impact. It was probably something that was intended to protect him from projectiles, but not, say, fast-moving stoney fists. He was still snapped sideways and sent skidding and tumbling across the metal floor. He failed to retain one of his guns, which clanked and slid toward the central stage (where the throne still lay toppled over).

Remarkably, he was upright again before he even stopped rolling. His steps stuttered in a stagger to bleed off the rest of his momentum, and he looked quite disheveled, but more angry than anything else as he tucked behind a counter-like bank of terminals.

"You idiots trusted these two enough to let them in on this? Are you really that petty?!" he yelled, incredulous.

When Geoff came in and made his swing without the benefit of speed or the element of surprise, he undoubtedly found he was going to have a little harder time. Seven, the one unencumbered by stone armor and already quite agile by nature, sprang and flipped showily over the hedgehog's head before he could even so much as withdraw his arm from the punch, and maneuvered such that he could put the walking hunk of rock between himself and as many of the others as possible.

He was acting strangely, now, like he was up to something. He even holstered his weapon as soon as he landed, and reached for something else.

Seven took a leap straight up as Jam proved they were willing to attack him through Geoff, narrowly avoiding the spark-spitting burst of the ball-lightning. With his tremendous vertical jump, he managed to grab hold of a fluorescent light fixture, and with a crisp swing, twirl himself atop it. If anyone was able to see his face in those crazy lighting conditions (mostly powered by Jam's shield), they'd find that he looked somewhat unsettled.

From a pouch strapped to his thigh, he hastily pulled out a strange canister of metal, transparent plastic, and white polymer, from which came an intense yellow glow. The canister's top was wide, while it tapered down to a narrow, plug-like point. It was no time to take a break and fiddle with gadgets, for sure, but he must have hoped the ceiling clutter would at least make him hard to aim at for a second.

However, at that exact moment, the orbital launch the computer had been yapping about started. What had been rumbling and roaring became deafeningly worse, and everything rattled. Seven nearly dropped his container, and had to hang on for dear life as suddenly the whole ship groaned and thrust itself skyward.

The acceleration got worse. What felt like a light pressure atop those present amplified steadily until it was two times normal gravity, then three, then four, and still increasing.

Lightning crackled right before Geoff as he turned to face the direction Seven had fled, finding the chaotic energy lapping over him for a brief moment. He didn't feel a spark of it in the slightest, but he still threw a glare Jam's way that seemed to only ask "really?" His focus was hasty to return to Seven, however, and in his unaffected state, he would have given chase to the acrobatic child, only to find him beyond his reach high above. Not like he was given many options once the ignition hit anyway.

Shake, rattle, and roll went the floor, and the hedgehog soon found himself fighting to just keep standing as the gravity decided to skyrocket. His stance slowly widened the more it increased, but soon he was struggling, his crystal-covered body starting to slump. As if in slow motion, he gradually fell to one knee, a clenched fist pressed against the metal floor. Soon, he just allowed the growths of crystal all around him to materialize at his joints, locking his limbs in place as he now remained motionless, waiting for the release of pressure.

Now, Geoff was no scientist, but with the Gs like they were, it felt like they had enough momentum to rocket straight to the moon and then some. Of course, this was exaggerated guessing, but all of this was turning out to be one hazardous process of quick escape. One would think Eggman would prefer a more comfortable status than this crushing liftoff.


Shadow lied only mere feet away from the central platform, flat on his back, his eyes still managing to glare up at the far off ceiling. Yet, there was palpable concentration in those red irises as the hedgehog remained motionless.

One finger twitched. Then another.

This gradual return of movement continued on even through the launching sequence, a frustrated glower forming as he went through the painstakingly slow process.

As the acceleration came to create conditions nearing nine times Earth's normal gravity, the light fixture Seven gripped, further assailed by Ace, gave way under what amounted to be approximately 800 lb of extra weight, and swung free at one end, causing the fluorescent light bar to shoot sparks, swing, and dangle.

Pow. Seven hit the floor like a sandbag, no bounce, no tumble, just smashed into the floor and held there.

... Not that anyone could get at him in those conditions, anyway, though. And the device he had been messing with? It rolled away from him, out of reach.

Though Rock struggled even to stand under the increasing weight, much less walk, he managed to stagger up to the main console (and nearly collapse all over it in the process). There, bracing himself with his palms on the surface, he saw that several of the screens had the same thing on display: a red screen with bright yellow, heavily-emphasized text, reading out a long list of errors.

A1 INT. SENSOR FAULT :: NO RESPONSE - ACKNOWLEDGE FAULT
A2 INT. SENSOR FAULT :: NO RESPONSE - ACKNOWLEDGE FAULT
A3 INT. SENSOR FAULT :: NO RESPONSE - ACKNOWLEDGE FAULT
A4 INT. SENSOR FAULT :: NO RESPONSE - ACKNOWLEDGE FAULT

...

The list scrolled nearly off the screen. At the bottom, though, was what Rock seemed to find important.

LIFE SUPPORT - GRAV :: NO SENSOR INPUT - ACKNOWLEDGE FAULT
LIFE SUPPORT - ATMO :: NO SENSOR INPUT - ACKNOWLEDGE FAULT
LIFE SUPPORT - CLMT :: NO SENSOR INPUT - ACKNOWLEDGE FAULT

Straining to even keep an arm up (not to mention stay upright enough to still reach the console), Rock heavily pressed several keys, then began rapidly tapping one key in particular. Tack-tack-tack-tack-tack ... The yellow, bold messages one by one turned white and plain, and the "acknowledge fault" disappeared from beside them as each was cleared. With every press, he sank a little lower; in seconds, owing to G-forces, his perceived body weight was going to reach a thousand pounds, and there wouldn't be any way he'd stay upright.

But that didn't happen. The instant "LIFE SUPPORT - GRAV" was acknowledged, a low hum turned to a high whine until out of the audible range, and, all at once, all sensation of motion vanished, and normal Earth gravity was simulated again. Rock jerked bolt upright and stumbled aside as a result of the sudden change, but looked relieved all the same.