Author's note: The story is pre-written, so it will have an intensive publishing schedule. I suggest subscribing from the start to assure you don't get lost in updates.
Posted in support of the Kelviniana forum writing challenge. Inspired by Radical Train – The Chase.
Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog, related characters and locales are copyright SEGA.
URGENT DELIVERY: THE CHASE
Chapter 1: All the Aces
"Package is secure. We're moving out."
"Copy that, Little Moth. You are clear for phase three. Command will enable fail-safe mode once you ping from Station Square. Advance group B took care of incoming traffic. End transmission."
Little Moth gulped as the truck accelerated. Months of preparation in complete secrecy with the best human agents the organisation had on its roster brought them to this moment. Shadow's successful capture raised cheers across the globe and now he was the lynchpin to assuring safe delivery. Little Moth didn't know what exactly they had in store for the potentially indestructible hedgehog, but that wasn't his concern.
Knowing the Ultimate Life Form lay suspended several metres behind him was the crux of the matter. The freshly paved road leading out of the jungle in Mystic Ruins assured a smooth ride despite the armoured eighteen-wheeler's massive size. GUN cut no corners during the assignment and even converted the only railway track connecting the jungle area to civilisation solely for the convoy's use.
Civilians thought it was closed for repairs. Command made sure leak-prone Mobians inspected the work in progress by following a fake trail. They even helped file a court case on the grounds of illegal rainforest clearcutting against a non-existing construction company and were now acting as civilian witnesses in front of the real actors.
Such deviltry brought a smile under Little Moth's high-tech helmet. Back in the day, he'd have sold the intel to Eggman, but GUN cut no corners. A blank cheque awaited everyone in the convoy.
As they sped through the converted rail tunnel, a security camera counted the vehicles on the other side. Four armoured motorcycles spearheaded the delivery team with an identical number guarding the rear. Two pairs of off-road vehicles equipped with experimental Chaos cannons stood between the light units. Little Moth's truck had a special escort of two multi-purpose GUN trailers proven trusty against hedgehog foes in the past. Even though Shadow's vessel had more than enough tech to repel any physical and Chaos attack, these two trucks offered strategic field sensors, secure communication and heavy weapons personnel ready to despatch any obstacle, man-made or otherwise.
Where computers failed, humans were to succeed. Every road vehicle had a real pilot equipped with a side arm and a jetpack. They knew locations of reinforcements along the route in case non-essential personnel expired during an EMP or nuclear attack.
The mission had hunter drone assistance for maximum security. Stealth beetles formed a solid shield above Shadow's containment truck. The vehicle could deploy an extra barrage of beetles as well as standard repair robots to delay a minute security breach. Little Moth was authorised to use them at will.
Special assignments like this one usually entailed emergency procedures with...advanced weaponry. The pilot had a secret urge to test the ones fitted into his truck. He's never seen them in action. Nobody except the scientists back in that old space station did. The rest was based on theory because GUN couldn't get the final ingredients until hours before the mission. Shadow could act as an ingredient, too, encased in heavy ionising liquid that drained excess power.
A regular person would have grown a second head and popped like a gigantic pimple if splashed with it, but not Shadow. That freak could withstand anything GUN had thrown at him so far. The mistake they've been making thus far was separating the shots. Combined, multi-layered and radiating energies of dangerous or unknown origin, these shots made enough damage to subdue the rogue.
Which was why Little Moth wore tinfoil underwear that day. Specialists said he was safe in his seat as the brilliant white cistern holding Shadow had walls thick enough to prevent leaks. In the event of a leak, which was impossible to begin with, the substances would drain from behind the vehicle, killing any pursuer as well as melting the road surface while tiny repair bots attended repairs. The truck lacked rear motion, so his jewels were safe, they claimed.
Still, they recommended full body armour with a hazmat seal and emergency beacons. None of the agents argued with that. These saved a few lives during part two of the operation: capture team had most of their limbs fractured, rather than torn off as it normally happened during special missions. The agents' families would live comfortable lives from now on.
Little Moth wanted to be a part of the comfort, so he ordered the front guard to burn rubber and floored the accelerator to suit. This would be a speedy delivery.
Not everyone was happy with his decision. A bald mustachio person grumbled sourly as he hurried to dress up deep in Final Egg. He's lost one of his silver buttons and couldn't keep track of the convoy while searching for the insolent pin.
"Narrate the video feed for me, Metal. I'll be right back," he said, squinting at the floor.
"Negative."
Eggman grumbled, but didn't get back up. Metal Sonic was sensitive enough to hear a whisper. "That's an order! Besides, you don't have the keys to break into the containment vehicle."
"The second statement is inaccurate."
"You have schematics used in the outer casing. It'd take you two hours to breach, and we have no idea what lies beyond that."
"The second statement is inaccurate. Again."
"Success!" Eggman boasted when he found the discarded button. He was now ready to conquer, in style.
Metal Sonic said nothing. His dry mockery subroutine told him the doctor lost this round.
"Which battle goggles to pick… Metal, you're not narrating! My pawn armada will get lost in the jungle and not help you at all if you don't help me out."
"Tree. Tree. Paved road. Meat shield. Video feed distorted. Washing meat shield away. Present species of the tree?" Metal droned. He paused for a moment, rewinding the conversation, and added: "Tree number two."
"How far are you from the convoy?"
"Thirty klicks."
"How far is that in time?"
Metal cursed in binary before producing a response: "This unit is not a GPS terminal."
Eggman grinned. He had plenty of distance to annoy Metal. Keeping the robot's circuits busy reduced the possibility of betrayal, a very resource-consuming routine. The maniac cracked his knuckles, fully prepared for battle, and fired up the Egg Hornet's engines. Slim and speedy was the way to go.
Elsewhere, a familiar blue hedgehog used a different technique to keep aware of the big picture. Tails wanted to go with him, but Sonic insisted on keeping the fox in charge of the math back at the workshop.
Neither of them knew what exactly happened or how it happened so quickly without them knowing. Rouge routinely informed them of anything evil GUN could be up to. While not a reliable source on her own, they were sure the military thought of Shadow as an ally more than a threat. A biological weapon of mass destruction that could use Chaos Control against terrorist groups was the best thing that happened to them since… Sonic wasn't good with dates, yet Tails couldn't help him with this one.
Sonic stopped by a clearing within the jungle. It looked like a makeshift camp. He couldn't find any trash or building materials. Swept clean, no doubt. They must have moved out very recently, too. Caterpillar tracks still dug deep into the mud. No signs of a fireplace. Had Sonic come a few hours later, local showers would have hidden the remaining evidence.
Of the camp, at least. He broke a spindash through the bushes half-way to avoid falling into a nearby crater. Sonic pressed back against a tree for balance, gawking at the emptiness within an otherwise peaceful landscape.
One could fit a football stadium in that hole and still have room for all the GUN agents with flamethrowers. They were burning something Sonic couldn't identify from afar in the blast hole. He could, however, see a train of loaded landfill vehicles on the other side. All of them were ready to dump the cargo into the crater.
"Tails, you see this?" Sonic whispered. GUN were far on the other side, but he couldn't take chances.
"Hold on. I'm zooming in," the voice in his ear replied. "Don't shake your head like that, Sonic. They're jamming my main frequency, so the feed is awful. Hey, can you peek out of the bush a little?"
Sonic crouched as he leaned forward. Tails' communicator let him see which part the fox wanted a close-up of. GUN operatives were taking shiny plates of molten material into a heavy dart-shaped transport. They seemed to be in a hurry.
"What are they up to?" Sonic asked.
"I don't know…there's no way that machine gets out of the crater. The walls are too steep."
Tails fell silent for a moment as the vehicle started rumbling and bore into the ground. They were using an underground transport to get the molten slabs out undetected. But why? The fox didn't have much time to ponder because landfill trucks started pouring soil mixed with waste into the crater. Judging by the queue, they'd be done in a record time.
Sonic shivered in disgust. "If Rouge is in on this…"
"I've called her again."
The hedgehog waited for follow up, but the fox made his failure clear enough. They've been trying to get a hold of Rouge for an hour now. She turned her phone off, which was unusual, and their regular contacts either didn't know or didn't want to tell where she was. Desperate, they even gave Knuckles' satellite phone a ring. Chances were the echidna broke it the day he got it without telling anyone.
Kicking back in his chair, Tails frowned at his inability to figure GUN out. Capturing Shadow wasn't as difficult as the military would have wanted the public to believe, so the prodigy couldn't see the point behind the crater. The explosion would have been too far for any civilians to hear. He wondered if Knuckles or Eggman could have heard anything. Still, if it was an explosion, nuclear or otherwise, the jungle should have disappeared altogether.
He didn't want to trouble Sonic with these thoughts. Blue Blur had a lot on his shoulders. Shadow broke into the workshop and stole a Chaos Emerald at three AM, six hours ago. Knocking and asking politely wouldn't have killed him. Tails couldn't help being annoyed at the dark hedgehog. Replacing the window meant another flight to Station Square.
Still, a friend in need was a friend indeed. Shadow definitely needed them now.
Tails unmuted his microphone. "Sonic, do you think-"
"Eggman!"
The fox jumped from his seat. He couldn't tell what was happening for a while. Sonic spun through the jungle without notice, completely messing up the signal. Even if he were to shout, Sonic was unlikely to hear him. Tails spun around to check for transmissions. GUN had none to intercept. Not even encrypted ones. It drove Tails mad. To add insult to injury, he could tell they were watching him. His website got an abnormal amount of bogus traffic from GUN bases, which would end up costing him a fortune.
A rogue click helped him concentrate. A transmission! Not even encrypted. This should be good…
"Your heat output is growing, Metal. Slow down."
He had tuned in into Eggman's frequency. What luck! The maniac hadn't used the wavelength for years. At first, Tails thought it was a compatibility issue with Metal's ageing hardware, but he couldn't get anything on the return. Only Eggman's voice filled the air.
"I know I'm sweating, but if you don't hold your turbines, you'll bash into it blind and you, unlike me, have no accountability routine for failure!" the villain screamed. They must have been at it for a while now. "Two klicks is all I ask. Their comms satellite is misaligned on purpose."
"Oh, no!" Tails exclaimed.
Eggman snorted. "Well, well. Looks like we have a listener on the Eggman radio. Leave this frequency. This is my business."
The line went dead, but Tails had enough to work with by then. He tried to get Sonic's attention. Limited success. For once, he had something important to say and couldn't. Gah! Tails hopped to his main computer, trying to think positively. Sonic would get out of the jungle any second now. Enough time to start beating Eggman in his own game.
Not that the doctor needed any competition. His peaceful flight had constant interruptions along the lines of self-destruct beetles and RPG boxes GUN littered the landscape with to prevent the inevitable. They had what was rightfully his. No one steals from Eggman and gets away with it!
Egg Hornet could deflect the rockets and intercept drones with its own armaments. However, static attacks soon grew worrisome. The villain had great experience in robotics, which made evading meticulous shots a walk in the park. It's the ones human snipers were behind that he had to watch out for. They'd come from unexpected angles, enter manual tracking or explode in front of his craft to pave the way for full-blown panic.
GUN weren't exercising a regular defence perimeter. They were hunting him down. In Eggman's language, the fireworks were equivalent to pea shooters, but he knew difficulty would rise the closer he got to the target.
Sending Metal on a suicide mission brought him great joy. He even had full access to the robot's sensors. The machine was calculating a delicious number of targets…the extremely hostile kind. No need to send the Eggman to do a pawn's job.
The ship jolted awkwardly. His Egg-O-Matic could withstand an EMP blast. The hornet's attachments weren't doing so well, considering the tech was busy repelling a stream of missiles launched from the mountains surrounding the jungle. They were obstructing his view.
"Metal, what was the species of that meat shield you mentioned?"
"Indiscriminate… Feline. Purple."
"What made the locals so agitated then…you didn't give your position away yet, did you?"
"Negative."
"Hmm…"
Eggman looked at his progress with GUN satellites. They weren't just misaligned like he said during the bogus transmission. GUN were using a proxy network with dead ends in it. Finding the lead uplink was no child's play. Metal Sonic worked wonders as a temporary relay, though.
The robot could hear his ex-master's cackling a minute later. Laughter was inefficient, but he was pleased, and curious.
"Give them hell, Metal. For the Eggman Empire!"
"The second statement…"
"Shut up and have fun for once. I don't just have all the aces. I have the entire deck. Ho-ho-hoo!"
Metal didn't need to hear more. Eggman uploaded information on the convoy as well as its route.
The best part in being a mad scientist…sitting back while minions duke it out. As he pondered that thought, Eggman noticed he wasn't the only one trying to cheat. In fact, he realised the cheaters were being cheated by the game master with a spare deck of cards.
Not that it mattered. Eggman got cosy in his chair, kissed a Chaos Emerald and put it in the power node for an easy cruise above the mountains. GUN had nothing on his slim and speedy.
His creation shared the hidden sentiment. Metal boosted within visible range as the convoy took a turn into Speed Highway. Vivid plumes of smoke alerted the escorts.
"Mojo squad, hold traffic," ordered the rear sensor truck's operator.
Two motorcycles of the rear guard slowed down, leaving the rest of the convoy in the distance. Another pair turned on a dime to speed off in the opposite direction, heading straight at Metal. Remaining four cyclists divided their team to keep the convoy protected on both sides.
The pilot closest to Metal opened a transmission: "This is Mojo 4. Traffic appears to be a hedgehog."
"Sonic the Hedgehog?"
Mojo 4 could not confirm and waved at his colleague, motioning for him to speak. "Mojo 3 here. It's a robot hedgehog."
"Copy that, Mojo 3. Hold traffic," the escort truck coordinator said.
"Holy shit, is that Metal Sonic?!"
"Little Moth, we're inbound for fail-safe. Zen will handle the intercom."
What the Zen trailer's staff didn't know was that Metal handled their intercom first. Nothing like a mind game to agitate the humans.
"Surrender and die quickly," the robot announced on their frequency.
"Negative."
"In that case, just die quickly!"