Warning: MAJOR Sonic Generation ending spoilers coming up really soon! I'm serious- if you haven't beaten that game yet and you don't want to get a big part of the ending spoiled for you, stop reading. If you've either beaten the game, or you just don't care...Read on.
The Last Freedom Fighter
Act 1: No More Sonic Heroes?
About a month after the crisis caused by Eggman's Time Eater machine, Sonic the Hedgehog and his two best friends, Miles "Tails" Prower the fox and Knuckles the Echidna, found themselves soaring over the open sea in Tails' high-tech airplane, dubbed the "Tornado 2", or just the "Tornado", for short.
"Remind me exactly why we're flying around out here in the middle of nowhere...?" Knuckles growled irritably from his seat behind Tails, who was piloting the craft.
"Heheh, don't tell me you're afraid of water now, Knuckles!" Sonic teased from behind him, "I though you said you knew how to swim!"
"Why you-!" the crimson-furred echidna shouted as he began to rise from his seat, but he managed to refrain from resorting to violence. Heaving an aggravated sigh, he muttered, "I do know how to swim. It's just that all three of us belong on land, as much as I enjoy flying in this plane or gliding around under my own power. It's been hours since we last saw any landforms! What if we run outta fuel or something like that?"
"Tails probably has some gizmo or other that'd help us out if that was ever the case," the blue hedgehog said nonchalantly, "I wouldn't worry about it...And I can't even swim!"
"Uh, guys?" called the young fox, periodically twisting and untwisting together the twin tails which gave him his nickname, "We won't run out. I'm using an Artificial Chaos Emerald as a power source, remember?"
"Oh, right," Knuckles muttered, "Those things are like the actual Chaos Emeralds...Though they look like regular gems, they possess almost unlimited energy!"
Sonic merely nodded, as if he hadn't forgotten as well. "Yeah, like he said," Sonic replied cheerfully. "So, uh, Tails...See anything?"
"Sorry, Sonic...my scanners aren't picking up anything, just like in the last few sectors we've searched, and the ones before them."
Knuckles heaved an annoyed sigh. "You telling me this flight has been another wild goose chase?"
"Hey, c'mon, knucklehead," Sonic said half-teasingly, "Don'tcha think it's a little weird how we haven't heard a peep from Eggman for all this time?"
"...It's only been a month."
"Yeah! Waaaaaaay too long for him to be this quiet, right?"
The red echidna couldn't tell whether his friend was egging him on or just being stupid. Maybe a month was an eternity to someone who could easily run faster than the speed of sound, even to the point of running at light speed if he pushed himself, but to everyone else, not much time had passed at all. Indeed, Knuckles' own memories of Sonic's nearly-ruined birthday party were still as fresh in his mind as if they had only just happened.
Before they could continue their bickering, however, Tails cried out to them.
"Hey!...Hey, guys! I've got something!"
Snapping their attention to the fox-boy, the two older members of the group sate at attention, eager to finally hear some results.
"I thought it was a glitch at first, but I think someone's trying to send some sort of audio signal," Tails began, "The radio just suddenly turned on automatically...And unless I didn't set it up right-"
"Which is pretty much impossible," Sonic said, interrupting to encourage his friend.
"Er, thanks...But yeah, unless I set it up wrong, it should only do that when receiving a transmission."
"Well? What are you waiting for?" Knuckles asked impatiently, "Get a fix on it, or whatever the term is!"
"I've been trying, but-"
ZAP!
The sound of a laser being fired shocked the trio into complete silence. Following soon after the sound of the shot was the sound of heavy breathing. Whoever was calling for help was in the middle of a fight, and it sounded serious. After some fumbling around, probably for the mic, the person at the other end of the transmission issued what seemed to be an exhortation; the kind that would hopefully inspire others to join their cause.
"To...To anyone who can hear me," the voice managed.
All three of them could immediately tell that this voice belonged to a female. It sounded remarkably like the voice of Rouge the Bat, one of their other friends, but all three knew that there was no way she'd be out in the middle of nowhere like that. She was always either where the government sent her on official missions, or hunting some elusive treasure somewhere.
As the tranmission seemingly began to fade again, Tails tweaked the settings on the radio to allow for maximum reception sensitivity.
"My name...Is Sally Acorn...Princess Sally Acorn. As many of you listening to this know, the other freedom fighters and I...Have been fighting this war for a long time. Over the years, some of the highest-ranking members of our cause have gone missing, presumably KIA. It seems now that I may be next. In the event that I am either captured or...Or killed, I hereby bequeath leadership of the Freedom Fighters to Rotor Walrus of Knothole. It was an honor fighting with you all, and remember- though all may seem lost, every minute we still have of our freedom gives us reason to hope. Again, this is Sally Acorn...As always, live free and prosper."
With that, the transmission ended abruptly, like someone hanging up a phone call.
"Tails! Can you get it back?" Sonic asked, shocked at the sudden silence.
"I-I'll try, but..."
"Don't you guys get it?" Knuckles said gruffly, "She signed off. That's it. And unless we can home in on that signal, she's not gonna make it."
"How do you know?" asked Sonic as Tails looked on expectantly.
"It's obvious. You've been in fights before, just think about it. No one breathes that heavily and is in good condition. Another thing, who sends a radio signal in the middle of a fight, and just to say things like what to do if they don't make it? Those who don't think they'll make it, that's who."
"Aw man...," Sonic muttered as Tails scrambled with the radio to get a fix on the signal.
"Got it!" cried the fox-boy ecstatically. "Hang on, guys, here we go!" he continued as he made a sharp turn and began to descend rapidly. In a few minutes, they could see some sort of landmass, which, according to their readings, was where the signal originated from.
"Whoa," Knuckles muttered, "Well, at least I get my wish for land!"
As the trio made their descent, they could see evidence of a battle unfolding in a clearing between their position and the radio signal's point of origin. Even from the sky, they could see billowing smoke and even a few explosions. Something was definitely going on down there.
"Tails!" Sonic called out, tapping his friend on the shoulder, "Take us down there! I wanna see what's goin' on!"
"But-" the fox-boy began to protest, only to be interupted by Knuckles.
"Guys," the belligerent echidna said, "I'm sensing someone down there in the clearing. It probably would be a good idea to check it out."
"And besides," Sonic continued, "It's not like it'll be that much of a big deal. Between the three of us, we'll just be in and out!"
"Well alright," Tails finally said, "But keep in mind that whoever sent that signal earlier still needs our help!"
"Of course we will!" said Sonic cheerfully. "We know what we're doing, right Knucklehead?"
"Grrr...I'm not so sure, Sonic, what with you calling me that annoyinglittle name all the time while you're within striking distance..."
"Yeah, but you forgot to notice that I can still move. See ya!"
Having only just noticed that they had leveled off with the ground, Knuckles looked worriedly for his friend just after the latter had jumped straight off of the plane onto the ground below. As implausible as it may sound to some, however, he was unscathed, even running alongside the plane as it continued through the landing process. Seeing this sight brought memories flooding back to the front of Knuckles's mind of the first time the three of them had met, but he didn't have much time to reminisce, as just after they landed, the trio were accosted by a small number of SWATBots, a more recent model of Eggman's robots, built to serve as a sort of shock troop battalion. The sight of these humanoid mechanical monstrosities confirmed the heroes' darkest fear: Eggman was here.
Pointing their wrist-mounted laser blasters at the trio, the robots seemed to simply stand still, as if awaiting instruction.
"Well, looks like they're just pieces of junk!" Knuckles exclaimed in relief...Only to be startled with the apparent "leader" of the group of mechs confronting them began to speak.
"SCAN COMPLETE. SUBJECTS IDENTIFIED AS SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, MILES 'TAILS' PROWER, AND KNUCKLES THE ECHIDNA. IN THE NAME OF THE GREAT DR. ROBOTNIK, YOU ARE HEREBY PLACED UNDER ARREST. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE. ALL WHO RESIST WILL BE-"
WHAM!
"Man," Sonic said, slowing back down to a stop, "You'd think Eggman would at least make 'em able to do something while talking, huh?"
Blasting their way through several of the remaining mechs, the heroes also found themselves dodging laser blasts from several small pod-like machines that seemed to be flying about the battlefield, combating the SWATBots with small yet deceptively powerful blasters mounted on spherical chasis.
"Wow," marveled Tails as they ran, "I've never seen robots like those ones before!"
"Less talking, more running!" Knuckles shouted. "I can't shake this feeling...There's someone here, somewhere. I'm sensing a presence nearby."
"Yeah? Like what kind of presence?" Sonic asked as he tricked two of the enemy robots into shooting each other, "Is it friendly?"
"Can't tell," Knuckles said, "I'd need to concentrate in order to pinpoint it, and needless to say, that's gonna be a little rough with all this chaos around us at the moment."
Just as soon as he'd said that, the portable radio that Tails had brought just in case crackled to life.
"Greetings," spoke a male voice, "I happen to be the presence you seek."
"Well, looks like that little problem fixed itself," commented Knuckles.
"However, I would be remiss, as a wanted fugitive, to just meet with you while these SWATbots are still out and about," the voice continued.
"So you want us to take 'em out?" Sonic guessed.
"Hang on," Tails replied, "There are twotypes of robots here, and-"
"And the smaller ones have been firing on you as well. Sorry about that, those are mine. They should recognize you as allies and leave you alone. You only have to worry about the SWATbots."
"Talk about impressive," said Tails, "Maybe we can discuss some things after this? I'd like to know what kind of propulsion system these guys are using."
"Ha, you're interested in my tech? Well, maybe I'll tell you if you help me out, here."
"Enough talk," Knuckles grunted. "We were gonna do that anyway, so let's get to it!"
"Alright, sounds good to me!" Sonic crowed. "Time to blast through them with Sonic speed!"
Within minutes, every last SWATbot on the field was a disabled, smoking wreck. However, just as the heroes were dusting off their trademark gloves in celebration, a familiar heavy metal theme began to play. Turning to see the chest of one of the wrecked 'bots opening, they ran over to check it out, only to be greeted by something like a television screen being lifted out of the wreck. Once the screen crackled to life, the trio saw the face of their old enemy, Dr. Ivo "Eggman" Robotnik.
"Well, if it isn't Sonic!" the rotund dictator, "Well, Sonic and friends. Snooping as usual, I see!"
"Alright Eggman, what are you up to thistime?" Sonic asked.
"Bwahahaha!" laughed the mustachioed madman in reply, "For once, my blue 'friend', I think I will have you find out for yourselves. After all, where's the fun in simply tellingyou what I'm up to? With that...I bid you adieu, you pesky little vermin!" As he said this, he slammed a red button on the console embedded in the armrest of the chair he was sitting in. When the image of the mad doctor and his current lair were replaced by a 30-second timer, the trio knew exactly what that button was for.
Zooming a good distance away with his friends in tow, Sonic simply turned around and smirked at the explosion in the distance. "Haha, the guy never learns! He'll have to be faster than that!"
"Um, Sonic?" Tails called nervously, tapping his blue-spiked friend on the shoulder.
"What's up, Tails?"
"Uh...Maybe he wantedus to run over here. Look!"
Looking in the direction his friend was pointing, Sonic was perplexed by what he saw. Against the twilight sky in the distance, he could see spotlights waving about, searching a smoggy-looking bank of clouds. The odd thing was, other than that area, the clouds in the sky seemed pretty normal. Dashing up a tree to check it out, Sonic finally saw what his arch-nemesis wanted him to see: a heavily-industrialized citadel, spewing out loads of pollutants into both the air and the water around it, all set in an ecological dead zone. It wold be a small wonder for anyone but robots to even survive there, the smog was so thick. It was as if an aura of death and destruction surrounded the place. It was Eggman's paradise, a little it of his "Eggmanland" or "Eggman Empire" realized, and without some ancient monster helping him out or something like that. From what he could see, Sonic could tell that whatever his old foe had done, he had finally done it, finally achieved conquest, even though it was still a relatively small part of the world. The sight of other smillar, if smaller, cities further supported this conclusion. Practically jumping down, Sonic hastily told the other two what was happening, then prepared to take them and blast over to the location of Eggman's citadel with all speed...Only to be impeded by a wall of the drones their mysterious friend had under his control, all with their blasters pointed towards the trio and primed to fire.
"I wouldn't go there right now if I were you," warned the stranger's voice over the radio, "Instead, look behind you."
As the friends turned, they were shocked to see part of the plain they had been fighting on begin to rise out of the ground. Preparing for a potential fight as two of the attack drones flew over to the newly-revealed door and flanked it, the three watched the door intently as it swung open with the familiar hiss of an automatic door.
Huh, I wonder who this mystery contact could be? Stay tuned for the next chapter!